February

1: top-secret planning for our Valentine's Day vegan cooking party
2: listening to star songs by David Bowie for Imbolc 2016
3: nicknaming all the fish in the aquariums
4: Just for Laughs comedy skits from different comedians
5: playing with the "mini Pep Band" at the basketball game
6: August: Osage County
7: online window-shopping for vegan shoes
8: apologizing to a teacher you've wronged
9: my own personal pajama day
10: "all mountains are volcanoes"
11: playing Fire Boy and Water Girl with my bro for #ThrowbackThursday
12: visiting a college in winter
13: hotel room for one on the night before Valentine's Day
14: vegan food party with your bestie for Valentine's Day
15: vegan cake for breakfast
16: the devil's fruit
17: friends not letting friends go hungry at lunch
18: Stanley acting more like his normal self
19: Yann Tiersen's "Comptine d'un autre été"
20: finally getting to the main plot point of a book
21: dreaming of a future in Cape Breton (safe from Donald Trump and conservative America)
22: coming home to Mom-made vegan muffins after a longer-than-usual school day
23: NPR playing Balmorhea... twice in a row
24: one lunch before class and another lunch after class
25: being the homework messenger
26: when Senior Ditch Day is on opening night
27: the inscription on the Statue of Liberty
28: solving the NPR puzzle... twelve hours later
29: friends sneakily taking my camera (and figuring out how to work it)

January

1: all my stuffed animals having a name and a story
2: reading through the YouTube comments section
3: the cashier saying you're beautiful and then winking at you
4: not failing my first Russian listening comp
5: vegan provolone-style slices on crackers
6: "Pig Powder"
7: pondering line astigmatism as a college research project
8: Stephan Pastis
9: timing a show on Netflix perfectly with the same show broadcasting on TV
10: low-key interview with a college alumna
11: David Bowie music marathon
12: ranting (in French) at the archaic questions in your 1983 French textbook
13: speaking French in a dream
14: Bo Burnham's "What."
15: when your teacher is curious about your being vegan
16: a random Saturday hang-out-be-weird-and-eat-food party
17: shopping spree for vegan stuff
18: reading a corny book about a single people's relationship makeover retreat
19: eyes newly open to sunrises, sunsets, and mountain majesty
20: my heart going out to a kid suffering playing-test anxiety
21: "Put on a Happy Face"
22: waking up at 3 am with one numb arm and shaking the feeling back into it
23: reclining movie theater seats
24: Stanley's suspicion of my Saturday night whereabouts
25: playing a wooden clarinet the band director got off Craigslist for cheap
26: when your friend makes vegan cookies for the crew
27: talking for two hours on the phone with your friend and coming up with a weird new language
28: the Crew going to Chipotle for lunch
29: ditching class to go see the devil fish
30: baking vegan cookies for the first time
31: Sunday lunch with Dad at Thai Vegan

December

1: Thus Spoke Zarathustra
2: meatless BBQ pulled "pork" sliders
3: The Wiz Live on NBC
4: student directs 2015 (& flashbacks to previous shows)
5: hamster explorations in the great wide living room and kitchen
6: working on my architecture project
7: seeing everyone's house ideas
8: watching Nowhere Boy for the first time in many years as a tribute to John
9: kind of helping Maria with her car
10: when you spread out writing your final paper over a week instead of cramming it the night before
11: writing 'bits in class and around school
12: waking up to rain on a Saturday morning
13: the hilarity of Crimson Peak
14: coordinating and putting together little gift boxes
15: Nick getting everybody Boba Tea
16: listening to some Gregorian chants as I come to terms with the undeniable reality that I will probably fail my calc exam (#prayawaythepain)
17: study party for one
18: when your stomach's so full your lungs shrink to accommodate it
19: getting sucked into a book and absorbed by it
20: the puzzle mystery of the Escape Room
21: Pariah
22: listening to This Patch of Sky on Spotify
23: cooking up some broccoli soup
24: WarZ with my bro
25: The Fever Tree audiobook
26: NutriNinja breakfast smoothies for everyone
27: the quiet and stillness of a snowy suburb at 11 pm
28: Tasty Bite Vegetable Tikka Masala with rice
29: pompom-tassel hats and snow photography
30: the absolute final college applications
31: the artful TPing of a neighbor's house

November

1: tiny house video tours
2: when you're interpretive dancing and turn to see your hamster staring at you
3: full car, full squad, off-campus lunch
4: Frankenstein's monster
5: just lying down and falling asleep...
6: Rules of Engagement and Undateable
7: writing explosions and their aftermath
8: Zekrom the guinea pig
9: my new Stand Up For Pits hoodie
10: "All There Is" by Gregory Alan Isakov
11: participating (for the first time) in humanities
12: Frankenstein, the novel
13: when your friend brings you food her mom made
14: the Democratic Debate trio
15: real-life elements + current obsessions making it into your NaNoWriMo
16: writing conference with your teacher
17: going to Chipotle to pick up a burrito for your brother
18: the monster in The Young Frankenstein
19: creating an adult-version parody of the Magic Tree House series
20: wishing to have sung in hindsight
21: getting out your frustrations with a lint roller
22: slight, unprecedented detours in your novel
23: NaNo nitro boost 'til 2:30 am
24: our little club playing at the basketball game
25: when your hamster plays the climb-up game while you're at the vet
26: Home and The Box Trolls
27: hamster licking his lips after eating soup
28: typing my page quota and then some
29: counting words using an abacus
30:  55,251 give or take a few thousand

