With the rennovated lake house finishing up over the summer, I spent quite a bit of time in Georgia in 2023.

I spent a lot of time in Arizona over the course of 2023. It was a place of adventure, new beginnings, creativity, and nature.

During 2023 I got back to traveling. Among others I went to West Palm Beach, Ithaca, San Diego, Park City, Seattle, and Joshua Tree.

This year was better than I could have dreamed. It didn’t start out that way, though.

The anxiety that I’ve lived with for most of my life became unmanageable and I decided that I wanted to get it under control. That meant going on medication, which has changed my life for the better in fairly significant ways. Price flew up to NYC to help me out while I was getting through the first couple of weeks of that journey, which were not easy. I’m beyond grateful for him being there for me, and for the family and friends I leaned quite heavily on during that time.

A new relationship formed shortly afterwards. Emma and I met in August of 2022 at work. More accurately, on a Google Meet video call because she was in Arizona and I was in Georgia at the time. Our adventure of love has been a beautiful experience, one that has taught me so much. And as I wrote in a song for her: all day I could look at your face. (The song is on Apple Music and Spotify).

I’ll be posting a few albums for 2023 but this is the first because NYC was the setting of so many important moments throughout the year.

This year was a year of slowly getting back to my normal nomadic habits after a couple of years of staying put.

I spent a lot of time at the lake house, including preparing for the demolition of the old house.

At the end of the summer I spent 3 weeks in Milwaukee visiting Amanda and Ben and Rowan. I also got to meet a friend and coworker, Todd, in person for the first time.

Towards the end of the year I met someone new.

After spending the first 14 months of the pandemic in Florida and Georgia, I moved back to NYC in May of 2021. Why? Still not really sure. I have been in and out of the city since 2016 and was feeling the pull again; NYC has a tendency to draw you in once you’ve spent time there. And I was ready to be around more people. Who knows how long I’ll be here this time.

Depression struck after I moved up, but that story is one that’s better told in its own post (I’m okay now). It’s why I don’t really have any pictures from the Summer and only a couple in NYC.

I went to Georgia for Thanksgiving, to hang out with the fam and camp. Then I took two weeks off at the end of December. That time off was the most restorative experience I’d had in a while. I had a very strong creative resurgence as I was coming out of my depression in October; taking time off only pronounced that. I began editing travel videos from my Year Off and I started playing music again. Not to spoil 2022 but so far it has been a deeply satisfying year of making things.

Okay one is from 2019 but it was almost 2020 and it’s where my 2020 began so it counts.

Every sunset is different. But occasionally a sunset stands out. Sometimes a sunset changes from minute to minute. Other times it continues long after dusk. One thing remains consistent: the sun will always rise tomorrow.

I spent a lot of time with my parents’ dog, Denali, in 2020.

Denali is an 8 year old Vizsla. He still has a lot of puppy energy. He loves to run, sleep in, and paddle board.

One of the most useful lessons I learned on my year off was to live presently; no matter what is going on, to be mindful of what I am feeling and to listen to what those feelings are telling me. That skill was valuable throughout 2020 as I had to deal with lockdown and the nonstop stream of unfortunate news. The entire year felt like my anxiety and depression Super Bowl. I’ve been learning how to manage, learning how to sit with my feelings, learning how to be alone and okay.

That doesn’t mean it wasn’t difficult. Just look at what I let happen to my facial hair. But I took time to enjoy the small things and even learned some new things. And hopefully 2021 will bring slivers of hope and progress.

At the end of our week in Moab it was time to pack up and head back to Florida. Our first stop was Denver, to drop John off at the airport so he could fly home. I spent the next few days driving back, stopping in Missouri, Tennessee, and Alabama.