My Ten Favorite Things From 2009

1) Moving back to the City. Yeah, it’s expensive, and I’m going to have to sell the car before I can really live here w/o being in debt, but I still love it, love my apartment, etc.

2) Trifecta of trips (Egypt in April with Jacob, Alaska with Kyle in July, and a Christmas Markets River Cruise through Germany and Austria with my birth mom). No wonder I’m in debt - but it was worth it!

3) McCullum Youth Court. Part of the coolness of this is being in charge again, but it’s also a genuinely awesome org that I’m psyched to be a part of it and I continued to be blown away by the youth involved in the program!

4) My year of Wine. From SueLin’s Winter Wineland Birthday Celebration to start the year off to my Wine Tasting Holiday Party Fundraiser to end it, I definitely drank more wine this past year than probably the past 7-10 combined! AND have a new fave: Pinot Noir over Cab.

5) Other parties. From the party that was absolutely amazing up until the moment someone killed our cat to the end of year festivities, I was reminded how much I enjoy hosting (and going to! why won’t someone ELSE throw a party and invite me?) a good party!

6) Thanksgiving road trip. Perfect in that it only took a couple of hours to get to our “base” in Santa Cruz, and then included fun side/day trips to Monterey and Big Sur, PLUS getting to hang out with my “El Lay” buddies AND my boy. Good times.

7) The only decent thing about Obama’s presidency: that so many gap-toothed, slack-jawed, inbred, backwoods, racists are SO upset by him. If only half of what these dimwits thought was happening, was happening, I’d be much happier.

8) Kyle walking. Even though it was “only” for a Certificate of Completion, he’s still the first one in his birth family history to do even that, so I'm still proud of him!

9) Asterios Polyp. I need to get back to reading more, but am definitely glad I went outside my normal genres to devour this awesome graphic novel. Loved it loved it loved it!

10) Good entertainment for a change. This was one of the best years for me in terms of discovering new and old “mainstream” entertainment. Awesome movies like Fantastic Mr. Fox, Christmas Carol in 3-D IMAX, Avatar in 3-D IMAX (seeing this weekend, but feel safe in putting down now!), The Princess and the Frog, Coraline, Star Trek, Harry Potter, District 9, In the Loop, and The Damned United were all amazing. Tho I only watch DVDs for TV, I continued/discovered awesome series like: Dexter, Lost, 30 Rock, Desperate Housewives, Mad Men, Heroes, and Flight of the Conchords. And my personal “entertainer of the year” is/was Ryan Reynolds. Not only is he a stud, but he actually has some range as witnessed by his roles in “The Proposal,” “Adventureland,” and “X-Men.” Oh, and he’s got a decent body, too. :)