Looking Back at 2019
One of my favorite films is a made-for-TV rom-com from 1999 called, "Au Pair." There is a villainous blonde soon-to-be-stepmother, that inflicts havoc on her step children to her benefit, and when they complain she smiles, her voice saccharine: "Life is full of little surprises."
It's an obvious motto that it could go unsaid. But yet, I am arriving at the end of 2019 and all I can do is shrug, yes, life is full of little surprises.
There were the bad surprises: a cancer scare, for one, finding out I have allergies (to cats, and trees!), losing friends. The rest of them were delightful:
London this summer in its entirety. The weather! The walks! Tea at Browns! The escalators at Harrods (which, seem quite quotidian but has been special since 2011).
Sitting in an airy creperie in Normandy and finding out that Alistair and I have made it in the French papers and later that same day, drinking champagne at the Hotel de Louvre while my brain filled with fancies. (Sven, the little dog we met in Cambremer who went to sleep with his head on my shoe, gets honorable mention.)
Touring my cousins around New York in the July heat, because there is something about showing someone the places that make my heart beat and watching their hearts beat faster also.
Arriving to Scotland (which was already a surprise trip to add to the year) and realizing I was on a trip with a reality tv star from a show I used to love.
Walking through San Francisco with Suni, because it is a combination of a lot of my favorite things.
In 2020 I have a book to finish (more on that, I assure you) and the rest is blank and empty but waiting to be filled.
Happy New Year.