Jamie Hilao

I cannot believe how fast this year has gone by.

Geez, it just seems like yesterday I was making my ‘06 resolutions.

2006 has been full of ups ‘n’ downs, but it’s also been another year of living out loud….

• My first year as a Project Manager at work was definitely challenging. I thank my boss for doing his best to shield me from the politics (ugh!) & my team for being so awesome.
• I was part of the $50+ MM SAP NBCU Home Entertainment project that went live in October. The road was bumpy, but we got there. Can’t say I’m now a fan of SAP, but it’s definitely good résumé candy.
• I am officially a homeowner. And after 3 bad dryer deliveries, being fridge-less for a month, & 3 months of agony with the furniture store, I can finally say I’m starting to settle in.
• I met last year’s goal of sticking to a budget. Of course, closing on a condo in June & tripling my monthly expenses helped, buy hey, I can still claim being debt-free… um, besides my house & car. I’ve learned to loooove Trader Joe’s even more (thank god for TJ’s quick easy meals), but I sure do miss those fine dining excursions I used to do often.
• G. moved in, then out of the condo & out of my life. ‘Twas pretty tough (still is), but you learn, you love, you grow, you move on. ‘Tis the circle of life.
• One love left, 2 past loves returned. I’m now good friends with 2 exes & it’s wonderful when you can get over the pain from the past & let your relationship move onto a different kind of love: true friendship.
• Thankfully, I made it an ‘06 resolution to “Never take my loved ones for granted“. 5 people in my life passed away this year, each death another reminder to me to live life to the fullest, take things day by day, & NEVER sweat the small stuff. RIP: Jesse, Cory, Vicki, Ed, & Auntie Pam.
• Another year of being involved with my favorite non-profit, AWBW. I hosted many events in ‘06, & I’ve agreed to be the Event Committee Chair for the Open House in ‘07. I made my very first “Me Doll“, & I’m excited about continuing my involvement with this awesome organization.
• I joined the GE Asian Pacific American Forum as a Social Events Committee Co-Chair. It’s been pretty fun meeting new people & networking… plus I got to meet Superman hunk Brandon Routh at an event we sponsored.
• Auntie Nene gave us quite the scare with her news, but we sure are thankful she’s in remission now. Please continue to keep her in your thoughts & prayers.

OK, so I failed to do a Detox Diet again & didn’t quite get to meditating daily, but all in all, I think I did OK this past year. It was pretty tough, but as we all know, things could always be worse. I contemplated moving back to Chicago for a minute but decided to stick it out in Hell-A, again. And it’s going pretty well. I live closer to my family, I’ve spent more quality time with old friends, & I’ve made some kick@$$ new ones.

My focus for ‘07:

1. Learn to love where I live. Fix the condo up a little. I’m planning on getting new kitchen cabinets installed early next year & putting up some prints to make the place a little more homey.
2. Continue to build my management skills & gain more exposure to executive management at NBCU. Better deal with the politics.
3. Never go to bed angry. Always always remember to never take loved ones for granted. My 93-year-old lola told me this year “I live for your weekly phone calls. Thanks for always remembering me.” It’s amazing how small acts of kindness can make such a big difference.
4. Drink less, meditate more. The former will be difficult, given that this is technically my last year as a youngun’ (somehow the whole “30 is the new 20″ bit doesn’t make me feel any better). But I admit, natural highs are better for you.
5. Be the best maid of honor for Gen.
6. Save more money. Using Quicken regularly helped me tremendously this year, but I can probably cut out some other expenses. Especially if I’m good about Resolution #4.
7. Read more. Revive the LA LA Land book club.

NYE should be a rockin’ time with some Chi-pals in town & big plans w/the West side crew. Pics & stories of our adventures to come soon.

Happy New Year’s, everyone! May 2007 bring you wonderful, exciting things!

Cheers.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 30th, 2006 at 12:48 pm and is filed under Jamie, Random Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.