Go Ahead...Try and Make Some Sense of This

I realize I was supposed to have wrapped up 2010 before 2011 but I pretty much fail to roll that way.  I'm going to do a little Wrap-Up and Best Of and Worst Of 2010 right now - on the first day of 2011 because really, I'm not one to sweat the details.  I am One Who Sweats The Big Picture....and I do so regularly.  We all have our little roles to play...

So, in no particular order and with more than a little mayhem, I shall attempt to wrap up 2010 - all neat and tidy like. Although you and I both know right here and now that it will be neither neat nor tidy-like.  So go ahead, try and make some sense of it.  Ready, set, go!!

**Best Google Search of 2010 That Landed a Poor Confused Soul on my Blog**
College of Santa Claus and Sardines Dancers 

If you are reading this and you are the person who googled the above search....oh my god....please contact me.  I don't know why, really.  I guess I just want to know what is going on in your life that would cause you to have the need to consult the googles about sardine dancers and santa clause colleges.

Most people, by the way, land on this blog looking for information about whether or not they can feed sardines to their babies.  Seriously.  Most People.  That is what Most People want to know and then they end up here.

My MOST Visited Posts found via the googles are:
Sardine Mama: The Illustrated Edition
According to my Big Ass Utensil Drawer
Stream of Consciousness...Hair...Roosters...Etc
Peace, Rocks, and Tequila

Now these aren't my best posts, but for some reason, people end up on them the most.  It all seems rather random to me.  And I'm pretty sure that the words "Big" and "Ass" on one of them are what is creating the draw...somewhat disturbing.

People also occasionally end up on my blog when consulting the googles about the Red Hot Chili Peppers and that tickles me no end.  I could basically answer ANY QUESTIONS you might have about the Red Hot Chili Peppers...but so far...nobody has asked.  Feel free.  I will amaze you with my endless and entirely useless Red Hot Chili Peppers trivia.  Seriously.  Prepare for Amazement.  Anyway, RHCP fans who end up here seem to be looking for this picture in the google image searches:



This picture appeared on my post The Kiss That Started The Whole Catastrophe. The post has nothing to do with the picture, by the way, which is Anthony Kiedis (RHCP) kissing Eddie Veder (Pearl Jam).  I can just see all the confused little faces going, "Huh?" when they end up on my mommy blog or whatever the heck kind of a blog this is while looking for this particular photo.

Oh! And if you were to click on the above post, you would also see that I was given the One Lovely Blogger Award by Ami. I briefly acknowledged it but never displayed it in all its loveliness...

Nor did I do what I was supposed to do and pass this award on to 15 newly discovered bloggers.  I haven't had the time to go about discovering new bloggers, lately, although I do really love it when I happen upon a blog I've never visited, before.  So here's where YOU come in.  Let me know of a blogger you love (who is not already on my blog roll) and why you love them.  I'll pick 15 (if you guys don't cough up 15 I'll go out and find some myself SO THERE) and then I'll feature them here.  Maybe in my next post....or maybe in the Wrap-Up for 2011.  Who knows?  See?  It's exciting.

Let's move on, shall we?

I guess, when I sat down to write this post, I intended to state what my happiest or most thrilling moments were of 2010...what my most miserable were...but I can see, now that I'm sitting here, that this isn't possible.  2010 was so full of both that I wouldn't know where to begin.  I took Ellie's and Joel's Odyssey team to the World Tournament in Michigan.  This was both thrilling and miserable.  Ellie won the Wysong Joplin Piano Competition.  This was thrilling.  But really, no more so than any other of a million things.  Any mom knows that watching a kid win something big....and watching a kid quietly overcome something that is both somehow minuscule and insurmountable (like watching your Asperger's kid crack a joke...or pick up on sarcasm without taking it personally....or be especially kind and understanding to a younger sibling) are both thrilling - and there is no scale of 1 - 10 by which you can measure.  That is where the word "immeasurable" comes in, I guess.  So much of what makes me laugh or cry is immeasurable in its strength or importance.  Life as a parent is a string of immeasurably thrilling, happy, funny, painful, and miserable moments.  And the moments, of course, add up to days, and weeks, and months, and years....and then we like to tidy them all up and stick them in a book of photos, or a computer file, or on a blog...and say, "There you go.  2010 all wrapped up."  And then you face the next moment.

