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.

As of 4:41am

I was officially done with my semester. True to form, it's been another long night of last minute, semi-delirious paper writing. I feel like the post-bar drunk who has just kicked the evening's fling out in order to get some sleep before stumbling to work - I know I just did something, but I'm not sure if the 'beer goggles' made it look better at the time than it really was. I think it went really well, but that could just be the sleep deprivation talking! I guess the grade will tell me whether or not it was a good lay.... err paper, or not.

So, as of right now, I have only one more semester - about 5 months - between me and freedom. I will be so very glad when this is all over. I just interviewed for a graduate assistantship position as an archivist at The History Makers in Chicago and am waiting to hear back about that any day now; with any hope, my last bit of school for the foreseeable future will not only give me some cool classes, but some much-needed on the job experience. As always, fingers crossed...