a few of my favorite things from 2017

While I'd like to forget most of what happened in 2017, and still kind of feel like I'm living in some sort of whacked out alternative universe, there were a few things that happened that made me happy. They were mostly simple things -- music, well-written/acted/produced television, friends, family and cute little people starting to display their cute personalities :)

Favorite New Song: This just makes me happy every time I hear it :)

Favorite Moment of Television: DRACARYS!

Favorite Moment with My Favorite Little People: Cousin Swingtime

            

Speaking of my favorite little people, they dominated my "Jar of Joy" this year -- shocker ;)

• 1/1/17 - 4-mile walk to and from and all around Lake Balboa. Gorgeous day after New Year's Eve rain..
• 1/3/17 - Escape from Jury Duty after only 2 hours!
• 1/16/17 - Won $50 Amazon gift card from work for the 4th quarter FitBit challenge! 
• 1/20/17 - My niece Teegan is born! 
• 1/21/17 - Women's March LA.. I was one of 750,000 united for goodness vs. evil! And then, I went to meet Teegan in person! LOVE
• 1/22/17 - Facetime with Kaden
• 2/16/17 - Birthday at Burke Williams + yummy dinner with mom and dad
• 2/17/17 - Nieces day with Teegan and her big sisters 
• 2/18/17 - Bday dinner #2 at Buca de Beppo with VIPs
• 2/19/17 - Bday dinner #3 with BFFs
• 2/25/17 - Quickie unexpectedly returns to the lineup. Kings beat Sucky Ducks 4-1!
• 3/25/17 - Drive to Vegas early for Kaden Time (before CinemaCon)
• 3/31/17 - Auntie Kim and Kaden day playing and doing "the diggy"
• 4/8/17 - Walk MS in Thousand Oaks. Mom is named this year's "Most Inspirational Walker" in a surprise (to her!) announcement :) 
• 4/22/17 - Saw Dave Grohl and his mom talk about her new book "From Cradle to Stage" at the LA Times Festival of Books
• 4/27/17 - Business class cubbie to Australia!
• 4/29/17 - Land in the land down under and see the Opera House
• 5/5/17 - Meet a koala bear in Sydney
• 5/13/17 - Chevy Metal w/ Dave Grohl @ Conejo Valley Days
• 5/20/17 - U2's Joshua Tree 30th Anniversary concert at the Rose Bowl
• 5/27/17 - Kaden's 1st Birthday Party!
• 7/2/17 - Kari and Kaden at my 2nd of July BBQ! Kaden's first time in the bounce house is NOT a success ;)
• 8/12/17-8/13-17 - Listening to U2 in Joshua Tree and seeing the milky way in the clear night sky during the meteor shower
• 8/21/17 - Total solar eclipse in Oregon with JZ and RZ
• 8/23/17 - Buying baby Nikes for Kaden and Teegan at the Nike employee store
• 8/26/17 - #saturdayswithteegan start :)
• 8/30/17 - Hamilton at the Pantages! Finally!
• 10/7/17 - Cal Jam 17! Foo Fighters live!
• 10/14/17 - Gorgeous sunset on the way home from San Miguel Island
• 11/8/17 - Trip to Vegas to see Kari, Kaden and Aunt Gertie. Kaden's new thing is giggling whenever the dogs bark
• 12/9/17 - Collected 31 toys for tots at Christmas Cocktails. My friends rock! 
• 12/10/17 - Downtown Adventure day + The Nutcracker
• 12/17/17 - Holiday lights at the Venice Canals with Mo and Qball
• 12/23/17 - Kaden and Teegan meet in person and play and swing and open presents together!
• 12/27/17 - Took Kaden to the LA Zoo!

my joys of 2016

Back at the start of 2015, I started keeping a Happiness Jar, inspired by Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert. I tried to keep it going this year, but there are full months I apparently had no joys :( Oh well. LOL.

