Une annee en revue

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas! What a joy to be amongst family and friends. As I landed in Salt Lake on the night of the 23rd, I shed a small tear of joy, as this is indeed, home, no matter how much freakin' annoying snow there is on the ground.

Christmas Eve was spent at home with M&B, JR, Fanou and Babe. Mom made delicious Beef Wellington (I helped with the egg wash), with gratin dauphinois (think scallopped potatoes, but even more delicious) and french Green Beans, with tiramisu cake for dessert. It was... so yummy!

Christmas Day was spent with family, I woke up and yelled "it's Christmas, it's Christmas!" like a little kid, because I still am at heart. I went over to Babe's in the afternoon, exchanged some presents, talked to his sister who's currently serving a mission in Korea, then went to my brother's new house for Christmas - what a cute house he's turned it into! I'm so proud and happy for him. My mom's side of the family was there all night, then I went to Babe's grandparents house.

This weekend was a lot of "recovery", and I watched Julie & Julia with mom... which was a pretty good show, although Julia's life was more interesting than Julie's, really... but I've got a sudden desire to make boeuf bourguignon. Or cook more in general.

Now....

New

Year

Resolutions!


First of all, I wanted to recall what my New Year's resolutions were last year, and how I've fulfilled them, as you can see here. Let's see how much I've accomplished:

2009 New Year's resolutions. Here goes.

1. Gained 8 lbs in December (gasp!) Would like to lose those again, and some more. (wow, did you know that the first one would be weight-related? Of course you did, I'm a chick) - ok, so did I lose weight this year? No. I'm very unproud to say that I've gained about 11 pounds since I moved to california. As a 5'2'' person, that can be quite a lot. What the flagnard happened???

2. Go back to the wheat-free dairy free diet - may be why #1 failed - although I've mostly been good, there are times when I'd go out and splurged.

3. Get in shape (walk to the beach, use the gym @ work, do sit-ups on the yoga ball, get a kickboxing and/or pilates DVD) - Actually technically achieved this. I did go on walks to the beach, sit-ups, gone kickboxing and got an exercise DVD. I beleive the issue is I did not issue a timeframe or frequency to this resolution.

4. Smile all day long - well, I love optimism, so I do smile as often as possible, and at least once a day, so I'm smiling right now as I've accomplished this.

5. Go to bed at 10PM on weekdays (ha!) - This has been surprisingly easy. I'm in bed by 10PM on weekdays 90% of the time. 97% of the time I'm in bed by 10:30. The other 3% I'm out in Hollywood to movie screenings, which haven't happened more than 10-15 times all year.

6. Be responsible financially (I's got bills now!) - well, look at me, I have a budget file and am keeping it up. I did just slightly spend more than I made this year, but about $4000 of it was furniture related or stuff for my apartment. I think I did pretty good.

7. Try to join a casual volleyball team in the spring - Yes!!! March 1st, 2009 was the day I met what would soon to be my official awesome Cali friends, and I get to play beach volleyball. Win. In this resolution, more good came from it: other people to hang out with when Babe's not here.

8. Limit consumption of chocolate (sigh) - Um, yeah. Again, "limit" doesn't specify a number, so I could say that I limited myself to 10 pounds a day, but that just won't fly.

9. Stop eating brownies and cookies at work! (maybe that explains the need for resolution # 1...) - worked at some point, maybe from January to late spring, but then it started again.

10. Keep loving your family & friends - Absolutely! Don't believe I've failed at that because I love everyone very dearly that is close to me.

11. Get a new PC so that I can play Counter-Strike Source in my spare time... and also because I'm sick of this POS - oh yeah. Still have the POS, but don't use it because Babe built me an awesome computer!!!

12. Make L.A. County my new home for this year and take advantage of this beautiful area - I think I've succeeded at that. I've made my apartment my new home, but most importantly I've got friends who really wanted to show me the area. Thanks to them I've discovered: Hollywood, Pasadena, West LA/Brentwood area, West Hollywood, Griffith Observatory at Night & The Grove. I took advantate of movie screenings, and have discovered: Japanese noodle places, cheap and great Italian, authentic French, delicious Vegan, gay bars, Le Pain Quotidien, an organic tea place, a very "L.A., hip lunch place", and who knows what else... but I couldn't have done it without them.

13. Be the best I can be - at work, at home, with people. - I always try my best at work, but as I'm currently getting a little bored I believe I could do more. I'm just scared. I love analysis but I'm not sure how much authority I have sometimes to make decisions or if I'm looking at the right tools. At home, I believe I do well, but again, could always use improvement. With people, I need to stop being so nice dang it. Haha. Just kidding.

Well, those are it! I will ponder these and come up with a brand new 2010 resolution in a few days. I have a few in mind, but I need to make them more specific I believe.

What's everyone doing for New Year's? I personally have no idea what I'm doing yet... I'm stuck in Salt Lake, which no offense, might not be as lively as LA County... but I'll be with the ones I love so that's excitement enough for me. Have a safe, happy and prosperous New Year!