It is hard to believe that it is the last day of 2008. I have no big plans tonight, Aaron requested a quite night in and, feeling very exhausted, I am happy to give it to him.
My 2008, In a Nutshell
January, February - I was in school, taking an independent study on India, an independent study in Chinese, and the first half of time series. The first was the most useful class I have taken here at OSU, the last two were the least useful.
March - We chose, bid on, and closed on our first home! There were several nice runner ups, but I think we made a good decision. It is really the sun porch we could not get out of our minds. In the middle of that process we also snuck in a week long trip to the west coast, my first trip west of Wichita (pathetic, eh?) My ILs were living in California for six months and we took full advantage of it. I was surprised to like LA (or actually, the area north of it, around Oxnard). I never realized the mountains would be so close to the ocean, and there is no denying how much I enjoy being around large bodies of water. Whale watching was also amazing. I think seeing whales mating may be a once in a lifetime experience for most people. We also drove from LA to Tuscon. As expected, I am not a big fan of the desert.
April - What a crazy month it was. I, in my spring quater, was in Time Series and a very difficult game theoretics course, so very busy with school. Aaron was spending every spare minute at the house painting. Even with a full month between closing on the house and moving in we struggled to get everything done that we wanted.
May - We moved into our house on May 3rd, with help from good friends. May 4th we got our dog, Grim. It was amazing how quickly Gandalf got used to the dog. I was worried he was being too brazen and would get himself hurt. Everyone settled in so quickly. Shortly after that, our friend Ben moved in with us. I know I was busy in May with school. Aaron took me out for my Birthday and he burnt his mouth on a chipotle pepper... thats pretty much all I remember. LOL.
June - School ended, my friend Tracy threw a Birthday part for several of us. I planted my garden. My parents came and visited. I successfully hosted a BBQ at my house for my Dad's side of the family. We went to my Cousin Rachel's wedding. Michaela stayed with me after everyone else went home and she fell in love with Easton.
July - We spent July Fourth in Michigan with Laurelyn - Grim's first road trip. It went smoothly. We introduced her to Joey, LEKs horse, and just generally enjoyed spending time up there. I started studying more seriously for generals, which was an unecesarily lazy process. Summers are horrible, lazy times of year that never seem to go as well as they could.
August - My family came to Ohio again! We went up to Cedar Point for two days. I had forgotten how much I loved roller coasters, such a sense of Freedom. It was so great seeing them and spending time having fun with them. In the middle of August my sister in law (SIL) visited. We had fun playing Rock Band with her. At the very end of August N&N, my ILs visited. It was great showing them the house and other fun things in Columbus, like the giant corn cobs.
September - 100% misery, undescribable stress and helplessness. We also had the wind storms in September, which delayed my general exams by a few days. Some people went without power for a week! We were lucky and only lost it for around 24 hours, but that was still enough to force us to throw out a lot of food. I finally took my oral exams, but that just sent off another round of stress with preperation for oral exams and the beginning of class. I felt like there was no way I could accomplish everything that was being expected of me, especially with regards to my economics course and oral exams.
October - At the very beginning of October we found out about DH's impending job loss, which was bad news when I already felt like I could take no more. I finally was relieved of the burden of general exams on October 13th, (10/13 for you X-files fans), when I passed my generals. The feeling of relief from that seemed to flow through all parts of my life and things were looking up.
November - I chugged along, the excitement of earning my masters slowly fading, slipping back into the duldrums of day to day work. We got a third cat, Little Caeser. He was SO incredibly flight at first. He still is, but he is improving. I wonder if he will ever be 100% comfortable in our home. Some of my Cousin's visited town. Chris and Casey stopped in on their way to moving to California, Ike came right before Thanksgiving and we ate at a great Indian resteraunt. We spent Thanksgiving at my Grandma's house with extended family.
December - The last couple weeks of the quarter were very stressful, partly just life, partly my procrastination. I got to take a wonderful week long trip to Duluth, spending most of the time snowed in. Then, Christmas in Kansas, and a brief relaxing day in Saint Louis. I am spending the last day of 2008 in my office alone, finishing the syllabus for my first course - Political Economy of Development. This coming quarter should give me a lot of insight into what direction I want to take in the future.
One thing I am sort of not happy with is the ammount of reading I have done. These past few days have reminded me how much I enjoy a good story. Not counting the last three days, I can count on one hand the books I have read for fun this year - The Amber Spyglass, The Last Lecture, The HERetics Daughter, The Middle Place... that might be it for recreational reading before Twilight, and that is downright pathetic. I did not even choose three of those four books, they were for book club! I shall reflect upon this pathetic pattern in my New Years Resolutions.
Despite the fact I spent much of July-October miserable, I would label it a good year. I did things in 2008, I had new, fun experiences and made good memories. I know that at the end of 2007 I felt like the year had passed me by and I did not want that to happen again, and I don't think it has.
Life is good.
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