December

1: making it to Rio Rancho and back just under the wire
2: Captain Fantastic
3: scones & tea
4: deciding our top 5 Beatles songs (if the entire catalog had to be deleted, which 5 would you preserve)
5: giving a thriller a chance despite not being my usual genre
6: belatedly realizing the guy I helped is the dad of an old friend from high school
7: browsing sassy candles
8: absolutely scream-laughing at a character's stupidity
9: Hoarders
10: the sun over the wild mountain grasses
11: poetic and prosaic tidbits capturing the hopelessness
12: going from debating Bob Dylan's "stage voices" to R.E.M.'s album Monster
13: talking about geographical differences in Spanish accents
14: discussing DNR orders and "right to die" ethics
15: lending a hand(s) to the big book shift
16: the fact that Target has Kwanzaa cards
17: revisiting the Hahn Arroyo trail
18: listening to Train again after many years
19: patrol on a cold morning
20: "You can't break until you've taken shape, can't crack until there's a form to shatter"
21: questions of ethics and memory in The Shimmering State
22: the sweetness of making up
23: The Ugly Cry
24: Subnautica
25: rummaging for snacks and playing our separate video games
26: trying and buying pants from Ross
27: laughing at a terrible New Mexico bucket list
28: You're Not Listening
29: the at-work convenience of being able to switch between the physical and the ebook
30: "Midnight" by Coldplay
31: receiving the exclusive CD copy of my brother's new album

November

1: our first time being in the new place together
2: the big (U) haul
3: morning noon & night riding with The Golden Casket
4: getting some dining stools
5: loading up the Fit for the last* leg of moving
6: Matt (joke?) proposing a writing race between me and Anna where the loser has to delete all their story files
7: One Good Dog
8: when he texts about the roasted veggies he made (and raves about them when I get home)
9: my coworkers somehow accidentally thinking it's my birthday (but hey, they brought vegan donuts, so I ain't complaining)
10: thrift couch window-shopping
11: an industrial backwoods stroll
12: getting reinvested in Extant
13: obsession with a new Sims world
14: a dinner meetup with old coworkers
15: Matt saying of a coworker liking Guy Fieri, "She thinks frosted tips and barbecue sauce are the epitome of masculinity"
16: talking Modest Mouse and Pitchfork with Matt
17: hearing of the depravities of Rimworld
18: a video of my brother performing at a very underground venue
19: playing Cards Against Humanity and Scrawl on our "staff training day"
20: Ghosts & the visceral reaction I had to it
21: Happier Than Ever
22: last day of a four-day week before a four-day weekend
23: a critique session in our writing group
24: stocking up + starting some of the food a day early
25: quick thinking in a plumbing crisis
26: a walk around the patio while on the phone
27: watching the new season of F is for Family together
28: recreating the KFC bowl with leftover mash and Gardein chick'n tenders
29: the greater diversity of interactions in the Sims 3
30: the age disparity truly being revealed when I say Pride & Prejudice (2006) was my favorite childhood movie and Matt admits to writing a college paper on it when it came out

October

1: stumbling upon the La Cueva arroyo trail
2: JB getting excited about my juggling ability and showing off the juggling stash he keeps at work
3: Life's Work
4: sudoku at the desk
5: a trail stroll on my break
6: a discussion/debate over exploitation vs representation
7: Jack and Erin's podcast
8: absolutely vibing to Sylvan Esso
9: a Where's Waldo-style book of photos where a border collie is hiding in different landscape images
10: seeing the book I put on hold in the book drop and knowing I'm next in line
11: traversing gravel trails, dirt roads, and arroyo-side paths in the northeastern quadrant of the city
12: almost approaching JB's book tower record (and the stack tumbling and crashing down as soon as I walk away from it)
13: coming to a fuller appreciation of Feist just in time to start listening to another album of hers
14: after hearing "1234" and remembering it somehow, learning that it was buried in my memory from the 2008 Grammy Nominees album
15: a fuzzy-bellied roadrunner trying to catch grasshoppers
16: unexpected skellie in the back office
17: talking about The Lathe of Heaven with MB before his sci-fi book group
18: driving by apartments to scope them out
19: a near-essay of a book review
20: printing out my own staff pick labels
21: first apartment tours
22: following my apartment tour guide around the city
23: trying a script format to break writer's block
24: "TIGUANA" (or, the damn cleverest vanity plate I've seen to date - on a Volkswagen Tiguan)
25: two fairly solid offers after hectic searching
26: my coworker inviting me along to her writing group (& everyone sharing their prompt tidbits)
27: transposing the script format to prose
28: returning to a Sims family full of drama I don't remember instigating
29: Sims 4 binge day two
30: bunny snacking on fallen leaves
31: coworker JTA wearing a very cozy-looking Chewbacca onesie

