I think 2017 was the fastest year of my life. I still remember ringing it in, in Alaska, like it was yesterday. Most of the recaps of 2017 are pretty grim, and I suppose overall in the world it wasn't very kind with all of the politics and disasters. But, I personally will remember 2017 as quite a wonderful year. Here some highlights from each month...
January: Welcomed the new year in Alaska with friends. Visited Sedona, Arizona for the first time, celebrating 2 years with AJ
February: I went to support AJ's sister at an event in LA that led to me pledging to "Commit to Something" that later became my website!
March: I celebrated 31 years at a party hosted by my friends, and then a weekend down in San Diego with other friends, we went to Phoenix to buy AJ's new car and check out some spring training games.
April: I welcomed my very first nephew into the world!
May: We celebrated Anana's 10th birthday.
June: I traveled to Portland, Oregon, to meet my biological paternal grandmother (and aunts and cousins) for the first time in my life.
July: We celebrated the 4th with backyard BBQs, poolside fun and explored LA together to hit some of my bucket-list locations.
August: A Vegas girls trip, a 2-week vacation to Belize, and an accepted marriage proposal!
September: Engagement celebration with our families, beginning tap classes for the first time in my life, and wedding planning commences!
October: Floor tickets to an Arcade Fire concert in Los Angeles, booking our wedding venue, and hosting a Halloween party.
November: Celebrating 100 years of my grandmother, launching my new website, seeing David Sedaris speak, and watching my best friend from high school get married.
December: Buying my wedding dress and spending a weekend with my best friend out from North Carolina!
Hope you all have a lovely New Year's Eve... I will be celebrating in Los Angeles and looking forward to a fabulous new year!
Sunday, December 31, 2017
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Christmas 2017
I can't believe Christmas has already come and gone! It's still somewhat the holidays I suppose, but the magic is goneeeeee womp womp! But, we had a lovely Christmas.
We did a sister Christmas at Heather's on Saturday the 23rd since she was going up north for the holiday. That meant time with Bobblehead Baby Luca and breakfast a la mom!
We also did our Secret Santa gift exchange and Shannon, who had me, went off script but for good reason! This fabulous towel from Ja'mie King (if you don't get it it's not meant for you) but it sure makes me happy!
Christmas Eve is Christmas for AJ's family and we went to his sisters place in Long Beach.A lot of AJ's family was involved with my main present, so there were a lot of eyes on me when I opened it up (awkward...!)
AJ was so excited to gift me a Nintendo Switch (hooks up to the TV AND is portable for my upcoming travels!) and his sister bought me the MarioKart game.
I suppose a little backstory would help, since you're probably confused since I'm not a 14 year old girl. AJ plays a lot of Madden and FIFA PlayStation games. You know, those boring sports games. I was always badgering him to buy games that we could play together, but whenever he presented me with PlayStation options I was so sad. I kept saying all I want to do is play MarioKart, and would beg him to get a Nintendo console and MarioKart so we could just play MarioKart together. So, wish came true this year!
We've been playing a lot of MarioKart. I wont the inaugural game woop woop! But AJ likes to take all these pictures of him always beating me ughhh laaaame. But I did finally best him in a tournament, but he still pointed out I wasn't number 1, only number 3 lololol.
I once came in 11th place (there are 12 players in a game) but I told him imagine if there were 100 players! 11th place would be really impressive!
We, as tradition, dressed up Anana who looks so pathetically sad, so we take it off right afterwards and no animals were harmed in the making of this (aside from their dignity...)
Then of course, traditional Christmas morning at Grandma's. It was a bit small this year, sadly, but some surprises, like Adam down from Portland! Aaaaaand I won LRC!!! I was overdue for a win...
AJ and I went home and were exhausted even though it was only 6:30??? So, we played MarioKart until I fell asleep lulzzzzz.
Since I'm off work, some friends and I went to visit our other friend who recently relocated to Los Angeles in the Silverlake district for the day, and she surprised us with a full spread of amazing Russian Jewish delights!
We had such a great time hanging out in her living room, watching My Best Friend's Wedding, 90s music videos and all the while eating bagels, matzoh ball soup, latkes, black and white cookies, some pink and white Russian marshmellow cookies, mimosas, and way too much chocolate.
It's been such a nice closing to 2017, but I have to savor these last few days alone since AJ's friend Dan is coming in from Denver on Friday through the New Year and I'm expecting them to take up the living room with their video games and beer... save me!
We did a sister Christmas at Heather's on Saturday the 23rd since she was going up north for the holiday. That meant time with Bobblehead Baby Luca and breakfast a la mom!
We also did our Secret Santa gift exchange and Shannon, who had me, went off script but for good reason! This fabulous towel from Ja'mie King (if you don't get it it's not meant for you) but it sure makes me happy!
