bring on 2008

So I started to do a post like Dani where I listed all the first lines of the first posts of each month in 2007 but, like Mad, I discovered that my first lines are boring. Then I tried to develop a Top 10 list of 2007 like B&P but it was too hard. Some of my favourite posts aren't particularly good posts but because I wrote them in South Africa, they make me happy. I was hoping to avoid rereading all my posts but I think I may just have to do that if I want to participate in this retrospective thing. And I do.

I have to say that although 2007 kicked off to a raging start, what with the trip to South Africa and all, it went pretty sour pretty quick. I don't want to complain too much, because our challenges could have been SO. MUCH. HARDER than they were, but still... it's been tough. I've got my fingers crossed for 2008.

In January, we finally sorted out Sugar D's issues getting a South African passport by discovering that in fact he was no longer a South African citizen. It was a relief to arrive in Cape Town without worrying that he was going to be detained. I freaked out on a plane (big surprise), and in a chalet, fell down some stairs, and swam in a salt water pool under perhaps the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen. As predicted, that swim remains one of the highlights of the trip. I wrote a lot from South Africa and I'm so glad I have that record.

February was a pretty good month. Swee'pea turned one and I baked my first cake just for him in South Africa no less. We came home and I started to take my photography more seriously, even daring to admit to aspiring to make art; not that that really translated into action in the year at all. I was supposed to launch an online portfolio but what with Sugar D losing his job and all, it didn't happen somehow. I wrote about sleep (the severe lack of it -- please don't hold me responsible for the incoherence), Sugar D's proposal, and I wrote a letter to my teenage self.

In March, I reached across the ether in more ways than one, and things were kind of dark for a while. I got whiney about the sidewalks, attempted to clear up some of the clutter, and recounted my experience overcoming anxiety. And there was light at the end of the tunnel: Swee'pea walked and started to sleep for five hours in a row (once in a while). I topped off the month with a real-life blogger meeting (my first) and seeing the Rheostatics' final concert.

The upswing continued in April as I flirted with a young plumber, wrote a Monday Mission to show not tell, invited Sugar D to speak in his own words, shut down the all-night breastaurant, and flirted some more. Sugar D launched this great new design for my blog.

In May, I grumped about (incoherent) grammar, the esteemed B&P gave me -- ME -- a ROLF award for shutting down the all-night breastaurant, I blogged more mother-angst, got mad, felt overwhelmed and got vomitted on, admitted how lazy I am, I took some pictures I liked, and I started blogging over at MBT, which didn't last long. Because Sugar D lost his job.

In June, we tried to make lemonade and enjoy Sugar D's unexpected time off. This is when my blog really started to go downhill and it has never really recovered. Father's Day came, I tried to find a way to de-stink my sandals, Swee'pea slept through the night for the first time, most anticlimactically, and we found a sick bird on the street.

July kicked off with a celebration, and I found a solution to the stinky sandals. We went to my parents' cottage and Ottawa, and when we came home the shit hit the fan. Sugar D got a job in Toronto with its four-hour commute (so we thought -- it turned into six hours some days), we painted in preparation for selling our house, and we found out we were losing our daycare at the end of August. Life got harder, not easier, with the new job.

Looking back over August, it was a melancholy month as I tried to keep perspective amid all the challenges. I went to a party and decided afterwards not to walk home alone again. Sugar D's uncle died suddenly and unexpectedly in South Africa, leaving his 90-year-old granny living by herself. She is now selling her home and belongings and moving into a retirement home. We discovered there isn't a lot of choice in daycare.

Oh jeez... this is just taking too long and September doesn't get any better. Because blogger thinks this is a spam blog, it won't save in draft form anymore so I don't want to lose all this... maybe I'll add more tomorrow or something. Maybe not.

Happy New Year from the house of ill!