2013 Kat Recap

2013 can be defined by my realization that I truly enjoy staying busy and active most of the time. Much of the year was spent trip planning, traveling, dancing, and enjoying time with friends, and taking advantage of the beautiful city we live in where there is always something interesting to do.

Here are the 2013 Quick Stats:

• Trips that required a flight: 8
• New [to me] books read: 12 (Hmmm...let's try to kick this up in 2014)
• Weddings attended: 2
• Musicals attended: 34
• Other performances attended: 8

Here's the abbreviated report of the trips I took this year:

• LA with AJP - February
• First trip of the year was an incredible trip to SoCal to visit Beth and the four of us had a great time running around doing all things LA. Santa Monica Pier, Chinese New Year, Cupcakes/Champagne/Pitch Perfect, Walk of Fame, Hollywood Sign, Rodeo Drive, and touring the Warner Bros. Studios. The studio tour remains one of my top vacation experiences of all time!  #HeyYo
• San Francisco with my Parents for my Birthday - March
• A long weekend trip to San Fran at the end of March was the perfect way to celebrate my birthday.  Highlights included eating at Boudin's almost every day (and them retweeting a photo of mine), hearing the Glide Church gospel choir on western Easter, having ice cream made fresh in front of me at a Smitten (they use liquid nitrogen), and visiting the Walt Disney Family Museum (didn't even know that existed!)
• New York with Lindsay - May
• Lindsay and I decided to do a repeat NYC extravaganza this year - only this time with a little more sleep involved.  We even skipped a potential show times (what?!?) in favor of taking it easy (the fact that it was raining buckets helped make that decision too). We saw 8 shows in 7 days and highlights included seeing a play I actually liked (Lucky Guy starring Tom Hanks!), the fact that we scored autographs from both Tom Hanks and Bette Middler, taking a boat tour almost all the way around the island, exploring Brooklyn, Schmackary's cookies, and walking the High Line.  Celeb sightings included JLo sitting near us at Pippin, and sitting behind Tony Bennett at I'll Eat You Last (Lindsay talked to him after the show!)
• Sitka with my Parents - May
• I'm always happy when I'm able to join my parents on a trip up to Alaska.  This trip included a lot of walking around enjoying the beautiful scenery and quality time with Vanessa, Tucker, and Amara.  We were even there for Tucker's first birthday party - what a treat!
• North Dakota with my Dad and Grandma - September
• Wow!  I haven't been to North Dakota since I was around 4 years old.  I took advantage of some found vacation time and joined my dad on a trip there my with grandma to visit some of her friends, meet some very distant relatives, and get the good ol' tour of Williston where my North Dakota family is from (and where my dad was born).  I got to witness first hand what a modern day oil boom town looks like (spoiler alert - it looks like a whole lot of construction) and see where the family farm used to be.
•  LA with Jared - October
• Round two in LA!  Jared and I managed to score stand by tickets to a taping of The Big Bang Theory, so we flew back down in October to attempt to be in the audience.  This was a NON-STOP trip that included a 17 hour day in Disneyland, a trip to the San Diego Zoo (OMGPANDAS!!!), taking a dance class from former SYTYCD contestant Donyelle Jones, and making it in to see TBBT taping!!!!  We waited in line for 10 hours to make it into the show and it was worth every minute (it may have actually been the quickest 10 hours ever).  I really can't say enough about the taping - it exceeded my expectations of awesomeness AND there were two guest stars that week - Bob Newhart and Bill Nye!
• New York with Lindsay and Jared
• Because we are absolutely crazy, Lindsay and I decided to do a fall weekend in New York, and because he's crazy too, Jared decided to join us.  I think this idea came to be because LW and I REALLY wanted to see First Date on Broadway.  Landing on Friday and leaving on Monday, we saw 5 shows each (8 different shows total), saw a total of 12 friends and family, and purchased over 30 Schmackary's cookies. Meeting Zachary Levi, Kristina Rodriguez, Jane Carr, and Norbert Leo Butz (he touched my arm!!!) were broadway celebrity highlights of this visit. There was even time to eat a lot of great food and visit the High Line and Chelsea Market.
• Disneyland with my Mom
• This is the third year that my mom and I have gone done to Disneyland at the beginning of December. We enjoyed some things we had never done/seen before like learning to draw Olaf in the Animation Studio (ummm...we did horribly...), seeing the new winter themed World of Color (not impressed), and seeing the Viva Navidad street performance (very enjoyable!). The most magical moment of the trip was watching the Buena Vista Street Community Bell Ringers and them doing an extra, personal performance for my mom.  We looove visiting Disney at Christmastime, but it may be our last for awhile....we may opt for a warmer getaway next year.

