{"id":30994,"date":"2018-12-30T10:00:37","date_gmt":"2018-12-30T18:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/?p=30994"},"modified":"2019-01-01T10:15:29","modified_gmt":"2019-01-01T18:15:29","slug":"2018-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/30\/2018-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"2018 Recap. Hello 2019!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-30995\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/best-nine-2018-sm.jpg\" alt=\"Instagram Best Nine - 2018 Blog Recap\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/best-nine-2018-sm.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/best-nine-2018-sm-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/best-nine-2018-sm-600x600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/best-nine-2018-sm-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/best-nine-2018-sm-520x520.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/>I&#8217;ll be honest: 2018 been an especially challenging and exhausting year for me. So much so that my current NYE plans involve a bubble bath, glass of bubbly, and an early bedtime. My divorce brought out the best and worst in me, and now that I&#8217;ve settled into a more peaceful state, I look forward to what the universe has in store for me in 2019. But first, here are some highlights from 2018:<\/p>\n<h2>Travel &amp; Food Festivals<\/h2>\n<p>My year started with a trip to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/2018\/02\/21\/new-orleans-vegan\/\">New Orleans<\/a>. This was my first time there as a vegan, but that didn&#8217;t stop me from enjoying NOLA favorites from gumbo to beignets. In the fall, I went back to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/13\/things-to-do-in-new-york-city\/\">NYC<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/2018\/11\/11\/vegan-eats-nyc-2018\/\">ate my way through the city<\/a>. I&#8217;m still amazed by how much I managed to pack into those few days. My favorite trip this year though was to LA for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/2018\/09\/04\/seed-summit-la-2018\/\">Seed Summit<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/31\/seed-grand-tasting-2018\/\">Seed Grand Tasting<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/12\/eat-drink-vegan-2018\/\">Eat Drink Vegan<\/a>. Top 3 eats from that trip: Monty&#8217;s Good Burger, The Herbivorous Butcher&#8217;s Double Down, and Pura Vita&#8217;s lasagna.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of food festivals, we had our share of festivals here in Portland. This was the first year <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/2018\/07\/23\/vegout-portland-2018\/\">VegOut!<\/a> came to Portland, and of course, there was the one and only <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/2018\/09\/09\/feast-portland-2018-eats-sips\/\">Feast<\/a> Portland. I was lucky enough to cover Feast again with all the perks of a media pass and offer a unique perspective on a festival that isn&#8217;t exactly known for being the most vegan-friendly. The best Feast surprise of all was when Patrick McKee of Perlot (formerly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/2017\/09\/13\/southfork-goes-vegan-with-veganizer-pdx\/\">SouthFork<\/a>) brought a late summer vegetable dashi with smoked tofu.<\/p>\n<h2>Restaurants &amp; Popups<\/h2>\n<p>I eat out at restaurants a lot, and it&#8217;s hard to pick favorites, but here are my top restaurant meals of 2018: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/02\/holiday-cafe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Holiday<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/2018\/09\/12\/folklore-brunch\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Folklore<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/2018\/11\/11\/vegan-eats-nyc-2018\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Avant Garden<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/2018\/11\/11\/vegan-eats-nyc-2018\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nix<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/2018\/11\/11\/vegan-eats-nyc-2018\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Delice &amp; Sarrasin<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In 2018, I decided to fully embrace the Portland Mercury&#8217;s food weeks. For <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/21\/portland-pizza-week-2018\/\">Pizza Week<\/a>, I ate every $2 vegan slice on the eastside. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/19\/portland-burger-week-2018\/\">Burger Week<\/a> was a letdown, and ironically, the best vegan burger of the week was a vegan cheeseburger pizza. In response to Wing Week, I assembled a list of 20+ Portland restaurants that offer <a href=\"http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/pdxveganwings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">vegan wings\/drumsticks<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Veganizer PDX has been going strong in 2018 with popups at Quaintrelle, Stella Taco, MF Tasty, Doug Fir, and Stella Taco. We also hosted a vegan dumpling popup featuring dumplings for every course, and I was back on KGW News with Cassidy Quinn to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kgw.com\/video\/entertainment\/television\/programs\/tonight-with-cassidy\/vegan-dumpling-pop-up-at-feastly\/283-8110576\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">talk vegan dumplings<\/a>. I can&#8217;t wait to announce the 2019 calendar in a few days!<\/p>\n<h2>Life &amp; Love<\/h2>\n<p>Over the summer, I waited for my yard to have all the colors of a rainbow, and it finally happened in time for Pride. It&#8217;s nature&#8217;s way of celebrating love. Despite the heartbreak and disappointments of this past year, I still believe in love. I&#8217;m currently focusing on my relationship with myself.<\/p>\n<p>Summer 2018 marked one year of home ownership, and I also found myself living alone for the first time in over a decade. It took some time to adjust, but I&#8217;m finally comfortable and happy in my own space. Speaking of home ownership, my 2019 is going to start with a moment of adulting: buying a new roof. Sigh.<\/p>\n<p>This year, I checked an item off my bucket list: a boudoir photo shoot. It&#8217;s something I&#8217;ve always wanted to do, but it takes a while to find the right photographer at the right price point. The bright and airy quality of Juniper &amp; The Sea&#8217;s work spoke to me, and I&#8217;m so glad I booked a session with them.<\/p>\n<h2>What&#8217;s Next?<\/h2>\n<p>So, what&#8217;s next for me? I need to do a lot of soul searching and think about whether or not staying in Portland is right for me, what direction I want to take my brand\/blog, and what other projects I&#8217;d like to launch in 2019. I have no shortage of ideas, but my biggest challenge is prioritizing and fully committing to a project. Now that my personal life isn&#8217;t a mess, I&#8217;m ready to make 2019 my year. Let&#8217;s do this! Happy new year, friends!<\/p>\n<p>PS. I didn&#8217;t like my Instagram best nine. It was a random mash up of photos that had garnered a lot of likes, but didn&#8217;t fully represent the major highlights of my year. So I made my own. :)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ll be honest: 2018 been an especially challenging and exhausting year for me. So much so that my current NYE plans involve a bubble bath, glass of bubbly, and an early bedtime. My divorce brought out the best and worst in me, and now that I&#8217;ve settled into a more peaceful state, I look forward to what the universe has in store for me in 2019. But first, here are some highlights from 2018: Travel &amp; Food Festivals My year started with a trip to New Orleans. This was my first time there as a vegan, but that didn&#8217;t stop me from enjoying NOLA favorites from gumbo to beignets. In the fall, I went back to NYC and ate my way through the city. I&#8217;m still amazed by how much I managed to pack into those few days. My favorite trip this year though was to LA for Seed Summit, Seed Grand Tasting, and Eat Drink Vegan. Top 3 eats from that trip: Monty&#8217;s Good Burger, The Herbivorous Butcher&#8217;s Double Down, and Pura Vita&#8217;s lasagna. Speaking of food festivals, we had our share of festivals here in Portland. This was the first year VegOut! came to Portland, and of course, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3355,3356,3365],"tags":[3600,3599,1345,1640,3013,3069],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/best-nine-2018-sm.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30994"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}