Year in Review
Hrm. 2007 was a mixed year. The first half was -really- good, and comprised of a lot of time spent with friends and trying new things. The second was... well, truth be told, I honestly believe I could've slept from July until now and felt as accomplished as I do having trudged through it.
(note: all links are to my own pics, not the actual sites for the various destinations)
March was a particularly good month. I remember meeting Dave and Ivana in DC, and also having Karen W. visit a week later for her birthday. We all went out for dinner later in the week. I got her an ice cream cake. The next day, I learned that ice cream cakes melt when kept in refrigerators and not freezers.
Karen V. visited DC a couple times, the first for school, and the second to spend a week here visiting me. Consequently, I played the tourist role a bit more than usual, visiting several sites that I hadn't yet been to and didn't want to visit by myself, including Baltimore's National Aquarium, Great Falls Nat'l Park, the Botanical Gardens, and Virginia Beach. I'll probably go back to each eventually, though the Aquarium is a bit pricey...
I visited Brian, Josh, and Andi in Sarasota, and followed them around for a few days. Admittedly, I followed them around Azeroth much more than I did the wilds of Florida. Last year on my trip I learned "When are Alligators Dangerous?". This year, I learned "What died?". Trips to Sarasota are often educational.
I took three sessions of a pottery class, and became a fair potter. I'm no artist, but I am satisfied with some of the things I was able to make, particularly my mugs and the last bowl I did.
Honestly, after around June-ish, things just started going sour. I got a lot less done at work and kinda fell behind. Investments I got involved with went bad and still haven't recovered. I lost touch with friends for whatever reason and withdrew into hermithood from September to December. I struggled with the question of law school, even though I 'made a final decision' several times that was rescinded as soon as the wind changed direction. I still haven't -really- made up my mind. Partly because of this lack of conviction, I didn't prepare for the LSAT nearly as well as I could have, and probably did about as bad as I could conceivably do while still showing and taking the test. It's good enough to get into a couple schools, but my scores are chancy to get into the best around here. This irks me, but ultimately not enough for me to wait a whole year to try again. Maybe. It's -really- difficult to make decisions that you know will affect your entire life from this point forward. I fear that I'm terribly bad at it.
The one bright point that I remember in the second half of 2007 was when my friend Mike and I went to climb Old Rag in Shenandoah. I -loved- that. It's funny, it was really strenuous getting up that mountain. There was a pretty steep, steady incline of like 15 degrees for a mile, and we had to stop several times to catch our breath. The scenery wasn't even great up that incline, as we were still in the main forest. Yet even though I can recall that part of the trip, I have no negative feelings associated with the climb at all. I mean, it was so worth it, a thousand times over, to reach the peak and look out over the Shenandoah Valley during Fall. Walking down the mountain again, scrambling over and under rocks, resting cross-legged on boulders that dipped off into oblivion not 10 feet away and sipping my water in the chill autumn air while looking down into the patch-worked farmland... twas heaven.
I also took a Spanish class with my friend Jacob from work, which was kind of fun. Learning a language requires a lot more dedication than I'm willing to put forth right now, I think. I don't know that we're going to take it again, as my friend and I each looked to the other for motivation, and found that the other had reasons to not want to do it again. Personally, my reasons boil down to the vacation I'm taking in march, and the fact that I'm going to have to do 110% of my quota for the next 12 weeks in only 10 weeks, and don't think I'll have time for spending four hours two nights a week at / going to / coming from class.
There's a summary of 2007 for me. I don't know what lessons or insights to take from it. Perhaps I need to make more efforts to be keep in touch with people. Or perhaps I need to try to get more work done at work, to free up my weekends for doing things I enjoy - like climbing mountains and visiting home.
Anyway, 2008 already has a lot of promise. Karen W. and I will be going to Rome in March, and, while in Europe, I'll also be visiting Karen V. while she's teaching English in the Andalucia region of Spain. It's been almost two years since I went to Japan, so I haven't taken a real vacation in a while. I'm getting giddy about it, woo, but I'll save that for another entry. I should also have some idea of the path I want to take for the next five years of my life and, will or not, it'll be nice to have finally made -a- decision for sure. Anyway, guess I'm going to head off for now. Lotsa work to get done by monday, and lots of sleeping to do before I'm capable of working again.
