Fits and Starts

Alright, alright.

Last year wasn't a total suckfest.

I did get a new niece. And she's pretty fantastic.

And there were some other not so terrible spots, spots that I filled by starting things.

I'm very good at starting things.

But not so very good at finishing them.

Like "Infinite Jest".

 

I started reading it on vacation. In October.

 It was one of those perfect beach weeks: warm-bordering-on-hot, sunny, and off season, so there was no one, no one, around.

A seemingly perfect time to dive into this giant tome of a book.

I got through 171 pages. Of a 981 page book.

Instead, I spent my time napping and working on a wicked sunburn.

And haven't touched it since I took it out of my suitcase.

I enjoyed those 171 pages. And I fully intend to enjoy the remaining 810 before the end of 2014.

I also started knitting a blanket,

A blanket that I thought about knitting for, like, 2 years beforehand.

So maybe I'm not so good at starting things, after all.

But anyway.

This blanket is a patchwork extravaganza.

A million little squares.

Each knit in a different pattern

(I have this old Reader's Digest book of stitch patterns. I think it belonged to one of my grandmothers.)

The going is slow.

It may wind up on my bed by the time fall winter 2014 rolls around.

Or maybe 2015.

I also finally started watching the first season of "Girls".

Wait- I might have actually started that this year.

Either way. I plan on finishing it sometime in the next 12 months.

Under my new blanket, with my feet propped up on my giant ottoman of a book.

Cheers to that.

xo

Auld Lang Syne

And so here we are.

Here, in a bright and shiny new year.

And here, in this place, my own personal, but decidedly not private, corner of cyber space.

And it feels good to be here.

It feels good to be anywhere that isn't the year that just passed.

For that year was a dark and terrible place. Right from the get-go, and through to the very end.

A dark and terrible year that taught us invaluable life lessons; like don't ever, ever, ask how it could be worse.

And to never take a moment for granted.

A year that none in my family wanted to see, actually see, the end of; opting instead to hide under the duvets, desperately willing ourselves to sleep through the chime of midnight, emerging on the other side in a clean, fresh year.

And so we did. And here we are.

And maybe this year isn't as bright and shiny as years past, but it is new.

Wrought with opportunity and unchartered territories.

For us, anyway.
And we will navigate these new and choppy seas.
And we will seize opportunities- another lesson learned.
We will carry on.
Why shouldn't we?
There's too much in this great big world to not stop and appreciate just a little bit of it.
So here's to new beginnings.
New adventures.
And to feeling alive again.
xo