Final Week of 2009

I saw this meme over on Melissa's blog and liked it, so I decided to answer the questions for myself.

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?

I went on a canoe trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota. From midday Monday through early evening Thursday, 4 of us paddled out into a series of lakes. I carried a canoe on my shoulders across rocky portages, saw a moose in the wild, learned how to squat and pee without wetting my clothes, and was roughing it in a way I'd never done before. I grew up car camping but this was on a totally different scale altogether. It was a lot of fun, and by the end, I was torn between wishing we would have one more day and being ready for it to be DONE. My shoulders and back were the loudest advocates for the latter. ;-)




2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Well, I didn't learn how to swim properly, nor did I do better about calling my friends on the phone (phone anxiety, GAH!), and I even slacked off on my blog. The one private goal I make every year also went unfulfilled. I don't remember what any of the other goals for the year were. That could well be my problem with keeping them, LOL! I am undecided about what goals to set for 2010, though I will probably set some.

3. How will you be spending New Year’s Eve?

At my sister's house, probably playing games. This has been a tradition for the past few years.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

A running friend died very unexpectedly in late July. He wasn't a close friend in the sense of calling each other or keeping tabs on each other's daily lives other than through the online forum where we met, but we spent time together at races with our group of running friends. We even road tripped together to Philly for a race once with another person so I got to hear a lot of his stories. His death was a complete shock and it sometimes is still disconcerting to realize that he isn't posting stories for our amusement anymore. RIP Joe.

5. What countries did you visit?

Texas.



6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

The opportunity to meet that private goal. For my job responsibilities to be reconfigured to make it less insanely busy.

7. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

Aug 21, the day that my newest niece was born. On her daddy's birthday no less!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Finishing my only half-marathon of the year with a smile on my face, despite feeling a lot of pain and despite it being my slowest ever race at that distance (out of 8 total).




9. What was your biggest failure?

I am a bit of a perfectionist, but there isn't anything I did that I would consider a true failure. I didn't mess up at work or at life in any significant way. I'm disappointed in myself that I did not follow through better on some of my goals, but I consider most of them to be long-term projects anyway.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

I had a really dodgy hip following the half marathon that caused me to take a complete rest from running for awhile. I'm slowly getting myself back into gear but it's hard. I also got stung by a bee for only the 2nd time in my life.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

I finally upgraded to DSL internet connection with wifi. As a bonus, I also have a DVR now.

12. Where did most of your money go?

This is an easy one. Bills!


13. What song will always remind you of 2009?

None that came out this year. See my answer to #19. ;-) For a timeless song that helps sum up my year, check this out. And see my answer to #22.

14. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Go out with friends. Make new friends, ideally some who live in my same city. Date. (I think I mean that last one. My dating anxiety is much worse than my phone anxiety.)

15. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Work.

16. What was your favorite TV program?

OSU football. :)

17. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

No

18. What was the best book you read?

I didn't actually read all that many new books this year. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal was the funniest, Three Cups of Tea was pretty interesting too once I got used to the style.

19. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Pandora. :-) I'm really bad about listening to new music unless my friends pass it along to me, so I finally created an account on Pandora to give myself broader exposure to different music than I normally get via the radio.

20. What was your favorite film of this year?

I think I saw just 2 movies in the movie theatre this year. One was X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the other was Public Enemies. I liked both. It's hard to say which I liked better, both had their pros and cons. I had fun watching Wolverine at a drive-in, though the picture quality isn't as good as in a normal theatre.

21. What did you do on your birthday?

Worked.

22. What kept you sane?

Spending time with friends and family.

23. Who did you miss?

All of my friends who went to the Outer Banks for fun and running in November, since I couldn't be there with them. :-)

24. Who was the best new person you met?

Margarita Mary, my newest niece (and goddaughter!)





25. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009:

It's a good idea to properly wash a bee sting.

'Tis the Season

I was reading another blog where people were posting memories about good/bad gifts and one commenter talked about some handmade gifts she had made in her childhood years that were goofy looking but that the recipient loves to this day. Her post triggered a whole host of memories of gifts given and received.

My best friend from grade 5-8 was Rita. She was a year younger than I, and we were both the social misfits in our respective classes. We had first become friends a year earlier when we were munchkins in the local community theatre's production of the Wizard of Oz. We had a lot of fun together in those years, and one year we made Christmas gifts for each other. I don't remember what I gave her, but she made me a cloth candy cane. I haven't set up a Christmas tree in a few years, but when I do, that candy cane always has a prominent spot. Because it was stitched by hand, the curve was a lot more angular than you might get from sewing with a machine but it's perfect just the way it is.

