in some ways this yearly recap is easier to write because i didn’t set any specific goals at the beginning of the year, and in some ways it’s more difficult without that structure to guide me. but then again, perhaps that’s the metaphor for 2023 — it was a year without a lot of structure, one that saw me floating between homes and neighborhoods for a few months before landing me back on solid ground. so i guess that’s where we’ll start, and see what happens from there.

the big things that happened.

i moved into a new apartment! the place i lived upon my arrival in nyc was a sublet and was intended to help me get my bearings while i adjusted to the city, and it was perfect for that. eventually the time came for me to find my own place, set up my own corner of nyc, and although the apartment hunting process was a bear, i finally found a place that i love. i’ve been slowly procuring furniture and hanging things and it’s coming together very well.

a bridges reunion trip to mexico city. the last time the bridges crew — kat, alex, lauren, jeremy, and myself — went on a trip was nyc in march 2020…you know, a super chill time in the world. we knew we wanted mexico city to be our next trip together, but it took us a bit to make it happen. we spent 3.5 days there together this spring and had a great time sightseeing, eating, and wandering.

ran a half marathon. i got a bee in my bonnet at the end of last year about running a half marathon, and for some reason i decided to do it. ellie flew in from london and sarah came from chicago, and together we traipsed across brooklyn for 13.1 miles. as i’m writing this i am realizing i never actually wrote a proper post about it, so perhaps that’s something i’ll get around to in spring 2024. we’ll see.

a road trip for the ages. i’ve written plenty about my love of a road trip, and i had a great one this year. i spent a night in virginia, the better part of two weeks in memphis and little rock, and then stopped in chattanooga and baltimore on my way back to new york. it was great to catch up with people along the way, and having my car meant i had the freedom to hop around as needed.

so many weddings! okay, maybe not so many, but i had three weddings between memorial day and labor day. helen and clayton got married in little rock; alex and danny got married in upstate new york; and lauren and sam got married outside boston. all three weddings brought together different groups of people, and all three weddings were incredibly fun. it was the most weddings i’ve had in many years, and it was great to celebrate people i love with other people i love.

maggie ran the nyc marathon! and matt, too! maggie decided late last year that she wanted to try to get into this year’s nyc marathon, and she did. she raised funds for wild tomorrow, matt raised funds for fred’s team, and they both trained so hard and kicked butt on race day. we had a blast chasing them around the city and cheering for all the participants.

the month-by-month highlights.

january kicked off with a trip upstate with maggie, katie, and terrance to ring in the new year. we frolicked around saugerties and hudson, went for a new year’s day hike, and traipsed through the city to round out the adventure. it was a great way to start the year, and i’m hopeful we’ll be able to do it again in the future.

in february i celebrated my first year in nyc! i treated myself to an nyc adventure day, exploring bookshops around manhattan, wandering through washington square park, and culminating in a celebratory dinner at gupshup with maggie. it was a lot of fun and provided great opportunity to reflect on my first year in the city.

march’s highlight was the aforementioned bridges reunion trip to mexico city. it really was such a gift to have that time together.

april was the combination of both ellie and sarah and coming to visit and completing the brooklyn half marathon together. i really and truly would not have made it through that day without them, and i’m still so moved that they were here for the event.

the highlight of may was my road trip to memphis and little rock. being able to see friends i hadn’t seen in years [9, in the case of pete and kelly!], see two wonderful people get married, eat all my favorite memphis foods, and all the rest was so nice. driving 3,000 miles in two weeks was exhausting, but honestly i would do it again.

for all of 2022 maggie worked on a feature-length documentary about cyndi lauper called let the canary sing, and in june the doc had its *world premiere* at the tribeca film festival. maggie was generous enough to invite molly, abi, stephen, kristen, and me to the premiere, and it was such a great evening. the movie is very well done, cyndi performed a 40-minute set at the end of it, we managed to get into the end of the after party, and we closed the night at an irish bar and got home at 4am. as the youth say, 10/10 night, no notes.

lots of quick visits in july! my parents were here for my birthday, sneha and lisa were both in town, and dillard and rich popped in for a concert. since july is often when my nyc-based friends are traveling elsewhere for the summer, it was nice to have other peeps in town.

i moved into my new apartment in august! the culmination of many months of searching and couch surfing finally paid off, and i love my place. and as an added bonus, caitlin very generously spent her week off helping me move and get settled. to celebrate, we took off to philly for a few days of exploring and hanging with amy.

september had many highlights, but top billing goes to lauren and sam’s wedding. the weather was perfect, the ceremony was lovely, and the reception was a blast. it was great to see their families and to celebrate with kat, jeremy, and jesse, and on my way home i stayed a night with sastri and nancy. also in september andrew and i went to the us open women’s final, i was able to attend cgi’s annual meeting, and i spent a week in little rock that included lots of friend time and clinton school alumni weekend. and to answer your question, no, i didn’t sleep in september.

we kicked off october with the annual jefferson awards, which brought over 100 people from across the country to nyc, including my awesome coworkers. the biggest highlight for me was getting to meet shane battier and tell him the story of how we met my sophomore year at rhodes when he was a rookie for the grizzlies. he’s an incredibly nice human, and our conversation will remain a highlight for many years to come. and at the end of the month, i got to spend a few days in washington, dc with my parents.

i know i’m repeating myself, but the big highlight of november was cheering on maggie during the nyc marathon. i got to spend the whole day with lorraine, i got to put all my planning and logistics skills to the test, and we got to see our girl accomplish something really amazing.

my december highlight was the same as it always is — st. jude marathon weekend. year after year it is still my favorite weekend, and there is nowhere else i would rather be on the first saturday in december. this year had the added bonus of having jen walk with us and sharing it with sarah as well, and i’m grateful for another successful and fulfilling weekend.

it was quite a year! i’m excited to see what 2024 has in store for us all.

xx