Goodbye, Year

Every year at this time, I break open a new calendar for the kitchen refrigerator and write in all the birthdays, upcoming weddings and the Marquette basketball schedule. I usually look back at the previous year's calendar at the days spent vacationing or the miscellaneous events and am grateful for a fresh start. This was the first year ever, I think, where I actually wanted to keep the old calendar just as a reminder of what a great year 2009 was for us.

The fun started in February, when we found out Eamon was on his way. The rest of '09, according to the calendar, was full of networking events and job interviews (all unsuccessful, but probably not meant to be otherwise), doctor's appointments and quick trips to Michigan and Iowa. Not exactly the European vacations we'd taken in previous years, but still fun.

I haven't thrown the calendar away; I think I might store it with the issues of the Chicago Tribune and New York Times we bought the day Eamon was born. It might be fun to look at 10 or 20 years from now if I ever wonder, "what did I do with all that free time when I was pregnant and unemployed?" Truthfully, even with the calendar as a reference, I still don't know. But I know it was a very good year.