There are lots of ways I could slice up this year. I read 382 books, for example, which is a ridiculous number, but a lot of that was rereading children's books which go fast. I got rid of 242 books, and I have about a hundred fifty or so more ready to go out the door.
I did 17 Volksmarch events, including three more state capitals (Oklahoma City, Austin, and Topeka). Those walks also included finishing the Civil War program and the Route 66 program. The special event programs I'm working on now include the American Revolution, National Heritage, and America A-Z (as well as all the states and capitals) and I'm sending for the books for the U.S. Presidents, College Campuses, and Walking Europe in the USA programs. I am also likely to do the new Rivers and Railroad Heritage programs.
Business travels took me to Orlando, Los Angeles (twice), Boulder, Boston, and Darmstadt, Germany. My major vacation was to Japan, but I also traveled to Sweden to see Robert (leveraging off the Germany trip). My personal domestic travels were to Saint Augustine (Florida), Austin (Texas), Kansas City, Boston (for my 25th college reunion), Oklahoma City (for the National Storytelling Conference), Chicago, Neew York (to see Spamalot!), Greenville (South Carolina), Topeka (Kansas), San Francisco, and Phoenix.
In addition to seeing Spamalot! on Broadway, I went to a number of other performance events. I heard Wendy Wasserstein speak on Sloth and Tony LaRussa talk about baseball. Musical performances included the Tone Rangers, Brave Combo, the Waybacks, Old Blind Dogs, and Pierre Bensusan. Storytelling continued to be a big part of my life. I saw performances by Judith Black and Carmen Deedy. I went to the National Storytelling Conference and the Virginia Storytelling Gathering and a lot of story swaps. I performed at the Folklore Society of Greater Washington Minifest (and will be doing so again on February 4th, by the way), the Southern Maryland Celtic Festival, the Washington Storytellers Theatre Speakeasy, and the Jewish Folk Arts Festival. I also went to three baseball games (not quite enough), toured the White House, went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, and visited several museums.
Looking at my Life List, I didn't complete any items this year, but I did make progress on a few. I mentioned adding three more state capital Volksmarches, for example. Of the baseball games I attended, two were at ballparks I hadn't been to before (Comiskey Park in Chicago and Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City). I've read several more books on each of the reading lists I have. I taught one person how to bake bread. And I've slogged through more of the Bible, having just finished Psalms. Getting through Job had been such a relief that I was surprised at how tedious Psalms was.
Finally, I'll note that I made two sort of resolutions last year - to get more sleep and to eat better quality chocolate. I didn't do wonderfully well on either. The thing I did do better on was my relationship with Robert. I suspect he's done more of the work there, while I've done more of the whining, though.
All in all, 2005 wasn't bad as years go.
Copyright 2005 Miriam H. Nadel