(#1) Why bread? My first photo of the year was yeast (www.flickr.com/photos/freedom-to-move/5314598326/in/set-7…). A magical organism that brings us wondrous things such as beer, wine, and bread. Thus, it seemed logical that the last photo of the year should be something that was a product of that amazing creature that is so often overlooked. A wonderful crusty loaf of bread.
I haven’t yet decided if this is to be the end or not. I’ve been at this two years now. That’s a long time to pick up the camera every day.
(#2) This is the alternate only because I had planned a certain shot all year, and this wasn’t it. The irony is that this sign is half a block from our place, and I pass it every day, yet I didn’t see it until today! I can’t believe that there is a neon sign with 365 Days on it right there! Oh, and yes, I am pretty much done by 11 pm now most days.
It’s been an unusual year. Normally I dread the end of the year. It’s always been a time that I look back and feel sad, depressed at the things I didn’t accomplish, the things I feel I should have done. I always seem to struggle with the feeling that I should be somewhere else in my life, further along, closer to some dream that I haven’t been able to achieve.
This year is ending very differently. I am happy, really fulfilled, totally satisfied when I look back at the previous 12 months. It was a great year.
I finally landed the position I’d been after for five years. Because of my new job, I got back to many of the hatcheries that I’d visited as a contractor and it was a delight to spend time with the staff again. I had the opportunity to put on another successful Fish Health Course and received rave reviews for it – most notably from my manager and a couple of other high level people who chose to sit in on it and see who their money was being spent on. And also because of that new job, I went to a conference and reconnected with a great friend from grad school. That new job allowed me to regain some personal confidence.
We went to a ton of theatre performances, a lot of really amazing concerts, spent time supporting the Vancouver Giants hockey team, I rediscovered Fluevogs, and we volunteered our little behinds off.
We spent time with friends and family. Mom came to visit twice, and my sister-in-law and niece came to stay for a few days too. We spent a fun Easter weekend in the Kootenay’s visiting my Father and Brother’s family. We also spent a great deal of time with the community of friends that we’ve built through our boating group, and that included a number of fabulous parties, two of which were costume parties – something we haven’t done in many years. And we spent some time – though not enough – with friends we have history with spanning back to the 80’s.
We travelled a bit, spending two weeks in Mexico and a weekend in Seattle. We also visited Whistler a couple of times. We ate some amazing food and drank some fantastic wines. Although the weather didn’t provide many occasions for multiple days of good boating weather, even half a decent day provided an opening for a good ride. I put over 10,000km on my motorcycle and we rode all over the Sunshine Coast, did the Duffy Lake loop (600km) in one day, rode up to Mt. Baker, enjoyed Chukanut Drive (me twice) and visited Whidbey Island. We joined in on the annual Christmas Toy Ride, and gave generously to a number of charities to try and help those who don’t have the opportunities we do.
Sure, not everything was perfect, but life never is. A colourful Flickr friend passed from this world and left a void. I had to let go of a friendship that had become a bit disturbing and was taking too much from me – sometimes, like with food, you have to go on a diet and cut out the things that you failed to recognize as unhealthy to you, those things that take more away from you than they provide. And the weather wasn’t great for most of the summer, so we didn’t use the boat much at all, but the motorcycles filled in the gaps. Other than those bumps in the road, 2011 is a year that I’ll look back on as a particularly good one. I hope you can all find the great things that happened and let the negative ones flow away.
Happy New Year Everyone!
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Definitely.
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