The End

2008 is wrapping up. Hard to believe, but sadly all too familiar a story. I was having a conversation with Kelly and Patrick last night about the scheduled/over-booked DC lifestyle. Penciling things in our Google Cals (or Outlook for the work obsessed or DayPlanner for the old-skool kidz) to the point that we lack availability and spontaneity in our lives. We plan out weeks and months in advance so we can coordinate with our different social groups and keep in touch with circles of people we enjoy but don't see. Old coworkers. Bar people. Volunteer buddies. College Kidz. Childhood buddies we have history but little else in common with. We are friends with everyone and no one at the same time because at some level we're all ladder-climbing Type As who do care where we go at the end of the day and can't blow off work for some free wheeling road trip in the middle of the night. As a result, the weeks blur together as a mesh of dinners, catch-up coffees, gym sessions, volunteering opportunities, short-travel excursions and at the end... it seems hard to miss the year go by. After all, you've done so much.

Well, since I still haven't garnered the discipline to write more, as I promise in each post. I guess I will just try to see what happened in 2008 quickly.

We finished renovating. Thank God. I can't believe Mike and I lived in the small bedroom with a bed, TV, A/C unit, while the entire house was being converted from Bolivian Restaurant to chic Arlingtonian yuppie-house.

I changed jobs. I went on detail to the FAA and was asked to stay. It was a hard decision leaving DOT, mostly because of the great people. But in the end I realized it was a good move to see where else things lead.

Travel = 0. This year I went nowhere. Usually, I'm a jet setting freak, but alas with the responsibilities of a real job and financial constraints of home ownership, no such luck. I did visit Bunn in Michigan for a few days and our mini Vegas family visit counts towards at least leaving the state more than once.

I guess I've started to settle into my late-twenties with a bit of resignation and inevitability. My skin has been starting to turn translucent from the glow of my fluorescent desk light and lack of actual natural sunlight. Additionally, my purchases in outrageous clothing has also subsided (except for a few bright tights and one pair of very gold shiny pants). I'm married. We own a house. I might get a cat. I guess this is being grown-up. It doesn't feel like it yet, but judging by the further drifting of my family from the-way-things-were, things have changed. The year has been good despite all the doom-and-gloom of the economic turndown that should have been expected by the recklessness of our country. Enough of that though. My friend Audrey says the odd years are better. We're about to find out again if that's true.