December of each year is littered with year end lists and recaps. I happen to be obsessed with these things, so I did my own. I know these are supposed to be done in December, and here we are on January 1, but I am a known procrastinator. It's even been documented in a professional evaluation that I am a person who turns things in at the last minute. So, without further ado, here are a few of my own end of the year lists.
14 Biggest Moments of 2014
I was going to make a list of the "best" moments of the year, but I think "biggest" is more appropriate. Whether good or bad, these were 14 of the most impactful events of 2014 for me personally.
- Snowpocalypse: January 28-29
It wasn't supposed to "stick." Meteorologists said, "No accumulation," over and over. They were wrong. Two inches of snow fell on Tuesday, January 28, and it shut the entire city of Birmingham down. No one was prepared for the snowfall, and the company I work for wouldn't dream of closing early for a weather event, so it got a little crazy. People got stranded and slept in cars and all sorts of other craziness happened. Luckily, I ended up in a comfortable hotel room, and made it home the next day, but it was total madness. I love snow, but this was not fun snow.
- Kaitlin & Jonathan's Engagement Party: February 15
My baby sister is getting married this year! My cousin Jenny and I got together and threw a pretty epic engagement party for my sister and her fiance. It was beautiful and fun, and the two families got to meet and hang out while getting to know each other.
My best friend Heather and I have embarked on what we call Operation Oscar for the past several years. We watch each film nominated for best picture, best director, and those nominated in the acting and writing categories. We review them, we discuss them, we debate them, we decide who we want to win and who deserves to win, and then we watch the ceremony together. This year we had our two person party at my place, complete with red carpet, appetizers and gift bags. Fun as shit. You should be jealous.
- Jordeather Nashville Trip: March 29-April 1
Heather and I took a long weekend trip to Nashville this spring and had a blast. The two main events were two concerts--the first being Cher and Pat Benetar, the second Demi Lovato, Cher Lloyd and Fifth Harmony. We were definitely the youngest people at the Cher concert, and the oldest people at the Demi Lovato concert (without kids). Cher was fucking epic. Seriously, if you haven't seen her live, you need to. She puts on a hell of a show. Demi Lovato is incredible as well. We did a lot of other fun things in Nashville too, including eating good food, touring the Country Music Hall of Fame and strolling around Opry Mills. The two of us always have the most fun together on road trips and this was no exception.
- Birthday Weekend in ATL: May 2-4
Heather and I took a road trip to Atlanta for my birthday weekend and I got to do so many nerdy amazing things. We went to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, the MLK Center, a couple of gay bars, saw some drag performances, spent hours in IKEA, ate incredible food, and saw the musical
American Idiot. It was a great way to ring in 29!
- Hangout Music Festival & Beach Trip: May 15-19
Heather, Cassandra and I traveled down to the Gulf Coast for the Hangout Music Festival in May. The weekend was an extended celebration of Heather's 30th birthday (thanks for paving the way for us into the 30s!) While Heather attended the actual music festival, Cassandra and I spent time in the sun by the pool (and eating Guthrie's). It was a fun weekend of beach and friend time.
- Brother Sister Weekend: July 12-13
My sister Kaitlin came up to Birmingham and the two of us had a slumber party, then drove to Atlanta to see
The Little Mermaid musical.
The Little Mermaid is her very favorite movie, so I surprised her with tickets to the show for her birthday. I found myself once again being old in a place without having kids, but I thoroughly enjoyed the production, and as always, had a wonderful time hanging out with Katie-Fran.
- Family Beach Trip: August 2-9
Our family took its annual beach trip to Orange Beach the first week in August. Other than a nasty eye infection and some nasty homophobic remarks my mom made behind my back, the trip was wonderful. I love being on the Gulf Coast and I had a really relaxing week. I also read Rainbow Rowell's
Eleanor & Park (in 24 hours) and it made my whole trip even better. Incredible novel!
- Taylor Swift's 1989: October 27
Yes, I am including Taylor Swift's newest album release as one of the biggest moments of the year. It's that good. She's that good. This album is musical greatness and she's a musical genius. I'm still listening to
1989 on repeat.
- Midterm Elections: November 4
I love
voting and democracy. Election night results weren't particularly joyful
for me, but I got to know and work with some really fantastic
candidates here locally. I hope I haven't seen or heard the last from
Cindy Bell, Miranda Joseph or Mark Lester.
- Aaron Carter Concert: November 19
Kaitlin and I went to see Aaron Carter in concert in Tuscaloosa. Yet again, I felt so fucking old. Most of the kids at this concert weren't of drinking age, and he didn't go on until after 11:00 p.m. I stayed out super late on a work night, but it was worth it too see Kaitlin freak out in excitement over seeing him. She was obsessed with him when we were kids, and she loved the concert. I had a good time as well and I'm glad I got to experience it.
