It’s my annual wrap-up post: time to take stock of my year and to appreciate all of the incredible things that happened in these past 365 days.
Admittedly, 2019 was a hard year. It was filled with difficult changes and challenges. We had losses and blessings. We are hoping that 2020 will be easier.
We started the year with a blessing. We had my step kids, Zoe and Felix with us for the holidays. We rang in 2019 with fireworks at Knott’s Berry Farm and spent the first day of the year on the beach in Santa Monica. It was wonderful to have the kids with us and we even experienced a magical “White Christmas,” when it began to snow as we were in the middle of opening presents.
Then the plague hit…on the drive home from Santa Monica, I started to get the chills and had a high fever. I was intensely ill for several days, but had to fly the kids back to Sweden, so I got started on a course of antibiotics. Dan caught my cold the day before the kids left and was ill for over a week. Zoe and Felix miraculously escaped catching our bug.
I flew the kids home and on the way back, I stayed three nights in England at my sister-in-law’s house. It was great. I spent time with family and even went with my niece Pippa, for a day of drinking and theater in London. We saw Kit Harington in a production of True West. On that trip, I also spent time with my mother-in-law, Jan, which ended- up being very special.
On my flight home, I had the good fortune to be upgraded to British Airways Club World (essentially business class, with my own pod area). The guy ahead of me in the queue to board was obnoxious and basically demanded an aisle seat, so he was given my original booking and I was granted a major upgrade! It was awesome, but mid-way through the flight, I started feeling achy and by the time we landed, my fever was back. I was very ill for about two weeks and needed more antibiotics.
January, February, and March were a blur of bad weather and mini-trips, especially to Palm Springs for Dan to under-go painful dental work. Excuse my language, but it was a shit-show really. We had a massive storm on Valetine’s Day, when Dan was away at an annual conference, that actually made me feel worried that the house would slide down the hill. It was swaying and we lost power, so I cuddled with my cat and tried to keep calm. In the end it was okay, but there was more snow than this Glendale girl could handle. I was trapped in the house for a few days and had to dig myself out.
We took one memorable to trip Arizona, visiting Phoenix and Flagstaff on a four day road trip. We went in an attempt to find sunshine and warm weather, but ended up realizing it wasn’t quite as nice for the pool as we had hoped. The best part of the trip was a morning spent at Bearizona. Bearizona is a wildlife park where visitors can drive through some of the exhibits- animals coming up to your car! We visited during an off-peak, weekday and we were alone with the bears, wolves, and other wildlife. It was one of the best days of the year!
At the end of March, I was booked to attend the AWP conference in Portland, while Dan worked, but we got terrible news that Dan’s mom was in the hospital. We changed our plans to fly to England, but she passed before we arrived. It was unexpected, sad, and surprising. It’s also weird to think that now, all of our parents have passed. The upside of the situation is that we did get to spend time with Dan’s sister and her family, plus a day trip to see Dan’s uncle Barry and his wife Jo. We also saw a few friends, including Dan’s best friend Paul. Despite the terrible circumstances, the time we had with family and friends is to be cherished.
In April, we went to Las Vegas for a trade show that Dan attends annually. I like to tag along and get pool time. Of course, the weather was unseasonably cold and windy.
In late spring, we started to push getting our house ready to be sold. We knew that we wanted to move, but had severel projects that needed to be completed in order to put it on the market. Getting contractors moving was a full-time job and nothing moved fast. It was expensive and frustrating.
We spent the 4th of July holiday at our favorite resort, The La Quinta Resort and Spa in Palm Desert. It was boiling hot and we both got sick again with fevers. We went to a local urgent care and we were both diagnosed with sinus infections. I suppose if you have to recover, a fancy hotel isn’t a terrible place to be sick. We mostly slept in the room, but as soon as the antibiotics kicked in, we were poolside..
Zoe and Felix were back with us in mid-July and this was the best part of our year. We took a two-week family trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, where we snorkeled, went horseback riding, attended a luau, toured a chocolate plantation, went rafting through an old sugar cane irrigation system, rode a zodiac boat, visited the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory, and spent a day at Volcanoes National Park. It was the best vacation that we have ever taken! To book-end the weeks in Hawaii, we spent several days at the La Quinta Resort in Palm Desert. I’m surprised that we didn’t turn into raisins from all of water activities.
August was spent putting the final touches on getting our house ready to sell. In the last few days of the month, we embarked on a road trip to Oregon. We went through Death Valley and Yosemite National Park. On the drive back, we went through Sequoia National Park. California has so much natural beauty!
Dan left his job in September, which occurred right around the same time as we put our house up for sale. We also brought Slinky to stay with a family friend, until we got settled in our new place. This was a very stressful time for us, but we tried to keep positive and we enjoyed a few small trips. We went to Las Vegas to relax at the Waldorf Astoria and we also traveled to San Diego, where we bought annual passes to the zoo and wild animal park.
Our house got an offer in October and Dan did too, a great new job that brought us to Colorado. Prior to his accepting the position, we visited Colorado, to make sure that it would be a good life for us. We were worried after our bad experience in Portland. Colorado immediately won us over. It is so beautiful and the people are welcoming. Plus, although it has snow, it has tons of sunshine. We treated that first visit as a bit of a tourist trip, incase the opportunity didn't work out. We visited the Coors Beer factory and saw Buffalo Bill’s Grave.
November was spent anxiously hoping that the sale of our Big Bear house would go through without any delays. We found a new construction home in a new estate called Sterling Ranch, in Littleton and put a down payment to start the buying process. We drove our Camero out to Colorado, taking the Arizona/New Mexico route. In New Mexico, we took the cable car up to the top of Sandia Peak, discovered “Christmas” chili, and had our car cleaned at the car wash from Breaking Bad. We flew back to California to finish packing up our house. Our move was not simple and involved three different companies. Our big Timothy Oulton furniture required a crane to get it out of our house. We also had to have certain items crated. It was a logistical nightmare that somehow worked out. We had a goodbye dinner with our friend’s Bryan and Valerie, hitting several of the local restaurants in Big Bear Village. The next morning, we set off in our Ram Truck, taking a Nevada/Utah route to Colorado.
We spent about two weeks at a local Hampton Inn, as Big Bear was nearing the end of escrow and the finishing touches were being made on our new home. The staff at the Hampton Inn were terrific, but we were thrilled when we finally moved out the week before Thanksgiving. With a huge amount of luck, everything regarding the sale of Big Bear and buying in Littleton worked out exactly as it needed to. Our new home is gorgeous and our neighbors are welcoming. We live near a giant field with cows!
I’m writing this a few days before Christmas and we finally feel settled into our home. It feels like our home in a way that the previous places we lived, never did. Last week, I flew back to California to pick up Slinky. He experienced his first plane ride. I was very worried about flying with a cat, but it was less traumatizing for both of us than I Imagined. We missed him so much and are just happy that he is back with us.
Speaking of cats, we have a new one! We adopted a ten month old kitten that we named Tom. He’s a long-haired ginger, fluffy ball of trouble. Slinky isn’t so sure about Tom, but Tom adores Slinky. Slinky can’t eat or use his litter box, without Tom following him.
