2024

It’s that time again already, as we enter a new year, 2024 provides much promise and hope.  As usual, I try and look at things in an optimistic way, but with a realistic lens.  Today is January 2, 2024, and we’re already two days into a new calendar year. 

As we look ahead, this new year holds much potential.

But let’s backup a few days first.  New Years Eve 2023 was a quiet one for Marzz and I.  We had plans to go out but those were thwarted by me getting a cold during the week leading up to NYE, and we didn’t want to be those people showing up to a party with one of us a bit under the weather.  Instead, we stayed at home, did some things around the house, made dinner at home, played some board games, and then watched the ball drop in New York’s Time Square at midnight.  We then watched some random episodes of Bob’s Burgers and then went to bed just after 1am.  All in all, a very quiet evening, but it was nice, and although going out would have been fun, it did save us the hassle of driving since the party we were going to attend was about 45 minutes away.

I’m not generally into new years resolutions, never have been.  I think that stems from me always planning.  So, for me, it’s not like new years day comes around and now I’m thinking of a plan; instead, I’ve had a planning that continues to evolve week by week.  Nothing against anyone who wants to make a new year’s resolution, they can be helpful to some.  I always enjoyed the late Norm MacDonald’s new year’s resolution, which was to remain alive.  I guess he finally lost that one.  But having some sort of plan for the new year is a good thing in my opinion, no matter how you get one. 

For Marzz and I, our plan is the same, continue to grow our relationship, manage our finances to lower debt, save for a wedding, which will hopefully be in the spring of 2025.  Along the way, we want to continue to travel, see new places both locally and abroad.  Attend events, whatever those may be.  In fact, we already have tickets to a Celtic festival in St. Augustine for this coming March.  Some friends and family have reached out and let us know they plan on visiting, which is great, so we have that to look forward to.  The usual holiday’s will be sprinkled in there, and of course, there will always be the unexpected this or that. 

So why does the upcoming year seem positive, or optimistic?  For me, it’s because last year was pretty good.  Despite losing our little guy, Miracle, our dog, we had a pretty great year.  We traveled, attended many events, had lots of date nights, weekend getaways, weekend staycations, and more.  We traveled outside of Florida, visited 4 other states, Georgia, South Carolina, New Jersey, and Nevada.  We attended several concerts, Dropkick Murphy’s, The Misfits, Megadeath, Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper, the When We Were Young festival which contains dozens of bands all in a single day, headliners were The Offspring, Sum 41, Green Day, Thirty Seconds to Mars, Blink 182, Rise Against, Yellow Card, Simple Plan and many more!

Beyond concerts, we also attended the Plant City Strawberry festival.  Roamed the vintage markets in Mt. Dora.  Went to Busch Gardens and Sea World amusement parks, in addition to Universal Orlando and Disney World.  We spent time outdoors paddle boarding, golfing, hiking, and at the beaches.  We attended a Tampa Rays game.  I went with a friend to a Miami Marlin’s game. 

Again, because 2023 was so good, that sets the table for 2024 to be just as good, if not better.  I’m optimistic that we’ll have a great year.  We do have some very tall orders to fill financially, the biggest being that we’re aiming to host a wedding in spring of 2025, so many of our decisions will be made with that mind.  For example, we have made the decision to skip several concerts already with the idea of saving money.  Now that would normally be a negative, but because it’s for our wedding, it’s not so bad.  We definitely plan on making the rounds to the parks, Busch Gardens, Sea World, Universal, and Disney World since we have passes to all of them.  We’ll be paying down some credit card debt and paying down Marzz’s car, both a great thing and will have long-term benefits.

As mentioned, friends and family will be coming to visit.  We will definitely have some trips planned, even if only an overnighter.  My hope is that by the time the fall rolls around, we’ll be well on our way with the wedding, having pinned down a location for the ceremony, reception, and any other elements.  I’m also hopeful that we’ll have stayed on track with our finances, paying down our debt.  Hopefully we’ll remain healthy, and our careers will either grow or remain constant. 

I know the world seems to be burning down these days, and I’m not ignorant to that.  But I believe on a micro-level, whatever happens in these large stories of the world, will not affect me/us very much.  The only one of the larger mainstream news stories that will, is the US Presidential election.  Regardless of where you stand on it, the presidential elections are a big deal and can and will have a direct affect on our daily lives, which is why it’s so important.  All I’ll say about it is, please educate yourself on facts, not popular opinion etc. and go out and vote!

Only two days into 2024, so far, so good.  Because of the dates on upcoming friends and family visits, I think the first 6 months of the year will fly by for us and hopefully be good.  We have a plan, if we stick to it, things are looking up. 

I wish everyone a good and safe new year.  I do hope that 2024 is good to everyone.  But don’t sit back and wait for things to happen, live life.  Go out and grab it.  From both of us to you, happy new year!