Frankly my dear, you made 2014 the best!

Goodbye 2014, Hello 2015!

Year-end always makes me reflective, and this year was no different. After cataloguing all the highs and lows of this year in my head, I finally revealed to Dan what I thought was the best part of this year for me.

He said, “Oh was it that you went to Kenya this year?” and I said “Nope!”

He went, “Oh was it that we got engaged?” and I regrettably said “mmm I wish it was but it actually isn’t for me.”

“Oooh I know!” he said, “Is it that they opened up so many ramen shops near us?!” and I said “ooh good guess, but nope!”

“SO WHAT IS IT???” he asked.

My response… “FRANKLY!!!”

There was a moment of silence as he looked at me confused before saying… “Umm… we got Frankly in 2013 remember? December 2013? That can’t count!”

Ohhh but it can my friend, it CAN. Because she was hardly part of our lives for barely a month in 2013, she definitely DOES count as the biggest highlight of my year for 2014!

Here are the reasons why she’s made 2014 so special:

FAMILY: Having Franks in our lives seems to have heightened a sense of family that I never really paid attention to until she came into our lives. All of a sudden, I immediately get a sense of what Dan and I would be like as parents if we were to ever have a (human) baby.

Me: the neurotic, stressed, helicopter parent always fretting whether my child was cold or hungry… but obsessed with making sure she was stylish as well.

Dan: relaxed, calm as a cucumber dad who not only has to settle down a baby but also a neurotic mom as well.

ATTENTION: There was a particularly memorable day for me this past summer. It was a beautiful and gorgeously warm afternoon, and we decided to go have a bbq at a friend’s house in Liberty Village. The plan was for me to walk to another friend’s place before we all hopped on a streetcar together to go to the bbq.

On my walk to the friend’s house, I noticed there were a TON of people out and about, partly because it was gorgeous but also partly because I think there was a Jay’s game that people were heading to (or coming back from). Anyways, as I was walking down the street I noticed people were pointing and staring at us and smiling.

I would stop at a curb and wait for a light, and a street car of people would be hanging out the window staring and waving at us… Frankly. A car stopped at a red light rolled down their window to point. A group of 8 (hot) guys jumped in front of me during my walk and begged if they could pet my dog.

Even when I went to go pick up the friend and we walked to get to the street car, he noticed too the unusual amount of stares and points we were getting. He was flabbergasted, he went “What is going on? Is all this attention because of… FRANKLY?!”

“YUP, it’s been like this ALL afternoon,” I said.

And at that moment I felt I was experiencing about 1/1,000,000th of the attention that maybe a Kardashian gets (and not even a good one too, maybe one that nobody even cares about)… but still… I thought, “wow, this feels AWESOME.”

That lasted for about five seconds before I realized that I was only feeling this way because of SECONDARY ATTENTION through Frankly.

SHARED INTERESTS: As our friendship evolves, we continue to learn that we share a lot of common interests, cementing our status as BEST FRIENDS.

Napping and hand holding
Blankets
Babies
Cheeseburgers
Fashion
Hudson’s Bay
Visiting family, especially her grandparents
Hanging out with friends – furry or non-furry friends
Going to Florida

Her SMILE: I DARE you to have the worst day of your life, and then come home and see this face greet you and not have your day get even a smidge better.

This is the power of Frankly and I would say anyone who has a pet. They have the power to completely disarm your bad mood just by a goofy look. That’s why I could really relate to that movie John Wick starring Keanu Reeves. If you haven’t seen it I would highly recommend that you do. It’s essentially about a former hitman (Keanu) who was robbed by local gangsters and they killed his dog. This enrages Keanu and he seeks out to kill anyone and everyone who was involved with killing his dog!!

This is the rage I too would feel if anyone harmed Frankly. If anyone hurt a speck of fluff on her football shaped head, I can assure you I would take a butter knife and stab it through their heart. #TRUTH #NOHESITATION

In conclusion, while 2014 presented the usual series of highs and lows – I can confidently say that it was FRANKLY that made it the BEST!