2019 Review

Sometimes things don’t turn out quite like you planned. Like this year, not saying it was bad, just different than what I had expected. I had all of these plans and ideas, some of which happened, some of it didn’t, but like most years I rolled with the punches, or if I was being completely honest and to steal from Friends, sometimes you need to Pivot, Pivot, Pivot….

I was pulling together my top images from Instagram recently and saw that I didn’t post that much this year and that gave me a moment of pause to reflect over 2019.

Sometimes I need remind myself who I am. Hi, I am Kristen, and I’m a workaholic. I joke I am a recovering workaholic but I do slip from time to time. I will go into my metamorphosis into my world of recovery at another time but life is all about balance, work/life balance is the item I am always battling and protecting. That doesn’t mean that everything is always perfectly in balance, all of the time. Sometimes the pendulum needs to swing a little to the left, or hard to the left, but eventually it will need to swing to the other side again until it slows down and starts to be more centered.

While I had a few epic travels this year beyond that this year swung a little more to the work side than normal, while I had hoped to roll out some changes with my website, post a certain amount of times per week, go out and shoot more, etc. etc., I also had to not work to burn the candle at both ends so I put this site and some of my photography work on the backburner for awhile. That and sometimes you have a slump, I felt this year I was in a bit of that, maybe it was not getting out to photograph as much or something but I started questioning my abilities, what it’s for, etc. etc.

What are my intentions with the website/photography side in 2020?

  • Monthly or Quarterly Recaps
  • Photography More
  • Continued Travel
  • Get Caught Up
  • Print!

So what did 2019 look like?

Q1

Jan felt like a bit of a blur as I worked hard to get ahead of some deliverables at work so I could take off at the end of the month to go to a bucket list trip for a few weeks. I whisked off to Antarctica, met some new good friends and saw some amazing things.

February returned home to our snowiest February we have ever seen, which caused a lot of headaches managing in our association. We had over 40 inches of snow in such a short period of time we had no place left to shove it, but there are always solutions so a few extra board member meetings were in order to manage through it.

March I was able to pop over to LA to visit some friends for a quick weekend to celebrate with my friends. This was also the month we started some new fun with the kittens as Jimi fell ill and we had a few weeks of trips to the vet to make him feel better. Thank goodness for pet insurance!

 

Q2

April is my birthday month and I decided to treat myself to a birthday gift. If you recall I had an editing suite makeover, this was my birthday gift to myself, a little dedicated space for my photography work. To be honest it started with deciding to get an official desk and things kinda spiraled out of control from there to a whole home repainting job, but it felt great to have a refreshed place.

During May, since I refreshed the house I took time to revamp the website a little too, and move it closer to how I envisioned it to be.

June saw the birth of our new favorite series, cat yoga, that and a workout regime. I used to be an avid workout person 5 or so times a week but after an injury and a multi-year journey to recovery I lost my mojo on keeping a schedule. I recommitted and pushed myself to workout on my own, I do better with a gym and class schedule, but I had a plan and worked out almost daily again and found a good cheering squad of geese on my laps around the pond.

 

Q3

By the time July rolled around, I was feeling a little restless and needed to get on a plane, what a better way to scratch that itch than to visit one of my oldest friends, Angel, in Switzerland. Back stateside my sister and I were able to squeeze in going to a concert.

Oh the kittens, they have been having some emotions lately and it came to a head in August with some all out brawls. This started a fun chapter in our lives as Cooper was bullying Jimi around and they were at odds 1 minute then besties the next. This was the month that I also decided to take a leap and accepted a 3-4 month rotation at work and “stepped” out of my current job and into a new one.

September I took a quick weekend to the Bay area to visit my mom, took a day to go out whale watching, not as much action as we had hoped for but fun all the same. Remember that workout recommitment. Well the rotation at work kinda zapped my free time and I was working longer hours, so I put the workouts on the wayside. That and I had to get ahead on deliverables because that next trip was on the docket!

 

Q4

October opened with an epic trip to Mongolia to visit the Eagle Festival and shoot photography with the Eagle Hunters. Returning home I also did some self care with my orchids and took the time to repot all of them, it seemed nerve-wracking beforehand as I didn’t want to kill them but so much easier when all was said and done. Also I had a quick weekend visit out to LA to visit with friends and celebrate a milestone birthday out in wine country.

November the kittens emotions were getting a little out of control, so I took more time to give them attention and try to get to the root of the problem, I don’t want them to have to live in separate rooms going forward. This was the month I was probably the most stretched with activities between work, kittens, board activities, volunteer activities but I survived.

The last month of the year closed out the end of my rotation and I spent the better part of the month getting back up to speed with my role, finishing some volunteer activities. I topped it off with doing a few mileage runs and finished the year with forced downtime as the kittens and I both were under the weather.

2019 Thoughts

The year was busy but good, I didn’t get everything done that I had hoped too, put on a few more pounds, but added some amazing new memories, new friends, and new experiences (work and outside of work) that pushed me to grow so I know all of it is planting roots for the future. As the title of this post reflects, 2019 was not what I expected but maybe is what I needed…