so this is christmas, part three, or, see you later, crotch-punch

As far as years go, 2009 was a bit of a crotch-punch. And speaking of punching--

But tomorrow brings a new year, and it brings me a carload of girls from the East. And we will ring in 2010 with a big fancy dinner and little slips of paper. Perhaps we will play the What If game; perhaps we will write down all the stupid things that went down in 2009 and set them on fire and toss the ashes into the white snow of the backyard and vow to make the next year a better one. Perhaps we will do both.

No resolutions this year, beyond the wide-open Let's move on. Every year I think the same things: I want to give up self-loathing, over-imbibing, and over-thinking. I want to run more and try to control less. And then I reach another December and make the same list. So this year I resolve only to get through each day. Or, as I told my fall semester students as I bade them farewell on the 18th: May your expectations be low, the better to exceed them.

Or or, as a wise man said over Thanksgiving: I hate New Year's resolutions. Why on earth would you expect anyone to change their life before they've even survived February?

But tomorrow I take down one calendar and hang a new one, and the day after that I begin work on syllabi that will include the numerals "2010." So in honor of the year that is nearly over, and the year that will follow, here's 2009 in photo review. These are my favorite* photos from the year, one for each month. The rules were simple: the photo had to be one from my camera that I had taken (or, in one case, been taken via self-timer), and the photo had to be that I liked, and the photo had to, in some way, encapsulate the month itself.

To the new year, then--but first, goodbye to the old one.

























See? Clearly 2009 was not all bad: there were leaves and beaches, and an office at a job that I truly enjoy, and a dog, and magnolias, and a living room filled with chairs, and later chairs filled with people. So happy 2010, kids. We'll muddle through somehow.


*well, in some cases, these are the blog-appropriate favorites. Shitler, for obvious reasons, is not shown here. Nor is a fantastic photo taken in July of one Jeano sneaking up on P's lady parts. But we'll make do.