2014

It wasn't until a few years ago that I really started enjoying New Year celebrations. Prior to that, I had spent the holiday with too many expectations and a lot of desperation. But then I grew closer with a group of friends who get me, and we now spend the evening drinking too much and dancing too weird (not so much now that we all have kids) and reunite the next morning to eat, drink and watch bowl games. Also, being pretty content with my life makes the end of each year less of a tragic retrospective and more of a reflection on everything I have to be thankful for. And I get to make lists of goals and track my progress and get very excited about organizing everything. Here is a preliminary list of my goals and hopes for 2014, in no particular order.

• No more eating in bed. I have decided that no matter how easy it is, it's just gross.
• Travel outside the United States.
• Sit my family down for dinner together once a week.
• Continue aggressively paying down debt and adding to our emergency fund.
• Find our forever state/city/town.
• Be a better sister.
• Give my time to those in need.
• Continue to purge the useless crap from our home and waste less.
• Take E to swimming lessons.
• Take L to dinner and a movie once a month.
• Learn how to use a camera that isn't an iPhone.
• Break up with the Chemex. (I think I already completed this one -- I bought a Bialetti yesterday!)

This all seems doable in 365 days, right? Good.

Now, I'd like to share a few charities that I feel do really important work and to which I donate regularly. It sucks getting the short end of the stick and making a donation might just give someone a fresh start in 2014.

Homeless Prenatal Program

PAWS: Pets Are Wonderful Support

Planned Parenthood

Heifer International

Here's to a great 2014!

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Gubbio 2015

I recently applied for a passport for the first time in my 30 years. I am a homebody and just the thought of international travel makes me want to hide under the covers for a couple hours. L, on the other hand, is a natural traveler and the times we have made trips together, he's always been calm and collected, while I quietly lose my shit. I have been working a fair amount on my anxiety and letting go of the iron grip I have on the things that make me feel safe and calm, so I felt it was time to surprise L with a document that at least represents a willingness to get on a plane to somewhere that is far enough away that I won't be able to sleep in my own bed every night.

Catholics and their phallu--candles. CANDLES. Yay St. Ubaldo!

L recently spent three weeks in Italy for work, researching Roman and Neapolitan cuisine for his new role as CDC. He visited countless towns and villages, but he was struck most by Gubbio in Perugia as a place to spend some time "eating and looking at old architecture" as he put it while we were waiting for our Uber after seeing The Book of Mormon on Saturday (it was incredible and I thank the client that made my boss travel this weekend so he could give us his tickets). He was telling me about this rickety old Medieval torture device that the town uses as a tram up the side of Mt. Inigo and how he imagined the three of us just hanging out there together. He also mentioned that he was there for the town's All Saints Day celebration and that he thinks that I would have loved it. Also, St. Ubaldo, the town's patron saint, is celebrated on his feast day (May 15) with the Corsa dei Ceri, which is like the running of the bulls, but dudes run through the streets hoisting 20-foot-tall wooden candles and race to the basilica of St. Ubaldo. It's a pretty obvious appropriation of pagan tradition and symbolism -- the candles also have urns of water on their tops and they crash down and explode during the course of the race and it is considered good luck to get splashed with some of that special candle phallus water. So there's that.

So right there in the cold, standing on Hyde Street, we made a deal that we'll make a trip to Gubbio in 2015 and that we'll ride the tram (despite my intense fear of heights), eat with abandon, and look at some really old shit (I love really old shit).

Gubbio 2015!