Year End Inventory: 2009

• Read 22 books—favorites: A Room With A View, The Mill on the Floss, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, The Joy Luck Club, A Thousand Splendid Suns (loved that one), The Watson’s Go to Birmingham and Bridget Jones’s Diary.

• Lost 42 pounds.

• Shrunk some debt. Inflated some debt. But mostly shrunk.

• Swore off sugar in August (haven’t had any since).

• Swore off fast food in November (should have known better, earlier, from watching Super Size Me).

• Cut off 7 or 8 inches of hair.

• Subscribed to a cooking magazine—have tried a few recipes but must admit to mostly looking at the pictures.

• Visited Rome in April—highlight of my year and some of the most fun I’ve ever had on a trip.

• Became addicted to pistachios (especially the salt and pepper kind).

• Faithfully watched all four months of Masterpiece Theatre Classics—favorites: Little Dorrit, Wuthering Heights, Tess of the d’Urbervilles.

• Semi-faithfully watched Masterpiece Theatre Mystery—favorites: Miss Marple series and Wallander series.

• Commenced year 4 of teaching 2nd grade—discovered I can’t remember all the names of past students anymore.

• Walked a 3 mile fun run (sounds more impressive when you call it a 5k).

• Went to a concert.

• Biked the Hiawatha Bike Trail (old train route in Idaho).

• Rediscovered my hatred of swimming laps.

• Dabbled in insomnia for about 3 months.

• Took up walking (in the beginning to sleep and then to lose weight).

• Quit and rejoined the gym.

• Bought a new car—’06 Nissan Altima.

• Reached my mid 30’s—okay there’s still a few weeks to go for that one, but close enough.

• Lost a few brain cells, but not sure how many since the cells lost most likely would have been used in this kind of computational functioning.