- Started off the year with a Notre Dame bowl win over LSU, a snow day, and…an endoscopy to diagnose gastritis. Not the most enjoyable event of the year, but at least I was able to start healing.
- Got to see Liz’s first ultrasound in January!
- Celebrated an Eagles Super Bowl win!
- Went to a family baby shower in January and welcomed my cousin’s new baby in February.
- Went on vacation to California with Liz in March and revisited the area where I used to live. It had been four years since I’d been back!
- Hosted a goodbye party for Liz & Aaron when they moved to the Midwest.
- Went to the Big East Championship at Madison Square Garden and celebrated a Villanova win.
- Celebrated Easter with family.
- Saw another Villanova NCAA championship win, as well as an incredible buzzerbeater win for the Notre Dame women’s team!
- Welcomed spring when it (finally) came after a late snowstorm in April.
- Continued babysitting for the Sisters of Life and visiting with friends I’ve made there.
- Went to two retreats at Villa Maria Guadalupe: A silent Ignatian retreat in February and the spring Frassati retreat in April.
- Dogsat a few times for Aughie, my sister’s dog.
- Went to a friend’s wedding in Buffalo and made trips to Toronto and Niagara Falls along the way.
- Saw three Broadway musicals (The Band’s Visit, Hamilton (for the second time—now a Flag Day tradition!), and Mean Girls) as well as three off-Broadway shows (Sorin, The Rainmaker, and All Is Calm) over the course of the year.
- Met Sr. Miriam James Heidlund of the Abiding Together podcast.
- Got a goose egg on my forehead after a curtain rod fell on my head.
- Celebrated my cousin’s high school graduation and met baby Hayden.
- Got a scar on my foot after an unfortunate run-in with a metal porch door.
- Celebrated the Fourth of July at a friend’s barbecue and got an excellent view of the fireworks from the bridge on the car ride home.
- Spent a weekend visiting friends in Indiana.
- Met up with cousins in the city.
- Saw Taylor Swift in concert (in the pouring rain, which I could have done without…although admittedly it does fit a lot of her lyrics).
- Went to a family birthday party for my cousin’s three-year-old (featuring Elsa!).
- Celebrated Hayden’s baptism!
- Spent some quality time with a good friend who was going through a tough time this summer and joined her on a spontaneous trip to Disney World.
- Grieved the ongoing crisis of clerical abuses within the Church and entered into a period of fasting and prayer for healing, in solidarity with many other Catholic women.
- Attended the Frassati Ministry Leaders’ retreat.
- Liz and Aaron welcomed baby Bridget in August!
- Got dinner with Michelle in September—I hadn’t seen her since she moved away last year.
- Said goodbye to my manager at work and went through a transition period on our team.
- Visited my cousin during her first semester at Penn State and went to a football game.
- Came home to find tiles falling from the bathroom ceiling in my apartment.
- Continued writing weekly Frassati reflections and launched a new reflections website.
- Celebrated my cousin’s wedding in October.
- Flew out to Indiana for Bridget’s baptism! And got to spend some quality time with the baby.
- Went out to Notre Dame for Band Alumni Weekend and got to relive the marching band experience during the Pitt game! Also got to catch up with a lot of great friends from college.
- Continued teaching the same CCD class and began their final year of Confirmation prep.
- Carved pumpkins for Halloween.
- Enjoyed the views from Top of the Rock on a beautiful Marathon Sunday in NYC.
- Notre Dame came to New York for my birthday! The Shamrock Series was in town that weekend, and I got to see the band perform right near my office. And ND had a great win against Syracuse in Yankee Stadium!
- Met up with Liz and Bridget for a day as they stopped through New York in December.
- Enjoyed December in the city (and braved the crowds of tourists in Rockefeller Center).
- Celebrated Christmas with family.
- Read 37 books over the course of the year. Also curated a collection of children’s picture books to give to Bridget, John, and all the other kids in my life.
- Watched Notre Dame finish an undefeated regular season and go to the College Football Playoff…where we had a disappointing loss to Clemson. (Still not over that one yet.) But overall, 2018 was a good year for the Irish—12-1 is not too shabby!
On to 2019!
work in progress 