2025 Wrapped!

A whole bunch of stats and a little bit of commentary

Travels

• Flights: 27

• Amtrak rides: 5 (thought it was more than that)

• Amtrak miles: 1,800

• Amtrak hours: 38

• Trips: 11

• Solo trips: 2 (an evening in Seattle and Brian’s bachelor party)

• States: 19

• New states: 12

• Countries: only 1 and it’s the one I live in :’(

• Weddings attended: 5

Fitness

• Miles run: 118

• Hours run: 26

• Miles biked: 523

• Hours biked: 52

• Motorcycle collisions: 1

wear your helmet so the cracks happen in it, not in your skull

Hobbies

• Photos taken: over 1,000

  • (Actual number is way higher. I have 871 photos since August, after culling the bad ones; that doesn’t touch the number of phone photos, deleted photos, or photos from the first 7 months of the year!)

• Books read: 19

• Movies watched: 50

• Restaurants logged: 145

• Blog posts: 14

• Piano hours: 95

• Meditation: 31 hours

Books (top 5 recommendations italicized!)

• The Algebra of Happiness, Scott Galloway

• Bonhoeffer, Eric Metaxas

• Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir

• Be Water, My Friend, Shannon Lee

• Into the Silent Land, Martin Laird

• Monastic Wisdom, St. Joseph the Hesychast

• Ultra-Processed People, Chris van Tulleken

• Deep Work, Cal Newport

• The Idiot, Fyodor Dostoevsky

• Confessions, St. Augustine of Hippo

• White Tears, Brown Scars, Ruby Hamad

• Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino

• What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Haruki Murakami

• Stamped From The Beginning, Ibram X. Kendi

• Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami

• Crying in H-Mart, Michelle Zauner

• The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Leo Tolstoy

  • * and a Tolstoy short story, How Much Land Does A Man Need

• After Dark, Haruki Murakami

• Why Civil Resistance Works, Erica Chenoweth

Music

• Songs streamed: 3,200

• Unique artists: 991

• Most musical month: August

• Days with music: 105

  • (for context, I started streaming with Tidal over the summer, so this is a partial year)

• #1 Artist: Death Cab For Cutie (runner-up: Japanese Breakfast)

• #1 Album: The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift

• #1 Song: Birds of a Feather, Billie Eilish

• Total minutes of music: 11,600

Favorite Movies

I’d recommend every one of these! Also, follow me on letterboxd (https://letterboxd.com/ajmdm/) for realtime film updates.

• The Mauritanian (2021 and I won’t shut up about this movie)

• It’s What’s Inside (2024, shout out to Brittany, this is one of the most engaging movies I’ve seen in a while)

• Friendship (2024)

• Hacksaw Ridge (2016)

• A State of Passion (2024, everyone should watch this to humanize the people suffering from Israel’s unrelenting war on the Gazan people)

• Doctor Sleep (2019, really fills out some details from The Shining)

• Elemental (2023)

• Prisoners (2013)

What’s in store for 2026?

Will we visit our last 5 states? Will we make any international trips?

Will I run a marathon in Hawaii (or at least make it through the year with consistent running and no injuries)?

Will I bike without any motor-vehicles hitting me?

Will I read all the books we’ve been collecting and piling in our sun room?

I wouldn’t say I have any “resolutions,” just kinda living life. Those questions are probably the closest thing I have to “goals” for the year, but I wouldn’t be disappointed if they don’t happen. (Well, I’d like to not be hit by another motorcycle. That’s a big one.)

There are a few plans already in the works, but nothing that crazy:

• finish Anna Karenina

• read Dr. Zhivago over the summer

• trip to Nashville

• trip to WY and SD

What else should I do?

I’ll throw it back on you! Any goals I should pursue, challenges I should take on, places to visit, hobbies to take up? Anything you think I should do, try, experience, etc., write back and I’ll see what I can do to make it happen!