A couple years ago, I wrote this post on Medium about how 2022 went. I continued the tradition in 2024, and here we are again at the end of 2025 🙂 Like in the previous editions, I’m going to forgo proper sentence capitalization for this one.
because of a time crunch, i probably won’t have all the links i want to include here. this is a ‘me’ issue and you probably won’t even notice. now that we’ve said that and have been reminded how hot i am, without further ado:
what happened in 2025
i’ve been on hormones for three and a half years! i feel the most confident in my body than i ever have. i also cut my own bangs for the first time! it actually changed my life for the better; i can’t imagine myself not having bangs now. i also dyed my hair blonde, forgot about it, and then had a bunch of people go “wait are you blonde now?” i got a tattoo. i got my ears pierced. i got enough pants to be able to style pants now.
i downloaded an app called finch that reminds me to do chores. it’s really nice and works for me. i learned how to do the dishes more consistently, and keep my apartment clean. i cooked a lot of chicken, and made a lot of fried rice, and ate out a lot more than i probably should have. i had so much shawarma (my most being three chicken shawarmas in one day) and chicken sandwiches.
i got a cat named juice box! i had to surrender juice box because she was semiferal. i got a cat named mira! mira’s my best friend and also my daughter. i took a lot of good photos of mira, who yelled and yelled at me all the time. mira hissed at my family’s cats a lot, but as of right now she’s in my parents’ kitchen with me getting used to everybody. i want to spoil this cat for a long, long time.
i decorated my apartment to make it more homey. i found a shelf on the side of the street and used to it to display my collection of dictionaries. i also found a stray wheel on a post, something i affectionately refer to as a “doohickey,” and it’s currently standing in my apartment building’s shared backyard.
i became single again (me and thea are still friends!!), and then got into multiple situationships. i went on a lot of dates that were fine, and a lot of friend dates that absolutely ruled. i became kind of a flirt! i got my heart broken multiple times and survived each one.
i watched “severance” and had too many dreams about it. i’m currently watching “twin peaks” and i adore it. i watched a fair amount of movies. i’m not great at keeping up with media in general, but i’m getting better at it!
among the musicians i saw in concert this year, in no particular order: cheekface, ezra furman, pup, cavetown, and ajr. this was my first time seeing ajr live, and i got to go with the person who introduced me to their music in high school. we caught up on life and bought ajr merch. the next day i got to be on a show talking about that concert and the significance of ajr’s “the good part” to me (video). i also spent that night hanging out with another performer named jay, who i found out a month later is one of the “nirvanna” guys. i need to watch his movie. speaking of notable people: me and adam aaronson met the dare! i told the dare that adam wrote the wikipedia page for his debut album and he thought that was really cool.
i spent a lot of time with friends, old and new. i caught up with people i haven’t talked to in years, and had some of my best memories with people i’d just met.
i got really into baseball during the blue jays’ historic run this year. i finally started understanding the fun of watching sports not just with friends, but with my entire city. i’ve never felt closer to the city of toronto, and i’ve never been more proud to call this city my home.
i got back into stand-up comedy! this is maybe the first time in years where i don’t want to quit every few weeks. my material’s never been better and i feel really welcome in the community nowadays. i’m almost done filling out my third comedy journal, and hope to complete it before the new year.
i produced my first stand-up show in a year and a half (vibraslap! stand-up comedy) and made so many videos promoting the show. i’ll be producing more of them in the new year (next show will be january 19th!). i got to appear on the just for laughs show late bad! i failed to submit for the winnipeg comedy festival, but i’m feeling confident in my submission to jfl new faces. i went to the comedy bar halloween party, and wore a halloween costume so hot that people remembered to flirt with me 🙂 you know who you are. i went to the comedy bar christmas party too and had some really nice moments with friends.
i saw maria bamford live at just for laughs with my friend carmina, a montreal comic who i met during her visit to toronto! during one of the first times we hung out, carmina asked if i wanted to play her in scrabble. long story short now we’re besties.
