As I was going through my daily habit of blog-reading I noticed that several of you have posted end of the year type things, one of you even posted an end of the decade list! Quite the feat! Of course I found myself becoming inspired and figured that since the entire week is full of all sorts of social obligations (namely Moe's tonight with Lauren!) I might not have the free time to sit and write out a blog about my feelings this time of year... and what not. Besides, lists are so much easier.

Speaking of lists... groceries. I will have you know that we went over by roughly $40 the entire month of groceries which isn't HORRIBLE... but it isn't great. I do have to admit that I made a killer Christmas dinner and we have had sweets out the wazoo which is partially due to the $40 increase in food. In other news my husband just called to remind me that I need to pick up some bread and something to drink since we have nothing. What? We don't have bread for sandwiches to pack for lunches!? Yes, I'm that stingy, and yes we already went over $40... sigh... but if Jaime wants it, he gets it. Maybe since he's in charge of the budget he'll make that $40 just disappear? Maybe?

Here's my decade list:

2000 - I finished my sophomore year at T.L. Hanna and began my Junior year at SCGSAH. I had no idea what I was getting myself into and promptly lost about 15 pounds which resulted in me looking a lot like a skeleton. I cried in lots of my piano lessons and my teachers called me a baby. Looking back, I totally deserved it. I also rang in the new year and the frightening Y2K with my parents, at home. My brother went off to be amazing and smart at Yale.

2001 - I finally got my feet under me, stopped crying, and began winning competitions. I also realized that I was absolutely capable of all the things my teachers said I was and more. I worked at Sonic that summer and gained back all 15 pounds that I had lost :)

2002 - I graduated! I also had a different piano teacher that year who smelled badly. I got an awesome scholarship at Samford and picked it because my parents said they would give me a car. Looking back I might have been just as happy at Taylor University (despite the fact that Taylor is my brother's name... it could have haunted me) but I chose Alabama over Indiana. I cut off all my hair, not a good choice. I went to college and met my roommate, randomly selected, and stayed with her all four years. I smarted off to my English professor and told him he was stupid to his face.. something like that.. and he hired me to tutor other English students.. score!

2003 - One of my best friends Freshman year died in a car wreck before the school year began again and I drove to the funeral and back in one day, 10 hours, in the 1991 Volvo that I kept till the engine fell out of it. I start my sophomore year at Samford and think I'm so smart. I got a job working in the library as well as continuing to work as a tutor. I think this was the year that I was teased rather horribly in Music History, and, eventually pushed out a window (it wasn't high off the ground at all.. like.. inches) and locked outside. This was also the year that Dr. Sander's wrote shit on the wall instead of shnit.. the beginning of a composer I should remember but don't.

2004 - Still doing what I do best, practicing, working, not really studying very hard. I bought a gerbil to keep me company, Malachi. My roommate and I hid him in our room until he died back in South Carolina. This was the year that Jaime Black said that the comment I made in Music Lit. was so hot he wanted to make out with me. I thought he was the strangest person I'd ever met. It was also the year that Jaime Black asked me to rub his back and when I said I wouldn't dream of ever touching him (ha) he offered to rub mine. I promptly told him that I wouldn't let him near enough. Taylor graduated from Yale and I got to go see it happen, much fun! And way more exciting than any other graduation I've ever been to.

2005 - This year I won a prize in piano and put all the prize money towards my trip to France. I spent a month and a half with Laura, my best friend, in France and had a wonderful wonderful time. The movie Taken made me realize just how close I came to dying, oh, about a million times, so I'm thankful that I wasn't killed, kidnapped, raped, or whatever else could have happened. Senior year begins and I realize that I'm not ready to graduate, at all. Oh and my brother gets married! Yay!

2006 - I asked Jaime Black to be my date at a Phi Mu Alpha/Delta Omicron formal because I wanted to wear a very sexy dress and I knew that I could trust him to say anything he though out loud, and because I could trust him. That way I would know if he thought I looked a little too good (because he would say it out loud) and because I knew he wouldn't care (because he's such a trustworthy guy). I played my best recital ever and Jaime Black attended, dressed to kill ;) I graduate college right on time, nothing left for me to work on or complete. Jaime insisted on coming to both my senior thesis (I made him stay in the music school lobby I was so nervous) and my graduation. He met my parents while we took pictures afterwards. Oh and I cut off all my hair, started working at Starbucks and taught a full time load of private piano students and the local university, and Jaime officially asked me to date him that summer. Shortly afterwards I bought Churchill, my first born fur child.

2007 - We sort of did the whole, get engaged and get married in a year thing. He proposed a few minutes before I had to be at work on a Saturday afternoon and then sat with me while I worked, all day, It was amazing. I quit my job at Starbucks for a better paying job with some crazy weirdo psychiatrist, while still pulling a full load of students. We moved into a tiny little place in down town Birmingham and had thousands of roaches live with us, and had no central heat or air. Lovely.

2008 - Quit the job at the local university for a job that paid twice as much and cut my student load in half (sigh of relief?!). Quickly quit my job with the psycho and got the job I have now, working in the music store. Jaime and I move to another apartment only to find out we live in the ghetto, but with central heat and air. Oh and I bought a piano :) A beautiful, wonderful, studio upright... from the music store I work in now. Imagine the discount I could have gotten! I cut my hair off again, much to Jaime's demise.

2009 - Jaime joins me in the evening, teaching guitar two nights a week while I teach piano. We add our second fur child to the mix, Huxley, who promptly gets us a ticket out of our apartment (apparently 10 pound dogs walk loudly). Silver lining? A much better place, a much quieter place, and Jaime's college roommate and his wife live next door. I am also growing my hair out for Jaime and he is growing his out for cancer patients. Oh, and my parents bought a new house. Jaime has also acquired nearly ever video game system that matters.

That took way longer than I wanted it to so if you didn't read it all I totally understand. Crazy how life takes you down your path isn't it? I mean, ten years ago did I have a clue what my life was going to become. Those are the highlights though, if you made it through! Maybe tomorrow I'll get gutsy enough to do a month by month of 2009! lol..