Hello friends and family! Once again, apologies for the extended absence from the blog, but I’m back in Barca on Wednesday and PROMISE to be a much more faithful blogger in the months to come!!!
Anyway, I thought it would be fitting to start this year with a blog dedicated to a bit of reflection on the last 12 months of my life — which have been full of, as you might guess, revolutions; revolutions that, in turn, are leading me to many resolutions (clearly). 2008 was a funny year for me, since it was split nearly down the middle between living in Spain and living in NYC. My life in Spain, as you all know, was marked by a roller coaster ride of peaks and valleys, manic highs and soul-sucking lows: great visits from friends, abundant identity crises, academic failures, spectacular travel (Sevilla and Dublin are both cities I’d like to revisit!!!), incredible meals, and nearly enough soul-searching to last a lifetime (alas, as I still haven’t figured anything out, I suspect there is yet more of that to come). In NYC, I’ve led a very different kind of life: it’s been a stable, lovely time, full of tremendous family meals, brilliant outings with friends, travel back and forth across the country (three times!), that fabulous trip to PR, long work days and mellow evenings, and an overwhelming return to a revived sense of self.
With so much to reflect on in 2008, it would be easy to go on and on and on. Fear not, I won’t do that! If you’ve been following this blog for the last year or so, you probably know what the revolutions have been, and that they’ve been largely professionally related. (I WILL find a way to save the world AND earn a decent income, dammit!!!) However, the personal revolution that you might not know about (due to aforementioned extended absence from the blog, ahem) is that I finally (finally!!) let myself fall for the man who has loved me best and longest (10 years of marriage proposals — no joke!), and that, starting as soon as I can get my booty to Portland (likely summer this year), we’ll be crafting a new vision of the future — together, which rocks more than I can possibly express here. He’s the best ever, and I can’t wait to see what adventures we’ll have and what life we’ll build. We just spent three tremendous weeks together on the Left Coast, and it wasn’t nearly enough time, but it’s good to know that we can look forward to living together as soon as that’s humanly possible. Also, on a less romantic front, I’ve recently become a vegetarian (not totally true — technically I’ve simply committed myself to a cruelty-free diet, but that mostly means not eating meat), though I don’t know how much I’ll be able to stick to it in Spain (damn that irresistible cured ham!!). All told, 2008 was a HUGE year for me, and I can’t wait to see what 2009 has in store.
Anyway, I said revolutions AND resolutions, right? So how ’bout I just list the resolutions for you, and hopefully making them this public will make me a wee bit accountable to actually hold to them, eh? In no particular order:
– I WILL lose the weight I’ve gained in b-school, hopefully with the assistance of my good pal Dan in BCN.
– Travel wish list for the next 6 months: Munich (J&L, I’m coming to see you!), Paris/London (P&L, where are you guys these days??), Victoria Falls (maybe with Megan and David in April!), Tanzania, Kenya (hopefully to volunteer at an orphanage there), and all of SA, since, you know, I’ll be living there for a couple of months.
– Find a way to get my folks and extended fam to BCN before I depart in April.
– Fiesta at the beach house in August (with so many of us turning 30, there should be a celebration, no? — who’s in??).
– Find a job that allows me to stay true to myself and my goals, and happens to be in Portland and pays a million dollars (okay okay, maybe not a million, but you know what I mean).
– Take advantage of my kickass location in BCN and actually buy yummy foodstuffs from the Boqueria (living with M&D in NY has been a totally inspirational culinary adventure, and I hope to continue the good eating on my own across the pond).
– Be nicer to myself.
– Be as good a partner to my honey as he deserves (which is no small feat, be assured — he deserves outright awesomeness).
Wow, alright, this list is getting out of control, so I’ll stop. But before I end this particular post, I would like to say a very sincere THANK YOU to all of my awesome and amazing friends and family for helping me through the last 18 months of chaos, insanity, panic attacks, and general psychic suffering. I’m predicting a much more balanced 2009, and ask the question of all of you: what revolutions and resolutions do YOU have, coming out of 2008, and what adventures will you have in 2009???
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!
