It starts and ends with palm trees but that is pretty much the only evidence of coherence...

Today I am pining a bit for my L.A. life. The days where I would work a full day, be off by noon, head over to Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica, park my car, grab my new US weekly and a Blended from Coffee Bean and head over to the grassy knolls and watch the waves crash. Sometimes I went by myself, sometimes I was lucky enough to be in the company of my cousin Kelly (and THANK GOD! because she would assure me that we were not going to get killed by a tidal wave that particular afternoon and always brough good trashy magazines). Most of the time I would just sit and relax, people watch and think about what my life would be like in the future because, heck...life was incredibly simple then (though it seemed SO COMPLICATED at the time) so full of possibilites and I was surrounded by beautiful people and things and I really didn't have any major responsibilities. All I had to do was live in the moment and do exactly what I wanted when I wanted.

Whenever I have a lot of chaos in my head I go back to those years where I was living on my own in a city where I could drive around every day and discover something new. I wasn't attached to anything and it really was All About Me All The Damn Time (Ha! Those were the days). But the ups in life are always punctuated by the downs and most often we don't always appreciate the present. It wasn't always the best of times down there, I remind myself-- I was constantly wondering why I hadn't met Mr. Right, I hadn't completed my degree which was hanging over my head like some major unfinished business, and I was working in retail and just KNEW that I had something else in me to give career-wise. So whenever I pine for that time, I try to remind myself to be present in my life now because what seems crazy now, will just be tomorrow's nostalgic memories.

God, I don't mean to sound so ominous. I mean, in general, my life is really good right now -- especially compared to the awful tales that you hear everytime you listen to the news or read anything on the internet. I have a job that I am ::knocks wood:: not in danger of losing, I have found a partner that loves me for all of my crazy quirks, and we have built a life together that brings me so much joy on a daily basis that it's silly. I wake up laughing, I am always ready to come home after a long day of work and the two of us are making plans for the future that involve big, exciting life changing things. We are only responsible for ourselves right now -- we don't have kids, we don't have mortgages -- but holy hell, sometimes deciding to forge a life with another person can feel like such a huge deal.

I didn't make a lofty list of New Year's Resolutions this year. For me, this year it is really important that I prioritize my own stress management. I guess you could call that a resolution, but really I'm sort of staging my own intervention. Part of being a good life-partner in my opinion, is knowing how to manage yourself long before you go and trying and join a team. I want to do my best to make sure I am taking care of myself, so I can be there for Garrett when he needs it.

Last year I took the Myers-Briggs Assesment as an assignment for work and discovered I had an ENFJ personality type. Honestly, the depiction is pretty much right on par with me as a person. Especially the part where "[ENFJ's] get excited about possibilities for the future, but may become easily bored or restless with the present." The way this manifests itself in my life is that I am constantly on the go -- planning, doing, seeing, producing, exploring -- NONSTOP -- until I get to a point where the inertia of my life is overwhelming that I am forced stop. Everything sort of falls to the ground and then when I get bored and restless I pick up the pieces and start juggling everything over again. This is obviously not a good long term strategy and I'm trying to figure out how to cope -- especially this year of all years.

There are a million things changing this year: Garrett and I are taking the plunge and moving in together, we are mapping out our future, I am taking on a new professional endeavor, and OMG have I mentioned, I will finally get to see Hawaii?!?!? I have been bitching about my parents promising to take me there when I was 10 for like two decades, so I really can't believe that I am actually finally getting to go, and we are spending just about two solid weeks relaxing on Maui and I absolutely can't wait.

But all these things? I want to be present, ya know? I need to be present. They are all too important to just be another ball I'm juggling.

I guess I'm babbling about all of this because it helps me feel accountable. I know we all have days when we long for a simpler time in our lives, but I want to work on trying to enjoy the complexity of my life where it's at right this moment. And sometimes that might mean slowing down -- but that is hard for me. Everything worth figuring out in life seems to be a bit of a challenge though, doesn't it? My hope is that those strategies I'm working out now will bear fruit for me and of course our lives in the future.

