The Nudie Mag Celebrating Five Years of Running Around Naked in the Pacific Northwest

It was scary and exciting and beautiful, and instead of embarrassment, it brought us incredible joy. Over the summer, we visited more of Washington's natural areas than I had in my life, and I was hooked

What began as one of the scariest things I'd ever attempted became one of the best summers of my life, and I decided to continue into the fall

As we went along, things got less scary and more comfortable, and the fall colors and fog and new locations contributed to some of my favorite photos ever, and while I knew that the winter would make things more difficult, I decided to keep it going, in hopes that it would keep me from becoming a total hermit over the long grey, which is a bad habit of mine

Winter was indeed the most challenging issue yet, but we were able to make it work, staying inside and experimenting with lights when it was too cold and wet to go outside, and a few times braving the weather and running around naked in the snow and rain. In the end, it turned out amazing, and led us into my favorite season - the spring

Spring 2019 was our best season yet, with the sun returning, the flowers blooming, and welcoming new life with maternity shots with friends I've known since back in college and elementary school, as well as meeting people for the first time that have since become great friends

The end of spring brought us to one full year of The Nudie Mag, which seemed like it might be a good time to wrap things up. But, on the other hand, things were going so much better than I had anticipated, and there were still so many more potential adventures to be had, that I decided the project should continue as long as people were still enjoying it, and as long as I felt we could still be a force for good in the world

Things continued to go better than I ever thought possible, and while each issue still felt like it might be the last one, we were also excited about the possibilities that the future held, and so we continued into fall of 2019 for a season full of spooky stories and beautiful autumn colors

Winter 2019 was another struggle, but by the end of January we were finally getting back into the swing of things. Coming out of winter hibernation, things were looking up, and it felt like 2020 would be our best year yet, and it seemed that nothing could possibly get in our way

And then we got to February...

In February 2020, I was in a very bad car accident that broke both of my arms, took me out of commission for about three months, and left me with some new scars. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic was ramping up, which delayed things further. It was dark days, but we were optimistic that before long we'd be back, and better than ever

During the lockdowns, we experimented with taking photos remotely over video chat, but it wasn't the same as being together in real life

Luckily, by the summer things were looking up once more; after months of recovery and occupational therapy, I was able to slowly start getting out and about again, taking things one step at a time, and staying safe

One bright side to the pandemic was that it left some of the major tourist destinations practically empty, so we were able to get nudies at landmarks that would otherwise have been almost impossible

The mood of summer 2020 was very strange - there was a high level of stress and tension in the atmosphere, with people on edge, fearful, distrustful, and angry. There was a sense that violence could erupt at any moment, anywhere. Like people kind of forgot how to be human.

But, despite the perils and trauma and everything else going on, we went on more nudie adventures than any season before, and these outings were what helped keep me connected to the real world and hold on to my sanity. Another difficult season, made less difficult together, and there was also the hope that we would learn lessons from this time, and come out of this situation better than we were in the 'beforetimes'

Fall 2020 was dominated by the presidential election, which further added to the stress of the moment. The Nudie Mag tries to balance escapist fantasy with putting in the work to make the real world a better place, and so fighting against the resurgence of the far right was an important part, in addition to our usual spooky nudies and nature

On Halloween, we did a full day marathon of spooky posts, including this adaptation of The Girl with the Green Ribbon, from one of my favorite books of scary stories that gave me nightmares as a kid

On election night, I did a virtual burlesque show with Carmen Caliente as (hopefully) a victory celebration, and a break from watching election coverage as results slowly rolled in. After that, due to covid spiking we went on hiatus until we could get the vaccine in the spring

That winter was even harder because of the extreme isolation, and my health declined both mentally and physically. When we were finally able to get vaccinated in the spring, there was a lot of anxiety about starting things up again, and the stress and tension I mentioned during summer 2020 was even worse, with news of people getting shot for trying to get folks to wear a mask or get vaccinated. Luckily, most of my nudie friends were staying safe, but I did have to blacklist a few people

For the spring 2021 issue our theme was rebirth and new beginnings, and trying to make the world a better place than it was before. Our little nudie mag may not have made much difference to the world at large, but it helped me personally, and I hope it helped the other people in it, as well as our couple thousand Instagram followers as of that point

Summer 2021 I was finally getting comfortable being outside again. The big challenge was trying to be cautious and take things slow, but also do as much as we could in whatever amount of time we had, with the possibility that we might have to go back on lockdown at any time

Once again, fall was cut short due to a rise in covid cases, but happily we were able to get a few adventures in before going on hiatus

And, once again, it was another rough winter spent doom-scrolling and falling apart. Luckily, we didn't have to wait as long to come out of our hibernation this time, and we were able to do things again in January. It was a particularly cold and rainy month, so we did more indoors than normal until the weather cleared up enough to go outside again

Summer 2022 marked four years since the beginning of The Nudie Mag, and I once again thought it might be a good time to end it. I was stressed and burned out and worried about bigger life things, and while this project is usually good for helping me feel better, the stress of scheduling, and plans constantly falling through at the last second, had me feeling like it wasn't worth it; and besides, ending after four years could be seen as a kind of graduation into whatever the next chapter of my life would be. But, since I didn't know what that could be, and didn't want to drop back into a depressive hermitude with nothing better to do, I kept it going through the summer, but taking it slower and not trying to cram in as much stuff as I did in previous summers

Taking it easy and not stressing out about trying to schedule as many things as humanly possible worked, and I felt like at that pace I could keep going into fall and find a way to balance nudies with my other life responsibilities, which, even though I was spending way too much time at home alone with nothing to do, I was not taking care of anyway

Once again we went on hiatus for the winter, and, once again, I really didn't take very good care of myself during the long dark season.

It turns out this was one hard winter too many, and my bad habits caught up with me in a big way. I won't go into all of the gory details, but I wound up in the hospital for eight days, followed by three more months of recovery and wound care, and going through that ordeal really woke me up to the fact that if I didn't turn my health around, I'd be in for a short life and painful death, which I'd rather avoid if possible

So, when I was well enough to start things back up again in the spring, it was truly a fresh start, doing the things I should have been doing all along, and finally taking care of myself like I should. It was a big ordeal, and will continue to require lots of work for the foreseeable future, but in the end, I'll be much better off for it. I'm lucky to be alive today, and I'm not going to take that for granted anymore

When we reached summer 2023, things were really looking up. I was feeling good both physically and mentally as I continued to work on my health and wellbeing, and we had so many things planned that it looked like we would have enough adventures to fill two summer issues. Part One covered June and July, and everything was going great

And then, after five years, Instagram deleted my account. I knew it was always a possibility, but it was still a major blow just as I was feeling like I had finally found my footing again, and at the worst time, too - in addition to losing five years worth of posts, I also lost all of the messages where I'd been making summer plans, and so it seemed like the second half of summer might have to be canceled. It was yet another low point for the year, and I struggled to figure out what to do. Start a new account? Go somewhere else? Shut down?

I did experiment with a few other social media sites, but unfortunately instagram is still where the people are, even though it is a terrible platform, especially for nudie accounts (there's a massive problem with real accounts getting taken down while fake imposter accounts are allowed to remain, even while they scam people out of money using stolen photos / identities). But, I was determined not to let instagram destroy us, so we started back up, and Summer Part Two went on to be one of our biggest yet, with more travel to farther away places than ever before, and while I'm still looking for a better social media site, at least for now I feel like we're in a good place again. For future reference, I'll keep my social media links updated on the bottom of this page