2018 in the Kivii Life – Year in Review

I shared images from all the amazing couples we worked with in 2018 earlier this week, and now it’ s time for the #KiviiLife blog post.

This time last year, I had grand visions of doing a monthly Kivii Life blog post – partly to share our shenanigans outside of weddings, but also to track the media I was into that month. It’s ever-changing and I like looking back and remembering. So, if you’re here to know what tv I watched in 2018, scroll to the end! I’m sorry I didn’t keep enough track of books or movies – that’s the plan for 2019 though.

Anyway, I managed to get a Kivii Life monthly recap out for January, and February, and even March, but then wedding season arrived and it was all I could do to keep up with blogging weddings and sessions. I thought to myself, that’s okay, I’ll make it quarterly instead. But… yeah… that didn’t happen either. So here I am writing a last 10 months review post.

It was a fun activity though, because to find the content, I scrolled back through our lives, which are more or less in the cloud – in calendar apps, in our text threads, in email inboxes, in Lightroom catalogs, and yes, in social media. I know there might be some people reading this who hate that fact, but I actually think it’s really cool (and I, for one, welcome our new AI overlords). For someone like me, with a shit memory but a love of nostalgia, being able to see my life in little snippets like that is pretty awesome.

#SPON break: make sure you get amazing photographers to help you capture the most important memories!!! Hire Kivus & Camera today!

So anyway, 2018 in the Kivii Life:

January, February, & March all already have posts, so I’ll just recap April through December

April

• I had my first ever cavity. Which meant I also had my first ever filling. Boo.
• We saw Infinity War. It was really good, but neither one of us ranks it in our top 5 Marvel movies.
• George RR Martin transitioned the Not a Blog from LiveJournal to some other platform, which made me sort of sad. John will claim this has nothing to do with the #KiviiLife, but I disagree. ASOIAF is life which makes GRRM some sort of demigod.

May

• Celebrated our 4th anniversary
• Had a Disney trip, which included taking my dad to see The Guess Who perform during the Flower & Garden Festival
• We were really sad when Brooklyn 99 got canceled and then really happy when NBC picked it up
• Saw Solo, A Star Wars Story. It was… fine. It’s not particularly Star Wars-y though.

June

• Watched a few baseball games at the DBAP, and I got to pet that adorable baby corgi during Bark in the Park
• Headed to Charlotte for HeroesCon
• Paid off my brain surgery (4.2 years later!)

July

• July was super busy and full of travel
• We started the month in DC, where we watched some more baseball
• Saw Ant-Man & The Wasp (funny! I love Paul Rudd!)
• I finally read the Dunk & Egg novellas, and you guys, I really think this George RR Martin fellow is good at writing.
• Spent some time in Maine and Boston, where I ate, I think, 4 cannoli from Mike’s Pastry in a 24 hour period. Mike’s is better than Modern, fight me.
• Got a new couch!
• Spent a weekend in and around Brevard for a wedding

In DC, we watched a Nationals-Red Sox game, I gave a press conference, and John visited the PTI set.

In Maine, we hung out with John’s grandma, and in Boston we watched more baseball and ate delicious food in the North End

Finally, in Brevard, we visited Oskar Blues (and a couple other breweries)

August

• I did the first ever wedding show for Kivus & Camera and loved it. Shout out to all the couples who found us there!
• We got a sous vide cooker and have slowly started getting better at it
• I turned 31!
• I second shot for my friend Kate in Charlotte, and while I was away doing that, John went on a solo Disney trip where he met up with our friend Howie.

 September

• We ran the Head for the Cure 5k and John nominated me for a Keeping the Faith award.
• We got flu shots
• A hurricane came through – BOO!
• I saw My Favorite Murder live at DPAC with my friend Rebecca from Red Bridge Photography
• I went to Office trivia night at Forest Hall with some awesome wedding vendor friends (friendors, if you will), where people had some insanely detailed knowledge of that show
• Surprise! We went to Disney for John’s birthday.

October

• There wasn’t much time outside of weddings, but one of those weddings was in Asheville, so we did get mountain time.
• Jodie Whitaker premiered as the 13th Doctor and I cried and cried and she’s so wonderful.
• I had a checkup MRI and everything was all good in my brain
• But everything was not all good elsewhere. We headed to Maine to say goodbye to John’s grandmother and spend some time with his family reminiscing on her incredible life and love.

