In the Year 2012
By Tyler Foran 09.12.2023
In April 2012, opening day for the Red Sox, my longtime girlfriend suffered a heart attack that took her life later that night. The memory of that night is still as vivid as if it happened ten minutes ago. I won’t go too much into it, but it was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced. I know it was worse for her, depending on how you like to report on the status of your cup contents, but I just wanted to put that out there.
Because of her loss, I also lost most of 2012 and 2013 regarding experiences and entertainment releases, not really the most essential things in the world, but more on that later. And to be honest, most of my memories and whatever else happened at that time seemed to have been lost as well, with a few exceptions: Secret Service outside my front door when President Clinton was visiting the town and going to a bar on the coast during a hurricane. All other memories are saved for blobs of confusion, pain, and depression; for example, I was in Boston when the marathon bombing occurred, but besides the Pizzeria Regina I had in my stomach, I can’t recall much else. Yes, there were some good times in there, too. But as someone with almost a photographic memory, 2012 was a blur.
I was recently checking out a new album by the Matchbox Twenty guys and wanted to review it. And during my research, I went to look back to see when they last released an album, 2012. Surprise, surprise, I didn’t hear it. While also clicking through the streaming channels, I noticed that all of these movies and shows I had never heard of when I saw them came out — 2012 made perfect sense. That spawned this idea.
2012: A Year of Ellipses, will be a daily article review of everything I missed during that year and some of the random stuff I do remember, sprinkled in as well. It should go without saying I missed my girlfriend that entire time as well; instead of moping on a couch, staring into the abyss, I had to keep my mind busy during that time, so I wouldn’t slow down enough to remember I was experiencing a crippling loss. Now that I’ve gotten better with sitting down and not overwhelming my brain to distract me, I can take a step back, see what I never saw, and, more so, review them here.
If there is something in 2012 that happened that you think I should check out, let me know, and I will give you a shout-out in the future review. I’ve been in the music and intertwinement business, be it adjacently, for most of my life, so these reviews will be an exciting attempt to hold back my snobbery and really experience life…in 2012.
