And then all of a sudden it was the last day of 2013 and time to reflect before running pell-mell, screaming and yawping, along the cliff-top, hurling myself over the edge and out into the empty sparkling sky and plunging into the new year.
I haven’t spent a lot of time writing in this Parentheticals blog (or my FYFFH blog) this year, despite the best of intentions. Almost all my creative energy has been taken up with other kinds of art projects: trying to make serious headway on my second novel (which I have), making freak flags, making art to bring to Burning Man, running an ongoing RPG. It’s hard enough to balance any kind of creative output with the demands and distractions of daily life, but I have to admit it’s also hard to balance creative projects with one another. Multitasking is a challenge for me in my creative life, at least right now when I’m multitasking so much in every other part of my life as well.
But that being said, I still feel pulled to blog at this time of year, so blog I shall. Who knows, maybe it’ll inspire me to blog more in 2014.
So how’d 2013 go? Thanks for asking. In retrospect, 2013 was a steady, full, “interesting” yet not overly dramatic or tragic year (yes, even though we now have a middle-schooler). We stayed pretty healthy and pretty happy overall, and for that I am immensely grateful. My stated intention for 2013 was “stretch”, and if I hold that intention up against my activities this year I think I manifested that pretty well, especially in the creative and spiritual arenas. But I do find myself at the end of the year pretty tuckered out and feeling overwhelmed, so maybe 2014 is the time for a less demanding intention. More on that in the next blog entry.
And now, the month-by-month review for posterity. (Because someday this is going to be the only way I remember what the heck happened in my life.)
January 2013 was blessedly quiet, although interspersed with birthday celebrations. I also began my “Out of the Closet Challenge”, where I challenged myself to dig into my voluminous closet and wear something different every day for a year--that was certainly a stretch, in multiple directions. I wrote about that whole project over here.
In February I held a writer retreat weekend out at Stinson, which helped me get moving again on my second novel. Then it was Eli’s birthday, which was celebrated during our now-ritualized annual family trip to Dundracon. We also spent some time at the Odyssey of the Mind Regional competition with Eli’s team, which was a fun learning experience for all of us. February also brought me a lot of volunteer work running the “Dixie Doodle” fundraiser for Isaac’s school, and then there was Purim, which we actually got dressed up for and celebrated with our synagogue communmity.
March was full of little trips and festivities: I went to Burnal Equinox, made arrangements for the supercool beatboxing cello player Cello Joe to play at Isaac and Eli’s schools, and went to the local spec fic con FOGcon with my writer peeps. Isaac had a glowy "rave" birthday party at the bowling alley, and we all went to the State Competition for Eli’s Odyssey of the Mind team. Also in there were Passover (early this year like all the other Jewish holidays) and a fabulous and memorable trip to the French Laundry in honor of Mom and Dad’s combined 70th birthdays. (It was a completely over the top and awesome meal.)
In April I arranged another writer retreat weekend in Stinson, and there was also a different Stinson beach weekend trip with friends in honor of Ron’s birthday. Other April highlights were a field trip to Angel Island with our religious school class, and a fun day checking out the How Weird Street Fair (and handing out freak flags). The biggest event (and biggest stretch) of this month, though, was finally being called to the Torah as an adult Bat Mitzvah, which was something I’d been studying for since the Fall. It took a lot of courageous stretching, but I feel like I was able to reclaim and authentically embrace my ancestral spiritual tradition in a way that was personally meaningful and enriching. The day itself was one of those peak spiritual moments I will always remember.
May got busy with a trip to Chico to see both my brother and nephew perform in separate musical gigs, a huge amount of prep for and a triumphant weekend at Maker Faire making freak flags (I stretched into a bigger booth and nearly double the amount of flags this year), and a wonderful trip with my writer peeps out to the heretofore never visited state of Wisconsin for WisCon, the premiere Feminist Spec Fic convention. I had such a great time at that con that I am planning on going back again this year.
