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2022: what year in review

2022: what year in review

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wow the end of the year crept up on me really quick! a mere three hours left of 2022 and i haven’t even gone over my yearly to-do list (which i like a lot better than a resolutions list).

the years just sort of haze into each other at this point, so i always wonder what year it is, what am i doing, and how did i get here anyway. there was good stuff that happened and interesting stuff, but at this point, was that 2022? 2022? 2021? what is time, anyway? but, we’ll do a little recap and see what’s going on!

first, a review of what my list of things to do:

  1. oh what the heck. take more pics. i’ve been sliding these past few years and have to figure out how to get the inspiration back.
  2. i have no trips planned for this year, so i have to figure out how to somewhere, whether it’s a few state parks or getting out of state. i do have a work conference in march, but that’s for work and just to denver (haha just to denver).
  3. i am already signed up for two races! i’ve got the earth day half on my calendar and ragnar trail is in september. i don’t know if i should try for two half marathons this year or what, or maybe a 10-mile race somewhere. we’ll see how training for the half goes: my feet have been really good lately but my knees have been buggered and i have to get that checked out. my form is probably awful.
  4. i want to replace my floors this year. slowly this house is coming out of the 90s and into at least the mid-2000s. i’ve replaced almost all the major appliances and the cupboards are painted. the floor is really just the grossest now, and it’s time to get something looking good in here.
  5. yoga: by the end of 2022, i should have my yoga teacher training under my belt! that will be a good accomplishment and i’m excited to see what i do with it (i have no idea LOL). i will also continue to strive toward daily practice!
  6. do something interesting with nate! that guy never takes time off and it’s time he does. hopefully we can combine it with #2 above!
  7. eat more cheese. (i mean, this one should be an easy goal.)
  8. continue to strive toward less plastic use. and less carbon use. and you know what else? i have to stop using amazon. jeff bezos could fix climate change today if he wanted to with all the money he’s hoarding but he doesn’t. ugh.
  9. support the great resignation. one thing we’ve learned during this pandemic is that the economy is more important than people. surprise! i want to do some more research on this and write a blog post on it. stay tuned.

1. not check. i did not take more pics. i did take phone pics, but i bet i pulled out my hefty cam maybe 5 times this year. i am slipping!

2. check! ooh, trips! well, let’s take a look. i did in fact go to denver, where i graduated from a leadership institute. then i went to the lake for a week in june. and in november, nate and i went to tuscon! that was sort of a last-minute (ish)decision as nate and i hadn’t been on a vacation since 2018 and i decided it was time to go somewhere.

3. check! i did TWO half marathons over the course of three weeks in late april and early may. the weather was ATROCIOUS for the april one – 26º with 15mph winds. ridiculous! the may one was better, weatherwise, but i can’t say that it was any easier. then ragnar in september, which may be our last ragnar. the experience has just gone downhill 🙁 and i have been slacking on the running front since i’ve had to come indoors for treadmill time. i suppose some february i’ll pick it up because it’ll be time to start training for the april half i already signed up for again!

4. CHECK!! NEW FLOORS!!! THEY’RE GORGEOUS!!!

5. check! i completed all my classes for yoga teacher training and am just waiting for my certificate so i can get certifed by the yoga alliance. i’ve already got some yoga sessions planned at work and will see where this takes me! i do not do a daily practice, but i bet i do yoga, on average, 4-5 days a week. it’s always something to work toward.

6. check! we went to tucson and nate had a good time. i don’t think i need to visit tucson again though. i’d much rather visit the grand canyon again or go to the pacific northwest or CA.

7. check. i mean, who can resist some cheese.

8. ugh, sort of check? every time i unwrap something encased in plastic i inwardly groan. i have been actively trying NOT to use amazon though. there are still some things i use the evil empire for, but if an item is available somewhere else, i try to get it somewhere else.

9. i totally did not do a blog post on the great resignation. i still support it though, and i think more people are realizing that this isn’t a matter of “no oNe wANts tO WoRK aNYmOrE” and more of a “hey there aren’t enough stinking workers”. doesn’t help that there are 400 of one franchise in a metro area. how many starbucks do we need? also, inflation sucks and pay your workers more.

items of note:

1. i got a promotion at work! i am now director of marketing and communications.

