Summing up 2011

I thought I did a pretty good job last year of summing up the year month by month so let’s take a shot at 2011.    

• 
  JANUARY saw me off to South America via Abbotsford, Seattle, Dallas, Miami and bingo we land in Quito, Ecuador where I discover that even the folks at the airport do not speak English. 
• FEBRUARY saw my return from 5 weeks in Ecuador.  Back to a brutal winter that went on and on!
• MARCH.  My great nephew Stanley arrives with much fanfare.  I also began my pre-retirement planning by using a financial consultant and a psychologist.  As well I started The ABCs of Canadian Politics blog leading up to the June election.
• APRIL saw me in Canmore for my first Writers’ Retreat where I made a commitment to continue writing regularly.  April also found me reenacting my role as Noah as the fields got saturated with melting snow and then the septic tank overflowed (again).  April also found me with my own parking space at work and I started car pooling with a colleague.
• MAY saw me first in Winnipeg for my high school’s 50^th anniversary and my own class’s  40^th Reunion.  Then it was on to Salmon Arm for the annual Girls Weekend with my FF friends.
• JUNE I found myself in San Francisco with a wonderful friend where we enjoyed site seeing, good food and shopping, shopping, shopping.  What a wonderful city to visit.
• JULY saw me recovering from the ghastly floods of the last 3 months.  This was the start of a summer where I could enjoy my home and not think about Renovations!

• AUGUST found my blog output at a high quality level.  I still admire what I wrote (did I say that out loud?) in this month.
• SEPTEMBER  I started Zumba classes.  I said goodbye to All My Children.  I started the 15 day Writing Challenge.
• OCTOBER  I found my way back to Canmore to enjoy my second Writers’ Retreat, this time with my friend Jane.  I received much positive feedback on my writing and am encouraged to continue with the anecdotal style.  I also started my Weight-To-Go diet and successfully lost 17 lbs (which are still off).
• NOVEMBER I break my vow of not attending a Company Christmas party and enjoy myself immensely.  The fun of staying overnight in a hotel didn’t hurt the experience any.  Oh yes, commit myself to another trip to NYC – gosh I do love that city!  Huge positive response to my stories about immigrating to Canada.
• 
  DECEMBER hosted the family dinner.  Enjoyed the good weather.  Had my first car accident (psst, don’t tell my mother).  Talk about feeling like a villain. 

In short, the first part of the year was spent travelling and the second half was spent writing.  Not a bad way of managing my time.  I also began the serious step of retirement planning with the discovery that while I am financially ready I am mentally unprepared to take the big step.  I can better understand why men have such a difficult time quitting work as it is very defining for them.  2012 will see me working harder on my “psychological profile” to get prepared for retirement.  For those who haven’t yet started thinking about it, mark my words, this is not something you do cold turkey – and I’m not talking about the money angle.  Mentally, there is a lot of prep work to be done.  As the famous quote says “if you continue to do what you’ve always done, you will continue to get what you’ve always got”.  You will be surprised!

From the top, Banos in Equador; bunny at Canmore; WPC reunion; garden centre with my galpals in Salmon Arm; Golden Gate Bridge; the swans at my place - enjoying nature.