October

1: flashback to ninth grade with "The Nightmare Before Christmas - Part 2"
2: accidentally walking in on the Student Senate... but they help you out
3: partner salsa dancing with your best friend
4: carrot muffins with dried cherries
5: overly-concerned Mims
6: *subtly saying "F- you" to a person you hate
7: decorating your friend's locker with candy and colorful notes on her birthday
8: first time out east and first impressions of Oberlin College
9: wandering solo vs. talking with the other kids
10: coming home to crazy Lil Ham Stan
11: Weird Al's "Pancreas" and "Frank's 2000" TV"
12: scholarship searches and applications
13: brutally sassing teachers
14: completing my supplemental essays
15: learning the chords for "Search and Destroy" and "Quiet Ye Voices" on guitar
16: blueberry slushie/smoothie and rice cake with Wowbutter for breakfast
17: dark chocolate truffle cashew milk ice cream
18: eating garlic quinoa for breakfast and a snack
19: an unexpected picnic lunch on the football field bleachers
20: Sanders Bohlke's "The Poison" and "Ghost Boy"
21: rainy day with puddles and old soaked canvas shoes
22: returning to 8tracks after a two-year hiatus
23: Friday night in a baggy sweater and baggy sweatpants
24: curious -Goldwyn- retriever
25: revisiting the sixth grade side of campus
26: "Atlantis" by Seafret
27: productivity - getting (three) assignments done during a school day
28: snack of soymilk and lentil chips
29: the holy grail of flaxseed/quinoa chips and Kashi cereal
30: ten reps of the climb-up game, with variations
31: costume night at the movies with the gang on Halloween

September

1: checking Amazon while at school and finding out your package arrived
2: racing against time to get to school and making it with only five minutes to spare
3: inadvertently being a soloist (and being praised)
4: hours and hours of WatchMojo top 10's
5: introducing Ravi to the climb-up game
6: Still Alice
7: reviving the HHFC with a one-(wo)man short film done in (nearly) one day
8: Alan Singley's Cold Truth and Anamorphic Orchestra
9: finding Middlebury
10: drawing designs for the Pep Band T-shirt
11: Nic Bommarito's "Elle va au Japon" and "KTM"
12: melon Powerade and pretzel Goldfish
13: working physics problems on a whiteboard
14: sly (but not subtle) compliments from your teacher
15: a "salad" lunch of plain cucumber
16: 5:30 am fat and fluffy hamster
17: the advisee get-to-know-you sheets (and the cryptic codes and euphemisms I could have used)
18: sneakily not turning in your homework (and your teacher not noticing) because you didn't do it
19: hamster's first encounter with a computer, and he helps you write your essay
20: finding part of a story you wrote on a mini legal pad on a work break over a month ago
21: a Luna bar before first period
22: snails coming out in the rain
23: finding out Reed College allows caged animals and has an interdisciplinary neuroscience-based major
24: the large group humanities presentation on medieval music and hearing Gregorian chants
25: meeting with Mr. Nieves to talk about Case Western Reserve University
26: the regional middle and high school band and orchestra playing at the grand opening of a strip mall
27: the Great British Baking Show
28: the satisfaction of cussing out another driver while they're fully aware of it
29: "Kyrie Eleison" from Dan Gibson's Solitudes
30: the mini-fire of contact (and when she tells you not to break it)

August

1: getting static-shocked by lightning
2: when your manager says "drive-thru doesn't make tips" and then people DELIBERATELY give you tips
3: replacing the zip ties on the bin cage with bolts
4: watching Twilight for the first time in a few years (and still disliking it)
5: online shopping
6: Inside Out
7: stopping on the bike home for Powerade and then walking the rest of the way
8: "I'm not hitting on you, but..."
9: sitting in the back of the car to get good WiFi (outside)
10: Jack Johnson's Curious George soundtrack
11: busting a cap in Minecraft zombies
12: my very own Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ200
13: back-to-school backpack shopping
14: when your mom gets you a random book and the main character has a hamster
15: when the day's tips amount perfectly to buy a commemorative "last supper"
16: listening to and practicing the Pep Band songs
17: trial-and-error learning and experimenting with manual exposure controls
18: Atheist ranters on YouTube
19: 10th & 6th on SFEW
20: walking up with the sixth graders to convocation
21: raw and expressive student musical groups
22: dancin' the night away
23: song inspiration from newly-discovered guitar chords
24: "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"
25: God is an Astronaut's All is Violent, All is Bright
26: Fairport Convention's "Tam Lin"
27: when your legs work again
28: asking a favorite teacher for a college recommendation
29: packing a snack lunch for halftime
30: chugging through on a Sunday to get the homework done
31: first time at Roots Music Club