Well here we are, at the end of our first week in 2016. It is a time to look back and reflect . . . . and then get out your score cards and tally everything up.
In that spirit, here are the final outcomes of my vague 2015 goals.
TBR: Fail
This was an abject, though enjoyable, failure. I learned that I can rip through a book in a day or two only if that book is 1) mass market, or 2) devoid of any value – intellectual, emotional, or otherwise. Everything else takes intentional thought and time. I finished 9 out of the 24 books I pledged for. In order:
The Hope: A Novel
The Book of Lights
On the Kabbalah
Compilation of three of Shaw’s plays
Six Histories (Shakespeare) – Not Blogged
The Fortunate Wayfarer – Not Blogged
Fathers and Sons – Not reviewed
Ferdinand Magellan – Not Reviewed
Monsieur Beaucaire (et. al.) – Not Blogged
I started reading for this challenge in April, instead of January as I ought. In July it looked like I was going to make it anyway, and then I slowed to a crawl in September. Things really stalled in November, with Nano, and I started a book of Bacon’s essays and a book of Keat’s poems thinking they’d be easy to nibble at between word sprints. I’m still in the middle of both of those – I’m finding Keats rather appalling stuff to wade through, and it feels flippant to flip through Bacon’s one liners without giving them time and consideration. However, even if I had finished those two I still wouldn’t have been able to make it to the halfway mark. It’s a fail for me on this one, then, and yet I enjoyed it so much, grumbling aside, that I’m going to try again for 2016. This time, I think I’ll take a hill.
Crafting: Fail
I had huge plans for my sewing this year too. While I’m not surprised to find reality fell short, I am a little disappointed I never cut out the dress pattern that I patiently traced back in October. On the other hand I graded a sock pattern (wrongly, but still, ‘A’ for effort) and then actually went back and regraded it when I realized it was too big, and then went back again to make a second proto-type with modifications to help with fit. The socks are still a little loose, especially in the ankle, but I’m pretty happy I was able to sit down and tweak them without loosing patience. Or interest.
I also sewed a long cat rice bag neckwarmer – twice. The first one was too small, overstuffed, and plain poorly sewn. The second one I made sure to top stitch around the edges to prevent my seams from bursting. I have trouble sewing with a 5/8 seam allowance – it seems wasteful somehow – and since I can’t quite sew straight yet this causes all sorts of fun problems. The cat was a present, as were the five sweater potpourri hearts I embroidered for the ladies in my bible study. I love embroidering, but it’s hard to justify practicing something that has no practical benefit, so this was a lovely excuse to break out my hand-me-down silks and just be artsy.
Japanese: Win
I finished my 守人 novel!
Writing: Tie
While last year’s nano novel is still languishing away, only half proof-read, I did manage to get another “win” during nanowriomo, when I added 50k words to a completely different work.
Blogging: Win
Not that I blogged that much, but I wrote a review for six of the nine books I read this year, which puts me way ahead of my posting average.
Work: Win
Through no fault of my own, I lost my job and got a brand new, completely awesome position with built in community. Though I still miss all my old coworkers, I’m constantly thanking God for my new job. Yes, even now, six months later, I can hardly believe how lucky I am to be here. For example: this afternooon, I spent almost four solid hours poking at SQL codes.
Final Score: Tie
It was a bad year, it was a good year – and so on for another five pages. When all is said and done, this year was monumental in my favor, but I’m ready now for a quieter, blander trip around the sun. There was a lot of uncertainty and anxiety in 2015, and even though I know this has stretched my capacity to trust God and helped me realize how much I cling to things that I don’t need, I’m hoping I’ll be stretched in other ways for a bit. I’m especially looking forward to growing better at interacting with people and not seeing my time as something to hoard but as something to invest.