September

1: my coworkers' personalities coming out little by little
2: a walk around Los Poblanos
3: catching vanity plates like Pokemon
4: mixing up my fast-food Beyond Meat tacos
5: slippery elm going down smooth
6: water guillotines, or, chilling in the Bachechi Open Space
7: videos of dogs using buttons to talk
8: nearly bringing a ninety-year-old woman to tears and my coworker giggling about it
9: the immediate difference in reading a book that captures my interest (as opposed to slogging through because I thought it might)
10: How Stella Learned to Talk
11: my coworker and I complimenting each other's blue raspberry Fits
12: making red curry at home near (though never quite) as good as Thai Vegan's
13: coming across the under-the-desk legal pad of 10+ years' worth of incident reports
14: JB teaching me step 1 in mending books
15: skull-shaped candles
16: making book lists on Goodreads
17: starting Dead Space 3 together
18: One Last Stop
19: Eamon & Bec's new cabin reminding me of my aunt and uncle's house + property
20: catching up with old and new library coworkers at Erna Fergusson for the new employee policy training
21: writing chat with my coworkers who are hosting the library's NaNoWriMo program
22: reminiscing and cross-referencing our book lists
23: reading from Educated while listening to Young the Giant
24: a 12-mile ride after a good long sedentary while
25: the homestyle bluegrass/folksy vibes of Feist's Metals
26: some much-needed journal venting
27: playing a Yusuf/Cat CD on the circ area boombox and stirring some nostalgia for a coworker
28: hiding in the far corner amongst the paperback spinners, book in hand and listening to the rain outside
29: judging a book by its cover (& title) and being inspired to pick it up
30: walking along parts of my commute route and experiencing it in finer detail

July & August

July

1: breezing through a relationship self-help ebook while at the desk
2: visiting two of the eighteen Albuquerque library branches that I haven't been to before
3: switching gears to a new audiobook: a new narrator with new cadence, a new story with different style & pacing
4: hiking the Chamisa Trail
5: buffalo taco + kale wraps
6: speechless moments at work
7: "Mickey's Descent into Madness"
8: chatting with my coworker during the last hour of our workday
9: Foals - What Went Down
10: playing darts with my brother
11: seeing the scene in Django Unchained that inspired the meme
12: when the book is basically a recap of stuff I learned in college 
13: CloudNone's Last Train Home EP
14: seeing the Karen haircut in the wild
15: him mixing me up an Arnold Palmer to take with me to work
16: starting the Take a Hint, Dani Brown audiobook
17: Supernova
18: watching some Disney/Pixar before work
19: roasted cauli + Brussels
20: an after-work nap
21: trying a new multiplayer game
22: the predictable misunderstanding that almost fucks everything up right before the end of the book
23: watching him get his hair cut
24: eating out at a new-to-us New Mexican place
25: tiptoeing through the night sprinkle
26: getting hit in the feels by Atypical Season 4
27: artichokes and olives on salad
28: returning to an OG eating spot
29: my coworker's invention of DVD Jenga
30: Outer Wilds
31: the South Valley Library

