Two Thousand Twelve, Common Era

My brain is a wild jungle full of scary gibberish. I'm writing a letter, I can't write a letter, why can't I write a letter? I'm wearing a green dress, I wish I was wearing my blue dress, my blue dress is at the cleaners. The Germans wore gray, you wore blue, 'Casablanca' is such a good movie. Casablanca, the White House, Bush. Why don't I drive a hybrid car? I should really drive a hybrid car. I should really take my bicycle to work. Bicycle, unicycle, unitard. Hockey puck, rattlesnake, monkey, monkey, underpants! 


This new year snuck up on me. I kept marked track of time starting with Thanksgiving, counting down the days until Linda came home, counting down the days until my birthday, panicking over the days left until Christmas in which I had to do gift shopping, delighting over Christmas, and frowning grumpily at my schedule which had me working every single day from the 26th until New Years Day. You would think I would have been prepared, yet I somehow managed to awake in a panic at 6am on the 2nd remembering that I hadn't paid my rent yet. And now, my year in review:

Things I Hope Come to Pass in '11

-Move back to the suburbs

Success! A happy one, in which I see my friends, see The Boy, and hermit it up in my apartment of my very own.
-Go to New York and meet the long lost fams

Success! My Great Uncle looks, talks, and acts exactly like my Grandma, my...great cousins? are quiet and exactly in-between my and my mother's ages. They gave us squash.
-Not lose The Boy again

Success! I dare say this has been our best year together, thus far, largely due to the fact that we're (well, I'm) not afraid to talk to each other anymore. 
-Get on the management track

Success, by a hair! I officially started Shift Supervisor training last week, which is but a stepping stone to Real Management (also shaves off an entire month of management training, which doesn't sound too shabby).
-Chop off my long(er), sexy-like hair

Failure of epic proportions! Not only did I not chop it all off, but I neglected to get a single haircut the entire year, barring trimming my own bangs every so often.
-Help plan a wedding

Success! Poncho Wedding Extravaganza is well underway. I'm not sure how much help I've actually had with the planning aspect, but I think I'm providing an acceptable level of moral support.
-Seester goes to grad school!

Success! She refused to comment upon her scholastic future so I commented for her. Of course she got into grad school. Duh.

Overall 2011 was happier for me than 2010, and I think I can credit it to two things: surrounding myself with the people I love most, and making actual, conscious effort to progress in life. I'd been floating semi-aimlessly for the last three years, and actually sitting down, making a plan, and putting in some effort toward that plan has done more for my disposition than most other things.

Living in the city was a fun experiment that ultimately showed I'm a suburban chick at heart. I love love loved living in a place where I didn't have to drive anywhere, where if I decided I wanted a pizza RIGHT NOW I could just slip on some shoes, shuffle downstairs in my sweatpants to the 7/11 100 feet away and grab a frozen pie for $4, where I would walk to and from work along the Magnificent Mile and where I would have the street and the storefronts all to myself when I would work closing shifts and I could gawk at my leisure, where I had my Poncho Twin more at my disposal than usual, and where I felt like I was Living Life and being Part Of It even if I did spend most of my time sitting on the same couch I'm sitting on now, watching the same seasons of Gilmore Girls on the same TV. I was very lonely (despite living with my sister, which was lovely), and felt very poor (things cost more money in the Chi, not to mention the 10% sales tax), and spent most of my time HATING my job and wanting out, but I was entirely charmed with the concept of "city life". I felt adult, I felt adventurous, I felt young and alive. Rube alert.

I have high expectations for this year, some things I'll be verbal about and others which are too precious to be spoken aloud lest I jinx it.

Things I Hope Come To Pass In '12

-Become a manager, fo realsies

-Get out to Boston twice (once is for sissies)

-Plan the best bachelorette party in the world

-Not ruin my makeup at the Poncho Wedding Extravaganza

-Not die in an earthquake/flood/cyclone/deluge of frogs on 12/21

-My vote for Obama in November will be one for the winning side

-Buy a Jetta

Unmentionables,

Catherine

Two Thousand and Eleven, Common Era

Here's some advice I wish I got when I was your age: Live every week like a Shark Week

It's officially five days into the new year and I still can't reallybring myself to want to write my 2010 recap. The latter half of the year has, overall, bummed me out and I'm mostly just trying to close my eyes, plug my ears, and yell "lalalalala" until July when my lease is up and I can make a change again.

