Year 35

So... 36 looms. In two more days, I will be closer to 40 than to 30. Which is fine. I'm not worried about age. But as the day gets closer, I've been doing some evaluation of the previous year. I've been making a mental list of my accomplishments (such as they are) over the year that was 35.

• Recruited four new consultants. All of whom are still active, which is exciting. Still dangle on the precipice of Director level where I have been hanging since November, waiting to find one more recruit. Frustrating!
• Read at least 20 books. Started and never finished significantly more than that, however. Let's not do the math to see how much I spent on these. Re-read Time Traveler's Wife for possibly the 5th time. Stay tuned for a later blog on that book and the special place it holds in my heart.
  
• Learned to teach Pilates and taught over 60 hours of free classes for friends and family.
• Attempted to understand the anatomy of the human body for Pilates. Ongoing process.
• Attended PR annual training in Cincinnati and PR Convention in Las Vegas. Guess which one I enjoyed more.
  
• Held more than 50 PR parties. Had three women tell me I helped save their marriage.
• Took Richie for significantly fewer walks that I should have. Poor Richie.
• Ten haircuts and six cut/color.
• Countless mani/pedis.
• Spent many hours with my fantastic niece singing songs from Sesame Street and impersonating the Count.
• Finally brought a 20 year relationship to its inevitable conclusion, simultaneously purging myself of two decades of regret and what-ifing while also creating a whole new world of pain. Thankfully, it abated quicker than the previous times.
• Replaced the broken tile on the kitchen floor finally freeing the house from the last of many stupid home improvement mistakes the previous owners made.
• Accrued an additional $10,000 in ViewU debt.
• Got to see my Mother recognized and thanked for her many, many years of service to the Alzheimer's Association.
• Saw "Love" by Cirque Du Soleil twice. (Fully intend to see it again this August.)
• Abandoned one knitting project mid-process and replaced it with a different one several months later.
• Wrote way less blogs than I meant to and plan to do better in year 36.
• Joined Twitter. Pretty much stopped at joining however.
• Bought a new dishwasher. It's sooooo quiet!
• Drove to Nashville for NYE.
• Cleveland for Thanksgiving.
  
• Girls' Weekend in Asheville.
• Family vacation in Hilton Head.
• Telethon in Vegas.
• Some stupid gospel show in Sept.
• Inaugural Event in DC.
• Laryngitis
• Bronchitis bordering on Pneumonia
• Read lots and lots and lots of Twilight Fan Fiction (and I'm only slightly ashamed...)
• Walked 26 miles and raised $1900 for the Avon Walk 2008!
• Worked three or four Panther's games for Kara.
• Bought a Wii and joined a book club at the same time!
• Watched a fantastic season of Lost! And even though I wanted to throw the TV at the wall in frustration after the season finale, I loved every minute of it. I'm sure I will sob next year when it really does end for real real (as Molly would say)

I'm sure I accomplished a ton of other things during the course of this year. But those appear to be the highlights. All in all, I think the good things far outnumber the bad things.

I've spent a lot of time in the last few months thinking and worrying about the things I don't have. But looking at this list now, it reminds me of so many things I do. Which is important to do, especially when your own personal calendar is set to flip to the next year.

It's a good time to make resolutions, many of which are not appropriate for sharing with the outside world. But one thing I will let everyone in on... I plan to update this blog once a week from now on. Don't know what day and don't know for sure I will always be able to pull it off, but I am going to do my best. Entries will probably be a lot shorter (which is probably a relief to everyone) but they'll be there.

And with that, I'm off. See you next week!