100 reasons why 2005 was a good year: 1 through 10.

With the year end upon us, I shall be jumping on the nostalgia bandwagon and recording the things that made my year swell. While war, political scandal and natural disaster plagued the world, my little life was pretty good in 2005. To lessen the ambition of the project, I'll be posting in wee little ten-point increments. So, without further adieu:

Installment 1: workish things.

1. I managed to scrape together something of a living by writing.

2. I spent much of the year working in a warm, odd, and sometimes hilarious little newsroom, learning to do all sorts of unexpected things.

3. For example, in the course of said job, I got to travel to New Liskeard to snowmobile, fly a plane above the Northern bush, and meet Randy Bachman.

4. In September, I moved to Toronto.

5. In doing so, I left a comfortable job and a decent life in a lovely Northern outpost. It was a risk, and it was scary, but I’m glad I did it.

6. I was published for the first time in a national magazine.

7. I was published for the second time in a national magazine (it still hasn’t got old!)

8. As a freelance writer, I got to spend most of my working hours in pyjamas with Oprah on.

9. In an effort to sound professional (and to avoid the cost of installing a second phone line), I changed the answering machine of my housemates and I to the ridiculous “DES Creative Enterprises.”

10. I landed another full-time, relevant job in my field by year’s end.