2. my poor nissan got hit by a deer 🙁 BOOOOOOO. but now i have a new car i guess. it’s super fancy

3. i THINK my student loan has been forgiven for public service – 10 years of consistent payments and working for the state government and POOF there goes $22k. i THINK. i HOPE. omg wouldn’t that just be the bees(‘?) knees.

4. i got a little bit more of my arm tattooed – some raspberries over my elbow area. next time her books open up, i’m going to request we figure out the rest of my arm!

5. i also got two more ear piercings in my upper ear. i think they’re cute!

top titles of 2022

top titles of 2022

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it’s that time of year when i share the best books i’ve read this year. i’m currently ensconced in harry potter after a 6-year break, so that’s got me completely entranced and i almost forgot about getting my top books of the year up. i have a few books published this year on my to-be-read list that may have made it this year if i hadn’t taken it upon myself to read all the HP books (though they are a quick read).

bear and nightingale trilogy – katherine arden

my mom gave this trilogy by katherine arden a couple years ago, and i let it sit on my shelf for too long. when i was younger, i was a vociferous fantasy reader, but lately i have been letting that slide for more post-apocalyptic and contemporary fiction, so i wasn’t entirely excited about picking this up. then i was sorting through my stack of books and decided to finally pick it up.

arden’s writing is lyrical and light as she weaves the dark stories of russian fairy tales from the 1500s, combining the fantastical with historical moments. we follow vasilisa, who has magic in her blood, from her time as a girl to saving her country and people, befriending (or not) the russian stuff of myths along the way.

fairy tale – stephen king

well what would a best books list be without a stephen king book on it? how apropos that it was one of his fairy tales, entitled fairy tale. our hero is charlie, starting in contemporary times where charlie is a helpful high school student. he helps then befriends a reclusive neighbor who leaves him all his property when he dies. of course the neighbor has a secret, and charlie travels to another land where evil has spread and peace needs to be restored so the evil doesn’t spread into our world.

this is a thick book, but king’s stories are always a quick, interesting read for me. it’s another foray into the fantastical with a bit more of an edge and more concrete writing than the bear and nightingale books.

upgrade – blake crouch

everything i’ve read by blake crouch has been a four or five stars. his books keep you on the edge of your seat and involve plots that seem more than plausible in our world alongside some extreme science or math that i don’t want nor care to check if correct. it fits seamlessly into the story and adds to the plausibility of “oh boy, could this happen?” you think about when reading his stories.

upgrade is about enhancing the human genome for an upgrade – everything’s just a bit better. better concentration, intelligence, thinking ahead, physical strength, multitasking, reaction time, etc. logan is one of the first to receive the upgrade and we watch as he learns what’s happening and then figure out why it happened. then he learns about a bigger, more sinister plan, and then we see what he does to stop it

the emerald mile – kevin fedarko

usually when i read non-fiction, i stick to memoirs. i generally shy away from books that are heavy on geology or history that’s more generalized than personalized. but when i got this recommendation from my aunt rae, i thought i’d give it a try.

first, this book is DENSE. it’s 432 pages, but the type is a bit small and squished in there for ya. so i was a bit intimidated. no fear – fedarko manages to weave a great story of the fasted boat ride ever down the grand canyon in 1983. you’d think that this would be an easy tale to tell, but his setup is key. he tells us history and geology, telling us how the grand canyon used to be, how glen canyon used to be even better, the dams that were built to power and hydrate the southwest, and WHY the southwest. we hear about john wesley powell who documented his journey into the grand canyon pre-dam. we learn about different types of boats you can take on excursions in the canyon, why each works the way it does, and then the weather patterns and choices of the dam operators that led to and illegal boat run down the grand canyon. it was pretty fascinating seeing the confluence of events.

falling – tj newman

do you want to read a short fiction book? one that has short chapters that leave you hanging on every word? leading up to shocking sets of events so much that you gasp out loud? this is the beach read for you!

falling is a thriller by a flight attendant who had always wondered about the premise of what would happen if pilots’ families were held hostage – then needed to make a choice between their families and their flight. well, we get the fictional tale of that plight, and boy is it a doozy and entertaining!

