2010 in retrospect

I had only 233 posts this year - the lowest number yet for a year. I am blaming facebook, which will suck your time down like it's drinking your milkshake. First, a few things that stand out, and limiting these to those related to personal experiences. Links go to posts.

People we knew or met who are no longer with us, listed in descending order of familiarity:

• Jax, our big sweet black cat, complications of diabetes and other issues. Yes, cats are people. Age 14.
• Cousin *L*, the closest thing I had to a sister, cancer. Age 60.
• Billy Maddox, drummer for Eric Johnson and others, shot to death during a home intrusion. Age 57.
• Liz Carpenter, Lady Bird Johnson's Press Sec'y, author, and Texas progressive. Age 90.

Important and/or weird events that happened around here:

• My mother and two aunts were featured on Awkward Family Photos.
• We met Caplin Rous, the famous capybara, at Petco. Now MrB wants a capybara. I don't think we are ready for such a thing. [and now a sad addendum: Caplin has died of encephalitis on Jan 4. This charming animal will be missed. He had really worked his way into our hearts via facebook]
  
• Joe Stack, angry with the IRS, flew his airplane right over the building where I work, and crashed it into the IRS office. Both the Republican and Democratic Representatives for this area declared it to be terrorism, and I thoroughly agreed - but it was never treated as such.
• Got to see our young friend Sarah Jarosz at her Austin City Limits taping.

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Let's see... these are the major trends going on with the Blueberries over the past year...

I continued the effort to rescue myself from the workaholic frenzy that has been driving me crazy for several years (damn that Virgo sun!). Some dreams which were already dead, were laid to rest with honors. I accomplished many things and did not fail. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Time to move on. This process was started in 2009, and now, at the end of 2010 I have finally gotten my work commitments down to just one 40-hour-per-week job... pretty much...

Part of the process was simply doing less. I have a lot of friends who go out and hit the clubs and venues almost every night. They are generally middle-aged with no kids or grown kids, no pets, in many cases retired, or otherwise not needing to work - at least not the full-time routine. When we first moved here, we were out there several nights a week, even with a bunch of cats at home (the cats were lower maintenance then). It's probably hard for some of them to understand why a live music fanatic like me would miss a "major" event in favor of a low-impact TV night where I attempt to get enough sleep. {sigh}

This was the year that I learned that sleep is not over-rated. If I go by that old saw "I'll sleep when I'm dead" it could lead to a "snooze" coming on way before I'm ready for it. My health has been falling victim to lack of sleep and over-stressing. You really can worry yourself to death, or into a place of deep distress.

I still listen to or watch Countdown, Rachel Maddow, The Daily Show and the Colbert Report pretty much every day. The political world is so flipped out right now that it has surpassed what I thought was possible for teh crazy. Most of the time, I'm too stunned for words. There is still some political content here at the Oasis, but that's why there's not more. Everything continues to be surreal.

Looking at my sidebar, I see that we watched 101 movies or boxed sets, and attended 43 live shows (as always, counting days at SXSW or other multi-act shows as "1," which hardly seems fair...). Not shabby at all. Happy to have been so enriched.

Roll with the punches, everybody. Hang in there, if possible. Get some rest once in awhile. Here's a beauty of a Paul McCartney song called "Goodbye"