10 Greats for 2006

Birthday and Christmas are over and the new year is about to begin. wow. This is the time of year where lots of people start making lists of their top 10 moments/music/movies, etc. of the year. I hadn't really thought about it. Do they have to be albums or movies that were released this year, or can they just be ones that I discovered? Well, it's my list so I suppose it can be whatever I bloody well want to put on it, huh? Also read little blurbs of regrets from local musicians, etc. in Seattle. Hmmmm...I'm sure I have some of those.

Well, if I had to choose, off the top of my head without much forethought, I think I can come up with a top 10 list of entertainment moments. These are in no particular order, just as they come to me. So number one doesn't necessarily mean #1.

1. Band of Horses at the Showbox. That was a great show and made me fall in love with the band even more, besides making me a bit nostalgic for Carissa's Weird and regretting that I never took the opportunity to see them play when I had the chance.

2. Bowling at Cedar Lanes in Filer, Idaho, with my mom, baby sister, her husband and their baby. (ok, he didn't bowl. He was the cheering section, even if he didn't know it.) My mom hadn't been bowling except for one other time, when she was in high school. Though I spent many hours at Cedar Lanes as a wee child, waiting for my oldest sister to finish whatever she was doing with one school group, or another, drinking root beer at the counter watching other people bowl, I never actually did, myself, until this past summer. (And how's THAT for a run on sentence?)

3. Maui, Hawaii!!! The whole trip. Definitely in the top ten entertainment moments of 2006. Holy crap. I only regret that I won't be able to get back there this winter. sigh...

4. The Walkmen at the Showbox. Another great show. And this time, they had even MORE songs to choose from in the lineup. I can add to that, going by the box office earlier in the day to check on whether or not I needed to pick up my tickets at that moment, or when the doors opened that night, and seeing 1/2 the band sitting on the counter just hanging out. "Hey". "Hey". My only regret would be not taking a second more to tell them how excited I was to see the show that night. I'm sure they would have appreciated a gushing fan. Oh, well, I'm a chicken. I barely got out my "Hey" in reply to their round of monosyllabic greetings.

5. Debating, rather vociferously, over a lovely dinner at Flying Fish, the merits of an MFA vs. an MA or any other degree that might be "practical" with my dear friend Ali. I'm sure we frightened poor Shawn, as Ali and I are both very stubborn and can mightily disagree on something with out giving an inch. So, not only was Ali visiting me and we hadn't seen one another since my last trip to NYC for Deron's wedding, but we were in true Ali and Linnet form. It was delicious and I love her and our friendship all the more for it. Yeah. That was fun.

6. Driving around Southern Idaho with Paige, my Mom and little Collin looking for these ginormous kiln ruins. It took us longer than we'd anticipated. We got a bit lost. We were starving and it was gorgeous. Seeing so much open, beautiful, wild land. Completely worth it.

7. Finally getting around to seeing Wings of Desire. (This was a couple of days ago.) We actually had it sitting around the apartment for almost the entire month of December; we just weren't able to find the time to watch it. Sure was beautiful. Maybe the best film I saw in 2006. I watched a lot of movies, this year, too, so that's a pretty bold statement. (Thank you destroyer of mom n' pop video stores--no, really, thank you. I love Netflix. I know it's killing Broadway Video. I can't help it.)

8. Watching (almost) every season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Shawn. I had no idea he would get into it, though I knew he'd liked the few rerun episodes that he'd watched with me. We've only the final season to watch and then it's done. I love sharing.

9. Discovering that I can actually live my life without caffeine. Not that I don't want it back in my life, I'd get back on the stuff in a heart beat if I could. How is this entertainment, you might ask? Well, if you had to see me the first week of coffee withdrawal, you would probably have been laughing at me. Highly entertaining. It's true, I did have a split shot americano on christmas day. It was heaven.

10. Spending Christmas day with Shawn. It happens every year (well, for the past 6-ish, anyway) and it is always such a great day. I look forward to it and am never disappointed.


That's the list off the top...it was, basically, a good year. I do regret that I didn't see any life changing/soul inspiring/on the boards itching theatre, though. Yeah. That would be a big regret. I realize it's a tall order, still, it's fantastic when it happens.