i also spent a lot of time with my friends sebastian, cass, andromeda, kyle, and i’m going to end the list there before it becomes offensive to not include people (if you’re not listed here, trust me i know and love you i just need to get this post done!!!).
i posted quite a few viral videos on instagram. i got 3 million views on a video where i pretended to not pay rent anymore, and then i got reached out to by a local journalist who thought i wasn’t kidding. i made some justin trudeau/katy perry fancams (one, two, three). i made multiple videos tangentially related to taylor swift which blew up (one, two, three). i made a song about an itty bitty basement mall in toronto. i called out the grinch. i remixed “love takes miles” by cameron winter.
i felt a lot of emotions this year! i felt a lot of love. i’d like to think i gave as much as i received, but there’s always room to give more. i felt a lot of fear and anxiety and unease. i forgot, and then remembered again, to take my vyvanse and prozac. i sent a lot of text messages i was scared to send and they all turned out fine. i took a lot of risks that paid off, even if some didn’t.
i got two guitars. two more than i was expecting, to be honest. i didn’t intend to get both an electric and an acoustic, but sometimes you can get the best of both worlds. i’m incredibly good at the cowboy chords on guitar, but my fingers’ fingerwork needs work. i recorded some songs with my electric guitar, one which i used as the theme music for my vibraslap videos (one, two, three, four, a fake number five, and then a real number five.)
some favourites
my favourite album this year was cheekface’s “middle spoon,” my favourite song this year was “art house” off of it (“here on this sticky art house floor / you have a weird love language”). however, my favourite lyric this year is a last-minute sneak from cameron winter’s “love takes miles” (“without moving / i’m not here”). some other music i liked: “always, everytime” by the wrecks, mike barlow’s “glaze,” audrey hobert’s “who’s the clown?,” a lot of geese and 2010s pop. here’s a playlist 🙂
my favourite word was vibraslap. some runners-up include sumn (i love the word “thing” being contracted down to “n”), astragal (context), zettabyte, yottawatt, and fluffernutter (context). a full list is available here. my least favourite word was lowkenuinely, with uncomfortability close behind. my favourite names to say were david dastmalchian, followed by bo bichette.
my favourite thing to do when i bored was pick up my guitar and start playing it. my favourite thing to do in general was spend time with the people i love. my least favourite thing to do was get a tube shoved up my nose and down my throat during a larynx inspection (i’m fine).
2025 in crossword puzzles
i attended the american crossword puzzle tournament in april and placed in 63rd out of 739 participants. i made 15 zines which i handed out to friends. these zines included “puzzle shards” which would later inspire the art piece i made for owen bergstein’s dissonant grids. i only got around to making one, because it’s very time-consuming, but i’m in the process of making another for my friend to turn into a fabric pattern for a dress.
at acpt, i got a copy of “crossword puzzle challenges for dummies” by patrick berry, a book which i have wanted for over ten years. i got will shortz to sign it. i also got a copy of a scrabble crossword book that may have been an original proof, which i got scrabble grandmaster mack meller to sign. (i love getting people to sign things that aren’t theirs.) speaking of mack meller, i watched a LOT of his stuff this year.
i got to raise over $25,000 usd for american trans charities along with a group of lovely trans constructors. this would not have been possible without the work of sara cantor, francis heaney, and every incredible trans person who either constructed a puzzle or contributed a clue to the mega-collab (including left and london and julia kaye!). i’d also like to shout out the halifax examiner for interviewing me and sara about this project, and sam flynn who helped promote it.
i wrote and edited a lot of puzzles for crossword club this year. i wrote crosswords for a writers’ union, an elementary school teachers’ union, and continued writing puzzles for the believer, the walrus, redstone crosswords, and apple news. i made some puzzles for puzzmo! i only published two puzzles on this blog (one + two) but i’m really happy with both of them. i started writing crossword puzzles for a prominent canadian newspaper, which will start being published in the new year. an incomplete list of puzzles is here (i still need to update to add the later stuff).
