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2009 - Year in Review
I have a format that works, so I'm going to keep to it. This is long enough that I'm putting it behind a cut on LJ.
I didn't have any huge life events this past year - same job, same condo, same world's longest running brief meaningless fling. But I did have a busy and reasonably interesting year. The most interesting thing I did was experiencing weightlessness (via a parabolic flight on the Zero-G plane). My other big new experience was competing in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament for the first time. I can't, alas, go to it in 2010 as I have other plans for the relevant dates, but I'm certainly going to try again. From the standpoint of taking up time, finally signing up for Facebook should also count as a major event.
I read 127 books this year. The number seems to keep decreasing, largely as the amount of traveling increases. Again, a lot were rereads, with the particular pleasure of rereading some of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries. I also enjoyed rereading several of Carl Hiaasen's novels, but had much more mixed reaction to Jonathan Gash's Lovejoy series. Of new books (or new to me), Alexander McCall Smith came through with Tea Time for the Traditionally Built and Neil Gaiman (another reliable provider of pleasure) had The Graveyard Book. Michael Palmer's suspense novel, Flashback was very absorbing and I also enjoyed a few of the Tess Monaghan mysteries by Laura Lippman. My favorite non-fiction book of the year was The Wrong Stuff by Bill "Spaceman" Lee and Richard Lally, but I will also put in good words for Coal: A Human History by Barbara Freese and The Speckled Monster: A Historical Tale of Battling Smallpox by Jennifer Lee Carrell. The book I was most disappointed in this year was Super Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. The books I liked least were a couple of Richard Hookers M*A*S*H novels, but I expected those to be trash.
I've been too busy to get to the used book stores much, so I only got rid of 84 books. I have another 57 ready to go out and might even do a trip to take care of part of that this weekend. I've also continued using freecycle to get rid of things, but decluttering is a long journey.
I only managed to do 9 Volksmarch events, but I did finish 3 special events programs (Railroad Heritage, Walking the USA from A to Z, and Europe in the USA). I added 2 states (Connecticut and North Carolina) and, in addition to the capitals of those states, I added Sacramento. The special event programs I am working on (with progress in parentheses) are 50 States (28/50), 51 Capitals (20/51), Spirit of Walking / Cemetery Stroll (20/40), Riverwalk America (15/20), Historic Churches (6/15), Museum Walk America (6/20), Celebrate America's Gardens (3/20), Artistic Heritage (3/25) and Hooray for Hollywood (0/20).
Travel continued. I started the year by flying home from Bangkok. In February, I went to the Bahamas (Nassau) for a few days. In May, I flew to London and dragged Robert off to Paris for a weekend, followed by spending a little time in Dijon and going on to Switzerland. July saw me heading to the South Pacific (Kiribati, where I saw a total solar eclipse from Ouba Islet, and Guadalcanal in The Solomon Islands, with a day or so in Fiji in between). And, thanks to an amazingly cheap airfare, I went to Peru in November to see Machu Picchu and the Nazca Lines (among other things).
The storytelling year included a show at a friend's synagogue, the Washington Folk Festival, and a lot of swaps. Thanks to convenient timing of business trips, I even got to go to a couple of swaps in southern California.
I also spent plenty of time being entertained. Some of the best theatre I saw I included West Side Story (at the National Theatre prior to going to Broadway), a Michael John LaChiusa series (Giant and See What I Wanna See) at Signature Theatre, Dirty Blonde at Signature Theatre, Zero Hour at Theatre J, and The Fantasticks at Arena Stage. I didn't much care for Spring Awakening or for Adding Machine: A Musical at Studio Theatre and absolutely loathed I Love a Piano at Arena Stage. My favorite production of the year was The Musical of Musicals: The Musical at Metro Stage. Of the concerts I went to, my absolute favorite was Great Big Sea at Wolf Trap.
I was 15 movies on airplanes, 2 on buses, and 14 in theatres. Highlights included Departures, Last Chance Harvey, Duplicity, Away We Go, Julie and Julia, A Serious Man, and Up in the Air.
The only life list item I completed (and still need to update on that list) was taking a glass-blowing class. It relates to a previous item, but I also expanded my bookbinding skills. In addition to the Volksmarch progress mentioned above, I added 2 Gilbert and Sullivan operettas and 5 major league ballparks (but the net gain is only 1 due to Minneapolis getting a new one for 2010). I also made some progress on reading the Bible, finishing the Old Testament.
Reviewing my goals from last year, I had mixed success. I did finish the Old Testament and the Volksmarch A-Z program, as noted above. I also succeeded at going to a dance performance (Aspen Santa Fe Ballet) and at going to the American League ballparks I had not been to (though, again, I have a new one in Minneapolis to contend with now). I failed miserably at spending more time with Robert, partly due to my hectic schedule and partly due to his screw-up on his residency paperwork (for which he owes me big time). I did nothing about organizing my postcard collection and am even further behind on writing travelogues. I did reasonably well on trying a new recipe each month, but that fell apart in November when I was traveling most of the month. I also subverted the goal of that somewhat by downloading recipes off the internet, instead of going through ones I've clipped over the years. I did learn a few new stories, but not nearly one a month. The sweater a month project was an abject failure and I only finished two, with 3 more cast on and in various stages of progress. As for exercising at least twice a week, I got a late start on that but will count it as a partial success as I started taking dance classes again and made it twice a week when my schedule allowed.
Goals for 2010 are:
I didn't have any huge life events this past year - same job, same condo, same world's longest running brief meaningless fling. But I did have a busy and reasonably interesting year. The most interesting thing I did was experiencing weightlessness (via a parabolic flight on the Zero-G plane). My other big new experience was competing in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament for the first time. I can't, alas, go to it in 2010 as I have other plans for the relevant dates, but I'm certainly going to try again. From the standpoint of taking up time, finally signing up for Facebook should also count as a major event.
