I asked 2011 to [pretty please] be nice to me, and it was.  I’m so grateful.  I made new friends, rekindled old friendships, and spent time with the people who have been constant companions in this crazy life of mine.  I did a lot of writing, traveling, knitting, pottery-ing, laughing, connecting, and – in general – I had a great time.  Here are some of the highlights that spring to mind.

My Favorite Things about 2011

Lit Bits (Short for Literary Bitches) book club, my writing coach AJ and the people I met through Bootcamp for Writers and the Writing retreat in Boulder Utah, Avenues Yoga and all of people I met at the Wolf Creek retreats, Zum Soap, Tazo Sweet Orange Tea, Atelier’s Orange Sanguine cologne, Francis (the Poor Yorick cat), hiking in the Pacific Northwest, introducing the twins to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes, the rainfall runoff in the canyons surrounding Torrey Utah, the late winter powder days at Solitude, long summer walks with Wensley, dinner parties at The Olive, happy hour at Oddfellows in Seattle, hot rock steak at Uchiko in Austin, chocolate mole at Adobo Grill in Indianapolis, Tulie’s bran muffins, pizza at Maxwell’s in Salt Lake City’s historic Boston Building, watching the Michael Franti concert at Red Butte from White Trash Hill, photographing the dogs at the farmer’s market, The Descendants, Bel Canto by Ann Patchett, A Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas, seeing Ira Glass speak at Kingsbury, putting birds on things, knitting mittens, baking apple rhubarb pie, confidently throwing mugs (with handle help from Stef), live music in Sonya’s backyard, BBQ’s in Janice’s backyard, Christmas morning with the Takenakas, learning Espanol with Geordie et all, cooking with my sisters, tea parties in the sand box with the twins, and collaborating on creative work again (I had the opportunity to work on a children’s book with my sister and a short film with my old college chum and I participated in a lot of writing workshops.  It’s been such a long time; I had forgotten how satisfying creating work collaboratively can be) and finding my bliss.  It’s writing, by the way.  I don’t know why it took me so long to figure that out.

Things I am Looking Forward to in 2012

My new neicephew (gender still unknown) who is expected in the spring, my newly established writing group, knitting my first Aran sweater, buying a new SLR (hopefully this summer), seeing Mike Birbiglia perform at Kingsbury and Radiolab “In the Dark” at Capital Theatre, entering the world of smart phone users (yipe!), spending time with old friends, making new friends, and traveling to see distant friends as much as possible.  Bring on the adventures, 2012; I can’t wait.

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