I'm going to cross post this to Blogger since Russia now owns LiveJournal and I don't feel comfortable posting here anymore. I'm only posting this here because it is much more convenient with linking to my past years' posts.
Wow, I'm looking at my 2016 year in review, and I was miserable. Not as miserable as the year before (2015, the second-lowest point in my life), but it's putting this last year into perspective because I don't remember being that miserable. I guess that means that things got better (which they did in some senses). I'm going to attribute that to my job situation, which is not ideal, but certinaly much better than it was.
On the whole, I really like where I work. I love my coworkers to death, the culture is fantastic, and I like my programming job duties. The primary sources of my stress came from my micromanaging and stubborn boss, Rachel, and having to do meeting room reservations, which took up 80% of my job despite not actually being in my job description. Both of those things have since remedied. Rachel began easing up on me after my wild success with the Disney trivia fundraiser (which lead to a Harry Potter trivia fundraiser, and now a Star Wars one this May), and micromangaing dropped significantly (though not entirely). She left suddenly in October for a Director job in Mequon and our Assitant Director Jennifer, whom I love, took over. Stress across library staff disappated away after that; although I'm feeling majorly stressed by her choice in the new Assistnat Director - Keri, our teen librarian. I guess that's a story/problem for 2018, though.
Meeting rooms became my biggest stressor after that. They'd increased by 75% since I was hired in June 2016, and it was taking over my life. I hated every minute of work because of it; but luckily Jennifer transferred those duties to our two full-time adult librarians in December, and I've been free of that stress mess since (insert: one of the librarians who took over the responsiblities won't stop complaining to me about how hard it is. No pity for you).
All that said and done, 2017 was a crazy year. I continued travelling nearly every other month, though this time it was mostly outside of Wisconsin. In January I went on a Weird Chicago trip with Emily (Ayisha joined us half-way through) to the surgical museum and BSDM museum and also to see the terra cotta warriors with my mom at the Chicago Field Museum.
In February I went to Lulu Lake in Mukwanago for the first time, which was breathtakingly beautiful and insanely hot for some reason (70s in February!). I went back with Charlotte and Ezra later in the year. In March I went to Door County with Charlotte, Jordan, Ezra, and Elizabeth and stayed in Elizabeth's cottage. We went to Al Johnson's for my first time (woot!). And also - Savannah was born!!
In April I did our Disney fundraiser and also ordered a secret Sakura frappacino at Starbucks (nom nom). I went to Kettle Moraine south and explored the 7 natural springs that used to house spa treatment buildings back in the day; and we also went and visited Brian, Michelle, and new baby Savannah out in California! While we were there we went to Disney California Adventure for the first time, and it was awesome.
For my 30th birthday in May, I took myself to Denmark and Sweden, my first Europe trip. I made the decision to go spur of the moment in March. Within a 30 minute span I had found cheap roundtrip flights on Google Flights, asked my boss for the time off, and bought the airfare. My coworkers still talk about how quickly I'm apparently able to make a decision; but I did it because I knew if I didn't do it right then and there, it probably wouldn't have worked out. Because of the back-to-back California trip and fundraiser, I pushed off planning for the Europe trip until the month of, making it a very stressful lead-up. I got an AirBnB in Copenhagen and a hotel in Stockholm, both of which I was hugely happy with. That whole trip is a post in and of itself, so I'll just leave it with saying that I liked Sweden better but was disappointed in both for being so Americanized that it felt like I was still in America. And I got to meet my friend Tia in Uppsala!
May was one of the most important months in the history of my life, because I finally figured out what I want to do with my life after hitting burnout. It was like lifting a huge rock off me. These last two years of having no direction, no feeling of purpose, have been soul-crushing. It was fine while I got back on my feet and cleansed my body from the stress toxins; but after 8 months, a hole began forming in my abdomen. I wanted to close it, but there was no way for me to do that unless I found my solution, which just wasn't happening. The answer came when I bought a book at Disney California Advenure about how they imagineered the Haunted Mansion. As I was reading it on flight back, it occurred to me that I used to want to be an Imagineer... and why couldn't I? I could be an Imagineer. It's everything I've always wanted to do, and everything that I'm good at. I have the skills - I could be useful to them. I can make theme parks! And then I remembered all those times I had ideas on how to make the parks better, spruce up the zoo, make museums more interesting. I've been wanting to design public spaces all my life, it just never occurred to me that it was an option!
