Wednesday, January 7, 2009

2008, A Retrospective

As usual, I am staggering into the new year. I have a lot of good intentions, but getting re-organized after the holidays is taking longer than expected. I'm having some major post-holiday let down. And I've been beating myself up over it. However, after talking to a few people and reflecting upon the last year, all of the changes which have taken place and the prospects for 2009, I think things are looking up! And I think I have had some major changes in my life this year, so feeling a little hangover from the entire year might be justified.

2008 was a big year. In short...
1. Wedding planning, say no more

2. Going raw and losing a good amount of weight

3. Jason starting a brand new job in the midst of all of this

4. Wedding! The pressures of a wedding are a lot, add in the added pressures of dragging 35 people across the ocean for said event, and you can see why I might still be recovering. Luckily, it was the most amazing couple of weeks of my life!

5. Return to reality

6. Quitting smoking. After 16 long years I quit smoking. It has all been documented here, I am not going to go into it much further other than to say I still feel good about my decision, despite occasionally feeling like a cigarette.

7. Trip to Denver. A fabulous weekend with my family in Denver to celebrate my cousin's baby shower and my other cousins' daughter's first birthday. Inspired me to want to move to Highlands Ranch! A fabulous shower followed by the biggest, baddest 2 year old birthday party I've ever seen. Lots of good times with the many Shirleys and lots of Colorado friends. And Tae-Bo at a mile above sea level post smoking! Talk about a head rush!

8. 20 year Junoir High Reunion. Loved it.

9. Becoming landlords. Although we had been living together for all intents and purposes for quite some time, we finally put Jason's place on the market a couple of months before the wedding. After an entire summer and most of a fall with zero activity, we found a renter. So far so good, although we still haven't received this month's rent...

10. Finalize the moving in. We found a renter, who wanted to move in the day he saw the place. And we still had a bed, a futon, kitchen cabinets and 2 closets full of stuff in the place. Thank god our friend Matt came to the rescue, because the thought of carrying any of that stuff down the rickety fire excape still gives me nightmares. After the moving was over there was still the problem of where in the hell to put all of the stuff. We're barely controlling that situation now. Not to mention the boxes of china and other wedding gifts we have finally been moving in from my parents'. And we had a tiny wedding, it's not like we got tons of gifts!

11. Dad's health. A period of the fall where this was not so good. He is doing well, but recovery is a long process

12. First 5k. Hand in hand with the quitting smoking I decided to start running. I did well, and ran my first 5k on the new runway extension at O'Hare.

13. Gained 15 pounds. Not happy about this one. Despite the running, the dreaded post quitting smoking weight gain kept creeping up. I finally got pissed off and decided to stop exercising and eat and drink whatever the hell I wanted until the new year.

14. Trip to New York. Fabulous time visiting Kristie, Aitor and Mikel and Mike, Andi, Luke & Amy in Brooklyn. Decided I needed to move to Brooklyn. Funny how 3 of the 4 people who stood up in our wedding all live in Brooklyn.

15. First (hopefully annual) Holiday Open House. 45 people, lots of appetizers, 1 ham and a dance party. And all done 3 days before hosting Christmas Eve. Love it!!!

16. 3rd annual Christmas Eve dinner. Braised chicken with almond paste ala the "Secrets of a Restaurant Chef" woman with the spiky blonde hair on food network. Throw in roasted garbanzos and garlic with chard and some mashed potatoes and celery root and there's a meal!

17. First annual (hopefully!) house rental for New Years Eve. What a way to spend the New Year. Drunky-monkey with friends followed up with a few days of lounging, reading, eating and relaxing, topped off with a fabulous bonfire and a trip to the outlet mall.

Not to mention, a couple of weddings and more births than I can count (Lillian, Alena, Jack, Ane and Liam - am I forgetting any?) I'm sure I have left a few other major events off ot this list. It's late and I'm getting tired.

2009 is off to a rip-roaring start. I have started my foray into home cheese making (not a success, but not an utter failure) and am starting grad school (unless I freak out and withdraw again) in a couple of weeks. At least 3 books under my belt for 2009 seems like a good start.

Happy New Year!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's one hell of a year!

Anonymous said...

that definitely is a whirlwind of life events! I'm glad you were able to step back and get some perspective on all of it. I know how easy it is to get bogged down in what is in front of you rather than looking at the big picture. It all comes at once, girl, but you can do it!!
~Traci