I meant to do this list as 2009 came to a close. But I avoided it. I think it was because things were going so well for the first time in a long time, that I really didn’t want to relive the horrors of the past year. Well, enough time has passed and the new year has begun on a pretty good note. So I can comfortably look back now at the year that was and share with you why I’m glad IT’S FINALLY #$%&* OVER!  

TOP TEN REASONS 2009 SUCKED!

1. Rattlesnake bites
2. Laryngeal Spasms
3. Inexplicable coughing fits that resulted in countless tests and visits to specialists
4. Hit and Run Drivers in Gray Volvo SUVs who obviously couldn’t afford car insurance or they would have stopped instead of drive off like the miserable cowards they were thus forcing us to shell out $1000 for our deductible
5. Cracked Rims on ALL our Honda tires for which Honda would not take responsibility. Apparently we “drive over too many potholes” here in our well-paved suburbia.
6. Kidney Stones…Randy, not me for a change.
7. Swine Flu
8. Recession
9. Suicide

Uh. Wait, That’s only 9. Okay. Maybe 2009 was NOT as bad as I remember it. Oh. Who am I kidding? Yeah it was. Just because MORE things didn’t happen doesn’t mean that the ones that did weren’t horrible.

But because Randy the perfekt husband always accuses me of being a glass half empty kind of gal, I am going to attempt to look at the bright side of the year from hell.

TOP 10 GOOD THINGS ABOUT 2009

1. Discovery Channel’s special on The Western Diamondback Rattlesnake
2. Finding out we live only minutes from a hospital that has LOADS of experience in rattlesnake bites
3. Finally overcoming the slew of health issues that befell each of us
4. Having insurance to pay for the hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills we incurred, including the $80,000 in anti-venom!
5. Taking Julia to see her WV relatives – her great-grandmother just turned 95!
6. Hawaii… ‘nuf said.
7. Watching Julia sing “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” in a cockney accent in front of the whole school
8. 11 years of marriage – woulda thunk?
9. The way our good friends came through for us when we were really ill
10. Getting Botox, even if it wasn’t in my frown lines
11. Losing twenty pounds, even if it was because of illness
12. Randy’s promotion to Sr. VP in spite of a crappy economy
13. Surviving one of our worst years ever as a family
14. Julia winning the scholarship award twice
15. Buying size 6 jeans again. I thought that would NEVER happen.
16. My brother John getting married. HE thought that would NEVER happen.
17. Getting an iPod – OMG! How did we ever live without it?
18. HOLY MOLY! A late addition I thought of AFTER I posted. I started MAMMAKAZE last year!

Well, looks like in retrospect, the glass is more on the FULL side than the empty. That’s the great thing about retrospect. It comes with it’s own special set of glasses… usually in a rose tint.

And in the end, any year that one survives…after which one is still standing, is a good year. No?

And now it’s a new year. 2010. New opportunities. New possibilities. New everything. I’m feeling the excitement of it. Are you?

To quote Natasha Bedingfield, which I don’t normally do but, hey, she said it well:

Today is where your book begins, the rest is still unwritten.

 

Here’s wishing all my MAMMAKAZES a wonderful 2010… without any rattlesnake bites!