i started coworking with some crossword constructor friends during the day! i figured it’s a pretty solitary job and there’s other people who’d want to hang out while working on puzzle stuff. i became better friends with kelsey dixon!! i video-called sid a LOT, oftentimes on random walks in toronto. i talked a lot with chris adams and ricky cruz. i collaborated with will nediger on this puzzle inspired by “severance.” me and will also wrote crosswords for arkadium’s livestreams, and got to interact with the lovely hosts as they went through the puzzles.
i posted some short fill word lists on my patreon. due to the ever-evolving nature of language and culture, they’re probably already outdated since i published them in february, but consider them a starting point for generally “clean” (subjective term) short fill. speaking of my words on my patreon: i put a lot of good crossword entries in my luckystreak puzzles, including these ones.
i was mentioned in a book about the history of the crossword (natan last’s “across the universe”), which is something i will cherish until the day i die. it’s an honour to be mentioned in a book about one of my favourite things ever. not only did natan shout out the “oreo cluing project,” something natan must be the only person who still remembers, but i was mentioned in a section as “comedian and crossword constructor.” comedian first! doing crosswords has never been better for my comedy career. speaking of which: i became the crossword dealer for comedian demi adejuyigbe (and his friends at the club), and very briefly got the attention of gianmarco soresi.
two of my best friends, paolo pasco and jenna lafleur, appeared on jeopardy! also, i’d be remiss to not shout out allegra kuney for her stellar run. what a season.
my plans for 2026
i want to take inventory of my life more. i’m the best version of myself when i’m more organized: organized in my thoughts, organized with work, organized in my apartment. i want to continue to wash the dishes everyday, and remember to sweep around the house. i deep-cleaned my bathroom the other day and found it very satisfying, which surprised me!
i need to CHANGE MY NAME LEGALLY. i have all the paperwork filled out but there’s a lot of logistical stuff that requires other people that i’ve been putting off. i also want to figure out how insurance works as a canadian trans woman who professionally writes crossword puzzles. i turn 25 next year, and i think that miiiight be the year when i’ll have to start paying for more of my medication out of pocket. i want to figure out the types of gender-affirming surgeries i want and take steps to achieve them.
i want to find someone worth kissing and kiss them a lot. i want to give a lot of platonic hugs. i want to continue opening up my heart and letting people in. i want to spend so much time with my friends!!!
i want to take up running. maybe join a running group or something with some friends. i’m still struggling to start a consistent exercise routine, and feel like it would be more manageable if i had people holding me accountable to it.
i want to write a solid hour of stand-up comedy. i have a specific goal in mine to record some type of stand-up special in 2027, specifically on april 24, 2027 (that’s a saturday). that day will be the 10th anniversary of my very first stand-up set, and i think it’d be nice to have something to show for ten years in the game. i’ve never been more confident in my material, and i think it’s a goal i can realistically achieve if i put my mind to it. i also want to produce a regular comedy show somewhere.
i want to continue making stuff for instagram. i’ve had a lot of fun getting into it this year and i don’t think i want to stop. my goal for 2026 is reaching 5,000 followers, somehow. i think it’s feasible!
i want to continue making so many crossword puzzles. i want to write another book, or at least get one step closer to another book happening. i want to create more resources for puzzle constructors, even if that’s just in the form of more word lists.
final thoughts
i turn 24 tomorrow, which i’m pretty stoked about. last year, i used this space to be really sappy (and don’t get me wrong, i love being a huge sap), but i think i feel like keeping it brief this year and saying this: thank you. i’m grateful for everybody in my life who makes it, in some way, as lovely as it is. thanks for being my friend, or supporting my work, or just being there 🙂 i’m a profoundly lucky person, and that hasn’t changed since the day i named this blog. thank you all so so so much. i’m excited for what the new year brings.
have a merry christmas, happy hanukkah, kwazy kwanzaa, tip-top tet, a (very early) solemn, dignified ramadan, and a happy holiday. if i don’t see you before 2026, i hope to see you in the new year. thanks for reading and enjoying the puzzles 🙂
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