My Favorites of 2019

Here are some pictures of my year. From left to right: 1)At the forts in San Juan, Puerto Rico on my first solo trip, 2)On a weekend trip to the mountains with friends in El Salvador, 3) My final group picture in El Salvador for trivia/Trojie awards, 4) The view of Machu Picchu, 5) My cohort in my grad school program, 6) My mom and I after goat yoga in California. 

This year brought about a lot of change and many firsts. This year I started therapy for the first time. For intake, a question asked if I had experienced any recent, major life changes. It was hard not to laugh. In a span of two months, I had moved back to the United States after spending three years abroad, started grad school, and started a new job. With firsts, the year started off with a trip to Belize with my mom followed by my first ever solo trip to Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico, I got to see frequent favorite on this blog, Lin-Manuel Miranda perform as Hamilton in Hamilton. Other trips included going to Guatemala for a frisbee tournament, going to Machu Picchu with my parents, and two trips to California to visit my parents. My friend Jacob, from Taiwan, came to visit for a frisbee tournament and my friend Kristen also came to visit. When I moved back to the United States, I was able to enjoy experiences that were less accessible to me abroad. I got to see friends more frequently. I have also enjoyed being able to go to group exercise classes and swim at the Y. I have enjoyed being able to go to concerts and musicals again (so far I have seen Mean Girls, Rent, Six, Carly Rae Jepsen, Lizzo, Jonathan Van Ness, Lake Street Dive, Dear Hank and John). I joined my ukulele group again and got to see members who were still attending the jams after three years. This year also seemed to be a good hair year. I got quite a few compliments on my hair. I got not one, but two offers of people asking me if they could cut it off and make my hair into a wig. Only one of these people worked at a hair salon. Other firsts from this year include: learning to do embroidery, getting a pedicure, renting a car, buying something from a duty-free store, and bribing my way across a border. Here are some of my favorite things/things that brought me joy this year. 

Shrill

The representation of fat people in media is rather terrible. Fat characters are rarely given plotlines that are not about wanting to lose weight/being unhappy with their bodies. Shrill is very loosely based on the collection of essays by Lindy West. The show stars Aidy Bryant, who is so good!  The show had a diverse writer's room featuring actual fat people! Imagine that! There were moments I cried watching this show because I have thought/been told the same things as Annie. I then later rewatched it with two straight-sized friends. During the pilot a woman comes up to Annie and makes rude comments about her body and losing weight. My friends said, "who says things like that?" It happens all the time. Like all the time! It's nice to see fat representation done well so people can see how frequently fat people are treated so poorly.

Cake Plus-Size Resale

In one of the podcasts I listen to, She's All Fat, an ad came on for Cake Plus-Size Resale. This store is located in Minneapolis, so I decided to visit when I was home a couple of summers ago. I enjoy shopping for clothes, but many stores don't carry clothes that fit me or have a very limited selection of clothes that fit me. I have always enjoyed going to thrift stores. Cake is a thrift store that only carries plus sizes. I have found something that I both like and fits me well every time I have gone to the store. Even the signs in the dressing rooms make it very clear that it is a body-positive space. 

Libraries

Someone on Twitter asked how often people actually went to their library. I go at least once a week. I needed to checkout/read a lot of books for grad school. I was also just so excited to have access to a library with a wide selection of English books and have yet to get over the frenzy. There were a couple of times when the automatic check-out said I had to go to a person to check out my books. Each of the two times, I set it off because I had the maximum amount of books checked out, which is fifty books. Reader, both times the librarians overrode the limit. Libraries are the best.

Hot Ones

With both grad school and work school, my brain couldn't handle any type of video longer than 20 minutes. It also couldn't watch something that I had to think too hard about. My friend Jared introduced me to Hot Ones when I was living in El Salvador. The show on Youtube is usually right around thirty minutes. The host, Sean Evans, interviews celebrities while they eat progressively hotter wings. This year they interviewed some high profile guests like Kristen Bell, Nick Offerman, and Paul Rudd. I mostly enjoy this because Evans asks thoughtful questions and is a great interviewer. Paul Rudd in his episode even said he didn't think Evans needed the wings shtick because his questions were so thoughtful.