in the weeds – tom vitale

this book about anthony bourdain’s life while giving snark and hope while eating with people around the world was written by one of the show’s producer/directors, tom vitale

i’ve read a few books about tony since his death, and none has come close to how enjoyable and emotional this book was. we get a behind the scenes look at tony’s life, and tom’s, as the show changed networks and traveled around the world. there are happy times, not happy times, dangerous times, easy times, hard times, and the hardest times. anyone who has watched any of tony bourdain’s shows should know what to expect in this book – just multiply it times 10 and you’ll have a good idea. this made me miss him even more.

winter skating

winter skating

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we had a heavy snowfall the other day, the kind where the snow sticks to tree branches and piles onto pine boughs so that any lights you have on the tree glow through the snow ethereally. i saw a photo someone took of a creek winding through wooded banks, tree laden with piles of snow.

on the acreage that i grew up on, a small creek ran through the pasture, its banks steep in places, and it flooded the pasture every so often. but there was an area where it pooled into a wider, open spot, with oak trees guarding nearby. this tiny pool of creekwater is where we tried to ice skate every winter.

my dream was to own a pair of white figure skates, like the olympians wore as they skated over the smooth ice every four years. when we went to the ice rink, i was able to rent a pair, but i didn’t have a pair for the pool in the pasture. one year, after reading “the silver skates”, my aunt colette decided to get me a pair of “skates” in the traditional sense. it was a blade on a piece of wood that you strapped to your shoe. definitely not a white pair of figure skates, but it was something*.

so down to the pool my siblings and i went, one saturday afternoon. the ice was frozen and the snow minimal, so it would be good ice, but getting there was the real trick. you had to walk through a good portion of the pasture to get there, and the summertime brought out the best in growing season, so the grasses had grown tall, though they were dead and flattened slightly by the little snow we’d gotten. luckily, we didn’t have animals in the pasture in the wintertime.

through the grasses we traipsed, trying to stick to the semblance of tire ruts that may have been there at one point during the summer. once past the second gate in, tall oaks were there to greet us, and we maneuvered around the old junkpit where oodles of old, turn-of-the-century bottles still peeked up through the dirt.

i don’t remember if anyone else had skates (or whatever it was i had), but it was easy enough to take a sled out there and slide down the short hill onto the frozen creekbed, and if anything else, sliding around the ice on foam-soled winter boots wasn’t a bad option. i don’t know how long we would normally spend out there – it was cold, but we were having fun running around like maniacs.

the trip back from pasture snowtime was the worst. it was a long hike back to the house, especially with the excitement of skating past. up the short hill, past the junkpit, and through the tall grasses again, keeping to the side of the fence that ran alongside a field of small pine trees. when we got up to the main fence, it was just a hop, skip, and jump past the pumphouse and tall pines to get inside to the warmth. and sometimes there was hot chocolate.

*turns out, traditional scandinavian skates aren’t that great. in the next couple years, i got a pair of used white skates, and when we went down to the creek for a go around the frozen pool, i was so proud of myself for being able to turn around while skating. i wasn’t going to be an olympian any time soon, but it was something.

whirlwind

whirlwind

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after a reconnoiter with my sisters RE chirstmas at my parents’ house, we moved it up a week, which meant that my traditional christmas tree weekend was suddenly going to be spent…not in my house with my tree. so i ended up picking up the tree this past weekend, which, of course, meant i had to get it DONE and DONE so now i’m sitting in my living room looking at all my xmas decor in its glory. also i had to wrap all my presents because, well, gotta bring those next weekend too. and since presents will exit soon, i had to do the cats’ christmas portraits. oh, and baking cookies during my evenings this week (that’s a personal choice; don’t judge me).

most wonderful time of year, sure.

however, i’m reading a delightful little christmas book about legends and tales of yore and all the different (mostly european) yuletide creatures and etc. i actually got it last year after christmas and was a bit intimidated so set it aside. i pulled it out this year and flipped through it – not only are there stories and information, but there are crafts and recipes! what a nice surprise. so i’m ploughing through that and learning a lot of elves, witches, krampus, la bafana, and all sorts of fun olde tymey stuff that i wish were still around.

i took a moment to step outside last night before i went to bed and the moon was waxing – full moon is in 2 days – to the point that i could envision clement c moore glancing outside to see the lustre of midday. there wasn’t much snow to bounce the moon from, but there was enough, and the quiet of winter was complete.

