Time to Catch Up!!

Okay... fallen completely behind... but in the spirit of the initiative I'm going to try to catch up... here are days 9 and 10...

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)

#virtualcheers [and the sushi that tried to kill me]

Sad, but I've realized I didn't get out much this year. I took some trips, and met a lot of new people, so I think I'd rather talk about that, more of a recurring group of people, food, drinks, and shenanigans... rather than one night. It all began when I did something I don't think I'd ever done before in my life... agreed to meet a total "stranger" for a drink. [Wow, I am sounding more and more dull as I go along...] But seriously, I forget which of us proposed the "tweetup", but one beautiful Friday afternoon I found myself rushing to the Wine Thief (LATE, as per usual) to meet a lady whose only communication between us had been this new-fangled Twitter. [To my husband's great dismay, when, running late, I called him in a panic from my ancient flip phone, to talk him through sending a "I'm running late!" DM on his our iphone...]

With the ridiculous feeling of showing up for a blind date, I got to the Wine Thief and easily found my "date," since I was told to look for "the only girl with the shaved head." I instantly felt foolish for being nervous, what followed was some of the easiest, most enjoyable one on one conversation I had had in a long, long time. After much talk of pups, work, and relationships, she said she was meeting some other folks that I recognized from "the local twitterverse." Emboldened by my new independence and two glasses of wine on an empty stomach, I basically invited myself to this fairly large group already waiting at Toro. Where, over the course of the evening, I managed to make a complete fool of myself by smacking the arm of a lovely gentlemen I had just met and launching a glass of wine into another lovely gentleman's lap. And either no one seemed to care, or this group was classy enough to pretend not to care. Either way, I was smitten, and while I made very few of the following newly established "happy hours" [like I said, I didn't get out much this year] I definitely enjoyed joining via the interweb as often as I could with a #virtualcheers. These meetups with this group of new friends has definitely been the social gathering highlight of my year, and I look forward to many, many more in 2011. [Even if I am only having soda.]

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

This year, I decided to finally take my freelance business to the next level. For years I've been doing work outside of my FT design job on and off, for people here and there, doing all sorts of odd jobs that came to me. But my favorites, and the area I've been wanting to focus on for years now, is invitation and event design. Not "event coordination," more of designing the look and feel of - namely - weddings. I realized I couldn't do it by myself, not while I was working full time, so when my sister [and best friend] said she wanted to do it with me, it was like all the stars aligned. She could be the left side of the brain, while I was the right. And it worked beautifully! We've spent much of the year growing professionally and personally, and I feel amazing about what 2011 has in store for us. But mostly I feel so lucky to have such a dedicated, organized, awesome person to work with. :)