Highlights of 2008

Well December has come to an end, which means it’s time for the cliché “year in review” blog post. I didn’t realize it had been so long since I had posted anything – I guess with the end of the semester and then coming home for the holidays, this wasn’t at the forefront of my mind. Reflecting on this year it’s incredible to think of everything that I have experienced. The beginning of the year I was still in College Station, finishing my last semester of classes at A&M. Now I’m in a completely different state, at a different school, on to bigger (and better?) things!

From all the things that happened this past year, here are some of the highlights of 2008:

• Last semester at A&M – more work than I ever imagined, but so much fun. Shout out to the A group!
• Living with my roommate again – even if we were both super busy and hardly saw each other. Love you :)
• Hawaii with my brother over Spring Break – although I had to drive to and from College Station in about 9 hours and get on a plane the very next morning, it was a welcome surprise and well worth the trip.
• Internship at Medical Center of Plano – I don’t know that I would use “highlight” to describe my experience, but it was fun? At least I got to live at home and enjoy being with my family and friends.
• Graduating from Texas A&M – so what if I didn’t go to the graduation ceremony…I still got my diploma.
• Moving to Bloomington – yea for road trips!
• Completing my first semester of grad school at IU – so glad to be on the other side of that. It wasn’t as bad as I expected.
• Shelley got married! – It may have involved some drama, but it happened none the less and I’m excited for her and William.
• Christmas with my family – the wedding allowed us ALL to be together in Houston, then we had a small group on Christmas day, but it was still wonderful.

There may be more, but these are the high points that came to mind first. I might have to make a supplemental list later if I think of anything else! There is so much more that happened that can’t be put in a bullet point list: relationships growing and changing, feelings I never thought I would experience or express, things learned about myself and others, more tears than I've cried in all my other years combined. At the end of the day, my successes were as great as my failures, my happiness as meaningful as my heartache, and I’m grateful for the lessons learned along the way.

First "Real" Snow

Well it seems I was a little premature on my excitement for the first "real snow". As it turns out, we had a pretty good "real snow" on Saturday. This picture was taken in the afternoon, but you can see that all the cars that hadn't been driven all day were covered. Also, the parking lot had not been cleared (who knows if my car was in an actual spot). The streets of Bloomington hadn't been cleared either. I guess the fact that it was a Saturday morning may have had something to do with it, all I know is I hope they get cleared in a more timely fashion when this snow stuff is a regular occurrence. I went to the gym in the morning and although I slid as soon as I turned out of my complex, I figured that things couldn't be too bad. I stopped by the post office box on the way to the gym and in trying to get close enough to drop my letters in, I almost ended up WAY too close (i.e. on top of the mailbox). Good times!

I went to the Nutcracker with some friends that afternoon which was lovely, but it was a lousy day to be out and about. I'm just glad I had finished all my errands on Friday and didn't have to do a lot of running around in the weather. By the end of the day I had seen 2 accidents, 2 cars facing the wrong direction in the middle of the road, 1 car with a light pole between the headlights, 1 car sitting on the side of the road and 1 car with a fire hydrant underneath it. Luckily my car and I made it home in one piece from all of the days events!

Time to Get an Ice Scraper

Well we've finally started into that season - time for snow. We've had flurries a few days the past few weeks and Monday it started actually snowing. Although it was coming down the majority of the day, it's hasn't been cold enough for long enough for it to really stick. Honestly it wasn't really that big of a deal and nothing seriously overwhelming, but it was still the first day my car has had a light snow cover. I guess it's time to get an icescraper...or an extra spatula! Shout out to The 601! :)