2023 was one of the worst years of my life (not the worst–that was 8th grade) and yet lots of good things still happened this year. Maybe it was the most dramatic year of my life, since every day seemed to bring new highs and lows. Call it a roller-coaster year.
12 things from 2023:
1. My dad, Rudolf Lanzendorfer, died in June.
2. I published in The New Yorker for the first time. Read my article on Lenore Kandel.
3. Kyle lost his job in May.
4. My 80-year-old mom, on top of losing her husband of 61 years, had to sell her house and move all her belongings into a rental near me. This was a bit of a challenge, let’s say.
5. I finished my second novel, which is now looking for a home.
6. My mother-in-law had a stroke, so Kyle had to fly to Indiana, load all her stuff into a moving van, and drive her across country to live in an RV in my yard until we could find her a roommate. We did find her one and she’s doing better now.
7. I got to travel a lot for work, including a trip to Cabo San Lucas.
8. I won an excellence in journalism award for my Alta article on a Carmel murder mystery involving a poisoned marshmallow.
9. I was awarded a much-needed writing residency at Spruceton Inn in the Catskills.
10. This summer, we took a month-long cross-country trip in our camper van, driving to Maine, then down to Georgia, then back here to California.
11. Kyle won an award for in a weaving contest for a reversible towel. The award was lots of yarn.
12. Nature really showed up for us this year. I hiked in a California superbloom, saw hundreds of whales in the ocean, gathered mushrooms and berries in the woods, counted 17 alligators at a preserve in the south, and encountered a giant rock shaped like a whale.
The consolation for all this upheaval and change is that many of the things that were upsetting this year are apparently calming down now, so I’m optimistic 2024 will be better.
Knock wood.