2019 Awesome List 2

Welcome to my 2019 Awesome List.

You know I like data, so let's start with the numbers:

Time with my parents: >45 days

Time I went to Maine: 7

Times I went to Florida: 4

Fights: 45

Miles flown: 30,000+

Months I took a trip: 12

Dreams that came true: 7

Countries: 6

Continents: 3

Instagram stories: ~2,000

I'm going to be honest, despite the fact that my year LOOKS really awesome, for most of it I didn't feel the awesomeness on my insides. I was very lonely for the first seven months. Even though I was doing awesome things, I felt like I was just going through the motions. But you know what is really awesome? I ended my year with the numbers above and made some decisions that enabled me to end the year feeling like the BOSS that I am!

January
New York City was my first trip of the year. I got awesome pictures, got to stay in a nice hotel for free thanks to a friend being very generous with his hotel points (so awesome!), and my flight home got cancelled so I got to spend an extra night at my oldest childhood friend's and still make it to work on time the next day!

Though I don't know if it counts as a trip since it is so close, visiting my friend Jason in Baltimore. There is nothing better than local tour guides who take you all around and show you the best spots!

Being a guest on a syndicated radio show was awesome!

February
It was awesome that dream 1 of 7 came true on Valentine's day when I (finally!!!!) got an Incredible Arrangement from my sweet and generous best friend in Canada. Why was this a dream come true? I just always really wanted someone to send me one, okay?

Getting to have the prettiest, spontaneous Valentine date when Ari asked me to be her Valentine was awesome!

March
Visitng my parents in Naples is always awesome and I got to do it again this year.

It was also awesome that this photo was taken by one of my readers who came to meet me!

Getting to wear this dress out to a fancy dinner was awesome too (so were all the compliments I got on it!).

Visitng my friend Kim in Massachusetts and spending a day exploring Providence, Rhode Island was awesome!

Being invited to speak at this book club was SO SO SO AWESOME!!

Getting to go to Miami with my generous friend with ACTUAL benefits (as in we are just friends but his generosity is a way better benefit than normal FWB's - for my thoughts on those, read my book!) (let's call him fwAb) who treated me to everything was sooo awesome. I love Miami so much - the architecture, the vegetation, the fact that you can sunbathe topless... It's all awesome!

April/May
Doing my "Spring Inspections" on my exercise walks is awesome. Don't you just love spring?

My biggest trip of the year was awesome: Prague -> Bohumin ->Poland ->Bohumin-> Prague->Amsterdam->Prague

What was really awesome about it was 1. I was in Prague just in time for lilac season. They are everywhere and I LOVE lilacs!!

2. I loved my awesome hotel in Prague! It was my favorite thing aside from the lilacs!

3. I got to go to my friend Marie's beautiful wedding in Bohumin, Czech Republic and feel like a part of the family! If you've read my book, you'll know that familiy time is my favorite! It was awesome that her wedding was right on the border (literally) of Poland so I have not been to both the Czech Republic and Poland like 5 times? I just walked back and forth! It was also awesome that her wedding included a seven course meal and lasted from 1 PM to 2:30 AM!

Back to Prague after the wedding, I got some awesome photos:

What was supremely not awesome was that my parents were supposed to meet me in Prague after Marie's wedding. However, upon my arrival to the Czech Republic, when I got the message that due to medical issues (resolved now), they had to cancel their trip, what was completely awesome was that since I didn't want to end up spending so many days in Prague alone, I booked myself a spontaneous trip to Amsterdam!

In Amsterdam I loved my awesome hotel room so much! And it was so awesome that I could splurge for such a nice hotel. #grateful

I loved Amsterdam and walking around all the canals taking photos was awesome.

It was awesome when the sun finally came out and I finally got a picture with blue sky!

The two things I found most awesome in Amsterdam (aside from pretty much everything) was the Museum of the Canals which I highly recommend (and I think is one of the best museums I have ever been to) and the Pulitzer Hotel which is a gorgeous hotel that is made up of "an intricate maze of 25 connecting Golden Age canal houses." I explored every nook and cranny of that awesome place and took one of my favorite pictures of 2019 there:

Then back to Prague for a few more days where I got a lot more awesome photos.

