December

1: little food rewards to motivate me to write my paper
2: "Castaway" by the dream duo Grant + Jessi Mason
3: presentation night & classmates' creative final project ideas and media of expression
4: other hidden gems from Gregory Alan Isakov's Evening Machines
5: snow like gently falling stars
6: taking a drink to a study carrel and settling in to write
7: new and previously-unheard Balmorhea
8: a thought-provoking play about the decision to (or not to) have children
9: standing upon, and being held up by, an ice shelf
10: a guy befriending a butterfly
11: Mitus + Tikey (a.k.a. the freakin' cutest couple in Season 2 of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt)
12: more Cat Stevens
13: surprise hug from a friend
14: grabbing lunch with my friend before she leaves for break
15: my hair today (tiny curls)
16: when the dining hall offers a really good soup even though they've reached the dregs of their supply
17: an entire day and thirty pages' worth of journaling
18: learning (together) about the odd, sci-fi/fantasy world-building behind Cat's album Numbers
19: after many failed attempts, successfully hammering apart and dismantling a pallet
20: an outing day with the brother
21: The Breadwinner
22: Nob Hill meetup
23: bikesplorations out in the Beyond
24: Little & Lion
25: iota, the great big game in the teeny-weeny tin
26: (almost) all the family contributing to a Kwanzaa music mix
27: crunching along the snowy streets of Santa Fe
28: tumbling into the mud and tangling with bushes while sledding
29: chatting while walking around and browsing the record store
30: To All the Boys I've Loved Before
31: hella Helven writing inspiration

November

1: premium music subscription service STEAL leading me to unknown albums by old favorites
2: putting on an old coat and just feeling *right*
3: crazy, goofy kids at the library
4: an ~extra hour put to good use - finishing a futuristic Jane Eyre story
5: listening to + singing along with Lana Del Rey (strange yet funny because I used to hate her) and being reminded of my best friend (who used to be obsessed with her)
6: Magpie and the Dandelion
7: doing a mini cover of "Video Games" and sending it to my friend (and him liking it despite the fact that he couldn't imagine me singing along to Lana, "but I guess there's a time and place for everything")
8: full language table with representation from all generations of signers
9: when "see ya later, bub" becomes "ciao-ciao, Chí-Chí"
10: remembering van music and being led to new tunes
11: twenty-minute mohawk phase (long enough to do a for-posterity photoshoot)
12: parallel experience between me and the character in my novel
13: (belated?) intro to Porter Robinson
14: a piece that captures both the cold desolation as well as the fragile, delicate wonder of winter ("Ice")
15: Hawt ChocoLIT (and laughing with people to engage with them)
16: the spectacle of snow sheets falling off the roof (and the thundering ruckus they make)
17: TA Outdoors' pallet wood cabin build
18: finishing season 4 of BoJack
19: meeting & talking to a guy in my class through a partner exercise
20: on a whim accompanying my friend to Bristol
21: pig and cat dutifully following us on the snowy trail
22: trust-building with Turkey (on Thanksgiving)
23: wandering the trails on my uncle and aunt's property
24: (extended family) game night
25: a day chilling with my aunt
26: unexpected extension of my stay in Madison
27: thickly falling snow to (finally) welcome me back to campus
28: busting out the knee-length puffy
29: the perfect secondary source for my final paper
30: surprise mail