tis the season.

a monday pickmeup

a monday pickmeup

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a monday after a long weekend is always kind of a big deflating letdown, especially the thanksgiving 4-day weekend. you spent your days sleeping in, eating beige food, doing non-stuff, being a bum, and then you have to get yourself together and show up to do adulting things early on a monday.

needless to say, i was not feeling it this morning as i was slogging through the things i needed to do.

i stopped by the mailroom to pick up what may have shown up for me (sometimes it’s nothing; sometimes it’s a lot!) and in my cubby hole was a hand-written envelope. ooh! i checked it and the return address was from one of the peeps who had gone through my leadership institute with me. you best believe i tore open that sucker right then and there!

our group has a quarterly get-together on zoom for us to chat about what’s going on and share our college marketing woes, and the last one was while i was down in st charles, so i had to hop on for just 5-10 minutes to tell them my awesome news that i was finally promoted to marketing director. then i had to leave because of family stuff, and i hopped off.

so one of the people (he’s the group’s WOO if you’ve ever taken the strengthsfinder) sent me a congratulatory card for my promotion! on the front it said “good things come to those who wait” and no truer words were ever spoken.

i’ve been smiling so hard the rest of the day! the card has taken its place front and center so anytime i’m feeling woefully underprepared, i can look at that remember that i wanted this LOL

thanks-lazy-day

thanks-lazy-day

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i think this was the best thanksgiving, cooking wise. there is something to just getting a pre-cooked chicken. the most involved thing i made was the stuffing, and that wasn’t horrible!

jane showed up wednesday night after i had made my pies and tart, and the dressing was cooking. (i made two pumpkin pies and put one in the freezer for when winter is annoying and i need a treat.) and thursday? we went to the turkey trot and walked two miles, came home, and we just sort of snacked all day. we made a cheese board and ate smoked oysters, crackers, dips, while we tried to watch the macy’s day parade on youtube.

then we just watched friends thanksgiving episodes and napped. no stress! no being fancy! when it came time to eat an actual meal, i just warmed up a bunch of stuff and we ate in the living room watching more friends.

and of course the evening was topped off with die hard because how can you not.

i was doing well with the not overeating to the point of lolling in pain on the couch, but i drank a giant glass of water before i went to bed and that was a mistake. at least it was water and not the last bites of pumpkin pie.

 

oh you turkey

oh you turkey

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every year, kitchen confidential on NPR does a thanksgiving special where they invite famous(ish) chefs to come talk about listeners’ thanksgiving questions. they’ve been posting on instagram about submitting your questions, and i was soooo close to asking,

“i’m done with turkey. what should i eat instead?”

turkey’s a lot of work. it’s a lot of prep, it’s a lot of cooking, and it’s a lot of cutting and pulling off the bone. plus i’m not a huge fan of turkey, and there is always some piece of dry meat bits leftover that go straight into the trash after two or three days.

i don’t know what Francis Lam and the guest chefs would have said as a replacement (i was hoping one might say to just get a giant ribeye or t-bone and grill it), but THIS year, i am buying a couple rotisserie chickens instead of the turkey. it’s just so much easier – cooking, cleanup, storing. plus, i like them better than turkey AND i’m saving like $45 this route.

thanks to food safety news for the image!

now, i know that these costco chickens are not as nutritious as turkey. i know they are hilariously NOT eco-conscious. and really i don’t even know if i’ll be able to pick up any on wednesday. BUT i’m going to give it a try.

next year, i may attempt roasting my own chicken if this goes over ok with my two guests. if i ever get to a point where more than my sister jane shows up for thanksgiving again, i’ll probably cook a turkey.

but until then? let’s do easy.

the rest of the menu is pretty much the same! i’m looking foward to my butterscotch tart.

out of AZ

out of AZ

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well, when you have a flight that leaves at 6:30 p.m., and you’ve been waking up at 6:30 a.m., that makes for a while before you get home!

nate, for some reason, wanted to head out RIGHT AWAY so i think we were on the road by 7:30. i asked if we could at least take the scenic route up to phoenix, so after about 30 miles on the freeway, we veered off and took a state highway.

scenes of note:

