timeline of important events in my life

i don't remember what got me started on this, but a few weeks ago i was trying to remember how old i was when something happened. i couldn't remember off the top of my head, so i started making a list of my life events, and it morphed into this:

(*family - if you remember more specific dates or if i'm wrong on a year, let me know!*)

sometime in 1985 - mom tells dad she's pregnant, dad responds, "Oh, shit!" (He *claims* that he was referring to the prospect of another decade of hosting kid birthday parties... suuuuuure, dad!!!)
Nov 20, 1985 - BORN DAY - the bestest of days!!!
sometime in the summer of 1986 - started walking, enjoying sunrises (mom and dad presumably respond, "Oh, shit!")
Memorial Day Weekend 1988 - moved from 3812 Calvert St to 4333 Yuma St
Fall 1989 - started elementary school
summer 1993 - RV trip around Nevada
summer 1995 - trip to St. John's (USVI) 
1995/6 (?) - Pasha the dog dies, adopt Gus the dog
June 1997 - graduated elementary school
September 1997 - started junior high school
summer 1998 - traveled to England
summer 1999 - traveled to England/Scotland
June 2000 - graduated junior high school
summer 2000 - traveled to England/Ireland
September 2000 - started high school
August 2001 - traveled to Zambia
summer 2002 - traveled to Brazil
August 2002 - tore ACL
October 12, 2002 - Rob and Linda got married
May 1, 2003 - Joe and Griff were born
May 9, 2003 - ACL reconstruction surgery
June 2003 - graduated high school
July 4, 2003 - Lindsay and Rich got married
September 2003 - moved to Evanston, IL & started BA at Northwestern University
2003-2004 (freshman year) - lived in Elder Hall
June 7, 2004 - OLGB dies :(
2004-2005 (sophomore year) - lived in Allison Hall
summer 2005 - family trip to Russian River, CA
Sept-Dec 2005 (first quarter of junior year) - lived in Foster-Walker Complex
January-May 2006 - studied abroad in Seville, Spain
March 2006 - traveled to Italy and Morocco
April 2006 - traveled to Belgium, Sweden, England, and Portugal
April 18, 2006 - Jack was born
2006 - 2007 (senior year) - lived in Kemper Hall
June 2007 - graduated from Northwestern and moved back to 4333 Yuma St
June/July 2007 - family trip to Maine
August 13, 2007 - started working at TFAS as part time receptionist
September 25, 2007 - Gus the dog dies
November 1, 2007 - hired as full-time International Programs Assistant at TFAS
March (April?) - moved to 3726 Conn Ave
June 2008 - Kristine moves to DC
July/August 2008 - traveled to Greece (for work)
October 2008 - moved back to 4333 Yuma
Feb 1, 2009 - started dating Granger
June 2009 - moved to 3701 Mass Ave
June 2009 - family trip to Mexico
July 2009 - Kristine leaves DC
August 2009 - moved to 3619 S St
October 9, 2009 - Elise born
November 5-11 2009 - traveled to Hawaii (without ID...)
January 2010 - started MA at American University
August 23, 2010 - that stinky Zambian (Angelina? Angelique?) moves to DC
January 2011 - moved to 4413 Yuma St
February 2011 - moved to 4333 Yuma St
March 24, 2011 - tore meniscus
April 8, 2011 - got surgery on meniscus
May 22, 2011 - Granger deployed to Afghanistan
May 28, 2011 - Eric & Beth's dual bachelor/bachelorette parties in Denver
June 18, 2011 - Eric and Beth get married
July-August 2011 - traveled to Prague (for work) and Greece
October 10, 2011 - adopted Sadie the dog
December 21, 2011 - submitted final draft of SRP @ AU
December 22, 2011 - finished MA & graduated from American University
December 24, 2011 - Granger home from Afghanistan
April 13, 2012 - The Gramanator's 90th birthday party
July-August 2012 - traveled to Prague and Greece (for work)
September 2012 - moved to 2000 Baltimore Rd in Rockville
2013 - WHO THE HECK KNOWS

