Mappy December! Here are a few of my favorite things of 2024
A year-end mixtape in words and pictures
Ever tried explaining your past 12 months and realized they sound like a fever dream? That's where I'm at.
So, grab your favorite holiday beverage and let me tell you about a year that somehow involved $5 flights (not a typo), medieval Christmas treats, AI therapy sessions, and one very particular pup.
My Favorite Experiments of 2024
10k Steps
My 10k-steps-a-day experiment stuck, even though some days my inner couch potato puts up a huge fight. But it isn't just about hitting the numbers. Yesterday I came across a charming alleyway I'd never noticed before and got to warm my frozen hands on a belly of a cuddly street cat.
The year of stats tells a tale of two continents: It's easier to rack up steps when I’m in Europe, where cities are walkable, and I don't have a car to tempt me.
Sauna for Sore Back
By far the most pleasant experiment of the year was the accidental Sauna Therapy in Vienna that (almost) fixed my back.
Favorite AI Tools
2024 is the year I broke up with Google Search and instead started having voice chats with Microsoft's Copilot and Google's Gemini.
These AI apps sound like kind, brainy teachers who never get tired of your questions (or judge your 3 AM curiosity sprees) - and sometimes turn into surprisingly good therapists.
Looking ahead to 2025, I'm stoked about AI agents. You can talk about your existential crisis with today’s AI language models, but tomorrow's AI agents will be more like personal assistants.
They will roll up their sleeves and get things done for you in real life, like booking your travel, managing your calendar, or sorting your sock drawer by color, texture, and emotional significance. Ok, we might have to wait a few years for that last one.
Favorite Trips
Some people collect stamps, I collect travel memories (on a tight budget, whenever possible). Here are four of my most prized possessions of 2024:
Route 66 is the trip I was never eager to take, but the hubby's nostalgic roadtrip dream quickly turned into a fun, quirky adventure for both of us.
The trip back (Chicago to LA) was a tour of America's greatest hits: The Badlands’ alien landscape dropped into South Dakota, the tantrums of Yellowstone's geysers, the impossibly photogenic Yosemite's granite giants (here I compare the two), and Lamoille Canyon—a total surprise, an Alpine landscape hiding out in the middle of nowhere in Nevada.
The Slovak Fatra Mountains in autumn are what hiking dreams are made of. Yellow leaves everywhere, mushrooms peeking out of soft moss, and views that make you forget how much your legs hurt from the climb.
Imagine walking through an Austrian medieval town that looks like it’s been lifted from a Christmas movie, your freezing hands holding a steamy mug of mulled wine, your belly full of roasted chestnuts and fried Bauernkrapfen (I’m pawing one in the second pic from the left), the way peasants used to make them hundreds of years ago.
Europeans know how to do Christmas.
Favorite Money Moves
Citi Checking Bonus
Hubby and I made $900 in less than an hour—I wrote about it in the October Mappy Monday. We opened new Citi checking accounts, transferred money (via Zelle) into them, and a week later, we each got a $450 bonus. This deal is running until January 7th, 2025.
$5 Flights from the US to Europe
We each flew to Europe for $5.60, plus miles we'd earned from United credit card sign-up bonuses—me in the peak of summer, hubby in the fall.
Favorite Books
Kevin Kelly maps out twelve technological forces that will shape our future whether we're ready or not and shows why resistance is both futile and unnecessary.
Rupert Holmes turns murder into an academic pursuit at a secret school where students learn to eliminate bad bosses with style, wit, and zero loose ends.
Chelsea Handler serves up a collection of one-night stands and dating mishaps like appetizers at a comedy club, proving that the worst decisions make the best stories.
Favorite Films & Series
Killers of the Flower Moon is a true story of greed in 1920s Oklahoma, where oil made the Osage rich and their white "protectors" murderous.
In Poor Things, Emma Stone plays a woman with a baby's brain discovering sex, philosophy, and agency in a warped Victorian world.
I thought Ted Lasso was about soccer, so it took me ages to give in to the hype. Now I’m hooked. Charmed by Ted's infectious optimism and the life lessons woven into the hilarious storylines, I find myself asking, IRL, “What would Ted Lasso do?”
Favorite Mind Hack
The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
-Stephen Covey
Favorite Furry Friend
Meet Bublinka, my niece’s doggie who I get to spend time with while in Slovakia. For 14 years, she’s walked through life wearing her imaginary heels (Grass? Perish the thought!), her signature worried-mom expression, and white corkscrew curls.
Bublinka was not meant for the great outdoors, thank you very much, but for cozy indoor cuddles and tasty snacks. So much love in such a small package!
So, there you have it. We've covered a lot of ground this year, thank you for tagging along ❤
May your steps bring you ever closer to your goals (or at least a really good coffee shop), and may you write "2025" with no mistakes, starting January 1st.
Be Mappy,
Mags