Here are what all the little pieces of paper I folded up throughout the year and put in my jar said.. Here's hoping I find more joy (or at least more time to write them on little pieces of paper) in 2017!

• 1/1/16: Lazy day of magazines and movies.
• 2/13/16: Massage in Santa Barbara + room service with wine
• 2/14/16: Walked 5 miles in gorgeous Santa Barbara and sat looking at the blue Pacific for three hours
• 3/18/16: Amazing dinner at The Little Door with James, Daryl and Karen
• 3/26/16: DTLA Adventure Day with Daryl, James and Karen. Random run-in with R2D2 :)
• 5/27/16: Baby Kaden Michael is born!!! I'm an aunt! :)
• 5/29/16: GNO Dinner at Mo's with La Lizzzz and Susie. 
• 6/4/16: Finished "Wild" ... Book #5 this year!
• 6/4/16: 1st Summer Grillin' Saturday with Susie and Mo
• 6/5/16: GDO (That's a Girls Day Out) to see "Me Before You" with Linda, Ingrid and Nicole at the fancy theatre in Westlake with waiter service and reclining chairs. 
• 6/6/16: First Hollywood Bowl show of the summer - "The Little Mermaid Live" with Katharine
• 6/11/16: Bought new MacBook Pro (after 6.5 years of the old slow Mac)
• 6/14/16: Bought a Pantages Theatre season package to guarantee seats to "Hamilton"... 14.5 months from now. :p
• 6/16/16: Met Kaden for the first time. LOVE.
• 7/17/16: Sting and Peter Gabriel at the Bowl!
• 8/10/16: Adele at Staples Center - AMAZING!!!!
• 8/19/16: Weekend with Kaden! Yay!
• 8/28/16: Beautiful day in nature on Santa Rosa Island. Saw a dolphin pod swimming free on the way there! 
• 9/4/16: DTLA Adventure Day with James and Diana
• 9/11/6: Found out I'm going to be an auntie again!!! Ryan and Brittany are having a baby girl in January. 
• 9/22/16: Vancouver weekend with QBall! 
• 9/24/16: Beautiful Vancouver day at Capilano Suspension Bridge and Stanley Park :)
• 10/2/16: Fun day unpacking with Hayden and Mackenzee :)
• 10/8/16: Kaden's first trip to the pumpkin patch! 
• 10/17/16: Wizarding Wold of Harry Potter with Ruthie, Jen and Leslie!
• 10/19/16: Kari sent the cutest video of Kaden singing in his bouncy seat
• 10/26/16: Kaden makes his TV debut on Fox 5 News in Vegas with his pumpkin patch photo
• 11/11/16: Cousin Josh texted adorable pic of Baby Ava in her "Cute" hoodie I sent her
• 11/12/16: Lucky's roses are finally blooming in the garden
• 11/24/16: Thanksgiving dinner at my house with Mom, Dad, Ryan, Brittany, Hayden and Mackenzee
• 12/10/16: Christmas Cocktails! Fun. No stress for Year #2. Yay for Joan's Mac & Cheese :)
• 12/23/16: Dad's bday dinner with the whole family!
• 12/24/16: Christmas lights walk with Kaden in his cute Santa hat and 1st Christmas onesie 
• 12/25/16: Kaden's 1st Christmas
• 12/27/16: Discovered that the pizza place near my house that used to suck is now AMAZEBALLS. 

goodbye 2016

So 2016 ends in a few hours.... while most people are under the impression it was a totally suck-ass year overall based on all the amazing people who died this year and the election insanity, in retrospect, my own life was actually okay.

One part of it was, in fact, AWESOME -- I became a real auntie for the first time (I will be one for the second time in January when my new niece is born!) and it's been amazing, because this little guy is the absolute light of our family and my life right now. Seeing Kaden grow, and now starting to babble and roll over and recognize and understand things is so fun. I can't imagine my life without him!

I also had a bunch of great adventures and accomplished an altered version of about a third of my 2016 Vision Blog (hey, better than nothing!) ... 