August

1: money counting
2: chili mac for lunch
3: bitchin' about the service even as we keep coming back for the food
4: Hour of the Witch
5: ice cream and sorbet
6: Sweet Tooth
7: eating out at Rosemary
8: a documentary about the romance novel industry
9: Transparent
10: roasted chickpeas and veggies
11: crispy cauliflower sandwich
12: when the comic is way darker than the tv series
13: blustery winds through rolled-down car windows
14: Boardwalk Empire
15: his arrogance completely snuffed by the first stall-out
16: a few moments of cuddling, even at the price of there-and-back lunch-rush traffic
17: braid looking absolutely TIGHT (with barely enough hair to pull it off)
18: observing a fledgling pigeon with its parents
19: a unique narrator voice in a novel
20: finding my way to the anglerfish fossil (with a little helpful nudge)
21: when the character you thought was being strung along was actually the one who was lying
22: another Fit parked by my Fit at my workplace
23: Barry
24: first time seeing someone's gender as X on a driver's license
25: jaywalking over to the AutoZone for a compressor to solve my low tire pressure situation
26: well-wishes and send-offs from my coworkers
27: finding Feldspar in Dark Bramble
28: playing Island Saver again for the first time in a year
29: listening to Tea for the Tillerman 2 with my dad
30: his impromptu breakfast for me on orientation morning
31: starting work at a new* branch

June

1: flamingo 'fit with pink Crocs 

2: shooting the shit with our server at the Acre

3: everyone saying goodbye and congrats to a retiring coworker

4: an unprecedented diversion to the Beyond

5: hiking in the badlands (El Malpais Nat'l Monument)

6: a vlog of a Tesla roadtrip through the southwest

7: taking a walk during my afternoon break

8: calling in to recoup

9: firing off at twilight

10: 77,777 miles

11: chonky pitbulls walking around the gun store

12: finally getting the Incredibles 2 memes

13: baking buffalo bites (cauliflower + tofu)

14: "Tap Dancer" (as a sign of my growing love for the album)

15: him frantically looking for his phone while it's in his hand

16: first marksmanship lesson

17: Love and Other Words

18: an adult-establishment adventure

19: trying to find the nastiest local apartment listing on Zillow

20: Lego-style picture guide for furniture assembly

21: The House in the Cerulean Sea

22: watching Invincible together

23: slipping into a pocket of pitch black

24: a patron telling me my mohawk reminds her of an Ethiopian braided hairstyle

25: a surprisingly fast visit at the packed urgent care

26: him calling in so we can spend the day with my fam

27: jumping into my parents' Broadchurch binge

28: starting the Good Omens audiobook & Amazon prime series in tandem

29: the opening paragraphs of Smoke Gets In Your Eyes 

30: stormy evening hike in the foothills

x

May

 1: online shopping on my phone while sitting in a store parking lot 
2: a book that I stumbled upon by chance brilliantly and uncannily expressing my current existential dreads and feelings
3: the new straight-to-carts check-in system
4: trying a menu-offered vegan option at Scalo
5: finally getting an interview for one of the  environmental internships I applied for
6: moving some tables and chairs from the piled-up covid stash
7: a momentary storm
8: a hike in the Jemez
9: sort-of recreating the papas rústicas I loved from this one Chilean restaurant (and trying out Bitchin' Sauce)
10: talkin' cars and ABQ drivers with my fave Uber driver (I've only ridden with him twice, but still)
11: browsing Craigslist cars
12: We are never meeting in real life
13: running to meet my on-time Uber driver
14: Battleship Rock
15: checking out the Fit in person
16: reflexive expression of my book characters' nervous anticipation
17: my car story coming to its happy ending
18: bringing home the Fit
19: vibing to CDs checked out from the library
20: driving to the end of the road(s)
21: ridealongs with the fam
22: car stuff with my dad, music with my mom, and projects with my bro
23: a mini road trip to & from Elephant Butte 
24: knowing Bojack so well that I can enjoy it even when the TV is smashed to absolute hell 
25: sharing Izi on the Honda Fit subreddit
26: eating out at one of our OG restaurants
27: season 2 of Special
28: climbing the rocks to look over the stream & falls
29: downhill coasting but having to weave through a dangerously narrow labyrinth of cacti
30: Dear White People 
31: three Fits in a line on the highway (one of them being my car's twin)

