December 31st, 2012

Now: 2012

In 2012, I read 68 books and reviewed a number, though without fully finishing my To Be Read Challenge (embarrassing, but I will eventually–stay tuned). I completed my lone resolution in that I cooked every recipe in the Milk Calendar, which is a project I’d recommend and will repeat in 2013.

Obviously, the biggest thing in 2012 is that I planned and thoroughly enjoyed a most wonderful wedding to a most wonderful guy, and embarked upon a marriage to same (I’ve been trying to structure this sentence better but it’s just not working out–obviously, who else would I be married to than the guy I married??) Everything else kind of pales in comparison–and honestly this was a pretty great year in many ways. But once you’ve seen everyone you love all together in one room, beaming at you and eating cake…there’s really no follow-up.

Nevertheless, some other memorable, in no discernible order:
–I saw my short story How to Keep Your Day Job become a short film by the same name. It was an absolutely magical experience to see Lea Marin, Sean Frewer, Georgina Reilly and literally dozens of others reinterpret and reimagine my story until it was something totally new, and amazing.
–I survived a tax nightmare that took up all of my free time last spring and judging from the fact that no one has come for me yet, I guess I filled out all the forms correctly. Touch wood.
–I survived a project management course that took up all my free time last fall, though I’m still waiting on my final grade. I made a couple nice friends and, surprisingly, a couple enemies (well, I consider them enemies), but managed to do a lot of work that did not come naturally to me while under time pressure and duress and I think I did ok. Touch wood.
–I spent at least one night in 13 cities: Toronto, Niagara Falls, Halifax, Wolfville, Fredericton, Orilla, Hamilton, Liberia (Costa Rica), Vancouver, Ottawa, Moncton, Charlottetown, and Dorval.
–I obtained my dream of a second cat and my husband and I managed, through patience, vigilance, and a lot of closed doors, to teach the first cat not to hate her. Now they adore each other and are sad (read: viciously angry) when separated. My dream is complete.
–I wrote slower than I have written in years, with more self-doubt and angst than anyone’s interested in hearing about, but did manage to publish a few stories once I finally started submitting again last summer. More, the new collection now stands at 10 stories. Not sure if all 10 will get to stay in the final version, and a number more exist only as figments in my mind, but progress–progress.
–I remained employed by my favourite industry–publishing–one increasingly challenged on all sides. I have a lot of faith in this crazy little thing called books, and I’m happy to try to make them–in new and old forms alike–as long as I have the chance.
–I got a new family! Not that there was anything wrong with the old bunch, but now there’s just more of them–the natural result of getting married. That’s where I was this past week (I bet you didn’t even notice that it’s been ages since I last blogged), bonding with the inlaws. Lovely folks, and *very* good cooks.

And that’s just the big stuff and easy targets. I can’t even itemize all the small kindnesses I’ve received, the friends didn’t do anything they haven’t always done and are so wonderful for that.

Let me leave you with two of my favourite impressions from the last week of 2012:
1) being terribly motion sick on my flight home and given a tiny bottle of water when I most needed it by a gallant Frenchman
2) my niece, shy and stubborn and not quite two, opening her arms to hug me without anyone telling her to.