Best of '09 – Catching up!

Well, I seriously did attempt to write on this every day, but with traveling, editing, meeting w/clients, responding to a zillion emails, etc. it’s just not happening, so I’m going to do a bulk post which will get me caught up! First, I’m going to go back to the posts I missed. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, find out by clicking here

December 1: What was your best trip in 2009?

My best trip this year was going to Anguilla! A tiny little Island in the Caribbean where we filmed this wedding. What I loved about it was the incredible beaches, the super nice people, and the fact that there is nothing American there. Not even Starbucks or McDonalds!!

December 2: Share the best restaurant experience you had this year. Who was there? What made it amazing? What taste stands out in your mind?

Alex & I were in New York back in May… one of our very favorite cities in the world. Sometimes when we go there, we plan our whole trip around where we want to eat…. so many opportunities for the taste buds there!!! One night we didn’t have a plan on where to eat so we just took the subway and got off when we felt like it. We walked around and found this restaurant called Babbo“. The menu looked interesting so we stopped in. They didn’t have any available tables so we ate in the bar area and it just so happened that they had a tasting menu (a bunch of small plates of the chef’s creations). It was some of the most unique and tasty food I’ve ever had. Even more unique than the Olive Oil Ice cream we once had in NYC!! We came home to find out that this is kind of a famous restaurant and we were lucky to even get a table there.

December 3: What’s an article that you read that blew you away? That you shared with all your friends. That you Delicious’d and reference throughout the year.

Hmmm…. unfortunately I don’t really have one. Let me think about this and get back to you LOL!

December 4th (see 2 posts back)

December 5th: Did you have a night out with friends or a loved one that rocked your world? Who was there? What was the highlight of the night?

Oh geez… do I really have to pick one?? I could name a ton of these but I guess I’ll pick the night of Jaime & Todd’s wedding. What made it fun was the fact that there were a lot of wedding vendors there as guests. At the end of the night, we were the main ones left standing and dancing the night away. Of course us vendors never get a chance to do this so we took advantage!! There were about 20 of us who closed the party down that night. It was such a fun way to celebrate a friend’s big day!

December 6th: Was there a conference or workshop you attended that was especially beneficial? Where was it? What did you learn?

Well duh… Re:Frame of course! Even though I was one of the organizers, I sure learned a lot from all the presenters. They are all awesome!!

December 7th: That gem of a blog you can’t believe you didn’t know about until this year.

I’ve been a blog reading slacker this year unfortunately. I’m hoping to have more time in 2010 to dedicate to reading and blog stalking. However, there is one blog that I check regularly: Jump David Jump. I was introduced to David’s blog through Jasmine Star. He is a true testiment to faith and a positive attitude! Jump David Jump!!!

December 8th: An hour or a day or a week of solitude. What was the quality of your breath? The state of your mind? How did you get there?

Well I rarely get one of these so this is an easy one!! For me it was the first day in Hawaii when I walked down the beach, put on my snorkeling gear, and swam out to see an amazing view of beautiful fish and coral. I just kept thinking to myself how lucky I was to be there right at that time, to see the miracle of the ocean and to be enjoying the warm water. The earth sure is a cool place. I travel a lot but I don’t often get to enjoy a place as much as I should. But on this day, I enjoyed every second of that solitude. Just me and the big ocean. It was awesome.

December 9th: Something that really made you grow this year. That made you go to your edge and then some. What made it the best challenge of the year for you?

I think when something forces you to grow, it’s often an uncomfortable situation. Growing and changing is never easy. For me, the moment that forced me to make a hard decision and grow as a person this year was when I nearly had a meltdown from work stress. I know, I know… that’s an easy one you say. But anyone that knows me will tell you that I THRIVE on stress. And I usually do. People often ask me how I can do everything I do – they are seriously sometimes amazed. I am an extreme multi-tasker and pretty much anything I take on I do well. This year, in a recession, Elysium was 30% busier than in 2008. That is ridiculously good but it also cost me my sanity! I never want to let our clients down or our quality slip, so instead of getting a huge backlog due to the enormous amount of weddings, I ended up working 12-14 hour days. September was our busiest month and it was then that I decided that if I don’t change something, I will not only get burned out (my worst nightmare) but I will also lose track of my health, my relationships, and my life. So that’s when the decision was made to raise our prices for 2010 (something we haven’t done in 2 years) and take on half as many weddings. It’s scary, but I also know that I can’t survive working this hard and I know that I need to take care of myself and my sanity. I also know that this will just make our films even better which is also very important to me.

December 10: What’s rocking your world?

This question should be what’s NOT rocking your world?? I am very enthusiastic and excited about too many things so I’m just going to list the things that are not rocking my world: My lingering cough that won’t go away, the fact that I may have to drive to Burbank in the rain tomorrow, that new poser Microsoft operating system that’s trying to be like a Mac, the fact that carbs and cheese are not good for you (especially when they are together, ie. quesadilla), slow DSL – which is what I’m working with at home right now, and last but not least, COX – who I refuse to give any more money too and hence why I am using slow DSL and not a cable internet connection.

woops… reread the question and I read it wrong! it should be: Album of the year. What’s rocking your world?

I’m too tired at this point to really choose my answer (too many!) so I’ll just say the “500 Days of Summer” soundtrack. It’s awesome!