2018: A Year In Review

2018 came in like a wrecking ball. Actually, that’s not true. Let me explain. 

Last year at this time, I’d gone home to visit friends for our annual Christmas gathering and see my dad for his birthday. Due to snow and general laziness, my friends and I decided to have a night in and order pizza. We ended up exchanging gifts, playing a wild round of What Do You Meme?, watching Get Out, and making the incredibly hilarious Youtube video below as the storm raged on outside. It was truly, my favorite night of 2017. I’d planned to make it back to Ohio for NYE, but found myself too cozy and too sad to leave home, so I rang in the new year in the best way I know how: with my dad, cozy on the couch, eating grilled cheese and fries, getting sleepy while watching Love Actually. The thought literally crossed my mind that if the previous few days were setting the tone for the year to come, I was in for a treat. But, to quote Jessica Day, “You can’t escape destiny, she comes for us all… that relentless bitch.” 

Just kidding, sorta. It wasn’t all bad. 

Per my seasonal affective disorder, January and February were blurs that seemed to stretch out over years of time, and I remember very little of them.

Then came March. My birthday was spent just how I like it. My coworkers were beyond sweet and treated me to more than I deserve. I kept the evening casual with Bibibop, Riverdale, and Life Sentence (RIP, ugh). It was low key, and it was glorious.

I was more excited about Kyle’s birthday though because, hellooooo, dirty 30. I successfully rallied the troops from Florida and NY, and we were able to surprise Kyle a few times over his birthday weekend. Sadly, on the big day of festivities, wrecking ball numero uno hit me in the form of a mild sore throat, which escalated quickly into my second bout of the flu for the winter. Come time for the big birthday dinner, I was delirious with fever, trying really hard to be sick undercover, and clearly failing since the only picture I have to commemorate my husband’s big birthday is of this pretzel with a candle in it? 

All joking aside, it was such a fun weekend with family celebrating my sweet guy, and I think my favorite gift to him was a video compilation of all of his friends wishing him a happy birthday.

Come April, my stomach situation had gone from bleh to iliterallycannothandlethis levels. I was legitimately not eating anything until about 6:30 at night because frankly, I couldn’t. I typically wouldn’t eat all day long at work, and would have a rotation of two dinner meals that didn’t kill me. I was miserable, so I went to the doctor and demanded answers. “Give up dairy. I’ll set you up with a specialist.” -______- 

I feel like this is the part where I give you the millionth blurb about my stomach, and anyone who knows me in real life sighs heavily, rolls their eyes, and wishes they probably didn’t know me. I’m sick of talking about it. I’m even more sick of coping with it. Overhauling your diet at age 29 is no joke, and therefore has been a major pain point of 2018.

April also brought a fun reunion with some of my high school friends. We had a great girl’s weekend and visited the zoo. It warmed my heart to spend time with them. 

May was absolutely incredible. I was honored to be a part of one of my best friend’s weddings and it was truly a once in a lifetime experience that I will never forget. I wish I could relive that weekend over and over, and I am so bummed that my friends and I don’t have a lifetime of weddings to attend together because I really have cherished those weekends over the years. Yashoni and Ricki, you are a gorgeous couple! 

June was interesting. I had a procedure to try and see what was up with my gut. It wasn’t pleasant. It yielded no helpful results as to why my stomach was suddenly my worst enemy. But, it did amount to this hilarious photo (and caption) that I sent to my coworkers (classy broad that I am) while still in the  hospital and very much under the influence of local anesthetic. I would discover I had sent it the following day and fortunately, I did not die of embarrassment. 

July brought Hanson and a Taylor Swift weekend with friends, which were both awesome, but it also brought me one of the worst weeks of my life. My mom fell and suffered a pretty severe brain injury (her doctor later told her that only 1 in 4 people survive this type of incident), and she spent several hours in brain surgery and a week in ICU. Those were some of the toughest days ever. Not only because it pained me to see my mom in that state, but also because the ICU is not a friendly place for someone with my particular brand of anxiety. (I for some reason feel the need to tell you that I read Amy Schumer’s book while listening to machines breathe for other people and overall, that was an incredibly unpleasant combo. Just thought you should know.) July was pretty much a disaster after Tay left town. 

You know what, though? It takes tragedy to know triumph, and my mom has made an awesome recovery (sans the ability to taste food which sucks) and is back at work full time, beautiful as ever. And despite the awful circumstances, I did get to spend a nice week at home with my dad. 

Here’s a collage of the good and the bad that July had to offer. What a weird month. 

The rest of summer was a glorious and hot blur of concerts, weddings, and Bachelorette Recaps. Yeah, you read that right. Crystal and I recapped every single episode of The Bachelorette on her youtube channel, and due to how well it went, we recapped all of Bachelor in Paradise as well. Sorry to pat us both on the back, but these videos are hilarious and I’m looking forward to January, even though I think Colton is a little snoozy. #blasonforbachelor

September was a fun month too. September is the beginning of my favorite time of year. It’s Chuck’s birthday month and our anniversary month (we saw Maroon 5 and it was lit!). And this year, it was also the month that I bought a new car and spent a really beautiful weekend traipsing around some stunning parts of West Virginia with my bff, my dad.

From that point on, the rest of my year is well documented in the form of Blogoween and Blogmas, so you can catch up there. Thanksgiving and Christmas were just what the doctor ordered for my heart (not my gut though), and I feel blessed to have spent time with family. But, in true 2018 fashion, little Chuck (my beloved fur child cat) has been sick for the past few days and my heart is good and broken over that. Send that little babe prayers and positivity, and let’s hope that 2019 is a ray of bright sunshine. 

Here’s to the good stuff, because hey, life is good. 

xoxo see ya in 2k19