Tag Archives: new year

Year ends, year begins

According to my Timehop today, this is the day of the year I do my end of year wrap up and/or my look ahead to the future. Who am I to break tradition? Time to write this current edition!

2016… well… I think most people would say it was a horrible year. I mean, just the sheer number of celebrity deaths this year was enough to make one rock back on their heels a bit. (Seriously… Glenn Frey?? Merle Haggard!? Carrie Fisher!?? Damn you 2016!)

But ultimately, to me, 2016 was marred by politics. And sadly, it continues to this day.

I don’t mean who won or who lost the Presidency, because ultimately when it comes right down to it… we all lost.

We all lost a lot of friendships. We all lost a lot of respect for people we may have once called dear friends.  I know I’ve started to distance myself from some people due to the sheer hate and intolerance I’ve seen from people… on both sides of the political spectrum.  And for me, THAT is what I will remember about 2016.

My husband and I had a good year in general. Made it out to Oregon to visit family there. My nephew graduated high school. My husband had a steady driving gig. I had my interest in photography re-awakened. We both had family members pull through serious illness.

On the down side of it all, we had a huge set-back on our bar-opening dreams, and we did put it on the back burner hard most of the year while we tried to pay down debts incurred in 2015 with those plans. Oh and I developed bursitis in my hip and it has been an adventure in learning to deal with that.

All in all, though, there was more good than bad for me personally this year.  I choose to focus on that fact.

2017… its perhaps cheesy to say, “I want to be better,” but its a good summary of goals. More photography gigs. Do a better job managing finances and paying down debts.  Grow my local A&M Club. Keep supporting my husband’s job. Take on some personal health goals. Jump back into the dream of opening a bar with both feet. Put a new deck on our house.

You can start fresh any day, any time. Year ending, year beginning is just an easy starting point for everyone, and its one I am embracing. Here’s to a great 2017!

So what about you…?

It’s been a month since I last blogged… a busy month. I chatted with my brother on the phone last night and he asked what I’ve been up to since Christmas and I was a bit stumped on how to respond. What HAVE I been up to in the last month?

Well, first off, Christmas was wonderful. I love my family, and it never seems like enough time together when we all see each other. ESPECIALLY when its a rare time that my husband is off the road and can be there.

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It was a warm Christmas down in Texas! Dig my red socks there? Yeahhhh… In a similar vein, this happened before Christmas:

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Santa remembered us. See? He IS real.

Anyway, after Christmas it was time to focus on all the Music City Bowl events in Nashville. I’m still planning to do a whole blog post JUST on this, but let me just say that even though A&M lost the game, I feel like I won so much through the experience. I didn’t know it was possible to love my University any more than I already did, but I totally do after all that I got to do with it in 2015.

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I then rang in the new year with friends… with a special highlight of it my oldest friend — besties since around Kindergarten — was in Nashville with me for the game and to celebrate New Years. First time in about 30 years of friendship for that to happen! And on top of that, it was 14th time my husband and I rang in a new year together.

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My first task of 2016 was to stand up for myself… and it felt really good.

I do some light web design work for a few people. It’s not something I promote much, mostly because its just… I’m not keeping up with all the new stuff in web design enough to feel confident in calling myself a web designer. But, if you ask me to do it, I’ll do it and I’ll give it my all. On top of that, a by-product of my journalism degree, I guess, I never miss a deadline set by someone else. (I miss my personal deadlines all the time, LOL, but if you ask me to do a job by x-day, it might be completed in the 11th hour, but it WILL be done by deadline.)

Well, I won’t go into any details, but I ultimately quit a client over what I am considering a personality conflict. I don’t handle being micromanaged very well, I suppose. I got the job done, though, and I walked away. And I haven’t second guessed that decision once. Proud of myself, actually, for standing up for myself.

The deadline of this project was actually the same day at my wedding anniversary. 9 years, y’all!  NINE!

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We celebrated using a gift card we got for Christmas from a friend. Dinner at Jimmy Kelly’s Steakhouse in Nashville is definitely outside of my comfort zone, but that chilean sea bass was worth it. That, and getting our waiter to relax a bit and chat with us after we told him he could be twins with another friend of ours.

After dinner we met up with a couple we haven’t gotten to hang out with in a long time… in a nice smokey dive bar. Back in our comfort zone. LOL!

Since these back-to-back-to-back-to-back things… I went through a brief phase of being lost. I suddenly didn’t have something demanding my attention RIGHT THIS SECOND and I didn’t know what to do with myself. So I found myself obsessing over bills and the fact that January is ALWAYS a lean month for us.

But, I found my stride after awhile, and my focus has definitely turned to our future. The business plan is pretty much done for the bar we are planning to open. We should get it in the hands of investors next week.

My husband has been driving Lyft while the bus driving is at a stand still.

If you’ve never tried Lyft (or Uber), its a rideshare service. Think of it as a taxi, only cheaper and you’re riding in someone’s personal vehicle. Creepy? Not at all. All drivers undergo a rigorous background check before they are approved to be part of the Lyft service. They also have to keep a higher level of care for their vehicles. No junkie clunkers allowed! AND riders and drivers rate each other after each ride. If either the driver OR the passengers ends up with too many low scores, they’re kicked out of the system entirely.

I set up a Lyft code through my husband’s account for the Music City Bowl that is still good to use. So if you want to test it out, use the code MUSICCITYAGGIES for a discount on your first ride!

My husband went on his first bus drive of the year this week, though. It felt really good to be back surrounded by tour buses for awhile when I tagged along for the pre-trip of the bus. It really felt like suddenly the year was back on track. Things were back to normal.

Normality to me includes tour buses. Go figure.

So that is what has been up with me since I last blogged. Finding my normal again will help me keep better on track. I think…