Happy Moment #9: Our Door!

Well, here it is, the last day of 2017. And it has been quite the year. My friend Diane who was one of the first people to encourage me when I was a first year college student died this year as well as Nancy Zieman, a sewing celebrity whose work I greatly admire (and I was lucky enough to meet her at a Baby Lock event last year). For the first time in my adult life (which just shows how privileged I am), I was worried about our country and often woke up in the morning wondering what great travesties had transpired while I slept. But there was lots of good this year, too. Jim and I (along with our nephew, Ian) spent some amazing weeks traveling the entire country of Iceland and I am convinced that my heart and soul belong in this place. If I can't find a job there then at least St Louis will soon have direct flights to Reyjavik! (Yay!) I completed the 2017 Goodreads Reading Challenge, reading 42 of the 40 books I committed to finishing by the end of year. Most of the reason for this success is because I migrated to listening to novels (via Audible) while driving instead of just rocking out on my commute (though I did a bunch of this too!). This was also a great year for taking on others' reading recommendations!

Another good from this year is that I discovered I am pretty persistent (and not just in a political way!). I completed my toughest Half Ironman yet (Augusta 70.3) in September and mostly due to a lack of training and motivation, I struggled big time on the 13.1 mile run/ jog/ walk/ crawl that came after my swim of 1.2 miles and the bike of 56 miles. I wanted to quit but I didn't. I don't think I have ever gotten so close to stopping before in any race but I stuck with it ... and persisted. That persistence even came in handy this morning when -- during a New Year's Eve indoor triathlon -- another swimmer in our crowded lane swam right into me leaving a bump in the head and some tears (my tears, not his!). But I kept going and finished.

Which brings me to the title of this last blog post of 2017 -- our door. When we first moved into this loft in 2008, I decided to hang the Holiday cards that we got to the back of the front door so we could see them while we were home. I am not sure where I got the idea from but I am glad that I do this because I look forward to seeing that front door get filled with holiday greetings from our family and friends. Though I have already taken down the Christmas tree, I like to leave the cards up a little longer!