2024 Recap

This year was a hot mess! It feels like I wrote my 2023 recap just yesterday, even though it was 6 months ago... Looking back through my photographs, it seems that a lot of things happened, but overall the time went by so fast!!!

Highlights:

Huge half-marathon PR (17 minutes!?!?!)

2 concerts: IVE and IU!!!!
Whitebeard...
Trips (Chronologically):
- SoCal (visiting Sid)
- NH (seeing the eclipse)
- Japan (w/Alex, Sheeler, Sid, John, Eric)
- Jersey shore (w/fam to celebrate Olivia's bday)
- Kauai (w/Alex and Sid)
- Minnesota (Varun's wedding)
- North Carolina (Shri's wedding)
- Cali (Nick&Sylvia's wedding)
- AFRICA?!?!?! (ft. Alex, Eric, Andy, Lu-parents, GOATMIL)

Miscellany:

Tarot cards lmfao
Dyeing hair blue, hot pink, etc
Biking ft. Eric
TFT
Poker

Depths of Despair:

Father-in-law's death

Half marathon:

Might do a more substantial infodump on this one, but I set a huge PR this year! Eric got super super into running (and Yuna moreso), and therefore I FOMOed into a 17 minute half marathon PR. Eric was spewing science and numbers and various training/nutrition/supplement science suggestions that really kept me going until... like 3 weeks before the half. The last 3 weeks were actually excruciating and I'm pretty sure I was extremely burned out at that point. I'd smashed recent personal records for the 5K (28 min) and 10K (58 min) over and over again. My lifetime 5K is still faster (26:15), but I definitely see the possibility of breaking it one day??? I spent SO much on shoes this year, it was incredible. I bought the Hoka Mach X ($180), Asics Gel Kayanos ($80), and a pair of New Balance shoes (~100). I also bought a bunch of random other gear. My next big purchase is probably going to be a Garmin Watch because apparently even if you're semi-serious, the Apple watch doesn't cut it

Whitebeard:

So embarrassing. I think this one might need its own post. At the beginning of the year, I had just finished watching the Marineford arc of One Piece, and I suddenly developed this truly insane crush on Edward Newgate. I've kind of had a history of crushing on anime characters (Chad from Megaman -> Yami Yugi -> Hao from Shaman King -> Hatake Kakashi), but the last one was so long ago (15 years???) that I thought maybe it would never happen again. Nope, I was hit in the face like a ton of bricks, couldn't sleep for days and every morning when I got up my chest hurt lmfao. I wrote a XXX word, YYY page fanfiction and have a couple more in development. I generated like 200-300 images of this man using Dall-E. I'll put some of my favorites in the photo recap and MAYBE link the fanfiction once I've posted it.

Weddings:

The more weddings I attend, the more I like them. Probably the thing I like best is witnessing couples express their love for each other in all sorts of different ways. The sentiments each person expresses can be so different. It makes me wish I could do my wedding vows all over again hahahaaa. All of the weddings I attended this year were really beautiful and unique. I'm still not great at socializing with strangers, but I'd like to think I've gotten a little bit better.

Africa:

Climbed Mt Kili w/Alex, AlexMom, Eric, Andy, and LuParents, followed by a safari. This will definitely get its own post, but basically:
Mt Kili: Summit day was the closest I've ever gotten to death, I'm pretty sure
Safari: Zebras are clearly the best and will one day outcompete the other animals

Edit: Post here

Misc:

Tarot Cards: Actually a really fun way of adding some pizzazz to your day. Asking the deck a question can lead to some funny stuff, e.g. "How will my marriage with Alex end?" -> Four of swords = "in death" lmfao
Dyeing hair: The main character's hair was blue in my fanfiction so I decided I wanted blue hair too. I went blue -> pink -> blue. I love colored hair...
TFT: Love this game. I wanna make Master
Poker: Started watching a lot of youtube clips of poker and began to play a bunch with housemates. It was great!

Depths of Despair:

The death of my Father-in-Law sent me spiralling. I have some thoughts that probably aren't worth sharing, but I might share them anyways, if only to straighten out my brain. I've had a pretty bad case of low-grade depression for the last 8 months and to some extent it still feels as if I'm trying to wade through waist-deep muck in my mind. I think the muck-level is dropping, which I'm optimistic about!