October

1: peanut butter fudge and pretzels
2: clips from the opera Don Giovanni as part of analysis in my Don Juan class
3: pleasantly unexpected "thought you'd like this" music recommendation from a friend
4: hearing queer perspectives of life on campus
5: sitting blindfolded on the bay, experiencing the place through the topography of the rocks beneath me
6: the tender, heartfelt story and beautiful watercolor illustration of On the Night of the Shooting Star
7: cooking with the vegan dinner crew for Sunday Night Dinner
8: a misty, snow-like flurry of rain
9: listening to Sean Ono Lennon for the first time - on his birthday!
10: trying to capture fall in photographs
11: a walk out in the rain (through the forest, along leaf-littered "back" paths, at the edge of the meadow/field)
12: Grant's COTW takeover
13: binge-listening to Seafret
14: open, honest talk over the phone with a friend
15: mini documentaries from Attitude on different life experiences
16: hidden gems of the sixth-floor oasis
17: a moment of tackle-play with my #1 bub
18: the poetic/philosophical side (and interspersed witty jabs) of Walden
19: the ticking sound of nails on linoleum as a little dog follows our every step as we move about the kitchen
20: chilling at the townhouse on a Saturday night with a movie and a card game
21: itty bitty snowflakes in a winter-cold flurry
22: talk of tattoos and vegan edibles over dinner
23: when none of us read the article the teacher assigned and are skimming it in class and fudging answers to the discussion questions
24: falling head over heels in love with "Better" by Laszlo
25: when a guy I met at poetry night seeks me out to read my latest poem
26: pleasantly unexpected encounters with graduated friends
27: bringing a friend along to Crescent Moon Bay on a chilly, overcast morning
28: "City in the Sky" by Hyraxe and Tevlo
29: when a girl who's given me some vibes (?) compliments my sweatshirt
30: kicking my shoes off and walking around the classroom (+ other places) in just my toe-socks
31: seeing a couple clever and creative costumes

September

1: sitting just off the trail on a chilly, overcast morning, looking out over the landscape and reimagining my summer experiences as a story retelling
2: the comfort of holding a soft, cuddly Squishmallow in my arms in the middle of a crowded Costco
3: playing Bananagrams out on the patio of a cafe
4: addicting new songs from Rocket League x Monstercat Vol. 4
5: Earl Grey tea chocolate
6: the wonder of wandering Narnia's newly-discovered roads
7: binge-downloading Ninety9Lives tunes
8: playing cards in a preT coffee shop
9: pizza and game night
10: returning to a familiar place after a long half-day of traveling
11: familiar faces as I float through a sea of strangers
12: listening to COTW while at the gym
13: window-watching
14: a random rug as compensation for the one that mysteriously was lost
15: "Reacting to Anti-Gay Commercials Because I'm Gay"
16: pedaling down the road to see where it goes
17: an unexpected chill and secluded spot (the deck outside Sunderland)
18: wandering in the woods until I get kinda lost (then finding my way back)
19: a curious squirrel looking right at me and inching its way closer
20: doing readings outside on a just-perfectly-overcast-and-cool day (on a swing, in an Adirondack chair)
21: learning (as much as one can?) how to play Mao at Q&A's gayme night
22: flame-burst of obsession for MEMBA's "Stand Off" feat. Ehiorobo
23: easy rapport with a friend as we do the dishes
24: sweet potato coconut curry soup with focaccia for dipping
25: watching an animal emotions documentary for class
26: listening to Xan Griffin's "Self Discovery" EP (and discovering he's a relatively young talent)
27: excerpts from Emerson's 'Nature' essay
28: attending a neuroscience talk and learning about the strange sociality of voles
29: sharing fudge (and first-time high experiences)
30: a blurred line between reality and delusion in a book

August

1: setting the bar low on a very slow day and exceeding our goals
2: multicolored berries hanging like a string of lights over the creek
3: an interlude of sun in the midst of rain
4: dogs in dreams
5: embracing the music (facing the rain)
6: rolling a piece of lumber across a sketchy bridge using little logs underneath
7: signing each other's pants on the last day of work
8: breakfast of granola & blueberries in yogurt while filling out end-of-season surveys in a Starbucks
9: the giddy loopiness of being high
10: prepping for da club on our last night together
11: when one of the songs in a DJ's set is a remix of a tune our friend would always reference
12: queuing up new tunes
13: grocery-shopping with healthy* meal ideas in mind
14: first snaps
15: little bro's sketch idea for my tattoo
16: when a book alternately makes you laugh out loud and tugs at your heartstrings
17: walking through the desert - and looking over the city - in the stormy dusk
18: Frasier to distract me from stinging, stabbing tattoo pain
19: the crew's approval and excitement over the crosscut tattoo
20: another cute 'n' sweet Kasie West audiobook (now I've read all her novels!)
21: anecdotes about our crew leader
22: remembering + reliving the sexual tension between two characters in a previously-read-and-thoroughly-enjoyed book
23: a story of summer romance and self-discovery
24: splurging on music
25: binge-watching Rick and Morty with my bro
26: sassy retorts and pessimistic reminiscing
27: being reminded why my obscure and unknown-and-confusing-to-everyone major is important
28: desert déjà vu and the epiphany of belonging
29: wearing an apron (feeling like a real chef)
30: chronicling the low-key dramatic saga of my second experience with weed through captioned selfies
31: Leave No Trace

