Sitting at my desk on the shortest and darkest days of the year, I have many thoughts. With the mental space provided by a break from classes, the thoughts and ideas I have while running first thing in the morning often find their way back to the surface during the day. I have written a few blog posts about these thoughts and my mind has drifted to thinking about my year in review. I guess I normally post something here to record my greatest personal hits of the year and at my age, that’s probably a good idea. If you’ve seen one of my recent solo exhibits, you have an idea of what the inside of my brain looks like. Mixed in with all those colors and imagery are memories of experiences and funny stories. With so much competition, some of the memories and funny stories just go missing. Like, have I ever told y’all about how my cousin and I turned my first car into a 2000 pound water gun? We simply bent the windshield washer outlets both to the passenger side and kept the tank filled with water. Any time we wanted to hose down our friends, we just pulled alongside them and started spraying water on them. It even worked on the interstate when bad drivers irritated me. Who wants to lose stories like that? So, with the help of my photos folder, here’s some stuff I remember about 2024:
2. Freakin' Walter. He made a big splash when he arrived late in the year. Puppies are a full time job and this one is like Plankton...he's 1% evil. We already love him and I'm already his favorite.
3. We’ll call this one “Phoebe/Art/Solo Shows. When I created Phoebe, I created her with Riverfront Park in mind. That made it all the more exciting when she was accepted into the juried exhibit there and then won an Honorable Mention Award. I made a ton of new art this year with 21 new drawings and 14 new sculptures. I had a lot of good times in the studio. I also got lucky and had 3 solo exhibits this year. A very good year for art. A side shoutout to these experiences letting me meet Devann and letting me spend a week in my old college town.
4. This one will be “students”, but I’ll be honest and tell you it started out just as “MG”. As I looked through my photos, I kept finding funny photos with MG and I started to remember all the shows and awards she won this year. It’s really kind of ridiculous but good for her. But then I kept scrolling through the year and saw so many wonderful memories with my students. Some of their highest moments and some of our funniest photos. I was talking to our university president recently and he asked about my fall semester. I told him it was great and that it was all because of my students. Sometimes you just get a good group of humans to watch over and I’ve currently got an excellent group.
5. Speaking of students, Pickle Man gets his own spot. If you were around campus last spring, you saw him at some point and fell in love with him. He started off as a student idea for an outdoor sculpture that seemed very ambitious. I advised Amber in making it, thinking she’d end up making him smaller than she said. Amber, however, made it larger than she said and I was very supportive. As it turned out, that was bad for the early decisions we made about his armature, but the fact that he turned out perfect and lasted outside for as long as he did is a testament to Amber’s determination as an artist. What started out sort of as a joke, ended up bringing so many smiles to campus. Good job Amber and RIP Pickle Man. You were a big dill.
6. Family. So much happened with the family this year. Blue graduated high school, which came with so many milestone events related to school. He threw the discus far enough to qualify for State but because he didn’t have to run cross country anymore, it was just Violet and me doing the running this year. Blue did go to some summer practices with us. We had a great vacation, lots of shorter trips, lots of fun conversations and we really made a dent in the South Park seasons, even with Blue going away to college. G and I celebrated our 30th anniversary. Violet still wants to make music with me and I love that. Oh, and Blue deserves a shout for getting all As in his first semester of college.
7. You know I have to mention running. In fact, y’all are really lucky I don’t mention it more. I love it. It keeps me healthy and happy and makes me the fun guy you know. I ran in all sorts of ridiculous situations this year, super early in the morning, in an actual hurricane with trees falling around me, bitter cold, crazy heat, long distances and I still ran a respectable time in my one timed race this year. Oh, and we brought back slogging this semester and I even had a couple of regulars. Couldn't find any of those photos, though.
8. I’ll make this one about the ongoing episodes of Coffee With McAbee but I could just as easily make it about the hot, caffeinated beverage that starts every single day with me. My love for coffee makes the episodes possible and those episodes have created some really awesome times for me this year. I had great conversations with current and former students and a few with new and old friends. For me, this time is sacred and it has become a very important component of my year.
9. That trip. Dude. What a trip. Going to Greece and Italy was really fun and wonderful but getting to share all of that with Violet was absolutely beyond words. What a fun adventure to share! Oh and apparently Alayna and Kennedy got dragged along with us as well. Tomato Quad Squad for life!
10. A very late entry to the list was concerts. I had no concerts on my calendar through the first half of the year. Tickets are crazy expensive now and there are fewer and fewer people I’ll pay that much to see if I have to see them with thousands of other people. But we did manage a few outings this year in the last half. Super last minute we got family Weezer tickets nearby and after a great set by The Flaming Lips, we got upgraded to a box with Violet’s school friends. Then G and I saw Steve Martin and Martin Short and I got to see a bunch of cool people at the Edisto Blackwater Boogie. Totally worth having to be around people.
So that's 10 good ones in no particular order. If you or something you're related to didn't make my list, don't worry, you're still important to me and I still love you. I'm just old and forgetful and there's a limit to how much my hermit brain will allow me to share. And if the photo that features you didn't make it, know that it lives in my phone somewhere and I genuinely smile when I see it. Thank you to each person I interacted with this year. Thanks for making this year a great one.
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