10 Highlights of 2015

Eight years ago I started this project because writing your own Top 10 list recapping the year was “trendy”. These days, Facebook, Instagram, etc. all do it automatically based on your most liked posts. But, what they rarely capture are the little moments that were actually the big moments. I love looking back and remembering the moments of each year that were most important to me – here’s what colored 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

This was a career year; one where many work goals were realized as well as affording me the opportunity to live out some of my dreams. It’s true that work doesn’t keep you warm at night, but money sure can buy fleeting moments of happiness.

Here’s my Top 10 of 2015:

1. Took the leap, and “fired” my biggest client, who was also making me miserable. As the saying goes, as one door closes, many more (and better) ones did indeed open
2. Swim, swim, swim. I fell back in love with Masters swimming and logged over 140,000 yards or 800 miles. It was the equivalent of swimming The Venice Canals, Kuta Beach in Bali, the Cape Town Freedom Route, the Amazon River, Santorini Island, the Straits of Gibraltar, The Great Barrier Reef, The Maui Channel, Key West, Tokyo, Grand Canyon Colorado River, Panama Crossing and Cuba to Florida. Thanks Speedo app for logging all those miles and making them fun!
3. Realized a childhood dream and “lived” in NYC for about half the year. It’s been a blast “living bicoastal”
4. Unplanned, I fell in love with my condo on The Strip and haven’t left. I still love watching the Bellagio Fountains dance nightly from 34 stories up.
5. Living bicoastal makes “real” travel tough. While I was still a traveling fool, the only new cities I hit were Toronto, Hoboken, NJ, Tarrytown aka the real Sleepy Hollow and Zion, Utah – wow, talk about a landscape and colors that take your breath away. No camera does this place justice.
6. While new cities were light, I had a blast staying at a ton of new, boutique hotels – I hit a different NYC borough and hotel every weekend I was in the city. My favorites included The Library, The Refinery and Tarrytown Estate.
7. Thanks to iMedia, Upper Deck turned me into an official trading card! I was one of ten in their Marketing Legends, Series One.
8. Speaking of NYC, it’s also where I spent the holiday season. While it (thankfully) didn’t snow (yet), the holiday markets, amazing windows along 5th avenue and christmas lights abound, were a spectacle I won’t readily forget.
9. This was the year of babies. My second baby cousin was born, my BFF announced she was pregnant and thanks to my time in NYC, I got to watch Baby C go from a tiny peanut to a slightly larger peanut
10. I also got to meet a few celebrity heros up close – Cynthia Nixon, Jared Leto and one of my all time favorites, Iris Apfel
11. Bonus! Family time is the best time. This is one highlight I have every year. Snapchatting with my brother, shopping with my mom and eating Chick-fil-a with the grandparents. These were moments that no amount of money could ever buy.