2014 Highlights

2014 went by in a flash. A year ago I was devastated that I would no longer be spending 40+ hours a week with one of my best friends and I wasn't quite as busy with work yet. I had just started going to the library and discovered reading for leisure as an adult, and I was in full swing writing letters to my pen pals. Here is some of what filled my year!

Monthly Friends Dinners

I started off January by inviting some of my friends from college to dinner at my place. It was kind of awesome, so we decided to do it every month as a rotating potluck. It's been really great to know I'll see folks at least once a month and catch up with what is going on with everyone. 

Art

This year I decided to prioritize art in my life. Because I made the space, I was able to continue bookbinding and dabble in other mediums like watercolor and calligraphy. It has been really amazing to give myself permission to do this otherwise I would have just felt guilty about the time and money spent, but it's made me way, way happier. 

Library advocacy

Last year I rediscovered my love for the library. So much so that I started serving on the city's Library Advisory Commission. It's been a great experience getting to know the landscape of this kind of advocacy, and getting to know Oakland in a new way for me, too. 

Going offline

So much of my life is spent in front of a computer for work. The majority of social media, although I have an account on nearly every major platform, is just noise. I took a break from social media for a couple months in the summer and it was great. Then a couple months ago I decided to go off again. I made the exception to hop back on Instagram during my recent trip, but for the most part, the lack of updates had been fantastic, and if people want to get ahold of me, they call/email/text.

New cities

Through work, I had the opportunity to go to cities I had never been to before this year. Atlanta, Baltimore, DC, Brooklyn/NY, and Portland were all new places for me. I had never really been to the east coast before so it was neat to be able to spend some time there, and luckily not all of it was for work! Which leads me to my next topic..

Epistolary realness

I got to meet my penpal, Chad! Not only that, it was totally awesome. So awesome that I actually wanted to stay friends with him after! He's coming to visit in January and I'm soo excited to show him around Oakland. Watch out, we're going to eat all the yummy foods!

Oh, and also..

I met my partner this year. All I'll say about this is that this has been the biggest and best change for me, and I can't wait for next year.


Happy 2015, everyone! It's going to be a good one!