And I'm not totally positive, but it think it might be of Pineapple and the Passion Fruit variety! Here's to hoping...

Best Weekend Ever***

Well it's been a while since I wrote anything of substance here, would you like to make some small talk to catch up? Could you believe the weather this weekend? I mean...the rain! the wind! It just made me want to curl up on the couch and stay in the same outfit for 3 days while not leaving the house watching awful Lifetime movies and eating frozen pizza! Doesn't that sound delightful?

Oh, hey -- speaking of weekends, how was yours? Oh wow, that's great. I'm so jealous, because mine? JUST ABSOLUTELY SUCKED.

I bet you would think it would be great because on Friday night I was supposed to pick Garrett up from the airport after his 6 day work trip to Des Moines, Iowa, right? Well you would think wrong, unfortunately, because Friday afternoon while I was on my way back to work from lunch, the temperature gauge in my car started acting a little funny. And by funny, I mean spazzing the hell out and then ending up in the "Red Zone" and we all know that there is nowhere in the world that the red zone is a good thing -- well except maybe in football or perhaps an Old Spice commercial but that's not the point my friends, we are talking about my car -- so stick with me here, k?!?

Obviously, car troubles are not that fun. But it especially sucks when you and your boyfriend have been driving your car (which by the way is actually his second car) to avoid the enormous oil leak and slow tire leak in his car (which is his first car). So I have a car (again, his car) that is basically boiling over at work and another car at home that really isn't begging to be driven. Fantastic! The problem? Aside from the obvious, is that I also have somewhere to be 30 minutes after I get off work and then need to pick Garrett up at the airport at 8:30. Oh wait, scratch that -- 10 PM BECAUSE HIS FLIGHT IS DELAYED! Wonderful news, right? And it was wonderful news that I was informed of when I phoned him to discuss the car situations.

I want you to truly have an understanding of this conversation...so let me help you out a bit:

Imagine, if you will, you are on a 6 day business trip where you are having super long work days, even longer "networking" type nights (as a total sidebar: ALWAYS say no to sushi when you are in a state that is nowhere even close to the ocean), and then factor in a wee bit of personal drama on the side. Are you imagining the mindset that this would put you in? Now imagine that you are on your way home from said trip, and your layover flight that you have just boarded is filled to max capacity and someone has just informed you that you will be delayed (because there isn't a pilot to fly the plane! Earth to United, get your shit together!) which means you get to sit inside said airplane for another hour, IN THE MIDDLE SEAT, without the air conditioning system turned on.

...and then your cell phone rings.

NOW, I want you to imagine you are me and have to be the person on the other line telling them that one of their cars is super broken and basically sitting out in front of the house in a puddle of radiator fluid, and you are going to take their other car that is only "sort of broken" to run your errands, and see ya at 8:30 -- whoops-- I mean 10 pm -- and hey, hopefully they turn on those air vents soon, KTHXBAI.

So, would you want to be me in that situation? SWEET BABY JESUS, that was not the most romantic phone call I have ever had in my life.

And I'll have you know once I picked Garrett up and we headed home, I immediately concocted 3 very delicious Belvedere and Tonics in a row, and then drank them like they were ice cold water and our kitchen was the SAHARA EFFING DESERT. And then, making not the best decision I have ever made, I promptly went to bed.

And that was only Friday.

Saturday morning (shocker) I awoke about noon with a gigantic throbbing headache and could not find a single bottle of Advil, Tylenol, Motrin or any other EVER LOVING PAIN RELIEVER in the house, which immediately put me in a fantastic mood! I was a chipper chicken, in fact. And did I mention that the PMS I was experiencing was like on ORANGE ALERT! So we did some errands, did a little trouble shooting with the radiator in Car Number One but then we realized that we had lost the radiator funnel and couldn't put the fluid into the car until we found it. So because I was trying to multi-task, while Garrett was looking high and low for this funnel, I threw a load of laundry in the washer. Ten minutes later, our Laundry Room floor was covered in water for absolutely no apparent reason. We're talking a sea of detergent, fabric softener, and color safe bleach from the BRAND NEW WASHER all over the BRAND NEW LINOLEUM. Honestly, I thought my head was going to explode right at that moment, and I can only assume Garrett felt the same way because his only response was to hand me car keys and to say "Please go to any auto parts store right now and just find me a radiator funnel and I'll deal with this."

