I grew up with a small town newspaper that had an annual tradition. The longtime editor started each New Year with a montage of photos culled from the previous 12 months. As a member of the League of Women Voters and founder of the town's recycling program my mother always "made the front page" as we called it.

I remembered that photo montage while supposedly listening to my breath sounds in a yoga class at Ballard Health Club in December. I'd dashed down the stairs (late) and panted that I didn't have my member card because my life was in chaos. "What's going on?" Jade asked. In response I grabbed the top paper from the newly delivered Ballard News-Tribune stack and thrust a copy into her hands. The column that week was, "Free on curb: My life so far."

While attempting to breathe and twist my spine I reflected on the year to date of 2008. Although 2008 has been pronounced a disaster by so many it was still an incredibly rich year in terms of national change, and personal. I started thinking about all of the people that I'd met just since January 2008 in connection with writing this column; my mind began to spin faster than my legs in the air.

Last January I wrote about Dean Askew the absolutely irreplaceable barista of Espresso Express in the Ballard Campus-Swedish cafeteria. In researching more about Bob Gaddis after his death last January I had occasion to speak to Earl Fleury's widow and learn about her school bus driving days.

I learned that there was a building with a salmon on it by the Ballard Bridge, home to the creators and producers of the Seattle and San Francisco Garden Shows. Salmon Bay Events President Duane Kelly walked from his office to meet me at Mike's Chili for the first time and pronounced that I had righted a great wrong in suggesting that we meet there.

In February I met Kristin Espinasse and her husband Jean-Marc on a fan-sponsored tour for her book based on French Word-A-Day online. Abraxus Books was packed with women thrilled to be in the presence of their idol, a woman who began publishing her "postcards from Provence" on the Internet, and appeared to living their life of their fantasies. As winter turned to spring I spent an afternoon with former mayor Norm Rice at a workshop on neighborhood planning and found a book left to be found by the ever mysterious Mary W. I was invited by Ed Broomfield of Broomfield Marine & Electric to visit the shop on Ballard Avenue and found myself overwhelmed by both man and dog (Bull Mastiff Duke).

I talked to Shorty at Bank of America and Lilian Riley, founder of Groundswell NW. Lilian's words stuck with me in regard to creating a park or reclaiming open space, "You start where you can start," she said. In May I met the Geeky Swedes of MyBallard.com before they revealed their identities. As the weather grew warmer I rode with Metro driver Erik Christensen on his final day on Route 48. I attempted to walk to nine of local realtor Deborah Arends' Sunday Open Houses in an afternoon and was nearly road kill crossing 15th NW.

A poem read at one of many literary events at the Ballard Library led me to seek out Ballard poet Carol Levin and her husband Geo. Enchanted by their home and love story I vowed to convince my partner that we needed to follow their lead in merging households and location. (The miracle is that it worked). I met with Julie Cascioppo the chanteuse before she left for a booking in Bali and reconnected with a former babysitter who is now an aerialist and specialist in troll lore.

By fall, even as my life began to change, I met attorney and author Michael Schein who led me to the local publishers Celeste Bennett and George Hastings of Bennett & Hastings. Even as friends tackled my overgrown yard to prepare my house to go on the market I met Marvel Kolseth on her last day volunteering at the hospital gift shop. We compared notes on vacating our homes on short notice. "Disaster," she pronounced in a tone worthy of Bette Davis.

But as I lay on the sticky mat in the former kitchen of the Backstage I didn't remember all of the names and faces. Perhaps it says something about 2008 that the faces emerged as I moved into my own racing minded version of deep relaxation were those of Marvel Kolseth, resplendent at age 90 and Ed Broomfield, survivor of at least three heartaches. Local people who wear their years like badges of survival and lives lived fully.

I dragged my mat out of the dark room and read the bulletin board. At the front desk Jade and a co-worker were waiting for me. "We wanted you to meet someone. There's a woman whose husband died and is planning to sell her house. We made her read your article and told her she should meet you. She just left. Her name is Amy."

I walked home slowly, always rushing to relax, but drifting home. The sum of 2008 already seemed so vast. If only I could create a montage of all the faces of new friends. I met fascinating people in Ballard in 2008 and yet there are so many more people that I need to meet. So Amy from Ballard Health Club - call me.