  1. arizona grows a lot of cotton.
  2. arizona also grows roses and other flowers for out-of-season regions like MN
  3. arizona is not green
  4. arizona has NO billboards. instead, you can just plant your placard or other such low sign in the median, boulevard, corner, etc. it’s kind of an eyesore, but maybe they think billboards are eyesores.

got to AZ and we took a moment to wait for the science center to open, so it was time for breakfast. i had a chorizo breakfast burrito and had another good food day! i was actually looking for some huevos rancheros, but a chorizo burrito is a good back up.

after that, nate and i headed to the science center, which was NOT what nate was hoping for. he was hoping for a science museum, and this was basically an indoor playground for kids to experience science.

alas.

so we got through that pretty quickly, then took a stroll through the heritage square where the center is located before returning the rental car and getting to the airport.

sigh.

we were four hours early for our flight. yikes! couldn’t even check in til 3 hours before. i read two books at the airport and on the flight.

and then we were back in MN around 11 a.m. ah, spacious traffic lanes! ah, our car which has a push button start! (using a key the entire time we were in AZ was a real drag.) (#firstworldproblems i know)

traffic up 94 was decent and when we got back, the cats were still alive.

thus wraps up another kate and nate vacay. today he said he wasn’t happy to be home :/

me, i’m always conflicted. i like vacation, but boy i like being at home too.

ah well. jiggity jig!

tucson: tres dias

tucson: tres dias

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the last full day nate and i had in tucson, we headed over to the east saguaro national park. i did not know this, but there are two sections to saguaro! one is older and one has more cacti. we did our national duty: spent money in the gift shop and then took the loop around the park. we stopped at a couple pullouts and i took a tiny hike.

man, it seemed like getting around tucson was a drag. i had to look up the population, and it’s a half a million, so it shouldn’t seem so pokey (compared to the cities) but i realized that maybe it’s just more spread out and the roads we took were not freeways.

later that afternoon, after we spent two hours driving to get to and back from the national park 20 miles away, nate took a snooze while i went for a run. i headed to a loop trail about two miles away, and started out. it was sunny and about 60º, but i soon wondering if i was running in a “bad” part of town. not that it bothered me, but i did see a couple homeless camps (small, small). i was about a half mile in and my side started getting a stitch in it and i noticed my breathing was getting away from me a bit. later i looked it up, and tucson is about 1000′ higher than i’m used to. BUT i got four miles in in the outdoors and the sun!

this day was probably the best food day! we had brunch at saguaro corners, and it was delicious. a couple sonoran dogs, nate had a salad and i had a birria torta and calebitas, which is summer squash and pico carmelized and drizzled with oil. yum!

that evening we went to a place that had banh mi, the first time i’ve had that! also had a brown sugar milk tea.

then we cleaned out all our junk and started packing 🙁

travel two cents

travel two cents

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you know, americans get a lot of grief for not leaving the country, not visiting other places around the world. but you know what? i think visiting different parts of america is pretty amazing, when you think about it.

traveling from avon, mn to tucson, az, is about 1600 miles. in that 1600 miles, you cover grasslands, mountains, woodlands, cities, empty spaces, ponderosas, saguaros, birch, deserts, native history, latino history, colonial history, spanish history. and if you head east, you get a completely different experience. if you head northwest, another completely different experience.

and that whole time? you speak a common language, use a common currency, and generally can find your way around without relearning how to drive. it’s EASY to have these different experiences while traveling in the US.

now, from london to moscow is 1800 miles. just another 200 miles more than nate and i traveled this trip. so, let’s say from MN to los angeles type of trip. in that 1800 miles, here’s the countries you would go through, each with their own language and likely localized languages within them:

  • UK
  • france
  • belgium
  • netherlands
  • germany
  • poland
  • belarus
  • russia

the euro is, of course, an easy currency, but you also have the pound in there and whatever they use in russia.

so, i don’t know why we americans get a hard time because we don’t travel internationally. is it because we don’t have a hard time of it? we aren’t immersed in a different language? we definitely can learn about different histories and cultures when we travel. because that’s kind of dumb. MN is hardly a hotspot for Latino historical sites. when people visit MN’s north shore, you learn about native americans’ history here and the french fur portagers. there is much different among us while also having much in common. plus, you have an easier time walking into museums and cultural places if they are in your native language, and you learn more.

so, my two cents. traveling in the US is just as valid as traveling across europe.