end of the year report
The end of the year is already here. Sometimes it feels like life is moving so fast and I can barely catch up. This last year has been soaked in sadness, making it easy to forget just how much has been accomplished. I especially feel like I'm standing still at times, being out of school and still not enrolled in a grad program. But the truth is that I have done a ton this year despite all the sorrow. This new year isn't starting out well as more grief decided to strike on christmas and still more bad news might be on its way in January…but 2009 will also be a jam packed year of adventure and excitement and love. Even the pain is ultimately love. SO here's a list to remember some of the highlights, at least those I can re-conjure even though I already recycled my old calendar.
2008:
*Saw my mom for the very last time
*Moved off of Treasure Island into the city right by a BART station, the farmers market and the main library
*Got a great job working for a great organization with great people that's just 1 block from my apt
*Celebrate Mike and Joe's birthdays at Six Flags
*And the bomb drops, my mom is gone
*Immense repercussions
*Fell in love! On Valentine's Day!
*Got first tattoo - adore it
*Went to Knott's Berry Farm with family
*Celebrated Christine's birthday with an amazing cake from one of the first bakeries in Chinatown
*Went to LA to surprise Nana for her birthday
*Went to Vegas to surprise Grandma for her birthday
*Spent a week or so on Grand Cayman island and got scuba certified by a really funny teacher
*Got second tattoo - not so happy with it
*Went to LA for Mike's nephew's graduation from highschool
*Spent a week camping in Grand Canyon
*Celebrated Adriana's graduation from college!
*Helped organize our annual Staff Retreat with my awesome co-workers
*Saw Radiohead, Primus, Regina Spektor, Nellie McKay, Beck, and Tom Petty at the Outside Lands music festival
*Had the best earthquake yet at a NIN show
*Saw our first live 49ers game
*Visited Vegas again
*Went to Disneyland with family
*Got retrained to perform CPR which was actually really fun - also had disaster preparedness training ::shrug::
*Visited Ashley in San Diego
*Saw another Niners game
*Went to Vegas for a week of Thanksgiving and a Black Friday Christmas
*Sprinkle throughout short and long visits from Jen, Joe, Sammy, Hae John, Rahill, Aunt Eileen, Aunt Mary Kay, Orlando, Matt (who's moving here soon!) and Jarrod
*Add a dash of good comedy shows from Margaret Cho to W. Kamau Bell
*Top it off with some more concerts like Ani Difranco, Matisyahu and the Flobots
*Can't forget all those trips to visit Mike Kamer and to go wine tasting in Paso Robles..I think we only went once this year though
*Studied myself into being my own well organized financial planner
*Exercised and ate healthy…and sometimes didn't
*Caught up with old family and gained a lot of new family
*Read lots of good books and saw a lot of movies and even some good films
*And then some
2009:
*Possibly celebrating Mike and Joe's and maybe even Ernie's birthday at Disneyland
*Maybe visiting Britney in Big Bear, hopefully with Ashley
*Maybe getting a new apt in North Beach
*Still need to visit Mike Kamer in his new place in Long Beach
*Possibly going to New Orleans
*Taking a long road trip up the west coast to Vancouver and back down again visiting Jarrod and Amy and all of the national parks along the way
*Taking my first cruise through Alaska to see my first glaciers
*Taking the GRE and applying to grad schools, which is a huge endeavor, let me tell ya
*Cage diving with sharks can't be forgotten next fall
*Hmm...I don't know…GETTING MARRIED!
*Probably taking a cruise for our honeymoon to Mazatlan, Mexico; Acapulco, Mexico; Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala; Puntarenas, Costa Rica; Manta, Ecuador; Lima (Callao), Peru; Arica, Chile; Coquimbo, Chile; and Santiago (Valparaiso), Chile
*Probably spending the rest of the year and much of 2010 in South America wandering, maybe studying Spanish, and most probably working somewhere focused on social and environmental justice
*Working out all the details
So my new year's resolution is:
Just to do my best and let that be enough. I'm so hyperaware of all the ways in which I fall short and the things which I don't do enough that I likely sabotage myself when it comes down to it. I would obviously love to write and even paint more, and I would definitely like to be better at keeping in touch with people…but I have to give myself a break. I want to learn to speak Spanish fluently and I haven't been disciplined enough to do that yet, but its ok. I'll get there. I didn't get certified to teach yoga this year, but I'll do it eventually. My real goal is to get back to that calm awareness that I used to carry with me, knowing my Self with the capital S. It's all here inside of me already, I just have to re-member, again and again. So is life.
Random thought I just had:
North America has 3 primary languages: Spanish, English and French. Why don't we learn them ALL growing up like Europeans learn the language of neighboring countries? I'm not that interested in French (though it is a great language to know for international relations considering that France was a major colonial power in Africa), so I'll trade it for Italian, at least to start with. I crave me some languages!