Hello everyone!
This is my final blog for 2018 / year 24 of my life. I wanted this one to be more straightforward, so this is more of a virtual scrapbook of pictures of the year with descriptions so I can look back to this blog in the future if I ever want to wonder what I was doing at age 24. I guess this can be considered as a long-form Christmas card without the part where I sent it to you individually to help let you know I appreciate you. But I do appreciate you, a quick bit more on that:
Thanks for being interested enough in my life to read this! I certainly appreciate it and take it all in as extra support in my life. I try not to be so full of myself to the point where I expect people to ever read this, but I also know that I enjoy seeing updates of other people's lives, so I shouldn't be surprised when people enjoy the content that I put in my blog posts. There's something inherently selfish about writing a blog post that is all about my own life, so it's a weird dichotomy between trying to stay humble and actually knowing that there are people who appreciate looking at this sort of thing. Ultimately you have the choice to be reading this or to click away so that helps deter my worry that writing a blog like this is indicative of being self-obsessed. So thank you for being one of the people that go above and beyond in supporting me by reading this. Send me a message so I know you're reading so I can give you a personal thank you!
January
First event of the year was a visit from some of my former roommates from the volunteer program! Here is a picture of Sammie and me at Twin Leaf Brewery.
While still working at Homeward Bound, January was the month of the dog, where I met the cutest rottweiler I've ever seen, and another pup at a donation pickup that had just gotten done playing in the mud:
The great Dillon Denson used to work at New Belgium and gave our life group an employee tour of the facility. We got to go on the floor and I actually still have a Fat Tire that I took right off the belt before it was even labeled. Super cool evening.
For my 24th birthday, my coworkers took me to Baked Pie Company. I've had many beer/cider flights, but I'll take a pie flight any day.
January 28th was the first night of the first Gathering Church life group I have ever led. We played board games every week for three months and it was awesome.
January 29th, 2018 will be a day I will always remember as it was the day that "Grandpa at the Lake" Bill Stein died, and also the day I accepted my first full-time job at Four Seasons Compassion for Life, an agency that provides hospice services in addition to many others.
February
Family at Grandpa's memorial service. Fantastic service that was derived from the seven pages of notes my grandfather left of how he wanted the service to go. He was peculiar up until and past the day he died. Something he and Grandma will always be known for was their huge involvement in bringing the new pipe organ to Central Presbyterian Church in Geneseo, NY. His favorite piece to hear on that organ was Charles-Marie Widor's Toccata from Symphony for Organ No. 5, and demanded that his memorial service be concluded with that piece performed by the great David Hurd to show off that organ.
When I flew Buffalo -> Newark, I flew over Seneca Lake. We flew just north over the lake so that is Long Point near the bottom left of the photo. If you squint you can see Camp Whitman.
At the end of February I wrapped up my work with Homeward Bound. I loved working for them, and I very much enjoyed working 18 months of blue collar manual labor straight out of college. After the volunteer program wrapped up, Homeward Bound hired me part time which allowed me to discover Asheville as my home and decide to live here full-time. I will always be thankful to those who supported my volunteer year and helped me get connected to that wonderful organization and the wonderful people who worked there who helped me get to where I am today.
Between finishing at Homeward Bound and starting at Four Seasons CFL, I took a long weekend to visit Pennsylvania and go to my college town. While there I participated in the 30-Hour famine with the East Main Presbyterian Church youth group. After the photo, even more money was raised bringing the total to just over $16,000! Read more about that in my blog about the event.
While visiting Grove City I got to see some old friends, which was certainly a highlight of the trip. Got to go to Camelot with Palmer for breakfast, and then the night I stayed at Ethan's house we both picked Wendell Holland preseason as the winner of Survivor 36, so yeah we're awesome.
March
March 5th was my first day at my new job as a Volunteer Coordinator for Four Seasons Compassion for Life. I am very grateful to everyone who helped me make it through the application process and helped me get hired. You are all even more awesome than my pineapple socks (which are awesome).
One of the four Gathering Church life groups I was in during the Spring 2018 semester was the "Asheville Bucket List" group. We visited many places throughout Asheville, including a day of walking around Asheville's River Arts District. I'm not one of those people who "gets" art, so I basically just see a tour of art galleries as opportunities to be humorous and goofy.
For part of the year I was in the Land of Sky Symphonic Band. I had a good time getting back to playing percussion again.
