goodbye 2024
Tis the season for yearly round ups and taking stock, and weirdly, though it did not feel like it as I was in the muck of it and wishing I had more time for just about everything, I still somehow managed to at least hit a few of my goals and plans that I set out to make happen during 2024. There were also some things that just developed along the way that feel like accomplishments in some way or at least from the standpoint of actually taking time and throwing energy their way.
In the world of paid work, I actually feel good about meeting most of my monthly income goals, which were less solid the first couple years of freelancing with temporary and less steady workloads. These things have evened out over time, so things are much less hand-to-mouth and allow a few more luxuries on occasion (nothing crazy, but more like fancy croissants occasionally breakfast and theater tickets on the regular). I probably wrote around 10 pieces a week for HD, which means in the ballpark of 500 articles on everything from upcycling and vintage collecting to paint colors and building bookshelves. Plus some work for other publications, more recently for Classpop! as they've grown in scope, including a couple recent writing related ones here and here.
I have no idea how many poems I've written the past year, but I do know that I cobbled out several short series and at least one longer one (around 30 pages). I set out to release GRANATA, itself a longer series, and RUINPORN, a more traditional collection and did both.. I released another 9 small zine projects for the monthly zines, probably the most I've done in the span of a year. I also had a handful of poems in journals, mostly horror-related. I'm feeling very connected to poetry but very disconnected with poetry biz, but I am not sure I am mad about that at all. I did make a dent in the thrifting/writing memoir project, though still very rough, but I do have a working title, so that's something.
Visual things have been a mix of design projects for myself and others, lots of fauxtography experiments, some alone, others to make elements for collages, which I have been making quite a lot of, though still far more digital than analog, despite my hoarding of magazines and paper. I want to do more physical collaging in the coming year, including outfitting a set of fancy weed packaging I've been hoarding for box projects. There have also been some video poems (though I would like to get back to making them regularly) and many short art or audio poem reels. I did manage to get mostly back on schedule for the press releases, though there are still a couple of tougher design books that are still coming along with a new batch that I start work on in January.
In other life things there has been a re-emergence of my theater habit that carried me through the 90s, now that I have some evenings free, better transportation to parts of the city, and the expendable income to buy tickets. I did a tally, and we saw 19 live shows in 2024, with another handful planned over the next two months, both plays and musicals. Opting for the subscription programs have also meant more affordable movie outings--both for new releases and older stuff. We also made it out to the drive-in four times this year. All of these are improvements on 2023, with hopefully more of them to come in 2025.
Other markers of the year were 6 new tattoos as part of the sleeve I am working on. Getting officially engaged after a couple years of just talking about it. New recipes mastered, new dresses bought, a new mattress to replace one more than a decade old. I moved into a fifth decade on this planet that still has the ability to both astound me for reasons both good and bad. .I continued my flourishing collection of both vintage handbags and Victorian transferware. I actually officially lived with another human for a whole year and we did not kill each other or even fight at all (this one astounds me most given my past soloness and independence.)
Tonight, I have a strappy burgundy velvet dress (that was actually supposed to be last year's NYE dress, but arrived too late to wear for it) and will be spending the evening down along the river at the bar J is DJing at, which is actually probably the most ideal place to be at if you want to see the fireworks (though the Sheraton kinda gets in the way of the bridge launches looking westward unless you stand right by water) Still, the weather is mildish and will hopefully stay that way so it won't be too chilly out to take advantage of the view.
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