I just got back from our fourth annual New Year's reunion party. And for the second year in a row, we gathered at Matt and Katia's house in Columbus, Ohio to celebrate. It was great to reconnect with people I hadn't seen in several months or a year, and as usual, I felt overwhelmed to be surrounded by so many amazing people.

Represented among us, we had a linguistics graduate student and teacher from Kansas City, a high school English teacher from Phoenix, a writer for Christianity Today from Chicago, and an elementary school English teacher in Japan. Two girls are teaching and studying English at universities - one in Ohio and one in New Hampshire. Two of my friends volunteered for a year in Jamaica, one finished her doctoral program in California to become a chiropractor while her new husband continues to become further specialized as a dentist. One girl spent the last two years working as a photojournalist in India and South Asia. The girl with the sparklers works in foster care in Chicago; another friend is an artist who finished his degree this year and did set design for theatres in Scottland and New Hampshire, and accepted a new job with a theatre in Oregon. A few friends have jobs in business, two have been working as contractors; another guy teaches Language Arts to struggling junior high kids...
And this year, just among the friends who came to the party, we had two weddings, two pregnancies, and a birth to celebrate.

As you can imagine, everybody had lots of interesting stories. Sitting around and talking to these people for hours on end is one of the highlights of my year. The only disappointment of the trip was that about 5 or 6 of us came down with a crazy flu that makes you feel worthless for a full day or two. It hit me at the end of the trip, and I'm still recovering. We got to share everything this weekend. But we took care of each other too, with cups of tea and backrubs and vitamins. The rumor is that next year the party will come to New Hampshire...

Happy New Year!