So I heard that all the cool kids are doing some sort of 2009 review post before the year is officially over so I thought I’d jump on the cool bandwagon and do a post as well.  I’m giving you fair warning right now, it isn’t a happy pile of cupcakes.1

First, some highlights. ((I haven’t done a very good job tracking things, this is just off the top of my head.))

Jenn with a small stuffed polar bear on her shoulder standing in front of the statue of liberty.

  • I won jennerosity.org on a Valentine’s day contest held by BlueFur webhosting company and moved from a hosted blog to a self-hosted WordPress.org blog.
  • Traveled to New York with my sister.
  • Actually passed my second road test2
  • Not only participated in and won NaNoWriMo for the third year in a row3, but also got to act as Municipal Liaison for Vancouver
  • And there were a couple of babies born in my step-family4

Random Middlings5

  • I worked most of the time.
  • I did belly dancing classes for the first bit of the year.
  • I did not eat any of the ‘work candies.’6
  • I started thinking a lot about what path feels right for me and finally discarded some old titles and am taking some tentative steps towards new ones.

Now the lowlights – you can stop here if you want to; it’s the reason this part is last ((I won’t hold it against you if you do))

  • I feel I accomplished next to nothing with my health and fitness.  I finally kinda got the hang of the shoulder shimmy and that’s about it.  And while the shoulder shimmy is not something I find easy, it’s also not something that makes me feel particularly fit or strong.
  • I had to associate with people who seriously grate on my nerves and very level of sanity in order to do something I love.  Worse news is that it’s pretty clear they aren’t going anywhere and I’m going to have to find some way to deal with my feelings and the stress of having to associate with them, or give in, back down, and step away from the thing I love.  Not really a fun choice.
  • I didn’t get to do any teaching.  And, I do realize that I haven’t been employed in a teaching position in over 4 years now, and I’m still satisfied with the choice I made because I don’t think I’d be any happier if I had continued teaching, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still miss it.  Damn!  Just realized that I’ve now been employed as something other than a teacher for more time than I was ever employed as a teacher :(
  • And really, the event that is probably colouring my perspective the most at the moment is that my Step-Father suddenly passed away on December 21st.  So really, that kind of just sucked the wind out of any Christmas or New Year’s festivities that were underway.  I’m saying a preemptive thank you for any kind comments on this post, as I’m not sure I’ll be coming back to respond.7  How are we doing?  Everything still sucks right now.  The road ahead is long and I’m trying to tell myself that the bleakness I see now is going to fade over time.  I’m faking it and hoping that I’m going to make it.

I’ve a couple of blog posts related to this one on my mind.  One on preparing for a personal emergency like the one we had, but it may or may not ever see the light of the internet.  Because I like to keep my blog focused on the positive things I might muster some enthusiasm for a post about my 2010 Goals – I have an entire strategic plan mapped out on a spreadsheet, like any good obsessive compulsive geek would have.8

  1. Why cupcakes you ask?  Well they seem to popping up all over town lately.  First downtown and now there’s a cupcake place by my work and another opening up soon by my home. [↩]
  2. Here in BC we have a graduated license system whereby new drivers first take a written knowledge test to become a ‘learner,’ then a short road test to become a ‘novice,’ and finally an hour long road test to get their ‘full’ license [↩]
  3. I won in terms of word count, though the story is still unfinished [↩]
  4. I’m not a baby person, so that’s probably why this is the first time they have been mentioned on my blog [↩]
  5. Because not everything is strictly a high or low moment, a heck of a lot falls somewhere in between [↩]
  6. Note that this is different from simply eating candy at work, which I did plenty of.  But, I did abstain from eating any of the candies out of the dish that is kept on the counter at work for our customers.  There was no particular reason for this except for my sudden and arbitrary undeclared intention to abstain [↩]
  7. Though I’ll be continuing to blog [↩]
  8. Or maybe it is just me? [↩]

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