Good-bye 2009, Hello 2010

2009, a year of many endings and new beginnings. a year of completely new experiences and travels that I will remember my entire life.

• I finished my Masters program and now have a Masters degree in Fire Protection Engineering. It was a very long schoolward journey and I loved most of it, once I hit high school that is. But I am very happy to be done and using my brains for something real, rather than fake school projects.
• I spent a month roadtripping around the southern half of the US with one of my best friends. We saw so many cool places, beautiful landscapes, met numerous interesting people, hiked impossible trails, and had a few drunken nights in the cities that called for it. Las Vegas, woot woot! And after it all I was completely unsatisfied with the short time we were able to experience it all. I now have a never-ending itch to do the same in the north part and repeat the south! Someday!
• I spent quality time with the family and remembered what it was like to really live in NH and enjoy its beauty and peace. Though I do not want to be living there full time I do love the state. It was awesome to also connect with my family again as I hadn’t really lived at home for 4+ years and probably won’t again?!?! Scary but I can’t even think the next time I will be back in NH in this next year, so not improbable.
• I accepted a full-time position with the company I interned for a year with. Though things with the economy, etc hasn’t picked up and I am still rather bored here I am thankful for a job and for the few opportunities that come my way. I will continue to do my best and learn everything I can so that when things pick up or a new job opportunity comes my way I will be prepared and useful.

• I moved out of my first Chicago apt. I had a wonderful time with my roommate there but I was also excited to move on. She and I led very different lives and I realized that I got very frustrated living with a person who had a completely different schedule than me.
  
• Following that, I moved into my second Chicago apt in a new section of the city with two new roommates who I found off of Craigslist. It was a huge leap of faith in myself that I would be able to live with two completely new people and I’m very happy with how it has turned out. I have found a great new friend in one of them and while the other isn’t as such a good friend, she is pleasant and fine to hang out with. Plus the apt is gorgeous and amazing and finally a grown up place. Though I am still waiting for the grownup furniture, mainly a couch. But hey, maybe in 2010
  
• I read 30 books this year. Definetly on the lower side for me but my life was really just all go, go, go and I find when I don’t have set times to read (like on the way to work or something) that I will sit down and turn the tv on rather than pick up a book. I’d like to make a goal to hit right around 35-40 for 2010.
  
• I traveled to Macau, China and spent a month doing a section of my work field that I loved.

Though I know 2009 has been a rough year for many, for me it’s been a huge growing year. I have enjoyed so many new things and learned so much about no matter how much things change, certain things, the relationships and friendships that get you through, don’t deep down. And really it’s the friendships that we all want right? Love, laughter, happiness. I had an incredible amount of it all this year and only hope that 2010 brings the same amount if not more! Good wishes to all. I’m bout ready to head out of this here office and go party my pants into 2010!!!!

After the gym and a carb-loaded dinner of course. Have to have a base for all that booze. Oh and a trip to the store for champagne! Can’t forget that.

See ya next year!

2000-2009 An Era of Time: My Life in Snippits

2000: I was in 8th grade and I made a decision this year that changed my entire life. I chose to apply to a nearby private highschool because I wasn’t happy I in my current public one. I wanted the chance to remake myself and man did I get the chance! I spent that summer preparing myself for a new environment. I participated in the schools orientation and was amazed when I actually enjoyed camping and hiking while carrying everything on my back! It would later prompt me to make what my family saw as an insane decision a few years later.

2001: I was halfway through my freshman year at highschool in a completely new school. I was still figuring out my new love of theatre and singing by doing the musical Cabaret. I had my first real attraction towards a guy and my “heartbreak” when he got kicked out of school. J love the bad boys. I believe I spent the summer nannying my younger brother and sister which meant that I got paid to go hang out at our lake house and doing pretty much nothing. I turned 14 years old and enjoyed still being carefree.

2002: As a sophomore in highschool I was still deep into the theatre and singing scene. I played Maria in West Side Story and it was one of the proudest moments of my life. That summer I still nannyed. Ugh When Sept 11th happened I had just entered junior year and can remember being called out to our school’s soccer field and told the news. I was so confused that something like that could happen. I ended the year with the start of one of the most incredible experiences of my life, Mountain Classroom. I had a blast in my math and science classes not only because of the fellow students but also because of the teachers.

2003: As stated I was partaking in Mountain Classroom through the beginning of this year. It was the first time I had ever dogsledded, rock-climbed, backpacked/camped, and many other things. I forged a great friendship with 11 other people and changed many mentalities that I had had up to that point in my life. This summer I took my first real job lifeguarding, took drivers ed and got my license, and still enjoyed hanging out at our lake house. Right around here was also when I probably started sneaking out of my grandparents house, on my mothers orders, because the 10pm curfew I had was just not cutting it! This year I got even closer to one of my still good friends and we decided to direct the senior play together the next year.