I finished these books, which included four from my original "to read" list + two new ones....

+ I also read Where Am I Now? True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame, by Mara Wilson, who I had the pleasure of interviewing back in the day when she was a child actor starring in Mrs. Doubtfire and Matilda. She even fondly mentions one of our Disney Adventures photo shoots in the book, which was an awesome surprise! (The book is now being borrowed by my Disney Adventures wrangler La Lizzz, thus it's MIA in this photo ;)

I didn't go to Hawaii or another "tropical" locale like I wanted to, but I did go to Santa Barbara for my birthday weekend and finished 2.5 of the books above (finished The Interestings, started and finished Best Year of Your Life, and started John Taylor's auto-biography).. and I got my gorgeous view!

I also got a ton of gorgeous views on my Sunday Funday adventure to Santa Rosa Island with Linda and James. The Channel Islands are right in our backyard here in Southern California, and they are beautiful! Can't wait to visit more of them in 2017!

And while, I didn't make it to Europe, I did travel Internationally... to Vancouver. It was a relaxing, fun trip with my fave positive person Cwennen. The city was BEAUTIFUL and its food delicious!

On the "did not accomplish" side of the "vision blog" to do list, I only wrote (soon-to-be) 30 blog posts this year, and did not order my new front door yet. January 2017 - I swear! 

And on the sad suck-ass side, a lot of bad stuff did happen this year. One of my best friends has been dealing with an inner ear issue since June that affects her vision and makes her dizzy and exhausted. Four of my friends lost a parent this year. My childhood friend lost her son. And there seemed to be more and more senseless acts of violence taking innocent people too soon...

The one that hurt the most was the murder of Christina Grimmie, who was shot by a deranged "fan" while signing autographs after a show in Orlando on June 10th, the night before the massacre at Pulse nightclub, also in Orlando. Most of you probably knew her from being on Season 6 of The Voice. I knew her from the YouTube video game show she hosted for my team at Disney.com in 2014. I met her twice, and she was so sweet and full of life. She loved video games and she loved making music. The fact that some guy could walk into her show with a gun and shoot her four times still makes me SO MAD. This world is just insane...

Then there was the fact that entertainers who have been part of my life forever have started dying... cancer, drugs, heart problems. It was just so sad... the music world was hit hard first - David Bowie, Glenn Fry, then Prince, Leonard Cohen and shockingly George Michael on Christmas Day at the age of just 53. And in the last half of the year, actors I grew up watching on TV and in movies - Gene Wilder, Florence Henderson, Alan Thicke and Carrie Fisher - passed away as well, all shockingly without any advance warning or time to prepare. So, so sad...

A few days ago, I decided to make what I'm calling my "FU2016" playlist, filled with my favorite songs from the musicians I loved that we lost this year. (Note: I love Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah"... I just don't love his voice, thus the Justin Timberlake/Charlie Sexton version below. They are both still alive and well. #knockonwood)

Some of my playlist is sad but a lot of it makes me want to dance, which brings me to this video that my sister posted a link to today. It will also make you want to dance, and is a loving, positive tribute to all these great people and the joy their talents brought to the world... enjoy!

And now it's on to 2017... I'll talk about that tomorrow. Right now, I'm going to go get a cocktail, because I just saw this and really need one. God help us all in the New Year... we're gonna need it! (And @alexandergold, you're my new hero!)

my favorites of 2015

Quotes 

I'm sure this quote is not from 2015, but 2015 is when I saw it on the Word Porn Facebook feed, which I also love...



And for my new personal mantra... expanded this year as I've become of lover of more teas than just chai (shocker, I know, but "Mauritius is delicious" ;)

Memories of loved ones lost, in my happy place (aka my garden)

Lucky's painted rose

Granny's Cactus' Flowering

Entertainment: 

Music...

Truth. It's the thing this introvert goes to when I need something no one else can give... time with my thoughts.

