2012 in Review

Can you believe it’s 2013 already? Not only that: it is now the middle of January. The first month will be over before you know it. On top of all that, my son will be two! Wow. Most of my readers know that regardless of how much or how little I write in my blog, every year I commemorate the previous year’s passing by making my observation on what I think the year held. And this year is no different. I have no choice but label this year as the year of matrimony for me personally. Practically everything I did in the year 2012 was in preparation for our wedding, starting with the open house we attended in January. From there, it was the ordering of napkins and cake servers and invitations. Even though I suffered the minor setback of buying a dress for $149 that I didn’t even use, it all worked out in the end because I ended up financing my dress, shoes, and accessories, and getting the look I really wanted. My husband and I had a lovely ceremony aboard the Odyssey by Spirit Cruises in Washington, DC, with a beautiful brunch cruise on the Potomac River. We had around 100 guests: a just-right size for my taste, even though we were originally supposed to have only 60 guests. My hubby pulled out the monetary stops at the end to make sure our wedding day and honeymoon were something that I would not forget. But for the year of 2012, I would have to label it a year of pairs. It seemed like one event went hand-in-hand with another. Natural disasters abounded in the year 2012, and they dogged the heels of one another. June 2012 saw an unprecedented storm called a derecho that swept from the Midwest to the east coast, cutting an 800-mile swath across North America. The lack of precipitation throughout the year caused a record drought, killing hundreds of crops. July saw the flooding of the southeastern U.S. while other parts of the U.S. suffered a record heat wave, making outdoor conditions unbearable. From June to August, western wildfires burned across Colorado and Oklahoma. In addition, over 800 tornadoes were confirmed. Finally, in terms of natural disasters, Hurricane Ernesto ravaged the southeastern U.S. while Sandy battered the northern east coast, obliterating the Jersey shore. All of these events happened in conjunction or right behind one another. Tragedy struck the U.S. in the forms of mass killings across the country, the most memorable of which were the Colorado movie killings and the Newtown killing of 20 children. There were 14 other mass killings in the United States, making the death toll from those killings 88. These tragedies also seemed to follow each other closely. Now there is talk of more gun control and more mental health regulations. Let’s hope this is the case. Finally, the year lost a plethora of celebrity legends in music and film, and they each seemed to happen in pairs as well. The year started with the death of Etta James, whose song “At Last” is still played regularly on the radio. Not long after, the world was rocked by the death of Whitney Houston. We will no longer hear the voice of 60 Minutes icon Mike Wallace. New Year’s Eves from here on out won’t be the same without Dick Clark; America lost both him and Don Cornelius, host and producer of Soul Train. I can remember watching both American Bandstand and Soul Train back-to-back as a child. Both Chuck Brown and Donna Summer, whose music moved a generation in go-go and disco, respectively, were lost the same week. The Andy Griffith Show lost both its star and Goober.The year also saw the deaths of Moesha and The Parkers star Yvette Wilson; Ernest Borgnine; “Self Destruction” rapper Miss Melodie; Welcome Back, Kotter’s Robert Hegyes and Ron Pellilo; crass comedienne Phyllis Diller; colossal actor Michael Clark Duncan; and Jack Klugman, one half of The Odd Couple among others. There was another high for this country as President Barack Obama was re-elected into office. Now it’s time for him to take the gloves off for his last term. The end of 2012 saw the government struggling with the looming fiscal cliff. Of course, there were residual effects as many Americans found their checks reduced because of increased taxes. Overall, even though the year of 2012 had a great deal of highs for me personally, I was devastated at the overall loss that the United States suffered.

Me at 40-eve

As many of you know and some of you are discovering, 2013 will be my 40th year, and such, I am compiling a list of things I want to accomplish to commemorate this year. I will admit, I gleaned the list idea from my compadre, who herself is turning 50. My major undertaking is reading through the Bible in one year with the One Year Bible, which provides daily readings from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. I would also like to reduce To-Be-Read List. The problem with my current selection is that the list grows far faster than I can read! That is the constant curse of an avid reader who just happens to work in a library. Too many times, I'm either swamped with reading student papers, or I get distracted by another book and end up not finishing the last one. I'm currently in the middle of finishing at least three books. That brings me to the next major undertaking for the year, and that is my challenge of completion. Disney XD Channel has a show called "Phineas and Ferb" where the title characters try to think of constructive activities to do during the summer. Phineas starts almost episode with "Ferb, I know what we're gonna do today!" In that same spirit, I am going to come up with a task each day that I will endeavor to complete by the end of the day. Too many times, I find myself doing several tasks and leaving just a small fraction left. The task that I complete can be large or small, personal or work-related, as long as I complete it by the end of the day. Ironically, today's goal of completion is to complete this list. But that's not all I want to do this year. I want to really get serious about my health and drop 40 pounds by the time I turn 40. Finally, I want to start going on more excursions. Some things I'd like to do this year are go to the Spy and Newseum, visit the MLK Memorial and some others, visit some wineries, a casino, and attend a sip and paint workshop. Some of these I can do with my family, and others I can try with friends. I think that's it for now; wish me luck!