frozen

It's that time of year…the one where my mood turns about as a gray as the sky. It's been freezing here lately, and a second Polar Vortex is on tap for the week. Ack! Help! To compound matters, Erik and I have been pretty swamped with deadlines, and, as a result, our home/pantry is slowly deteriorating into into chaos. On the bright side, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel: I just finished one of the last deadlines of the rush and Erik's trade show is this week, so we should have a bit of a breather come next week. Which is awesome, because we're off to a long weekend in New Orleans. Huzzah! I've only been once (when Amie and I went to Mardis Gras in college, which sounds much more debaucherous than it actually was), so I'm pumped to see more of the city and shovel in lots of delicious eats. Also, I think Erik is plotting for us to go visit some of his stores, so there may be some "heyyyy, how did we end up at this men's clothing store?" in there, too. Ha.

winter break

Just got back from a weekend trip in North Carolina. I had bought my mom tickets to see Shen Yun in Raleigh. The show featured Chinese dancing, singing, and quite a bit of Falun Gong propaganda; a little weird, but mom loved it. Other than that, and running some errands, we didn't have much on the agenda. I ate lots of delicious home cooked meals, walked around the lake, went swimming, watched movies, and slept in. It was so relaxing! I swear, I'm more rested after a trip home to the suburbs than a spa vacation...

2013 recap

Happy New Year, everyone! I have to say that I was a little sad to say good-bye to 2013, since it was one of the best years of my life. The biggest event of my life occurred last year: We got engaged and immediately started planning our wedding. In August, my friends threw me an amazing bachelorette party, where we swung on trapezes high above Manhattan. My mom and brother came into town a week before the ceremony, and it was fun to spend time together as a family in NYC. On September 14, Erik and I said our I-do's on the best day ever (with a lot of help from our friends).

My goal was not to let wedding stuff take over my life, and I think I did a pretty good job of it. I went on surf trips to Costa Rica (twice!), and filled my time fun active adventures: a yoga retreat in Vermont, girls' trip in Southhampton, freezing camping weekend upstate, and spa trip to Arizona. I also made multiple trips home to North Carolina to spend time with mom. Erik and I also went to San Francisco to celebrate a wedding and visit family, and rung in our mini-moon with a blissful trip to Negril.

Oh! And, last but not least, I met a lot of deadlines and took on some office gigs, plus trained for and completed two half-marathons and the full NYC marathon (my first!). What a year, right? Here's hoping that 2014 year will be equally exciting. It's looking good, since it's my year -- the year of the horse!