09...Time to Shine?

What a very cheesy rhyme...

Okay, lots happening since the new year, in our lives and in the lives of those around us. Since we closed the book on 2008 I've had lots to lots to adjust to, lots to look forward to, and lots to think about as well.

Most recently I've been thinking of and praying for all our friends and family in Washington who have had this terribly infectious stomach flu! Especially all those with little ones at home... I'm glad you are all okay and hope that that ridiculous virus gets out of town fast. I've heard that the Norwalk virus has been going around LA (including a quickly contained outbreak at the Children's hospital) and I dearly hope it does not cross our paths.

Speaking of Children's Hospital, part of my adjustment to 2009 has been starting a new part-time office assistant job there! It's not at the hospital proper, but at their Foundation office in Glendale. It's been really great so far--close to home (above the line on my job satisfaction graph), really nice building/office (my own cubicle! first time ever!), great coworkers... and it's only 20 hours a week which leaves plenty of time for auditions, classes, etc. So no more background work for now...and not a moment too soon. Now we just need to find Chad a job...

On a sad note, I found out right after the new year that one of my former coworkers at Childrens in Seattle passed away on Jan. 2 from breast cancer. She was only 35. Though I hadn't spoken to her in a while I was really saddened to hear of her passing, because she was an amazing lady - an athlete in multiple sports, mother of two toddlers, sort of super-woman of everything. She actually went through three rounds of chemo while she was pregnant with her youngest girl, which just astounds me.

Anyway, thinking of her lately, thinking of the amazing though devastatingly short life she lived, has been sort of a wakeup call to me about (as cliche as it sounds) how short and precious life really is, and how much I want to live the life God has given me to the fullest that He intended me to. I don't know exactly what that will mean to me in 2009...but I do know that since moving here I've wasted a lot of time and energy on thoughts and feelings and attitudes that don't do any good to anyone, myself included, and I've decided I want to fight that first and foremost. It's been easy to blame those things on "living in L.A.", but the truth is I really have no one to blame but yours truly. Beyond that I guess I only hope to see a bit of a change in myself and in my heart, and see where that takes me. I really do think it will take me to great places.

So, in a blog that is normally very pedestrian and unemotional (I have been told I can be rather "guarded"), that is my little personal note for a new year. I wish all of you out there the best year you ever had.