As I predicted with my last daily post in November, it's been weeks before I wanted to write here again. Well, that's not quite true, as I'm always thinking about writing here, but finding time to coincide with my thoughts is harder. It's better for me to take time to edit those thoughts too, to not just share every impulse. Especially this past month.
I have to admit that I've been drowning a bit in planning Hannah's bat mitzvah, which is now about two weeks away. I am not a last minute person, and an awful lot of this has been or felt last minute to me. There are still things to be done in these last two weeks, and I am confident it will all come together, but there were a few weeks where I was incredibly anxious about all of it (I think I'm doing a little better now). Of course, those weeks were the same weeks where I was wrapping up the year at work, doing my self-evaluation and crafting new goals, cramming in last minute client meetings and a day trip to New York. The kids (and Marc) had concerts and school deadlines and math homework continues to be difficult and there were presents to buy (this is least inspired Hanukkah our family has ever had). Max missed three days of school just before break with a stomach bug, which then took down Hannah and Marc just as vacation was getting started. Somehow, finalizing Hannah's speech, filling out forms for the temple and the DJ, and a myriad of other bat mitzvah-related things also got done, but not without compromising my sanity a bit.
I know that all sounds like privileged whining, and it definitely is. We are very fortunate to have these problems. But knowing that didn't stop my eyelid from twitching. What did help was a four time repeat of a new song obsession, which I belted out from the kitchen one night while doing the dishes. That helped a lot.
So, 2016 is almost over. I recently read an article that went on to examine the past year in the financial sphere I work with, but first it decried our "fetish" with the end of December and choosing the end of these 12 months as some big marker in time, and then trying to reduce the entire period into one compact theme. Which, I have to admit, is really useful in finance. It's helpful to have a kind of shorthand, to say 2008 or 2015 and know what you mean. I think 2016 is unexpectedly going to be that way for pop culture, if not for the financial markets (except to refer to it in connection with 2015).
My word of the year for 2016 was "nachos." Yes, it was a little ridiculous. And yes, if you go back and read that post, I have to admit that I'm shocked to still be project-less a year later. But "nachos" did serve its purpose fairly well. I did have nachos more often than ever before in a 12 month period - maybe 8 or 10 times. I had sad desk nachos on a bad day at work, and nachos from room service on a business trip in LA. I ordered them as an appetizer once in a while. "Nachos" was a good reminder to lighten up a bit, in a year that felt mostly like just moving along, not moving so far forward. My word for 2017 will be amplifying this same theme behind "nachos," so check back here in a week or so for more on that.
I can't really say that 2016 was such a bad year. Everyone I love is still alive and relatively healthy, and so even if some beloved celebrities are not and political uncertainty abounds, I'll still take it. Life moves on. It'll all be okay.
See you in 2017.
