every brilliant thing - october 2024
songwriting, skinny dipping, sharkbait
October 31st is always difficult for me, so I’m just taking the small wins. I peeled myself out of bed. I made coffee. I strapped a heat pad to my leg for adductor rehab. And now, I’m making sure I get this list out on the last day of the month as normal, to not let this year’s anniversary affect have too much power if I can help it.
A preview for the last item on today’s list, #567: Loved ones showing up for me today, reminding me they’re there for me, letting me know they’re thinking of me. Each message of reassurance and act of kindness has brought a swell to my chest and a tear to my eye, and I am so grateful. It’s like my fuel to keep me moving forward today. Thank you.
And here’s my October playlist (I swear it’s not all just Matt Maeson). The 5 that were on repeat this month were 1, 5, 51 (lol), 61, and 63.
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 october:
This animation of a heartbroken cat singing1
A surprise jam/songwriting session with Matt (you’re a natural!)
A gradient of colors in ivy
Being flooded with good memories from driving past a particular spot I haven’t been to in some time
My first time back on a trampoline in a couple months, discovering I have better back layouts than ever
Skinny dipping near the Golden Gate Bridge at night
Meeting someone for the first time while skinny dipping (admittedly a weird first impression)
A spooky scene of our lone car in a parking lot, illuminated by a flickering street lamp2
A pre-dinner sauna with friends
Ditching small talk
My “who are your people?” diagram3
A sunset that keeps getting better and better4
5-year friendaversary photoshoot with
5Wobbly cobblestones6
The Pixar message board gods delivering me a free surfboard, leash, and car rack
Generosity with wetsuit guidance
Brandon’s trilobite latte7
Following the sound of music to discover a jazz concert through a door8
Acquiring Sharkbait (my Wave Storm foamie board)
Getting “HAPPY RETIREMENT NICHOLAS C. SMITH ACE!” to baaaarely fit on a banner
A chaotic jam session with Kate9
Hot girl baking with Gabby
Going down rabbit holes with Michaela
[redacted]
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Using a tree stump as a bench
Sleepy window cats that make me stop in my tracks
Old/new music from Ben Howard
Acquiring my “women want me, fish fear me” hat10
Charlie and I taking turns scooping water out of the bathtub to drain it, since our downstairs neighbor said their ceiling started leaking (there’s just something fun about tackling a common problem)
Scheduling a Partiful just to dig a big hole at the beach (roll thru)
Spotify blends (holler if you want to make a blend! I love seeing how my and my friends’ music tastes overlap)
The compliment, “Marié, you might be the most in touch with your inner child out of everyone I know.”
The smell of wet grass
The sound of dry leaves rustling in the wind
Playing Spy Fox 3: “Operation Ozone” for the nostalgia of it
New songwriting partners (Gavi—you’re awesome. Check out her music here)
A ring that lets me stare into the void11
Hard sand that breaks in a satisfying pattern12
A perfect V of seabirds flying overhead while I’m wading in the ocean
Writing a song in an hour that I’m happy with
The typo “curiooosity”
Finding the perfect spot to stand at a concert that lets me lean (it saved my back)
- giving me a Krabby Patty gummy right when I needed it
Getting 9 hours of sleep
Substantive time with
for the first time since we were in high schoolKorean BBQ
Surprise karaoke
This weird tiny spotlight on the upper part of a curtain13
The Portrait of George Washington (portrait)14
The Portrait of George Washington (cocktail)15
The Portrait of George Washington (lamp)16
Listening to the FM radio stations that I grew up with (shout out 93.1 JACK)
Bone-shaped benches at a dog park
Watching the kitchen at Millie’s while they work
Pushing my thumbprint into my void ring
This print of silly lil birbs by Kris Mukai I bought at Lightbox Expo
Surprisingly good popcorn that makes you audibly say, “holy fuck”
Pixar’s upcoming streaming series Win or Lose
Going inside a firehouse to give firefighters food
Bisexual lighting in my Uber17
Holographic t-shirts18
Ben Howard playing as the background music for boarding my plane
Fluffy purple clouds with orange edge lighting
Pretty sunsets in the rearview
Selling my Memento Mori rug in an auction19
Surfing at sunrise
[redacted]
Walking past a sports bar at the exact moment that the Dodgers win the World Series
Loved ones showing up for me today, reminding me they’re there for me, letting me know they’re thinking of me
The little voice crack 😭 This was supposed to be last month’s #485, but I missed it when I was manually transcribing my handwritten list. We’re aligned again for #499 onward!
Walking back to our car post-skinny dip. I loved the glow of the street lamp and Golden Gate Bridge pushing through the fog.
This diagram is my way of visualizing this post from Yung Pueblo. A 3x3 felt better than me than a 2x2, as I didn’t feel like it was a binary—someone who does (not) see your heart and someone who does (not) make your nervous system feel calm. I feel like there’s a third option in both of those: active dismissal of your heart or of making your nervous system actively feel worse (rather than not affecting it).
The napkin diagram is admittedly bonkers, so here’s a cleaner version I whipped up:
In thinking of my relationships through this lens, I realized that some of the people I invest a lot of time and energy into fall in the yellow/red/grey zones. Conversely, there are people in the green/blue zone that I had not been putting a ton of energy into. For now, I’m finding it to be a helpful schema to guide where to focus my relational cultivation efforts.
I think this was taken near where I parked my car by my therapist’s office in Pacific Heights.
An artful latte design that I mistook for chiton… how could I have made such a grave error??
Found on my walk back to my car after my songwriting class at Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Here’s one of our less chaotic moments from it: a cover of The Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani
If you could win a clothing swap, I think I did. This was one of those hats that I knew existed and thought was hilarious, but I didn’t think to actually acquire it for myself.
I asked the seller, “how much so I can stare into the void on a regular basis?” They laughed, said I was cute, and said $2. What a steal to have a void on the go!!
At Ocean Beach on a chilly day with Charlie, Liz, and Conner. Conner’s hand is pictured; he was helping me collect more “sand tiles” and put them on our plateau.
At R Bar in K-Town. This cracked me up because it was so tiny and so random; it’s not even CLOSE to illuminating the karaoke singer (in the bottom left)
At Prince in K-Town. This bar has such an odd vibe, but I was super down for it. 10/10 would go again.
One of Prince’s signature cocktails. Andrea, Tyler, and I all got one as our first drink there. I thought it was delicious, but it was also probably what led to our hangovers the next day.
Again, what an odd vibe. Where does one even find lamps like this? Whoever was in charge of sourcing decor really killed it.
I couldn’t take a clear picture for the life of me given how dark it was, but I think the motion blur is pretty sick actually.
Spotted at Virgil Normal in Silver Lake, meandering with Andrea & Tyler after breakfast. They had a few different ones of these, including a cake getting eaten and blinking eyes.
I tufted this in about 10 hours for a charity auction gallery show at work. I couldn’t attend the auction, but it was super exciting having a coworker text me the play-by-play of who was bidding on it.
