RSSTaking Stock
Jan 28
Personal, Uncategorized because its good to look back sometimes, holy crap where did the year go?, is that belly button lint?, navel gazing of the highest order No Comments
I’ve been working on this post since December. Now, I suppose, it’s really a bit late for it, but given the January I’ve had, I’m making the command decision that my 2011 really starts in February. So, without further ado, a look back at 2010, highs and lows alike.
January/February:
As 2009 gave way to 2010, I was standing at a turning point in my career. I started an exciting new job at UMBC (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) as the Alumni and Development Communications Coordinator. It allowed me to continue working in writing and communications, but it allowed me to expand in some important ways. I was now in a higher education setting. I began to grow my skills in social media and video shooting/editing. And in addition to the awesome career step it would prove to be, I found myself surrounded by talented, creative, hardworking people that make coming to work a pleasure.
And with the new year, I also began my last semester of grad school. I was, as I suspect most of my classmates were, excited and nervous about the months ahead, which I was sure would be a blur of hard work, frustration, excitement, and progress toward a long-awaited goal.
March/April:
I made 30 copies of my book, The Mockingbird’s Song, by hand. ‘Nuff said.
May:
I can’t remember much of those late winter and early spring months–revisions upon revisions and assignment upon assignment, they faded, as I expected they would, into one big, crazy busy time. But then May arrived, and with it spring and new excitement. I was granted a Master of Fine Arts Degree–easily one of the most exciting moments of my life. My mom and dad, both my grandmas, and my Aunt Cindy all traveled to Baltimore to celebrate with me and all the friends I’ve made in the last few years.
June/July:
I headed into the summer resolutely refusing to do anything productive. I wallowed in the freedom from classes, enjoying my evenings and doing as little as I possibly could. But then, as I am wont to do, I got bored and began looking for ways to make life more busy. I found the perfect diversion when a good friend of mine asked me to substitute teach for her English class at CCBC (Community College of Baltimore County) for a couple weeks in July. I was, she said, to focus on poetry. What a fantastic turn of luck for me–I was going to get my first chance to teach, and I was going to get to teach one of the things I love most of all. I’m not sure what those students thought of me as I trotted out Sylvia Plath and Langston Hughes, Sherman Alexie and Kim Addonizio, but I had a blast.
August:
My substitute teaching finished, my friend suggested I apply for an adjunct teaching position at CCBC. I did so with much enthusiasm but little hope that it would come to anything, given my lack of experience. But I was happily surprised when I was offered a section of English 101 all for my very own self. I only had a week to prepare (I was a last-minute hire), but I threw myself into planning my first class. I also had the great good fortune to volunteer as a Teaching Assistant for my friend Jenny’s electronic publishing class at the University of Baltimore. With my teaching load, my fall turned into another big blur of busy time, but I was happy as could be in the classroom.
September/October/November:
Somehow, in the midst of all I had going on, I began to find time to get back into bookmaking. When I struck up a conversation with a local shop owner about my hobby, I got an offer to sell my books on consignment. Charlotte Elliott, a fantastic store in Hampden, requested 40 blank journals for the holiday season. For about two weeks, I spent every spare moment I could find in my workshop, and I delivered the books to them in October. From there, some of the journals have gone on to exciting and distant locales like Paris and Turkey. I can only hope a few have stayed local, too.
Then, as the holiday season approached, a number of friends and family began to request custom journals to give as gifts. Avelino and I got back into the workshop and managed to get the books out in time for Christmas. We were excited to hear that everyone loved their books and to learn about how people were using them–one will be a class notebook for a woman studying to be a nurse, another a pregnancy journal.
December:
I graded papers. And then I graded some more. And then a couple more, just for the fun of it. And then, thankfully, the semester ended. Seems like a good time to relax, right? Wrong. As I put my grades to bed, I decided it was time to make our annual Christmas cards. But they wouldn’t just be any old cards–they’d be cards featuring hand-embroidered ornaments. Because I’m crazy. Neither Ave or I had ever embroidered anything in our lives. And yet, miraculously (and with help from Ave’s dad, who is a maverick with a needle), they got done.
At about that same time, I decided to buy a sewing machine and embark on my first big sewing project–a blanket made of polar fleece and wool, with a border featuring a heart/leaf pattern embroidered in French knots. And I would give that project as a Christmas gift. Fortunately, I was granted an extension till Three Kings Day, and, sewing up to the very last second, I got it finished, and it didn’t look half bad.
In December, I learned (again) that I have a tendency to dive headfirst into really big, daunting pursuits. Someday, I will stop doing that.
January 2011:
Hectic.I think this may be the only word to describe January of 2011 as I lived it. It was not without its sweet spots, but wrapped all together, it rolled and tumbled through my life and I am relieved to be rid of it.
I began the month in Missouri, wrapping up a wonderful trip home to visit with my family. It was good to see how well everyone is doing and to spend some quality time with my parents, my siblings, and my grandma. However, it ended sooner than I would have liked and I shuttled back home for about six days that I divided between work and time spent comatose in front of the television before jetting off to Kansas City. My return to the Midwest was brief and busy as my co-workers and I trained on a new product we’ll be using. After three days in the bone-chilling cold and ice, it was back to Baltimore for another 5 days where I upped the ante on vegging and tried to prepare for the next trip.
Things seemed to be going along alright until I went to find my passport about 36 hours before we were scheduled to leave for Costa Rica. This shouldn’t have been a problem, as I have a dedicated lock box for important documents, and yet, somehow, it was–my passport was not there. Thus began the most horrendous day ever.
We started by searching the house. To his credit, Ave was diligent and thorough in his search while I alternated between hand wringing, frantic scrabbling, hyperventilating, and weeping. At about 1 a.m., I took a really hot shower and drugged myself with Nyquil in an attempt to get some, any sleep. I was up at 6 a.m. the next morning and off to work where, I hoped, I might find the missing document. My hoping was for naught, and so it was off through the ice to the Washington, D.C. passport office. We were, of course, running late, and in my hurry to get into a parking garage, I managed to wing my car on a wall, smashing in my bumper and busting out a headlight. Then, joy of joys, we spent several hours waiting in line at the passport agency, where I was finally told that for about a bajillion dollars I could, indeed, get my passport replaced that day. Despite (because of?) everything that I had been through, and despite all the cranky people at the passport office, I could have kissed that rather sullen employee.
And so it was that the next morning at 8 a.m. I climbed on a plane (after checking that my passport was indeed in my purse about five zillion times) and headed to Costa Rica. It was, by far, one of the most amazing trips I have ever been on, and it will get its own post in the next day or so. I fell in love with that place, its monkeys and geckos, its sunsets and plantains. Best of all, my time in Costa Rica gave me a sense of peace as I head into February and the rest of 2011, which is a pretty good way to feel.