2014 in Review

I like to do a review of a year’s highlights. I did one for my races, but this one is about life in general.

January – We celebrated our 2-year anniversary.

February – Nothing special happened

March – We went to Costa Rica (nothing says romance like traveling with your boyfriend and your mother).

April – Ben and I got engaged in Washington, D.C. I get really pissed off at work and race it out to an incredible 10-mile PR at Cherry Blossom.

May – I get unofficial news of my promotion at work.

June – We leave for our two week trek in Peru. We go to Lake Titicaca.

July – We trek Salkantay and Machu Picchu (I will finish writing about it one day). I survive Musselman Sprint Tri.

August – Because Musselman didn’t kill me, I do the NYC Tri. I am never ever ever doing tris again – like Taylor Swift and her ex. I also learn how to sail. Ben wanted me to spend an awful lot of time on/in the Hudson River that month.

September – I become a puppy  mommy! BANDIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Honestly, Bandit is the best thing to have happened to us in 2014. We’re both so infatuated with her. We had no idea that it was possible to love anything so much.

October – We celebrate my 37th birthday with my mother (it’s her birthday too) at Sleep No More. Nothing says happy birthday, Mom, like showing her a show that has an orgy scene with full frontal male nudity. I would like to say that this was the first place that I showed her phallic stuff, but it isn’t. She’s used to this from me.

November – We closed on a house in Brooklyn. It’s official, in 2015 Ben, Bandit, and I will become Brooklynites. #gentrificationanyone?

December – We buy 48 acres lakefront property in the Poconos. We closed yesterday. Why did we buy 48 acres in PA? Because it was really cheap. There’s no house. It’s just land. Most of it is unbuildable wetlands. We’ll hire an engineer one day to tell us where we can build a house (hopefully by the lake) and have a little vacation home with an incredibly large backyard. Currently we own 48 acres. Now we need a mule (actually I really really really want baby pygmy goats). #westwardho! #manifestdestiny

View of our lake in the summer (photo by George Kuzni, found on Google maps)

Big changes in our lives in 2014, but bigger ones to come in 2015. I’m really excited about all the things that will happen (moving to BK, wedding, more travel plans) and for the first time in a long time, I’m eagerly embracing the new year, not because the previous year was bad and anything will be better, but because I’m bursting with anticipation about all the wonderful things that are coming. In the last 10 years, I’ve had some rather bad years and wondered if I would ever get my life going in the direction that I wanted it to go. I wandered a bit lost and sad, while putting up a good front, but secretly feeling like a fraud. Tired of feeling like I was being left behind in life, every year I took stock of my life noting where I was and where I wanted to be. It was all right to not be where I wanted to be, but I had to be making progress toward that goal. If I wasn’t then I had to make changes in my life to work on that goal. I just feel that in 2014 things started coming together in my life and I’m living a great life. I’m incredibly grateful for everything that I have and experienced.

2014 was great, but 2015 will be incredible. I’m racing toward you, 2015!