Farewell 2007!

In about 7 hours we say goodbye to another year… and what a crazy roller coaster of a year it has been!

I said goodbye to New York, packed my bags and moved to Paris with the intent of staying here forever… what I learned is that I’m a New Yorker through and through and no other city in the world, no matter how fabulous and fun, can compare to home... New York is magic. Paris will always have a special place in my heart and I’m so glad I came here to experience this. In 20 years I’ll be sitting in my home in New York, telling my kids about the year I moved to Paris on a whim and all the incredible experiences I had there. But I know now that my life is New York—friends, family, annoying subway riders, congestion and dirty streets, the homeless guy who lives on my front stoop, falafels at 4am on Houston, coffee cart vendors… I miss it all. I had to leave it to find out that New York is my heartbeat.

I fell in love! 25 years of life, countless assholes, nice boring guys, broken hearts and dry spells under my belt. Always looking for that great storybook romance and never finding it. And then I come to Paris determined to spend a year dedicated to myself—having nothing more to do with men then the occasional casual fling here and there. And what happens? A month after I arrive, someone walks into my life and completely turns my world upside down and makes me feel something so different and new. It’s scary and exciting and wonderful and awful at the same time—who would have thought I’d have to travel 3,600 miles to experience this?

I’ve seen more of the world in 4 months abroad than I ever have in my entire life. 2007 is the year that brought me to Africa for the first time—AFRICA! How insane is that? Next stop will be a proper tour through black Africa though… but all in due time.

I learned that living in a foreign country is HARD. And I have a much greater respect for people like my mom/aunts/uncles, or anyone who left their home behind to make a new path in a strange place where they don't know the language, customs or a single soul... its not easy.

There were so many weddings and births this year! Its so exciting when a friend gets married or has a baby and you get a new addition to your extended family… especially those friends whom you braved freshman year of college with, lived with in the ghettos of Brooklyn, bitched over work with, made it through 9/11 with, daydreamed about the future with... we’re really growing up!

Tonight I'll ring in ’08 at a small gathering at a French friend’s loft in the center of Paris with stunning views of the city as our backdrop. Then I’ll meet friends in Bastille to dance until the sun comes up… and B finally gets back on the 2nd so we'll have our own private belated Christmas/New Year's celebration then :o)

I hope your 2007 brought you everything you hoped for. And even if some things were left unfulfilled or some things just went to sh*t, God does have a plan and the world always works exactly the way it’s supposed to. Some things take a longer time to come to fruition and some things are best not receiving at all in order to make way for something bigger and better later on. So the good and the bad—it’s really all been worth it in the end.

I miss and love you all. Champagne toast: Here’s to a healthy and prosperous 2008!

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God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next.
Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr