Penultimate Post :)

Year in Review

Everybody does these, right? :)

Ok, so this was a fun resolution. I like taking photos anyway, and it gave me yet another reason to do so. This project also got me to go out to see and do more things--sometimes things I would never bother to do otherwise, like going to the Arts Festivals in both Gainesville and Atlanta, or the Gator Gauntlet. Also as my physical health improved I was able to do more, which helped.

I'm basically a pretty boring person blessed enough to have the opportunity to do and see some amazing stuff this year. St. Croix, Cabo San Lucas, Alaska...it was a lot of fun, if also a bit painful at times :) I also have the fortune to live in a very beautiful area of the country, so having a day where nothing else was planned and I was feeling able meant I had many choices of locales to just go and look.

There's also the once-again-proven cliche that there is beauty all around you--you just have to open your eyes and see it. I took a lot of photos this year simply noticing something right in front of me I'd seen a hundred times before and never thought twice. One of my friends said she liked the day where the picture was of a glass of water, because we in the United States often take it for granted and it was a good reminder to be thankful. In the past I've jokingly answered "How are you?" with "Well, I woke up and had hot water. I'm two-for-two.". I still say that, but I'm joking less and truly just happy about it more :)

I did much better at taking the photos every day than I did at blogging about them. I think I missed about five days' photos total, due to feeling crappy or just plain forgetfulness on a stay-at-home day. The blog was a good idea, and I enjoy it as well but it's easier to slip behind a day or two or 30. I was struggling to catch up on about five weeks of photos once December hit, as my friends very gently pointed out and motivated me to get up-to-date. Thanks guys! One benefit of falling behind periodically is that if some criminal is following my blog to see when I'll be out of town, they will be completely stymied by my inconsistency! :)

After the St. Croix trip I changed how I was making entries. I stuck strictly to one per day after that (oops, upon further review I still cheated and did some multi-photo days) and made a separate entry for each day. I find it amusing that my 366 days of photos don't have 366 entries, but whatever :)

It was very difficult on some days to pick one and only one photo. There are some that I really liked but didn't make the cut, as a different photo more precisely captured the feel of the entire day. I started reviewing everything to choose maybe a top 10 or so, but it's difficult to do even that. If I cut out all the travel, I have a better shot at finishing this today.

Allison with her funky gum. This was on Valentine's Day, which ended up with a funnier story still involving Allison ;)

Seth and I "hiding" Easter eggs at Trinity Methodist. They had so many eggs we ran out of hiding spots and started strewing them about the lawn. Then that got boring so we started making mosaic pictures and spelling out messages. Seth is writing "Happy Easter"!

Storm clouds on Lake Santa Fe. Even with bad luck on the boat, we've never had a non-gorgeous day on this lake.

Our friends Howard and Eve at the Arts Festival.

Seen on my hike on May 5. Sure it's graffiti, but it's pretty cool-looking graffiti.

The day I figured out how to download a photo from someone else's Facebook page. Surprise, Zach! He and his girlfriend were at an anime convention.

(Just to clarify--that is not his girlfriend ;)  )

We had brunch with Roanne and Larry on Mother's Day. Later on that day Mike took me to the Straight No Chaser concert, which made the photo-of-the-day, but I like this one of family too :)

Another photo of the church chancel, this time on Pentacost. I love that banner!

Adventure Runners in the Gator Gauntlet coming out of crawling under the low wire and about the hurdle the fire pit. Admittedly, a fairly dead fire pit, but it probably wouldn't feel good to step in it all the same.

Another view of the flooding at Devil's Millhopper State Park.

These seats were so good!

My missing 9-11 photo, because I just couldn't post something frivolous.

These are exercise balls in one of the rooms upstairs at GHFC. I was doing something on the floor and this was my view.

At the pro tennis tournament at Jonesville Tennis Club. These two teenagers were battling each other. It was a long, drawn-out match.

This was the coach of the shooting team from Evans H.S. He served in the military as a postal carrier in Afghanistan. I'm so glad he came back safely--that job sounded pretty dangerous. He said they were often the ones that had to drive over roads that weren't completely secure and you never knew if an IED was waiting.

Outside Las Margaritas, I just liked how these shadows looked.

Another shot of the Payne's Prairie sunrise. That was such a beautiful morning :)

Corey in his commander's helmet at Mike's Mini Meet in Oct.

I'm a sucker for silhouettes. This was our first all-cast rehearsal for the Boar's Head Festival and we were lined up for the procession.

Looking up at our flag on Veterans' Day.

One of the soldiers helping out on the route of the Fisher House 5k on Nov. 12.

Saying goodbye to Zach and Des at the airport

Dress rehearsal for Boar's Head with full makeup. I had to constantly remind myself not to wipe my face :(

My BattleTech decor :)  I like this display for the tealight candle spots it has on top. I got the small gravel and shells at a crafts store. After months of it being like that, one day I decided it needed something else. These figures are clickables from the BattleTech game Mike and the boys used to play. I have a character in an online game called 3K which is loosely based on BattleTech so when they stopped using the figures I grabbed them to decorate my desk. Now a few of them grace the rocky battlefield which is our hallway bathroom :)

Another shot of Griffis Lumber. The sky was so blue!

Stille Nacht!

Ok, I really must stop this. There were literally hundreds of other photos I wanted to include here and I've been compiling this post for over 5 hours!

To sum up, a lot happened this year and it was fun photo-documenting it all. I'm glad others are enjoying my blog. People have asked me if I'm going to continue it or not. I'm not sure. Probably not the daily photo thing anyway. I feel like leaving this as a stand-alone thing--a year in my life, without too many messy details.

My resolution for 2013 is to learn Hebrew, so maybe I'll blog about that from time to time on another page. Stay tuned :)

I do still have one last day to record--today. Not sure I'll get it in before midnight. We'll just have to see :)

Happy New Year everyone!