Highlights

2008 has added up to a pretty fantastic year:

* Started the year in Minnesota with the same friend whose living room I am currently sitting in (4th year in a row--now it's tradition).

* Preceded to Maui for the week immediately before classes started. That was pretty much the best week ever: beaches everyday, delicious food, and the complete and undivided attention of one of my closest friends. We swam in a freakin' tide pool, for goodness sake!

* Had a great spring semester that culminated in my winning an writing award at school.

* Took the summer off and read and rested and spent some hammock time up at the lake with my cousins and the rest of the family.

* Had a pretty great weekend-long first friendship date in Madison that turned into a friendship that is really important to me and also a great collaborative story.

* Got to be there in the hospital when my best friend since 3rd grade had her second baby!

* Spent a week in Montana hiking some, tubing in a river surrounded by sky and mountains, but mostly enjoying the company.

* Started a new job that I love that is turning out to be more permanent, more rewarding, more work, and more wonderful than I could have ever imagined.

* Wrote four stories and started three others for my dissertation project, which I also solidified and started to organize this year.

* Watched as three of my friends got married this year: two trips to Iowa in two weeks and one via my imagination to St. Lucia.

* Saw Death Cab for Cutie THREE times in six months--in Minneapolis in June, in Green Bay in October, and in Milwaukee in December! Sheer awesomeness.

* Moved to Milwaukee to live in a little tree house apartment with a great little room with a balcony and a cool roommate. I now have all my books organized and spread throughout my room, pictures and pictures and pictures hanging on the walls, and a billion blankets to keep things cozy.

And I am going to embrace my love of the number 12 and leave the list as it is. I have felt so blessed throughout this entire year; I know who my friends are and that I can depend on them and that they depend on me, I have somehow managed to turn my favorite things to do into a career, I have been healthy and lucky enough to be able to support my life and give a little back. I feel rich in the best possible ways.

2009 has a lot to live up to. And I can't wait to see what happens next.