On to 2015

I definitely didn't blog as much in 2014. 2014 seemed more energy-draining than most of the past years, with the exception of 2008 (the year my daughter was born).

There really wasn't a theme for the year--mostly it was to get by, which is kind of sad.

All in all, it was a good year. Here's the "good" summary:

• Paid off the mortgage. We are completely debt free. We had paid off the old house in 2004. We bought this house at the end of 2009. Pretty good to pay it off in less than 5 years.
• Went on our first vacation that wasn't to see family or with family (neither count as "vacation" in my books). We took a cruise to Alaska. I'm not sure I'd do a cruise again, but it was a mostly good experience.
• Skydived for the first time. This was on my mental bucket list. It was more dizzying than one might think. I was getting over bronchitis when I went, so I was having ear issues. Stuffy ears and sinuses probably lessened the experience. I made it through okay, but I just wanted to sleep afterward. My tip for you if you do skydive is to make sure you're at 100% health. It was cool to surrender yourself to the earth and hope you make it back down okay.  Quite thrilling!

Here's the "other" summary. Not necessarily bad, but more the life lessons from the year:

• I was assigned a different job for two months. Basically, they were desperate and needed someone to volunteer to do it. I absolutely hated it, but I'm glad I did it. My regular job is full of deadlines and projects I need to do. I love having a list and checking things off. Jobs with very broad goals without distinct targets are not my thing. But it's good to know what isn't my thing, and it's good to force myself out of my comfort zone (even if it is to realize how much I like my normal job).
• Along those same lines, I was on a Board of Directors for a non-profit this year. I could not stand it. Basically, they want people to rubber stamp the things they come up with and people to network and to give large amounts of money. You don't really DO anything; you talk about OTHER people doing stuff, which is tedious and a waste of time. So I suppose my life learning is that I like to DO things. I hate wasting my time by spending so much time on process and so little time on doing things.
• For six months, I served the homeless meals. Well, actually I didn't do the actual cooking or serving, but I checked the homeless in and did the demographic statistics on everyone. But I was a cog in that machine. I really enjoyed it, and it was such a humbling experience. My daughter's activities started interfering with the Thursday volunteering, so I had to temporarily stop. But I want to get back doing it. I find it so much more valuable than the Board of Directors.