reflections on 08

well, i can certainly state for a fact that 2008 has been a terrible year on many fronts. it pretty much ranks #1 as the most consistently overall bad year. there have been other years where events have caused it to be bad for a short time, but this unusual year has brought my heartache and strife than i ever thought possible. and while this all sounds rather dim and sad, i promise it is not all terrible! there were definitely some big highlights too. and so i look back at the good, the bad, and the ugly....

the good:
*our family banded to gather to fight for a common cause and we've never been closer
*sarah and dave got married and i had the privilege and pleasure of being in it!
*holly and scott got married!
*i got to go to spain with the folks
*i had many chicago visitors: sarah l, lara, megan c, higgins, annie, alex, penny, craig, my parents, my favorite cousin caitlin, scotty
*i reconnected with my old childhood friend, cherry. she grew up across the street from me until they moved to a different neighborhood. but we've kept in and out of touch, but this time we really got caught up and had so much fun
*we beat that hobag and settled with the best possible outcome for us.
*we got many sentimental things from my nana and her family as well as my grandad. we have war artifacts (ww1 and ww11), my nana's bible from when she was a child, her diary from when she was 10, some of their wedding presents, some of her collection of limoges boxes and herrend pieces, loads and loads of photos, and dolls from various countries my great g-ma visited and brought back for my nana - they were all tagged and identified with their country - my nana then continued a tradition that i didn't even know existed until a few weeks ago by bringing me a doll from every country they visited... and they went everywhere.
*made some new friends here in chicago: megan, trish, sonny, nicole, other megan, kyle
*joined junior league
*ran my first marathon with one of my best friends from high school, alice!
*ran my first half marathon - again with alice!
**in addition: as dev dev pointed out my overloaded or underused brain (i prefer overloaded) forgot one of the most fun events of the year: the nunes/larkin wedding!! duh. i had so much fun playing host to sarah and lara and dancing the night away.
**thought of something else and of course promptly forgot. hmmm... see? overloaded or underused...

the bad:
*my aunt has been in and out of rehab now for almost 3 years, but appears to be doing so much better and has been sober since mid oct-ish.
*lost my job twice this year for a record total of about 4 months of being unemployed
*worst year income wise by a landslide which is a total kick in the ass once you've been doing so great and then to lose so much b/c of such a bad economy it stinks
*new year's eve! sarah and kim and jared all know why!!

the ugly:
*lawsuit with the sinister minister b!tch from hell. which really truly made my year the most stressful and the most difficult i've ever had to go through
*my most favorite place on earth now belongs to said person above
*that woman being so vindictive she sent 100+ boxes to my parents' house - some sentimental and good, a lot of it complete and total trash. as in chair cushions that had been in the attic for 50 years and were rotted and smelly and had no chairs with them... ummmm, it's called garbage, but b/c we paid for shipping she wanted to stick it to us. so she did.
*this economy!!

so overall, i guess a lot of good things did happen. but, it seems so unduly overweighted in the ugly category. the lawsuit, deposition, fact finding, memory recalling mess really took over the entire year from jan until oct when we finally settled. for 10 months my emotions were up down and every which way over overshadowed a lot. added to that feeling like my career has been in the dumps and so has the money and it makes me feel so terrible and like all of my achievements and advancements i'd made in my career just went down the tubes this year. and now, i get to figure out a new direction. which is ok... i know i'll find one....and i know it's been a rough year monetarily for scores of people so i tell myself it isn't just me.

but, i'm looking forward to starting a new year, a new decade, and all that that brings. so here is to leaving all of the bs from 08 behind and ringing in a much better 2009!!!