Goodbye 2009

2009 was a very good year for me.

In January, I started a new job, which has been awesome. I love the type of work I'm doing, the people I work with and for, the overall atmosphere of the office, and the flexibility in my schedule. Those are the big things, but there are lots of little things too: I decorated my office in fun, bright warm colors, with a vintage desk and modern chairs. We have a coffeemaker that makes individual cups of coffee and we keep a variety of good coffees on hand. I have a laptop computer instead of a desktop. Our office is right in the Chicago loop. I no longer have to drive to work; I only use my car when I want to (or when I have court in the suburbs) and take the bus or the train the rest of the time. The dress code is much looser and I can experiment more with my clothes. This is not the first full-time job I've had, nor is it my first post-law school job, but it's by far the best job I've ever had. It's amazing how much of a difference a good job makes in my overall attitude towards life.

My boyfriend and I have been together for close to 2 years now. 2009 was our first full year together, from January 1 through December 31. I feel very lucky and blessed to have him in my life.

I've travelled more this year. A trip to Mexico. A trip to Washington, D.C. Several trips to see my family in Pennsylvania. A few weekend trips to nearby locations outside of Chicago. Hopefully, I'll keep travelling at least that much or more in the coming years.

I've been reading more this year. I used to read a lot when I was younger, but during my 20's, I got out of the habit. This year a finished at least 4 dozen books, probably more, and I joined a few book clubs.

I started this blog in July, which has been a lot of fun. The blog also signals a change in my approach to decision-making and action-taking. I used to be someone who deliberated for quite a while before taking any steps. I wanted to make sure I was making the right decision, and that I would do the absolute best that I could from day one. With this blog, I just jumped right in. Very few decisions are irreversible, so I didn't need to meditate on whether I wanted to devote the time to taking pictures and posting regularly. I just did it, and I enjoyed it, so I kept doing it. If I hadn't enjoyed it, I could have stopped blogging around week 2, or month 2. My photo-taking skills were not great, but they were good enough, and they've continued to improve as I went along. I hope they will continue to improve the longer I do this. Same with my technical blogging know-how and photo-editing skills. They have improved already, and I hope to continue improving them as I go. Hands-on learning. On-the-"job" training.

The blog has been a lot of fun and a learning experience, and there's no reason that my approach to the blog can't be applied to many other areas of my life.

So, those are just a few ways in which 2009 has been very good to me. I'm optimistic heading into 2010.

Without furher ado, here are my favorite outfits from 2009: