2010 Retrospective

It annoys me that almost all of the year in review stuff happens in December. Shouldn't the last days of a year count as much, or depending upon the events that occur, more than the the 10 or 11/12ths that come before? (how long do they take to put together?)

In general, the years all blur together, with a few highlights managing to anchor at least some memories, allowing a rough history to be retrieved with careful thought.
While 2010 was winding down, I thought about some of the things I associated with the year. They are not necessarily anything indelibly connected in my memory to 2010 but rather the meaningful but ordinary things that I noticed going on.

In no particular order:

Shallots

I was really introduced to shallots (in terms of becoming aware of) back in 2007 when Daniel and I took cooking lessons from Bruce at Le Gourmand, but my own move to using them was slow. It started with doing more Thai cooking, and my Thai-inspired Thanksgiving-style meal November 2009. 2010 saw shallots become a staple in my kitchen, helped along by the handy packs Trader Joe's sells them in. I like shallots a lot. Much more than onions and perhaps even more than garlic.

Coconut water

I knew this was a hot thing when Safeway had a variety of coconut water products in a cooler. I'd not really heard about its isotonic properties, which apparently have propelled the market to introduce a variety of coconut water beverages. I did try it. It is nice. A little weird as a mixer. The option with aloe added is supposed to be particularly beneficial.

Swearing on TV

I think part of this was my starting to watch Craig Ferguson in 2009, but I experienced a lot of bleeped swearing on television in 2010. The Daily show was doing it, along with shows like 'Running Wilde' (hysterical but quickly canceled Fox show). This week, even the NBC Thursday night line up featured bleeped swearing. Swearing on TV has come a long way.

Kitchari

2010 was the year I learned to make kitchari right. And now I cannot stop making it. I even have some leftover from yesterday because I made a full batch but haven't managed to eat it all yet.

Twitter

I started Twittering in 2010. I'm using it as a way to document songs that play in my head. It's been very enlightening, but I believe it is private, at least for now. I'm guessing no one cares. In the last week or so, I actually started following a few folks on Twitter. Not sure I want to keep that up, though. I'm pretty much ignoring them. I find it interesting that the folks I follow seem to spew their Tweets--nothing for days and then ... the deluge!

Interesting how food-based so much of it was! I did have another thing, hoarding, but my fact-checking clearly showed it belonged to 2009. That's why it is important to anchor things down as they go. Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and anchor things once in a while, it all becomes a blur.

Loose Change

It's the time of year when I convert last year's spare change into a more useful form of currency. It started after I moved in to my current apartment. That's when I decided to put a dish by a front door that collectes my loose change. The dish is also the place where keys can have a home (which greatly reduces the number of times they need to be hunted for) and a spare Chapstick can be on hand if needed.

I do also keep change in my bags, tend to pull out any quarters for laundry, and am pretty good about actually using it when paying cash, but there are always time when either I have no change with me or don't have enough change, so the accumulation of loose change always outweighs the efforts on my part to rid myself of it.

When I first implemented the front door dish, I had no plan for what to do when it got full, which it did in a little over a year. Then one day I was in a QFC and was reminded of the existence of Coinstar. I had no interest in paying a fee to convert my coins in to something more useful, but thankfully other options existed. I chose the Amazon gift certificate over the option to donate to charity.

After that, I started the practice of an end of the year emptying of the dish. And then eventually I manage to take the zip lock baggie of coins in to QFC and the Coinstar machine. Today, the total was $16.31 (plus a dime and penny that, for whatever reason, the machine rejected). All that remains is a little Amazon shopping.