29 Superlatives for a Birthday

Yesterday I celebrated my 29th birthday by filling all my students with sugar via homemade cupcakes, letting Brian cook dinner and enjoying the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art’s free gallery day.  Today Brian and I continued the party by spending most of the day at the Big E, which was a lot of fun.  The weather was perfect, the alpacas were adorable and the food was greasy.  I couldn’t have asked for more.

You know that around here, big events come with long lists.  This collection of superlatives from the past year was inspired by my friend Beth.  And yes, Beth, I’ve had this post saved since April so I could use it in September.  I’m like that.  Also, as a side note, I’m really cool with the turning 29 (and the inevitable turning 30 that will follow), despite the fact that one of our deans at school jokingly wished me a happy 25th birthday yesterday and my sister called me old.

Without further ado, some of the superlatives of the past year:

1. Best New Project: baking my own bread

2. Longest Car Ride: the Berkshires to North Carolina to visit my in-laws this summer

3. Best TV Show I Started Watching: Maybe Call the Midwife, but my New Girl obsession is pretty strong as well.

4. Farthest Trip: Minneapolis, MN for the 2013 Healthy Living Summit

5. Biggest Time Waste: Facebook/Tumblr, for sure

6. Best Life Hack: IFTTT

7. Most Useful Friends: Jen and Scott, who drove me to appointments, helped us move and let me borrow their car

8. Most Frustrating Website Closures: Task management app Astrid and Google Reader (though I’m now in love in Feedly)

9. Newest Skill: sewing…though I haven’t done much yet…

10. Best Party: our May housewarming

11. Best Tag Sale Purchase: either my $5 sewing machine or the $10 Ethan Allen dresser for our guest room

12. Biggest Buy: Our new house

13. 

    Highest Hike: Climbing Mount Greylock in October

14. Biggest Cooking Fail: Either the galette that leaked all over the bottom of my oven or the 3 jars of blueberry jam that didn’t seal.

15. Most Unique Holidays: Christmas when Brian and I celebrated the holiday by ourselves for the first time and Thanksgiving when watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade live.

16. Best Beauty Purchases: Orly’s Bonder basecoat and a jar of coconut oil

17. Biggest Scheduling Mistake: Taking two grad level courses last spring

18. Favorite Blog Addition: Direct advertising through Passionfruit

19. Busiest Month: July: we finished a vacation, had two sets of house guests, attended a concert with friends and both worked at summer programs.

20. Best Podcast Discoveries: Food is the New Rock and Pop Culture Happy Hour

21. Most Laughing and Crying in a Single Weekend:  My sister’s wedding last September

22. 

    Best Concert: Ben Folds Five, Barenaked Ladies and Guster at Tanglewood in July

23. Most Consumed Beverage: tea, by a long shot

24. Most Productive Blog Project: Katy Widrick’s 28 Day Blog Challenge in February (and I just signed up for her October challenge as well!)

25. Saddest Thing: My three closest work friends leaving the school for other opportunities

26. Best Berkshire Event: I have to choose one? Both our Tanglewood shows we attended were great, in addition to the North Adams Downtown Celebration.

    

27. Best Family Trip: Maine, for my Dad’s 60th birthday

28. Book I Spent the Longest Reading: Cooked, by Michael Pollan.  I think I had that book out from the library for a full six months!

29. Most Worn Piece of Jewelery (besides my rings and watch): The silver necklace I received from my sister as a Matron of Honor gift and wore in her wedding.  I’ve probably worn it at least twice a month since then, which is a lot for me to wear any jewelry at all.

Here’s hoping that 29 treats me as well as 28 did!