sarah friedlander

Imperfect perfectionist living life to its fullest.

  1. Looking Back: 2010 in Review

    I’ve been trapped in some serious blogging debt over the last two months, mostly due to a promise (that I made to myself) to complete the Reverb blog posts from December 2010.  That, coupled with a seriously busy life over the last few months (international move + new job + Spanish classes …. the list goes on) isn’t so easy.  Every spare moment I get feels like I need to be doing something. That something unfortunately is not blogging, which I see more as a leisure activity.

    Regardless, I’ve been mulling this post over for a while.  I see these “Looking Back” posts as one of the most important things I blog about each year.  It gives me the opportunity to truly reflect, and also a place to remember the highlights (which in my upcoming old age is great – I’m starting to feel forgetful!) I think it also deserves to be mentioned that this is the fifth (wow!) year I am doing this review.  Previous years are available to look at:  2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 and the fourth year to use Optical Illusion‘s wonderful Flickr image – thanks! Without further ado here is my bullet list in chronological order:

    • A relaxing New Years filled with a little bit of champagne, blogging and a movie (Up in the Air).
    • Started Spanish classes at Spanish Ahora in San Jose, CA.  Continued with classes until September and learned quite a lot!
    • Flew home (Long Island) for Martin Luther King Jr. weekend to spend time with my parents.  Saw Lion King in the city with my mom.  Trip was great except for my laptop hard drive dying on the plane back.  Pretty thankful to use a combination of Time Machine + Backblaze and not loose any data.
    • Mozilla Jetpack Ambassador Week.  What an inspiring group of individuals.  The world truly is flat.
    • Day trip to Macworld Expo San Francisco — a quick perusal of the show floor and the joy of seeing some old friends.  Macworld isn’t the same as it used to be a few years ago :(
    • A quick last minute decision to fly to Southern California (Anaheim) because Lindsay Lamb was in town for a conference (Photo Marketing Association).  I shacked up in her hotel room and got to catch-up on work during the day and at night we were able to have a few lovely dates.  I always forget what a great time we have together.
    • Gave up purchasing anything on Amazon.com for Lent.  This was sheer torture, but taught me a lot.
    • My first SXSW experience and trip to Austin, Texas.  Surely a trip I will never forget.
    • Started seriously running.  Then developed shin splints.  Needless to say 2010 was a #fail year for running.
    • Lots of great work accomplishments – juggling a ton of events and worked on toolkits for community members.  I was quite happy with the work I produced and enjoyed the ability to openly collaborate with our volunteer contributors.
    • A short vacation to celebrate Ryan’s birthday in Tulum, México.  Directly after was a work week trip in Santa Cruz, CA.  I was pretty exhausted.
    • A pretty amazing and life changing vacation to Santiago, Chile and Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Partook in the Bicentennial Celebration in Buenos Aires.  Ate lots of good food.  Spent time with beloved friends.  Realized that home is where the heart is and it doesn’t necessarily have to be the United States.
    • Cupertino Symphonic Concert Band.  Band practice every Wednesday night and lots of challenging music to play.  I loved every second of it.
    • Anton Mason – the theme to my life this year.  My personal trainer and dear friend who changed my life, both physically and emotionally.  I lost quite a bit of weight and learned to love myself again.  Not sure where this fits in but this was a constant theme of 2010.
    • Summer craziness and lots of work trips – Whistler, Canada for Mozilla Summit, Las Vegas for Blackhat, New York City for BlogHer ’10 and Chicago, Illinois for Renegade Craft Fair.  At the end of August I invested in a pair of Bose Noise-Cancelling headphones, which was probably the best present to myself as I spent a good chunk of time in the air.
    • September saw a lot of life changing events.  Ryan and I finally disclosed about the end of our relationship – even though I have to admit now this had been in motion for a while.  September also was the last month as a resident in beautiful Campbell, California and a huge change in my professional career, no longer being employed by Mozilla.
    • October, the month of change.  I moved to Santiago, Chile with my dog, Aidan and a plethora of suitcases.  In the next upcoming months I setup a new life with a beautiful apartment in Las Condes, an amazing job, 11 weeks of Spanish classes at Bridge Linguatec, a gym membership, new friends and much more.
    • Enrolled in Spanish classes during the months of November and December I spent Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years here in Santiago sans-familia, however with many new welcoming abrazos.

