In my Best/Worst lists I use a combination of racking my brain to extrapolate memories from a not-so-great memory center and Internet research to remind me of the some of the most important events that affected me this past year. Sadly, when I look back on 2012 I realize it was filled with horrible events, from natural disasters to national tragedies.
On a personal level, 2012 was a darn decent year.
Besties:
Music:
When I first heard the song Halogene off of Bon Iver’s Bon Iver album I must have played it 100 times in a row. I couldn’t stop listening to it for its beautiful music and unique male vocals. The second album, For Emma, With Love, is even better than the first. In February 2012, Bon Iver won two Grammy awards: Best Alternative Album and Best New Artist. Download it people, if you know what is good for you. Music!
Travel:
In 2012 Chris and I embarked on a company-paid trip to Rome for a week. A dream come true. Rome is a remarkable city that has actually preserved its very old architecture, and is constantly uncovering ancient villages under its present infrastructure. Every restaurant we came across in Rome made their own pasta from scratch, which is the way to eat pasta. The leather is amazing. The people are friendly. The sightseeing has got to be some of the best in the world. Travel!
Garden:
Our family ventured into true gardening this year by building four raised garden beds and planting them with seven different vegetables varietals, three fruit varietals and two herb varietals. All the vegetables were successful. I felt I couldn’t fail with an established drip system and plentiful llama manure on hand as fertilizer. I did learn that three of my four boxes were planned incorrectly; in other words, you should not mix beans with corn because they both grow tall and eventually the beans will wind itself all around the corn and pull it down to the ground. It felt very good to include my family in growing a garden and having fruits and vegetables at my disposal all summer. Garden!
Election:
I am so proud to have a President who is a good person and shares my values; someone who fights for equality. A President who will allow me to make my own reproductive decisions. Our family was very happy on November 4th.
Television:
Homeland kept me at the edge of my seat again watching my back for terrorist explosions while Mad Men made me want to go buy a vintage dress, mix myself up a Manhattan and light up a cig (along with a little alone time with Don Draper). These two shows are the very best I have seen on television in a long time.
Film:
I pretty much saw a bunch of shitty movies this year until the end of 2012 when we saw Silver Linings Playbook. I hate the title of the movie but the acting and script was amazing in my opinion. It was a movie that touched on every emotion: anxiety, sadness and humor. The movie showed the serious life altering reality of mental illness, the intensity of family dynamics, the blossoming of love , sports fanaticism and going outside of your comfort zone. Bradley Cooper!
Fitness:
On New Year’s Eve yesterday I went to my 75 minute hot power Vinyasa yoga class and afterword I felt like I was on top of the world physically, mentally and spiritually. The point is not that I am literally at the top of my game, but that I feel like I am at the top of my game. It is like taking a very good for you drug. Yoga has the ability to make me feel great, even when I am not having a great day. Namaste!
Home:
This year we were moving and not moving and moving and not moving. In the end we are here to stay in our house for a bit and so we decided to redo our closet from complete dysfunctional disaster to built-out beauty. We have a built in hamper and jewelry drawer now. We have a wall of shoes. We have lots of room for hanging clothes. Sometimes I just want to hang out in my closet for awhile. One day I may just bring my book in there to read. Closet remodel!
Famous Encounters:
Me groping Martin Sheen at Tuscany, Westlake Village, CA. Enough said.
Family:
I will end my best list on a bit of a cliche note. The best is family. The best is getting to the end of the year and being able to say that my family was all healthy and happy this year. That makes everything else on this list pail in comparison.
Worst:
Guns:
This year only one thing made my worst list because it caused the most tragedy. Guns.
There are 300 million guns in America. That is a ridiculous amount of guns. I know, we love our guns in this country. We love to have them for hunting. We love to have them to protect ourselves in our homes from other people who have guns. We love to shoot guns as a hobby. We love to collect guns.
These guns are also used to kill a lot of people every day.
The nation averages 87 gun deaths each day due to gun violence.
These guns kill our innocent children.
Every day eight kids under 20-years-old die from gun violence in America. That’s 56 kids a week, 340 kids a month and over 3,000 kids every year, according to John Rosenthal who writes for the Huffington Post.
These guns are used to kill mass amounts of people in places we shop, eat, and are entertained.
According to The Nation, there were 16 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2012, leaving at least 88 people dead.
Why can’t we make it more difficult for criminals or mentally ill individuals to get guns? Why do we need to be packing semi-automatic weapons intended to kill? Remember, the Connecticut shooter was shooting with a Bushmaster .223 assault rifle designed for military and law enforcement use. This gun has a 30 round magazine. Each child at Sandy Hook Elementary is said to have been shot a minimum of 3 times each, some children had been shot 11 times. While the shooter was changing his magazine, children were able to escape. Imagine how many lives could have been saved that day if we made guns that automatically load and shoot up to 30 bullets quickly, illegal.
Why is it illegal to smoke marijuana, potentially only harmful to ones self, but it is legal to sell guns at gun shows without a license or processing any paperwork? This means that about two out of every five guns sold in the United States change hands without any background check.
Lets start a real movement to stop gun violence. Who is with me?
I hope 2012 was a great year for all of you my friends, and that 2013 is even better.
Until next time, the mothership is signing off.
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