June was also busy and full of stuff: I had another writer retreat weekend in Stinson, the kids finished up 2nd and 5th grade, we made our annual pilgrimage to the Pirate Festival, I helped mom set up and break down her booth at the Marin Art Show at the Lagoon, and then we went on a week-long fabulous family trip to Yosemite. Shortly thereafter we celebrated the birth of our fourth nephew, baby Finn. In and amongst all this other madness we also started ramping up for a project that would soon consume the rest of our summer: planning and building the Temple of Renewal (aka the showers) for our camp at Burning Man.
July was full of summery activities like the Marin County Fair and the neighborly Firefighters Pancake Breakfast, plus lots of visits with family, including my Grandma’s annual visit. We also buckled down on the Temple of Renewal project and other Burning Man prep, some on our own and some with a little help from our friends. I got a lot of “stretch” in during this project, which I wrote about over here. “Go Big or Go Home” became our rallying cry.
In August both kids went away for a week to sleep-away camp (this was Isaac’s first time) and Josh and I ripped ourselves away from the Burning Man prep to take a 4-day trip to Ashland for the Shakespeare Festival (with a bonus side trip to Shasta Caverns which were incredible to behold). We put in a hell of a lot of work on the Temple of Renewal, and then Josh left for Burning Man a week early to do build, I held down the fort for the beginning of 3rd/7th grade for the boys, and then I took off for Burning Man. I did a detailed write up of that trip over here.
As soon as we returned from Burning Man in September, we dived into the High Holidays, then spent a bunch of time recovering from and cleaning up from Burning Man. Later in the month there was Josh’s birthday luau, get togethers with some of our Burning Man peeps and old college buddies, and some more art flunky time helping set up Mom’s booth for the Mill Valley Art Festival.
In October I went on a trip with Mom to Gatlinburg, Tennessee for the National Basketry Organization’s bi-annual conference. I got to go somewhere new, hang out with some cool artists and learn about baskets and basketry techniques, but most importantly I had four beautiful, empty days to spend writing. I came straight back from that trip to the SF Burning Man Decompression event, which was fun, and then at the end of the month I made myself a fancy sparkly “dragonrider” costume and went to the Ghost Ship Halloween party. Halloween itself was the usual running around the neighborhood trick-or-treating with the kids.
In November Eli and I went to a few weekends of workshops for Dickens Fair, as well as a B’nai Mitzvah retreat at Camp Newman. Dickens Fair started up in mid-November, and for 5 weekends, Eli and I had a great time singing, gambling and gigging with the Paddy West School of Seamanship (“where we produce the best seamen in London!”). Having our weekends full of Dickens Fair made the rest of the “getting ready for holidays” activities challenging, but it was worth it. The busy social calendar around the week of Thanksgivukkah (the once-in-a-lifetime calendar convergence that put the first day of Hanukkah the day before Thanksgiving) also made November challenging, and when combined with working a 3-day weekend of Dickens Fair, it was like running a marathon (without adequate training!) In November I also got to finally visit the new Exploratorium when I chaperoned on a field trip there with Isaac’s class. I loved it and look forward to going back!
December had lots of school concerts and parties, more Dickens Fair (which triumphantly ended the weekend before Christmas), a night at Cirque du Soleil with old friends (I *loved* their new show Amaluna, a genderflipped Tempest mashup), going to see the next installment of the Hobbit movies (yay dragon!), our 17th annual Black Turkey holiday party, Christmas eve in Valley Springs with Josh’s parents, visiting with Josh’s extended family for Christmas Day, and then Christmas Decompression with friends back at our house at the end of it all. Also of note in December were Isaac getting glasses for the first time, and the Great Freeze, in which temperatures plummeted to below freezing for over a week. It was weird experience for us wimpy Californians!
And now here at the very end of the year we have come out to Stinson Beach with the Dvorin side of our family to exchange presents and eat seafood and play games and perform in the family talent show and walk on the beach and finally, finally relax and reflect on the season and the year behind us. After doing this summary, it’s clear to me that 2013 turned out to be a surprisingly good year. I am grateful, and looking forward to the twists and turns, the work and the challenges, the learning and the playing, and all the entertainments and the interactions of the year to come. Happy New Year, all!