Laura's 2006 review

2006 has come to a close with the new year just in the beginning stages. Time for reflection over the past year.

January went by quickly, dating AF and seeing our relationship develop. We went to the Banff Mountain film festival which was fun and will be repeated this month, though this time will be in Waterloo. Can't really remember too much of January, though I have a feeling I spent a lot of time on the phone ;)

February was another great month of developing our relationship, although things at school started getting more stressful with deadlines looming. Mid Month I had a wonderful visit from KB who was in Ontario to visit. At the end of the month, and the beginning of March I went to BC to do some skiing with my Dad and his friends.

March: after getting back from skiing in BC, AF came with me to B-ville to meet the family. We had a great visit with lots of family (Dad, sister, b-i-l, aunt, uncle, cousin... etc.). We went skiing at Blue Mountain and while there, my mystery illness that would end up plaguing me for the next 3-4 months began. At the end of March we met C-dubs man in Peterborough.

April was another stressfull month school wise chez Laura's. I was frantically trying to get my stuff ready for the conference in Monterey and finishing my paper. Mid (?) month we also learned that AF's sister had a brain tumor that was going to need to be operated on, scary news, but they were certain that the tumor was not cancerous. At the end of April C-dub, Nej and I took a trip to AB to visit Niks for her wedding reception. Great, but short, visit, although I was a little ball of stress the entire time.

May saw my stress level slowly decrease. The first half of the month was spent preparing my presentation for Batelle. I got news that my granny's health was deteriorating and AF and I went to visit her for the weekend on Mother's Day. The next weekend I flew to California for the conference and stayed there for half a week. While I was enroute back home (likely while I was hanging out in the San Fran Airport, D was in labour delivering god daughter #2.) We visited with the happy family at the end of May.

June was another stressful month. although not with school. At the beginning of the month AF's sister had her surgery, and while waiting for her to come out of the surgery, my dad called my Cell phone, I immediately knew it was bad news. My Granny was slipping fast and was going to be starting morphine to help with the pain management. I knew I had to get up to see her as soon as possible, so I took off a few days the next week to go and visit her one last time with my Dad. I got back to Waterloo late on the evening of the 16th and AF and I celebrated our first 6 months together on the 17th. We went out to dinner, early on the 18th my dad called to tell me that Granny had passed away. To say I was devestated would be an understatement. We went back to TO that weekend since AFs aunt was coming in from Sweeden. The next day though AFs sister had to go back into the hospital since her brain was leeking spinal fluid. Finally at the end of the month, the light started to brighten a bit, AFs sister was released from hospital for the second time, and started to recover. My health wise, the doctor had me on new medication that was finally starting to make a difference in how I was feeling.

July was another busy month. AF and I decided to move in together, My dad got engaged, I discovered I would be inheriting a big chunk of money from my granny's death, went to the peterborough triathlon (one of only two races I did last year), had burger's wedding shower, had a mini-vacation at my dad's house which AF insists is cottage like (I don't see it.)

August AFs other aunt from Iran came to visit, and while here applied for refugee status. In anticipation of my future wealth, I bought a new camera which I still love although I've been horribly bad about updating my photoblog. perhaps when things slow down I'll start up with it again. At the end of the month Burger got married! Wonderful party.

September saw me slowly starting to pack up my belongings and move them over to AFs apartment. We went up to Wasaga beach for a weekend for me to do my first olympic triathlon, but alas, wind cancelled the swim and I wimped out at the prospect of running 15 km, so I switched to the sprint duathlon. My dad also turned 60 and we had a big party.

October I spent a week with my sister on Drive Sarah to the Hospital Duty. She didn't have her baby that week, but she did the following week so I became an Aunt! I got to visit baby Eddie the following weekend. October also saw AFs aunt recind her refuge claim and head back home hoping her husbands days of abuse were over. At the end of the month saw me in the lab crazy hours and we ventured down to Windsor the P&Js Wedding Bash. Good times were had by all.

November after spending crazy hours in the lab at the end of October, my lab results came back and they were not good. Turns out I would have to redo my lab work in November which shot a hole into any plans I had of finishing up before christmas. Outside of school I turned 26 and had a fabulous birthday present - big sis moving home from Africa! yipee!

December was a stressful and busy time with school spent trying to get as far along in my research as possible before the christmas break. that combined with the lack of snow but me very much NOT in the christmas spirit. AF and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary and he had his first christmas ever. We visited with my immediate family, D and the girls, my mum's side of the family, my dad's side of the family, and of course Nej and C-dub. So it was a busy busy week and a half off, kind of hard getting back into the grove of things this morning.

Last year I made from resolutions, so I'm going to see how I stacked up...
1) Fitness wise - < 1:20 in peterborough sprint, < 2 hours in a half marathon, finish an olympic tri
Um, peterborough and the half mary didn't happen since I was sick, oly didn't happen because of wind, although I'm sure I could have completed it
2) Go to Batelle in May and completely redeem myself after being unprepared for ORTs.
Completed with flying colours. It was a stressful 5 months leading up to Batelle, but the conference went smoothly.
3) Finish writting my thesis in rough draft by the end of July leaving August for revisions.
Um, nope on this one.
4) Travel a bit before fall convocation and finish school for good!
Nope, Nope, Nope
5) Get a job that I love in a city that I adore (aka not the loo!)
Nope, nope, nope. Not only that, but I think I'll be staying in the area for at least a couple of years yet.

Obviously I don't do well with goals. Actually, normally I do, but several of them hinged on my completion of school and well, that didn't happen.

Goals for 2007
1) Goal Races - Spring half marathon, summer half ironman, fall full marathon.
2) Finish school for good and get the hell out of here. I'm SO ready to be done.
3) Be a happier person. I think school is really starting to get to me and bring me down. It is always this stress in my life and it doesn't help that people ask me all the time "So, when are you going to be done?" I think I heard it 10,000 times over the break. dude's it's a touchy subject, if I want to talk about school let me bring it up.