Looking Back, Looking Forward

It's just after 6am; I've slept my (interrupted by New Years texts, mind you) 8-hour sleep and feel fairly rested compared to the last couple days.  I was actually up at 5 this morning, but went back to bed to rest a bit more.  Babu laid with me, but then my stomach was growling so much I had to get up.

Went out with my buddy JL last night (he's an old highschool friend of mine, known each other 20 years now) and he helped me run a couple errands then we went and had sushi.  Now I don't eat a lot of fish, I mostly just go for the vegetarian stuff, though I am hooked on white tuna (which reminds me B., do you know how sustainable white tuna is?).  Twice I accidentally ordered a cucumber and avocado 'roll', instead of 'handroll' which I prefer.  Well hell, I had not 6, not 12, but *18* pieces of cucumber and avocado roll.  Sweet Jesus, I thought I was going to explode.  It's a good thing I love them :)  I started to get giddy after!  Plus tempura (mmm... tempura) and teriyaki chicken and my white tuna.  Gah.  I might have to go to Confession for gluttony.

So what originally brought this post was reading some of my friends' Facebook statuses last night.  It's a common phrase to say, "Lets hope this year's better than the last" but I feel compelled to analyze this statement.  We always say that, don't we?  We always think we've had such a shitty year that we expunge that feeling forward into this great sense of hope.  Now to be fair, I can personally attest that myself and some of my closest friends have had a really trying year; there's been border-crossings (new addresses), long-distance loves, difficult school semesters and the choosing of career to follow, losing relatives, losing babies, losing friends, health, the list goes on.  But what *successes* have you had?  Why do we, at the end of the year, always remember the bad stuff?  The last year was trying, I'll give you that, but look how more settled you are in your new life!  Those changes brought a new-found stability in the current life-role you're in.  If you're one of the ones that hasn't acquired the change you wish you had, I think it's still made you more concrete in your thoughts about what you want and it's giving you the power to go after it.

I want to challenge you (okay, it's not much of a challenge....or is it?) and I want you to give me the top three things you're most thankful for, for 2010.  I'd really like everyone to do this.  It doesn't have to be your "top 3", even just the first three things that come to mind.  Here's mine....

1. Learning infinite amounts about myself (that I can't contain in one post if I tried) that has helped me change into the person I want to be.  This is my top appreciation.
2. Learning a new appreciation for food; where it comes from, who it comes from, the process in which it's obtained and how to nurture my body with it.
3. Educating myself.  My mother said when I dropped out of college that I'd never go back (and honestly, I wasn't sure I would, either) but I did.  I've proved to myself you're never too old to learn.

Aaaaaaaaaaand... Go!