It feels really really really really really nice to be home, you guys. In my own house, currently sitting on my own couch, with my dogs completely zonked out in their own beds in their own favorite places, and Liz on her own floor doing a perfect impression of Coops’ crazy laying on his back sleeping position. Seriously, she nailed it.
Today was breakfast with Ryan and we looked through some of our wedding photo album that’s really been the big hit of this Christmas trip, and then lots and lots and lots of driving.
I really don’t even have that much to talk about in terms of what happened today because nothing really did. I drove from the 101 to the 580 to the I5 to the 405, back on the 101 for a couple miles and then bam! Home. Home sweet home.
For the record, it is cold as balls here. Like, there’s a freaking frost warning tonight. IN LA. That shit doesn’t happen down here. And to even make it that much more cray cray, it’s forecasted to be two degrees colder tonight than it is up in Ferndale. Straight up insanity. It was this cold and it rained here yesterday. It actually feels like winter down here. It’s kind of magical.
Our house smelled nice when we came home today. How nice is that, right?! As someone who lives in your own house, you never really know what it smells like for reals, you know? The only time you ever get that objective sense of what your own house smells like is when you walk through the door after a long trip away. Those first few minutes, those are what other people smell when they come to your house. Unless you’re cooking, that is. Then all bets are off. And our place smelled super nice. How great is that?! I give all the credit to Liz. If it were my responsibility, I’m convinced it would smell like dirty laundry and man-musk.
We took the dogs on a jaunt over to Joe and Madhuri’s house. They were still setting up for their NYE party tonight, which we’d considered attending before we dragged ourselves through our front door and realized just how freaking tired we were. So we popped over pre-party to tell them hi and get to see them anyway. Then we trekked home and at some food. Liz had a stowed-away pizza in the freezer we popped in the oven, and then we opened a bazillion Christmas cards that had come in while we were gone. Can’t wait to see the Ho put those up over by our front door. New tradition.
After that, I shaved off my beard finally, and I took a shower that was just insanely amazing. It was one of those solid 10/15 minute showers where the warm water feels like happiness.
So, yeah…here I sit, with 2014 washed from my skin, feeling rather spent and quite content. Traveling to see family is food for my soul and I feel so freaking fortunate to be able to do that, see the ones that I love that I don’t get to see often enough, have those amazing bonding times and get transported to the times of my youth. Coming home after all that, surrounded by my own objects and tokens of me-ness, all the crumbs of the life that’s been consumed this past year…that’s another kind of magic. I can feel my shoulders releasing, my legs sighing and my eyelids drooping. New Years Eve for 2014 is an exhale.
I’m out in the living room writing this tonight, not in bed. I’m not quite sure why, except that perhaps I want to watch the clock turn to 2015 and if I got to bed now, I’ll never be conscious when that happens in just over an hour from now. This is also where the pups were sleeping. Their beds are side by side at the moment, the ones that we took on the trip up north, and I find that particularly endearing. They definitely bonded over this trip, even more so than before. It was the two of them against the world, as such, traveling to all these strange new places with their alphas. They’re thick as thieves without a doubt.
Liz is taking a shower herself right now, and she started playing some playlist. The first track that came up was “Azure” by Paul Kalkbrenner, which I heard out of the corner of my ear coming from the bathroom. I walked in and confirmed that it was, in fact, what was playing, and it seemed the perfect kind of serendipity. “Azure” perfectly captures what I’m feeling at this moment right now.
I was also reading many people’s postings on the Twitters and the Facebooks, talking about their 2014s. A lot of people had a hard time in 2014 on my feeds. Some people had wonderful 2014s. 2014 I feel like saying was the best year I’ve had since…well, possibly ever. There’s something in me that doesn’t want to qualify it quite like that; you know, good or bad. 2014 was definitely a *big* year. A lot happened. Like, so much it’s hard for me to actually wrap my head around all of it. It’s probably the precise reason that I’m feeling quite as tired as I am as I let all that muscle tension release finally.
But…more on that in the retrospective which I intend to write tomorrow. On the first day of 2015 this year, as opposed to last year where it came, like, a week late 😛 But, hey, even if that happens this year, it’s okay.
Okay, that’ll do pig, that’ll do. 2014, it’s been very, very real. The realest, and I love you so much for it. You were amazing, and I’m sad to see you gone already.
Here’s to 2015, the new hottest bitch in the room.
PS- Also, here’s to the In-N-Out lunch we had today on the road which might have been the single most delicious lunch I’ve ever had in my life. We were so hungry! It also took me 5 million hours to get into a stall to drop a D, and we met the most adorable yellow lab christmas puppy in the parking lot. I die.