So I began doing research on what this was. My first instinct was that this was lanscape architecture or maybe urban planning, and I put something up on Facebook asking for advice. Most people also told me it was landscape architecture and maybe a hint of urban planning, so I began looking into UWM's school of Architecture and Urban Planning and setting up meetings. Theme parks were still in the back of my head, so I looked up anything I could and found an organization called the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA). I joined it as a NextGen/student member and looked to see if there happened to be any other members in the Milwaukee area. There were 2.
After my Europe trip I painted a mural in Lea's baby's room, and in June Kingsley was born! Two babies in one year, whew. It was around this time, too, that I got my Milwaukee Mural Map site back up and running again after being on hiatus for so long. It was a good thing, because I was recruited at that same time to do consulting for a art-justice trail tour, which led to meeting and becoming friends with Peggy Rozga (Father Groppi's wife) and getting invited to be on multiple boards (one of which I joined). In June I always biked the furthest I ever have on the Drumlin Glacial trail (to my newest favorite cafe, Mama D's in Wales).]
June-July, I met with UWM's architecture and urban planning school and also Martin Palicki, a TEA member who runs a theme park magazine called InPark in Bay View. He gave me a TON of helpful advice, including telling me that I should go to the SATE conference in L.A. that September, as well as the IAAPA conference in Orlando if I could spin it. It's because of him that I went to SATE and met all the amazing and helpful people that I did. And he also offered me a job as a writer with his magazine this past month (December).
August saw our Harry Potter trivia fundraiser. Nothing much else happened other than learning how to make Oma's sauerkraut.
In September I made a longtime-need trip to Philly to visit the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program people and the Eastern State Penitentiary. Both were wildly successful and I can't wait to go back. While I was there, I visited the Art Museum (Rocky), Independence Hall, and the Liberty Bell. Then I headed out to Pittsburgh to visit Reimer. When I came back to Milwaukee, I co-led a Door's Open tour for art in Milwaukee.
The SATE conference was in October, which was different than expected but better than I could have hoped for. I met some really cool and really important players there, many of which I still talk with today. I did a speed interviewing event with companies like Disney and Universal, and one person (who I'm not close with) already knew about my Milwaukee Mural Map because she read about it in a book! And, as usual, there were about 18 birthdays in October; which was the start of a financially tough few months.
Mid-November I decided to go to IAAPA down in Orlando at the last second. Despite having a traumatic Uber experience and getting zero support from my mentor in response, I'm glad I went because it reinforced the relationships I made at SATE, and I got to meet a ton of really cool new people. I probably won't go to it again because of the negative association I have with it now, but I'm still glad I went. Brian, Michelle, and Savannah also visited for Thanksgiving, which was wonderful; and I had my first Friendsgiving! TWO, in fact!
November and December saw a ton of really successful, back-to-back programs at work, which took up most of my time and energy. I increased our sponsorships by 20 fold and also started getting back into my art roots (or trying to, at any rate). I talked to someone from UC-Boulder with their new Experience Design program and really liked it, but it's $65,000 without travel and living costs, and there is no financial help available. Everyone told me that they don't think I should need to go back to school, but I decided to apply anyway, just in case. I still haven't completed it... : (
Which brings me to 2018! I kicked it off with a boom by going to an all-inclusive Finnish farm in northern Wisconsin with Jamie, just the getaway I needed. Let's look at last year's goals:
Wow, I'm looking at my 2016 year in review, and I was miserable. Not as miserable as the year before (2015, the second-lowest point in my life), but it's putting this last year into perspective because I don't remember being that miserable. I guess that means that things got better (which they did in some senses). I'm going to attribute that to my job situation, which is not ideal, but certinaly much better than it was.
On the whole, I really like where I work. I love my coworkers to death, the culture is fantastic, and I like my programming job duties. The primary sources of my stress came from my micromanaging and stubborn boss, Rachel, and having to do meeting room reservations, which took up 80% of my job despite not actually being in my job description. Both of those things have since remedied. Rachel began easing up on me after my wild success with the Disney trivia fundraiser (which lead to a Harry Potter trivia fundraiser, and now a Star Wars one this May), and micromangaing dropped significantly (though not entirely). She left suddenly in October for a Director job in Mequon and our Assitant Director Jennifer, whom I love, took over. Stress across library staff disappated away after that; although I'm feeling majorly stressed by her choice in the new Assistnat Director - Keri, our teen librarian. I guess that's a story/problem for 2018, though.
