Merry Christmass 2012!

Or so it was written on the card given to me on December 25, 2011 by my beloved. Normally, I would classify him as a really knowledgeable and erudite kind of guy, but then he does things like this and I think, “what an effing idiot”. Love truly is the gift that keeps on giving.

It’s been forever since I last blogged and so much has happened! I don’t even know if I can remember it all.

We went to Corvallis, OR for thanksgiving, where I was reunited with my nephew who likes me more than just about anyone (always a good feeling). He was in charge of thanksgiving seating arrangements and put us next to each other and put NWB at the end of the table, very far away (!).

I sort of accidentally procured my total dream job, but then decided to turn it down because to make it work would be hard on my (new!) family. NWB has his dream job and it doesn’t feel right to ask him to change it or move. I’m trying to not get too upset about it, because dream jobs change right? My dream job in 2014 might be different from my dream job in 2011. I’m trying to roll with the punches here, plus I’ve been looking forward to 6 months of maternity leave since last June, and I really don’t want to cut that short. I envision a summer of lounging on beaches, visiting PT, attending the Shakespeare festival, going to Iowa (adventure!) to learn/work on a fun meteorology project, drinking lots of iced tea and generally being a laze-about—CAN NOT deviate from that course. The thought of starting a new job without 14 weeks of break time also causes me great anxiety. IT’S NOT MY TIME (American Horror Story reference).

Plus, there are some exciting things coming up at work, like the summer course that I designed which consists of taking girls into the local woods/near rivers and collecting soil and water data! It’s going to be pretty rad: we’re going to go to local parks and muck around in the wild for two hours every day, while I make some stuff up* about sulfur pools and moss growth.

(*make stuff up = present sound scientific knowledge)

Our house looks so much like a home now! Pictures have been hung, two pieces of adult furniture have been purchased (La-A-Boy rocker and nice modern couch), and two old pieces of cheap IKEA crap have been traded in/sold. A storage system for the baby has been purchased and assembled (a feat which severely tested our marriage and led me to a marketing idea for IKEA: issue “furniture engineer” certificates to customers after they assemble their purchase and send in a picture! It might make the whole endeavor seem more worth it.). Baby things have been procured in abundance through a combination of generous friends (being the last one to have a baby has its benefits!) and craigslist (baby swing for $10! Maclaren stroller for $75!). I love recycling. Our home décor finally says, “adults (and baby) live here”. It feels so cozy to be home (well, at least inside the house. Outside is still an urban war zone.).

My secret santa-ing skills grew again this year as I practiced a tactic completely different from last year—I actually gave my person everything they wanted! This resulted in a snail mail thank you card, which felt awesome.

Lots of relatives came for Christmass ™, and we played games, ate a lot of food and hung out (probably unlike every other family in the US of A!). Also, Rose came to visit! She is my spirit animal whom I haven’t seen in 4.5 years. We walked around and saw stuff like elephant seals and bison.

I attended a late pregnancy class at Kaiser and am officially in the last trimester (well, in utero. They say that the three months after the baby is born is the “fourth trimester” because it has to adjust to life outside the womb. My anger at the US and its idiotic policies on maternity leave just seems to grow everyday. My anger at women of a certain political persuasion also grows when I read babycenter forums and get a glimpse into their totally warped mindset: “Countries like Germany and EVERY OTHER WESTERN country in the world are crazy for giving money to women (regardless of income) to help raise their child. In America, we “take responsibility for our choices”). This is a seriously messed up understanding of the social contract. I would recommend re-reading some Rousseau, but I doubt they have the basic education/desire to do so, given our complete disdain for thinking and reflection in this country ("I want a president who I can drink a beer with"). AAAAHHHH, I’m moving to Denmark.

I went to bed at 9 pm on NYE, but was awakened by 32 gunshots (I’m thinking 20 +12?). Every year since I was 18, I have lived in undesirable neighborhoods and this is a staple of these places: the gunshots at midnight on NYE and the 4th of July. At this point in my life, it might be weird to not have them? I also imagine this is what it’s like in the rural south and/or southwest.

RECAP of 2011:
I think this might have truly been the most exciting/fulfilling year of my life. There have been some really crappy ones, but (knock on wood) I think the worst is over now! 2011(well it started in 2010) is the year that I became happy/fulfilled/settled in teaching (!), I won a peeps diorama contest(!), I got a grant to go live in Vienna for a month and visit museums/eat pastries (!), I got a fancy new camera (!), we decided to have a kid(!), I watched the entire Friday Night Lights series (!). So many good things in my life! Also, some spectacularly bad ones, like the loss of Pumpkin and my mom’s health problem. Culturally and politically, things seemed to continue on the rapid downward spiral that is the US foreign and domestic policy. The two most alarming to me at this particular moment are the continuation of football as a sport (when will the barbarism end? Is the well-known link between Alzheimer’s and other brain damage to the sport not enough to stop it?) and the advent of personhood amendments.

What new personal highs/American horrors will 2012 bring? (Year of the (water) dragon)

Finally, beautiful CA (Ano Nuevo), why do you have to be so expensive?