When I sit down and think about all that has happened in the past year, I have a hard time believing it. I mean, I just think back a year to where I was last New Year’s Eve -

- I was working yet another Eve in the service industry, this year as a cocktail waitress at Blue Martini in Raleigh. The bar is shoulder to shoulder, but all of the customers are ordering from the bar (therefore not from me). I remember the pinnacle moment of my night, where I’m stuck in the middle of the bar crowd, carrying a tray of several dozen mini champagne flutes over my head, trying to get to my tables. As I attempt to push through the crowd, the people around me begin stealing the flutes off of my tray, getting so out of control that the entire tray falls over and I find myself covered in champagne, flutes strewn all over the floor. This all happens as the clock strikes midnight. I silently observe the entire crowd begin screaming and making out around me as I stand, defeated, soaked in champagne. I remember thinking… “next year things will be different.”

Other general conditions of the time -

- I lived in North Carolina.
- I was in school.
- I was waitressing at Blue Martini and bartending at Sitti in downtown Raleigh.
- I hadn’t really begun pursuing photography, and didn’t even own a real camera. I just knew I liked taking pictures.
- This blog didn’t exist.
- I had no intention of moving to San Francisco or pursuing grad school.

So yeah, a few things have happened.

January: I bought an SLR and began taking photography more seriously.
February: Friend Kate called and asked me if I’d join her on a random trip to San Francisco, knowing I say yes to every travel opportunity offered to me. I said yes.
March: Visited San Francisco, accidentally fell in love with an MFA program and decided to pursue it. Applied, got in.
May: Graduated from NCSU. Decided to start a blog to have somewhere to place my stories and photos. Bought Queen of the Pavement domain. Also decided to make a project out of my upcoming trek across the country and plan a national phototour.
June: Gave up my apartment + began floating around houses in an effort to save money for traveling. Have my first (and last) photography showing in Raleigh at the Busy Bee in promotion of the phototour.
July: Set up phototour website. Leave Raleigh, begin phototour. Spend six weeks traveling the country with photographer Tim Lytvinenko, meeting up with Bowerbirds and Megafaun for the later portion of our trek.
August: Arrive in San Francisco. Realize I haven’t lined up a place to live or a job. Decide to drive to Arizona instead of figuring it out. Arrive in Arizona. Land a temporary place to live in SF. Drive back to SF and settle in to my temporary home in the Mission. Begin to settle into life in California.
September: Find permanent place to live near Hayes Valley. Begin graduate school. Meet neighbor Mark Growden and am incredibly impressed. Begin doing some freelance projects for him.
October: Quit PR job to help work on Mark’s CD Release. Mark gets signed to Porto Franco Records.
November: Porto Franco Records offers me a full-time job.
December: I finish up my first (and last) semester of grad school. I decide not to go back to fully pursue my career in the tech and music spheres, accepting the job with Porto Franco. Dream life begins. Spend New Year’s Eve dancing in the backwoods of NC with great friends + a bonfire.

So yeah, the year’s been good. It’s been a fucking whirlwind, frankly. I feel incredibly fortunate to have crammed this much intense life experience and adventure into one year, and there are so many incredible people I have met along the way.

Now as for last night. I started the night off with pizza night at Reagan’s. I did not know Reagan until I arrived in her home, but I feel like I knew her already, as she is girlfriend of David Millsaps, who I have known for a bit. Tim and I had a photocolumn for a short bit in his incredibly successful blog, NewRaleigh, while we were phototouring. Reagan apparently reads my blog from time to time and feels like she has known me for a while as well. I always love finding out when that happens. We became ladybros quickly.

Other new ladyfriend Katie Aiken was responsible for introducing her mother’s signature pizza recipe to us for the first time ever. It was a succcess. Lots of fun things involved – homemade wheaty crust, kalamata olives, mushrooms, goat cheese, pine nuts, etc etc. Awesome.

After we had all consumed our fill, we headed to the backwoods of Wake Forest for Burninator, hosted by our friend Will Reynolds. You may know him as “dancing Will.” Apparently his family has property out in the boondocks, which he decked out for the event, with a giant circle of Christmas lights (“the dancefloor”), three bar areas, lounge areas, and a huge bonfire area. Oh, and a waffle making area, naturally. We spent the night burning Christmas trees (at least a dozen of them), eating waffles, and dancing around the woods til the wee hours of the morning. It was wonderful.

I think the year is starting off just fine.

Ok, that’s all for now.

END!