New Year in and Old Year end

I was resisting doing the normal wrap-up post because I didn't feel like rehashing things, but the more I read others' posts and think about it the more I realize that my sense of what happened in 2013 and what happened prior is already slipping, and maybe it's worth doing just so I can look back later. For posterity.

Everything sounds more important if you do it for posterity.

My over-all feeling with 2013 is that there wasn't anything particularly new and it was a pretty good year, which is actually kind of bizarre, when I stop and look at individual events. I suspect it has something to do with having a really very good holiday season, which was also so busy that I've basically blocked everything else out.

2013 People

• Three people in my wider music-and-dance community died in less than two months. All were people I liked and respected, people I'd made music with or danced with.


• In response to the prior deaths and the feeling of mortality I found a new appreciation for the people around my age. Jesse and I made a pact to play music together on the steps of the Old Irish Musician's Home when we're both 80. (We may have to build it first if such an institution does not exist yet).


• My brother moved back in with my parents, which has been very difficult for everyone.


• Six years with E, and things have been generally marvelous. There're still places where we have issues, but we both grow, and it's better every year.


• Kiyoko stayed with me for ten days :) before she had to go back to Japan. :( I miss her.


• I turned thirty, which is under 'people' because many marvelous people came to my birthday party.


• Really properly met caladri and corivax, and managed to have dinner with them and E right before the end of the year. It made me realize, among other things, how rarely we do the grown-up dinner thing with anyone other than my folks or emony42 and her husband.


• Met stasia in person.

2013 Events

• I saw Great Big Sea for the last time, though I didn't know it at the time, with my fambly, Kiyoko, and Emony42.


• I injured my foot in a caving accident, which sounds much more glamorous than it was, and was the kind of niggling injury that seemed too little to complain about and too limiting to ignore. It lead to seeing a podiatrist who tried to over-bill me, adding considerably to the mountain of stress that hit me towards the end of the year.


• Pinniped played at Folklife -- in driving rain, and cold, but to a crowd that grew as we went on. We also played at the Olympia Farmer's Market (ALSO in unseasonably bad weather!), at a festival in Dupont, and an open mic on Bainbridge (as well as a bunch of private events).


• I got my beautiful baby guitar, which still lacks a name.


• I had a disastrous tenant whom I suspect was in need of mental help, who failed to go to work, got fired, and ran out on us while I was at work... while leaving a filthy mess for me to clean.


• Calliope was bitten badly, requiring antibiotics. Monkey got in a fight and required minor surgery, plus wound care, narcotics, and antibiotics. I decided I probably could've made it as a veterinarian.

2013 Accomplishments

• STARTED THE STUDIO PROJECT! At the beginning of the year I was still in the pits of despair trying to figure out how to get around the zoning requirements. Working up to talking with the city administrator was hard. I'm still worried about the yard rearranging I'll have to do to meet the requirements. There have been occasional disasters, but most of the actual remodeling has been GREAT, though. I've learned a lot in the process of working, and I really enjoy working with my dad.


• Learned a lot about electricity


• posed nude for Kiyoko's photographic fun (Not sure if accomplishment, but definitely a first)


• I had a resolution to exercise daily that I kept up for four months, which is about 3 and a half months longer than I thought I'd keep it, and counts as a rousing success.


• I finished and posted the last bit of my epic length fanfic. Then my mother read it, which is apparently rather unusual. :P


• I started a new wanna-be epic fic, though this one is going more slowly.


• Pinniped has definitely improved as a group, and I've improved as a musician, specifically in the area of improv.


• I worked on more art than in 2012. Still not a ton, but an improvement!


• Built a fence with Awesome Neighbor Michelle.

2014

• FINISH MY STUDIO!


• Once the studio is finished. Start working on finding a new job, or getting myself in a position to find a new job. This post from March really encapsulates my hopes and fears and issues with that.


• More of all the same arts (writing, music, visual) I've been doing, especially when there's a studio.

Holy shit, lots of things happened in 2013. o_O

New Year's Eve we had a fancy dress pathfinder party, and New Year's Day I woke up to cuddles and coffee and a lovely breakfast, and then we had a fun pinniped practice. I'm really feeling pretty optimistic about everything in my life except work.