I read 127 books this year. The number seems to keep decreasing, largely as the amount of traveling increases. Again, a lot were rereads, with the particular pleasure of rereading some of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries. I also enjoyed rereading several of Carl Hiaasen's novels, but had much more mixed reaction to Jonathan Gash's Lovejoy series. Of new books (or new to me), Alexander McCall Smith came through with Tea Time for the Traditionally Built and Neil Gaiman (another reliable provider of pleasure) had The Graveyard Book. Michael Palmer's suspense novel, Flashback was very absorbing and I also enjoyed a few of the Tess Monaghan mysteries by Laura Lippman. My favorite non-fiction book of the year was The Wrong Stuff by Bill "Spaceman" Lee and Richard Lally, but I will also put in good words for Coal: A Human History by Barbara Freese and The Speckled Monster: A Historical Tale of Battling Smallpox by Jennifer Lee Carrell. The book I was most disappointed in this year was Super Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. The books I liked least were a couple of Richard Hookers M*A*S*H novels, but I expected those to be trash.
I've been too busy to get to the used book stores much, so I only got rid of 84 books. I have another 57 ready to go out and might even do a trip to take care of part of that this weekend. I've also continued using freecycle to get rid of things, but decluttering is a long journey.
I only managed to do 9 Volksmarch events, but I did finish 3 special events programs (Railroad Heritage, Walking the USA from A to Z, and Europe in the USA). I added 2 states (Connecticut and North Carolina) and, in addition to the capitals of those states, I added Sacramento. The special event programs I am working on (with progress in parentheses) are 50 States (28/50), 51 Capitals (20/51), Spirit of Walking / Cemetery Stroll (20/40), Riverwalk America (15/20), Historic Churches (6/15), Museum Walk America (6/20), Celebrate America's Gardens (3/20), Artistic Heritage (3/25) and Hooray for Hollywood (0/20).
Travel continued. I started the year by flying home from Bangkok. In February, I went to the Bahamas (Nassau) for a few days. In May, I flew to London and dragged Robert off to Paris for a weekend, followed by spending a little time in Dijon and going on to Switzerland. July saw me heading to the South Pacific (Kiribati, where I saw a total solar eclipse from Ouba Islet, and Guadalcanal in The Solomon Islands, with a day or so in Fiji in between). And, thanks to an amazingly cheap airfare, I went to Peru in November to see Machu Picchu and the Nazca Lines (among other things).
The storytelling year included a show at a friend's synagogue, the Washington Folk Festival, and a lot of swaps. Thanks to convenient timing of business trips, I even got to go to a couple of swaps in southern California.
I also spent plenty of time being entertained. Some of the best theatre I saw I included West Side Story (at the National Theatre prior to going to Broadway), a Michael John LaChiusa series (Giant and See What I Wanna See) at Signature Theatre, Dirty Blonde at Signature Theatre, Zero Hour at Theatre J, and The Fantasticks at Arena Stage. I didn't much care for Spring Awakening or for Adding Machine: A Musical at Studio Theatre and absolutely loathed I Love a Piano at Arena Stage. My favorite production of the year was The Musical of Musicals: The Musical at Metro Stage. Of the concerts I went to, my absolute favorite was Great Big Sea at Wolf Trap.
I was 15 movies on airplanes, 2 on buses, and 14 in theatres. Highlights included Departures, Last Chance Harvey, Duplicity, Away We Go, Julie and Julia, A Serious Man, and Up in the Air.
The only life list item I completed (and still need to update on that list) was taking a glass-blowing class. It relates to a previous item, but I also expanded my bookbinding skills. In addition to the Volksmarch progress mentioned above, I added 2 Gilbert and Sullivan operettas and 5 major league ballparks (but the net gain is only 1 due to Minneapolis getting a new one for 2010). I also made some progress on reading the Bible, finishing the Old Testament.
Reviewing my goals from last year, I had mixed success. I did finish the Old Testament and the Volksmarch A-Z program, as noted above. I also succeeded at going to a dance performance (Aspen Santa Fe Ballet) and at going to the American League ballparks I had not been to (though, again, I have a new one in Minneapolis to contend with now). I failed miserably at spending more time with Robert, partly due to my hectic schedule and partly due to his screw-up on his residency paperwork (for which he owes me big time). I did nothing about organizing my postcard collection and am even further behind on writing travelogues. I did reasonably well on trying a new recipe each month, but that fell apart in November when I was traveling most of the month. I also subverted the goal of that somewhat by downloading recipes off the internet, instead of going through ones I've clipped over the years. I did learn a few new stories, but not nearly one a month. The sweater a month project was an abject failure and I only finished two, with 3 more cast on and in various stages of progress. As for exercising at least twice a week, I got a late start on that but will count it as a partial success as I started taking dance classes again and made it twice a week when my schedule allowed.
Goals for 2010 are:
- Get caught up on travelogues already
- Go to at least 10 dance classes during each (10 week) session at the studio
- Finish the Volksmarch cemetery program
- Read all of Apocryphya
- Go to the remaining major league ballparks I haven't been to (Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and Phoenix)
- Try at least 10 new recipes from my clippings file and throw out another 10 I know I'll never make
- Finish a needlepoint or embroidery project
- Get my household files organized
- Consolidate my web pages
- Find a better solution for carrying my things to work than the briefcase I've been using
- Use reusable grocery bags for at least one shopping trip a month
- Complete a first draft of a storytelling fringe show