Starting the New Year With a Bit of Theft and a Bit of Da Count

Secret Agent Woman did an amusing wrap up of her previous year by making a paragraph the first lines of the first post she did for each month. Here's my paragraph.

My best friend's sweet pea made her entrance on Tuesday. It's the day after the Super Duper Bowl. This year Calypso has taken Drama 1 and Drama 2 as electives at school. What do you do when you are devoid of genuine inspiration? I haven't done this in 19 years. The lack of balance continued through a considerable portion of the weekend. Before I resume the job hunt in earnest I am taking a few days to park myself in the sand with a stack of books. When I was small my mother allowed me to use her old sewing machine once she replaced it with a new one. Over the weekend I was visiting some old friends in a town where I used to live. Here we have me in my rain burqa over backpack finery as I cultivate the hunchback look. As I was driving along to do my carpool duties I noticed how lovely the weather was. This is an asthma inhaler.

S.A.G. also gave a synopsis of each month. I don't think I'll do that but I'll add links to the first original picture (not counting reposts of pictures I took at other times) I posted each month.

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September (for some dumb reason it won't let me link to the first shot but it was a post with several pictures so here is #2)
October
November
December (same problem as September...grrr...)

As I said I won't synopsise each month because I don't really have time at the moment but just in going back over each month briefly to find these links I noticed so much support from so many of you during the really difficult parts of this year. The other day I was also speaking with someone about the aftermath of the concussion/car accident and I remarked how for several weeks face to face conversation was a real challenge at times because I couldn't find words and sometimes had a hard time keeping up with people. That was a very disconcerting situation. Writing for a blog post, however, came easier because I could do it at my own pace. I felt that continuing to post during my recovery helped me have some confidence that I hadn't completely destroyed part of my intellect because it gave me tangible evidence of being able to string words together with a reasonable level of coherence.

2009 had a fair amount of frustration and difficulty but it also had faithful friends for whom I am so grateful. I got to meet a few of you in person, which was a great joy. I continued to develop friendships with others of you, which was a great comfort not just in a sense of easing trials but also in just having deepening connections. I've been blessed to have some extended family relationships deepen this year too. And I found a whole new value in blogging as it served to help me regain facility with language after too many hard hits to the head. Good stuff, all. I'm very grateful as I count it.