2009 Year In Review: Memorable Events

Each year since 1996, I’ve made a list of the twenty most memorable events in my life of  the year just past.  The events may be good or bad,  silly or sad, life-changing or mundane, but mostly just memorable.  Generally 2009 lacked the extreme highs (ex. birth of a child) and lows (ex. painful sciatica) of the previous couple of years but was overall a very good year.

1. Franklin Park Snow Festival (Feb. 7) – a great community event where Peter built his first snowperson and tried out sledding for the first time.
2. Job Change (Mar. 4) – a follow-up on last year’s #11.  After my immediate supervisor left I had a few months of working in limbo but then my position was moved into the Historical Collections department and thus I had a new office, new co-workers, and new job responsibilities including Archives work.  I couldn’t have planned it out better.
3. Middlesex Fells & Doyle’s with Anthony (Mar. 14) – a late winter hike and a good pint with a good friend.
4. Behind the Scenes at Old South Meeting House (Mar. 27) – I climbed the steeple and preached from the pulpit at this event for history geeks.
5. Wake up the Earth Festival (May 2) – our first time at this great local event and we even joined in the parade.
6. Walk for Hunger (May 3) – Peter participated in his second walk and actually walked this time.  Doing the Walk for Hunger with a toddler is a slower, more appreciative experience.  Peter especially enjoyed riding the school bus back to Boston Common.
7. Vacation in Corolla, NC with Susan’s Family (May 16-23) – our first week on North Carolina’s Outer Banks with lots of family in a big house.
8. Leonard Cohen in Concert (May 30) – the concert event of the year.
9. Father’s Day at Seashore Trolley Museum (Jun. 22) – a great day for father & son to enjoy trolleys, trains, & buses.
10. Jamaica Pond Walking Tour & Butterflyfish Concert (Jun. 27) – sometimes I look back and find two memorable events happened on the same day.  In retrospect, I recall I was pokey coming home from the tour and that made us late for the concert.
11. Harvard University Layoffs (Jun. 30) – as good as my career news was this year, lots of my friends and colleagues lost their jobs, many of them in the shocking layoffs of late June.  The good news is that most of them have found new jobs elsewhere.
12. Charles River Basin Tour (July 26) – I greatly enjoyed learning and leading this new, adventurous tour for Boston By Foot.
13. Susan’s Birthday Party (Aug. 15) –  on one of the hotter days of the year we ended up with 7 adults and 2 children in a wading pool.
14. Work Week (Aug. 22-Aug. 30) – Peter’s child care center was closed for the week, so I took the time off and we went on adventures together.  The week began with a rain-shortened camping trip at Lake Tully, followed by visits to the Franklin Park Zoo, the Children’s Museum, Drumlin Farm , Revere Beach & Logan Airport, and the MFA.
15. Records Management course at Simmons GSLIS (Sep. 10 – Dec. 10) – I returned to school once again to take a course related to my current work responsibilities.
16. Lake Wicwas (Sep. 12-14) – our friend Craig invited us up for a weekend at his lodge in New Hampshire.
17. Christmas Revels (Sep. 29 – Dec. 27) – 11 weeks of rehearsals, 18 shows, dozens of new friends, and one of the greatest experiences of my life.
18. Halloween & Peter’s Birthday (Oct. 30-Nov. 2) – I joined Peter the Pirate for a rope walk with his child care class, then we went trick-or-treating on South/Centre Streets in JP.  Peter’s birthday was celebrated with friends at the Children’s Museum and the next day I was guest reader in Peter’s class.
19. New York City with the Rossos (Nov. 6-8) – we meet up with good friends in New York, share a tiny apartment, and go on some toddler-sized adventures.
20. Vacation in Duck, NC with Liam’s Family (Nov. 14-19) – our second visit to North Carolina’s Outer Banks, this time with my Mom.

Here’s to a joyous and prosperous 2010!

Previously:

• 2008 Year in Review: Memorable Events
• 2007 Year in Review: Memorable Events