I’m participating in my friend Gwen Bell’s “Best of 2009″ Blog Challenge. I’m a day late, but without Internet in the apartment and a busy work life, it’s tough to write consistently. 2009 was probably one of the fastest years of my life – so many things happened, so many changes, and yet it was all positive – a surge of momentum that started 11 months ago and hasn’t ceased yet. So – not only do I want to do this “Best of 2009″ challenge, I need to. I need to remember 2009 for those years in my life that will prove to be a bit more challenging. I will need to remember this year for what it brought me.
So, without further a do, the first two updates in the challenge:
December 1st – Best Trip of 2009.
I traveled more in 2009 than I have in any other year of my life. According to Tripit.com – I went on 9 trips, spanning 32 days, 15,200 miles and 7 cities. That doesn’t even cover all my trips as I was far too lazy to update Trip It all the time. Still – that gives a bird’s eye view of the kind of traveling that I was doing this year. Most of it being in the latter half of the year – as I was doing things for work, traveling for job interviews, and just attempting to enjoy the life of a jet setter.
Still – the best trip I went on all year was easily my visit to Austin for South By South West Interactive. I chronicled the trip here on my blog – SXSW – and it was simply an amazing time. That trip alone has impacted my life in so many ways – personal friendships that blossomed, professional relationships that have helped pave the way for me in my career, amazing parties that were fun, and intellectually stimulating panels that showed me benchmarks for my own personal potential.
I’m not much of a photographer (hopefully that will change in 2010), so I don’t have too many photos from my time in Austin. Still, the memories burn brightly inside my head and in my every day life. I feel like I don’t go a week without having a conversation about the events of those days in Texas.
December 2: What is your Best Restaurant Moment of 2009?
This is a hard one to answer because, at the end of the day, I pretty much eat at restaurants every day. The horrible cook in me and the lazy man combine for quite the expensive “out on the town” line item in my monthly budget. Still, living in Boulder, there were so many great restaurants that jump to the front of my mind. The Med. The Kitchen. My personal favorite – Brasserie 1010.
Brasserie will probably go down as my favorite restaurant moment because it’s one of the biggest things that I think I will miss now that I’m living in New York. Sure, I’ll be able to find the quality of food here in the city. I may even be able to find something at a reasonable price, but that I’m not banking on it. Still, nothing will be the same as Brasserie.
Which brings me to my favorite moment – because the challenge wasn’t to find your favorite restaurant, but find some moment that will forever be trapped in the amber of your memory. That moment for me is brunch with An Bui. An was a new friend that I made this year and the first girl that I’ve ever gone to brunch with that….well, let’s just say An and I were 100% just friends, and yet we still shared brunch. The majority of our friendship actually occurred around food – we ate dinner together a bunch of times – yet the first time we went to brunch was heavenly. The food was amazing. The conversation was stimulating. I just remember thinking to myself that I was going to really dig hanging out with An in Boulder. Little did I know I would be moving away a few months later. I miss the occasional brunch date that An and I had. And that longing stems from that first time. It was easily the best restaurant trip for me in 2009. Thanks An! Looking forward to our next dinner or brunch together!
So that’s the start of the Challenge. The posts might come in bunches (again – no internet!) but I will do all 31 so I will have something to look back on that summarizes 2009! Looking forward to reading everyone else’s as well.
