"Sometimes you gotta create what you want to be a part of." - Geri Weitzman

So I've neglected this blog for a while. My bad!

I kinda feel like I don't want to post something unless there is something behind it. But then I realized something... that's too much pressure!

I have 4 drafts that I never finished that are just sitting there. Maybe I will post a few of those this year, maybe not. I guess we'll see.

In the meantime, this will be my "year in review" post, even though it's a bit late. (oops!)

Eldurairaj Union 

So 2015... yeah... as far as work goes, it is another one of those epic years of change. This year will not be any different but it's too early to digress on that topic.

As far as personal growth, it was another big one. I decided to really focus on my creative side. THAT blog got lots of love last year. I embarked on a year long #HumpDayHaiku journey that I'm proud to say I completed. And even though the writing of the haikus didn't improve my writing ability (though I'm beyond an expert of counting syllables on my fingers), the drawings that went with them definitely improved. I started out drawing stick figur-ish robots to many other things. I have to say, I found it challenging to find 52 really good themes, and I accepted that not every haiku would be better than the last.

Here are the ones I liked the best, even though others may have disagreed:

Top Left: I was inspired by the pictures of Pluto and have always loved staring at the evening sky trying to find constellations or planets.

Top Right: One of my friends took a picture of a bunch of windmills. I thought it looked cool and there you go. :)

Bottom Left: Baby elephants! 'Nuff said!

Bottom Right: Ninjas, nunchucks and ninja stars; need I say more?

 Top Left: I saw a graphic T with a whale on it and loved it. Whales are very calming, despite their massive size.

Top Right: Jase is big on lighthouses and he pulled me right along with him. I'm still looking for the one in OC. Hope it's not a myth!

Bottom Left: This is my girly side coming out. Unicorns and rainbows!

Bottom Right: This was inspired by an actual art exhibit where 1000 teddy bears were painted on canvases of all sizes. Philipp Jordan is the German artist's name. His paintings were much more vibrant than my drawing, but I still liked what I drew.

Top Left: The ocean was inspired by a drawing an instagrammer (whose profile was taken down) who actually drew a dress from a very similar pattern. I loved it and thought it would look amazing as water. This one may be my all-time favorite.

Top Right: What can I say? I love the rain. ;)

Bottom Left: I haven't been snowboarding in a long time, but it's one sport that I love. Especially when I learned how to connect my turns. (And got all the necessary padding that makes me look like I've gained 30 lbs. but shoot... at least I'm protected!)

Bottom Right: An instagrammer (anasteem) has so many amazing pictures of her daughter with heart shaped balloons. I thought it was beautiful and so I made an attempt to draw it.

Not bad, right? 12 of 52?

I also read a decent amount over the last year. The number of books may not seem like it but shoot, the number of pages show a slightly different story (3000+).

And in no particular order:
1. The Giver - Louis Lowry
2. The Martian - Andy Weir
3. Wind/Pinball: Two Novels - Haruki Murakami
4. Dance with Dragons (A Song of Fire and Ice, Book 5) - now I know you were waiting for this one if you have ever looked at my previous years' book lists!
5. Crazy Rich Asians - Kevin Kwan
6. Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson

Dessert Cooking Class

I didn't go abroad but I got to see a bunch of friends. Visiting San Francisco for fun and to take pictures, Seattle to have a mini cousin reunion, DC for my good friends' wedding, Boston to see old grad school friends, local trips to SB and SD...How lucky am I to have so many people to visit? ... Very!

I am grateful to always realize when I have good people around me. It doesn't happen everywhere, and I do my best to appreciate and enjoy it as much as I can. After all, the only constant is change, right?

We'll see what this year brings!

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

The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones. - John Wooden

And in my world, "new" is a book that I haven't read yet!

Last Christmas I got a Kindle Paperwhite. It truly is a wonderful invention. I admit, I had a hard time converting, especially since, at times, just the weight of a book is comforting (unless it's a textbook!).

I didn't read as much as I wanted to, but I still got over a dozen. Not too bad, considering one was 800+ pages. :) Thank goodness for goodreads for helping me keep this all straight!

1. The Honest Trust About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone - Especially Ourselves - Dan Ariely
2. The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides
3. Beyond Illusions: A Novel - Duong Thu Huong
4. The Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
5. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
6. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
7. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Other's Don't - Jim Collins
8. One Day - David Nicholls
9. Ru - Kim Thuy
10. Running with Scissors - Augusten Burroughs
11. The Elephant Vanishes - Haruki Murakami
12. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
13. Wonder - R.J. Palacio
14. A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin
15. Bossypants - Tina Fey

If you compare to last year, you'll see I have some repeat authors (#2 and #11)

I think I slowed down a little because I started dabbling in my own creative writing. I've gotten a little behind on that because I started a food blog.

Why did I start all these side projects? The question really is, "why not?!"

Book worm nerd alert!

I've neglected this blog for a good part of half a year now. I have a few "drafts" that probably won't get published, but I've been a little "busy", I guess.

Being a part of the real world (post grad school) has given me a chance to start reading for leisure again. I've always been a reader, and honestly, wished something like "goodreads" was available when I was younger, so I could have kept track of all the books I've devoured over the years.

I'll have to settle on hoping that I kept track this year and didn't miss one. So... what's the tally for 2012? A whopping 24 books! (Thank you Santa Barbara Public Library...)

Just in case inquiring minds want to know what the list contains (in no particular order):
1. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
2. Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
3. Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
4. Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay
5. Dexter by Design by Jeff Lindsay
6. Dexter is Delicious by Jeff Lindsay
7. Double Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
8. City of Thieves by David Benioff
9. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
10. What the Other Dog Saw and Other Adventures by Malcolm Gladwell
11. Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
12. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
13. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
14. Gap Creek by Robert Morgan
15. Heartbreaking work of Staggering Genius by David Eggers
16. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
17. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
18. Rant by Chuck Palaniuk
19. Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julia Powell
20. Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James (and let the judging begin!) - almost didn't include this one, but what the heck!
21. Savages by Don Winslow
22. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
23. In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami (no relation to Haruki as far as I know...)
24.  Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

And there you have it. Aside from the Dexter series, I'd say it's a nice mix. Most of these books were recommendations from my virtual book club in Boston and some were me piggybacking off of Jase's books, others were recommendations of other friends, and some were flat out my picks.

The library is a great place to get ideas of what to read, but I definitely miss the brick and mortar stores like Borders and Barnes and Noble (the closest one to me is about 30 miles south... big surprise!) There will never be anything like browsing through displays of books and finding those eye catching covers. Hopefully BN won't also disappear!!

For 2013, I've already finished 4 books, (no, 2 of the books aren't the rest of the Fifty Shades series... although 1 is... haha), but that list won't be revealed for a while.