2012

                                          

2012 was a GREAT year. Super super great. So MUCH better than 2011 that it’s kind of embarrassing for 2011.

In January, Alex and I made New Year’s Resolutions, and bucked down and did nothing but save $$ (by eating black beans every night) and look forward to our February trip to LA.

In February, we went to LA. It was an extremely short trip, like 2 nights 3 days, to be on the west coast, but 4 hours there does enough for my wintertime soul. My favorite recap from each day there was day three, when we went to Venice, spent time with my cousin, shopped at Blue Planet, and saw Tate Donovan.

While there, I got my hair done by Denis, we went to The Getty, and we drove to Malibu where I had what I thought was the best Pina Colada of my life at a classicly-named oceanside restaurant: MOONSHADOWS. For some reason, that name reminds me of the ’80′s and somewhere that like, Patrick Swayze would have eaten. (It was the best pina colada of my life to date–until the Pina Colada at El Miarsol in Palm Springs unseated it in December).

In March, we celebrated my 26th birthday with an indoor ‘summer picnic’ theme since I hate winter so much. We served hot dogs, pop corn, soda, citrus-infused water, and potato chips.

I learned that, despite everything I thought/wrote, I in fact don’t like celebrating my own birthday at home. It’s anticlimactic and depressing, when the guests leave and you’re left with 40 million dishes, a messy house, and all you have to do is walk 2 feet to your own bedroom. It’s not enough of a change. It’s like “hey guys thanks for coming woo hoo it’s my birthday!” and then………you walk 1 foot into your bedroom and put on pajamas. Versus like, getting schwasted at some awesome fun restaurant/bar/ANY VENUE THAT ISN’T YOUR HOUSE, and then getting into a drunken cab (or Uber) and strolling into your apartment building schwasted and passing out face-first on your bed with your clothes on and keys in your hand. THAT’S THE WAY TO DO A BIRTHDAY AM I RIGHT?!?!! EH EH? So this year, 27, ain’t gon’ be NEAR home. I think I want to have a small group to dinner at Chez Billy. WE’LL SEE.

In April, my super-cool Cuban family from my Miami (my awesome cousin and his awesome parents, my aunt and uncle), came to the DC area to visit colleges for him. We had the BEST weekend, having drinks on the W hotel rooftop, eating dinner at The Hamilton, going to The Arboretum, eating by the wharf in Baltimore, and sharing stories. Alex took approximately 12 Tequila shots with my uncle, so he was accepted into the family.

(Gaby, my cousin, and I at P.O.V. on the top of the W hotel, in my floral denim that I wore all Spring)

In May, we celebrated Alex’s birthday by then going down to Miami to stay with/see that very same family! We got burned to a crisp, saw a Rusko concert where we realized just how very old we are (every single person was 14 and naked), and ate/drank a LOT.

(my colorful Mexican shorts that I picked up from Blue Planet when we were in Venice in February)

Even better, we got to see my GIRRRRRRRL miss Stepahnie St. Louis, my Dartmouth roomie and fellow Cuban.

She took us to the MOST incredible outdoor garden, where we spent like 2 hours wandering and talking, where you got to pose by a giant red rose sculpture (one of like 70) and see the coolest swamps and ponds and iguanas and lizards and flowers and landscaping, just hangin’ out right there in front of your face.

CLASSIC:

Love that girl sooooo much. Not living in the same city as your friends is truly tragic.

In June we discovered Beach Bar, had my entire group of friends + their boyfriends over for a Bagel Brunch, ate summer salads on our roof, went to a play, rented bikes and took a looooong ride to Georgetown, I took a make-up class and spent the day with Meg showing her “my DC”; we spent lots of time at my friend Cait’s pool, stumbled upon the Gay Pride Parade, got an epic new couch, tried Estadio with friends from out of town, and tried Sundevich/subsequently ate at Sundevich 100 times.  Whew, what a month! Loved that month, good month. OF COURSE I DID/IT WAS– IT’S JUNE. JUNE IS MY FAVORITE MONTH. June is the month I’ve always known I’ll get married in because it’s always THE FUNNEST MONTH. June is never bad. I. LOVE. JUNE. ALL TIME FAVORITE.

(me and Alex’s best friends at Beach Bar)

(grab-your-glass station for Bagel Brunch)

(Sparkly name tags for the mimosa glasses at Bagel Brunch)

(My date outfit for the play we saw– a printed snakeskin-looking Wren dress that I got on crazy sale from Style Etoile)

In July I visited my friend Kristin in New York City and had the best time; Alex and I visited Philadelphia for the first time ever; “MY DC” went up on Meg’s blog; and Alex and I went to the opening pop-up of Union Market and rearranged the shit out of our apartment.

(The best waffle of my life, at Cafe Gitane with Kristin)

(Philadelphia)

(MY DC)

(photobooth memory from Union Market)

(rearranging our apartment)

In August, the single best thing of the year happened (other than our health and being able to celebrate two more birthdays together and  the health and happiness of all our friends and family blah blah) — my friend came home over and with her genius eye, we rearranged our entire apartment together. The before-after transformation was unreal/life-changing.