... or when I need an amazing communal experience. I saw a lot of concerts this year. But these three by my two fave bands were the most amazing.

U2 i+e Tour live @ The Forum 

Foo Fighters #brokenlegtour + Love Ride 32

Adele "25" 
The new album I (and the world) had been waiting four years for made me feel happy, sad and sassy. It's amazing and has been on repeat in my car and office iTunes for weeks. And her promo appearances on SNL, her NBC special and this Tonight Show Classroom Instruments performance with Jimmy Fallon and The Roots made me love her and the album that much more.

Movies...

Brooklyn
I new very little about this film when I put the screener in the DVD player. It made me laugh, cry, swoon and cheer. Great performances. Great screenplay by Nick Hornby. A great emotional movie experience. 

The Martian
I didn't see this in the theater, but rather on my TV via screener on a sick day, months after everyone I know had already told me how great it was. I wish I had seen it on the big screen. It's big, bold, exciting and magnificent. Great performances. Great special effects. And a great STORY. I haven't seen everything yet, but right now I think this is my pick for Best Picture.

Most 

Most Pleasant Surprise ... (in that this was really good, but most definitely not pleasant)

The Revenant
I had no desire to see this movie. Every time the trailer came on in a theater I counted the minutes till it was over and a "better one" came on. But about week ago, I started to read the reviews. Then one night I decided to put the screener in to see if they were true. Wow. It's brutal, beautiful, sweeping, sad, enraging and excellent. Leonardo DiCaprio could finally win his Oscar for this amazing, heartbreaking performance (as long as the Academy refuses to give Eddie Redmayne two Best Actor Oscars in a row... he's Leo's only competition in my mind right now.)

TV...

This is the year I became a true binge-watching aficionado. I started the year finishing Breaking Bad, started summer with Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and have spent the fall and winter with Mad Men -- I have four disks left with Don Draper. As f'ed up as he is, that makes me sad.

This is the year I also decided to no longer waste time watching shows I don't love... so I added exactly one half hour of new television this Fall, and deleted "How to Get Away with Murder," "Sleepy Hollow," Once Upon a Time" and "New Girl" from my Tivo season passes. My "Should I add a new show?" rule this TV season was: "Will I enjoy this as much as or more than another episode of Mad Men?" If not, then I didn't bother.

In the New Year (after Don and I say farewell), I will be focused on reading the pile of unread books I've accumulated in the last two years. (Anyone want to start a Book Club so I'm forced to do this? ;)

my joys of 2015

Long time, no write. I knew I hadn't blogged in a while, but I didn't know it had been almost two whole months. Oops. Well, it's almost a new year, so I can once again add "write more" to my list of New Year's resolutions... maybe 2016 is the year it will stick. I have a good feeling about next year... numerically, it's got two of my birthday numbers in it (2 and 16) and I'm already feeling a pull towards it. This year was sad and stressful. I'm ready for a change in a warm, fuzzy, happy, laughing way next year.



That's not to say all of 2015 was bad though.... at the start of the year, at the urging of Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert (who I now follow on Facebook), I created a "happiness jar." I started with a small jam jar because I knew there was no way I'd remember to toss a piece of paper in there daily... and I didn't. BUT, I am happy to report that as of December 30th, "Kim's Jar of Joy" is pretty full. Maybe next year I will graduate to a pickle jar ;)

Here, in random order as I pick the dumped-out slips of paper off the sofa, are things that brought me joy in 2015:

