December 4 – Wonder. How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year? (Author: Jeffrey Davis)

Photography. I’ve always been interested in Photography, as my father is a long time photographer. He gave me his old Nikon this year, a manual film camera, and I’ve really enjoyed playing with it. I’ve also been fortunate that my friend Ed Schipul has lent me his camera and a few lenses this week while I’m in West Texas. Check a a few of the pics I’ve taken with it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/metropolitician/sets/

December 5 – Let Go. What (or whom) did you let go of this year? Why? (Author: Alice Bradley)

Unnecessary worry of perfection. It feels good to not try to be perfect all the time.

December 6 – Make. What was the last thing you made? What materials did you use? Is there something you want to make, but you need to clear some time for it? (Author: Gretchen Rubin)

Ha! I just MADE a deck with my two hands. Well, and some handy tools. I busted up concrete, moved earth, and  leveled and built a deck. That was 3 days ago, and I’m still sore. It was very satisfying making something with a few tools, materials, and my muscles. ;-)

December 7 – Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011? (Author: Cali Harris)

In 2010 I’ve strived to connect with communities outside of Houston. While we have a strong community here in Houston, there is much to learn from other communities world wide. I’ve been fortunate to have clients in LA, DC and NYC this year, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know those communities and learn from what they are doing that works.

December 8 – Beautifully Different. Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different – you’ll find they’re what make you beautiful. (Author: Karen Walrond)

This was a tough one. It’s hard to figure out what makes you different from others. So I turned to my travel partner, and his response was that he thought what makes me different is “Your openness to the excitement of change.” So I’m gonna go with that.

December 9 – Party Prompt: Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans. (Author: Shauna Reid)

Lots and lots of parties this year! Gotta say that my birthday, a day full of surprise events, thanks to my best friends, was the most amazing thing I attended. Surrounded by all those I love the most.  A few pics here of the experience: http://blog.hollyhoytphotography.com/?p=787

December 10 – Wisdom Wisdom. What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out? (Author: Susannah Conway)

My grandmother passed away this summer. In a big family, it’s often hard for everyone to get to speak at the funeral. My dad is one of 10 kids, and they asked me if I, the oldest granddaughter, would like to give the eulogy. I’m so grateful they gave me the opportunity, and that I had the strength to deliver the speech. You can read what I read here.

December 11 – 11 Things What are 11 things your life doesn’t need in 2011? How will you go about eliminating them? How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life? (Author: Sam Davidson)

1. Exhaustion (more sleep)
2. Bad Eating Habits (eat better)
3. Perfectionism (see #1…it’s exhausting)
4. Negative people (ignore negative energy)
5. Information overload (weed the twitter stream!)
6.  Self-doubt (believing more in my abilities)
7. Debit (pay it off!)
8. Others keeping me from doing things
9. Letting others affect my attitude
10. Oversharing
11. Ignoring my intuition

2009 was a year filled with ups and downs, and disorder, and rebuilding, and many wonderful lessons. As I’m sure there will be all of that in 2010, as well, I begin the year with a feeling of calm, confidence, and optimism. I’m constantly blessed with being surrounded by amazing people and projects that give me dream opportunities, and I’m super excited to share a few of the things I’ll be doing in 2010. Still pinching myself on some of these.

Alt Summit – I’m presenting! (in unrelated news…I’m dying…of excitement)

Pretty much a design junkie’s dream conference. Set in the beautiful town of Salt Lake City, UT smack dab in the middle of the Sundance Film Festival. Oh, and did I mention all of my design idols are speaking? I didn’t? Well, THAT is the best part. (Unless, I track down Justin Timberlake at Sundance. In that case THAT will be the best part.)

Um, Apartment Therapy? Hell yes. Design Milk? oh yeah, they’ll be there. NOTCOT< check!  Design Crush, {frolic!} and Design*Sponge. Yep. I know, right? Breathe. Oh yeah, and that guy who created the Mastercard “Priceless” campaign. I can’t think of a better word to describe this experience. Oh, joy! (yeah, she’ll be there, too.)

