oh heck, the first decade of the 21st century. Whatever it’s called.

Scary to think I’ve been out of college for 10 years! Somewhere along the way I went from being the newbie at work to knowing what the hell I was talking about. This year itself was the completion of a huge multi-year project for me. Then I go and leave the group less than a month after launch! They had some challenges post-launch and my lesson learned was I should have stuck around for at least 3-4 months. Oh well, you learn! The new job is overwhelming but just before the holiday break I began to feel like I knew what I was talking about and understood the people, processes, and technology.

This year my activity in my hobbies dwindled. I could say it’s because my work consumed a lot of my time, but in fact I think that’s coincidence. I’ve also wondered if it’s shifting gears in preparation for becoming a parent, or to put it less positively, getting frustrated/depressed about waiting so long to be picked and thus just shutting down and hibernating until then. I want to get back into my hobbies, but it’s like there’s a momentum to just do nothing and zone out with a book or the tv I have to overcome. :-)  Still, I’m trying to get a new roleplaying campaign started (though I think that I enjoy the worldbuilding part of creating adventures and writing stories more than the actual creation of the story sometimes!).  Hopefully rock climbing can get a fresh start next year and we’ll get back into our rhythm. And I did manage to keep up regular board/card game playing, not to mention the amazing  BoardGameGeek.con convention with thousands of games and hundreds of players! The plus side is I did indulge myself a bit this year, and just did what I wanted when I wanted. I read a lot, watched TV, and just enjoyed life.

While I’ve been lax about volunteering for a few years now, I was proud of steps I took this year to be more charitable and green. I set a goal of donating a fixed amount each month to a different charity and stuck to it. We’re going to step up our amount this year. This way I get to help the many different causes I care about. And if I’m not giving my time I can at least give some dollars to help out. We switched to green energy, our co-op now purchases wind energy and resells it to us. I completely switched over to organic gardening (hopefully after the first year it will look better, I’ve heard that’s the case!), and most of our cleaning products are now fairly green from Method or Seventh Generation. A modest portion of our diet is organic, or at least natural and made from fresh foods (thanks to Ian’s delicious cooking!).

It was a good year to enjoy time with friends and family, which is what’s important in the end. I never spend as much time with family as I intend to, but I loved watching all 7 nephews grow up and learn about the world around them! A two week trip with our best friends Chris & James to Australia was a wonderful experience, and we made it on standby! Though we don’t fly as often as I’d like with my benefits, it’s trips like that where we save a bundle and let us experience places we probably otherwise wouldn’t be able to (or not nearly as many) that I appreciate them.

I love the traditions Ian and I have established with our friends and family throughout the year: from the beautiful Dallas Arboretum in the spring when it’s covered in flowering bulb plants, to Fort Worth’s Main Street Arts Festival (where we’ve found some great reasonably priced art for the house!), to tubing trips down the Comal, wine tasting parties in the fall, camping trips to Oklahoma, holidays with the families, and a great New Years Eve party (that we don’t even have to host!), there’s always something to look forward to.

We’re all growing up. Friends had babies and I went to multiple weddings. Time can fly by so fast. Enjoy what you’ve got while you’ve got it! Here’s to a great 2010 and hopefully a very positive new decade full of potential for everyone. At least we have a name for it…the teens!