lianhua.nu

Welcome to 2009! :)

For the past two years, I’ve written posts called “‘Round Midnight,” where I talk about what happened through each month in the previous year. Imagine my surprise in the past few days to see this happening across many of my friends’ blogs!

Did mine start as a meme? I can’t remember. But it’s definitely a Lianhua tradition, and I’m pretty excited about doing it again this year!

2008 in Review!

• January – the month of heartache: my grandmother passed away; Sean arrived in LA and we immediately started having problems; started couples’ counseling.
• February – the month of ripping off the band-aid: forced Sean to make the ultimate decision on our relationship during counseling; re-instated my OkCupid profile and began dating; met two guys – an investment banker of sorts and Derek; fell in love with Derek. :)
• March – the month of young love: kept falling more in love with Derek; traveled with him to San Francisco and met his younger brother, Brenton; traveled with Miana (Sean’s little sister) to Vancouver to visit her mom; my sister got engaged.
• April – the month of growing: turned 22; traveled to Vancouver with Miana again; ultimately realized that I could not live in Sean’s mom’s house with him still living there; officially moved in with Derek; put in an application at a recruiting company but never got called back.
• May – the month of boosting self-confidence: my aunt gave birth to my newest little cousin, Alexis; applied for a job at YellowPages.com and got an interview on my own; passed the interviews and got the job within a week; traveled to New York with Derek and my parents; participated in Sarah Lawrence College’s 2008 commencement ceremony with my classmates; started my new job.
• June – the month of working hard for the money: worked, worked, worked; hunted for apartments.
• July – the month of the new apartment: moved to our apartment in Glendale with Derek; worked, worked, worked.
• August – the month of old friends: Emily & Warlock came to visit; celebrated 6 months with Derek; worked, worked, worked.
• September – the month of older love: attended my older brother’s wedding (yay!); started writing in my blog again after 3 months of absence; worked, worked, worked.
• October – the month of good friends: hosted a very successful dinner party for some of our closest/best friends; went to Halloween in West Hollywood with a relatively new friend and her very new boyfriend; worked, worked, worked.
• November – the month of new ‘family:’ spent my first Thanksgiving with Derek’s family; got a new laptop (refurbished previous generation black MacBook); realized I was getting “soft” when 70ºF felt cold; went to Disneyland with Kelly.
• December – the month of togetherness: went to Disneyland again with Derek, Kelly and Steve; went to Six Flags Magic Mountain with Derek; spent Christmas (and the weeks leading up to it and following it) at Christmas parties, family dinners, unsponsored holiday happy hours, shopping trips, game nights… surrounded by friends, new family, old friends, coworkers, and the love of my life.

I couldn’t be more grateful for this year. It was definitely a year of transition, and there were a lot of rough or stressful or difficult times, but I’m so happy to be where I am, surrounded by the people I see every day, that it makes every little “bad” patch seem so insignificant. This — this life I have now — is where I’ve wanted to be for such a long time. I didn’t know that so much would have to happen before I could be in this place — but it was worth it.

So worth it.

Happy New Year!