Goodbye 2007

Everyone seems to be doing lists on why 2007 was a good/bad year for them and this forced me to think too. I feel happy with the way 2007 treated me. I don't know why but when I look at 2007 from 20000 feet above the sea level, I find I was contented and happy through most of 2007 so I decided to pin down specific reasons and record milestones.

• I finished the CFA which means my weekends in spring will finally be free for me to enjoy the sunshine!
• My mum and sis were here for a whole month over the summer and we had a ball. Since I have moved out of the house (6 years back :(), I have found it hard to get along with both of them and have started finding small things irritating especially so with my sister which probably reflects a bigger problem I have with her. But coming back to the topic at hand, I feel S really helped me keep my calm and also gave me an outlet to vent when I had to. I felt I really connected back with my sister after a long time and it was really nice. I called my friends over a couple of times when mum was here and one such 'high tea' get together was tremendous fun with samosas, tikki, chai and my friends forcing my mother to play pictionary!
• My social life improved dramatically. I felt 2006 was a year of trying. Since I had moved to the US towards the end of 2005, I felt I was trying to get to know more people, make friends in 2006. However, 2007 I felt a level of comfort with the people and I also got to know many many more people. Lot of my friends got married and I got to make some girlfriends finally! One of the said spouse is especially a lot of fun - D, I love you!
• Moving on - I have always been the one to keep trying to keep in touch, making international calls to friends who would never think of returning them. So 2007 was a year of moving on. I stopped calling friends who never called me back.
• Traveling!!!!! The love of my life. In 2007, I dragged S everywhere - we went to Peru, San Francisco, Prague and aptly ending the year with a 3-week break in India. Peru was our first vacation in which we did proper hiking, climbed some really steep mountains and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I also went to Miami earlier in the year with my wonderful London friends. It was especially nice catching up with A (still can't believe he is a father now!).
• My 3-week break in India deserves a separate bullet point. I visited my father after a long time and spend a lot of time with my in-laws. Btw I love my in-laws, they are the most affectionate people on the earth. I slept on the same bed with my sister which we shared for 20 years after a very very long time and was surprised to find how much nostalgia can a piece of furniture generate.
• Work in the year was less than perfect. I did get new stuff to do but towards the end of the year, I started to feel bored. In my defence, I have been doing the same thing for 4 years. I want to do something else but my opportunity set is limited because of visa issues so lets hope I can find something I like. On the positive side, I reached out to some senior people in my firm for advise and was surprised to find how forthcoming and helpful everyone was.
• Saving the best for the last, S. I fell more in love with him in 2007, from wanting to go out every weekend for bruch, coffee and dinner, I now look forward to just lying with him with a cup of coffee and newspaper. I find it odd to say that 2007 bought a certain kind of comfort to the relationship, given we had dated for 6 years before getting married. However, 4 of those years were long distance and first 2 years we were college kids. I have given him a really hard time in the past, especially when I just moved to New York and the way he stood beside me, supporting me with patience is a testament to what a wonderful person he is.