Alex visited from St. Louis! We had a great time going to a lot of different breweries and hanging out in Asheville. This photo is us at the Wicked Weed Funkatorium.
One of my goals of the year was to get a group of guys together to play flag football. We got together a few times and I definitely want to plan a few games for 2019.
April
Went on a hike with Tyler and Lance with a great overlook of some of the mountains.
At the end of the Freedom Group life group, we went on a camping trip and had a lot of fun being men. One of my favorite hobbies is gathering firewood and maintaining a fire, which was the only thing I'd do on my breaks while at Camp Whitman. This GIF is probably my favorite video of the year. Shout out to Matt Dunn for filming this entire thing even with a piece of firewood flying less than a foot away from his face.
May
My big event in may was the Ultimate Challenge Mud Run - a 10k, 36 obstacle team mud race down in South Carolina. It was my first ever race and I had a blast doing it. Going through the mud and getting over those obstacles was so much fun, and we finished with a pretty decent time as well! Running a race was one of my bucket list goals for year 24, check out my blog about that list of goals to read more details about this race.
Special shout out to "Buehner" who ran the race a second time with me. Making the most out of the trip down by sneaking past the start and going through the course a second time was definitely worth it.
June
First day of June I ran my first ever 5k. It was extremely hot and contained plenty of Asheville hills. Overall I enjoyed it!
June was defined primarily by Gather Students - our church's student ministry. I had a blast preparing three "Survivor" style challenges for them to compete in. Each one was exciting in it's own way. This photo is the winning team after the first challenge that had an incredibly intense finish. It was a come-from-behind victory with a 7th grader defeating a 11th grader head-to-head in a domino stacking competition. The margin of victory was only by a few seconds, and the entire challenge took about 15 minutes, so it went as good as any challenge probably ever will. Check out this blog to read up on some more of the games we do with Gather Students.
With Gather Students came becoming close friends with the student director, Mikey Holmes, his wife, Morgan, and their shih tzu puppy, Lucy. Because I don't take too many photos while hanging out with friends, I want to make sure to recognize that even though there aren't too many photos in this blog of the specific friends I made this year, creating and cultivating those friendships was by far the best use of my time in 2018. It's hard to communicate that over the medium of a blog that primarily relies on photos, because in those times when we're growing those relationships, we're actually hanging out instead of taking too many photos.
July
Kicked off the second half of the year with a visit to the Biltmore Estate and their Chihuly exhibit. Living close to the Corning Museum of Glass in Western NY has always made me appreciate glass and the cool art people make. It is one of the few art forms I'm able to truly appreciate. I was so excited to see Chihuly because he even did a chandelier at the Eastman School of Music while I was studying there in high school. Special thanks to Amelia and Janet Moore for the entire experience.
4th of July was excellent. It was the first time I've ever had a lowcountry boil, and it was delicious. Up there in my top 3 favorite meals of the year. Special thanks to Ryan Gill for hosting me and creating an awesome laid back 4th of July with plenty of fireworks and delicious food.
In July I got to watch A Quiet Place with a couple of friends. I'm not a big horror movie guy, but I absolutely loved this movie and the whole experience with my friends. A specific moment that I want to recognize was special because it was with those friends. Also, shout out to Emily Blunt, she's been my celebrity crush since 2012, and it's still going strong.
In July, Gather Students traveled to Charleston for "One Night" - a huge student event at Seacoast church. I had a blast fighting alongside these students in some pretty intense dodge ball games and then playing football the next day at the beach. Looking forward to going again next summer. Also this was the one weekend that I had a mustache as a joke, I didn't expect it to appear in a photo.
One of the best things I accomplished this year was becoming better friends with this goof and his family. Robbie Denson is a solid dude, and I'm super grateful for the support he and his family have given me as we have become even closer friends. Can't say enough good things about this man. I appreciate him even though he will never make it to a fantasy football championship.
End of July I helped Robert Knight create a slip-n-slide in his backyard. It was 200 ft long created out of billboard vinyl and was so much fun! I'm down at the bottom for scale - keep in mind that I'm just about 6'3" - this thing was giant. Funny enough the next day I'd slide down and hit that tree I'm standing right in front of. Thankfully I have friends at Radius Chiropractic.
That same weekend, my brother visited me in Asheville! We didn't take any photos together but we went and saw my favorite movie of the year - Mission Impossible Fallout. Incredible movie and Tom Cruise is easily my favorite actor making movies right now.
