2019 A Year in Review - Welcome Frasier

Year in Review
Written By Joel

It’s really hard to imagine that as I’m writing this post we’ve now lived in New York City for 18-months. On one hand, it feels like we’ve lived here for years, on the other I can still feel getting off the plane and walking to my first day of work at Citi. If 2018 was the year of the move, this has been the year of settling in. We’ve both had great years in our careers, we’ve laid a foundation here in New York, and we now have a companion to experience it all with, Frasier our 10-month old Labradoodle.

But before we get to all of that let’s start at the beginning of the year. Most of my year-in-reviews tend to skip over the early months. We tend not to travel much and those months tend to be us getting back into a rhythm. That was vastly different in 2019. We started off the year with a surprise trip to Amsterdam. Jenn had to go on short notice to a work event there so we planned to get there a couple of days early. We ended up taking different flights to Amsterdam which landed an hour apart from each other. By the time Jenn’s plane landed I had just disembarked my flight and made it to her terminal. We spent the next three days enjoying the beautiful city, walking the canals, and eating a ton of great food. There’s something truly spectacular about an unexpected trip with little to no expectations. Every second of our time together in Amsterdam was pure bliss. I left Jenn at the start of her jam-packed work week and met at home in New York a couple of days later.

The irony of the unexpected trip was that only two days after Jenn returned Jake, Amy and Ryan arrived in New York to spend the MLK weekend with us. It was long-planned and we made sure we were back from Amsterdam in time. We had such an unbelievable weekend and are so grateful that they all came out. One of the hardest parts about not living in California is not being near our families. We used to spend so much time with them that now being 3,000 miles away has been really difficult. We spent much of the four day weekend exploring New York and Brooklyn, eating at a bunch of great restaurants, and spending time together. I’ll never forget one of the best evenings of their visit was a rainy day when we watched the NFC Championship game, and Ryan is a big Rams fan was glued to the TV. Luckily the Rams won and the jubilation from the apartment could be heard all the way back in LA. The weekend went far too fast but the memories will last a lifetime.

What began 2019 as a whirlwind, slowly started to settle back down to a more normal and familiar pace. We were kept waiting though for our first (and only) true snowstorm of the winter. When we moved to New York one of our biggest trepidations was the winter. But the winter of 2018-2019 was actually incredibly mild. It wasn’t until the first weekend in March that we actually had a substantial snow accumulation. I’ll never forget that Saturday morning Jenn almost running up 60th street to get to Central Park where we spent a couple of hours playing in the snow, throwing snowballs, and even failing horribly at creating a snowman.

One of the ironies of living in New York is that we get more visitors here then we did in Newport Beach. At the end of March Jenn’s cousin, Holly, and her boyfriend Max came and stayed with us for a week. Although they spent the majority of their trip together exploring the city, we got to spend some time with them and had a great time.

It was only a few weeks later that we followed them back to California for our first out of town Passover cedar. We arrived a few days before, saw friends and family and enjoyed the annual cedar, something that has become one of the highlights of my entire family’s year. The trips to California are never long enough but we do our best to cram as much in them as we can.

It was only a couple of weeks after we arrived home from Passover that my parents flew out to New York and we spent the weekend showing them around town, taking them to a Jewish deli, a synagogue my great-grandpa was the President of in Brooklyn, and showing them around where we live and work. It was surreal having them out here before they rented a car and explored the northeastern part of our country. A week or two later it was Mother’s Day. We Facetime’d in for the gift-giving ceremony which ended with one of the biggest Szerlip announcements ever. Amy and Ryan announced that they were expecting their first child. As of this writing, Gracelyn hasn’t been born yet (she’s due on January 10th) and the entire family is so excited to meet her. Jenn and I are about the become Uncle Joel and Aunt Jenn and even writing that is blowing my mind.

For much of the first half of the year, we spent a little bit of every weekend on a FaceTime call with Jake to plan a three-week journey that started in Egypt and ended in Singapore. The trip planning was intense but the day finally arrived and we were off for three weeks in Egypt, UAE, India, and Singapore. Without rehashing the entire trip (which I have done in daily posts) I’ll just mention a couple of highlights. It’s difficult not to start with the pyramids which were just as spectacular as on our first visit. Our private tour allowed us to explore more of the pyramids including walking inside of them as well as a camel ride around them. Our trip to Luxor from Cairo although incredibly hot was also a highlight of the trip. It felt like a place that wasn’t as well visited as the Pyramids but still wrought with history and beautiful places to take in.