Christmas Eve is Christmas for AJ's family and we went to his sisters place in Long Beach.A lot of AJ's family was involved with my main present, so there were a lot of eyes on me when I opened it up (awkward...!)
AJ was so excited to gift me a Nintendo Switch (hooks up to the TV AND is portable for my upcoming travels!) and his sister bought me the MarioKart game.
I suppose a little backstory would help, since you're probably confused since I'm not a 14 year old girl. AJ plays a lot of Madden and FIFA PlayStation games. You know, those boring sports games. I was always badgering him to buy games that we could play together, but whenever he presented me with PlayStation options I was so sad. I kept saying all I want to do is play MarioKart, and would beg him to get a Nintendo console and MarioKart so we could just play MarioKart together. So, wish came true this year!
We've been playing a lot of MarioKart. I wont the inaugural game woop woop! But AJ likes to take all these pictures of him always beating me ughhh laaaame. But I did finally best him in a tournament, but he still pointed out I wasn't number 1, only number 3 lololol.
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| I love Tanooki Mario! |
I once came in 11th place (there are 12 players in a game) but I told him imagine if there were 100 players! 11th place would be really impressive!
We, as tradition, dressed up Anana who looks so pathetically sad, so we take it off right afterwards and no animals were harmed in the making of this (aside from their dignity...)
Then of course, traditional Christmas morning at Grandma's. It was a bit small this year, sadly, but some surprises, like Adam down from Portland! Aaaaaand I won LRC!!! I was overdue for a win...
AJ and I went home and were exhausted even though it was only 6:30??? So, we played MarioKart until I fell asleep lulzzzzz.
Since I'm off work, some friends and I went to visit our other friend who recently relocated to Los Angeles in the Silverlake district for the day, and she surprised us with a full spread of amazing Russian Jewish delights!
We had such a great time hanging out in her living room, watching My Best Friend's Wedding, 90s music videos and all the while eating bagels, matzoh ball soup, latkes, black and white cookies, some pink and white Russian marshmellow cookies, mimosas, and way too much chocolate.
It's been such a nice closing to 2017, but I have to savor these last few days alone since AJ's friend Dan is coming in from Denver on Friday through the New Year and I'm expecting them to take up the living room with their video games and beer... save me!
Friday, December 22, 2017
Christmas Cheer
So I already mentioned the holiday parties, but this picture just came through and it needs to be shared. Davíd was mine and Jessica's cleaning man in the old building. He's still here, but since we moved buildings and offices, he no longer comes in every 4:30 with "Señoritas... buenos tardes...!"
We just loved him. He's the best! So giving and generous and cheerful and kind and made us all tortas and tamales last Christmas. He is so in love with his job and always wants all the leftover swag that our department has so I leave it out for him.
He doesn't speak much English, so Jessica would always translate when she was around, otherwise, he and I would have some good natured miming and whatnot. At the holiday party he sought us out and specifically wanted a picture with us.
Davíd is such a great example of how to life your life... it's always a joy seeing him around!
We just loved him. He's the best! So giving and generous and cheerful and kind and made us all tortas and tamales last Christmas. He is so in love with his job and always wants all the leftover swag that our department has so I leave it out for him.
He doesn't speak much English, so Jessica would always translate when she was around, otherwise, he and I would have some good natured miming and whatnot. At the holiday party he sought us out and specifically wanted a picture with us.
Davíd is such a great example of how to life your life... it's always a joy seeing him around!
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Holiday Parties
It's been such a hectic season, my word! With my company holiday party last night (I totally judged the Hawaiian theme, but the shaved ice dessert pretty much made up for it) and today was our department's holiday lunch and then white elephant gift exchange, but I never did mention the fun holiday party we had with our friends.
It was last Saturday, December 9, and it was your usual holiday party with games, food and gift exchange and whatnot. It felt really early into the holiday season but then again why...? Cause it's flying by and it's basically already done. (Sidenote: who am I that I haven't been to Starbucks and have no idea what their red cup situation is?)
Anyways, needless to say no beer was consumed by the little one...
It was last Saturday, December 9, and it was your usual holiday party with games, food and gift exchange and whatnot. It felt really early into the holiday season but then again why...? Cause it's flying by and it's basically already done. (Sidenote: who am I that I haven't been to Starbucks and have no idea what their red cup situation is?)
Anyways, needless to say no beer was consumed by the little one...
Monday, December 18, 2017
LA Adventures with Jayna
After over a year and a half separation (last time we saw each other was for her wedding in North Carolina in June 2016!), Jayna made it out here to California for a long weekend. Of course, the time just freaking flew by and it barely felt like a weekend at all (sadface) but we really did fill up our time together... and our camera photo albums. Hold onto our hats because millennial side showed big time this weekend...
