This year began at a low-key murder mystery dinner party with some of my favorite people in Kansas City. Aaron, Eva and I still lived in our sweet little house near the Country Club Plaza, where we were quite happily snowed in twice over the course of that heinous KC winter. Despite the weather — and an exceptionally challenging tax season at work — I continued seriously training for my first half marathon of the year. I PRed at Rock the Parkway, and have not run nearly as fast since — but no matter. I did it once. Check. I am great.
It took 140 seconds in March to change the course of the rest of the year. At South by Southwest in Austin, I took a couple minutes out of my day to pop into a fun 140-second interview for a cool job at a really rad brand, and then went on my merry way to hang out with the rest of the brand social dorkus crew.
I got the job.
What followed was a particularly tumultuous period of second-guessing and uncertainty, punctuated by THE GREATEST GOODTIME PARTYTIME EVER at my 5-year Cornell reunion. We got to spend time with the whole team at all our old haunts, and it was like no time had passed. I mean, we all looked a lot thinner and everyone turned out real well. But otherwise, it was like no time had passed. We stayed in the dorms. We ate Wingz. Someone barfed in a water fountain. Standard.
When we returned home to KC, Aaron quit his dream job, we packed our shit into a POD, threw ourselves a goodbye party and drove down to Dallas. The air conditioner in the Mazda died as we crossed the border from Oklahoma into Texas and we drugged the cat.
We moved in with my parents in the Dallas suburbs while we looked for a home in the city, and it was all pretty weird and surreal. We found a townhouse, got new cars, moved in — and then Aaron got a fantastic job offer 40 minutes away the week we unpacked.
So now we’re both commuting about 2 hours a day in traffic in opposite directions. But we have new cars now, and damn do we feel cool getting home to our urban digs. At 8 pm.
In September, my beautiful niece Mira Juniper was born. She’s the first baby I’ve ever held, and she turned out to be a pretty nice baby.
My job unfolded to be one of the most intense, most exciting, most rewarding challenges I’ve taken on, and it’s brought an A-list group of brilliant and talented kickass people into my life.
It was a really, really lucky 140 seconds.
I was going for 240 minutes at the Chicago Marathon. NAILED IT. Plus 43.
It’s fine. Who cares. I RAN A MARATHON. I got to celebrate with my best friend in the whole world, and the baby Mira called the restaurant and bought us sangria because she knows what’s up.
I came home, and for the first time in 2 and a half years, I worked out only a couple times a week. And I did not cry about it. I ate mostly what I wanted, and I chilled the F out. It was (and continues to be) glorious.
The first weekend in November, Aaron and I went to Kansas City to celebrate our 5-year anniversary. On Saturday night at dinner, I was intensely focused on the Petit Fors plate when I saw flashes outside the window next to us. I (finally) turned my head to see the manager of Bluestem lighting roman candles (are those the fireworks things that sit on the ground?) on the sidewalk to celebrate. I cried. People clapped. It was outstanding.
I spent an early Thanksgiving in Colorado with my fam, and got to meet baby Mira for the very first time. I headed back to Dallas and hosted my in-loves for their first Thanksgiving away from Kansas City. Thanks to Williams-Sonoma’s brining mix, everything turned out fine. Except for one small incident where Aaron moved the oven racks around while I was taking Mr Turkey’s temperature and when I went to stick him back in, his belly got scorched on the roof of the oven. No matter. His death was not in vain, and he was so delicious.
One week later, Aaron proposed.
That evening, Dallas became entombed in ice and we couldn’t leave our house for the next 4 days. What came next was a whirlwind of holiday parties, cheese plates and champagne, capped off with a Christmas in Vail.
Last night, we came home to Kansas City and rang in the new year with Aaron’s family and our friends, celebrating the marriage of a beautiful couple.
And so far, 2014 has been the worst year ever because I was so hung over I almost barfed on the plane this afternoon. Good start.