Reflections on 2009
Cheerful
Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all had wonderful and safe celebrations last night.
May 2010 be full of bigger, brighter, and better things for us all. 
It’s time for my annual reflections on the year past. I do this exercise for me, to gauge what I’ve accomplished and hope to accomplish, so if you don’t want to read it, I won’t be offended.
But you may find it to be a nice Reader’s Digest Condensed Version of Connie’s 2009 – and it beats a Christmas card newsletter any day! Professional
At the beginning of the year, I was unemployed, and had been for about two and a half months. I’d been fired from my National Weather Service job due to health reasons seven months earlier, and the wind energy job I picked up after that was a disaster, so I’d left it voluntarily after only four months. I was sending out job applications every day, but wasn’t even getting any calls back. I opened a shop on Etsy in hopes of selling some of my hand-crafted items, but I was realistic enough to know that wouldn’t be a quick fix, if I managed to sell anything at all. I was really enjoying being at home, but it was also very scary.
In March, Paizo Publishing announced that they would offer compatibility licenses for their Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Robert and I looked at each other and realized this was the perfect opportunity for us to finally give our dream of writing RPG supplements a try. It was not a decision we made lightly – there were some sleepless nights involved – and there are still brief moments of panic, but when we released our first book on August 13, 2009…nothing can describe that feeling! We currently have a total of 13 print and PDF game products on the market, and go into the new year working on our 4th book. We were able to go to MisCon (the annual Missoula sci-fi convention) in May, and to Helena Game Faire in October, representing our little company, 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming.
While this certainly isn’t easy work – it’s fun and enjoyable, but very challenging and time intensive – and is absolutely NOT a quick way to make big bucks, I’ve never felt so fulfilled in my professional life. Not to say my years as a meteorologist weren’t good for me, but I’m at a much better place in my work now. And I must say, working from home is even better than I imagined! I do have some distraction problems, but I had those when I worked in an office too, so I don’t think it’s any worse.
Creativity and Hobbies
Naturally, a huge creative outlet for me this past year has also been my work. I’ve co-authored three books and ten PDF-only products! Fantasy gaming has been my favorite hobby for years, and getting to work on game ideas for hours on end and have it actually be my job is beyond awesome.
All work and no play makes Connie cranky, of course! We joined the Sandbaggers Game Club back in the spring after years of never quite working up the courage to go. I’m so glad we did! We’re down there nearly every Friday and Saturday evening, playing some great RPGs with some even greater people. It honestly wasn’t until we joined the club that I realized how much I’d missed having an active social life. Working rotating shifts had made it so hard for us to even make non-work friends, much less go out, that we’d really become homebodies. There’s nothing wrong with being a homebody, but actually doing out and doing stuff with other people is so important. We’ve made some wonderful friendships at the club, and I love knowing we have someplace to go, people to meet, and things to do every weekend.
I was pretty productive craft-wise, too. My crochet projects for 2009 were 1 muffler, 2 scarves, 10 covered ball ornaments, 2 dice bags, 4 baby afghans, 6 ice cream cozies, 1 beanie hat, 4 cunning earflap hats, 5 dishcloths, and 5 out of a set of 7 plushie dice (I’ve crocheted all the pieces for the d12 and d20, but haven’t gotten them sewed together and stuffed yet), for a total of 40 completed projects. I’m also about halfway done with baby afghan #5. I only managed to get in two embroidery projects early in the year, two sets of 4 dinner napkins. I was afraid I hadn’t been as productive in 2009 as I had been in 2008, but I looked back and the number of finished projects is exactly the same – 42 this year vs. 42 last year (and we all know that the answer is 42, right?!)! The main difference is that I didn’t make any big, full-size afghans in 2009. Maybe this year… I’ve also been working on a lot of my own patterns, which I may write up to sell in my Etsy shop, but I haven’t fully decided on that.
I read 16 books in 2009, up from 12 in 2008. At first I was a little bummed about that number being so low, but then I reminded myself that I also worked on writing 4 books this year! I had also started two other books that I had to abandon early in because they were awful. I do need to really get back into the habit of reading a bit before bed.
Personal
We did certainly have some challenges in 2009. We lost two friends to cancer (both only in their 40s) and Robert’s Uncle James. My mom was in very poor health much of the year and had to have two surgeries to prevent losing her vision. All that gave us plenty to grieve and worry over. The good news is that my mom is now on the mend, which certainly makes everyone involved much happier!
Luckily, our health was fairly good. Nothing too out of the ordinary, and nothing that turned out to be serious. I only had 4 or 5 migraines in all of 2009, my first full year without rotating shift work – considering my frequent migraines are what caused me to lose my job with the weather service in the first place, this is a SUPER HUGE improvement. On my last neurologist visit, I was told that I had the option to stop taking my preventative medication if I wanted, to see if I do alright without it. I haven’t quite worked up the courage to do so – the memories of getting several migraines a week are still too fresh in my mind. We’ll have to see if I have the guts to take the chance!
So, all in all…it was a big year. Some of it flat out sucked, some of it was so-so, some of it was AWESOME. I am concentrating on the awesome and plan to take that good feeling into the new year. Money’s tight, we’re still waiting to see how our business pans out, and I won’t lie, it’s a little scary to think about the future… but dammit, I’m HAPPY! And healthy! And I have the best husband, and wonderful family and friends. That’s all that really matters to me.
No real resolutions for 2010, but I do intend to make the best of every day. That’s my plan, and I’m sticking to it!
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Proud Member and Admin of:
Proud Member of:
Crochet Commission Queue 1: OPEN
2: OPEN
3: OPEN
4: OPEN
5: OPEN
Current personal crochet projects in the works (or at least in mind!) Plushie dice, dice bags, kitchen stuff for my mom, baby blankets for 2 other cousins, afghan for my neighbor
Current personal embroidery projects None right now
50 Book Challenge 2009 16/50
Jolly
Oh well, so is life when you live where it's cold and snowy! :snow:
I'm still picking through some of them, but it'll take me a while to get caught up. I'm excited to see the new group feature on dA and am really looking forward to seeing how it works out!
Dropped by to leave some love! 
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