August
I've always missed Camp Whitman since leaving, and I'll always be a camp counselor in the way I interact with kids and create games and activities. Every year the bereavement program at Four Seasons CFL puts on a weekend camp for children who have experienced the death of a family member. It was so much fun being back in camp counselor mode and I had a great group of 4th and 5th graders. Shout out to Caroline Moser for joining me from church to show me around her old Camp Tekoa stomping grounds and to volunteer with us.
That same weekend as camp - Laura visited! It was great seeing my cousin, and we went to Sierra Nevada.
The month ended with my fantasy football draft. For anyone who chooses to zoom in to the photo to check out my team - I think the fact that I drafted Le'Veon Bell, Devonta Freeman, Jerick McKinnon, Marshawn Lynch, and Jay Ajayi as my main running backs speaks for itself. I was one spot out of the playoffs again this year.
September
Started September with my second and last performance with the Land of Sky Symphonic Band. While I very much enjoyed being part of that ensemble, it was one thing too many for my schedule. I hope to either cut down on some other activities and add it back into my weekly routine or to find another way to keep up with percussion.
Running the Blue Ridge Relay was definitely the hardest thing I've done all year, and I'm still recuperating from injuring my knee during it. Still debating with myself whether or not I'm glad that I did it. Very thankful for the guys who sponsored me and wanted me there with them.
September means a new season of Survivor! Although many of the people in this photo were at the watch party just to watch the finale of an inferior show called Big Brother, I had a great time watching the Survivor: David vs. Goliath premiere with friends. It turned out to be one of the best seasons the show has ever had. Excited to see what season 38 brings!
Did you just read this and say to yourself: "Wait, Survivor is still on?" If so, read this.
Fall also marked the high school football season. One of the students played for A.C. Reynolds, so we went to a lot of those football games. Had a great time hanging out with Mikey, Morgan, Jay, the Greenes, the Martins, and the entire Knight family. Ignore Jericho's grumpiness in this photo, he was being a baby. Highlight of the season was when the opposing team was a yard away from scoring a touchdown to make it a close game, and I said: "nah, pick 6 right here", and one play later a Reynolds' defender scored a 99 yard touchdown off of an interception. I'd be lying if I said I was primarily happy for the team and not for my own correct prediction. Shout out to Little Pigs BBQ which was our choice for delicious pre-game BBQ for that game.
October
October started with a very hot day at the Eliada Home Corn Maze with kids from the Heart Songs program. I was glad to follow up the summer with another event with some of the campers that I had been a counselor for.
One of my favorite pictures capturing a moment of pure joy. I absolutely love making campfires, and being able to do that for my coworkers at our region's employee picnic was a true highlight. Special thanks to Michael Bolser for hosting the event and to Shannon Mullis for getting this photo.
A year in Asheville isn't complete without some pictures of the mountains on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Every time family visits I have a great time going hiking with them. Happy to have both parents visit me in Asheville in October.
Late October, I visited one of my high school friends, Alaina, in her new home in Knoxville, Tennessee. I had never visited Knoxville before, and had a great trip! Highlights were her birthday dinner at The Stock and Barrel where I had the best fries I've ever had in my life (so far), an impromptu ropes course, and then watching the Purdue vs. Ohio State game Saturday evening. Since Alaina and her sister are huge Penn State fans, we were heavily rooting for Purdue, who were huge underdogs vs. No. 2 Ohio State. Purdue obliterated Ohio State 49-20. Shout out to Sarah Antenor, a good friend who went to Purdue.
Carving pumpkins has always been my favorite Halloween tradition. This year I received a surprise gift in the mail containing a legit pumpkin carving kit! It helped out a ton with the carving, and I thought my Calvin and Hobbes pumpkins turned out great! Special thanks to Palmer for sending me that carving kit, I highly recommend it for anyone who is looking into buying tools for carving pumpkins.
For Halloween, I was my favorite GIF - Henry Cavill "reloading" his fists in Mission Impossible Fallout. Having my costume be a GIF really helped communicate it over social media. Also, I discovered that the mustache is a lot less creepy if accompanied by significant stubble. Special thanks to Kristina Israel for helping me create the GIF while simultaneously doing a great Waldo impression.
More Halloween fun at work.
November
November marked my one year anniversary as part of the F3 Asheville workout group. I wrote a blog that you can read about my first year with F3. This photo is with our most senior member of the group, "Dory", who turned 63 this November and is still going strong. He's an inspiration to all of us in the group.
