Welcome 2024
Neutral is the new optimism
I am trying to be optimistic about 2024 but it is not coming as easy as usual. It might have something to do with the past year’s events. It all started when Jonathan and I traveled to the US in January to visit family. The “good” idea at the time was for us to stay in one place and have everyone come to us instead of doing the usual travel scramble to Colorado, Oregon, and California. My mom would come to Durango, then family from the North Fork, and eventually my dad would be the last to visit. Seemed like a great plan, but my mom arrived and quickly developed Covid symptoms, sharing the virus with everyone in the Friedman-List household. Now there was no way that anyone else would come. So that plan went to hell as we ended up driving to the North Fork, and California after all.
There were a couple of other plans that didn’t work out quite as planned. Iain came to visit in April but missed his outgoing flight so his Koukouleika visit was much shorter than originally planned. Steph made it too, but again we didn’t spend as much time together as we all would have liked because of a Greek holiday that we didn’t plan for. Jan came to visit us in May but unfortunately had a foot injury so we didn’t get to do as much exploring as we both would have liked. And the May weather was unseasonably chilly for Greece which dampened the usual alfresco dining and swimming.
At the end of Jan’s stay, Jonathan, Jan and I all flew to New York for Elena’s graduation which was way more hectic than I would have preferred. The last day was particularly challenging as we had agreed the month prior to transport Elena and a large suitcase to New York. It turned out that Elena’s boyfriend Hugo also needed a ride and had a few bags of his own. There was no way that the five of us would all fit into the rental car with all the luggage. A new plan had to be hatched and fast since it was already close to 11 AM and Jan’s flight left Newark at 3 PM.
We decided that Elena and Hugo would have to take the train to Manhattan, but first, we had to get them to the station 15 minutes away. We couldn’t all fit into the car so Jan had to wait behind. Since Elena was leaving for Colorado in a week, we figured it was best to send her huge suitcase home with Jan. The only issue was that it was too late to add it to Jan’s ticket online, so it was a bit of a risk. The worst-case scenario is that Jonathan and I would lug it over to Hugo’s house in Manhattan and Elena would take it with her in a week. As we drove Elena and Hugo to the station, she realized that all the train tickets were sold out, but I told them too bad, we were dropping them off anyway.
We rushed back to get Jan—time was getting short. When we Googled directions we found out that we couldn’t take the most direct highway because of a major crash. I speeded down down a two-lane windy congested highway that put us smack in the middle of Manhattan. When we finally made it to Newark airport there was major construction so we ended up in the wrong terminal parking lot and had to walk/sprint to the check-in gate which wasn’t so easy for Jan because she still had her foot injury. We made it to the gate in time, and the bag could be checked—mission accomplished.
After we returned the rental car, we had three leisurely hours before our flight left JFK bound for Athens. We decided to make a quick stop in Manhattan and grab a burger, fries, and a shake from Shake Shack. A good ol’ American meal before flying back to the land of Greek salad. Just as we started eating, finally relaxing a bit from the chaos of the day, I bit down on my burger and felt something very hard. I reached into my mouth and pulled out a tooth. A tooth in my food! I grabbed the tray with all our food on it and immediately rushed back into the restaurant demanding to speak with the manager. While I was waiting a worker asked me what the issue was and I showed him the tooth to which he replied, “That is #$% up.” Everyone in line waiting to order gasped, as my eyes smugly gazed across the crowd.
As I waited, I slowly grazed my tongue crossed my teeth, and to my horror, I felt a gaping hole. I panicked, ran outside, told Jonathan to grab his stuff, and we fled. I can only imagine what the manager was thinking when he came to see the angry customer and all that was waiting for him was a tray with two half-eaten burgers, fries, shakes, and a tooth. Actually a porcelain crown, but still. Jonathan still hasn’t forgiven me for not letting him finish his Shake Shack meal.
Finally, in June we bought the Koukouleika house and immediately started making plans for a big remodel. It would take a bit of time to get the building permit and find workers, but we were optimistic that construction would begin in the fall. We had a couple rounds of visitors which was lovely, including Lydia for the first week in September. As most of you know our lives were literally turned upside down when a massive storm hit the Pelio on September 7th. Now we are living in a rental on the edge of Argalasti. My daily routine hasn’t changed too much besides the fact that I can ride my bike to the dog shelter in five minutes. I’ve been going almost every day to visit with the 70+ dogs, bringing treats and trying to give each one a little special attention. Our Pelio community continues to grow and life feels very full.
We are back to square one with the Koukouleika house, meaning that we are in the initial phase of obtaining a building permit. We have no idea how long the permit will take, or how long it will take to repair the house, we have no idea where we’ll be living come April 30th when our rental lease ends. Does any of this worry me? Not really. In the big picture these really are small concerns, far from the real concerns I have about political instability, war in both the Middle East and Ukraine, the health of friends and family, environmental degradation, and animal neglect. As I ponder 2024, I feel neither optimistic or pessimistic—I feel neutral.