2011 So Far

"Mini Challenge: Write a post summarizing this year OR Take me through a day in your life.." - Cricket Walker

Yeah, y'all have seen the results of Cricket's challenges before, right?  Cozy on down and buckle in, folks.

I'm picking the first option.  I know, the year isn't over yet; there's still an entire month to be summarized later.  But a day in my life is so random; some days begin early and end late, while some (particularly weekend days) I'm quite likely to sit in my PJ's at the computer all day.

So--yeah.  Year summary it be.

Besides, I'm particularly proud of what the year has brought.  In January, I'd never finished a novel before; now I have.  In January, the dental program at my college wasn't CODA accredited; now it is.  In January, our apartment still wasn't unpacked; now it (mostly) is.

Unfortunately, the year has pretty much flown by.  In January we had my brother and his fiancee, now wife, visiting from Germany, and then the second half was busy due to accreditation visits at work.  February started quick, and I made it go even faster when I decided to put on a full-court press to write my novel.  Funny, how that's worked out.  I started out going to write one very large novel that was going to be a best-seller and make enough money to buy a house with cash.  At one point, then, I discovered that publishers preferred smaller works from newbies, so I chopped it into three novels.  Then I realized I didn't really have a story for the middle one, so it became the two that I have now.  Then, of course, I realized that my first novel wasn't going to make me a millionaire.  Then I began to despair of ever seeing it published at all.  Thirty explicit rejections and over fifty instances of being ignored later, novel one is published and available on Amazon, and novel two is nearly there.

It's been a good year for travel experiences, too.  We bought annual passes to Colonial Williamsburg, and we've been there several times and enjoyed it thoroughly.  We bought annual passes to King's Dominion, and went there once, nearly dying of heat injuries.  Haven't been back.  We won an annual family pass to the Cittie of Henricus, but haven't been back yet to claim it.  We've been to the coast of Virginia several times; Virginia Beach is a pretty cool place.  Went to Disney World and really enjoyed all but the getting sick part.  We spent a weekend in New York City, and boy was that interesting.  Of course, Washington, D.C., has become one of our favorite destinations.  Then there was the trip to North Carolina to see my cousin.

Overall, it's been a pretty darn good year.  Can't wait to see what's in store in December.

-TOSK