Meeting rooms became my biggest stressor after that. They'd increased by 75% since I was hired in June 2016, and it was taking over my life. I hated every minute of work because of it; but luckily Jennifer transferred those duties to our two full-time adult librarians in December, and I've been free of that stress mess since (insert: one of the librarians who took over the responsiblities won't stop complaining to me about how hard it is. No pity for you).
All that said and done, 2017 was a crazy year. I continued travelling nearly every other month, though this time it was mostly outside of Wisconsin. In January I went on a Weird Chicago trip with Emily (Ayisha joined us half-way through) to the surgical museum and BSDM museum and also to see the terra cotta warriors with my mom at the Chicago Field Museum.
In February I went to Lulu Lake in Mukwanago for the first time, which was breathtakingly beautiful and insanely hot for some reason (70s in February!). I went back with Charlotte and Ezra later in the year. In March I went to Door County with Charlotte, Jordan, Ezra, and Elizabeth and stayed in Elizabeth's cottage. We went to Al Johnson's for my first time (woot!). And also - Savannah was born!!
In April I did our Disney fundraiser and also ordered a secret Sakura frappacino at Starbucks (nom nom). I went to Kettle Moraine south and explored the 7 natural springs that used to house spa treatment buildings back in the day; and we also went and visited Brian, Michelle, and new baby Savannah out in California! While we were there we went to Disney California Adventure for the first time, and it was awesome.
For my 30th birthday in May, I took myself to Denmark and Sweden, my first Europe trip. I made the decision to go spur of the moment in March. Within a 30 minute span I had found cheap roundtrip flights on Google Flights, asked my boss for the time off, and bought the airfare. My coworkers still talk about how quickly I'm apparently able to make a decision; but I did it because I knew if I didn't do it right then and there, it probably wouldn't have worked out. Because of the back-to-back California trip and fundraiser, I pushed off planning for the Europe trip until the month of, making it a very stressful lead-up. I got an AirBnB in Copenhagen and a hotel in Stockholm, both of which I was hugely happy with. That whole trip is a post in and of itself, so I'll just leave it with saying that I liked Sweden better but was disappointed in both for being so Americanized that it felt like I was still in America. And I got to meet my friend Tia in Uppsala!
May was one of the most important months in the history of my life, because I finally figured out what I want to do with my life after hitting burnout. It was like lifting a huge rock off me. These last two years of having no direction, no feeling of purpose, have been soul-crushing. It was fine while I got back on my feet and cleansed my body from the stress toxins; but after 8 months, a hole began forming in my abdomen. I wanted to close it, but there was no way for me to do that unless I found my solution, which just wasn't happening. The answer came when I bought a book at Disney California Advenure about how they imagineered the Haunted Mansion. As I was reading it on flight back, it occurred to me that I used to want to be an Imagineer... and why couldn't I? I could be an Imagineer. It's everything I've always wanted to do, and everything that I'm good at. I have the skills - I could be useful to them. I can make theme parks! And then I remembered all those times I had ideas on how to make the parks better, spruce up the zoo, make museums more interesting. I've been wanting to design public spaces all my life, it just never occurred to me that it was an option!
So I began doing research on what this was. My first instinct was that this was lanscape architecture or maybe urban planning, and I put something up on Facebook asking for advice. Most people also told me it was landscape architecture and maybe a hint of urban planning, so I began looking into UWM's school of Architecture and Urban Planning and setting up meetings. Theme parks were still in the back of my head, so I looked up anything I could and found an organization called the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA). I joined it as a NextGen/student member and looked to see if there happened to be any other members in the Milwaukee area. There were 2.
After my Europe trip I painted a mural in Lea's baby's room, and in June Kingsley was born! Two babies in one year, whew. It was around this time, too, that I got my Milwaukee Mural Map site back up and running again after being on hiatus for so long. It was a good thing, because I was recruited at that same time to do consulting for a art-justice trail tour, which led to meeting and becoming friends with Peggy Rozga (Father Groppi's wife) and getting invited to be on multiple boards (one of which I joined). In June I always biked the furthest I ever have on the Drumlin Glacial trail (to my newest favorite cafe, Mama D's in Wales).]
