What a freakin’ year!

Compared to last year, shit felt pretty quiet. But really – it’s been a year of tremendous growth, awesome achievements, and fantastic travel. Ain’t too shabby!

• started a new job
• got my permanent resident visa
• worked very hard in therapy, made many a revelation about myself and changes I need to make
• started chipping away at and breaking bad habits
• celebrated our 5 year anniversary ❤
• wrote less, but wrote better quality
• got out more
• went to The States, saw and hugged almost all my family members, and nearly all of my best friends
• learned how to lean into the skid
• read more
• maintained a savings account of more than $5
• lost some good people
• made solid plans about our future

The difference in how I feel now compared to how I felt on December 31 2017 is incredible. I know I posted less on here, and that’s because I was caught up working through my shit – which is a lot more personal, and a lot less “working on my shit” hustle and bustle that I usually feel comfortable about posting. There were down days, there were up days, and there were a lot of mundane days. But, owing to the afore mentioned tremendous personal growth, and hard work on getting through the shit, ultimately, I feel like we’re going into 2019 with our shields up, ready to continue breaking through to a goddamn fantastic future.

And with that, let’s look back on the year that was!

old school sifting

Biscuit hair

1:09PM

it’s dark in the pic, but that is a plate of cheese and fruit and hopes and dreams

5:31PM

ohhh how I wish this blog was scratch-n-sniff

refining our pores

And someone became king of the horses

Tourists

Kate’s mom sewed her dress, it was an incredible feat

DUMBO

The gorgeous NY Public Library

This would have been better if he was standing on the S and I was standing on the N. But eh, what can ya do.

6:34 PM

The Witch Trials Memorial. There’s a step for every woman and man who were executed.

more fishing

Portland Head Lighthouse. My grandpa loved light houses and took heaps of photos here.

Mariner Joel

hello, nature

L.L. Joel

Right before we almost got knocked off our feet

The wind was insane, but so were the views

Henry was super psyched. This is one of my fave photos of the trip 🙂

Coffee time with Henry

My mom and I dragged dad and Joel to a special advanced showing of A Star is Born ❤

Pop Pop and Mimi and Henry

WAFFLE HOUSE. /mydreams

Ziggy does a perimeter check

Bridesmaids!

Handsome Good Boys

❤

Kris’s krazy kids

Joel meets Mountain Mama Daron (and my beautiful Henry rifle)

Yeah, wouldn’t mind living here either.

❤

At the mercantile general store. There’s a group of old men who still gather here to smoke cigs in the morning.

On our way to City Tavern!

yummm

The littlest Ortiz

Joel and George

Travel exhausts us, dahling

❤ ❤

Joel taught me how to play chess! Our first game ended in a draw. I am very sophisticated now.

Joel: prepared and adequately layered, me: freezing

The most delicious ramen at Noodle Bar. We had to book it over 12 blocks and barely made it in time for lunch, but holy shit was it worth it. We have Big Feelings for David Chang around these parts.

30 Rock. And sadly, no awesome NBC talent sightings. We went to the Top of The Rock to see the sunset.

Nine Inch Nails were performing. 1 block away were a line of Goths and Much Older Goths waiting to get in.

a very awesome diner, with dishes like “Re-Haminator”. There was an entire section in the menu devoted to Eggs Benedict. Each dish was named after a different Benedict Cumberbatch pun.

Portland!

Rose Foods – amazing

“get this picture for my blog” – me, probably. But I did kinda see a seal so there.

After 15 minutes, our faces were wind burnt and we re-treated back to the car

In his element

I said it before, but damn. VAST.

The Big Bill Purray

ay!

Fairy lake

Krista and Nich!

Cara and Mel!

❤

The beautiful couple

One last biscuit and gravy breakfast before we left…

At the airport…

bonus sister selfies

I convinced Joel to stay in and get a take-away pizza one night. We ended up eating it for the next 2 days.

Totes fancy

The names get a rose on each victim’s birthday

The water fall drowns out all the city noise

We were very lucky, and caught the park right at the end of peak leaf season.

Spoilllzzzzz

Pancake got some treats in her stocking – she was much pleased

This year, we decided to watch all the Christmas episodes of The Office

Thanks for everything, 2018! I can’t wait to carry on with this good momentum, to help others, to write more, to be more available, to bake more, to be open to challenges and changes.

And to FINALLY watch Game of Thrones again. This has been a hard, Tyrion-less year for camp Audpodge.

I love you all, thanks for reading and coming along! And I wish all of you all the best in 2019.

xoxo