Play, Play, Play - How I Spent 2007, or, a Year in Review

I'm grateful that in 2007, I was able to introduce more social life and fun back into my life. 2006 was the year I devoted to finishing my disseration, and I really look back on it as a pretty miserably solitaire and austere existence -- at least up until the round-the-world-trip Kiyash and I took when all that was over. I was determined in 2007 to spend a little less time working and a little more time with other people. It made a huge difference to my quality of life -- and I still managed to get a hell of a lot done!

So as a way of remaining conscious of everything I have to be grateful for, here is a top-of-the-head review of the fun I had in 2007:

I spent a ton of time playing Werewolf and SF0 and the Nintendo Wii -- not to mention co-hosting improvisational truffle night and improvisational champagne cocktail night(cooking parties for hackers and gamers).

I went to a ton of Long Now Foundation talks (and become a charter member!), along with other awesome Friday night events like the Geek Nights at Squid Labs and Heather Gold's live talk show.

I cookie rolled like crazy, and I finally learned how to drive (I got my permit in the spring and will be taking my test in the next couple of months!)

I discovered the genius of Scott Westerfeld (Pretties, Peeps) and read five of his books, thank god there is still one left I haven't read (Extras) and get to read in 2008.

Thanks to ebay, I obtained six vintage, in-the-box, props-included original Infocom games for the Commodore 64. I also shopped online for girly things I love beyond all reason, like MAC lip gloss, Juicy Couture tube socks, Marc Jacob sunglasses, BCBG sweaters.

I reveled in new episodes of my favorite tv series: The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, So You Think You Can Dance. And I cheered on my good friend Ian Bogost when he was on the Colbert Report! TV is awesome.

Kiyash and I had the best meal of the year where we always have our best meal of the year -- Cosmopolitan Cafe -- and also had amazing Bay Area meals at Slanted Door and Sea Salt, our other local favorites.

Also, there were a few unexpected challenges I wrestled with, which weren't exactly fun but are all positive memories in retrospect -- largely because of the amazing support my husband Kiyash provided through all of them:

In January, I had all four impacted wisdom teeth removed, and then suffered from multiple dry sockets, subsequently gaining an awful lot of weight from sucking down only mashed potatoes and gelato (and if you saw me in February or March, you know what I mean!).

I had my suitcase stolen and as a result lost a lot of my favorite things. But it was a good reminder of the relative unimportance of things.

Kiyash and I took on an extraordinarily difficult and extremely isolated hiking trip (10 days in Aragon, the brutally hot, arid, mountainous region of Spain) that I look back on somewhat less fondly than my husband Kiyash, mostly because I can't believe we didn't die, although I'm glad we did it. At any rate, the four months we spent training for the trip was extremely fun, even if the trip was somewhat traumatic, and really, I mean traumatic in a mostly good way. Flow, and all that.