A 2009 Wrap-Up by Month: Travel and Other Notables

Nerd’s Eye View did such a great job with this that I thought I’d give it a shot myself…

• January: Concierge.com assigned my first official travel article: World’s Best Hotel Beds. (I found out earlier this month that the story earned a spot on their 2009 traffic top ten list.)
• February: I attended the New York Times Travel Show at the Javits Center, where I made a friend from Kenya. I started a travel journalism class at NYU. I blogged for Glamour.com. And I performed the role of Madison in the Father of Songs sing-through at Columbia University. (Click here now to watch me belt out my big number.)
• March: Jeff and I traveled to Brazil, where I got tan and he got a parasite. I biked through Parque do Ibirapuera, and we even did some hang-gliding over Floresta da Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro (I should really post those photos one of these days).
• April: We thanked our lucky stars when we found out the tennis-ball-sized tumor in my husband’s pelvic bone wasn’t cancer; I’m still awed when I reflect on his strength and sense of humor through the multi-month recovery. On a much brighter note, I was hired as an editorial consultant for The Knot, Inc., which involved several TV appearances (see here and here for starters). I also submitted the copy for Bedroom Bucks, a funny gift book that Random House/Potter Style will start selling next week.
• May: After two years (fine, Jeff, twenty months, whatever, you were studying hard for a really long time), Jeff graduated from the Executive MBA program at Columbia University.
• June: I danced the Charleston at the Governor’s Island Jazz Age Lawn Party, a New York City must-see. Despite donning a flapper dress and feather boa in broad daylight, my costume had nothin’ on everyone else’s. I also started writing travel articles for FiLife.com, a Wall Street Journal partner.
• July: I ate my body weight in lobster on Cape Ann in Massachusetts and admired the power of Ithaca, New York’s “gorges” waterfalls. I also sang in the renowned Metropolitan Room jazz club and studied digital filmmaking through the Travel Channel Academy.
• August: Picholine restaurant printed my name on their menu and I recorded my voiceover talent demo. (Hire me?)
• September: I spent the month working non-stop, writing about puppies and kittens for Petside.com… if you can call that “work.”
• October: KZTV, part of the Mount Sinai Child Life department, accepted me as a volunteer on-camera host. Jeff and I also took in our third foster kitten through Kitty Kind.
• November: Beyond the New York City Marathon (watching, not running), the Visit Europe Media Exchange and singing at East End, I hit London, Nottingham, New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Nevada and California… all in three weeks. (The reason for Nottingham is uber-exciting, but it will warrant its own post when the time is right.)
• December: I dug right into my long list of to-do’s as freelance honeymoons editor for a soon-to-be-relaunched AOL weddings Web site, as well as a few more pieces for Concierge.com. Also, the sport of snowboarding will never be the same.

And, in conclusion, three words sum it all up: What. A. Year.