2010 in Review

It’s hard to believe that yet another year has come and gone. As a kid, I couldn’t wait for Christmas time to come around, and these days it’s here and gone before I’ve even gotten the house decorated!

2010 was a busy year, filled with many good things. We heard brilliant scholars lecture at APU as part of our annual Science, Faith and Culture series (www.apu.edu/cris/lectures - Dinesh D’Souza on “Answering the New Atheism” and Peter Enns on "The Benefit of Doubt" stand out as just two of my favorites). I attended several conferences throughout the year: the Asilomar International Conference on Climate Intervention in March, Aerospace Medicine in Phoenix in May, BioLogos in Boston in June, American Scientific Affiliation in DC in July, and I presented my Aerospace group’s research on Climate Change and National Security at the AIAA Space 2010 conference in Anaheim in August. I also gave a handful of talks at various venues on topics in science and faith, sports, and spaceflight.

In addition, I launched my own website (www.leslieannwickman.com), vacationed in several versions of paradise (Maui, Sunriver, and Whidbey Island), went to Las Vegas (definitely NOT paradise!) to watch my nephew play in a basketball tournament in the heat of July, and adopted a little sister for Mulder (Scully - of course! - a Maine Coon who at nine months is threatening to outweigh her big brother by more than a little, and eat me out of house and home in the process!).  

Another fun activity was getting to watch whales three separate times this year: humpbacks off Maui and Massachusetts, and blue whales right here off Redondo Beach! What a treat.

I also learned last March that the ACL graft in my right knee has gone missing, and although I was able to play beach volleyball throughout the summer, the time has come for another surgery, probably in the February 2011 timeframe. There'll be no skiing for me until this gets fixed.

Finally, I spent a wonderful Christmas with my older brother’s family again in Oregon this year, and am now back home getting ready for the new year.

I pray that you and yours will join me in counting our many blessings as we look forward with hope to 2011.