I think this is the first year in a few years that I wasn’t glad to see go away. For me, it was a pretty good year overall, though every year has its ups and downs. I know when I’ve had a good year, others haven’t, and when others have had good years, I might not have. I feel lucky that this feels like overall a pretty good year.

2019:

I recorded music for a play. I played with the Who and Weird Al Yankovic. My band put out a CD. I taught hundreds of lessons. I relearned how to cross stitch. I stood in a campsite in Banff as a herd of elk walked through. Louie and I picked out a new car together. I made date pudding and served Christmas Dinner to 12 people. I went to Branson and saw Dolly Parton’s DP Stampede and drove a golf cart. I hiked to a Tea House in Lake Louise and to the top of a mountain in Yellowstone. I saw many cities of prairie dogs, bison, black bears, and a grizzly bear. We lost our cat Miles. I played more weddings than I would like to be able to count. I welcomed my new nephew to the world. I watched a raccoon walk right up my front steps. I went down a bunch of slides at the City Museum. I walked on a glacier. I ate poutine while looking at the same glacier. I ran a few 5k’s. I made authentic British Scones. I had lobster. I played some operas and some musicals. We finished remodeling the upstairs bathroom shower. I read more books that I could possibly name, and particularly enjoyed the Outlander Series and the Philippa Gregory books.

Decade in Review “the ‘10s”:

I got married, got divorced, and then I met Louie. I made some great friends, but lost some too.  I lost quite a few pets but gained a couple. I lost my grandmother and two uncles and I gained a niece and nephew and a brother-in-law. I learned to play viola and I taught thousands of violin lessons (I won’t begin to count). I paid off my student loans. I ran a bunch of races. I visited France, Italy, Canada, various Caribbean Islands, and lots of different states. I stayed in a teepee, and slept in a tent while a bear attacked the car nearby. I hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back in one day and lived to tell the tale (don’t do it!). I read thousands (I assume) of books and watched quite a lot of television shows as well.  I baked many cookies and quite a few pies. I got better at cooking. I learned to pee in the woods while hiking. I experienced a lot of self-doubt, both personally and professionally and worked through some of it.

As I sit in my house (“comfy and cozy” as my niece Athena described it), typing on my laptop, wearing my Glacier Park t-shirt and gray joggers, things seem pretty good. I’m warm, I’m dry, I’m cozy, I’m texting with a few friends as I type (distraction-free this blog post isn’t), and I still have 6 more days before I get back to teaching…life is pretty darned good. They say hindsight is 2020, but it seems to me that for today, foresight is 2020.