I have to be honest, in that moment, all of my retail experiences flashed before my eyes and I can say with the utmost certainty that if someone had put a gun to my head and made that same request, today I would be dead (and frankly, probably in a better mood). UM....WHERE THE HELL ARE ALL THE AUTOMOTIVE STORES? I'm still not so sure, but I did drive around aimlessly for awhile thinking about all the shitty stuff that had happened this weekend, and then finally ended up at Target. Target, who by the way only carries "universal funnels" and not "radiator funnels" and whose "Automotive Section" really only consists of car wash accoutrement. WTF, Target? Who the hell even knew there was a difference in funnels by the way?

By the time I got home Garrett had cleaned things up and luckily the washer had not started leaking again, so after a few subsequent "safe" loads we left that problem alone because we had to get ready to go to the incredibly conveniently scheduled Annual Junior League Crab Feed. And as much as I wanted to skip the whole thing ($80 worth of tickets and all), I knew it would make us feel better, if for no other reason than all we had to do was show up and we were going to be served dinner. And I think if I had had to think about or even cook dinner that night, I might have just passed out and died from the effort of that single act. So right before we walked out the door I snapped the following photo and said to Garrett, "You know, years from now when we have kids and pets and houses and lives that are far more complicated than we are living now, we are going look back on this photo and laugh at the things we thought were so stressful."



And although Sunday didn't hit us with quit the same amount of URGENT DRAMA (though we did find out that Steve's Pizza is all but closing all of their locations...boo!), now that I am back at work this morning and feeling totally unrefreshed I am hoping more than ever that my pre-photo sentiment on Saturday was right.

-------------
***Yeah, not so much

This video is killing me...

Not much going on 'round these parts....

...um, I got a new haircut, how's that?



yeah, I didn't think it was that interesting either. But there are BANGS! And I love bangs!! Well, until they get too long and then they drive me crazy, which makes me grow them out, and then when they are finally long enough to not be irritating as hell, what do I do? Cut new ones.

It's a vicious cycle, I tell you.

Well, Garrett is in Des Moines, Iowa this week for work and thoroughly experiencing the fabulousness that is the mid-west. Actually when I was back there in 2006 I found it to be a pretty charming little city, so I am hoping he has the same experience and from what I hear thus far he likes it.

Besides enjoying Super Bowl with my mom, cousins, Aunt and Uncle (which was a freakin' blast) I didn't do a whole helluva lot this weekend. I'm hoping this week is mellow and relaxing and full of lots of sleep. I felt like I was getting sick this weekend and I am so OVER that! I spent a week last February with the worst flu ever and do not need a repeat this year. No siree!

What about you folks...what are you up to???

Split Pea Salutation

Gee, have I mentioned that Garrett has been out of town for what feels like an ever-loving eternity quite some time?

Well, guess what? He's coming home tonight and that puts a big, fat smile on this face! He will be travelling pretty much all day today (3 hour drive to the airport, 5 hours on a plane with two stops--eek! that's a lot of take offs and landings!) So I thought it would be nice to welcome him home tonight with a big hearty bowl of split pea soup! And I love this recipe so much I thought I'd share.

You can find the original recipe instructions here and the only modification that I made was that I added some ham because I happened to have some left over. YUM! But it is also quite delicious without the ham, so feel free to omit!

So for starters, the first step in any good soup recipe in my opinion is as follows:

1. Grab Your Favorite Beverage



Mine happened to be a delicious bottle of Apricot Ale, and I'm telling you, it is Nectar of the Gods.

