For all my bravado about leading a wild & unbridled life, I am a girl who craves order and resolution. Which is precisely why I’ve been enticed into this mesmerizing My 2012 in Pictures Trend that was (key word: was) circulating. I know… I’m so late to the party. Bringing-appetizers-to-the-party-after-guests-have-either-left-or-passed-out-on-the-lawn Late.
But I just can’t help it. The OCD part of me finds the idea of having my last year’s adventures bullet-pointed and neatly bundled-up irresistibly appealing. So, for OCD Me and anyone else who doesn’t yet scorn 2012 Happenings for being sooo last-year, here goes…
January:
**2012 began in Puerto Rico ringing in the new year with Mr. M & Sister S.
**Mr. M & I added to our family by adopting our little pound mutt Charlie Mae. She feels like such an integral part of The Team that I can’t believe the little scamp has only been with us for a year!
February:
**NYC’s first real snow day of the season was celebrated in Central Park.
**Perhaps unsurprisingly, after a few weeks of enduring a sullen, mopey, & awkward wife (see above), Mr. M ordered a break from the winter weather and a weekend trip to Miami.
March:
**In the non-travel adventure category, we lived it up with courtside Knicks tickets miraculously bequeathed upon us (what the wha??).
**We also took a mini weekend trip to Rhode Island and explored Providence and the mansions of Newport. I do believe I spent the majority of the drive up singing that song from the tv show Family Guy (“We’re off on the road to Rhode Island… we’re having the time of our liiives! Like a masochist in Newport, we’re Rhode Island-bound…”)
April:
**Our bdays being only 2 days apart, Mr. M & I both celebrated the Big 3-0! Ever the adult, Mr. M wanted to mark the occasion with a quiet dinner. I, on the other hand, decided to round up my girls and head to New Orleans for a (kinda grown-up?) celebration of friendship, good music & great food.
**Because I somehow bagged myself the best doggone guy in the world, Mr. M surprised me by flying my family in from California to celebrate Easter and my 30th birthday with me. It was the best birthday gift EVER.
May:
**I started this here blog (!) in an effort to organize & document life, and it’s definitely helped Mr. M & I revisit a few dormant adventure memories But it’s also had other unexpected and far-reaching effects: namely, getting a side-job as a travel writer… keeping in touch with family… and meeting a whole bunch of wonderful, new people who have introduced me to their adventures and inspired more of my own.
June:
**We all three understood why New Yorkers tend to flee the city come humid, muggy June and spent a weekend in the Catskill Mountains.
July:
**When we realized plane tickets would only cost us as much as a flight to Canada, Mr. M & I took an impromptu and amazing 4th of July trip to Switzerland!
**The day after we got home, Sister S came to visit us in NYC after passing her PhD qualifying exams (yay!!), and- amongst a lot of other sisterly fun- we took a day-trip to Boston.
August:
**Loving the decidedly East Coast concept of using the word ‘summer’ as a verb, we headed for a weekend hiking in the Poconos in central Pennsylvania. And took a very out-of-the-way and entirely necessary side trip to Scranton, home of “The Office.” Don’t judge.
**After a brief visa scare (if you’re a U.S. citizen, Brazil’s a bit rough for last-minute travel), Mr. M & I took a big trip south to explore the Amazon, Rio de Janeiro, Iguazu Falls, and the Pantanal of Brazil!
September:
**Fall- my favorite season- returned to New York City.
**I took a weekend trip to visit my friend Muki in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I am now admittedly smitten with the mitten.
October:
**Eager to lace up those hiking boots again (and perhaps inspired by the bucolic peacefulness of rural Michigan), Mr. M, Charlie Mae, and I returned to the Catskills for one last, pre-winter romp in nature.
**Hurricane Sandy hit and left us in the cold, wet, dark. Although it was an experience, we had zero to complain about, as our blackout only lasted five days.
November:
**I took a last-minute trip back home to LA to attend my dear friend Shar’s baby shower and celebrate Dani’s 30th with a real, live spa day…
… then went to the other end of the temperature spectrum and spent a fun but frigid three-day weekend in Montreal and Quebec City.
December:
**Mr. M & I survived our third annual Christmas Cookie Bake-a-Palooza, whereby we made 700 cookies… in one day… and shipped them out to family & friends across the country.
Despite being sick with the flu, I got to celebrate Christmas with my family in Los Angeles…
…and then Mr. M & I left for London & Portugal to ring in 2013!
And there, OCD Me… there you have it. 2012, neatly packaged in all its wondrous glory, was perfect.
The tagline of this blog is something I really believe: that we should spend each day the way we want to have spent our lives. Breaking it down like that makes attempting the rightly daunting task of Leading an Awesome Life seem a bit more manageable, at least for me. I think what truly appealed to me about the Year in Review concept (even more so than the siren call of getting to organize stuff) is that it has a similar effect. I figure if I spend each year right, I’ll have a pretty splendiferous life slideshow when it’s all over. ;)
I hope all your 2012s were exactly as you hoped them to be. And if not- the start of next year’s slideshow begins now, friends.
Happy (way belated) 2013! And thanks for letting me in to this New Years Party a few hours past midnight.
I had to laugh when I saw your going-into-Newport-song. Guess I'm not the only one who sings before entering. My song is a calypso-type song by Louis Armstrong at the beginning of the movie "High Society." "Just dig that scenery floating by, we're now approaching Newport, Rhode I. We've been for years in Variety, but Cholly Knickerbocker now we're going to be...." You can see it on YouTube if you want to. Great harmony.
Oh my goodness, I did youtube it, and it's amazing! Thank you so much, that made my morning. :) Next time we head into Rhode Island, I'll test it out (complete with cigarette holder & Mr. M playing my back-up). "High So-ci-ety!"
My favorite bit is when Louis Armstrong says, "End of song, beginning of story!" I love how he says it.
What a great year you have had! I am glad to have had the chance to follow along and read about your many travels and exciting days. Hope 2013 is just as good, no, even better!
Aww, thank you! :) And the same goes for you... I'm so happy I found your blog and look forward to reading more in 2013. Here's to a wonderful new year!