2008 - A Year in Review

It's been quite a year! New jobs, new journeys, new goals. So what all has happened?

January

• Registered on oDesk.com.
• Flew to Brazil for the first time. Billy spoiled me with an upgrade to business class.
• First time catching a nap in the Fast Sleep in the Sao Paulo Airport. Every airport should have one of those!
• I get to know the staff of the Brisa da Praia hotel in Porto Seguro.
• Introduced to the weird world of Brazilian beach club dancing. It's called Axé and the audience is supposed to dance along with the pros on stage. These were all filmed at the club called Toa Toa across the street from our hotel: the stage version, audience participation, aerobics class never looked this good, children's talent show!
• Landed my first job on oDesk as a transcriptionist for $5/hr. Apparently I was the fastest typer to apply. These days there are many more qualified transcriptionists vying for work. Never actually had to do the assignment because the guy left on a business trip.
• Got my first paying job on oDesk at $9/hr. Some dude wanted help revising his resume for LinkIn. He actually hired me without even performing an interview. Apparently my profile resume had impressed him. It was only a 3 hour gig, but now I had a feedback score and verifiable experience!
• 2-day adventure in Brazilian health care eventually got us Yellow Fever vaccinations.
• First side trip to Ipatinga made me grateful for the US Interstate system.
• First side trip to Vitoria got me hooked on Sushi.
• At the end of the month, I spotted my dream job in the list of openings: Writing positions at oDesk. I figured it was a long shot, and went on a desperate search for decent portfolio items. I didn't have my old school work with me on my laptop, but I found some articles I did a newsletter online.

February

• After a couple of interviews, I somehow landed my dream job with oDesk at $12/hr.
• Sea-side churascaria (Brazilian BBQ, aka all-you-can-eat meat) for Billy's birthday.
• Delicious Italian restaurant called Area along the Pasarela do Alcool in Porto Seguro for my birthday.
• Finally got to pick out my own painting to bring home from a trip.
• First ever proper sunburn (as in stayed red for more than a day). Apparently, 3 1/2 hours in mid-day tropical sun with no SPF is what it takes. You'd think with how pale I am I'd burn easily. But no. I'm too Italian to burn, and too German to tan. From here on out, I'm sure to apply the SPF 15 if I'll be in the sun for more than an hour. Which, frankly, doesn't happen often.

March

• Back to Vitoria again.
• Our house in NY FINALLY gets cable!
• We fly back to NY on Copa Airlines whose business class is the same price as coach on Delta. You just have to connect through Panama, which has an awesome club room to hang out in.
• Flew out to Portland, Oregon. Billy got upgraded, but I didn't!
• Visited the Sealion caves along the Oregon coast.
• Stayed with Billy's fraternity brother in Portland. Cooked yummy food, had fun riding free mass transit, went to an awesome dinner/movie theatre, checked out the local artists market, ate with our hands at a Moroccan restaurant with belly dancers.
• My parents drove up to visit, and bring us back our dog. We listed Charlie on craigslist and interviewed several new homes. I sure he's happy with his family. He's got a mommy & daddy happy to spoil him, no children in the house to scare him, and a rambunctious new friend to make trouble with.
• We cancel the cable TV & phone, leaving just the internet service, saving $55/month.
• I rock. oDesk gives me a raise to $20/hr.

April

• Flew back to Brazil, this time in coach on Delta. Luckily, the flight was mostly empty. So Billy got to sleep across the middle 3 seats while I attempted to curl up in the side 2. It sort of worked, but it mostly sucked.
• Flew to Curitiba and hung out for a few weeks.

May

• Actually did some interesting things in Curitiba, like eating at lots of yummy restaurants, going to see the Chinese circus, visiting the botanical garden, and shopping in a ridiculously expensive mall.

June

• Anniversary dinner at the same Italian restaurant as my birthday.
• Coral island cruise. Thank you Larry for getting Billy to take a day off of work and actually go do something!

July

• Finally return from Brazil. Fly business class Copa through Panama again.
• Billy buys a new digital camera in the duty free shops. Now he doesn't have to steal mine to take pictures for work!
• Fly down to Alabama to meet Billy's brother's new baby girl.
• I finally get to go to the Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville.
• College friend drives to our house from Boston for a short visit.
• We take our friend and her boyfriend up to a party at Larry's lake house up on Champlain. Delicious burgers and the sauna are enjoyed by all.
• I fly to Virginia to visit my parents.
• Billy goes to Alaska on a fly-fishing trip with his dad while I'm away.

