Year in review

This would be about the time when I'm supposed to think of something thoughtful to say about the previous year. Seems to me that around this time last year I instead turned my thoughts to the future and made some predictions based upon previous experience, which turned out to be completely wrong because this year was unlike any other year.

Seems to me that at the beginning of this year, the vast majority of my friends were either living abroad, or other similarly inaccessable places, occupying vastly different timelines, so that I didn't see anything of anyone. I filled the void with extracurricular activities, because that's pretty much what you do and now I've got far too much to do, really.

I moved into the apartment where I live right now. I was impressed by the number of windows and I kind of still am. The jury's out at the moment on it. On the one hand, it's substantially closer to where I grew up, school and work. On the other, it allows one to all but retreat from the outside world, into the safety of 900 square feet of white carpet.

My spring semester wasn't stellar. I was stuck in a documentary research methods class that dragged everything else I did down and nearly drove me nuts. Then it was into summer where I actually worked for most of the summer for a change, because I ditched lifeguarding once and jumped blindly into office work.

So I managed to land myself a job in the federal government over the summer doing stuff that tons of adults get stuck doing for the rest of their lives, which soon had me all contemplative and such, wondering just what the hell I'll do with myself and came up blank. That makes me sad. But there's good news. At least I'll have a decent, stable job to get me through school. Well, maybe. Depends on the politicians.

I have a bad habit of glorifying things in my mind. I jumped back into rowing and somehow it just wasn't the same. Maybe it was just that everyone's new and I've lost my street cred, but I just felt like I was getting in the way all the time. Maybe it was just because I was coxing and I really suck at giving orders, but anxiety about coming to practice was keeping me up through the three hours I would normally sleep each night and in the end I have to conceed that I fooled myself once again. One thing I miss though is that I used to be in shape when I rowed and that felt good. I have yet to find something that really replaces that.

Speaking of glorifying things, I kept waiting for people to come back from wherever they happened to be so that we could go back to being friends and doing stuff together, then one-by-one people began to reenter my life. To my disappointment, I'd outgrown about half of them, which wasn't exactly a good thing, because the number I started with was pretty small. These things happen, I guess.

Good news was this past fall was my best ever semester at school. Yeah, I'm a geek and I'm over it. I'd like to think that I'm getting good at this school thing, because it sure beats working for a living.

Recently people have begun bugging me about the fact that I seem pretty unencumbered relationshipwise, pretty much all the time. To appease these people I propose that I should wear a large sticker across my forehead that says "Hi, my name is Erin. Fuck me." That is a new year's resolution. I'm such a fucking leper that I don't think I'll see much of a response.

But I'm not going to let peoples' criticism spoil what was otherwise a relatively good year. I credit one very good friend for preventing me from going completely insane through the simple act of talking to me every single day. Some days that would end up being the only conversation I'd have for the whole day. That in itself is quite the feat because I'm not always the easiest person to talk to. The man deserves a medal, I think.

That would be this year as it stands. Don't ask me about next year. I have no idea what it holds.