Other random highlights of the year included...

• Co-choreographing a fun black light routine with Richard for Dare to Dance
• AJP "road trips" to see the tulip fields (a first for Sara and me!), strawberry picking (where, once we got out of the car, Jared asked, "why are we here?", and to the pumpkin patch/corn maze.
• Watching the filming of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' White Walls video near my apartment
• The video I posted after is now my most popular YouTube video
• Being one of the daily Pajaggle champs at PAX
• Witnessing some dear friends getting married
• My parents moving to a beautiful new house
• Not a great highlight, but in the tradition of my apartment, I had a water leak that prevented me from sleeping in my bedroom from April until September. (I could have slept in my room, but I didn't feel comfortable doing so.)  This process included finding someone to repair my dresser, which sustained quite a bit of water damage, and getting a glorious new bed that I LOVE sleeping in.
• Running. Even though I've always hated running, I started running with a team and now I...don't hate it ...(but I still refuse to say I like it)
• Meeting Allie Brosh of Hyperbole and a Half
• Seeing the Macklemore and Ryan Lewis concert from the floor at Key Arena

And now on to 2014!  Plans are in the works to make it a wonderful year, but to be honest I'm equal parts of excited and apprehensive.  Fingers crossed!

Warner Bros. Studio Tour - Outside of The Big Bang Theory Set

Warner Bros. Studio Tour - On the Friends Couch in Central Perk

Once of my favorite pics of the year - posing with our sock puppets!

Glee with some of my favorite gals - I love dancing with you ladies!

Tucker's First Birthday

Tim & Emily - Back in Westlake Park

B&C Wedding Weekend - AJPR Glasses Shot

Mr. Byron and Mrs. Christine

Success! This photo was taken right before we made it in to see a taping of The Big Bang Theory!!

With Allie Brosh of Hyperbole and a Half

With my mom at Disneyland - You don't even want to know the trouble we went through to get this photo!

Macklemore @ Key Arena. Love this picture so much because I feel like any picture I take at a concert is an accident, and this is an awesome accident!

The Year Is Finally Starting

No, the title of this post has nothing to do with the lunar new year (Go Dragons!) but I do feel like this year is starting its engine.

Maybe it's because the snow has finally melted and we've all crawled out of our snow covered caves.

Maybe it's because we've been rehearsing for a flash mob (which always makes life better).

Maybe it's because Melissa's here and we're planners - so we keep talking about all the things that are coming up.

New York feels like it's right around the corner (it totally is)!!! The dance calendar will be filling up soon too, thank goodness.  Glee rehearsals will start before I know it and so will Dare to Dance.

Glee will be our third annual Glee flash mob.  For more info, check out my 2010 recap.  Sadly, this year it will not be held on my birthday like it has been for the past two years - but that's a good thing, because my birthday is on a Tuesday and that would be silly.  This year the mob is on April 21st, which is fantastic because it's after both Western and Orthodox Easter.  I was very worried I'd have to figure out someway to jump back and forth between Seattle and Portland if it fell on Easter weekend.

(What's that?  You'd like to dance with us this year!?!  Please do! Check out http://mobtheworld.com/mobbers/)

Dare to Dance is a dance showcase that's organized by someone in the FMF (Flash Mob Family).  He did last year in December for his birthday.  The idea being that it would be an opportunity for his friends to choreograph and perform original dance numbers on stage in a theatre with a paying audience.  It turned out to be quite a success, so he's doing it again.  Last year it fell on the same night as my Christmas party, so I didn't participate - but this year it is a spring event, so I will be dancing in one or two numbers.

With D2D in mid March and Glee in mid April, it pretty much means that within a month I should [hopefully] be in constant rehearsals.  I am very much looking forward to this time.  Plus, it means that spring and longer days are on their way. :-)

Expect to hear a lot about dancing in the next few months.

....or maybe you won't.  It's hard to tell.  This is ALMOST the best I've ever done at journaling, but that could change at the drop of a hat.  (Ew, I don't like hats.)

So let me put it this way.  I'll be dancing a lot soon.  You may or may not hear about it.