I’m copying Blythe, who’s copying Linda‘s reflective questionnaire. I’m thinking I’ll do this every year like she does. Any suggestions for questions I should add?

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?

Wow, pretty much everything relating to my job. Worked for a nonprofit in a full-time position? Planned an auction? Been heartwarmed by the work I’m doing?

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don’t believe I made any new year’s resolutions this year… So I’m doing pretty damned well. And I will definitely be making some for 2009 (coming soon!).

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

My friend Michelle gave birth to an adorable baby boy named Seamus on Christmas day. He turned a week old yesterday!

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Nobody close to me, thank goodness.

5. What countries did you visit?

Canada and Mexico. Yahoo, North America! (This is a HUGE difference from 2007, when work took me to Taiwan, Spain, France, and Japan in addition to my annual Canada trip for fun).

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

Boots with the fur. To be purchased on Endless shortly…

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

November 4th. History was made.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Honestly? Making cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving dinner that actually tasted good. I can now cook one thing!

9. What was your biggest failure?

Probably not paying for all of those parking tickets when I had the chance (and the money)!

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Well, I tend to get sick fairly often, but nothing major. I’ve always been pretty lucky that way…

11. What was the best thing you bought?

My wool coat, I think. Or maybe my first Jubelale.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

The Democrats. Way to get your act together. And in an election year, no less.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Still President Bush and Vice President Satan.

14. Where did most of your money go?

To pay rent for my awesome apartment. But other than that, lots of it went towards my car.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Am I focusing too much on Barack Obama becoming President of the United States?

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?

Low – Flo Rida and T-Pain, Bleeding Love – Leona Lewis, So What – Pink, Rehab – Amy Winehouse, Viva la Vida – Coldplay, Mercy – Duffy, anything by Katy Perry or Taylor Swift, and the Mamma Mia! soundtrack.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:


a) happier or sadder? 
happier
b) thinner or fatter? thinner, but this last week may have changed that…
c) richer or poorer? poorer

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Hanging out outside when it wasn’t raining. Walking by the river and in Forest Park.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Beating myself up. Being negative.

20. Did you fall in love in 2008?

Nope. Fingers crossed for 2009!

21. What was your favorite TV program?

Ooh! Either 30 Rock or So You Think You Can Dance. Those were the ones I started watching this year. Then there’s always The Daily Show, Scrubs, and Boston Legal.

22. What was the best book you read?

I’ve had a pretty long string of bad books, but I did like Three Cups of Tea and Eat, Pray, Love (I’m embarrassed to admit it). Plus I received quite a few books for Christmas that I’m looking forward to reading!

23. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Paramore.

24. What did you want and get?

Brian to stay in Portland.

25. What did you want and not get?

Talia, Alex, and both Bens to stay in Portland.

26. What was your favorite film of this year?

Hmmm… Probably either Wall-E or The Dark Knight.

27. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 25 and did a pub crawl with my friends on N Mississippi Ave.

28. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

A relationship that worked out.

29. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?

Low-maintenance clothing in solid colors. I’m guessing that every year I complete this survey, this answer will be the same.

30. What kept you sane?

My roommate. As always.

31. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

I’m going to go with Jon Stewart on this one. I am so predictable.

32. What political issue stirred you the most?

Usually I’m pretty fired up about abortion rights, but this year healthcare was front and center.

33. Who did you miss?

My family. I can’t get enough of them.

34. Who was the best new person you met?

I’m going to go with either Michelle or Jess from work. Sami’s a close third, too.

35. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.

I have a hard time enjoying the moment when it comes to relationships because I’m too busy worrying about the future. This is not a good thing. I’m working on it.

36. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

Outside you will find
There is love all around you
It takes you, makes you wanna say

That it’s a beautiful life
And it’s a beautiful world
And it’s a beautiful time
To be here, to be here, to be here

- Beautiful Life, by Fisher

My Top Five Favorite Things About Seattle, Washington:

1. Pike Place Market

2. H&M

3. Neat alley shops and cute areas downtown.

4. That superior feeling I get when I tell cashiers I’m tax-exempt.

5. Mountains, water, and nice people everywhere you look.

I drove to Seattle today to meet up with my mom and play for the weekend. This evening, we had dinner with some old friends of both of my parents – he was a resident with my dad here in Seattle and they have kids around the same age as my brother and I. On the way over to their house, my mom asked me if I remembered going there as a kid to visit. I told her a few random memories I had of playing with their girls and exploring Seattle, and also told her the following story, which I’ve decided to recount here for all to enjoy.

