it feels like i say this every year, but SERIOUSLY: how is 2022 over already? i loathe the passage of time. anywho, it was a good year. a great year, even. it wasn't omg-best-year-of-my-life-all-my-dreams-came-true or anything, but you can't win 'em all. here are the highlights, and some to-dos for next year that will hopefully provide some inspo!
in 2022, i:
resumed my tradition of winter getaways with a trip to visit my friend alissa in st. petersburg, florida, where we ate, drank, went on a museum scavenger hunt, drank coffee at cute cafes, stalked adorable houses, watched inventing anna, bought a drink for a tiktok star we saw at a restaurant, and watched the super bowl halftime show at a bar
saw 40 artists/bands live (including 2 festivals, 16 acts i’ve seen before, and the long-awaited and twice-postponed def leppard/mötley crüe/poison/joan jett show at fenway)
met andrew mccarthy of brat pack fame at a travel show
spent a beautiful, perfect week in portugal
started a substack newsletter, which will be returning in 2023; shameless plug to subscribe!
took my first dance class (hip-hop) since before COVID!
met my internet friend danielle IRL and had a fun-filled overnight trip in mystic, CT
drank frosé, people watched, and jumped around to ABBA at the tea dance in provincetown
enjoyed a completely idyllic weekend at a farmhouse in upstate new york with 6 other ladies for my best friend gleni's bachelorette extravaganza — we drank wine, made dinners and breakfasts and french press coffee, lounged in the pool, took edibles and sang karaoke under a blacklight, watched legally blonde, did nail art, had a coastal grandma photoshoot, and made s'mores by the fire pit
went to brooklyn for for gleni’s wedding, gave a toast, and danced the night away
dealt with the insanity that is salem, massachusetts on a saturday in october, but apple cider cocktails eased the pain
reunited with my marist friend tati in vegas for a whirlwind adventure that involved a distillery, high winds, meow wolf, magic mike, and a frantic but ultimately successful search for when we were young sunday tickets after the festival was canceled on saturday
did the stranger things thing as eddie munson with my friend cassidy (who was max) at the liberty hotel halloween party
got a new couch!
- found out both my moon sign (aquarius) and my enneagram type (7) and have been fascinated ever since because they’re SO ACCURATE and have given me so much insight into why i am the way i am
- did barely ANY writing outside of my full-time job...for me, anyway. i've been dealing with a prolonged case of writer's block that i just can't shake, so i'm going to get my club out and chase that inspiration until it submits to me in 2023. i did manage to eke out a few pieces i tossed up on medium, though:
happiest moments:
- sitting for hours at a wine bar in porto, portugal with my new tour friend nolene — looking at the douro river, eating cheese and sardines, drinking wine, and chatting
- marveling at the natural beauty of the caves on the algarve coast on a boat tour
- singing and dancing like a fool by myself at a machine gun kelly concert
- seeing a man walking his pet pig at the hollis flea market
- finding a random magic 8 ball on the sidewalk on my way to get a scone and sourdough and iced coffee on a summer sunday morning
- drinking painkillers at the treehouse bar + watching youtube videos with danielle in our b&b room in mystic
- floating in a random suburban pool cassidy and i rented through swimply
- walking 45 minutes to honeycomb creamery in cambridge and ordering a scoop of port cherry vanilla ice cream and a scoop of salted caramel crackle and walking home
- screaming "pour some sugar on me" with thousands of other people at the stadium tour
- singing karaoke for hours, watching family feud, and then sleeping in a magical canopy bed during the bachelorette weekend
- listening to "away from the mire" by billy strings several times on my solo road trip and tearing up every time
- seeing my best friend get married and dancing to the best wedding playlist!
- smoking a joint in my bathtub and listening to d'angelo on a random tuesday night
- reliving my emo glory days and catching up with tati
pop culture favorites
note that these did not necessarily come out this year (though some did), i just consumed them in 2022.
songs: HERE
albums:
movies:
promising young woman
hotel mumbai
jackass forever
barbarian
top gun: maverick
books:
mary jane by jessica anya blau
miss fortune by lauren weedman
in five years by rebecca serle
the paris apartment by lucy foley
everything i need i get from you: how fangirls created the internet as we know it by kaitlyn tiffany
one italian summer by rebecca serle
a novel obsession by caitlin barasch
tv shows:
inventing anna
the 7 lives of lea
the sex lives of college girls
the summer i turned pretty
maggie
the bear
2022 to-dos review
well, out of 22 items, i did 11, which is kind of par for the course at this point. not bad!
visit portugal
sing karaoke
visit a friend in a different state
take a road trip
find one of the records on my vinyl wishlist out in the wild and buy it (the list includes MC5, the stooges, and crosby, stills, and nash) found CS&N at bull moose in portsmouth!
take one day off work for no reason other than to relax and recharge
see a live play/musical counting lost spirits distillery and magic mike in vegas
finish the new york times crossword every day for a week
order a cocktail that involves fire got a smoked old fashioned at two different bars, so i'm counting it
23 things to do in 2023
visit a state i’ve never been to (looking at you in may, utah)dine at the olde pink house in savannah, georgiago to a sofar sounds show
finish taking (and develop!) the roll of film on the disposable camera i bought last summertake a pole dancing classfinally learn to parallel park and do it successfully
get published on one of my bucket list publications (the new yorker, the new york times, travel and leisure, condé nast traveler)go to a poetry slam at lizard lounge
make this bourbon cheddar apple piefind the acler raven midi cutout dress secondhand for less than $100 because i fell in love with it last summer at saks off 5th and have thought about it nearly every day since, but have nowhere to wear itgo to a GVF showwith danielle because we haven’t seen them together yet (bonus points if we get barricade on jake’s side of the stage so we can realize our banger sisters/cougar dreams)host a dinner party for real, for real this time
try a tasting menu (maybe at tasting table?)go to the encore casino since i haven't beenmake dinner using a majority of ingredients from the farmers market
be a guest on a podcast
get a cute vintage table + chair set for my dining roomvisit montreal
crash. a. wedding. SOMEBODY DO IT WITH ME!
complete and shop around a book proposal to literary agents
get another eerily accurate psychic reading from raymond at the tremont tea roomstay at a luxury hotel or resort (thanks, heather!)
also! i decided to take a look back and note the stuff that i've had on previous lists that i eventually accomplished in a later year. this was kind of a fun exercise. there were 45 in total!
2012:
see blue man group, because i've never seen it and that's just wrong 2019 and it was one of the cooooolest manifestation stories ever
visit the pacific northwest (preferably portland, OR) 2017, seattle and portland!
drink a mint julep 2017
go on a picnic 2015
