5th Night of Hanukkah/2019 Year in Review

12,599 Days Alive

12 Months Nearly Gone

It’s the day after Christmas and all through the house, I dragged my sleepy body, hoping for a nap.

Wait. That didn’t rhyme. Oh well.

Edit: This was meant to be brief. I’ve been working on this for two hours now. Enjoy.

It was back to work today and I found that I absolutely didn’t go to bed early enough, or didn’t sleep long enough last night.

I also may have accidentally forgotten to take my morning meds in my rush to get out the door this morning. I think I did, but I’m honestly not sure.

I was trying to do something like a year in review thing.

Let’s see…

• January, I kicked off the hashtag #200Books, which I didn’t accomplish, but hey, I tried. I kicked off retro recipes every 15th and a new recipe every first of the month. My recipe for this month was breadsticks.
• February saw me trying to write every day and using #FlashFictionFebruary for a tag. I wrote fifteen short pieces and almost 9,000 words. I posted the super secret recipe to my beef and sweet potato chili.
• March saw me crafting a nightmare snare for Baby Bubble, posting about crafting, and generally being a delightful weirdo. The recipe was Bill6’s famous gumbo.
• April had me exploring. I was hitting up the Dali Museum with Reffie and starting a commission work for Kola (which took me till November to finish). I posted my double chocolate chip cookie recipe.
• May had me crafting into overtime as I tried to, and achieved, my passport. I lost five pounds and went to see Anastasia with DW. Spock turned nine! Baby Bubble had her first time in the pool and I was able to see it. The recipe of the month was pumpkin coconut soup.
• June had me doing a whole hell of a lot! I left my job at dear old Nova. And not just changing jobs but turning 34, and going on my first cruise! I was on a boat! And only got sun-toasted once. I posted, among others, my famous stuffed shells recipe for my birthday.
• July had me settling into the new job and hitting a bit of a downward spiral as I did so. Being without insurance was very difficult. The fourth came and went without much of a ‘bang’, heh; and the recipe was cucumber caprese salad.
• August had me thinking I was having a heart attack with the anxiety being brought on by the new job and some muscle strain from being too active as I tried to incorporate the eleven flights of stairs into my daily routine. Oh yeah, and Hurricane Dorian. Pumpkin and pepper soup was the recipe of the month.
• September brought my annual Harry Potter re-read and the first year anniversary of Postmark Wonderland. If there was anything major, I don’t remember it. The recipes were both from the family cookbooks this month, honey garlic challah and Granny Comic’s triple chocolate fudge
• October was a little hit or miss, as I was fighting brain gremlins and migraines aplenty. I did post my pumpkin ragu recipe and we at least got to celebrate my Darling Wife’s birthday as well as J’s.
• November had me hitting a bumpy road with NaNoWriMo. I didn’t make it past 28,000 words, but I’m still trying to finish a damn novel. I posted my recipe for potato and leek soup and had a few headache days that knocked me on my ass. I did get to travel to Chicago to see Papa Ben and Pop Tom on Thanksgiving.
• December had me starting another new job, one I absolutely love. It was also the first anniversary of my dad’s passing. Later in the month, I got to celebrate Yule with J and then the next weekend with Chele. Next, we celebrated Tink’s birthday before the Christmas holiday. This month’s recipe was lemon bars!

That’s my year in review, I suppose. Five whole days left to the month, year, and decade. Isn’t it crazy?

I know I have 111 + 12 (#TheABC2020) books to read next year. I have a few other goals as well.

1. Read all 111 ebooks I have planned
2. Lose sixty pounds over the course of the year (around five pounds a month)
3. Finish DW’s blanket before his birthday in August
4. Get and keep $500 in my savings account
5. Go to the new Chihuly museum
6. Go to the Dali Museum
7. See three movies in theaters
8. Paint another pottery piece
9. Finish Papa’s blanket
10. Make Pop’s blanket/throw
11. Take Steph on an adventure
12. Travel somewhere and get a postcard for myself
13. Get a postcard from someone
14. Sent at least six letters
15. Finish the analog book challenge
16. Participate in Camp NaNoWriMo
17. Participate in regular NaNoWriMo
18. Get a working draft of a novel done
19. Go to a museum I haven’t been to before
20. Go see a live show (Aladdin, in January with Tink!)

Those are my 20 goals for 2020!

I’d love to hear your goals. Or your favorite part of 2019? Tell me all about it.

And, as ever, take your meds, folks.