2011 will see The Can losing its first sardine.  We're not sure where she'll be swimming off to...but swimming off she will definitely be doing.  This will change who I am in some way.  I've been the Mother of Young Children, the Mother of Teenagers, and the Mother of Both Simultaneously (seriously making me the Mother of all Mothers because you haven't lived until you've had a 16-year-old and a 4-year-old under the same roof).  But I've never been the Mother of a College Student...the mother of a Young Woman.  And if I'm the Mother of a Young Woman...I have definitely crossed out of Young Womanhood, myself.  Maybe its time for me to read Traveling With Pomegranates again? 

I'm really happy to be facing 2011.  It sure beats the alternative, as they say.  I'm hoping to not only finish the revisions on my novel, but to also have a path to publication established.  I'm hoping to finish the first draft of the second manuscript I've started, and maybe even start a third.  2011 is my shot at fiction....2012 might be my return to non-fiction.  We'll see.  Whatever it holds, as my kids get older I have more time to write, that's for sure. Also?  Depending on when they finish the album they're working on, I see a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert in 2011....possibly 2012, though.

OK - Moving onto The More Concrete:

Best Book I read in 2010:  Ugh.  This should be easy and most years it would be.  But I spent the year reading Contemporary Romance and more YA than usual...because that is what my current projects are.  And even though I enjoyed the Contemporary Romance (I like Susan Elizabeth Philips)....I wouldn't give any of it a literary prize.  I guess that leaves YA - where there is some truly good writing going on...and I'd have to give it to Suzanne Collins for The Hunger Games. 

I just finished reading Diana Gabaldon's Dragonfly in Amber and Voyager, which was no small feat given that the latter was over 1,000 pages and I am a busy girl.  These are favorites of my friend over at 9 Texans (in fact, they are her copies).  I loved them fiercely when I wasn't being insanely irritated.  Editing people?  How many times can one say a sentence was uttered "dryly" on one page?  Also - the dirty sex occasionally got to me.  I don't mean nasty sex...I'm talking you've been riding on a horse through the Scottish Highlands for weeks through rain/sleet/snow while half-starved/frozen and covered in body lice (yes - BODY LICE) and blood and the occasional bout of vomit with what I'm assuming is also poor dental hygiene and then yeah....anyone in the mood for a roll in the burs with a gigantic red-headed Viking?  Well, yes, actually - and quite a bit of it, too.  And let's not forget the indelicate mention of body odor while we're at it....also body hair.  So lovely, awesome, amazing books with just a tad too much information thrown in for good measure.

On my nightstand for 2011, I'm drooling to get started on Clown Girl by Monica Drake (given to me by a dear friend who has a knack for giving me perfect books) and The Elephant Vanishes, a collection of Haruki Murakami's short stories (given to me by Jeff). 

Worst Book I Couldn't Finish in 2010:
Flirt by Laurel K. Hamilton.  I made it as far as page 43.  Ummm...Ms. Hamilton?  Guys don't wear muscle shirts and running shorts anymore.  At least they shouldn't.  Even shapeshifters.  This book was the Official End of Sardine Mama's Vampire Porn Phase.  Thank you very much.

Most Disappointing TV of 2010:
FINAL EPISODE OF LOST OH MY GOD DON'T GET ME STARTED.

Most Disappointing Announcement of 2010:
John Frusciante left the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  Actually he did it in 2009 but I didn't find out about it until 2010.  I'm over it, now.  It wasn't like nobody saw it coming.  And aren't I lucky that this was the most disappointing announcement I suffered?  Seriously.  Think about it.  And yes, Frusciante's leaving RHCP ranked as more disappointing than Rick Perry winning the governor's race because....yeah...there was no race and I'm So Used To It By Now. Better to focus on musical funk than political funk.

Best Movie of 2010:
I saw a lot of movies.  And I'm sure one of them was better than the others....but honestly...nothing is jumping out at me.  You might want to help me out on this one.

Here's a good one....The Best Holiday Card Received by the Sardines in 2010:
This card came from my college dorm buddy, Sharon.  She and her husband, Adam, are trapped in the snow globe and those are their children gleefully enjoying the scene.  Adam is a photographer / artist and you can see more of his work here.

So 2011 has not let me even take the slightest little breather.  I've got not one BUT TWO sleepovers going down at my house next weekend as Jules turns 13 with a HALO party and Camille turns 9 with an Everyday Normal Girly Sleepover.  And of course, we're celebrating 25 years of marriage on Tuesday.  And by celebrating, I mean that Jeff will be at work and I will be at Camille's ballet studio for several hours.  But we do have a little getaway planned for later.  And by getaway, I'm talking wine, hot tub, and a stack of books....Jeff being there is a Total Bonus of course!!

OK - so don't forget to send me your One Lovely Blog Award nominees.

Happy New Year to You and Yours!