The past year had some serious high-five moments. We bought a motherfucking house (tha dream)! Dean’s working full time again. We both got health insurance. HECK YESSSSS. I’m also grateful to have made some super cool friends. Dean and I both work 40+ hour weeks, we don’t go out a ton, and we still miss our Seattle crew like crazy– our Athens pals have helped us big time. In spite of these things, 2015 is not going down as a great year for me. The last couple months were stunk up with a frankly awful and stymied roommate situation. The silver lining there is it made me think a lot about friendship and how I want to make it more of a priority in my life. (I found this wonderful post after actually googling ‘thirties friendship waning’ and it was like reading the perfect articulation of my thoughts.)

Staying in touch with far-away friends isn’t exactly hard, but it takes effort. I feel lucky to have held onto my closest friends from my teens and 20s but those relationships have inevitably grown quieter with time and distance. I think a big part is the adult push to focus more selectively on careers or marriages/families but, ya know, personalities shift for any number of reasons. No matter how tight we still are, that bullshit time to talk nonsense for hours, hit up Twin Peaks brunch on a whim, or marathon horror movies together is gone. In Seattle, more than a dozen friends flew in to visit us. In Athens, three were able to swing by in the first year. For years, I’ve made excuses as to why I don’t visit anyone (I’m practically broke and I only get 2-4 days off each month) but they’re just excuses. If I can subsist on rice and beans all month for a $$$ Prince show, I can prioritize for people I care about. Much love to everyone in the New Year. Ride-or-Die 4eva.
Our last movie of the year was The Hateful Eight. Honestly, I did not love it in spite of a top notch cast (Walton Goggins!), gorgeously shot violence, and a bomb-ass Morricone soundtrack. We’ll always pay to see Tarantino movies though. New Year’s Day we went to my co-worker’s house for collard greens and black-eyed peas. We’d never heard of this tradition but it was delicious! Also, I think in the way many women get baby fever, I have puppy fever. Love their dog, Frannie! (Not that their baby isn’t also insanely cute!)