Twenty-Twelve

It's that time of year again to look back on what has been, cherish those memories, and get excited for what is to come! This time I’ve broken down my 2012 review in terms of concerts I attended, travels I set out on, moments I loved, and virtual moments that made me giddy. You know I spend a good chunk of my life on the Internet (I loooove the Internet!) and so the best virtual moments weren’t difficult for me to recount. And so, from the beginning:

Shows: The Envy Corps

Travels: 2-night scrapbooking staycation extravaganza with my sisters and Ashley

Best Moment: Turning the big 2-5 and celebrating in the best way: spa, shopping, movie of a favorite book, family, friends, Mexican food, drinks, dressing up.

Virtual Moment: The most amazing birthday gift: a video of family, friends, and famous people reciting my tweets, status updates and lines from my blogs! I just got so excited to watch this again on my 26^th!

Shows: Lion King [The Musical] with my three lovely sisters // Bombay Bicycle Club

Travels: None

Best Moment: Acting like a total kid by playing trampoline dodgeball and suffering for several days after.

Virtual Moment: Social media set a-flutter by news of Indeed opening this year.

Shows: Of Monsters and Men

Travels: None

Best Moment: Spending St. Patrick’s Day with a lot of great friends

Virtual Moment: The #StyleMe Challenge was born, and with that, new friendships and a whole new slew of Instagramming

Shows: Fun. // Cults // Florence + The Machine

Travels: None

Best Moment: Two extremely fun weddings.

Virtual Moment: I guess April was boring!

Shows: Grouplove // M. Ward

Travels: Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon with Zebulon

Best Moment: Playing cribbage and eating nachos at Tug Boat Brewing with Zeb

Virtual Moment: Discovering my photo and review on Hilary Rushford’s #StyleMe page

Concerts: The Shins // Avett Brothers

Travels: Denver, Colorado (with stops at Red Rocks and Golden) with Zebulon

Best Moment: Finishing my first half-marathon // Dancing to Avett Brothers on the most beautiful night at Red Rocks Amphitheater

Virtual Moment: This blog turned a ripe one year old.

Concerts: Basilica Block Party (Imagine Dragons, Train, Cake, The Head and the Heart) // Beirut

Travels: Atlantic, Iowa with the family for Grandma’s 90^th birthday party.

Best Moment: Nancy’s birthday sheNANigans at Indeed

Virtual Moment: Researching what freedom means for Independence Day (seriously)

Shows: Coldplay

Travels: Dallas, Texas with Zebulon, Nancy and Nathan

Best Moment: Leaving work early to celebrate the opening of Indeed Brewing Company and meeting Mr. Mayor! ;)

Virtual Moment: Treble and Lace turned 1!

Shows: Awolnation & Imagine Dragons / The Head and the Heart & Blitzen Trapper

Travels: None.

Best Moment: Fashion’s Night Out, Blogger Meet-Up, Fashion Week with my new bloggy friends.

Virtual Moment: Tweeting back and forth with Blitzen Trapper // The Royal Concept’s management contacting me about my blog post

Shows: Wolf Gang & The Royal Concept // Miike Snow // Passion Pit & Youngblood Hawke

Travels: Rome, Florence and Cinque Terre, Italy with Zeb.

Best Moment: Grilling out and drinking wine with random Italians in Vernazza, Cinque Terre and touring wineries in Tuscany.

Virtual Moment: Winning tickets via email to see Wolf Gang at Varsity Theater

Shows: Matt and Kim & Oberhofer

Travels: Lutsen for Thanksgiving Weekend with Zeb and his family.

Best Moment: Exercising my right to vote and learning that Minnesota had defeated two proposed amendments to its state constitution.

Virtual Moment: Following election coverage

Shows: Sufjan Stevens // Of Monsters and Men

Travels: None.

Best Moment: Walking to get a Christmas tree in a blizzard and spending the rest of the day snowed in.

Virtual Moment: Sharing the holiday season with Instragram friends via #ShareAdvent

Looking back on the year helps me to put it into perspective and capture a sense of closure. As a girl highly-nostalgic for everything, it helps me feel accomplished and able to let the past be the past. It's time for now. Won't you join me?

End of the Year Recap Part 4

So here is the part of my year that you might have already shared because I posted about it as it happened...

October: I started the month off with three concerts in the first week! Then I spent a week in Paris with my sister (and away from work!) It was one of the best trips I have ever taken because I was able to truly relax and enjoy every bit of life. This meant delicate macarons, inspiring museums, pristine gardens, delectable pain au chocolats, frequent cafes, talented street performers, sporadic shopping sprees, and brisk walks. I feel so darned lucky to be able to travel as much as I do.

