Winding Down....

2009 was a difficult year and I certainly do not find myself alone in being thankfully ready to put it to bed. Many of us had a lot of emotional or financial challenges, often both, and it has felt as though we've been slogging through, only to realize that while we were trudging/plodding/lifting/shoving/wedging, somebody ran off with the next month or three.

A little reflection before I go onwards:

Goals for 2009:
1) Use things -- I have tea, yarn, books...so many things that are here waiting for me. When they start feeling like clutter rather than things I enjoy, it's time to use up or get rid of rather than hold on indefinitely.

I've gotten rid of a fair amount but of late I've noticed the weeding bug has kicked in again and I want to clean out more. This is healthy, I think. If I don't love it, what's the point really? I see another trunkload to Goodwill in the near future.

2) Knit for myself. I talk a lot about knitting but almost always it's for other people. Call it selfish but I want some warm woolly things for me.

I made myself a cowl and fingerless mitts, both of which I wear all the time. A warm hat got added to the collection and a pair of green socks. And there is a super-bulky weight afghan that's about half way. Now that holiday knitting is nearly done I can get back to that.

3) Write for more than just my blog audience. I need a better collection of rejection emails and letters and possibly some acceptances too.

I'm working on poster session suggestions that are due by....Thursday. Note to self--finish those on Wednesday.

4) Scrapbook old papers. Not the incredibly matted, decorated, and beribboned, just the "here's a paper, here's something from junior high" with some notes on the side about why I kept it.

I haven't scrapbooked but I DID do a massive clean out. I went through literally cases of papers, notebooks and things from college. It was reliving those 3.5 years at an incredibly fast rate. I'm not sure I'd fully recommend it, the emotional roller coaster was so insane that I didn't notice that my cell phone wasn't working for four days. My suggestion--invite people over who are going to need to sleep in that space where all those boxes are. Either that or call the Incredibly-Patient-Mother. She's quite good with the cleaning/organizing thing and she doesn't have the emotional connection to your stuff like you do.

5) Survive braces....until April 2011

Somehow we had some miscommunication. I was under the impression that the whole process would be 30 months, including the nearly six months of wearing a bite plate. They had me in bands for 30 months. We just took new molds and my ortho continues to be upbeat about it. I'm looking at another sixteen months rather ruefully.

6) Get my books into LibraryThing.

Hmm...maybe I'll do this over New Years Eve/Day. It'd be one way to start the new year besides the whole freelance work I need to get caught up on.