- I had a pleasant summer. I ran, I worked, I sat in Riverside Park and read. It was very nice.
- I went to Lake George for a couple days, where took bubble baths, hiked, and walked around quaint tourist towns. It was lovely.
- I went to Alaska, where I hiked, kayaked, canoed, walked on a glacier, and (primarily) wore five layers of clothing at all times and shivered all night in my double layer of sleeping bags as the freezing rain pelted my tent. It was awesome.
- I saw some plays. Mostly Roundabout productions. I was not terribly impressed by this season's offerings. I also saw some ballet, at Joyce and New York City Ballet, which I liked better. Most recently The Nutcracker, which was exactly as great as it always is.
- I changed jobs within my company. I'm still doing the same sort of work, but on a different product. So there are a bunch of new ropes to learn. It's a challenge, but I'm learning a lot.
- I went to my parents' new house at the beach twice, once in September - for outlet shopping, birthday cake, and the actual beach - and once in November - for Thanksgiving. I returned from the latter trip with the now-traditional gingerbread house, which I photographed for my Christmas card. Possibly a new tradition.
- I participated in Nanowrimo for the fourth time and won it for the first. Which means I completed a 50,000 word novel in 30 days (actually, in my case 24 - I knocked out the last few thousands words in the car on the way back from Thanksgiving).
Which means, first, looking back at 2012. I'm inclined to say initially that it was a year of stasis. A relaxing, fun year, in which I really enjoyed my current situation but didn't really make any progress. But in January I made some goals, and it seems appropriate to revisit them now, to evaluate whether I've met them and whether they're still important.
- Work. The goal here is, really, to figure out what my goals are. Well, that's a vague and amorphous goal if I've ever seen one. I certainly wouldn't say that I've figured out what my goals are. Although I have made a change, which has kept the challenges fresh, and I've started thinking about this a bit more seriously. Obviously this is an important area to keep on the table, but perhaps I should refine it a bit, no?
- Running... I do plan on running several half-marathons, and I'd like to work on whittling down my time. If I were just 10-20% faster, I wouldn't be slower than practically every other person who runs in Central Park. I ran two half-marathons and bailed on a third. But I re-took the running course I did in the winter of 2011, and I ran several shorter races this summer and a 10k just this morning. I haven't run any of the same races this fall as I did at the end of 2011, so there's no easy way to measure my improvement, but I'd say I'm about 3-5% faster than I was a year ago. I didn't expect to get 10% faster inside a year (although I've definitely gotten 10% faster in the four years since I moved to New York) and will continue working on this; while I don't expect to see rapid gains, I think I can still improve.
- Travel. I did some, mostly small trips. Alaska was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But I didn't do much of visiting friends in other cities, which I'd planned and hoped to do. A partial fail.
- Social life. This year I want to focus on strengthening my connections. When friends are just people you talk to once in a while, it's easy to drift apart. When they're people you do things with, you have a more vibrant bond. This was my big failure for the year. Several people wandered out of my life this year for reasons not connected to me, and while I've worked to stay in touch with them, it's clear my friendships with them will not continue at the same level. I've had a hard time replacing them with new friends, in part because I don't feel a terribly strong desire to make friends so much as a general sense that I'd be happier if I had more. And some of the friendships I do have are beginning to feel rather diaphanous. This is, of course, related to my no having traveled to visit my friends. I think this goal will be a recurring one requiring continual effort; maintaining a healthy social network is important and not always easy.
- Cultural engagement. I'm satisfied with my effort here. I haven't been to the opera in 2012, but I've been to the ballet and the theater several times each, I've read a fair amount and started documenting my reading on Goodreads, and I've made an effort to balance my intake.
- Writing. Although I had months on end of not doing any of it, this was a big win for 2012. I published a novel written several years ago as a kindle ebook, which was exhilarating, and I wrote a (very rough) novel in November. I hope to capitalize on this progress in 2013.
