Holiday Newsletter

I’ve never done a holiday family newsletter, and I don’t imagine I’ll ever send one out to my friends and family like so many people do, but maybe it’s a good idea to write one for this space. You don’t want to read through my archives from the last year? Then settle in and I’ll tell you what’s been going on in my life in 2006.

This year has been a time of change for me. It started off with a bang in the New Year when I started a new job in mid-January. It’s a job in the field for which I was going to school, and I got it before I even finished my degree, which made me very happy. In the eleven months that I’ve been working in this position, I’ve figured out a bit about marketing, and have really settled in. It’s a great job and I was lucky to get it.

After losing both of my dogs during the summer of 2005, I adopted a new dog in November, 2005 and another one in February, 2006. First came Willow, a brown spotted Dalmatian mix. She’s incredibly sweet, very neurotic and very grumbly, and I really thought she might make me lose my sanity in the first few months that I had her, but now I really can’t imagine my daily life without her in it, grumbles and all. Her name has evolved into quite a few nicknames in the time that I’ve had her. She still gets called Willow, but she also gets called Willa, Willa Billa, Will, Bill, and because I like to rhyme, sometimes she is Willa Billa Gilla Filla.


Willow – always a very grumbly girl – got even more grumbly in February of this year, when I went to the SPCA and adopted Bernie, a large male Bernese Mountain Dog mix. I fell in love with him because of his looks – I’ve always wanted a Bernese Mountain Dog, but will probably never be able to afford one. Well, not from a breeder anyway – Bernie fit into my budget quite nicely. And I lucked out with him, too. Bernie is the sweetest, most loving dog around. He doesn’t pay any attention to Willow and her grumbling, nor does he pay any attention to my cats. He loves to follow me around the house and he likes nothing better than being petted while staring at you with his big brown eyes. He’s been in my house for ten months now, and I have loved sharing my space with him.

In June of this year, my sister, brother-in-law and I went on vacation together. We fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine and went to Maine – specifically to Bar Harbor. It’s a very touristy area to be sure, but that didn’t stop it from being completely beautiful. What has always drawn me to Maine are the rocky sea coasts, and we found those in abundance. We found a stretch where we were able to walk out on the rocks and watch the tide come in, and that spot will forever be one of my favorite places on earth. If it were closer, I’d be there often – nightly to watch the tide, if I were close enough. It was a fun trip, and I loved sharing it with my sister and her husband.

July 4th came along and continued to prove itself to be worthy of being my favorite holiday. I hung out with my sister and her family all day, doing the parade thing, the cookout thing and the fireworks thing. Good times were had by all. Well, all except my three year old great-niece, who was a little more than freaked out by the noise.

I turned 37 years old on July 18th. The new year of my life didn’t start out much differently than the last year. My pool was closed, due to financial strapness on my part, so there wasn’t a pool party to mark the occasion. I went to my sister’s house, and I got some gifts and I had some dinner and some cake, and was as happy as you can be to be turning 37 years old.

The fall brought a new semester of school, but one that I sat out for the first time in two years. I decided I needed a break from classes, and really, since I already have the job that I would be hoping to get with the degree, why bother finishing? I may decide to go back and do more classes next fall, but for now the break is continuing. I like not having to worry about classes and homework and group projects and finals. No thanks – I’ll just play in my free time.

The new semester also brought about a weight loss challenge at work. The goal was to lose the most percentage of your body weight over the course of a 16 week time period. The challenge ended today. I didn’t win, but I did lose 15 pounds over the course of that 16 weeks, so I’m very happy. The challenge is going to start anew with the spring semester in January, and I’ll be signing up again. This time I’m going to shoot for losing 20 pounds over the 16 weeks. If I accomplish that goal, I will have lost 35 pounds overall, and will be another 35 pounds away from my goal. I’ll get there yet!

The fall also brought what has turned out to be another good change to me. I filled out a profile on eHarmony at some point in the late summer/early fall, and in the end of September, I was contacted by a guy, who I call J here. We started communicating, at first through eHarmony, then through e-mail, then on the phone, and then we had our first date on October 21st. It’s been almost two months now since that first date, and we are still going strong. He’s in love with me, and yeah, despite some early freaking out on my part, I’ve fallen for him as well. We’re together as often as we can be, given that he lives 40 minutes away and has to be at work at 5:30 in the morning. He has two dogs, who have spent some time at my house. My grumbly girl Willow doesn’t like them much, but Bernie figures they’re just two more friends to share the house with while they’re there, so he doesn’t mind at all, thereby proving himself to be the perfect dog. Well, as perfect as a dog can be, I guess.

Halloween came and went with no trick-or-treaters for me, but then I live in the middle of nowhere, so I didn’t expect any. Thanksgiving came and went with a great dinner at my sister’s house. I went with J to his sister’s house for brunch, and met his family. They are very nice people, and I was at ease almost immediately. Of course, the fact that she has two very adorable little dogs helped too. Then last week J and I went to dinner with my sister and her husband, so he’s met my family, too. I don’t have parents to meet, so the siblings are all he has to face, and my sister is the only local one. He’ll have to wait to meet the brothers.

And now the holiday season is here, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with J for the first time. It’s going to be nice to not be alone on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning.

I’m also looking forward to having someone to kiss at midnight on New Year’s Eve, thereby ushering in more good luck for 2007. I hope the New Year will bring good things to you as well, and thank you one and all for sharing my life with me through my blog. I feel very lucky to have some great people reading my site, and look forward to maybe having that family of readers grow throughout the New Year. Stop in often, and say hi from time to time! I love to hear from you. In fact, you can start with giving me the highlights of the last year for you. What changes did 2006 bring to you?

From J to me, Christmas 2006.