If you use spotify as your music streaming service of choice, first off, you're right... second off, you'll understand what I'm about to talk about. If you don't, I'm sorry.
No no, I'm kidding, I'm sure you're music streaming service is juuuuuust fine, I'm just a big fan of good ol spotify. This past year, they debuted something they called your "daylist" which was a playlist spotify made that changed throughout the day based on your listening styles of the specific time of day and day of the week. And the titles are so wild. Currently my daylist is "hopeless western friday morning" which is one of the more tame examples. I think my favorite I've seen of my friends' daylist titles is "cult classic doof doof monday afternoon" followed by "heartbroken desiderium saturday evening."
I got on a tangent (unsurprisingly) but what I specifically wanted to talk about is my spotify wrapped. I look forward to this day in early December every year. If you're not familiar, your "wrapped" is your year of listening all (wait for it..) wrapped up in a single playlist. They present it as a series of animated images that includes some listening statistics like number of minutes listened, top artists, top songs, etc.
What is extra fun is how it takes over my entire social media feed on and after wrapped day as people are sharing their listening stats. According to my wrapped, I listened to 45,859 minutes of music putting me at the top 6% of spotify listeners worldwide. My biggest listening day was June 19th with 582 minutes of listening. I'll do a whole other post about what I was doing on that day, but it did include quite a long commute up the west coast which makes sense why I listened to almost 10 hours of music. I played 7717 songs over the course of the year, which is 60 songs short of being OH so cool. I listened to 3512 different artists. This is wild to me and just gives a glimpse into my listening habits of enjoying new and upcoming artists. My top artist was Novo Amor. I often put him on as my comfort music-- to fall asleep to, to wind down to, to dance to. Novo and I spent 1,919 minutes "together" according to my wrapped. That doesn't include all the minutes I spent rewatching dance videos or listening to slowed versions of his stuff on soundcloud. But spotify still called me an overachiever. My darling Lizzy McAlpine still made a top slot this year followed by Benson Boone, Reagan Beam, and Yana.
I wondered what my general year wrapped would look like. I only worked at two hospitals which means two states this year (which in theory should be easier for my taxes, stay tuned). I did though live in four different apartments which is just evidence of the joys of finding furnished housing as a travel nurse. I spent almost 1700 hours at work and took 7 weeks off this year. I've been in 11 different states with 3 of them being new states that I hadn't traveled to before. I took 22 different flights, and missed none of them. Only one got canceled leaving me in the airport overnight (0 out of 10.. wouldn't recommend), and plenty of them got delayed. I always chose the window seat if I had the option and allllways picked the side of the plane with the sunset or sunrise view. I posted 57 sunsets to my sunset insta, which is actually exactly the same as 2023, but I guess I still have a few days to break that record.
Before I moved to North Carolina.. oh wait, did you know that? I guess I haven't posted since July.. Lemme rewind a little, after my time in Charlottesville, VA, I got a contract at UNC in Chapel Hill, NC. This was kinda a fun full circle moment because my first travel contract had me living in Chapel Hill and working in Cary, and when I initially came down here, I was living in Cary and working in Chapel Hill. I have since moved to a Raleigh address, but it still feels very nostalgic. It is funny how much is familiar to me from 3 years ago and how much feels so familiar but is actually me misremembering and confusing NC with a different state I've lived in or traveled to. Oh so often do I feel like I recognize something or know where something is but realize I am picturing a different city that I have lived in.
This travel contract was on a unit that actually didn't exist when I initially got the job. It was part of the new surgical tower at UNC that had been trying to open since March. They had to delay the opening a few times, including after I started which definitely made me nervous that they were going to cancel my contract (which I had successfully avoided thus far in my travel career, something that not every traveler can say), but they kept me around and let me work on a different unit while we waited for opening day. I even had the honor of taking the first patient!
Okay back to what I was saying.. before I moved to North Carolina, I made a list of things I wanted to do. Those things were dance, gym, art, blog, collect breweries along the trail, chase sunsets, apply to NP school, journal, and two that I must've written in invisible ink.. I wanted an even 10 but just couldn't think of two more apparently.
Rediscovering this list and reflecting back on these past 6ish months, I realized that I didn't quite do all the things I had hoped for. While I did make it to a few dance classes and definitely danced in my apartment, I definitely want to dance more next year. I am not one to make resolutions, but that is something that still brings me oh so much joy, so I'd love to keep up with that while my body is still able to. Working as a nurse often makes me feel like I'm working out-- averaging 5.5 miles a day at work, but I didn't spend many hours in the actual gym. My new apartment does have a rather pretty gym though so maybe I'll check that out soon. I did a little bit of art, but also wanna do more of that.
I obviously didn't blog.. I actually have a few drafts started, but never got around to finishing them. I just got charged for a new year of this subscription, so I guess this is me sticking with this!
I also actually haven't collected a ton of breweries, I guess that was true for Charlottesville too, I just kept re-collecting the same one haha. I did go to enough on the Raleigh beer trail to get a koozie, but I still have plenty of exploring to do.
I definitely took advantage of a bunch of sunsets. I may or may not have picked my specific apartment based on the direction the balcony faces.. okay who am I kidding, I definitely did. While it overlooks a road, it has had quite phenomenal views whenever my sunset alarm goes off to remind me to go take a peek.
I did apply to NP school (shhh that wasn't something I was gonna share, so just cross your fingers and toes for me. I think I'll find out next spring if I got in and then would start next fall).
Clearly I did super well on that list as I also haven't journaled on traditional pen and paper, sometimes I type things out in my iphone notes app, but that's just not quite the same. I suppose sometimes this blog feels like I'm journaling because it's just me transitioning my thoughts into words, but those were in fact two separate goals.
Like I've said before, I've never been a fan of new years resolutions, but I am a fan of an excuse to start fresh. I had my last shift of this travel contract on Wednesday. Last days are when I wear my "today is a good day to have a good day" shirt which low key always makes me tear up. It's bittersweet; this was my last last day as a traveler. I took a staff job at UNC on the same unit I had the contract on, so me leaving the unit really was just "see you later" not "goodbye," but I still won't see all my pals for a few weeks, and it reminds me of all the "see you laters" at the end of previous travel contracts. I definitely miss a ton of my pals scattered across the country, hope y'all are doing well!!!
I am excited for this holiday season, I always am, but this year is extra special because between Christmas and New Years, I get a brother in law! ...I mean.. my sister gets married.. We often do Christmas just as an immediate family, so it will be super fun to extend the holiday celebrations with my extended family at the wedding. And I love a good wedding, so no matter who was gonna be there, I'd be excited for a darn good time.
Who knows, maybe I'll even write a blog post about it, and in a timely manner. Crazier things have happened!
I hope you have a lovely Christmas holiday with you and yours however you choose to celebrate it. Just always remember to take a deep breath now and again, put your shopping cart back after you're done using it, and never stop chasing your happy.
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