I had wanted to get this post up while we were still in January (barely). This is a list of things that I encountered for the first time in 2010. I know some of them are stupid, but I'm still proud of myself, because my life feels so stagnant sometimes, and this list makes it seem less so. I mean, most of things are things that I'd had no experience with at all before 2010, and by now, they've grown familiar to me.
$3 chicken sandwiches. I admit, I thought they looked so cheap and disgusting when I first saw them in the supermarket deli. But then I tried one and discovered they were cheap and delicious! Unfortunately, the deli hasn't been making them as much lately, so now I usually have to request them from the people behind the counter. My friend EJ's sister used to work in this deli, and apparently she told him that I would come in looking for chicken sandwiches like a drug addict in need of a fix. Haha.
Fanfiction. Before this year, I'd never really written a single fanfic. I took it up exactly halfway through 2010, after some NCIS plot-bunnies refused to leave me alone, and since then, I've completed twelve stories, have one currently in-progress, and several more ideas on the back burners. I don't think I could kick this habit if I tried. (It's embarrassing on several different levels to admit this.)
$4 pizzas. I know writing about this is was a mistake, since it'll definitely make me hungry. I first discovered a four-dollar pizza sale from the local pizza chain back in October 2009, right after Sara and I saw Paranormal Activity. The sale continued on and off throughout 2010, and I tried to snatch it up whenever I could. By spring, they stopped asking for my phone number when I ordered, and to thank me for my loyalty, they had the sale on for the NCIS Season 8 premiere. Which brings us to...
NCIS. If you read this journal at all in the last twelve months, you know that 2010 will go down in history as the year that NCIS took over Rebecca's life. I literally slept, ate, lived, and breathed this show for a few months. I'm no longer quite as obsessed as I was when I first discovered it -- and I confess, I don't hate Abby as much as I used to -- but it still certainly has a bigger hold on me than any other TV show ever has. (Of course, I'm not a big TV watcher.) I never would've taken up fanfiction without it.
No glasses. I still can't believe I finally lost my poor old glasses for good. Life without them doesn't suck as much as I thought it would, but I do still wish I had them. I know I could buy more, but instead I'm just relying solely on my contacts, which is pretty much what I was doing when I still had my glasses. Clue Steph from The Goonies: "You broke my glasses? You broke my glasses!"
Shirley Temples. I've been a hard-core fan of the actress Shirley Temple since 2005, and I've been wanting to try the drink Shirley Temple for almost as long. It took me so long because I thought that you could only get them in bars -- shows what I know, right? -- and I never go to bars or drink alcohol. But then I finally discovered that some resteraunts serve them, too. I had my very first one in February, in a seafood resteraunt in Houston, and through the rest of 2010, I ordered them at several other places. I'm grateful that after waiting to taste them for so long, they didn't disappoint. Yum!
Judaism. I saved this one for last because it's easily the deepest thing on this trivial little list. Although Judaism is something I've always felt connected to, in a way, I never thought I would ever start down the path to converting. I still remember the first day I rode my bike to services, August 27, and I can count on one hand the number of Shabbat services I've missed since then. The simple truth is that often when I'm riding back from a service, I feel like the richest, most powerful people in the world aren't as lucky as I am. It has changed my life in ways I never could've imagined.
Okay, okay, that's it for this trip down memory lane. And don't worry, I promise that's about serious as you'll ever hear me get.