When I travel somewhere new, I like to use an actual map and mark up everywhere I walked. Prague above, Amsterdam below, black lines show how much I covered!

One of my most awesome moments of 2019 happened on my way home from Prague:

I was her au pair in Venice when she was five and she and her mom who both live in London now took that the tube and hour each way to spend less than two hours with me! That made my vacation! It was so awesome!

Next stop on my Awesome List is Dallas. Why did I go to Dallas? It has to do with me really wanting to replace my 15 year old dining room chairs from Ikea, hating online shopping, and needing to make choices in person! When the chairs you want are in an online store with only one location which happens to be in Dalls:

What was also really awesome, was that I asked my fwAb if he wanted to go with me and be my chauffeur on my chair shopping mission and once again, he treated me to everything! So I got to go for free! How awesome is that? I am so grateful!

June
Having a my rooftop pool open is awesome!

Trying to get to Maine for my family reunion and ending up taking a trip to nowhere but still making it the next day was pretty awesome. It was also awesome that, despite my dad not being able to attend because it coincided with him (finally) getting hip replacement surgery, I got to spend the weekend with him as he recovered. Um, hip replacement surgery is also awesome so thank god for modern medicine!

Of course, being in Maine in June is awesome!

July
July is when my year turned from just looking awesome to me actually feeling awesome and it is all thanks to my visit from Robert, who also made me the most awesome meal I had this year:

Taking my second trip to Maine of the summer was awesome and it is really awesome to have parents who like to go out for sightseeing drives to explore all the pretty places in my beloved state.

Taking my early morning bike rides in Maine is awesome and so is capturing these photos which showcase Maine's beauty.

Being invited to do another podcast was totally awesome!

August
On my third trip to Maine this summer I made myself very proud with my early morning bike rides going 15 miles the first day, 20 miles the second, and 36 miles the third! That's awesome!

Being in Maine is just awesome and I am so lucky to be from there.

Dream number two came in true in August when my brand new couch was delivered! I have wanted to have two couches facing each other since I was 18 years old (see Chapter 23 in my book)!

Um, finding this awesome dress was awesome!

Going to Argentina for the wedding of my host sister who I have known since she was nine was awesome. What made it even more awesome was that my fwAb made dream number three came true by gifting me two nights at the Palacio Duhau, a five star hotel that I have photographed but always had what I thought was the unachievable dream of staying at. My room was almost as big as my apartment! It is awesome so feel so lucky!

This was awesome:

Other things that are awesome in Buenos Aires (from left to right)
1. That I can afford to get blowouts and didn't have to wash my own hair once!
2. The architecture
3. The pastries
4. The malls and the shopping
5. The ham and cheese croissants
6. The ice cream!!

Splurging on my own fancy hotel after my gifted two days was awesome. So worth it!

One of the most awesome things I got to do was fly business back from Buenos Aires to DC. Let me tell you, flying business makes the travel part of traveling SO ENJOYABLE. The first class lounge, the service, the comfortable seat on the plane... it's awesomeeee.

Back in the States in my new shorts from Vitamina Buenos Aires, my outfit is awesome!

September
After my long bike rides in Maine, I decided I'd trying to go all the way to Alexandria and feeling proud of myself that I did it was awesome!

I also think this photo I took on the way is awesome, one of my best this year!

How awesome is it that I got to go to Maine AGAIN this month?

I really love this photo. It is also one of my most awesome from 2019:

Call me conceited all you want but I think it is pretty awesome that after all that bike riding and gym, this is how I look at 45 years old.

Visiting Manal again in Montreal and walking around with her and her baby was awesome.

The awesome things I did in Montreal included, from left to right:
1. Spend time with Manal
2. Eat French pastries
3. Get all you can eat dessert buffet at the rooftop of the Four Seasons (!?!?!)
4. I might have gone on a major shopping spree at Mackage*

*Okay, well, I did go on a major shopping spree but what is really awesome, is that I saw a Mackage coat in NYC in January but they didn't have it in my size and I found it in Montreal AND what is even more awesome is that it turns out my new coats are count as souvenirs because Mackage is actually from Montreal!

