Dear Universe,

It’s me, Laura.  I need a favor.   Call or text me soon.  Hope you had a good holiday.

Love, Laura

It is already 2010, and I did not complete the “Best of 2009″ Challenge at the required time.  However, as part of my new year philosophy I have decided it is not about doing everything perfectly — my new goals are to finish, to participate, to commit to joy, and learn to love the imperfect perfection — so here we go. . .

December 21 Project. What did you start this year that you’re proud of?

Ken’s Answer: Learning to understand my voice by taking singing lessons.

Laura’s Answer: Stepping into the new area of social media with GlobalMojo.

December 22 Startup. What’s a business that you found this year that you love? Who thought it up? What makes it special?

Laura’s Answer: www.globalmojo.com.  One of my favorite client’s right now.  It is the first web browser for the socially conscious web user.  They donate 50% of their gross revenue to charities and schools.  I love mixing my passion for technology and my passion for philanthropy into smart business.

December 23 Web tool. It came into your work flow this year and now you couldn’t live without it. It has simplified or improved your online experience.

Laura’s Answer: Ping.fm: One status to update all my social media needs. It isn’t new, but trying to update all of my personal, professional, and now a client’s social media networks can get a little overwhelming.

December 24 Learning experience. What was a lesson you learned this year that changed you?

Ken’s Answer: TV stinks.

Laura’s Answer:  Fake it till you make it.  Just keeping saying that you want to learn a new skill.  Start giving yourself a title and sooner or later — you become your goal.

December 25 Gift. What’s a gift you gave yourself this year that has kept on giving?

Laura’s Answer:  I gave myself the gift of doing my best and letting that be good enough — even when it wasn’t perfect.  I didn’t train as well as I would have liked for my triathlon in August, but I completed the race, finished ahead of my goal time, and had a great race in the process.  lucky me.

December 26 Insight or aha! moment. What was your epiphany of the year?

Laura’s Answer: I always lived by the mantra “if you ask for nothing you get it every time.” However, I didn’t always live by the other side of the coin by asking for what I want or need.  I’ve been trying to ask for what I want this year — and no one is more surprised than me, but I have actually got what I asked for, AND the world didn’t end.  aha!

December 27 Social web moment. Did you meet someone you used to only know from her blog? Did you discover Twitter?

Laura’s Answer: Gwen Bell & Danielle LaPorte.  I had the opportunity to meet both of them in Vacouver BC.  I have always admired their writing and their career’s journey.  It was a wonderful pleasure to spend an afternoon listening and learning from them.  Way awesome!

December 28 Stationery. When you touch the paper, your heart melts. The ink flows from the pen. What was your stationery find of the year?

Laura’s Answer: Big, Bold, Lovely Note Cards and Vintage florals by Galison (Ken gave them to me for Christmas!)

December 29 Laugh. What was your biggest belly laugh of the year?

Laura’s Answer: Probably talking with my sister on the phone.  However, one night Ken & I started giggling in bed watching the Daily Show.  Even after we tunred off the light I could hear him laugh in the darkness.  “I hate this book!”

December 30 Ad. What advertisement made you think this year?

Laura’ Answer: The Fun Theory.

December 31 Resolution you wish you’d stuck with. (You know, there’s always next year…)

Laura’s Answer:  Find a consistent spiritual practice & community.

Q: December 17 Word or phrase. A word that encapsulates your year. “2009 was _____.”

A:  Ken’s Answer:  A first attempt at renewal

A: Laura’s Answer:  Perfection is not the enemy of the good.

Q: December 18 Shop. Online or offline, where did you spend most of your mad money this year? (+ Room 6 ‘Keep Calm & Carry On’ giveaway)

A: Ken’s Answer: Newegg. Amazon.com

A: Laura’s Answer:  I’m always crazy about spending money, so it hard for me to truly treat myself to something I like.  But I’m always looking at (and dreaming about)  etsy.com, west elm, and lululemon.

Q: December 19 Car ride. What did you see? How did it smell? Did you eat anything as you drove there? Who were you with?

A: Laura & Ken: Driving down the California Coast – to Big Sur, CA for  Dave & Keri’s wedding.  Great wine, fantastic vistas, the smell of the ocean, and long distance friends around for several days.  Man, it was great.

Q: December 20 New person. He/She came into your life and turned it upside down. He went out of his way to provide incredible customer service. Who is your unsung hero of 2009?

A: Ken’s Answer: Scott, my voice instructor.

