End of a Decade: Part II

2006:  I turned 30 in March of this year, and managed to keep my cool remarkably well, considering that instead of the baby I had envisioned on my birthday three years ago, I had instead amassed a part-time, hourly job making bupkis, which was my hobby rather than area of professional expertise, a husband subbing because he couldn't find permanent employment, and no health insurance because we were just above the level affording federal assistance, but too damn poor to buy what the hell we wanted for ourselves (which would have been, frankly, any-fucking-thing, if it were available and even remotely affordable).  The husband had high hopes, and felt certain he would find employment as an art teacher this fall.  Alas, he did not.  I looked into subbing, and then finally found a part-time teaching job right at the end of December.  In retrospect, a year of trying and of reaching.

2007:  Truly the year from hell, most of the way through, but then with a lil' twist at the end there: 
January - Hubby has a mild nervous breakdown about us having no real jobs, health insurance, money, kids or any plan other than to keep on keepin' on.  I keep it together though.
March - I turn 31, and then have a mild nervous breakdown about having no kids, health insurance, real jobs, money, or any plan other than to keep on keepin' on.  He keeps it together though.  At least we take turns in this family.
June - Our dog's cancer returns and nothing can be done.  We begin to nurse her toward her death, watching carefully because we will have to decide when her suffering outweighs her ability to enjoy life.  This is a terrible thing to have to decide.
July - Our best friends' marriage spontaneously combusts.  We love them both.  It isn't pretty.
August - My grandmother is diagnosed with cancer.  But then my husband gets a teaching job!  But then we have to have our dog put down, given her final, fatal shot on our kitchen floor, where we cry and hold her in our arms.  Then we inherit a bunch of money from a distant relative of SuperSpouse and we both get new cars, our first solid, dependable cars of the decade.  My husband chooses a station wagon, and when I tell my grandmother she says: Well, that's gotta mean something!
September - We finally get health insurance.  (Hey 2003--just be glad you never knew it would take this long!)
October - My grandmother dies, at home, surrounded by her family.  And then I conceive a baby.  (Thanks Gran!)  (Sorry, just had to throw that in there.)  (I do have my suspicions.)
November - I discover I'm pregnant.  Then my grandfather, Gran's husband, dies seven weeks later, also at home surrounded by family.  (Hey Gramp!  I'm ready for another one now!  Can you get on that?)  (Ask Gran!  She knows how to meddle with things up there!)  We find our house, and put an offer in, which the seller accepts. 
December 31, 2007 - All year long, I had been planning to get wildly, gloriously drunk on New Year's Eve, and pull some Chuck Norris moves out of nowhere to get revenge on 2007, the most hated year of my life so far.  Instead, I wore my first pair of maternity pants out to dinner at a warm, bright Mexican joint with walls covered in wooden Latin American masks and colorfully painted Catholic crosses, and the best spicy fried calamari in the city, and sat glowing and grateful for the son-to-be swimming in my belly.

2008:  This year, we waited, at first.  Then we raced.  We waited to buy our house, through almost a year of paperwork snafus.  We waited for our due date, and then nine days past it for our son to be born.  Then BAM: Baby born. Six weeks later: SuperSpouse back to work.  Two weeks later: Closed on our house.  Two weeks after that: Moved.  A month later: Back to work for me.  Six weeks later: Drove twenty-two hours straight through to Louisiana with a five month old.  The following week: Drove back in two twelve hour days to complete the year by emotionally mind-melding with a delusional drunken elderly fellow.  Looking at it this way, can you blame me?  I guess the whole year was kind of crazy, although I don't remember it that way.  I think I was high on mother-hormones and just sort of sailed through the year.  I felt like I finally had everything I wanted and the fact that it was all a big ball of crazy with a side order of OMFG-we-have-a-lot-of-work-to-do-here was not going to prevent me from enjoying it.

2009:  I got a promotion; the SuperSpouse got a summer stint as a SAHD while I worked fullish-time (thirty hours a week IS like full time to me, you guys.  I went ahead and called myself lazy so you wouldn't have to.  I'm thoughtful like that.); we finished some major home repairs; I started a blog; got fat instead of pregnant; discovered that I now hate traveling (I will be publicly mourning this breakup with my dear old boyfriend, Road Tripp, in a post to come); and finally: enjoyed a week of staycation (I am now a major fan of the staycation) while pondering my New Year's Intentions (oh yeah, I changed them from resolutions to intentions courtesy of Michelle over at When I Grow Up ~ I'll tell you about it later) as the year came to an end.  I'm happy to be where I am as 2010 rolls in.  I also have a lot to do.  I'm ready for you 2010.  And I can't wait to see what the next decade brings!