I was unemployed for a year and a half and got to experience a lot of big wow - a stellar, once-in-a-lifetime ski season and then moving to a new place and diving in, devouring it whole. I am guilty of overly romanticizing the free times now, conveniently forgetting the hours spent glazed-eyed looking at my phone, feeling restless, unfulfilled, and lonely.
But there was so much big wow in getting to know a new community and a new landscape with the luxury of all the time in the world - long meandering runs and rides, trips to Canada, the ability to say yes to mid-week invitations, and the motivation to exercise constantly until I felt invincible.
Now I'm mourning all that, kind of - the loss of spontaneity, the loss of fitness (I am really deeply sad about this one) - while acknowledging all the little wow at my fingertips: a standing coffee date with my coworkers who are so wicked smart and plugged in; riding to town unless it's raining, in which case the bus is lovely; the windows of time where I am free and thus value the outing so much more; being part of a company I'm proud of; still finding incremental improvements as a mountain biker; my weekly shift on the assembly line at the food bank, where I can be my parents' daughter and do manual labor with blunt force efficiency and anticipate the logistical needs of all the volunteers before they can even ask. Such a teacher's pet, I am.
I have a lot more thoughts roiling around inside of me as the sun sets on 2024 but writing makes me tired because I do it constantly (happily) so instead here's some lighter fare.
My year in culture
Favorite album
Short n' Sweet, Sabrina Carpenter - I could not stop listening to this impeccable pop gem. She's so GD funny and horny and she wears all of her influences on her sleeve.
Favorite song
Screamland, Father John Misty - Maybe it's recency bias because I just found this orchestral song but I am loving its massive crescendos and crashing soundscapes.
Favorite nonfiction
Number Go Up - One helluva yarn about crypto that includes some mighty fine reporting.
Favorite fiction
Menewood - This didn't come out in 2024 but I don't care, this book (and Hild, the first in the series) rocked my world. It's astounding, powerful, lyrical, suspenseful, deeply human. It has every element of my favorite hero's journeys, from the scouring of the Shire to Lyra Belacqua plus Sabriel and the machinations of Game of Thrones, but with the nature writing of Ernest Thompson Seton in the landscape of Watership Down. I already want to read it again.
Runners-up in fiction
The Vaster Wilds - Beautiful and visceral.
Good Material - A lovely and easy and funny book about the existential pain of break-ups.
Most overrated book
James - This book has been showered with accolades and I just don't get it. I was never entranced by the Huck Finn extended universe but I think a reimagining could have been a lot more elegant and lot less anachronistic than this.
Best long read
The Penny Problem - "The United States has created for itself a logistical problem so stupendously stupid, one cannot help wondering if it is wise to continue to allow this nation to supervise the design of its own holiday postage stamps, let alone preside over the administration of an extensive interstate highway system or nuclear arsenal."
Best newsletter
Little Fire Burning - My friend Amanda does beautiful things with words and I thought she absolutely nailed post-election sentiment with her piece "A Great and Difficult Transformation."
Best TV show
Industry, Season 4 - Messy riveting can't-look-away TV.
Best movie
Challengers - My pitch to everyone is that while this was advertised as a sexy romp (and it still is that) it's actually mostly a sports movie. I loved Challengers because I perceived it to be about how our culture doesn't allow elite female athletes to be driven, type-A assholes who only care about winning.
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