2018 Awesome List

December 30, 2018

2018 Awesome List

As I explained in my 2017 Awesome List, my friend Manal, inventor of the Awesome List, introduced me to the idea of keeping track of all the awesome things I do throughout the year.

I think that's a pretty awesome idea, don't you?

Welcome to my 2018 Awesome list.

[Beware: This is a LONG post because I made a lot of awesome things happen.]

Summary:

Books published: 1

Amazon Reviews: 92

Trips: Dubai, Florida, Philadelphia, Maine, Nowhere, Nashville, Maine, Germany, Austria, Montreal, New York, Maine, Maine

Trips to Maine: 4

Time with my parents: ~40 days

Countries: United Arab Emirates, Germany, Austria, Canada

Continents: 3

Flights: 17

Views on my blog: 70,000+

Times I use the word "awesome" in this post: 70

January

Well, my year started out pretty awesome when I PUBLISHED MY BOOK!

February
I got to spend a week visiting Manal in Dubai. Isn't she so beautiful? Here we are at the Louvre Abu Dhabi where she took me for a late birthday gift. That was very generous and awesome of her.

There were so many awesome things about Dubai.

The beach:

Dubai Marina:

Being in such a different culture:

Visiting the Sheikh Zayed Mosque:

Supremely not awesome? Having to be dressed like this while there. The awesome part though was both of us making an effort to have a good attitude.... until we stopped that nonsense and unleashed our complaints about how bad we looked and how hot we were, laughing and bonding over our shared bad experience.

Getting to see The Palm from a rooftop was so awesome:

I had no idea how awesome it was going to be to see the Burj Khalifa! It simply towers over the skyscrapers around it.

Look how tall it is! I couldn't even get the top in the shot!

Seeing it lit up was super awesome:

Capturing this photo of all the people watching the fountains at the Dubai Mall was awesome (as were the fountains).

March
I had a book launch party! So many people showed up and everyone was so NICE to me! Life-long friends, new friends, old roommates, old co-workers, new co-workers, dating app matches I hadn't met, matches I had. Having my musician friends like Julia (she's in my book!!), Eli, and Jarreau for whom I am usually in the role of fan was very flattering. Everyone made me feel so special! That was so awesome!

Getting to visit my parents in Florida is always awesome.

Adding Eduardo and Ari to my friends collection was pretty awesome - so awesome I wrote a post about it.

Attending the March for Our Lives with my friend Kate was a tear-filled awesome.

April
Getting to spend more time with my parents on their way back from Florida was awesome.

Having photographers contact me for photo shoots was completely awesome, as were a bunch of photos from this photo shoot.

My own sexy dressing room photo shoot and finding this dress was awesome. I LOVE this dress and wore it so many times.

My weekend of food, architecture, art, friendship, and photography in Philadelphia with my wonderful host Eduardo was awesome.

May

One of my favorite things to do in DC is the Georgetown Garden Tour. This year did not disappoint and I got lots of awesome photos.

Being in Maine for lilac season this year was awesome.

June

This photo shoot by the super talented Jomar Thomas was awesome.

Having my parents visit in June again was awesome and having my mom be my date for a night out on the town was too!

This was so awesome:

July

Pool time at my rooftop pool was awesome.

Being in Maine in July is never not awesome.

August
Though donating the only car I have ever owned was bittersweet, it is awesome to not have that headache anymore.

*Not* going to Nashville was awesome and so was *actually* going to Nashville, especially getting to meet Jamie!

September
Having my parents generously take me on a family vacation to Germany and Austria was super awesome. I have so many awesome photos and memories from that trip. Here are a few.

Nyphemburg Palace in Munich was so awesomely beautiful.

Riding a bike in the English Garden in Munich was one of the most awesome things I got to do this whole year!

Standing inside a sculpture in Salzburg that my shirt coincidentally matched was SO awesome. I think this my favorite picture from 2018.

Everything about Vienna was awesome.

This is just an awesome photo of me in Vienna. The only not awesome thing about Vienna was the fact that I am not a good enough photographer to be able to capture it properly.

Getting to see two of Austrian roommates 1/3 and 3/3 and numbers 3/71 and 15/71 when we were in Vienna was awesome!

Attending the prettiest baby shower for one of my favorite friends (and former roommate) was so awesome.

Getting this photo was awesome. Self-timer FTW.

Visiting my fourth country of the year was awesome, as was seeing Manal (and her new baby) in their new home in Montreal, Canada.

In Montreal it was awesome that I also got to see former roommate Ti-Anna and what is really awesome is that I got to introduce her to Manal and they are friends now! Being a connector is awesome!

One of my best Friday nights this year happened by accident. I was supposed to go to my friend Eli's party which was being hosted at his parents' house. I'd never been to their house before, so, upon arrival (after an hour-long Uber ride), when I didn't see any cars parked outside, I worried maybe I was not at the right place.

I rang the doorbell. A woman answered, "Can I help you?" As I stuttered, trying to figure out if maybe I was at the wrong address, she asked, "Who are you here to see?" "Eli," I said. "Oh, are you here for the party?" "Yes!" I said. And she said,

"That's tomorrow night!"

Oh noooooo!!

I probably whined when I told her I had just spent an hour in an Uber to get there and asked if I could please just use the bathroom before calling another one to take me home.

I was very disheartened that I was all dressed up on a Friday night and suddenly had no plans!

When I forlornly came out of the bathroom, Eli's mom asked if I'd like a glass of water and to stay and visit for a while. Um, HECK YEAH I wanted to stay!

I ended up hanging out with Eli's parents for two hours, had the best time, they bought my book, and I read them three chapters! My Friday night turned out awesome after all!

It was such an honor and so awesome to have my friend Agnes ask me to be her photographer for her pregnancy photo shoot. Look how awesome the photos are! She is so beautiful!!

Um, running into Stephen Colletti from One Tree Hill was SOOOO awesome. He was so nice despite the fact that I completely lost my cool (to the point that I did not recover it again for at least a week). In case you don't know, OTH is my FAVORITE TV SHOW OF ALL TIME.

October
Traveling again, I got to spend an awesome weekend in New York City. The rooftop of the Restoration Hardware which I stumbled upon is SO AWESOME.

November

Due to renovations at the office, I got two work from home for two weeks (awesome) but what was even more awesome was that I spent one of them working from my parents' home in Maine, meaning I got ten more days with them than I had expected to this year.

It also worked out awesomely that Eli kicked off his tour in Portland when I was there! Getting to see him perform in my hometown was awesome and so was getting the chance to show him some of the beautiful Maine sites!

But you know what is the most awesome? Friends that become family friends who you feel like you have known your whole life even though you just collected them less than two years ago.

Um, wearing this gorgeous hat that I bought in Moscow on the beach in Maine in November is awesome.

This year I hosted Thanksgiving and having my parents be able to make the trip down for it was awesome.

December

Being featured in a podcast was so awesome!

All the love my book got throughout the year from selfies to photos to reviews and messages of support was awesome beyond words. Like, so so so awesome.