I’m HELLA honored (I know, hella is classy) to have been invited by Kirtsy to present a pre-conference social media workshop with Laura Mayes. After I realized I wasn’t dreaming, panic set in that I’d instantly turn into a babbling idiot when faced with the purveyors of lovely that grace my Google Reader daily. Let’s hope I can at least keep up with them on the slopes. Did I mention the Sundance party we’re going to? I didn’t? Back to pinching myself.

Running away with the Sun

During a packed performance last night at Houston’s Continental Club, Texas blues rock favorites, Runaway Sun, made a major announcement. They have recently been selected to play in New York City as part of the Best Buy Live at Best Buy Music series on March 26th. Following an amazing year that included the release of their first full-length LP, and being nominated for a Houston Press award for Best Blues Band, the Texas foursome is preparing for a Southeastern U.S. tour this Spring.

Lead vocalist and guitarist Andrew Karnavas is wrapping up recording a solo album at Sugar Hill Studios, before he embarks on a few solo shows on the way to the NYC performance. And I’m going with him! ROADTRIP! We plan to drive through Nashville, Charlotte and D.C. on the way to New York. If you’ve got peeps in those areas, let them know we’re headed that way!

WordCamp comes to the HTX

If there’s one thing I’m more passionate about than design and music, (or Justin Timberlake), it’s technology. And if blogging is my sickness, then WordPress is my drug of choice. Created by Houstonian Matt Mullenweg, WordPress is an open-source blog publishing platform that beautifully organizes all the posts, comments, and sidebar content that you see on this blog, and thousands of others. I’m a huge WordPress groupie, as are most who use the software. It’s hard to not fall in love with beautiful code. Especially when you don’t have to look at it.

We’ve just confirmed that my company, co.lab, my sister design company, Primer Grey, along with fellow WordPress enthusiasts will be hosting Houston’s first WordCamp later this year. PG and I are passionate about technology education and are friggin’ excited (official emotion) to host this incredible user group. We’re working on details and will share as soon as we lock down a date and location. Visit http://wordcamphouston.com or follow @wordcamphtx on twitter for breakin’ news. Yes, breakin’! We’re from Texas, y’all!

FTW, 2010. Bring. It.

{December 3rd: Article. What’s an article that you read that blew you away? That you shared with all your friends. That you Delicious’d and reference throughout the year.}

This year at SchipulCon, was when I first heard Ed Schipul’s prediction of where branding was headed. This time, It’s personal.

Ed has been writing and talking extensively about the Era of the Personal Branding and what that means for consumers, employers, and companies. On October 8th, he summarized his research in a blog post on the Houston Chronicle’s The List. Read it here and decide for yourself if you agree or disagree.

The Kirtsy Book is here. Come seek help for your Kirtsy problem, too.

Check out this incredible book trailer, created by the amazing Katherine Center:

tumblers, by slightclutter

It feels as if this post is way overdue. On the other hand, it also feels to be entirely immature.

I’m going to cram a lot into this post, so for you ADD readers, here’s the short version:

• Update on Baby Kailey: she’s doing great!
• I moved in with my parents to help with the baby!
• I still have my place, so there will still be a Christmas Tree Viewing Party 3.0!

• I quit my job!

• I’m freelancing! (yes, read above: i quit my job!)
• I’m really, really happy, excited, and scared as all hell!
• Wedding Bells

Whew. That wasn’t so hard?  Now what took me so long to write this post? (Besides painstakingly searching for the exact right image. Which I will always obsess over.)

First things first. I’m doing GREAT.  In the last 4 months I’ve made some of the biggest decisions of my life, and I couldn’t be more excited about everything. The recession be damned! I know it’s a very real thing, but I’ve decided to not participate in it. ;-)

Secondly, there is entirely no way I would have been able to make any of those decisions without the wonderful friends and family who have surrounded me with support and encouragement. I’d be about 2% of a person without you all.

Update on Baby Kailey + Home Again

Before I get into too much detail with my new career direction, I wanted to give an update on Baby Kailey. Many of you have asked about how she is doing, or who that cute baby is popping up on my Flickrstream.  If you didn’t read my original post on Kailey, it’s here. Short version is…since November my parents have had custody of my cousin’s baby girl. She was 2 months old when she came to stay with us, she is now a healthy 7.5 month old.  Mom has since started back at work, and I have moved in to help out with the day to day awesomeness of having a baby around. I swear, everyday I wonder how single mothers do this. There are 3, sometimes 4, adults in this house, and we are all exhausted! :-)

In February, after the awesomely successful Mom 2.0 Summit, I made the decision to move in with mom and dad to help out as mom started back at work. I was a little worried about leaving my place, but I found a friend who needed a place to stay for 6 months, and it just worked out perfect.  I only had to move my clothes, and he lets me visit whenever I want. Thanks, Trae!