Once, when I was about 6 and my family came to Seattle to visit, one of the girls, Claire, who is a few years my senior, had just gotten some pet fish. She was very excited to show them to me and rushed upstairs to point them out and tell me their names. Then she looked at her dad and asked if she could feed them, to show me what they looked like when they ate. I was moderately interested in the fish, but in fact more focused on whatever Claire thought was cool, since she was older than I was. She thought the fish were cool, so I thought they were the most fascinating things I’d ever seen.

Anyway, her dad said that she didn’t get to feed them today, since she fed them yesterday and they only needed food every other day. In my entire 6 years of being, I had never heard someone use that phrase, “every other day.” So I took him literally. I actually thought that Claire fed her fish every single day but this particular one. Every OTHER day but today. And I was pissed. I looked at her dad, assuming he was maliciously not allowing me to see these incredible creatures feed. He had chosen today, of all days, to invite my family into his house, knowing I wouldn’t be granted the only satisfaction I would crave. I thought to myself, Why did we come here TODAY?!

But he didn’t look like a mean person. So I went to my dad and asked him why his friend wouldn’t let me watch the fish eat. And my dad patiently explained what it meant to do something every other day, never knowing the definition I had made up on my own. And I’m not sure, but I’m willing to bet that by the time he had finished explaining the term, I’d already moved on to whatever cool thing Claire was doing at that moment.

Let’s play catch-up. Here are the things that have happened in my life since last we met that I have deemed blog-worthy (in a list, of course):

1. I went to Idaho. And it was hilarious. Besides passing a store in the middle of Pocatello (population ~55,000) called “The Gun Barn” and another one that was a giant warehouse with these wares listed across the side: “Camping – Boots – Knives – Camo – Gifts,” it was a great experience. My dad aptly dubbed Pocatello “the town that time forgot” after driving through downtown and feeling like he jumped into 1955.

Other things to note about Idaho: They call baked potatoes “Bakers.” As in, “Whadya want on yer baker?” There are also lots of Mormons there. Everywhere you turn, stores are selling CTR rings, ties, necklaces, and wristbands. I got carded at our hotel bar and when I told the bartender I’d have to go back to my room to get my ID, he responded with, “You’d understand if you were from here.” The regional high school rodeo championships were also in town and all of the cowboys and girls were staying at our hotel. They even set up a fake calf in the atrium to practice their roping skills.

The wedding reception was at Tiffany’s parents’ house, which is a beautiful ranch about an hour outside of Pocatello, near Aberdeen. When we were driving on the long dirt road out to the house, passing by miles and miles of potatoes, sugar beets, and wheat, my cousin Kristin started singing, “We’re from the country and we like it that way…”

2. The Sixth International Barbecue Symposium took place. Anyone who went to Lewis & Clark knows that all meetings, gatherings, or even organized conversations are to be called symposia. For instance, if you do a search on the website for the word “symposium,”, you’ll get 4 website suggestions and 85 articles on everything from the “Third Annual Multicultural Symposium” to the “Environmental Affairs Symposium” and the “Law Review Symposium.” So, naturally, six years ago, my friends decided to start the annual Barbecue Symposium, which consists of lots of friends in one place, drinking, grilling, and playing in the sun for one whole day. This year we even had 4 guests of honor fly in from out of town. Overall it was a great success. And if I had to sum up the day in just a few photos, they would be these three. At one point, I decided to nap and then rally for more flip cup. I love me some flip cup.

3. I went to a Share the Road Safety Class in order to get the cost of my Illegal U-Turn ticket reduced by $115. And it was totally worth the two hours of my time. Highlights included them showing us this video to convince us to watch for cyclists, and the woman next to me getting in a bit of a fight with another person in the class about her ticket. “That is TOO illegal! Otherwise I wouldn’t be sittin’ here in this damn class!”

4. I bought the new Coldplay CD. And it was a let down. I’ve never been a huge Coldplay fan. I didn’t DISlike their music, I just didn’t search it out or buy their albums. (I just checked to see if I had any Coldplay on my computer. Until last week, I had 4 songs of theirs and I’m pretty sure I got 3 from my brother and 1 from a Christmas mix my cousin made). I really liked the song on Kanye West’s latest CD with Chris Martin on it, so I thought maybe I should give Coldplay a chance.

Jason told me to check out their website and download the free song. (He’s seen Coldplay in concert and probably has all of their CD’s). I downloaded Viva La Vida (the one on the iTunes commercials) and really liked it. Then I saw this political emotional rollercoaster of a video and decided I’d probably buy their CD when it came out. Well, I bought it. And it pretty much all sounds like their old stuff. I still like Viva la Vida, Violet Hill, and Lost?, but the CD was a waste of money. In fact, I’m pretty sure the song 42 is actually just In My Place with a few different words.

5. I started internet dating. It’s true. So be prepared for all sorts of embarrassing/stupid/painful stories on this here blog. And to start it off…
On Saturday, at my friend Kate’s wedding, Jason (that’s right, my EX) came up to me and said that he’d just received an email from eHarmony letting him know that they’d found a match for him. Her name is Megan, she’s 25, 5’10″, and she’s a fundraising event planner for a non-profit here in Portland. She’s very close to her family and enjoys happy hours and microbrews. I coolly responded with, “Wow, she sounds pretty awesome.” And then mumbled something about loving the song that was playing and ran off to dance.
When recapping this story to my friend Ben, he said if eHarmony thinks Jason and I would be a good match, that’s just proof that the system is totally fucked. I’m trying to stay optimistic.

Spoiler Alert: Jason and I didn’t kill each other.

We had a fabulous time. Needless to say, I didn’t have enough money or the patience to blog from internet cafes. Plus those keyboards are weird. Anyway, here are a few paragraphs I would have written.

First of all, we took red-eye flights to get there with the thought that it would save money and give us more play time. I wasn’t too worried about it because, God knows, I can fall asleep anywhere. The problem was that I had a two-hour layover in Texas. After I got some food and found my gate at Bush International Airport, I decided to try to get a little more rest by using my backpack as a pillow. My backpack did not have one soft thing in it, so I didn’t really think I’d fall asleep. The next thing I remember was hearing my name over the loud speaker, followed by a message that went something like, “If you do not get on the plane right now, we will leave without you and will feel no remorse.” I got up, ran to the gate, was chastised by at least four Continental Airlines employees, had to do the walk of shame back to the 24th row, and then promptly fell asleep in my seat.

When we got to Cancun, we picked up our rental car. It was a Fiat Palio stick-shift with A/C. Unfortunately Jason wasn’t a particularly good stick driver. Anyway, it became apparent almost immediately that there are ZERO rules when it comes to driving in Mexico. Speeding is expected. Want to pass on the right? No problem. Even if there’s no lane or shoulder there – just go ahead and drive on the grass. Wanna put 10 people in the back of your truck? Go ahead. Don’t have the right-of-way? Who the fuck cares. The only thing anyone seems to care about are “Topes” – speed bumps. And they are militant. The speed bumps are even smaller than they are here, but no Mexican person will go faster than 5 mph over one. They have them on small highways when you go through towns as well, which is moderately annoying. We had lots of adventures in the car, including Jason accidentally asking for the gas station attendant to fill us up with the most expensive gas because he got the words for expensive and cheap confused, the car getting searched at border patrol between states, Jason stalling in front of an armed guard at the state line and then accidentally honking… But by far the best was when I got pulled over by a motorcycle cop. It’s hard to explain without pad and paper, but basically I went into a parking lot at an “Exit Only” spot that wasn’t marked. Apparently all Mexicans just know when they can exit and when they can enter. The policeman told me at least 20 times what I did wrong, asked to see my driver’s license, studied it for 5 solid minutes, told me to be more careful in the future, and then let me go. Mind you, this entire time I was apologizing profusely and Jason was mentally adding up how much cash we had on us to bribe him.

Top two coolest things we saw:

1. Ruins. We went to Chichen Itza, and although it is one of the 7 Ancient Wonders of the World, I still didn’t like it as much as the ruins at Calakmul. At Chichen Itza, you can’t really climb on anything and there are tourists EVERYWHERE. Plus there are these really annoying street vendors who won’t leave you alone. At Calakmul, you could climb every pyramid and there was hardly anyone there. Plus, the ruins were right in the middle of a Biosphere reserve.

2. Cenotes. Pronounced Say-No-Tays. Small but deep freshwater lakes that are sometimes underground in caves. Think Goonies in Mexico. We saw two, but my favorite was an underground cave with a hole in the ceiling where the sun shone through on the water. There was also a tree growing near the hole and the roots went all the way from the ceiling into the water. All of our pictures turned out blurry and hard to see, but suffice to say it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.

Some other fun things worth noting:

- One of the cities we visited, Campeche, is known as a “Pirate City” because it was attacked and looted by pirates so many times that the citizens of the city built a wall around it for protection. We went a little crazy with the pirate thing (see photos).

