This year’s been kind of a roller coaster of emotions and locations for me, more so than any another. I started doing a month-to-month or quarter to quarter in-depth review, but there’s so much of my life that I’d rather keep private. The fact of the matter is that while I had some great experiences this year, I also had some very low moments that I don’t want to relive, most especially in the public world of the internet.

But on to the positive notes:

I took three H.E.-funded trips this year—one to Australia for two weeks in March to visit my godmother in Perth and tour some major sites, another to Connecticut for an extended weekend in July to attend Janine’s second wedding, and a third to Rhode Island for an extended weekend in September to attend Minnie‘s American wedding. While my best shots are from Australia, I managed to get great photos in all trips.

I also went to four shows with H.E. … We saw John Cleese‘s one-man show, Seven Ways To Skin an Ocelot, in March at the Carpenter theatre. We drove all the way to Thousand Oaks to see Lewis Black at the Fred Kavli Theatre in August. Then we saw Harry Shearer in October and Hal Holbrook doing Mark Twain in December, both at the Carpenter theatre.

Workwise, I signed on with two additional e-publishers and had more of my cover work honored in some way, shape, or form. One of my two publishers’ checks this year actually almost paid the month’s rent in full, so my full-time freelancing income is steadily getting nearer to what I used to get when I had a day job, and I’m much happier and less stressful now so I consider that even.

Materially, I have a new dinner table and four chairs that I didn’t have last year, and I have a new bed, both gifts from H.E. while I was away in Australia. I also have a new Mac Mini, which I bought when my blue and white Mac G3 finally died.

And I’ll be dropping off the following items at Goodwill: an entire luggage set (two suitcases, a carry-on, and a matching handbag, all of which I bought over a dozen years ago—my one new suitcase and matching carry-on and handbag are better), an old microwave (this condo came with one), a box of old VHS tapes (it’s the DVD age, baby), an old external CD burner (which still works, but both my computers have CD/DVD writers built in), a pile of old clothes I don’t wear any more, a box of books (mostly outdated how-to and impulse-bought romance), two old Mac G3s, and two old PCs with their hard drives taken out.

Family-wise, my sister got a new job in July. My cousin Kimberly had a baby boy in October.

Oh, yeah, and I got engaged. 🙂

As for the not-so-positive notes of the year, my grandmother died in April. One of my cousins began the divorce process in November. Everything else can remain a mystery.

My new year’s resolution? I’d like to keep better track of these things for my year in review for 2007. My Aunt Myrna sent something like a “what we did this year” update with the Christmas card, and I liked being able to read up on her family’s news. I wish everyone did that, so I might as well start with me.

Happy New Year to all.

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