These are some of the things that made 2024 special:

1. Cal getting his wisdom teeth out and calling me at work to say in Spanglish, “Estoy triste porque el dentista took mis dientes and won’t give them back.”
2. Celebrating 16 years with Angie a là saunas and cold baths.
3. Annual adoption day breakfast with Cal at the delicious Breakfast Bear.
4. Swanson and Rislove kazoo chorus at Kin & Kind‘s live music night with Jason and Ryan.
5. Packers playoff run led by J. Love and A. Jones.
6. Backyard fires with the Solo Stove.
7. My buddy Boyd spinning vinyl at Whitewater Music Hall. Also, wearing baby blue to support him and his Lions while serving ourselves at Sconni’s. My buddy Ben closing ‘er down to host us.
8. Angie’s manifestations via To Be Magnetic.
9. Seeing Making Movies as part of the Grand Theater’s Lift Every Voice series.
10. Receiving a lucky bamboo from a student with the message, “The bamboo plant is said to bring good luck and positive energy to the place where it is grown. This bamboo has been selected to express my gratitude and appreciation for everything you do. I hope that this bamboo plant will bring you and your family good luck, health, and happiness.“
11. Sunday walks listening to Mountain Stage. Realizing that this is the music I’d choose to listen to on my deathbed.
12. Watching Tracy Chapman and Joni Mitchell perform (on TV) at the Grammys.
13. Angie getting accepted into medical school at St. George’s University in Grenada, West Indies.
14. Cleaning up downed trees and splitting firewood with friends.
15. Helping my bro insulate his cabin up north and making a fire to burn a tree stump.
16. Family roadtrip and vacation over spring break in Orange Beach, Alabama.
17. Watching Netflix’s 3 Body Problem, a mindblowing story based on a favorite sci-fi trilogy of mine, In Remembrance of Earth’s Past, by Chinese author Liu Cixin.
18. New glasses and an updated prescription after 10 years of wearing the same glasses without ever updating my prescription.
19. First Bucks game as a family to celebrate Cal’s birthday.
20. Listening to NPR’s All Songs Considered episode “Songs to make you laugh with ‘Weird Al” Yankovic.”
21. Walks in the neighborhood with Buckley.
22. Listening to records.
23. Trip to Door County to stay with Meghan and Karsten and attend the soft opening of the Shoreline Restaurant in Gills Rock.
24. Witnessing Wisconsin’s Caribbean blues without fully realizing it at the time.
25. Watching the Survivor finale with friends.
26. Moon Man on tap!
27. Completing the Door County Half Marathon with Angie. Training for it with the Nike Run Club’s Half-Marathon Training Plan.
28. Mix tapes and Choose Your Own Adventure books at Bridge Up Brewery in Sturgeon Bay post-race.
29. Cal crushing his freshman year at UW-Madison.
30. Seeing the Northern Lights in Wisconsin.
31. Finishing my fourth year of teaching Spanish at D.C. Everest Senior High. Watching students I mentored complete the Global Scholars Program.
32. June recognizance mission to Grenada with Angie as part of See SGU. Live music at 61 West and hearing “This one goes out to all the lovebirds out there” before every single song.
33. Camping with my family in Brule, WI. Ordering the 1, 1, and 1 at the Twin Gables Cafe, having the waitress and my family doubt my choice because of how small it was, and immediately needing to eat something else upon returning to camp because I felt faint.
34. Food and beers at the Fish Shed in Cornucopia, WI and visiting with our friend Joe (but missing our friend Jody).
35. Disc golfing at the gorgeous and expansive Highbridge Hills Megaplex.
36. Blending in kitchen cabinets to accommodate a bigger refrigerator.
37. Attending the Blue Ox Music Festival with “festival Angie.” Listening to great music and spending wonderful time with friends.
38. Hosting Cal’s Madison friends for a weekend. Hoops and pool time at grandma and grandpa’s.
39. Deciding to quit my teaching job to support Angie as she attends medical school in Grenada. Cleaning out my Spanish classroom at D.C. Everest and remembering all the memories.
40. Buckley and Moco’s tolerance of one another (and maybe even affection for one another).
41. Being inspired to write again after reading Austin Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist and Anne Lamott’s Bird By Bird.
42. Cannonballs and climbing hills.
43. Brad’s bachelor party in Milwaukee, WI—playing Spikeball, throwing axes, and general shenanigans.
44. Brad and Deborah’s wedding—hotel room dance parties, celebratory dinners, testing out my Portuguese skills, general merrymaking with family and friends, and celebrating an amazing couple. Post-wedding beach visit with Angie and Brad.
45. Successfully changing a flat tire while on a bike ride with my bro.
46. Teaching my niece and nephews tennis at my dad’s summer camp.
47. Spending time with the Caseys at their cabin.
48. Finding childhood Michael Jordan posters in my parent’s basement and passing them onto Cal.
49. Cleaning and organizing our house to prepare for our move. Taking breaks to watch the Olympics when feeling unmotivated and somehow finding the inspiration to carry on cleaning and organizing.
