year in review: the whatever version

albums i could not have done without
- stars / heart
- the winterpills / the winterpills
- band of horses / everything all the time
- caleb engstrom / building day one
- death in vegas / the contino sessions
- the lucksmiths / where were we?

absolute best moments
- holding my big brother's newborn baby for the first time
- standing at the top of a sacred aboriginal mountain
- that night at fionn maccools when i realized i had the world in my pocket
- offering to get down on one knee for tom calma at a meeting in his office (and getting away with the joke)

best new people
- smashley, mary underpants and the rest of the au crew.
- lisa and jenny (not new, i know, but still the best people)
- cam-ron who moved to canadia
- frank charlemagne

best shows you likely missed at the irving theatre.
- e.p. hall, paleo, these united states
- lamps, megafaun, arrah and the ferns, collections of colonies of bees
- theanti, BigBigCar, them roaring twenties, brazil
- david andrews, paleo, the scourge of the sea
- mike bloom, cameron mcgill's string quartet, margot and the nuclear so and so's

worst moments
- when i realized that every girl under 25 who walked into the theater on saturday night was wearing the same outfit, and that outfit consisted of tapered jeans and ballet flats.
- realizing that indianapolis is not forever.
- i won't go into specifics, only that it was at the theater and i looked at shari, hugged my knees, and said, "oh, i'm in trouble."

breakthroughs
- realizing that indianapolis is not forever.
- that whole grad school thing.
- telling a boy i liked him, because i did, and not because he was an impossibility (and therefore safe).
- discovering that i have motivation, character and integrity.

best christmas presents
- an entire boxing GYM, with a 100 pound heavy bag
- guns, germs, and steel the miniseries on dvd
- a mural sized map of the world

that's all i got, because i'm bored with this. happy new year anyway, guys.