oh nein

I know that most people process this at the beginning of January, but you know, my classes don't start until next week, which means that the last 20 days since the holidays have more-or-less officially ended have been filled with guilt-ridden and rain-season-induced procrastination slash headache from being stuck inside a small apartment with only a cat to have a conversation with. I haven't eaten properly or slept properly or done anything properly in the last 2 weeks, and I am kind of ready to get on with life.

But in light of all this, I have had a bit of time to do a little more reflecting. So I decided to make a list of 9 things (to commemorate the last year of the decade) that I have done for the very first time in 2009:

1. Skinny dipped, in Lake Michigan. That's right, I couldn't remember an adult and truly skinny dipping instance from my past, so I'm counting this one as my first.
2. Backpacked (overnight rain gear and all) on the hills around Lake Tahoe.
3. Saw my very first free-ranging whale, on the Pacific.
4. Saw London from the London Eye, rode the Tube, met the Queen. Ok, maybe it was an almost on that last one.
5. Had an English brew with my dad and helped my little sister with a school project.
6. Met a long-time internet friend at Shakespeare's Globe. What a performance! What company!
7. Attended an international professional conference, and got most of the costs covered.
8. Attended a drag show. According to my in-the-know gay friends, this was a good one. Oh, Berkeley.
9. Got my tragus pierced. Not my first cartilage piercing, but hopefully the first to survive the tumultuous healing period.

And here are 10 things (to appease the select group of "twenty-ten" enthusiasts) that I would love to see happen in 2010. Although if they don't, I won't be crying any rivers (nice as rivers may be), because I'm certain that ten equally as awesome and unpredictable things will happen instead:

1. Travel. Oh how many places remain undiscovered by me. Currently I have my eyes on the Pac Northwest coast (Oregon and Seattle), Texas, and/or Oaxaca, Mexico.
2. Camp in Yosemite, the real overnight tent deal.
3. Meet local Russians and interview them for my research project. Also, meet local Russians.
4. Finish research project, present findings at a conference, officially receive my Master's degree. Eek! And, finally!
5. Get a dog. Or at least a bigger place.
6. Take said dog on an overnight backpacking/camping trip. Or at least, take said dog on extended weekend hikes.
7. Learn the flute part to a folksy number for a flute-guitar duet, and perform it (somewhere totally informal) with a guitar counterpart (my husband will do).
8. Finish learning the crocheting basics. I started last year with the basic basics, and even made a small pouch to hold my crocheting hooks, but it's time to move to more advanced basics, I think.
9. Serve on a jury. I know most people aren't excited about jury duty, and yes, it's a total hassle. But it's my right as a new citizen, and I wanna exercise it, dangit! Plus, I watch entirely too many CSI episodes.
10. Get a tattoo, perhaps of a compass (to commemorate my wandering propensities), perhaps in a completely appropriately-professional nonvisible place this time.

Did you do anything for the first time last year? Are you thinking of doing some more new things this year? I'm intrigued!