June-July, I met with UWM's architecture and urban planning school and also Martin Palicki, a TEA member who runs a theme park magazine called InPark in Bay View. He gave me a TON of helpful advice, including telling me that I should go to the SATE conference in L.A. that September, as well as the IAAPA conference in Orlando if I could spin it. It's because of him that I went to SATE and met all the amazing and helpful people that I did. And he also offered me a job as a writer with his magazine this past month (December).
August saw our Harry Potter trivia fundraiser. Nothing much else happened other than learning how to make Oma's sauerkraut.
In September I made a longtime-need trip to Philly to visit the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program people and the Eastern State Penitentiary. Both were wildly successful and I can't wait to go back. While I was there, I visited the Art Museum (Rocky), Independence Hall, and the Liberty Bell. Then I headed out to Pittsburgh to visit Reimer. When I came back to Milwaukee, I co-led a Door's Open tour for art in Milwaukee.
The SATE conference was in October, which was different than expected but better than I could have hoped for. I met some really cool and really important players there, many of which I still talk with today. I did a speed interviewing event with companies like Disney and Universal, and one person (who I'm not close with) already knew about my Milwaukee Mural Map because she read about it in a book! And, as usual, there were about 18 birthdays in October; which was the start of a financially tough few months.
Mid-November I decided to go to IAAPA down in Orlando at the last second. Despite having a traumatic Uber experience and getting zero support from my mentor in response, I'm glad I went because it reinforced the relationships I made at SATE, and I got to meet a ton of really cool new people. I probably won't go to it again because of the negative association I have with it now, but I'm still glad I went. Brian, Michelle, and Savannah also visited for Thanksgiving, which was wonderful; and I had my first Friendsgiving! TWO, in fact!
November and December saw a ton of really successful, back-to-back programs at work, which took up most of my time and energy. I increased our sponsorships by 20 fold and also started getting back into my art roots (or trying to, at any rate). I talked to someone from UC-Boulder with their new Experience Design program and really liked it, but it's $65,000 without travel and living costs, and there is no financial help available. Everyone told me that they don't think I should need to go back to school, but I decided to apply anyway, just in case. I still haven't completed it... : (
Which brings me to 2018! I kicked it off with a boom by going to an all-inclusive Finnish farm in northern Wisconsin with Jamie, just the getaway I needed. Let's look at last year's goals:
- Find something that makes me happy, more fulfilled (heeeeey!! Look at that! Check!)
- Continue exploring the midwest, travelling more frequently (Check!)
- Come close to finishing my novel (Not quite. At the start of 2017 I was on Chapter 4. I'm not on Chapter 13 and have finally introduced the creepy girl, which is a GIGANTIC milestone. It means I'm about 1/3 of the way through)
- Bike the Chicago lakefront trail
- Learn how to make bread
- Lose weight. I don't normally put this on a list of goals but I've reached a point of no return and need to turn back. I'm working on it, though (I finally started losing a little bit of weight in early 2018 after rejoining pole)
- Finish my knitted socks
- Try new outdoor activities (cross-country skiing January 1, 2018; archery)
- Hike a lot. Get hiking boots (hiked a lot but did not get hiking boots)
- Get my own place (ugh, still no)
So I guess we're on to 2018 goals. Sadly, I can't really think of any right now, probably because I'm in a bit of a slump at the moment. No job prospects, frustrations with my current position, been sick for over a month now... But I'll give it a shot.
- Do some travelling for leisure/personal growth, not professional growth or out of obligation
- Finish a sewing project/craft more
- Evolve Mural Map to include more external partnerships or projects
- Get an apartment
- Continue getting stronger with more pole dancing. Get better than I ever have been
- Expand cooking skills
- Try new foods
- Get to half-way point on novel
- Write an article for a newspaper or do another major presentation
- Practice Spanish and Japanese
- Updated 2/27/18: start doing monthly goals. This month (March) I want to learn the Korean alphabet as well as watercoloring
Those seem like lame goals but I can always add to them.
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