November

1: the permeating smell of green chile as the 18-lb bag continues roasting in the trunk
2: The Danish Girl
3: shucking, chopping, & bagging the green chile
4: when he comes early to pick me up from work and I get to eat with him once I'm off my shift
5: being called in as a translator
6: the Pixel 4a
7: eating pizza while driving
8: a walk & new-phone-camera photoshoot
9: membership cards
10: hitting up a vegan-friendly restaurant thanks to my bf's coworker
11: The End of the F***king World
12: him making me a lavender seltzer drink
13: tap-to-pay with my phone
14: the vadai taco
15: a fresh-haircut-and-waffles kind of Sunday
16: playing Borderlands 3 together
17: him raving over me wearing glasses
18: Avenue 5
19: sambhar, lunch & dinner
20: PicsArt edits on photos of my cutie
21: my coworker getting bean'd by another coworker
22: a few minutes inside a mansion in downtown ABQ
23: tea & soup
24: adventures at the laundromat
25: wandering into the exurban wastes
26: replicating my mom's cranberry sauce recipe
27: Rick & Morty Season 4
28: the development of side characters in Lovecraft Country
29: learning cool science shit through Reddit memes
30: extra butter* and garlic salt on my mashed 'tatties

October

 1: uncovering itty bitty animal friends
2: rocking on lawn chairs in the sun
3: journaling to hold me down amidst the craziness
4: "God's Country" and its sequels
5: (panicked) squat-walking around in the crawlspace
6: fucking around with what are basically giant rolls of saran wrap
7: going home early and napping the rest of the day
8: hearing his coworkers roast the 'stache over video call
9: Odd Man Out
10: dry sarcasm over shitty products
11: having some Netflix downloaded for the plane rides
12: kitchen supplies for the new apartment
13: a man passing us in Walmart & responding to Orynn's hoodie with "we're all cuddle sluts"
14: a comedic near-walk-in
15: walking through a nice little commercial district with the sweet smell from the General Mills factory wafting through the air
16: going out to the restaurant he works in and meeting all his coworkers
17: getting the chef's special as my on-shift meal
18: him teaching me how to shoot
19: him making each of us our respective teas
20: watching sovereign citizen compilations
21: a Philly cheese steak-style sub with mushrooms & vegan mozz
22: countin' dat coin (lit'rally)
23: getting in good with the cooks just by speaking a little Spanish
24: an Albuquerque Breakfast tea latte
25: assembling some cube shelving
26: a night walk through the snow (to the store)
27: green chile stew for a cold day
28: a vegan version of a Milky Way
29: popping into a Zoom chat to see the old gang
30: people being pleasant, polite, & patient despite the hectic disordered rush
31: James & the Giant Peach as our spooky movie pick

September

 1: the contrast of white baseboards against cream walls
2: teaming up with a stranger in Rocket League and playing some matches together
3: crouching inside the closet to help install the doors
4: snuggling in the backseat on the car ride back from the airport
5: finally checking out the vegan restaurant I drive by every day on the way to work
6: Sunday brunch at a local hipster eatery
7: him snuggled in the blankets & napping in my bed
8: little lizard outside on the windowsill
9: wrangling the hammer drill
10: cooking our separate dinners (staggered for the time difference) over video chat
11: when the dust finally settles
12: biking to midtown
13: bf video-calling me from work for a short bit
14: surviving a mini breakdown during one of our first solo pickup trips
15: jewel-like caterpillar eggs
16: the satisfaction of hammering nails
17: two remixes of the same song with very different vibes (1, 2)
18: sneaking in a drive around uptown
19: Portal 2, 2-player
20: out apple-pickin' with the gang
21: listening to Jubilee middle ground discussions while touch-up painting
22: virtual meetings eating up most of the work day
23: the sheer force of the pressure washer
24: installing a railing for the porch steps
25: getting adopted by our partner work team for a day
26: the increase in confidence and competence over the course of my first day
27: bustling around between people-watching
28: hot lunch thanks to a thermos
29: watching the debate livestream together
30: a rant/discussion about Helen Keller