In August we also went up to Boston to visit Alex’s family, then to Portland/Bowdoin so I could see his college campus, and to Hanover/Dartmouth so he could see mine, and on to his family’s family reunion in Hyannisport (where Taylor Swift was staying with her Kennedy boyfriend the entire time).

(on the very pier where Tay would be photographed by many a paparazzi)

(The Dartmouth Green)

In August I also unintentionally wrote a rant about how 50 Shades of Grey made me want to jump off of a bridge.

In September, I wrote an epic post about happiness and how blissfully happy I am at this stage in my life. Apparently, it was the SINGLE post I wrote the month of September since it pretty much covered everything ever.

In September, my college roommate and bff Carolina also came to visit from Puerto Rico. We ate, drank, danced, talked, shopped, and ignored sleep. The pictures speak for themselves. We are trouble together. She’s like my little Latina mini-partner-in-crime. She’s so cute. I just want to squeeze her. I’m like 5 feet taller than her lololz

In October, I made intentions for the season of Fall, and rearranged the house some more.

We celebrated Halloween with friends. We refused to spend a cent on costumes, so at the last minute I decided to be “The 90′s” and wore everything 90′s I could find– a BENETON cotton minidress, combat boots, a flannel tied around my waste, a backpack, dark vampy nails, and bang-wisps.

In October, we made it out to Old Luckett’s Virginia and found this BADASS cow skull to add to our family! GOD I LOVE IT:

In October at Old Luckett’s we also found our ‘lil ghost pumpkins, that lived in our house until the day before our trip to Palm Springs when I finally said, “that’ll do, ghost pumpks, that’ll do,” and tossed them out. Getting ghost pumpkins from Old Luckett’s will definitely be a Halloween tradition for so long as we’re in DC. I really didn’t want to throw them out but resigned to the fact that I couldn’t ring in 2013 with ghost pumpkins in our house still.

In November, I wrote about how spending 19 hours a day on the internet can lead to cool new career opportunities, and celebrated the birthday of my 3 best friends who ALL have November birthdays.

(Blogging for DL1961, the jeans I fell in love with in June)

In November I also experienced my first Black Friday ever, and got some AMAAAAAAZING scores, like my favorite, this Mickey sweatshirt–

And, most excitingly of all, I was photographed by Marie Claire for the January Issue:

In December….well December was BATSHIT, insane, crazy. Nothing’s ever gone by quicker, and it was full of frantic work, errands, and prep for our EPIC Palm Springs trip. We spent New Year’s Eve with new friends and had the time of our LIVES dancing and conversatin’

I wore this:

Except with make-up, like this:

Dress closer-ups:

Overall HIGHLIGHTS OF the Year

• Being featured in Marie Claire on “what I love about me”
• Being featured in a Covergirl-backed feature on Refinery about what I like to wear for a night out on the town
• Publishing a personal story for Refinery on what I love the most in my fashion/beauty life
• Writing 97 stories for Refinery (which averages to about 8 a month!) And it’s my second job. So I’m proud of THAT (It was only around for 1 month of 2011, when it launched in DC, so 2012 is really where all that work happened)
• Being featured on Meg’s blog and getting to know her better (a GEM)
• GETTING HIRED TO BLOG FOR DL1961–a denim company that had become my favorite denim company before working for them became an opportunity that I went for. Here’s a post, my latest post, from December, that you probably haven’t seen (http://blog.dl1961.com/index.php/2012/12/secret-spots/) that we shot at The Arboretum
• Visiting ALL of the places we’d resolved to visit (Baltimore, Old Luckett’s, Miami, Hanover/Dartmouth, Portland/Bowdoin, and Philly); and seeing my cousin Gaby when he visited DC and then we visited Miami; and seeing my cousin Katherine out in Venice when we went to LA; and going to LA period
• Finally getting a handle on finances, and being able to save $2,000.00
• Making new incredible friends that we’ll have for life
• Celebrating two years with Alex
• And, getting to know his side of his family better, first with the reunion in August and then spending Christmas with them

Overall, we spent a LOTTA great time with friends:

And rearranged the apartment a LOT:

(I will love that llama rug to the ends of the earth, for all eternity, amen)

Rearranged the closet a bunch:

Had breakfast in bed:

I got into baking:

Some of my fave outfits:

And took some great fuckin’ instagrams:

And took a lotta packing photos as I packed for trips in general:

And…………………………..

ORGANIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (A POST I STILL HAVE TO WRITE):

Organization is my NUMBER ONE resolution for 2013.

Along with fitness.

I’m so original.

THAT’S ALL!!!!! HOPE YOU ENJOYED MY LOOK-BACK AT 2012 AND I LOOK FORWARD TO THE MAGICAL THINGS THAT ARE GOING TO HAPPEN IN 2013.

13 is a LUCKY number ya’ll, forget that shit about the haunted 13th floor and Friday the 13th. LUCKY. NUMBER. 13. IT’S GOING TO BE SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD I CAN FEEL IT.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND YOURS

Now I need to get out of bed (it’s 2 pm, I’ve been writing this blogpost since 10); change into human clothes, clean the bagel crumbs out of the bed (ate a bagel with cream cheese in bed as I wrote this), make the bed, do 4700 loads of a laundry, get my life together, shower, and WATCH THE REDSKINS GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LETS.

GO.