50. Having high school friends over for a campfire and having two of them show up in full-on track suits.
51. First full-on Barn Dance since before Covid. Witnessing the next generation sit down and sing “Stand By Me” in unison.
52. Giving Cal one of my flannels for the Barn Dance because he couldn’t find any and having him cut off the sleeves of said flannel before immediately finding one of his own and saying, “Oh, here’s one of mine.”
53. Full moons.
54. Former Mankato neighbors adopting sweet Moco while we are away. Dan taking care of Buckley, along with the occasional help of several other good friends.
55. Watching Cal play on a local summer soccer league.
56. The support of all our friends and loved ones at our going away party, hosted by our lovely neighborhood craft beer bar Kin & Kind.
57. Finding rainbows.
58. Fluffy bunnies and the Alto Fair.
59. Baby Etta.
60. Eating sushi in Wauwatosa before taking Angie to O’Hare Airport.
61. Packing our remaining possessions into our upstairs bedroom.
62. Anticipating that I’d have a lot of time to read in Grenada and buying a Kindle Paperwhite, along with a sweet cork cover for it that reminded me of a surfboard (because in my mind, Caribbean = surfing, apparently).
63. Reading more than I have in years and feeling inspired to cultivate a reading habit from here on out. Some books I’ve enjoyed so far on the Kindle are Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, Chuck Klosterman’s The Nineties, and Kio Stark’s Don’t Go Back to School.
64. Spending time with Cal and moving him to Madison before the pair of us traveled to Grenada. Packing up his stuff and moving him into his first apartment. Self pickup of the apartment keys from The Hub Realty. Finding the perfect-sized bed frame and building him a bedroom shelf. Shopping at the tiny Ace Hardware store on Willy Street.
65. Getting mole at Garibaldi. Final frisbee game with Cal at Elver Park.
66. Loosing my year+ Duolingo streak during a chaotic August and not caring. Feeling empowered to control my own language-learning journey and not let an owl dictate how I feel about it. Take that Duo!
67. Moving to Grenada.
68. Cal’s Grenada haircut.
69. Snorkeling at the Underwater Sculpture Park.
70. Buying a Suzuki Ignis and driving it on the left side of the street.
71. Angie’s white coat celebration at Le Phare Bleu.
72. New beaches like Morne Rouge.
73. A colleague sending me a video of my former students telling me “te echamos de menos, Señor” and singing “Cielito Lindo.”
74. Starting my website ericwenninger.com and my newsletter An Uncommon Commute.
75. Angie persevering (once again!) through a lost luggage situation and Cal incredibly finding said lost luggage (aided by the fact that Angie’s suitcase is bright florescent green) in a sea of gray and black suitcases at the Miami Airport while on a 6+ hour delay.
76. Hiking to Hog Island after Angie’s first exam.
77. Playing cribbage and reading cards with Angie at the Brewery.
78. Cooking red snapper whole. Cooking much more to support Angie’s intensive study schedule.
79. Holding my own playing ultimate frisbee with a bunch of SGU youngsters.
80. Taking a random walk through my neighborhood and starting a conversation with this guy I met along the way, the first of what would become many with my newfound friend Matt.
81. Participating as a crew member in my first sailing regatta.
82. Journeying out to Nat’s Pizza and feeling happy about it.
83. Getting our shit together to vote absentee, even though shit still hit the fan. Realizing we all might need some more empathy.
84. Running in Lance Aux Espines and finding out where the sidewalk ends.
85. Contemplating blue while missing the fall. Creating my October Oceans playlist to help me cope.
86. Angie’s incredible motivation, work ethic, and resilience.
87. Hearing 80s and 90s soft rock everywhere in Grenada. Embracing it fully. Can’t stop, won’t stop.
88. Grenadian grocery stores playing full Michael Jackson albums on repeat.
89. Negative capability and the adversity in our lives that helps us to grow.
90. My buddy Matt teaching me how to sail a Hobie Cat.
91. Walking on the beach with a rum punch, or two (but absolutely no more or else you’re flirting with danger).
92. A Caribbean Christmas with visits from my parents and Cal. Driving them around, visiting sweet beaches and a waterfall, and eating good food.
93. Listening to my dad sing some 70s classics at an open mic night at Nimrod’s. Surprising musician Paul by joining him to sing the Buena Vista Social Club song “Dos Gardenias.”
94. Baking Christmas monster cookies, listening to my ever-growing Christmas playlist (now over 24 hours long), and watching Christmas movies both new and old.
95. Cal joining a Grenadian soccer team to compete in a local tournament late at night on a small field with some unique throw-in and penalty-kick rules.
96. Working on a media literacy unit for the Access program. Learning about the six individuals we featured in our lesson who are using social media for good causes: Dani Aravich, Hollis Belger, Darius Brown, Nick Lowinger, Julia Warren, and Joshua Williams.
97. Seeing Santa Claus flying in a helicopter while on Grand Anse Beach on Christmas Day.
98. Grilling out on SGU’s campus and stargazing.
99. Counters and candles.
100. New Year’s Eve dinner at La Luna with Angie, and our Grenada (Sandwich, MA) friends Matt and Caitlyn.