29 thoughts for turning 29

1.      I used to always do these posts every year for my birthday. Last year I didn’t because my whole life kind of fell apart in 2025, but I’m back and I’m here to report on my year. Maybe I’ll report on the year I had prior to this one, too! It’s my birthday!

2.      The song I listened to most over the last year was “Bitter Everyday” by Wednesday. I listened to it 200 times. Honestly, as far as my numbers go, that’s pretty low for a top song. I think that’s down to being pretty all in on that Wednesday album. Four of my five most listened to songs from the last year are on Bleeds – “Bitter Everyday,” “The Way Love Goes,” “Townies” and “Reality TV Argument Bleeds.”

3.      From August 11, 2024 to August 11, 2025, I listened to “Thirteen” by Big Star 1,058 times. My life fell apart and I guess I only listened to that song. Hey, what are you gonna do.

4.      I’ve spent a lot of time being scared to leave my apartment over the last couple of years out of a very real paranoia that I’d come home to someone there to kill me, so I haven’t gone to that many shows. I did see Wednesday and that was wonderful, even if I couldn’t really see because The Riviera is that kind of venue. I went to the Advance Base Christmas show as I always do and that’s always the best show of the year for me.

5.      The best thing I ate this year was popcorn at the Davis Theater.

6.      I saw more movies in theaters this year than maybe ever. I saw Sorry, Baby there right before my birthday last year and cried so hard I hyperventilated in the bathroom.

7.      The best thing I drank this year was a cocktail called a Clover Clubhouse at Wrigley Field-adjacent restaurant Mordecai. It was a clover club with Malort in it, naturally. Great drink.

8.      My favorite episode of Endless Scroll, the podcast I co-host, this year was about Pavement. We did 3 episodes across the main feed and Patreon back in October. I feel like my favorite episodes are usually ones that allow for some space to really assess something that I have a strong notion of, but not too much feeling toward.

9.      I live alone still, but now I don’t work at home. I love my apartment a lot more now and I’m grateful I’ve spent the last few years in the same spot instead of moving every year like I was doing for a while.

10. Because I haven’t been moving, I’ve done a lot of decorating in my apartment. I have new rugs and wallpaper in my kitchen and new pieces of furniture in my dining room and more photobooth photos with my friends than ever. It’s been so hot and muggy in Chicago this summer I’ve been spending so much time in my bedroom near the air conditioner that I’ve even developed some concrete plans for decorating that room.

11. My cat, Eleanor, got a fever this year and I couldn’t believe it.

12. More of my friends got married and engaged and I feel complicated about it. My life probably doesn’t look the way I thought it would at 29.

13. I have a job and an apartment and friends, so I guess who cares.

14. I got a new nephew this year which is so cool. He’s so cute and funny and now I see my sister more than I ever have as an adult.

15. I went to the ballet for the first time in a long time around Christmas. I think about the Chicago World’s Fair Themed Nutcracker a lot.

16. I get coffee at a shop called ESPRESSO AND MILK that’s inside the Civic Opera Building a lot. Everybody who works there is in a uniform of all black with tiny beanies and trendy minimalistic trousers and there are like 8 of them working behind a tiny counter. Great espresso tonic.

17. I had to work on New Year’s Eve this year. Afterwards, I went to a restaurant I like downtown and had a glass of an orange wine that tasted like beer. I think about that wine a lot too. So weird. Also had a great Caesar salad that made me feel fine about being forced to go into work.

18. I don’t know what I did on new year’s day, but I did quote tweet a Pop Crave post about Tom Brady and Alix Earle being spotted “getting close” at a club in St. Barts. So.

19. I watched more sports than probably ever in my life. I went to a Bears playoff game and got colder than I’ve ever been in my entire life. I’ve been to Wrigley Field a lot. I went the day I quit my job. I watched so much hockey. The US Team won gold at the Winter Olympics then humiliated themselves and all of us. The Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup. Hockey giveth and hockey taketh away.

20.  My favorite pair of boots have officially developed holes in the leather, but I still wear them. I’m wearing them right now.

21. I haven’t finished anything. I feel pretty ashamed about it, but also I went broke and insane because something fucked up was happening to me for just about the entirety of last year and intermittently this year.

22. I guess I’m trying to give myself grace for that, but also I do just need to suck it up and finish something.

23. The apartment building behind where I live is mostly finished now. It’s weird to watch a building being built in real time.

24. I went to Pittsburgh a couple of times over the last year. Kind of part of being broke and insane, but I love my friends and I miss them so much.

25. I’d like to go to New York in the next year now that I’m less broke.

26. I’m going to see a movie at the Gene Siskel Film Center to celebrate my birthday and will go to my favorite bar on the weekend. The weather today is supposed to be insane, but my birthday is a day to wallow, so I don’t mind that too much.

27. I finally started using my film cameras again. I’ve spent years accumulating different cameras, but the best one is still the Minolta SRT-101 I’ve had since I was a teenager. I used it for the first time in a long time and it felt like coming home when I got the photos back. The light meter is busted, but I know it better than any other camera and the photos turned out nice anyway.

28. The first song I heard as a 29-year-old was the demo version of “Our House” by Graham Nash and Joni Mitchell. It plays in the credits of The Invite. I don’t know that I loved that movie in a big way, but my friend Eric texted me after they saw it that they think the demo version of “Our House” is far better than the full studio version. I agree. That version is warmer and sweeter and maybe that’s me trying to put a good foot forward into the next year.

29. The second song I listened to was “Happy Birthday” by Black Country, New Road because I am, ultimately, corny.

12 photos for 12 months

Miranda Reinert is a music adjacent writer, zine maker, podcaster and law school drop out based in Chicago. Check out PDFs of most of my zines at the link on the top of the blog. Follow me on Twitter or Bluesky to hear more about how it feels to be 29: @mirandareinert.  This blog does have a paid option and I would so appreciate any money you would be willing to throw me! You may also send me small bits of money at @miranda-reinert on venmo/on Paypal if you want. As always, thanks for reading!