So This Is The New Year...

So 2009 is finally here! It seems almost inconceivable to me. Time has gone so unbelievably fast! Crazy that my school year is almost over - this is bittersweet, because as much as I love my students this year, it's been an incredibly draining year for me professionally. It's been a bittersweet year in general. Some happy things occurred - I got into blogging, yay! And I met some great bloggy friends (Lauren! Hannahkins! Stacey! Alya!). I joined two great writing communities, Ficlets and later Protagonize. I discovered my new addiction, Twilight. Obama, my candidate of choice, was elected as the new president. So some very positive things occurred, but some very sad things happened, too - Ricky's uncle David passed away, and he lost his beloved dog, too, Rocky. I have a feeling that 2009 will be a great year. I hope I'm right.

I've enjoyed my two week respite at least. I got lots of sleep. Lots and lots of sleep! I hung out with Ricky, got to play Rock Band a lot, experimenting with the new drum kit he got me and finally getting the courage to sing, too. I even scored a 100% on my first try! Guess I'm not as bad as I once thought.

New Year's Eve was a lot of fun this year. Our extended group of friends, about 11 people, went out to eat at Nakorn, this Sushi/Thai restaurant in Hollywood. Here is a picture of our group at the restaurant:

I'm second from the left-bottom wearing the white and black blouse, in mid-sentence (as usual!).

After eating that delicious dinner and enjoying some sake, we all went back to Ricky's apartment in Hallandale. His family bought the apartment some time ago and we don't take enough advantage of it, I think. It's right by the beach and has an incredible view. Here's a shot from the balcony:

I swear to you that this was a beautiful firework. I just have lousy timing!

We hung out in the apartment the rest of the night, with some of the couples staying overnight so they wouldn't have to drive home. We stayed up until 5 AM just chatting and having a good time, and the next day after sleeping in a little (a very little for me, we woke up at 11 AM, when I would've liked to stay in bed!), we went out to eat at Flickerlite, this Chicago-style restaurant that makes award-winning deep-dish pizza. Yum.

I have more pictures in my Facebook account! If you look at my links over on the sidebar you can find the link to my Facebook profile to add me as a friend, which you'll need to be to see the pictures.

Hope your New Year's Eve was a good one, too, and best wishes for 2009.