Bonne Nuit 2013

Well 2013, it's come to this. Just a few hours left until the clock hits midnight and you'll be nothing but a distant memory. To be honest, I'm kind of relieved to see you go. I'm ready for a fresh start, even if the new year is just an arbitrary date on a calendar.

You know how every few years, a year comes down the pike that just feels incongruous? Where you meet with "square peg, round hole" issues at seemingly every turn? Where the harder you push, the more you feel like you're spinning your wheels? Yeah, 2013 just never really happened for me. I have vague memories of 2006 kind of being like this too and I suppose, every seven years or so you're due for a year that's not really bad, but certainly not great either.

Aren't you happy you swung by to spend some time with Debbie Downer this New Year's Eve? ;)

But while I might not have been thrilled with 2013 on a whole, that only motivates me to make 2014 a really super year. And there were moments of 2013 that really sparkled and sang. I mean, how could a year that started off like this be all bad?

NYE 2012

 Without further ado, some favorite memories of 2013:

Season tickets for Broadway Across America at the Orpheum in Minneapolis with Sarah.

The advent of homemade bagels. The advent of a Ankarsrum mixer for Christmas so I don't have to incorporate all of that blankity blank flour into the stiff dough by hand has been much celebrated.

A trip to the lower peninsula of Michigan with Mom to visit brother and girlfriend.

 

This is kind of a lowlight really, but let's not forget this cheery little picture from, oh, April 19th. I was talking to my dad today about hoping that 2014 would be a better weather year. "Yeah, but that's kind of a low hanging fruit," he said. I mean, how could 2014 not be better. Honestly, it's been so blasted cold for so blasted long now that I catch myself thinking that's the end of January. Today, we're a destined for a high of about -12. You guys, I'm not sure how much more of this I can take.

 

I probably spent more time in running shoes in 2013 then I had for the entire rest of my life. Watch out world, because Santa brought me some high tech running tights and a Garmin Forerunner, so I can really nerd out with split times and all sorts of other details you never wanted to know about my runs. Happily, my test of Garmin proved that I'd been pretty accurately calculating my distance, which is a relief because I'd hate to find out what I thought was a mile was actually 6/10s of a mile or something and also because on Sunday I signed up for my first half marathon. Gettin' crazy.

Whenever I have a not so good day, I just have to think back to the Baby Crafting Weekend Shower back at the end of June to reaffirm that all is right with the world. Did I mention that this very weekend is New Year's Crafting Weekend?! And that I get to meet the crafting babies, Princess Grace and C. Liam Neeson, in just a few short days?!? (Spoiler alert: not the babies' real names.)

2013 was also the year of the mitten. Every time I turned around, I was knitting more mittens. Every time I finished a pair, I vowed I would never knit a mitten again. Surprise, surprise, I just cast on another pair of mittens last night.

It was the year of the snowmobile too. At long last, Andy purchased his dream machine. Who knows what adventures await in 2014?

What were your favorite moments of 2013?
 

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Holiday Pay and other things I've started to miss

Some people, like Meri over at Meri-Goes-Round, viewed yesterday's Memorial Day holiday as an opportunity to post about what the holiday is really about. But I'm having a "she stoops to conquer" sort of moment and have to admit the thing I associate most with the day is not picnics or placing flags on gravestones. Honestly, when I think Memorial Day, I think holiday pay.

I spent three summers on the federal payroll and while working for the feds submerges you in some unique challenges and one could argue that federal agencies foster bureaucracy and incompetency, the job came with some perks. Namely, if I showed up for a regularly scheduled shifts on say, Memorial Day or Fourth of July, I got time and a half pay. 

Andy rolls his eyes whenever I wax poetic about holiday pay and I know what you're thinking: "This girl claims she wants to be a freelance writer. Has she not yet accepted her fate as never having disposable income ever again?!" 

To be honest, I've pretty well excepted my fate as a penniless writer. And when I really think about holiday pay, I realize it wasn't really meant as a perk. In reality, it's there to promote the idea that Memorial Day (or whatever the holiday du jour) is a special day for Americans  If you aren't able to get the day off, you deserved a little extra pay to "remind" you of the holiday.


When I accepted my current job, I basically kissed summer holidays (and weddings and any other special occasion not scheduled on my days off) good-bye. Holidays roll past without me even noticing them. I've been known to ask, "oh, was it Labor Day yesterday?" Around here, life doesn't pause for holidays. We barrel through them like they don't exist.

And I suppose that's okay. But maybe it would have been nice if yesterday I'd thought less about closing out the cash register and more about my great-uncle Peter who died in WWII when his plane was shot down over France. Or about my great-uncle Frank, who was a WWII paratrooper. Or a little about my gramma.

If I'd received holiday pay, would it really have affected my mindset yesterday? Who knows? All I know is when it comes to holidays, I'm not getting them off and I'm not getting paid any more for showing up for work on them.

Welcome to summer at Of Woods and Words.

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