2025 Week 1 Wednesday Words
These last few days are a real blur. I'm looking forward to regularity, though I have sincerely enjoyed having time off to just reflect and exercise and not do much else.
Saturday, December 28th, 2024.
The trip to Kohls became, thankfully, a trip to Whole Foods, which was busy but very well organized. They had it all down to a science.
I had completed my miles for the week the day before, so I did not do any running. Alas, I really cannot recall what we did for the rest of the day! Clearly I spent some more time polishing up the games of the year list, and I got that posted in the early afternoon, but what happened after that is anybody's guess. If I recall correctly I think we started a new season of Worst Cooks in America and took in an episode of The Penguin, which I found myself really liking despite previously having no interest in watching it.
I believe that night I again ended up spending a long night in VR Chat. I found a great furry group that had just opened an instance of Audience Anarchy, and I really had a lovely time. I even got passed the moderator baton toward the end.
Sunday, December 29th, 2024.
I know for sure that I ran my 5.5 miles between noon and 1PM, and S.T. and I spent the afternoon watching an amazing French comedy called Smoking Causes Coughing, and we followed it with John Bronco, which was less impressive. SCC might be the best spoof that I have seen in decades. Absolutely incredible.
I again stayed up far too late in VR chat and came to bed after 2am.
Monday, December 30th, 2024.
I slept until 11:30AM. I almost never sleep late; usually I just can't, so I really appreciated the chance. I kept telling myself to go back to sleep. I repeated over and over to myself that there was nothing to be anxious about, nothing to fear, and that it was okay to go back to sleep. I want to be well rested, I told myself.
That day I took it upon myself to go for a drive. I wanted to stock up on booze for New Years, but I did not want to go to anywhere close by, so I drove out to the Haxton's on Bald Hill Road. I listened to The Greatest Generation. It was the most well rested that I have felt in a very long time.
That afternoon I ran and then did a lot more writing on the podcasts of the year.
At 5:30PM S.T. and I piled into her car to drive all the way down to Exeter for a surprise get-together for our friend Neil at Tilted Barn Brewery.
I got very, very chatty. It was a really nice time. I know that objectively. I was around people that have known me for decades and I was goofy and fun, but it is hard for me not to feel bad when I think back on it. It is that old sensation of, since the memory has me in it, it must be bad. It must be regrettable, because it involved me talking to other people.
It was a priority for me to get to know Buddy's girlfriend Melissa, and I told her after several porters that I really appreciated how cool she was and how it is probably hard being the new person in a group of friends that have all known each other for decades. She seems cool.
Tuesday, December 31st, 2024.
S.T. texted me when she got to work and told me that last night was great, that I was great, and that I am mentally conditioned to over-analyze everything and doubt myself, but that everything was fine.
This was unprompted. She just knows me that well.
I wasn't able to get myself to sleep in like the previous night, so I was a bit tired and anxious for most of the first part of the day.
Again I focused on writing, and just spending some time reflecting. It is exceptionally nice to have the time and space to do that at the end of the year, and I have been doing a lot of it, even if I am just writing about video games and podcasts. These are things that are important to me, and thinking about my experiences with them helps me understand who I am and why. Its like a form of meditation.
A bit restless, when I couldn't write anymore I went and folded the laundry. I spent about an hour going over my financial spreadsheet for the coming year, making sure that every expense was on there. I find that very centering.
It has been another year where I was incapable of building any savings. I'm almost 40. Its getting old and so am I.
I got in my miles on the treadmill while watching day 3 of Giant Bomb's Game of the Year talks, which was nice.
I put together a little list of things that we could watch and occupy ourselves with while hanging out and staying up for the new year. Around 4PM I just took myself downstairs and watched 3 episodes of Deep Space Nine. When S.T. came home we ended up finishing The Penguin, and drinking a bunch, and we had Andy come over and he joined us for a recorded Greatest Generation live show that we didn't pay any attention to because we were talking the whole time.
The evening is a bit of a blur, but we had a good time.
I ended up awake past 3am, pretty much black out drunk, back in VR doing Audience Anarchy.
Wednesday, January 1st, 2025.
Happy New Year.
I've thought about trying to put together one big reflective piece about the year that was. I don't know if I have the energy for it.
A lot happened.
We went down to Atlanta for FWA, and we saw more furries in one place than I ever thought possible.
I started and ended the year in the same job, my dream job, as an Academic Advisor at Northeastern. I am very grateful for that.
I cut my hair for the first time since July 2019. End of an era.
Music became a big part of my life again. I started listening to a lot of HEALTH and The Brand New Heavies.
We had to say goodbye to... I don't want to relive it right now. Its too sad.
I watched a shitload of Star Trek.
Exercise and fitness were a big part of my year, not that you would know it from how I have conducted myself these last few months. I dropped down from something like 219 pounds to 185 and got stuck there. I did not meet my goal of getting down into the 160s. I have not weighed myself recently but I would not be surprised if I was back up close to 195. It sucks.
There is a treadmill in our house now, and I have been running a marathon length of miles every week since mid November. I hope that, if I can get myself back under control in terms of food and alcohol in the coming weeks, I will see myself get back into shape as I keep up the exercise routine.
Speaking of which, I ran a half marathon this year, which was a massive milestone for me.
The election happened and I'm pretty genuinely fearful of the state of the world. Its all so sad. I'm trying to take my own advice and live my own life and just do the best that I can. We have a good thing going for ourselves.
Wrestlemania was super good this year. Wrestling is great and I'm glad it still brings joy to our lives.
We read a bunch of good books. We started the year in Delaware, where we spent the morning finishing The Cat Who Saw Red. We then finally got around to The Forrests, which was very personally important to me. I love that we share the memory of that book together. Its like we lived a whole life. We read The Difference Engine, and I loved that steampunk world. We read Thornlight, written by our friend Sebai. Unfortunately, that is all he ever wants to talk about anymore, so I worry that I may have been a little too encouraging. We read Last Chance to See, which was sobering but less depressing than I had feared. And we finished out the year with Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, which is just one of those books that I am really glad to have read.
Most importantly, I flossed my teeth almost every single day.
I wrote something in my journal about every single day of this past year, and that has been an extremely therapeutic exercise. I look forward to keeping up the habit.
I donated a lot of blood and platelets, only missing December of 2024. Need to get back on that horse.