Last week I started thinking about 2012 and how the year had gone. My first thought was: "wow, not much happened this year". Well, that's just my bad memory kicking in (which is the main reason for writing these kinds of posts). I sat down with my calendar and reviewed everything I had done and it was a lot! It was so much fun to walk down memory lane and remember the great times over the year.
Here are some highlights of 2012:
1. Half Life - Probably the biggest thing that happened to me is that in June, Greg and I celebrated 19 years together. This also meant that I have spent 1/2 of my life with Greg. I even got a tattoo to celebrate the occasion!
Zor
2. Kittens - Kittens were a huge surprise to us. We had no idea that our beloved cat, Trilly, would die in November. We took a month to mourn. It was a hard month, because I quickly realized how important cats are to our essential happiness. On December 1st, we decided to visit the Oregon Humane Society just to start thinking about getting new cats. The second we saw Zor and Zam, we fell in love. They instantly took to us and were climbing on our shoulders just a few minutes after meeting us. (Zor is on my shoulder now as I write this). We are still adjusting to kittens, but I'm so happy we have adopted these two wonderful cats. We named them Zor and Zam after the Monkees' song.
Zam
3. Walking - I walked 324 miles this year! When I looked up my stats on Runkeeper, I was blown away. I'm so happy with this number and I've set a higher goal for next year. I was in three races this year: the Gervais 5k, the Color Run, and the life changing Portland to Coast. I also had a great breakthrough with my leg issues after changing to minimalist shoes. Now I'm walking faster and I'm evening starting to jog a tiny bit again.
4. Ending in Zigzag - Greg and I started a project in September to see every town in Oregon. It's something we had talked about doing for years and finally made it happen. Greg built the website. I take most of the pictures and Greg writes the posts. This has been such a great way to get out and see our beloved home state. We've met interesting people, learned lots of fun facts, and we've barely scratched the surface. I can't wait to see where this project takes us.
5. Volunteering - My crafty outlet for the year was helping with several organizations. I was on the Leadership Council for I Heart Art:Portland and helped organize two very successful Mixer Match events. I was also on the planning team for TEDxUConcordiaPortland and organized the gift bags. I spent a weekend as an Amassador for the World Domination Summit. Besides manning doors during the event, I also helped with two photo booths and helped create this very tricky photo booth back drop. I'm blessed to have had the opportunity to spend the weekend with 1000 very nice and creative folks from all over the world. All of these organizations helped me break out of my shell more and evolve. I learned so much about myself and had a great time.
6. Had fun - So much of life happens in the details. I'm happy to look back and see how much fun the details of the year were.
- Read 41.5 books - I'm currently halfway through the 800 page The Brothers Karamazov.
- Kickstarted 12 Portland based projects - I've found this to be the easiest way to give back and to help our local economy grow.
- Saw my niece graduate from high school and helped her moved to college.
- Plays - I'm so glad we continue to get season tickets to the Broadway shows that come to town. Besides seeing lots of great plays, I also got to see my all time favorite West Side Story for the very first time.
- Concerts - we only went to 6 concerts this year, but I'm so glad we were able to see Saul Williams and Sufjan Steven's Sing-a-long Christmas. Watch this epic Christmas Unicorn video - I was standing about 5 feet behind the person filming. Amazing! Tonight we will ring in the new year with Storm Large.
- Saw Now, Forager - first time in a movie theater in 3 years!
- Took classes in glass blowing and sushi making.
- Won an award at work
- Served on Jury Duty for the first time.
- Helped create the Bring Bobbie Home movement.
I've set some goals and made some plans for 2013. If next year is anything like this year, it will be a great one! I hope your year was just as fabulous.
Happy New Year!
