25 things to do in 2025 & 2024 in review

...and another 365 in the rearview

here we are again! 2024 was another very good year overall; nothing earth-shatteringly good or bad (for which i’m very grateful), lots of fun experiences (see below), and a couple annoying little experiences (like my jaw suddenly going rogue, my inspiration and creativity remaining kinda stagnant). but i’m bound and determined to make 2025 one for the books in a positive way. let’s take a quick look back first, shall we?

IN THE PAST YEAR, I:

• took a solo california vacation, flying into l.a. for a day, then driving down to san diego (on the 4th rainiest day in the city’s entire history, lolol) and stopping along the way in laguna beach, san juan capistrano, and encinitas

• got my 4th tattoo, a lil’ disco ball on the inside of my left wrist:

  

• went to paris for the second time, to visit my friend cassidy, and took a day trip to lille

  

• ate at my first michelin star restaurant, restaurant gaya

• finally went to a poetry slam at lizard lounge

• picked tulips

• took french lessons

• made day trips to portsmouth, newburyport, providence, and salem, and a weekend trip to altmar, NY for my cousin’s wedding

• took a hip-hop dance class with my favorite teacher

• went to brooklyn to see ted leo & the pharmacists perform one of my favorite albums, shake the sheets, with gleni

• CRASHED A WEDDING

  

• spent a few relaxing days with my parents in ogunquit, maine, eating all the seafood and lying on the beach

• drank in a prince speakeasy

  

• went on a spontaneous weekend trip to connecticut to see greta with emma, and stayed in a probably-haunted bed and breakfast with a jacuzzi tub in our room

  

• had a very berkshires weekend in the berkshires

• got an akashic reading, in which i was told that my life purpose was to dance and “sparkle,” and i cried, because i had written down the very same exact two things when i tried to do my own reading a couple years ago

• made oatmeal cherry white chocolate cookies, atlantic beach pie, buttermilk biscuits, strawberry crumble, and butterscotch oatmeal crispies

  

• completed 16 of 24 to-dos on my 2024 list

FAVORITE MEMORIES:

• hanging at the chateau marmont bar with a random rich dude from aspen, as david spade shot the breeze with friends directly behind us

  

• listening to the pouring rain in my little jungle casita in san diego while drinking coffee and watching music videos on satellite tv in bed

  

• doing a refreshing face mask, taking a gummy, and watching emily in paris/drinking wine out of baby bottles and eating fondue at a hole in a wall/getting drunk at a speakeasy inside of a pizza place before going to my editor’s apartment for dinner in paris

  

• finally getting to see the rolling stones live!

• eating mint chocolate chip ice cream on a bench in brooklyn at the start of summer, spying a splash pad across the street, and running through it with gleni

• drinking a creamsicle on the beach while listening to ashlee simpson’s autobiography/singing along to “say a little prayer for you” at a piano bar/eating meatball pizza and drinking white wine in ogunquit

  

• drinking post-show johnny rockets milkshakes in the haunted bed and breakfast jacuzzi tub

  

• ordering wendy’s chicken nuggets at 11pm via uber eats on my way home from the something corporate show and eating them in my bed (there’s a theme here)

• a lovely solo saturday that consisted of a barn sale and a classic car show

• seeing the northern lights for the first time in new hampshire with my dad on his birthday

  

• eating in the most ‘90s pizza parlor ever in salem

25 THINGS TO DO IN 2025:

1. visit costa rica

2. take a letterpress or block printing class

3. eat key lime pie in key west

4. read a book at a bar

5. pose for a photo with a wild animal

6. make alison roman’s coconut cake

7. stand at the southernmost point in the continental united states

8. send a book proposal to a literary agent

9. try an exotic food i’ve never had before

10. finally read the artist’s way

11. make french press coffee, because i’ve used my french press like 3 times in 6 years

12. visit burlington, VT, because i’ve somehow never been!

13. obtain one of these vintage red lamps (or similar):

14. eat poutine in montreal

15. reach 100 substack subscribers

16. reach jetblue mosaic 1 status

17. take photos of 25 things/people that are important to me and write about them

18. buy a stranger’s photo album at an antique store and successfully identify them (inspired by dan rodo’s investigations)

19. clean out my pantry

20. attend a songwriters in the round event at arts at the armory

21. play pub trivia

22. read 25 books

23. see one artist/band live for every letter of the alphabet (planned so far: A, B, C, D, E, H, K, M, N, O, P, Q, S, T, Z)

24. try the famous chopped chicken caesar sub at mortadella head

25. pitch and write an article for a bucket list publication (the new york times, the new yorker, conde nast traveler, travel & leisure, food & wine, AFAR, etc.)

