For
2018 the theme was #THINKBIG. After last year’s many goals and many years of completing goals, I wanted to go for bigger
things but fewer things. In the end, I
think it was just as much work, which wasn’t really what I was going for. Turns out, when one has their mood disorder
well controlled and treated, one sleeps like a normal human and doesn’t have
the same amount of free time one used to.
If you want to see what I’ve done in years past click here. If you’re the TLDR type: This year I did a
mountain Traverse, went to Hogwarts, stayed in an Ice Hotel, visited New
Zealand, began the process for Kidney Donation, went Backpacking, attended
films at an Independent Film Festival, and studied Graphic Design.
Traverse
My
plan had been to complete the Presidential Traverse, however because I got
wicked sick during the month I had planned to complete the hike and it snows in
September up on Mount Washington, I had to make another arrangement. I was so pissed, but the Presidential
Traverse shall be mine some day! My
other arrangement was to traverse the Squam range—Mt. Squam, E. Doublehead, Mt.
Percival, Mt. Morgan, Mt. Webster, Mt. Livermore, and Cotton Mtn. I grew up with the Squam range out my bedroom
window and one of the peaks, Mt. Morgan, remains one of my favorite hikes. Despite these facts I had never hiked three
of those peaks. It was fall in New
England. It was a gorgeous day. On the way up my Mom wanted me to stop by and
she gave me some trail mix, some flowers, and a container previously filled
with brie cheese which she had filled of the ashes of two dear friends and
their three dogs. My mom is…a subject
previously expounded upon. I spread the
ashes on a mountain top with a view of their home. I have no idea why my mom had the ashes of
their three Spaniels. There is a magical
satisfaction ascending up one end of a ridge and descending down the other 13
miles later.
Hogwarts
I
read all the Harry Potter books. I saw
all the Harry Potter movies. I’m one of
the people who have been quite moved by them and admire the world built. So one of my dearest friends and I flew down
to Florida for my 3rd ever trip to a theme park. We went in September when the park was
comparatively empty and thank god because it was still my max people tolerance. We ducked behind the wall and walked into
Diagon Alley. We got wands at
Ollivander’s and had butter beer and saw the fire-breathing dragon and rode the
Hogwarts Express to Hogsmead and the castle.
We got to peak into Knockturn Alley and cast spells to make it rain,
move objects, and get things to sing. I
get motion sickness severely, so I only did the Escape from Gringott’s ride,
which was a blast and had no line. Even
without doing the ride in the castle, we got to walk in and tour it, see the sorting
hat, etc. etc. Tremendous to have had an
opportunity to steep oneself in the environment so stunningly imagined. It was truly enchanting and I am so grateful
that I got to experience with a friend who was just as excited as I was, what a
drag it would have been to go with a wet blanket.
Ice Hotel
Ok,
so I had heard about this place in Montreal for years. Every year, they build a functioning hotel
made entirely out of ice and snow and theme it differently. It happened to be the weekend of my boyfriend’s
birthday and our six month anniversary.
D’awww. The place is amazing and
we went tubing. I hadn’t been sledding
since 1st grade when I had an incredibly bad crash and lost all the
skin on the left side of my face. There
were outside hot tubs and an inside locker to put our things in and indoor
toilets… which was actually bothersome because it meant walking across the cold
between the ice hotel and the main hotel.
Walking in through the doors, everything is ice. The seats, the walls, the chandelier, the
bar, the walkways, the ceiling are all ice or snow and many of them have
decorative carvings. The ice is shiny
and wet and smooth. The snow is compact
and granular and matte. There are
endless textures in an encompassing enclosure of white, blue, and gray. They have loose, coarse snow on the group so
one can walk without skating along. The
staff came around at night and left us a -30 rated sleeping bag and a -40 rated
sleeping bag. We did some ice carving
and had drinks in the bar… which came in glasses made of ice. There was a slide. The theme for the year was the circus. Before bed we went in the hot tubs and took
the pro-tip from a staff member to leave our towels in the sauna so they would
stay warm. What a brilliant woman she
was. The bed platform was ice with a pad
on top of it and the light in the room comes from a light build under the bed
platform so that the ice diffused and projected the light. We ended up almost being too warm during the night and when we woke up it was gentle snowing
threw the vent hole in our room.
