Top 11 Highlights of 2010

1. Let's start with the important stuff! On June 19th, I married the most amazing man in the world, Osei May. My name became an anagram, which is also pretty cool, but marrying my love takes the cake! I never imagined God would bless me so much by bringing Osei into my life, and that together we would get to enjoy a lifetime of adventures in marriage. Let the journey begin!
2. Jumping back to the beginning of the year, 2010 started out with a super amazing proposal on the steps of the Boston Public Library (that sweet nerd is now my husband). Osei made up some silly story about how we would meet some Smithie friend he knows for coffee and dragged me (complaining) outside the library into single-digit temperatures. He then signaled the Harvard Callbacks, an acapella group, to come down from the steps and serenade us while incognito crowds (our friends) gathered around us. After he kneeled down and ask me to marry him, an accordion player in a tuxedo played us a few more songs while we slow-danced. Osei planned an entire proposal operation via Facebook, complete with a timeline and assigned duties to guests. Ever the confident gentleman, Osei knew I was a shoe in, and indeed I said yes. Plus, by this point, we already had a wedding date, our deposit on a venue, and I had a wedding dress.
3. Comparatively, this was a year of slow running. Well, not technically "slow" in terms of speed, but for the first time in a few years, I did not run a marathon, and I only officially raced twice. (I bandit-ed another half marathon just for fun). However, in May, I set a 10K personal best in the Bolder Boulder (at altitude) and in October, I raced the Bay State Half Marathon. Out of 22 half-marathons I've run (not including the two halves in each of my full marathons) I ran my fourth-fastest time ever. Though I didn't run a marathon myself, I joined my husband for the last 9 miles of the Boston Marathon, and played pure spectator cheering for him during his first New York City Marathon.
4. In March, I traded in my Manhattan zip code for a Celtics t-shirt and moved to Boston! Somehow, the most outrageous logistical orchestration I could possible imagine for relocating actually happened. While still living in NYC, I found a cash buyer for my condo, signed a lease on a new place in Boston, was officially let go from my job (thank you, severance and unemployment benefits) four days before the moving van arrived to drive my stuff up to Boston, and closed on the condo sale at the end of March. This all happened practically flawlessly, though at one point I did have to drive all the way down to NYC and back just to hang a towel hook. Apparantly I wasn't supposed to take it with me!
5. Yes, I sold my condo. Admittedly, not a great time or real estate market to be a seller, but the new owners now have a sweet little studio overlooking the Hudson River that was my happy home for the past two years. As much as I loved the place, it is an amazing feeling to be free from a super expensive condo that kept me trapped in a job that I couldn't leave because I needed it to pay for my condo (and so on).
6. We had houseguests galore! Suz and Bryan spent a week visiting Boston around my birthday, and my mom and Grandpa visited in October. We took the Duck Tour, visited the Sam Adams Brewery, ate lobster and clam chow-dah, and walked the Freedom Trail. We also welcomed Osei's parents and some of his college friends. We had a mere 3 parties, but we wanted to set the bar low for next year.
7. 2010 marked five years of "grown-up-ness" celebrated with my five-year Smith College reunion. Osei and I spent a few days carousing around campus, catching up with old friends (many of whom I'd seen the month before at another Smithie's wedding), and sharing with Osei all of my favorite Smith places and memories. In fact, I had so much fun at reunion that I ran for class officer and won! I'm now the Vice President of the 2005 Smith College Class, which means I will be planning our 10-year class reunion in just a few more years.
8. Osei and I spent a week in Colorado before our wedding making centerpieces, playlists, and programs, writing our vows, and hanging out with friends and family. While staying with Suz and Bryan, we ran on the dirt roads of rural Colorado, ate delicious waffles under their pergola in the garden, played Rock Band in their basement, and spent a week of pre-wedding celebration surrounded by people we love.
9. After the wedding, Osei and I spent nine days driving across the country back to Boston on our (first) honeymoon. We wore flower leis the entire time (they are symbolic, of course), perfected our self-portrait-arm-photo in front of Mt. Rushmore, donated our blood to the mosquitoes while visiting lighthouses on the Northern shore of Minnesota, bought wild rice and Blue Willow china on the side of the road in Wisconsin, clogged our arteries at a roadside diner in the upper-peninsula of Michagan, walked across (and spit into) the lochs of Sault-Saint-Marie, and left our hair frizzy and wet from the mists of Niagara Falls. Finally, we unpacked our new home together in Jamaica Plain, Boston.
10. November felt like our heaviest travel month (but not to be outdone by the month of June, which took us to 9 states and Canada). After a weekend in NYC for the marathon, we flew 27 hours to the Philippines with a group of Boston-based volunteers. We spent a week volunteering with Peer Servants, a microfinance consultancy group, partnering with a local Christian microfinance cooperative called CCT to write case studies about microfinance. The trip was transformative and amazing to say the least! And, as if we hadn't traveled enough that month, the next week we flew to Colorado for a few precious days over Thanksgiving, which also coincided with my 10-year high school reunion.
11. Babies in the air, and I'm gearing up to catch them! This fall I began the formal process of becoming a midwife by starting a year-long training course. This is my first delivery into the birth world (a stretch I know, but I couldn't resist). To most, the transition from financial services to baby-catching does not seem to be the obvious career path, but it fits me perfectly and I feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. Unrelated to becoming a midwife (or not), I also have babies and pregnancy on the brain 24/7, so stay tuned to see what kinds of updates and adventures 2011 has in store!