Another year is coming to an end! By our estimate, 2018 was at least 84 years long, and full of all kinds of ups and downs, highs and lows, twizzles and turns. As we enter the final year of our twenties, we’re reflecting on the lessons we learned, the songs we listened to, the road/train/plane trips we took, the ice dancers we became over-invested in, and the juleps we drank in this, our fifth year in this little corner of the internet. From  Derby adventures to trips to New Orleans to chutzpah goals, we like to think we produced some quality content. These are some of our favorite posts of the year.

Our Favorite Playlist:

Nora Ephron Goals

Our fall playlist was a love letter to our favorite rom-com maestra and the soundtracks that made us fall in love with New York, especially in that sweet school supply season. It serenaded us all through the sepia-toned fall and into this week, which marked the 20th anniversary of the sharpened pencil magnum opus itself, “You’ve Got Mail.”

Our Favorite Recipe:

All the Fixin’s: Pecan Pralines

This may have been the “All the Fixin’s” recipe we were most intimidated by: The amount of dire warnings included by our dear friend Paul Prudhomme made our feeble attempt seem doomed for disaster from the start. And yet…they were an unqualified success! Everything worked out better than expected. These guys were absurdly delicious. It was a true Mardi Gras miracle.

Zelda’s Favorites:

Around These Parts

We spend a lot of time on here (and I spend a lot of time in my life in general) singing the praises of Louisville, our beloved hometown. So why, when it was made clear to me on a Memorial Day trip home that people are in fact starting to wise up to its charms, did I suddenly feel threatened? Turns out opening up our doors, while appealing in theory, can be a little sticky in practice. (P.S. For some of my favorite Louisville things to do, stick around until the end of this post.)

You’ve Been Scammed

This was one of the hardest posts for me to write — turning an experience that I wanted to forget into an essay that will live on the internet forever. I struggled to send it to Scout for an edit; I struggled to hit publish. But once I did, an amazing thing happened: All of these other women started responding, telling me it had happened to them, too. Months later, these comments still pop up every couple weeks. And every time they do, they make me feel less alone. I will never get my $20 back, but every time someone thanks me for this post, I feel like I’ve done my part to decrease the amount of suck in the world. And that gives me my hope back.

Scout’s Favorites:

You’ve Got Mail: 20 Years Later

I love to pitch movies to you all: holiday movies, sports movies, etc. But this one was particularly fun. Zelda and I credit You’ve Got Mail (among other things) with giving us our first impressions of New York City — how rudely surprised we were to find when we finally arrived that the whole city does not in fact look like the Upper West Side. So twenty years older and 6 years in New York wiser, I wondered what those tried and true tropes might look like today. Like all good 2018 romantic comedies, it would obviously star Constance Wu as our heroine. And it would definitely be gayer; that’s a given. In every era, sometimes we need a little a little happier-ever-after in our lives — and  2018 (and Netflix) delivered.

On Mark Rothko and Kol Nidre

I don’t let myself get too introspective on here very much, but when an offhand comment at the end of a podcast captured for me what had until then been an indescribable feeling, I needed to write about it. I’ve always found it hard to put words to spiritual experiences. My Judaism  has always been much more about culture and tradition than religion, and I find spirituality in other things — art, for example. But sometimes, on a very special night, the two come together.

Our Favorite Joint Post:

Thank You, Canada

Long before we starting coparenting this blog together, we were best friends. And our brief jaunt to Canada in November was a good reminder of just how lucky we are to have the friendship we do, spanning over 17 years of braces and acne and unfortunate fashion choices and college applications and moves and navigating this whole adulting thing. It’s a gift to be able to sit in a car for hours at a time with a person and never run out of figure skating to discuss or musicals to sing along to. In the words of our favorite ice dancers, we’re very proud of our partnership.