I can't believe that New Year's Eve is here and 2012 will soon come to a close. It's been a year of really massive changes in my life, luckily, most of those changes were overwhelmingly positive.

The number one, best thing that happened to me was meeting Dan in early January. It's been an exciting whirl-wind. I know people think that things have moved too fast, but when you know something is right, I think it's time to go for it. I've decided to go for what I want and live proactively. This is by far, the best relationship that I have ever been in and I felt it immediately. I still feel it nearly a year later, only more intensely.

Meeting Dan changed my life in several fundamental ways, one of the biggest, is I am no longer living alone. I hated living alone and it has not been good for me the last four years. I love cooking, having dinner together and having a normal family life. Don't tell the cats, but they weren't cutting it. Life is much happier now.

The house has never looked better. In additional to a million little repairs, we completely re-did every aspect of the upstairs bathroom (it was gutted), repainted the house and garage and decorated the previously barren patio. We have all new windows and patio doors.There are only a couple pieces of furniture from when I lived here alone and absolutely nothing looks the same. It's feels like home now.

The Home remodel was not without a considerable amount of stress. One of the big negatives this year, was a nearly half year battle with Home Depot over a permit issue. My advice, new use Home Depot. Ever. The upside, is the issue was resolved just a few days ago, so this stress will not be carried over into the New Year.

I reconnected with friends, including a girls trip to Vegas with high school friends. I had to let go of one very close friend, after finally realizing that men and women really can't maintain a friendship if there is an attraction and that attraction is one sided. I found this particularly heartbreaking, as this is a friend whom I care a lot about and hope that sometime in the future, after the dust has settled, that we actually can be friends. It just can't happen now.

I sold my Honda and gained a Smart Car. The Smart car (both of them, Dan's got one too) led to us joining the SoCal Smarties and going on some great meet-ups and meeting a fun bunch of people. Spontaneity called and we did a less than twenty-four hour trip to Hoover Dam to help try to break a Smart Car World Record.

My sense of adventure and spontaneity was called into action several times this year and the challenges were met.

We had several of Dan's family members visit from England and they all brought delicious foreign treats with them! I am looking forward to visiting them in 2013.

I spent several days exploring a new state, Utah, which included one really mega hike in Zion. I saw the West Coast of Canada. I went on an ATV tour on both vacations. In Utah we stayed at the worst hotel in the United States and lived to warn people about it.

I spent a total of 22 days in Las Vegas, which included one night of being more drunk than I have ever been in my life, leading to my first hang over. Lesson learned = Never again! Just to drive it home, falling asleep while going pee in the bathroom at the Paris hotel is not as glamorous as it might sound. Yup, funny, but not my shining moment of 2012.

Two trips to Palm Springs, two trips to Lake Arrowhead/Big Bear and three to Santa Barbara.

I discovered local gems that I previously did not know existed - Rubel's Castle, The Gentle Barn and The LA Live Steamers, including Walt's Barn. I discovered what was at the top of Mount Wilson and what happens when you drive off of ZZYZX Road. We went to Calico Ghost town (cool) and the Salton Sea (not cool).

33 books read, which is probably the least that I have read in my adult life.

3 concerts attended ( Sugarland, Rhett Miller and the Lady Serial Killers and Old 97's) - by far the least amount of concerts attended in recent years.

We went to a ton of movies, theme parks and amazing restaurants. We went hot air ballooning, boating and spent a snowy afternoon in an outdoor day spa. I got to hold a chicken named Mrs. Chicken.

4 1/2 months were spent in Retail Hell, which wasn't so bad, because I met a lot of nice people (including a great boss), have some stellar war stories ( Some people don't like to buy an item if it has gone on sale...really..and they will want to argue about it...really.) and know way more about fashion than I ever cared to know. Much of what I learned seems ridiculous now, but hopefully it will come in handy the next time I need to dress outside of my jeans/tee-shirt comfort zone.

Also, I still have all of my toe nails, several of which turned black on one of my first shifts. My shoes were too tight. This is not really fashion advice per-se, but proper footwear is of paramount importance.

I have a lot less money than I did this time last year, but I also weigh twelve pounds less. Granted, the weight loss came from being very sick in August, but I've kept it off. Somehow, somewhere, I feel like the Universe is making everything a wash.

I started this blog. I really had no idea who would read it, but after a few months, I started noticing clicks from all over the world and then lots of clicks a day. Most of the people checking in on my adventures are people that I have never met. It's such a completely cool thing and I am both excited and humbled by it. I would love it, if you would drop me an email or comment, as I think that it is so amazing that people all around the world are reading what I am writing. In fact, it's a bit unbelievable. Thank You for being there!

I can't wait to see where both myself and this blog head in 2013.

Happy New Year!

It was around 8pm this past Friday that Dan dare to question my sense of adventure and spontaneity. He knew that it would only end one way and he was right. We hit the road to Vegas two hours later. We knew that it could only be a short trip, less than twenty-four hours. He had to fly to Texas and I had to work. We knew that we would be mainlining caffeine to keep the sleep deprivation at bay. All of this didn't matter as we simply had to be at the Boulder City Hacienda Hotel at 7am sharp to add our Smart car to a group that was going to attempt to break the Guinness Book of World Record for most Smarts on the Hoover Dam. We knew that if we skipped out, that we would have spent all day Saturday regretting the decision.

