My friend Hannah stayed with me and we both performed at the Tongue & Groove reading series at the Hotel Cafe. This is her warming up on my air mattress. Josh is in the background carving on our balcony.

Became an Organizing For Action (OFA) Community Engagement Fellow and helped host a screening of a documentary about single-payer health care in Santa Ana.

Camped in the Grand Canyon in April and found perfect conditions. Attempted Bright Angel trail and went down to three mile marker.

I started Julia Camerons book the Artist’s Way and started doing morning pages.

We camped in Joshua Tree for the first time and attempted Quail mountain the highest elevation in the park. Didn’t make it to the top due to weather and a late start.

In February of 2017 I started volunteering for a community group called HB Huddle, which grew out of the Women’s March movement. This is my dear friend Josh K. during the first meeting.

Grafitti from LA Women’s March 2017.

Eight years after my journalism degree, in 2017 I finally had my first article and essay published in a magazine.

I became friends with these lovely ladies who I have since come to deeply admire, Miss Carol & Miss Bethany. Also got our group a little write-up in the Daily Pilot (using long dormant PR skills from college). This is us at the Climate March in Irvine.

My friend Josh #2 finished his PhD and we got to go watch him give the commencement address at UCSB

Camped in Lake Cuchuma for the first time. Watched the sunrise.

More volunteer work! HB Huddle hosted a series of Q&A’s with congressional candidates.

“Everything comes from the great book of nature” -Antonio Gaudi. Photo from Park Guell in Barcelona

I had lunch with Shayna for the first time and it prompted me to look up this passage from Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert on trickster energy and trusting the chaos…

Josh #1 on our first day in Barcelona. We flew in days after the terrorist attack on Las Ramblas.

We had the Nues Museum completely to ourselves on a trip to Nuremberg this is one of my favorites

Joined D and Estephen and Ria for a quick European road trip: Nuremberg, Bern Switzerland, Lake Como, Milan.

We pulled over so I could get a good pick with Angela Merkel’s campaign poster

The stairwell at the Einstein Museum in Bern Switzerland had an MC Escher feeling to it

My dear friend D and Ria in front of Zytglogge in Bern

On our final night of the trip Josh proposed! He carved the ring from a soft wood and it broke in the dryer a month later. So he made me another from hardwood.

2016 & 2017 I maintained a monthly book round-up for Coast magazine

I read a couple Lakoff books in 2017. The strict father nurturing parent lens had since come part of my worldview. Essential reading for political organizing.

We camped in Idyllwild for the first time. Attempted Mt. San Jacinto but got a late start. Josh and I could climb so many mountains if we just got up earlier!

This is my favorite wall in HB. They’ve painted over graffiti so many times the paint is cracking off to reveal a mess of color. Daily walks became an important mental health maintain tool for me in 2017.