I am going to succeed because I am crazy

Childhood Delusions Film Festival, Coyote Ugly screening 🎥

Feb 20, 2025

I am so delighted that Nicstalgia valentines made it across the entire continental U.S.!! Britney Spears cards from 2001, jubilantly expressing “Hope your Valentines Day sings!” traveled to friends & readers across New York City, New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio, Minnesota, Miami, and Los Angeles. That was fun!! 💌

Speaking of me being unable to be trusted when left unsupervised on eBay, I bought a set of vintage Britney Spears calendars from 2002, 2003, and 2004. I hung up the 2003 calendar, which conveniently has same days of the week as 2025. It looks lovely next to my Oops!…I Did It Again-esque beaded curtain!

My 2002, 2003, and 2004 Britney Spears calendars

In other thrifting news, I’ve acquired an equally as exciting, although admittedly less practical, nostalgic item. Last year on my birthday, I found a goldmine of Limited Too jeans (3 pairs!) at a thrift store in Manhattan. I was in the neighborhood recently and decided to stop back in and see if they were still there almost a year later. I found them in the bargain bin!!!! They do not fit me, but I bought the two pairs anyway. I have no idea what to do with them, other than use them as supporting evidence that Limited Too should hire me.

The two pairs I thrifted. From the tag, I presume one was manufactured in February of 1998.

In case you missed it, I’ve been posting on my IG story, “Day __ of tagging Limited Too & LTD 2.0 until they acknowledge my existence/hire me as Brand Director.” It is now a bit, to which I commit. It’s actually very entertaining how much support I’ve gotten around it. Maybe I’ll share some decks in next week’s issue stating my case for LTD2 and Yahoo, who’s trying to bring AOL back. People keep telling me I’d be the absolute perfect person to revive these legacy brands, create strategies that rebuild brand fidelity, and execute delightful projects that account for ever-evolving consumer behavior and sentiment. And you know what? They’re absolutely right!!!! So here’s your friendly, overt reminder I’m still looking for FT work!!!!!

nihilisa_

A post shared by @nihilisa_

Finally, in Nicstalgia HQ updates, my life has gotten at least 4% better after buying this sparkly pink phone case. It’s reminiscent of the one I had for my flip phone in the mid-2000s. I truly love exercising my free will as frequently as I desire.

(1) Wearing a tiara, talking on my flip phone, wearing an orange North Face jacket (2) On an Italian class field trip at the Ellis Island museum with my pink sparkly flip phone in my pocket (3) Present-day, doing my best

Nicstalgia is a reader-supported publication. Huge thank you to the people who support my work: Janine, Marie, Liv, Mitra, CY, Chet, and Jack! . À la Jessica Simpson, I’m gonna love you forever 💐💐💐 If you enjoy Nicstalgia:

Upgrade your subscription

🎥 Childhood Delusions Film Festival

I’m a proud participant in the third annual Childhood Delusions Film Festival, which happened earlier this month at the Kent Theater in Brooklyn. It was very fun to attend the event with a few friends from my hometown – the people who have known me since we were all delusional children.

I particularly enjoyed rewatching Andrew Costa’s “Sex at S.H.S.”, a short film set in the halls of our high school in the 2000s. It was wild seeing those orange lockers and some familiar faces for the first time in over 15 years. Andrew and I first became friends over MySpace/AIM over 20 years ago (My first online friend?!) so it’s particularly nostalgic to have both ended up participating in this very niche creative endeavor.

I always knew this particular home video of me almost killing my newborn sister with a baseball bat would be on America’s Funniest Home Videos one day – or something even better, like the Childhood Delusions Film Festival. It was a thrill seeing the audience laughing and enjoying this critical piece of Tremaglio family lore. This isn’t even all the footage of me with the bat! There’s a later scene where I sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” again and exclaim to my dad, “Let’s play ball game outside!” noticeably pronouncing the word ‘ball’ with a subtle New York accent like my mom’s. See the full video, including the live audience reaction, here:

My sister is okay post-Bat Incident, and we are best friends. She has forgiven me for my reckless actions and continues to support my childhood delusions.

📲 I’m just a simple girl in a high-tech digital world

Congrats to my friend and Nicstalgia guest

Janine

for launching

Retro Avocado

on Substack!!! Loved her debut piece about growing up as an evangelical kid in the 90s to becoming a nostalgia influencer. One of her most vivid childhood memories is listening to Celine Dion's “Let's Talk About Love” CD on her Sony boombox – relatable!! Janine and I went to Celine’s documentary premiere last year and may or may not have cried several times.

Speaking of the angelic voice of Celine Dion, I was going to share a fan account’s post of Celine serving impeccable, God-tier vocals – newsletter-worthy in and of itself. What made it even more amusing is that even accomplished vocalist Kristin Chenoweth felt the need to comment “Queen” on the post. Queens supporting queens.

I’m screaming, crying, and on the verge of buying a plane ticket to LA for Coyote Ugly’s 25th anniversary reunion and screening! I am just casually saying for the first time here that I want to start an events company this year and host movie screenings! I went to a screening for Mulholland Drive the other day – a decidedly different film than Coyote Ugly but still one of my favorites – and it was amazing!

I’ve lost my grip on reality now that I’m aware there are children being born whose PARENTS were not alive when Shrek (2001) came out. Not sure how this is possible?

My new favorite Spotify playlist: The first night at Bed…

The only way I would be okay with them remaking Mrs. Doubtfire is if this guy stars in it. HELP IS ON THE WAY, DEAR!!!! 🍤

Speaking of Mara Wilson movies, I was obsessed with the supremely talented MUA/cosplayer Annie Thomas’s transformation into Matilda’s mother, Zinnia Wormwood. This video, crediting Colombian cosplayer Jonatan Clay, led me down a rabbit hole, watching the extensive lengths to which Jonatan committed to his Zinnia transformation. It was fun seeing Mara Wilson’s reaction upon meeting him at Comic Con in Medellín.

So Doug Robb, the guy from Hoobastank, was cleaning up his garage and found the original lyric sheet for the band’s massive 2004 hit, “The Reason”. I love seeing peoples’ handwriting; it’s so intimate and essentially a lost art at this point. I’m also obsessed with the dramatic water stain in the bottom corner of the sheet of lined paper.

Obsessed with this sofa jewelry box thrift and DIY construction of Miss Piggy to lounge upon it. (80s babies, consider this your TW: the creator does scalp a 1988 Lil Miss Makeup doll for the blonde hair.)

And now sorry, TW for the 90s babies. A video of a Cabbage Patch Snacktime Kids doll (which my sister had and was traumatized by) came up on my IG feed recently. I needed to go back in time and find out more information. Was this insatiable, machine-powered menace really eating kids’ hair? Yes it was. While the federal government had not threatened a recall, Mattel offered $40 to anyone returning the ravenously hungry doll. That could total up to $20 million, as there were FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND of these dolls in circulation. Terrifying. Btw does anyone know Rachel Lorintz from Jericho? I wanna see if she’s okay…

Share Nicstalgia