I made the decision so quickly, that I really didn’t have time to think about what a big transition this would be.  Barring a few post-college months, I hadn’t lived with my parents since high school, nearly 12 years ago. In one day I went from being an independent, single, urban, museum district-highrise dweller, to a diaper changing, baby-talking, suburban daughter living in my parents house in Jersey Village.  Head spin!

But every moment’s been worth it.  I’ve been here nearly 6 weeks and I haven’t missed my apartment once. Due to an open invitation from Trae. :-)  I’ll never forget what the wise Laura Mayes said to me when I was contemplating this decision: she said to me, “You’ll never regret spending this time with your family.”  And that really stuck with me.  And has continued to. What is 6 months in my life? A time to be there for my family, to spend time with my mom and dad, and most importantly to experience the first year of a child’s life. There really was no decision to make.

Independence Day

After a few weeks of being home, it started to occur to me what a financial benefit this was becoming. I had not intended on moving home for the sake of saving money, but it was certainly an ancillary benefit. I quickly came to the realization that the time was here and now for me to make another decision I had been struggling with for years.

Most of you know me in one capacity or another, and at one time most of you have asked the question, “So what is it you DO?” A question I’ve struggled with answering, usually with a chuckle.  It usualy starts like this, “Well, my day job is _____, but I also do _______.”  About 4 years ago I made a decision that my traditional (well-paid) Oil & Gas marketing career would never fulfill my career passions.  I tried many companies, much to the dismay of my resume and friends’ skepticism. Over the last few years, I’ve reached out for ways to explore my creative passions in the form of PR, event planning, design, and most recently, social media. As a result, I’ve built up a network of amazing people, dream clients, and many, many new friends. It’s always been a means to an end, as I knew that one day I would make the jump from corporate employee to self-employed. And last Wednesday, that day came.

Yep, in the midst of an economic depression turned recession, on tax day nonetheless, I finished my last day at Halliburton. For 3 days now, I’ve officially been self-employed. And I can honestly say, I haven’t been this happy in a long time. And of course everyone says I will eventually say, why didn’t I do this a long time ago.  But I disagree.  This was the right time.  I had to be ready.  All the elements had to be ready. And this was the time.

I’ve have the amazing opportunity to work on some dream projects over the last few months. Starting with the Mom 2.0 Summit, where I met so many amazing folks.  One in particular, author and wife of Houston’s Mayor,  Andrea White. Since then, I’ve been working with Andrea, and with the Bill White for Texas Senate Campaign on social media strategies, and it’s been a wonderful experience.

COLABorate

So that brings me to my plans. The number one question I get these days is no longer “what do you do?” but rather, “so what ARE you gonna do?” And it seems like an easy one to answer. But it’s been difficult.

I’m not a graphic designer, a web developer, or a traditional public relations person.  Both my undergraduate and graduate degrees are in Psychology. Go figure. And most of what I do relies on the collaboration of those within my network.  I can take a decent picture, but I know a helluva lot of incredible photographers. I can open Photoshop and tell you what color looks good next to pink, but I am friends with some incredibly talented designers who can design circles around me. I can Google CSS lines of code, but call some of the best programmers around friends. Where I’ve found my strength lies is in the communication of an idea with a client.  The development of a strategy.  The execution of that strategy with a team of creatives. This is where I excel.  Bringing my network of talented people together. And it’s taken me 10 years to figure that out. So here I am.

I’ll have much more details in the coming months of my newly formed company, COLAB, and about the projects I’ll be working on. For the sake of cohesion I’ve dubbed it “interactive creative services,” which includes PR, event coordination, graphic design, web design, and social media strategy.  Website launched soon, and planning a networking event to officially announce the start of COLAB. I’ll post all the details here on my blog.

So here I am.  Back in my parents house.  In the suburbs. Eating my words. Remember “Midtown Monica”? I haven’t forgotten her. My new found independence, undoubtedly dependent on dependence of my family, who has never once wavered to help me get to where I want to be.

