2009 on the surface seems like it might have been uneventful. We made no major move, I didn’t finish my dissertation (ha!), and I’m still in grad school in 2010 (don’t you dare do the math on how many years of higher education that is for me!) But it was a great year for a lot of reasons. Here’s a few of them:

  • This year I definitely became a runner. I tried in previous years, and spent the second half of 2008 on the (boring) elliptical before switching over to the treadmill. And then in early 2009 I fell off the freakin’ treadmill and sprained my ankle. That kept me from running for over a month. In the spring and summer (when it wasn’t too hot) I started running outside, but I REALLY started to rack up the miles this past fall and winter. I worked my way up from being able to run barely 2 miles to running 4-5 miles and instead of a 12 minute mile, I run a 10ish minute mile. I barely changed my eating habits, and didn’t give up my nightly brew, and I still lost 15 pounds in 3 months. And running makes me feel great. Yay for running!
  • I published my second article and first solo article. I also got into the habit of writing every day (something I’m sure I’ll pick up again this coming week). I cranked out a few drafts of dissertation chapters and worked on another article. All in all a good writing year (especially for forming good writing habits) but I still have a ton to do before defending this year!
  • I went to the West Coast and California for the first time for ASA/SWS and for a few days of touring and sightseeing afterwards with C. It didn’t take me long to realize I love CA and San Francisco and I had a blast there. I saw redwoods and the Pacific for the first time, and particularly loved the SFMoma.
  • While there, I got to reconnect with an old best friend from my first few years in college (when I was a theatre major). Not only was it amazing to reconnect with someone after 12 years and be able to talk for hours just like no time had passed, it put in perspective my decisions to leave theatre, and solidified my sudden decision to leave school. Not that I ever regretted that– I certainly haven’t– but I always felt some nagging “unfinishedness” about it. Now I see it in its perspective as one of the best decisions I ever made for myself. Yay!
  • Thanks to Facebook, I’ve been incredibly lucky to get back in touch with people from high school and college, colleagues, and cousins etc. that I otherwise wouldn’t be in touch with on a regular basis. FB was one of the reasons S. and I saw each other in San Francisco. It expands my world and my perspective on things. I have conversations with people about things that I would never otherwise have. I wonder how different my college experience (leaving home, leaving college, taking time off etc.) would have been if FB was around back then?
  • And then there’s the biggest event of the year– my sister and Rob’s wedding– the Wedding of the Century!! 2009 a year of wedding planning, dress-buying, gold-shoe-hunting etc. And in September Jo and I took a road trip to Maine for the event. We drove 19 hours and had so much fun, listening to Hem and Po’ Girl, Cat Stevens and Simon & Garfunkel, driving through state after state. I do love a road trip. The wedding itself was beautiful and perfect and I gained a new brother in law (and most recently a furry nephew, Gordon– their new kitten). The wedding itself made me realize how important not only family is, but how important people who are like family are. And my sister– the baby– seemed so grown up during the whole thing! Crazy!
  • 2009 was also filled with so much reading– fantastic mysteries like Steig Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and a new Mary Russell book. And now I’m on a big Swedish/Nordic crime novel kick. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed reading this much since I was a kid.
  • And there were great music discoveries in 2009– I needed new music to keep me from repeating the same playlists over and over again (although I will say that the concert with Ani Difranco, Dar Williams and the Indigo Girls was one of the most incredible experiences ever). Hem and Po’ Girl are just amazing, and are on constant rotation on my ipod. I seem to be getting into more and more folk music and couldn’t be happier with that. I saw Po’ Girl in concert and hope to see Hem soon too (so get touring, Hem!!).

I don’t know what 2010 will bring for this blog. I haven’t been writing as much for 2 reasons– (1) Facebook has replaced blogging for more of the day-to-day kinds of things I used to write about and (2) I feel like my audience is changed/different. I don’t know who all is out there anymore, and with job market stuff taking over my life, I feel less inclined to write about where I’m at. We’ll see what happens, though!

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