Bonus: Paul Rudd Viral Meme

I enjoy the whole Hot Ones episode with Paul Rudd, because Rudd is so charming. This meme from the episode went viral and at times I just watch it on repeat.

Revisiting Jagged Little Pill 

I was five when Jagged Little Pill came out, so I wasn't really aware of Alanis Morriset at that time. My musical tastes at that time were mostly listening to my cassette of Mary-Kate and Ashley songs. As an adult, I know songs from that album. In a scene from Booksmart (also on this list), some high school kids do karaoke to "You Oughta Know." It made me go back and listen to the song. Jagged Little Pill the musical also came out this year. So I've listened to both the original album and the songs from the Broadway cast. It's still good and relevant in 2019.

Joe/Making Memes of Joe

My friend Joe was upset when I left him out of my favorites of 2018 posts. In 2018, and 2019, I also watched hockey with Joe. He brought a lot of joy in my life also because he is a funny and thoughtful person. He also lends himself so well to use him to make memes.  Joe has a very expressive face and also has many catchphrases. I found great joy in making memes of Joe for just about every occasion. I've also enjoyed continuing to talk to Joe even with the distance.

Putting My Phone on Airplane Mode

I always put my phone on airplane mode when I go to sleep. This summer during grad school I spent all day in classes and in workshops. I got in the habit of putting my phone on airplane mode. I found it really nice not to worry about my phone or people trying to talk to me. Now, I will put my phone on airplane mode when I'm writing or sometimes for a whole day when I don't want to be bothered. While I enjoy getting messages and hearing from people, I find that there is also a lot of just unnecessary noise and distraction that comes with my phone and social media. Even for short periods of time, it's nice to have a break.

Novels in Verse

I've never been a huge fan of novels in verse. I don't read a lot of poetry in general. This year I read three novels in verse that I really enjoyed. The first, The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, was recommended to me by my roommate Leah. It is about a Latinx teenager who wants to be a slam poet, but feels oppressed by her family's strong religious beliefs. For grad school I read Inside Out and Back Again by Thannha Lai, which is a middle-grade book about a girl moving to the United States before the Vietnam War. I also enjoyed the YA book, Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough. It is also historical fiction and tells the story of the Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi. Her story is also very topical in 2019.  

"Too Much" by Carly Rae Jepsen

This year queen, Carly Rae Jepsen came out with her album Dedicated. It has so many good songs on it. I got to see a Carly Rae Jepsen concert with my friend Tyler in St. Louis. "Too Much" is probably my favorite song off the album. So many of Jepsen's songs talk about falling or being in love. In this song CRJ asks the questions: Is this too much? Am I too much?

Six

The song "Don't Lose Ur Head" was included in the "Hits from Musicals" Playlist on Spotify. It's a banger. It was my gateway into the rest of the Six OBC recording, which follows each of the six of King Henry VIII's ex-wives. I went to see this with my friend Sarah in early December and the musical itself is also very good. I appreciated the music even more after seeing the musical.

Keanu Reeves

This was such a great year for Keanu Reeves. I went down a rabbit hole of watching Keanu Reeves interviews multiple days this year. One of my favorites was when Stephen Colbert asked Keanu, "what happens when we die?" Keanu answered, "I know that the ones who love us will miss us." 

Little Women

I love the book. I just silently wept through this whole movie because it is so good. This movie makee such smart changes to the book's structure and highlights the characters so well. I also just want to wear everything that Jo wears. 

The Weekend Trip

Living abroad, you learn to make such good use of weekends. In El Salvador, there were many beach and lake weekends. There was even a weekend in the mountains, which was one of my favorite weekends of the past year. We had the art of the weekend trip down. A spreadsheet went out arranging rides and food and there was a particular routine to the weekend.  There's something about getting away for just a short period of time, something that I could do more of back in the U.S.

Reading in the Bath

If I had the choice, I would always be in water. Sometimes this proves difficult. I have a lot of reading to do for grad school and now can access more physical copies of books through my library. It seems like a natural pairing to read in the bathtub.

