I’m typically not a big fan of the “year in review” blog posts that seem to be required of every blogger. I did write one last year, but I believe it was my first. What provoked me to write one last year was 2011 brought a lot of changes in my life – or rather, 2010 had, and things were finally moving in a good direction in 2011, and I wanted to celebrate it. So this year, carrying that forward, I do want to take a moment to celebrate what a fantastic year I had. It was a year about settling the hell down, understanding how important the long view can really be, and working out some old habits. I do promise not to belabor this because what I don’t enjoy about other people’s year-in-review posts is when they’re either self congratulatory or just a pathetic way to get us to revisit old posts.
Anyway, enough preamble; here we go.
Backyard Tourism
I started categorizing posts as “the backyard tourist” to catalog the local roaming I do. My definition for “backyard” is anywhere within a reasonable day’s driving distance. Note that I said “reasonable,” so that time Mom turned to me in our hotel in San Diego and said, “Hey, have you ever been to Arizona?” wouldn’t count. But you’ll see that I do stretch it just a little bit to about the eight-hour mark. The important thing about this category is that it is distinguished from trips that require planning, reservations, etc. This is the get up and go category.
We did a lot of backyard tourism this year. I have always been proud of myself for embracing where I live, going to all of the museums my neighbors only see when someone visits from out of down. But Yen and I completely outdid ourselves this year, I think.
We started the year off with a quick trip to New York, visiting a lot of what you’d probably consider generic tourist spots. But who cares if they’re new to you?
Speaking of things we’ve never done before, we headed next to Ottawa, home of the world’s longest outdoor skating rink. Too bad we had an unseasonably warm winter and the canal was closed for the season when we arrived. Never mind! We loved Ottawa just the same. It’s a surprisingly busy little city with a huge Chinatown. We’re looking forward to trying again this year.
What? Cherry blossoms? Love ’em. But I’d never been to DC for the festival because I am my father’s daughter and I fear crowds. I had this idea that DC at this time would be completely overwhelmed, no hotel rooms available, and that you wouldn’t be able to see the  blossoms because of all of the tourists snapping photos between you and them. Surprise! We hopped on a plane, got a beautiful corner hotel room on the 12th floor overlooking the monuments and the river, and had a terrific time roaming the Smithsonian and enjoying the flowers.
And then a few more: Cape Cod in the spring before any of the other tourists landed, fall in Acadia with the MacIntosh-Bells, a long weekend struggling up hills in the Berkshires, yet another trip to DC just because airfare was low, and one particularly great weekend hiking with David when he came to visit. I wish he’d come more often.
Travel
Weekend trips are great. But we also managed some pretty fantastic “real” travel this year too.
First came Peru. South America was never on my list of places to go. Oh sure, I love all of the Argentinian writers, particular Cortázar. But this strange vague fear I probably got from being a child in the 80s and hearing horrible things about Columbia and deforestation and who knows what else made me think that as a little white girl from the Midwest, my job was to want to go to Europe. Yen, though, has had Machu Picchu on his “bucket list” (I don’t like that term – it implies to me that (a) your list of places to go is immutable and (b) that the only reason to go places is because one day you’ll die and having done so will give you meaning) for a long time. I swallowed my fear and we booked tickets. I won’t repeat all of the glowing reviews of the posts – you can read them for yourself. But put down your fears and go, people!
Then we turned our attention to my bucket list. I studied Latin way to long not to want to see Roman things. And Florence? Well… I’ve heard it’s romantic… Off we went. It more than met my expectations, though I freely admit that Rome completely overwhelmed me. The funny thing is that after being in Peru (and Costa Rica the year before), that’s more the vacation I want now. I want a wide open adventure with hiking, strange food, and people who are as curious about us as we are about them. I loved our trip and I am so happy we took it. But I have a travel guide for Chile…
And speaking of exotic locales, there was one more important trip in 2012: Yen’s first visit to Iowa. I don’t want to gush too much about the man here (because I’m planning on doing it further down the page), but one of my favorite things about Yen is that you can drop him into any crowd, and he will dive in, make friends, and have a wonderful time. He has a sense of adventure and curiosity that he carries with him at all times. And so his first time in The Middle, he helped feed cattle, ate frog’s eye salad, and had a wonderful time getting to know all of my family. I can’t wait to do the same one day when we go to Vietnam.
Fitness
There’s good news and bad on this omnipresent front. The good is that I tackled a very new challenge this year, bootcamp. I also ran my second 5k, shaving six and a half minutes off my original time. It was Yen’s first 5k, and he sailed through it, got an impressive 25:30, and has now become a runner.
What I’m not happy about is as I looked through the year preparing for this post, it’s even clearer than it was as I stepped on the scale this morning that a certain puffiness has crept upon me this year. Not a lot, but I’m afraid it’s not the trend I like to see. I am not a fan of resolutions because they seem to be kept only two or three weeks. But my late-30s are upon me and there are reasons to shed a few pounds now beyond just vanity. Watch this space as that challenge unfolds, aided by an unflinching Yen who probably wishes we were ice skating this very minute instead of typing. All in good time, my friend. The long view!
Ruby & Co.
Finally, another big change that 2012 brought, which is that the Chandlers moved back to Illinois. I miss them terribly, but it was the right choice for them. They’re enjoying the benefits of lower cost of living and many, many locally based babysitters. I miss my entire family so very much that I don’t often let myself think of it. Our job now must be to visit Illinois more often so Ruby doesn’t forget that she has an Evil Aunt Kate.
Mr. Tran
Ah, my adorable honey badger.
It’s almost two years since I found him. It seems as if it can’t possibly have been so long already – and yet how else could we have had so many adventures already? I am thankful every day for his patience, sense of humor, wisdom, the gentle way he tells me to do just one more mile then we can quit, his inability to do anything when confronted with my moods except to ask how to help, and the example he sets every day for hard work, kindness, and a clean floor by any means necessary. I can’t wait to see what all we tackle together in 2013.
BRB – I seem to have something in my eye.
What a great review and definitely not too self-congratulatory or pathetic.