Maria Diaz lady business. pop culture. whatever.

Ode to 2007

With two weeks left to achieve my new years resolution of becoming Nicole Richie proportions and paying off my student loan debt, I take a break between pi-yo (that is a mixture of pilates & yoga) sessions with my trainer, Fernando  and hustling on the corner of Geary & Polk to reflect on the past year.

If I were to give it a name, I would call it 2007: the Year of Making Bad Decisions that are actually good decisions but you won't know that yet and oh yeah, they were still kind of bad choices, brainiac. This is in sharp contrast to 2006, which could have been called: This Was A Good Year Until You Done Fucked It Up Real Good. But you know, that is neither here nor there.  2006: it's so over.

So, 2007, what to say to you? What did you bring me? The first few months we spent together were rough.  You dared me to see what I would do with the  remnants of the grief of losing my first true, real relationship and closest friend.   But I took it like a man, 2007 and in the end, realized that in life, one must ask for what they want and if you want it done well, you do it yourself.

I wanted to move out of my over priced room share, so I did.  I wanted to do karaoke as often as humanly possible, I did that too. I wanted to go wine tasting and eat at Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc restaurant, so I figured out a way.   I wanted a real life with real friends and to go out every single night of the week, so I did that.  I wanted to go to Vegas for years and none of my boyfriends ever got it together enough to go, so when a reason presented itself, I blew a ton of money and went.   You gifted me with the balls I'd been searching for for years - to cut myself off from the direction-less umbilical cord that was my day job and get the hell out of there before I woke up and turned into one of those lifeless health care drones in printed plaid pants who's entire day revolves around free drug lunches.

I am harder, better, faster, stronger. I'm every woman. Since you been gone, I can breathe for the first time. I'm so moving on (yeah yeah). I'm stronger than yesterday, now it's nothing but my way.  And you can insert whatever cheesy lyric you want into this section.

The point is: 2007, I will miss you.  Thankfully, every single minute of it has been documented on some web site, so our times will never be far away from me.  I will look back on it and think of how I started our relationship a hot, hot mess who could not stop crying in public places and ended it just a hot mess with better hair who could not stop reciting the lyrics to "Real Talk" (which was by far, the greatest gift you gave me this year). Thanks again.