Decade in Review
The last time I checked Twitter, it was fashionable to post your milestone accomplishments of the 2010s to count your blessings and celebrate the upcoming start of the '20s. Of course, the last time I checked Twitter was a whole week ago, so what was fashionable then has likely been subverted by witty cynics, criticized in an angry backlash, parodied with Baby Yoda memes, and then forgotten.
I'll play nevertheless, because Sweetie and I have a lot of blessings to count. In January 2010 I was a 21-year-old fresh college graduate looking forward to grad school. Now in December 2019 I'm a 31-year-old homeowner with a solid career and too many hobbies to handle.
2010
The decade began with adventure. In spring Sweetie and I traveled to Japan before I began my master's program in library science.
May 14, 2010: Outside a cat cafe in Odaiba
May 18, 2010: At Inari shrine
May 22, 2010: In the rain at Hikone castle
At the end of the year we drove to New York during the biggest blizzard in decades to celebrate New Year's Eve in Times Square.
December 28, 2010: At the Nintendo Store in NYC
December 29, 2010: Inside the Statue of Liberty
December 30, 2010: In Central Park
December 31, 2010, 11:51 PM: At Times Square on New Year's Eve
2011
In summer we traveled to Philadelphia for the Special Library Association's annual conference. That December I completed my MLS and finished writing my first novel, Bubbles Pop.
April 13, 2011: Working on the couch with Luna
June 16, 2011: In front of the Liberty Bell
June 19, 2011: Eating Philly cheesesteaks
2012
I self-published Bubbles Pop in January, and then I started my first post-MLS job in web development and graphic design. I drafted more than half of a historical novel set in Victorian times, but I realized the book wouldn't work. The realization was both sad and fortunate—at least I didn't embarrass myself by publishing it!
The book that probably shouldn't have been published, Bubbles Pop
The book that never was, A Heart Unspotted
2013
I landed a sweet full-time job as a systems librarian in Portland. After spending the summer by the lake with Sweetie's dad Who, we headed west to start our adult lives proper in a fancy-schmancy townhouse with two floors, a wood-burning fireplace, and pansies on the porch.
April 12, 2014: Outside our Portland townhouse (because we didn't take pictures in 2013)
2014
I completed and queried the original version of my comedic novel Kagemusha. My parents visited Portland and probably soaked in more rain than they'd seen in the previous thirty years in Southern California.
June 3, 2014: Gifts from my parents
2015
With great courage and tenacity, I survived an introductory drawing class. I extensively researched and outlined a Chinese steampunk fantasy trilogy, which eventually became the plan for the visual novel that will be my magnum opus. (I'm still not ready to tackle it yet, but I'm working toward it!)
March 5, 2015: A self-portrait I drew in drawing class
2016
The older of my two brothers visited Portland for the Chinese New Year. (More accurately, he visited the area for work, but the trip conveniently happened to be during Chinese New Year.)
February 13, 2016: A floating dragon at the Chinese garden in Portland
In spring Sweetie and I bid farewell to gloomy Portland skies and relocated to sunny Central Oregon. To our excitement, our rental duplex had a garage and a grassy backyard.
July 25, 2016: Rainbows in our first backyard
Sick of shopping for ill-fitting clothes, I picked up sewing. I also wrote most of my cozy mystery Whacked in the Stacks.
November 5, 2016: My sewing buddy
Cover of Whacked in the Stacks
2017
In April Who passed away. Sweetie spent two months in Indiana to settle his affairs and sell his manufactured home by the lake.
May 26, 2017: Who's house
May 26, 2017: Fish in the lake
In June Sweetie returned for our wedding at Mirror Pond in Bend, where we were married by a judge holding an elaborate tome of The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide.
June 20, 2017: Our wedding ceremony
In August Sweetie built us custom PCs, and we watched the total solar eclipse from our backyard.
August 12, 2017: My complete box with RGB lights
August 21, 2017: Watching the solar eclipse
For Christmas that year Sweetie gave me a big surprise: a digital piano! I began my annual tradition of making holiday music videos.
2018
After ten years shackled to leases with ever-rising rents, we bought our first house. I spent most of that summer covered in paint.
May 13, 2018: Painting the kitchen ASAP before our bamboo floors were installed
Free from landlords with a legal right to evict me for making excessive noise, I picked up the flute again.
2019
During an unexpected snow week in March, I finished what I consider my best novel to date, Lizzie Bennet's Diary.
Cover of Lizzie Bennet's Diary
In July I visited my family in Southern California, the land of ten million restaurants and unbelievable traffic. I came home with a suitcase full of new clothing and yummy candy.
July 5, 2019: My parents' xeroscape garden
In addition to my ongoing sewing, music, and house projects, I spent a good chunk of the year writing the second version of Kagemusha. It has the same basic premise as the first, but a radically different tone and plot. The draft is about halfway finished now, and I hope to complete it in the first few months of the new decade.
This brief overview in attractive photos doesn't fully convey the most significant change for Sweetie and me between 2010 and 2019: our vastly improved quality of life.
In 2010 we were poor college students playing video games on a fire-damaged couch in a one-bedroom apartment located in an increasingly unsafe part of town. We could travel to Japan only because of a generous gift from my grandmother. When we stopped by that cat cafe, we saw an early model of a Litter Robot and thought, "Wow, look at the crazy things rich people can afford."
May 14, 2010: Litter Robot in the Odaiba cat cafe
A decade later, we are those rich people, playing video games on a made-to-order power-reclining couch in our colorful suburban ranch located in an increasingly desirable neighborhood.
March 7, 2018: Luna playing in her new Litter Robot (the litter is fresh)
I'd like to say we clawed our way up to the middle class through hard work, strict budgeting, and tenacity, but that would be only partly true. We're comfortable now because Who was there to give us cars during school and a furnished room when my full-time job search dragged on and on, and because my parents were there to settle the debts I racked up in those difficult early years. Our home-owning dreams came true so quickly because we qualified for the USDA and Oregon Bond programs. Without support, we would have needed a second decade to earn the privilege of covering ourselves in paint.
Here's to another ten years of fun times and good fortune. Happy New Year!
December 15, 2012: Holiday toast in Bloomington, IN
December 26, 2019: Holiday toast in Redmond, OR
Comments
No comments