2004: Rome, Italy to Saigon, Vietnam

my old office and my new office

On my way from Rome to Saigon this past year, I left my beloved New York City and west village apartment on the best food street in Manhattan for a long journey.

Every week somebody asks me questions like where have I moved, did I move to Vietnam or have I moved to California? Move is a four-letter word. Please don't make me do it.

You could say I'm still a New York resident. Sure, I voted in Virginia, spent four months in Saigon, and sleep in California, but I carry a New York State driver's license. I haven't figured out where to pay my taxes because life without an address is a little complicated.

2004 began in Roma where Jonathan and I discovered (at Lloyd's, our gracious host) that Italians dress in bright red underwear on New Year's Eve and eat lentils, traditionally served with pig's feet. We filled up with Averna and bubbly to bring in the New Year, then traveled north to the charming Bologna with Marcella and on to spectacular Firenze.

I then cheered for Souris in The Shortest Race by Nike and directed by Honest, a 39.9-inch race. The directors thought the most interesting part of a race is the start and the finish so they took out the middle. Keeping athletics at the, uh, top of my list, the Climans enlisted me in a round of paintball, I broke in my skates, walked around the National Zoo, and helped Mike garden at Mica's school.

I left my job in April after an amusing introduction to Governor Cuomo and bowed out of New York after making a homemade dinner for seventy city friends. I flew west to Santa Monica. Then I flew east to go to Rehobeth Beach. I headed north to Boston, south to New York, out to the Eastern Shore, south to Arlington, and as if I couldn't make up my mind, I flew back out west to Santa Monica. Unable to sit still, I journeyed north to San Francisco (took a tour of Alcatraz), south again to Santa Monica and then west, west, west to Saigon where I celebrated the New Year.

Sadly, I only saw three plays this year: Stones in His Pockets, a super production I had seen in 2000 in London, Cyrano de Bergerac in D.C. with Kiki, and The Comedy of Errors, in which our talented friend Marni performed. Thomas Quasthoff's performance with the Philharmonic, Chuck Close's excellent exhibit at the Met, Beethoven's Mass in D Major (with period instruments and preceded by a wonderful lunch at Cafe des Artistes with Marianne), Zero 7 and Michelle Shocked concerts, an Improv comedy show, Mike D.'s tour of the Kennedy Center, the Turnaround Quartet's live jazz, and a RES screening pretty much rounded out a year of withdrawal from the arts. I wish I'd done more.

So I can keep this up, I started my own boutique operation to take intrepid travelers on custom luxury tours to Vietnam. Lannam will launch soon. Special thanks to Nick!

Second to asking me about the four-letter-word, some wonder how I manage to do all that I do. Family. Mom and dad gave my siblings and me the platform to live daringly. Family like Lori and Mike, Eileen and Mike, Sharon and Edward, Heather and Hung, Aunt 9 and 10, Linh and countless friends who have opened their lives and their homes to me support that platform. To add to my enormous pot of luck, a tremendous array of dynamic, spirited, interesting people walked into my life in 2004. So, big cheers to you and to a new, rich, and daring year. Thanks for walking into my life.

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, 1749