It's the last day of 2009! I decided to post something to round out the year, even though I've been absent for over a month.
I haven't yet written my New Year's Resolutions, but I have a good idea what they'll be. When Josh comes home from work today, we're going to write ours down. I'll make sure to post them in the next few days. To honor the past year, however, I'm going to do an '09 recap, by month. It's good to reflect on things before making new goals, I think.
January
President Obama took office, making history as the first black president of the United States. This was a particulary momentous day in my memory because I was teaching at an almost all-black school and we hugely celebrated the meaning of this for this demographic and culture. I was especially happy for my babies (my class) because they were able to identify with the first leader of the country they will probably remember having.
February
I agreed to accompany my high school friend turned Seattle friend, Sharonne, to a cross country skiing race near Leavenworth. 3 other friends of hers decided to come along as well. In this one weekend, I made bonds with friends I will probably know for life. In fact, we celebrated each other multiple times this year and they were included in most of my memories. My initial decision to go for the race was a smart one! I also started taking Pilates again. This time, it was with the reformer. I took a class for 6 weeks, but I didn't like it. I was bummed because it was so close to my house.
March
I believe it was this month that I was displaced from my school. My Principal illegally removed me from my position for the following year so she wouldn't have to remove the male teacher, since they are harder to find. I was so relieved to get out of this school, though, that I agreed to sign the form. I'm sure the fact that she threatened to ruin my career helped...
April
In April, My parents visited us for a week. It was a great trip and we had a lot of fun. I don't think my mom had been here prior to that in over 8 years. I also interviewed for 5 new teaching positions in April. Applying for them was a lot of work and the interviews were crammed into three days after full days of work, which made for a crazy me. We also reconnected with Josh's family who live in the area on Easter. It was an important connection that has made us both happy. Additionally, I made a new virtual friend through this blog that turned out to be very closely connected to me in real life! As such, her friendship doesn't seem so much "virtual" and has been an important one to me.
May
In May, I was offered the position to teach at my current school. I was subsequently offered 3 more jobs. From the moment I accepted, they welcomed me with open arms. I have never regretted my choice to work there. I also went to Sasquatch, a music festival, with 2 of the women mentioned above. We camped overnight and had a blast. May was also an important month for Josh, as he was hired on by the Milton Fire Department and he also celebrated one full year of running his own business.
June
In June, we celebrated my birthday with a weekend trip to Hood River, Oregon and went whitewater rafting with all 4 of the girls above and one of their significant others. It was an amazing weekend of limo rides, jumping off bridges and bonfires. I also said goodbye at the end of June to kids I loved and cherished as well as a school I didn't.
July
July was a month of bleeding, pain, and exhaustion. At the start of the month, I was diagnosed with PCOS and put on an herbal regimen by my Naturopath. I bled every day, all day, for 6 weeks. It was 3 weeks in to the bleeding that I began to believe I didn't just have a popped cyst in my ovaries, as suspected. I saw a specialist who did a routine pregnancy test and discovered I'd been pregnant since before the bleeding began. Ultrasounds resulted in the acceptance that the pregnancy was doomed and I received Chemotherapy and visited the ER to force a miscarriage. It was to date the most horribly sad and trying experience of my life. Despite all of this going on, I still managed one primitive camping trip with friends and a weekend cabin getaway in the mountains with the crew including Josh. On this trip, I remember one day in particular that was filled with serious fun and boys body surfing the river. We also further reconnected with more of Josh's local family and met his newest second cousin, Madelyn. She is beautiful!
August
I was still recovering from my miscarriage and still bleeding as we prepared ourselves for a trip to Hawaii. The trip itself was magical and we talk about it every other week, at least. It is still an idea in the back of our heads that we could take a year off from our lives and live there while I teach and Josh.....cleans pools? We haven't figured his part out yet. Coming back from Hawaii, we resumed nutty schedules. Josh tried to make up for work he'd missed while I tried to ready an empty room for 30 5 year olds.
September
I officially started teaching at Green Lake. I bonded with a whole new batch of adorable kids and the job literally consumed every waking hour. I immediately connected with a new coworker and to this day feel like I couldn't be nearly as pleased with going to work each day if it wasn't for her! I think this was also the month that I joined a bowling league with 3 friends. Monday night bowling became a ritual. A very fun ritual that went on for 3 months. Last but not least, we took a hot air balloon ride over Woodinville! It was a great experience and we had perfect weather. I felt very lucky to have the chance to do this.
October
In October, there was more of the same from September. The only thing that stands out is that Josh got us kicked out of our house by telling the landlord she was a crazy psycho bitch. She really is, but it was not a great plan to tell her this. We were on the frantic hunt for a move within a two week period. Luckily, because she's crazy, she told us we didn't have to move out anymore. I still think it would be a good idea, but it's cheaper for us to stay and we really do like our house. This is still in progress... We also dressed up for Halloween. I was an alley cat and Josh was a heavy metal rocker. We partied in Ballard pubs with Nikki and Dan and some Portland peeps.
November
Josh went to Fort Wayne for a week in November. Then we had Thanksgiving dinner with friends at Danielle's. We took the rest of the long weekend off in Missoula, Montana where we hiked with Lulu and were generally just lazy and silly. It was one of the best trips we've ever taken.
December
In December, we went to a bad sweater party where Josh took second place. I also had a work happy hour celebration with coworkers. At the end of the month, we went to LA to see Josh's immediate family and celebrate Christmas with them. His brother made sure I had a horrible time, but the visit gave me a better understanding of Josh's past and how it might be for me to be related to his mom and brother one day. We decided any subsequent trips to LA will involve us renting a hotel room and car so we don't have to be dependent on his family. We also decided we would spend next Christmas with my family since we had spent the last 3 with his. Upon our return (as in the same day we got off the plane!) we celebrated another Christmas with Josh's local family with whom we reconnected on Easter and saw again in July. I met two more second cousins, one who is 4 and one who is 7. As suspected, we became fast friends. I am even sporting the resulting pink and purple patterned manicure from that night as I type. In December, I was also awarded a fellowship to join scientists on an expedition studying mammals in Nova Scotia in April!!* To ring in 2010, Josh and I plan to hang out with friends at Luau in Tangletown, but that is yet to come.
There were other things that happened this year--other outings, friend experiences, events, etc....but those that I listed are the things I thought of first. I admit I had to go through my archives as well as photos on flickr to match up the correct months with a lot of them! Now that I've recorded them, I'll reread them and reflect on how they've changed me and what I'd like to recreate or build upon in 2010. Happy New Year!!!
* more details to come
