Happy New Year!
Goodbye, 2012, and Hello, 2013.
All in all, 2012 was fairly decent, as years go.
Most fun were the numerous fangirl encounters. Last December (almost in 2012, really!), I got to meet paisleysnail in the middle of her US trip, and got to meet ferporcel, as she began and ended her US trip here in Chicago. In February, clairvoyant12 came to town. In June, natasnape made a side trip to the Windy City, at the end of her work trip to the States, and at the end of June, I got to vacation at pokeystar's house at the end of my work trip to the Left Coast. Mixed in with these visits were numerous visits with shefa, pyjamapants, annietalbot and annie!sister Babs, and bunches of lunches with geminiscorp. This was also the first time I've ever participated in the sshg_exchange, and I must include that as a highlight. I'm never going to be a very prolific writer, but I have gotten the urge to finally finish up a Harry/Draco thing I started several years ago. And I keep getting ideas for possible other sshg stories or at least prompts, so I keep hoping that this won't be the last year of the exchange. I'm not sure what else will get me motivated enough to finish another story. :)
In April, after I'd had a few talks with my son about health and such, I finally got it into my head to do something about the weight I'd been steadily adding over the past 15 or so years, and I lost a little over 40 pounds. Which was great, but I didn't reach the goal of 70 pounds to lose because in the middle of the diet another eventful thing happened... A blood clot was found in my heart, and on July 13 I had open heart surgery to take that bad boy out. Never did get my hands on the photo the lab said they had, but it was a big'un. Recovery was amazingly pleasant, once I got used to not being able to put weight on my arms or upper body. Now, almost six months later, I have a scar to rival Hermione's, but otherwise, feel pretty much as I did pre-clot.
In the fall, my son was discharged from the Army, and he and my daughter-in-law moved back to town. He never had to leave US soil, thank heaven. It's been great spending time with them now that they're back. There are definitely rivals for their time, as my son's dad has a large family, and my daughter-in-law also has a large extended family. So I told them they could spend Christmas wherever they like, but save Boxing Day for me. And so we began that new tradition this year, and had a wonderful time of it.
There've been stressful times this year, too, mainly in the form of annoying things serving on my condo association board and some tense times at my job (really more for coworkers than for me), but both have settled down for the most part. On the whole, it wasn't a bad year at all, especially coming off of 2011, which I was truly glad to see the back of.
To my flist,
may the new year bring you more joys than sorrows,
much more to celebrate than to mourn,
give you enough work to keep you occupied,
and enough leisure to keep you sane.
All in all, 2012 was fairly decent, as years go.
Most fun were the numerous fangirl encounters. Last December (almost in 2012, really!), I got to meet paisleysnail in the middle of her US trip, and got to meet ferporcel, as she began and ended her US trip here in Chicago. In February, clairvoyant12 came to town. In June, natasnape made a side trip to the Windy City, at the end of her work trip to the States, and at the end of June, I got to vacation at pokeystar's house at the end of my work trip to the Left Coast. Mixed in with these visits were numerous visits with shefa, pyjamapants, annietalbot and annie!sister Babs, and bunches of lunches with geminiscorp. This was also the first time I've ever participated in the sshg_exchange, and I must include that as a highlight. I'm never going to be a very prolific writer, but I have gotten the urge to finally finish up a Harry/Draco thing I started several years ago. And I keep getting ideas for possible other sshg stories or at least prompts, so I keep hoping that this won't be the last year of the exchange. I'm not sure what else will get me motivated enough to finish another story. :)
In April, after I'd had a few talks with my son about health and such, I finally got it into my head to do something about the weight I'd been steadily adding over the past 15 or so years, and I lost a little over 40 pounds. Which was great, but I didn't reach the goal of 70 pounds to lose because in the middle of the diet another eventful thing happened... A blood clot was found in my heart, and on July 13 I had open heart surgery to take that bad boy out. Never did get my hands on the photo the lab said they had, but it was a big'un. Recovery was amazingly pleasant, once I got used to not being able to put weight on my arms or upper body. Now, almost six months later, I have a scar to rival Hermione's, but otherwise, feel pretty much as I did pre-clot.
In the fall, my son was discharged from the Army, and he and my daughter-in-law moved back to town. He never had to leave US soil, thank heaven. It's been great spending time with them now that they're back. There are definitely rivals for their time, as my son's dad has a large family, and my daughter-in-law also has a large extended family. So I told them they could spend Christmas wherever they like, but save Boxing Day for me. And so we began that new tradition this year, and had a wonderful time of it.
There've been stressful times this year, too, mainly in the form of annoying things serving on my condo association board and some tense times at my job (really more for coworkers than for me), but both have settled down for the most part. On the whole, it wasn't a bad year at all, especially coming off of 2011, which I was truly glad to see the back of.
To my flist,
may the new year bring you more joys than sorrows,
much more to celebrate than to mourn,
give you enough work to keep you occupied,
and enough leisure to keep you sane.