2004: My senior year! I spent the winter directing Up the Down Staircase with my good friend. It was an incredible experience with lots of hands-on learning and mistakes. Our cast was huge and it took lots of patience and late nights from both of us to turn out a success. The spring was spent with the musical The Fiddler on the Roof and my senior project which left me with lots of free time to hang out and enjoy my last few months. Oh and I got accepted to college. Haha. I worked that summer lifeguarding and serving ice cream at the Quack Shack. Had a fantastic last summer! I entered college and couldn’t have been more excited.

2005: I was in the middle of my first year being on a Varsity Swim Team and taking numerous math and science classes plus having to choose a major. I fell in love with a great guy who would turn out to be my boyfriend for the next 4 years or so. I had a fantastic freshman year, went out lots, met a ton of new people, and had a generally fantastic time. My roommates, we were in a triple, turned out to be my best friends yet and the girl who lived next door became our 4th roomie. I spent that summer at home bummed because I wasn’t with the boy and bored with the slow life that is NH. I waitressed at a local country club with one of my friends.

2006: Sophmore year of college, started doing actual civil courses that I enjoyed. I was living with my two freshman roommates in an off-campus apt and loving it. My boyfriend was living in a dirty frat house and we had lots of fights because of all the stupid frat things he had to do. Swimming was great and it ended up being one of my best seasons. That summer I stayed in Worcester and had a great time waitressing down there. I watched one of my good friend s graduate but convinced her to come back for a grad year! Wahoo!

2007: Junior year at college I was now in the slightly more intense civil courses. I was captain of my swim team and had also taken on a job in our campus bookstore. Still in the same apt with a better 4th roommate. That spring I traveled to London for school and had a fabulous time. I fell in love with traveling as I also visited Ireland, Amsterdam, and Scotland. I spent that summer in Worcester as well missing my boyfriend who spent 2 months in China. It was a rough period where we fluctuated back and forth between being together because we basically spent 6 months apart! My fellow swimmer/roomy and I also convinced our other friend to join the diving team! Made swim meets WAY more fun.

2008: Senior year! Had to choose between going for a grad year and finishing up my masters or taking a one year internship. Opted for the one year internship after I got offered a position in Chicago and who could pass that up. I was busy with my graduate courses, swim team, campus bookstore, and helping my boyfriend who potentially couldn’t graduate navigate that. That spring after everything had quieted down I spent my mornings sleeping and my afternoons drinking in my backyard while calling everyone and convincing them to skip their classes and come drink with me! Graduation was absolutely insane and a complete mix of emotions. I spent a solid month hanging out with family and the boy before we road-tripped me to Chicago and moved me in. I started my internship which was not too fun. I later broke up with the boy in November because it was too exhausting living in two different cities.

2009: Now to this year, a year of mainly Chicago with multiple locations thrown in. These will be discussed in a future post to come tomorrow hopefully.

Last half of Dec Wrap-up

wooooofffff, it's been awhile. I feel like the past few weeks have just flown by at warp speed. Like I grabbed on to the tail end of a light streak and just finally let go last night. which is all just to say that christmas and my week off with it was fabulous and wonderful. Everything went perfectly, I managed to avoid the couple of snowstorms (and terrorists??) that plagued so many air travelers, and had an amazing time with the friends and family I got to see.

The weekend before xmas I flew out to NYC and spent the weekend with a friend where we had just the right mix of being bums on the couch and checking out the holiday parties. I started watching Arrested Development (hilarious!) and finally saw the movie Hang Over (almost died I was laughing so much! a tiger in the bathroom!!!) I also got to drunkenly stumble down the middle of Hoboken streets through 8" of snow in heels! I absolutely love snow storms when the city just goes quiet and you're free to do whatever! Plus I was with a great group of people and when ur drunk the cold and wet just doesn't bother you as much :) I also got some fun close time with a member of the other sex which is always a plus. def crave that in the winter season when I'm always COLD!

Then I met up with my Mom, aunt, grandmother, sister, and cousin in the city on monday. We saw Billy Elliot that night, great play but a little too many kids for me. I don't usually find kids fantastic actors cause they usually either have the cuteness factor or nothing much. But the play was cute and there were some great musical numbers! On Tuesday we walked around the city, it was gorgeous weather out and we did some fun shopping and had a great time. I found cheap pashminas (5 for $20) which made my trip and then we spent the night drinking fantastically expensive cosmos! great trip

finally it was christmas time! my dad and I spent christmas eve day finishing up shopping and then it was a couple days of hanging out at home, bumming around, fires and champagne, family time, lots of good food, and really fun presents! I got lots of things for my room, from sheets to some decorations. I love getting the more expensive but simple gifts that I hate spending my own money on!

overall it was the perfect break, minus that fact that I don't think I have ever had a less relaxing vacation. I finally made it to the airport last night and was so exhausted my eyes kept going blurry! It took a big cup of coffee more than an hour to wake me up to feeling even somewhat normal! but I made it home and managed to unpack my suitcase before falling into bed.

