2009 - it was the best of times, it was the blurst of times...

Seems everyone is doing their year-end wrap up right now; the really ambitious are writing up their last decade, but my memory is too shot to attempt anything that grand. If all goes well, I may be able to accurately sum up the last 12 months without forgetting anything major, but if I do and you catch it, you probably know me and my life well enough to realize I'm lucky to remember what little I do. So, without further ado, 2009:
January

• According to my google calender, I certified for the last time with unemployment on the 30th of December, 2008. I had been unemployed for almost five months.
• 1/6 I started working as a graduate assistant at The HistoryMakers three days a week; that was enough to get me off the dole.
• Hit up tourneys in Detroit and Las Vegas.

February

• Pond hockey in WI - nothing much else to report.

March

• Went to Washington D.C. on alternative spring break and got to work at The National Anthropological Archives & Human Studies Film Archives at the Smithsonian. Thought for a little while that I was going to wind up working there for the summer, but funding eventually fell through.

April

• Tournament outside of Toronto.

May

• Graduated with my Masters in Library and Information Sciences, with an emphasis on archives administration, and a certification in rare books and special collections.
• Entered the 'real world' - according to those around me, I hadn't already been there.

June

• At some point became full time at The HistoryMakers, and gained the title Assistant Archivist.

July

• Bleh

August

• Inlaws took us on an awesome vacation on which we hit up Norway by boat, and then drove around Germany.

September

• Bought a home in Bridgeport and moved in. Still in the process of making it ours, but it's a labor of love.
• Got to sail on a sailboat from Waukegan to Chicago overnight, something I'd always wanted to do.

October

• Got a call out of the blue from a place I had applied for a job at back when I was still unemployed. This eventually turned into a job offer, which I gladly accepted.
• Went on a trip with Claudia to Vietnam and Cambodia.

November

• Started working at the Union League Club of Chicago as the head of the library, with the potential to also take over the archives when time and funds permit.
• Went from hourly grunt to salaried master of my own domain.

December

• Finally got to ride the CTA Holiday Train.
• Settled in for my long winter's nap.

Highlights

Yesterday was definitely an interesting cap to the work week. Everything started off with the mayor wandering into my work to use the phone. Apparently a whole clutch of Great Lakes mayors were meeting at the club to discuss various shared problems; Detroit was not in attendance. I actually got to talk to Mr. Daley on his second visit and he said that he remembered my grandmother from the States Attorney's office - it may have just been him being nice, but if it's true that's cool.
I brought in my camera for once, so in the slow evening I took some photos of my library before heading out for the night.

After work I tracked down the CTA Holiday Train, which was running my route home. I know times are tight with the CTA right now, but it's nice that they keep this tradition going - I had a good time, and there were lots of kids with their parents just riding the train around the city, seeing the sights.


Passing out candy - nice!

lol

This guy must have been freezing his ass off.


Till next year, Holiday Train