My dear sweet [info]gretchen_marie did it, so I am too. Mine is not nearly as long, detailed, or interesting as hers.

January: Worked over winter break, but not enough, mostly because of a trip to southern California. Went to LA for the first time, San Diego for the first time, visited Sea World and Tijuana and Disneyland. Back to school; started four classes – History, Deaf Studies, Linguistics, Sex and Gender. Brought Amanita over to the in-laws’ house.

February: Our 10th anniversary! Took two weeks off school for our anniversary trip to the Caribbean. Spent several days in Puerto Rico and the rest of it was on a cruise. Made the switch from Sidekicks to Blackberrys with my purchase of a Blackberry Curve 8310. Hearing loss was officially diagnosed as being between the eardrum and the cochlea, but they couldn’t pin down a reason.

March: School continues. Went to Sacramento over spring break instead of working, this included a day trip to Oakland and San Francisco. In a clusterfuck of epic proportions, helped :C: move from New York City into our house.

April: Got hearing aids and my life improved tremendously. Work no longer left me exhausted, and I could hear my wife again. Got $1500 back from the federal government; school continues. Julia committed suicide, I still haven’t forgotten her.

May: End of my second semester of school – straight A’s! The desire to eat meat came back strong, and I dithered about it for a few weeks. Went back to working full-time for months.

June: :A: got sent to Philadelphia for a week for work, so I went with her, and we stayed in an extended-stay hotel by the airport. Went into the city a few times myself and a few times together. Had the “Go Down Moses” guy from American Idol as our tour guide at one point. Went to Wildwood, NJ for a couple of days after. Got my bunny tattoo to mark our 10th anniversary. In case that isn’t clear, it’s because my wife calls me her bunny! Booked a Carnival cruise that would hang around my neck for a long time.

July: Went to New Orleans for the NAD conference, we won the College Bowl contest because we’re awesome! Amanita had to be put to sleep. Her combination of kidney failure and senility was causing major problems. It still breaks my heart when I think of her, even though I know what we did was right…she wouldn’t have gotten any better. But she was such a sweet girl and I can’t believe she’s gone. Had a major clash with Kristin Pilotte, a friend from high school…that still also makes me sad when I think about it. Managed to repair my phone all by myself despite being intimidated by opening up the case. Started working at Sorenson in Fairfax as well as the Gallaudet center.

August: Started Weight Watchers again. Worked in VRS for the first half of the month and then worked really crazy intense hours at a hospital in Baltimore for the second half of the month, right up until when school started. Classes: Deaf Studies, History, Sports Ethics, HIV, Sociology.

September: Decided I wasn’t going to work in a money-earning fashion for the rest of the semester…bad idea, but I didn’t know it at the time. Got sick for the first time in the semester, missed a bunch of class, this time it was a cold. Got my Blackberry run over by a car and promptly ordered a new one.

October: Entered several contests, pestered all my friends to vote for me, didn’t win anything. Started taking an interest in Mohandas Gandhi, after watching the Ben Kingsley movie; did some research on satyagraha and his other theories and practices. Got sick again, this time we thought it was mono, and I missed a bunch of school again.

November: Hosted an election night party and was so glad that it was FINALLY OVER…but even more glad that it went the way I wanted! Elation was tempered by the loss in California due to Prop 8′s passage. Did some leather interpreting. Brought the family to my mother’s house for Thanksgiving.

December: Got my grades…all A’s except for one that I am still contesting. Started working again after going completely broke during the semester (see September). It’s going to take a while to recover from that one. Found myself completely ready for Xmas, all presents bought and everything, with plenty of time to spare. Did more leather interpreting, worked all day on Xmas which should result in a nice deposit to my bank account soon. Got back into crocheting in a big way…went insane and spent $300+ on yarn.