Goodbye to the crappy commute I endured through July.

Goodbye to not dating. (cross yer fingers)

Goodbye to my crazy sister. I hope we can meet on the road to sanity in 2009.

Oh wow. It's been a year for sure. I'm going to have to marinate on this for a while. I think it's been a good year, but it's had its moments.

On the whole 2008 was nice to me, except for the lack of a job at the end of it -- but there's a lot of THAT going around, so I'm not taking it personally (yet).

Theo, I enjoyed hearing your updates from the exciting world of computer generated imagery. You seemed to be enjoying yourself so much.

I wish everybody's offloading from employment was equally delightful and educational.

2008 has been a year with good and bad.

I got -- a new job, a new apartment, a new SIL and a newphew.

I also got really into Second Life and met my sweetheart, SLNRLBF (Second Life Now Real Life Boyfriend). Who is awesome and I love, even though we live 1300 miles away.

Mom retired and is loving it.

But this year had a really bad thing, a really hard thing-- my wonderful sweet cousin, J, died in June of a heart attack. He was 34 and I still can't believe I have to say that.

So Christmas is a mix of excitement and sadness.

Reflecting on the year.

Since this time in 2007, I...

• saw nearly every play and musical up for a Tony award (plus many more).
• spent 6 weeks singing, dancing, and acting, happily outside my comfort zone.
• did community theater again.
• moved into a larger apartment with my sister.
• got, then lost, an Amazon Kindle. It was a torrid gadget love affair.
• started playing bridge again.
• stopped teaching algebra and started teaching geometry (a great improvement).
• didn't have nearly as much romance, hand-holding, or kissing as I would've liked.
• started tutoring again.
• fell in love with Netflix Instant Queue and the magic Roku device that makes it even better.
• made some new friends.
• fell out of touch with some old friends.
• turned 25.

So, mostly good things, but I feel strangely stalled. I'm ready to move on to the next real phase of my life. I don't know if that means a career change, a girlfriend, or something else, but I'm starting to get restless. Perhaps, hopefully, 2009 will show me where I'll be going in 2010 and beyond. Though I'm starting to think, more and more, that where I'm going is a nice suburban life with children to love. Maybe 2009 will begin me on that journey. (C'mon, year! Bring me a girl!)

Though I'm starting to think, more and more, that where I'm going is a nice suburban life with children to love

Is it bad that I read this as "Oh, Gris wants to teach in the suburbs?"

I am going to wait until after to Christmas to do a full reflection, but I would like to thank 2008 for my job. This year would have been a completely different level of difficult in the 2007 job.

I'd like to thank 2008 for Loki and the gift that has been T and her family finding me a huge good thing in her life. I don't think I knew how much I mattered to them until recently. I just thought I was being me and it didn't feel big. Now I know. It was big to them. That's sometimes more than enough.

There's hard stuff. But that's for later.

Well, I can't even think of reflecting on the year yet, but I came home from a night out with Buffistas to my Secret Santa package. Fun!! Most packages are still wrapped and under the tree, but, to judge from the one unwrapped thing, my SS is scarily on target.