A New Year

First, I am glad many of you enjoyed the post about my holiday and the ever-entertaining extended family that I have. You'll be happy to know that I can probably label each holiday at home "entertaining" and "funny," if not also "surreal." So if I stick with the blog, there will be more stories in the future:)

So 2007 has begun. It is hard to believe. I spent the holiday weekend sick (strep throat....my first bout with it, ever!), so Derek and I had even more time to reflect on our 2006 and dreams for 2007.

For both of us, together and separately, 2006 was the best year of our lives, although it was plagued with plenty of days that could justify calling it the worst year ever, too. That mix of bad and good - not just in close proximity to each other, but sometimes simultaneous - is the nature of life, of course. It is probably because there was plenty of hardship, frustration, and sadness throughout this past year that we were able to appreciate all that we have and all that happened to us so much. And I know that one reason I feel closer and more in love with my husband than I did one year ago, or ever, is because of the hard things we went through. Not that our two week, romantic, indulgent trip around Italy without a care in the world didn't contribute- but the reality is that some of the difficulties of 2006 added a depth to our bond that we couldn't get from a nice vacation or promotion at work.

For me of course, I applied for my dream job and got it! There is nothing like setting your eyes on something in a dream, and having that become reality. When I thought of having the position I have now, I always considered it more of a dream than a goal. So to say that I achieved a goal gives me more credit than I deserve - although it does show that if you do the right things, take the right steps, make the right choices - and by "right" i largely just mean doing all the things your gut and instincts tell you to do - you put yourself in a place that will allow your dreams to possibly come true. Really, i got here because after my clerkship in California was over, and I was working at a great firm doing a type of law I absolutely did not enjoy, my gut told me that I really wanted to do IP work and I really wanted to do it in New York - a big pond - not the small pond of San Diego. And in order to do this, I had to admit I wasn't happy going to work every day, and ask my husband to move back to NY with me (despite me earlier proclaiming that I would never ever want to move back). And without Derek willingly moving to California with me, then back to New York, and being patient with my professional ups and downs, this never would have happened. So thanks to my gut and to my husband for getting me here:)

In addition to my new job, we had amazing travels this year....to Colorado a couple times, to DC (a number of times), to Oregon, and all around Italy. We went to ten-year reunions and graduation parties and birthday celebrations and weddings. We spent time with our dogs, Butter and Deuce, who are happy and healthy and active and funny. We were lucky enough to have friends and family visit us and share our life in Brooklyn with us. We got another new nephew. It was the first year in our relationship that we both had weekends off - the entire weekend every weekend!- and were able to spend it with each other. We've never had so many good dinners, seen so many good movies, shared so many laughs, gone to so many parties together. And we enjoyed it!:) And this despite also seeing each other a good deal more during the weeks too (both being home in the evenings).

And then there are those struggles I referred to earlier. Derek decided to stop working with his dad because of the hardship that placed on Derek and on his relationshipwith his father every single day. Since then, despite being such an incredible asset to anyone who needs work done, he has remained unemployed. This has, of course, been hard on us, but so much harder on Derek himself. But the man is resilient and open to lessons that many others (me) would fight and ignore rather than acknowledge. His self esteem has been knocked around, but his character and dignity have only grown.

And my family has had its share of health scares. We've had many trips to the vet with Butter, who is getting older (12 or 13?) for small health issues that we are scared will only grow with time (although, I note, he always gets accolades from the vet for how healthy he is!). Two of my grandparents were diagnosed with Parkinsons. My brother, who has epilepsy and has taken various medication to control it since he was about 5, was hospitalized for more than a month with kidney problems. For part of that time, his kidneys were failing him. Knowing that he asked my father, "Dad, am I going to die?" during the time that the doctors could not figure out what was wrong makes me feel silly for having been so scared when I found a lump that would turn out to be benign in my breast. But I was scared, and that lump (actually two) was found just two days after I gave notice at my old job and was transitioning to the new one - and grew rapidly. I've never been so scared as I was during my cab ride from my doctor's office to the MRI center, to have a mammogram and ultrasound. Or as I sat in the waiting room of the MRI center, or on the table waiting to have the ultrasound. Or during the weeks I waited before I finally had my appointment with the specialist. Or every time someone would say "You will be fine." Because maybe I would be fine, but maybe not. Maybe the lump was malignant, and it was cancer that I was scared of, not death. But the lumps were benign, and I am healthy. My brother is doing well. My grandparents are doing well.

And I have a husband who let me cry and scream and yell whenever I needed to, and who helped me laugh when I needed to. And who let me see him cry. And who called my family to say hi and who called my brother to check on him - not because I asked him to, but because he wanted to. And who always - always - gave me his best, whether we were lounging along the Amalfi coast soaking in the sun and taking siestas, or were waiting in the recovery section of NYU Cancer clinic waiting for the nurse to give me the okay to go home.

And that, in a nutshell, was 2006.