Looking Back on 2025

January 

• 25th - Lucy looked so sweet and pensive staring out the window while Dave pulled up James Blunt's "Monsters" video on YouTube. I wanted to record this small moment of Lucy and every time I watch it I wonder what she was thinking. Was she listening to the lyrics, did she see a bird in Nana Irma's birdbath, or maybe a squirrel bopping around the grass? 

February

• The Eagles win the Super Bowl! I only saw a clip of it at Mum's because I am still bitter towards the NFL after the way they blacklisted Koepernick. Still, it's nice to know that the hometown boys done did it again!

Syd and Ciarán celebrating in Philly!

March

• Lucy embraces her blue-light glasses and loves the black ones most cause her Dad and I wear black framed glasses. She's so cuuuuute!!

April

• farewell to sweet little Roark and hello to Phineas Erik!! The joy of not being in a constant state of fear if my car will get me from A to B is an overwhelming relief. I miss Roark sometimes, but Finn is a great, great car and I love him.

• New York with Amy!

• Make plans for a road trip to Ohio!

May

• 17th - Jax's 60s R&B concert was tons of fun!!

June

• 6th - Getting used to Finn. Putting the Bluey and Bingo stickers helped make this plain black car of mine feel more me, but it was my purchasing a sticky hook that I stuck next to my push-start button so that it could hold my keys that made Phineas feel fun, weird, and mine all mine. (I mean of all the things to update on a car, is keyless ignition really all that important??)

• 22nd - Braved the heat to have lunch with Bishop:

• 29th - Brunch at Sabrina's Café with Mel and Lauryn!

July

• 9th: The creepy guy at work got fired!

August

• Taylor Swift goes on New Heights podcast and I watch it live while texting with mega Swiftie Melissa out in Oregon. Then in the following weeks I watched as the world went bananas over how openly supportive and adoring Travis is toward Taylor. Down with toxic masculinity and bring on the real men!!

• Ended August by meeting Bella for lunch and four hours of non-stop chit chat. We cannot wait for our 10 day vacay in the Spring so we can talk without interruption!

(My god, I need to see a physician about those bags under my eyes!! HORRIBLE!! I don't even look human.)

September

• Started the month out the best way possible - going to Goldie with Kayla and scoring a fantastic hug and mini photo shoot with Miss Janine!! Then car selfies with Kay (check it out - I'm finally able to wear Grandad's old watch since Dave fixed it!) to round out a perfect day.

• Went to Trader Joe’s a few towns away on the 30th and the young (maybe 19-20ish) employee at the next checkout complimented my hair. I thanked him and did my usual silly toss of non-existent hair over my shoulder or fluffed up the curl of a flip hairdo that I certainly don't have. He then said, "It's splendid." Cute! Then about twenty seconds later he realised he used a word that hasn't been in fashion since the turn of the last century and shaking his head ashamedly laughed at himself while saying "splendid???" I told him he sounded like my Grandad. On the way out I hollered over my shoulder, "Have a splendid night, mister!" Splendid! I need to help bring that word back in style.

October

• The Life of a Showgirl drops! Stay up til midnight October 3rd to hear the album from start to finish with zero interruptions. It's a god damn masterpiece.

• Later in the day of the 3rd I headed over to Mum's for a mini-gathering with Amy, her mother, Maggie, and family friend, Ivy. It was so great to make Amy laugh until she was in tears. I reminded her of the time her mother nearly strangled me when we were kids on a road trip and I got it into my head to ponder what the world would look like if it were hot pink. "What if pickles were hot pink? What if the zoo was hot pink? What if the pavement was hot pink? What if antelope were hot pink?"

• Became obsessed with watching Drumeo videos on YouTube, especially Chad Smith (talk about dreamy...) and Mike Portnoy. I even got Bella into it!