Wedding Bells

Hahahaha, GOTCHA! Knew THAT would get your attention. No, no, I’m not headed for the alter!  Leading a double life for the past 4 years or so can really take it out of ya. So I’m also looking forward to getting back to some of the things that I so love, but haven’t had the time for. Like writing.  I have a few projects I will be working on, that you will hearing more about soon, including more blogging and a few books I am working on.  One book that is super imminent, A Single Girl’s Guide to Weddings. Why so?  Well, as of today, I have 15 this year. Yep. FIFTEEN weddings. I’m in 4 of them. And 3 are out of the state.  Not only do I have 15 weddings. I have 15 bridal showers. and 15 bachelorette parties. Couple’s showers. trips to Crate & Barrel. In all honesty, I LOVE weddings.  No pun intended. I thought this would be a fun way to share my experiences and observations on love, dating, marriage, and (to borrow a phrase from MagsMac) the ultra important debate between taupe and off-white. I’ve attended 3 already this year, and have 3 chapters so far.  Very excited to see where this goes.

I’m still blogging over at Houstonist, and on my design blog, Design Junky, which recently got a facelift, and of course here on Cosmopolitician. Will be blogging for a new fun blog, deets on that soon!

There’s More?!!  Dang.

Thanks for lasting to the end of this post.  I know it was a bit of a marathon, and I promise to be more brief in the future.

I can’t tell you how much all of your support, encouragement and confidence has meant to me. This community is my world and my backbone. I hope this doesn’t sound to Grammy acceptance speech, but there are a few people I REALLY must thank for helping me get to this point.

Maggie McDonald for your huge smile and constant determination, you inspire me;

Laura Mayes who’s infinite wisdom and grace pushed me to quit my job (so that she wouldn’t be alone in her self-employment!);

Ed Schipul for pretty much everything: every token of crazed wisdom, every vote of confidence, and every “what the eff are you waiting for” speech;

And last but the very UNleast, Mom and Dad, who never let me believe for a second that I could fail at anything.  Even when I have. I love you, I love you, I love you (now what day does the maid come?) :-)

Being that this year was the first year of the conference, it seems myself, along with the other conference organizers, had to do a lot of convincing of people to “trust us, this is going to be phenomenal.” The downtrodden economy was against us from the get go.  But we forged on, with our insightful sponsors, dream-like speakers, and brave attendees. Hey, we know it was a gamble. You didn’t know what to expect.  Honestly, neither did we.

Instead of spending a post recapping all of the best moments of this year’s summit,  as so many great bloggers have already done, (Holly Buchanan + Glennia Campbell have 2 of my favs!) I decided to suggest why you should NOT attend the Mom 2.0 Summit.

image: Ed Schipul

#10 – You don’t like fun.

It’s true.  If you don’t like fun, you should probably not come to the Mom 2.0 Summit.  You would be miserable. There was so much fun there this year, you may go in to some sort of fun-hating induced coma. And we don’t really want to be responsible for that. We just can’t. I hope you understand.

#9 – You don’t like to learn from smart women.

Sure, learning isn’t for everyone. We get that you already know everything. Cool. Congrats.

#8 – You think Houston is a boring and uninteresting town that has nothing to offer you.

You probably also aren’t a fan of hilarious bloggers, uber-talented photographers or a fearless First Lady. No worries, there are lots of people who are. It’s really hot here anyway.

image: Karen Walrond

#7 – You don’t think women influence anything. Ever.

Yeah, you should probably stay home.

#6 – You think Social Media is a fad, trend, or fleeting idea that will probably be non-existent by this time next year.

We hear cell phones are on their way out, too. Why don’t you shoot us a fax and let us know your predictions for the next big thing.  We’re intrigued!

#5 – You don’t need some time away from the daily grind to hang out with super people at fun parties and smart panels.

We get that. We can’t all be so lucky.

images: Holly Hoyt

#4 – You hate good food.

Hey, some people don’t like to eat.  Like models. Or people who don’t have tastebuds. More food for us! Yay!

#3 – You already have all of the ideas, information, and blog fodder you’ll ever need. Ever.

