Almost everyone I know has been complaining about the year 2016. Its been a crazy year all around.  Who saw Brexit coming? Not many, I tell ya. After that we all should have acted forewarned.  But, as a collective, we didn’t.  Bowie died. I was stunned. His career started before I was born but his music was a part of every decade. Then Prince died. I was beyond stunned. I got the breaking news on my phone and dropped everything to tell my colleagues. The young 20 year olds barely had a response. I was brokenhearted. Prince was definitely part of my growing up experience. Him and Madonna were forever linked musically to me. He was such a cool guy and yet he was in immense pain. He didn’t want many to know that side of him.  I wish more had known of his pain. Maybe he could have been saved.  His death, along with other craziness from this past year, has led me to think about where I have been this past decade.  
Ten years ago, in 2006, Justin Timberlake was bringing sexy back and Gnarks Barkley was exclaiming that you thought he was crazy. CSI was still on, as was House and Desperate Housewives.  Pirates of the Caribbean was top box office movie and one on of the Superman reboots was in the top ten movies. Can you even name that superman reboot?  I will tell you what movie did stick with me and that was Casino Royale. Talk about a glorious reboot! I had been skeptical when Daniel Craig was announced as the new Bond. But when I watched Casino Royale I was mesmerized.  Some reboots work, others (many others) don’t.  This year we saw the reboot (or contouring storyline) of Gilmore Girls and I am still processing how I feel about it. Give me another ten years. 
Back in 2006, I didn’t have a baby. I was living in New York City proper right near Ground Zero. I would walk 40 minutes to and another 40 minutes back from work. I didn’t have to walk. The train would get me to work in 10 minutes or so.  But I loved walking in my beloved city. I had a most fantastic dog and I had a new job that sent me traveling all over the country. My love of travel came into full bloom in that decade since 2006.  I don’t remember where I went to christmas that year. I believe family came to visit in New York, as tends to happen to every New Yorker.  The next year I went to the Dominican Republic near thanksgiving time with my sister.  Then I went to Greece a few weeks later and then I was pregnant. Everything changed, once again. 
I then moved to the suburbs and gave birth to a delightful boy who has ruled my life this past decade. I learned what it was like to be a working mother. I learned to pump in closets and save the milk for my boy as I continued to travel on business trips. I learned to travel with a baby. Which by the way is much easier than traveling with a kid. At least when he was a baby, I always had milk on me. Sort of speak. He then started growing up. Too fast. Everything started go by too quickly. Everything. 
I went from Treo to Evo to Galaxy. If you understand that sentence then you are like me and are not an iphone person. I will say this. I still have my iPod. I even has a Mac.  But I refuse, still, to get an iPhone. At this point it is a matter of principle to me. I am not too sure what it is I am standing up for. But I am. And at least I am honest about it. 
Then I moved from New York suburbs, to San Francisco and onto Los Angeles.  I lived in four different cities in this decade. I have traveled to Cuba, which is about to change with Castro’s death this year. I traveled this past decade to Austria, Australia and South Africa to just name a few countries.  So many diverse experiences. So many moments where I questioned both literally and figuratively if I was lost.  There were so many moments of pain but an extraordinary number of joyous moments. I am going to admit that I do not know where I will be next year nor the year after.