Things I Hope Come to Pass in '10

-Get out to Oregon to visit SB
Success! The Pacific northwest coast is interesting, gorgeous, and I'm raring to go back.
-Move to Chicago with Seester
Success? I did it. We're here. It's okay I guess.
-Get a Real Job (I'd love NPR or Q101, but I'm not picky) Caveat: acceptable alternative--go to grad school
Nope. But I've made up my mind with what I want to do with myself.
-Stick with The Boy
I'm giving this a 50% success rate.
-Keep up the healthy habits
Failure, I suppose. I have managed to moderate my eating habits.
-Grow my hair all long(er) and sexy-like
Success!
-Go to at least one wedding. Everyone keeps getting married and no one ever invites me!
Success! Three weddings! Ah ah ah.
-Write more
This is another 50% success rate. I wrote more. Just not in here.

It's always quite difficult to sum up my feelings about a year once it's over. A year is still a very long time for my young little brain and last January seems very, very far away. Judging from the handful of entries I composed this past year, 2010 went something like this: Trying to improve my life by exercising and eating right, thinking that was crap and too hard, trying to salvage my relationship as I felt it slipping away, being crushingly sad about being broken up, hating working in the city, being nervously ecstatic that The Boy wanted to work it out, still hating working in the city. The end.

It's been a learning year, overall. I learned about my limits when it comes to will power and work ethic. I learned a good deal about love and relationships. I've learned a lot about my personality and what I'm capable of dealing with, and a lot about city folk and human nature. Overall 2010 has ended on a lower note than it began. I miss my friends in the suburbs. I miss my regulars. I miss work being laid-back. I'm still scared that things with The Boy are too good to be true. I miss my parents. I miss helping the speech team. I want my old life back, essentially. It's been fun Chicago, but I think our relationship has an expiration date.

Also I turned a quarter-century old and spent the last week of the year hobbling around like an old person because I inexplicably hurt my back. Awesome.

Things I Hope Come to Pass in '11

-Move back to the suburbs
-Go to New York and meet the long lost fams
-Not lose The Boy again
-Get on the management track
-Chop off my long(er), sexy-like hair
-Help plan a wedding
-Seester goes to grad school!

Get ready for the campaigns for 2012 to start, and for my Sarah Palin costume to get a good workout.

Changes, please,
Thrine

Two Thousand and Ten, Common Era

I like to make myself believe that planet Earth turns slowly

Well well well, if it isn't my old arch-nemesis: blogging in a timely manner.

I really, truly have no excuse. It's not like my life has been prohibitively busy or so filled with excitement and adventure that I simply cannot find the time. Mostly I've just lost inspiration, I think. Well, that, and sheer laziness. It's way easier just to click aimlessly around the Intertubes and occasionally use my scroll button than to hoist my keyboard onto my lap and wiggle my fingers in a meaningful way.

What this means is not only have I not written in almost 2 months, but I'm also 10 days late for my 2009 recap/2010 wish-list. I suppose in all fairness, I was in New York for the turn of the decade so an appropriately-dated entry was out of the question, but I could have been more prompt. Sorry.

I'm still at that stage in life where at the turn of every year I marvel at how long ago the last new year celebration seems. I've heard this vastly diminishes post-college, but I don't know, man. January 2009 feels very far away. It's no longer strange to say "President Obama", I paid off my student loans in full, I bought my car off mom (also in full), both The Boy and Seester finished college, I'm already halfway done being in a LDR, I moved, and took what seems to now be an annual winter road trip, this time to New York City (though I suppose both "last year's" winter road trip to D.C. for the inauguration was also in 2009).

But for now, let's review 2009.

