highlights (aka huge photo dump).

My mom sent out her 2015 holiday card this week, and even though I knew what was going to be on it before I received mine, I had to chuckle when I saw the picture.

My niece Gray has completely stolen our hearts, which I guess warrants Jeff and Katie's and my complete elimination from the family card.  In my mom's defense, the Gallmans didn't exactly "nail it" at our family photo shoot, so she was left with no choice but to go with a winner. 

Gray's position in the card merely serves as a metaphor for how much she was the highlight of our year. 

I mean look at this face. 

There were plenty of other highlights for me - both personal and professional - including, but not limited to:

Lots of music - Lionel Richie, George Strait, Garth Brooks, Phish - just to name a few.

Beach vacations in South Carolina, North Carolina, Gulf Shores, Alabama and Mexico. 

Plenty of weddings and babies. 

2015 is shaping up to be another year full of adventures and more travel - some already planned for the first three months of the year.  I make no promises, and I have made no resolutions to write about these adventures.  All I can say is that I will try.  I always begin the year recommitting to my writing life, as it is such an exercise that makes me happy and peaceful. 

I'm treating this conversation like I would with an old friend you just pick back up with regardless of how much time has passed.  There aren't any excuses for why I haven't written - no good ones anyway - so I'm just gonna omit that.

What was the highlight of your last year?  What are you most looking forward to in 2015?

Let's make it a good one! 

goodbyes suck.

Forgive me today, everyone, for I have broken the cardinal sin in the workplace by ugly/swollen/red face crying all day.   

After rounds of emotional buyouts and difficult layoffs at Turner Broadcasting and CNN, today is the day that I say goodbye to my mentor and friend, Paul Caron.

Paul has worked for CNN for 28.5 years - in two countries, four bureaus (Detroit, Miami, London and Atlanta) and he's done more or less every job television has to offer - from an On-air Correspondent to Assignment Manager to Unofficial Expert on Detroit.

His unparalleled experience, sound news judgement, and managerial style is something of legend around here.  His quick wit, lead by example attitude and unceasing loyalty made him adored my many - as both a colleague and friend.  Without a doubt, he is one of the best bosses that I've ever had. 

When I told him I was dealing with depression, he told me if I needed anything, he would be there and then he said, "This doesn't mean I can't still make fun of you, right?"

I burst out laughing - it was exactly what I needed to hear. I have a book full of "Paul Caron-isms" just like that - I will cherish it always.

When he celebrated 25 years with the company, my friend Jackie and I made a video tribute with words of praise and roasts from our colleagues.   There is no way we could ever top that video, but all of the sentiments and tributes still stand.

Paul, we love you.  We will all miss you.  CNN wouldn't be what it is without you and it won't ever be the same when you're gone. 

In the words of the man himself, "A tip of the Old English D," to you, Paul!  Best of luck!

And seriously, I know it's a long shot - but if my dad, brother and all male family members pass away AND I ever get married (BIG if, I know), I really hope you'll walk me down the aisle.

funny girl.

This picture was taken in 2011, a few weeks before my 31st birthday and two weeks after I was diagnosed with depression.  That's a shower cap on my head and I was surrounded by my friends and colleagues while out for a drink after work.

"Look at me," it screams, "I'm the funny girl!" 

I often was the funny girl.

I was also severely depressed. 

I wrote about my diagnosis for CNN.com - about being the life of the party, the girl who tries new things, a Wal-Mart hula-hooper.  I denied that I could be a depressed person - because I didn't identify with what I thought a depressed person looks like.  In light of Robin Williams' death, the article was resurrected last night.  While I'm a little embarrassed at the attention the old article is getting, so many of the points I made back then still apply now.   

The irony (that's irony, right?)  that someone who brought us so many laughs was himself so depressed is a concept with which I am all too familiar.  

Like so many other diseases, mental illness does not discriminate - it affects people young and old, black and white, rich and poor - even the people who make us laugh the hardest and most often.  Sometimes, it's the funniest people who are in fact the saddest, as Jim Norton points out in this poignant Time article.

"The funniest people I know always seem to be the ones surrounded by darkness. And that’s probably why they’re the funniest. The deeper the pit, the more humor you need to dig yourself out of it."

I'll reserve words like "devastated" and "heartbroken" for my family and friends - people I actually know and love and don't just watch in movies, but I feel so profoundly sad that mental illness has claimed another - and this time someone as spectacular as Robin Williams.

He will live forever through the iconic roles that he played - as the genie in Aladdin, as Mrs. Doubtfire and Peter Pan, as Doctor Sayer in Awakenings and Professor Sean McGuire in Good Will Hunting.

May he finally rest in peace.

If you are depressed or have had thoughts of suicide, please seek help. Here are a few resources: 

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
National Alliance on Mental Illness
Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance
American Psychiatric Association

You are not alone.  It does get better.    

And like Professor Sayer said, "You'll have bad times, but they'll always wake you up to the good stuff you weren't paying attention to."