2013

2012 has been a full year.  In March I had my 1 year anniversary at work.  I feel like I just started yesterday, then again, there are other days that make me feel like I've been there forever.  In August, just after starting our second year in Miami, J and I added little Lily to our family.  She has been absolutely wonderful.  Ruby and Lily fight like sisters, but snuggle like best buds when they are worn out.  They care for each other and we are so lucky to have such wonderful creatures in our lives.  Joe's family came to visit us in the spring and a college friend of mine came to visit in the summer.  This year I created my Etsy store and made a couple of sales (thank you to all of you who supported me in that endeavor!).  I continued volunteering and taking classes at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens.  I clocked over 100 hours of volunteering in the last year.  I also took an online writing class.  I have been struggling the entire year with sinus problems and I have been in and out of the ENT's office with no results.  I did find out that I am allergy-free, go figure.  I challenged myself to watch classic movies, something I had never really done before.  I am also proud to say that I have completed my goal of reading 75 books in a year.  We hosted our first (small) Thanksgiving and in December we traveled to San Fransisco.  I also started doing free-lance work for a local start-up.  Our holidays were very low-key, which is fine by me.  For Christmas we went out for Chinese food and for New Year's Eve we stayed home and I finished my 75th book.  We celebrated 12:00 am New Year's Day with some sparkling white wine cuddled up with our puppies.  Today J is watching the Rose Bowl (Go Badgers!) and I am trying to tick things off of my to-do list.  Today is also a special day because it marks our seven year anniversary of being a couple.  We went on our first date (mini-golf) on January 1st, 2006.  We're going out to dinner tomorrow.

2013 should be a year of change for us.  We've been taking steps to challenge ourselves in our careers.  J is applying to jobs and Ph.D. programs.  I have been applying to Master's programs in Library and Information Sciences.  We'll see where the year takes us.  We won't be adding another animal to our menagerie.  We have our hands and arms (lovingly) full with our four fur-balls.  But we inevitably end up hosting creatures of all kinds (to babysit for friends, to foster until permanent homes are found).  A move should be in our future, but we don't know where to.  It is hard for life to be so up in the air, but it is, so we just truck on with the daily stuff until then.  I have challenged myself to read 85 books in 2013.  I might have to adjust that number if I get into graduate school.  I'm going to take a short break from Etsy to continue my free-lance work.  Hopefully I can also fit in some volunteer work at a library in addition to Fairchild.  I want to learn how to drive stick-shift.  I've been meaning to learn since we got here and I just need to buckle down and do it.  J's car is stick-shift and it is silly that I don't know how to drive it.  One of my biggest goals is to finish one of the various stories that I have started in 2012.  If it is short enough, I will try publishing it as a Kindle single.

I have been meaning to write about San Fransisco, but I need to edit pictures to go with the post and I was busy with commissions, free-lancing, and finishing my own holiday gifts.  I've been able to recharge my batteries the last two weeks by taking a step back.  In the meantime, here are just a couple of pictures from our trip.

On our first day of the trip, J and I woke up early and walked around Fisherman's Warf.  That is the Golden Gate Bridge in the background, you can't really tell though.

Who parked my truck here?  This is my dream vehicle (okay, aside from a sweet blue Prius).

Everyone who reads this blog knows what a soft spot I have for The Addams Family.  I was really happy to see this game when we went to the penny arcade.  I spent my best $5 of the trip there.

Me in front of Lombard Street, the world's crookedist street.  What a beast to walk up.  This is only two thirds of the way up the hill.  We had walked another horrible hill the previous day and the day after this will always be remembered as the day I almost died on a hike up a hill in Muir Woods.  Brutal.

The worst $0.25 I spent on my trip.  This thing was creepy.  It just belly laughed in the most horrible way possible.

This one is for my mom.  She kept texting, "Did you go to the bridge yet?"  I went to the bridge.  But it was after the horrible hike, so I decided not to walk across the whole thing.