October
Dreams four and five came true this month when out of the blue, my OTTL took me to Miami Beach for the weekend and we stayed at the Miami Edition, a hotel I have been dreaming of staying in ever since I worked at Marriott.

The hotel has a bowling alley and as we bowled, these were the words facing me, What if this is all real?:

At least it was real right then and there for that moment in time.

I don't think there was a happier person on the planet than I was at the moment that I took this picture, knowing my OTTL was back in the hotel room and I was going to get to spend two full days with him. Like, even someone who won the lottery and was gifted five kittens and puppies would not have been happier than I was in that moment.

Having my mom come visit me for the weekend was awesome!

I got to go to Florida again later in the month for a work conference - it was so awesome they sent me! It was also awesome that I got to see Robert again and do some sightseeing with him.

November
It was awesome that I got to see my parents twice this month, both at the beginning and at the end of the month!

Going to visit my friend Kim in Massachusetts for the second time this year was awesome. It was also awesome that we spent a day exploring in Newport, Rhode Island.

It was really awesome that I was back in Maine AGAIN for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving was awesome because we were invited to spend it with friends and then we spent the weekend exploring our way down to Boston. The two hour drive took us seven hours as we stopped at Newburyport and Ipswich, and Salem along the way. Also, Boston is awesome! The most awesome part though, was that I finally got to try the amazing desserts at Jonquil's which taste just as good as they look AND we got to talk to the owner who let me interrogate him about his business.

December was probably my most awesome month of 2019 because of a decision I'd made earlier in the year and because of a last minute and spontaneous decision.

If you know me or read my book, you know that I was an au pair in Venice for a family with four little girls, all of whom are grown up now, three of whom are living in London, as is their mom. They're always posting Instragram stories of all the brunches they are going to and giving me major FOMO. I want to be at brunch with them in London! So, naturally, I booked myself a ticket to visit them and I got what I wanted!

I got to go to the beautiful restaurant for the beautiful brunch with the loveliest people!

My trip to London was just a long weekend but so much awesomeness was packed into four days that it might have been my best trip of the year. On top of getting to be with my Italian family, I also got to spend the day with one of my favorite friends and neighbors from DC who moved to London too and I got to meet her baby! That was awesome!

Being with people you love is the most awesome part of anything.

Of course, I did get to take some awesome pics there too:

But... I'm not done yet because there are two more awesome things I did this year.

This was what was driving me crazy:

I knew that after my trip London, I was going to be sooooo close to qualifying for gold status. I didn't want to be that close and not get it! I needed one more trip and time was running out! I had to go somewhere that was going to be about 5,000 miles round trip and all the flights to Europe or Buenos Aires were way too expensive. Lamenting about the situation to my friend Mike, he said, "Why don't you go to LA?" I hadn't even thought of that! But, LA was not far enough. Soooo, I ended up booked one trip to LA AND one trip to Maine. So, this was my week to get to gold. Are you ready?

Thursday 12/12 fly to London
Monday 12/16 fly back to DC
Tuesday 12/17 fly to Maine (and surprise my dad for his birthday - awesome!)
Wednesday 12/18 fly back to DC
Thursday 12/19 fly to LA, via Chicago (miss connection in Chicago)
Friday 12/20 fly to LA
Sunday 12/22 fly back to DC

I did it! Dream number seven came true! I always wanted to get to gold status and I made it happen! That felt so awesome and taking those extra spontaneous trips and doing all the travelling in one week even though I hate flying was awesome.

What else is awesome is that about a month before my trip to LA, I had seen some stories on Instagram about the brand new Edition Hotel there and I thought to myself, "Gosh, I would really love to see that hotel but when will I ever go to LA?" And then... there I was!

Other things that were awesome in LA were:

1. My hotel (I loved it so much)
2. The rooftop of The Restoration Hardware. That store is my favorite place in LA. I think that is my favorite photo of 2019.
3. Meeting one of my readers who brought along his copy of my book that is filled with underlines and highlights and notes!
4. Seeing the Atlantic and the Pacific in the same week
5. The rooftop of the Waldorf Astoria
6. Just being able and confident to travel all by myself!

december - london, maine, la, gold status, dreams coming true