. . . was spent doing all of the things (or most of the things) I love and want to do more of. To wit, a list:
- I meditated for 20 minutes; the first time in a number of months.
- I walked the dogs with my partner.
- I sent my son a happy new year’s text, missing him, as he’s in California with the Pulse world class Indoor Percussion troupe. Both of us expressed our excitement for his brief return home for a few days in the next week or so.
- I recorded music that I am writing with the help of my Project MA partner, Adam Fagelson. We’re working on a new album for 2025. I listened closely to and worked on several rough mixes destined to become tracks on this new album.
- I met with my Writer’s Cafe buddy Lauren (who’s in New York) in a zoom call where we talked about our progress, our writing resolutions, and wrote together in silence for an hour. I wrote two new flash chapters for a new book I’m working on.
- I did some reading in Moon Unit Zappa’s Earth to Moon.
- I failed on the first day of dry January by finishing a bottle I had bought for the holidays of a single malt whiskey from Portland’s own Westward Distillery.
- I listened to music that is not mine. The first record I spun in the year of 2025 was Arooj Aftab’s Night Reign. What a beautiful record. We get to see her live in Portland on January 22nd.
- And I wrote this little list at about 11:30 pm.
There could almost not be a more perfect day. I would have liked to have spent more time with my parter. But she was super engaged in her own preparations for the new year and I was happy for the solitude.
Despite the shit that might be in store for us with the new Trump administration, or maybe IN SPITE of it, I have good feelings about the following year. On the second day of January, the plan is for more music. Nothing wrong with that.
Cheers.
Happy New Year to you.
michael jarmer 