May

1: him noticing and decoding (and losing it over) my mannerisms
2: working on and recording our presentation together
3: improv parody song lyrics with my parents
4: playing Team Fortress 2 for the first time
5: napping between Zoom calls
6: vegan cheese wheel with bread
7: answering a question from the Q&A
8: bingeing It's Me or the Dog clips
9: flying crows silhouetted against a painted sunset sky
10: a quarantine-themed Mother's Day ecard
11: staying up til 5, sleeping in til 2
12: his cute face in a vulnerable moment
13: meeting up in person
14: Cosmonauts on repeat
15: cloud-gazing
16: Zoom hangout with some old college pals
17: parody videos of political debates
18: really embracing the Virgin vs Chad meme
19: former professors attending my thesis Q&A (and hearkening back to past classes I had with them)
20: grassland cactus jungle
21: cotton swirling in the evening light of the bosque
22: taste testing cake pops
23: texting with peeps on my birthday
24: the perfect joke about a shitty situation making me laugh
25: finishing the I Wish You All the Best audiobook
26: a walk together through the desert
27: people- (and dog-) watching in the park
28: midday snuggle sesh
29: Lies We Tell Ourselves
30: his sleepy, bedheaded focus
31: return to Mt. Taylor

April

1: getting bamboozled by a winding trail that I didn't realize looped back on itself
2: the kind of intensely intimidating guy being surprisingly approachable and nice to talk to
3: "Chasing Light"
4: coyote-spotting
5: the full range of crush craziness (dreams, teasing texts, mad butterflies, an hours-long video chat)
6: Dad unscientifically milking his tea and creating the effect of "a lava lamp in a cup"
7: actually completing a homework assignment with minimal procrastination during these highly-unmotivated times
8: metacognitive discussions (about vat-brains)
9: black lentil Everyday Dal
10: quoting and tagging each other in tweets in real time
11: a happy foot-shuffle when he says 'my dear'
12: entertaining my family with some dating-app drama
13: unexpected snow
14: chatting with my host dad (and seeing my host dog again ❤)
15: learning what parts of the brain are responsible for pattern recognition (and freaking out when a pattern is broken)
16: star patterns in tiny fruits
17: the juxtaposition of political discussion with cringey pickup lines
18: running through the beach sand for a hot minute
19: sharing music we like and music we've made
20: pushing myself to make progress on my thesis (even though I was up until 3 am)
21: riding a familiar route backwards and feeling like I'm on a totally new one
22: prepulse inhibition for the nervous freakout response
23: getting HyPeD about old 99L tracks
24: the sass, the suave, and the sweet
25: getting a shoutout from 99L on the livestream
26: a video-call date ("weird, but nice")
27: little bug hitching a ride on my arm for the first leg of my trip
28: spooky marimba
29: staring and smiling at each other instead of playing Words with Friends
30: making graphs in Excel for my group project

March

1: putting up glow-in-the-dark stars together
2: my brother's high ravings about animals
3: first post-grad job* offer
4: smoothie vs. tornado vs. ballet (a very random ASL video lesson with Bill Vicars)
5: slaying a phone interview
6: a friend over for dinner
7: a 4-year-old saying that when she's 20 she'll go to PTA meetings
8: going to a community meeting about a proposed tiny house village
9: April weather in March
10: "Hairy Legs"
11: laughing my ass off at Family Guy (I needed that kind of dumb and funny content)
12: reconnecting with an old friend in light of the COVID-19 college evacuations
13: airport sushi
14: Superstore (while coloring)
15: "Butterfly Effect"
16: songs ("One Line Wonder") and movies (Say Anything) hitting real personal
17: carrying my bike over my shoulder and toeing my way through private-property wild desert to avoid some wackos dragging a mattress behind their car and riding on it
18: a seven-rune runecast
19: catharsis through poem and song
20: hearing that, when my cousin tried to come out to my grandma, she accidentally linked her to a video about toenail fungus
21: carrying a stack of wood secured with neckties back from the desert on my bike
22: sawing and hammering some shit
23: Tuca & Bertie
24: old places/landmarks and new ones out in Narnia
25: a book of poems by Alice Walker
26: messaging strangers in internet chatrooms (covering the full scope)
27: shower dance parties
28: finally coming down from a shitty anxiety day
29: "quarantine cuts" family picture
30: swiping through dating apps
31: webcam class meeting

February

1: sink goblin in Johnson
2: the grueling sleepless day of travel to San Fran
3: Sacramento (the little bit we got to visit, anyway)
4: walking the skyscraper-corridored streets of San Francisco
5: when someone describes a position and it is pretty much, word for word, my dream job
6: pomegranate jalapeño shrub
7: the soothing, meditative aura of the ocean exhibits and ambient music (at Monterey Bay Aquarium)
8: uncovering a positive side to my sociality
9: playing with a dilapidated soccer ball at the dog park
10: building a pipe-cleaner structure in the lab (the Brain Architecture game)
11: "Break in the Clouds"
12: an adapted version of musical chairs promoting collaboration over competition
13: "Hero" by Rameses B ft. Irosa
14: a sweet little Valentine's letter from my boy
15: the domesticity of grocery shopping together
16: riding my bike in the snow
17: brain examination & dissection
18: stealing his turtleneck to cover up the hickey he gave me
19: coloring book of the brain
20: finesse with a cereal box tattoo
21: our hands taped together around a beverage (so I can't slither away and hide in a corner)
22: my boss bringing me a vegan muffin
23: homework break at the Snow Bowl ski lodge
24: holding a human brain stem (why does it look so damn cool?)
25: stumbling upon some silly George Harrison music videos
26: writing a song for my sproot and singing it to him
27: Melody Gardot radio on Pandora
28: the candy olympics (Friday-night insanity with 12- and 13-year olds)
29: Clover's blue-dyed tail looking like a peacock's