2009 "Wish List" Recap

-Find a "real job" that will allow me to simply bartend as a supplement, not staple
Failure, though largely to a lack of trying. I sent out my resume a few times but I'll be honest--I've been too content with my current lot in life to try too hard.
-Get my own place
Success! 3 boys and I have a house together, which we take adequate care of.
-Keep the boyfriend (a task far less whimsical and much, much scarier this year)
Success! It seems that The Boy and I are doing so well together that everyone except for the two of us were convinced I'd come back from NYC with an engagement ring.
-Work on developing a healthier routine (improved diet, any exercise, better habits, etc...)
Believe it or not, success! Hiring a personal trainer was a good idea. I lost a little bit of weight, and learned how to eat well and developed an exercise ethic.
-Never carry a balance on my AmEx card
Success! Though I'm notoriously fiscally responsible, so this was more of a reminder to keep it up, rather than some sort of difficult quest.
-Dress more adult-like
Debatable success. I own more dresses and nice tops and jewelry, though my attire today would indicate nothing of the sort.
-Write almost every day, in some form
Faaaaaaiiiiiiillure. Big time. Unless writing down people's food orders counts (it doesn't).
-Listen to newer, better music
Also a debatable success. I definitely started listening to newer music. The jury's split on whether Lady Gaga and Jay Sean qualify as "better".

2010 is perturbing me on a number of levels. It's an unattractive number. There, I said it. It doesn't flow well when writing, and is especially difficult to type when using the top-row number keys (though almost delightful to type on the number pad). You can't make eyes out of the middle numbers anymore (and we can't wear those fun glasses for NYE anymore), and it marks the beginning of people commonly stating the date as "twenty-something" rather than "two-thousand-something", which my ears find irritating (ear-itating? Har har).

Additionally this year is really feeling like the year I have to Figure It Out. In April The Boy will be finished with his long-term volunteering. I'm sick and tired from being away from him for the majority of our relationship, so organizing our lives in some fashion where we can actually like, be together, is at the top of my priority list. This means, you know, living in the same town or nearly the same town which means we're going to have to Talk and we all know how much I hate Talking About Stuff. I'm also sick and tired of feeling like a professional/academic failure, brought about by doing nothing re: my BA for almost 2 years now. This means knuckling down and finding a "real job", which is scary, ya'll.

Things I Hope Come to Pass in '10

-Get out to Oregon to visit SB
-Move to Chicago with Seester
-Get a Real Job (I'd love NPR or Q101, but I'm not picky) Caveat: acceptable alternative--go to grad school
-Stick with The Boy
-Keep up the healthy habits
-Grow my hair all long(er) and sexy-like
-Go to at least one wedding. Everyone keeps getting married and no one ever invites me!
-Write more

So here's to a new decade, Interested Party. I'm feeling motivated and optimistic, albeit scared shitless, and I hope all your Two-thousand-and-Ten dreams come true.

IKEA Bed Set,
Catherine

Two Thousand and Nine, Common Era

Everything, everything will be fine

I'm a little disappointed in myself for not managing to punch out a 2008 recap entry in December so as to up my entry quota by 100% for the month. So much for last year's promise to attempt to blog more.

This is my annual entry where I go through last years "Things I Hope To Pass", perhaps log some of the more important life events, and come up with a new TIHTP for this coming year. I think the reason I didn't delve into this sooner can be understood from the previous entry, since two of my hopes involved doing Grown Up Things that I haven't quite accomplished yet. However, for posterity's sake, I'll suck up my pride and get on with it.

2008 "Wish List" Recap

-Find a job that utilizes one of my degrees in some capacity
Depending upon how cheap I want to be, I could label this as either a Success or a Failure. On one hand, I'm still working at NextMedia and NCC hired me to assistant coach the speech team. On the other hand, neither job requires a BA...
-Avoid the Gen Y syndrome (ie: not live with my parents for more than 6 months)
Failure. September would have been the move-out month if I were to achieve this. I am, however, paying my mother rent, so I'm not exactly a Gen Y mooch.
-Keep the Boy
Success, and I'll be honest, this wishlist item was getting a little hard to maintain toward the end of the year, but things are back on track and better (emotionally, for me at least) than ever.
-Hawaii?
Success! I got to be consistantly warm and I discovered a magical nasal spray that knocked cats down from "deadly hairballs of doom" to "tolerable balls of cuteness".
-Vote for the "right" candidate so that I can balance out the karma from my last Presidential ballot.
While only time will tell whether America's choice of Senator Obama was the "right" one, I did vote for the winner, so as of this point in time, I'm going to label this a Success.

Here's a fun statistic: I wrote 27 entries in here last year, 18 of which were in the first half of the year. The frequency of writing dramatically declined once I didn't have school or speech things to procrastinate on. I will note that the most entries that I wrote in a single month was my very last month of school. Coincidence?

