I read only 24 books this year–compare that to 59+ last year!  I suck!

19 non-fiction/79% (47 last year/-1% last year)

5 fiction/21% (12 last year/+1% from last year)

10 audio/42%  (16 last year/+15% from last year)

My commute drastically shrunk this year.  Not only do I live about 40 mins closer to work, I work from home 2 days a week and half my commute has internet access.  I think there’s no doubt that my iPhone has put a MAJOR dent in this list–in good and bad ways.  All of my audiobooks were listened to on my iPhone, as the train in Chicago is quiet enough to listen to audiobooks on (NYC was not).  But clearly all my email checking and music listening in the morning made me less likely to read.  I can’t even say I’ve been spending my time reading magazines–I have totally fallen down on reading.  The Chicago Public Library has also contributed to this drop off.  In short, it’s awful. Their byzantine policies and ridiculous fining structure (if you have even a 1 cent fine you cannot use online resources, e-books, or renew anything) very much contributed to me never using their e-audiobooks, which was a large number of the books I read last year.

Biggest surprise: The Long Hard Road Out of Hell by Marilyn Manson It was pretty witty!

Last night, some friends were talking about what the most horrible year of being a kid was.  And one of them jokingly said, “ha year 30!”  And I thought, “exactly!”

This year was great and awful.  Maybe it’s just an odd coincidence but a ton of people I know seemed to have a lot more horrible things happen to them this year than ever before.  So 2010 can’t come fast enough for me!

This year was very extreme.  I moved to a place I didn’t like and never wanted to live in again where I felt pretty alone.  I left a place with an apt. I loved and lots of friends I hated leaving.  I quit a secure job that sounded very impressive for the world of contracting in the middle of a tanking economy.  I spent the first time of my life as an adult in the same city as my family.  I delivered inexcusably crappy work (for the first time ever) to a freelance client I loved because of a crazy stress freakout.  I took care of an elderly ailing person.  I saw the person who raised me (and the last person other than me born with my last name) die and had to deal with (and continue to deal with) the aftermath pretty much alone.

On the plus side, I discovered a new subset of my field that I loved, and got a great job doing it with people I really like in a non-toxic environment.  I work with a partner who I could not trust or agree with more.  I spoke at conferences and taught classes in my field.  I was surrounded by people professionally who encouraged my development rather than some of the discouraging experiences I have had in the past.  For the most part, professionally, this year rocked, especially as I came into it pretty doubtfully.  I still feel like there’s not a huge group of people I can talk to professionally–there’s not really a conference or group I’ve yet felt fills this need.  I guess that’s a goal for next year.

Despite the long view of this being a positive year, I can’t say I am ending it as the happiest person ever. I couldn’t be happier to bury 2009. But, I don’t have any regrets for what I did in 2009, and that’s much more than I thought I could ask for going into it.

So happy & healthy new year everybody!

Here is the list of things I want for Xmas that I am too cheap/haven’t gotten around to buying myself:

1. Maid Service
2. An early January trip to a secluded beach
3. Evey shoe made by Naot or J-41, particularly the Seville
4. A Canon Rebel camera and/or a Powershot
5. An electric blanket
6. A lot of large planters for my cutesy wutesy wittle succulents (which are not so wittle anymore)
7. All these books and these books (and the time to read them)
8. A hidden pocket hoodie
9. Lots of little trees
10. Old brightly colored patchwork quilts made by someone else’s grammy (my grammies didn’t make quilts)
11. A subscription to the Fish of the Month Club
12. Someone to teach me to fly fish
13. A trip to see Yakov Smirnov in Branson
14. Many, many massages
15. Measuring cups–either these or these
16. A flattering down coat that is temp tested to -20 and has a hood. (this is bizarrely hard to find)

EDITED TO ADD!  A Kindle! Or maybe a Nook–I honestly know nothing about the latter.

My tea was a mess.  I sort of tried to keep it in 3 containers–one blacks, one herbals and one everything else.  But it was totally unappealing and confusing and all the bags were different sizes and I would end up forgetting about the awesome tea I had.

Until today! I went on a taxonomic spree!

My new sections, totally skewed for my tastes in order of size are:

Herbals (Hibiscus, Mints & Chamomiles, oh my!)

Earl Greys & Flavored Blacks (i.e. almonds mainly)

Chais (I <3 all kinds of them)

Greens & Whites (I don’t love either)

Unflavored Blacks (Breakfast Teas & British stuff mainly)

Iced Teas (mixes, and tea you can brew cold)

Drink Mixes (Kool Aids, Tang, Emergen-C powder)

Now, this goes against most things I teach people to do.  I mean, ideally there would be a large box called Blacks and there would be boxes inside called Flavored and Unflavored and inside Flavored would be Earl Greys, Nutty, Fruity, etc.  But I have three bags of fruity black tea, and I don’t want to open up 3 matryoshka-like containers to get to them!  And Drink Mixes aren’t even tea!  What about Tisanes?  Well those aren’t invited to my house.  And when I want Hibiscus tea, I have to remember I have herbal non-caffeinated hibiscus tea in the Herbals and Green Hibiscus in the Greens.  Harumph.  Real things can’t really be polyhierarchied, unless I split it into two bags which seems a step too crazy.

Even though my system isn’t perfect, I can take heart that 1. it’s just tea and 2. it works! At least I made sure to use consistent plurals.  This taxo project was constrained by the number and size of tea containers I own.  The latter is not a constraint I usually deal with.  And my hatred of Tisanes was sort of like a political issue that constrains real life projects.

Only organizing digital things makes me forget sometimes how people look for tangible things.  Or maybe that’s an excuse to try and get a lesson out of my compulsion.  Either way, come drink some tea!