Happy New Year!!!

from here

from here

I hope you had a safe and happy new year. I said goodbye to 2010 and hello to 2011 at good friends Lisa and Aaron's home. We devoured a mexican feast, had drinks flowing, toasted at midnight with Veuve Clicquot, and played games till the wee hours of the morning. I had held onto my bottle of Veuve Clicquot for far too long, waiting and waiting till an occasion seemed worthy had me worried that it might have gone bad, but much to my delight it was still de-lish! I'm hoping that's a good omen. I plan on making 2011 my year!

2010 WooHoos and BooHoos

A. My lifelong friend Gaby and her little cutie pies

B. Beau's first solo sail

C. Saying goodbye to Jenny

2010 WooHoos:

• Graduating with a Master's in Accountancy
• Having the opportunity to see a couple of friends I hadn't seen in about five years {See A}
• Finally becoming technologically current and welcoming the addition of HD LCD TV viewing, DVR, and the iPhone into my life {Oh how I love all of thee!}
• Successfully selling some items I held onto for far too long on eBay
• Hosting Christmas
• A couple of winning trips to Vegas {Oh the dice, they call to me}
• Beau's {as in my beau, not really his name} maiden solo sailing voyage, and his first year of participating in OMBAC's OTL tournament {Because when you love someone, aren't their successes your successes?} {See B}

2010 BooHoos:

• Not landing a dream job
• Friends moving away {See C}
• The Chargers season

Not landing a dream job, or any job for that matter, put a lot of financial stress on Beau and me. Besides the financial stress it also really does something to your psyche to not be working and feel ongoing rejection. Whenever I got down I forced myself to think of all the great things in my life. Of course the standards: family, friends, etc. But more specifically the fact that while it's been tough living on one income, it hasn't caused any major problems in Beau and my relationship. When money troubles is listed as the number one cause for divorce, I consider myself extremely fortunate.

Overall 2010 was a good year, but I'm sure hoping 2011 will be even better.

What will 2011 bring?

This was the sunset on January 1, 2010. 

Isn't it so beautiful? Like I need to ask. If your answer isn't some version of "Hell yeah!" then there is something seriously wrong with you and you might want to contact a therapist. So first I thought, I wonder what the sunset will look like on the first of 2011? Then it got me thinking about overall how the years will compare. Which led me to do a little reflecting...

Too much to talk about now. I'll go over the highs and lows tomorrow.

Old Year Resolution - No more sitting on the sideline

My love for blogs came late in the blog game, but when it came, it came hard and fast. As my love intensified so did the urge to create one of my own. But what should it be about? I don’t know. I don’t really have a focused theme or voice so maybe I shouldn’t do it. Well, far too often I find reasons to not do things {I’m guessing you might relate}, so here I am unfocused voice and all. After all, I am a firm believer that each day is a chance to get closer to being the person we’d like to be.

This blog will simply be me, who I’d like to be, and how I try to find joy everywhere to have a happy life. Like Abraham Lincoln said, “Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

Oh yeah, that's right, that's me in a bounce house. Five year olds have nuthin' on me.