This time of the year is always crazy, and I have four days in a row of holiday fun coming up after tomorrow. So, these past few weeks have been spent shopping, wrapping, baking, and shopping and wrapping some more. As of last night I am officially DONE though. With 5 days to spare til Christmas. Not bad, not bad.
Since I'm all caught up on everything else, I thought I'd take a minute to sit back and reflect on the past year. 2012 was a whirlwind that completely flew by, so here are a few of my favorite things:
1) Concerts: As usual, I went to a lot of shows. The biggest show I saw was probably The Black Keys- I don't go to too many arena shows, and they totally rocked the house. I also got to see my favorite, the Airborne Toxic Event, in Columbus again. I will go see them every time they are within a tri-state radius, that's how amazing they are. For a "small" show, Unwritten Law at the Grog Shop was my other favorite of the year.
2) Books: You guys do know I'm a huge book nerd, right? My Goodreads goal for the year was 75 books, and by the end of next week I'll have topped out around 65. A few books shy of my goal, yes, but I also do have a full time job and a bit of a social life, so I think 65 is pretty respectable. Anyway, so picking a favorite book of 2012 is not so easy, but if I HAD to choose, the Fault in our Stars by John Green is probably number one (duh. I've probably raved about it on this blog at least ten times over the year). However, I read a TON of good books- but not all of them were published in 2012, so do they count? I'm gonna say yes. So, my other favorites from this year are:
- The Graceling series by Kristin Cashore
- The Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness
- Insurgent by Veronica Roth
- Delirium and Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
- The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
- The Piper's Son by Melina Marchetta
- The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
- Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
3) Movies: Favorite movie of 2012 had to be The Hunger Games- no big surprise that my favorite movie of the year is based on a book, right? It was the best book-to-movie adaptation I've ever seen. Even though I'd read the books and knew what was going to happen I was still on the edge of my seat the entire movie.
4) Travel: Good god, I traveled a lot this year. Almost all of it was for work, but it still sort of counts, right? Let's see, starting from the beginning of the year I went to Chicago, Toronto, Charlotte, and Spokane- those were all work-related. And I've learned I'm still not a very good traveler. I'm too nervous, too afraid of being late, too scared of getting trapped by security and I hate the takeoffs and landings.
Dan and I also got to head back down to the Outer Banks with my family this year after skipping it last year due to Dan's new job. The ride down overnight was one of the worst drives I think we've ever experienced. It just took for-ev-er due to a lot of crappy rain. But the vacation itself was wonderful. I came home happy, tan and relaxed. And about five pounds heavier.
5) Memorable moments: Probably one of the saddest moments of the year came when I had to make the decision to put my sweet little ginger cat, Ollie, to sleep. Even though he'd been sick on and off for several months, nothing really prepares you for a loss of that nature. And I personally never had been through anything like that before. He was my first "real" pet. I still miss that little stinker- I probably always will.
But out of that sadness came the new love of my life, my crazy kitten Gus. He hasn't replaced Ollie, just filled the hole he left behind. And I thank my lucky stars every day that I found him. He's the funniest, silliest, sweetest, and SMARTEST cat I have ever known. He's also strong and healthy, with none of the issues Ollie suffered from. I look forward to him being around for a long, long time, playing fetch and giving me paw and busting in on me in the bathroom for many days to come.
I think I'll end this here, on a good note. All that said, I'm looking forward to 2013 and all that it will bring. More music, books, movies, trips, and memorable moments loom ahead. Such is life.
Happy Holidays, everyone!
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