Meeting my neighbors who are twins and drive identical 2010 mustangs
Helping my twin mustang neighbors push one of their cars uphill during a snowstorm (nightmare)
Joining Saeng Thai’s Pad Thai Club
Marginally improving my French with fridge poetry en français
When Hashbrown Hank got reincarnated at work
Exploring the Wiss w/ Nika, Nicky and Juniper
Stardew Valley live as the only person not cosplaying
Daisy Mae climbing on my shoulders like every year
Forcing my family to start playing Catan at every gathering
The end(for now) of Trivia Ecstasy
Celebrating Nika’s 30th at Trestle Inn, standing at knee level to talented go-go dancers
Exploring the Wiss w/ Ben
MILLINOCKECLIPSE 2024 w/ Jak and Quinn
The crazy deployable motorized telescope we saw at the eclipse
Also the cloudburster
Trying and failing to get Quinn + Jak to get into The Skeleton Realm on our 7 hour drive back south
Amiright? covering “Carry the zero”
Buying a cast iron
Conjured the best vegan matzo ball soup I’ve made yet
Hiking Sawyer Mountain in the mist, christening my cars emergency poncho
Running around the green green trails behind evergreen cemetery, startling people despite my best efforts to announce my presence
Delivering extra homemade banana bread from work to my family members like a sort of banana bread elf
Meeting dirt covered cat outside Peaks Island flea market named “Mr.Kitty”
Going on a picnic date, asking a random stranger if he knew why its called “key lime pie”. The stranger informing us happily.
Returning to film photography after endlessly researching point and shoot cameras as if it matters!
Buying a purple suit
Sunrise hike in Sedona w/ Nicky, frantically but discreetly googling if we were going to get mauled by a cougar
Cliff jumping into Oak creek in front of a bajillion people
Vegan italian sandwich at the Woodfords Corner farmers market (1 of 2 in 2024)
The best wedding of the century/millennium/all time in the verdant heart of the Wissahickon valley
Angusisdead and others at Bandsaw RIP, took a photo that was way too loud, everyone looked at me, placing bets on the automated mario party match in the next room
Hiking Baldpate Preserve mistaking it for Baldpate Mountain
Birthday at Scarborough beach
Watching Colleen and Adrian go INSANE on hockey foosball
Brattleboro camping w/ Dylan, Kira, Adam + Ange, it rained, we walked, saw Allegra Krieger, stood outside the library, practiced fake hitting our heads running into street signs, swam in freezing but clear water
Buying a bike from a man set up in a storage unit, he talked my ear off for 2 hours while he tuned it for me, about his bike touring of the continent, his time spent protesting the nuclear plant in Wiscasset, his theories about how Hannaford employees are attracted to him
Foggy hike over Morse Mountain, walked along Seawall Beach with 10~ feet of visibility, swimming in the ocean felt like i was in a void with children’s voices muffled in the distance, wild amount of horseflies
Meeting THE baby grandma
Hiking Burnt Meadow Mountain, slightly more pleased in the trail marking than usual
Seeing Ovlov + Mannequin Pussy, was too fragile for the pit
Reading Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book in the summer and thinking about island life and skiffs and the gulf of Finland
Seeing LVL UP reunion show, surviving insane Flatbush drivers, giving Quinn heart attack because I’m no better
Riding bike to swim in the river, falling ass first into the Presumpscot 3 times minimum
GOURDFEST 2024, me desperately trying to paint the most subtly fucked up shit on the community painting canvas, no one finding it that fucked up
Getting stuck in the Rockies w/ Nik for hours, eating ramen, looking at the Gunnison river
TELLURIDE FILM FEST 2024, meeting delusional rich people, making 115 in tips driving them, seeing incredible movies, eating my weight in fig bars, avoiding the altitude sickness, enjoying cousin time, feeling small in such a tall box canyon
Going to equally incredible wedding of the century/millennium/all time on the shores of the beautiful Penobscot bay
Peace Ridge Animal Sanctuary with mom, petting the coarse, prickly bristles of some loud pigs, meeting some elderly sheep, taking pictures of the biggest cows I’ve ever seen, all very happy
HARVEST PARTY 2024 in buffalo, getting to see Adam and Ange’s beautiful life and meet their kind friends
Playing Bananagrams
Almost winning Bringer of Bounty, maybe next year
Organizing union social, a cat named Stanley showing up, others did too
Meeting Stanley 2 more separate times
Adopting Flynn Flynn
Assembling a crackpot team of safety experts for SECRET MIDNIGHT BIKE RACE 4
Hiking Baldpate Preserve on purpose this time
Seeing Trace Mountains for free (guest list life)
Seeing wild turkeys in the West End (they live there, a passerby told me)
Knocking doors for Wes and Grayson
Scaring the ducks at Giant’s stairs
Going on a vegan food frenzy w/ Monique in Providence
Eating another vegan italian sandwich from PVD (2 of 2 in 2024)
Enjoying the “ducky” tags on the crosswalks around the east end
JakMak 30th birthday surprise that I didn’t do any work for but got to enjoy
Making a book club with mom to help her get through all the damn books I’ve bought her
Embracing my rooneyhead qualities and pre-ordering her latest book (it was all right)
Running errands with Al
Watching Robocop twice
All the tall clouds that were over my head
All the meals I made for people I love
Some edits: I thought of more nice memories and would be remiss to not include them
Sharing albums w/ Emily over text. So far Blue Gene Tyranny, The Big Net, and Prefab Sprout for her and New Fast Automatic Daffodils and Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds Musical for me.
Zoe’s moonlit birthday, ocean chill, card headlights blinding us from across the water, getting the pleasure of meeting her beau she talks so much about
Quinn and I stopping in West Haven to visit Fatmir, diner food like usual and a stop by the West Haven Beach, following the path trying to find an old geocache he’d found there once (no luck), sitting on a bench, taking a couples photo for them, walking barefoot through warm salt water and mucky sand
