The year in review

Here is the list of things I hoped to accomplish in 2006--you know, back before all hell broke loose and I was ready to run away from home. Honestly, the first half of the year wasn't too bad. I was happily pretending to be busy at work, Paul was busy with work, we took a little trip to CA, and life carried on. It wasn't until summer found me with too much time on my hands and that carried over into my work in August that I really hit that rock bottom. Thankfully, I recognized the need for help and sought it out. Even better was Paul's support in that decision and his willingness to help me be better and our work together to get things back on track.

But let's see what I was optimistically planning to do in 2006:
1. Learn to make a really good marinara. No but I did *eat* some very good marinara. That should count for something. I like the red sauce I make and Paul eats it without complaint. And I'm still trying to get our Italian neighbor to divulge her secret recipe with me.

2. And while I'm in the kitchen, I'd like to master one or two more recipes. Didn't do too badly in this one. While I haven't mastered the recipes, there are a few new things that I do make now (although it is often easier to just fix baked chicken for dinner. Again.).

3. Sign up for dance classes. This didn't happen in 2006 but it will in 2007 because we got a gift certificate for dance lessons at an auction. It's only 4 or 5 lessons but hopefully it will be enough to teach us more than the "high school sway" and help us learn to compensate for the terrible awkwardness our one-foot height difference creates.

4. Find a swimsuit I like. Eh. I'm not sure I'll ever be 100% comfortable in a swimsuit (and this year I didn't have a reason to even wear one). I did buy a new swimsuit that I like well enough that fits well enough. Since we'll be in Hawaii and Jamaica later this year, I'll keep trying in this one.

5. Have a book or two in the queue so I'm never without something to read. I think I did pretty well with this one--56 books started (I dropped two or three after a few chapters) and lots of magazines, catalogs, cereal boxes, owner's manuals, etc. I'm working on a list for 2007 and have a stack of books I pulled from my library waiting for me when school starts on Monday.

6. Finally figure out the International Date Line. Yeah, I've decided that this might just have to be one of life's great mysteries for me.

7. Get a passport. No, but it's on the list for 2007 because we'll have to have them when we go to Jamaica.

8. Mop more often. Or hire someone to come do it for us. Finally, one I did do. And Paul even put down "Hire Merry Maids or someone" on his list for 2007. It's probably a true mark of laziness when we're too lazy to call to have someone come clean our house.

9. Take more pictures. I should say "Take more pictures of things other than the cat." Lots of pictures of the cat but we were better about taking pictures of the "moments of our lives" too.

10. Be better about keeping in touch with friends I've got and be better about putting myself out there in making new ones. Yes and no. Our address book hasn't been inundated with the names and numbers of new friends but I did do a better-ish job of keeping in touch with friends.

11. Learn to knit. Nope. Still staring at that learn-to-knit kit I bought. It's been moved from the guest room to the living room and back several times. I still want to learn to knit--I think I need someone show me how to cast on. That was the trouble I was having when I have tried to knit (and it's a pretty big part of knitting).

12. Organize the past 6 years worth of photographs that are in a variety of boxes around the house. This one I did manage to do. Sorted, filed, organized thanks to Amy making me buy a big scrapbooking thing to do it. And then taking me to a scrapbooking crop with her. They cropped, I organized. Maybe soon, I'll do the photo album thing.

13. Clean out our closets that closely resemble Fibber McGee's. I have fully accepted that as long as I have a Paul in my life, I will have messy closets as well. But I did manage to sort/clean/organize the storage closet under the stairs, my closet and the closet in the guest room. His closet and the closet in the new room with all his stuff, despite my best-laid plans, are still stacked with treasures. And his trombone from 20+ years ago.