A lot has happened in a year...

It's crazy how much can happen in one year. From day to day, it doesn't really seem like much is going on. But in hindsight, I think not only have a lot of things changed this year, but I've changed a lot too. For the better, I hope. :)

Here's my version of a holiday letter:

January: Spent New Year's weekend in Chicago with Em and Sam (college roomies). Finally realized that it was a good decision not to date Derek again -- and actually felt like it was a good, solid decision. Communicated a lot with Target about my job interviews and was a final candidate for a marketing/comms position at their headquarters in Minneapolis.

February: Interviewed for a job at Fairview Health Services in Minnesota. Found out that I didn't get the Target job. Spent Valentine's Day with Megs and Courtney (more fun college roomies) at the Rathskeller.

March: Got offered the position at Fairview and turned in my 30-day notice at Clarian (in Indy) within one week of receiving the offer. Coordinated my moving logistics. Went on a day trip to Bloomington with Courtney and did some great shopping and eating at the Trojan Horse. Interviewed Megs for my position at Clarian and then trained her in for one week after she was offered the job. :) Had a great going away party in Indy that included the Rathskeller and karaoke.

April: Bought Indy (chocolate lab puppy) on April 1. Packed everything with the help of friends and had all my stuff shipped up to MN with the help of U-pack mobile containers (like PODS). Made the move to MN and moved in with mom. Started my new job at Fairview. Hung out at Stacy and Taylor's condo about every weekend. I was kind of a stalker.

May: Spent a lot of time training Indy and taking her to puppy kindergarten classes and the dog park. She mastered sit and lay down pretty quick, but was still the livliest pup in the group. :) Had a couple different people try to set me up with two different guys. Started dating Taylor's friend Ryan.

June/July: Moved into a four-plex in South Minneapolis near lots of running trails and a couple lakes. Stacy and Taylor got married in June so I spent a lot of time helping out with invitations and dress fittings, etc. So much fun! It was also fun to hang out with all the family member who came to the cities for the weekend. I also pretty much spent every weekend out on a lake somewhere -- either up north or in the cities -- wakeboarding, jetskiing, waterskiing, etc. It was a great introductory summer back to Minnesota. I also had a work assignment to shadow a group of clinicians and write an article about their rounds....that's when I decided that I needed to be doing something like that instead of just writing about all the cool things clinicians do. From then on, I was majorly researching graduate schools for speech-language pathology.

August: I started looking more closely at graduate school and visited the University of Minnesota wth my uncle Jim (who works at the U in physical therapy and tried to work his magical connections to get me a tour of the speech pathology building. It worked.). Enrolled in an American Sign Language class at a community college in Minneapolis.

September/October: Dad and Beth visited for a weekend, and we had a great dinner party at the Ritchie household. Spent a couple weekends with my Butler girls in Chicago and Indy for a bachelorette party and wedding (respectively). Happy marriage, Mae Wo and Chris! Things with Ryan didn't work out. Realized that I have grown up a lot and know a lot more of what I need in a relationship/who would work well with me and who wouldn't. He wouldn't. Went on guy sabbatical. Worked a lot on grad school applications.

November: Spent a lot more time on grad school apps and also hanging out with cousin Jess listening to Love Songs for Angry Men (another cousin's band). Had a quiet Thanksgiving at Mom's house with her and Rob -- the first year in a long time (or ever?) that I didn't try to fit in as much as possible. I just picked a place and stayed there all day. It was quite relaxing. Spent a day job shadowing some speech pathologists (thanks to Angie's mom!) in an elementary school, early childhood education center and an autism program, and I realized that that is exactly what I want to do. Becoming a speech-language pathologist is a perfect fit for me. I've never been able to pinpoint my career goals, so this is a huge thing for me.

December: More grad school apps. Finished my ASL class and did pretty well. I loved it and want to take more classes. Got back into a more regular work-out routine running with Indy after work and on the weekends. Now, I'm just about to turn in my grad school apps and should hear back in March or April 2007. If all goes well, I'll be enrolling in master's classes next fall. I'm really looking forward to spending time with family during the next week -- Jason and Felipe are in town from London, so that's always fun when they're back.

As for next year, my big goal is to get in to grad school. After that, I just want to make sure I am true to myself in all decisions I make. And as for boys....I'm not sure how long I'll be on sabbatical. I'm not completely closed off to meeting them (I'm not going to bury my head in the sand like an ostrich!); I'm just quite content with being a young single lady. If a nice boy happens my way and meets my standards, then perhaps I'll reconsider my sabbatical.