- We purchased 2 Reggaeton CD’s while in Mexico – one at a Supermarket and one at a street market. (They were each about $3.00 and were well worth it). We hadn’t heard of any of the artists on either CD except the #2 song on the one from the street market was “Umbrella” by Rihanna featuring Jay-Z. Apparently if you’re from Barbados, any music you make is considered Reggaeton.

- The free hotel room the last night in Cancun was incredible. Unfortunately we couldn’t afford to eat at the hotel (we were really desperate at one point and ordered nachos by the pool – they were almost $15.00). So for dinner we picked up a six pack of Sol and a Domino’s Pizza and enjoyed the beautiful view from our free room.

I’m running away from life and going to Mexico for a week. I hope to be able to blog/update from internet cafes, but if I’m not so lucky, I’ll be back in P-land next Sunday night.

Adios, amigos! (Deséeme la suerte…)

It’s hard to come up with things to write about when my days are so insanely boring. Being at this hotel in California is sort of like purgatory. They feed me to keep me alive, but I can’t leave and I have to spend all of my time with the same people. I sleep in a room on the 8th floor, the walk down to the 5th floor (because the elevators are broken) and spend all day in the Hospitality Suite. I eat lunch from a buffet in the atrium and count the minutes until our cookie break at 2 PM. The most exciting part of my day so far has been that our coffee station still had some English Breakfast tea bags left when I got there. I shit you not.

So, I spend all day on my computer, looking for things to entertain me. I thought I would take this opportunity to share some of my favorite websites from this week with you:

1. Elf Yourself. Enjoy.

2. From my cousin Emily in Spain: Dancing turkeys.

3. From Jason, the Scandina-phile: Kiss a Scandinavian. My favorite part is the names it suggests for your Scandinavian. Mine’s named Frøya.

4. Microsoft shuts down Santa for talking dirty.

5. SantaCon 2007 Check out the pictures from last year.

And I’m spent. If anyone has anything else I could do to kill time, let me know. And now, back to my tea.

Jason and I are going to Mexico in January. We’re flying into Cancun, driving around the Yucatan Peninsula for a week in search of ruins, beaches, adventures, and bebidas, then driving back to Cancun. We decided we should actually stay at a hotel in Cancun the last night (much to both of our chagrins), since we fly out early in the morning. I was thinking I could use the Hilton points I’ve racked up through all my week-long stays at the Embassy Suites Milpitas to score us a room, but it turns out Mexican Hiltons require lots of points IN ADDITION to money, so I take a different approach.

About a month ago, the Hilton rep my company works with came into the office (he makes the trip up to Oregon from LA about once a quarter to schmooze) and brought a team of hotel reps, like he usually does. Typically, the team will consist of 6 or 8 sales people from Hiltons across the US that want our business. They’ll each give us a spiel about how great their hotel is, how it’s close to amazing things, how they just completed a $10 gazillion dollar renovation, and how they’d love for us to bring our groups to their property. This time, there was a rep from the Hilton Cancun Golf & Spa Resort. I took cards from all of the reps and didn’t think much of it.

Until today.

I thought, What the hell, I might as well email her and see if she can cut me a deal on one night’s stay. Then, I realized four very important things:
1. I was asking for a deal on a Saturday (the busiest night in the hotel industry).
2. I was asking for it in early January (peak season in Cancun).
3. I had nothing to offer her in return. I’m leaving my job in a month and won’t be able to give her any business.
4. The Hilton Cancun looks like an amazingly nice (and expensive) hotel.

Solution? Lie.

Here’s what I emailed her:

Dear (edited),
It was a pleasure meeting you at our offices a few weeks ago. I always love hearing about the interesting properties Hilton has all over the world (LIE!), and I was quite impressed with the pictures you showed us of the Cancun Golf & Spa Resort. One of my clients is looking at hosting a Board meeting in Mexico next year (LIE!), and I would love to steer them towards your property. I am planning a vacation in early January to the Yucatan Penninsula, and I was thinking maybe I could stop by your hotel or even stay a night while I’m down there and then send a glowing report to the Board. :) My boyfriend (LIE!) and I were planning on staying the night in Cancun on Saturday, January 12th, since we fly out of the Cancun airport the next day. What would you recommend?
Best regards,
Megan

She immediately emailed me back and said she’d be happy to extend a complimentary night’s stay to me and Jason on the 12th. She also attached a form for me to fill out about what sort of goodies I’d like to find in my room when I get there.

Score.