Decade in Review

Here is my Decade in Review 2000-2009 Blog. I've tried to balance the good and the bad that happened in the last 10 years. Certainly this is not everything, but here are some of the highlights and low points that I experienced. They are in no particular order.

You may not agree with my point of view on some of the things I list. And as the above states, that's okay. The one thing that hasn't changed in this decade is we all have a right to our opinion. And these are just mine.

In the style of "liking something by showing a thumbs up on Facebook", I've listed the "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" moments, as I see them...

1

Gave birth to my wonderful daughter. Bar none, this was the best thing that happened this decade! (Mia was in the last decade but I want to give a shout out to her as well.) Best thing I ever did in my entire life was to become a parent.

My father and his wife passed away. Not at the same time. But the funerals are memorable, maybe more so than their lives. Fodder for another blog.

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2

Put Rachel on a plane for the first time to go to Las Vegas. (She had never flown before this year due to her hearing condition. So any trip we took we drove.) Thanks to Dianne who let us tag along on a conference she had to attend, Rachel and I got on a plane and flew to Las Vegas. When all was said and done, we celebrated that nothing bad happened – no significant progressive hearing loss; no terrorist attempts; no baggage lost; and no plane crash!

During the trip to Vegas, I had to explain all the naked women billboards and promotional cards with naked women on them being handed out by men on the street. Rachel, age 8: “Mommy, this is a VERY inappropriate place.” (Before judging me, I was told that they had cleaned up Las Vegas! I didn't know! Did I mention it was free?) For the remainder of our stay, we hung around at Bali's pool for the week, where women in scantily clad bikinis were much more appropriate, in Rachel's eyes.

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3

Rachel learned to talk.


Rachel learned to talk.

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4

My 75-ish year old mother hooked up with her boyfriend. I'm happy she found companionship after divorcing my father years ago. Big thumbs up for Senior dating!

I finally met my mother’s boyfriend. He's...well, how do I say this...he's...MY AGE! My mother is a Cougar. Ewww! This decade made it okay for women to date younger men, like men have been doing for centuries! Rock on, Demi Moore! But not when it's your mother!



The above is from "Young Frankenstein on Broadway", one of the many plays we went to see, including "Disney's Tarzan", "Spamalot", "Blue Man Group", "Beauty and the Beast", and "Wicked". There are more, I just can't remember them.

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5

Mia took up acting and performed in quite a few plays. I think it's her calling.


She's honing in on her skills by acting like she doesn’t know me. (That’s okay. All part of adolescence.)

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6

I, myself, made headlines during 2000-2009. I was on NBC30 News, not once, but twice, covering two separate stories. My fifteen minutes of fame. Well, 30 minutes if you count each one separately.

In order to get on TV, 1) I had to become part of an accident in which I had to be sitting at a stop and allow a car to slam into the side of me, knowing my 3 year old was sitting directly behind me, then had to be extricated from the roof of the car, taken by ambulance to the hospital, then endured years of doctor apppointments, treatments, and so on and so forth, and will spend the rest of my life in pain, and 2) Had to hire a fraudulent contractor who took me for $50k and destroyed my house. Is fame worth it, you ask? Hell Yeah! (sarcasm) Got to deal with deceitful lawyers, including CT's very own Attorney General Soon-To-Be-Governor DICK Blumenthal, who got on TV and stated he would go after the contractor because he came from another state (RI) but never did a thing. Yeah, he has CT resident's best interests in mind when/if he goes to Washington? He didn't have THIS resident's best interest in mind! (DICK won't get my vote! C'mon Democrats, surely there are better choices in CT!?)

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7

Speaking of politics, it was quite a decade for women. We were in the forefront of politics – Hillary Clinton almost won the Democratic candidacy. Sarah Palin almost became Vice President of the United States. Hillary became the Secretary of State. The first Hispanic woman judge, Sonia Sotomayer, became a U.S. Supreme Court Judge.

Sarah Palin almost became the Vice president! Holy Crap, Batwoman! And even scarier, could have become the President of the United States had all the stars aligned! Egads! Although, if that had happened, she probably would have resigned anyway and just wrote a book called, "Going Rogue in Washington".

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8

One can not talk about politics in this decade without mentioning the most important factor in our country's history: The first Black President of the United States was elected, exhibiting how far we have come with Civil Rights.

Have we really come far in the Civil Rights movement? Gay marriage is only legal in four out of the fifty states, thus proving just how far we still have to go.

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9

The attacks on 911 – okay, there really is no positive spin on this. The only thing that I can say is that I did not personally know any of the victims. But will always remember where I was when the unthinkable happened.

As if the event wasn’t horrible enough, the memory I have was watching TV with a despicable person I worked with while the events unfolded. She was an insignificant human being in my life prior to this event and should be long forgotten and put out of my mind. But because the events took place while I was at work, this woman has become an indelible image in my head and is forever a part of the 911 memory for me. I realize that things could be worse regarding that episode in our history and how much worse my experience could have been, like losing a loved one. But if you knew this person, you would understand that she doesn’t deserve to be in my thoughts…ever. But if this is the worse that I suffered from that horrendous event, then I am grateful and acknowledge that am truly fortunate, unlike so many others who suffered from the needless loss of that day.

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10

An airplane flew into the Hudson River to save lives. A hero was born.


Airplanes were flown into the Twin Towers, The Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania with the intent to kill lives. So many heroes died.

