Goodbye 2009

I have said it many times and I've heard others say it many times. Where did the year go? I guess it's true what my mom always said back when I was a teenager, "don't wish you life away, it'll go by fast enough." How true. I think the year has gone so quickly that I really can't recall all the highlights that manifested.

I did accomplish a few things that had been on "my list" for many years. I started this blog and I opened my Etsy shop. Blogging is cool because it is not only a means of documenting thoughts, feelings and things, but also a way to write, which is something I loved doing as a teenager. It kind of has that long-lost sense of excitement over being "published".

As for the Etsy shop, it is created and that is it. I must now gather the hand-made inventory and list items. This is a goal for 2010. I should add that I don't want to just list things, I want to sell things that are listed.

I finally joined Facebook and have been lucky enough to reconnect with family and friends I lost touch with over the years. I'm very happy about that.

I had the opportunity to travel to and stay at a beautiful place for work. I am lucky enough to have great co-workers that are smart, funny and very encouraging.

I survived the biggest fire in the history of LA (to date). Mind you, my home or person was never in any danger, but the Station Fire was huge, and it was close to both home and work.



I was also lucky enough this past year to encourage and support two friends on their path to vegetarianism! I have tons of favorite sites loaded with information and recipes as well as an out of control collection of cookbooks at my fingertips to loan my friends.

This past year also found me rescuing a cat that started hanging out on my patio. He "moved in", if you will, to my patio on Thanksgiving day. For me, the process of introducing a street cat into a house of indoor cats has not been easy. This is not something I'm used to as all the cats that have come into my life were either young and interegrated well with the older cats or were mellow. This guy is not a kitten (maybe two years old), is not so mellow, and has exhibited aggressive behavior towards my little Petey. As of now, they are still kept separated. I may need to contact an expert for help with the intro and integration.



I began to seriously research my family tree and my grandmother (Lola), in particular. I have started to learn much and look forward to this journey. Someone asked me if I was at all worried about what I might learn (considering how adamant my dad was about NOT talking about her). Interesting question, but, I am not worried as I really would rather know what happened and am finding the search as frustrating and as rewarding as searching for antiques or vintage items to add to a collection.

My older sister became a grandmother for the third time and it was her first granddaughter! My younger sister started post graduate studies!

I didn't take many art or jewelry making workshops and plan to get back in the groove in 2010. I found plenty to take, just didn't seem to have the follow through. I also plan to get back in the exercising groove. That just somehow slipped my mind in 2009, yet it didn't stop me from buying various excersise DVDs.

I saw three great local stage productions in 2009. In August I saw "Louis and Keely Live at the Sahara". What a fab show that was. The next best thing to seeing the real show had I been alive in the 50s. In December I saw "Baby It's You", another fab show and I ended the year (December 30th) seeing "A Vegas Holiday! Songs from Live at the Sahara". This was the Louis and Keely live show from August sans the drama.

So, goodbye 2009. It was a very good year!