That went fast

It’s 2007. What happened to 2006? We celebrated the coming of 2006 at Paul Chung’s house and that party seems like it was just last weekend. Has it been a year? Lot of things did happen in 2006 but time sure just sped by. Let’s see... The highlights are:

• Training for and running in the 10k Vancouver Sun Run. I really was not much of a runner prior to that but after the first few painful runs in January, I began to enjoy it. By April, I was going on 10k runs after work. At the Sun Run, I finished in 62:30 minutes and I was happy with that result.
• Training for and competing at the Vancouver dragon boat festival in June. I took my training more seriously - running, weight training, time in the marathon canoes, and of course, our team practices. The hard work felt good.
• Trying out paddling in outrigger canoes starting in July. I joined the novice program at FCRCC and by August, I raced in my first ever outrigger race. It was in Vernon and it was a 27km long race that required water changes. It was a lot of fun!
• My first ever admission into a hospital’s emergency room. Interesting experience.
• Our visit to the Philippines. Definitely the highest of highlights for me and Ed. Spending time with family and old friends, visiting new places, experiencing new adventures. It was a wonderful trip.
• Christmas with Lizza and Pat in Spokane, WA. An excellent way to end the year.

Other very notable notables:
• !Dop Van Dop (aka Joshua) was born. Cute little sweetie.
• Josh and Mon got married. (and 5 other couple friends tied the knot and we got to share their special day with them)
• Introductory flying lesson. Thanks to Ed who gave the lesson to me as a Christmas gift, I spent an hour in a two-person plane and I even got to take the controls for a while. It was a little bit of a dream come true.

We had one lowlight - our house got broken into in late April. Bastards!

I’ve been thinking that 2006 was a humdrum year for me but after thinking back and recognizing the highlights and notables, it actually was a good year. There were some disappointments, definitely, and many things for me to improve on but I continued to have excellent health, a job that I enjoy, great friends, two very adorable cats, and a loving husband. I also spent more time with my family here in Vancouver and my sister in Manila. And these are really what matter. I look forward to being blessed with these gifts again in 2007.