The trip continued in the UAE where we got to take in Abu Dhabi a place that I much prefer over Dubai. Our stay at the St. Regis there was perfect, and the visit to the Qasr Al Watan Palace might be the most beautiful building I’ve ever seen. After a couple of days there we drove to Dubai for two days and then we were off to Mumbai. This is now our second time in India and we continue to love the country and enjoyed taking in the beautiful sights and of course incredible cuisine.

The trip wrapped up in Singapore a city that both Jenn and I have been trying to get to for a long, long time. It lived up to all the hype and anticipation. It was absolutely stunning. We had two unbelievable meals (Odette & Burnt Ends) and enjoyed walking around the city and taking in its immense beauty. This was our first big trip just with Jake and the three of us looked like we traveled together for years. The trip was incredibly smooth, a lot of amazing memories, and one that has inspired both Jenn and me to travel even more in 2020.

When we left Singapore and boarded not one but two twelve-hour business class flights home to JFK we switched immediately from travel mode to Frasier mode. Earlier in 2018, we had put a deposit down for a puppy at Lewis Manor for a Labradoodle. Sadly our first litter which would have been due in early 2019 didn’t come to fruition, the Mom didn’t have any puppies. We moved our deposit to another littler and on February 22 of this year, Frasier and six of his siblings (5 males, 2 females in total) were born to this world. We didn’t find out until 7 weeks later that Blue Boy (as he was known on their website) was going to be our little guy. That was decided by the breeders after an extensive conversation with Jenn on what we were looking for in a puppy. When Frasier turned 8-weeks he spent the next three months being trained by the breeder’s basic obedience and house training. Over the three months every Friday we would receive an update on how he was progressing, a day we soon deemed Frasier Friday.

We arrived back from Singapore on July 15th and on July 19th we rented a car and drove 4+ hours north to Williamstown, New York to pick up Frasier. We rented a Prius and when we got there a little after 11 AM we got to meet our new puppy, Frasier. He ran straight to Jenn who hugged and kissed him to death and we then practiced all of the tricks he had learned. The entire outing took only 30-45 minutes and we were back in the car and off for Manhattan. We arrived back home following a rather tumultuous drive with the undercarriage of the Prius coming loose and the plastic dragging on the highway. But once we were home things got so much better. Frasier quickly adjusted to life in the big city. Now six months later I can say that he loves his walks, loves laying on the bed at night while we watch TV, and loves nothing more than to play and train with Jenn and I and be around us. It took me some time to get used to having Frasier with us but for Jenn it was instantaneous. She embraced the role of Frasier’s mom and has thrived in it ever since. It’s funny I remember before we got Frasier I never thought I’d really “attach” to him but now six months later I can’t imagine him not being around.

Life sort of just settled in from there. It took us a couple of weeks but by the time our birthdays rolled around at the start of August, Frasier had fully integrated himself into our lives. Jenn did an amazing job surprising me with a fully decorated apartment for my birthday and we had an incredible dinner at The Musket Room, one of our favorite places in the city. The next day was Jenn’s birthday and we took Frasier for some long walks and had a great brunch at another one of our staples, Maison Pickle. One of my other favorite memories of August came when Jenn took Frasier to the Brooklyn Bridge, walked across it and through Dumbo and then back through Manhattan to Tribeca. I know Frasier slept the rest of the day but for the few hours we were walking it was like he was in paradise.

September rolled around and that meant I was flying to California for Labor Day while Jenn’s Dad came to visit her here in New York. They had a great time at the US Open and going about town. I spent time with Jake, Ryan and the few months pregnant Amy. I’ll never forget dragging Jake and Amy to Crystal Cove to go for one of my favorite hikes in the world. Amy a few months pregnant swelled up like a balloon so on our way back to the car she had her arms raised like she was ready to surrender.

Within days of returning from California Jenn boarded a plane back to Long Beach to go to a conference while I had the honor and privilege of taking Frasier to get neutered. He handled the neutering like a champ but unfortunately as Jenn returned he caught some sort of stomach virus and had trouble eating and keeping food down. We took him to the emergency room and after some medication, fluids, and a short-term change in diet he was good as new. It was a scary day or two.

Frasier’s illness actually backed into a huge milestone for Jenn and I, our ten year wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, our actual anniversary landed smack dab in the middle of a week so we ended up celebrating the occasion on the 21st. That morning we went to see Downton Abbey across the street at the Landmarc on 57th street and that evening we went for a once in a lifetime (hopefully more than once) dinner at the three-Michelin star restaurant, Eleven Madison Park, a New York staple. I did some pre-work before we got there and got us one of the best tables in the house, with a handwritten note awaiting us at our table and a kitchen tour following our meal. It’s been such an incredible ride, but I know the best is yet to come.

