It’s not 2009 yet, but I’d like to take a moment here and highlight the roller coaster of a year I’ve been through, so that in a future entry, I can highlight the steady ground I’m hoping to be on. I thought about the best way of writing all of it down, and although I’d love to write a long-winded and perhaps boring to some essay on my 2008 adventures, I think a list is in order.

This year I…

-Spent the early hours of New Year’s Day at Disneyland, despite tickets being sold out. We managed to get in to the park because of the good graces of a stranger with extra tickets. That day will never be forgotten.

- Was hired as a full-time editor for a social media company

-Began doing freelance work as a journalist, which led me to write about some incredible and some not so incredible films, interview Ben Kingsley and a bunch of others and meet a lot of other great writers.

-Accidentally deleted this blog, which caused me to lose almost two years worth of entries

- Went to Montreal with my boyfriend, had great food, did great shopping and met Charles Aznavour

-Co-hosted an edible gardening internet radio show

- Saw Adele perform at The Roxy

-Took sessions with a personal trainer and enrolled at a new gym

-Watched my sister graduate high school and enroll at my alma mater

-Went through a luxating patella surgery with Henry and nursed him back to health for about five months

-Witnessed the incredible and miraculous election of 2008 and cried when Obama won

- Became a member of the Society of Professional Journalists

-Revisited the Magic Castle after my initial outing there to interview a magician

-Dyed my full head a single color for the first time ever

-Started to regularly attend the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market

-Wasted so many hours of my life sitting in the horrendous traffic of Los Angeles

-Made some amazing online friends through this blog

-Broke my camera, fixed it only to have it break again

-Tried to resist the phenomenon that is “Twilight,” but fell victim to the dazzling story of Edward and Bella, which marked my regression into adolescence.

-Worked my first red carpet, where I met Stan Lee, Frank Miller, Doug Jones, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Julie Benz

-Took my obsession with Bollywood to a whole other level by managing to watch at least one film almost every weekend for the better part of the year

-Went to work on developing a new online publication gear towards the Armenian community (still working)

-Found amazing online tools such as Twitter and StumbleUpon, which I now use daily

-Became progressively more obsessed with Anthropologie

-Prayed for snow that never came

-Didn’t spend enough time in bookstores

-Took the GRE, a rather painful experience that I will most likely repeat again sometime in the future

-Did a lot of baking and found some recipes I really loved

So about half an hour ago, we had an earthquake here in Los Angeles. It registered on the scale at 5.8, with its epicenter about 2 miles from Chino Hills. It started off like there was a big truck rattling outside. Someone yelled, “Earthquake!” as a joke, we all laughed for about 2 seconds and then, it got a bit worse. “Oh no, it really is an earthquake.” I saw about 10 heads darting up from cubicles. No one ducked and covered, we all just stared at each other as if to say, “Is this really happening right now?”

The United State’s Geological Survey reported it at being 29 miles from the Los Angeles Civic Center. Having been through the Northridge earthquake, this was nothing. Somewhere, somehow, Victoria Beckham is implementing the Earthquake safety she learned on “Coming to America.” Transplants, welcome (officially) to Los Angeles.