(note: all links are to my own pics, not the actual sites for the various destinations)
March was a particularly good month. I remember meeting Dave and Ivana in DC, and also having Karen W. visit a week later for her birthday. We all went out for dinner later in the week. I got her an ice cream cake. The next day, I learned that ice cream cakes melt when kept in refrigerators and not freezers.
Karen V. visited DC a couple times, the first for school, and the second to spend a week here visiting me. Consequently, I played the tourist role a bit more than usual, visiting several sites that I hadn't yet been to and didn't want to visit by myself, including Baltimore's National Aquarium, Great Falls Nat'l Park, the Botanical Gardens, and Virginia Beach. I'll probably go back to each eventually, though the Aquarium is a bit pricey...
I visited Brian, Josh, and Andi in Sarasota, and followed them around for a few days. Admittedly, I followed them around Azeroth much more than I did the wilds of Florida. Last year on my trip I learned "When are Alligators Dangerous?". This year, I learned "What died?". Trips to Sarasota are often educational.
I took three sessions of a pottery class, and became a fair potter. I'm no artist, but I am satisfied with some of the things I was able to make, particularly my mugs and the last bowl I did.
Honestly, after around June-ish, things just started going sour. I got a lot less done at work and kinda fell behind. Investments I got involved with went bad and still haven't recovered. I lost touch with friends for whatever reason and withdrew into hermithood from September to December. I struggled with the question of law school, even though I 'made a final decision' several times that was rescinded as soon as the wind changed direction. I still haven't -really- made up my mind. Partly because of this lack of conviction, I didn't prepare for the LSAT nearly as well as I could have, and probably did about as bad as I could conceivably do while still showing and taking the test. It's good enough to get into a couple schools, but my scores are chancy to get into the best around here. This irks me, but ultimately not enough for me to wait a whole year to try again. Maybe. It's -really- difficult to make decisions that you know will affect your entire life from this point forward. I fear that I'm terribly bad at it.
The one bright point that I remember in the second half of 2007 was when my friend Mike and I went to climb Old Rag in Shenandoah. I -loved- that. It's funny, it was really strenuous getting up that mountain. There was a pretty steep, steady incline of like 15 degrees for a mile, and we had to stop several times to catch our breath. The scenery wasn't even great up that incline, as we were still in the main forest. Yet even though I can recall that part of the trip, I have no negative feelings associated with the climb at all. I mean, it was so worth it, a thousand times over, to reach the peak and look out over the Shenandoah Valley during Fall. Walking down the mountain again, scrambling over and under rocks, resting cross-legged on boulders that dipped off into oblivion not 10 feet away and sipping my water in the chill autumn air while looking down into the patch-worked farmland... twas heaven.
I also took a Spanish class with my friend Jacob from work, which was kind of fun. Learning a language requires a lot more dedication than I'm willing to put forth right now, I think. I don't know that we're going to take it again, as my friend and I each looked to the other for motivation, and found that the other had reasons to not want to do it again. Personally, my reasons boil down to the vacation I'm taking in march, and the fact that I'm going to have to do 110% of my quota for the next 12 weeks in only 10 weeks, and don't think I'll have time for spending four hours two nights a week at / going to / coming from class.
There's a summary of 2007 for me. I don't know what lessons or insights to take from it. Perhaps I need to make more efforts to be keep in touch with people. Or perhaps I need to try to get more work done at work, to free up my weekends for doing things I enjoy - like climbing mountains and visiting home.
Anyway, 2008 already has a lot of promise. Karen W. and I will be going to Rome in March, and, while in Europe, I'll also be visiting Karen V. while she's teaching English in the Andalucia region of Spain. It's been almost two years since I went to Japan, so I haven't taken a real vacation in a while. I'm getting giddy about it, woo, but I'll save that for another entry. I should also have some idea of the path I want to take for the next five years of my life and, will or not, it'll be nice to have finally made -a- decision for sure. Anyway, guess I'm going to head off for now. Lotsa work to get done by monday, and lots of sleeping to do before I'm capable of working again.