Year’s Reflection Before Looking Ahead

It has been quite an eventful year, with so much that happened that I nearly don’t know where to begin. So, as they say, I’ll start at the beginning…

My shoes! (Picture taken from the Medieval Moccasins facebook page)

It was last January that Dylan proposed. I can’t believe that I’ve been engaged for almost a year! That’s so exciting, and as they days pass and we get closer to the wedding date I get all kinds of nervous that we won’t have everything ready and excited for the beautiful ceremony we’re planning. The arrival of my wedding shoes the other day really reminds me that we’re getting closer to the date. We met with the priestess a couple weeks ago, and soon the invites will be ordered.

March was an incredibly sad month for us, as one of our cats got suddenly ill and passed away. Then, within days, our other cat gave up fighting her own illness since her sister was no longer with us (The Power of Love). It’s been very odd being without a cat, since I had those two ever since I moved out of the barracks back in 2003. I still think of my departed babies often, and their passing still brings me to tears.

My running bling!

This year is also the first time I’ve run a 5K, and by the end of the year I totaled 15 different 5K’s that I completed. One was a live race, the Jersey Mike 5K, which I look forward to running again this year. I had a leg injury that kept me from exercise for a few months, but I’ve been back at it and starting to lose the weight I gained while laid up. I still hate running, but I oddly look forward to that quiet time, which gives me all sorts of time to think and plot ideas for my stories and blog.

My writing has become a priority this year as well, with a concentrated effort to participate in the Writer’s Digest Weekly Creative Writing Prompts, as well as the Wednesday Poetry Prompts (though I have been slacking ever since November, because…). In November I jumped into National Novel Writing Month, and “won” by writing more than the goal of 50,000 words! In fact, I finished my first draft of my novel, at over 52,000 words. I was so excited! Now I need to get a printer so I can get it in front of me on paper and start the editing. I also met some incredible writers who I now call my friends through the Platform Challenge back in October. It’s very exciting to be in touch with so many kindred spirits!

Speaking of this, my blog, I got my year-end review from “The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys” and thought I would share it with you. This year was a huge improvement in traffic and stats, and I owe it all to you, my readers! Thank you!

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,300 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 38 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

That’s all for now. I’ve got to run off to work, write my wedding vows for the ring exchange, and somewhere in all of that, write the piece I want to include in the Platchal Anthology we’re putting together. It sounds like this year will be even more eventful than last!