2019 Year in Review

In 2019 I did…

20 Museums & Art Exhibits: Natura Obscura, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Art Institute of Chicago, Field Museum, Smithsonian Castle, DC Holocaust Museum, National Mall, National Air & Space Museum, National Natural History Museum, Arlington Cemetary, Monticello, Colonial Williamsburg, American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, Udvar-Hazy Center, Getty Villa, Getty Center, Gaudy or Nice Utopia Giveaway, Science Museum of Minnesota, ICE! Rudolph Exhibit, Camp Christmas
8 Plays & Theater: The Play that Goes Wrong, Twelfth Night, Fiddler on the Roof, Anastasia, Wizard’s Brunch Dinner, Colonial Williamsburg Ghost Tour, Colonial Williamsburg Witch Trial, Cirque Dreams Holidaze
7 Trips: Atlanta, Horsetooth Reservoir, Chicago, Washington DC, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Minneapolis
4 Comedy Shows & Magic: Eddie Izzard, Patton Oswalt, Penn & Teller, Kathleen Madigan
3 Theme Parks & Fun: Dave & Busters, Disneyland, Disney’s California Adventure
2 Spas: Four Seasons Denver, Ritz Denver
2 Sporting Events: Denver Broncos, Monster Trucks
2 Tiki Bars: Trader Sam’s, Santa’s Tiki Bar
2 Aquariums: Denver Aquarium, SEA Life Minnesota Mall of America
2 Conferences: Signals, CES Enablement

The Year of Getting Serious

This year my job changed…twice. In January I became my company’s first Solution Consultant, and I loved this role! I love being creative, the strategy and research and have found my way in working a pre-sales/sales support role that actually has an impact and results. Then later in the year my company got acquired and I soon joined an entire team of SolCons! I feel like things changed right when they should and that everything will work out!

This also was a year of weird health issues. I was in and out of the doctors for a while. I’ve been poked and prodded in almost every possible way. Thankfully everything didn’t require any surgery but it is a big wake up call that in 2020 I need to take my health seriously this year.

I never thought I’d…

Be a “Podcast” person. I discovered a few great true-crime podcasts (Last Seen, Bear Brook, My Favorite Murder) as well as history-based ones (Hardcore History), and halfway through the year switched from listening to Audiobooks to podcasts (since they are free).

Best Unexpected Pleasure…

I started playing Harry Potter Wizard’s Unite. Although I don’t play it much now, during the summer/fall it was a lot of fun to walk with co-workers around downtown Denver to capture Harry Potter related magical creatures.

I pushed myself to…

Figure out my health. In March I had a health issue that felt like it was killing me. A bunch of tests and appointments later I’m much better, but I really did push and question and get second opinions this year instead of just letting my health just do its own thing.

Favorite Theater Experience…

Anastasia is hands down one of my favorite plays I’ve ever seen! I loved the 1997 animated movie, and they hit all of the best songs from the movie and then added more! While I miss Rasputin as the villain, they used his theme song as a hauntingly beautiful song that is well done. I wish I could have seen the play multiple times. At least it did make a stop in Denver, before that was announced I was seriously planning on going to NYC to see this play.

Runners up this year would also have been the moving Fiddler on the Roof, but The Play That Goes Wrong also gets a nod for its amazing stagecraft and sets. When things started to break at first I thought something had gone wrong…forgetting the name of the play. Well done!

Least Favorite Theater Experience…

I had such high hopes for the “Wizard’s Brunch” Dinner. But it just didn’t come together. Someone stole my seat at my table, the food wasn’t gluten free, heck if it even got around to you. The entertainment was much less than what they advertised in photos of previous events. I had a fun time but this was definitely missing something and will make me pause for unofficial events again in the future.

Favorite Comedy Show…

Eddie Izzard is a treasure. I had been listening to his audiobook and decided to get scalped tickets to his show. Turns out it might be his last tour before he joins politics! So it was good to see him. Man I wish I had a recording of the show, I was laughing so hard for the entire thing. From Dinosaur jokes, to in-depth history jokes, Eddie Izzard just gets me.

Least Favorite Comedy Show…

Kathleen Madigan’s show. It wasn’t that she was bad or anything, it…just hit too close to home on some levels. I always joked that Madigan reminded me of my family. Irish mid-west family drama. And that is what she mostly talked about. Half the show was “this is too old for me” while the other was “oh fuck what do I do when my parents get old” existential crisis. But at least I had dead center 4th row seats, so I had a up-close view while trying to hide my own sense of dread.

Favorite Museum Experience…

National Natural History Museum in DC. I LOVE TRICERATOPS and was excited to see the new Fossil Hall even though they put my lovely Triceratops in a death pose. But I was excited to find another Triceratops cast upstairs that was still on display in the old traditional pose. I had so much fun! That and this museum’s Mineral Hall is to die for. They have done a great job of making minerals fun and I wish I had more time to visit it.

