And So It Was

I feel somewhat obliged to make a New Year’s Day post to welcome in 2010. To me, New Year’s is a scammy, half-assed sort of holiday, on the order of Groundhog Day. My new year is on May 10th, so  reflection, introspection and hopes for a new year generally fall on the day in which I am a year older. But the world didn’t ask me, they asked the Gregorian calendar, so the Twitter trending topics aren’t #moreofsame or #anotherday, they are #in2010 and #10yearsago. Incidentally, I couldn’t for the life of me remember what I was doing in December 31st, 1999. I would have just completed my first semester at Rutgers and I was working two jobs (Domino’s and at Honors College courtesy of the FWSP). I probably spent New Year’s Eve with friends and family but I have no recollection of the details. Much of my life is like that. Stupid memory! Well, if nothing else, in 10 years time, when Twitter and Facebook have merged, and Facetwitbook is acquired by Google, and Googfacetwitbook sends a query directly to my brain asking what I did in 2009, I will have THIS blog post to reference.

I’ve already written a quasi-year in review post in the beginning of November. At the end of November, Tim and I started going to the gym in place of walking three times a week. I’ve managed to work in a fourth day for all but one of the weeks since we started. Exercising regularly combined with tracking and limiting calories has equated to me losing about two pounds a week (this last week being a wash because I wanted to moderately enjoy Christmas goodies and not obsess about what the scale says). I have a lot more energy AND I’ve only had 20 ounces of soda in the last five weeks. I truly wasn’t sure I could do without caffeine completely. Bananas are now my brain food for the morning.

By way of summary, here is what else happened in 2009:

• Loss. Tigger, Russ’s Uncle Dennis, Mrs. Simon; all are missed.
• I read some stuff. I’m not sure that I could even approximate the stats regarding what I’ve read this year but I do know that I made more time for reading than I did in 2008. My three favorites were: Cheating at Canasta by William Trevor, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey.
• I wrote a little. I blogged every day in April (and I just may be crazy enough to do it again in 2010); tried a writing experiment in November.
• I worked. And got a promotion!
• Got around a bit. I traveled farther West than ever before! St. Louis is one cool town. Another cool town I visited for the first time in 2009: Columbus.
• Saw some shows. Theatre, music and in between: Spring Awakening, Wicked, Fantastics, An Ideal Husband, Inherit the Wind, A Night of Lewis Carroll, Cirque du Solei, Duck Soup, Nevermore, Selections from the Spoon River Anthology (Starrynight Productions), Dracula, DCI, Great Big Sea w/Scythian, Joshua Bell w/Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, more that I’m probably forgetting…
• Saw some family. But never enough! Miss them.

I will save predictions and goals for 2010 for another post. I notice that I didn’t do a prospective post until Jan 2nd of 2009. Better keep to tradition.