11th

11/04

• 20th - After not seeing or hearing from Jackson for five months, I looked at my phone at 6:17pm and freaked the fuck out when his face flashed on the screen, alerting me that Jackson was calling. Since May, as I watched the weeks go by and receiving radio silence, I came to the conclusion that the day had finally arrived - Jackson was over me. He was thirteen and was no longer interested in hanging out with some old spinster who was weird and boring. I'd lost him like Nicole, Ashlee, Syd, and Zach. He'd outgrown me at last. When I answered the phone I was like the pathetic girl taking a call from the cool guy in school. "Hi!! Ohmigod I am so happy you called!!" I was on the verge of tears. Then he said, "So y'know how you are always saying that one day I'll be sick of you and I'll stop talking to you? And how I always tell you that will never happen? Well, I just realised, it happened. I'm really sorry." That's when the tears came a-flowin'. I told him that I was seriously crushed because since he was four years old, I've thought of him as one of my bestest friends and I love hanging out with him. So we chatted til 6:30 and set a day to reunite and get lunch together. The day after I would get back from Ohio, I'd pick him up and we'd hit Doylestown for the day. I couldn't wait!!!

• 22nd - Fulfilled a dream since childhood and went to Amy's farm to hold newly hatched baby chicks (and quails, too!). Ever since seeing Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale holding a wee lil' chicken in The Wizard of Oz I have wanted to hold a fuzzy yellow chickie. They hatched the morning of October 22nd and I left work early, drove two and a half hours and fell in love with every baby birdie I got to hold. (But especially Eyeliner.) BEST DAY EVER!

•  Spent Halloween week in Ohio, visiting with some of my favourite people in the galaxy. I'm so, so grateful that I got to say goodbye to Maureen. 

November

•  Spent all day with Jackson!! I tried to reach Jax through my mother-in-law and, not surprisingly, he had her phone.

• Amy’s to deliver cookies and see their latest Squishmallows. These kids are obsessed. The fireplace one is my fave.

• Elf with Isabella 

December

• Learn that I'll soon have to say goodbye to Goldie in Fishtown. Honestly, if I like something, it is a guarantee that it will disappear into oblivion. My fave Philly eatery joins the graveyard with Waterloo Coconut, LesbiVeggies, Healthy Garden in Cwood, So Delicious chocolate coconut milk, Hampden Junque, Blackbird Pizza, Govinda's, Blazing Salads and Vish in Dublin, Arcadi in Brussels, and Murphy's Loft, among others. But thankfully I got Morgan and Janine's addresses and phone numbers so we can continue to stay in touch.

 

3rd - IG text from Morgan:

• Autumn's lovely family (minus Mariah who lives out-of-state. But there in proverbial spirit!) looking picture perfect as always!

• Lucy being all sorts of cute!

• 28th - Princeton with Bishop!

• 30th - Finally booking the flights to Europe with Bella. We originally were looking to do ten days spread across Positano, Collepino, and Antwerp. Well....it got so god damn complicated and hella expensive so I came up with Plan B, which would involve aborting Italy altogether and just going to Antwerp via Dublin. I always wanted to rent a car and drive around Tuscany, ever since I was seventeen/eighteen years old, but the stress of setting it all up and all the road blocks we hit - the cost for the flight just to Rome, one way, was almost a grand, then there were no flights out of PEG airport to Brussels, so we would have to take a three hour train back down to fly out of Rome - it became overwhelming and not worth the mental and physical exhaustion. So Bella and I will get ten hours (if there is no delay flying out of Philly) in Dublin, which really amounts to seven, which is more than enough time to catch a bus downtown, hit up Kingfisher's for chips with salt and vinegar, Retro for fun clothes shopping, take pix of Love Lane and Temple Bar's street art, and maybe even dash in to the Chester Beatty, before hopping in a cab back to the airport to head over to Brussels. 

• 31st - Picked up Janine and her adorable brother Noah, then popped in to say farewell to Goldie Fishtown and Morgan. She was so upset about this branch closing and losing all her coworkers, but I just know that great things are in store for her and for Janine. The highlight, aside from hugs!, was when Noah referred to me as his "regular-in-law". Too cute!

Noah, Janine, moi, and Morgan!

• Squigs is ready to ring in the new year. We are both hoping that 2026 is the polar opposite of the shitshow that was 2025.