2019: My Year in Review
It’s that time again – to reflect back on the year and cherish the moments that brought me the most joy, growth, success, and well, what didn’t go so well.
Joy
- Our trip to Australia – We knew this would be the only time we’d ever make it and tackled a lot: Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road (MY DREAM CAME TRUE!!!), Adelaide, Kangaroo Island, Alice Springs to Uluru, Brisbane, and the Gold Coast. I could do an entire post on our trip (and I should). It was amazing in every way. But, you know, there are little things I look back to that I LOVE the most, and they were definitely the moments with my spouse in the trip. Yes, I highly recommend going to see Australia. You will not regret it. There were many moments we found ourselves saying, “maybe we should move here”. (Though politically, we found we were a very sore match for Australia.)
- Sunflower Trail Marathon – It is always a ton of fun to go out to Winthrop/Twisp/Mazama and the course was a lot easier than Sun Mountain 50K. Had an amazing weekend. Saw a bajillion sunflowers.
- Camping at Alder Lake with Katie & friends
- My Birthday – I took the day off for the first time in 8 years! And surprise: they had a trail race planned at Poo Poo Point in the middle of the week, called “Chircio Tenpeat”. I only did as many repeats as I wanted (it was my birthday, so I can do whatever I want. ;)) Then I got brunch and turned my backyard into an impromptu winery sunning myself with the cats. It was the perfect day.
- The Enchantments – Did in 1 day, ~11-12 hours. Trip report here.
- Time with Katie & Kaurine in Portland and Silver Falls State Park before the PNSQC conference
- Estes Park, CO trip with my sister, nephew and parents – I want to go back! So does Gene.
- Quick trip to see my parents & brother’s family in November
- Chelan, Winthrop & Mazama Trip – Ski trip with my friends of 13-14 years, Forrest to celebrate his birthday this December.
- Viking Disco with Carol, Eiko, Joe, Jason, etc.
- Annual ice skating outing with SGLTG/SGLRG
- Live Shows
- Girl’s Weekend
- Quite a few races, but one favourite was Fort Ebey Kettles Trail Race – I can never get enough of this race and Whidbey Island/Deception Pass!
- Lauren’s Birthday Party on a pirate ship
- Some awesome snowshoeing – one fav was definitely Hex Mountain
- Karaoke and catching up with my high school friend George
- Pumpkin Picking, Corn Maze and other shenanigans
- Run/Walk with Pride 2019
- Fremont Summer Solstice Parade
- 4th of July Splash n Dash
- Gene’s sister Megan & James’ wedding ❤
- Surprise Alpaca Birthday weekend at Whidbey Island for Tiffany
- Wine Bike Ride with Svetlana and co-workers
- Hikes knocked off my bucket list
- Planting flowers with my mother-in-law and creating a giant sunflower lot (a little more permanent to keep the weeds out each year)
- Annual Holiday cookie making party with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law
- Gene & I finished are long-running marathon of re-watching Star Trek. Deep Space Nine is a close tie with Voyager and Next Generation in my book.
- I read a lot of great books. I also bought a lot of books I still have to read. And I have a big list of books I want to read.
- A lot of people listened to my radio show and Mixcloud this year. And I’m on a cadence of getting new music to play from local artists every week, which is amazing. I have been DJing for 19 years now and I’m still not tired of it.
I am probably missing many things. The year went by so quick and is so busy, but I loved so many moments of it. I cannot even find words to express how much I love life, and the people who are in it. I feel so very lucky to have the friends and family I do. ❤ ❤ ❤
Growth & Success
- I got a promotion! Seen as a senior manager/leader in my organization. It took me over 10 years to become a manager, so it is nice to see this milestone come a little more timely (perhaps yet there is hope for women in management and IT?). It did follow applying for a Director role, which one day maybe I will get there.
- Mended family relationships – Summary: I am stupidly stubborn. Lesson learned.
- Presented on Leading Cultural Change – A topic I’m becoming quite knowledgeable in, sharing years of experience.
- Dealing with trauma – The work here never goes away. I’m finally able to talk about pieces of it that I’ve never been able to talk about before. That’s a very big step. Maybe I finally will be able to buy myself a keyboard or synthesizer and make music again. Here is to hoping.
- I stuck with doing strength training 2-3 x per week in 2019, and Svetlana joined me in October at lunch time which was a lot of fun!
- I did drop ~10 lbs that I did not need.
What Didn’t Go Well
- Injuries – I set out to train for my 2nd 50 Miler. In May, I tore my chest wall muscles and broke a rib after running Rattlesnake Mountain with my friend Carol. I still managed to run the Sunflower Trail Marathon a week later. Yes, it did hurt. In June, I got stitches in my knee after falling into a rock trail running at Snow Lake. 3 weeks after having my stitches out, I still managed to hike/run the Enchantments. So there was a silver lining. But, I wasn’t able to run White River 50 M.
- Our cat Zas had 7 teeth pulled (he had an infection and was having issues breathing). He recovered well and is doing great. But, we really need to take them into the vet more. We also need a vet that doesn’t prescribe dog medicine and doesn’t seem to know what they are doing at all.
- Friends moving out-of-state – Miss them dearly
- Noche passed away – At the start of the year, my in-laws cat Noche died after a freak accident. He and Sankja were originally Gene’s cats. We held a memorial for him in the yard. But, it was so sad.
- I got stung by bees twice this year – I’m severely allergic, but I survived, and that is the partie très importante. Now I own 2 EpiPens. If only I can remember to take them everywhere.
- Dealing with loss and loved ones in the hospital
- DIY Holiday Fair didn’t happen! 😦
- KonMari – I did this sort of, and then never took the boxes to Goodwill…
- Also didn’t paint any of the walls in the house per annual goals, oops. Maybe this year?