April

1: a friendly neighborhood cat accompanying me partway on my journey
2: my wrecked legs giving the illusion of a hard workout even though I bailed early
3: revisiting songs from my 2020 playlists
4: the Uber driver letting me DJ on his unbelievably bass-heavy sound system
5: DoorDash delivering lunch to my work
6: rental minivan giving me flashbacks to driving on school trips
7: a spirited little disagreement over whether "grey" or "gray" is the proper spelling for the color
8: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
9: car detailing videos
10: the grotesquely suburban experience of buying a full shopping cart's worth of groceries and bringing them home in a minivan 
11: 50/50
12: "Dudes who are down bad"
13: going to Target after work for some Ben & Jerry's Netflix & Chillll'd non-dairy ice cream
14: doing a phone interview from the comfort of the minivan's third row seats
15: being commissioned for a children's room project
16: Such a Fun Age 
17: David Attenborough's A Life on Our Planet
18: the dealership deploying the suave salesmen only on the repeat visits
19: him rolling over to check the time on his phone, then casually commenting on it being a year
20: morning moments in the civic plaza
21: the lady at FedEx coming over to the copy machines for a chat
22: the insurance claim finally feeling somewhat taken care of
23: a growing obsession with Geoguessr 
24: rest stop at a gazebo at the midway point on my bike ride
25: the fact that Bryan Cranston's autobiography opens with the letting-Jane-die scene from Breaking Bad
26: learning about RAGBRAI from a coworker and adding it to my bucket list
27: filling six book donation boxes
28: a romance featuring elderly protagonists
29: when the settlement check gets posted
30: hiking around the Santa Fe Canyon Preserve

March

 1: tiptoeing through puddles on the back road by way of moonlight
2: reading Jim Gorant's book about the champion frisbee pitbull, Wallace
3: nostalgia from my old 8tracks favorites
4: somehow making it to work on time after missing my alarm
5: sneaking into Costco
6: new trails along the bosque
7: adding some queso to the mac 'n cheese
8: the 'where are they now' segment on the dogs rescued from Michael Vick
9: Alani Nu watermelon wave fizzy energy drink
10: "Heavy Hearted"
11: a burst of inspiration for epilogue brainstorming and cover letters
12: the alternately hilarious, educational, and philosophical memoir of a guy who started a dog rescue in Chimayo, NM
13: scrappy lil baby mohawk
14: coming across a trilogy on the YA shelf with an almost-too-similar plot to my budding novel idea - then reading a boatload of angry 1-star reviews about it on Goodreads
15: balloons lifting off on the way to work
16: mild blizzard and the light cheek-sting of winter
17: going downtown for work training and being reminded of uptown escapes
18: new license plate
19: body awareness and spatial problem-solving when clambering over the rocks
20: crossing the I-40 bridge
21: a dog coming over to say hi (and her owner complimenting my mohawk)
22: comfort-buying junk food
23: coworkers' sympathy and indignation on my behalf
24: a surprise home-cooked lunch
25: oversaturating my brain with research on used subcompact cars
26: Solar Opposites Season 2
27: heading out to the beyond to fire off some rounds
28: enjoying some basic-bitch vanilla ice cream
29: writing in memoiristic essay style, inspired by the autobiographical nonfiction I've read of late
30: chatting with my Uber driver
31: an internship opening that aligns with my niche-af major (*fingers crossed*)

