2008 - The Year Much Changed, but Somethings Remained the Same

(or, "How I found the yearly re-cap entry I'd been writing a week after I needed it but posted it anyway")

For brevity's sake, I'll recount last year in list form and save the prose. At the onset, let me tell you that I've been writing this entry in bits since October and am shameless about the fact that it's now a week into January and I'm just filing it. I'm a knighted and official bird-brain, mayne. Some of the memories here are repetitions.

Last year really began for me in December 2007, when I quit a job I hated without a real plan. Just quit - with the intent to simply go to school and be broke for a year or so. Needless to say, the thematic sequence of my life became triumphant laissez-faire. I was happy with that and wound up having my Sesame Street year. However, the solid 365 of the thing went a little somethin' like this (hit it!):

• Went to Tampa,FL, and took several quick trips to Auburn, AL and Spartanburg, SC
• Started my first career-related job
• Went to the AKA Centennial Celebration in Washington D.C. in mid-July. It was a glorious, hectic family affair where I shopped too much and wore lots of pink and green.
• Watched the Olympics - Michael Phelps-worship, regenerated my China-mania, enjoyed the visual candy, and had bouts of arm-chair athleticism
• Moved away from home with my sister, but really didn't
• Took my first train ride
• Helped elect Barak H. Obama President of these United States and began to feel good about this country
• Witnessed the global financial shake-up and had a hard time mustering the care and concern most people felt. It's the end of the world as we know it and I FEEL FINE!
• Listened to great music and stayed true to my favorite artists - Standouts: the Maxwell tour, Esperanza Spalding, Beyonce's Single Ladies video, learned Weezie's entire album, plus mixtape tracks and quoting them incessantly
• Mourned Tim Russert, Paul Newman, Bernice Mac, Issac Hayes, Cyd Charisse, and Odetta
• Took up drinking rosé wines and Woodchuck draft ciders
• Continued being a care-giver for my grandmother and acting as the voice of reason in my kooky-lovely family
• subscribed to too many blogs, listservs, and groups, only to spend precious moments I'll never retrieve de-subscribing and culling my readerships
• lost 10 pounds, gained it back
• Recovered from a four-year bout of insomnia (having a job I like helps)
• Made money, spent money, wished I had more, got a stimulus check and laughed at it (I cashed that joint, though). Bought a lottery ticket once or twice.

Reading the tea-leaves for 2009:

• A cost-effective, but greatly anticipated vacation to NYC with my best friend
• My triumphant return to grad school
• Continuing the steps I took in 08' towards financial freedom
• Getting serious about writing
• Maybe love?
• Keep increasing the reading-load and idea gathering
• Finally upgrade to a better, bigger iPod (I've had my little Nano for about three years now. It's faithful, but it's been full for too long and I'm having to delete my best stuff just to he.)
• Convince everybody I know to call this waning decade "aughts', because I like the sound of it.
• Take better advantage of my Netflix account, library card, and existing music collection. Just because things are new doesn't mean they're better.

My apologies for my stubbornness and belaboring of the subject. I needed to finished what I'd started, whatever the cost.

Peace in 2009 and keeping being easy, breezies.