Cheers to 2014!

Happy New Year!! It was would be a crime for me to not feel good about this new year after having the New Year's Eve that I did, surrounded by good friends and great music in the grand city of San Diego, as is seeming to become the tradition. It really was the perfect couple of days, I couldn't have asked for anything more.

On December 30, we went to a last dinner with Luke before he had to take off back to England. I can't believe that I had only met him two weeks prior - in the two weeks he spent here with Shannon and we would all be waking each other up, sharing the bathrooms, mirrors, computer chargers, pets, music selections, making them listen to me "play" the piano and baby talk the Khaleesi, us all making fun of each other, driving to events... I guess there was a lot of time to get to know each other.

On December 31, I packed up for the next few days and took the long way to San Diego, stopping by Alice's house in Orange County before driving the 5 down the coast. Alice, Andrei and the kids were home, and also her cousin Steve. We had strong espresso coffees and Alice brought out S'mores cupcakes and her son James kept running around telling everyone he was going to put them in jail.

I got to Rob's with Del Taco (mmmmm...) and made us drinks with the supplies that I had brought: whipped cream-flavored vodka and pomegranate-blueberry juice before heading out to meet up with others and then grab the bus downtown to the House of Blues for our Great Gatsby-themed party. LOVED IT!

Our "BEFORE" shot

Rob and I realized that it was our FRIENDVERSARY! We met for the first time on New Year's Eve last year, so we did our own special shoot

Raf Man!

Pearo, Raf, Rob and me! The 4 of us have our own special adventures

This is a picture from New Year's Eve 2011. Someone brought these up at the party, and so we decided to re-create them! We hope to make it an annual photo shoot!

New Year's Eve 2013

My only sad, blurry copy of the picture of the 3 of us from New Year's Eve 2011

New Year's Eve 2013

PHOTOBOMB

We amused ourselves while waiting for the bus

It was Rob's first time on a San Diego bus!

It's a long story...

Our whole group united at the House of Blues party once we were all in

I'm not even sure how this came about, but it became one of the favorite shots of the night

Here's what the main stage looked like and what we ventured into for the ball drop...

Aaaaand this was pretty much our view for midnight

This was midnight for us!

Friendversary!

I couldn't resist

Pearo, Pam and me

Our "AFTER" shot. Why was that feather still on my head??

I knew it was going to be a good year when I woke up to find that Rob had already went out, walked his dog Diego and brought back breakfast burritos and Mexican mochas for us! The three of us spent the morning in Rob's bed with our breakfast, watching the Rose Parade.

Me and Raf Man

Rob cuddling with Diego

Around 2ish, I had plans to go meet up with a friend of mine, my very special Becca, whom I've known since probably the first ten minutes I was moving into the San Nic dorms at UCSB and who was my senior year roommate. We met for coffee and talked and caught up for hours. If this picture looks creepy, it's because it was supposed to be. Becca changed her email and was looking to see if she still had mine. I said I could just email her from mine so she'd have it, and tried to take a picture on the sly to send as the email to freak her out. But she actually ended up finding mine anyway.

Bec Bec

After meeting with Becca, I went back to Rob's and we got dinner at El Zarape, which is just one of my favorites. We went back to watch Silver Linings Playbook, which none of us had seen, over decaf coffee and pannetone, an Italian Christmas pastry. By the time the movie was over I thought I might crash, but when the movie was switched off and the TV came on, we all immediately got hooked on this documentary special called Sellebrity, which was all about the paparazzi, the economics of gossip, photography and paparazzi culture, the legal arguments for it and the freedom of the press, and even had interviews with a lot of high-profile celebrities like Jennifer Aniston, Sarah Jessica Parker and Salma Hayek. It was fascinating!

And then this morning we had more coffee and pannetone before I made the drive back to Riverside. It was surely for the books.