2. Start the Sizzlin'



Saute your onions and garlic with a little Olive Oil, Oregano, Salt and Pepper (the smell is super dreamy!) until the onions are translucent (about 10 mins).

3. Add the Goods



This includes your carrots, potatoes, 3/4 of the split peas you are using (reserving the other 1/4 for later) and of course your stock of choice. This is also where I added my ham.

4. Bring this baby to a boil!



Then go ahead an simmer, uncovered for about 40 minutes and make sure to skim off the "foam" that rises to the surface from the split peas cooking. After about 40 minutes add your remaining split peas. This will give the soup some texture and then of course simmer for another 40 minutes.

*As a total sidebar. Make sure to stir FREQUENTLY otherwise your solids can burn to the bottom of the pan, which makes for icky soup (trust me, I've done it). So just keep skimming and stirring and don't get too sucked in to that riveting episode of Law and Order because burnt soup is No Bueno!

5. Lastly, Enjoy!



And frankly, this is the easiest step. It is a wonderful treat on a cold, winter night and I can't wait to serve it to Garrett this evening after a long day of travel!

Hope you enjoy it as much as we will tonight!

The Little Studio: Bathroom + Kitchen Edition

So I realized that I had showed you the before pictures of my new little studio (emphasis on the little), but I hadn't yet posted any update pictures so I thought I'd show you what I did with the kitchen and bathroom.

(Bedroom/Office/Closet Pics to Come!)

So here is the Main Area where I spend a good portion of time. It houses the kitchen, the dining area, and off to the right you get a sneak peak of the bathroom.



The thing about a studio is that there is very little space. This challenge has probably been my favorite part of living here because often I have had to really streamline my material things and be creative about storage. Part of my solution has been to repurpose some items like this bar from Pottery Barn:



This actually functions as a home for my favorite cookbooks, but also instead of storing bottles in there it has become something of a dry goods pantry. And because the space is limited, I really have to be organized about the food I keep on hand, which I love. I took some great ideas from this website about what to keep on hand, and it has really made my pantry not only more organized but healthier! When you don't have much room for storage, I am more likely to store something that will make up part of a delicious, healthy meal rather than some impulse buy snack food purchase.

One of the other storage solutions I have found instrumental in this space is my Ikea Expedit Bookcase. I turned it on its side and, voila! Insta-storage!



With little cabinet space, I had to find a solution to the question of where to put a lot of my cookware. It also made me realize that the things I stored needed to function in multiple different ways. For example, the bottom right corner stores my All Clad Multi-cooker which is a multi-tasking lifesaver, as it only takes up as much room as a stock pot, but it also includes a strainer for cooking pasta and vegetable steamer basket. This guy may seem big, but in the long run saves me SO MUCH SPACE!

In the actual prep area you will see that the space is limited (are we seeing a pattern, yet?), but I actually found some creative solutions, again from Ikea that really helped me fit everything I needed in there without taking up all my counter space.



The first was maximizing my wallspace with the Grundtal line of rails, hooks, and holders. It really allowed me to keep the things I use all the time within arms reach but without having them take up valuable prep space.



Yum...Coffee.

I also used that same line of products on the other kitchen wall to maximize my knife and spice storage.



Since I cook A LOT, I still store some spices on the counter, but this obviously helped keep that to a minimum!

Lastly, in the kitchen, I made sure to keep all my accessories bright and cheerful to reflect the vibe of the house. How great is the acid green and light turquoise paint on the walls? I never would have chosen those colors myself, I'm just not talented like that, but I love, love, love them! It's helped inspire my choices of colorful cookwear -- I mean how could you have a plain white tea kettle with such fabulous paint on the walls?



And even though it can get a little cluttered, I love posting my favorite pictures on the refrigerator. It inspires my photography, and reminds me of how lucky I am to have such great friends and family in my life!



So that's the kitchen and dining area, onto the Loo!

