i can confidently say 2024 did not turn out how i expected it to at the start of the year.

let’s start with the good first, shall we?

it was an incredible year for travel! i got to go back to india for the first time since i left in 2016, which was an amazing experience on many levels. jeremy and i had a great time in new mexico, exploring three national parks and treating ourselves to a spa day. i spent a week in nashville and another week in toronto and made two trips to upstate new york. and that doesn’t include long weekends in denver — and my first show at red rocks — and orlando and multiple trips back to memphis [including celebrating our rhodes 20-year reunion!]. july turned out to be the only month i didn’t leave the city, which was not on my bingo card back in january.

but in some ways it wasn’t so good.

i lost my job in january and wasn’t prepared for how tough the job market would be — i have applied for over 70 jobs and have still not found full-time employment again. my car got hit while it was parked on the street and was in the shop for two months while insurance tried to give me the runaround. i had a tough personal situation in the spring that really knocked me off my feet. summer in the city was unbearably hot and miserable, and i feel like i was mostly sleepwalking for the months of june and july. it feels like for any bit of forward momentum there were five giant steps back, and i know i wasn’t the only one who felt that way. i said multiple times last month that it felt like we’re all limping our way to the finish line of 2024, and i’m truly proud of us for getting there.

and yet, i’m not sure how i feel about starting a new year. i am thrilled to see the end of 2024, sure, and as this goes live i am back traipsing around india and generally living my best life and avoiding the real world. but the real world will be waiting for me upon my return, with more jobs to apply for and a new administration in place that has me very worried for the future of our country and for so many people i love and care about.

but before i fully enter the doom spiral — it’s never far away these days — let’s first look back on what 2024 held.

2024 goals.

after setting no goals in 2023 i knew i would need some for 2024, and when i wrote these at the beginning of the year i was pretty excited for them. as my father would say, “man proposes, god disposes”, and that was so true for this last year. as i came to write this up i realized i didn’t do quite as terribly as i thought i did, so we’re going to call it a win.

volunteer once a month. i’ll start by saying that i did not stick with my initial once-a-month goal, and i’ll also give myself some grace considering how wild and wacky my year turned out to be. i donated platelets twice, which i’m counting because of the time commitment it requires; i did three volunteer days with say, helping them out with two of their events; and i did one volunteer shift at the 31st ave open streets. and while i did eventually get paid for it, i am also counting my day as an election worker because it was a 17-hour day. all of that brings me to 6 events over the year, which is honestly more than i thought i would have when i first started writing this recap and a good foundation for going into 2025.

get back into running. some fits and starts with this one, with a stint in the spring, a long break over the brutal heat of the summer, and another streak in the fall. i still enjoy running, but i know i also need to find other methods of staying active that aren’t as bad for my feet who are making their protests known. in the end i clocked just over 30 miles last year and hope to improve on that this year.

expand my network. again fits and starts [a theme for the year, if we’re being honest]. i met some great people volunteering at open streets but didn’t make the effort necessary to keep in touch with them. sanjeet’s monthly wine-down wednesday events were a great way to meet some awesome new people, and hopefully with a few more interactions we’ll be firmly in “friend” territory. honestly my own nomadic tendencies are what held me back, so i’m hoping staying put for a few months [once i’m back from india, of course] will help me continue this in 2025.

explore more of upstate new york. i got upstate twice! in early may maggie, abi, and i did an overnight trip to beacon which was a lot of fun — we explored dia:beacon, we had some delicious food and drink, and it was so nice to have extended time together as the three of us. and at the end of may dillard, jane, chrystal, and i spent a long weekend in the finger lakes area, sipping on wine and playing card games and exploring a very lovely part of the state. now that i don’t have my car anymore [he moved back to tennessee and i think will stay there] i’m going to have to be more intentional about planning upstate excursions but want to continue seeing more of my state. my mother has declared a desire to see niagara falls, so i guess a visit to buffalo / western new york is in my eventual future.

finish setting up my apartment. we’re almost there! i got a tv and some final pieces of furniture and the only remaining thing is to get the rest of the stuff hung on the wall. i have identified where i want things to go which is a great first step, and once i am back from india i will hire a taskrabbit and get that taken care of so i can cross this one off.