The rest of September and the beginning of October flew by. We had plays, shows, and dinners galore. We kept ourselves busy and made sure we enjoyed the beautiful weather that is fall in New York City. When mid-October came around we were back on a plane and this time off to Tucson to celebrate my Grandma’s 80th birthday. It had been long-planned for and was a beautiful weekend. With us living on the other side of the country any excuse to get out and see everyone works for us. It was a perfect weekend there. I’ll never forget going on the hike or playing Top Golf with all of my siblings and significant others.

When we arrived back from Tucson it was back by far the busiest time of year for both Jenn and I. Work ramped up, and our schedules outside of work seemed to fill up as well. We had some incredible meals, decorated pumpkins, did multiple photoshoots in Central Park (one on our own and another with a hired professional), and even went out of the city to go on a hike at Bear Mountain. We kept ourselves incredibly busy until the week of Thanksgiving.

Originally we had planned to go out and visit nearby cities like Boston or Philadelphia but by the time it had all rolled in we were exhausted. I’ll never forget walking to get a second cup of coffee on a particularly long day of work the week before we were supposed to go on this road trip and deciding that there was just no way it was going to happen. So we canceled our plans and decided to do our first ever “staycation.” It was better then I could have ever imagined. After getting over feeling guilty for not traveling (something that still lingers with me a bit today) we got to eat great food, take in a matinee play, go to museums, take Frasier on long walks, and even do some of the touristy stuff we still haven’t done like eating at Katz.

Once Thanksgiving came and went it was time to do our annual Christmas decorations. Although we went lighter than in years past, Jenn still made all 700 sq ft of our apartment shine in Christmas joy. I don’t know if anyone in the world could enter our house and not feel just a little bit happier by all the love Jenn puts into her decorating. I know every year I feel Jenn’s mom with us when we decorate the tree and telling me not to break something (which I often do).

December rolled in and we got to go to an opening of an exhibit at The Met. It may not seem like much but there was something about this evening that really sunk in that we live in New York, that we have great jobs, and are able to have experiences that neither of us ever dreamed of. It was a beautiful exhibit and the food and drinks were incredible. It’s a night in 2019 that I’ll never forget.

As December kept moving it was time to go to California for the holidays. After dropping Frasier off at a kennel outside of the city we boarded an Alaskan Airlines flight from JFK to LAX and had a week ahead of us with family. Unlike last year where we had massive delays this year, we made it LAX without a hitch and were in Riverside at the annual Christmas party like we had never left. The rest of the week from there was a blur. We checked into the Renaissance Newport Beach our new home away from home and spent the majority of the week driving between Riverside and Oceanside and spending as much time as we could in each. It’s hard. There are no two ways about it. We miss everyone. We want to spend as much time as we can with everyone, but there isn’t enough time. It’s far and away the most difficult part of living in NYC.

Luckily our time in California was beautiful. We had an incredible time, and that made coming home more difficult. We arrived back in New York, picked up Frasier, and had the rest of the year to relax and re-energize for 2020. Jake won an incentive at work to come to celebrate NYE in NYC and so a few days after we left him in California he was back at our apartment to bring in the New Year. We felt fortunate to be able to spend some extra time with him that we weren’t expecting to have. As the year came to a close Jenn and I spent at least half of New Year’s Eve walking Frasier through Central and Riverside Park. We capped off the night with a six-course meal at one of our favorite restaurants in the city, The Musket Room and watched the fireworks from our bedroom window fly over Central Park. I can’t think of a better way to take in the end of a decade and the end of a phenomenal year.

I loved 2019. I get emotional thinking about how far Jenn and I have come over the last decade and how much further we still have to go. Some of my favorite moments of this year weren’t going to Michelin meals, traveling the world, or seeing a Broadway production. Those were all amazing and things I will always remember and be grateful for. But when I actually sit back and think back on 2019 I think back on Tuesday night walks with Frasier, or popping open a new bottle of wine on a Sunday night and cooking a meal for our family. I’m the luckiest man in the world. I know I am. I couldn’t ask for anything else. I really don’t want anything else. If someone told me today that I could have 10, 20, 50 more years like 2019 I’d be one lucky man.

Joel

https://www.worldofjoel.com
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Jenn's “Not So” Quick Year-in-Review 2019