    I won’t lie there have been a lot of tears since the move to Santiago – lots of changes and no matter how strong the mind is there are always times when you think, “What the fuck am I doing here?”  However, the “what the F-feeling” seems to diminish a little bit more each day as I continue to reassemble the puzzle pieces of my life back together in a new continent.  In my post from 2009 I listed a bunch of New Years resolutions which mas o menos still hold true for 2011:

    1. Find a band to play flute and piccolo in. Providencia is supposedly starting up with a band come March.  I’m waiting on news for this.
    2. Gym and physical fitness. Continue to strive for physical fitness.  Maybe even run a 5K.
    3. Catholicism. Continue to go to Church on Sundays, even when I don’t want to or just feel ridiculously depressed because I can’t understand 1/2 of the mass (it’s in Spanish no less!)
    4. Continue to improve my Spanish. Working on this every week …
    5. A new one for 2011: find more girlfriends! There are so many gringas in Chile with wonderful stories about why they’ve landed here.  Meet them!  Go out for drinks or shopping at Parque Arauco.  Don’t continue to just surround your life with the opposite sex.

    I think that’s a wrap and I can only hope that 2011 is much better than 2010!

  2. Looking Back: 2009 in Review

    I’m in absolute awe that another year is upon us – 2009 seemed to go by way too fast. This is the fourth year that I am doing this review (see 2006, 2007 and 2008) and the the third year to use Optical Illusion‘s wonderful Flickr image – thanks! Without further ado here is the long awaited bullet list of awesomeness in chronological order:

    • Relaxing New Years. Nothing out of the ordinary.
    • Dad flies into town after a business trip and visits in February.
    • Vacation in Carmel and Ryan’s driving school at Laguna Seca Raceway.
    • Vacation to Hawaii (Oahu) – lots of relaxation, Mai Tais and outdoor adventures!
    • Ryan gets attacked by a pit bull. Not fun.
    • Dream job achieved – in June I become a Marketing Manager at Mozilla.
    • Bought new laptop and sold old one. Yay better battery life!
    • Aidan decides to eat a good chunk of a blanket and get sick. Spent the evening at the vet and learned that dogs will (attempt to) eat anything.
    • Ryan and I celebrate our 1-year wedding anniversary at the Sea Reach Inn in northern California.
    • The week following our anniversary my parents fly out to visit with us and spend time in the area.
    • Indoor skydiving with Mozilla Marketing – pretty awesome!
    • Trip to Michigan to visit with family and see best friend Brock and the lovely Erin wed.
    • Fly to Santiago, Chile for a week of intense Mozilla awesomeness for Jornadas Regionales de Software Libre and MozCamp Chile.
    • Campbell Oktoberfest.
    • Five Years of Firefox party in San Francisco on 11/9/2009. Wow!
    • On 11/10 back up in San Francisco for Imogen Heap’s concert at the Fillmore. Incredible.
    • To the horror of my parents, I get my nose pierced after thinking about it for 3+ years.
    • Major kick in the ass – decide to make new years resolutions November/December instead of procrastinating to 2010 and so I joined the Cupertino Symphonic Band, enrolled in Spanish classes, starting going back to church every week and working out with an awesome personal trainer. Will talk more about all of these in the resolutions sections below.
    • 2008 Thanksgiving repeat – holiday with my sister, Rebecca and cousin, Lauren.  We were all crazy and ventured out for the third year of Black Friday insanity.
    • Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert – this was Rebecca’s first time!
    • Took a limo with friends up to San Francisco to celebrate mine and friend Jason Parry’s birthday. Due to said activities, realized I’m pretty much over the “clubbing scene”.
    • Purchased Kindle (with help of Brock/Erin and Mom/Dad) for birthday. Sheer awesomeness.
    • Survived my first Mozilla All-Hands, Pre-Add-on-Con-Workshop and Add-on-Con all in the course of 5 days.
    • Ryan’s sister, Erin flew out for a week to visit with us.
    • Cupertino Symphonic Band holiday concert. Felt so good to be back playing flute and piccolo in a concert setting!
    • Spent Christmas week in Ocho Rios, Jamaica relaxing and enjoying some much needed time away from the computer. Read a lot, went zip-lining, climbed up a waterfall and consumed way too many piña coladas.
    • And last but not least, met more people and formed more friendships this year than I have in the last few years combined. I feel so blessed to have so many more confidants in my life!

