A look back at a decade

I can't quite wrap my head around the fact that in a matter of days, 2009 will be over. And it's not just the end of the year. It's the end of a decade. That's big people. At the beginning of this decade? I was in a completely different place in my life.

So when I saw Jess over at 21 Days do a decade in review, I thought that was pretty cool and it was something I wanted to do for myself. So I give you, Badgergirl's review of the decade that was the 2000s.

2000: I was a college kid. As a college sophomore, I rang in the new decade with friends on a street corner in Pasadena, Calif. We had driven cross country for a trip out to a warmer climate to watch the Badgers beat up on Stanford in the Rose Bowl. Bucky continues its good year with a Final Four appearance (miss that game with a nasty bout of mono). In the fall I become a 6-pointer at the Wisconsin State Journal, my first "real" (i.e. non-college) newspaper job.

2001: I meet The College Boyfriend. Fall in love. Watch the Twin Towers fall.

2002: I become a college graduate in May. Follow The College Boyfriend and move to Indiana in the fall. I get my first full-time newspaper job as a sports writer. The College Boyfriend cheats on me. We break up. It's a miserable year.

2003: Misery continues in the spring. I snag tickets to first round NCAA games in Indy. Start looking for a new gig back in Wisconsin. 365 days after I moved to Indiana I leave, go back to Wisconsin for a job in The 'burg. I stop writing about sports and start writing about crooks.

2004: Mid-year I decide to start a weight loss journey. I change my eating habits. Start hitting the gym.

2005: A little more than a year after I started, I'm 50 pounds lighter. I'm happy. I start flirting with running.

2006: In September I leave The 'burg, take a new job at a bigger newspaper in The City on the Water. I still write about crooks. I start my blog.

2007: I train for and run my first 5K since middle school. I catch the running bug. There was the Great Neck Slicing of 2007. And I train for and run my first half marathon. Start dating The Coach. Then The Monster invades my head.

2008: It's a year of recovering from The Monster. The Coach breaks my heart. Not a good year. But I do finish my first triathlon. And get the word from my doctor that The Monster has left my head.

2009: Spent the year regaining my fitness and losing the extra pounds the medicine I took to banish The Monster left me with. Ran a personal worst 5K early in the year, did three triathlons (shaved almost 17 minutes off my time from 2008's Danskin time!) and a bunch of 5Ks (shaved 3+ minutes off that personal worst time from earlier in the year). Rediscovered why I like running. Oh and I flew upside down with a stunt pilot.

Not a bad decade. Some rocky parts. Some smooth parts. Some happy days, some sad days. I'm kind of excited to see what the 2010s have in store for me.