The bathroom, like everything else, is small, but it's the perfect size for me and I have found some creative storage solutions to make sure I have all my favorite girly products available. Can't scrimp on those! The paint is a little more neutral, but the tile in here is the real showstopper! Full of greens, browns, and even some purples, it is definitely a great detail.



I absolute LOVE the pedestal sink! But that also came with it's own storage challenges. The previous tenant left the plastic drawers to left of the sink, and even though they are not the prettiest, they have been super useful. And the apothecary jars on top are from (where else?) Ikea and they allow me to keep my most used items at my fingertips at all times.



And last but not least I thought I'd give you a sneak peak of the Little Shower. Not because it is particularly fabulous or anything, but I thought you might want some photgraphic proof that I do actually use the products I recommend here!



So there you have it! That's my Little Studio -- well the kitchen and bathroom, at least. Next up I will give you a little tour of the other half of the house, so Stay Tuned!

The Time Of My Life?

Is this for real?

I'm so tempted. But I'm pretty sure it will be an 11 out of 10 on the Look-Like-An-Asshole-While-Doing Scale.

Although has that really ever prevented me from doing anything in the past?

I'm about to get a little whiny...you've been warned.

So Garrett has been out of town for 7 days now (BABY COME BACK!) Wow, I hope I just got that song in your head for the rest of the dayfrom those obnoxious Swiffer commercials where the old school brooms and mops beg to be "taken back" while a surly housewife rolls her eyes. Argh! I hate those ads. So, yeah, you're welcome.

Anyway, since he's been gone (oh god, now I'm hearing Kelly Clarkson -- Jesus, Calgon Take Me Away!) I have observed that my life really is pretty different when he is not around. It's not that I am lying around on the couch, eating bon bons, and pining for him -- but there is just a whole different vibe (especially on the weeknights) that I've been noticing during the last week So I have noticed the following:

1. I grocery shop A LOT less.
When you are are only cooking for one person, you do a lot less meal planning. My kitchen creativity has definitely suffered in his absence; however, my bank account has been singing HALLELUJAH! Also, I hate the grocery store between 5 and 6pm, which always seems to be when I go there during the week when I'm cooking for us both. This week, I have totally avoided that! Woo Hoo for stress relief! So I guess that's okay, but...

2. Apparently, I turn into a vegetarian!
Speaking of cooking, I have not cooked meat since he left! And this one was kind of a shock to me, because I like meat just fine. Actually, this isn't entirely accurate, seeing as the enormous batch of split pea soup that I made did have some left over ham in it, but in general my entrees have been meat free in the interim, and I also have been shopping around on the internet and bookmarking delicious looking vegetarian recipes. I think my inner vegetarian is trying to get out. Ack! What's happening to me?

3. I really commit to some AWFUL television.
It's not like I don't watch TV when Garrett is around, I certainly do. And he definitely watches his fair share of silly TV with me (Top Chef, CSI: Miami, etc). But in the last week or so I seriously have not missed an episode of Oprah, Rachael Ray, Real Housewives of Orange County, The City, The Bachelor (hello! the worst offender!) Gossip Girl...I mean I promise you I have left the house, but my DVR has been working overtime to record my girly guilty pleasures. And I have "made time" to watch them all...while filing my nails, to boot! And I know this sounds great, but seriously...

4. I laugh ALOT less.
And really, folks, this is the fact that I have tried to deny but it so much of the reason that my life is so differnet when he is gone! And I hate that. I like to laugh. God, do I sound like a bad internet dating ad? "Likes to laugh and likes long walks on the beach." Seriously though, Garrett is one of the funniest people that I know and he keeps me in stitches pretty much from the moment he wakes up (sometimes even when he is sleeping!) until we go to sleep at night. And even though I have a pretty good sense of humor and I definitely look for reasons to laugh throughout the day, there is such a shortage going on as of late, and that is a downer!

Which is why I'm so happy there are only 5 days to go! Because clearly, when Garrett is out of town I get over analytical and write posts that have absolutely no point except to say "Get back here, boyfriend! I need some snuggles!" But you know, the wordier version.

