Welcome to 2017! It’s time to take stock. Look at all this stock. Let’s take it.

In 2016, aside from the celebrity deaths and political quagmire, what happened personally? (We’ll set aside for now how politics felt more personal this past year than they have in a long time.) Well, Cecily emerged from her super-shy stage and now will start talking your ear off if you come visit. Simon has taken to fancy clothing – we got him a button-up white shirt and suit jacket that he wears more often than not – and has started to have to deal with some real schoolin’ in first grade. Katie and I visited Chicago and Hawaii this year, along with driving up to Portland overnight one weekend. We celebrated 10 years of marriage. Katie jumped out a window. What a year.

Let’s take a quick look at last year’s resolutions. Remember – we’re not here to judge. We’re just here to have a quick laugh and then move on, all right? Let’s just keep that in mind. OK, what did I say I’d try to do a year ago?

  • “Release” a personal creative project
    I did this! I totally did this. I released a Twine game that I’d started in 2015, but I also did a bunch of writing.
  • Read some fiction, some non-fiction, some poetry, and a play
    I’m not sure that I hit poetry, but I ended up reading maybe a half-dozen books, not counting any of the novellas I audiobook narrated.
  • Go to the gym 3 times
    Hahahahahahahahahahahahoooooooboy. Yeah no.
  • Brush more
    Subjective, but I’ll mark this as a yes. You don’t want to know how bad my dental hygiene routine was in 2015.

What about 2017? What am I going to try to do for 2017, after the banner year of resolution-keeping where I batted 0.688? What, even, is left? Shouldn’t I just give up now? A lesser man would. I am no lesser man.

  • Learn a tap dance routine
  • “Release” an audio project
  • Read 12 books
  • Finish entries/pics for season 1 of Lost
  • Be home for dinner more often

It’s all going to happen this year.

OK, that’s enough stock-taking. Time to turn to opinion-spewing, in list form!
Best Movie I Saw in Theaters: Moonlight
Best Movie I Saw with Singing: La La Land
Best Movie I Saw with Lin-Manuel Miranda Singing: Moana
Best Movie I Saw on Netflix: Philomena
Best Movie I Saw on an Airplane Because Simon Was Really Insistent and I Paid Twice For: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip
Best TV Show (new): Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Best TV Show (old): Gilmore Girls
Best TV Show (pulp): Timeless
Best TV Show Other Than CEG with Singing: The Get Down
Best TV Show with Lin-Manuel Miranda Singing: Hamilton’s America
Best Album: La La Land Soundtrack
Best Album with Lin-Manuel Miranda Singing: The Hamilton Mixtape
Best AAA Game: Uncharted 4
Best Indie Game: Oxenfree
Best Mobile Game: Rodeo Stampede
Best Game to Play with the Kids: LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Best Game I Would Totally Already Have Beaten If It Were 5 Years Ago: The Last Guardian
Best Game Where I Got Lost in a Cave and Died: No Man’s Sky
Best UGT Game: Real Human Basketball
Best Book (new): The Seven Good Years
Best Book (really really old):Jane Eyre
Best New Podcast: In the Dark
Best New (to Me) Podcast: You Must Remember This
Best Old Podcast: Invisibilia
Best Fiction Podcast: Homecoming
Best Stage Show: Twelfth Night (OSF)
Best Stage Show Where I Got Rained On: The Winter’s Tale (OSF)
Best Stage Show Where I Got to Be Severus Snape: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Reading, Dai Family Theatre)
Best Pokemon Namer: Cecily
Best Fancypants: Simon

OK, that’s it. We’re zipping up 2016 and barreling forward in time until we discover a time machine and unravel all our realities. If nothing else, this will be the year when I get to see Hamilton staged.

Good night and good luck.