the rest of 2024

July-December

In January I started tracking memorable moments and in June I posted about the first half of the year. Today’s post is the continuation of 2024, and while I feel like sharing this list, I am aware that it looks like a list of only good things (mostly). There are reasons for that.

First, it’s a list of what stands as memorable. It’s not a list of good vs bad. I try not to view things that way whether I am making a list or not. I’m lucky to have created so many good memories this year. Second, not a lot of terrible things happened to me this year.

For that, I am fortunate. I have witnessed many close friends and family experiencing personal hardships with health, finances, heart ache, dread. But I don’t use this list to capture their pain.

Still, this has been the hardest year I have had in a very, very long time. I maneuvered through close friendships with a lot of transition earlier this year. I witnessed my husband experience a lot of change with his health, his career, his relationships (all positive, but growth is painful). Seven years into our relationship, we are closer than we’ve ever been, but marriage takes work. Constant work. And my spiritual program is less rigid, less structured, and looser than it’s ever been, which felt scary at first. But I kept the friendships. I got closer in my marriage. I learned so much about myself. None of it was easy.

Anyway. Thank you to anyone who even reads this. Happy New Year.

July

Went tubing with Steve on the Yampa River in Steamboat Springs

Saw a big horn sheep at the Continental Divide

Saw a bear drinking from a creek

Hiked the Maroon Bells with Steve

Bubble bath in the Hotel Jerome

Chef’s tasting menu at Parc

Saw Meg Ryan at the valet area of my hotel in Aspen

Lily and Maeve drove me around for the first time

Hearing Away from the Mire live with Steve and our friends

Memorable conversation at my parents’ house (as I type this, I can’t remember what it was about)

August

Car trouble drama

2 Patreon insurrection (the Battle of IJBOLISTAN and #Bleepgate)

Vacation in the North Fork with my family

Phish opened up with First Tube

Dinner party at the A frame house upstate with Keith Deb Scott Jenn & Steve

Started therapy again

Ramen with Dave Steve and Ian

Quit therapy

Took Lily and Maeve to see Wallows at Madison Square Garden

Blocked by the creator of a podcast on Patreon that I’ve been listening to for seven years

Cried in the children’s library at the North Plainfield Public library

September

Patsy’s Tavern with Steve Dave Cliff & Mary Lou

Hiked Stairway to Heaven

Hiked to the castle at Ramapo Lake with Steve & Ian

Met Casey Ward irl

Started going back to Bobby for weightlifting

October

5-year wedding anniversary

Poutine at the finger lakes

Speedboat on Lake Canandaigua

Won a shuffleboard championship

Skaneateles Bakery

Pho for Steve’s new job

Got muffins in Kittery, Maine

Finished re-watching Lost

Went to Portsmouth, NH

Saw a plastic bag stuck in a tree on the parkway shaped like a swan

Gus’ hot dogs in Troy NY

Saw Cyndi Lauper at MSG and she sang When U Were Mine

November

Trump won

Joined a casual online campaign with friends to get Jax Taylor to watch the show Girls and then he started watching the show Girls

This gratitude list on the morning I woke up after the election

Texts with Lily and Maeve, smiling at Aston at the meeting, the most gorgeous foliage surrounding my entire neighborhood, a homemade roast beef and cheddar with mayo sandwich, being in the dollhouse, seeing this absolutely gorgeous young woman walking down the street and rolling down the window and saying excuse me this and she said yes and I said you are so beautiful and she said oh my God thank you and I said I just had to tell you, you are so beautiful! Cooking ribeye steaks for dinner, MTV the challenge, this insanely beautiful breeze blowing through all of the windows in my house, unapologetically speaking my truth multiple days in a row, loving who I am, remaining open to learn, the ability to admit when I have made a mistake

Birthday diner at Daniel with Steve

Took Lily to Paper Planes

Saw a fox on my walk

Vanderpump Rules canceled

Robert Jr’s drug story on RHOSLC made me cry

Uncovered two shadow aspects of me that I would have never seen (which is the point)

Chicago James died

December

Overnight in Hudson, stayed in the suite at WM Farmer and Sons and our dinner at Feast and Floret

Jax Taylor ended up watching Girls and he sent a cameo to our online campaign talking about it

All the bread at Le Perche

Went back to being brunette

Organized Chloe’s ornament exchange

Applied to the DiTrapano residency

Wrote ten things for 2025 on the winter solstice and burned 9 of them until the 31st with Steve

True Salvage tapas night

Best Christmas in forever

Lunch with Freesia and Casey in Yonkers

Phish at MSG and hung out with Phoebe at set break

2025 — in my mind at least— will hopefully involve more nature, less internet. More reading. The winter solstice exercise told me that my goal for the year was to focus on more honest communication with kindness. Maybe I’ll start tracking all the times I want to lie. Or lie. Or don’t.

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