"My" Best and Worst of 2009

As we close out the year of 2009, I thought I'd like to post some of my "Favorites" of the year and some of my "Least Favorites".

Starting off the list is my favorite blog. I've chosen this one because the person who writes it is so darn clever. When she started the blog, she had a husband and a golden retriever. This year she added a beautiful baby boy named Charlie which only added more clever opportunities for her. So here's the entire list.

FAVORITES

Favorite Blog -- Lunch Break

Favorite Christmas Card -- My cousin Karen's -- She and her husband Larry just gave birth to two boys after having three girls. Her card read "We are tinkled "pink" that we are finally having a "blue" Christmas!!!

Favorite People -- Aunt Margie and Aunt Viola -- It doesn't get much better than these two.

Favorite Book -- Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese

Favorite Netflix Rental -- Man On fire with Denzel Washington

Favorite TV Show(s) -- Mad Men, Friday Night Lights, 24

Favorite New TV Show -- The Good Wife

Favorite "Real" Hero -- Captain Sully Sullenberger

Favorite Movie -- Blind Side

Favorite Video -- Single Ladies with Beyonce

LEAST FAVORITES

Most Disappointing Person -- Tiger Woods -- Great Golfer -- Terrible Individual

Most Despicable Person -- Tie -- Levi Johnston and Jon Gosselin

Most Disappointing Show Cancellation -- The Bonnie Hunt Show

Most Disappointing Politician -- Governor Mark Sanford and his Appalachian Trail excuse

Most Annoying thing on TV -- Whoopi Goldberg rolling her eyes and smirking at every guest she doesn't like.....which is mostly everyone

Most Played Out -- Michele Obama's arms

Most Despicable Family -- The Jackson's for trying to cash in on their brother's death

It ended up being a successful reading year for me. Somewhere, midyear, I made up my mind to stop reading mediocre books. As a result, I ended up finding some real winners after searching through Amazon.com. My year end total was 32 books......16 of which were literature/fiction, 15 in the mystery/thriller category and 1 non fiction book. I've listed my favorites below. In order to be a favorite, it would have to rate either an 8, 9 or 10 on a scale of 1-10. I've also listed the "clunkers". I also belong to a few online book groups where we post our top ten picks of the year, which are then all compiled to come up with one major list. As soon as this has been completed (usually by the end of January), I'll post that here as well.

LITERATURE/FICTION

Cutting For Stone -- Abraham Verghese -- 10

The Help -- Kathryn Stockett -- 10

The Boleyn Inheritance -- Philippa Gregory -- 10

The White Queen -- Philippa Gregory -- 9

That Old Cape Magic -- Richard Russo -- 9

The Book Thief -- Markus Zusak -- 9

Leaving The World -- Douglas Kennedy -- 8.5

MYSTERY/THRILLER

The Lincoln Lawyer -- Michael Connelly -- 10

The Brass Verdict -- Michael Connelly -- 10

The Scarecrow -- Michael Connelly -- 10

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo -- Stieg Larsson -- 10

Echo Park -- Michael Connelly --9

The Closers -- Michael Connelly -- 9

Vanished -- Joseph Finder -- 8.5

The Narrows -- Michael Connelly -- 8.5

Rules of Vengeance -- Christopher Reich -- 8.5

The Overlook -- Michael Connelly -- 8

WORST BOOKS

Breakfast At Sallys -- Richard Lemieux -- 2

The Hour I First Believed -- Wally Lamb -- 4

Travel Writing -- Peter Ferry -- 4

Love and Summer -- William Trevor -- 4

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2010

I don't think I've ever been as happy to say good-bye to a year as I am to say farewell to 2009. Between my mother's stroke, the awful real estate market and the overall doom and gloom of the economy, it's about time for some good news. And 2010 has a nice ring to it and I'm hoping it brings only good things for everyone.

We closed out the year last night with dinner at PF Changs (courtesy of a gift card from Keith) and seeing the movie Invictus starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. I definitely recommend it. We had intended to see either It's Complicated or Up In the Air but both were sold out. We had already seen Blind Side which was one of the better, feel-good movies I've seen in a long time.

This was the third year that Kathy Griffin joined Anderson Cooper on CNN to bring in the New Year. I'm not usually a CNN watcher but the combination of these two just cracks me up. She really brings out the best and the funniest in him. Last year, she upset the bigwigs at CNN with her foul mouth and this year, it was in her contract that if she said anything even remotely connected with the "f" word, she would have to give them their check back. Well, I think she'll be writing out that check because when they was talking about the "balloon boy" Falcon, she was trying to pronounce his name and it sure sounded like she said something that would give CNN grounds to get their money back. When she said it, I had to rewind my DVR just to see if I really heard what I heard and I did. But that was the fun of the entire night.....just watching to see if she could make it through two and a half hours with a clean mouth. For as "D" list as she is, I just love Kathy Griffin. I don't think anyone makes me laugh as much as she does. And I became a huge Anderson Cooper fan when he first hosted the TV show, The Mole, and then again when he guest hosts for Regis Philbin when he's out. The matchup of Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa is right up there with Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin.

Another thing they did that I loved was when the clock stroke midnight and the ball fell, instead of having to listen to them talking, they just panned the crowds for a full ten minutes which was a spectacular fest of people watching. I changed channels just to see what ABC was doing and they were airing a commercial. ABC had some great musical talent and Ryan Seacrest but I think it's about time that Dick Clark passed the torch and removed himself from the show. I would bet that half of the generation of watchers that ABC is trying to draw probably don't even know who he is. There comes a time when the older generation has to step aside for the younger generation to take over......did you hear that Mary Hart of Entertainment Tonight???? How much more face work can you get before your sixty plus years start to show?

So, of course, like everyone else, I'll make the usual resolutions that will be broken before the first week in January has come to a close. But I'll still make them and see how far I can get.

1) I would like to blog more because I've definitely been slacking.

2) I would like to lose weight and I actually have a plan for doing so....it's a secret though.

3) I would like to read more books than I did in 2009. I ended up finishing 32 books which was up from my 2008 total of 19 books. For 2010, I'd like to at least hit 40.

4) I would like to see more movies. I only ended up seeing 7 this year which was down from my 2008 total of 10.

5) I would like to win or final table a live poker tournament. The closest I've come is 11th place in a Ladies' event and 21st place in a Deep Stack event.

6) I would like to have at least one real estate transaction per month in 2010. In 2009, I went months and months without any. This is compared to previous years when I had multiple transactions every single month of the year.

7) I would like to make myself available to spend more time with my friends. Upon reading this resolution, it will probably take my friend JoAnn about two seconds to email me pinning me down to a definite date.

8) I would like to go to bed earlier so I can get up earlier in the day. I'm such a night person but this means I waste so much time in the day because I can't get up early.

9) I would like to take better care of myself which means getting all the tests done that the doctor says I should be doing at my age. Also, a face lift would be nice. lol

10) I would like to exercise more...at least three days a week of doing something.

Notice that I've started each resolution with the words "I would" instead of "I will".....I think that's telling. In any event, at the end of this year, we'll see how I did. The one thing I know for sure that I will do is buy a new laptop. This is one of the things that causes me to stop blogging because my laptop is so annoyingly slow and the keys stick and the pictures won't load and then it just becomes too much of a hassle. So a new computer is definitely on the list for 2010.

I'll be doing a separate post with my "best of" and "worst of" (yes that's you Tiger) for 2009 so look for that in the next day or so.

In closing, I'd like to wish all of my friends and family and blog followers a happy and, more importantly, healthy 2010.