Anniversary Party

Bring Your Own Cake

It’s an Iridescent Ordinary anniversary.

I’m going to take this opportunity to introduce myself to new subscribers and offer a state of the union before a quick vow renewal. 

I am Rubi: middle child, Gen X, year of the dog, gemini rising, projector, Aquarian. I like making things like cakes and soups and bread, crappy drawings and embroideries, haikus and columns and partial book drafts. I struggle with ADHD and of my two ears, only one works. I can belch louder than almost anyone I know, except for my siblings. I am spring-loaded to worst case scenarios while my psyche teeters along an edge of humans are amazing on one side and we are so fucked on the other. I have a 16 ½ year old McDonald’s cheeseburger named Patty, who has a twin Twinkie sister named Pammy. They have a squad of lil’ nuggies. 

I’ve been writing Iridescent Ordinary since Spring 2021, but not always like this. I rebooted one year ago and leveled-up my  mission: let’s micro-joy the crap out of our wild and precious days in this fucked up timeline. Fuck toxic positivity, we’re stalking joy and hunting it like our lives depend on it. 

Because they do. 

Early 1990’s Rubi read the book Truckstop Rainbows, by Iva Pekarkova, scribbling this quote in her journal for future Rubi to find and obsess. I grasped the idea, ruminated on and nurtured it  before grafting projects to its branches. In Iridescent Extraordinary, I make a daily 3-5-minute crappy drawing on a sticky note of the highlight of my day, and most days post it in Instagram. [In an attempt to rein in my doomscrolling, I downloaded the Clearspace app to gatekeep my social media. In order to unlock Instagram, I have to do a bunch of squats. As a result, my Instagram usage is way down. The biggest benefit is that I’ve spent more time on Substack, reading and interacting. I miss memes, though.]

These charming drawings weren’t enough. I needed to find more ways to gather the fleeting and magnificent, to honor the mundane thrills and calm dangers, to make its observance an everyday occurrence.

I joined Substack as a writer in early 2021. My friend Jessica Lebos and I ran hand and hand into this ocean of newsletters. She is the  wit/camelia thief behind Savannah Sideways, exploring life in Georgia’s favorite port city. For some years, I focused on the joys of a daily practice until that felt… not-quite-right. I knew I needed to pivot, to flip the script. On a brief hiatus it hit me:

Duh…it wasn’t supposed to be about the joy of a daily practice, but the daily practice of joy, specifically the little joys that are too easy to overlook. 

One year later and it still feels right.   In that time, I’ve sent out 80 newsletters with suggestions for polishing turds or ideas on how to find a bit of sparkle among the glass shards. At least once a week I face a crisis of conscience/confidence and ask myself who the fuck I think I am to believe it’s possible to find joy in this shitshow. Then I put on my big girl pants, which are mostly leggings with pockets, slam my fingers against a keyboard for a few hours, erase everything, rewrite, and hope I’m not making a huge mistake before I hit publish. 

Now, here we are, February 2025, and the world is… well, here we are. 

We are uniquely poised to watch as our 250 year old democracy is shoved through a meat grinder of capitalism, greed, and ego. The past three weeks of watching our republic fall to the whims of power-hungry demagogues, tyranny, and idiocy-fueled-by-hate has felt like years—which doesn’t bode well for the future. 

I’m not here to try to convince us that this is all going to be okay. In fact, it’s probably worse than we can even imagine. I’m not your news source, nor am I skilled to school you through resisting. Think of me like your personal trainer, but instead of abs, the muscle groups we’re building up are your joy spotting ones.  I’m your inbox reminder that shit and joy exist simultaneously, and our job is to find that good stuff.

This is what you can expect from me:

• Stardust

• Googly eyes

• Crappy drawings

• Mixed tapes

• Cookies

• Memes

• Hype

• Stickers

• Lists

• Disco balls

• Shenanigans

• Tomfoolery

• Community

• Humanity

• Snacks

• Postcards

• Field trips

• Magic

• A genuine desire for us to experience joy 

• A deep belief that no matter how shitty shit gets, joy is still available to us

What I ask from you

• Support: subscribe (paid or free, although I prefer paid), also, hitting that like button helps me more than you think

• Engagement: it’s free for you to like, comment, and join chats; it’s free to be a part of this community and share your little joys

• Sharing: share posts, share Iridescent Ordinary with your friends (seriously, this is a big deal).

• Cookies: no raisins please

• Fan mail

• Ideas/suggestions

Thank you for joining me on this ride. Clicking the respond, like, and/or share buttons helps confirm that I’m not writing into a void, that my words and ideas bring even the smallest amount of joy to you and this sometimes-crappy-but-ultimately-has-potential-to-be-perfect-and-beautiful world. 

I’m always open to ideas, suggestions, shenanigans, tomfoolery, collaborations, cheese, snacks, and field trips.

You can find my art here and here. I offer custom workshops and design. I am the proud guardian/custodian of a 16 year old cheeseburger named Patty.

If you are a free subscriber, please consider supporting my efforts to make the world a less shitty place.

All photographs and art are by me, Rubi McGrory, unless otherwise noted.

I occassionally use affiliate links. Support the arts however you can.

words and images © Rubi McGrory 2021-2025