A close second would be seeing the Science Museum of Minnesota’s “Collectors Corner”. Essentially they ask patrons to bring in something natural and tell them about it. It can be stones, bones, feathers, etc. Just cannot be “recently dead and disgusting”. The more you can explain about your thing the more points you get, and then you can use those points to buy gems and fossils from their little store. I wish this was in Denver and had been a thing when I was a kid. I would have begged to go to the museum every week with a system like this in place!

Least Favorite Museum Experience…

I’ve got three this year. Each with a different reason of dislike.

In Chicago, I was deathly sick but pressed on to see the Art Insitute of Chicago. While the museum is amazing, me running through galleries to find bathrooms, wandering around quickly to try to see as much as I could before I could collapse, was just a horrible experience.

The DC Holocaust Museum is so well done, but it is so much to take in. Towards the end I was shaking, crying, and wanting to vomit. It did what it needed to do, and everyone warned me, I just stupidly thought it was like how the Holocaust had been taught to me in school.

And an exhibit I simply didn’t enjoy much was the Manet and Modern Beauty at the Getty Center. I…guess I didn’t know who Manet was, and his style just isn’t my style. I realize I much more like impressionism where you can see the brush strokes. So I breezed through that exhibit and really the whole museum as I had covered the museum in depth a year prior.

Favorite Halloween Activity…

I didn’t really do any in Colorado this year, but I highy enjoyed Apple Picking in Virginia (even though my parents were pissed to be dragged along since it was so busy!) as well as the Witch Trial in Colonial Williamsburg! Sadly I tried to save “the Witch” but I was with a massive 60+ schoolgroup and the teens wanted the Witch hanged. :(

Most Embarrassing Moment…

The moment I banged my hand against a door, dropped my drink, and watched in slow motion that it didn’t just spill a little, but the eco-conscious cup SPLIT INTO 20 PIECES and spilled sticky lemonade all over the WeWork my mentor and I were at, and how sticky everything got. (And how everyone in the Wework gave me dagger eyes.) I tried to clean it up twice and I still think I failed. FML

Best Travel Experience…

Seeing my friends Marc and Paola get married in DC! And how welcoming their friends and family were at the reception when I didn’t know anyone there!

Second is finally realizing how amazing compression socks are! They help so much after being on my feet all day.

Worst Travel Experience…

As I said before, being sick in Chicago. I now will never travel without flu/cold meds.

Best Theme Park Experience…

I love MaxPass at Disneyland, I find it much more efficient than the Fastpass system at WDW and I was able to get almost everything done by lunchtime that I wanted to do (almost to efficient!) This allowed me a lot of time to spend at the Galaxy’s Edge Batuu Star Wars Land, where I wore my Leia REBEL shirt. The Millennium Falcon ride is really well done and just seeing characters walking around LIVING in Batuu was amazing.

Worst Theme Park Experience…

Waiting in line for Toy Story Mania. It said it was going to be a 45 minute wait (the most I would have waited in 2 days) ended up being almost 2.5 hours. With very little movement due to FastPassers and no seating.

Second was being cold and wet watching Fantasmic. Glad that was the end of my night!

Favorite Reads…

Due to the TV show coming out I read Deborah Harkness’s Discovery of Witches series. I had read the first book years ago, but had trouble getting into the second one. Well the TV show ignited my interest and I read the 3 other books in the series and I’m hoping for more.

Favorite TV Shows…

I’m seeing a trend with my favorite shows this year: The Mandalorian, The Witcher, Good Omens, Lucifer, Discovery of Witches, Vampire Diaries/The Originals/Legacies ALL were Fantasy or Scifi based. Mandalorian comes out on top as near perfect, while Vampire Diaries/Originals/Legacies I thought was going to be trash TV…and well might be but I enjoyed the hell out of it.

Favorite Movies…

There weren’t many movies I saw at home that spoke to me as my “Movie of the Year” but having recently seen Rise of the Skywalker I enjoyed that a lot.

Blogging

I took yet another year of blogging off, and this time didn’t write anything new. The posts you saw this year were prepped back in 2017. I’m now completely out of posts. I need to figure out what I’ll do for 2020 and beyond. I have a lot more stories, just not as much drive to write them all out.

2020 Plans

I don’t have a lot of set plans for 2020. There are a bunch of comedy shows and concerts I’m interested in seeing, I just haven’t locked anything down yet.

I’ll see Claude Monet at DAM soon
Maybe attend Leakycon
Try to get tickets for the Hella Mega Tour

Resolutions…

Focus on my Health. After having some health scares this year (including a blizzard where I couldn’t make it to the ER and felt like I was dying) I need to focus on this more in a serious manner.
Fix my house. I’ve had a broken fireplace for years, and now have a broken toilet. I just haven’t had the money to fix them, but need to work on that this year.
Speaking of that, I need to work on my savings. Hopefully, things will look up on that for next year.
And continue to work hard and enjoy my SolCon role! This one should be an easy one to keep!
I’d love to be able to afford an International trip. Its been a while since I could afford to travel like that. I’m still eyeing Jordan at the next one, but Croatia, Greece, Spain, or Portugal are also ones I’m researching.