reminiscings on a year spent well.

well, 2009 is all but over. as always, i am in a nostalgic mood. usually, the passing of the year is a slightly despondent and bittersweet time. there is always something i wish i had done, or somewhere i wished i had been. but, to my utter surprise, this year is different. 2009 has been a wonderful year [i'm including the last few months of 2008 in that as well]. i regret very little, and have made so many lovely memories throughout the year.
here are some of the highlights:

i returned to uni, something i wasnt quite sure i would ever do, and actually succeeded in my courses.
i took a month off from school and traveled from coast to coast, living out of a car.
i enrolled in art classes, bringing back the one thing that had long been missing from my life.
i passed a lovely winter living with the bears.
i spent a magical summer in flag; living, camping, and partying with my indie computer programmers, artistic druggies, and vagabond musicians.
i lived and studied in london for an autumn full of clubs, pub crawls, art, and laughing.
my knitting skills progressed and ran rampant, dominating my life.
i've ridden a motorcycle, dove off a cliff, explored underground caves, learned to swim, learned to surf, learned to ski, learned to ride a bicycle, gone skinny dipping, seen harry potter naked, flown across an ocean, and flown a kite.
i've rented my first apartment, left american soil for the first time, lived in a foreign country, and studied in a foreign country.
i've thrown a pot, painted a picture, learned digital photography, relearned manual photography, and started writing again.

all in all, i think i did well.

in the autumn of 2008, when i returned to school, a friend told me that, for me, this was the year for change. i took that to heart. i decided i was going to start living my life and make some changes. it was in that time that i actively began searching for my yellow bird. though i haven't found it, i feel i am so much closer than i was a year ago. i have had an amazing year, one of the best, but i am not sad to see it go. 2010 brings paris, a summer spent traveling, and a return to flagstaff, plus so many surprises that i cant even begin to know. but i am open, i'm just going to relax and let 2010 take me where it will. that's how 2009 worked out so well!

i decided to post a few pictures from everywhere i've been in the past fourteen months, i'm cheating and including a bit of 2008. most of these havent been seen before, since i wasnt blogging excessively when i took them. i tried not to include many photos with other people, i havent asked if its okay to put their pictures online. but i did include my sisters, in the vegas section!

alabama.

california.

colorado.

four corners.

georgia.

home.

*

*my mother would like me to clarify: yes, that is a stripper. no, i do not usually fight off big overly muscly men.

illinois.

kansas.

louisiana.

maryland.

missouri.

new mexico.

new york.

north carolina.

pennsylvania.

south carolina.

tennessee.

 
utah.

vegas.

virginia.

washington dc.

england.

wales.

ireland.

such a great year!! im so excited for 2010!!!

happy new year to you all, i hope your past year went well and the new year goes even better!