Sunday, December 31, 2006

Highlights of 2006

So on the eve of a new year, I have been reflecting the last few days about my favorite times from 2006. There are many. For your entertainment, I will list just a few.

  • Finishing my first year of law school. Seriously, I can't believe I made it.
  • Puerto Rico for spring break with friends and fam
  • Danube River cruise w/ my mom and some old people in May. I got to see Budapest, Slovakia, Austria, Germany and Prague and of course my mom and I stopped in Paris.
  • Working at a biotech this summer
  • Big Lake Half-Marathon after I ran myself ragged after finals
  • Lollapalooza and Chicago in August
  • Fourth of July in Boston, doing it up like a true tourist
  • A new nephew in March
  • My mom getting married in April
  • Opening Day at Fenway for my 23rd bday
  • Dominican Republic for a random Columbus Day weekend getaway
  • Nailing a REAL job this summer (what!?)
  • Going home 3 times in the fall
  • The leaves and weather this fall and winter in Boston
  • My apt in Beacon hill (did I mention the roofdeck?)
  • NY for a few days in August
  • Throwing a fabulous housewarming and ugly christmas sweater party
  • All the concerts I got to go to this year...too many to name
  • Being perfect through the first round of my NCAA bracket (I was so stoked)
  • Visiting Steph in DC and seeing her in SF again
  • Thanksgiving in SF
  • Skiing at my two favorite places Snowbird and Alta

I know there are more...I'll keep adding some :)

This year was one of my favorites for growth. I really learned how to deal with a lot of pain, pressure, and stress but I'm a better person for it. This whole year was a really good time for growth.

Bring on 2007!

Happy New Year!

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Recovery

I can't tell you how grateful I am to be in my pajamas right now and to be in Salt Lake. Last night at midnight I found out my flight was canceled due to snow in Denver...and the earliest I could get out of Boston was Saturday or Sunday. I was a little antsy about missing christmas with my family so I booked a flight at 7 am to Salt Lake.

Too bad I got 2 hours of sleep after finishing my law finals.

It was all worth it to see my nieces who attacked me with kisses.

I love being at my sisters house. :)

I do miss my brother though. :(

But I get to hang out in a house full of diet coke. :)

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Only 470 to go....

Although I need to be cramming for my evidence final,

I reached a milestone today in the coke quest...

I have 1400 points!

The leaders are:
1. Corey C.-- 263
2. Janiece J. -- 116
3. Wells M. -- 43
4. Hillary T. -- 40

And I wanted to share with you the excerpt that made it into the family christmas letter. This little paragraph was written by yours truly and it made my little paragraph the biggest in the letter. :D

Following in her fathers and sisters footsteps, Whitney picked up a diet coke habit when she started law school. Fortunately enough, Coca-Cola started a rewards program and Whitney set her sights on the prize of one free year of blockbuster rentals. She only needed to drink 624 bottles of coke. Part of the motivation for the coke quest was last year Cameron received Premier status on United Airlines and got a lot of attention for his achievement. Whitney decided to follow a similar dream by drinking coke. With the help of family (namely her cousin Janiece) and friends (namely Corey), Whitney only has 191 more cokes to go. She wants to thank everyone for all their loving support as she has worked so hard on this goal since March and she will not let you down. She promises.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Birthday

When walking back from a sevie run...

There was a manger scene surrounded by christmas trees, lights, and ornaments. There was a little blond girl all bundled up walking with what looked like her grandma. She must have been 3 or 4. She stopped at the window, got all excited, and yelled, "YOU KNOW WHOSE BIRTHDAY IT IS!?"

Her grandma paused and said, "No....who?"

"JESUS!"

And they walked on.

And I got all choked up and smiled.

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Blogging In Bed

Its 4:19 AM. I've been an insominac for a little over a week now. Tonight I think takes the cake though. Anyway, I know its from stress and I can't shut my brain off. So here I am blogging in bed. I finally got a wireless router on Wed so I could study in my room and get the internet...I really have quite the set up. So why am I still up? Too much to think about I guess.