Final Score: 20 things

1. Finish knitting the scarf for my mom - FINALLY!!! only took me 7 years...
2. Get an awesome job that I love - i applied to i don't know how many jobs, got an interview for one (didn't get the job, though), didn't hear back from most. the process continues.
3. Learn how to coupon - i just didn't have the time or the energy to figure out the logistics of couponing. to get started i just need to figure out how to get like 10+ of those coupon insert thingys, then it shouldn't be too hard.
4. Practice my Spanish - i took a "what level of spanish are you?" quiz on the internet, and it said i was intermediate. so yeah, if the internet says...
5. Start learning French - i just need to start this one. i really want to learn french!
6. Travel to a foreign country i haven't visited yet - Turks and Caicos
7. Write poetry/fiction - i wrote some pretty lame haikus, but i'm counting them anyway!
8. Make something (scarf, quilt...) - yes, i AM counting finishing the scarf for my mom, and no, i don't think that's cheating,
9. Take pottery classes - this one was just too expensive for my current life stage
10. Take a class in photoshop - i was supposed to do this for work, but it just didn't happen in 2012
11. Get an apartment - :)
12. Make artwork for the apartment - see evidence here
13. Visit Annapolis - going there february 23-14, 2013 for work, but i didn't make it in 2012
14. Visit Monica in Charlottesville - i visited caroline too! we went wine "tasting" :)
15. Visit a state I haven't been to before - still waiting to make it to kentuky or new jersey (woo...)
16. Volunteer at least 6 times - i really thought i was going to be able to make this goal, but i only managed to volunteer a total of 4 times (Kenilworth-Bandalong Litter Trap clean up, IONA house meal packaging, Marvin Gaye Park-Bandalong Litter Trap clean up, cleaning and doing maintenance at an orphanage outside of Prague)
17. Read at least 12 books for fun - this one, it turns out, was super easy since i really missed reading for fun in grad school. final tally: 34 books (The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay, The Missing Person's Guide to Love, Dracula, Pawn of Prophecy, Queen of Sorcery, Magician's Gambit, Castle of Wizardry, Enchanter's End Game, Guardians of the West, King of the Murgos, Demon Lord of Karanda, Sorceress of Darshiva, Wuthering Heights, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Tears of the Giraffe, Morality for Beautiful Girls, The Kalahari Typing School for Men, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Valley of Fear, Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Fifty Shades trilogy, A Game of Thrones, Stolen Fury, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, Silver Justice, The Devil All the Time, currently reading A Feast for Crows)
18. Consolidate, organize, and get rid of excess stuff
19. Pay off grad school loans - BOOYA!!! i'm $17,182.16 poorer, but at least i don't have to worry about it anymore
20. Lose 20 lbs (starting weight: 170; goal weight: 150) - i failed miserably at this one. i lost 15 pounds by July 2012, but in the second half of the year I gained it all back. i'm kicking myself now, but at least i know i CAN do it if i really set my mind to it. so, hello new-goal-for-2013!

so, 11/20 completed.  not too great, but it turns out that's a pretty standard completion rate for me.  maybe i'm aiming too high, maybe i just need to set easier (less expensive/time consuming) goals for myself???  like: brush my teeth every day, put clean laundry away within one week of washing it, eat daily...  i'll have to think about it before i make my next list.

artwork

after a trip to IKEA to buy the frames (among other things), i finally finished the artwork i have been working on for the apartment.  you may recognize my doodles - i've been doing them my whole life!

here's the final product:

(and for those keeping score, please note that this takes care of #12 on my '20 things to do in 2012' list)

happiness is...

...having just paid off your graduate school loans IN FULL less than ONE YEAR after completing your degree

*pats self on back

election day

i think obama's got this, but i'm still nervous!!!!  i just want this day/election to be over, for obama to have won it, and for the country to move on to bigger and better things.

and in the meantime, i want some wine!


UPDATE: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sadie the dog

yesterday was the one year anniversary since sadie joined the moore/michael family.  when i first got her, i was worried that i was going to somehow screw her up, but it looks like i haven't.  at least not yet anyway.  turns out that all you have to do is make sure you treat your dog like a dog, not a spoiled kid, and they'll be all like "ohhhhhhhhh, duuuuuuude, i get it now... YOU'RE in charge" and then do/listen to whatever you say.  that is unless you're telling your dog to do something important, something that should probably already be pretty darn clear to them (example: i overheard granger tell sadie the other night, as she was wheeze-coughing over her food bowl, "sadie, you idiot, you have to BREATHE while you eat!").

anyway, as i think everyone already knows, i had wanted a dog for a long time before i got sadie.  and then she waltzes into my life at exactly the right moment: granger is in afghanistan (making me relatively emotionally unstable) and approximately 143% of my time is spent writing my MA thesis (making me relatively emotionally unstable), working part-time (less money!!!!) at my less-than-ideal job (making me relatively emotionally unstable), and going to class/completing assignments for class (making me relatively emotionally unstable).  getting sadie, aka ms. snugglemuffin extraordinaire, at that point in my life was PERFECT.  every time i got completely overwhelmed with everything and started crying i had a real live thing i could hug and snuggle with, and all she'd do was wag her tail, snuggle closer, and sometimes fart to lighten the mood.  and then i finished my MA and granger came home, and i STILL had an awesome dog that i could do fun things with, and she would still wag her tail and snuggle with me.  even perfecter!

and now, with granger and i ensconced in an apartment that actually allows her overly-aggressive/vicious attack-dog breed (see "snuggling" from above), things have gotten even perfecterer.  can't complain about perfecterer!  this is, of course, not to say that sadie is 100% responsible for the awesomeness that is my life right now, but she sure helped when things were less awesome last year, and now that things are awesome again she just adds to their awesomitude.  granger and i laugh at her ridiculous antics several times a day (see: running into the screen door when she thought it was open, getting her tug caught on the arm of a chair and then dragging the chair through the living room trying to free it, scaring herself with her loud farts because "guys, did you hear that?!?! where the hell did that sound come from??? and WHAT is that SMELL???", her quite un-ladylike snoring, her twitchy dreams where you can tell if she's chasing something or eating something, and the routes/methods she chooses as the "best option" for getting onto the sofa with us, including jumping onto granger's lap and then walking across my abdomen to get to "her" spot.)

of course, no one is perfect (except me!).  but, the rare occasions when sadie has done something bad, i use her full name - sadie moore michael - so she knows she's in trouble.  when she's being annoying, however, i just call her sadie michael, since she CLEARLY didn't get that skill from the moore side (see: me = perfect from above).

anyway, flaws and all, it has been awesome having a dog, and even awesomer that my dog is sadie.  just look at that floppy ear!!!

haikus

it's raining outside
i wish i was still in bed
instead i'm at work

maryland drivers
keep your eye out for bikers
and learn how to drive

happiness consists
of a Redskins victory
and a Cowboys loss

BAM! done with #7 on my list of things to do.  :)