Today I underwent a retreatment for a root canal. If one can have a bad dental year, I’ve experienced that in 2009. I have had five separate teeth needing varying degrees of work from fillings to onlays to crowns. And with one thing after another happening to tooth #18 (yes, I now know the official tooth number), it has been a long road traveled filled with potholes and pain, to say the least. However, despite my frustration, anger and exasperation associated with this tooth, I finally feel optimistic that I am on the road to recovery.
The reason why we had to retreat this tooth is because the original dentist who performed the work missed a canal altogether. This resulted in months of pain and the inability to chew on that side of the mouth for a good six months. Although some of my family and friends have suggested that I blame my dentist, it isn’t entirely her fault, since she didn’t perform the original root canal. Her associate, however, better cross the street if he sees me coming!
While I waited for the numbing effects to take hold and prep me for the dental service to come, I plowed through the last few chapters of my latest book, The Friday Night Knitting Club, by Kate Jacobs. This book really was a delight to read, despite my obvious fascination with knitting clubs. It does start off a little slow to start, but becomes a speed read about a third of the way through. This is because there are quite a few main characters that Jacobs needs to fill in with backstory and history to really get the story moving.
The basic premise of the story centers around Georgia Walker and her daughter Dakota, and their little knit shop Walker and Daughter. All of the characters weave in and out of their lives to build this core group of interesting personalities.
I really enjoyed the story and actually want to read the sequel Knit Two, but I have to wait for it to come in from the library. Instead, I’ve decided to start The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters, which I’ve read a chapter in already. I’m not sure where all this reading gusto has come from, but I’m going to ride the wave as long as I can.
Speaking of reading gusto, The Friday Night Knitting Club makes No. 12 on the Books of 2009 resolution goal. I have completed my goal, and it isn’t even November!
Books of 2009 total: 12
This year I read:
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- Twilight
- New Moon
- Eclipse
- Breaking Dawn
- Free-Range Knitter
- Practicing the Power of Now
- The Green Book
- Bad Cat
- Emma
- Lifehacker
- The Friday Night Knitting Club
I am giving myself a Resolutions Trophy for my accomplishment. Now doesn’t that feel nice! I still have two more months to continue with my reading goal, so who knows how many books I’ll close out with for the year.
I also have additional resolutions to complete, including the Stash Knit Down 2009, which is going well—I am still a week ahead of schedule.
Since my last update of the resolutions post, I have run a 5k, which I forgot to officially write about here. Some of the other resolutions, like run three times a week, has been a difficult goal to meet considering my varying illnesses and work schedule. This will be a goal to continue next year.
I also never did get around to a best of 2008 post, which at this point, seems like a silly topic to discuss so late in the year. I’ve decided to shoot for a best of 2009 post, which I may need so I think more positively about the past year.
Paying bills and saving is an ongoing process, which has also been delayed due to some health issues that have come up. Again, next year should be more promising.
All in all, I am pleased that I met my reading goal and that I’m still going strong. I don’t ever anticipate reading a great deal more than I have this year considering my job as an magazine editor has me reading 24/7, but I’m glad I got in some really good fiction books that I enjoyed.
Be inspired.
Kate has an incredible amount of drive when it comes to LoganSquarist. In the six months that I’ve been involved, I’ve watched the site grow from a pet project to a respected community publication. This success can be attributed to Kate’s technical and leadership skills. From building out the site to off-hours community management and a consistent flow of content, the site improves by leaps and bounds on a weekly basis. When it comes to team management, Kate delegates tasks in an organized and efficient manner, making her an all around great and inspiring person to work with.
Kate did and excellent job with our website. We have received several compliments on how nice it looks and how easy it is to navigate. She also went above and beyond to make sure that we were able to update and the website ourselves through Wordpress. I cannot gush about how awesome she is and how happy we are with the site and her dedication to the project.
Kate is a wealth of knowledge who served as a tremendous mentor for all of our team members while constantly improving processes and workflows. She’s a tremendous project manager, pays great attention to detail, and is able to demand results from her team with respect. At LoganSquarist she has built and led a team of dozens of volunteer contributors committed to her vision of a community resource. I would happily work with Kate again anytime!
One of the best things I've ever done in my career is work with Kate Hamilton. Her enthusiasm for all things editorial, not to mention her energy and passion for any project she's involved with, is contagious. In addition to being a natural born leader, she's also a creative type, a thinker, a stickler for details, and someone with incredible vision and the drive to get things done. I always marvel at how she is constantly teaching herself new things. She always seems to be ahead of the curve on anything related to social media, and she also has an eye for design. This lady rocks! And she continues to be a mentor to me and others in journalism and communications.
I worked with Kate during my time as a community manager at Lightspan Digital while Kate was my direct manager. Kate’s communication practices really taught me how to navigate the sometimes complicated agency world. As an account manger, Kate smoothly orchestrated 10+ accounts at one time as well as help me manage and prioritize tasks in my role. Kate was a role model during my first few years in the professional world and continues to be so to this day.
Kate has been a fantastic resource for all things digital, whether redesigning my website on Wordpress, fine tuning my social media profiles, or understanding Google Analytics. She's an excellent communicator, and I will absolutely hire her again in the future.
Kate is a real professional and a pleasure to work with. She is a great communicator and always put her client's (my company) interest first. She is tremendously personal and had a great understanding of our business and how she could help it. She is great and is a tremendous asset to any company.
I met Kate through the Association of Women Journalists (AWJ) and immediately was impressed (and inspired) by her creativity, drive, work ethic and use of social media. Her passion for journalism, digital media and communications overall is evident in the projects she takes on, including LoganSquarist, an online news outlet that she founded that uses social media to socialize the neighborhood. What I admire about Kate is her vitality as well as her desire to keep learning and growing personally and professionally. Kate is a modern-day renaissance woman who is multitalented (ask about her travel, knitting and marathon exploits!) and who brings instant value to any team or organization.