1. Exams fast approaching. Figuring out my best game plan in cramming a semester worth of stuff into a couple days. Health Law and Copyright are dominating my thoughts.

2. All these places feel like home. I was thinking about Paris and Ashanti-Mampong, Ghana tonight and how much I miss living abroad. I love how I have lived in various places and all of them feel like home. I miss my friends in Africa. Sometimes I wish I could just quit it all and move there. (now that would be truly crazy).

3. Christmas presents. I'm hung up on what to get my sister and my mom. They have everything!

4. Relationships. Always on my mind late at night. Family, friends, boys, ya know.

5. Skiing. Seriously cant wait for Snowbird/Alta action in a couple weeks. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

6. My Plasma TV. Hoping I can get rid of my other tV to make room for the new one. *sigh*

7. Christmas Concert narration. I'm nervous. Not really.

8. I FORGOT TO PICK UP MY LAW SCHOOL EXAM NUMBER. The registrar's office better have a Plan B for me...

9. Its cold out. Seriously.

10. What do I want for breakfast? I'd really like banana pancakes.

11. Where should I study tomorrow? Boston Public Library, School, here, Cam's place, Starbucks?

12. Where should I go on my run tomorrow.

13. What should we do for January Enrichment?

14. I'm too social. I need to be a hermit for a while.

15. I need to learn copyright. I need to learn copyright.

16. My pillows are fluffy.

17. Man I have a comfortable bed.

18. O rly? Ya rly.

19. Why did I drink 132 oz. of diet coke today? Am I going to get formaldehyde forming in my blood? Is that why my K+ is high?

20. Stephen Colbert is hilarious.

21. I need a car wash.

22. Why do I keep discovering new songs that I love by the dandy warhols?

23. When I get stressed I'm a really reckless driver. I shouldn't drive the next few days.

24. More like weak sauce.

25. I need some melatonin.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Deck the Halls with Ugly Christmas Sweaters

Last year I had so much fun at my own ugly christmas sweater party, I decided this year to continue the tradition. Plus, its the perfect excuse to play "Last Christmas" by Wham over and over again. Little did I know that the quality of sweaters would jump ten fold. Seriously. I handed out a few prizes, but I really wished I had more. There were multiple sweaters that went unsung...it was a great showing by all.

The components that make up an ugly christmas sweater:

Large size + christmas scene + needle work + gregarious colors = one fun time.

I was so stresed that day since our gas was turned off earlier in the week and we had failed to get a technician out to turn it back on. My wassail was highly touted the year before and I couldn't let my fans down. Thankfully at 230 pm, the gas man came out and switched our gas back on. Also, my christmas sweater I ebayed had not arrived and the day before I found out that the woman I bought it from sent it parcel post. Which did not make me very happy. I figured Iwould have to wear one of my puffy paint backups. Which was fine, I just had wished I didn't buy an ugly christmas sweater for the party if I wasn't going to wear it. But lo and behold, my sweater arrived with the batch of USPS mail at 6 pm. Thank goodness! And the wassail turned out really well. Phew.
And the weather that day was really crappy, but it turned out to be warm just in time to use the roof deck. :)

My first guest, Susan. Here I am with her fixing my tree earring.


Susan walked into a vintage store and asked for something ugly. This is what she came out with.


Bryce showed up with out a sweater. And apologized. Little did he know i would have extras on hand for the peeps that thought they could get away with an apology.

Dave Alba. Hilarious. And you can see my hanging advent calendar above his head.

We were on the roofdeck and Lauren had a camera. I put my arm around Dave and he thought I was making a move. Not true. I just had to get a pic of the blue spandex.


Here's me getting rid of the egg nog. I still have a quart or so left. Everyone is invited to the party in my refrigerator so that someone will drink it all besides me.