    Resolutions Meme

    In addition to doing the typical bullet list, I was tagged in a short meme to list five resolutions by super star Mozilla community member, FuzzyFox.

    The Rules

    1. Copy the rules at the beginning or end of your post.
    2. Link to the person who tagged you.
    3. Give your top 5 new years resolutions and make them good!
    4. Tag 5 people.
    5. The meme does not need to stay in English.
    6. By reading the meme you must link to the post you read, and join in, but only have to tag 1 person not 5.

    Resolutions

    The funny part of resolutions this year is that this is the first year in forever where I really don’t have any things I need to put into action. After traveling to Santiago, Chile the first week of October I came back and something changed inside of me. I have no idea what it was. I think the best explanation is that I was out of my element in a new location and was able to look at my life from the outside in. I realized that it will be very easy to have life pass me by and to continue to wish for changes in my life instead of actually doing them. I made a quick list of resolutions on Google Tasks (which have all been checked off now):

    1. Find a band to play flute and piccolo in. I am now a proud member of the Cupertino Symphonic Band. We practice on Wednesday evenings and have concerts throughout the year.  I forgot how much I truly love playing flute/piccolo and that I’m actually pretty good at it too!
    2. Figure out a workout schedule. I’ve gone through so many workout regimes over the past few years – from swimming at 24hour Fitness to the treadmills in my apartment complex, absolutely nothing has stuck.  I decided to give a personal trainer a shot and have been with Anton for over a month now and couldn’t be happier.  My workouts are hard and kick my ass, but I am getting stronger everyday and truly enjoy it!
    3. Go to church or find a prayer group. I’ve been a Roman Catholic my entire life, but since going to college and moving to California I have not attended church regularly, something that I am pretty ashamed to admit.  I have started going to church again at St. Lucy’s in Campbell.  I really enjoy the 6PM mass on Sunday and leave feeling rejuvenated and ready for whatever the week will throw at me.
    4. Find a Spanish class for oral and written (not a community college). I took Spanish for 5 years and used it a lot when I worked at a bakery during my summers after high school, but never reached full fluency.  My Spanish deteriorated without practicing and Chile was a true wake-up call.  Spanish is a beautiful language and I’m finally at a point where I am craving fluency and the ability to converse with so many  friends.  I’ve already enrolled in Spanish classes and start on January 4th (this coming Monday)!
    5. Although this was not added originally on Google Tasks it is something I am working on – paint more! My grandmother on my mother’s side was an amazing painter and I spent many, many years in traditional art to calligraphy classes.  I absolutely love painting – I lose myself in the canvas and am able to do something that is not on a computer screen.  I am to try to do this more this year.

    I’d like to tag the following people to complete this:

    1. Rodrigo García (Not sure of blog URL)
    2. Francisco Collao
    3. Javier Martinez
    4. Camila Gálverez
    5. José LeCaros

    So without further ado – happy new year.  Looking forward to a fantastic 2010!

  3. Looking Back: 2008 in Review

    This is third year I have done a year in review. I’ve found that having a bulleted list is a lot easier than typing out details. Looking back, this year was very exciting and I can’t believe where I am at today. A rundown of 2008 in chronological order.

