Year-end reflection

[stormkeeper_lovesall]

 Time for the annual year-end reflection!

First, some of the major things that happened this year:

- My brother-in-law died in January, He was only 51 and this was unexpected. Though we were not super-close (he lived in California), I liked him. 

- Also in January, Doris and I reached a milestone of 20 years together. We didn't do anything to celebrate it though I got her a gift. But we do have plans next month to celebrate 21 years.

- In April, I got on an airplane for the first time since January 2020 - for a six-day business trip that I didn't want to go on. But it was fine. Didn't love the experience but did fine

- In the summer and fall, I canvassed a lot for Lauren Underwood. (And she won!) And I volunteered a ton with Postcards to Swing States. Once Roe was overturned, I vowed to do something political each week, and until the election, I did! I either canvassed for Underwood or volunteered at Postcards every week. I feel that this was one of the most meaningful and impactful things I did this year. (What, writing Spartacus fanfic isn't impactful?) 

- In October, I officiated Ann and Rollin's wedding! It was an honor. A weekend I'll never forget

- In November, Mom and I flew to LA for Anime Pasadena. Got to meet an actor I love (Alessandro Juliani!) and just as importantly, had a lot of fun with mom

Now, other categories....

Family, Friends, Work, Doris, Politics:

I'm grateful for what I have here. The major "events" in these categories are listed above. Doris and I went on a trip to Lake Geneva, WI; that was lovely. Work and my coworkers are still good, and I'm so glad for things like game nights and Scrabble dates that build structure and consistency into friendships. (Kinda like having a friendship book club).

Fandom:

I started the year with Spartacus being my main fandom but swung back to my previous fandom, The 100. (And how it happened absolutely cracks me up, but the short story is that I started watching Battlestar Galactica, came to really love ones of its stars Alessandro Juliani, who I also had liked from The 100. So my love for him resulted in me getting back into The 100, and doing a rewatch with my fandom friend Mia in Germany). And then I went right back to writing fanfic in The 100 too.
 

(Also, speaking of Mia….can I be sad for a moment that she didn’t get me anything for Christmas? We always exchange birthday and Christmas gifts. Usually something small like a fic or a flurry of comments on the other person’s fic. She didn’t do anything this year. She has mentioned over the past few months that she has been low on ideas and inspiration.)

Also in the fandom realm, I had many wonderful contacts/messages with Sachin (who played my favorite character on The 100). Including him saying that if I ever am in Vancouver, we should have dinner together. I tried to go in November but I had COVID and had to cancel the trip. It's been rescheduled for February so - fingers crossed. It would be so nice to see him in person again. The last time (and first time) I saw him in person was January 2020.



Favorite Books of the Year because I always do this:

Fiction:

Haven by Emma Donoghue

The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow 

Company of Liars by Karen Maitland

White Houses by Amy Bloom 
Everyone in this Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin

 
(I'd say Haven was the best of the above)

Non-fiction:

 

Women Rowing North by Mary Pipher 

Imaginable by Jane McGonigal 

Breaking the Age Code by Becca Levy 

Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman 

You Can’t Be Serious by Kal Penn 

To Shake the Sleeping Self by Jedidiah Jenkins

Overall I think the thing I'm most proud of is the political activism.

Edit - I forgot to mention that I started therapy in 2022. It's been good. My therapist recently quit due to health and other issues, but I met the new one and we have an appointment in January. (It's all done online)

(Sorry for all the different fonts. DW really isn't that easy to format, is it?)

Comments

[nytshd3]

Oh my gosh. I was thinking it was more than a year ago that Fish died. Wow.

This year sometimes feels like it went by in a flash and sometimes feels like it took a million years. Time is weird.

I am so happy and glad you performed our wedding and that it was a fun and positive experience for you!

And I love that we have regular game nights and scrabble dates! I hadn't really thought about it bringing structure but that's totally what it does. Especially with work and whatnot meaning that we don't have as much time as we'd like to.

If I was a billionaire (or a many millionaire), my dream would be to buy a condo building where all of our family and friends could retire to with us. Ground floor would be all shops, maybe like a grocery store, coffee shop, restaurant, hair salon/spa, etc. Nice gym and pool and a relaxing garden area. Maybe an area where folks could claim part of a larger garden space to grow stuff. A couple of nicely appointed "conference rooms" or something for things like game night, birthday parties, etc. maintenance company to take care of any issues and handle landscaping/snow removal/etc. Maybe near a quaint little downtown with a library, train station, restaurants, cute little shops, etc. Then we could all hang out, the folks with financial issues could have a steady, good place to live in retirement, and a lot fewer worries. I don't know, maybe we'd get sick of being around each other all the time. But I soooo love the idea.

Sorry that Mia didn't get you anything for xmas, like you said, if she's been feeling uninspired, probably hard to come up with something good. But still disappointing.

THanks for sharing all these! I was thinking about writing something up too.

I will never understand the formatting on DW.

[stormkeeper_lovesall]

Yes, the wedding truly was a magical weekend! It was so awesome to be a part of it.

I love your billionaire idea. I think it would work very well. If anyone got sick of the others they could just hang out in their apartment for a bit anyway. I wish we could do it