so. 2016, y’all. we’re almost free. i............ wanted to make a post abt some of the things that happened personally, in my life, this year, bc some of them were good and some of them were bad but i didn’t - idk like id like to be able to look back at some of this when the world is less fucked and be like ‘hey some of that was okay, i guess.’ SO THIS IS BASICALLY JUST FOR MY PERSONAL BENEFIT but if u have some kind of interest in my life feel free to read it! ive included visual aids for ur personal benefit. and if this isnt a helpful exercise for u then go ahead n ignore me!! i wont be offended. im used to it.
in 2016 i:
saw the deaf west production of spring awakening w my beautiful wife @janedoe0077, a lifechanging theatrical experience
visited the most magical place on earth w my favorite living human @blueblurry; we got rained out on splash mountain and watched game grumps in a hotel room and even though she was sick and i was sick and we didnt get to see the tigers it was still one of the best weeks of my life
started watching hit 2001 anime yugioh, which went.................... [looks very pointedly at current tumblr icon] fine
bought a car
started my first fulltime job, which in addition to being a 90-minute commute each way was also a MASSIVE amnt of physical and emotional labor and i had no idea what it was going to entail until i got there so like not.................. the BEST
went to anime boston and watched @obstinaterixatrix down a fucking ketchup packet and also bought LITERALLY every single piece of game grumps paraphernalia i could find in the artists’ alley
drove 3 hours, through a fucking blizzard, on a monday night, to see the mountain goats live, for the fourth time
found out that probably my all-time most important youtuber is in fact an abusive monster, and has been so for as long as he’s been a part of my life, and the fact that i would probably need to clarify which youtuber im referring to says........... a lot, i think, abt the state of the thing
turned 23
started listening to a podcast, the day after i turned 23, mostly in an attempt to make the aforementioned 3 hours a day driving marginally more bearable; in fact, it made a lot of people very angry, and has generally been regarded as a bad move
saw game grumps live in new york with kaylee, spent the whole drive home listening to under the covers on repeat and yelling about how much we loved the boys. met vernon shaw and asked him to take a video w me for @hullums and @beatrush. he was darling. also i ranted abt mokuba for the ENTIRE trip in but you know.
went to northampton to see @homoneurotic-subtext and @faut and @ulookgoodinacoffin and @junomacguff and @amusingdisplacement and stella and so so many other friends graduate from college!! they did a good job and im proud of them
drove to pennsylvania w @spontaneouswithinreason to visit @queensofwinter, we watched the bachelorette and i accidentally put whipped cream on some bread
found out from @daredevans on the drive home that the Aforementioned Podcast was going to be performing live in boston in july, cried abt this in a rest stop bathroom
drove to nyc to meet a very important internet friend for the first time; agreed that we would both enter the lottery for fun home tickets, which i won while driving into stamford. saw fun home for the third time in my life.
almost lost my dog. found her again.
went to the two-night podcast live show extravaganza w @kirbysingston, responded to this in a way that was just........................ very VERY cool and regular, and exactly the way a normal person would deal w it. i mean, this happened, but whatever.
went to bar harbor and acadia w the fam. climbed a mountain. watched the first sunrise in america. ate the best burger ive ever had.
flew to minnesota to meet evans for the first time, a spectacular, delirious, cider-fueled experience that consisted mostly of us parroting the entire pgatour monster factor video and screaming our fucking brains out at ygo s1
published a fic abt the podcast, which AS of the writing of this is 6th-ranked by kudos, though it was as high as 3rd at one point, and like, either of those is better than anything ive ever done in my life, so
had Stress Job transition into a New Job, one which required abt a quarter of the driving and allowed me to do actual lab benchwork, and which i could be moving into doing permanently, depending on how the next few weeks shake out
taught myself how to make macarons so i could distribute them to the adventure zine artists at MICE; natalie riess gave me an original inktober piece of my ship and carey pietsch tweeted abt me, which still feels absolutely unreal
finally heard the recording of the live episode of the podcast, which i was present for, and okay, like, so there was this moment, where something was abt to be revealed, and the rest of the theater was silent in anticipation, and i YELLED very loudly, in a manner i absolutely could not control, and seeing as how we were in the first row of the balcony i assumed this would not be audible on the recording equipment but it definitely was, and what i thought was a kind of jubilant cry was more of like..................... a Nightmare Scream, and then i was like ‘well maybe it doesnt sound as bad to everyone ELSE’ but this was absolutely not the case
went to my five-year highschool reunion. felt pretty irreconcilably different. thought this was maybe okay.
and like - i met a whole bunch of new+fascinating+inspiring ppl, and all of my friends did incredible things like get jobs and go to school and graduate and make meaningful art and keep existing as humans in the world even though it’s sometimes impossible, and, like, i could not have kept going thru everything that happened this year if it werent for the indefatigable resilience of everyone around me. 2017 might be easier and it might be harder, but i think we can do it.
i hope that the world turns and that things get better, and that one day people have roses again. i wish i could kiss you.
x
olivia