2008: Year In Review

Wow! Has an entire year passed already? That was qu-ick! It's been a good one though -- A Year of Firsts! And of course filled with friends, family and lots of travel, so I thought I'd do a quick little recap.

January

January started off with a bang -- of thunder that is! The weather last year was definitely XXXXTREME and I resolved to be a little less extreme with how I spent my free time.

I wanted to read more (which I definitely did) and see more movies (TOTAL FAIL). Overall I did okay with the 2008 Resolutions, although you know I've got more coming for 2009 (I'm still kind of marinating on them -- post forthcoming).

January also brought that "incident" wherein I "lost" my second laptop at work, only to find out 2 weeks later that my co-worker had seen it on my desktop and locked it up in a "secure" spot, only to promptly forget about it.

Yeah. Anyway.

February

February was fun and rough all at the same time. Garrett and I celebrated a lovely Valentine's Day out in the wineries in Plymouth...

...and it was so enjoyable that I came home and promptly GOT THE FLU! (Thank you St. Valentine.) I was down for the count for over 7 days and it is by far the sickest I have been in decades.


March

March held some highs and some lows. Unfortunately Garrett and I took our first plane trip of the year down to San Diego for a funeral. His Uncle's passing was sudden and unexpected; in the end, however, the visit really allowed Garrett to do some connecting with his family and for me to meet some of those family members for the first time -- which was a real blessing!




Plus there was Rock Band! And we all know that no one can have a bad time when they are playing Rock Band!

April

April started off a year that was full of fun filled family adventure! I really hope to repeat that in 2009. This year my extended family saw each other more than we have in many past years and it was SO! MUCH!FUN! As we all get older our times together just get so much more...well, FUN!

Our first gathering was in April when we headed down to Fremont to cheer on my cousin John who was graduating from the Police Academy.


We were all incredibly proud, and as such had to throw a little party to show it, and some of us clearly took it more seriously than others...


May

In May we celebrated Garrett's 27th birthday, which always makes me happy! Of course, because it is the day he was born -- but ALSO, because for the next 6 months it looked like he was only 2 years younger than me, instead of 3. (I'm a cougar in training -- ROWR! haha NOT really.) I also found myself down in San Diego for work, and what better town to be stuck "working" in because my cousin Jenny lives down there.


We really got to just lay low and hang out, which was great! I got to spend time at the beach, plus we went out on the town with some of her friends one night, which was just what I needed after a hard week of working:



After coming back from San Diego, Garrett and I went to a wedding here in Sacramento for two of his good friends who are from San Diego. Try and keep all that straight in your head!


Anyway, it was a beautiful wedding, and by far the biggest one we have ever been to (there were hundreds of people there)-- and -- it was the first time Garrett has ever been a groomsman. As one who is always the bridesmaid around here, I found that novel and so of course I took way too many pictures. But seriously, how could I not when there were so many handsome dudes in tuxes walking around?





June

In June we were back down in San Diego again (I know, right? Do you see a trend?) for Garrett's cousin Davin's wedding. I think the Universe is telling us to buy a vacation home down there by the beach, but that is just my opinion.

It was another fun filled family affair with EVEN! MORE! FAMILY! this time. The wedding was somewhat untraditional (the bride wore yellow, and they walked down the aisle to the theme from Indiana Jones) but the emotions were all the same. Lots of love in the park that day -- and also DELICIOUS paella!


We also spent June discovering discovering a fantastic band, as well as watching Garrett's uncle get his degree from Cal State East Bay.
We were super proud of Johnny's accomplishment and so we had to do some celebrating!




July

July was a whirlwind of travel and music -- just how I like it! We headed down to Monterey for the 4th of July where it was so cold I had to wear a scarf out to watch the fireworks! It was a welcomed relief after the mid-summer Sacramento heat, and as always it was SO FUN to spend time with my cousins (plus Sara and Paul were FANTASTIC hosts!)

