A friend of mine eschewed Christmas cards, last year, opting instead for the more highly prized New Year Email. The tag line she and her family used was the title above.
In short, it wasn’t.
2009 was a good news/bad news joke that lasted 365 days.
I became an aunt to a niece and a nephew.
Fully half of my family (including those 2 babies) has moved to the United States.
The Boy started Grade One in the fall, and thrived.
I started a bout of depression in the fall, and didn’t.
I was offered a job that was practically perfect in every way.
The Girl’s world was shook by my taking that job, in ways I couldn’t have predicted.
But I made it through the wilderness. Somehow I made it through.
Not to get maudlin at the last minute, but this blog was so good and restorative and necessary for me this year.
I worked out stuff on its electronic pages that I couldn’t anywhere else. I kept up with people I knew, met others for the first time, was supported and distracted, in the right balance.
While real life was busy happening, I sat down and hammered out blog posts 180 times (assuming I post again tomorrow.) Some of them, a lot of them, were wholly forgettable.
A few of them, though, I still like.
I thought I’d compile my own top ten for the year. Stuff I’m happy I wrote, stuff that some of you seemed to like, stuff that maybe doesn’t make me curl up into a ball of cringe.
So, in absolutely no particular order, here is what I consider to be the top of my own particular dung heap, this year:
A Tree Grows in the Psych Ward
A Letter To My Child’s Teacher, Whom I Suspect is a Sadist
Sometimes, There Are No Winners
And let me finish by saying thank you. Thank You. Thank you for your comments, which I have given up trying to pretend don’t matter, because they are EXTREMELY gratifying. Thank you for reading, for passing my stuff on to other sites, for sending links around facebook and twitter and what have you. Thank you to the people I know in real life, who read me and still make eye contact with me, anyway. Thank you to my family, who give me the fodder for a whole lot of this site, and let me share it with all y’all.
And I leave you with my own personal tag line for the year to come,
“Gonna try to be a little more zen, in 2010.”
Zen is good – breathe in, breathe out. =)
Hey, I have a site that I no longer follow (Crazy Emails) to thank for leading me here. I hope you keep it up – you’re a joy to read! =)
Hope you don’t mind keeping a blog stalker like me around. I’ll try not to make a mess.
Thanks for sticking with me, no matter how you got here!
Well I am glad I found you in 2009! While I too stalk most of the time I really enjoy reading you!!! Have a wonderful New Year!
Thanks Brenda, right back atcha!
xoxo Mizz Ginny. I wish the word fuck rhymed with ‘twenty-ten’. I would write you a poem that talked about how much I am looking forward to saying fuck a lot in the upcoming year. Your blog, my blog, I’m just gonna say fuck.
Thanks for the greatness you share.
Fuck!
You foul-mouthed little angel, you!
I still love The Sadist Teacher one…That was great stuff. 2009 has been an interesting year indeed. Thanks for entertaining us throughout.
Thanks for reading. You’ve been around for a while, now, and I really appreciate it.
happy new year! i remember all of your “top 10″, and could probably pull another 10 or so from your 180 without digging too deep!
“i’ll read ginny again in 2010″
Hah! You’re too kind. Happy New Year to you, too.
Thanks for making my 2009 better. I look forward to reading more in the coming year.
Thanks for continuing to read, Chris. I’ll do what I can.
oh I remember the letter to your child’s teacher – priceless!
Priceless – and got me called names. Sigh.
How convenient. A top 10 list for folk like me who only managed to pop in about three times this year.
Sorry about that. 2009 really did suck, and continues to do so. I’m really hoping for a better next year.
I just recently managed to catch my blog up, and now I’m trying to do the same with my blog reading. I’m gonna have to come back and peruse that 10 list.
It really will come in handy. 
Wishing you a very Happy New Year, Ginny.
Dude, I am just glad you’re here. Really glad. Much better stuff in 2010.
this year’s gonna be a good one…i can feel it!
thanks ginny for the poignant posts and all the laughs!
happy new year!
Thanks, Nikki. You have made me laugh this year, and I thank you for that. Happy New Year.
Thank you thank you thank you Ginny for giving me countless hours of laughter and fun in 2009! Allow me to agree with mongoliangirl and daisyfae…
FUCK!
and
I’ll read Ginny again in 2010!
and
FUCK! (sorry, just thought the world in 2009 could use another one)
Thanks, Suzy. I really appreciate it.
Loved every minute of your blog. It helped make 2009 bearable. Looking forward to more Ginny in 2010.
I didn’t start reading until you posted the letter to the teacher (hilarious, by the way), so I just read the top 10 and oh soooo good! Love the writing! It’s really great. Please, please keep up the good work!
Glad you stuck around, Theresa! Thanks so much!
Such a difficult task to put together favorite Ginny posts. They’re all great, funny, and provocative.
I keep thinking of that camel toe one you did.
But yeah, blogging has kept me sane through some very rough times.
Have a great New Year Ginny.
Ah, yes, when I introduced my readers to the Cuchini. Good stuff.
Happy New Year to you too, Kitty.
LOVE your personal tag line.
Last year I deemed it ‘the year of awesome’ and, well, it really really wasn’t.
I am not going to do that this year. THIS year I am just gunna BE awesome.
Sounds like a plan, right? We can do it together and be awesomely zen.
I hesitate to label a year The Year of Anything, because it will invariably be the opposite. But I like your plan, and I’m on board!
Happy new year and keep up the good work, here’s hoping that Owen character doesn’t have a closet full of black dildo’s that he’s plotting to post all over the neighborhood… he should stick them directly on the storm door that way no one will miss it.
From your lips to god’s ears.
Happy 2010 Miss. Mwah!
Mwah back at ya, lady! All the best in 2010.
All the best Ginny, 2010 is a good number.
Thanks, Martin. It is going to be a lovely year, what with another Fitz in the world, isn’t it?
Well put and a big thanks to you. You’re blog has been a great source of laughter and that’s hard to come by sometimes. Keep it up. Happy New Year.
Thank you so much, Happy New Year to you, too!
I like your blog
you know you are one of the reasons why i keep blogging?