Recapping this erratic year...
Current mood: adventurous
Category: Life

January: Spent the New Years holiday in Berlin and Frankfurt, Germany and then spent the next few weeks scurrying to find solid freelance jobs and eating as many green, leafy vegetables as possible to counteract the pounds of cheese and carbs and globs of heavy food consumed while on vacation. I also saw the actual end of my career with Big Box Bookstore as I assisted with the closing of the last few locations where I had worked. It was bittersweet as I had many good compadres over the twelve years I had worked for the bookstore but I knew that leaving mant I could valiantly struggle to successfully work freelance, finish my Masters and never work retail again.

Oh, and for the first time in 32 years my birthday passed without a single present... and I wasn't even bummed in the slightest, thus marking a strange passage to adulthood.

February: My neighbor hit my car while 'clearing the snow in front of the house' with her pickup truck. My car was parked about 3 spaces back. $2600 worth of work and my hood is now a slightly different shade of blue, something that was not obvious in the dank winter sun but is frightfully obvious in the harsher, glaring summer sun. Looks like I'll own this VW till the bitter end.

I wrote four articles, got paid swiftly and spent a lot of time reading and writing real letters to friends. My laptop dies, carrying with it in its grip of death my iTunes library.

March: I embark on a road trip down south, seeing my mother briefly, as well as an old friend in DC. Dropped off Dre and dog on the Appalachian trail for their hike north and continued onwards to FL. While in FL, found out that the man who killed my brother had agreed to plea deal with the defense attorney without our knowledge. I also drove by the street where he had been stabbed and felt a white hot surge of anger, as I have never felt before. I can't explain it...not even when the DA originally had been discussing possibly seeking the death penalty. I was against it then, am still against it now, but as I sat in the parking lot of the apt. complex and ran through the scene in my mind as it related to the witness testimonies, I could not help but hate. Ugh. It was one of the worse feelings I have ever had in my life, foreign and insidious.

April: blah. Ran a lot, wrote a lot, read a lot.

May: Went to Israel as part of the archaeological dig, fell in love with the work, the land, the food. Formed a few solid friendships which are still strong including many a night of drinking gin & tonics with Valerie Hemingway.

While I was in Israel, Jeffrey Tremmel, the man who murdered my brother, receives a 30 year sentence, of which he has already served two. My statement to him was read by my sister. He kept his head down the whole time apparently. He never apologized, never looked at anyone in the family. He had a spider tattooed on his shaved head. During his statement he said he was sorry that his four year old son, who lives in Ohio, has to live without his father. My brothers 3 year old son was not in the courtroom.

June: Read a lot of books? Check. Slacked a bit? Check. Worked a bit? Check.

July: Spent a week in Cape Cod with my father and his girlfriend on my uncles yacht. Never felt closer to my uncle and father as they regaled us with stories from their crazy youth in a house of six children. Found out I got the job in Israel. Drank too much and ate too much food.

August: Spent another week in Cape Cod, this time in Eastham in a cottage with eight friends... One of those pivotal vacations where one group of great friends is introduced to another when some pals from FL joined us.
Came home and worked feverishly for a couple of weeks and then left for Second Vacation, a trip to the White Mountains in NH and then to Acadia National Park. I don't think I've ever spent so much time on vacation in my life and paid for it when I got home, desperately tracking down jobs and writing until all hours of the night but it was well worth it.

September/October: Lot's of work, various kinds. Lots of books.

November: Attended the Batchelder Biblical Archeology conference in Omaha, NE. Saw many friends from the dig. Met and had cocktails with Dr. James Tabor who wrote The Jesus Dynasty and has James Camerons phone number in his iPhone. Tried to get him to ring up JC to no avail.

December: Got a job editing Dr. Rami Arav's forthcoming book. Spending time with old friends. Went on a 5 hour motorcycle ride and fell in love with my family all over again.

Whew. An erratic year.
This upcoming year I simply vow to travel as much as possible and enjoy the hell out of Israel.