June & July

1: remembering cringey scenes, songs, and lines from childhood movies
2: when my dad thinks a Beatles song is by Smash Mouth
3: ditching a not-so-gripping book for a much more interesting one
4: saying hi to a horse
5: alternate realities playing out in parallel in Kasie West's Pivot Point
6: making rock art (a tribute to the characters in my story)
7: "misfit" kids befriending a ghost
8: the story of Charity and Sylvia
9: hiking off the beaten path and being wonderfully alone in the wilderness
10: my brother's hilariously dramatic reading of my story
11: Alex Strangelove
12: my dad relating to my weird self-image issues with glasses
13: listening to the Dear Martin audiobook while driving through NM + CO
14: meeting a girl who's on my crew and chatting with her for a while
15: joking and ice-breaker questions with the crew as we drive around, making wrong turns as it gets darker trying to get to our first official campsite
16: going out in the forest and learning how to use the crosscut saw hands-on
17: when the drenched ankles of the pants I'm wearing finally dry (mostly)
18: stepping out of my tent and locking eyes with a deer standing up the hill
19: hiking up the trail with our tools and sawing fallen trees off the path
20: one of my crewmates going wild over the fact that I published a book
21: lilypad lake with a breathtaking view of the snow-capped peaks
22: a civ dinner as a reward for a long work day
23: dozing off under a teepee
24: an afternoon chilling at a quirky coffee shop
25: a cozy car ride of togetherness (getting closer to people I hadn't really talked to before)
26: lost by the lake and bushwhacking with Alan
27: when people have to eat their words at the heartiness of a vegan soup
28: the flowered way
29: watermelon binge while hanging out on the deck of the landowner whose forests we (partially) worked in
30: walking up the road to Starbucks while the others shower

~~

1: sleeping out under a starry, moonlit sky
2: putting down the railroad-tracks foundation for a turnpike
3: eating kettle corn straight from the pot and laughing about random shiz
4: restaurant outing & soccer game to celebrate 4th of July
5: sock wrestling matches
6: giving honest how-I-feel feedback
7: getting rained on when I'm already soaked through from going in the lake
8: touristy apparel as a spare outfit
9: maple french toast bagel
10: a puzzle of rocks
11: valley views from Buffalo Pass
12: quiet conversations and bonding over musicianship in the dimly-lit van
13: the stark contrast between lush & fire-burned forests
14: nude (+ partially nude) photoshoot at a mountain lake
15: composing a song inspired by cuddles under the stars
16: stumbling upon animal bones
17: delving deeper into my jealous feelings to discover my insecurities
18: cool-to-the-touch moist, rotted tree innards
19: calling out to your crewmates down below on the mountain when you're near the end of a long and arduous trail
20: Utah's amazing rock formations
21: nature walk through a slot canyon to a waterfall
22: sharing earbuds & watching BoJack together at the laundromat
23: guesses at my (apparently ambiguous) ethnicity
24: dreaming about Denver
25: introducing the crew to Contact
26: practicing knots on anything we can get a rope around
27: catching up on music while on a computer at the local library
28: enjoying an ice cream cone as I walk along Main Street
29: picnic in the park, sheltered from the rain by a giant tree
30: "Starlight" under starlight
31:  apocalyptic sun red through the haze