write and send one postcard a week. i didn’t keep track of this on a week-to-week basis, but i easily surpassed this goal. at one point my postcard stack was very overwhelming, and i have slowly but surely gotten it down to a more manageable size which has helped my anxiety immensely.

take advantage of my met membership. while i went to the met a few times and it came in handy when sarah was in town, i didn’t go as much as i would have liked, but i renewed my membership and hope to get there more this year and especially to take advantage of member weekends.

do more jigsaw puzzles. sarah and i helped dillard with one in march, i did my subpar parks puzzle in the spring, and we did one as a group on our finger lakes trip, so i’m calling this one a win. i need to get rid of some old ones to make space in my apartment for new ones because it’s a hobby i want to maintain.

rest! if i’m being honest, i don’t know how i did with this one. you would think being unemployed for the year would have led to some rest, and it did in chunks, but because i was so all over the place it didn’t always allow for restorative rest. the last quarter of the year was especially exhausting, because even when i was in town i was often dog sitting for chunks of it so i was still not home for long stretches. this is going to continue to be a focus for 2025.

stretch goals:

go to shakespeare in the park. well this didn’t happen because they were renovating the amphitheater in central park, so we’ll keep it for 2025.

see hamilton on broadway again. this is still being saved for best friend date night when maggie and i both have full-time jobs again.

2024 month-by-month highlights.

well january has to be the return to india after 7.5 years away. in 3 weeks i visited coimbatore, bombay, goa, hampi, and bangalore and had an incredible time catching up with favorite people and revisiting some of my favorite places. and being able to introduce sarah to the places that had such a huge impact on me was so much fun.

in february jeremy and i had a new mexico adventure that included stops at carlsbad caverns national park, guadalupe mountains national park, and white sands national park, as well as a few days in santa fe and a luxurious spa experience.

march was a tough month for me personally, so i treated myself to an impromptu visit to memphis to indulge in some family time and distract myself from the real world.

in april i got to spend a whole week with my wright family in nashville. i usually only get a night or two with them, so an entire week felt like such a luxury. i watched a softball game, i took the kiddos to the dentist, i helped get costumes together for book character day at school, i spent lots of time lounging with biscuit, and as a treat i got to go to my first nhl game.

may brought not one but two upstate adventures! maggie, abi, and i had a quick girls’ getaway to beacon, and over memorial day weekend dillard, jane, chrystal, and i explored the finger lakes. both were a lot of fun and helped with the above goal of exploring more of new york state. and in between sarah came to visit for 10 days and helped me with some apartment projects.

in june i spent a week in toronto visiting sneha and exploring the city. i entertained myself while she worked, and over the weekend we checked out toronto island and visited her aunt and uncle in the suburbs. it was so nice to meet some of her toronto community and to also have time to chill with her.

july was birthday month! sarah came back and stayed at maggie’s for 3 weeks, and jesse came to visit also! we did a lot of fun nyc things, including a cyclones game and a few visits to queens night market.

august brought a road trip and three weeks in memphis. it was so nice to have an extended visit, to be able to spend lots of time with my mother and also to be able to see so many of my friends. and it had the added bonuses of a short visit from steph and pete and a quick visit up to bentonville to see katie. and then the end of the month brought a return to the us open which is always a highlight of my year.

september had a lot of highlights but the big one was a trip to colorado with dillard and seeing indigo girls and amos lee at red rocks. i also spent a week dog sitting in brooklyn and went to orlando with my parents.

october was one of those months that brought a lot of fun one-off things, like a clinton school happy hour that included time with president clinton, an impromptu fancy neighborhood dinner with alexa, a quick visit from alex, a fundraiser for kamala harris, and time with three different dogs, and i got to cap off the month with a week in memphis for the choices gala and diwali.

and that carried over into november, with the first weekend bringing our 20-year rhodes reunion. it was great to see so many people from our time there and to catch up with some of my favorite people.

my highlight for december is always st jude marathon weekend, that incredible weekend that brings together so many of my favorite people for one of my favorite causes.

so as you can see, 2024 was a heck of a year. going into it i thought my word for the year was going to be “community” and it instead turned out to be “unhinged”. here’s hoping for a little less chaos and a little more stability — and a steady paycheck — in 2025.

xx