Year in Review 2011

Time seems to keep moving more and more quickly. 2011 was a complete blur and I can barely remember what happened this year. There weren't any huge events like the past 2 wedding years, but a lot of good stuff still happened.

Here's a short year in review, still not sure what categories to include, as we look forward to 2012.

Movies we saw for the first time in 2011:

Kokowaah *

Love and Other Drugs *

No Strings Attached *

Tangled

Team America World Police

X-Men First Class

Green Lantern

Slap Her, She's French/She Gets What She Wants *

Cutting Edge 4: Fire and Ice *

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Captain America: The First Avenger

My Girlfriend's Boyfriend *

Last Action Hero *

Spy Kids *

* = only one of us saw it (for the first time this year)

Places we visited in 2011:

Geneva, Switzerland

Athens, Greece

Mykonos, Greece

Naxos, Greece

Santorini, Greece

Munich, Germany

Portland, Oregon

Saint John, NB, Canada

Orlando, Florida

We also visited over 200 restaurants and are recapping our favorite food memories on our food blog.

Looking forward to 2012!

Now It's Cold

Of course, after I write a post this morning about this winter's weirdly mild weather, I have a headache from the cold air (wind chill in the 30s), there's a definite chill in the air, and I'm going to be fishing out my long down coat for the second time this season so I can wear it all weekend. I need to stop posting about how good the weather is when it should be bad, because I seem to keep jinxing it.

Wacky Winter Weather

I guess it's now officially winter. But it felt more like winter in October, when it was snowing and freezing winds were blowing around, than it does right now, at 47 degrees.

Two days ago it was 61 degrees. When we went out for dinner. Around 8:30 pm. That's crazy (but good)! It felt like spring in December. My mind is confused. The lack of daylight still means I need to sit in front of the sun lamp in order to function, but unlike last year, it's not freezing outside, I've only worn my long down coat once this season so far (once!) and they don't expect a blizzard to arrive the day after Christmas.

I'm not a huge fan of the cold weather (unless it helps you cuddle up under blankets on the couch with hot chocolate watching a movie after taking a walk in snow that falls like feathers - that's my favorite feeling of winter) but it doesn't "feel" like it's the end of the year. This isn't the south or California; it is supposed to be cold here in December. I guess it will be cold again in time for Christmas, but by cold, I still mean a high in the 40s. Weird.

New Dogs

In my dream last night (which I actually remember since I slept for 8 hours, even though that meant getting up later than I planned), we were living in Seattle, as were my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. For some reason the place they were living in looked like a mall. It had those usual white floor pathways, the middle of the building was open so you could see the floor above and below and the opening was some odd shape, there were wooden railings along the side of the opening, and it just looked like a mall.

I think the dream took place over the course of a few days. At some point we learned that their dogs had been stolen. Nothing else, but just their dogs. Then A and I walked into their place from a wooden door in the mall and asked about the status of the stolen dogs. His brother answered that he got 2 new dogs! They weren't the same type of dog, and they were still wondering what happened to the dogs, but he got 2 new ones. Hmm. It sounded funnier when I told the story right after waking up.

And now, thanks to A's dream, the song "Red Solo Cup" is stuck in my head. Cannot believe that's a real song.

Aggravation

It was an aggravating day. It wasn't even like anything in particular happened to me but I found myself feeling bitter and annoyed for most of the day. The holiday season is supposed to be joyous, but more often than not these days since I'm working I find myself disenchanted, out of the holiday spirit and stressed out.

So what annoyed me today?

