2016!

The usual "what made your year?" forces you to look back and think a little more than on an average Saturday.

This year I got to travel a lot more and this time to some new places and with a great travel partner. But in order to have a good travel partner, I also need to be one, right?

Upon arrival in Bangkok (and I mean within the first ten minutes) it was immediately evident that Pete and I are both REALLY good solo travelers.  Oh shit, I have to collaborate? Care about another's level of tiredness? Take into account his desires?! Fuck.

We had an incredible trip so this year taught me about being a better partner, travel or otherwise. It taught me that I have gotten very lazy at planning some trips (God bless Renée and her desire to investigate every restaurant in Nashville ahead of time).  I am good at looking at a map and pointing to a spot. I can't really tell you why I want to go there (or maybe why I shouldn't, right, Panamá?) I just go and wing it, sometimes to incredible results and sometimes not.

I learned that it's awesome to travel with people you normally don't travel with. I've been lucky to persuade people to spend a weekend with me here and there (and I didn't have to pay them!) and that pushed me out of the comfort zone. I can take 31 teenagers on a trip without batting an eye but trying to convince a friend to leave her husband for a weekend to hang out with girls? Yeah, that's tough.

Spending three days with my mom in Toronto was one of my traveling highlights of the year, for sure.  I get my love of travel from her and experiencing all that it entails together was awesome. And I even planned the hell out of that trip!

People (I am people too!) tend to go to places most traveled, we are creatures of comfort and habit.  Iceland seems to be all the rage right now, a few years ago it was Thailand. And oh Goodness, who hasn't been to LA/Vegas/fill-in-the-blank? But some of my favorite locales this year have been those that are off the radar. Can I say Lava Hot Springs, Idaho? There really is something to learn regardless of where you are. Idaho and Nashville feel MUCH more foreign to me than Colombia. The bacon, Trump supporters and deep fried food are hard to get away from. But no matter where you are in the world if you can learn something you didn’t know before, try food you haven't tasted or hear an accent you only thought existed in movies then it's one succesful trip.

Second part of the year proved muy difficult in the kid raising department. My 7.5 year old has an attitude of a teenager and that ish needs to be slapped out of him sooner rather than later. After a couple of rough months, I'm back to liking him. So there is that. Someone posted that your greatest accomplishment as a parent is having raised nice kids. I'm curious when I get to find that out. I work on that goal 75% of my life but damn it, there are days that goal stares back at me and laughs.  Some people will say my kid is spoiled (he is), others that I'm too hard on him. Only time will tell, right?

After years of crappy eating and being unhappy about my closet and everything that entails, I finally got serious about taking care of me. Pete, my biggest motivator and cheerleader, pushed me to join him to run, record calories and even run a half marathon, the one thing I promised I'd never do again. Sure I got injured, but hey, I did it. I'm lucky to have several runner friends that remind me that I'm undertrained and unprepared but then join me on race day anyway. I lost 38 lbs in 2016.

What will 2017 bring?
Here are a few resolutions.

Maintain my weight and get stronger. Yeah, I lost weight (I've done it once before) but I need to keep it off and gain muscle too. After 3 months of boot camp in the second part of the year, I felt a huge difference in my body but our coach quit and I haven't done a kettlebell since then. Strength will be the name of the game for 2017. Please?

Not kill my ex husband. We should all aim that high, right? Parenting is hard enough without having to communicate with a person you don’t even like.  While I know no divorce is perfect, mine takes up way more time than I care to give it.  As a gift to my friends who see me often, I will also try to keep my complaining down to a minimum. It gets old and no one cares to hear it!

Wear more jewelry. Random, I know. I love love love jewelry and wear the same two rings year round. In the spirit of taking care of myself and doing things that will make me happy I will attempt to put more effort into getting ready in the morning. No, I will not blow dry my hair, that's way too much work. Make up is forever out of the equation. But maybe try to look a little bit more presentable? Stay tuned.

So what did I learn from my 2016? Get myself out of my comfort zone physically, geographically and mentally and I will have another great year. Share it with people I love (and drink lots of wine) and I just can't go wrong.

Happy 2017!