2009: A Year in Review
You know the drill. First few lines from the first post of each month, plus a photo. Happy New Year, friends. Let's hope 2010 is onward, upward, and brimming with joy.
January.
February.
Can I be real with you for a second?
I realize that my blog is kind of awesome. I realize that men and women alike throw themselves at me in the streets, that I'm deluged with job offers from Fortune 500s, and that my hair sparkles like fairy dust. And I know what you're all thinking: "Laurie is a goddess among women, how can we join her harem, etc., etc."
I
know.
But the truth?
There are a few things that I'm...
not so good at.
March.
As a child, I rarely made it all the way through a sleepover.
I'd get through a slice of pepperoni pizza, an early showing of a Tom Hanks flick, and maybe one or two runs at "light as a feather stiff as a board" and I'd be on the phone to my mom, asking her to pull on a bathrobe and come bring me home.
I am not, how you say, a "
people person".
April.
May.
There was a moment last night, tea lights burning bright atop a pan of mini cheesecakes, a makeshift birthday cake outstretched to me as I stood surrounded by the warm glow of candles and a room of smiling faces singing
happy birthday to you... and I thought about my childhood and every dream I ever had for myself at the far off age of twenty-seven, everything I ever wished for and wanted.
And in that moment, with no health insurance and no 401k, no wedding band or mortgage or savings account to speak of, no career or size six jeans or exposed-brick Manhattan loft, in that moment I saw those faces all around me and I thought,
"What else could ever
matter?"
June.
July.
it is terrible
& wonderful
this feeling
like a too-cold glass of water
on the hottest day I've seen
it hurts my head
but tastes so sweet
August.
I am learning some things about Poor.
I am learning that bread is cheaper if you slice it yourself. I am learning that sandwiches are cheaper if you skip the bread entirely. I am learning that I can walk almost anywhere if it means not paying two dollars for the bus. I am learning that picnics are better than restaurants and parks are better than coffeeshops and vodka lasts longer if you mix it with water. I am learning that sometimes you really can show up at someone's house without a bottle of wine. I am learning that the best things in life are free, except for things from Anthropologie, which are not free and which I cannot have. I am learning to not look at the Anthropologie catalog.
And I am learning that no one is too poor to buy ice cream when you are PMS-ing. Especially if it's
mint chocolate chip.
September.
The man I love came to visit two and a half weeks ago, and didn't leave until yesterday. It was the first time we met in person.
He makes me believe in beautiful things. He makes me want to be not
someone else, but the best version of myself.
I can't imagine
wanting more.
October.
November.
Today, I am halfway to twenty-eight.
People ask you hard questions when you're halfway to twenty-eight. Unfair, mean-spirited questions like
What do you do? and
What are you working on? and
Why haven't you paid us in three months? Questions that leave me with hands that don't know where to hide and feet that can't find
flat on the floor.
December.
[photo courtesy dvs]
(Hide the rest)
[photo courtesy margolove]