The following week we headed down to Los Angeles to see one of our favorite bands perform and to see some old friends.




We rented a Prius, made some great mix cds, and headed down the highway! Even though it was a quick and dirty trip and we pretty much ate our way through So Cal, it was SUCH A BLAST!

I also celebrated my 100th blog post here, and as such felt compelled to tell you all about my purchase of the world's smallest pair of underwear, and I also recapped what a crazy band The Red Elvises are after we caught their show at Old Ironsides.

And to end the month we headed over to Sonoma to help my cousin Jim celebrate his 31st Birthday by wine tasting on bikes! (It seemed like a good idea at the time...haha)

It was a really special day and we were all lucky to have gotten to celebrate with him!


Whew! July was a busy, busy month!

August

So in August I had to take a vacation! :) Unfortunately it was not the kind of vacation you really want to take. I had a GIGANTIC presentation in September to prepare for in the Emerging Leaders Program that I spent all of 2008 participating in at work, and as such, I spent August preparing for that presentation. I sort of took a vacation from my life and was eating, sleeping, and breathing work. The end result was phenomenal though, and I'm so happy that I participated in the ELP program. If the only price I had to pay was giving up one month of leisure activities, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat!

September

September was filled with reunions of sorts. The first was that I reunited with my social life! And then quickly thereafter with two of my good friends from high school. My friend Natalie married her sweetheart Irwin in a beautiful ceremony down in the Bay Area, and I got to see her family (who I hadn't seen in ages) and my good friend Jen and her main-man Will (who I also hadn't seen in ages).


I also reunited with my family as we spent an incredibly raucous weekend (after an incredibly stressful but succesful presentation at work) at The Cabin up in Arnold -- aka "The Treehouse". How can you be stressed when you have a cold beer in your hand and this is your backdrop?


Answer: You Can't.

And I wasn't. That is until we all heard on the news that our cousin Ned was getting canned? WTF, Milwuakee?????

Continuing with the family news, my aunts got married (score!) up in Chico and we all got to celebrate...with the absolute best signature cocktails, I might add.

And as an absolute non-sequiter, I also came to the realization that my boyfriend has a doppleganger. Who knew?

October

Holy Moly, what a month!

I moved into a cute new Bachelorette Pad. My first time ever living alone!

I turned 30 and threw an amazing party where I got to hang with all of my family and friends.

And Garrett and I revisited our roots by dressing up as Peet's employees for Halloween.

Considering it was the place we fell in love, I was more than happy to relive those days!

...and beyond that, hoo boy, I slept! Because moving and throwing a party in a two week period can really exhaust you!

November

November saw history being made, and I think we will all remember where we were and how we felt when Barack Obama got elected -- no matter who you voted for. Garrett and I spent the evening together, and I (of course) just bawled through his speech. His charisma and ability to bring people together are exciting, and for the first time in years I have felt hope when it comes to politics in this country.

I also celebrated my three year anniversary with Garrett and finally got around to telling the second half of our love story. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with that man, and I feel incredibly lucky to have found him all those years ago!

Lastly, I took a crazy sailing trip for work AND SURVIVED! I wasn't sure how I would do, but in the end it was more fun than I could have asked for, and I feel pretty lucky at the end of this year, not only to have a job, but to have a job that requires me to hop on sailboats and check out views like this:


December

This December has gone by faster than any I can remember in recent history. Did you notice that too?

I traveled to LA for work, but also got to see a good friend (and eat the best! meal! ever!

I had a fun celeb sighting.

And of course celebrated Christmas with my family by eating way to much and sleeping on the couch. (Sorry no pics of that...haha)

But the best news by far was Garrett got a new job! And we are both so excited about what opportunities 2009 is going to bring for both of us. I hope you all enjoyed that little (er, rather, HUGE) Year in Review and I hope you have happy and safe New Year's Celebrations this evening.

It has been an amazing year connecting with all of you through this blog and I can't wait to see what 2009 brings!