Despite any feelings to the contrary, 2008 was a significant year for me. I was extremely successful in speech (I took home at least one award at every single tournament, including both AFA and NFA nationals) and debate (100% undefeated in class, and also took home an award at every tournament I went to including the state title). I graduated college a term early with major concentrations in Communications and German. I went on a vacation with The Boy to our nation's capitol. I went on a vacation to Hawaii which was almost as interesting as visiting an entirely different country. I voted for Obama in the primary and general elections and attempted to see him in Grant Park on election night. The Boy and I had our first (couple) real fights. I won Friday's bartender championship at the store level. I started to pay off my student loans, and saved up enough to have them paid off 2 months from now.

2009 is actually scaring me more than 2008 did, and not only because I'm holding my breath, wincing in anticipation of my Golden Boy Obama's first screw-up that dashes my hopes and dreams. Since I put off Growing Up for about a year, this is the year that I actually have to figure out all of that scary stuff. I narrowed my playing field down enough to satisfy my need for direction, however, my playing field is engaged in a tumultuous, nail-biting search for his own Wrigley.

Things I Hope Come To Pass In '09

-Find a "real job" that will allow me to simply bartend as a supplement, not staple
-Get my own place
-Keep the boyfriend (a task far less whimsical and much, much scarier this year)
-Work on developing a healthier routine (improved diet, any exercise, better habits, etc...)
-Never carry a balance on my AmEx card
-Dress more adult-like
-Write almost every day, in some form
-Listen to newer, better music

If anyone wants to help me with my wishlist, feel free to contribute to my self-improvement. A little guidance and pushing never hurt anyone.

Happy new year, Interested Party. Good night, and good luck.

Oh, nine,
Catherine Elizabeth

Ringing in '08....late

I love you so much, but do me a favor, baby, don't reply. Cause I can dish it out, but I can't take it

Here's fun statistic for you. In 2005 I wrote 140 diaryland entries. That's an average of almost 12 entries a month, or in different language, I wrote an entry about every 2 or 3 days. For comparison, in 2006 I only wrote 56 entries, or about an entry every week. This past year (2007, geniuses)? Two or three entries every month, 30 all together.

I'd say I'd make a New Year's Resolution to write more, but seeing at it's already January 12th and I'm just getting around to writing my first entry of the year, it's not looking so good.

Since it's Entry #1, there's some business to be attended to.

2007 "Wish-List" Recap

-Dean's List (I really need to start achieving again)
I rocked out my Spring Term with my highest per-term GPA I've ever achieved. Incidentally, it was the exact same GPA Linda got for her 2nd semester, which was her worst college GPA to date.
-Another internship (WGN?)
I failed a little at this one (WGN earns the honors of being the first person/thing/entity to ever reject me), but I did get a board-op job at the Next Media radio stations, so I at least did something productive.
-Keep the Boyfriend (lack of heartache always a plus)
Fortunately a success. I'm pretty sure he's a keeper, plus he's not allowed to dump me because I'm Best Girlfriend Ever.
-Kick ass at Nationals (both of them?)
Not necessarily a success, but I did, in fact, attend both Nationals, which was pretty huge in of itself. I've also not gone home empty handed from a tournament since Nationals '06.
-Good driver's licence picture (ha!)
Considering my track record with cameras, it might come as a shock to you that I have a good driver's licence picture. I was surprised too.

What is supposed to follow here is my 2008 Wish-List, but I'm not entirely sure I feel I'm capable of doing it. 2008 is going to be a terrifying year for me. I'm graduating from college in 8 weeks, which means that Real Life is nigh. I hear the next steps are 1) Get a Job and 2) Get an Apartment, but for some reason it never seems that simple. When the whole world is my playground, there are endless possibilities to choose from, and if there's only a handful of right choices, the margin for error is crippling.

Give me a nice, narrow playing field, then I'll do the right thing.

So, in the spirit of the New Year, here's a tentative, terrified wish-list.

Things I Hope Come To Pass in '08

-Find a job that utilizes one of my degrees in some capacity
-Avoid the Gen Y syndrome (ie: not live with my parents for more than 6 months)
-Keep the Boy
-Hawaii?
-Vote for the "right" candidate so that I can balance out the karma from my last Presidential ballot.

I will, Interested Party, try to blog more. I miss writing.

