stella6.com

1) Where did you begin 2007?
i’m pretty sure it was at my parents’, playing speed scrabble. and no, i’m not kidding

4) How did you earn your money?
first from al gore, then from my consulting clients, and investments

5) Did you have to go to the hospital?
naturally

7) Where did you go on vacations?
DC twice, tokyo, cancun, atlanta, NC, tokyo again.  weekend trips to LA, san luis, napa and monterey.

What did you purchase that was over $1000
a couple investment properties, my iBook, plane tickets, rent every month

9) Did you know anybody who got married?
Becky and Mark, Janelle and Jabar

10) Did you know anybody who passed away?
no

12) Did you move anywhere?
NO!! probably one of the few years i can say that!

14) What concerts/shows did you go to?
i don’t like concerts, except when i know the band so i saw Scissors for Lefty.  and we saw Legally Blonde and Jersey Boys on Broadway, and a bunch of other off-broadway shows

15) Are you registered to vote?
um, yes

20) What has been your favorite moment?
the incredible freedom of being self-employed and able to travel anywhere the hell i want!

21) What’s something you learned about yourself?
i am sort of entrepreneurially minded

28) Best new hotspot?
hotspot? not so sure. my most favorite discovery? zazi’s cafe for sunday brunch. mmmmmm pumpkin pancakes

29) Best movie you saw this year?
Golden Compass and Harry Potter!!

30) Favorite gift of the year?
my parents flying us out to tokyo for the first time for my dad’s promotion

i started a travel blog to document our 2 1/2 month journey through asia - check it out at wedontbackpack.com.

my most recent post there is a little detour from the purpose of travel blogging, since i talked more about my AF experience after going to my dad’s christmas party last night.

check it out here.

I was doing a freelancing shift today at my local CBS affiliate (I get called in about once every week or two, which is perfect for me - not too much work, but keeps my foot in the door should I ever decide to return to TV) and I found out one of the producers is leaving to be an EP in South Carolina. No - I don’t want his job (that thought didn’t even cross my mind until now). Instead - I’m totally jealous of him. No again - I don’t want to live anywhere in South Carolina. What I mean is that I’m jealous of his life change - and I realized that I’m starting to feel like it’s time for a change of scenery for me. Don’t get me wrong, I still love where I am and what I do and what types of opportunities my lifestyle affords me, but I’m totally getting the itch.

 Ryan and I actually have been talking about what the next step in our lives will be and I’m getting excited for whatever is next. We don’t really have a specific plan, but it’s exciting for me to think that at this time next year I could be somewhere totally different, doing something totally different. While we’d love to go to another huge city, we’ve talked about going to a more medium-sized place (still hip and fun, of course - no colorado or kansas for us, natch!). Somewhere we could keep our standard of living - or upgrade! - and be able to save and invest a sh*t ton of money. (All part of our “financially free by 3o” plan!)

The beauty for us is that, since we’re self-employed and all our clients are virtual, our incomes won’t adjust to whatever area we move to. So if we move somewhere with a lower cost of living, we’ll be making the same we are now, and spending a LOT less! Not too bad, considering that I’d say we’re living pretty comfortably even with a super-high cost of living!

Like I said, I’d ideally want to live in another really big city, but I don’t want to downgrade my lifestyle at this point - and our dream places are all more expensive than where we are now.  We decided our dream cities are the places we’d like to end up one day, after we’ve established ourselves, maybe gone to grad school, have a larger investment empire, and are financially free.

In the meantime, we’re going to Asia for three months, so I guess that will have to serve as diversion enough :-D 

ps- i found this adorable (dog friendly!) apartment in downtown Austin. I’m ready to upgrade!