Several sources of happiness
by Anton Zuiker on January 2, 2025
In the New Yorker, Jennifer Wilson explores the The New Business of Breakups. I read most of this article earlier this week while I was swinging in the hammock at Sprat Hall Beach. I lingered on this paragraph:
Have you ever had a client whose heart was taken up a hundred per cent by love, I asked. Sohn said yes, absolutely. A person like that, if they lose love, they lose everything. “Sometimes people tell me, ‘Well, that’s not romantic, Elena, saying that love and romance should take up, like, twenty per cent of my heart,’ ” she said. “And then I say, ‘No, no, that’s a misunderstanding, because, if you have several sources for your personal happiness, only then can you be a good partner.’ ” She stopped and looked at me intently. “Otherwise, you are—it’s a very bad word, and I don’t know if it is as bad in English as well, but in German it’s really, really bad. You are needy.”
I’ve learned about this neediness over the last few years. It’s why I’ve put much effort into time with friends and family and travel and soccer. Yesterday’s pick-up soccer game filled me with happiness—20 guys having fun, hugs and handshakes to mark the new year, compliments and laughter, good exercise and camaraderie and competition.
When I got home, the family sat down for brunch, including cinnamon rolls that I had prepared the night before. We went around the table to share our goals for the year ahead. I’ll continue to work on being a good partner to Erin, a patient father to my children, a compassionate friend and brother and son, and a happy soccer player.
Where I traveled in 2024
by Anton Zuiker on January 1, 2025
It’s late afternoon, I have osso bucco braising in the oven, I played soccer for two hours this morning, and I’ve walked up to the studio shed to write in silence. I have a lot to celebrate and be thankful for on this first day of a new year—I am feeling quite happy as I sit down to take a relaxed look at what’s ahead in 2025 and what happened in 2024.
To celebrate Christmas, Erin and I treated the children to a family trip back to St. Croix. It was perfect weather and much fun, and every one of us enjoyed the week on the island. We swam and snorkeled, went on two sailboats (the Denis Sullivan tall ship for a sunset cruise, and the Jolly Mon catamaran for a half-day adventure off the West End), visited the Leatherback brewery and Cruzan Rum distillery, hiked up to Creque Dam, and had our customary final lunch (mahi tacos for everyone, and mojitos for me and Erin) at Rhythms at Rainbow Beach. My dad and Dot were on the island, too, and we all got to spend time with them and with Aaron and Olga, including a delightful Sunday afternoon on Sandy Point where we used our new Shibumi Shade quiet canopy for the first time (using buckets filled with sand so the poles wouldn’t go into the sand directly—protect the turtles).
That was a splendid way to end the year. (I posted photos during the week over on Wan Smol Blog.)
Over on my Now page, I usually update each month to give a summary of the major activities in my life. Throughout 2024, I noted these other travel highlights:
- I visited my mother in Arkansas in January; we went to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
- In February, Erin and I spent a week exploring more of St. Croix.
- In April, Oliver and I joined Erin for a road trip to Alabama (Erin’s final state for her 50 by 50) and the Legacy Sites of the Equal Justice Initiative.
- I was in Cleveland in June to run the Towpath Twilight ten mile race with my brother-in-law, Michael Shaughnessy.
- In July, we flew west for the fantastic Zuiker Family Reunion in Colorado. Erin, Oliver, and I hiked the 14er Quandary Peak.
- In September, I took a quick trip to Illinois to meet a cousin for lunch and a friend for dinner in Chicago, then drove to DeKalb to visit relatives.
- In November, Erin and I enjoyed tasting wines in Napa Valley before we visited Anna in Sacramento, where she is spending a year with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.
- We also took a family road trip to Cleveland for Thanksgiving, and I flew on to cold Minneapolis to meet my brother, Joel; we attended the University of Minnesota men’s hockey game and then sat high up in the amazing stadium to watch the Minnesota Vikings in a late-game win over the Arizona Cardinals.
I was fortunate to be able to travel far and wide and to spend time with family and friends in each destination. What’s ahead? I’m planning to attend a conference in New Orleans, there’s an Outer Banks trip with friends, and Erin has a legal education conference in Ireland.
Happy New Year!
A new Rusty
by Anton Zuiker on December 3, 2024
In September 2002, as I was beginning graduate school, I officially retired my trusty burnt-orange backpack that I had purchased 20 years before and then taken with me through high school and college and around the world as a Peace Corps Volunteer.
I’ve had a lot of backpacks since then. Messenger bags, too. And GORUCK packs. And packable sacks for traveling or popping into the market.
In 2017, I needed a new daily backpack. When I learned that the Synapse 19 (from Tom Bihn in Seattle) came in burnt orange, nostalgia struck and I ordered one. The next day, a message came from the company to regretfully inform me that when they went to box my order, they’d just run out of the orange. I shrugged and replied that I’d take the Synapse in black.
This backpack has served me well for eight years — it’s just back from my trip to Minneapolis, where Joel and I attended the Vikings football game and the Golden Gophers men’s hockey game — and it is time to replace it.
I’d seen that Tom Bihn was expecting a new bundle of this backpack in the burnt orange, and that’s what I ordered last week and finally received today.
No telling where this backpack and I will go together.
Go blue
by Anton Zuiker on October 27, 2024
“I’m walking into town to vote,” I told Erin this afternoon.
She was reading a novel on the blue sofa. She’d voted yesterday before a visit to the nearby Carrboro Farmers Market.
With U2 in my ears, I set out for the same little house behind Carrboro Town Hall, where the Orange County Board of Elections is holding early voting.
When I stepped inside, no line, and I took my ballot to the flimsy plastic booth and I started filling in the bubbles beside Kamala D. Harris and Tim Walz (President and Vice President), Valerie P. Foushee (U.S. House of Representatives N.C. District 4), Josh Stein (Governor), and others. I entered my ballot into the collection machine, put an I Voted sticker on my shirt, and kept walking.
I’m proud to have voted. I’m grateful for the freedom and privilege and right to join in choosing our local, state, and federal leaders.
The creative class
by Anton Zuiker on October 15, 2024
One after the other in my inbox today, messages from three companies inviting me to purchase their new items:
- Dan Cederholm announced Hubano, “an all-caps display serif inspired by some lettering found on a Cuban cigar box.” I’m a member of Dan’s Secret Type Club, which means I get an early look at his new fonts. I’m using Free Lunch Tomorrow to design a new brand for my The Long Table project—I love the ligatures that come with this font.
- Field Notes, maker of an iconic note book, announced their 64th Quarterly Limited Edition. This edition is The Birds and Trees of North America and it features the artwork of Rex Brasher (1869–1960). I’m no longer a subscriber—I’m working through a backlog of past editions, as well as a stack of notebooks we ordered for ScienceOnline2010—but my family still jokes about how I regularly received notebooks, pencils, and hanks.
- Studio Neat announced their Patch Club, their “fun excuse to try our hand at some embroidered patches.” I’m not into patches too much, but I do have quite a few products from Studio Neat, including their great pens, mechanical pencils, Totebooks, and Panobooks. Any day now I’ll be receiving the Keen, a retractable utility knife.
I’m grateful to these teams for their quality creations. I’m sure they’re thankful for my dollars. Hope they keep up the great work.