My obligatory annual LJ post.

2011. Went by fast, didn't it?

The big 3-0 (yikes!). Celebrated by staying on the 30th floor (top floor) of the Greektown Casino Hotel. Skinnygirl Margaritas and lemon cupcakes from The Cupcake Station.

Outside of that - work was crazy.

And the year revolved around Pearl Jam.

Pearl Jam Twenty.

Twenty One, really.

Two Ed shows in the summer. A fabulous long weekend with practically EVERYONE in Wisconsin. I couldn't get enough so two impromptu shows added in Toronto. A nice trip south and then north with my sister.

2012 - I have high hopes!

I may have given up on this whole journaling thing, but every year, I at least make my recap.

This will probably be short and sweet.

2010. What a year.

Fabulous 29th birthday filled with lots of food and love.

First time to New Orleans at the end of April/beginning of May. As always, all in the name of Pearl Jam.

Three more additional midwest Pearl Jam shows. Solidifying the Pearl Jam bond.

New house added to the crazyness. A lot of home improvement projects.

PJ's 20th anniversary "show" in Mountain View with good pals. Followed by two more acoustic shows.

A promotion at work, promoting excitement and the unknown.

And finally, a trip to Las Vegas to tie the knot, total rock n roll, with the love of my life. Incredible amounts of fun with family and a friend that means a ton to us both.

And now it's time for 2011. So many things that lie ahead in our lives. Looking forward to it all.

Happy New Year.

Today my mom, Mike, Amanda and I headed to VegFest. I believe this was my third year going and it was the best year yet. The food sampling was the best I've experienced. The Cupcake Station* had four different vegan cupcakes to sample this year (vanilla, strawberry, double chocolate and cookies and cream). I sampled Mike's cookies and cream but I grabbed vanilla. I'm not a huge chocolate cupcake fan, however, their vegan chocolate cupcake is better than their "normal" chocolate cupcake. They were encouraging us (!) to take more. So before we finished sampling all the food, we went back for seconds and I grabbed strawberry. It was so good.

I was most excited to see Rory Freedman speak. She is the co-author of Skinny Bitch. I was already a vegetarian for quite some time when I read Skinny Bitch. It didn't turn me vegan --- I got the point. What it did for me was kick me in the pants a bit regarding ingredients. Organic food. High fructose corn syrup. Essentially, Skinny Bitch made me eat healthier. With that said, hearing Rory speak today really hit home and I think I'm going to gradually move into the world of vegan.

Yikes!

I gave up milk awhile ago (I use Vanilla Almond Milk Unsweetened in my cereal). I'm still eating yogurt (weird, right). I'll eat ice cream every once in a blue moon. I also eat cheese. And I also eat some products that contain eggs. I think I wouldn't have such a beef with it all if everyone else would be compassionate about the treatment of their milk and egg supply. Though I do find eating/using eggs gross (hello, it's practically pre-meat)...it's still a tough thing to give up.

More superficial is my fashion. I do not love synthetic faux-leather materials. They are typically terrible for the environment. Faux leather does not breath. More importantly, ain't no vegan shoe feeling as comfortable as a pair of Cole Haans. Then there's the handbag thing. It would be much easier to be like...ok, done with leather if I was rich and could afford Stella McCartney handbags and shoes. This one's going to be tougher, I think.

A lot for myself to think about. A lot.

* on Friday, The Cupcake Station posted on Facebook "First three fans to respond to this post saying I LOVE CUPCAKES wins a t-shirt!" Guess who was number two? Yep. Moi.

So much for my declaration about updating this thing.

I should be sleeping right now but I was watching the last episode of season 3 of "Secret Diary of a Call Girl" and a song sparked my interest so I had to explore and find out what it was. It wasn't so easy (HBO shows list out songs within an episode, I know SDOACG is not originally a Showtime show, but still, I couldn't find shit that route). I ended up Googling the lyrics...looked it up on iTunes and voila, score. So I got caught up in that. It's rare a song sparks my interest outside of my Pearl Jam realm. I don't listen to the radio. I'm a pathetic music fan. Mike said yesterday he'll be watching Band of Horses at the Pearl Jam shows. I declared I would not be. I said that I don't care about music --- save for Pearl Jam and Britney Spears. Ok, it was a joke, but almost true.

Anyway, I couldn't stop with just the download, I had to make a playlist. I have so much Pearl Jam on my iPod and sometimes I just want to hear studio stuff...for the past few days I've been thinking about how I need an album exclusive playlist so I just bit the bullet and did it.

My stomach is so weird lately. I think I'm developing a nervous stomach. This morning I didn't work out because I just didn't feel right. About 30 minutes ago it was the same deal. I think I was getting worked up (at least this evening not this morning) about the existence of my upstairs neighbor. That's right. Existence. He's trying to beat some level in some game that sounds like a racing game and he keeps shouting "MOTHERFUCKER!!!" You'd think he was a 16 year old loser.

Now that I'm not consumed with watching "Oz"...maybe I will update this thingamajig.

In the meantime, staring at this screen is making me dizzy. I need to get to bed so I can hopefully work out tomorrow morning. Who knows. I feel like I'm a mess. This week I haven't eaten as healthy as I usually do. I clench my teeth from stress. My aforementioned nervous stomach issues. I just keep telling myself that April is almost done. Almost. At the same time, that scares me because I'm still thinking it's March. Not that that means anything because I can barely keep up with how old I am...

Work is quite stressful this year. It's always stressful this time of year...but this year it seems ten fold more stressful. Things are so crazy, I am more looking forward to June than to Pearl Jam concerts in early May.

Which is silly!

I am getting excited about going to New Orleans for the first time. The hotel is in the French Quarter...and though I don't know much about New Orleans I know enough to know it's a happening place to stay. I looked at the hotel on the internet today (website is here)...and it looks AWESOME! The rooms look quite normal, but the courtyard looks fabulous. I hope the weather cooperates so I can spend some time by the pool before the show!

So the weather may FINALLY be in our favor. Yesterday I put away a good chunk of winter clothes and brought up all my summer clothes. I did not, however, pull the switcheroo with the shoes. I think sandals might be a bit premature. Though it's tough cause I still have suede and patent in the rotation. I think I have to dig in the back of my shoe drawers - I appreciate my Cole Haan shoes too much to put them in the basement for the winter. I think I may have a pair or two of "summer" shoes available to wear. My toenails are painted...primped for sandal weather. Now the weather just needs to stay nice.

I sure hope this is a hot summer. Last summer was kind of sucky in terms of HOT weather. I LOVE HOT WEATHER. One of the memories that stand outside in my mind as a kid in the summer was going for swim lessons at the wave pool. I would be wet...and we'd get in the car to drive home and I loved it because it was so hot. Then my parents would turn on the a/c. I hated it. Even driving around dry, now, I prefer having the windows open to the a/c. I'd rather be hot than cold. Yep.