Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

I live here. How do I live here?

Helluva way to commute to work.

The Jenn Dolari 2024 One Sentence Year In Review

"We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people." --John F. Kennedy

2024 saw me lie in the bed I made for myself at the end of 2023. I started volunteering and coordinating with Pride Across the Bridge to help out our LGBT community. I volunteered to be on the leadership table for A Supportive Community For All. I am the chair of the Duvall Cultural Commission.

While only one of these jobs paid, the amount of fulfillment I've felt helping these projects has been amazing. I've created a recurring swim event for our transgender community. I've helped guide the future of A Supportive Community for All, a major force for equity in the Snoqualmie Valley. And we've set up a ton of art projects for the city, a few of which are now up.

It has been a rough year, as well, mainly on the employment front. But even that was saved by a Hail Mary pass that got me a new job. Many thanks to the Ninfriendos who helped get that job in front of my nose, and vouched for me behind the scenes. I won't let you down.

2025 is looking to be a rough one. Not personally, but for the trans community of which I am a part of. All I can do is use the tools at my disposal to make our town as safe as possible from the onslaught, make sure our people are protected and represented, and, if necessary, help manage the exodus if it happens.

2025: To you I say, "Challenge Accepted."

2023: All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.
2022: Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly and most underrated agent of human change.
2021: The Universe has decided otherwise.
2020: I AM looking on the bright side, and it's dark...very dark.
2019: Never push a loyal person to the point where they no longer care.
2018: What's left for a warrior to do after he's lost the big one, but win some of the little ones?
2017: He's very brave and very silly and I think, for a time he's going to be very sad, but I promise, in the end, he'll be alright.
2016: Greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope, the death of dreams...and against this peril we can never surrender.
2015: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
2014: Sometimes, by losing a battle, you find a new way to win the war.
2013: All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.
2012: Here at last, on the shores of the sea, comes the end of our Fellowship.
2011: Seeking to forget makes exile all the longer; the secret of redemption lies in remembrance.
2010: Sometimes life has a way of moving you past wants and hopes.
2009: FINEST K.O....YOU LOSE.
2008: Jump...Jump now!
2007: Darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
2006: The show must go on.
2005: What to have, what to hold: A poor man's roses, or a rich man's gold.
2004: You like me! You really like me!
2003: Once more...with feeling!
2002: Wow...that could have gone better.
2001: I hope you die and get ate by worms, Milkman Dan.

Parents are here. First thing they wanted was breakfast-for-dinner, and since Shari's are all closed in Seattle, I took them to IHOP.

IHOP gave me the squarest dinner I've ever had. Square chicken fried steak, square hashbrowns, square cream gravy (how?). I think the eggs might be square under the hashbrowns.

Misheard Thing of the Day:

"High Speed Diabetes."

Thoughts Before Bed:

There's a lot to unpack from this weekend. Lots to unpack. Not just suitcases.

Thoughts Before Bed

I'm laying in bed, 500 feet from the Pacific Ocean. It's midnight, so I can't see it. But I can hear it, like the gentle rumble of air conditioning.

You read in books about the "Call to the Sea," the longing captains have to send themselves the unknown. It's very real, and I caught that bug the first time I ever saw the Pacific Ocean from here about ten years ago.

At that time, it was just a few minutes, staring into the forever waters at the end of the world. Now I've shared some extended time with that ocean, and that fascination has not waned. I feel there's something out there I want to see. Maybe something that would like to see me. And there's always the temptation to just walk into it, and swim as far as it will take me. Mostly I feel very small compared to the gigantic waves I see.

I love the ocean. I will need to visit this place again.

Thirty Seconds of December 28, 2024

https://youtu.be/u6mx9279TT4?si=1zV4_XuB9Ia3gnvc

The waters at the end of the world...

Marymere Falls

Deep into the woods....

Not the sight seeing I was expecting....😂

@Tekk - Absolutely. :)

Where I am now.

Buh.

Watching the Pacific Ocean float by from my window.

@Tekk - It's way out here by Forks called Kalaloch lodge. I'd say it's beautiful but we got here in the dark of night. You can hear the ocean roaring not too far away, though!