2014 In Review

This past year I...

Spent a long birthday weekend with two of my favorite friends here.
Saw Neutral Milk Hotel, Tool, The National, Justin Timberlake, Steve Martin & Edie Brickell, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Rufus Wainwright, Merle Haggard, and Spoon in concert.
Remodeled our master bathroom.
Redid the floors in our laundry room, half-bath and kids' bathroom.
Got to visit the campus of Google in Mountain View, CA and OMG, y'all. It's as nuts as you've heard.
Visited one of my best friends and her toddler in Atlanta three times.

Sent my flip-floppin' kiddo to a gymnastics camp put on by none other than Bela "You Can Do Eet!" Karoli.
Surprised that same flip-floppin' kid with a trip to San Antonio to see her FAVORITE performer (Justin Timberlake, see above) in concert in San Antonio.
Spent an AMAZING week in a beautiful house right on the water in Maine.

Lost a dear friend to ovarian cancer.
Watched a taping of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" from the front row.
Started seeing a therapist regularly.
Finally bought myself a computer (I haven't had a computer of my own since grad school.)
Celebrated my 6th anniversary with BH and my 15th anniversary with my employer.
Laughed way more than I cried.
Managed the change management and communications on a MAMMOTH system implementation at work.
Arranged to take a 3-month writing sabbatical from work that will start in January.

It has been a pretty good year, and I'm looking forward to what lies ahead.

New Year Musings

2010 is in the books. 2011 begins.

Christmas was calm and lovely. The Geej woke up super early Christmas Day to find pretty much everything she'd asked for (except that Moxie Girl crap) had been left by one Mr. S. Claus. She got the iPod Touch (Santa found a pre-owned, 2nd generation model and got if for a bargain), and has barely put it down since. Dah and her man came over Christmas morning to hang out and have brunch. And then BH's boys came to town for the week. It was all good.

The boys went back home yesterday, and New Year's eve was suuuuuuuuuuuper low key. The Geej and I lunched, shopped, and practed her roller skating. It's pretty difficult to teach roller skating when you're not actually wearing roller skates. She's had a couple of minor spills (that have scared her, but not hurt her), but she's plugging away, trying to learn. The weather has been pretty amazing, so we've gotten to spend some nice time outside.

Speaking of outside, our cat Doug has been expressing a LOT of vocal interest in exploring the outside. So I got a wild hair up my butt and bout a harness for him, thinking that he could explore the back yard while on a lead. (I just don't want him cruising around outside without some safeguards because he's not too bright and we live very near a busy street--bad combo.) So how's it working out?

Like this:


Redonkulous, right?

This evening we'll have the traditional cornbread, blackeyed peas and greens (none of which pleases The Geej) in order to get our new year started out right with starch, luck and money, and then life returns to normal whe The Geej heads back to school on Tuesday.

I have no major resolutions, but I do have some wishes and hopes for this year:

Finish up the updates we're making to our carpet and kitchen.
Travel outside of the U.S. at least once (Canada? United Kingdom? I really don't care at this point.)
No surgeries or major illnesses for anyone in my family.
More writing.
Major purge of the storage room and garage.
Get The Geej into some sort of music lessons.
New glasses.
Vegetable garden.
Happy, wonderful wedding for my mother.
Professional happiness and success.
Read more books.
More bonding with my stepsons. (Perhaps an actual family trip.)
A better football season for the Longhorns.
And much, much more.
And I also hope that if you're reading this, that you have a prosperous, healthy 2011. Keep reading, okay?