August

• I see my brother for the first time in a couple years and meet his girlfriend. We all go visit Jamestown & old Williamsburg.
• Buyer invites me (and only me) to interview for a copywriting job at $27/hr. I do one small project, then I'm just on call. He hasn't needed me since, but the job's still open.
• Billy returns home to NY, but has to leave for Florida before I get back.
• I return a few days later. Due to plane trouble, I end up flying Richmond to Laguardia to Charlotte to Albany. Then having to drive myself home at 1 in the morning. Ugh.
• Billy returns from Florida
• We fly to Australia on Qantas so Billy can work in Tumut for a couple weeks. Unfortunately, Delta no longer flies to Oz, so our upgrade vouchers are worthless.
• I get invited to a web content gig for an AIDS Research group. I lower my bid to $23/hr. I do a few hours, then the group gets a new director and puts the project on hold. Job is still open, but there's been no more work for me.
• We decide to have a proper vacation and drive Sydney, pick up tourist passes, then head straight on to the Blue Mountains.
• Spend the morning hopping around town on the doubledecker tour bus, then drive down windy roads that were rather frightening in the rain to visit some very impressive caves.

September

• Off to Sydney where we drop off the car and spend the week on public transport passes. Petted koalas, 'roos, and crocodiles. Climbed the harbor bridge. Visited some museums and the Olympic stadium. Saw the orchestra in the opera house. Ate delicious mediterranean food, sushi, burgers, and meat pies.
• Flew back to NY on Qantas. Honestly, it's not that bad. They've got lots of entertainment on individual screens and the food's pretty good, even in coach.
• Drove to Connecticut to sell Billy's car to CarMax. No point in having two cars if we're never home. No time to make a private sale that would have made us more money. Even still, we got more for it than we still owed. We got one of his credit cards to give us a 1% cash advance to pay off the loan, then banked the money from the sale at 3.57% until December. Hurray for arbitrage!
• Drive up to St. Felicien, Quebec. It's a long way north. They didn't have many restaurants, so we ate more McDonald's in a week than I've had in years.
• Drove back on a beautiful sunny day. It was a gorgeous drive.
• I cancel my cell phone plan, but decide to add a line on Billy's parents family share, saving $35/month.

October

• Still at our house in NY. I'm actually home for an entire month.
• We go through all the junk in our basement, and most of the main rooms as well. We start eBaying and Craiglisting as much of it as we can. Books are up on half.com, piles of stuff are taken to the Salvation Army. We still have more to sell, donate, and Freecycle when we get another change.
• I get myself a fancy new digital camera, and refurb previous generation iPods for both of us (classic for me, nano for him). And cables so we can connect our laptops to the TV to watch the shows we download.
• Billy goes to visit his family in Huntsville, then goes to Vegas for a few days of Man Time with a college buddy. They're too cheap to both with strip clubs, but drop a few hundred at the shooting range playing with big guns.
• Score a fun copywriting gig for a site called Crowdsourcinglinks.com at $27/hr. I don't log many hours, but it's an interesting project.
• I dance and sing my heart out on stage at Rocky Horror halloween night.

November

• I decline to drive all the way to middle-of-nowhere Maine with Billy. If I'll be wasting more time in transit than on location, there has to be something worth going doing.
• Since Billy didn't listen when I told him I should go ahead and get my Chinese visa in October, we go through a serious hassle to secure an emergency exemption from the Embassy in Washington. Thank you next day air and visa processing services!
• We leave our car in the airport for what is supposed to be a two-week trip to China.
• Hurray upgrade vouchers! Maybe it's a good thing we didn't use them for Australia.
• We celebrate Thanksgiving by eating the most expensive meal of our lives in the french restaurant in the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou, China.

December

• I actually gain some weight because we've been overdoing it at all the restaurants. I abandon my 'but the rest of the trip I'll probably be stuck with steamed rice and veggies' attitude.
• I'm forced to go get a visa extension so I can stay in China another 30 days.
• We attempt to go to Christmas Eve service, but the place is mobbed by gawkers and Chinese Christians.
• Christmas Day dinner buffet is yummy, but Santa won't give us any gifts.
• The manager of our favorite Italian restaurant in Guangzhou invites us to a New Year's Eve party on the rooftop deck. It's a bit chilly up there, but it was a nice way to end the year.