Hi, hello, welcome in. You're on toastandthoughts — my little handmade corner of the internet, written the old-fashioned way: by an actual person, at an actual desk, usually before the toast gets cold.

I write personal essays about real life, growing up, and the honest stuff most people leave out. Nothing optimized, nothing sponsored, nothing written by a machine pretending to have a soul.

Just me Allyssa, thinking out loud, and hoping some of it lands for you too. Help yourself to a chair and enjoy while you're exploring.