Lizzo

I mean, Lizzo has been on this list for several years. She finally broke out to the public in 2019. People were obsessed with "Truth Hurts" this year. I was obsessed too, when it came out in 2018. "Good As Hell" also played on the radio. I like that song. However, she has an entirely new album out people! On her new album, I especially like "Like A Girl." I went to see Lizzo with my friend Sarah this fall and it was very therapeutic.

Fleabag

I really enjoyed the first season of Fleabag on Amazon. The second season is perfect. Each of the characters has such great and satisfying arcs. Plus there is a hot priest!

Austin Kleon

The above picture is art by Austin Kleon. He is an artist and writer. This year I read his book Keep Going, where he offers how to keep going as an artist. He provides valuable advice in his book, blog, newsletter, and Tumblr about being an artist and the creative process. 

Booksmart

This book checks off a lot of my boxes of things I want in books/movie/TV shows. It's about smart and funny teenagers and features a strong female friendship.

Lover by Taylor Swift

#sorrynotsorry to my neighbors who probably got tired of me listening to this album on repeat when it came out. Reputation was a pivot album that while it grew on me a little, it wasn't a standout like 1989 or Red had been. Lover feels authentic to Taylor Swift. Like all good albums, my favorite songs are constantly changing. "Lover" still probably remains my favorite song off of the album and just makes me want to find someone to slow dance with.

Hustlers

Many movies show women from a male gaze. This movie does not show strippers from the male gaze. Jennifer Lopez is so good in this. It's another ensemble comedy about women that works so well.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Lin had such a great year, as always! He started his year off performing as Hamilton in Puerto Rico (which I got to see!!!!) He got a standing ovation at his entrance. He also starred in His Dark Materials and started Freestyle Love Supreme on Broadway. He's just as great as ever. 

Billy on the Street

Lin was on Billy on the Street this year, along with some other great celebrities. Since they put Billy on the Street on Netflix, it was a good way for me to decompress after work when I can't do too much thinking. I still identify strongly with Elena. 

"Seth and Rihanna Go Day Drinking"

I find so much joy from this including when Rihanna just yells, "shot for da road."

Come As you Are/Burnout

Come As You Are and Burnout are both written by Emily Nagoski. Burnout is also co-authored by her sister, Amelia Nagoski. I will read anything she writes. I wanted to and took notes while reading both of these books. Come As You Are is about how women having more enjoyable sex and how men's sexuality is frequently defaulted when people talk about sexuality. I think this should be required reading. I was interested in Burnout because last year I felt very burned out from teaching and from emotional caregiving the past year. This book was exactly what I needed. It talks in particular about the burnout faced by women because they are conditioned to have Human Giver Syndrome, putting the wants and needs of others about their own. Every time they mention the patriarchy it is followed by an "(ugh)". Again, I took notes, because there were so many yes moments, including a section where they talk about the treatment of fat bodies.

Making Things

This is one of the paintings I did inspired by my time in El Salvador. 

In the book Your Art Will Save Your Life by Beth Pickens she writes, "In my estimation, artists need to be active creatievely in order to be alive, processing the world and other people. . . . Making art is an essential form of self-care in their lives." This is certainly true for me. Making things immensely helps with stress and my mental health. I enjoyed watching both seasons of the maker show Making It this year. It is so soothing to me and it is my Great British Bake-Off. I am so grateful to be able to be in grad school for writing and to be able to be surrounded by a community of writers again. Shoutout to my writing group! In El Salvador, I did some painting, which was very soothing. This year I also learned how to embroider. As Neil Gaiman says, "Make good art."

Knives Out

I love good murder mysteries. There aren't many movies that fit this bill. This movie checked off all of my boxes and featured the best Chris.

The Library Haunter on Twitter

I spent a lot of time on Twitter in the second part of the year because it is one of my preferred methods to procrastinate writing. This is a new Twitter handle I followed which from the bio says "is quality tweets for shy nerds." This handle fits the very narrow niche and my sense of humor.

41 Strange on Twitter

This is another handle I started following on Twitter. It just shows pictures of strange and interesting things. 

Friends

As the Beatles said, "I get by with a little help from my friends." I get by with a lot of help with my friends. So much so that when I was making this list, I wrote friends twice. They make me better and provide constant support, even when they frequently live far away. I love my people. I'm grateful for my people.