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Thank You, 2010: A Year's Recap
Dec. 28th, 2010 10:30 pmFor the past two years (2009 and 2008), I've spent time looking back over my journal, my photographs, and my calendar to remember just what it was the past year delivered into my life. It is a recap and an act of acknowledgment and gratitude. This year I have just as many things to be thankful for. Thank you, 2010, for delivering all of these moments of unexpected clarity, unconditional love, challenge and perfectly imperfect existence to me and allowing me to spend this year with those who enrich my life so thoroughly. But seriously, 2010, you kicked my butt and raked me over the coals and while I wouldn't want to trade these experiences, I'd rather not repeat them. Okay? :)
January
January was such a difficult month. We'd driven down, over the Christmas break, to South Florida to begin our experiment in snowbirding for the winter. I got food poisoning on the drive down and we were forced to cancel a trip to Disney World. Once ensconced at my mom's vacant condo, that food poisoning morphed into the worst illness I've ever experienced. I was sick for weeks and nothing seemed to shake it. We realized, a bit too late, that Daniel realistically had to travel 5 days a week to keep up with work demands, so we got to spend very little time with him. My aunt and cousin, who became our new neighbors, never wanted to visit (especially with me being mysteriously ill), so I was profoundly alone. And sick.
A few weeks in, I woke up with the worst back/ovary pain of my life. I was pretty sure I was dying. Thankfully, that was Daniel's night of the week to be with us and he got me to the emergency room where I was diagnosed with a severe urinary tract infection and a kidney stone about the size of a marble. Clearing up the UTI eliminated my pain and I didn't have the support I needed to go about surgery for my kidney stone, so I stepped firmly into 'necessary denial' and went about my life as best I could. I hoped maybe the stone would magically disintegrate or lie dormant for years. (It didn't.)
There were pluses to a month in Florida. Graeme flourished under the warm sun and wide horizons of a suburban, outdoor existence. We played at the beach and the park. He rode his tricycle along the palm-lined sidewalks. We went to visit the animals recuperating at the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary and the Loggerhead Marinelife Center. We taught him how to play tee ball in the yard (our first experience with a yard!) and he got a baby bed and slept alone for the first time. Everything about him glowed. His vocabulary began to accelerate dramatically. He was deeply happy.
I tried, in vain, to get myself untangled from a mess with PayPal over my inadvertent use of a "Donate" button to raise money to buy pajamas for The Pajama Program. It never worked. I couldn't escape the red tape but in the process my efforts to collect and donate 500 warm pajamas was derailed--deflated. It was an emotional defeat I just didn't get over easily.
( A Month-by-Month Recap with Photos Under the Cut )
What in the world will 2011 hold?
I can't imagine.
January
January was such a difficult month. We'd driven down, over the Christmas break, to South Florida to begin our experiment in snowbirding for the winter. I got food poisoning on the drive down and we were forced to cancel a trip to Disney World. Once ensconced at my mom's vacant condo, that food poisoning morphed into the worst illness I've ever experienced. I was sick for weeks and nothing seemed to shake it. We realized, a bit too late, that Daniel realistically had to travel 5 days a week to keep up with work demands, so we got to spend very little time with him. My aunt and cousin, who became our new neighbors, never wanted to visit (especially with me being mysteriously ill), so I was profoundly alone. And sick.
A few weeks in, I woke up with the worst back/ovary pain of my life. I was pretty sure I was dying. Thankfully, that was Daniel's night of the week to be with us and he got me to the emergency room where I was diagnosed with a severe urinary tract infection and a kidney stone about the size of a marble. Clearing up the UTI eliminated my pain and I didn't have the support I needed to go about surgery for my kidney stone, so I stepped firmly into 'necessary denial' and went about my life as best I could. I hoped maybe the stone would magically disintegrate or lie dormant for years. (It didn't.)
There were pluses to a month in Florida. Graeme flourished under the warm sun and wide horizons of a suburban, outdoor existence. We played at the beach and the park. He rode his tricycle along the palm-lined sidewalks. We went to visit the animals recuperating at the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary and the Loggerhead Marinelife Center. We taught him how to play tee ball in the yard (our first experience with a yard!) and he got a baby bed and slept alone for the first time. Everything about him glowed. His vocabulary began to accelerate dramatically. He was deeply happy.
I tried, in vain, to get myself untangled from a mess with PayPal over my inadvertent use of a "Donate" button to raise money to buy pajamas for The Pajama Program. It never worked. I couldn't escape the red tape but in the process my efforts to collect and donate 500 warm pajamas was derailed--deflated. It was an emotional defeat I just didn't get over easily.
( A Month-by-Month Recap with Photos Under the Cut )
What in the world will 2011 hold?
I can't imagine.
