So 2011 sucked. Not just for me, but a lot of people, from what I’ve heard. Mine sucked just as much, but it’s over and done with. The good things are that: a) it’s over; and b) I learned stuff. And if we don’t stop learning, we sort of shrivel up inside and become Stephen Harper.
However, I want to recap the things that made me happy, that brought little bits of joy and colour into my life last year1.
1. Dave’s MM6. Every year, this guy puts on an epic movie marathon and invites friends to submit a slate of movies for the rest of us to vote on. And then we vote, and then Dave does tabulations and makes spreadsheets and scores things – and then posts the results. Finally, we all trek to Ottawa to crash at his and Sarah’s place for 24 hours while we watch movies, tweet, blog, take pictures and make fan movies. This year, my third, I managed to stay awake for all but an hour and forty-five minutes of it, INCLUDING the WTFery that was “Human Centipede.” Good job, guys!
2. Decatur, Georgia. How much does my job suck that I got sent to a conference in Decatur, Georgia in April? When it was still in the minus digits in North Bay, low plus digits in southern Ontario, it was in the twenties the five days I was there! And the food2! And the bars! And the lovely people! I can’t speak of it but to gush, and would love to go back there some day.
3. My nephew and niece. Delightful children, they are. Cute as buttons, smart and creative. I didn’t get to visit with them as much as I would have liked to, but through the power of the interwebs, I was kept up to date with lots of pictures and phone calls. They even came to visit for a long weekend in August!
4. My sweater. After much dithering and distraction, I finally managed to knit myself a sweater. (Technically, it’s the third sweater I knit. The first didn’t fit me so I gave to my mom, and the second was for my niece.)
5. Fancy Ladies Night. I can’t believe I haven’t blogged about this before3. Just over a year ago, two friends and I vowed to create an event once a month that would allow us to get dressed up in our fanciest outfits and do something swanky. For a smallish northern town4 we have an abundance of nice restaurants that serve outstanding food, including one place that does exclusive invite-only tasting menus every few months (and guess who got on the list?)5 We’ve also done two Fancy Ladies Stay In, where they come here and we end up eating and drinking all night long, which is also fun.
Do I have any resolutions for this year? Not really. I want to take at least one day a week where I don’t turn on the TV and another day where I don’t turn on my computer (although my iPod is an exception so I can listen to podcasts or music.) And to try and update this thing more often.
- The funny thing is, the more I started to think of the highlights, the more highs I remembered and the more the bad, stressy stuff got pushed to the back of my mind. This is a good thing. [↩]
- OH MY GOD THE FOOD! I can’t adequately describe it all, but the highlight was The Iberian Pig, a tapas place that serves jamon iberico, a special kind of ham imported from Spain that’s only available in a very few locations in the US. [↩]
- Or maybe I can, given how rare it’s been that I’ve blogged at all over the last little while. [↩]
- Official motto: Just north enough to be perfect! Unofficial motto: Smallest of the big northern 5! [↩]
- To be honest, it’s not that hard to get on the list. You just have to put your name on a mailing list, but I like to make it sound REALLY SWANK. [↩]