• I couldn't get up in the morning for the xth day in a row. Right after the fallback time change, I thought things were promising. I was getting up earlier, working out. Then the winter doldrums set in, I didn't work out in the morning but instead forced myself to take time out for sun therapy. Now I can't even get up early enough for sun therapy. If the problem is that I need sun therapy to get up, but can't get up early enough to do sun therapy, then what do I do?
• My longest period of uninterrupted sleep according to my Fitbit was after our 6 alarms went off. So, I go to bed, can't sleep, toss and turn, finally fall asleep, apparently continue to toss and turn, and then fall into a deep sleep when the alarm goes off? What is wrong with me?!
• So much to do at work and the time just flies by and I end up behind, as always.
• I didn't "realize" that it was already mid-month. Ask me the date and I'll tell you the correct one, but it hasn't "hit me" that it's already December 14 (now, 15). Our flex request forms are due tomorrow. I haven't even submitted my receipts to get my money back for this year. Could have gotten interest on that money but no, don't have my crap together.
• I had no appetite for most of the day. Am I getting sick again (or am I possibly still sick from October)? Is there something else wrong with me? I usually have an appetite even when I'm sick, which is part of my problem, but I couldn't even finish a granola bar in the morning.
• I just keep eating even though I didn't have much of an appetite. I enjoyed the al dente texture of the pasta salad but I wasn't hungry. I have no self-control.
• I feel like no one actually reads the content of my emails. I re-read them and they were pretty clear, but apparently still misunderstood.
• Still irked by the whole Lowe's thing. The Daily Show's piece on it is perfect, but it really bothers me that there are people out there who just can't accept that Muslims can be normal people.
• There was a protest 2 blocks from the office and there were sirens blaring, people yelling, nonstop loud, loud, loud noise for hours in the middle of the day, making it impossible to think. My head still hurts.
• I ordered dinner and they estimated 30-45 minutes. They didn't confirm for 20 minutes and then said 40-55. So effectively the wait was 60-75?! Not what I bargained for.
• Then I was annoyed that I got so easily annoyed by the delivery wait time thing because they came on time (based on the earlier estimate) and they probably just forgot to confirm, an innocent mistake. And the delivery guy was really nice. When I got to the lobby, he was taking a photo of the ridiculously gigantic wreath with bow in our lobby, which, if I were him, I would have done too.
• Again, no self-control and ate too much for dinner. Also ordered samosas even though I knew I wasn't exercising today.
• Getting home late.
• Not having time to exercise.
• Walking home against the flow of traffic for the people leaving the Broadway shows. Lucky people who get to spend their night at a show instead of at work. Not interested in seeing their joy. (See, I was extremely bitter by this point!)
• Hugh Jackman was outside the theater at the exact time I was walking by. Too short to see him but I did get caught in the meandering mess of people who were staring at him and not watching where they were going.
• My zigzagging down 44th Street was like I was in the game of Flight Control. And not in a good way.
• The insane crowds of meandering people were apparently also in Shake Shack, annoying me to the point where I chose not to even try to get a spoon for our Christmas cookie custard, which was better last time.

Enough b*tching. I was really in an awful mood by the time I got home. But then I got a smile and a big hug from A and he looked so happy and it all drained away. Now I feel sick again and so I decided to vent in the hopes that emptying all the negativity out into this post would drain it from me for good and I could heal myself. Not sure it worked. Maybe I should just go for another hug...

Good Riddance

As we count down to 2012 (already, yikes!), it's time to reflect on the past year and think about what we can do differently next year. One way to move on to bigger and better things is to rid yourself of all the baggage you've accumulated in 2011. The good folks over in Times Square have a solution:


I saw this "good riddance day" advertised on some of the garbage cans when I was walking home rather late from work the other day. Snapped a photo this morning so I could take a closer look at what they were advertising. It's a contest to win an iPad2 for the most creative discarding of "distasteful, embarrassing and down right depressing memories" from 2011.

It's during work so I don't think I'll be participating. I don't really have anything to bring anyway. There isn't one particular thing I want to discard from 2011. If anything, 2011 was more of a "rut" than the year that gave rise to something distasteful or embarrassing. But I do like the symbolic idea of letting go, of physically ridding yourself of something negative, of choosing to move on and to leave the crap behind. Something to think about as we get closer to December 31. A new start is right around the corner.

Gloom

Today's weather was so gloomy. On my walk to lunch, I could barely even see the Empire State Building. It was swallowed up by the clouds.


But it was really warm. It was in the high 50s/low 60s, even though it was various stages of rain and mist all day. If it's going to be damp and rainy, I would much rather it be warm like this. If it's going to be cold and rainy (e.g., high 30s), I would rather it be a little colder and have snow.

The weather the past few days has been like having autumn in December. We barely had fall (remember Snowtober?) during the usual fall season, and I definitely don't mind. It's just weird walking around with a skirt and bare legs with Christmas wreaths and trees around. I guess this is what it's like to be in California. It won't last though; it's supposed to get cold against starting tomorrow night and drop into the 20s over the weekend. I guess I should enjoy autumn while it lasts!

