I went back and re-read my 2017 recap and it was pretty cool to look at what I was thinking this time last year, so I’ve decided to make a tradition of it! Not gonna lie, 2018 had me feeling like I was running far too slowly on a hamster wheel. The year began and ended with government shutdown shenanigans – what kind of absurd and messed up system allows the the financially comfortable to destabilize public infrastructure and upend the personal finances of thousands of everyday people with little to no repercussions for doing so…I’m just over here casting every sideeye that ever sideeyed.
photo from Wellington, NZ
In between this foolishness, little Starr Andrews sprinkled #blackgirlmagic all over the U.S. Figure Skating Championships while Letitia Wright sprinkled it all over the box office, we finally got the Black superhero movie we always needed, it was an infuriating year for our justice system’s handling of sexual assault – some of ya’ll sat around and let a Kavanaugh happen – and systemic failures to hold certain folks accountable, we lost some iconic Americans, and women rocked the midterm elections while RBG continued her usual displays of badassery. No one managed to confiscate Trump’s Twitter password, but hope springs eternal.
As for me, I had a pretty jam-packed year. As in 2017, I spent a lot of time on airplanes – cumulatively I took more than a month of vacation time and boarded around 62 flights on 13 airlines in 35 airports across 11 countries, 7 states, and a U.S. territory. I already have some plans set for 2019 but I do want to take it down a notch, so we’ll see how that turns out.
loss
My paternal grandma fell ill and passed away over the summer. I don’t think you can ever adequately prepare for loss, but this happened so quickly (within about 2 months) that everyone was pretty blindsided. Pancreatic cancer is no joke and it moves fast. She was pretty mobile and loved to travel, and it was difficult to process the reality of her going from perfectly fine to not in a matter of weeks. It’s still really weird knowing I won’t see her at family events. In any case, I’m thankful I got to see so much of her the last few years.
solo travel, road tripping, and the great outdoors
Annual Sarah Celebration Day
2018’s horrible flu season lifted its grip long enough to welcome my birthday with all the celebration it deserves. I had an epic birthday month (yes, month) that began a week before with a family visit to a local winery, continued with a big birthday happy hour with friends, followed by a group expedition to see Black Panther (it came out ON my actual birthday), and then wrapped up with the perfect #bff weekend in Portland, Oregon with Rosio.
We used my Southwest companion pass for BOGO flights, and stayed at The Nines – I have to say we picked the best possible hotel. You can read more about the weekend here.
New Zealand
Towards the end of 2017 I found an incredible airfare to New Zealand over 8 days in April. It was my first truly solo international trip in a very long time. I took one large backpack and a purse, and bounced around various hostels for a week. I had a lot of time to myself to reflect and appreciate the experiences, and to really just be present in the moment. I highly recommend a visit to either island for anyone considering it. I’ve never seen that many spectacular views in one place! I covered the trip in four posts: check out parts one, two, three, and four.
Zion National Park
In August, I had a chance to visit Zion National Park. I’ve seen so many photos of of the park, and it inspired me to get a national parks pass and go experience it for myself. I’m not a hiker – at all – but we picked some of the more attainable trails and did a day trip from Las Vegas (normally I would have preferred to stay near the park and spend more time, but a comped room & food in Las Vegas made this extremely affordable as a day trip). I’ll be posting in more detail about this one later, but the scenery was incredible and 100% worth waking up at a stupid hour on a Saturday.
Northern California
In May, I went on a road trip with one of my favorite coworkers to visit one of our community partners close to the California/Oregon border. We drove up Highway 1 on the way there and took the 5 on the way back, so we got to see a LOT or northern California and it is absolutely gorgeous. I haven’t blogged about the road trip yet – and probably won’t – so here are some of the photos that didn’t make it to social media.
Miami
Several of my sorority sisters got together over Memorial Day Weekend for a mini-reunion in Miami and it was a total success. We rented a large house and spent the weekend catching up, sightseeing, eating all the food, and drinking lots of wine.
We had even scheduled a cabana rental at the St. Regis Bal Harbour, but Tropical Storm Alberto decided we were too fly for those plans. The weather was craaaaazy and the hotel closed their beach “villas,” but we showed up anyway and they let us kick it in the hot tub, swim in the empty pool, and they were also kind enough to grant us access to the spa facilities for the day.
#randsworldtour18
The world tour with Rosio was like the crown jewel of the traveling year! I’m still stoked we pulled it off and I still kind of feel like I stole something. I got a crash course in seven new cities, flew on the most luxurious flight of my entire three decades on earth, stayed in some seriously impressive lodging, ate the most amazing food, and had unforgettable experiences. I covered the trip across several posts, which covered the booking strategy, transportation, lodging, the European half of the itinerary, and the half spent in Asia, plus tons of Instagram posts. We were even featured on Instagram by Awardwallet (link is a referral), which has a convenient paid service that tracks all my loyalty programs and login information, and tells me when things are about to expire. Each member gets 10 codes for a new member to try it for free for 6 months – if you’d like to try it out, drop me a message on social media and I’ll send a code!
2019
Reading List
I spent wayyyyy more time on my phone and the internet this year and therefore completely failed at my reading list. I read 6.5 of the 33 books I had planned on, which is probably the smallest amount of books I’ve read in a year since I learned how to read – there’ve been years where I finished literally hundreds of books, and now I’m at 6?! It’s a little alarming. However, I did manage to read most of the ones that I highlighted in last year’s post – so here are the ones I’m most looking forward to reading in 2019.
- The Last Black Unicorn – Tiffany Haddish
- You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain – Phoebe Robinson
- To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care – Chris Beam
- Harbor Me – Jacqueline Woodson
Adulting
My other main goal is to save more money than I did last year – which shouldn’t be difficult given the regrettably low bar that’s been set lol. A combination of a ton of travel, some personal challenges, and continued financial fallout from my apartment burning down two years ago meant I was about 90% unprepared for the current mess that is the United States government and the resulting lack of income security as a federal employee. To those in charge of my country – this ish ain’t cute. A “strong border” is not a safety net unless it somehow pays my rent. On time. In full.
For 2019, I’ve put my whole financial life on a spreadsheet and plan to follow it, so hopefully by the end of the year I’ll be completely unfazed by the next absurdity.
Travel Plans
I started 2019 with a pretty unique flight experience coming home from Las Vegas on the first day of the year. JetSuiteX is semi-private and flies between the private jet terminals at select airports. I used Chase points to book it and it was one of the smoothest air travel experiences I’ve ever had.
Next up is a vacation in Bora Bora with my mom! I found a great airfare ($593), and after I applied travel credits and Chase Ultimate Rewards points, my out of pocket cost was only $76! The rest of the vacation was booked mostly on points (the hotel cost 240,000 Marriott points), which put it in the realm of affordability for us. I’m really looking forward to snorkeling in warm water. This Bay Area winter weather is not for me.
This summer I’m going on a group trip to Greece with several of my sorority sisters. Greece was actually my first international trip without my parents, so I’m excited to return as an adult with some world experience.
There are a few other things in the works: Aruba – mostly because I got sucked into a timeshare presentation, so I’ll enjoy a nearly free vacation while I listen to their pitch – hopefully Cabo, possibly a cruise, another national park, and this year will be the 10th anniversary of that one time Stanford University decided to grant me a degree. I checked the calendar 5 times and it still somehow says ten years have passed. 🤷 Celebrations are definitely in order!
It’s shaping up to be a memorable year already! Definitely looking forward to more sunshine and cocktails ahead. ❤️ Make sure to subscribe your email address, or follow on social media (links at the bottom) to keep up!
