Little This, Little That

I've never done an end of the year roundup (that I can recall, lest someone unearth one) for the masses - the masses being my family and friends that I might send a Christmas letter or New Year's letter - which I would prefer having many non-Christian and non-religious friends, and so I just don't have any experience with it. So, apologies if it is clunky.

The Good, The Bad, and The It Is What It Iss

I began the year writing my first play, a one-woman show for myself to perform. I had high hopes for the play and my performance and, as you can't really help, how it might change my future. The play by the new year was already in pretty good form and almost done. I spent the first four months of the year then rewriting and rehearsing, peforming my first, of twelve eventual performances over the course of the year, in April. It got reviewed very well. Many friends and family came to see the play and liked it.

It was a mixed bag overall though. I feel proud of meeting the incredible challange and pushing on despite all the road blocks that kept falling into my path, it seemed all along the way. I think I did it well and professionally and with a certain amount of grace despite not getting the numbers of butts in seats I would have wished for. I found publicity a constant, uphill and in some respects invisible battle - you never know who what and/or how you've hit, if at all.

My Grandmother passed away in February. She was in her early 90s and so had had a long life. I don't know if she got everything out of her life she would have wanted, or if in the end she was satisfied with the life she had led... I wish I had asked her, though I am not altogether sure if she would have been able to hear the question if even answer it. I loved her dearly.

S.O. and I celebrated ten years of marriage in May. I had wanted us to take a trip together somewhere since we never had a honeymoon - we went to Universal Studios the day after our wedding with 11 of our family and guests of our wedding, which was an amazingly fun day, so I can't completely complain. I would never characterize it as romanitic though. We didn't get to take the trip but on our anniversary, as we were getting ready to go out to dinner with the kids, the phone rang. It was the middle-income housing program we had gotten into and were waiting for a house (we were in the 3rd and last phase of building, almost last in line) calling to say that a family had fallen out and needed to shift to the 3rd phase would we want the house. We moved in this July, almost 2 months to the day we got the call. Incidentally, as of this writing the 3rd Phase of building is complete but owners have not yet moved in.

Over the course of the year we have had our down moments, S.O. and I have had some marital struggles but we didn't get the 7 year itch so maybe we were due. It has been an opportunity more than a negative because it has put us into the position where it was logical and necessary to renegotiate our relationship, our marriage and our family life. I would recommend it to every married couple - voluntarily of course. I don't wish strife on anyone, though I hate to say I think it's inevitable.

S.O.v.1 started kindergarten this September and was immediately smitten. Where earlier in the year we showed him the school and he thought it was too big and daunting, now he is exceedingly proud to be a student and particularly at his school. It really has changed him leaps and bounds in small ways, but significant nonetheless.

S.O. (if you read his blog you already know) lost his job in November, just before Thanksgiving. That in itself has been a mixed bag. There is the stress of less income and higher expenses than we are yet used to because of the new house. But it beats the hell out of the stress that his crazy schedule was putting on the kids and me. During the off-season he was home all the time, worried about hours, raises, promotions that alternately would and wouldn't be forthcoming. During the season he would work so much that after about a week of his absence the kids would stop asking "Where's Daddy?". I would worry about the toll the work would take on his body. He'd be so tired he could hardly function and many a night he had very few hours of sleep and then turn around and go lift heavy objects again for many hours. I worried that he would get hurt, everyone was so tired and volatile on the job that an accident seemed inevitable. Or a heart attack, or a car crash on the way home from work at some late hour after 16 hours of heavy lifting...

No job visible yet on the horizon but it is the holidays and so things tend to slow down. We hope there will be prospects in the new year.

I have had projects bloom and fade this year, some still in growth mode. I've gotten a couple of assignments for a local magazine, one where I got to stay at a Moroccan themed spa hotel for a night. That was hard, yeah, real hard. I am very close to finishing a novel which is an accomplishment in itself.

I guess this year has been one of three steps forward, two steps back. New house but job loss halted decorating and landscaping progress. Got projects off the ground only for them to fall apart. Did my play but not enough audience to cause momentum... a mixed bag as I say. But I suppose if you look back at any block of time there would be ups and downs. The ups are grand of course but they wouldn't look that way without the downs.

Happy New Year everyone!