February

1: thick snowflakes drifting down in the forest
2: celebrating Imbolc down in Base 3 (a.k.a. the room with the most lights I know of/have access to)
3: my five-year anniversary video recording of "No One Special"
4: a kids' novel about escape from reality and making a rundown place magical
5: the secluded niche of the dispatch room
6: scoping out the locations of my classrooms for spring semester
7: tossing foam cubes with some little kids over the circulation desk
8: Romeo and Juliet choose your own adventure
9: waking up to see the fuzz of snow blowing past the windows
10: a time-travel story of love transcendent
11: jotting down a tidbit on a blank receipt scroll
12: gathering up books for the new semester
13: a warm welcome into the theater design & production course
14: seeing "send Mom valentine" written in pen on a guy's hand
15: unscrewing bolts and removing rails from the theater balcony
16: games to simulate systems in my environmental science lab
17: Endangered Species dark chocolate with cranberries and almonds
18: a comedy satirizing Socrates
19: interpreting alongside the performers
20: finding belated anti-valentines from my friend in my mailbox
21: swarf and the smell of burning steel
22: a little girl grabbing my hand (by the pinkie) to lead me to and show me something
23: standing in line with a friend and laughing and talking smack about random things
24: a girl actually asking me, "Can we be friends?"
25: derp-face Waldo
26: the ruins of Otter Creek
27: book talk over breakfast
28: surprising my teacher by knowing the name of a tool before he introduces it to me

January

1: OCD Love Story
2: spontaneous revision-writing inspiration
3: the coexistence of hilarity and poignancy in BoJack Horseman
4: a mold of my teeth... in sparkly blue
5: drinking tea through a straw
6: beating Dad at the unbeatable Dad game
7: the whole family working together on a puzzle
8: soft 'n' chewy vegan choco chip cookies
9: "My Life in a Stolen Moment"
10: President Obama's farewell speech
11: first time on skis
12: the beautiful little song one girl sang after her sexual assault
13: "Bon Voyage" by DROELOE
14: a spooky psychological thriller that reveals the terrifying delusions of schizophrenia
15: chai and Cheerios for breakfast
16: music identification on a test
17: eating a Taco Tuesday lunch in Proctor
18: managing to stay on my feet through a turn at the bottom of a hill
19: looking out over the frozen pond behind the arts center
20: finally being able to understand all the Back to the Future references in Family Guy
21: Microbe et Gasoil
22: a French rom-com about two people dating while never once seeing each other
23: finding out a close acquaintance recently went vegan
24: crystalline trees
25: zooming down the Sugardrop Falls run (and not falling!)
26: sitting with an acquaintance at dinner and sharing some laughs
27: analyzing the differences between Bob Dylan's "Maggie's Farm" and RATM's cover
28: lunchtime chat with my supervisor about my tiny house
29: first time hearing songs from Love and Theft
30: my new ukulele
31: silent dinner

December

1: when your shirt inexplicably smells like cookies
2: Middlebury fall dance concert
3: nitpicky alphabetizing the shelves in the children's section
4: jackpot of finding a (valid one day only) video upload of Hamilton
5: short conversation with a stranger sparked from an inquiry about what I was writing in my journal
6: that flutter in your chest when you run into someone about whom you dreamed the night before
7: when John and Yoko are referenced in your psychology textbook
8: when two people who have only communicated through sign hear each other's voices for the first time
9: finishing up two of the semester's four classes
10: meeting with other sign language learners at a deaf coffee social
11: a short and sweet kids' novel as a reprieve from finals work
12: tea with your suitemate
13: bartering textbooks for Christmas gifts at the school bookstore
14: filming an ASL song interpretation with the club
15: channeling my loneliness and yearning into creative writing
16: banter and chat with my work family
17: the possibilities of shipping containers
18: chocolate and Netflix for dinner
19: being in-transit home
20: Patch's back-home bath and spa day
21: family viewing of It's a Wonderful Life at the theater
22: my brother's genuine interest in helping me build my tiny home
23: choral Christmas tunes on the radio
24: dismantling the rundown playhouse and salvaging some wood
25: Christmas Lego and gingerbread construction
26: a nature show about penguins
27: a YA novel about parallel universes
28: an afternoon of board games
29: the camaraderie between a friend and your family
30: pallet adventures in the broken-down car
31: low-key home-alone cider-and-Netflix New Year's Eve

November

1: putting together & listening to different playlists on Spotify
2: when your family sends you a flashdrive with a playlist of songs played at a concert you couldn't attend
3: constructing a memory palace to remember the molecular intermediates in cellular respiration
4: elders reacting to modern slang
5: leaves suspended, as if frozen, in the still night air
6: Breaking Bad as a conversation starter
7: getting into a steady rhythm at the lab bench
8: commiserating with classmates about election anxiety
9: a chubby lil squirrel eating stolen food on top of a garbage can
10: finding the practice rooms
11: Middlebury College fall orchestra concert
12: looking at land on Craigslist during work
13: stopping at the corner café on a day trip to Rutland with Mom
14: "Landing Cliffs" by Explosions in the Sky
15: after hours in the laboratory
16: when you're reminiscing about old times with a friend and your friend spontaneously texts you
17: wandering the labyrinth of halls in the dorm
18: sneaking into a classroom and sitting at the professor's desk to do homework
19: lying in the grass and enjoying the last of the sun's warmth before winter
20: finding out one of your favorite books is being made into a movie
21: first New England snow
22: airport dinner of an über-spicy savory crêpe
23: trekking through the muddy woods with rambunctious cat 'n' dog hiking pals in tow
24: contributing to my first vegan Thanksgiving feast
25: going out to see a small local theater company production of A Christmas Carol
26: riding a unicycle with the innovative help of ski poles
27: that state of being asleep where you can still hear the music/radio that's playing but it's still a challenge to fully wake up
28: breath freezing in the sunshine
29: updates about the family pets I visited this Thanksgiving
30: learning about personality psychology

