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.

Photoblog - how I spent my summer.

There's not much to write lately, so I may as well share some of my images from the summer with you all. Sorry for my inactivity of late; I've been away from my laptop a lot. I do solemnly swear to try harder as the seasons change and we head into fall.

And now, my summer (click on any pic to see a larger size img):

Obama it is... now the fun begins

So last night Obama clinched the nomination to be the Democratic candidate in the forthcoming election. Provided that Clinton doesn't raise a stink, which I sincerely hope she has the class not to, we shall be seeing him butting heads until November with McCain. This leads me to wonder about an issue that has begun to make me increasingly uncomfortable with my new area. While I absolutely love living in Bridgeport, and find it to be a lovely, quiet, and friendly place to be, I have already been exposed to an ugly undercurrent of racist views in some of the natives that I had been warned about before.

How will the folks of Bridgeport now react to me when they see my Obama pin on my bag, or possibly overhear me and some friends talking about this candidacy at the bar? Just Tuesday night I sat through the Wings/Penguins game at a bar where the other three occupants casually threw out passing jokes about 'shines' and 'spooks.' Really? People still use these terms? I have to admit it was a bit of a wake up call for me. I've come across that same kind of 'casual' racism (snide comments or jokes when the speaker is with his or her 'own kind') in circles before over the years, but never have I had people actually try to draw me into it. I was the only stranger at the bar that night, so eventually the occupants began talking to me about the game, the neighborhood, and so on - near the end of the night, someone made an unrelated, racial comment and looked at me for commiseration. Immediately the speaker noticed I looked uncomfortable, apologized (a surprise in and of itself), mentally marked me off and not 'one of them,' and never returned to that subject. After three overtimes and the Wings blowing it royally, I paid my tab and made a quick exit - hoping I hadn't met with the majority of my neighbors in that evening's outing.

The whole event reminded me of an incident when Dan and I were driving cross-country and had entered Idaho. We breakfasted in a beautiful town in the mountains where the people were delightful and friendly, and everything was idyllic. When we stopped for lunch later that day in another community, mostly composed of old hippies and artists, we mentioned how nice the previous place was to us, the person we were talking to simply said 'it's because you're white.' Apparently that quaint little town was the focal point for the KKK community in Idaho, and the location of their yearly rallies. Lovely. What decay can live beneath the surface of such beautiful places; I can't understand why people who live in such an open and friendly environment can be so closed off to so many others because of a physical trait.

This year will be a very interesting study in these very questions. Already there are people being interviewed on the radio about how there is 'no way' they'd vote for a candidate 'like Obama,' though they were all for Clinton - in fact, this latest turn has led some Clinton voters to change over to the McCain camp. One lovely lady on the radio spoke about how this race (the choice in terms was not lost on me...) had caused her to change from being a self-described liberal democrat to being a conservative republican. Clinton's major demographic - the non-college-educated whites - have begun to switch camps. What a shock, I guess.

But honestly, why should a perceived 'lesser of two evils (Obama v Clinton is a close call in some eyes)' be decided on skin tone and not stances? I really hope I won't have more reason to feel ashamed in my fellow countrymen and women this fall; don't let this one be decided on B.S. prejudices alone. Americans - put all the physical, unrelated issues aside and just listen to your candidates for once; it would do you a bit of good.

The move

Just got a call from Dan that the move is completed (and cost way more than we thought it would!), and that everything went smoothly. Apparently the cat keeps trying to suffocate himself; I wasn't about to ask him to elaborate. So tonight I get to go home and unpack and, hopefully, snap some photos of the new digs. Not sure what the internet situation is right now - I guess we need to sort that all out in the next couple days. More to come from our new Bridgeport location!

Fingers crossed

So we put in an offer on a place yesterday in Bridgeport. Apparently someone else did as well that was in the 'ballpark' (awful pun or no?), so now the battle begins. Hopefully things go our way, as we will be homeless at the end of May. More info to follow.

Post-rant comedown

Sorry for all of you who had to endure my frustration yesterday; things have been getting progressively worse here (well, it seems they are everywhere, but it's just becoming obvious now at work) and it sucks to see your friends bear the brunt of it. The rest of the day went a bit better. We continued the Great Bridgeport Housing Search, something that in and of itself doesn't do anything to improve a foul mood, and actually saw a couple places we liked... to rent. That's right, we're looking to rent until something we love comes on the market which, in that area, might take a while. The leading contender for rental right now is the top half (two floors) of a duplex. Featured inside this lovely new construction on a quiet street is a set of French doors which, when opened, neatly frame the ballpark - perfect for fireworks days - and let in a great breeze; a massive back porch for all our grilling needs; a garage; built-in speakers throughout the first floor; tons of closet space; multiple spare rooms; and a master bedroom on the top floor that is sunny and roomy. I could quite honestly do without the spiral staircase to the top floor, but it looks cool at least. We submitted a credit application and hopefully will know something soon; there was another couple looking right after us, but I can assure you all (as if I had to) that we were quite obviously much cooler.

Other than that, Hell's Kitchen with Julie delivered as always; tonight we will carry on our festival of culture by hitting the Lyric Opera to see The Sleeping Beauty - a ballet by Tchaikovsky. Classy. I really wish I had a working lens for my camera because the interior of the Lyric is absolutely stunning; sometime I need to take the tour of the inside and take some shots.