HAPPY NEW YEAR!
It seems like I keep running into people for whom 2009 has been the best year of their lives so far. I won't claim that for myself, but it's been pretty fantastic. I do think it's probably been the most productive year of my life, to date. I...
...read 75 books, that I kept track of (the 75th being The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines and well worth the read if you like twists on traditional fairy tales).
...discovered a writing-unrelated goal: researching the cultural revival of the Ainu people in Japan, and then collecting a lot of the necessary background to conduct the research and make myself a viable candidate for funding.
...finished the first draft of a novel (Remi - likely soon to be renamed Fox-fire).
...edited 3/4 of the manuscript of said draft and discovered a while lot fewer missing chunks than I thought I'd left.
...wrote 5 short stories, all with various amounts of editing completed.
...went on my honeymoon with Grey and celebrated our first anniversary in the middle of the Mediterranean (and happened to increase my number of foreign countries visited to 10 - "countries" including protectorates and principalities like Gibraltar and Monaco).
...was promoted to management at work.
So, all in all, a year of awesome WIN. I'm really hoping that this year will be even better (and there will be at least two trips home, to help make up for the year without), but it's not off to the best start. Well, it is if you go by how we rang in the new year (together, with amazing food and snuggles and writing).
Since it is now January, and since we have officially begun to tell customers at the store, I can post it here: we are closing. Not the company, just our store (they're still opening up 30 new ones this year, from what I've heard), and that's because they don't want to renew the lease on the space. Right now, I'm planning to take unemployment rather than transfer, and take the opportunity to find options outside of retail, which may very likely mean a move to the DC area since we both have more connections out there, it's closer to home, and the economy in Seattle is practically at a stand-still. The economy may be equally bad everywhere, but at least DC still has something of a job market. At the moment, we have no solid timeline. It all depends on what we find and where we find it.
And, finally, my goals for 2010: find a job that challenges and fulfills me more than retail, visit my family, submit at least three of the five short stories I wrote this past year for publication, polish Remi and find an agent, and find a way to fund my research in Japan.
How about you?
...read 75 books, that I kept track of (the 75th being The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines and well worth the read if you like twists on traditional fairy tales).
...discovered a writing-unrelated goal: researching the cultural revival of the Ainu people in Japan, and then collecting a lot of the necessary background to conduct the research and make myself a viable candidate for funding.
...finished the first draft of a novel (Remi - likely soon to be renamed Fox-fire).
...edited 3/4 of the manuscript of said draft and discovered a while lot fewer missing chunks than I thought I'd left.
...wrote 5 short stories, all with various amounts of editing completed.
...went on my honeymoon with Grey and celebrated our first anniversary in the middle of the Mediterranean (and happened to increase my number of foreign countries visited to 10 - "countries" including protectorates and principalities like Gibraltar and Monaco).
...was promoted to management at work.
So, all in all, a year of awesome WIN. I'm really hoping that this year will be even better (and there will be at least two trips home, to help make up for the year without), but it's not off to the best start. Well, it is if you go by how we rang in the new year (together, with amazing food and snuggles and writing).
Since it is now January, and since we have officially begun to tell customers at the store, I can post it here: we are closing. Not the company, just our store (they're still opening up 30 new ones this year, from what I've heard), and that's because they don't want to renew the lease on the space. Right now, I'm planning to take unemployment rather than transfer, and take the opportunity to find options outside of retail, which may very likely mean a move to the DC area since we both have more connections out there, it's closer to home, and the economy in Seattle is practically at a stand-still. The economy may be equally bad everywhere, but at least DC still has something of a job market. At the moment, we have no solid timeline. It all depends on what we find and where we find it.
And, finally, my goals for 2010: find a job that challenges and fulfills me more than retail, visit my family, submit at least three of the five short stories I wrote this past year for publication, polish Remi and find an agent, and find a way to fund my research in Japan.
How about you?