#2014 recap

I like the rhythm of asking myself the same questions over and over again, so here's the survey I usually do at EOY. 1. What did you do in 2013 that you’d never done before? The two biggest newnesses were: a.) going to Minneapolis where I made awesome friends at writers camp b.) launching my own column on Nooga.com.

Also memorable this past year were: Met Lauren Winner. Started my fourth consecutive year working at the same place. Taught a new class just for first year students. Witnessed one of my sibbies get married. Toured Graceland. Moving and having lots of meltdowns about it.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
 I tried so hard to get into the best shape of my life. The silver lining is that when I couldn't because I kept getting injured, I learned that I was anemic. Knowledge is such power.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
 Yes, and I am especially ecstatic about the first of my cousins to become a parent. Congrazzles to Ryan and Rachel on the gorgeous Claire!

4. Did anyone close to you die? I'm so extra grateful to answer no this year.

5. What would you like to have in 2015 that you lacked in 2014? A book deal.

6. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
 Writing a bimonthly column has been so life-giving to me. It has connected me with community members in ways I had not yet anticipated, and my love for Chattanooga has grown immeasurably.

7. What was your biggest failure? I learned some things about teaching this year that were major blows to my ego but I don't call learning from shortcomings "a biggest failure." Just learning to fail forward, as it were.

8. Did you suffer illness or injury? see #2

9. What was the best thing you bought? Um, Just Dance 4 for the Wii is pretty fabulous.

10. What did you get really excited about? My sister TP got married Sarah Koenig is absolutely blowing the doors off investigative journalism with Serial.

11. What was the best book you read this year?

close ranking:

12. Compared to this time last year, are you:
 – happier or sadder? I have a lot to be happy about – thinner or fatter? Fatter – richer or poorer? About the same

13. What was your favorite TV program? Parenthood The Good Wife Orange is the New Black Season II

14. What was your favorite music from this year?
 Ryan Adams' newest Bethel Church "It is Well"

15. What were your favorite films of the year? I really liked "Liberal Arts," "Thanks for Sharing," and "One Day"--all on Netflix. Honestly, Big Hero 6 was absolutely adorable.

16. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? On my 34th birthday, I went to a staff meeting and accompanied my hubby at the hospital when his finger got dislocated.

17. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2014.
 I am a better mom when I am in educating-mode versus rebuking-mode. Majoring in the former makes the latter more impactful.

3 things that are terribly unfair (see also: might die)

Hello, world. Remember how I was all ra-ra, dance like no one's watching yesterday about sugar maple trees? That must have been the Monday girl. Because today's blogger is in a bad way.

Terribly Unfair Thing the First All of my hair is falling out and I'm gaining weight like the wrong kind of loser on Biggest Loser and the mouth-breather on the other line at the doctor's office just waited on the line, snapping her gum, didn't even say hello? HELLO! I THINK MY THYROID IS BROKEN. Please to set up an appointment and please to not judge me on my insurance plan. Southern hospitality, my hat. Shoulda just bought the Groupon for hair loss treatment and called it a day.

Terribly Unfair Thing the Second Have you ever tried to contain a 4 year-old boy in a public place where running is not an option? Remember how well that went? Four year-old son was all thinking the velvet ropes at the bank were the Olympic bars and the whole space was basically set up for the 100 yard dash, right? So then you go and sign up for a Fun Run with the same lad. All the kool kats from school are there at the starting line. Runners take their makrs. Your son is wearing a fierce headband and the sun is shining and the atmosphere is equally sunny. YOU ARE GOING TO ROCK THIS RACE. Then your son, who is 100% Tasmanian Devil when not sleeping, cannot run. Everyone else is motoring around the race course and your son just wants to hold your hand and caboose it. He's walking so slow he's practically crawling. His face says, please carry me, his legs say, please seat me over there with the oxygen tank draggers. By the time you cross the finish line it is already time to file your taxes.

Terribly Unfair Thing the Third

I have spent the better part of the last week meeting with my Aflac rep (quack) and filing claims for my accident policy. I am way too young for this biz. Sadder still is how excited I am when I've successfully filed the claim. Like, I'm legit geeked when I get the message that "your claim is complete." If this is what dazzles me in my mid-twirties, what else is there to look forward to in life? Colonoscopies? Blockbuster sale on wheat germ at GNC? Ken Burns taking on Alan Greenspan for PBS?

Hand me that new Taylor Swift album. I just gotta shake off all this injustice...and #firstworldproblems

The sugar maple trees that are changing (us)

There are some sugar maples not far from my kids' school that are changing. They're changing form and color and they are changing the little community in which we live.

I see our friends post on instagram how grateful they are to have these giving trees in which their kids can play in the leafpiles. They share snapshots of the trees, their tops starting to shed, suddenly looking immodest as if Autumn were the worst kind of closet-raider.

The sugar maple tree in itself has a lovely shape. Strong but elegant, the kind you want to capture in a silhouette and put on a wedding invitation.

I have a colleague who knows plantlife and he was the one told me the trees were the sugar maples. I am not very good with botany or ID-ing arbors. I am not typically observant of details--I am more intuitive, feeling the changing of seasons in my bones first and then with my eyes.  But it seems that everyone has been noticing these gorgeous sugar maples in front of the school. Men, women, children, the trees are the talk of the town.

I took my lunch break to capture these images. I've worked at places where taking a lunch anywhere other than in your cubicle was practically an act of civil disobedience. And if stomping around on school grounds to admire some sugar maples is wrong, then I don't want to be right.

I'm not about to go all The Lorax on you or make reference to #leafporn. I just want to share how this feels. I cannot remember the last time a community (e.g. a neighborhood, a school, a workplace, a family) was abuzz about something marvelous. Usually the trending topic, the Facebook feed is rife with scandal, controversy, shocking statistics. It's rare for our eyes to be collectively pointed to beauty.

I just want to be swept up in the autumnal adoration, especially because I can't remember the last time we were all rallying around the glory of leaves.

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I can't remember the last time the word on the street was, "Wow.

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