2022 was the hardest, but best year of my life. There is no sugar coating it, being a parent is really really difficult. It is a rollercoaster of emotions and feelings which will take you to the lowest of lows and highest of highs. Having a child is life changing. It takes away your freedom, exponentially increases your responsibility and makes you love more than you ever knew you could. Having a child is the best gift one can receive. Our baby girl is our life and we couldn’t be happier.
I still exercised this year, but it looked a bit different. Walking dominated my exercise regime, traveling 493 miles on 331 walks, mostly with Mae, Cheddar and Rachel. I also ran 167 miles on 57 runs this year and sadly only biked (indoor) once for 6 miles. I again took on our pushup challenge for a third straight year and completed 22,000 pushups in 2022 (on to 23k for 2023).
I coached my 7th varsity lacrosse season for the cats and we finished in the top four in state for the 3rd time. With the baby being around, we watched a lot less TV shows and movies, but listened to more music. Ironically, the only two blogs I published this year were about movies: “The Summer of Sandler” and 25 Days of Christmas Movies. I finished up two vlogs, one wedding anniversary video and attended two Deer Tick concerts. Here are my “best” lists from 2022.
You can find my best lists from the previous 8 years here: 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014
Best Moment: The birth of our daughter Mae Jeanne. She surprised us, arriving two months early at a whopping 3lbs 9oz. Mae spent 8 weeks in the NICU, and we visited her every day. It has been amazing to watch her grow over the course of the last 11 months.
Best Vacation: With the new baby, our travel was quite limited. We only left the state a few times in 2022. We headed east to visit friends and family in Indiana, northeast to our cabin in South Haven, west to Galena, Illinois with friends, south to Starved Rock State Park and north to Door County Wisconsin. Our favorite trip was Door County Wisconsin with Rachel and her family.
Runner up Vacation: I traveled to New York City in December to visit John and Melissa. I ran 20 miles in 3 days all around Central Park, Roosevelt Island, and Long Island City. I also ventured over to New Jersey for the first time ever to see Deer Tick in New Jersey City at White Eagle Hall.
Best TV Show:
My favorite TV show of 2022 was The White Lotus (hbo). I loved the vibe, the awkward tension, the music, the relationships and the overall show. I also enjoyed Archive 81 (netflix), House of the Dragon (hbo), and Ozark Season 4 (netflix).
Best New Movie I Saw:
Movie theaters are kind of on the come back, but still not worth trying to get a baby sitter for your newborn when it will be streaming on your TV within weeks. My favorite movie I saw in 2022 was Coda. It won the Oscar for Best Picture, deservedly so, it was an amazing and powerful film. Check out the trailer below.
Best Documentary:
Documentaries always get me motivated and emotional. The best documentary of 2022 was 14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible. The inspiring true story of Nimsdai Purja climbing 14 peaks in a record amount of time. Excellent film shot by the best climbing videographer around, Jimmy Chin.
If he wasn’t such a piece of poop, my favorite documentary would have been Jeen Yuhs, however, I can’t actually support Kanye, but it was cool to see his journey when he was just getting started.
Best Album:
I went pretty mainstream with my music selections this year. My best album of 2022 was Harry’s House by Harry Styles. The guy can straight up jam and makes pretty good earworms.
Runners Up: Dawn FM - The Weeknd, Taylor Swift - Midnights, American Heartbreak - Zach Bryan (one of the first country albums I have ever enjoyed, what is happening to me!?), Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You - Big Thief
Click the photo of each album to give them a listen.
Best Songs: 188 songs by 186 artists in 2022. Listen to them all now by checking out the Spotify or Amazon Playlist below.
Spotify Playlist / Amazon Playlist
If you don’t stream, here are my favorite 17 tracks from 2022:
Tick Tock - Aldous Harding
the perfect pair - beabadoobee
Simulation Swarm - Big Thief
Believe - Caamp
Light Switch - Charlie Puth
Here to Forever - Death Cab for Cutie
Cake and Eggs - Deer Tick
As It Was - Harry Styles
First Class - Jack Harlow
Big Energy - Latto
About Damn Time - Lizzo
Lemon Tree - Mt. Joy
I Like You (A Happy Song) - Post Malone
Bad Habit - Steve Lacy
Anti-Hero - Taylor Swift
Sacrifice - The Weeknd
Something in the Orange (Z&E’s Version) - Zach Bryan
Best Concert: The only two concerts I have been to since the birth of our daughter were Deer Tick. Chicago in September and Jersey City in December. Both were electric shows, but Jersey City proved to be a superior show since Chicago was at a fest and a shorter set. Front row like usual with my fellow Tick Heads.
Best Podcasts: I did not listen to any new podcasts for a second straight year. But I am an AWL for Pardon My Take, a sports podcast that makes me chuckle and is mainly about football with guest interviews. Big Cat and PFT make me laugh every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Best YouTube Channel: I didn’t spend a lot of time on YouTube this year. A pretty sweet channel based around statistics called Data is Beautiful came back from a 3-year hiatus near the end of the 2022 though.
Best Sports Moment: Coaching the cats to a 4th in state finish for lacrosse. We finished the year with a 15-9 record and powered through some tough playoff games to make it the final four for the third time in school history! Another great group of seniors that will be missed. Season recap video coming soon…
Best Maluta Vision Video: I made two vlogs about running this year. Working on a few other running, lacrosse, Cheddar & Mae videos for 2023. Check out Vlog #22 and #23.
That closes out my best, but hardest year and all my “best” things from 2022. Here’s to being vigilant and fearless in 2023.
Keep your eyes out for a dad running with his one year old and dog in 2023!
Josh