January

1: the changing landscape as we chug through northern New Mexico
2: chatting with my seatmate
3: making good on our vegan pizza and ice cream outing
4: street musicians and bubble blowers in Washington Square Park
5: blue-purple clouds and tangerine-pink sunset sky over a landscape of snow-covered trees
6: making sick beats on my first day
7: (a return to) sweating it out in the gym
8: patching together bits from other songs' drum lines as inspiration
9: a dinner date...
10: some morning cuddles with the doge
11: getting a couple books from the withdrawn cart
12: a lil goodbye kiss outside Ross
13: Q&A movie night (Call Me by Your Name)
14: "Qu'est-ce que tu fait, monsieur?" "Je pense de toi"
15: befriending his friends
16: making (vegan paleo) pancakes together on a snowy morning
17: lunch with the trek group's two other vegans
18: utterly losing myself after 10 mg of edibles
19: homemade peppermint hot chocolate after a long walk in the snow
20: the crew video-chatting me to include me in the reunion
21: Key & Peele skits
22: a mandatory lecture as an excuse to go inside the new building for the first time
23: happy gender confusion (the drag show)
24: staving off starvation with a pack of fruit snacks
25: vulnerabilities after dark (even the most painful ones)
26: weird get-to-know-you questions
27: mint tea with agave
28: return to Chewing Gum
29: some sweet Bojack stickers
30: pizza party hangout as we listen to a mix of everyone's songs
31: kidnapping* (babysitting) a dorm neighbor's dog for a spell

December

1: a story about a teenage girl DJ (with all the regular high school angst of your standard YA novel)
2: working together on our time capsule
3: a group-discussion interview
4: going to open mic night to see a classmate (and others) perform
5: cena de celebración and roasting peeps (including each other and our prof)
6: Billie Eilish - when the party's over
7: when scrolling through the plethora of comedy subgenres on Netflix is more entertaining than the movie we finally ended up watching
8: casually starting~ Swahili lessons on Duolingo even though *i HaVe FiNaLs PeOpLe WhAt Am I dOiNg*
9: working together on our time capsule, pt. II: staking out a booth in Wilson & setting up our display
10: exchanging 2019 top songs mixes
11: screen-recording clips from my favest movie evah to use for a video essay
12: "Shame" by the Avett Brothers
13: browsing the Main Street shops for gifts
14: braiding bi flag-colored ribbons (blue, purple, & pink)
15: laughing with my friend's grandma at a garbage Hallmark movie
16: eating together at a vegan diner in Brooklyn
17: successfully falling asleep on the train
18: walking with my brother around the mostly-deserted UNM campus
19: erryting is erryting (memories of learning Jamaican Patois with my friend)
20: lunch (@ Cheba Hut, a.k.a. stoner subs) with my brother's friends
21: rating best, worst, fave and least fave Schoolhouse Rock multiplication songs
22: sippin' that tea together (literally and figuratively)
23: listening to an audiobook on hair dyeing day
24: an entire day of taste-testing and eating homecooked delicacies
25: How to Stop Time
26: braiding Kwanzaa-color yarn into my hair
27: getting my brother a new dashiki
28: adding some new artists to the holiday playlist (Chronixx & Lizzo)
29: the new (2018) Grinch movie
30: Green Eggs and Ham joking on vegans
31: walking to the duck pond with my brother and his friend

November

1: Storming the Wall (reading about border protection and climate change)
2: the surreal cycle of drifting into a dream state then "waking" back into the present
3: pulling my post-shower corkscrew curls into a little top ponytail
4: my classmates' funny PSA skits
5: "Petrified" by DROELOE capturing my current state
6: "a nice long heart-to-heart chat"
7: this text exchange: "First snow! ❄😊" - "💙 it's beautiful"
8: watching a middle-aged golden retriever chase a ball and flop for a belly rub in the snow-covered grass
9: hoarding leftover food from an unattended event #freegan
10: the new Green Eggs and Ham Netflix original as a decent distraction from homework and toxic thought spirals
11: desahogándome with a friend (and sad-laughing about shared shitty experiences)
12: the lit club reading, discussing, and seemingly enjoying a short story I suggested
13: a little gurgling stream in the midst of snow-covered cattails
14: playing Overcooked with the Xenia squad and laughing until my stomach hurts
15: nostalgia from listening to the Traveling Wilburys
16: "getting wasted" & watching Bojack Horseman
17: watching Avatar: The Legend of Korra over Sunday Night Dinner
18: pumping myself up with some sick new Stonebank
19: "Loneliness" by Kurzgesagt
20: revamping The Misfits (i.e., channeling life events into a new story adapted from previously-written characters)
21: a window in the shower stall to look out over Battell Beach from the fifth floor
22: laughing and talking with (mostly new, some familiar) people at gayme night
23: Once Upon a Goat
24: the haunting transcendence of "Videotape" slowed down 800%
25: embracing the unprecedentedly warm weather and walking around outside the library, stumbling upon the Garden of the Seasons mini-sculpture/labyrinth park
26: social networking (i.e., my aunt) potentially getting me a leg up for a job application
27: commiserating, catching up, reminiscing, and road-trip planning with my bestie
28: hella nostalgic yet timeless vibes of "You Won't See Me"
29: the Q&A community supper
30: blog posts and other online resources answering the question "how to know if you're ready to start dating"