dianaschnuth

It’s become a New Year’s tradition for me to write a retrospective of what has happened over the course of the past year, and I’ve found that I really enjoy going back and reading past years’ reviews. They tend to encapsulate the important things, the high and low points, and some things that I would normally have forgotten by the end of the following year.

For quick reference, I have Years In Review from 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and now 2008.

Instead of going entirely chronologically this year, I’m going to group the major happenings by topics.

Hot topic #1 for 2008: Weight Loss. I started out the year with a weight-loss challenge against my friend and former co-worker, James. We both started out strong, but fell off the wagon after about a month and a half. In March, we spearheaded a new Spring Challenge, which lasted for another couple of months before we mutually decided to call it quits.

I didn’t call it quits entirely, though. Shortly before we decided to end our Challenge, I joined Weight Watchers — on my 32nd birthday, in fact. Since then, I’ve lost about 20 pounds in eight months. Aaron’s joined up, too, with the online program, and lost over 60 pounds in six months. We’re both looking and feeling much better, and a “normal” and healthy weight is just within reach.

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Well, it’s that time again: time to look at the past year and check off the big and important things that happened in my life. Accomplishments, tragedies, travels, things like that.

Generally, it’s easier to do these things in chronological order, and I’m not going to break with that policy this year. It means, though, that possibly one of the worst things that’s ever happened to me gets to go first in the retrospective: my miscarriage. I was pretty vague about it at the time; I hadn’t made any sort of announcement to my blog readership in general, since I was only ten weeks along.

The whole experience was just tragic all the way around — it was the one doctor’s visit where I didn’t bring Aaron along, because it was a last-minute “emergency” ultrasound; at the ultrasound, I got to see, in no uncertain terms, that my child was, in fact, no longer cute and sprightly and waving its appendages like it had been a week before; I had to break the news to Aaron when I got home; we both went to the hospital that evening so I could have the products of conception removed; I got put under general anesthesia for the first time since having my tonsils out as a kid; and Aaron just about got his heart shocked into his throat when the doctor came out of surgery to see him and was apologizing up and down, before she confirmed that I was actually fine.

I spent a couple of days being muscle-sore from the general anesthesia, and another couple weeks of being seriously depressed. Now, nearly a year later, I’m dealing with it much better. It’s still tragic, but it’s tragic in a slightly more distant sort of way. I think that several things in my life helped me deal with the loss, including having to work with pregnant people and getting into Zen Buddhism.

Shortly after our loss, Aaron and I found ourselves dining at Red Lobster, facing a decision. We now had a second chance to do all the stuff we wanted to do before we had a kid. Ultimately, we decided to go crazy and take a trip to Japan.

We spent six nights in Tokyo in May of 2007, and it was the most amazing vacation either of us had ever had. We’re both enamored with Japanese culture, so being in the middle of it for a week was just awesome. We went on an all-day bus tour, shopped at various otaku meccas like Nakano Broadway and Akihabara, went to the Ghibli Museum, attended the Sanja Festival, stayed in a traditional Japanese inn (ryokan), took over 500 digital pictures, and used all the meager Japanese we knew.

In mid-June, I took an unexpectedly spontaneous leap and joined an aikido dojo. A few weeks later, I started sitting with the Toledo Zen Center, which happens to be led by my aikido sensei. Both practices have helped me to be more at peace with myself, and to get that mind-body-spirit connection that I was craving.

Meanwhile, I knew that I would be losing my job in September, when Sky Bank would be officially merged into Huntington. So, shortly after we returned from Japan, I started job hunting in earnest. I sent out dozens of resumes, got a few follow-ups, and landed interviews with two companies. Ultimately, I took a data warehousing job at HCR ManorCare in November. This job literally doubled my previous income, and got me further into the fields of information services and business intelligence.

Those were the banner events of 2007. Other things happened, of course: my one-time mentor, Tim King, passed away in February; I made a feeble and brief attempt to start the Body For Life diet after our Japan trip in May; my Uncle Donnie passed away in March, and I found out about it in August; I was outed as a non-Christian in the Toledo Blade in October; and I made my largest candle sale so far ($50) to my former supervisor in December.

In a word, 2007 was intense. More life-changing events happened in one year than I think I’ve ever experienced in such a short time. In the end, though, I’ve come out as a stronger and happier person for all of it.

Yes, it’s time once again to take a look back at the events and accomplishments that stand out over the past year, and to remind myself that I did, in fact, do something more than just coast over the past 12 months…

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I’ve been kind of slack with posting blog entries this week. I just haven’t been “feeling it,” I guess. So, while I’m home from work on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and while Aaron is still upstairs asleep, I’m going to take this opportunity to blog about the major events of 2005.
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This year has been one of a few large upgrades for myself and Aaron. Not a whole lot happened, but what did was pretty major.

In March, we bought our house. This necessitated a move from Bowling Green (where I worked at the time) to Toledo (much closer to where Aaron works).

In May, we adopted Mei. May was also our one-year wedding anniversary.

In June, I took a new job within Sky Bank, closer to home. In fact, it’s practically across the street from where Aaron works. I didn’t get a raise or anything, but working ten minutes from home instead of 35 was enough of an upgrade for me. That extra 20 minutes of Aaron-time made things so much better, as did the drastic reduction in petrol usage.

The summer of 2004 was the first time I’d performed with a drum & bugle corps since 1997, when I “aged out” of Junior corps. I joined up with the LakeShoremen Senior Drum & Bugle Corps, and drove my ass up to Michigan every other weekend to march in various parades. It had its good points and its bad points, but I still plan to march again in 2005.

On September 1st, I officially launched dianaschnuth.net, complete with Movable Type and CSS layout. September was also our one-year anniversary of being on Atkins.

Sometime in the Fall—September or October, I forget which—Mom and Gary bought a house and moved down to Fort Worth TX. Before they managed to actually close on the house, and while they were living with Gary’s folks, Gary’s German Shorthair Pointer, Joshua, died. The dog going didn’t really affect me, but it really affected Gary, of course. Their moving affected me a bit, though, as it isn’t quite as simple and straightforward to go and visit my family now.

Apart from that… I can’t really think of any other life-shaping events that happened during 2004. No new cars (that was December 2002), no new kids (that’s not until… well, whenever it happens), no deaths (that was 2003). I’m sure someone will remind me of something, though.