Like our trip to the Museum of Ice Cream! It's impossible to not be happy there and have a great time... colorful, interactive, fun, and sweets and treats galore!
There were also some pretty awesome photobooths throughout that we really took advantage of. However, when I first approached it to use, something was left on the screen that the person didn't send to themselves (you can even see me and Jayna talking in the background haha). I thought it was hilarioussssss so I sent it to myself.
And then of course there's us...
We saw that the pop-up Museum of Failure was nearby in DTLA and decided to visit it as well... and IT. DID. NOT. DISAPPOINT! We lovedddddd it! Seriously it was one of the best museums I'd been to in a long time. It was fascinating, funny, punny, and interactive. It was a museum of all forms of failures of innovation, design, marketing, decisions, etc and basically showcased different products and things that just failed.
Also, apparently everywhere has photobooths and stuff these days, so we really took advantage of this one as well...
After that, we walked to Little Tokyo and got ramen, then saw we were also close enough to visit The Last Bookstore, so we decided to do that too.
We were pretty exhausted after that night. We went to Little Saigon the next day to look at wedding veils (and ended up trying on dresses cause I'm a sucker...) and were right next to The Loop, the famed churro desserterie (I just made that up) and partook in that as well. I'm not kidding when I say everywhere has photobooths now! It was kinda the theme of the weekend...
Then Huntington Beach with AJ and Anana. It was weirdly a full day. We also still were able to squeeze in Winchell's donuts (apparently this is an LA-specific thing? I was unaware...) and In-n-Out. It's crazy how fast the time went by...! But of course, didn't feel like it had been more than a day since I had seen her last, cause that's how it is with your soul sisters!
Like our trip to the Museum of Ice Cream! It's impossible to not be happy there and have a great time... colorful, interactive, fun, and sweets and treats galore!
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| The entrance |
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| Yes, even the line outside in the alley was a photo-op |
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| Venice Cream a la Venice Beach |
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| The world stops when I acquire ice cream |
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| We were told one of the walls were scented... |
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| Best one, duhhhh! |
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| Waffle cone wall! Mmmmm |
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| Saw this guy everywhere being super extra for the camera (to be fair everyone was) but then found some of the photos later on instagram hahaha |
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| How it looked entering the room |
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| Pretty sweet angle dead-on |
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| Farm to Table sprinkles...? |
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| The famed sprinkle pool! |
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| Totally candid laugh |
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| Tried to get a good engagement shot... eh |
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| Those sprinkles got EVERYWHERE! No air shower implemented yet... this was before I even went to the bathroom. And this lasted all day/night...! |
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| Found these hours later in the cuff of my jeans #oops |
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| Pink vanilla soft serve ice cream with Oreos! |
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There were also some pretty awesome photobooths throughout that we really took advantage of. However, when I first approached it to use, something was left on the screen that the person didn't send to themselves (you can even see me and Jayna talking in the background haha). I thought it was hilarioussssss so I sent it to myself.
And then of course there's us...
We saw that the pop-up Museum of Failure was nearby in DTLA and decided to visit it as well... and IT. DID. NOT. DISAPPOINT! We lovedddddd it! Seriously it was one of the best museums I'd been to in a long time. It was fascinating, funny, punny, and interactive. It was a museum of all forms of failures of innovation, design, marketing, decisions, etc and basically showcased different products and things that just failed.
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| LA Art Co-op wall on the way to the Museum of Failure |
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| All of the plaques were so witty and punny! |
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| I REMEMBER THIS!!! WE HAD ONE! Guess it was a fail... |
Also, apparently everywhere has photobooths and stuff these days, so we really took advantage of this one as well...
After that, we walked to Little Tokyo and got ramen, then saw we were also close enough to visit The Last Bookstore, so we decided to do that too.
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| DTLA in Christmastime |
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| After all day at the Museum of Ice Cream, I was completely out of poses |
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| Look closely... |
We were pretty exhausted after that night. We went to Little Saigon the next day to look at wedding veils (and ended up trying on dresses cause I'm a sucker...) and were right next to The Loop, the famed churro desserterie (I just made that up) and partook in that as well. I'm not kidding when I say everywhere has photobooths now! It was kinda the theme of the weekend...
Then Huntington Beach with AJ and Anana. It was weirdly a full day. We also still were able to squeeze in Winchell's donuts (apparently this is an LA-specific thing? I was unaware...) and In-n-Out. It's crazy how fast the time went by...! But of course, didn't feel like it had been more than a day since I had seen her last, cause that's how it is with your soul sisters!
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