May

1: clinging to/swinging from a tree
2: "related artists" radio leading me to Poppy Ackroyd
3: sitting outside, just west of Bi Hall, absorbing the nature around me
4: using someone's architectural model to carry a wasp outside the building to freedom
5: detour to a local park (+ snacking on fruit)
6: a student band (unexpectedly) playing some live music on a Sunday morning
7: the story of Ross Capicchioni (his own recounting and Joyner Lucas' rap)
8: serenading a tree with "Two Trees"
9: evening scrimmage of fútbol in practice for the Spanish v. Portuguese game
10: breaking the ice by talking about NaNoWriMo (after looking over someone's shoulder at her Google Drive documents)
11: checking out the cute animals they brought to campus
12: a hauntingly vivid tale of savagery and survival
13: the chill guy working at the Escape Room (and his being impressed at our signing while solving the puzzles)
14: stopping at Crescent Moon Bay to picnic (+ write)
15: meeting a guy who happened to go to the high school where my dad teaches and was incredulously amazed that I could possibly be related to that infamous professor
16: wanderings (climbing down into the ruins, strolling along the wetland boardwalk)
17: giggling and teasing each other about celebrity crushes
18: the great reading and voice-acting by Adam Grupper for The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
19: mindless chatter and jokes with a (cute) coworker
20: brunch with my friends' friends
21: suddenly seeing a fat marmot on the rocks a ways down from where I'm sitting
22: singing along with songs I haven't heard in ages while packing up my dorm room
23: dressing as a Dapper Dave
24: a ruthless establishing-the-rules game of tenasketball with my brother
25: store-hopping and window-shopping (browsing backpacking/camping gear)
26: petting & playing with a friendly puppy that wandered to our house
27: running into an old classmate (/crush) (who happens to work at the store I was shopping at) and him being friendly as ever
28: watching hockey
29: taking the train downtown to visit with a friend at a hipster coffee shop
30: errands and lunch stop in Santa Fe
31: small breakthroughs when working on a puzzle

April

1: flying down the trails
2: (shamelessly) trying to fall asleep everywhere
3: when two birds' songs overlap and ring out in unison
4: hindsight validation (a few years late) of the confusion I went through in a sweet coming-of-age story
5: getting to know ODESZA
6: an afternoon up in the lighting lab with the improv comedy crew (and laughing until tears stream down my face)
7: indulging in a luscious square of dark chocolate on the walk home
8: El Laberinto del Fauno/Pan's Labyrinth
9: when the landscape is a living painting
10: stepping over the leaf-littered forest floor (to collect data)
11: dinner with fellow vegans (and a chat with the dining hall staff)
12: when the main character destroys almost every significant relationship they have in the span of a couple chapters
13: field trip to a local housing development
14: a cute kids' book my mom definitely would have gotten for us if it had come out a decade earlier
15: tooth worries, and "Swallowing Teeth"
16: singing along with "Silence" while standing in front of the open window
17: Google Earth teleportation
18: "Blind in Light" by Memtrix
19: spending a Thursday night writing in a café (Crossroads)
20: student presentations at spring symposium
21: fruit bowl picnic out by MarbleWorks on the creek bank
22: talking with community presenters at our Earth Day fair
23: when my spine nestles comfortably into the grooves of the bark as I sit against a tree
24: vaulting over things 'cause I feel like it
25: sore all over (hurts so good)
26: the unexpected ordeal of something exploding in the kitchen after it was left unattended, bringing three fire trucks y muchos bomberos to la Casa and catching the attention of all onlookers in the vicinity
27: (a) walk out in the rain
28: learning about futuristic, sustainable city developments in the United Arab Emirates
29: daffodils (drooping in the rain, fragrant in my room)
30: classmates looking to you for answers

