What’s Hot with Lena
Episode 2:
Yolo Is Still The Motto
I’m living la vida de yolo
Written by: Magdalena O’Neal
January 8th, 2024
This is definitely my Yolo year. We literally only live once. I try not to use the word literally when I write because my generation has ruined it to almost negate itself, but in this context I do mean it quite literally. I decided to lean into Yolo this past week, a phrase my friends have been talking me out of getting tattooed for over ten years now.
A gif of how I will be spending my time this year
With little to no notice, I hopped on a plane to Oaxaca City for new years eve to stay with a new friend (who I would definitely now consider a good friend) and then head over to the coast for a few days on the beach in Puerto Escondido. I’ve been thinking in Carrie-isms for the last two weeks and while laying on the beach I thought to myself… if lifes a beach, why do we treat it like a sandbox? You only live once, so you have to live like it’s your only chance at becoming CEO of your dream job, because that’s what life is—work.
These limitless approaches to life came to me while riding the bus from the city to the coast. I was sitting shotgun as the driver whipped around turns going 80mph on one of Mexico’s most dangerous roads and I couldn’t help but picture the Mercedes sprinter van tipping to one side and crumbling into a ball as it rolled down the edge of the cliff. When we stopped for food, which were handmade Oaxacan style tortillas filled with chorizo (no regrets about bodying a few of those), I thought about not getting back on the death trap of a bus. My two options were:
1. Die on the bus if the bus rolls off the edge of a cliff 2. Die on the side of the road getting hit by some other speeding van as I tried to walk the 50 miles left to my destination.
While recounting the experience to Siya, one of my top five favorite people (more on this later), she reminded me of the third option which was also to die eventually anyways. With three options to die running through my mind I chose to live and see how the plot might thicken. I got off the bus and things didn’t get better immediately, because so is life.
Gringa problems arose as I failed to negotiate taxi fare, had to swap taxis on the side of the road, felt as though a seatbelt wasn’t enough as reckless driving into the darkness continued, and couldn’t find my Airbnb, “Lo siento, no habla espanol” really doesn’t get you very far at all when you’re $200 pesos short of cab fare. Nine hours of travel later my toes were in the sand and I could see Taurus in the night sky above me. There’s that saying that the journey is better than the destination and in this instance I wholeheartedly disagree—the destination was stellar.
I blame these slightly scary and life questioning situations for the three dreams I’ve had in the last seven days where I’m being chased in a random pool of water by a great white shark as it tries to eat me. The pools of water aren’t oceans or swimming pools, they’re hallways outside of parties that for some reason only I am swimming in or in one instance gondolas floating through an Italian canal being manned by my friends from home as they try to direct me away from the shark but don’t pull me in. It never does eat me, which must count for something in terms of overcoming my fears.
While I pondered my fate, consciously and subconsciously, I couldn’t help but think about how weird it is that this is a brand new year. It really is 2024… isn’t that crazy… how time just flies and years just pile up into days that become the past and the present is right now but also the past because time just don’t stop! If life’s a beach and then we die, let’s make sure to walk the entirety of the coastline for as far as possible before we drop dead—and stay out of the water because there’s definitely sharks in it.
As I mentioned earlier, this is the year of the top five (queue Grammys by Drake), I’ll get even deeper into top fives next week, but this week I’m talking about keeping my circle small, because there’s no need to have fifty thousand friends, that’s way too much work and way too many people to text back. Remember those phones kids would have in elementary school that only held four numbers and 911? I’m living like that! I got four friends, and my mom (who’s basically as useful as 911) on the ready and nobody else's numbers are to be saved.
The LG Migo, never to be forgotten
Some other things that we need to remember from the 2010’s are fashion choices. Skinny jeans do not need a comeback, but flare leggings are definitely on the up and up—and unfortunately not $12 anymore. Alongside tube tops, spaghetti straps, and flare pants, I want plastic bracelets, one streak of color in my hair, Hot Topic thongs, and the LG Shine that Lauren Conrad convinced me I needed in a very ad-heavy episode of The Hills.
This is a topic that came up while I was chatting on the phone with my friend Dymond, a willing investigator of any and all topics of momentary interest. We couldn’t shake the thought of how trips to Wet Seal defined our teen years. Getting $100 or whatever the budget was for back to school shopping and leaving that colorful and spirited store with at least 15 new items—which was easily a month's worth of outfits if you mix and match properly.
Dymond on my disposable at Camp Flog Gnaw
As Dymond began to investigate where we could find a Wet Seal for purely investigative shopping purchases, we found some interesting tea on the company's clothing, worth, and racist history. Here to report live on what happened to Wet Seal with a quick synopsis of events is Dymond herself.
Dymond Let’s Us Know: What Happened to Wet Seal
Let’s keep this sweet and to the point—they are closed for good (and maybe forever). In 2017 Wet Seal closed their remaining 171 stores and our dreams of recreating the outfits we once laid out on our beds the night before the first day of school shattered into a million little pieces. Mix a little bit of bankruptcy with a few racist allegations and you’ll find yourself with a dry seal... get it? Wet Seal had over 500 stores between 2010 and 2014 and then in 2015 BOOM—the closures began.
They closed 338 of the 511 stores across the United States. Also random but who knew Wet Seal had been around since 1962? Also, random, but the name came from the owner's wife who referred to a supermodel in a swimsuit as a ‘wet seal’ which is maybe offensive? Speaking of offense, in 2013 the company paid 1,600 employees over 7 million dollars for accusations of racial bias in a settlement that caught the attention of the NAACP and was handled in California’s federal court. The downfall of Wet Seal basically wrote itself.
The best takeaway from my research? When Wet Seal closed they were valued at only 3.5 million dollars. That really got me and Lena thinking... if we got 250 people to invest $14,000 each then we the mf’n people could buy back Wet Seal and bring back ninjas and personified food on graphic tees, $1 bins full of spaghetti strap tanks, and maybe even neon skinny jeans. Just a thought (a serious one) so if you’re in, let us know, we will start working on negotiations of ownership ASAP.
My In and Out List for 2024:
Agree or disagree, let’s check back in and December and everyone can give me my flowers! I said what the f&*k I said if you wanna fight about it take it to your group chats not my DM’s.
IN
love
trust
winning
kisses
virginity (in the Jan 1st body count reset kind of way)
mocktails
Mexico
movies
black coffee
instant coffee (not Dalgona)
ipads
headphones with cords
uniforms
tonic water with bitters
Stanley cup
natural wine
stealing (from coorporate America ex: self checkout)
Gel-X
hats and visors
college ruled journals
tramp stamps
name tattoos
OUT
IG stalking people you do not know
not trusting
hating
cream and sugar
beef bacon
leases
USA
bullshit
tights (seriously, they are not pants)
having too many clothes
cold brew
“orange” wine (just let it be natural and not a color)
newspapers (sorry not sorry)
cocktails being shaken
shots
layovers
acryclic nails
reservations (just pull up)
sunglasses (unnecessary if you have a hat or visor)
weekly planners
temporary tattoos
*Each and every Monday—unless I’m hungover—you can find my ever-so-eloquent word vomits on this fabulous website for you to peruse, laugh, and take note of. If you love it already and don’t want to miss a beat, drop your email down below for weekly reminders when a new post goes live.*
madeintheurl 2023