• 1/15/15: Molly's going away from Disney drinks and seeing Molly, Lisa, Jason, Gino, Dana and Johannes again.
• 5/16/15: Lucky's liver numbers back to 49! Dr. Pitt says he's doing better (ed note: now this makes me cry :*(
• 5/6/15: Gorgeous hike with Marleine at Solstice Canyon, followed by food and cocktails on the beach :)
• 2/16/15: My bday Burke Williams massage and yummy dinner with Mom and Dad at Tuscany
• 11/22/15: Foos website countdown finally opens to new FREE 5-song EP, St. Cecilia. Woot! 
• 1/2/15: I just bought a RED washer and dryer!! Crazy!
• 6/23/15: Just bought Duran Duran tickets for the Bowl on 10/1/15... soon-to-be reunited with my first rock star crush named John. 
• 1/17/15: Mom and Dad's 45th wedding anniversary
• 8/13/15: Portland bound! Long vacay weekend with JZ and RZ! 
• 1/25/15: Finished Breaking Bad. SO GOOD!!!
• 5/30/15: U2 Innocence + Experience concert with Qball. Two+ hours of love, joy and music. 
• 6/19/15: Travel to Taos, NM for Josh and Emily's wedding. Stopped in Santa Fe for sopapillas. Fried dough heaven. 
• 10/18/15: Foos at the Love Ride with the Jorgies. Dave's throne updated to a motorcycle :)
• 2/21/15: Kings beat the Sharks in the the Stadium Series. Win #7 in a row! Back in 3rd place.
• 6/5/15: Finished binge watching Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Love it!
• 8/1/15: Grillin' Saturday with James, Daryl, La Lizz, Juanita, Susie, Bhavani and new friends Pinky and Scott
• 8/17/15: Six cactus flowers blooming upon my return from Portland. A sign from Granny :)
• 11/20/15: New Adele album out today.. now on repeat in the car and my office iTunes. 
• 6/15/15: Finished throwing out a TON of old articles/papers from my office closet. Simplify! Purge! 
• 1/24/15: Five hours in the garden with roses, flowers.. and chicken manure - lol = Bliss!
• 9/13/15: New car! Zoom Zoom!
• 12/12/15: Christmas cocktails... I simplified this year and actually got to talk to people. Yay!
• 1/28/15: The Kings, who've sucked lately, beat 'da Blackhawks 4-3. Awesome game!
• 5/1/15: Avengers: Age of Ultron ... 2x in one day!
• 7/18/15: It thunder/lightning rained today!!
• 12/26/15: Updated the OS on my MacBook Pro for the first time in five years... and it still works!
• 7/27/15: RZ's Hermione Granger wand arrived today. Can't wait to give it to her :)
• 9/4/15: E.T. @ the Bowl!! LOVE. 
• 3/11/15: Just finished two days at Disneyland with Denise and Emily.. her first time. So fun! Met most of the princesses. Win!
• 4/11/15: Walk MS 5k with the whole family. Raised $8,502!
• 11/28/15: Brooklyn... loved, loved, loved this movie!
• 6/20/15: Josh and Emily's lovely wedding
• 9/11/15: Lenny Kravitz @ the Greek with Qball... and a guy who JUST turned 21. LOL
• 5/8/15: Awesome card in the mail from RZ about purple cups, Harry Potter and fun facts about cholera. Love that kid! 
• 6/3/15: My Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt screener finally arrived!
• 3/7/15: Luc Robitaille statue unveiled! Saw Luc, Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Blakey and Matthew Perry (who did not look good :(
• 9/21/15: Foos @ the Forum w/ Christina, Niki and Lisa. Still in love with Dave Grohl's baby blue guitar.. even tho he broke it tonight. Also love the throne. 
• 12/18/15: Kings destroy the CaSucks 5-0. Tyler Toffoli hat trick #2 of his career!
• 5/4/15: Lucky gained weight and is seeming okay after almost dying a week ago (ed note: more tears now)
• 5/17/15: Got a TON done! Painted garage trim, gardened, cleaned black gunk off mailbox
• 10/4/15: Van Halen with DLR at the Bowl. Concert bucket list item = done!
• 5/14/15: Aveda Rosemary mint body wash - opened the BIG bottle! Love this stuff!
• 1/17/15: I've now seen by two favorite hockey players' numbers retired by the Kings. Tonight #4