I’m not a numbers girl, but I pulled together some 2009 statistics that blow my mind when they’re all in one place:
I attended two comedy shows, three plays, two musicals, one lecture, 17 music shows of various styles, and half of the Treasure Island Music Festival.
I read publicly twice, once as part of a Literary Death Match.
I joined a band again.
As of last night, I’d taken more than 21,000 photographs, some of them as part of a 4 a.m. photo shoot in an eerily quiet Oakland, some of them during a riot.
I went on dates with 12 different guys, some of them more than once, a couple of them even more than twice. On one date, I got hit in the leg with a Chinese New Year firecracker. After another, my date upgraded me on all three of my flights back home from the East Coast.
Almost every one of the 12 ended up in one of my stories or another.
I lost my wallet twice: Once in the Denver Airport, once in the Fox Theater in Oakland. Both times I got it back, and only once did I lose all my cash in the process.
I attended four weddings. During those weekends, I saw two oceans and met a guy who lives next door to George H.W. and Barbara Bush.
I visited 15 different cities, one of them twice, one of them three times. One of them required a passport. One of them only exists for a single week each year.
(And I’m not done yet. I’m going to Dayton for the second time and Honolulu before 2009 comes to a close.)
I didn’t sleep much this year, and I surely never had time to garden, but damn if I didn’t have fun. 2009 was breathless.
(Editor’s Note: Inspired by my friends Fatemeh, Jen and Tea, I’m going to spend some of the remaining year participating in Gwen Bell’s Best of 2009 Challenge. These won’t all be about gardening and food, but, well, neither am I. I appreciate your patience as you indulge my participation, and I hope you’ll share your best experiences of the year in the comments, as well.)
on Dec 18th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
This is an amazing exercise in memory! I am impressed. What an entertaining year it has been….Welcome to Cali (yes, I wrote Cali for California, and that was for you).
on Dec 31st, 2009 at 4:15 pm
[...] I say yes a lot. And when it comes to a chance to see a live show, hang out with friends, or go dancing, I say yes more than anyone I know. The reality is, even if I stay home one night a week, I’ll still be out more than most people, so I need to look on that as an opportunity to sit with myself rather than wonder what’s going on outside my walls that I might be missing. [...]