Today’s the day that everyone on Instagram was posting their year-in-review photos, which typically gets the “oh how nice for you” response that it deserves.
But out of curiosity I started flipping back through the photo album to get an idea of what my own hypothetical version would look like, and I was genuinely surprised. I’d kind of imagined events spread out over the past few years, and I didn’t realize that we’d managed to cram so much stuff into 2023.
This was supposed to be my “gap year,” where I’d wrapped up my last project as best I could, and could take advantage of the once-in-a-lifetime chance to just take a year off. Work on personal projects, maybe build up a portfolio, but mainly just relax. So I’d mis-remembered the year as being mostly uneventful, but in fact we’d been lucky to do a ton of stuff. Here’s that stuff in list form!
January
- Went with a friend to see the Astra Lumina light show in Los Angeles
- Went to a soft opening of Super Nintendo World at Universal Hollywood
- Saw M3GAN, which was surprisingly fun and even bordering on insightful
- Tried for a month to bring the friendly muttonchops back into style
February
- Highlight of the month was our first Disney Cruise, to Catalina and Ensenada on the Disney Wonder. We loved it, and I instantly became a convert.
March
- Drove up to San Francisco for a brief visit to the Game Developers Conference
- Met with friends, some of whom I haven’t seen in years, at the tiki bar Last Rites
- Went to a “Batuu Pride” event hosted by my friend Dave, and my fiance indulged us by taking photos while we goofed off with our light sabers in front of the Millennium Falcon
April
- We got a new couch and felt like grown-ups
- I caught COVID and felt terrible. Mostly because it inconvenienced other people more than it did me, and it seemed to last all month.
May
- We went to a Star Wars-themed Disneyland After Dark event
- I finally got to visit the Apple Park in Cupertino, along with the original Apple HQ on Infinite Loop
June
- We visited Washington DC and saw Mount Vernon, plus a Yayoi Kusama exhibit
- I spent my birthday at Disneyland, and then my fiance drove down to meet me and have dinner at Rancho del Zocalo. It’s a quick-service restaurant, but it felt really special, and that was honestly one of the best days of the entire year.
July
- We went to Vegas, where the highlights were The Beatles LOVE show at The Mirage…
- …the neon museum…
- …and Omega Mart by Meow Wolf
August
- We went to a live comedy event that seemed very much a “this could only happen in Los Angeles” type thing, where an artist was on hand, illustrating the comedian’s routines in real time
- We met up with a friend and spent the day going to a queer book fair in West Hollywood, and then exploring around Little Tokyo
September
- We went with friends to my second-ever Hollywood Horror Nights at Universal Studios. I still think it’s my favorite haunt event in the area.
- Family came out to visit, so we saw Santa Monica and the canals in Venice.
- I flew back to Atlanta to visit family, and while there I spent a day at my first DragonCon.
- Not pictured, but I started my new full-time job.
October
- More haunt events leading up to Halloween, including the interactive haunted house Delusion…
- …and my second visit to Knott’s Scary Farm
November
- We made last-minute dinner plans for our anniversary at a Japanese restaurant in the Hollywood hills
- We went to an event run by IndieCade at the Music Center in Los Angeles, an open-air collection of video games available for everyone to play
- We saw Wish at the Disney Studios lot
December
- We made our first visit to the LA Comic Con downtown
- We went to a Christmas party at the Disney Studios lot and got to see the company HQ
- We saw Christmas lights at Disneyland and at Universal Studios
One special achievement this year is that I think I went to Disneyland at least once every month in 2023. That’s a big deal because it proves how much I live near Disneyland.
I can’t speak for anybody else, but I’m very glad to have the first New Year’s Eve in a very long time where I can look back on the previous year and be pretty happy with everything that happened. What I can say for everyone else is that I hope you have a safe, healthy, and prosperous 2024.