I always stop in Maryland/DC to see my dad/brother as a way to break up the drive from NC to NY. On the way up for Thanksgiving this year, cousin Amanda was also in DC, so we got to enjoy a fun night together playing pounce and going to a restaurant that we won't return to. Amanda won the game of pounce with a final score of: A-112, J-98, D-69.
For Thanksgiving, I'm really glad that I went up to NY to spend it with family, especially with my grandparents. Here are multiple photos from that wonderful trip:
Significant snowfall for November...
...getting to be "Uncle Jeremy" with my cousins' kids...
...and Thanksgiving with the family! I had a wonderful trip up to NY and hope I can go up more often than I did this past year.
Four Seasons CFL Volunteer Solutions team Christmas photo. I'm very happy to be on such a great team! These four have all helped train me and bring me along as the "new guy" this year, special thanks to all of them!
Dream Team Christmas Party:
This guy right here is the real deal. Not only because he's the second ever winner of the "Jeremy Glidden Award" Dundie, but because he's a fantastic friend. Paul Schedler joined the setup team and we instantly became good friends. I wasn't too sure about him at first, but then he mentioned something about fantasy football and the rest is history. Love hanging out with him, Kelli, Jesse, and Marissa. Although he's really good at putting people to sleep, he is never a bore to spend time with.
Special thanks to Matt Dunn again for capturing a GIF of me in my element. Anyone who knows me knows I love entertaining kids and using my abundance of energy to occupy our future leaders. With all the people that have helped me throughout life by investing in me and supporting me with their time, I have the joyous obligation of doing the same for my friends and their children.
Every good party has an after party, and when the party is at Seacoast Asheville, the after party is at Hillman Beer. Special thanks to Audrey Fortezzo, Sarah Cochran, Danna Martin, and many others for helping me get some good brewery photos that night.
December
A year in Asheville isn't complete without visiting the famous Paul Maki sauna. Every single time it was incredible, but one specific night I want to highlight was on December 2nd. I ate Elk for the first time which was delicious, and Paul added eucalyptus oil to the sauna experience. While I'm very skeptical of the whole essential oil pyramid scheme thing, the eucalyptus oil inside the steam of the sauna smelled really nice. Also it was the first time for John Greene in the sauna and I really enjoy seeing someone experience it for the first time. Very thankful to Paul and Heath for hosting us throughout the fall/winter.
Also, the Christmas light ball things were up at the sauna, which is always super cool. Special thanks to Heath Maki who always contributes to the sauna nights behind the scenes by doing a lot of work beforehand to make the entire environment hospitable - it is not unrecognized!
Asheville had a significant (for NC - 11 inches) snowstorm in December! I'm grateful to live in an area that gets all four seasons of the year but has an emphasis on summer/sunny days.
Gather Students wrapped up the year with a Christmas party - the cool people wore onesies.
After driving a student home from the Christmas party, I got to meet their new Cavapoo (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel + Poodle) puppy. Possibly the greatest moment of 2018.
On the way from NC to Maryland, there was a lot of rain and storming. This vivid rainbow was really cool, but the best part about it was that about 30 seconds after taking this photo, I drove through the end of the rainbow! It actually ended in the middle of the road further down, and when I drove through it, everything turned red/orange for about a second! It was so crazy and I highly recommend everyone tries to be at the end of a rainbow at least once in their life to experience the crazy colors. This photo doesn't do that moment justice, it was extraordinary.
At Conesus Lake for Christmas.
Sunrise woke me up 12/26
I don't have too many photos from Christmas, but it was a really great trip that included my two favorite meals of the year - Christmas morning potato pancakes and going to Buffalo to Duff's Famous Wings - one of the original chicken wing restaurants in Buffalo. I had a fantastic time with family and friends and I can't wait to go back!
There's no better way to finish out the year than hanging with my best friend, Mat, and his girlfriend, Emily. Not coincidentally, it is also the best way to start out a New Year! So glad I got to see these two and goof off to complete 2018. I may move down south and make plenty of new friends, but I'll only ever have one high school best friend.
That's it! Best year of my life so far, and I can't wait to see what 2019 brings! Thanks so much for making it all the way through this and being a part of my life in 2018. You're one of many who mean a lot to me. If it's been awhile since we've talked, reach out and I'd love to catch up with you!
God bless!