Hat on Top, Coat Below
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One of Those Entries
December 31, 2006
I’ve never done a year in review entry to close out December. (Though last year, I did do the Winter Count, which was sort of the same thing, just stretched out into twelve entries over the course of the month.) I guess I’ve resisted because looking back at what I’ve done leads me to think about what I didn’t do but wanted to and that leads to being bummed and that’s no way to celebrate the New Year’s Eve. But this year I thought I’d try it. Sure, I might get bummed, but I might not, and maybe I’ll be inspired to join the crowd and make some resolutions.
The low point of 2006 was my mom getting sick. Maybe because she’s been sick so much over the years she tends to minimize situations like that (did I ever tell you about the time she had heart surgery and only told me afterward?), so it wasn’t clear to me at first how bad things were. Things are better now, but it was a rough several months and it’s still not certain if she’ll ever get back quite to where she was before.
The thing I’m proudest of is my running. Taking up a new physical activity was not even on my radar a year ago, and not so long ago as that, I would have said it was insane to think I could run 25 minutes in a row at any speed, but now I’ve done it. I’m not fast, and I don’t have much stamina, but I’ve stuck with it and keep getting better. I hope I can continue that in the coming year, joints willing.
I certainly don’t need to resolve to travel more. In 2006, I was fortunate to be able to take lots of vacations: ski trips to Utah in January, Idaho in February, and a slightly different part of Utah earlier this month; gathering with friends in Green Bay, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Washington D.C.; attending our nephew’s graduation in Washington state in June; and two trips which allowed me to visit the remaining states in the continental U.S. that I hadn’t set foot in before (Alabama, Connecticut, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and South Carolina). Add in holiday visits to family and the quick trips I made to check on my mom and that’s a lot of time away. I expect more of the same in 2007, though most of the whens and wheres are yet to be determined.
I also managed to do quite a bit of knitting, something like four scarves, six hats, and an entire sweater that almost sorta kinda fits me. I plan to keep at it, maybe even try something hard like socks or a cardigan or something.
I would like to make more time for quilting. I did finish five quilts this year, which isn’t bad (if you go looking in the archives, note that I’ve only shared four of them here so far; the fifth one is pending the person I made it for getting to see it first), but there are so many more I want to do. Unlike knitting, though, it’s harder to work on quilts in the little dribs and drabs of time I get to spend being creative most days (and it’s pretty much impossible to take them on road trips, unlike yarn and needles). I need to figure out something, though, because I miss playing with fabric like I used to.
So let’s see, in 2006 my mom got really sick but got mostly better, I ran, I went on vacation, I knitted (a lot), and I quilted (not enough). I also read a lot of books; true, many of them were vampire and other paranormal romances, but there was some non-fluff in there, too. The big thing I did not do was lose weight, not any that stayed off for any length of time anyway. I really, really, really need to do something about that in 2007, if only to make running easier. I bet I could improve my race times greatly if I didn’t have to haul around so much mass. It’s certainly a motivator I haven’t had before, so maybe it will be the key to success. (Yeah, I know, it hasn’t proven to be so in these first four months of my running career, but I haven’t actually tried dieting lately, just eating.)
And now the new year is fast approaching, so I need to get off the computer and pour another glass of Moscato D’Asti. Happy 2007!
