review? resolution?

Well, in all it's cliche'd glory, 2009 has come and gone. It was a good year. I'm not going to go month by month, but i'll talk about some major moments.

February- Me and Billy's 1 year. We're winding down on year 2...and I foresee a lot of anniversaries in our future.
March- Only a select few know about the huge loss my family experienced, but it was an unbelievable gift for another family. I don't think I'll ever forget about this, and there are times when I'm filled with sadness, but I can't let the sadness outweigh the gift this was for that family.
April- I turned 25 and we moved out into our own apartment. Best birthday present ever. Unfortunately, Billy had to go to training in Ohio for a week and left on my birthday, so I was left alone in our apartment for the first week "we" were living here. It was sad to be alone, but it was just a week alone. I'm pretty sure that we're going to re-sign our lease for another year here.
May- Completed my first year back in college. I'd only taken 2 classes each semester, but I did very well. I think I needed to see myself succeed, even if only in small increments, in order to be motivated to really push forward.
August/September- I no longer work at the school, but I was given the amazing opportunity to put my focus on college and take a full course load. The success I had in my first two semesters back in college gave me no reason to doubt my future success.
October- Billy turned 26. He never let people fuss over him, but I made sure he had a great birthday. Also(!), Emma included us in Mama D's surprise birthday party. I was able to have a night with some of my closest friends and got to talk to some amazing people.
November/December- We bought our first Christmas tree, and we each put our own touch on it. We ate so many delicious home-cooked meals. Most importantly, we completely over-indulged in some good, quality family time...I don't think anyone can deny how healthy and important this is.
I don't remember exactly when this happened, but it's equally noteworthy- I reconnected with Donna. We're both spending more quality time together and are back to how we used to be- before college and boyfriends and nonsense got in the way.
- I began blogging again. It's a great outlet, and apparently, people claim to enjoy what I have to say.

I usually make a resolution and am great at keeping it, but I haven't been able to come up with a good one for 2010 (trust me, i've been thinking). I think this year I'm going to focus on life changes. Short of a disaster, I will graduate in December. At this point, it's not so much a goal, but is moreso a date. It's going to happen. I can't think of any reason why it's not going to happen. So I'm not going to be cheap and say that my resolution is to graduate because it's going to happen. I'm going to work on saving my money and effectively planning for my/our future. I don't have a lot of money, but I certainly know how to spend it. I want to try different recipes, cook more often and read more.

The past year has been great, and the next year holds nothing but opportunities. Bad things may happen to people, but how one handles what is dealt to them is how all situations differ. I'm hoping to have a lot of wonderful experiences, but I also hope that if someone lousy should happen, that I am able to learn from it and move forward possitively...not fixate on the past. I hope the same for anyone that reads this. Spend time with your family. Cherish your friends. Happy New Year!

Archives

About 2 weeks ago I was getting my hair cut by Katie, the most wonderful stylist I have ever known, and I'm not exaggerating. I was telling her about my lack of employment and such (i suppose unemployment will be a common topic for a while- it's kind of a big change in my life), but I was going on and on about how good of a change it was and how my life has been affected in all areas because of it. She's really great because she let's me gab on, but she also interjects her thoughts and slows down my relentless ranting. She pointed out how much happier I am since this change and suggested that I blog about my life. I guess she didn't know that I've had this little puppy for a while! It's funny because prior to her comment, I never actually thought that anyone would be interested in reading about my life. I know some of my friends read it and offer their encouragement and comments, but I don't even think they're particularly stimulated by the words that I produce. I've a had various blogs since high school, most of which have been deleted and/or forgotten, but for me, writing about the boring happenings in my life is somewhat therapeutic. It feels good to unload my thoughts/experiences/emotions out in a public forum, whether or not people respond. It's also a physical documentation or archive of various aspects of my life. Since high school I've maintained a livejournal account, which is set to private, but its funny to look back at my old posts and reminisce. I also like to critique my grammar and sentance structure...because I'm a nerd. It's especially funny to recognize how different my problems were- from crying about not having a boyfriend to petty arguments between "best friends forever" (relationships that have since desolved). I don't regret anything I've done because the choices I've made have contributed to who I am today, and I'm pretty content with myself. I anticipate that even in the months and years to come, the directions of my posts will continue to change dramatically. I love reflecting on the past...

I'm also using this forum as a way to stay in touch with important people in my life. A lot of my friends have fairly busy schedules and when we do talk, it's impossible to catch up on everything. So, via the web and various blogsites, I'm able to read about their lives and they can read about mine. The internet really is a wonderful resource for communication and relationships.

Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome!

i'm going to try to reignite this thing...it had a very short-lived run in the past. i'm pretty much jumping back on the bandwagon, but it makes sense since so many of my friends live a trillion million kabillion miles away from me. also i'm pretty much the worst phone person ever, as per the fact that i'm socially awkward. sooooooo, yeah, let's see how long i maintain this again. it's like when i was little and i told myself that i was going to write in a diary because it seemed like something that little girls did. i would write something stupid like "i painted my nails today and i got some nail polish on my finger. i hate when that happens." and then i would never write again until months later when i remembered that i had a stupid diary.