We can’t argue with that.  If you are not in need of new ideas, fresh information, or advice for your blog, company, or business, you could probably skip it.

#2 – You don’t like meeting new and interesting people.

We didn’t get a lot of agoraphobes this year.  Don’t expect many of them next year. People who like people need only apply.

#1 – You have no idea how spending three days with smart, savvy, hilarious and interesting bloggers, marketers, women AND men, could possibly benefit you.

Then we most likely won’t see you in 2010.  That’s cool.  Everyone else, see you there!!

So, yeah. It’s been awhile since I’ve cranked up the old WordPress. Looks like she’s still working fine. Whew!  I could come up with tons of excuses for not posting for awhile, but I think when you are done with reading the next few posts (yes, shooting for a marathon session today), you’ll form your own opinion.  And hopefully, it’s of the opinion that you’re glad I’m blogging again. Because, well, I am glad to be blogging again. And we should get along just fine.

There’s so much to share and I’m really not sure where to start. The majority of this year has been consumed by the amazing, wonderful, successful the 2009 Mom 2.0 Summit, who will get her own post, as she deserves. Sprinkled in will be weddings (yes, 13 this year; 3 down, 10 to go!); new projects, all of which I’m extremely excited about!; and lots of new, big changes (and one little one).

Some tibits before I jump in:

• I’m kicking back up Design Junky, my “design admiration blog” as I like to call it.  I’m not a designer. But I can’t get enough of it. Check soon for a new redesign of that site, too.  Follow DeJu (i totally just made that up. right now.) on Twitter @designjunky

• Dang, y’all.  Twitter done blew up, for realz!  Over the last few months,  it seems everyone from E! Online to Christopher Walken has jumped aboard the Twitter Train. Major news stations, Politicians, and Real Estate agents. It’s a free for all, and I, for one, am intrigued about how the landscape of social media will change over the next 6 months. I’ll be blogging about that often this year.

• My mom’s on Facebook. Awesome.  True life convo between me and Mama Danna:

Me: “Hey, I’ve been meaning to tell you and Dad that Andrew’s band, Runaway Sun, is playing at the House of Blues next week.”

Mom: (totally unphased) “Yeah, I know I saw it on his Facebook wall. The Battle of the Bar Bands.”

Me: (surprised she even knew what a wall was) “Oh, um, yeah. Cool.”

Mom: “Yeah, and his mom and sister are coming in from Lubbock for the show.”

Me: (nodding like I knew that, but really didn’t) “Um, yeah. So I guess you’re in the loop on that. Great.”

• I’m going to start blogging again over at Houstonist. It’s been one of the things I’ve missed the most in the last 8 months or so. There is an incredible group of contributors there these days, and I’m really looking forward to getting back into the swing of things in the Gothamist world. I’m grateful they’ll have me back after a hiatus.  Read It. Feed It. Love it.

With that, I’ll jump into a few more dedicated posts to some awesome events that deserve their own space.

Whew! I feel like just yesterday we were ringing in 2008 at the Proletariat.  RIP Pro! :-(

So much has happened this year, and I was looking for a way to document it all. Over the last few months I’ve been writing a book. Mainly something to document my twenties, seeing as I turned the big 3-0 this year.  And so far, 30 has been fabulous.  :-) The first step was looking back at the last 10 years and attempting to make a timeline. Things like boys,  trips, weddings, boys, New Year’s Eves, Birthdays, boys, and a lot of boys.  But we’ll save the boys part for the book.

So with that process, I’m in documenting mode. So here goes. With lots of help from my gCal and Flickr: A year I will never forget, (nor hardly remember).

And I totally didn’t plan this, but this is my 100th post on CosmoPolitician! Woo-hoo!

I’ve decided to split this post up, there is just too much to get in.  Here are the first three months, and the rest will follow each day from now until the end of December. Enjoy!

January: New Beginnings

Towards the end of 2007, when word was spreading that our beloved neighborhood bar, the Proletariat would be closing in February, we decided there would be no other fitting place to ring in 2008. So with some of Matt’s friends in from Austin, we headed to the Pro for one last blow out. It was happy, and sad, and all those things in between. We snuck beers into the bar, we shared bottles of champagne, and we danced until our feet stopped working. | Full New Year’s Eve @ the Pro set here.

