2008: A year's worth of catching up.

January

Went to NYC for AWP.
Didn't actually go to AWP, but went to literary parties.
At one literary party, noticed four other women wearing the same boots as me.
Felt smug at my NY style rather than appalled at the serendipity, until I noticed how much older all the other women were.

None of these are they.

Realized I have the NY style of a 50 year old woman, felt better when I realized I have the financial resources of a 50 year old NYC woman.

February

Convinced Michael to take me to Kauai. <-- pics!

Realized it gets harder and harder to convince Michael to take me to Hawaii, despite cheap airfare, despite his scuba hobby, despite the fun time we always have.

Kauai is, of course, extremely ugly. You should not go there if you like tropical flowers, gorgeous beaches, bluer water than anywhere in the world, whales in the distance, hiking, relaxing, etc.

In other words, had a great time.

March

After Kauai, realized I should probably do some work.

Worked.

Bleh.

Michael took a wreck diving course for SCUBA, so now he is certified to explore sunken ships.

April

I stayed home and worked more.

Michael went to Europe on business, and also learned to create HDR photography by hacking his phone.

Munich.

I might have gone with him, but it's dull traveling on someone else's business trip, and also, someone has to stay home with the dog, lest she forget us entirely.

May

My birthday! <-- pics! of mostly flowers.

Made Michael take me to Bali Hai, a hilarious Hawaiian restaurant. I might have mentioned this already.

Felt depressed about my birthday but at least Michael took the day off and celebrated with me.

June

Felt generally dissatisfied with life. Realized I hadn't had any music in my life for a really long time, and that was upsetting...

July

So in July, when Michael got an electronic drum set for his birthday, I bought myself a ukulele!

Tried to post a picture of myself here from my Myspace gallery and got a terms of service violation error. Sheesh.

Began playing immediately.

Played even if the instrument was out of tune, because why bother tuning when no one else is around?

Hurt my own ear with out of tune chords.

August

Went to Tuscon for the weekend with friends (<-- pics!) who were going for family reasons.

Felt silly going to the desert in the middle of the summer until we got there and had perfect weather.

Stayed at the Loew's resort, which is lovely and cheap in the summer. Woot!

Scorpions glow in the dark under black lights! Freakish.

Saw tarantulas and scorpions running around freely and decided that visiting the desert was one thing, but if I lived there I'd exist in a constant state of anxiety.

September

Decided rather spur of the moment to visit my brother, who lives in Santiago, Chile. Since he and his wife will be leaving there soon, we had to get our trip in ASAP.

Planned quickly. Went for two weeks.

Visited (with pics!):

Santiago

Buenos Aires

Iguacu Falls

Valparaiso

The trip deserves better breakdown than I have time to give now, but here's the quick version: Santiago is nice for a day or two, but otherwise get out into the country in Chile. Buenos Aires is awesome but has air quality problems. Iguacu Falls is worth every penny they wrest out of you for its tourism appeal. Valparaiso: go quickly before it gentrifies and loses its personality, but stay in the tourist area if you're not comfortable with low feelings of personal safety.

October

Worked like mad to pay off the South America trip.

Went to the dachshund picnic.

Part of me would totally buy this painting.
The part of me that's evil.

Prepared for the holiday onslaught.

Avoided all news and media because of election overload.

November

Created new holiday!

Thanksmas!

Don't trust this santa with your poultry.

Includes every fantastic part of Thanksgiving and Christmas, only with friends instead of family.

Went in search of Thanksgiving bargains, only to find they were gone the Monday after in anticipation of Christmas sales that never happened.

Completely ruined two pumpkin pies by trying to carmalize sugar and succeeding in burning it instead.

Successfully made jello salad.

Got way too into creating the gingerbread compound.

Thanksmas: Highly recommended.

December

Went to Seattle for Christmas, eager to see family and friends.

Snow fell.

And fell.

And fell.

Moxie loved it.

Saw no one.

Got to wear my NYC boots in the snow, though.

Got back in time for New Years Eve at Cafe Chloe.

Oh, so ready for 2009.

So, catch me up!
What did you love in 2008?
What are you looking forward to in 2009?