100 THINGS THAT MADE MY YEAR

In no particular order...

1. The inspiration for this post: Austin Kleon's 100 things that made his year
   
2. Playing 22 characters in 9 plays at the American Shakespeare Center
3. Skyping with my family and Samson the golden retriever for Thanksgiving and Christmas
4. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
5. Excellent TV: True Detective, The Good Wife, The Americans, Frasier, Black Mirror, Orphan Black, Broadchurch
6. Watching Tracy Letts, Michael C. Hall, Toni Collette, and Marisa Tomei in bizarre, mundane-meets-cosmic awkwardness in The Realistic Joneses on Broadway
7. Chris Thile and Edgar Meyer concert in Harvard
8. Buying Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel at a charming indie bookstore in Schenectady, NY (and reading it, of course)
9. Discovering good, affordable bourbon
10. Matt Thomas's Submitted For Your Perusal blog
11. The comedy of John Mulaney
12. Lynda Barry's classroom tumblr
13. Watching most of the cast of Cabaret watch themselves on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at an Irish pub in Manhattan
14. #PeterPanLive
15. Getting rid of my Netflix account
16. Writing music for in-show songs in As You Like It
17. Patio beers and a burger with friends at Sweeney's in St. Paul
18. Watching Big Trouble in Little China for the first time
19. Running by myself or with friends
20. Haunted bar for Halloween
21. Attending opening night for a saucy and exuberant production of The Importance of Being Earnest at American Players Theatre
22. My brother Aaron got engaged
23. Ryan Byrd's "Two in Review" music feature on his blog (free playlist downloads!)
24. Star Wars VII teaser
25. The Maxamoo podcast
26. Too Many Cooks
27. Playing Thin Lizzy guitar solos on the trumpet
28. Gin, tonic, mango, and pepper at the Fancy Christmas Eve party
29. This poem: "A Brief for the Defense" by Jack Gilbert
30. Singing "Royals" during the As You Like It interlude
31. When my troupe collectively devoured Gone Girl
32. The High Line
33. Stumbling upon this The Alchemist poster from the RSC on tour
34. The National Aquarium in Baltimore
35. Hanging out with this dog 
36. This interview with Linda Emond (and meeting her)
37. Bread pudding pancakes in Chicago
38. I was in a band...we even had a couple gigs
39. Buying my domain
40. Running in the woods in Canton, NY
41. Abandoning books that I didn't like
42. NOW: In the Wings on a World Stage
43. Skyping with my brother Dan, who lives in Guyana
44. The Scourge of "Relatability"
45. The awesome book reading/writing community on Twitter
46. Attending Cabaret on Broadway (and seeing a good friend in it)
47. The Bier Garden in Portsmouth, VA
48. Puddles the Clown singing "Royals"
49. Seeing 18-month-old Wilbur dance to Donald O'Connor and Gene Kelly in the morning
50. Drinking this ridiculously expensive PBR at Busch Stadium
51. The organ in the Interstellar soundtrack
52. Encountering some Rodin in Baltimore
53. Brunch in Brooklyn
54. Throwing away most of my college files
55. Discovering the band Glass Animals
56. Listening to RadioLab podcasts on the tour
57. The tornado that was Jim Ridge in American Buffalo at the American Players Theatre
58. Playing Mario Kart 64
59. The Thai food place in Oneonta, NY (specifically, the drunken noodles)
60. Actors preparing backstage for a show
61. The trumpet stylings of Takuya Kuroda (on vinyl)
62. When my fellow tourmates randomly yell "troll!" in honor of the glory that is Trollhunter
63. Queen City Brewing
64. Receiving invitations to audition for projects from my director friends
65. This essay on Puddles the Clown
66. Guardians of the Galaxy
67. The dogs of my co-workers (Harper, Tucker, Rugby, Rocky, Ajax)
68. Lobster Mac 'n Cheese in Boston
69. Joyous tears during Once on Broadway
70. The sculptures in downtown Sioux Falls
71. Moving into a giant house, built in the late 1800s
72. Coming up with a Harry Potter joke in Doctor Faustus
73. Mark Strand on poetry in the Paris Review
74. Long chats with grad school friends on the phone
75. The Gone Girl soundtrack
76. Blogging about the 2014 Actors' Renaissance Season
77. The Hobbit/Office spoof on Saturday Night Live
78. Homeland season 4's glorious comeback
79. Writing by hand makes you smarter
80. Seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark and Good Will Hunting on the big screen
81. Sam Mendes's 25 Rules for Directors
82. My friend Aaron hiked the Appalachian Trail in five months this year (2000+ miles)
83. My Warby Parker glasses
84. John Lithgow's King Lear blog
85. Learning the accordion part to "Shipping out to Boston"
86. Making playlists for tour treks across the country
87. Having drinks with a writing professor after my brother's graduation
88. Learning the game solitaire frenzy
89. Reading three GIANT books: The Luminaries, The Goldfinch, and A Storm of Swords (I read others, of course)
90. Having work secured at least until June 2016
91. Making my parents' Christmas present
92. Exploring the towns and cities we stay in on tour
93. The Skinny Pancake in Burlington, VA
94. These paintings by Seth Adelsberger
95. Revisiting my first professional artistic home: The Commonweal Theatre and attending Ibsen's Brand (a new adaptation by Jeffrey Hatcher)
96. End-of-the-year lists
97. Discovering Ben Lerner's novel 10:04 in the last days of the year
98. Trader Joe's trips on tour
99. Spotify
100. Cooking for friends and family