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Fifteen and a half years ago, a wide-eyed, goofy fifth-grader (in conjunction with his older sister) talked his father into shelling out twenty bucks for a funny-looking and equally goofy little mutt.  Today, that still funny-looking old dog went to sleep.

I think it’s safe to claim that Bailey was mine from the start.  Yeah, it was a team effort with my sister to convince our parents that a dog would be a good addition to the family (our previous experience had yielded a giant of a beast that might have come from Greek mythology), but being a fifth-grader, I had lots of spare time with which to play with a new puppy…we both became attached.

Bailey and I (in my shaggier days) go sledding

She became my alarm clock…my mom used to bring her in and set her on my bed when she woke me up for school.  A little later, she started sleeping next to my bed, my arm dangling down to pet her in the night.  When I left for college, my parents told me that she would sit at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for me to come down.  I used to say (partly joking) that I missed my dog more than I missed my mother (sorry Mom).

At fifteen and a half years, Bailey was a part of our family for more than half of my life, but even more, she was that quintessential “boyhood dog.”  She lived a good long life, filled with adventures, fetching sticks, catching frisbees, and eating dead carcasses…everything a dog could want.  I’ll miss you, Bailey.  Good dog.

I was talking to a friend here at the Canby House (I’m still in Portland for my Christmas Break) the other day and he was commenting on how 2009 was an eventful year.  I proceeded to think to myself, “Wow.  2009 was a pretty boring year for me!”  I mean, it’s not that nothing happened, but it really was kind of just a normal year (whereas the last several have been quite eventful).  Moving to Alaska was kind of the only big momentous thing.  So here’s a list of the top ten small but meaningful things that happened to me this year.

10.  The Canby House community garden project was a success!  Though I wasn’t there to reap many of the fruits of my labor, it was a great experiment that taught me a lot and allowed for

some great time and conversations with great people and plus it felt good just to spend a lot of time outside and getting dirty.

9.  Spent a day with Cousin Shannon hiking around Multnomah Falls and having lunch at McMenamins Edgefield.

8.  I spent a lot of good time with Cousin Jesse and Now-Cousin-In-Law Jen…two people who are great and who I hadn’t seen a lot within the past decade/hadn’t really gotten to know well at all.

7.  I won a marathon.  Granted there were only about 25 people in the race.  Granted my time was twenty-seven minutes slower (that’s one minute per mile) than my previous slowest time…but I WON!

6.  I traveled into the Alaskan Bush to the village of Shaktoolik…a very eye opening experience.

5.  I took on a job that I actually enjoy!  Let’s hear it for jobs with intellectual stimulation!

4.  I got to spend several days with my whole family in the Methow back in April.  I hadn’t seen my brother Ben’s family in almost two years and it had been three years since we had all been together.

3.  East of Eden entered my list of the best books ever written.

2.  When I was driving up to Alaska with my cousin Jesse, somewhere near the Alaska/Canada border at about 3am, we pulled over to the side of the road to look at the northern lights.  It was pretty cool.  But then it got even better when meteors were shooting across them.  Spectacular.

1.  Lots of good time spent with great people doing nothing particularly special but just enjoying wonderful fellowship.  Thanks everybody!

I just got back to Soldotna this afternoon after spending five days with the fam up in Eagle River.  My cousin Jesse got married on Friday to his girlfriend of nine years, Jen.  It was a pretty cool time.  Those two are about the best matched couple I’ve ever seen.  And it was great because, even though Jesse looked a bit stunned, Jen was just having a blast with it all.  It was also a good week because I just got to hang out with cousins and aunts and uncles that I just don’t see enough these days.  We were also celebrating my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary.  And my grandmother’s 80th birthday.  So it’s been a big weekend.  It’s good to have family that I can really appreciate.  And I do.