Best of 2009.

Of course it's a partial list, I know that!

Technology: What technology made my heart sing this year? I'm so glad you asked:

• my new iMac, which is ineffable.
• Mac Book Pro: it's better than bad, it's good!
• Various software and freeware: Final Cut Express and Screenr, Spezify. Fun for everyone.

Live Music: My most memorable live shows included

• Regina Spektor
• The Pretenders
• Benny Green (jazz)

Los Angeles: Part one of the Los Angeles Project took place, formally, this past October. Highlights included:

• Mulholland Drive, the San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains, Topanga Canyon
• The fishermen: at Royal Palms beach on a choppy, brilliant Sunday; off the Hermosa Beach pier on a Saturday night
• The Getty. Creamy and delicious.

The West: Most of our trips this year were in the west (the rest of the west, aside from California). Each of these trips was splendid in its very own way:

• Wyoming: South Pass, sunny both ways, and the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone and environs.
• Montana: Bozeman and Red Lodge (or Red Cloud Lodge, as I like to call it)
• Seattle, to visit the historian's daughter, partner, and new baby boy.
• Idaho: of course. For all the reasons, and more.

Retreats: Leaving one's home, in order to retrench, renew, recuperate, refresh, which I/we did par excellence in

• Idaho, all summer, practically. I hope we get to do it again.

Reading: This year, I read--aside from the never-ending pile of detective novels and police procedurals--and loved:

• The City & the City, China Mieville
• To the Lighthouse, V. Woolf
• Gilead, Marilynne Robinson

Movies: I already named some of my favorite movies of the year in my annual premature list:

• The Hurt Locker
• Bright Star
• Eternal Moments
• Summer Hours
• A Serious Man. To the above, I add
• Fantastic Mr. Fox, which is fantastic.

Fashion: this year I am enjoying wearing

• raw-edged ruffles, with a little
• sparkle, preferably all in
• gray.

Triumphs: things we conquered this year included

• the mice (a provisional victory)
• last semester (a definitive victory. I've recently decided this.)

Perhaps it goes without saying that the first eight months of 2009, during which I was on sabbatical or it was summer, were peerless: I wrote, I read, I made movies. I don't know if these months were, taken as a whole, the best of the best. But they were amazing. They were excellent.

Forecasts for 2010:

• In 2010, I plan to take better care of myself.
• I will make more music, and
• I will make more video essays.
• I will enjoy all my beloveds--family and friends--because they are my beloveds.
• In 2010, I will write more poems, and
• I will invite more people over.

Most of all, I want to remember 2009 as a year in which I loved and spent time with my family, loved and spent time with my friends, made many and varied verbal and visual artifacts, traveled, and cherished the lucky life I have. My life is full of blessings, and you, dear readers, are a part of that. Here's to you in the new year, happy, healthy, and full of sass. Bless.