2024 FAVORITES

MUSIC:

• favorite songs HERE

• favorite albums:

  • good looks - lived here for a while

  • maxband - on ice

  • bendigo fletcher - two things at once

  • cloud nothings - final summer

  • fontaines d.c. - romance

  • a country western - life on the lawn

• live music (saw 38 artists, 29 of which i’d never seen before; new italicized, best bolded): phoebe go, briston maroney, julie rhodes, hannah wicklund, jayson gerycz trio, hurry, cloud nothings, native sun, thus love, minami deutsch, colleen green, hallelujah the hills, red clay strays, the rolling stones, SMIRK, spiritual cramp, white reaper, ekko astral, ted leo & the pharmacists, pile, bay faction, the beaches, greta van fleet, barns courtney, the struts, battlemode, jesus the dinosaur, good looks, hidden in plain view, something corporate, coheed and cambria, incubus, rooney, ELO, landlady, AC newman, winyah, dogpark

TV SHOWS (watched 10):

• nobody wants this

• servant

• wayward pines

MOVIES (watched 57):

• yesterday

• cat person

• slums of beverly hills

• the little things

• reptile

• speak no evil

• the menu

• the night house

• babes

• last night in soho

• strange darling…i thiiiiink?

• my old ass

• a real pain

• society of the snow

BOOKS (read 19, abandoned 3):

• the summer of naked swim parties by jessica anya blau

• how to be single by liz tuccillo

• meredith, alone by claire alexander

• someone else's shoes by jojo moyes

• sonic life by thurston moore

• summer fridays by suzanne rindell

• sorry i'm late, i didn't want to come by jessica pan

FOOD:

• mussels escabeche and sourdough at mabel’s gone fishing

  

• ginger fried rice at morning glory

  

• bison tartare at the lion’s share

  

• striper collar puttanesca with lumache pasta at moëca

• basically everything i ate in france

• filet mignon at fratello’s

• the house-made chicken nuggets and potato gnocchi bolognese at krupa grocery

• personal pizza with soppressata and honey and the apple camembert sandwich at shirley

• fried whole-belly clams at the beach lobster house

• crab saratoga at greenery cafe

• amaretto french toast at the egg & i

  

• mai tai popcorn at paddle inn

• flounder and burnt basque cheesecake at la bodega

• street tacos at quilo taqueria

• maple cremee at momma’s grocery + wine

• steak frites at branch line

  

• buffalo tender sub at essex’s ny pizza & deli

• watergate salad that i made

  

DRINK:

• ‘til the midnight hour cocktail at the chateau marmont lobby bar (tequila, frangelico, espresso, vanilla)

  

• old west latte at lovesong coffee + market (sarsaparilla, vanilla, sage, espresso, & milk)

  

• the bait & switch highball cocktail at part time lover (cachaca, yuzucello, amontillado, coconut, allspice, lime)

• snow bird cocktail at kindred (rum, biscotti liqueur, fruitcake fassionola, sherry, ginger, and allspice bitters)

  

• basically everything i drank in france

• the housemade pink lemonade at krupa grocery

• the raspberry margarita at the ogunquit lobster pound

• dunkin’ iced with coffee milk (RIP)

• painkiller cocktail at the treehouse

  

• bourbon cider at hilltop orchards

• some cocktail i forget the name of at MIDA (scotch, banana liqueur, cinnamon)

• homemade peanut butter lattes

• february house cocktail at foundry on elm (dark rum, maraschino, blackberry-mint shrub, lime)

  

OTHER STUFF:

• podcasts: normal gossip, camp counselors, this is important, the “casey wants to believe” episode of hyperfixed

• candles: bath & body works’ wicked vanilla woods, homesick’s book club, anthropologie’s found notes woody golden amber & pine, blackjack wax co.’s coven and nag champa

• fragrances/cosmetics: sol de janeiro’s cheirosa 71 perfume mist, bath & body works’ vanilla romance fine fragrance mist, diptyque’s tam dao eau de toilette, pistaché pistachio body butter

• miscellaneous:

  • meet cutes NYC

  • tan france’s kitchen

  • my blue palazzo pants (in paris photo above)

  • my checkered vest:

    

  • my bewaltz phone purse:

    

  • shirley temples

  • tinned fish

  • pistachio ice cream and muffins

  • coast cannabis s’mores bars

  • LED light strips

  • this youtube channel that features tours of abandoned places

  • watching old episodes of MTV cribs:

    

  • speaking of dark academia, these candle holders i got at the aforementioned barn sale:

    

  • dope home finds from my town’s free stuff group: a mid-century modern green chair, art prints, and an arabian floor sofa

    

  • this guitarist’s take on “fireflies” by owl city

  • this dance routine to gotye’s “somebody that i used to know”

  • the debut of jake kiszka and chris turpin’s side project, mirador (official release in 2025, plzzz)

  • this beautiful and relatable instagram story:

    

what did you love this year? lemme know, & happy 2025, y’all!