2014

Tastes I've appreciated this year:

Honey. Honeycomb. Honey ice cream, swirled with candied honeycomb. Mirabelle plums. Potatoes freshly dug from the ground, thinly sliced and fried into chips. Frozen cherries in January, melting into Greek yogurt. Soft boiled eggs. Cold salted ma la Szechuan chicken. Oregon-raised bacon. Borage- floral and briny, with fuzz tickling the back of my throat. Olives- a taste as 'old as cold water'. Wild salmon. Roasted garlic. Matcha tea with almond milk. Greasy, paper-thin pizza, showered with free toppings. Rose petal coconut honey over whole wheat levain. Meals --eaten out-- that run under $7. Braised greens. Butter-poached white fish. Chawanmushi. Shaved zucchini slices. Milk Oolong tea- leaves that smell of cream, rain and the high mountains they grew in. Peanut butter, honey & cinnamon toast. Natto hand rolls.

Things I've appreciated this year:

My job(s). My community. Anais Nin, Robert Hass, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Chrome’s incognito window (for freeloading NYT articles and similarly unsavory internet activities). My therapist. My compassion. My willpower. The edging of spring into summer. Peonies, hydrangeas, roses, Japanese dogwood, jasmine, tulips, lilies, and magnolias- abloom across the yard! The scent of trellised jasmine drifting up toward my perch on the roof.

That I can live on $18,000 a year- or less. It’s not easy, and it requires creativity and consideration to live well- but even small things, like balancing bank accounts and credit card statements, will feel like a fine accomplishment. $18,000 a year means no Vegas, NYC or international trips; means browsing Gilt’s $50 or less sections, and leaving your selections in the shopping cart before closing your browser. Means celebrating the natural (free) beauty of waterfalls, hot springs, lava beds, caves, coastlines and calderas. Means figuring out on which day of the week you’ll absolutely *need* a $5 macchiato/matcha/chai latte- then more often, making your own at home.

You'll align your monthly payments with your paycheck, subscribe to financial management websites, decide between a new article of (discounted) clothing or a day trip. And you'll binge on Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Watch and Hulu and HBOGo (House of Cards, Game of Thrones, Sherlock, Orange Is the New Black, Arrested Development, Parks & Rec) for entertainment purposes. You’ll look at the TV’s on sale at Costco and think “It’s been seven years- what’s another year or two?”

You’ll go to the animal shelter on weekends and hug all the animals- bury your face into the thick fur of ginger-coated cats, even though you know you’ll emerge with hives (you can afford the allergy pills). You’ll list your house on AirBnB and meet so many amazing travelers. You’ll memorize Happy Hour times and specials, hike a lot, purchase yoga classes off Groupon (and spectacularly fail to go), and teach your dog how to swim.

Things I’ve hated this year:

One remarkably shitty supervisor. A federally-funded health insurance plan that doesn’t meet federal requirements, and doesn’t cover any services. Squashed sandwiches. The fact that I’m not glamorous and living in New York City. Car & insurance payments. A traffic ticket that follows me into 2014. That my meager paycheck means no more cured salmon or ‘fancy’ cheese purchases (Goodbye, Old Amsterdam gouda, brie de Meaux!) That I’m still so far from Berkeley- that the longing for my city by the bay comes back in waves borne on memories of Philz coffees, Masse’s macarons, Asha matcha lattes, Tartine croissants! (And of course, the smell of salt, redwood, and eucalyptus leaves.) And that the Bay slowly loses its hold on my heart as I begin to look forward, with real anticipation, to the smells, sights and sounds of another summer in the Pacific Northwest.