Q: Laura’s Answer: I’ve got lots of heroes in my life this year.  She isn’t new to my life, but my friend and mentor Emily.  She gave me interesting work again this year, supported me as I challenged my own limitations, and embodies the authentic leader I would like to become.

Q: December 13 What’s the best change you made to the place you live?

A: We had a great vegetable garden in the backyard this year.  Although I definitely don’t have a green thumb yet, it was fun watching things grow — and then eating them.  Second best change to our home? Having people over to dinner even though there are so many reasons not too — our home is too small? bad seating? etc.  Ken & I decided not to let those kinds of limits keep us from connecting with friends.  It was great.

Q: December 14 Rush. When did you get your best rush of the year?

A:  Best rush: on our cruise this year we got to meet the Indigo Girls and I was able to tell them face to face what their music has meant to me.  It is such a rare treat to actually be able to tell an Artist who has written a soundtrack to your life how important their art has been to you.  It was awesome.  I was overwhelmed.

Q: December 15 Best packaging. Did your headphones come in a sweet case? See a bottle of tea in another country that stood off the shelves?

A:  Any packaging that is biodegradable, recyclable, or compostable is sweet packaging to me.  I’ve been obsessed with cutting down on waste after I learned about this: Continent -siz toxic stew of plastic trash fouling swath of Pacific Ocean.

Q:  December 16 Tea of the year. I can taste my favorite tea right now. What’s yours?

A: Honestly, I’ll drink whatever tea people make for me.  I’m sort of a coffee lady.  So my favorite tea is always my Great Aunt Elizabeth’s Sun Ice Tea.  My mom makes it from scratch and I often get a craving for it.

Dear Friends & Family,

I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season.  Click below to read our annual newsletter!

Ken & Laura Holiday Newsletter!

This process of reflection has made me realize that this year was kind of a mellow one, and it has made me pause about what I would like to have as goals for 2010.  However, that doesn’t mean the year should go by  un-noticed.  Here are a few more links form Best of 209 Challenge.

Q: December 8 Moment of peace. An hour or a day or a week of solitude. What was the quality of your breath? The state of your mind? How did you get there?

A: Luckily moments of peace seem truly plentiful for me right now.  Honestly, for the first time in my life,  I feel a lot of peace and I find myself in awe about it  My home life is just about perfect.  Yes, we need a bigger space to make way for a creative sunami, but waking up in the morning with a man I am crazy about and two warm cuddly cats is about as good as it gets.

Running a close second:  Listening to the Indigo Girls sing on a cruise ship in February.  Sun on my face.  Cocktail in hand, and feeling so proud to be traveling. “How long until my soul gets it right. . .”

Q: December 9 Challenge. Something that really made you grow this year. That made you go to your edge and then some. What made it the best challenge of the year for you?

A: For the second time, I participated in the Danskin Triathlon this August.  That is all well and good, but here’s the challenge: I had to participate in the race when I had not done a good job training all summer on my own.  I was inconsistent, didn’t challenge my workouts, and found it difficult to connect with new friends on my Tri team.  For most people, that wouldn’t be that big of deal, but for a perfectionist learning to continue to do something even when they can’t do it perfectly was a true trial of the ego.  Here’s the good news: I actually had fun during the race, and I beat my goal time by almost 30 minutes.  Lesson learned.

Q: December 10 Album of the year. What’s rocking your world?

A: Brandi Carlile’s – Give Up The Ghost and The Paper Raincoats – The Paper Raincoats

Q: December 11 The best place. A coffee shop? A pub? A retreat center? A cubicle? A nook?

A: Brouwers happy hour, road trips in our new car, and sitting across the table from Ken when we are out to dinner (two favs: by candlelight at OddFellows Cafe, Carmelitas – veggie food to die for).

Q: December 12 New food. You’re now in love with Lebanese food and you didn’t even know what it was in January of this year.

A: I’ve learned to like olives – kalamata only.  Also, I learned a lot about wine this year, and loved every swirl of it.  Finally thanks to Dave – we discovered the best veggie place in Seattle – Georgetown Liquor Company.

*** Defintely check out Gwen’s summary of all the blogger doing the 2009 Blog challenge. They are really fun to read!

Night out. Did you have a night out with friends or a loved one that rocked your world? Who was there? What was the highlight of the night?

