2019 good things list

The Grand Canyon.

2019, for lack of a better term, sucked. It was a hard year full of loss and grief, plus I dealt with my anxiety a lot and that certainly wasn't easy. I spent some of this year in tears, feeling down about myself and the world in general, but I'm trying to stay positive. I'm trying to remember the good things that did happen this year, and a lot of good things did occur. Here are some of those things!

  • I was fortunate enough to go on a few great trips -- Canada to visit Adam's parents, Princeton for DrupalCamp New Jersey, Seattle for DrupalCon, a train trip to the Grand Canyon and Zion national parks, Oklahoma for work (my first time in that state!), Philadelphia with some friends, a road trip to Prince Edward Island, and a long weekend at Rhinebeck with my knitting friends!
  • Just like in 2018, my relationship with Adam continued to grow. We learned a lot about each other this year and we continue to teach each other new things. We also challenge each other, which I find incredibly important in a relationship! I hope our relationship continues to grow in 2020.
  • On a related note, Adam and I signed a lease to an apartment in 2019! I won't be moving into the apartment until later in 2020 when my lease is up at my current place, but I'm excited to live together.
  • For the first time since the late 90s, I lived in the same dwelling for over two years. I have moved SO MANY TIMES as an adult so it was great to stay in the same place for awhile!
  • I started working at Lullabot, a company I respect greatly. I'm so excited to be working at a company I've wanted to work at for a long time, and I'm happy to be working remotely again!
  • I spoke at two conferences this year -- Design 4 Drupal Boston and New England Drupal Camp -- giving my talk "Putting the 'C' Back in CSS: Modern Techniques for Today's Website". I got a lot of great feedback on both talks, and I'm glad to be doing it again after almost 10 years!
  • I started volunteering my time at Drupal events, both local and national. I'm on the program committee to select sessions for DrupalCon Minneapolis, and I'm the Design and User Experience track chair, as well as part of the website team, for the 2020 New England Regional Developer (NERD) Summit. I'm glad to be contributing to both of these conferences, helping a community I love so much!
  • We saw a bunch of awesome shows this year -- Bombino, Weird Al (for the second year in a row!), Jody Wisternoff, Caravan Palace, The New Pornographers, and Opiuo (again, for the second year in a row). They were all super fun!
  • For the first time in 5 and a half years, I ran a race! I ran a Turkey Trot 5k on Thanksgiving morning. It was my slowest ever 5k but I'm so, so happy I got back out there. One of my 2020 goals is to start running again, so this was a good way to start.
  • I knit a bunch of things this year, including 5 pairs of socks for Adam. I love that he wears everything I knit for him, AND that he buys the yarn for the socks I knit for him! He's a keeper.

Read past good things lists: 2018 good things list, 2017 good things list.