...In which our heroine reflects on a year.

I'm late, I know. But it is with good reason. I should have posted all of my banter about New Years on the day of, but I was a little busy.

Ben had gotten his shift covered Wednesday morning and so he and Lane were able to leave Chicago much earlier than expected. And those cheeky bastards just decided to pull up in my driveway without warning. It had only been seventeen days...but my god, was I glad to see him.

The boys got to meet my parents and my dad didn't terrify Ben totally. But it was weird, seeing as I've never really brought a boy home, let alone a boy who came to visit me from Chicago on New Years and stayed at our house for two days. Lane got lucky, he only had to deal with Emily's mom.

We ate at the majestic El Rancho Grande, marking my fourth time of eating there since being home. The boys really enjoyed it, and I was glad to see the restaurant so busy. Then, seeing as the copious amount of Mexican food wasn't enough, we got three pints of Graeter's to amaze Ben and Lane with--Buckeye Blitz and black raspberry chip were the favorites.

The 'rents went bowling (I told them to avoid pomeranians and big men with aviators) so we hung out here. The evening was pretty uneventful--Wii, The Dark Knight, ice cream, and ridicule of Hannah Montana's lip synching, but I think we were all just glad to be with each other, bullshitting as usual. It was all kind of surreal, Ben in my house, in my kitchen, in my bedroom, looking at my books. If you would have told me last New Years that this one would be spent with my Iowa-via-Chicago boyfriend coming to visit me, I would have told you to stop with the crack.

Yesterday was equally uneventful, but I was just fine with getting to sleep in with Ben and then laying on my couch for most of the day, watching our mutual favorite No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. Tasting more of Cincinnati's limited culinary landscape, Ben and I enjoyed some LaRosa's for dinner. (He refused to eat Skyline, which was a good choice. I hate their chili.) Then of course we napped before Lane and Emily came over. Besides watching UC lose, it was more of the same.

They left early this morning and now I just have to look forward to the ten days before I get to see him again. It was a lovely visit, and one of the first New Years to not turn into a total disaster.

2008 is over. I don't make resolutions, so I have nothing on that front. I can say that this past year has far and away been the most life-changing on my life. Graduating high school and starting college was only the half of it.

I am so different than the girl I was at the beginning of 2008. I've changed--become more independent, more thrifty, more passionate about my writing, and more detirmined to succeed. In some ways I feel that once I go back to school, I get to start 2009 with a completely clean slate. I've shed some of the skin that kept me trapped and unhappy throughout high school. I'm still me, just a happier, more honest me.

Hope you all had a fantastic New Years as well. And if you didn't, well, there's always next year.