Happy New Year!  I’m still here and you’re still there and life goes on, changed very little by the actual date and yet – we all wake up January 1 filled to the brim with determination to make THIS year the BEST year ever.  And there’s certainly nothing wrong with that.  I’m a little late to the New Year’s Party and I never did close out the old year so here we go.

The Holidays –This year the plan was to go to the East Coast and visit my sister and her family – a plan I liked very much.    However, because I was leaving town I felt no compulsion whatsoever to decorate my house.  Further complicating and alleviating my holiday season at the same time was our collective choice to exchange only handmade gifts.  This meant no Christmas shopping.  Don’t get me wrong – NOT having to scour a thousand stores in search of the perfect something to get someone even though I had no idea what that person needed or wanted was sheer bliss.  Not spending hundreds of dollars on tchotchkes to fill stockings with was equally exhilarating.  It did, however leave me feeling a little empty and not quite filled with the spirit of the holiday which I found quite surprising.

I did what I could to fix that by making gifts (wine charms) and making candied walnuts (to die for!) and eating the chocolate covered cookies the Good Doctor brought home from the office but still – something was missing.  And then it wasn’t.

Our travels to the East Coast went relatively well. I was excited to be flying from Oakland to Baltimore a then Providence because that’s practically direct!  Only the airplane in Oakland had to make a little stop in San Diego first.  Not so direct.  Oh well.   My son missed a connection and I was delayed 90 minutes but there quite a few people in Baltimore being told that the Southwest might be able to get them on a flight Christmas day.  This was on the 23rd.  I had no basis for complaint and my heart broke for these poor people. 

We finally arrived at my sisters at about 2 AM EST and the next day my Humbly Ann and her husband and their puppy arrived and Christmas was ON!  We spent 4 fabulous days eating, drinking, playing games, watching movies, cooking, baking, eating, hanging out and loving each other.  The holidays just don’t get any better than than.

Getting home seemed to take just about forever (Providence to Midway to ABQ to Oakland) but get there we did and the house was intact and I had Pookie with me so again – no complaints.

My Birthday– We left my sister’s on the 28th and the 29th was my 54th birthday.  I waited until just after midnight on Sunday to rifle my bag for the package my sister had put in there. It was a really beautiful beaded necklace from Roatan.  In the morning I celebrated  by going for a bike ride and climbing Mt. Diablo to the junction.  Because I had been off my bike for a couple of weeks and had only run 1 time in CT. my legs were fresh and not even a teeny bit sore.  I’m pretty sure that is the only time I’ve ever climbed that hill on fresh legs and I really enjoyed it.  The air was crystal clear and the view was spectacular.  You could see all the way to the Sierra.  I ended up spending the evening alone but then went to a birthday sister’s (we share the same birthday)  house for cake and she let me share blowing out the candles.

New Year’s Eve – I ended up going to a friend’s house for pecan pie, champagne and we watched Pride and Prejudice.  Low key but perfect.

Year End Wrap Up– 2008 was not a great year in many ways.  I only worked for 4 months and the economy just got worse and worse.  My family and I all enjoyed strong, good health, though and I’ve come to think of that as the thing against which I measure good or bad.  In that respect life was very, very good.  Also,  I had a great racing year, moving from a back of the pack athlete to a solidly middle of the pack athlete and I liked that.  I liked it a lot.  I failed to note my year end totals for mileage but I think it was about 2200 miles on the bike, 550  miles of running and 105 or so miles swimming.  Not too shabby.

The New Year– As I was swimming and riding and running over the last couple of days it occurred to me that tons of the people I saw had just dusted off their lazy asses to execute on yet another New Year’s promise of getting in shape whereas I was just continuing to do what I do.  And yes – I did revel in an overblown sense of superiority.  I don’t do that often so please – don’t harsh my holier-than-thou.  It was fun for a minute or 2.

 I’ve made 2 resolutions for this year:

1).  Get a job.  This make take a few more months but it WILL happen

2).  Get a boyfriend.   I’ve had 3 dates and have another one tomorrow night and a 2nd date on Friday with a man I rather like.  I guess I’ll have to do a seperate post about the dates if you are interested.