Falling off, and other activities
I'll just be honest:Â 2018 was kind of a bust. I went some places, I saw some people, but for the most part I stayed home and endured neurotic tailspins about situations beyond my control.
Then I got a Klonopin prescription. đ
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For the unfamiliar, this is my YearLetter: Volume II. Last yearâs letter arrived a bit late, so I figured Iâd keep the tradition alive and send the sequel out even later than YearLetter: Volume I. Granted, this year my reason is goodâIâm working a lotâand last yearâs was... more frivolous.
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To kick off 2018, I waited until the 2nd to skip town for 80-degree days on the beach. Tulum is to Mexico what Ibiza is to Spain, or so I was told by the adorably dense (local!) twink model that was also in tow for this little adventure. [More on that here.]Â
Tangentially related: I spent the first quarter of the year dating nothing but rich dudes, which turned out about as well as one might imagine. Turns out single men in their mid-40âs with college-age children, expendable income, and a penchant for dating childless eccentrics arenât the most well-adjusted of the bunch. Who knew??
Fear not - by August I got serious with someone with none of those qualities. (Except the last one, natch.)
This charming exchange brought you by myself & a BFF of 10+yrs.
Donât let your eyes deceive you; I still donât have an iPhone, though youâll never pry the MacBook from my hands. I did upgrade from my notoriously janky Nexus 5X to a Pixel 3, though. I figure Android runs under a grand, doesnât encourage the use of animated emoji or single-click message responses, and still makes phones small enough to be held by the average adult without being cradled in a hand position resembling Nosferatu.
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For no reason other than my continued inclination to move away from The Machine, and an increasing distrust in what the digital juggernauts of our day do with all this personally identifiable data â I started Pilates teacher training. With any luck, I'll make up for decades of laptop-influenced posture before the hunchback becomes too noticeable. Well, that or millions whilst building a #Cannilatesâ˘ď¸ following. đ
The highlight of my summer was deleting my social media accounts to little fanfare or outrage. Should you feel overwhelmed by the constant buzzing, chirping, chiming, or otherwise harshing of your proverbial mellow via mobile device, I suggest you try it for yourself.
Now I'm back on several platforms--and posting photos of my face, no less, for *drumroll* appearance's sake. It was a good run, though; going from microfame to facelessness for eight years certainly put a lot of things about appearances in perspective. This sort of self-purge is going to be the next, "I'm not on Facebook" - mark my words.
While I polished another ~75 books off my reading list this year, my writing output suffered immensely from what I believe they call "real life blues," also known as "artist's malaise" or "chronic underemployment." I did complete a short story last year, "Raw Material" [password: sh0wm3n0w!] That's all I've got to share on the writing front, so hereâs my top fiction picks from this year's stack:
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson âIn reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo's CosoNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he's a warrior prince.â Sci-Fi has never been my genre, but a future in which the only four things America does well are âmusic, movies, microcode (software), and high-speed pizza deliveryâ is, in my mind, well worth geeking about.
ÂThe Salinger Contract by Adam Langer  If you like reading â or likened yourself to Holden Caulfield at any point (despite your protestations to the contrary afterward) â I suspect youâll enjoy this.
ÂLess by Andrew Sean Greer A gay novelist of little acclaim is about to turn 50 when he receives a wedding announcement from his fabulously attractive ex-boyfriend of nine years. Instead of declining the invitation, our protagonist accepts several sketchy-sounding offers to speak and teach internationally. He takes quite the trip down memory lane in the process.
Also, if you:
often find yourself beginning stories by recounting recent interactions on Facebook,
spent hours scrolling Your Feeds for lack of something else to do, and/or
can ignore a self-indulgent dweebâs penchant for creating unnecessary acronyms,
this suggestion is for you: Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier.
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There's a good chance 2019 will bring bigger moves than my transition from desk to mat work, too. I may leave Denver again â this time, for less-populated pastures than prior relocations. But more on this should it actually come to pass, eh?
I hope the New Year has already brought you something to chuckle about, alongside something good that you werenât expecting. Personally, Iâm hoping for lots of money and another week off the Caribbean, but I donât know if thatâs up your alley. (Confirm you preferences in advance of Vol. III; said installment may be delivered in a timelier manner.)
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Seriously: I hope this year brings you at least one book you feel the need to recommend to me, more time spent interacting with people than screens, the incentive to wear sunscreen, and, of course, lots of money. đ¤