Overall, I have to say, I feel pretty blessed and lucky with how 2017 turned out for me. It was a year jam-packed with fun and friends, pleasure and pleasant memories.
Here are some highlights from my year:
As usual, I went to a TON of shows (in large part, thank you to my employer, STG). Let's see if I can even begin to remember them all: Rent, Cabaret, Aladdin, The King and I, Beauty and the Beast, The Bodyguard, The Sound of Music, Tash Sultana, Damian Marley, Matisyahu, Alice Merton, Two Cellos, Brene Brown, Sheryl Sandberg and Cheryl Strayed, Elizabeth Gilbert, The National Theatre of Scotland's production of Let the Right One In, Portugal the Man, Melissa Etheridge, Trevor Noah, Bassem Youssef, Moisture Festival Burlesque, Seawheeze Cabaret, Le Faux, Terror at Gaylord Manor, Shakespeare in Love, Henry IV Part One, Odysseus, and of course a wide smattering of belly dance shows. I'm sure there's a few more that I'm forgetting about.
January started out with studying belly dance with Mercedes Nieto and Shahrazad, as well as performing in the showcase while they were in town. You can read about some of my takeaways from studying with Shahrazad here.
In February, we adopted a rescue malti-poo. He's the smartest, sweetest little guy and we are so blessed to have him in our family. And he gets to come to work with me!
In March, I performed in Lunaria Dance Theatre's first full-length production, Moon Over Manhattan. We performed to a sold out crowd and received some pretty awesome reviews afterward.
And to snag your seat at our sure to be sold out 2018 show, Oh My Goldness!, you can purchase your tickets here.
In April, I died by hair purple and immediately fell in love with it. I feel more like myself and may never go back!
In May, I headed to Denver to celebrate a friend's 40th birthday and hang with two of my best friends. We cemented our friendship bond in our early days of public accounting in Big Four.
In June, I had the opportunity to travel to Peru and spend 2.5 weeks touring various parts of the country, and finally culminating in the three-day Inca Trail hike that ends at Machu Picchu. Definitely the highlight of the trip and a once-in-a-lifetime experience!
In July, I did an amazing beach belly dance photo shoot with the talented photographer Chris Yetter.
To see more pictures from the shoot, check out this post.
August was the month of road trips. First, it was a weekend spent in Ashland, Oregon with family taking in the performances of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
And then two weeks later, it was back to Oregon, but this time to Corvalis to watch the total solar eclipse. And yes, it was completely worth the 10.5 hours it took to get back to Seattle!
September was back to settling down, focusing on fitness and fall routines. I ran a 5K and ended up getting 6th place overall. I also went to the Tone It Up tour event, with my fitness icons Katrina and Karena and Jillian Michaels. FYI, it's thanks to K&K that I lost 1.5 inches off my waist this year. If you been thinking about upping your fitness game, their program really works!
October was photo shoots and a month-long celebration of Halloween, my hands-down favorite holiday.
Photo by Marice Goodson
Two portrait photos by Cliff Lenderman
To see additional pics of Halloween festivities, you can check out this post.
And for December, it looks like between the time I post this blog and the time the clock strikes midnight on December 31st, I will have finally finished writing my novel! All 20 chapters and approximately 65,000 words! Yasss! Only one more chapter left to go, so it's looking completely doable. I've also already done two photo shoots this month, two more to go if things go as planned, so will have some fun new pictures to share in the near future, both belly dance as well as some other fun, creative concepts.
In general, 2017 was a year of fun. It was filled with good times spent with friends. I'll be taking lots of happy memories with me into 2018. I'm so blessed to have so many kind, talented, smart, and generally bad-ass women to call friends!
Overall, this last year was focused on a lot of fun and festivities. I'm usually a bit more goal-oriented and ambitious. I guess I needed a break from being so responsible and some more time to socialize and enjoy life! For 2018, I think I will need to get back to being a bit more focused. Or better yet, finding the balance between the two.
I hope 2017 was as good to you as it was to me. See you in 2018!
