Retrospective

For the past two years, we've spent New Year's at home, and being caught up in the festivities and celebration, we never really got a chance to reflect back over each year, remembering what it was that made it special. This year, with a little more quiet time to myself to be pensive- in the words of my dearest best friend- I thought it'll be nice to look back over the year to all the things that made 2007 memorable...

1) Jude kicked off 2007 in a big way by meeting Hiroshi Ishii in person when we were still home in January.
2) We experienced our very first ice storm in all its insane, treacherous beauty.
3) I finally picked up- and promptly fell in love with- yoga after years of thinking about it.
4) The Cooks and Cooneys brought us sledding for the first time!
5) Having not seen her in three years, my cousin, Jean, came to visit from Hong Kong :)
6) Our friends, Zahra and Jennie started their own handmade chocolate business, Hedonist Artisan Chocolates. Yay!
7) We visited Terence, Stan and Susan in Boston, my first time in Beantown.
8) Chipotle finally opened in Ann Arbor! Apart from the Mexican taqueiras in Ypsi, we've gone nowhere else for our burritos...
9) We went curling for the first time in Windsor, where I promptly slipped on the ice and hit my head hard. Way to remember the experience...
10) We "celebrated" St. Patrick's Day with Rick, Emilee and Kumo with our first corned beef dinner complete with homemade Irish bread.
11) My old friend from secondary school, Shirlyn, launched her first solo album in Singapore. She's apparently been getting a lot of radio play back home and was nominated for a couple of music awards! Really happy for her :)
12) I went to my first baseball game in Lansing. I still don't quite get the game, but the atmosphere was awesome, and the company, even better!
13) After putting it off for years and spending another several months planning the design and content, Jude and I finally got our personal websites up and running.
14) One of my best friends here, a.k.a. the Four-Year-Old Next Door, Audrey, and her mom, Tia moved away from Ann Arbor when Tia graduated... We still miss our old neighbors terribly, but thanks to Facebook, we still keep in touch. Apparently, Audrey's becoming quite the chess whiz! :)
15) I got my brand new Mac for $127.48. Never have I been more thankful for an Excel spreadsheet...
16) Watching Damien Rice "live". Enough said...
17) I got my first publication out :)
18) My sister, Sherri got engaged!
19) We saw Sonic Youth play Daydream Nation "live" at the Pitchfork Music Festival. Phenomenal...
20) We caved in to Wii-mania and bought one for Jude's parents and one for ourselves. It was inevitable...
21) Jude watched Mercury Rev "live" in Singapore.
22) We were finally home to celebrate my dad's, my mom's, and my grandma's birthday's with them. Until this year, we were never home in August.
23) Our first- and hopefully not last- tamale party at Libby's and Molly's :)
24) I dragged Jude to the Buffy Sing-a-long Musical Extravaganza and had the time of my life!
25) If nothing else, culinarily speaking, I can now say that I roast a fairly mean chicken :)
26) We welcomed to the world our nephew, Aiden!
27) In 2007, I watched two "musicals" that now have a permanent place on my for-repeated-watching-favorite-movies list- Across the Universe and Once.
28) I rediscovered my love for Scrabble after signing up for Facebook and promptly becoming addicted to Scrabulous. I now look at combinations of letters and immediately try to look for words within them. It's not healthy, really...
29) Added two new favorite bands to my playlist, Rilo Kiley and Au Revior Simone. It always makes a year when you discover lovely new sounds :)
30) I finally made candidacy and am now one step closer to completing this darn degree...
31) After two years of not seeing them, I finally caught up with Yong and Beryl again in Austin!
32) Celebrated our first Christmas in Ann Arbor with our wonderful friends here. Thank you for making what we thought would be a depressing holiday away from home so warm and joyous!

And to round things off, we just want to thank all of you who read the blog for sharing all these wonderful memories with us this year! Happy New Year!