Cyrus and Lauren. Two of my favorite people.

Although this doesn't show the genius displayed by his homemade ugly christmas sweater, I just had to post this b/c of the grin.



Geoff made up for his poor showing last year with this little number. It reminded me of a scene from Zelda meets Mario. Actually, more like that video game Tom Hanks plays in BIG. What was the name of that?


Aww...the Lewis sisters. They bought theirs on clearance at K-Mart. I was so proud. They were AMAZING. And totally soccer mom or grandma like.


Another view of those great sweaters. LOVED Carolina's as well.


Charlotte and Rachel did a fantabulous job of picking out theirs as well. Check out the earrings.


Riva's was truly ugly. And she brought us a figgy pudding. Which I had never had, but now I won't go until I get some.

This was supposed to be a picture of the two large tree sweaters. But they both weren't looking at the camera. oh well.

Carolyn and Sarah told me their outfits were going to be great. I was still overwhelmed at the sight of them walking in. They had turtlenecks, belts, leggings, vests, earrings, necklaces, and even bandanas. Most people called them pirate outfits. I saw the bandanas and thought "ghettofabulous".


I love Dave's reaction in this pic. Bryson's was pretty good too because the label said "Liz Claiborne".


Check out the socks folks.

Charlotte sandwiched in the middle of the ghetto fabulous girls.


Dave in the thick of things.



Jordan undearneath the mistletoe. I placed two bunches of mistletoe under two different door ways. But no one used them. That was the one failure of the party.


Bryce in my puff paint christmas sweatshirt.



Whitney Blair in a marvelous Christmas vest that was passed down through her family.

Rach and I boogeying. Boogieing?


Spencer also showed up without a sweater. He got to wear my sweatshirt I wore last year that was made especially for me. Check out the W.


I LOVED Lauren's. It was a masterpiece. Shoulder pads, sequins, and beading.



i love this pic of us.

Lee had a tie that played music and a fabulous matching sweater. It brought tears of joy to my eyes.


Posed Mike. You can see the full effect of the tree here.

Posed Mike.


Candid Mike.

Linda should have gotten a prize for best headband.


Here's Cyrus' duck tape Christmas sweater. Robins and Brenda's were great too.

Brenda's looked like it was stolen out of the closet of my first grade teacher.


Jenny had a faublous cap.

Cam ebayed his for 2 bucks. Check out how ugly that is.



I don't know exactly what we were doing here, but i think we were dancing.



Bryce looks surprised. We were deep in conversation.

Now, for the awards ceremony:

Dave Alba won for his "most surpring" outfit. I would have never guessed the blue spandex.

He won a spiderman dinner set.


Susan, our second winner, won for my favorite christmas shirt.

Here she is explaining finding the shirt.


I love this pic of Cyrus grinning under the mistletoe. So classic. And a perfect candid shot of everyone else.

And there was much rejoicing.



Susan's Prize: Spaceball The Movie.

My brothers and mine favorite prize of the night.


It went to the lovely ghettofabulous ladies...

Wait for it...

CHICKENS!


Victory!



As the crowd looked on...


A random former missionary renunion spiced up the night. Check out Toni's sweater. SO good.


Lee, with the musical tie w/ reindeers won the big sled.


And the WINNAR...E. Michael Visser. He MADE his sweater out of tinsel, wire, little presents, bead strings, and even a little star at the top. It was simply stunning.

He won best in show.


Cam and I are telling him about how awesome his prize is. Cam was the one who spotted it in the store.


Ready?

Meet Darth Tater.




Here is where Mike started the improv acceptance speech. From Cam's and my face, you can tell it was quite hilarious.







My favorite picture of the sequence.



One more pic of Dave's butt. Sorry but it was too funny.



Sigh. It was such a great party, the party high has continued for me through this week. I had so much fun. Good times, good times. I can't wait till next year.