Ald Lang Syne,
Catherine Lizzie

2007

Build God, then we'll talk

I'm lucky, it would seem, that at the advent of every new year, I'm struck at how many amazing and new things I accomplished the previous year. It surprises me every single time at how much I grow in experience, if not as a person, between Januarys.

2006 was a good year for me. All things considered, it may very well have been my best year ever if we judge things on a good incident to bad incident ratio. My overall happiness throughout the year is slightly marred by my usual "winter melancholy" that cleverly disguised itself in the form of boy-angst for the first couple months of '06, and so when I think of good old 2006 I might remember first "oh boy was I ridiculously depressed about that thing" before I remember the good. Such is the way with minor trauma, I suppose.

2006: The Main Events

The Boyfriend - In late February I made my first ever "first move" on Alex, and he had the grace not to kick me unceremoniously from his house. A strangely indeterminate amount of time later we decided that yes, we were dating and yes, we were each other's boy/girlfriend. This confusion smoothed itself out into what eventually led to "I love you's", and keeps leading me every day into meaning it more than I did the day before. Sappy, I know. I'll give you permission to go throw up before I continue with the list.

The Internship - February was an important month for me, it seems. I spent the next few months taking the trian to Chicago at ungodly hours three days a week, as well as additional days for mind numblingly boring/face rockingly awesome promotion jobs. Q101 always had infinitely more interesting promotions, if only because when people came to the table I didn't have to hear them say "I've been listening to The Loop since before you were born!". Once I was bestowed a VIP pass, and anther time I ran meet and greets for some (pretty darn) famous bands. Sometimes I, myself, got treated like a celebrity and other times like dirt. All in all, I wish I could have stayed.

International Travel - Until the end of July, I'd never gone anywhere more exotic than Arizona, and suddenly I was whisked away to Ostroda, Poland for two weeks in the summer, and then off to Berlin, Germany for two and a half weeks just a couple weeks ago. I have a passport (with the worst picture of me in the history of pictures of me), visa entry/exit stamps, and lots of pictures. I now appreciate sparkling water, not bathing, and the metric system.

Independence - Much as I had suspected, living on my own isn't very different than living with my family, other than much, much more expensive. My apartment is finally beginning to feel like "home", and is messy enough to look like a home that belongs to me. I tend to neglect my mom and dad, however. I should probably start putting up post-it notes to remind me to at least call them every so often.

Twenty One! - yeah, whatever.

And now, without futher ado, my 2007 wish-list:

Dean's List (I really need to start achieving again)
Another internship (WGN?)
Keep the Boyfriend (lack of heartache always a plus)
Kick ass at Nationals (both of them?)
Good driver's licence picture (ha!)

That's all, really. I'm pretty low-maintenence this year.

Take this to your grave,
Cathi

End of 2006

The sun doesn't go down, it's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round

Rants about the flaws of "resolutions" are tired. I don't make them, that's all you need to know.

What I do make, however, is a list of things to look forward to. Not necessarily goals, just wishes, hopes, things to aspire to should I feel so inclined. It's much more optimistic and way less stressful.

In the spirit of closure, here's last year's list, with some commentary that may or may not be worth reading.

A list of things I hope to pass in 2006:

- Dean's list (why break the streak?)Failure. School and I speak only on a need-to-know basis these days
- Internship (so I can be a bigger fangirl)Success! Q101 and 97.9 The Loop done right by me
- Get an apartment (No more nagging)Success! And this place is pretty freaking sweet, not gonna lie.
- Boyfriend (as always)Success! A shocking one that's actually going to be approaching a year soon. Weird.
- My birthday ("Twenty-ooooonnne!")Success? Hopefully reaching one's next birthday isn't cause fortoo much celebration
- Linda to go to Northwestern (so I can brag)Failure. Sad, perhaps, but I think she's pretty happy at Wesleyan, so I won't begrudge her that
- 6-pac abs (I can dream)Failure. Surprise!
- LBC's new album to come out ("Poo-York City!")Success! Poo York City indeed!
- Kick major ass at Nationals (or at least not come in dead-last)Success! I actually went into quarter finals in the top 6 in "being funny with a point". I rule.

That's a 66% rate of success, and if we throw out the ludicrous (abs), it's a 75% success rate.

I haven't given a whole lot of thought about what my wish list for 2007 will entail, that is a list for tomorrow. For now, all I can say is that I'm almost panicky with the hope of no major life altering surprises.

Until then,
Cathi