Surreal.
New
Zealand
I
had two friends move to New Zealand, so I figured it was a good time to
visit. On the plane we crossed the International Date
Line and failed to live Thanksgiving Day 2018.
We were greeted by sunshine and spring in Auckland. Rose gardens, lunch in the southern
hemisphere’s tallest building’s rotating restaurant, a tea planation, glow
worms, the best day of my life, black swans and black sand beaches, sea shells
upon seashells, my friends, an octopus in the wild. For the
first time, I have an answer to what has been the best day of my life so
far: Lazily waking up in a bedroom
across from the beach, face to face with a man I love. Laughing with an old friend while having
cookies and crumpets for breakfast (I became addicted to Squiggles). Driving inland with my boyfriend to have high
tea at the Zealong Tea Estate where we got to drink tea while watching people
harvest the leaves and have a lovely high tea food spread. Returning home to relax, nap, snuggle,
etc. Heading out to pick up picnic
supplies at the grocery store and going to McClaren Falls Park to have a picnic
with friends. Exploring the rocks in the
falls. There’s a sunset and birds and a
family of black swans while we eat together, laughing hysterically at the birds
desperately seeking people food.
Chatting until dark and then heading up a wooded trail next to a
brook. Chartreuse dots begin to appear
on the ground cover and up the exposed walls of dirt on the right side of the
trail. Then an entire swath of luminous
polka dots at eye level spellbind us all.
The speckles of the glowworms continue to lead us up the path, at times just
small spots in the dark and other times jacketing the banks of the trail. At the terminus, a waterfall splattering in
the darkness and we just listen to it for a while. Soft drive home, after reliving the glowworms
on the path back to the car. Climbing
into bed and his right arm goes around me, my left around him, our foreheads
together, my left leg between his legs… sleep.
Kidney
Donation
Backpacking
This
task also took a bit of a tumble after my illness and some fallen plans with
friends. I ended up having to pinch hit
and go out and camp by myself down in Cape Cod at a beautiful place… where it
was then so late in the season that I couldn’t warm my feet up and my tent
stakes wouldn’t stay in the sand, so I couldn’t keep the wind out of the tent
because the fly wouldn’t stay extended.
During the night, I decided to pack it in. Even with my -30 sleeping bag in 40 degree
weather, I just couldn’t warm up my toes and was an adult.
Independent
Film Festival
A
friend and I got to see some films at the Boston IFF. The highlight was a documentary about matchmaking
HIV+ patients in India, Lovesick, and
a Q&A with the directors afterwards.
I do not have the attention and stamina to consume media in a film
festival format.
Graphic
Design
I
wanted to study graphic design when I did a college summer program in high
school, but they stopped offering it that year and I ended up in metalsmithing
instead, which lead me down a great path.
Still, I’ve always sparked to design and using art to spice up messages
and words. So I completed the graphic
design specialization California Institute of Arts offers through the Massive
Online Open Course (MOOC) provider Coursera.
I had actually missed the tedium of art homework. I took a whole course on typography and I
learned where the terms “uppercase” and “lowercase” come from. I love that shit. I got to learn how to use Illustrator and
InDesign all by myself and the internet which was an adventure. I got to mock up a company development guide
(logo, typography, labels, color palettes, etc.) for a business selling honey
and custom designed spoons… Can you believe how vapid the world would be if we
removed the art from our visual communication forms? Yeah, I’m the person who gets titillated when
books have blurbs about the typography and font they selected for the text. This is Book Antiqua, in case you were
wondering. I got to make a logo for my dream job.
And now it's halfway through 2019. Who knows what's next.💖