Hope everyone had just as great a holiday! hopefully I'll have a post of the newly decorated room along with a wrap-up of 2009 coming soon. Holy hell, 2010 is pretty much here....craaaazzzzy!

ps. the pic totally has nothing to do with december but I really liked it!

Goodbye

Today I found out that a member of my extended family committed suicide yesterday. He wasn't blood relative (married in) nor was he a very well liked member, in fact most of us couldn't stand him, but he was a part of our lives for many years and for that reason made me rather sad today. And even though my aunt had divorced him a few months back I still feel for the man who had let his life slide into such a horrible place that he saw death as the only solution.

This man had problems all his life in terms of social acceptance and drinking and then later on in life had medical troubles where drug dependence got involved and ultimately a life of sloveliness and self-pity occured. He stopped working, stopped helping out the family, stopped caring about how he appeared to others and how he interacted. This in turn caused others who might have previouslly liked him to turn in the other direction.

I remember as a child I would live with my grandparents over the summer and he would come up with my aunt and every wkend morning, Tom and I would take the boat out and go buy donuts at one of the harbors. As more grandkids started coming into the family he continued this. He was always a willing boat driver when us kids wanted to go tubing or skiing, even though I never actually went when he was driving cause he enjoyed throwing ppl off far too much! I guess the point I'm trying to get across is that at one point he and I did have a relationship and we did enjoy each others company. As I grew up though I started spending more time with friends and less time with family and then his troubles got worse and I found myself avoiding him. Not going to the lake house if I knew he was going to be there or sneaking in the back door! I'm not proud of this but I didn't like the person he had become. And now for the past 8 years or so he hasn't even been on my radar. highschool, college, life. I was happy when I heard they were getting a divorce, I was happy my aunt would finally be free of this baggage.

But it's sad, to spend a life where you aren't happy and where you don't do anything to change what you are not happy with. At some point he was a person. One who deserves our compassion and respect. My father said something along the lines of why is my aunt (his sister) so broken up about it, he can be a little crass at times, but to me it makes perfect sense. She's not grievign for the person who became a burden on her life but the man she fell in love with. The man who gave her two healthy sons and the man she thought she wanted to build a life with.

I don't like the idea of suicide, and I think that's mainly becuase I can't grasp how I feel about it. At times I think it's cowardly and selfish, at others I think if that's really how they felt at least I hope they're better in whatever comes next. All I know is I feel for the people who reach such a dark point in their lives where that is the only option they see. And for now I will remember the fun uncle who would do anything for me when I was a kid. Everyone has some good. Kind thoughts to my aunt and cousins :)

*Rest in Peace Tom*

Xmas Trees!

our tree, it's slightly blurry but the roomie was a couple drinks in. :) it's got a million lights with gold ornaments and red accents. Gorgeous! I have seriously just sitting in my living room and staring at it! To the left you can see our second (and fake) xmas tree. Its silver with lights and blue and silver ornaments. very pretty as well but I'm a real tree kinda gal.

I had a lovely weekend with tres christmas parties. Saturday morning was slightly rough, always remember to eat dinner when drinking, but my roomie was awesome and dealt with my whining fantastically well. I was amazed with her patience. But we had a grand ole time spending hours in crazy chicago traffic and in lines at the packed booze and food stores. SERIOUSLY it was insane how busy everywhere we went was.

Now it's off to a going away party tonight... wish it were closer than WP!!! haha, i'm so lazy

Decorating Time

it's getting close to christmas!!! I am getting excited! AND it is apt decorating time tonight! We have lights and ornaments and other fun things. Going to get a lovely tree, REAL of course and have a ball making things all festive and fun! I even have some christmas music i'm planning on downloading and playing while we decorate. Before the Top Chef finale of course! becuase that is going to be awesome as well. I really want all 3 to win...but mainly the sexy Voltagio cause he's really good.

Hopefully I'll grab some pictures, through my bberry unfortunately b/c my lovely point and shoot has a dead battery and the charger? back in silly ole nh.

Tonight I came...Home

while brushing my teeth tonight and doing the general routine i realized that everything I had done once i got home had been instinctual and routine. And not in a bad way or anything, but I had been drinking and took the train home, etc, so I got into the tired checked-out state. But it was fun and comforting to think, while doing the teeth cleaning, that I was so set in this apartment that I was thinking "I am home" instead of "I am in my new apt."

I love when you finally have that feeling, it's an incredibly satisfying feeling, and with every apartment it's slightly different. Now just on to making the city feel like home again.