My Year in Review
2019 was a year of re-calibration for me. The last half of 2018 was the hardest time of my life and much of 2019 felt like a recovery period. It was also a time where I stepped out of my comfort zone and that’s something that I want to continue in 2020. This post is a highlight of some the great experiences and moments I had in 2019.
June 2019
My birthday. My birthdays usually always wind up disappointing me or not meeting my expectations and this year I realized that most of that was my fault. I put so much pressure on having a “perfect” day that anything that goes wrong sends me into a funk. And 2018 was the worst of all as I spent my birthday in my bed with both a sinus and tooth infection. So in 2019 I decided to just…chill. My brother and I had been planning a coffee shop crawl and I decided to just make that my birthday activity. And it was fantastic. We strolled around Logan Square sampling various coffee shops drinks and food selection. I got airpods as a gift. And later that night we went out with my Mom to one of my favorite restaurants. Luella’s Southern Kitchen in Lincoln Square. I put no pressure on the day. Ate lots of good food, had great drinks and spent time with the people I care about most in the world. I just let it unfold and it was my best birthday to date.
CovetCon 2019
In June of this year I also stepped out of my comfort zone to attend a conference for a gaming app community I’ve been a part of since the fall of 2015. I have made a great group of friends throughout the years online and this was my first opportunity to meet some of them - and some news ones! - in person. To say the thought of this slightly freaked me out is a small understatement. I am an introvert and events like these give me all the anxiety. But it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. I had so much and it was truly like meeting old friends for the first time. We immediately fell into a comfortable dynamic. And it was a great opportunity to dress up! The theme for our convention was “Disco" and “sparkle”. And so I basically clothed myself in sequins for two days straight. It was awesome!
July 2019
Hamilton Exhibition
I am a huge Hamilton fan. It is my favorite musical ever and I am lucky enough to have a friend who is as obsessed with it as I am. And so we had a BFF date and went to see the Hamilton Exhibition on Northerly Island. It was….spectacular. Truly an amazing experience that I am so glad I documented with copious amounts of photos. I took so many that my phone battery started to die on me. I wanted to see it again but never managed to before it closed. Which I am still sad about.
Classic Car Show
My brother had mentioned the classic car show numerous times to me and our mother, but we always wound up missing it. This year we finally made it. It was sweltering that day and it was also Cheesecake Day at the Eli’s Cheesecake headquarters (the car show takes place on its grounds) so it was double the fun. I am not a car person, but it was amazing to see these tangible pieces of the past and the love and care their owners put into them to keep them looking as pristine as the day they rolled off the car lot. We ate hot dogs, cheesecake took tons of photos of the amazing cars and watched the Jesse White tumblers. It was a great summer day.
September - December
The rest of my summer was pretty low-key. Unless you count spending your days going to work and physical therapy for a broken butt muscle (it wasn’t actually broken - just badly injured) fun. Whatever floats your boat.
The fall and winter however was pretty eventful. In September, a friend and I went to see one of my favorite singer/songwriters, Banks, perform. In October we celebrated my Mom’s birthday and I got to visit the Friends Perks cafe that was installed at the AT&T store on Michigan Avenue. And of course - good food. Always.
November was a busy month. My brother and I went to see John Leguizamo’s one-man show, Latin History for Morons, which was hilarious and actually quite educational. I then flew to NYC for 24 hrs to see Tom Hiddleston in his Broadway play, Betrayal, and grab lunch with a friend. Where we spotted actor Alexander Skarsgard and she took this terrible blurry pic of him. For the record - he is TALL and even prettier in real life. I managed to get an autograph and a picture with Tom Hiddleston after the play. Please ignore the crazed look in my eyes in my photo with him (I was a tad bit excited). I have added a more sane selfie of me in the theater to balance things out.
And December …
I have no pics to add for this last month. It’s been a busy one at work (September to December are my busy season) and a relatively quiet one at home. 2019 for me was the year where I focused on challenging myself. In doing things that made me a bit scared or uncomfortable. I want to continue that in 2020 on a much bigger scale.
Wishing all of you a Happy and Prosperous New Year!
