2022 was a year full of changes and milestones, so Matt and I figured we'd keep that ball rolling in 2023. New jobs for the both of us, (another, for me) apartment move, writing and recording an album 15 years in the making, and a belated honeymoon trip to Italy. And, oh yeah, the impending arrival of our first child.
Before I get into all of that, an enormous thank you to Harriet Roberts for capturing photos of Matt, Sally, and me that actually make us look photogenic! Outside of our wedding pictures, that is a rarity for us.
Well, except for Sally, who is always photogenic.
Thanks to an intro from a great friend of mine, I started working with a company back in November 2022 as a contractor and was initially planning on working with them for a couple of months; however, within the first few weeks I could tell that this was something bigger for me. I really liked the team and the founder, for one. For two, the problems being worked on were complex and interesting, requiring the ability to think about how to solve a problem in the short-term but also how to solve it in a way that scales with the business. It reminded me a lot of how I felt when I first started at Gilt, and for me that was a good sign. So, in February of this year I managed to strong arm the founder into giving me a job; I don't think he has any regrets about that decision thus far. The job has been hard -- lots of hours put in, lots of fires put out, and a lot of clients that are, shall we say, particular -- but the team has been great to work with and it feels great to be building an organization, operation, and team culture again.
At the end of last year, Matt and his business partner made the difficult decision to close the bar they'd spent a year-and-a-half building and running, and even more time conceptualizing. Matt immediately set out to look for work, but when he wasn't interviewing he spent a lot of time writing and composing music, time he really hadn't been able to dedicate to music in a long while. It provided him with the kind of catharsis he needed after a trying year and renewed his spirit; the best kind of therapy one could ask for, to be honest. Meanwhile in mid-February, Matt joined the team at Il Buco Alimentari and Vineria as their general manager, then later began contracting for the team at The Wooly to help with getting their operation up and opened for business. Over the summer, the folks at Il Buco asked for Matt to spend time out at their Hamptons location to help them get through the rest of the season before settling back in at Alimentari for the holiday season. Needless to say, it's been a whirlwind of contract work over the last 10 months.
In the Spring, knowing that we were going to have kids at some point, we traded the one (ish?) bedroom 5-floor walk-up in the East Village for a two-bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side. We were initially slated to move into an apartment on the 6th floor, but 5 days before we were set to move we got a call that we couldn't move in that coming Wednesday. "That's... not an option for us. Try again." They then offered for us to move into another apartment temporarily until our apartment was ready, and then after some cajoling they sheepishly offered for us to move into the other apartment through the entirety of our lease. As it happens, the other apartment was on the 22nd floor and the exact same layout, but a much better view. Given that our lucky number as a couple is 22, we felt that this was a good omen.
That proved to be true: a few days later, we found out I was pregnant, due early January 2024. This admittedly happened sooner than we'd expected but it was all the more exciting and welcome. We'd talked about becoming parents since early on in our relationship (even had names picked out -- yeah, we're that couple), and it felt surreal that it was actually coming to fruition. I can sum up our respective pregnancy experiences as such:
First trimester
Matt:
Katie:
Second trimester
Matt:
Katie:
Third trimester
Matt:
Katie:
Getting pregnant and successfully making it to the second trimester created a forcing function for two things: 1) actually going on our honeymoon -- Matt had to go back to work the day after our wedding -- and 2) writing and recording an album that had been brewing in Matt's head for the last 15 years. We managed to tick both boxes off the pre-baby bucket list, starting first with our Italian honeymoon.
Matt had never been to Italy, and I hadn't been to the Amalfi Coast as an adult (I'd taken a day excursion to Capri when I was on a school trip at the age of 13, but I remember very little from that experience), so we decided to make a bit of a Rome / Amalfi Coast sandwich: a few days in Rome, 4-5 days in Minori/Maori, and another day or two in Rome before heading back. While Matt and I have different, shall we say, attitudes toward getting to and being at the airport, by and large we have similar approaches to visiting a new place: put together a general outline for the trip (where you'll be staying on which days, what transportation you'll need to get there, and what are the restaurants / foods you absolutely need to partake in), otherwise play the rest by ear. It doesn't work for everyone, but it works for us. And we managed to eat and drink our way rather successfully over the course of our 10-day trip -- one of our favorite meals was at a family owned place that we stumbled upon when we weren't able to get into another place on our list. Son ran the front of house, and Mamma cooked everything.
Sally joined us on our trip, too; a plan I was initially skeptical of but it ended up being wonderful having her with us. And my god, did the Italians love her. She was welcome everywhere with no questions asked, and doted on by everyone. It was a fantastic trip, and gave us the opportunity to spend dedicated time together as a twosome and check in with each other before embarking on this new step together.
Once we returned, Matt focused all of his spare time and attention on writing and recording his album, which we hope will be finished and ready for release early next year. It's been a labor of love and the hope is that it helps Matt pivot into music more full-time, which is ultimately what we both want.
I managed to take a few trips here and there: a trip to hang with my dad and brother when Dad got his hip replaced, a college tour in Boston with Tyler, a visit to Houston for a fun and fabulous Indian wedding, then out to California for Meg's college graduation (and an opportunity tell dad and brother in person that another grandchild / nibling was on the way), a couple of work trips to Iowa and West Virginia which were... interesting, a visit with my brother in Hawaii to check out his new house, and a quick trip up to Alaska. Matt and I also made it down to Miami to see his parents for a few days. Hopefully all that travel while pregnant will give my kid the same travel bug that I have. I'm pretty sure that's how that works.
Otherwise, we're just living our lives one day at a time, getting ready for this kid to roll on through. I maintained an herb garden on our apartment balcony over the spring, summer, and fall. We take walks in Central Park whenever we can; you truly do not know what happiness looks like until you've seen Sally bounding and leaping through the grass in Central Park looking for squirrels. Matt and I had our respective baby showers (Matt's Dadchelor party included fried chicken with caviar, Nintendo64, and bourbon because of course it did), we've read baby books and taken newborn and childbirthing classes, the crib and changing table are set up. Everything else... we'll just have to wait and see when the kid arrives. And we really can't wait to meet him.
Thank you to everyone who supported us during a year of big change, and for all the love and encouragement we've gotten as we get ready to become parents. We couldn't do any of it without our friends, family and community and we're grateful to you all.
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