It felt like four in the morning.
What sounded like fireworks
Turned out to be just what it was.
—"New Year's Eve," Tom Waits
A year ago, I made two new year's resolutions. One was to become a vegetarian: I succeeded, in my opinion, given that I can count the number of times I ate meat this year (intentionally or otherwise) on one hand. I also resolved to write one blog post a week, at which I also largely succeeded. I have decided to keep both as regular parts of my life for the foreseeable future.
This week, all I have the time and stamina for (after a long holiday season, full of travel and visits with various family and friend scions, I'm just starting to not feel generally worn out) is a short bullet-point recap of 2012. These things all happened to me:
- Found and started dating an awesome girl through the magic of online dating
- Met and taught kids at a military high school and a CPS magnet school
- Discovered and explored (through the awesome girl mentioned above) the world of the Church of the Brethren, the Mennonites, and the Amish (and their fantastic doughnuts)
- Got hired full time at my freelance job—my first full-time employment ever (not counting AmeriCorps)
- Entered the Chicago storytelling scene and had a blast learning to tell my stories to an audience
- Went to lots of weddings, including the one for my cousin, the catchiest catch of all
- Watched tons of movies, read a royal succession of books, and discovered and devoured lots of awesome comics
- Visited such diverse locales as Ithaca, NY; Terre Haute and Goshen, IN; and Minneapolis, MN (and returned, after an absence of nearly two decades, to the Mall of America)
- Rang out the year with games, friends, and videos of pangolins
Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/creative_stock/6603724951/
