Good Riddance, 2008!

It's Christmas day and I'm just about to get ready to go to Hollywood to hang with my family, keeping the 20-some year tradition of an overwhelming day of gluttony of food, presents, and hopefully alcoholic beverages. I guess this is where I am supposed to reflect on 2008 and make some promises of change for 2009.
But instead, I'd rather go through my top 10 moments of 2008, whether funny, random, ridiculous, or all of the above. In no particular order:
1. The day I watched the sun come up at a random house in downtown, and realized I was stranded. It must have been around 9am, and the only thing I knew to do was to call Paige. Considering I had NO money and NO car, Paige came to save the day. She told me to call a cab, and she went to the ATM, got out some money for me, and I was dropped off looking way worse than I probably felt, at the Sagamore, where Paige was working at the time. I got out of the cab, still in my heels and made the walk of shame to the pool deck where Paige was already sipping a bloody mary. Those were the days. I'm 100% positive we went out that night, too.
2. Telluride summer trip. I went on a private plane to Telluride, Colorado, where I spent 4 days with my best friend J. We went to a bluegrass festival, got drunk pretty much all day every day, and managed to come out of that trip closer than ever, after a few ups and downs. There is no place in the world I love more than Telluride, and no one I love more than my J! So it was a pretty sick trip, seeing the small town GREEN instead of snow-covered, as I'm used to.
3. The Chromeo show at the Fifth, South Beach. All of my friends from the grove, and the party kids were all in one place rocking out to one of my favorite live shows of the year. That same week, I'm pretty sure we saw Girl Talk at The Rat, too, so I just remember (barely) being really happy that I finally had all of my friends at the same venue with great music and lots of over-priced drinks! Whiz, Jennifer and I got pretty fucked up. That's always good.
4. LANGERADO! It was my first Music Festival ever, and though the trip to Big Cypress took longer than expected after Jennifer and I passed the exit 10 fold without realizing it, I still had one of the best weekends of my life. We saw some amazing shows, met some crazy-ass hippies, and finally on the last day (because of the shitty cell phone reception) we finally found Whit and Amanda, who were just as exhausted but content as we were. My favorite of the shows, which most of my friends know, was the nighttime Ghostland Observatory show, which featured the sexiest man alive, Aaron Behrens, a laser light show, and some sweaty dancing, while simultaneously getting pregnant watching Aaron sing. (no, really, just looking at him gets your eggo preggo.)
5. My 21st birthday. Just epic. I went to the Vagabond that Thursday night for an awesome celebration and countdown til midnight. I had a chocolate penis-shaped cake baked by the lovely Fiorella, and enough free drinks to make me feel really special, considering the majority of the hipsters I know are the cheapest human beings alive. Hey-- I'm not hating. It's true and you all know it :) Then I hopped on a plane to NEW YORK CITY, where I got in the day of my birthday to Greenpoint. It was rainy and cold, but nothing could stop Paige, Tiffany and I from having a fucking amazing night. We met up with Ryan and Jake at some swanky sushi restaurant, and I had so much fun that weekend, that I made a video of it, which I'm sure I've made most of you watch over and over. I explored the city with Jake, had brunch with Pagina and Jones, and had so much fun that I decided to move there for (the majority of) the summer. My friends really made my birthday epic.
6. Alexi's First McCarren Park Pool Party. Holy shat!!! It was amazing! Cold War Kids were playing, the sky unleashed its wrath upon hundreds of sweaty hipsters, I played on a giant slip n slide, got really fucking wasted, and partied afterwards on the coolest rooftop in Brooklyn! It was one of the first few days I was "living," in New York and it really set the tone for the rest of the summer. I really had never been so happy in my life than being able to dress like a fool, dance like a 6 year old on acid, and drink beers like I stole 'em! I think I may have actually stolen 'em. I dunno.
7. Camping in Key West! This was an excellent weekend. After having run 9 miles in the wee hours of the morning, I went over to Jonas's house, where we loaded the kayaks on to the car, packed up, and drove all the way down to mile marker 30 to do a little fishing, kayaking, and drinking. It was SO MUCH FUN. We met up with the rest of the crew, Whit, Monte and some fucking insane Aussies, and played Wizards (after every can of beer, you tape one to the next trying to eventually surpass your own height in beers.) It was a retarded night of singing, cooking, and playing on the beach. Jonas and I took some time to drunkenly explore the area of Bahia Honda, found some secret fishing spots, and really had a great time. I'm dying to go camping again!!!
8. Jaelyn coming home to Miami! We had way too much time apart and honestly, I'll never forget the look on her face when I showed up at the airport to get her while she was waiting for baggage claim. I NEVER park and go in and she always asks me to, so I decided I wanted to surprise her, and we made the HUGEST SCENE ever in the Miami airport. Then I took my princess in my magical carriage (Ok, fine, my beat up VW Golf) and we drank 2 really expensive bottles of wine that were hidden in her moms house, and later on in the weekend we brought the camera and went to South Beach and took some really amazing photos. It just felt awesome having my Jalie back in Miami!!!
9. Morning coffees with Whiz. Even though this isn't ONE exact day, it was really something special that we had going basically this entire semester. Every Tuesday and Thursday, I would go to my 8am class (bleh) and at 9:15am I'd cruise over to Whits, drink some coffee, have a smoke, and watch Golden Girls before she had to get ready for work. I guess I should probably talk about how amazing our Project Runway/Family Dinner nights were too, considering I'm on the topic of fun times in the grove house. My master chef Whiz would prepare a delicious dinner while we watched the previous week's PR for either the 2nd or 3rd time, and then when the new episode was on, me, Whit, Christian and Dax would all bring our dinner into the living room, smoke some pot and watch and critique the episode together. Yeah-- We were INTENSE!! hahahah!
10. Definitely have to add something in there about the huge commitment I've made to this half marathon training group. Giving up my Friday nights, and pretty much my Saturdays to devote to running this race has been probably the best thing that I've decided to do this year. As you can tell from all the other fun times that I've listed above, most of them have been pretty fucking wild. And FUN they were. But with this commitment I've made to basically change my life, I really am a lot happier than I was before. Yes- when my alarm goes off at 4:45am to wake up to run 11 miles, I sometimes question WHYYYY AM I DOING THISSSSS!!! But the best feeling I've had this whole year has been how much better my life has become with this change of pace. Absolutely everything is going amazing in my life right now, with school, work, friends, family, and I'm in the best shape I've been in since--- ever? Oh-- and I have a pretty awesome guy in that mix too. :)

GOOD BYE 2008!!!! IT'S BEEN FUN.... but I'm over it.

-a