One year, when I was maybe 9 or 10, I had my younger sister Lisa for our family gift exchange. For her gift, I made her an ornament. I took an empty thread spool (less than 1" tall) made of styrofoam and painted it blue with water color paints. I used nail polish to write her name and placed a heart sticker on it. I then used thread to create a loop by which to hang it on the tree with a hook. I don't know if I gave her anything else that year, but she has that ornament to this day. :)

Several years ago, my younger sister made a gift for all of us. Our dad had a little sing-song rhyme that he made up using all of our names. My sister took some scanned photos of us as kids, made a collage in black/white on the computer, and superimposed the rhyme on it. She then printed on 8x10 photo paper and framed them. I knew we were getting them, I helped her a little with the execution of the project but the idea itself was all hers. I love it. It is on my entertainment center with all my other meaningful photographs to this day.

I do still make and receive handmade gifts on occasion, but none that probably quite bring the smile as those childhood gifts. What memories do you have?

French Fries

I can no longer remember how I first found the blog 1000 Awesome Things, even though it was just a few weeks ago. I probably saw it as a link on the blog roll for some other website. It's a great blog, the unabashed positive nature of it is so refreshing, unlike some of the snarky blogs I've also been reading lately. Last night, I was looking at the Top 1000 list, which basically is a quick check of all the different items posted to date.

And I found this one.

Oh the memories! Not so much about the exact content of this post. But of the goofy fry games we played as kids on the rare occasions when we got to eat at McDonalds. There were two:

Biggest Fry Contest- I suppose this is pretty self explanatory. Whoever had the longest French fry won. It was a badge of honor, and the losers were supremely jealous of the winner. Or at least, so we thought if we were so fortunate as to be the winner. ;) I remember my older sibs teaching us this one.

Matches- I think maybe Becky and I just played this one, though we probably also taught it to Lisa and Bethany. We'd dip the tip of the French fry into ketchup to make it look like a matchstick. Then we'd touch the other person's tray with the fry and say "fffsssss" as if we were setting their tray on fire.

One time, when we were in college, I picked up Becky at her school and drove us home for Easter weekend. We stopped at a Wendy's just north of Columbus to have dinner. I had a sudden memory of that matches game and did it to her tray. She stared at me for a moment, puzzled, then busted up laughing as she caught up to where my memory had taken me. It was a great moment, and clearly one that has stuck with me for 15 years. And the memory still makes me smile.

Bonus smile: my friend Martin called these "freedom fries" back when we were in grad school together. He always ate them first.

Communication (verbal and otherwise)

Lately I have noticed that my non-verbal communication habits are not ideal and are actually worse than they used to be. I have a difficult time making eye contact, and even in conversation with someone, I start to look away before I finish saying what I'm saying. I'm also often tense in certain social situations. I don't know what others' impressions of me are, but it's quite possible that I come off as either boring or snobbish.

As you might imagine, this can be quite a road block when you actually do want to meet people, whether for friendship or dating. Heck, the last time I went out on a date, I was so anxious, I had to use a guided meditation CD to help relax before he arrived to pick me up. Better than a shot of tequila, I guess. ;-) (I'm glad I did, I had a good time that night even though things really went nowhere after that.)

So today, I ran some errands in the morning, and I made a point of making that eye contact with people and smiling, etc. I did it in the long line at the post-office, at the store where I bought some holiday cards, and when I stopped to pay my bill for my storage unit.

Now, I happen to think that the one guy who works there is attractive, and we've chatted about running or other random stuff other times I've come in to make a payment. I have the hardest time making eye contact with guys I think are attractive. I am not and never will be an all-out outrageous flirt, but I figured this was a good chance for some practice at the basics since I already knew he was friendly and we've chatted before. I guess it worked, because during today's friendly conversation about holiday decorations (I was musing about whether to grab mine out of the storage locker or not) and Christmas trees and the Zoo lights, he happened to drop the fact that he has a 3 month old. LOL! At least that answered a question I'd had, since I've never seen him wearing a wedding ring but was too chicken to ask.

Edited to add: I saw this documentary on body language tonight on History International, several hours after writing this post. Heh.