Hey, hey! It's been a little while. Given the busy nature of 2018, I do not have the time to update this as I did in years past (especially since my writing time is spent on grad school). That said, I absolutely was not going to let 2018 fade into the night without keeping my end of year writing traditions. 2018 was a great year for music, both with album releases and live shows that I was fortunate to attend. Because of the glut of wonderful music, I'll be rolling with a top 20 list for both songs and albums. As always, I throw out the disclaimer that these are merely my favorites and are by no means a definitive list of anything. The longer year in review post will still be happening shortly after this one.
Songs
1. Senses Fail - Shaking Hands
2. Trophy Eyes - I Can Feel It Calling
3. Mayday Parade - It's Hard to Be Religious When Certain People Are Never Incinerated by Bolts of Lightning
4. With Confidence - Moving Boxes
5. State Champs - Frozen
6. Slaves - I'd Rather See Your Star Explode
7. You Me At Six - Straight to My Head
8. Hawthorne Heights - Edge of Town
9. Good Charlotte - Actual Pain
10. LANY - I Don't Want to Love You Anymore
11. Stand Atlantic - Lavender Bones
12. The Wonder Years - Pyramids of Salt
13. Like Pacific - In Spite of Me
14. Joyce Manor - Friends We Met Online
15. WSTR - Silly Me
16. Death Cab For Cutie - Your Hurricane
17. Dashboard Confessional - We Fight
18. The 1975 - Be My Mistake
19. Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness - House in the Trees
20. This Wild Life - Westlife
Albums
1. State Champs – Living Proof
2. Senses Fail - If There Is Light, It Will Find You
3. Trophy Eyes - The American Dream
4. Good Charlotte - Generation Rx
5. With Confidence - Love and Loathing
6. Hawthorne Heights - Bad Frequencies
7. Mayday Parade - Sunnyland
8. As It Is - The Great Depression
9. Ruston Kelly - Dying Star
10. The 1975 - A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships
11. WSTR - Identity Crisis
12. The Wonder Years - Sister Cities
13. Stand Atlantic - Skinny Dipping
14. You Me At Six - VI
15. Dashboard Confessional - Crooked Shadows
16. The Dangerous Summer - The Dangerous Summer
17. Andrew W.K. - You're Not Alone
18. We the Kings - Six
19. This Wild Life - Petaluma
20. Like Pacific - In Spite of Me
TV Shows
1. NCIS: Los Angeles
2. Suits
3. Impractical Jokers
4. NCIS
5. The Edge and Christian Show (That Totally Reeks of Awesomeness)
Sports Moments
1. Seahawks clinch playoff spot by beating Chiefs on SNF
2. Dolph Ziggler wins Intercontinental Championship on Raw.
3. Becky Lynch was Last Woman Standing at Evolution
4. Seahawks dominate Vikings on MNF
5. Dolph Ziggler returns at Royal Rumble, causing me to pull a calf muscle and subsequently throw things when he got eliminated.
Personal Moments
As is the new norm, these will just be bullet points and in no particular order
•Seeing The Used and catching up with whitney and Stan
•Hearing a bunch of my favorite bands at Warped in Milwaukee (especially when As It Is played No Way Out and Mayday Parade performed Oh Well, Oh Well)
•Getting to finally meet Lindsey at Warped (keeping my fingers crossed that we can see some more music together in 2019)
•Haircuts with Amber
•Neck Deep, Stand Atlantic, WSTR, and Trophy Eyes with Jaclyn; getting to meet Neck Deep and Stand Atlantic
•Visiting Maryland in April, and June and getting an unexpected visit from Hadley in November
•8th grade graduation and the Blue and Gold Ball
•Continuing my doctoral journey, which is now two-thirds complete
•The new challenge of being a writing teacher and teaching the same students that I taught last year
•The many new people I met this year (mostly from Tinder), who all taught me something about myself and gave me clarity regarding what I want in my life moving forward
•Volleyball games and cheering for Alexis and Camila
•Going to Indiana for gummies(~!)
•Watching my students rock the Constitution Test again
•A trip to New Jersey to see Day at the Fair perform, to finally meet Rob, Kim, Chris, and Todd, and to not only hear my favorite song in the world but have it dedicated to me
•That one time I talked to Myrna in 2018
•Thanksgiving at the Smoljan residence
•Fortnite with Kenny and the squad
•The continued growth of my vinyl collection and the trips I'll make to Schaumburg and Bloomingdale to look for additions