February

1. a coworker trying out maple syrup in her tea after hearing me talk about it
2. him showing me the Euphoria special episode to articulate his struggles
3. discovering a coworker knows sign language
4. buying chocolate after having a dream craving for it, and the guy at the cash register saying "Enjoy those candy bars"
5. locks on bridges
6. *sad Don Cheadle noises* (the end of The Guard)
7. learning about hygge
   
8. a conversation about covid vaccination (though a little awkward) to break up the normal work monotony
9. Michaela Coel in I May Destroy You
   
10. adorable mustachioed man
11. watching Better Call Saul together
12. riding the path winding through the depths of the bosque
13. thundersnow
14. him helping me search for cars and file my taxes
15. my first car
16. Valentines from my coworkers
17. midnight joyride in a loaner car
18. getting him some birthday chimichangas from Allsup's
19. a spur-of-the-moment walk on a snowy trail
20. the rare moment of the wind blowing at my back as I ride uphill
21. toning down the spice imbalance with milk and sugar
22. getting overexcited about a topic and putting an excessive number of books on hold
23. a specially-commissioned meal from the restaurant where he works
24. snuggling in to watch a new show together
25. him organizing the drinks in the fridge by brand
26. cruising diagonally across the city grid
27. showing my parents the new ride
28. him calling the circulation desk to get ahold of me at work

January

1: watching the last candles burn themselves out
2: Russian Doll
3: Grand Theft Auto IV
4: some cheating drama and an illegitimate baby (in the Sims 4)
5: homemade granola
6: pumping it up to 20mph (on a downhill)
7: shower-fresh curls
8: Kelsey Tries the 100-baby Challenge series
9: completely inverted sleep schedule
10: stealing little naps to make it through an all-nighter
11: first day at my new library job
12: a fresh Sprouts location on the west side
13: a children's book about a girl who couldn't get a pet bonding with a dog she spends time with at the shelter
14: overlooking the dog park while on my lunch break
15: a self-help book in the style of a Socratic dialogue
16: turning my bathroom into an at-home fitting room for clothes bought online
17: making brunch before work
18: celebrating my vegan birthday a day early by making my favorite pies
19: putting slips in books
20: binge-reading Psychology Today articles
21: sushi after work
22: an 18-mile bike ride, passing by the flood control facility, through Bear Canyon, and up and down Tramway
23: a quote on why 'unfree' people judge those who are living freely
24: an Opal apple
25: "Permanence" by Maybeshewill
26: him understanding the 'wait in the parking lot and dawdle in the store' to avoid going home
27: looking up the best houseplants for beginners
28: grocery store clerk curiously asking why I'm buying so many beans
29: District 9
30: moments of solitude on the channel trail through the industrial zone
31: "The Next Best American Record" by Lana Del Rey

December

1: Mad Max: Fury Road
2: learning a new convoluted strategy game
3: The Queen's Gambit
4: the vegan Beyond Meat burrito at Del Taco
5: Chex Mix and mango ginger Zevia
6: talking to a guy in line at the grocery store about what's for dinner
7: Upload
8: stocking up on canned goods following a fiasco of needing corn after the stores closed and having to run to the gas station
9: an in-person interview (finally, a new place to go)
10: pushing my high score in Fruit Ninja
11: some much-appreciated closeness after a tough conversation
12: mattress shopping
13: surprising myself with how much ground I can cover while biking around the city
14: a dope-ass "Mexican pizza" quesadilla
15: new mattress
16: the Royalty Free Christmas Songs mega compilation
17: Raised by Wolves opening titles theme
18: sriracha on sushi
19: sippin' back to a slightly corrupted childhood via CapriSuns
20: casting some YouTube to the big screen
21: playing The Sims (3)
22: the nostalgia of the Nintendogs theme songs
23: extra strong hot chocolate
24: playing The Sims (4)
25: a cup of chai at the end of the day
26: the annual candle scramble
27: insecure
28: stuffed butternut squash
29: recovering a lost Sims world
30: putting on songs I haven't heard in years
31: get rich cheat codes