Hey where ya been?? It's been a while.

Yes I’ve been a bit remiss when it comes to my blog as of late, but you know that’s life.

I am taking this time to update/fill in and hopefully next year, I’ll be better. Then again, my goal was to write 52 articles/thoughts and I’ve done that. Ok, so there isn’t any great prose here, but I am proud of myself. I find that in this day and age that says a lot. So here goes…

Don’t take offense, but I HATE Boston. Is hate too strong of a word? Ok, so it’s not my favorite city on the planet. While it is charming, and yes photographically and historically beautiful, I found a great majority of the people to be like the weather – cold. Living in beautiful Beacon Hill I was just a few blocks from Senator Kerry and did have the pleasure to meet him and his wife on Halloween. Very nice people and a very nice home. I also had the opportunity to meet the Gov. Deval Patrick and his wife at two separate events. Both are extremely charming and Mrs P. is from my hometown, so we had a lot to chat about. There were several opportunities I had to meet people who have lived in Boston their entire lives and they agree, if you’re not from Massachusetts’s people are not ‘warm and inviting’. They know that they are known as being cold and aloof and frankly it doesn’t seem to bother them at all. I will say however some of the nicest people I met were the bartenders and wait staff at Goody Glover (which is in the north end) and Taj, which is off Commonwealth Ave. I also met the lovely Sophia who invited me into her home when she saw me taking photo’s. We had a good chat, and I said to her that she was the nicest people I met during my 39 days in Boston. When I asked her were she was from – Washington. Proved my point. Given what I know now, the next time I have the feeling and think “there’s just ‘something about XYZ place’” I’m going to listen to myself. It would save me money, energy, and time.

Fast forward to Thanksgiving. It was a wonderful time hanging with my family. Of course after the year I’ve had, I needed a bit of family time. Once again dad and I did our father/daughter outing. We decided to go to (and don’t laugh) Home Depot. Let me explain. The last time I was visiting them, I had to get a prescription filled and we went to Walmart. Since they said it would be about 30 min, we decided to wait and spent that time walking around the store. We had a blast. We shopped for clothes (nope didn’t buy any) looked at the tropical fish (nope didn’t buy them either); looked at just a bunch of stuff and had fun. We decided that on my next visit we would visit another superstore – hence Home Depot (I think Costco is next time or is it Lowes?). If you saw us playing around with the giant lawn mowers and just having a blast you would have thought we lost it – in actuality we found some great private time, just a father and daughter having fun. Not to be outdone, Mom and I had a wonderful adventure at the movies. Memories like these will last forever.

During this time a friend gave birth to her first child, and another realized that she was pregnant after several attempts.

This brings us to today. I am so ready to close this year, which should have been my year. After all it’s not every year I get a birthday and this was a leap-year (boy did this one suck BIG TIME!!!). There will be no presents this year (thanks to the economy), and nadda for New Year’s eve. If anything this year has taught me that life moves even when my own world stops. That sadness, anger, disappointment, fear and everything else is a part of life and one can only hope that a true friend is there on the other side when you walk through.

Has anything good happened…well, the book I’ve been working on for about 5 months is almost done and getting some positive feedback from my coach. My family is all in good health. There one new child on the planet (Benjamin) who will hopefully make a difference when he grows up, and one more on the way next spring. My other friends who have children are all healthy, happy and growing up. I will have my 5th surgery in Jan and this time I have no expectations. That is a BIG step for me because I try to give the best and have the same expectation of my family/friends. Yes this year I learned that is too much to expect from them and myself. So in Jan I have nadda, nunka, no expectations at all. If it works – great…if not, then it’s the last and final one. There can’t be another because frankly I can’t emotionally take the up/down of it anymore. It’s taken over my life for the last 3 yrs, it’s changed me into a person I don’t want to be. I want the old Lisa Back!

So yes there may be a Santa Claus but I’m looking for the New Year’s baby. No, there are no great expectations for 2009, just hopeful ones.