2014: a year in review

So, the annual end-of-year quiz has become a thing of gnashing and squinky-side-eyeing, because it is a thing written by a YOUTH, and after you've answered a couple of questions about money and death and love as an adult, you're pretty much ready to torch the thing and go get a drink. So here is a modified end-of-year thing, hitting the same main points. Perhaps a good thing to go with here after a protracted absence, as I have been over at Wordpress for most of the year, and managed to burn that to the ground, too. If it is a sign that I am too old and incompetent to write anymore, I am going to choose to ignore it and whack away stubbornly until one of my grandkids comes along and gives me something too advanced in its simplicity for me to operate.

So here we are. 2014 in Review.

THE GOOD - oh, go ahead and brag, you shameless tart

I got a job! And I bought a house! Am now once again a respectable Children's Librarian, in a respectable suburban three-bedroom home in Hawaii. Big improvement.

(I have been a librarian for almost 10 years, but took a year off to move islands and have my daughter, so getting back into the career stream was of great import.)

THE BAD - just get it out with quickly and move on

My 18 month-old daughter almost died after tripping and falling on a tile floor while shoe shopping - concussion, seizure, stopped breathing, ambulance, hospital, recovery, observation. I still have the dress they cut off of her. It was a horror. Then, just as we were relaxing a bit, it happened again while visiting friends in the most remote part of Maui, necessitating an air rescue - which I could not ride along on. Watching the helicopter leave, and the drive to Kahului, with no cell reception and no way of knowing if my baby was dying of a brain bleed, were maybe the worst 2 hours of my life to date. We bought the child a helmet, and she is ok. I am all nerves whenever we go out, hovering and yipping. So that's nice for everyone.

Less bad but still not great: I didn't publish a book this year. But I had Reasons.

Also, I broke a tooth. And got two other teeth capped. The dentist knows my name and asks pertinent questions about my personal life, and that is never a good situation to be in with someone who drives a Lexus or runs an administrative office.

STYLE - was there any?

I am eyeballing the skirt-and-boots-and-tights look, but haven't gotten out of my pants yet. I have a hard time buying legwear that costs as much as discount jeans but can be eaten by cats.

But I have really been getting into oxford shoes.

MEDIA - the best and the worst of 2014

Podcasts: I listened to Serial, which I didn't expect to get hooked into, but totally am. Welcome to Night Vale is always wonderful, too.

Books: Most of my reading is done in the car, via audiobook. I listened to a bit of everything, depending on what passed through my hands at the library, then I went fast and hard through Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, because they are wonderful madmen. The top 3 books of the year were Anansi Boys, Good Omens, the Tiffany Aching series, and the Silkworm (by JK Rowling as Robert Galbraith). Ok, that is 4. Well, 7, really, when you count the individual Tiffany Aching books. They are all worth having a go at.

The worst book was Velocity, by Dean Koontz. Put down the thesaurus and assume your reader is intelligent enough to follow you along with a character's emotional journey without explaining every reaction and physical movement in minute and florid detail, ok Koontz? Three sentences to describe the function of a bandaid and why it was important to the character to put one on (spoiler: to stop the bleeding). THREE SENTENCES.

Look at this nonsense:

 
Music: I liked a couple songs on the radio. It wasn't a big year for music. I tend to listen to celtic stuff and classical if I'm cleaning or knitting or doing something around the house, lest I become an angsty insufferable thing. Otherwise, it's audio books.





RESOLVE. Get some.

People talk shit about resolutions, but I am of the opinion that resolve and follow-through and ambition are all good things to have in life. You must better yourself. You must fight back against the years and the health problems and the heartbreak. Work. Try. Fail. Redouble your efforts. So that is where I am now: 2015's theme is REDOUBLE MY EFFORTS. Last year was I AM SUPPORTIVE OF YOUR ENDEAVOR (and yes, these are said in all-caps, even in conversation), and that was a pretty good one. My mother cat-sat for Stephen King's grand-kitties, and Mike brewed the legal limit of beer in one year (which is stacked floor-to-ceiling in the Harry Potter closet, because we don't actually drink that much). There was travel and new food experiences and motorcycle action. Could have done without the hospital mishaps, but that was not through any lack of cheerleading or support on my part - just dumb bad luck and a child with the physical grace of a pelican.

So this year I will learn to oil paint.
And refinish floors.
And renovate bathrooms.
I will foster my oldest child's new interests in coding, Monty Python, and Neil Gaiman novels. My middle child will be read to from a variety of excellent young-people books by Kate DiCamillo and Cressida Cowell. There will be a big home-made dollhouse for the little one, and I'll finish her quilt. We will make the new house a home. I am resolute.

Also, I will lose 10 pounds. I am instituting a no-facebook-until-fitbit-has-been-input rule, so I will probably be off of FB completely inside of a month.

So there it is. 2014 did not suck, except when it profoundly did, but as a larger picture it is a lovely snapshot in my life. One of work, nice drives, good books, happy family, too many cats and birds, and old friends come to call. Must not screw it up now.

I still miss the people I always do. I still have bad dreams and wishful ones. But it is less acutely stabby now, and that's progress.