It’s been a really complicated year–some major highs and lows. We’ve spent the last couple days on unfinished business: seeing Laura Poitras’ gripping CITIZEN FOUR (highly recommended), doing our donations for the year, and it looks like I am actually going to get an article revised that I thought I might not be able to do.

2014’s highs included a semester at Microsoft Research and a month at Folger Shakespeare library, new friends and reconnecting with old ones, lots of opportunities to do original research of both the archival and ethnographic kinds, a really amazing graduate seminar and conference, five PhD students finishing, lots of great trips and talks and meeting new colleagues at distant places, and especially our first trip to Sweden. Also 2014 was the year I performed solo electronic music for the first two times (thank you Boston!), came out as a member of a country band, discovered the joys of modular synthesis, and bought an electric guitar and took a few lessons (I’m terrible but it was fun). The kittens have been a constant happy obsession since they arrived in August.

Lows included being apart from Carrie for weeks at a time, including when our 19-year old cat Ya-Ya died, and later when, her grandmother passed. My own medical adventures have been a bit of an emotional roller coaster and I’m still digesting it all. Carrie’s dad’s hospital visit was a bit of a scare and yesterday, I just learned of the passing of one of my best friends from graduate school, Greg Dimitriadis. Mortality is all around.

If I had the energy, I’d write a longer blog post (especially about Greg), but this will do for now. It’s okay by me if 2015 is a little less eventful.