“To travel, to experience and learn: that is to live.” - Tenzing Norgay

Hello there!

It's been a while since I've been on here. I've been keeping myself busy with my creativity projects and have also been neglecting that food blog I was working on. Oops!

The Couz and the Bro

Anyway, my brother, Stephen (but better known to his friends as "Steve") turned 40 a few months ago. I was planning on writing about that in May or early June, but my obsession with finishing the Game of Throne books kept me occupied. I finally finished the 5th book (A Dance with Dragons) earlier this month! So before I go and start rambling about the books and the HBO series, I will stop myself from digressing...

So, yeah, Steve just hit a big milestone in life. He may or may not like that I have called him out on this, but truth be told... he doesn't look his age. Nor, truthfully does he act it. :)

George Burns stated it well, "You can't help getting older, but you don't have to get old!"

Heck, I'm not going to disagree with that! My previous irritation of getting carded has now been transformed to feeling a small joy from it these days!

Totem Poles in Stanley Park, Vancouver

While it may not have been the case when I was young, I am definitely grateful to have grown up with a sibling. Even though my first words were "Stop it!" due to his torment, even though his chant of "Kimmy's got a BIG ol' head!" still rings in my ears, even though he never let me play with his Star Wars toys... I'm still glad that I had someone to share my childhood with.

After all, no one else (aside from my parents) has been there my whole life. To know the growing pains, the challenges, and the good times. Who else can we call when our parents are driving us up the wall?

On the way back from Vancouver

For his birthday I bought took him to Seattle. We had so many reasons why we chose that city:

1. Our cousin lives there, so mini cousin reunion!
2. It's close enough to Vancouver.
3. It's just a great city!
4. etc...

We have travelled together before many years ago but it was time we did it again.

On the waterfront

While we were up there, we took a day trip to Vancouver, went to a Sounders game, visited the Space Needle and Chihuly exhibit, met up with some friends, and explored this beautiful city.

We truly, and honestly were going to go on a hike, as my cousin goes on them regularly. The breathtaking posts on her instagram account: https://instagram.com/chrisxxs were enough to motivate me to go! But, the day we scheduled it, the bridge was up due to Seafair, so we'll have to do that one next time. 

Happy Birthday Steve and happy mini cousin reunion! To many more!

WARNING: Reflections in this post may be distorted by socially constructed ideas of a happy life

So anyone who has ever read this blog knows that it's pretty normal for me to use quotes, or plays on quotes. This one is particularly awesome, me thinks, but let me just set the expectation now; this will just be a run of the mill reflection on the previous year. (So long to all of you who tuned out and clicked elsewhere!)

And what a year it was!

January - March:

For my birthday I got Lion King tickets. Lion King was my favorite animated Disney movie for ages (until they collaborated with Pixar) and I have been dying to see this show for as long as I could remember.

There are a handful of movies where I know every single line and this is one of them. (If you are curious about the others, they include, but aren't limited to: Jerry Maguire, Clueless, Friday, and Almost Famous. Talk about random, right?)

The show definitely did not disappoint. If you have never seen it, this is a ::MUST SEE:: in my humble opinion. The opening song is worth the ticket!

As I mentioned in previous blog posts, I was lucky enough to travel to Hong Kong, Manila and Bali in February and March.

Even now, as I look through the pictures, I crave that meal after the bike ride that should have resulted in my first time getting stitches. (Didn't get any, but I neosporin-ed the HECK out of the gash on my hand. Healed decently, woo hoo!)

As it's raining and a wee bit chilly in SoCal, I would love to be reading under an umbrella on a beach chair in Bali. (That's right, RAIN in So Cal!) I also wouldn't mind having a piping hot bowl of noodles on Victoria's Peak in Hong Kong.

I am blessed to have found such great friends and traveling partners from grad school. Knowing us, there will be several more!

April to June:

I also got to see The Book of Mormon this year. If you've seen it, then you should really enjoy this rendition of its opening song "The Book of Mormon Comes to South Park":

I went to Boston for work, which is always a huge treat since so many good friends are still in the area. There is never enough time to see people, but I sure tried! :)

It was a good time to go since it was finally warming up. My colleagues and I were supposed to go in March, during a bad storm, while there was plenty of snow. I can't say that I'm not glad that our trip got postponed!

Another good set of friends from BU got married in San Francisco so we had another mini reunion that included a road trip and some wine tasting.

Since I was on the way, my friends picked me up, but the best part was that I was able to introduce another person to American Ale; home of the best burger EVER!

July to September:

My summer started off with a cousin reunion. It has been over 4 years since we have been in the same city. We had planned on going to Disneyland, but they were in Cali during the hottest days of the year. Ummm... no thank you! 

Instead, we roasted in my aunt's house in the IE (AC was on the fritz) and finally escaped the heat by gorging on Korean BBQ and going to a movie. It definitely doesn't compare to the Happiest Place on Earth, but with that heat, having a leisurely meal and catching up really just hit the spot. 

I also had a few visitors that actually came through Santa Barbara itself. This isn't the first time, as I had plenty of visitors that came to see me specifically in 2013 (love you guys!), but usually if they aren't there to see me specifically, LA is the closest they will get.  Not surprisingly, I also took both sets of friends to American Ale. (I wasn't dutchess on yelp for nothing! And believe it or not, it didn't take long to dethrone me... sigh... I can't wait to get back there!)

October to December:

Halloween is my favorite holiday. It's the time of year when people's inner creativity (and for some ladies, a inner something else, ahem) comes out. 

I've always been a huge fan of dressing up, but I can't always say I've executed well. Part of that is that I don't start thinking about it until late, but another is that I'm often reluctant to spend a lot of money on it.

There have been some really amazing costumes from my co-workers ranging from Brangelina to a group costume of Clue.

This year a group of us got together for a brainstorming session.

The ideas were flowing: Hunger Games, Star Trek, Phone Apps... we finally decided to be the US Women's curling team (coach and all!). We got brushes, created our own curling stone with a kettle, attaching it to wheels with duct tape and aluminum foil; we got brushes and even an American flag. 

It was so fun! We even won the costume contest!

Thanksgiving week was pretty exciting. My brother and I went to the Justin Timberlake concert, I went to my boss's retirement party and went to another good friend's wedding.  That was a darn good week! 

I ended the year in my favorite place... San Diego!

Adventures in Kreativitee

Throughout the year, I have been working on being more creative. Towards the end of 2014, I started doodling on a white board, mainly recreating superhero minions. 

My creative writing has slowed down a bit, but I got really good at drawing on dry erase boards! I even started getting specific requests. I captured most of them here. 

But recently one of my good friends at work and I have started writing haikus. My project for this year is to continue hump day haikus. One of many.

Books:

Of course I had to continue my annual list of books! While the number is quite low, the number of pages was a feat! (3000+) The authors have mostly been reoccurrences over the years, but at least I know what I like!

1. David and Goliath - Malcolm Gladwell
2. What I Talk About when I Talk About Running - Haruki Murakami
3. Clash of Kings - George R.R. Martin
4. Sword of Storms - George R.R. Martin
5. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? - Mindy Kaling
6. Dexter's Final Cut - Jeffrey Lindsay