The two things that ran continuously in the background for me in 2025 (when they weren’t in the foreground) were AI and Trump, Trump and AI, AI AI, Trump Trump, again and again and again. So there’s not a lot of need to say too much about all that, no reason to remind myself about everything Trump and all that his people have screwed up and/or destroyed this year. You know what I mean. Anyway, here’s a more personal and less apocalyptic post about the year that was 2025.
January was a “not much new around here” month, though one thing I noticed when I was paging through my journal was I had some version of a cold or something for most of the month. Let’s hope there’s not a repeat of that.
In February (most of it was typical, the work was work, Trump was very busy setting the world on fire, etc.), we went to Cancún for our winter break to one of the zillions of “all inclusive” resorts around there. We really stayed south of the city in the Mayan Riviera area, and the closest we got to the city of Cancún itself was the airport. I don’t think either Annette or I are too interested in staying at a resort like that again, but I’m interested in more travel in Mexico one of these years. Chichen Itza was particularly cool.
We had a weekend of fun in Detroit at the end of March, and then in April, I took a road trip out east for the last CCCCs of my career. Or so I thought! I’m not planning on presenting at the CCCCs in Cleveland this year, but I will probably go since there are likely to be more folks I know this coming year than there have been for a while, and it’s a short drive. Stay tuned. Oh, but before Baltimore, I swung through Richmond for a quick overnight visit to my great old friend Dennis and is wife Sarah for some hanging out and catching up face to face.
The school year wrapped up in April, and May rolled around. The first two-thirds of the month were about getting ready for the trip and just hanging out, and then we were off on our super-epic European 31st wedding anniversary vacation/travel extravaganza. We were originally going to go for our 30th anniversary, but ended up buying a new house instead. I wrote a recap post about the trip here, though I was also all over Facebook and Instagram the whole time too. I’m pretty sure this is the longest trip/vacation like this I’ve ever been on; we left May 21 and flew back on June 20. Also at the end of June: Annette and I went to a big Krause side of the family get together in Door County for my parent’s 60th wedding anniversary.
For July, we were mostly just here and enjoying one of the nicer times of the year in Southeast Michigan, so some reading/writing things, a bit of golf, the Ann Arbor Art Fair, etc. In the beginning of August, we went out to see Will and Maia, along with Annette’s parents, in New Haven, which included a fantastic stop at Sally’s Apizza. Then there was an impromptu get together with just my parents and sisters in Des Moines (which included an overnight stop in Iowa City), and the month wrapped up with a Joan Jett & the Blackhearts opening for Billy Idol. Kind of a hoot.
September meant mostly work, but somewhere in that month (I think?) and also in October, Annette and I went to a couple of No Kings protests. The first one was in downtown Saline where we stood around the intersection of Michigan Ave. and Saline-Ann Arbor Road and held and waved our signs at people driving by. It reminded me a lot of picketing while on strike. The much bigger event was on October 18 in Ypsilanti, where there was easily a couple thousand people. I don’t know how well these protests persuade anyone, but they give me hope. Stuff with Trump et al are bad, but the resistance is real and powerful enough to bring out lots of other people who are as baffled by our current politics as I am. It’s reassuring.
Anyway, we also had a nice two night get-away to Traverse City during our fall break, some early snow and colder than usual weather in November at the beginning of the month, and then a lot more snow during our annual Krause-side of the family get-together at Thanksgiving. We all had to end that a little early this year though because of a winter storm rolling through the midwest that weekend. Luckily, we beat the storm on the way home.
And now here we are in December, after the semester wrapped and now that we are in that weird timeless space between Christmas and New Year’s– or maybe more accurately the weekend after whenever New Year’s eve/day fall every year. It’s been a little different because for reasons, we stayed here and it was just the three of us, too.
So there you have it. I can’t deny it’s been kind of a shitty year, broadly speaking. I mean, I know several people quite well who were DOGED or NIH-ed out of a job, more or less, higher education in general is a dumpster fire, etc. But even though it is buried on the crap of the year, I’m holding on to a tiny piece of hope that things will be better in 2026. Fingers crossed.