• Best night – Ken & I sitting in the middle of the ocean, in the front of a cruise ship, the middle of the night, a bottle of wine, in a hot tub.  It felt like we had the entire world all to ourselves.  One of the most romantic evenings of my life.
• Hanging out on Emily’s boat this summer for SeaFair here in Seattle with the Blue Angels flying overhead.  Fun, sun, & swimming — a perfect summer day!
• Stranded in Chicago.  We were bumped from our plane last year coming back from Chirstmas.  We started off stranded and it turned into a night hanging out with my sister drinking beers in her local pub and eating really good Mexican food with my two favorite people.

Workshop or conference. Was there a conference or workshop you attended that was especially beneficial? Where was it? What did you learn?

• Mind, Body, & Tech in Vancouver just a few weeks ago w/ Gwen Bell — and no this isn’t just to brown nose with Gwen

Blog find of the year. That gem of a blog you can’t believe you didn’t know about until this year.

Laura’s choices:

• White Hot Truth – by Daneille LaPorte.  Its just truth and she always seems to have the advice I’m looking for
• How About Orange – Amazing DIY projects and a ton of free stuff
• GlobalMojo – My fav client right now!

Ken’s Choices:

Oldies but goodies: Slashdot, Engadget, Gizmodo! Can’t go wrong.

December 3: What’s an article that you read that blew you away? That you shared with all your friends. That you Delicious’d and reference throughout the year.

On Life – two books:

• The Creative Habit – Twyla Tharp
• One Small Step Can Change Your Life – Robert Mauer

On Business:

• Meeting on the Right Side of the Brain
• The Management Myth

On Poetry:
Between – Yehuda Amichai

Where will we be when these flowers turn into fruit
In the narrow between, when the flower is no longer a
flower
And the fruit not yet a fruit.  And what a wonderful
between we made
For each other between body and body.
A between of eyes, between waking and sleep.
A twilight between light, not day and not night.

How your spring dress so quickly became a flag of
summer
That flutters already in the first wind of fall.
How my voice was no longer my voice
But like a prophecy, almost.

What a wonderful between we are, like earth
In the clefts of the wall, a small stubborn earth
For the valiant moss, for the thorny caper bush
Whose bitter fruit
Sweetened what we ate together
These are the last days of books.
Next come the last days of words.  Some day we will
understand.

Ken’s favorite article/book from this year:

The Four Agreements -  Don Miguel Ruiz

Ken & I spent a lot of time and energy this year thinking about food. It started as a few great meals, then I started to do a little research Seattle happy hours, started watching Top Chef, and before we knew it — we were amateur foodies. So here is my best of list:

• Best Happy Hour: List
• Best Date Night: Dinner at Oddfellows Cafe followed by Salsa dancing at Century Ballroom
• Best Deviled Egg: Frank’s Oyster Bar & Champagne Lounge
• Best Out of Town Restaurant: Clyde Commons, Portland OR
• Best Bad Day Snack: Lindeman’s Peche Beer & Power Hour Frites with Sauce at Brouwers Cafe
• Best Wine Shop: Fremont Wine Warehouse
• Best Atmosphere: Elemental
• Best Overall Meal: Art of the Table

So I haven’t blogged in forever, which is strange because I:

a. have a lot to say

b. have been learning a ton about social media & should be a crazy blogger by now

c. have plenty of times to watch “so you think you can dance”, but not enough time for true writing

d. just haven’t had felt like it. . .

answer: all of the above.

I am going to work on the Best of 2009 Blog Challenge to try and get myself back on track for the new year. I’ll start with a simple one.

December 1st

What was your best trip in 2009?

My best trip was last February. Ken and I went on the Cayamo Singer/Songwriter cruise through the US & British Virgin Islands. We went snorkeling, listened to amazing live music every night, ate amazing food, and I really fell in love with traveling all over again. Traveling is like a muscle if you don’t use it, it gets flabby (or even worse, you forget how much you love it).

Second best, seeing my sister’s new apartment in Chicago. Don’t get me wrong, Chicago is awesome, but what is really thrilling is seeing someone you love open themselves up to adventure and moving to a new city where they don’t know anyone because a quiet voice whispers “there is something more for you to do and be.” She is brave. No doubt.

Check pics from our cruise:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lapster/sets/72157615017843955/

– laura

It’s is especially nice to have such a great friend to travel with. That makes it all worth while!

My second best “travel” as been in and out of Portland, OR. I’ve been conscripted by my job to do IT support down there and I try to explore the city every time I go. There are some fantastic restaurants in Portland. Check them out.

– ken