The thing about 2024 is that it promises to be a really important year for me. I have a lot of big, big things planned for 2025, but in order to make them all happen, I have to spend 2024 making shit happen. I need to spend the year building things, both quite literally and very figuratively. I need to a lay a foundation. I need to prepare. I need to let go of things, of jobs and places and the assorted piles of things I’ve accumulated over nearly 40 years. 

With all that in mind, I jumped into January with a plan and plane tickets which is, frankly, the best way to start a year. I flew to Houston with my forever road trip bestie, and spent a few days visiting with family before hopping into my grandmother’s 2000 Buick LaSabre, the one she drove until her death in 2016 that my uncle has inextricably held onto. Then, we drove home, passing through Pensacola and Asheville along the way.

I hadn’t been to Pensacola in more than a decade. The life I lived the last time I saw those waters and the life I live now are immeasurably different. I was in my 20s. I was married. I wasn’t a runner yet, not really. I had never camped alone. I hadn’t yet wandered around the desert and fallen in love with it, that would come years later. My address is the same. I still have the same hateful cat. But mostly, that’s it.

Asheville, on the other hand, is a place I’ve returned to over and over again. It’s the first place I ever road tripped to, 20 years ago, just a few months after I got my license and enlisted into the Virginia Army National Guard. We spent a day there, in Asheville, shopping and eating and drinking and wandering around in the cold. I bought a chunky lapis ring I’ve been wearing pretty much nonstop and a pile of treats for Claude. Then, the next day, after fueling ourselves with biscuits, it was time to come home.

The whole point of going to Texas and getting the Buick was so that I could sell my (beloved) 2021 Toyota RAV4 and buy something a little different. I sold it a week after getting back from Texas, to a friend who was in the market for nearly the exact same model as mine. It is still insane to me that it all worked out as well as it did, not just for me, but for her too.

I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the Buick. It’s a boat, but, as it turns out, I kind of love it. I have a tape deck adapter that connects to my phone via bluetooth, as well an FM transmitter, both of which keep me connected to playlists and podcasts, and driving this thing is a dream.

etc.

Other January highlights include seeing Saved by the 90s, a 90s tribute band, with a pack of girlfriends; celebrating two years of Claude; eating two piles of steak frites at Grisette; starting a fitness tracking spreadsheet with a friend to help us both stay accountable; and running the Frostbite 15K for the eleventh time, even though it was a 6.6 miler due to flooding on the course.

I read three books, which is maybe an all-time low for January, but all of them were good: The Christmas Orphan’s Club by my real-life friend Becca Freeman, Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll, and One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle (related: if you haven’t read Serle’s In Five Years, you should).

The best thing I watched was the latest season of True Detective, the best thing I made was this buffalo chicken wrap recipe, and the best thing I listened to was What the Duck?! an Australia podcast that covers a riveting plethora of critter-related topics.

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