50 Ways to Say... (Goodbye, 2013)

She went down in an airplane

Fried getting suntanned
Fell in a cement mixer full of quicksand
She met a shark under water
Fell and no one caught her
I returned everything I ever bought her
Help me, help me, I'm no good at goodbyes!

Furthermore...

She was caught in a mudslide
Eaten by a lion
Got run over by a crappy purple Scion
She dried up in the desert
Drowned in a hot tub
Danced to death at an east side night club
Help me, help me, I'm all out of lies
And ways to say you died!

These are words to the hit mariachi-sounding Train song that was really big last year, kind of big this year, and took me quite some time to warm up to, but fortunately I finally did: "50 Ways to Say Goodbye."

Today, whilst I was reflecting upon the fantastic year that 2013 was for me, for some funny reason I was inspired by this song, to compile a list "50 Ways to Say 2013 Rocked My Socks." Here comes the 50:

1) Made it through yet another Christmastime without witnessing or experiencing a kiss under the mistletoe. What the @%#^$*&!? (OK, that's not an awesome quality that 2013 possessed)

2) Became a full-fledged member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and have had innumerable touching and life-changing experiences in just one MoTab year alone

3) Dressed up like Bellatrix Lestrange (the baaaad Harry Potter lady). Little did I know that I have ancient Lestrange blood in me (thank you FamilySearch!)

4) Welcomed beautiful baby niece into my family

5) Was introduced to the movie Austenland and my life since then has never been the same

6) Ate my birthday lunch at the Little America with my mom

7) Played in the Bryce Canyon hoodoos with my friends, and scared the bejeebers out of some random girl who was a stranger, but she was wearing a Basic High School T-shirt, so what could I do!?

8) Met Bronco Mendenhall, BYU head football coach. Say whaaaaat!?

9) Gained a few new favorite scriptures, including all of Mormon chapter 6 and 1 Chronicles 19:13 (behave!)

10) Held my brand new baby cousin Sam when he was only three hours old

11) Made literally hundreds of new friends, with some of my favorite ones being ones I explored Alaska with

12) Flew a flippin' airplane in Alaska! Over glaciers!?

13) Saw my first wild black bear (and puffins!) in the wild! It was wild!

14) Saw a real red fox --- he was gorgeous! I still don't know what he says!

14) Completed my fifth consecutive year with the Jenny Phillips Fireside Choir

15) Ran a marathon! (OK, fine, it was two half marathons separated by three months)

16) Rode public transportation in this state for the first time, and became pro at it

17) Discovered that Michael Bolton is indeed Caucasian and not the ethnicity that I originally thought he was

18) Continued to learn more about myself and about life through the positively interesting dating experiences I underwent

19) Got a new job, and it is my favorite job I've ever had

20) Welcomed my youngest brother home from his Salta Argentina mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

21) Continued my life-long streak of never breaking a bone, never getting stung by a bee, and never suffering from a bloody nose

22) Got a flu shot on my half birthday, woot!

23) Crashed a wedding reception of someone I didn't know (and still don't know). Um... But the people I went with knew who it was, so I didn't feel very bad

24) Moved to a new city, and it was a righteous move!

25) Made friends with very cool Australian people

26) Tried Emergen-C for the first time in my life, to see if it would aid me whilst I was dealing with my colds and such, but it didn't do squat

27) Began getting gladly antsy for my upcoming high school reunion --- I'd like to attend it!

28) Attended a surprise birthday party for my former seminary teacher of two years

29) Discovered that I make the best salmon dish in the universe

30) Discovered that roller-curlers-to-sleep-in is a fabulous idea for my hair

31) Fell asleep in church for the first time ever

32) Went to a relative's wedding reception, and after the bride tossed the bouquet and I did not catch it, my little cousin Cam came up to me as I was sitting on a garden bench, patted me on the shoulder and said "there's always next year, Alison"

33) Participated in my first ever MoTab recording session (made a CD with Bryn Terfel!)

34) Met and actually exchanged sentences with John Rhys-Davies. He is a true and genuine sweetheart! (Gimli!)

35) Spent lots of quality time with my family

36) Played on an inner tube water polo team and made a few really sweet blocks with the monstrosities that are my arms (and by monstrosities, I mean they are monstrously long and gangly and fairly agile)

37) Made a "You Might Be a Redneck" film with my Family Home Evening group (don't worry, it's better than it sounds!)

38) I got a boy to watch the long Pride and Prejudice with me --- triumph!

39) Uncertifiedly (but not illegally) started teaching a Zumba class with my friend Cynthia!

40) My toddler nephew finally arrived at the stage where he loves to snuggle me

41) My friend's first novel came out and I read it and he did a really good job (#ecksdot)

42) Went to Big O Tires for some tire/rock chip fixing and happenstancely met a guy whose dad went to university with my dad... a guy who was my exact age, born in the same town, in the same hospital!

43) On the same evening I went to Big O Tires, I took a pic of this sunset (ermahgersh ert's sehr berterferl!!!):

44) Grandmother sent me a harmonica for Christmas (it was my grandfather's), and I called her up on Christmas Day and played her songs over the phone (best moment ever!)

45) Received a tennis court for a front yard, and played tennis on it

46) Watched my little niece play tennis. She is great. She could probably beat me

47) Leg wrestled said niece ... and her 3-year-old brother. Pure hilarity!

48) Penned a poem about flossing

49) Kayaked through icebergs for an entire day (AMAZING!), held an iceberg in my hands and actually licked it, "used the facilities" in the foliage of the fjords, and flirted with the handsome kayak tour guide (don't judge me; you'd flirt with him too if you were me! ehh but it's over now; I left him in Whittier ;)

50) Accomplished the magical feat of trilling my tongue/rolling my R's for more than 1 second! I did 1.5!

Many, many, many more wonderful things happened during this past year, but for the sake of relating to the Train song, I'm keeping the list down to 50 :)

Here's to a just-as-wonderful (and even wonderfuller) 2014! It is my sincere hope and wish that your 2014 is a glorious one! May the good Lord continue to bless you!