Taking Stock

There will probably be a few of these posts as the year draws to a close. It's interesting -- when I was teaching, I always did my reflecting and taking stock in the summer time; for so long, my "year" was from September to June. But in this world, I roll with everyone else, and so I've been looking back on 2009 and trying to fathom how in the world all of it actually happened.

All in all, I would call 2009 pretty intense. I'm so thankful to have worked so steadily -- 8 months on Dora and 3 months in China only leaves a few weeks when I wasn't gainfully employed as a working actor, and to me, that's pretty amazing. When you come down to it, I had good jobs, whether or not they're where I see myself eventually ending up. I spent 8 months away from Ryan on Dora, but then got to travel to China with him, so you do the math on that one. I'm hoping that next year brings us a little more work together and a little less distance. I started out 2009 with a looooong case of mono, which was immediately followed by being diagnosed with plantar fasciitis and bone spurs in my heels. But after months of icing and taping and wearing orthotics, my feet are getting back into fighting shape, and I can actually dance again.

I hiked the Great Wall, did more morning show interviews than I can count, had a phone conversation with a Real Housewife, was pushed up a hill by a schoolbus, went to Disneyland in Tokyo, ate the best french toast in the world, headlined at Radio City Music Hall for 90 minutes of my life, fought for what I knew was right and won, found out I'm going to be an aunt, worked as hard as I could, and learned a whole bunch -- about myself and about the world around me.

I'm giving 2009 a big ol' thumbs-up.

xoxo