So it’s safe to say that this year didn’t go to plan at all. In January 2019 I was fresh-faced and insistent that my motto was going to be “Boundaries and Balance.” I was going to take a step back from production and producing, I was going to take a real vacation or two, and by god, I was going to write. I had a day job at Stareable as their Community Director (starting year 3 of my employment there), a new side hustle in teaching once a week at my old grad program, and was looking forward to a less hectic year ahead.
By February, that was completely out the window. It’s still a little too soon to talk about the rough stuff of the year, some of which you can probably guess based on context clues and my new years resolutions posts (my 2019 final tally post goes up in a few days), but I would be lying to act as though my year wasn’t creatively and personally fulfilling. So in order, as best I can, here are the cool things that happened:
- January 2019
- Started recording a DnD actual play podcast. Didn’t end up going anywhere, but was a lot of fun while it lasted!
- DM’d my first DnD campaign session, set in post-apocalyptic Oregon
- Taught my first class in LIU-Brooklyn’s MFA for Writing and Producing for Television program
- Celebrated 6 years with Quinn, the best person I know
- Had the best birthday party ever that lasted somewhere around 8 hours that was filled with games, friends, laughter, and my first shotgunning of a beer.
- February
- Was officially hired as the director of Apple Juice Production’s first original web series Better With You
- Resumed editing Sam and Pat season 2 after too long a break
- March
- Launched my first independent podcast, Bri and Chris Are Depressed, a companion podcast to our web series Sam and Pat Are Depressed
- Launched season 2 of Sam and Pat Are Depressed
- Went back to Oregon/ Pacific University for the first time since I graduated, got to see my favorite professors, my best friend, and do a big stupid presentation about my career since graduation that I’m super proud of
- April
- Played a lot of DnD
- Traveled for work, always fun
- May
- Got a second teaching side hustle, to be a thesis mentor for web series writers in the Stephens College MFA in Screenwriting program
- Went to Utah for 2 weeks to shoot Better With You!
- Interviewed remotely for a job at Seed&Spark in between shooting days for Better With You
- June
- Saw the first web series I ever produced/ the smartest one out there become a live stage play (Relativity)
- Went to Denver for Series Fest, met great people, saw great pilots
- Started working part time for Seed&Spark, reviewing crowdfunding campaigns
- Watched Fleabag for the first time, sobbed uncontrollably, watched it a second time immediately
- July
- Premiered my second (and still ongoing) podcast, Burn, Noticed, about the USA Television series Burn Notice
- Enjoyed the premiere of the podcast Burn, Noticed Noticed, a recap podcast of Chris and I’s podcast Burn, Noticed
- Premiered my latest short film Buy In, which I directed and co-wrote, at the Northern Horror Fest
- Helped produce and host the second annual Stareable Fest, even presenting on the main stage
- Officially signed on to help my former student finish the first series of the web series she developed in my class
- August
- Went to LA to meet my new students from the Stephens College MFA program, presented for the whole program on web series creation and marketing
- Put in my two weeks notice at Stareable, as I was offered a full time position with new responsibilities and challenges and opportunities at Seed&Spark
- Ace and Anxious hit 50,000 views on YouTube (but I’m giving you the Amazon link because despite us getting fewer views there, we actually make money from the good reviews/views/purchases there)
- September
- Started my new full time job at Seed&Spark
- Went to LA again to meet my new coworkers at Seed&Spark, a truly unparalleled group of people
- Started my second semester of teaching at LIU-Brooklyn with a new cohort of students
- Went to Colorado for 2 weeks while my mom was abroad to watch her house. Quinn came for 1 week of it and it was our first time away from New York together since we moved there and it was amazing
- Drove almost 500 miles in two days to attend the Better With You premiere in Salt Lake City.
- Better With You premiered online and off to rave reviews and immediate shipping
- October
- Wrapped up season 1 of Burn, Noticed
- Got early access to the first 4 episodes of a new USA television show because of the Burn Notice podcast
- Celebrated our DnD party’s 2 year anniversary
- Went to The Adventure Zone live show in Brooklyn for free because our friends had extra tickets at the last minute
- Celebrated Buy In winning its first award, from the Stephenville Fright Fest
- November
- Watched my cousin (who’s not actually my cousin but is functionally my cousin) get married
- Saw Hadestown on Broadway
- Acted as director of photography for my former student’s latest web series episode (coming soon, once we can figure out why I can’t use her hard drive!)
- Hosted Thanksgiving again, complete with two full roast chickens, fancy napkin folding, and friends
- December 2019
- Went to LA for the fifth and final time this year to attend Seed&Spark’s LA Creative Sustainability Summit, met tons of people, and stayed up until 2am with my fellow out of town coworkers talking about cults and relationships
- Came home for my first truly restful/non-working vacation in over 2 years
Relevant numbers from the year:
219 new Twitter followers
43 podcast episodes recorded/edited/released
19 presentations given in person and online
18 new articles written by me for Stareable, Tubefilter, and Seed&Spark
16 trips outside of New York
9 new episodes of Sam and Pat released
7 new podcast interviews/press features about my work
5 recorded live webinars presented, developed, and produced
It’s been a hell of a year, friends. With luck, next year will have fewer job switches and more writing, but I’m trying to get better about letting things happen as they happen and being open to the right things happening even if they’re totally unplanned.
