Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Year end reflections and looking forward

Despite the melancholy tone of the past few days' posts, 2008 was another great year for us. Sadly, Jeff Saturday passed away early on, but that was really the only bad thing that directly happened to us.

We took in Stella and watched her transform from a sad, scared grey to a confident and happy one.

The other new additions to our house were three Australian Rainbowfish that hatched in our tank. Sadly, one of these little guys didn't survive, but the other two are thriving and are so large now it's hard to tell them apart from the fish we purchased a few years back.

I met my revised reading goal of at least 52 books, including one of the best books I've read in a long time (London by Edward Rutherfurd). This isn't the reason why it was one of my favorites, but one of my ancestors is mentioned towards the end of the novel!

I learned how to knit hats, branching out from just making scarves (although scarves dominated my 2008 knitting).

I picked up weightlifting again after a hiatus of about 8 years. Wow! I had considered myself in good shape due to running, but adding strength training really kicked me up a notch. I really recommend this to everyone. The book I used to get started was Getting Stronger by Bill Pearl -- this was the "textbook" for the weightlifting class I took in college.

However, I realize not everyone was as lucky as me. I'm not going to list anyone here -- you know who you are and you are in my thoughts -- but friends of mine, both in "real life" and those I've "met" through this blog, suffered tragic losses this year. The economy divebombed, which has directly affected many of those I care about. Here's hoping that 2009 will be even better!

As for the year ahead, I once again have made a list of goals, separated into categories:

Animals:
  • Not add any new animals to the house
  • Teach at least one of the parrots to retrieve
  • Build the lizards a new, larger enclosure
Knitting:
  • Make something other than a scarf or hat (mittens, perhaps?)
Reading:
Fitness:
  • Run a PR in at least one race this year
  • Increase bench press by 15 pounds for 3 sets of 10 (half my weight)
  • Run at least 1,362.4 miles (average 26.2/week)
Miscellaneous:
I just love the promise of a new year and fresh start. What will I learn? Who will I meet? Where will we travel? All of these unknowns that will be known and summarized 365 from now. Oh, the possibilities!

I sincerely wish each and every person who reads this a very Happy New Year! Sorry I haven't been reading blogs of late -- I have an 11/30 year end at work, which means December has been ridiculously busy. I anticipate things slowing down in the near future, when I'll have plenty of time to get caught up!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck with all that--you've got quite a long list there. =3

Tony Wildish said...

Hi Mary,

I do not see your recent posts as melancholy, but as informative. The truth is not always pretty, and you do a very good job of balancing telling the world how much hard work it is to live with birds and how rewarding it can be at the same time. Thank you for doing that.

That's an ambitious schedule you have for 2009, I don't think I would be able to manage that even without 6 birds taking their slice of me. The last new years resolution I made was to never make another new years resolution, and that's the only one I have ever kept!

I wish you and Thomas and your flying, crawling, and swimming menagerie all the best for 2009, and I look forward to reading about your escapades.

Tony.

Mary said...

Sammi -- thanks! I am a very list-orientated person and I don't like not finishing my lists, so it will be challenging for sure!

Tony -- thanks for the compliment. It is really tough and I work hard to maintain that kind of balance.

I am such a goal- and list- person that I can't imagine not having a list of goals! I usually tweak them throughout the year so that I can meet them all! But I'll update when any of them are reached.

Wishing you and Nat a wonderful 2009 as well.