2015 was a weird year. After the ridiculous spree of happiness and excitement that was 2014 (got married, honeymooned, bought a house), this year was a bumpier road. Loved ones had some hard times. I went through some job changes. The world often felt like it was falling apart. On social media, everyone seemed to be in a fight with each other, slinging angry memes and sparring with links.

But there were great moments too. My sister got married and her wedding weekend was incredibly fun. I saw Half Dome and El Capitan for the first time. We camped in a blizzard and it was the greatest. Scrolling through my pictures from the last year, there’s tons of shots of fun times with people I love.  In other words, it was a Year, full of highs and lows just like any other, with good times and hardships ebbing and flowing like the tide.

So far, 2016 is off to a good start. We spent New Years Eve at home with a few of our closest friends, playing board games, drinking champagne, and keeping things relaxed. It was nice, and I especially enjoyed waking up on the first day of a new year not feeling like I was run over by a semi. Last New Years Day, I barely crawled out of bed and spent all day on the couch, trying to keep down an omelet and letting Netflix run through an entire season of a Canadian travel show. Today, I watched some football, took a nap, did some writing, and got in a cardio workout.

My resolutions for 2016:

• take hip hop dance lessons (they start Monday!), prepare myself for random dance-off challenges, start a crew (or krew).
• purchase a Sonicare toothbrush. I did this today, using my Christmas gift cards for something I actually need (instead of, say, Star Wars t-shirts) like a responsible adult. My journey towards healthier teeth and gums begins.
• train myself to like coffee. This is mostly an attempt to break my terrible Diet Coke habit, which is my current method of caffeinating.  So far, I can tolerate coffee with  flavored cream, but I’d like to acquire the taste to order it Agent Dale Cooper-style, black as midnight on a moonless night.
• In 2014, I had my big writing goal of finishing a novel. This year, I’m taking it easier and giving myself to challenge of creating a Twitter parody account. Sadly, tweeting as Laura Ingalls Wilder has already been taken.

This should keep me busy until 2017. Happy New Years, all!