    • Celebrated the 2008 New Year in New York with Ryan and my family while working on wedding plans.
    • Threw our 2nd annual Superbowl Party.
    • Lots of wedding planning …
    • Ryan left Yahoo! (by choice) and started a new job at Mozilla as a Frontend Engineer.
    • Got a job at Stanford Lively Arts as a contract Marketing Project Manager.
    • More wedding planning …
    • Ryan and I wait in line in Palo Alto, CA for the new iPhone 3G’s. We both managed to sell our old phones for profit.
    • Fly back to New York for my brother’s high school graduation. He was valedictorian. Of course this trip couldn’t be complete without some more wedding planning.
    • Wedding celebrations:  Our trash the dress photo shoot, Ryan’s bachelor party, my bachelorette party, the rehearsal dinner and finally our amazing wedding on 7/27/2008. I am now happy to call myself Mrs. Sarah Doherty.
    • Went to the Bahamas for 8 days on our honeymoon.
    • Came back to California and get to finally chop off my hair.
    • Got lots of wonderful pots, pans, knives and gadgets for our kitchen for our wedding registry. We both love to cook and have turned out many wonderful meals in our kitchen.
    • Aidan came into our lives on August 15th. Our lives have never been the same since.
    • Continually obsessed with interior decorating. Always eBaying/Craiglisting/Freecycling something.
    • Campbell Oktoberfest with Josh and AJ.
    • Saw Jim Gaffigan and Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
    • Old laptop breaks. Apple tries to fix it 4 times and then offers me a new one.  I accept and am now the happy owner of a free MacBook Pro.
    • Aidan graduates from puppy kindergarten. We are very proud parents!
    • Inlaws come out to visit for a week in October. We go up to Sonoma wine tasting and down to Santa Cruz.
    • Our Samsung DLP TV finally breaks and we buy a new Sony LCD.
    • Got a job at Adobe as a HiEd Field Marketing Specialist.
    • Buy a Blu-Ray player. For the upscaling alone it’s worth the money.
    • Got my hair dyed for the first time ever. I’m hooked.
    • My sister comes flies out for a week for Thanksgiving. We have a great Thanksgiving with my sister, cousin, Ryan, Josh and AJ.
    • Black Friday again with Ryan, Rebecca and Lauren. It’s way too early but always lots of fun.
    • Amazing birthday weekend: Ryan cooks lobster for the first time for me.  Fun fact: Aidan is scared of lobsters!
    • We finally get all of our wedding photos back. So nice to see everything in print (and the digital versions too!)
    • Fall in love with Chef David Page and his amazing cooking at J. Lohr Winery. I think Ryan and I will hunt down his cooking in the bay area for years to come.
    • Quiet Christmas at home. Ryan and I master the art of my family’s Slovak Christmas Eve dinner and host 6 people . Grandma would’ve been proud.
    • Ryan spoils me on Christmas with diamond earrings. I have the best husband ever.
    • Renew our lease in Campbell to June 2010. Guess we are staying awhile!
    • Relaxing New Years Eve.  We go out to Bella Saratoga, and being the food snobs we are critique the entire meal.  Come back and watch the fireworks on TV.

    As always I’m sure there are some things that I have missed. 2008 ended wonderfully and I can’t wait to see what 2009 holds. Cheers!

  4. Looking Back: 2007 in Review

    I did a “2006 in review” post last year and I think it was a pretty good idea. It gave me an idea of what went on during the year and a great, concise way to see that I actually did “stuff”. So in chronological order this is what I did in 2007:

