That aforementioned recap of the [awesome] year 2014

First blogfession of 2015: I genuinely enjoy reflecting on the previous year when a new one starts. (See here or any of my other early January posts...) You'd think I'd make a living out of studying calendars and events or something, sheesh.

So, since it has already been 525,949+ minutes since last January 1, please allow me to indulge in a bit of recall of just what went down during that time.

Memorable Moments of Zweitousand Vierzehn:
- Seeing the Queen. of. bloody. England.
- Going to a One Direction concert in Barcelona with my sister.
- Traveling with my sister to 5 countries and still having a good relationship at the end.
- Being in Germany when Germany won the World Cup.
- Standing on a cliff at the furthest possible Western edge of the continent of Europe. (It's in Portugal. Who knew!)
- Having a cameo in Amador's very first Lip Dub.
- Reunionizing with four friends I hadn't seen in more than 2-3 years.
- Disneyland. Then Disneyland, Disneyland, and Disneyland. Owning a season pass paid off big time.
- Running 11 miles through 25 obstacles in the Tough Mudder, resulting in the incredibly prestigious reward of... a bright orange headband.
- Karaoke-ing for the first time.
- Driving through 3 states in one day and loving everything the South has to offer. Especially accents. And Jack Daniels.
- Witnessing live the walk-off home-run that sent the Giants to the World Series in game 5 of the NLCS. I still can't capture the joy of that moment with words, so here's the video my brother took.. Beware the volume level.

Bigger-Picture Points of 2,014:
- Moved to the City for like... 2 seconds: Won't do that again!
- Recruited 42 kids to go to Europe with me for 17 days this summer: Here goes nothin!
- Established a group for weekly trivia at the pub downtown. We call ourselves: Mom?
- Received tenure at my school. Judgements about the tenure system aside: Yay!
- Formed bonds with a group of amazing people. I prayed for community at this time last year: Thank you, Lord.
- Embraced the subject of Economics and ALL subsequent nerdiness that comes with it: Who wants to talk about CDOs or the invisible hand??
- Watched my baby sister graduate high school, my brother graduate Army Ranger school, and my parents become empty nesters for the first time: I love my family.
- Learned a lot about life and people and growing up: So far, the 20s seem to get better every year.

So there's my sappy summary of 2014. One of the best songs I learned in 2014 is a perfect way to end a New Years post because, well, you'll see why. "To you who boast tomorrow's gain, tell me, what is your life? A mist that vanishes at dawn. All glory be to Christ."