Sycamore Press No. 22: A Bulleted List of Past-Tense Verbs

This e-mail finds me well. Hopefully we’ve been in touch by other means, even if just a little bit, in the latter third of 2025. If not, I hope my protracted silence didn’t set off alarm bells. In many respects, things are as good as they’ve ever been.

We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so I’m just going to give a rapid-fire recap and get us back on track for a more consistent year of e-mailing:

• First, we have some sad news. In September, we had to say goodbye to sweet chocolate Ande the guinea pig after about 7 wonderful years. He is sorely missed.

• Witnessed a couple of bona fide, world-swallowing dust storms.

• Briefly had ants. Kind of cool, then got gross. Plugged up a crack under the baseboards. Didn’t have ants anymore.

• Started rocking a bandana a lot (as what I guess you’d call a hair accessory). Helped buffer the effects of many a lousy hair day.

• Acquired a whole network of new friends, many of whom I now consider very close indeed. Resolved to spend basically every waking moment with them.

• Spent untold amounts of money on food, saw some legendary live music, and generally had an OK time in fabulous Las Vegas with a few of my favorite people on the planet while crammed into a damp hotel room together.

• Returned to find that a freak storm had brought down two trees in front of our place, smooshed a neighbor’s car, and generally caused destruction.

• Spent basically every waking moment with my new friends.

• Attended and helped put on a number of local shows.

• Hosted a Halloween party, and people actually came! Made a fun flyer for it.

• Gave what was probably the best academic talk of my career so far.

• Acquired a few pieces of clothing I really feel good in.

• Made at least 7 mix CDs for people in my life. So much fun. Looking forward to making more!

• Started seeing a psychiatrist. Started taking sertraline (Zoloft).

• Reunited with our friend Henry for a week and shared a delicious feast.

• Saw psychiatrist again. Started taking buproprion (Wellbutrin).

• Hosted another party with my friend Z. Made another flyer. Made spinach puffs and mulled wine and homemade cocoa.

• Saw the Nutcracker, lots of family, and a couple of friends during some whirlwind holiday travel which nonetheless turned out oddly hassle-free.

• Had a surprisingly hopeful New Years!

• Started a slow pitch softball team with a bunch of friends.

• Worked from about 6:00 PM to 7:00 AM the next morning helping my friends screen print and tie dye a team’s worth of unique homemade softball jerseys. Listened to Steely Dan albums over and over all the while.

• Played four softball games. Scored no runs. Gave up double-digit runs in every game. Had some of the most fun of my entire life.

• Jailbroke a kindle.

• Clawed my way out of a really long reading drought.

• Stopped rocking a bandana quite as much. (I’ve been having a lot of good hair days lately.)

• Switched back to an A6 Hobonichi Techo page-a-day planner for 2026. Feels like coming home.

• Clawed my way out of a really long cartooning drought with this Sycamore comic, which you can also read on my site!

  

There’s probably so much I’m missing. Forgive me. There was a lot of ground to cover. I’m planning on sharing some more updates in a forthcoming blog post which will see me going into a bit more depth about some of my New Favorite Things from lately.

In the meantime, I hope that your year has been off to a good start. I’m making a note to give you a call sometime soon. Don’t be a stranger! Also, thank you for being one of the things that makes me thankful to be alive for another year on planet Earth.

I love you!!

—N.