January was also the month of our very first Dr. Sketchy! Still can’t believe it’s been a whole year! Big props to HappyKatie and the crew for an awesome monthly event that just keeps growing and growing! Looking forward to 2009 Sketchies! | Dr. Sketchy Pool on Flickr

One of my favorite memories from January took place on a night that Jeff Balke’s band, Orange Is In, was playing at Rudz. Earlier in the day, Noel was visiting and we all had gathered at the Microcinema house for a party. Following the party, and day long drinking, Matt, Ned and I headed to Rudz to catch the show; proceed to have one (read: five) too many Red Bull and Vodkas, and head to a Rice Archie party. In between resulted in car hurdling and surprising and kidnapping, Brandon, Matt’s transient roomie, and dancing the night away in a way too small grad student apartment with entirely too many people.  Oh to be in college again. Well, at least for one night. No picture exist from this night. And that is probably a good thing.

January was also the very first time I laid eyes on Caroline. More about that later.

February: Wanderlust

Feb was my month of travel.  I had just started a new job back in November of 2007, and with it came the opportunity for me to get back overseas. Something I had been dying to do since my days in the UK, and Europe proper. My first trip took me to Malaysia, where I fell in love with the city of Kuala Lumpur, and the Malaysian people.  I stayed for a week, stared out my hotel window at the Petronas Tower, and ate the most yummy food. Encountered women with four arms, bruised up my OWN leg taking a spill into a Singapore swanky hotel, even made it to infamous KL Beach Club. Oh. those. stories. | Full KL set here.

From KL, it was on to Western Australia!  It was to be my first trip down under, and I was stoked. I headed for Perth from KL, and spent an amazing week in the sleepy Oil & Gas city. I went surfing in the Indian Ocean, hung out at the trendy Subi Hotel Bar, hiked to King’s Park, met a local chef who we spent a wild night at a casino with, swimming(?!), experienced Perth’s “Sunday Session” at the Little Creatures Brewey (same day as Heath Ledger’s funeral—it was 5 minutes from where we were) and  learned of the ridiculous shopping hours: Everything closes at 5pm! Whaaa?! The night our flight was supposed to leave at 2:55am, so we headed back down to Subiaco, and ran into some US ex-pats, who took us to get MORE wine, beer, and Indian food. Highly intoxicated at this point, Josh and I stumbled into the hotel at about 11:30pm, attempted to throw everything into a suitcase, and head for the airport. Here’s a tip. If you are about to board a plane, from Australia to KL to Tokyo to LA to Houston—do not get wasted, eating Indian food, a mere hours before you get in the plane. Not the best idea we ever had. | Full Perth set here.

On my way to Perth from KL, I also encountered a little WATER problem back home at my place. One of the most terrifying things to ever happen, especially when you are thousands of miles away. Always in debt to Mom, Matt and Maggie for their help with that situation! Maggie even made me feel better with her adorable marker presentation to assure me all was OK. What a doll. Loves her mucho.

From Perth, it was back home for a few days, serendipitously in time for the February Dr. Sketchy! It was great to see all my peeps after traveling for a few weeks, and what a welcome home with boobie cupcakes!

After a few days home, I was back off again.  This time to Amsterdam, where I went on the shopping spree of my lifetime, resulting in my new favorite winter coat; had a run-in slash fall out with KLM, spend a dreadfully boring day at the RAI for a trade show, hence resulting in Queen Trivia Post. |  Amsterdam full set

Then, on to the Middle East, Manama, Bahrain, where, yes, I rode a camel and smoked the hookah. It was a great month of traveling, but I sure was glad to crawl back into my bed. | Bahrain full set.

March: Music + Medicine

March began my first experience with my bad year of health. But before that, as with every year around SXSW, Houston gets some stellar shows coming to town. We were lucky to get two of my all time favs in a period of 4 days: Wilco and My Morning Jacket. The day after the MMJ show, Michelle and I drove to Austin for the night to attend the SXSW Rock Band party. We had a blast catching up with Gwen + Joel, met both Pete Cashmore and Marianne for the first time, and proceed to try on every single winter item of my cousin’s coat rack. Promise it was MUCH funnier at the time. Hell, maybe it’s funny now. “Let it snow, biatch.” This was probably the first time Michelle and I realized we would be friends forever.  “I love animals.” | SXSW Rock Band Party full dr. miggy set.

