How whole years refuse to stay where we told them to, bad dog.

And there goes Christmas for another year. I had a good time in St. Ratford with lots of relaxing, and good times with friends. And now I'm back in Toronto, or at least until I head off to a change of scenery (Ottawa) for New Year's.

So I suppose it's that time of year to do the whole year's end run-down thing. I have some mixed feelings about this year; there was a heck of a lot of good stuff that happened, but some stuff that left me feeling down. I'm very ready to say good-bye to 2008, and here's to hoping that 2009 has the good stuff from 2008 (lots of concerts and travelling), but not so much of the bad (too much self-doubt and all-round blerginess).

Since I like math, I decided to do a 2008 by-the-numbers year end review.

1 = 1st annual Semester One Smash Down with work pals. Which is also the number of casualties that resulted from this event. That casualty was me.

1 = boring science education course that I took to get a raise.

1 = cute cat that I adopted.

1 = point that the Raptors lost by at my first game.

2 = number of times I saw Hawksley. And the Weakerthans. And REM.

2 = close work pals knocked up. Next school year’s gonna be lonely for me, but I’ll have lots of babies to visit.

3 = US States that I visited (New York, Texas, California)

3 = musicals: Spring Awakening on Broadway (!), and A Chorus Line, and Sound of Music here)

3 = dinner/brunch parties thrown by me. Yes, by me.

4 = Canadian Provinces that I spent time in (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and well, Ontario of course)

4 = number of kickass trips taken by me (NYC for 28th birthday, SXSW for March Break, San Francisco, and Maritime Mayhem)

5 = number of Starbucks City Mugs added to my collection (New York City, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas, San Francisco)

11 = 11th annual Christmas gathering with the group of 9 since we left high school. 8/9 of us made it. There's a fraction for you.

17 = estimation of the number of concerts I attended this year. (Not including SXSW, that would be too hard to count.)

28 = age that I turned

30 = age that Becca T turned. She survived. Mostly, I think, because I got her the best birthday present ever (REM concert).

Countless = number of students who made my day. My job rocks.

Countless = dinners, lunches, brunches, second lunches, drinks, coffees, and such with various friends that have stuck around through the years.

I suppose the vast majority of that adds up to one pretty good year. Well, still, pretty good year. Cue Tori song now.