2017 - The Year I Guess I Did Drop Out

I'm a little ashamed of myself. If you don't count my own books, I read only three books this year. Yes - three. Two of them were novels - A Lantern in Her Hand by Bess Streeter Aldrich and In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden. At the time, I had thoughts about each one that I planned to turn into blog posts, but these thoughts came at an inconvenient time (like while I was driving to work) and nothing was ever written. The last book was a nonfiction one about the California Gold Rush, called Days of Gold by Malcolm Rohrbough. I'm going to blame my failure to read more on that book, because it took me FOREVER to read it. (In all fairness, the main reason it took so long was that I was taking copious notes as research for my next novel, and it had tons of good information about the miners' daily lives.)

So I flopped as a reader this year. However, Hemingway once said, "In order to write about life first you must live it." As I think back on this year, I've done some interesting things. I've decided to make my end-of-year review about my own experiences rather than about vicarious experiences from books.

Best Discovery - My husband, daughter, and I went on a vacation trip this summer that made a giant loop through Green Bay, Wisconsin (where my husband's family came from originally), to Banff National Park in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and back home through Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, and Teton National Park. Of course all those mountain parks were awesomely beautiful, but I think one of my favorite spots on the trip was Teddy Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. We stayed at the north unit, which had much less traffic, and it was beautiful in sort of a desolate way. I felt the same way about Dinosaur National Monument in Utah. I don't think I would want to live in that kind of environment, but I do find the landscape beautiful and haunting.

Biggest Accomplishment - One of the things I did on the trip this summer was hike with my husband up to Garnet Canyon and the Meadow below the Lower Saddle in Grand Teton National Park. My husband wanted me to see part of the trip he made a couple of years ago when he summitted the Grand Teton. It was a challenging hike, both because of the length (about 9 miles round trip) and because of the terrain. There was a boulder field that led to the Meadows, and the weather was drizzly, meaning the rocks were a bit slippery. Being a rather clumsy person, I had to take it VERY slowly. Once we got past the boulders, there was still some snow on the trail, and I fell down a time or two - which was a little scary because it was on a slope above a steep drop-off. And when we got to the Meadows, it wasn't what I expected from a "meadow"...it was all rocks! Where were the wildflowers? By the time we got back to the cabin where we were staying, my knees were reminding me of how old I am, but it was a great experience to share with my sweetheart.

Once is Enough (Experiences I will probably never seek out again) - While at Banff National Park, we hit the typical tourist destinations, including the Athabasca Glacier, and we hiked up to the "toe" and did a selfie (like the hundreds of other people who were there). What made this visit unique was that a thunderstorm had come up, and as we were hiking to the glacier, there was occasional lightning. It made me a bit uncomfortable, to say the least, to be hiking on the top of a mountain (!) with lightning around. Also, since this was the top of a mountain in Canada, it was COLD! There was actually sleet. I honestly can't even say if I really looked at the glacier, ha ha. It was a case of "get this picture so we can hurry and get out of here."

Something I Thought Would Be Amazing But Was Only So-So - I knew the solar eclipse was not going to be a total eclipse here (only 90%), but I thought "90% is close to 100%, right?" I came home from work (we hadn't yet started classes, so I was able to do that), thinking I would watch the chickens to see if they went to the roost. Well...they didn't. It didn't really even get dark here. The light did change, however, in a noticeable way. My husband set up a little viewer that allowed us to see the eclipse in miniature (about a half-inch in diameter), which was kind of neat.

Experiences I Thought Wouldn’t Be Much But Were Actually Good - I ate crawfish for the first time this year. I wasn't too excited about the prospect because I really just don't like getting my fingers that dirty while I eat, but the meat tasted better than I had expected. I had planned to eat maybe one or two but ended up with several. It was worth the greasy fingers.

Favorite Historical Lesson - The U.S. is huge. You don't really realize just how huge until you are driving across North Dakota trying to get to a spot to camp before it gets dark. That means every stop costs valuable time. However, we took time to go a little out of our way to visit the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Washburn, North Dakota. We didn't really have time to go through every exhibit, but the visit to the replica of the stockade along the Missouri River was worthwhile. I always relish any experience that gives me a chance to step back in time and see what physical places and artifacts people would have used in the past. And I even laid down on a rope bed to see what it would feel like, as research for my novels - don't tell anyone! (Actually, the guide said we could sit on the beds or whatever, but I didn't want the other people in the tour group to see me lie down on the bed. They might think I was weird.....)

Biggest Failure - I had a major blow-up with one of my department colleagues just before the end of the spring semester. She and I have very different philosophies on a lot of things about how to teach, but generally I try to take a "live and let live" approach. Who's to say I'm right about everything, anyway? However, this particular issue hit a little too close to home, and I'm sad to say, I don't think I handled it all that well. I apologized quickly, but the relationship has been more strained since then than it ever was before. I'm trying to not let the stains of that disagreement reach into the new school year, but it's not easy.

Something Neat I Learned - I took an online class this summer offered by the Adobe Education Exchange to learn to edit video using Premiere Pro, and I made a couple of little video projects. It's not as intimidating as I thought it would be.

Favorite Classic/Favorite Re-Read - The trip this summer marked the third time I've been to the Grand Tetons. It's my husband's favorite destination, and I can definitely see the appeal. It's really beautiful.

Favorite Love Story - My son became engaged this year. He and his fiance have an interesting story. They met in a Waffle House when they were both on out-of-town trips. He said he thought she was cute so he spoke to her, they exchanged social media info, and though they lived in different states, they kept in touch for two years through social media and texting. She came to visit for spring break this year, he proposed, and she accepted. We're not sure of a wedding date (they want to be settled with better jobs first), but I am glad to be getting her for a daughter-in-law (even if that means I become a mother-in-law, ha ha!).

So those are only a few of the experiences of this year. In 2017, both of my children also graduated (the son from college, the daughter from high school) and my husband retired after nearly 30 years as a high school band director. He began the shift of career from teaching to full-time farming, and we built a large aquaponics greenhouse that took much longer than we expected. At first, we planned to have lettuce to harvest in March, then July, then September, and now here it is December and we still haven't harvested anything. But the system is up and going, and it's so relaxing to go into the greenhouse with the sound of trickling water and little green plants everywhere. 

I hope to be a more frequent visitor to the blog in the coming year. I already have a plan in mind for reading - I'm going to go through some of the books on the shelves here at home. But I'm also already lining up some more of those experiences that I hope will make life interesting in 2018!

Thanks for your readership!