March

1: when my voice makes it onto the podcast (start at about 108 minutes)
2: tuning in to my friend's morning radio show
3: the transformative power of raw nature on the soul (as read in Wild Bird by Wendelin Van Draanen)
4: chilling in the big lounge room while waiting for my laundry
5: "In a Time Lapse" remixes
6: little kids laughing and chasing each other around the library
7: snow as a sidenote
8: reciprocal chocolate gifting
9: the epiphanous impact of hearing a truth from another person, even when you've already learned and acknowledged it yourself
10: a self-published young author story in the library collection (a Beatles fanfic)
11: being invited over to a social house for Sunday Night Dinner
12: uncontrollable laughter as the others flip their shit over the appearances of the monster in Black Sand
13: oddly, being assigned to read a story with a semi-hopeful ending for my "stories recount tragedy" Spanish class
14: nighttime working (and bantering) in the studio with classmates
15: snow piled precariously (impossibly) onto tree branches
16: the awe and relief that my embarrassing things aren't just mine alone
17: cuando todo me hace flipar (when everything makes me flip out)
18: inspiration to revitalize an old short story idea
19: (t)romping across a field of ankle-deep snow
20: fruit phylogenies
21: the cutesicle, quirksta music of Podington Bear
22: friendly acquaintances breaking the pattern of mealtime solitude
23: when there's electronic music playing in the dining hall
24: a pre-spring break departure game of Monopoly on the floor of my friend's dorm room
25: an indigo-to-scarlet gradient from the sky to the horizon
26: Love, Simon
27: "my life according to song titles" challenge (as a family)
28: post-rock radio on Spotify
29: nachos and Netflix
30: cocoon of the mountain valley
31: the streaking tail of a shooting star falling in the clouded night sky

February

1: stories about survival in the wilderness after a plane crash
2: making food and enjoying it together at a silent dinner
3: sneaking an uncatalogued book out of the library because I really wanted to read it (shh...)
4: (the glory and majesty of) crossing the Delaware
5: dirt-stained clothes after a day of yard work
6: guessing games while we work
7: when "who's the spy among us" games get super amped up
8: hands-on construction work (framing the floor and three walls of a shed)
9: the intense anxiety, then liberating relief of hot-seat truth reveals and learning deeper, more personal things about other people
10: watching someone experience the beach and the ocean for the first time
11: picking up where I left off with a friend I haven't seen in a while (and didn't think I'd get to see again)
12: the strange, disembodied, in-the-limbo freedom of sitting in on classes while not being fully committed to them
13: comfortable, joking rapport with my adviser
14: ordering a tea at Crossroads, then heading upstairs for a more casual committee meeting in the Grille
15: talking with someone at a party
16: Black History Month Jeopardy
17: personalized interactions with patrons (since I know some of them pretty well by now)
18: carried away on autoplay tunes
19: one-on-one alphabet teaching and practice with a first-time signer
20: so much New Mexico representation
21: checking out Queers & Allies and meeting some new people
22: serious throwbacks to the Dimension days
23: writing novel tidbits in left-hand cursive on a chalkboard
24: a sequel to my first ode to Bi Hall, coming at the end of "Show Your Love for McCardell Bicentennial Hall" Week
25: coming across a (somewhat dark) George Harrison album I hadn't heard before
26: accompanying my lab-mates upstairs to release Alfred the ladybug into the greenhouse
27: a good-food lunch after days of disappointment
28: satirical cartoons on architecture and society

January

1: New Year's Day feast (or, a more proper karamu)
2: adding more words to my Spanish vocabulary through reading a novel in the language
3: spying on a nub-nub nibbling the plants in our yard
4: jeering and laughing at daytime soap operas
5: listening to Monstercat hate-lists while stuck awake at 3 a.m.
6: positively devouring the audiobook of The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue
7: taking breakfast in a booth seat
8: drawing homework for the first time in a long time
9: "Journey" by Jim Yosef
10: working together on our chair ("sitting plus...")
11: hilarious short films showing rage to the extent of insanity
12: my excitement, after so long, at finally hearing the entirety of Rogue's "Fortress"
13: snapping pics of and with our chair
14: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
15: ingenious, innovative sitting+ ideas
16: when sketching something produces a better result (and is more satisfying) than photographing it
17: Spanish House event - making gazpacho
18: class tour of the all-solar-powered houses on campus
19: inviting a friend over to bake brownies for my vegan birthday
20: walking together under starlight
21: shadowed sliver of an orange crescent moon
22: a challenge to be more poetic in my design
23: playing some paddle tennis
24: dreams of simple gestures filled with tenderness
25: 3-D modeling my tiny house design (by hand and through SketchUp)
26: laughs at language tables
27: reading an entire book in a few hours while on my shift
28: going up on the fire escape to sketch and soak in the winter sun
29: a DROELOE kind of mood
30: seeing classmates' tiny house ideas and drawings
31: the calming, repetitive act of slicing through pages with a paper cutter