A Year in Review Theme

It's been a long strange year, to say the least! And while I'm sure it won't have nothing on next year, let's review it anyhow, shall we?


2010 started with pain. There was the overwhelming physical pain stemming from a lingering knee sprain and plantar faciitis. I seem to remember quite a few of you laughing at me as I hobbled around like a crippled old man. You're all going to hell dear friends.

Speaking of laughing at me...

Then there was the mental pain of realizing that my scholarship had expired and I didn't have enough money to pay for the rest of college. I dropped all my classes and bailed on my education. Again. That hurt a lot. Sure, the year ended in my graduation with a degree in history and a 3.95 g.p.a, but there was no way to know that at the time. The last semester was pretty rough (and so was the graduation for that matter, although that was my own fault for being uh….dehydrated) but I persevered. And by persevered, I mean I played a lot of cards in the hallway and brushed up on my Spanish dirty words.

But it wasn't all bad. 2010 was a great year for me, creativity-wise. I discovered, with the help of Julia Child, that I am a really good cook. Also, I invented the Ass Hat, which is surely a highlight in everyone's year! Ohh, and don't forget the super-epicness of Glow in the Dark Croquet.



The Original Asshat

 Also in the awesome category was the Fourth of July (ok, it was the 3rd, on the actual 4th, Bex and I unpatriotically went to a British pub) that I spent blowing stuff up in Kansas with my roommate's family. Hitherto fore I had never lit a single firework - not a sparkler nor those things you throw on the ground whose name escapes me. It was great fun, even the part where I was briefly on fire. My life has been rather unusual, so I have to go back now, as an adult, and do all the things that most people take for granted as a normal part of childhood.

The most surreal portion of the year was Memorial Day, when my last remaining grandparent died. We played mah jong in the grass and tried to get our brains to catch up. I don't really know how to express this in a way that makes good literary sense but the most important thing was, at Grandma's funeral, we were all there. We were all there in a way we hadn't been since Ellie's wedding, approximately 100,000 years ago. And it was all possible because strangely, the most present person was Grandpa, even though he had passed on sixteen years ago.



Go Team Purple!

And a special thanks, once again, to Uncle Al. Mom (who, like me, gets super bull-dozing efficient when she is stressed) was trying to make me choose between going through Grandma's stuff and being there to sprinkle her ashes. I couldn't choose. I was going under when Uncle Al stepped in and said that if even one person wanted to be there to sprinkle the ashes, we would make it happen. That day by the lake, when all of us re-united the mortal remains of Ray and Liz, will forever be one of my most cherished memories. The funeral was for all the other people, this was for us. It was impromptu and utterly perfect, full of tears and laughter and a beautifully fitting elegy called "the Orchestra Song."

My biggest sadness is that the Grandma whose name I carry did not live to see me commissioned as a Methodist missionary. I spent a really wonderful and inspiring time in New York for my training; just a stones throw from a family landmark. Many years ago, my great-grandfather was in New York getting commissioned to leave as a Methodist missionary to the province of Gujarat when he unexpectedly ran into a woman he'd grown up with. A few days later, she wrote home to her parents saying that they'd eloped and were on the boat to India.



NYC zooming past

If there's one thing I learned over the course of this year, it is that my family is exceptional.

And if there are two things I've learned this year, the second is that a bidet in English is called a douche bowl.

Happy New Year.