We have two Smarts, but with the lack of sleep/long drive/expense, we thought it wiser to leave one at home. Dan's Smart, who we call Bus, short for Brabus, had the honor of making the trek with us. It was a really good thing that we took one car, as neither of us could have done the entire drive. We both had to nap a bit on the road.

We made it to the Hacienda Hotel around five am and saw plenty of people already milling around and cleaning their cars. I am not at all a morning person, so it's always amazing to experience the sunrise

Sunrise at the Hacienda.

That's a lot of Smarts!

We went in the hotel to have breakfast at the cafe and this greeted us in the entrance. The car had already been pulled out to join the rest before we finished. A note- breakfast was good and so, so cheap that we were amazed. My main course (eggs, potatoes, toast and bacon) was under four dollars. You don't see that in Los Angeles or on the strip!

We were sad to have missed the cocktail mixer and other festivities.

We had to sign a waiver and we were given a sticker to place on our window to indicate that our car was cleared to go on the dam bridge.

Nifty Jam on The Dam 2 sticker.

I have to fess up to the fact that we felt a little out-of-place. We missed out on the caravan from Los Angeles and the Friday night cocktail reception at the hotel. We didn't have a Jam on the Dam tee-shirt. Mostly though, our car was completely ordinary. This is saying a lot, when you are used to driving around town and getting stares and people asking questions. We are used to having the most unusual car in town. At the Jam on the Dam, our poor Brabus was completely ordinary. We saw so much creativity and cool modifications, that it has us swirling with ideas for our cars. Here are a few favorites.

Daisy even had a quack for a honk.

The Daisy Duck car had a tail in back and the horn was a quack!

Highly customized both inside and out.

The interior. Swanky.

The guy who owned the flag car was super nice and he let us poke around and see his cool custom interior. He was also helping run the event and great at answering questions and directing us. We met a lot of really nice people at the event, in addition to seeing a lot of familiar faces from our SoCal Smarties group!

My favorite car, such a pretty green.

The green car was my favorite of the bunch. Sure. it's more simple that a lot of the fun modifications, but it just looks so good. The picture does not do the green color justice. So pretty!

Ten years ago, I did the same thing to my Honda.

Anyone who knows me, would know how giddy I got when seeing the Hello Kitty car. I used to have a green Honda Civic, that was even more decorated with HK than this Smart.

Below are a few more shots of fun Smarts.

There were a whole bunch of the soccer ball cars.

lots of smarts all ready to head to the dam.

This is one smiley car.

Ed Hardy car.

The eyelash mod really works with the smarts, lots have them.

Ninja Car!

And one of me, nearly delirious from lack of sleep, with Bus.

One of our Smarts, we named him Bus.

Prior to taking off, Jimmy, the event organizer, gave last-minute instructions.

The organizer of the event giving final instructions at the staging area.

This event was very well-organized and they had police closing roads and making sure that it all ran smoothly.

Here we are all ready to go, the main instruction to closely follow the car in front of you.

Let's go!!![

A helicopter was also ready to go and take our picture on the dam. I can't wait to see how it turned out!

The helicopter with the photographer.

The drive to the dam took about fifteen minutes, including a security stop. It was great to see all of the tourist waving and taking pictures. When we pulled on to the dam, we created two rows and sat in our cars for about twenty minutes while the helicopter was circling.

On the dam.

After the pictures were taken, we moved off the dam and parked at a lookout point for some socializing with other owners.

After the dam, we went to a second meeting area for mingling and pictures.

I saw the best license plate and that's saying a lot, as there are many fantastic custom plates for Smarts.

Best plate

And my favorite car sticker, which has a lot of truth to it!

We zoom past fast cars all of the time. Never underestimate the power of a Smart!

Unfortunately, we couldn't stick around for the lunch. We hit the road for home right away. The intention was to drive all of the way back to Los Angeles, but by the time we started getting close to Primm Valley, we realized that we were in no shape to drive and required a short nap to refuel. Safety first!

We found out that the cheapest rooms were at Whiskey Petes (49.00) and decided that it was worth the price for a bed to nap. I had low, low, low expectations for Whiskey Petes. I mean, look at the place, it's a mash-up of The Frontier and Excalibur!

Frontier +Excalibur = Whiskey Pete's

My expectations were demolished. The rooms were simple, but clean. The staff was super nice and even though we didn't use it, the pool was a huge surprise. I took a picture, because couldn't get over how nice it looks. It even has a waterfall and waterslide.

Snazzy looking pool with a slide.

They have the only Ihop in existence that had zero wait for a table. And as an additional bonus, they have the Bonnie and Clyde Death Car!!!

Death Car!

Bullet Holes in the death car!

So, I probably wouldn't have reason to stay at Whiskey Pete's again. I can't imagine staying in Primm, when Vegas is less that an hour a way. However, it wasn't bad at all and I wouldn't hesitate to stay here again, if the occasion came up.

It was a long, exhausting trip, but worth every bit of it. If any of them are reading this, a huge THANK YOU to the Sin City Smarts and all of the other really great smart owners who came together to make this happen. It's a great community of people and we had a wonderful time. Oh and I believe that the final car count was 120!

2012 Wrap-Up

The Shortest Trip to Vegas Ever