every brilliant thing - december 2024
crows, swans, and starlings
Happy Hogmanay from Scotland! I’m on Day 5 of my 2-week solo trip to the UK & Ireland. My time here has been wonderful and exhausting, which also feels like a fair way to sum up 2024. The weather is dreadful here, with back-to-back rain, wind, and snow warnings, causing a cancelation in the street party & fireworks show. Which means… I’m improvising! I’m not totally sure yet what I’ll be doing tonight, but I’m going to challenge myself to find some form of connection no matter what I do.
I hope to write a different time of my trip and of 2024 reflections (I may lump it in with a larger post around turning 30 next month), but for now, let’s get to the EBT list. Here’s my playlist—top hits are mentions are 18, 37, 51, 57, and 82. A note for 37—the title Nana means 7 in Japanese, which is I think is in part a nod to the song’s 7/4 time signature.
As always, if you’re new here or want a refresher, you can click the link below for March’s list and a primer of why I’m writing an EBT list. You can find previous months’ lists on this page.
here’s every brilliant thing i encountered in december:
A tiny flower growing off of my spider plant that wasn’t there when I watered it the day before1
The tiny flower having bloomed even more by the afternoon2
Revisiting songs for the first time in months and still being delighted by them
Everyone’s enthusiasm to my tabling at the Pixar Craft Fair
A giant golden ginkgo tree, with leaves poised to fall
A Lindsay Lohan Christmas movie double header
Finding a buddy to chat with while surfing
Crazy surf wipeouts (mine, I mean)
Seeing a pod of children running into a liquor store
A tintype photographer looking just so unbelievably cool leaning against a wall in an downtown Santa Cruz3
Bad Animal / Hanloh, every time
So many fallen ginkgo leaves on the sidewalk that it looks almost like a snow-lined street
Walking past this scene: a woman is jogging on the beach. A man yells out at her, “How’s it going?” Without stopping, she shakes her head and replies, “Not good.” She jogs away. The man asks, “Why is it not good??” He receives no response. He asks again, to himself, “Why is it not good??” Then quietly, “But why??”
Pelicans diving near us while surfing
Someone who takes being called out well
Geese honking as they fly overhead
How stupid good
and I are at getting gifts for each otherNew work friends (ily Darianne!!!!)
Free oysters
Mood lighting and music
Cuddly cats
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My painting from Kristen Daley for the Story Department Secret Santa4
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Hanushotskia (a menorah-shaped shotski)
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Coffee in bed
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Calming sounds of the kalimba5
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Rain plunking at the same tempo as the song i’m listening to in the car
Walking in the rain to go sit by a fire when feeling the ache in my chest
Homemade croutons
Coming together as a community in the wake of receiving bad news
Channeling rage into songwriting
Melting discoballs6
Being a fly on the wall in a recording session (thanks Gavi!)7
Jumping over the red balls in front of Target
Coming back from a 0-10 score in pickleball to win it all
A big heron flying overhead and landing on a nearby tree8
Going to Ocean Beach to watch the 20-foot waves
Crow and Crowsdottir
Motown Monday at Madrone
Gojira terrorizing the nativity scene9
A blazing sunrise driving into Edinburgh for the first time
How squirrels look different everywhere you go
Swans gliding on water
Sheep sitting in loaf formation
Acclimating very quickly for my first time driving on the left in around a decade
This Shakespeare Head made out of paper
Unexpectedly getting a private tour to a museum10
The ornate designs of old pistols
Unexpectedly seeing my first murmuration while driving11
Chasing murmurations to see a massive one of thousands of birds12
Spelling yogurt “yoghurt”
The Bookshop’s Kindle plaque13
Knitted cat sweater from the Community Store for £114
Generally beating jet lag, courtesy of either FlyKitt or the placebo effect (I don’t very much care which)
Hearing little Scottish kids talking about me in their loud “whispers,” completely oblivious to the fact that everyone could hear them
Bird hides15
RSPB Mersehead16
Being a fly-on-the wall to a front-of-house briefing to a dinner service
A delicious meal at The Globe Inn, followed by a private tour of some of Robert Burns’ belongings
UK road design17
Castlerigg stone circle at dawn, with only the crows to keep me company18
Cockermouth being unexpectedly so cute
Pit stop at Abbotsford, home of Sir Walter Scott19
Chicken Ruby at Dishoom (honorable mention: my server looking like Igor from Anora)
Triple corn cocktail at Bramble
Listening to my body and canceling my plans for the day to just wander Edinburgh at my own pace instead of doing a tour
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Hearing Scottish kids argue over who gets shotgun. I didn’t know that term was the same outside of America
Fixing wind-blown wreaths on the doors of Edinburgh homes while walking by
My first substantive conversation in 2 days with the travelers sitting next to me at The Last Drop (thank you, Mick & Shirley. I really needed that).20
How every bookstore I’ve wandered into in Scotland has had a different character to it21
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Playing guitar and singing with someone I met while traveling (thank you, Andrew!)
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Snagging a lunchtime reservation at The Scran & Scallie (it had been booked out for weeks, but I checked on a whim half an hour before, and was delighted to see there had been a cancelation.
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Here’s my current favorite song to play on it: the Stardew Valley Overture. Playing this does make me want a 17-key kalimba, as there are parts of it that are tricky on my 21-key. The end of this video is so chaotic, but I don’t want to take the time to cut it down while on vacation, so you get to see it in all of its awkward glory.
I started tearing up and yelling, “YES! YES! YES!!!” in my car, since no one could hear me. My heart swelled, I was so happy.
Watching this (and somehow managing not to get shit on) felt like a miracle. I have never seen anything like it.
A bird preserve I visited on Day 2, hoping to catch another starling murmuration. While I did see a small one, I came a little too late for the big one. Nonetheless, this was a wonderful experience, and I saw more geese than I ever have in my entire life.
I love roundabouts, I love that the reflector bumps on the left hand side are red most times and green to indicate a driveway or lane, I love how polite the speed indicators are.
