that rosebud girl

See ya, decade of Aughts!

It’s almost the end of 2009. Kind of mind-blowing, considering I thought I woke up the other day and it was February 2009 and I was at a Super Bowl party watching the Steelers win an exciting game. Where the hell did time go?

It was a good year. It was a bad year. Probably marginally better than 2008.

I changed careers. I got laid off from a job. It gave me the impetus to leave the working world for the freelance life and I’m proud to say that I will never enter the working world again. I traded in one set of problems for a different set of problems when I made the jump, but I can honestly say that it was worth it.

I reconnected with a lot of friends. I reconnected with the SoCal gal in me. I felt like a jet-setter, flitting off to wherever during the fall. For better or for worse, I was living the kind of unstructured, free-spirited life that fit my personality.

I kind of forgot that this was the end of a decade. 2000 was a hell of a long time ago. 2009 was a year of monumental changes, and in a way, that’s apropos considering these Aughts were a decade of change.

When 2000 started, I was in my last year of college and graduated at the end of the year. I was kicking ass, taking names, getting ready to get out of L.A. and embark on that sportswriting career I’d wanted since I was 13.

In the next nine years, I’d live in three states, work for four newspapers, cover exactly one NCAA women’s basketball tournament game, learn about 10 new hobbies (including ice skating!), hold countless side jobs (ballet teacher and tax preparer being among them), get married, buy two houses, acquire the third of three cats, add at least 15 states to the list of states I’d set foot in, start two businesses, change career arcs at least three times, change actual careers once, get laid off once, start a band side project and meet countless amazing people along the way.

When 2009 ends, I’ll be 10 years older, looking forward to growing as a designer, thinking of new things to conquer, kicking ass and taking names. I guess some things never change.

I think this decade has brought me some of the best friendships I’ve ever had in life and some of the most meaningful ones. You are all fricking awesome and you know who you are.

Cheers.

December 31, 2009 on 1:06 pm | Comments Off