2008 Abridged

I know there's no way I'll be able to write tomorrow. My train leaves Providence (God-willing) at 9:01 and should arrive in DC around 4. I'm hoping to get out of the city as fast as I possibly can before people start pouring into the district to celebrate the New Year in our nation's capitol. The only thing I have working for me right now is the fact that I'll be escaping DC when everyone else is trying to get in, which is basically what a guy I met in line at Union Station on Monday said. 

Either way, I figured it's probably time for me to wrap up my 2008 and make a few hopes (not resolutions...) for 2009. Don't worry, I'll keep it as brief as possible, because I do believe that most other bloggers are doing the same thing. 

So, in 2008 I...

• Applied to long-shot graduate schools and was accepted to one in London. 
• Met a pretty cool guy because my jacket was tangled around my desk when I tried to leave History of Television and he felt it appropriate to mock me. (later, I started dating said pretty cool guy)
• Wrote a 25-page paper about magazine feature writing and actually spent a page and a half on concise writing to take up space. 
• Graduated from college with a bachelor of science and thought I wanted to be a journalist.
• Developed a paralyzing fear of flying. 
• Took a train halfway across the country to see my family in Texas...twice. 
• Went on a cruise which included drinking Red Stripe on a bamboo raft paddled down a river by a friendly Jamaican named Keith, holding baby sea turtles, swimming with dolphins and making friends with a number of Carnival cruise line bartenders. 
  
• Was taken to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for my birthday and almost cried after seeing John Lennon's green card and a bunch of Jerry Garcia's guitars. 
• Decided I wanted to move back to West Virginia and not go to grad school.
• Changed my mind and decided to move back to West Virginia to go to grad school to be an English teacher. 
• Started substitute teaching and sold bras for a few months. 
• Watched a lot of reality television. 
• Discovered the joys of yogurt parfaits from Mellow Moods. 
• Tried to reduce my caffeine intake...and failed miserably. 
• Officially had all of my pre-college ex-boyfriends get married and have children...or just...have children.
• Fell in love. 

I did a bunch of other things, but those are the moments that stuck out and really defined 2008. If nothing else, this year really helped me to start to become the independent, strong woman that the rest of the women in my family are. 

So, as a result, in 2009 I would like to...

• Write more privately, in my Moleskine journal like I used to. 
• Drink coffee in moderation. 
• Eat healthier, in general. 
• Find some form of working out that I actually enjoy and keep it up. 
• Find students to tutor. 
• Finish saving up the money I need for a new MacBook. 
• In general, laugh louder, be more comfortable in new social situations and get more out of every learning situation I'm presented with. 
• Oh, and pass PRAXIS II, so I can move from a master of arts in teaching candidate to master of arts in teaching student.
• Appreciate Jane Austen. 
• Brush up my HTML and make this blog sparkle. 

And that's all she wrote. Here's to 2009, and hopes that I can make it tomorrow night to midnight.