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11

I maxed out my contributions in my 401k and in 2001 I could have retired at an early age had I chosen to do so at the time.

The Stock market crashed and my 401k is worth a quarter of what it was. I now have to work until I’m a bazillion years old. Or at least that's how it feels.

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12

Social Security Administration started being accountable and sending statements of what I will receive upon retirement.

Social Security Administration started sending me what I will receive when I retire, and based on that, I will have to bag groceries at Stop and Shop to supplement my income until I die. I’ve submitted my application in advance to plan ahead.

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13

My property value went up. The Town did an assessment and I am living in a palace, according to them. Woohoo! My house is worth $3 trillion! Anyone want to buy it?

While my property value went up in the first part of the decade, (wished I had sold it then, but then I'd probably be in a mortgage that I couldn't afford now), the Town assessed the value of my property and raised my taxes as if I live in a mansion. Then when my property value went back to normal (due to the mortgage/bank scandals), guess what? The Town did NOT re-assess the value again. So what they list the value of my house for tax purposes and what I could get for my house right now does not equate. So, like you, I'm still paying taxes on the over-inflated assessment rate that the early part of the decade brought on. Yet they can't seem to plow my road!

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14

I lost weight.


I gained weight. Not atypical of any other decade but worth noting.

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15

Started making my own wine as a hobby.


Had to join AA from drinking all the wine I made. (Just kidding. I gave some away as gifts.)

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16

Was turned on to camping, RV style. Have taken lots of adventures in the Minnie Winnie including trips to Mount Rushmore, Florida, Mall of America, Maine, Lake George, Lake Superior, Cape Cod, Myrtle Beach, Virginia Beach, just to name a few.

The RV - an added expense; another house to clean; another set of variables that could go wrong on the road. The Money Pit Deux!

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17

Was introduced to the new technology of “smart” devices like Blackberries where I can stay in instant contact with everyone.

Was introduced to the new technology of “smart” devices like Blackberries where I can stay in instant contact with everyone.

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18

TECHNOLOGY: Google was invented to look up anything and everything on the internet; GPS units became the craze for lost drivers or people looking for stations that had the cheapest gas prices; phone cameras were invented to take pictures anywhere anytime; Tivo and Dvr’s were invented so tuning in to your favorite TV show could happen at your leisure, anytime; commercial-free satellite radio came to light; and data storage became smaller yet bigger - smaller in physical size, yet more storage capacity, like hard drives are now available in terabytes. (Megabytes were just so 90's.) Not only this, but data storage became more transportable by the invention of thumb drives.




The Encyclopedia became obsolete due to Google. No more having to have shelf space for the encyclopedia set. No such thing as having to fold up a map the right way due to the GPS. And remember when gas prices were not an issue, then became one, then went back down again, and now they're back up again but nobody has noticed? Being able to snap a picture anytime anywhere, we've all become paparazzi! No more listening to commercials on radio and remembering jingles like “You’ll see what you like and you’ll like what you see; you’ll pay much less for quality, when you do your shopping at...” THAT is why kids don't know commercials like we did when we were kids. No AM radio. And fast forwarding through the commercials on Tivo. They don't know important things like "The kid'll eat the middle of an Oreo first and save the chocolate cookie outside for last." My daughter does it all wrong. She just eats the thing.

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19

TVs went from big, thick pieces of furniture to being something you can hang on a wall like a picture, saving floor space.

The floor space I saved by hanging the TV on the wall has been monopolized by Wii equipment, Wii Fit Mat, and DVD movies.

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20

TV shows like "Glee", "American Idol", and "The Sopranos" started.


"Friends" ended.

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21

Rachel learned how to spell and is excelling in it, working on a 5th grade level but she’s only in the fourth grade.

Rachel learned how to spell but needs to forget everything she learned in order to abbreviate everything in order to text message. No wut I men?...Me 2! LOL

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22

Was introduced to a little thing called "Facebook" where I reunited with friends in my past and met new friends via networking.

Reunited with friends in my past. This coincides with being blackmailed for the first time ever in my life – by a childhood friend (I use the term "friend" loosely). (A story for another blog.) I also have been "unfriended" by folks that didn't understand me or my sense of humor. C'est la vie. As Sammy Davis Jr. sang, "I gotta be me, I gotta be me." (Don't worry. The friends that unfriended me won't find out that I'm talking about them. They didn't think I was funny so they shouldn't be reading my blog, right?)

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23

In this rough economy, I managed to keep my job this entire decade - a first.


Although it was the first time ever in my career where I was part of an investigation, and the first time I have been interrogated. Oh, being interrogated by a significant other when coming home late doesn't count.

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24

Had to put our 20+ year old cat, Darby, to sleep. You might think this would be a thumbs down. But actually he gave us lots of laughs and love through the years. Not to mention that in this decade, the vet actually came to the house to provide the service.

At the end of the decade, we had to put Swiffur the kitten to sleep. Well, not yet, but I’m thinking of making an appointment.

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25

And lastly,

Created this blog, in which I get to unleash my creative side.


Why are you looking for a thumbs down here? I leave that part to you, don't I?!


My Kaneclusion: So many things in this decade were at the opposite ends of the spectrum. But I truly believe it's a great time to be alive! With all the changes that have happened in the world and all the changes yet to come, I'm glad I'm around to see it all. Aren't you?