100 of 2009

maybe it's a little silly, but this is how my friends and i close out the year. on the internet.

1) I participated in a drum circle, for the first time, just after it became 2009.
2) I went to Casa Bonita. Holy wow.
3) I planted some things with Katie, which was really fun, but then I didn't do a good job of helping keep those things alive.
4) I joined a CSA with a couple of my co-workers, so there was a lot of delicious food in my fridge this summer that I forgot to eat.
5) I found out I don't like Earl Grey tea.
6) I finally joined a gym. And eight months later, I quit it. And then I joined another gym. It's a vicious cycle.
7) I swam some laps for the first time in many, many years, and it was wonderful.
8) I got a chance to spend a little time with my friends Jami and Bristow and their little boy Owen, who currently live in Jordan.
9) I studiously pretended that Mustache Sunday was not something I just made up.
10) After managing to break both my laptop and my mobile phone in 2008, I got a lot of use out of my hand-me-down phone from Jason and my hand-me-down laptop from the church (/Rick K/Devon/Stacie) in 2009. Then I broke both of them.
11) I went to my first ever official yoga class. How did I manage to put that off for 25 years?
12) I joined AAA. Which, as it turns out, is quite different than AA, although they both help people who have trouble helping themselves.
13) Katie and I made owl hats, which have become the toast of the town.
14) I finished knitting a scarf! Thus completing a goal for 2008.
15) Stacie and I went out on a frozen lake in our shoes. I'd never done that before.
16) Went "cruising" on "10th street" in "Greeley."
17) I went to a roller derby bout, for the first time ever. We figured out the rules about halfway through, and then it looked a lot less like people just skaing in a circle.
18) I went to the magical butterfly pavilion with Karli, Natalie, Katie, and Courtney. I am still waiting for Natalie to draw one of the butterflies so I can make it into a button. On the way home, we started The Fake Idiom Game, which - for me and katie - basically went on for the rest of the year.
19) I taught at Bridestone a couple times. That was neat/terrifying. (More terrifying at the beginning of the year, more neat towards the end.)
20) I helped my friend Blake teach a creative writing class to juggalos.
21) I kept kind of trying to learn to longboard, and eventually I actually took it outside and was scooting up and down the sidewalk, very slowly, when I had to move aside to let this punk kid and his dog pass by. I was embarrassed but he looked at me and said, "You'll get it!" and then I felt better.
22) The next day I was at a diner by myself in the middle of the nite and this heavyset gentleman shouted at me when I was leaving, "You're a trooper, by the way!" I just wanted to be like, "THANK YOU, STRANGERS OF THE WORLD!" but instead I just waved.
23) I went horseback riding for the first time since I was a teenager. It was fun! Thanks, Rae.
24) Broke down and started playing Asteroids at surfside. But it will never replace the tetris machine in my heart. (Or possibly, The Tetris Machine That Is My Heart??)
25) I started sewing an apron, under Millie's watchful eye. And I actually finished it, in the same year! Also, thirteen cloth napkins. Also, that's it.
26) Stacie got really mad that bloody marys exist. I think she's still kind of mad about it.
27) I got a substantial tax return for the first time ever. I used it to pay for my summer trips, start an emergency fund, and pay my tab at the cafe. Which by now is giant again.
28) I finally got a bread machine from the thrift store. I never used it. But Tiffany did. I'll try to use it in 2010.
29) I tried to grow my hair out. That is still trying to happen.
30) I got my nose pierced.
31) I saw both my grandmother and my aunt three times, which is three times more than I normally see them in a year. That was nice.
32) I got an adorable journal, a nose piercing, and a ticket to see Red Noses by Peter Barnes, all as early birthday presents. Hurrah! I love early birthday presents. (Also, RED NOSES WAS SO GOOD.)
33) I had a joint birthday party, first official birthday party in eight to ten years. We made sock puppets and felt awkward.
34) I got a Twitter account, and consistently forgot that I wasn't just talking to myself.
35) My brother got engaged! That seems like something that happened to me, even though it's technically not.
36) I started a community compost with Katie and Levi and Brittany.
37) I finished my first full-length play. Twice.
38) I did some research in the greater Boston area.
39) I attended my first family reunion in ten years or thereabouts, which is when I found out that Oklahoma is not the world's best place to be a vegetarian.
40) All of the loved ones who moved away in 2008 moved back to fort collins in 2009. I liked that.
41) I hiked Blue Lake, finally.
42) I folded egg whites.
43) I tubed down the poudre with Stacie and Natalie, in the world's smallest inner tubes. WORLD'S SMALLEST. I AM NOT JOKING, GUYS, THESE ARE REALLY SMALL.
44) After three years in the same classroom, I quit teaching sunday school.
45) Katie loaned me her guitar and she and Jason taught me some chords and Stacie tuned it for me several times and I practiced a lot more than I thought I would. And by that I mean, I became completely obsessed. The obsession didn't make good at guitar, but I did notice that I hit the bars a lot less.
46) My sister decided to move to Oklahoma and then moved to Oklahoma less than two weeks later.
47) I sang in front of other people on purpose for the first time in... oh, I guess since Trisha Hail and I did that scene from an old spanish play in our Theatre History class and for some reason I ended up singing a song to the tune of "Shine, Jesus, Shine."