October

1: analyzing how my college stories compare to my actual college life
2: first day on the work-study job
3: figure-out-the-family-tree game at ASL club
4: care package of vegan goodies
5: "chatting" at the language table
6: when a classmate gets excited about and praises a mythological description as a metaphor in a poem
7: tattooing myself with the library due date stamp
8: chillin' in PJs and eatin' snack food while doing homework
9: the busy-work of withdrawing DVDs from the library collection
10: fall valley views from the top of the science building
11: the absolute soothing calm of Gregory Alan Isakov
12: lying in the shade of a solar panel
13: strolling through a light drizzle while everyone else ducks under umbrellas & races for cover
14: listening to the full Hamilton soundtrack for the first time
15: being an NYC tourist & crossing things off my bucket list
16: museum tour in ASL
17: tossing crumbs to the birds in Central Park
18: the homey-ness of putting a rug in your dorm room
19: a clicker-training game in psych class
20: a command from a teacher to participate in class in the form of a compliment about my fluency
21: speeding through writing an essay
22: a fellow Hamilton fan telling me about the PBS documentary
23: seeing snow on the mountain after a day of freezing rain
24: casting my first ever vote
25: reading while walking around campus, standing in line, eating, & waiting for class to start
26: when the dining hall cook especially makes vegan pancakes for you
27: a trilingual conversation buddy
28: initiating bike hibernation
29: bustling around the children's room in the library
30: a contemplative walk through the cemetery the day before Halloween
31: the aroma of green tea

September

1: "Join our fight for what's right / Let your heart be your guide" lyric from "Hero" by Pegboard Nerds feat. Elizaveta
2: packing up for college
3: wind turbines in west Texas
4: highway drive-by the St. Louis arch at 4 a.m.
5: unpacking and decorating my dorm room
6: crazy, hectic, ice-breaker square-dancing
7: gray walls, black roofs, and an indigo sky with stars overhead
8: finding common interests with acquaintances and strangers
9: behind-the-scenes tours and info about different renewable energy sources
10: harvesting potatoes
11: first call back home
12: the mesmerizing tumble of clothes in a dryer
13: epiphanies about your major and path of study while doing homework
14: the fleet of movable library shelves
15: curried quinoa with cauliflower
16: free Friday night movie: Finding Dory
17: piercing the bubble of the college dome and biking off-campus
18: obsession with new-to-me Tristam songs
19: checking out the ASL club
20: class dinner with the faculty heads of our commons
21: Balmorhea to do homework by
22: sending a picture of a tiny potato to my dad for his birthday
23: a beautifully mesmerizing tapestry
24: when my spirits lift from dejection into blissful giddiness upon entering a co-op
25: biking and walking the through-the-woods TAM
26: watching a group of people sign and trying to decipher their conversation
27: cranberry anadama bread
28: an unexpected invitation to hang out from an acquaintance
29: ordering food in ASL
30: "Trust in Me" by Direct, Mr FijiWiji, & Holly Drummond

August

1: baking vegan cheezy crackers
2: stories brewing in my head while storms are brewing in the sky
3: a failed attempt at solar cooking vegan cornbread (but an attempt nonetheless)
4: chilling in the garage to reread an old corny favorite novel
5: enjoying dinner and hanging out with a best friend
6: the premiere of Dimension
7: fancy all-cast farewell dinner
8: finally reading Pride and Prejudice ten years after being introduced to the movie
9: sharing sushi in Uptown
10: reverence for old favorites
11: inspiration after more than a year of writer's block
12: the banter between Beatrice and Benedick
13: the simple love between a boy and his robot
14: experimenting with long exposure night shots
15: playing with action figures in a tiny tiny house
16: when you feel so heartbroken for a character you shed a tear onto the page of your book
17: the Masterpiece and BBC mini-series production of Jane Eyre
18: throwback to the first Maná song I ever heard
19: inscribing Sharpie rune tattoos on my skin
20: some new Bad Lip Readings
21: Shakespeare Retold's Much Ado About Nothing
22: being able to read long passages of a Spanish novel without a dictionary
23: dancing and bopping to "Adventure Time" by Rogue
24: an evening ramble around the neighborhood
25: finishing De amor y de sombra
26: the hardcore insults in BBC's Pride and Prejudice
27: tea and a British mini-series
28: Black or White
29: the simple focus and meticulosity of sewing
30: the heartfelt resolution of Persuasion
31: when your mom hears a band for the first time and guesses their hairstyles without ever having seen them