But first, a couple of things:
1. I have a tremendous headache tonight and it's because I haven't had any caffeine today. No chai tea, no Diet Coke, just water. By the time I figured out why my head was pounding, it was too late to drink something caffeinated, so I'll just take a couple of ibuprofen and tough it out. That's when you know you drink too much caffeine, right, when you get a headache the size of Peru when you don't drink it.
2. It has been frigid cold here all day. The current temperature is 12 degrees (-11 C). When I was out earlier today it was 18 degrees (-7.77 C) and that was the high temperature of the day. I've been lounging around my house in sweat pants and a long sleeve shirt and my new house booties, but when I went outside, I was layered up with fleece and my coat and a hat and gloves and I was still freezing. The wind hit my face and my eyes watered and my nose was running. Not very pleasant. I've been pretty content staying home and reading a book.
Mentioning reading is a perfect segue to my recap!
I have this weird affinity for lists and I make lists everywhere and sometimes even have multiple lists for the same topic. For example, I keep a journal and for the past few years, I have had a page where I write down each book I read. This year I also kept a little notebook where I kept track of all the books I read, all the movies I watched, all the music I purchased and the recipes I tried. I'm also keeping track of my books on Goodreads.com. I mostly use Goodreads to keep track of books I want to read and to look at reviews from regular people, but I also like to mark when I finish a book there.
Anyway, that's a long story for saying that I've read 47 books this year, but I plan to finish the one I'm reading right now, so that will be 48. That's a big number for me! (My Goodreads says I read 35 books, so apparently I did not log them all.) There were three books that I read that I loved the most:
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. First of all, Hillenbrand is a very good writer who appears to do a ton of research on her subjects. Her book Seabiscuit was incredible with all the facts and the sheer amount of information she had about the horse and the jockey, and Unbroken was no different. Hillenbrand took you right into Louie Zamperini's life, from his childhood almost right up until he died. Louie's life story is pretty amazing and the way the story is told is mesmerizing. I could hardly put the book down, which is saying something since I read it while we were on vacation in Mexico. Truly one of my favorite books that I read this year.
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. I liked the cover of this book, so I went to Goodreads to check out some reviews and they were pretty stellar. Nearly everyone seemed to like this book, so I thought, "What the heck?" I have read another of Rowell's books and thought is was cute, but that first book had nothing, absolutely nothing on Eleanor and Park. This story is about two high school kids who meet on the bus and don't seem to have anything in common until they find out they do like the same stuff and they fall in love. Both of them are beautiful, endearing characters. It's sweet like The Fault in Our Stars but without the cancer. Loved it. I know I'll read it again.
One Plus One by Jojo Moyes. Oh Jojo, you creator of adorable quirky characters! She wrote one of my favorite books from last year, Me Before You, and I was so excited to read her new book. I had to wait for it for a long time on the hold queue at the library and then I read it so fast I felt almost gypped. The characters are so interesting and real to me and the story flows so well that I get all caught up in it and don't want to do anything else. This story isn't the tear-jerker that Me Before You was, so that was nice. I'm not saying I didn't cry, but I didn't sob and bawl and slobber. This book was pretty darn delightful.
According to my list, I've seen 65ish movies this year. Yes, some of them were movies I have already seen, but I counted them all. Of the new movies that came out this year, two of them stick in my head. In no order they were:
Maleficent starring Angelina Jolie. Oh. My. God. Angelina Jolie in this movie is perfection! Her face, the make-up, the way she talks, that awesome horn business on her head, everything about her is breath-taking. And then there is sweet little Elle Fanning as Sleeping Beauty. So precious! The scene where the bad guy cuts off Maleficent's wings and the pain and horror that follows is crushing. I got this video for Christmas and I'm surprised I haven't watched it yet. I definitely will before the weekend is over.
I got to see some live music this year which is always good. I saw two big rap shows: The Monster Tour with Rihanna and Eminem and the Lil Wayne vs Drake tour. I really enjoyed both of those shows, which I saw with my son. With MT, I saw The Eagles and the Black Keys. I also got to see Berkley Hart perform at a house concert near LA with Lizzie, T and Mia. That was a fun night too. And although it wasn't music, MT, T and I did see the Oddball Comedy Festival featuring Aziz Ansari, Sarah Silverman and Louis CK among others. We had a great time at that show!
We didn't do too much traveling this year. I made a couple of trips to California; the April trip in particular was great because we got to see Aunt Mia from Sweden again. It's always fun to see and talk with her. We also went to Idaho a few times, and of course, we had our family summer vacation in Isla Mujeres, Mexico. What a fantastic week that was! I really enjoyed being on the island and relaxing in the hot sun. Humid, too, now that I think about it. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
On a more personal note, 2014 was good in that I am ending the year slightly lighter than I started it. I went back to Weight Watchers and although I could have done better at following the plan, I was glad to get back on the program. Another fun thing is that I let my hair grow and though it's not long compared to say, Lizzie's hair, it is long for me and I actually like it. I have mostly deleted the pictures of short hair cuts from my Pinterest board. I think I'll keep growing it. Another fun thing is that my BFF LA got my interested in clothes and in developing a bit of personal style. It's a work in progress, but I do try most days. On the work front, I'd say that I was less cranky about my work than I was in the past, but also more willing to look at a time when I wouldn't do this work anymore. Dreaming about life after Granite and what I might do was really freeing and I think it allowed me to do a better job. Sounds kind of backwards, doesn't it? I don't really know how to explain it, so I won't.
T had a big year. He shaved for the first time, got his driver's license, turned 16 and had a girlfriend. He's doing well in school and has developed a funny and often snarky sense of humor. He's darn cute, too.
MT has spent the year working as basically a handy-man for a property management company. He says is level of job satisfaction is very high. I think that he likes the work because it mirrors what he does at our rentals. He learns a lot and he is also really good at that type of work. He has been pretty relaxed this year, for the most part and I like that.
Well, this post kind of ended up like a letter you'd get in a Christmas card!
All in all, I'd say 2014 was pretty good. I had mostly good times, I think. Here's hoping 2015 is good, too!
Talk to you all next year!
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