On Good Friday, i didn’t attend Mass.  And maybe I should have. I came down with a horrible pain in my stomach, which turned out to be, wait for it….waaaait for it…APPENDICITIS! Whoo-hoo!  Yep, I needed an emergency appendectomy Friday night. I still have a hard time believing it. I mean, how random?

If i learned anything this year, it’s that things never go as planned. My old roommate doesn’t call me Drama-ica for nuthin’. Of course, once they got in to do the surgery, they discovered that my appendix was hiding behind some important organs. So, instead of doing the nice and clean laproscopy, they had to do the old fashioned cut. Brilliant. Huge scar. Perfect.

Big thanks to Matthew who kept me company in the hospital for 3 days, Michelle who came to visit, but I feel asleep while she was there (“nobody likes sticking their finger in their eyeball!”), Stefanie and Paul for bringing by the portable DVD player (which I JUST returned last week), Shekara, Kasey, Jaime, Jill, Matt and the boys, and Mom and Dad.  Did I miss anyone? Lesson Leanred:  Demerol is AWESOME! (but not  awesome for remembering hospital guests.)

before

after

So that’s all for today.  The first quarter of 2008.  That was exhausting just recapping it!  Much more to come.  So check back everyday for a new month’s recap.

1. I once was a bus driver.

Yep, drove a bus for 1.5 years in College Station, TX when I attended Texas A&M. Not sure why people are always so shocked when they hear this. It’s actually a pretty common job on campus. And the best paying. :-) Had to take a CDL test, and parallel park a 50 foot bus. That’s why I gots mad skillz with parallel parking.

2. My dad is one of 10 kids.

Pretty much grew up amongst a horde of Italians: kids, adults, any woman who is older than me is called “aunt”, and spaghetti at Thanksgiving. My great-grandma Danna shocked me with her facial hair each time we had to kiss her on both cheeks. My dad has 8 sisters, and a brother, and I was the first grandchild. I was a bit spoiled, to say the least.

3. I’m writing a book.

Yep, and you’re all in it. :-) There are just too many stories from my 20′s I can’t let get away.  Don’t worry, I’ll change the names. (If you’re lucky).

4. I have a design blog.

Sure do.  It’s Design Junky, and it’s pretty much just an homage to things that inspire me. I’m not a designer, but I do appreciate good, smart design. You can visit it at www.iHeartSmartDesign.com

5. My job has taken me to 5 continents.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you probably already know this. Over the last 8 years, I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to work in London, Newcastle, Amsterdam and Perth.  This year alone I traveled to 5 continents in 8 weeks. Followed by an appendectomy 1 week after returning from Manama, Bahrain. Whew! Wonder what surgery would have been like in the Middle East? Glad I didn’t have to find out.  Most asked Q: What was your favorite place? A: Malaysia.

6. Dancing is pretty much my ONLY form of exercise.

Thankfully, I have a hobby that allows me to publicly show affection for pop icons such as Britney and JT. It’s all about the dancing, yo. And people don’t get that. And I’m cool with that.  We’ll settle it on on the dance floor. There WAS a reason I moved into my current place, and that DID have much to do with the wall of mirrors. It’s me against the music.

7. I don’t own an iron.

Nor an ironing board. Yes, it even baffles ME. I haven’t owned an iron, or ironing board since college. Work clothes go to the cleaners, everything else is on their own. Besides, when would I iron? I’d rather be dancing.

Now, the fun part. To tag random, unsuspecting victims.

1. Michelle “Dr. Miggy”
Calabretta – because 2008 would not have been the same without her. Nor will the rest of my life be WITH her.
2. Sew Crafty Sarah – because her creativity and talents inspire me.
3. Mellowynk - because ONE DAY we ARE gonna have that cooking lesson! (and im jealous of her craft)
4. Brentabousko – cuz I know he’ll do it.
5. Chris Everson – because he should blog more often.
6. Mandy Graessle – beause she’s one of my favorite new people to meet this year. and houston is lucky to have her.
7. Ashley Slania – because I’m so proud of her venture into the blogosphere this year, and  she some how manages to have it all. and do it all so well.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it?

• Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post – some random, some weird.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.