Happy 2019 everyone!

Erm… it’s been an awful long time since my last blog post, and an awful lot has happened since then. To be honest, I kept thinking about explaining my absence and settling back into the regular posting schedule, but every time I did, I felt super anxious about both the explanation and the regular posting. It was a lot easier to not think about the blog.

But I’ve missed blogging a lot, and I could not let myself not post my annual year-in-review posts, which are the highlight of my blogging year every year. I’ve been reflecting on my calendar years basically since I started blogging in 2001, and I wasn’t going to let my rough year ruin my streak!

So let’s just start fresh and run through a list of what I did this year.
(Note: Photos, videos, and reference links will be added at a later date, so stay tuned to social media to see when this post will be ~complete~ in that respect. A lot of polishing is needed here, but I will be doing it.)

• Rang in the new year in Hong Kong
• Hit DC Winter Restaurant Week hard with 3 meals in one week
• Started planning our wedding
• Went to the emergency room for the first time
• Celebrated friends getting married in Vegas
• Met Jonny Sun and got my book signed
• Visited Amsterdam + Milan for the first time
• Started (and stopped) taking antidepressants
• Attended AwesomeCon for the 2nd time
• Celebrated friends getting married in between convention goings-ons (like being in an elevator with John Barrowman)
• Spoke on a panel about being a woman in the workplace at my alma mater
• Watched Vanessa Bayer and Alex Moffat perform a comedy show
• Saw LUZIA: by Cirque du Soleil and was totally awestruck
• Hosted my mom’s sisters for their first trip to the US in over a decade and the first occasion where the 3 sisters were all in the US at the same time
• Celebrated my brother graduating from college
• Watched Jurassic World with the National Symphony Orchestra scoring the movie live
• Listened to John Cho, Grace Potter, Coheed & Cambria, will.i.am, Michael Giacchino, and Nick Sagan with the National Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the 60th anniversary of NASA
• Channeled the punk girl I never even attempted to be in the 90s for a throwback party
• Watched the Washington Capitals win DC’s first sports championship from their arena in DC with thousands of fans
• Celebrated DC Pride for the first time in our nation’s capital, alone but with much dancing
• Partook in a portraiture workshop led by my friend, where I wound up doing more portrait-sitting than portrait-taking
• Saw Hamilton at the Kennedy Center and loved it as much as I knew I would
• Rocked out to Lindsay Stirling and Evanescence
• Visited Primark and Round1 for the first time, not the last time this year
• Attended my first Otakon
• Interviewed for jobs in California, all expenses paid
• Started Invisalign
• Visited China with Ben for the first time and met his extended family
• Visited Shanghai Disney
• Soaked up Childish Gambino’s last concert tour
• Brewed potions at the Harry Potter pub experience, The Cauldron
• Watched Anastasia on Broadway
• Attended my first New York Comic Con
• Got a little drunk for the first time in my life during a Halloween bar crawl
• Watched Anastasia again at the Kennedy Center
• Quit the job I’ve held for the past 3 years
• Moved to New York City
• Rang in the new year a few blocks from Times Square.

2018 was my hardest year yet, for reasons I will take the time to talk about here on the blog, but it was also such an incredible year. I clocked so many airline miles, attended 3 conventions (last year, I attended my very first one), traveled to new countries with my brother, watched live entertainment. There is so much to be grateful for in 2018, so I will take all of that with me, leave behind the bad that I am unable to or have already grown from, and step into 2019. There is so much for me to look forward to. Like, I didn’t mean to bury the lede here, but I moved to New York City a few weeks ago and get to start at my new job here this week! I get married this year!

Let’s go 2019!

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What were some of your highlights from 2018?

Previous years: 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013