Winding down 2023
I guess I'm a bit late for this wrap up, but I'll keep it brief. On IG, I normally post a brief year in review. Like I said on IG, 2023 was more of a crockpot year because things were kind of slow and steady - not saying that's a bad thing.
Let's start with the highlights
January: Hubby and I saw Cirque du Soleil's Corteo. Going into the show I wasn't really expecting much because I've never been interested in the Cirque du Soleil brand. I gotta say that I REALLY enjoyed the show because of the dancing, the fun, and all of the AMAZING acrobatics. Maybe it's an age thing for me. In my 20s, I would not have been caught dead at a Cirque du Soleil show, but now in my 40s, I'm down with it.
February: One City Half Marathon (Newport News, VA). I remember registering for the full marathon, but I couldn't (or didn't) run it for whatever reason.
March: Shamrock (half) Marathon (Va. Beach, VA). While my half marathon time was not amazing, I thought this was a wonderfully organized race. If you are ever thinking about running a race in the southeastern part of VA (i.e., Hampton Roads/Tidewater), I highly recommend running a J&A Racing event. They do a great job putting on a race, AND they have amazing post-race parties.
April: Yearly (or near yearly) trip to Spain to visit the hubby's family and friends. During this trip, we visited Bilbao, which is a city in the Basque region of northern Spain. This day trip was my first (and hopefully not last) trip to Bilbao. I have to say that I was really surprised (in a good way) with the amount of cultural and culinary diversity in Bilbao. To be frank, I think that I saw more diversity in this city compared to typical cities that one thinks of when talking about Spain, e.g. Madrid and Barcelona.
May: Eurovision in Washington DC. Since we were not traveling to the UK to see Eurovision 2023, the hubby and I decided to do a weekend trip to DC to attend a Eurovision party. We ended up going to one viewing event, but the bar's A/V system was a hot mess, so we ended up watching it at another bar. Funny thing: Originally, this was just supposed to be a Eurovision trip to DC, but I got a new job in Maryland around this time. So Eurovision in DC became Eurovision in DC and apartment hunting in the DC metro area. We probably should have spent less time "Eurovision'ing" and more time apartment searching. Fortunately, the day after Eurovision, we found two places that somewhat fit our needs.
June: The "big" move from Va Beach, VA to Silver Spring, MD. Geez! in one year, we had two major moves: New York, NY -> Va Beach, VA and Va Beach, VA -> Silver Spring, Maryland. I did not plan on doing this, but my new job's work schedule made it a bit impossible to do a VA <-> MD commute. While the position is hybrid, my onsite days are Tuesdays and Thursday, which would require staying in Maryland three to four days a week. Although we are both enjoying living in the DC metro, I will admit that it has been tough on me. The job and apt (for the most part are fine), but I do not really know people in the area, and it has been a bit hard to meet people. Let me take that back, I know OF people (e.g., former high school and college classmates), but I don't really know them to say Hey X, lets grab a drink next week. One of my goals for 2024 is to reestablish old relations and get involved with a couple of organizations in an attempt to meet new people.
July: Hubby's birthday month. I'm posting this because with the move and getting settled into our new place, I really did not celebrate my birthday, which is in June. Sooooo, I kind of celebrated my birthday with the hubby's by having a really expensive dinner. Random trivia. Our birthdays are separated by one month and one day. After posting, I realize these pictures are not from the really expensive restaurant but from a Spanish restaurant where we had brunch. I was too lazy to change the pictures. ;)
August: This is where the year took a freaking nose dive. While I was on track (for the most part) in training for the Marine Corps Marathon (October), I had a flare up of a herniated disc in my lower back. This injury took me out of everything for about 2.5 months. For most of August and early September, I had major issues with pain associated with sitting, standing, and/or walking. During this time, I remember debating during the early mornings if I wanted to deal with the pain of getting out of bed to use the bathroom or just pissing the bed. Although things are better for the most part, I have been VERY dedicated to stretching 2-4 times a day. The next step is to get my weight under control . . . more on that in a future post.
September: Eh, nothing really worth mentioning because I couldn't do much of anything due to my back injury. At least walking with a cane, prevented me from touching random surfaces with my fingers. ;)
October: I managed to make it to my first yelp Elite (MD Burbs) event. It was great for two reasons. 1. I met a few new folks. 2. It was one of my 1st social event since the back injury.
November: Lol. A friend told me that she saw me in the New York Times article about the benefits of walking vs running. Funny thing, the article was published in November 2023, BUT it's an old picture. After going through the photos on my phone (and based on the color of my shoes), this picture must have been taken in 2018 or 2019 when I was living in NYC.
December: TROPICAL CHRISTMAS in Cancún, Mexico. A few interesting things:
We survived our first (and hopefully last) Spirit Air experience. Here's the thing, Spirit Air was the only airline with direct flights from the DC metro area to Cancún that were not crazy expensive . . . I'm talking about $500+ in addition to the all-inclusive package, which included the resort stay and airfare. Also, I thought it would be dumb to have a layover for a travel time of 3.5 hours. Again, I was really surprised that there were not more direct flights since we live in a major city and were traveling to a popular destination. All in all, we had a decent experience on Spirit Air, but maybe we were lucky...very lucky. I have to admit that I was very nervous because I (like most) have seen those Spirit Air customers vs employees or customers vs customers fights on social media. Also, word on the street says that Spirit Air is known for canceling (or rather delaying) flights for days. Fortunately, we did not experience either of those situations.
Tropical Christmas wasn't really all that tropical because the region had an abnormal cold spell. We're talking about temps in the 70s F with rain. Although the weather was not optimal, we did enjoy ourselves and managed to spend a few minutes in the sun. Hey, I even came in third place for the resort's flags of the world contest. I probably would have won if I didn't screw up Aruba's and Mauritius' flags.
We did a nice catamaran excursion that included snorkeling, a trip to Isla de Mujers, and (of course) drinking. The excursion was nice for the most part, BUT I did not enjoy the captain's 10-15 minute lecture about tipping. Here's the thing, the excursion was about $120 USD with an additional $20 USD marina docking fee. Not to be rude, I'm not buying that $20 USD marina docking fee because I don't understand why that fee could not have been included in the price of excursion. You mean to tell me that EVERYONE has to pay this docking fee, when we are on ONE boat. Our catamaran had about 30 people on it, so the city/county/state/country receives about $600 USD from this boating company on a daily basis. Keep in mind that there are SEVERAL tour companies that operate out of this port. Ok, back to the tiping. The captain kept telling us that they do a lot of work to organize these tours for us. Yes, that is true, BUT the tourists have paid for this service. I understand that this probably more of an issue of the company not paying their employees enough money. I just didn't like the lecture. ALSO, a lot of the crew had pretty nasty attitudes. You're NOT gonna lecture me about gratuity while having a fucked up attitude because you have to do YOUR job. To be honest, I did not notice any of the tourist being rude and condescending towards the ship's crew. If tipping is such an issue, then these companies should add a gratuity fee to the excursion price. Lord knows they add a fee for everything else.
