2016

2016

I spend hours, if not days, planning out my New Year's resolutions and goals for the year. There are the vision boards, the written lists, mantras repeated, goals updated etc etc etc.....

I entered into 2016 with the best intentions and optimism of what my life would be for the upcoming year. However, I tend to do a poor job spending as much time reflecting on the journey, accomplishments, lessons learned, experiences gained, funny moments and people that shaped my year. But not this year!  For my own sake, for my own keepsake, and the sake of those that have shaped this year, I'm sharing my 2016 rambles.

The Year of Love 
The romantic in me fantasies about the prince charming that will whirlwind my year. I have visions of laying on a beach in Thailand drinking Mai Thais with my bronzed beau, talking about our goals, interests, books and adventures, posting the most picture perfect moments of our adventurous love on Instagram that's everyone's envy. This year however was the Year of Love because it was the first time in ages, potentially two decades that I opened my heart up so wildly and freely. There was no overthinking, no social media posting and no exotic vacations, but there was something so right, so universally powerful and so comforting to experience life with someone that felt life in their bones the same way that I feel life. I met someone that gave me hope and reassured me to never settle, especially in love.

The Year of Fitness 
I entered into this year with one goal and that was to get my body to the level that I knew I could take it. There were four months where I didn't have a drop of alcohol, where I counted every fat, carb, protein and calorie I ingested, and days where one workout wasn't good enough. I saw changes, I competed, I got compliments, I bought smaller sizes, I had legit muscles. Never outside of college sports did I think I would wake up at 4:30am to head to the gym with my closest friends. Never did I think I'd have a friend that would organize my workout schedules and help me figure out my macros. Never did I think I'd give up tacos for 60 days straight, twice! My tunnel vision on a goal became excessive and I couldn't be more proud of almost achieving my goal. Watch out 2017! 

The Year of Opportunity
There was a period early on in the year that I was beyond content to work from home with a less demanding travel schedule and lunch time beach breaks. I thought I was living the Cali dream and I was quite content with my past accomplishments of working the Bonnaroos, the Coachellas, the Allstar weeks. I thought I was sitting pretty. Then wham, the opportunity of a lifetime presented itself via my previous but highly attractive and single bossfriend. Initially, I thought, of course I'll work with the coolest and most relevant social media company in the universe, Snapchat. Duh, no brainer. Never did I think one project that I was apart of would be called the marketing campaign of the year. Never did I think I would stand in the same room of the CEO billionaire that conjured up the product. Never did I think it would translate into a new job in 2017. And NEVER did I think the journey would include those closest to me.

The Year of Friendship
This portion is where the ramblings could continue for pages on pages, but I'll keep it short. To my Oreos, to my Brownies and to my Big Booty Cuties thank you for the laughs, the killer workouts at Afterburn, the Manhattan fireworks, silly nights at Palmilla and Sharkeez, a whirlwind trip to Mexico City, s'mores and a bonfire at Dockweiler, concerts and musician crushes, hikes to the Hollywood sign, Capital Records and The Super Bowl. Betsy, thank you for being a God-send. In a past life, we were sisters, badass skinny adventurous sisters with the best stories. Rhenee, the thing I appreciate the most about you is your loyalty. There are few people that I can count on or trust, but you'll always be there with a plan then insert our super powers and ridiculous things happen!  Steph, I can't thank you enough for your honesty and encouragement for me to send someone the most vulnerable letter I've ever typed up in my life. I love our treadmill talks and goal setting. I can't wait to call you my teammate in the New Year.

The Year of X Ambassadors
This is random and extraordinary, but in one year I managed to see X Ambassadors four times which is only appropriate since their music was the soundtrack of my year. I belted out Unsteady, Renegades and Jungle at SXSW twice, FreePress and the Greek Theatre.

RECAP OF 2016 
January 1 - Setting off lanterns in Chiang Mai with Cj, Rachie Rach and Mr. Cobb

January 6-14 - Thank you Lee for sharing Thailand's best kept secret, Tonsai; because of this stop I met Maarten, Pontus, Francois, Ash, Oleg, Samira, Garren, Travis, Ricky, Maxi, Orban and Rosa, and Jack.

February 6  - Going to the Super Bowl for Budweiser; meeting Tim Tebow, Mark Cuban and Run DMC's crew.

March 11-16 - Expo West: running 2 clients at one expo and getting enough healthy snacks to last me two months!

March 16-20 - SXSW; seeing Jamestown Revival and X Ambassadors. Meeting BBC.

April 2 - Vision board party with the girlies

April 14 - LA Kings hockey game with BBC

May 22 - Preakness with the Budweiser Crew

May 28 - Slow dancing to Lady Antebellum at Country 500

June 5 - Meeting Dick, Arturo, Soma and Christian at FreePress

June 11 - Ending up on Jake Owens tour bus with Nae Nae

June 18 - Going to the Griffith Observatory with Betsy

July 8-12 - MLB Allstar week with Motive (Betsy and Cam)

July 17 - Capital Records and the Hollywood sign with Betsy

July 27 - Seeing Cobi in concert at the Bootlegger Theater

July 30 - Joshua Tree Hugger Trip with Betsy and Reed

August 4 - Site visit with Nae Nae at Six Flags and riding a rollercoaster to ourselves

August 20 - Coldplay at the Rose Bowl (thank you Derek!)

September 4 - Bud N' Burgers Competition in Philly ;)

September 6 - Coming home to my house filled with birthday presents from Betsy, Cam, Steph, Bri  and Clarissa

October 16 - Having a meeting in Snap's Penthouse

October 30 - Pizza making

October 31 - Meeting Rick J. Caruso and having a walk-thru at The Groove

November 10 - Snap's Spectacles launch at the Blue House in Venice Beach

November 11 - 13 - Big Sur trip to Big Sur Bakery, Phieffer Beach/Keyhole and Brixby Bridge #iateallllllllthecookies #bucketlist

November 20 - Trip to Mexico City with Daniel and Nae Nae to see Nuk play!

December 4 - Placing a Snapbot on a mountain in Griffith Park

December 5 - Seeing Kaleo play at The Roxy

December 29 - Killer work trip to somewhere incredible :)