The Best and The Worst of Times

It’s interesting to hear so many TV pundits calling this the worst decade ever. I feel pretty much the opposite and even my worst memories from the decade are pretty dang awesome from a lesson learned standpoint.

But after reading Honeysmoke’s Decade Breakdown, I decided to do one of my own:

2000: Traveled around the Eastern Hemisphere and decided to come back to the States as opposed to taking another ESL job in Taiwan thanks to an epiphany while walking down the side of a dead volcano in New Zealand. Have refused to hike volcanoes ever since.

2001: Got my first and last freelance newspaper gig for the Pittsburgh City Paper and worked a 9 to 5. Started grad school. Found a really cheap ticket to London for the holidays due to not being afraid to fly after 9-11.

2002: Got a screenplay optioned and dropped. Bought my first mac with the money from that deal.

2003: Moved to LA with my mac and commenced to starve in a dead-end 9 to 5 sort of way. Moved in with first super-serious boyfriend.

2004: Got dumped by live-in BF over the phone. Only got paid (very little) for the restaurant reviews I wrote for AOL Citysearch. Started dating again.

2005: Started last 9 to 5. Bought my first big-girl car. Wrote a moderately successful play called GROWN-UPS ON THE PLAYGROUND about God, sex, broken dreams, and the BF who broke up with me over the phone. Was paid zero money for writing for the entire year. Decided to stop dating for 3 months. Then after that decided to move to Chicago to pursue playwriting and a decent job that didn’t make me want to slit my wrists. Was asked out by CH on the very same day. Started novel as a National Novel Writing Month initiative. Man, did I not make that deadline.

2006: Moved in with CH, but saved up enough money to move out if things went south. Quit my last 9 to 5. CH asked me to marry him two weeks later, landed my first full time writing gig two weeks later.

2007: Used my “moving out” fund to pay off all of my bad debt. Got married and promoted. Got serious about finishing my novel.

2008: Fertility issues became evident. Quit my stressful job, found out that we’d need IVF a few weeks later. Started Fierce and Nerdy anyway. IVF worked, but savings seriously depleted with me only working part time. Finally finished my novel.

2009: Come back tomorrow for that tale. Meanwhile I would love to see your decade breakdowns in the comments.