Chipa Guazu

Today's random photo diary is about chipa guazu. Although we have a separate food blog, it seems inevitable that this random photo diary project is going to be about food somewhat regularly. After all, we take a lot of food photos.


Chipa guazu is a Paraguayan corn pie, usually consisting of fresh corn, onions, eggs and some other ingredients. it was like a creamy, fluffy quiche, and you could taste all of the ingredients. We tried it on the Paraguay stop of our World Cup challenge and it was fantastic.

Since this is more of the "storytelling" blog, I would have used this opportunity to talk about how much we love the World Cup, both for the sport and the rare moment of togetherness in which it brings the world. The problem is that I already did that when I recapped my top 10 favorite food memories of last year. I still believe it but instead, I'm going to talk about why we do food challenges.

It's very easy in NYC, especially in our neighborhood, to just go to nearby restaurants and not branch out. After all, we live in Hell's Kitchen. The number of restaurants on 9th Avenue is staggering; every block is covered with places to eat from end to end. Even 10th Avenue, which has far fewer restaurants, has more in our area than some neighborhoods have in total. We're really lucky to live so close to so many good food options, but more often than not, it means that when we're going out to eat, we just leave our apartment, take a walk, see what we're in the mood for or what has seats, and walk in. The closest restaurants are just downstairs, unlike when we were in Chicago and had to walk at least the length of one avenue to get to the first place. Even though there are a lot of options here, at some point, after this many years, they will become rather familiar. And it's not always so much about finding the best, but going to the most convenient place.

The food challenges get us out of that "rut" and encourage us to try new things. The first one we did was the World Cup challenge. In honor of the fantastic tournament, we tried to eat at restaurants representing the countries that were playing in the tournament. Some were easier to find than others (the African nations were especially difficult), but it encouraged us to do research, get on the subway, travel to Sunnyside or even just the South Street Seaport and try some new foods. It broadened our horizons, gave us some new favorites (like chipa guazu) and exploring the city during the summer was a lot of fun. We also challenged ourselves during our recent trip to Disney to eat all the food options at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival, but that was a little more self-contained and somewhat less exploratory and exciting. We made it to over half the nations in the World Cup (which was our measure of success) and ate all the food options at Epcot Food and Wine (definitely a success).

Our current "challenge" is somewhat more long-term and we haven't really begun. It's our attempt to explore the cuisines of all the nations/regions of the world. First up is Canada, and we're trying to figure out when we can make it out to Mile End for brunch. That leads me to our next "challenge." As it's December and time for memory lists and resolutions, we're going to make some food resolutions, which I consider to be our challenge to ourselves to explore some more in 2012.

Not that anyone reads this blog, but any ideas for other challenges?

Cushions

It's been awhile since I've done one of those random photo diary posts, and even though it's after 3 am, I feel compelled to write one. I guess that's what happens when you wake up at 12:30 pm on Sunday afternoon.


2 couch cushions, which look remarkably similar to our current Ikea couch cushions, on top of a stone patio. Not a very exciting photo. Except that it reminds me of a great hotel in a fantastic place.

This photo is from the Nissaki Beach Hotel in Naxos, Greece, one of the islands we stopped at on our honeymoon in Greece. We loved Naxos and didn't want to leave. Once we got to our next stop (Santorini), it was so crowded that we wanted to go back to Naxos, where it was relaxing and serene. This patio was outside our room door. We could climb up and sit on the cushions, looking out over the entire St. George Beach area. It was secluded and quiet. We loved that hotel. And they had fantastic breakfasts.

I uploaded a ton of photos from our honeymoon this weekend. I'm so behind and have been intending to do this for awhile. If I had run the random photo diary photo search yesterday using the same numerical parameters, I would have never come across this photo as it came from an album I just put up today. I can't believe we've been back from the honeymoon for over 6 months, yet I still haven't finished the photos. I wonder if I'll ever be caught up on photos. It's kind of necessary in order to erase camera cards!

This weekend I've been reliving our time in Mykonos (another great island) for the photo uploading and food blogging, and am just now moving on to Naxos. It brings back a lot of good memories. If you're looking for a relaxing Greek island with things to see and great food, we highly recommend Naxos. It's a truly wonderful island.