November

• We won the lottery for $10 Hamilton tickets and I cried. A lot.
• John traded in his Corolla for a Camry. More leg room, woot.
• We travelled to Florida for Thanksgiving and I helped my siblings clear stuff out of my dad’s house to help him downsize. This included selling the little purple optimist dinghy in which I started my sailboat racing career. I’m retired now.
• Also in Florida, my little sister and her girlfriend (spoiler alert, now fiancé) got engaged
• Also also in Florida, we hung out with my mom and grandma, and I discovered that my grandmother has pictures of Harry & Meghan (yes, the royal Harry & Meghan) in among pictures of her grandchildren. She wouldn’t introduce me though.
• Fire & Blood came out and I’m still not done with it, but I felt compelled to have 3 references to GRRM in this post.
• We saw Hamilton a second time (this time with the tickets that we actually bought when we found out the show was coming to Durham)

 December

• I went to an amazing vendor appreciation brunch hosted by Aneesa from Harmony Weddings/Forest Hall at Chatham Mills, and had so much fun
• We went to our friends Josh & Sarah’s annual Christmas party, and the theme this year was 12 days of Christmas, so I was 10 Lords-a-leaping (Carolina basketball player finger puppets) and John was 5 golden rings (a Patriots shirt and super bowl rings). I know, we’re obnoxious, but listen, you gotta ride high with your team when they’re doing well, because you never know when the next drought will be.
• It snowed. A lot.
• We had our annual pre-Christmas dinner at Angus Barn
• We went to Asheville with John’s parents where we met his sister and her husband (by the way we’re about to become an aunt and uncle any day now!), and toured the Biltmore. I made John kiss me under the mistletoe.
• And finally, we rang in 2019 at Merrimon Wynne with Chelsea & Brad.

Okay now the really good stuff: the shows I watched in 2018 by “network” (bold means John watched too). Some of these shows didn’t have new episodes in 2018, but if I watched it in 2018, I included it. Looking at this list, I feel like I have a problem. There are 50 shows here. But there is so much good tv out there.

Side note: I’m not totally current on all of these – so if you want to talk a show with me, let me confirm what season/episode I’m on first!

• ABC
  • A Million Little Things – I’m a sucker for Shawn Spencer
• Amazon
  • The Man in the High Castle
  • The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel – John did NOT watch season 2 with me, since I wanted to watch it all immediately and was too impatient to wait for him. It’s so funny!
• BBC
  • Collateral – this was a really good miniseries with Carey Mulligan & Billie Piper
  • Doctor Who
  • Killing Eve – BEST NEW SHOW OF THE YEAR Y’ALL!!!
• The CW
  • Crazy Ex Girlfriend
  • Riverdale – but I’ve fallen really behind and might quit it
• Freeform
  • Alone Together
  • The Bold Type – this is a hidden gem. I feel like not nearly enough people are talking about this show.
• FX slash FXX
  • Atlanta – I *just* started this in December
  • Legion
  • You’re the Worst – still my favorite show on tv right now
• HBO
  • Big Little Lies
  • Crashing
  • Game of Thrones – there wasn’t any new GOT in 2018, but I obviously watched old episodes
  • Insecure
  • Room 104
  • True Detective – I guess technically we watched this in 2019?
  • Veep
  • Westworld
• Hulu
  • Casual – another hidden gem – the series just ended, so this would be a good binge for someone who likes closure
  • The Handmaids Tale – I had to give up though – it’s too depressing for me right now
• Netflix
  • Altered Carbon
  • Atypical
  • Black Mirror – I’ve seen enough to know I’ll probably watch more, but I haven’t watched that much
  • Chewing Gum
  • The Crown
  • Dark – if you watch this, just watch in German with subtitles. The English dubbing is terrible. 
  • Dear White People
  • The End of the F***ing World
  • Everything Sucks
  • Friends from College
  • GLOW
  • Jessica Jones
  • Love
  • Maniac
  • Mindhunter – can’t remember if we watched all of this in 2017 or not
  • Scandal – not really Netflix, but that’s where I binged it
  • Sex Education – premiered in 2019, but I’m including it
  • The Staircase
  • Stranger Things
  • Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
• NBC
  • Brooklyn 99
  • The Good Place – we’re behind, so no spoilers please!
  • Superstore
  • This is Us
• Starz
  • American Gods
  • Counterpart – SOO SOOO GOOD. It was a close race between Killing Eve and Counterpart for my favorite new* series, but in the end I had to give it to Sandra Oh and the way the writers incorporated fashion in Killing Eve (*Counterpart Season 2 started so I’m not sure if it counts as new still?)
• Syfy
  • The Magicians

What’s missing from my list? What shows do you want to talk about? Do you have any book recommendations for me, so I can get some fiction through written word and not just audio-visual?