- Screen Adaptations of Books
Four novels I really love were made into movies or television series this year. My favorite novelist Nick Hornby's
A Long Way Down was released and had an amazing cast--Pierce Brosnan, Toni Collette and Aaron Paul. I really enjoyed seeing the film version of this great story. Tom Perrotta's
The Leftovers was turned into an HBO television series. The show strayed a lot from the novel and took a much darker turn, but it was gripping and I'm looking forward to the next season. My favorite book of all time, Lois Lowry's
The Giver, had its film adaptation released this summer. It didn't receive great reviews and many people seemed let down, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was wonderful re-reading an old favorite and then watching it come alive on screen. Plus, you really can't go wrong with Meryl fucking Streep! My favorite of the adaptations I saw this year was the film version of Jonathan Topper's
This Is Where I Leave You. Once again, a stellar cast--Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda and many others. The movie did such a great job at not leaving important things out and I absolutely loved it.
Not-so-newsflash: I'm obsessed with Hillary Clinton and the entire Clinton clan. It was a big year for them. Chelsea Clinton and her husband Marc announced their pregnancy in April and welcomed their daughter Charlotte in September. Hillary's latest book
Hard Choices was released in June and it chronicled her tenure as secretary of state. It's a truly fascinating and detailed look at America's foreign policy. Many in the media attacked her appearances, and I had an entertaining Twitter exchange/fight with CNN's Jake Tapper over one such criticism. She made a triumphant return to the campaign trail in 2014, and delivered the keynote speech at Iowa Senator Tom Harkin's final Harkin Steak Fry. Candidates she campaigned for received a
noticeable bump in support after her campaign appearance. I'm eagerly awaiting what she has in store for 2015, which will hopefully include a presidential campaign announcement.
Even less of a newsflash is my obsession with Shania Twain. In 2014, she played her first concert outside of her Vegas gig in 10 years in Calgary in July. Tickets sold out within a minute prompting concert promoters to schedule a second show, which also sold out in minutes. She was named Best Resident Performer in Las Vegas, recorded an updated version of her mega hit "You're Still The One" as a duet with Portuguese singer Paula Fernandes in English and Portuguese, and ended her stellar two year residency in Vegas. In the midst of all of this, she found time to reply to one of my tweets in May, which made me pretty fucking happy. She is expected to release a new album and tour in 2015, and I desperately hope that it does indeed happen!
14 Favorite Television Shows of 2014
So much great TV, and so little time. These were my favorite shows in 2014.
- American Dad
- Family Guy
- Girls
- The Good Wife
- House of Cards
- How to Get Away with Murder
- The Leftovers
- The Mindy Project
- Mom
- The Newsroom
- Orange is the New Black
- Shameless
- Veep
- Vicious
Honorable Mention:
Scandal - I just started watching in 2014. I did a binge to catch up, and I'm officially hooked.
14 Favorite Songs of 2014
These are the songs that made 2014 great and the songs I jammed out to on repeat this year.
- “Bartender” – Lady Antebellum
- “Blank Space” – Taylor Swift
- “Chandelier” – Sia
- “Cool Kids” – Echosmith
- “Girls Chase Boys” – Ingrid Michaelson
- “Habits (Stay High)” – Tove Lo
- “I Choose You” – Sara Bareilles
- “Shake it Off” – Taylor Swift
- “Sky Full of Stars” – Coldplay
- “Stay With Me” – Sam Smith
- “Talk Dirty” – Jason Derulo feat. 2 Chainz
- “Timber” – Pitbull featuring Kesha
- “Try” – Colbie Callait
- “Turn Down For What” – DJ Snake and Lil Jon
14 Hottest Guys of 2014
The guys I crushed on and lusted over in 2014.
I’ve always had a casual interest in politics. However, my political
awakening came in 2005, around the same time I began to come out as gay
to friends. Sen. Barbara Boxer was one of the first national figures to
make it onto my radar. She was one of the very first candidates to whom I
donated money. She was the ranking member of the Environmental and
Public Works Committee (which she would later chair when Democrats were
in the majority) and was a strong outspoken champion for environmental
protection and combating climate change. She was one of only 14 senators
to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in 1996. I can
remember when she and Sen. Ted Kennedy were pretty much the only
senators to publicly support same sex marriage rights. She became a hero
of mine and quickly became my favorite senator. She’s remained my
favorite senator for a decade. She never backed down from a challenge
and was always a champion for progressive ideas. She matched her fiery
rhetoric with hard work and sponsoring and co-sponsoring important
progressive legislation. As Nancy Pelosi said, “Small in size, but a
giant in terms of her contribution to her country.” I look forward to
seeing the work she does in her final two years as a U.S. Senator, and
I’m sure she’ll continue doing great things afterwards as well.