48) I found out what convertibles are for: summer nites and neko case and looking straight up into the sky.
49) I tried to be brave.
50) It was pointed out to me on many occasions that it is very weird how far I can bend my elbows forward.
51) I ate an amazing turnip. It was Japanese.
52) I rode in the Tour de Fat, and I was so happy. And glittery.
53) I shot some hoops with Stacie, and every single time she got a rebound and turned around and I was standing there, she screamed. And every single time, it was funny.
54) I stopped using my cell phone, mostly. And then I had to start using it again. Still not very excited about that.
55) I started playing harmonica again, only this time I tried to really learn how to play it, instead of just using it to annoy people at parties. Although it's still good for that, as many of my fellow party-goers can attest.
56) I accidentally got obsessed with watching "Wizards of Waverly Place" on the disney channel whenever I had access to a TV. And then also "Sonny With a Chance."
57) I introduced Guest Committee Members to the What Is Breakfast Committee, in Chanelle's absence. I've only had to unintroduce one of them so far (, Stacie).
58) Moved more furniture than expected. Like I do every year.
59) Got a sudden urge to rearrange my living room and give away like half of my furniture. Courtney was very patient with this.
60) Got fingerprinted for the first time since I had a Florida-resident's season pass to Disney World in '97.
61) Jason taught me how to use a guitar tuner. And Stacie taught me how to tune a guitar against a piano. And three different people taught me how to tune a guitar against itself, and I still can't do that without adult supervision.
62) I was told that I'm an incredibly graceful bowler. I find this hard to believe. But if it turns out to be true, then hey, when are they going to start handing out points for Form??
63) MY BROTHER GOT MARRIED!
64) and it was great.
65) I learned to two-step. Kind of. Okay, not really.
66) I did a much higher volume of skanking at my brother's wedding reception than I had done at any prior wedding receptions. (If you don't know what skanking is, look it up before you judge me.) This also included my first time two-person skanking.
67) Rae, Mom, Dad and I snuck away at the reception to do shots of Grey Goose. Dad's idea, for the record.
68) One time I had 75 pie pumpkins in the back of my truck for two and a half days.
69) I made my first soup ever, and it was apple and butternut squash soup, and it was delicious.
70) I loved getting up in the morning to study the Bible with beautiful, wise women.
71) I ran in three 5K's - a 300% increase from 2008!
72) I accidentally almost participated in buynothingchristmas.org - which turned out to make Christmas way more magical.
73) I went to a grant-writing workshop, which is where you go to learn to write grant applications, I guess.
74) Stacie helped me disassemble my fake elevator so that I could have a living room again, and then we carried it to the storage unit, and it was really, really heavy. We can now lift anything. Bring us your elephants.
75) Occasionally did not suck at pool. With Katie.
76) Made yet another scarf and this one was TWO COLOURS. I know, I'm amazing.
77) I did a lot of advocating in the case of Natalie and Stacie being roommates and living in my neighborhood. And it actually happened. Hurrah!
78) I learned how to use a manual focus camera. Well, okay, I learned how to use one manual focus camera. And now I'm not actually sure that I remember how.
79) I did a lot of dancing at a couple weddings, and a Girl Talk set at the Monolith festival, and a fog-infused house party. Did a little bit of dancing pretty much every day, elsewhere.
80) I finally got to dress up as Mrs. Peacock. Nobody else knew about it, but I did, and that was good enough for me.
81) I started working on a long prose project for the first time since I realised how big of a commitment that could be. (So, for the first time in ten years.)
82) I remembered that burritos are awesome.
83) I stopped drinking for a month or two and then consequently lost all of the alcohol tolerance I'd built up over the past six years.
84) Sat with a friend's dog while it was put to sleep. That was the first time I've been able to do that for animal, and I was glad to be there.
85) Played improv games for the first time in four years.
86) Was no less terrible than I remember.
87) Became a parent for five seconds when I found myself saying to a small child, "Do not open that door again unless someone is bleeding."
88) Went to visit Santa for the first time outside of a CEC event. Brought him some burnt granola. He said he was going to feed it to his reindeer. (Thanks a lot, Santa.)
89) In addition to family, I also got to see Audrey and Brett, Kristina, Danelle, Chanelle (twice!), Carly (twice!), and many other wonderful old friends.
90) I ate a pepperjack cheese stick fashioned into a corn-dog-minus-the-dog. And I'm not gonna lie, it was delicious.
91) Update: SANTA LOVED THE GRANOLA.
92) I threw a birthday party or two.
93) I broke into a friend's house and made a music video with Stacie, Flea, Katie, and a lot of stuffed pandas.
94) I spent my second Christmas away from my family.
95) In the few weeks at the end of November and the beginning of December where I was just so busy that I could barely sleep even when I had time to sleep, Brittany was the primary keeper-aliver-of-me. And Stacie, Courtney, Katie, and Natalie all did more than their fair share.
96) Two people I really love lived on my couch for a good while (but not at the same time).
97) Did I mention that I managed not to cut off all my hair this year??
98) I played guitar for my very first Christmas Day living room singalong. There are a lot of verses to "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," fyi.
99) I felt humbled by every single one of the people that I call friend.
100) CARDIOKE.