November: I spent a lot of time with the boyfran's family and a lot of time at shows. I saw Noah and the Whale (awesome show!), Jerry Seinfeld (hilarious!), Mat Kearney (alright, pretty good), and Mason Jennings (love forever). Thanksgiving was a blast, and I'm sure you could read all about November in this blog if you really wanted to...

December: This brings us to now. December has been a month of crafting, celebrating birthdays, and best of all, a new baby nephew, le peanut.

This wraps up my 2011 recap extravaganza. It's satisfying to relive memories and be excited for the future. It's also nice to be present and live in the moment. So I'm going to go do that.

What's on your list of highlights of the year? Would you call it a good one? Everyone has a different story concerning 2011 - I'm thrilled to say mine was one of happiness and light. Here's to a wonderful 2012! 

Happy New Year!!!

End of the Year Recap Part 2

Hello again! You may have noticed that I skipped Merry Monday this week - you can thank Christmas, a vacation and no work for that! However, I'm back for part 2 of 4 of the end of the year recap. Here goes the soggy spring!

April: My nephew had his first birthday party! We threw my sister a bachelorette party downtown and took a pole dancing class to start out the night! Scan-da-lous. My beautiful sister Mary got married to my now-B-I-L Kevin. This meant that my whole family (blood-related and non-) got to go to Panama City Beach, FL and spend four days in the sun. I slept on the balcony every night, and it was something else to be able to rise to the salt-soaked air and sound of crashing waves.

May: My beautiful sister Mary got married to my now-B-I-L Kevin. Wait a minute. Typo? No. They had another celebration, this time in Minnesota with a Chinese Tea Ceremony included. Many of my good friends and a lot of my family were there. It was a really fun wedding and all the stress prior to it melted away like the Wicked Witch of the West. 

June: Roadtrip! B-I-L Nathan and boyfran Zubby took a road trip to sweltering Kansas City to cheer the Twins on as they swept the Royals. Too bad that winning streak didn’t permeate throughout the rest of the season and we eventually lost all of our coveted players. Le sigh.

Welp...that's it for the spring and the start of summer. Stay tuned for the rest of summer-fall-winter. Wait a minute, I thought we already talked about winter...darn winter!

  

End of the Year Recap Part 1

Can you even believe 2011 has come and mostly gone? Our moments are short, so it is important to remember and savor them. (Or as Gretchen Rubin from The Happiness Project reiterates, "The days are long, but the years are short.") Luckily, I have a good memory, a camera, and two blogs to help me out. Since it is the end of the calendar year, I would like to take a few posts to reflect on the highlights of each month of 2011. Bear with me, I had a good year.

January: I basked in my birthday weekend with a slew of my best friends in Chicago. We ice skated at Millennium Park, shopped along Michigan Avenue, ate tasty food and imbibed at some recommended bars. Plus, three of my HK friends joined in on the festivities. HK reunions are hard to come by, so when they DO work out, it's a good feeling. I started a blog with the details of Chicago as my first post, and after two more posts, abandoned it. At least I have you, SKTMIT, to ease the heartache! :P

February: I, along with a big group o' people, welcomed our friend Laura home from Korea, where she spent the last year teaching. My boyfran and I spent a night in Fargo, ND to visit two of his best friends from college and join in on the plaid brigade at Trampled by Turtles. I also attended a 30th birthday, a 40th birthday, and a 50th birthday in that order! I love numbers and sequences, so that was right up my alley.

March: I traveled to Oahu, Hawaii with another great group of friends. We snorkeled at Hanauma Bay, hiked up Diamond Head, swam in the Pacific Ocean, toured Pearl Harbor, and ATVed through the lush hillside that has served as the backdrop for many-a-movie and one of my favorites, LOST! I tried savory, authentic Hawaiian foods that I wish were available in Minnesota. I definitely morphed from not being a beach-vacation-person to being a beach-vacation-person. Add to that about five birthday celebrations in one weekend, and that was March.

I'm going to pause there. A year is a sizeable thing to consider, so I'm breaking it up into fourths. This week is a short one (at work anyhow) and I'm hustling and bustling to cram as many activities in as I physically can. Still left on the plate before I head up North on Friday morning: running errands, baking at my sister's house, packing, working, hitting up an ugly Christmas sweater party/reunion and getting the last of my Christmas gifts in the mail (destined for Minneapolis, Toronto and Vienna). Have a happy Wednesday!