xoxo

b and i have no special plans for this evening. so i decided to use my new crockpot and make us a nice dinner. the stew is still stewing, so i thought i'd take advantage of the spare time to write my year end entry. the last entry of the year is always my favourite. i like looking back at what was accomplished and what has occurred. i often make choices simply so i can look back on this day and remember "i did that!". so with no further adieu... my list of "firsts" for 2009:

in january; rach, jill, and shanno spent 6 hours combing my hair into dreadlocks (dreads have been something i've been wanting to do for about a decade, so it was very exciting and i'm thankful to them for their hard work). sent in 2 postcards to post secret.

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in february; i won the office football pool, submitted a piece of writing to canada writes, went on a roadtrip with al and bren, got my bikini line waxed, went to mexico with cas, matt, david, and josh (swam in the pacific ocean, went ziplining, had a swedish massage, went snorkling).

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in march; i asked for a leave of absence from work and was refused, registered a web address, went to an epiphany conference at the meeting house, bought my snazzy galoshes, started having my dad over for dinner once a month, practiced lent.

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in april; i gave internet dating a whirl (it didn't lead to anything, but was an interesting science experiment), melody came to visit, i got my mouth guard, went to a wine tasting party with al, shari, and melissa, S&R closed (first time we've known the world without S&R).

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in may; i went to the potter's guild sale with bren, went to ottawa with rach for a piece of leather, went to syracuse with shanno to see the post secret exhibition, went to GO! in toronto with melissa (and stayed over night at her parents place), was interviewed on the CBC by brent bambury, read the twilight saga.

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in june; i took the 7 habits for highly effective people course thru work, tuned up my bicycle all by myself, joined the united way committee at work, got rained out at skeleton park music festival.

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in july; i visited david in montreal for canada day (we went to the blind restaurant, among other cool places), went to beckie's cottage and met her family, preached my first sermon, went to a bingo hall with mayelin, went to peru with jill (ate a guinea pig, walked the inca trail, went paragliding, among other awesome things. plus, it was my first time in south america. oh, and was given a fake bill by my cabbie).

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in august; shanno and i camped at wolfe island music festival, accidentally went on my first date with brendan, went to the kingston women's art festival, saw modest mouse at the ale house with beck, painted my bedroom, took a silkscreening class at made4you, and went on a roadtrip to ottawa with beck, took a pilates class.

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in september; i paid off my osap loan, bought one of shari's paintings, join/started a book club.

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in october; shannon came for a slumber party, we carved pumpkins, i had my first REAL date with brendan, my aunt and uncle came to visit from the UK, i gave tours of my cube to my fore-mentioned aunt + uncle, my mom, lyon, david + sue, i played poker at the house famous poker night.

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in november; shanno and i went to the gan casino to celebrate the one year anniversary of my tattoo, brendan and i played squash, and i cut his hair, uncle bill died and we went to toronto to attend his funeral, went to a frontenac's game with rowan, combed out my dreads and got my hair chopped, we saw bruce cockburn at sydenham street united, began doing freelance design work.

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in december; brendan came with me as my date to the bbd christmas party, and went with him to his work christmas party, i went to the torch relay where i watched my colleagues run with the torch, turned 30, had a birthday party at bren's house, lost my diva cup, bought a new one (on sale at tara natural foods), changed my nose ring to a hoop, went skating in bren's backyard. AND... made a new year's eve stew for brendan.

in compiling this list i discovered a sure did a heck of a lot of things. it's been fun. a good year for sure. when i think about where i was last year at this time, much has changed. things didn't turn out the way i expected – i didn't get to take that leave of absence for example – but i think things turned out much better, and i'm very grateful. i raise my glass to 2009... CHEERS!

OH i can,
oh i can.