August

1: Bonza
2: shoe painting
3: learning about the ship the album Mignonette was named after
4: piggyback through the bosque
5: peachy sunrise, orange midnight moon
6: already recognizing some new places thanks to Google street view
7: driving tour of Charlotte with my roommates
8: games and chatting with some people in my hall
9: playing a space shooter video game while it storms outside
10: watching workplace safety videos and wishing they were the JonTron parody
11: biking down a tree-lined street toward uptown
12: visiting other Habitat builds in the city
13: putting up posters he sent me
14: hammering up in the attic we built
15: him taking me along virtually on his commute to work
16: meal prepping for the week
17: busting into the boarded-up house next door (and immediately reinstalling the locks)
18: installing cabinets
19: settling for "good enough" on nitpicky adjustments
20: the fact that the caulking gun has a hook that perfectly fits ladder rungs (very helpful while up on the ladder)
21: glovin' up for tub scrubbin'
22: trying out chairs at the ReStore (or, "Sweet Seats" irl)
23: 100 Humans
24: putting in new doors
25: random and slightly creepy findings among the things left behind in the abandoned house
26: finding lined-paper pages of an unknown person's novel
27: getting into the deep existential discussions with my work teammate
28: jamming to Akrasia while rolling some fresh paint on the walls
29: new desk setup
30: black bean sweet potato chili
31: talking about my options

July

1: discovering the "meat store" is also a little hole-in-the-wall natural grocery
2: digging down to the lava and corruption layers
3: family Hamilton streaming
4: biking back after sundown surrounded by boom-pop-crackles, sparkle-flashes, and gunpowder scent
5: throwing down that random bean & rice dish a second time
6: pedaling along the highway at night
7: taking on the illagers with an army of wolves
8: cringey Disney binge
9: his soft spot for the dogs (and their soft spot for him)
10: steel-toed boots
11: playing Minecraft side by side (just like the old days)
12: a hike around the crest
13: talking about how dinosaur reconstructions from fossils are likely wildly inaccurate to what they actually looked like
14: Cloud Atlas
15: hanging our heads out the window on a stormy summer afternoon
16: Island Saver
17: watching movies while he sleeps next to me
18: the dogs (sensing my anxiety?) huddling near me
19: dad and bro coming to help when my car got fucked up
20: accompanying Dad to the auto parts store
21: scrolling through subreddits
22: undone
23: gaining the dogs' trust bean by bean
24: fucking up on a truck driving simulator
25: bike tinkering with the help of fix-it videos
26: "cheating" with a premade sauce
27: my nut-allergic brother sharing some chili pistachios
28: clambering over rocks in Embudito Canyon
29: hiking Black Volcano and looking over the city (and the place we first hiked together)
30: accompanying him to his favorite joint (Whataburger)
31: climbing up the foothill boulders and getting buffeted by the wind

June

1: drifting off during evening rain
2: discovering some DROELOE in his Spotify likes
3: him coming over to meet (and make dinner for) the fam
4: his fresh haircut
5: eating a meal he made while watching a movie
6: bingeing Big Mouth
7: Cities: Skylines
8: dinner on the (restaurant) patio
9: new frontiers re: colors my hair has been
10: crossing the desert grassland and reaching a new suburb at the edge of the city
11: making vegan gumbo
12: strolling hand-in-hand through the bosque
13: views from the south South Sandia Peak (check out the blog post here!)
14: reminiscing with a crewmate about our summer on trail
15: What We Left Behind
16: a new EP from CloudNone
17: Creativerse, a knockoff Minecraft
18: cleanshaven baby face
19: thought-tangenting off the "if a tree falls in the forest" question to speculations about the nature of reality
20: life in a sandbox survival game
21: the visually lyrical and strangely riveting performance art opera of Akhnaten
22: him recreating a dish from a restaurant he worked at
23: watching Love, Victor with my mom
24: dozing off in each other's arms
25: sneaking into and peeking in on a house under construction
26: Morningstar veggitizers
27: making a Sim
28: his mom telling me about her family
29: contemplative drives (& bike ride)
30: bingeing Rocky Kanaka videos

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