    • Got hired as a Marcom Project Manager contractor at Seagate Technology.
    • Moved from South San Jose to Campbell in a week time span.
    • Flew Brock out to visit for a week.
    • Went to San Francisco and Napa (a few times throughout the year!)
    • My grandma passed away so Ryan and I flew out to Cleveland, Ohio for the wake and funeral.
    • Ryan’s Mom, Dad and sister visited.
    • Drove down to Los Angeles with Molly and Ryan and spent time at Universal Studios and sightseeing.
    • Spent Easter up in Marin County with family.
    • Flew back to New Hampshire for Ryan’s family reunion and his grandparents 50th wedding anniversary.
    • Saw Goo Goo Dolls in Berkeley.
    • Bought iPhones and eBayed a lot of tech stuff we never used to make up the money for it.
    • Contract at Seagate ended.
    • Spent a weekend up in Tiburon, CA (Marin County) enjoying good food and beautiful scenery.
    • Signed up for a JetBlue Credit Card which has been just awesome so far.
    • Travelled to Long Island with Ryan to do some wedding planning and enjoy the ocean and time with my family.
    • Molly and Erin (Ryan’s sister’s) visited in August.
    • The mess that was Teddy.
    • Went to the Salinas Air Show with Ryan.
    • Went to the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival and Campbell Oktoberfest with Ryan and Josh.
    • Had surgery (nothing crazy, folks!)
    • Spent Thanksgiving in California with Josh and was actually crazy enough to do Black Friday this year.
    • Saw Trans-Siberian Orchestra in San Jose and decided we will be going yearly.
    • Ordered my wedding dress.
    • Enjoyed a wonderful birthday dinner at La Fondue with Ryan.
    • Read Apartment Therapy: the 8 Step Home Cure with Ryan and donated/sold a lot of our stuff and redecorated our apartment.
    • Interviewed (a lot!)
    • Got hired as a Marketing Manager contractor at Juniper Networks.
    • Renewed our lease in Campbell for another 13 months.
    • Christmas shopped.
    • Was delayed 36 hours traveling home for Christmas (3 cancelled flights).
    • Spent the Christmas holiday in Maine and New Hampshire.
    • Spent (spending) the New Year and remainder of the week on Long Island enjoying family and doing wedding preparations.

    I’m sure there are some things that I have forgotten to mention that happened in 2007, but this is what sticks out in my mind. 2008 will definitely be exciting — a new career, lots of wedding planning and in less than 8 months time – a wedding. Best of luck to everyone in 2008 – keep writing!

  5. Looking Back: 2006 in Review

    Brock just nudged me online and said that I need to blog more.  I do – I know I do but sometimes I feel like I am blogging more for my own amusement than for my readers – are you out there readers?

    On New Years Eve Ryan and I spent a few minutes reminiscing the past year.  Although I could look at it in a negative way the fact does remain that 2006 has been one of the busiest and most exciting years my life.  Let’s have a rundown in chronological order.

    • Traveled to Toronto for New Years.
    • Flew out to San Francisco in January for Macworld and to check out apartments.
    • Spent spring break at Niagara Falls.
    • Flew to New York for Easter.
    • Graduated RIT with highest honors in the honors program.
    • Traveled to Maine to visit with Ryan’s family.
    • Ryan got hired by Yahoo!
    • Got engaged.
    • Prepared for cross-country move – found apartment in San Jose.
    • Traveled to Long Island to visit with my family before cross-country trip.
    • Got stuck in Delhi, NY in torrential rain downpour on the way back from Long Island.
    • Drove cross country on I-80 for a week.  Spots we visited were Ann Arbor MI; Des Moines, IA; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Salt Lake City, UT and Reno, Nevada.
    • Made multiple trips to IKEA Emeryville and Palo Alto – maybe 6?
    • Assembled furniture IKEA style.
    • Josh visited in August.
    • Day trip to Napa Valley for wine tasting (x2!).
    • Weekend vacation to Monterey and Carmel.
    • Craiglisted and eBayed tons of stuff.
    • Day trip to Sacramento to get my ring polished (fun!).
    • Flew to New Hampshire for Thanksgiving with Ryan’s family. Got bumped going back and spent 9 consecutive hours in the Salt Lake City Airport.
    • Saw Trans-Siberian Orchestra in Oakland.
    • Josh visited in December.
    • Night trip to Gilroy (yes it smells like garlic!) for shopping.
    • Flew to New York for Christmas with my family.
    • Drove to Massachusetts to do meet the parents.
    • Set a date for our wedding 7/27/2008 and found a reception site.

    I’m sure I forgot a few things that I did in 2006 but here are the basics. Now that I’ve successfully written what I’ve done I’m looking forward to pushing ahead with 2007.  2007 holds wedding planning, friends visiting us out here, me accepting and starting a career at a new company, Ryan and I moving (again) and who knows what else.  Let’s make 2007 rock.