12 months + 117 posts = 2011 a year in review

Can I just say this - good riddance to 2011. You have been a particularly craptastic year. At least the last half of it, anyway. I am not sad to see you go on your merry way. Buh-bye. I never did like the number 11 anyway.

So, in the course of 12 months I managed to bust out 117 blog posts. Hmmm. Not a great record, for certain. But it's better than 2010 when I only "managed" to write 104 posts. At least I got that part of my New Year's resolution right - I did write more in 2011. I guess I had more to complain write about.

Grab a drink. And maybe something to eat. We're going to review 2011 in all its gory glory. Fasten your seat belts, it might be a bumpy ride.

January - Aside from a snowstorm and two birthdays (Olivia and Emma, 13 days apart), the month was relatively uneventful. As 2011 started, I was still enjoying my job and actually like the people I worked for. Funny how a few months can change all of that.

February - For the record, the weather around these parts sucked a lot in February. We had a snowstorm as the month started and then as the month was winding down we had an ice storm. That was not in the forecast. And it was damn scary. Our house is surrounded by tall, scary trees and they terrified me during the overnight ice storm. We also lost power the day after the storm and spent two nights at my parent's house. You just gotta love winter in Ohio. (No, I do not have to love it. I detest winter.). On the non-weather-related front, I became the proud owner of an iPhone in February. And I still love that phone. (Yeah, materialistic. Whatever.). Oh, and I turned the big 3-8 in February. More gray hairs appeared overnight.

March - This was a weird month. The proverbial sh*t hit the fan at my office and it was all downhill from there. But, I also had an amazing, life-changing experience at Disney's Social Media Moms Celebration. Let's start with the bad stuff first. My job. On March 2nd, I blogged about the job. And then again on March 3rd - where I blogged about crying at work and how much it sucked. (My word of the day was "annoyed" - yeah). On March 10 I was called a "wussy" by the business services director at my former employer. Oh and then on March 11 I was told that I needed to decide if my family or my job was more important (yes, really...my ex-boss, The Bully, told me this).

And then, thankfully, I boarded a plane on March 16 and headed to Walt Disney World for the second annual Disney Social Media Moms Celebration. This event was truly a life-changing event for me this year. While I blogged about it in April, I'm going to talk about it now. (If you want to read the posts again they are here, here, here, and here.)

Not only did I meet MORE amazing people friends, but I also had the chance to see many of my friends and spend some quality time with them (you know, more than just tweeting at each other every day). I also had the opportunity to meet the amazing, brilliant, incredible Rene Syler - and for that I am thankful. Her words still resonate with me now, nine months after first hearing her speak. She spoke about following your passion, how real growth hurts, how people who make you feel bad have NO place in your life, and how you need to be able to say every day "I am happy!" All of these things impacted me for the rest of 2011.

Oh, and did I mention I also went on an African Safari trek at Disney's Animal Kingdom? Yeah, you can read about that here.

April - Well would you look at that? My job still sucked on April 1. No foolin'.

May - My job still sucked. The weather finally got warm. My grandma died. And I wrote about that - and deli trays. Oh and did I mention my job was still sucking the joy out of me? Yeah. It was. Of course I blogged about The Bully and what a b*tch she is.

June - We went to Disney World with the whole family ("Chaos Party of 10"). It was epic. It might have been one of the best trips at Disney. Ever. I almost didn't get on the plane to fly home. Staying in Orlando was so very tempting. Oh, and we skipped spring and went right into summer and sweltering heat. With no a/c at the job. And then, on June 22 the job went directly to hell in a handbasket. I call it my "Target Moment" - that very moment when you realize you'd rather work at Target than spend one more day in hell. It was this point that I knew. I was now a target for The Bully and it was all over, except for the closing credits.

Oh, and I also realized that I was OLD in June as I attended my 20 year high school reunion.

July - Holy Toledo. I wrote 19 blogs posts in July. I took a "non sick" sick day. I had my "year end assessment" with The Bully, where she questioned the "need" for "work friends" (probably because she doesn't have any). And then, just when I thought the job couldn't get worse, it did. Epically worse. I was at a crossroads. I had a choice to make - continue to work for The Bully and suffer whatever fresh hell she chose to dish out on a daily basis, or save my sanity and my physical health and resign. I chose the latter. I resigned from my job on July 19, one year exactly from the day I started my job. I was free. I was happy. I slept through the night for the first time in MONTHS.

Oh, and we had a heatwave. And I broke my toe. And Emma was stung by a bee. And I blogged about envy and following your passion.

August - Olivia started second grade! I became a "dance mom" and a "cheer mom" when Emma started taking dance lessons and Olivia became a cheerleader. And, we adopted a new kitten - and named him Shadow. It was a pretty OK end to the summer.

September - The blog celebrated it's 6th birthday. I applied for the Walt Disney World Moms Panel. Again. I got really dizzy. And, Olivia was diagnosed with serious food allergies and seasonal allergies. That knocked me on my butt (good thing it's heavily padded). She has a peanut and sesame allergy and we are now armed with EpiPens. And she's getting allergy shots once a week for the "seasonal" stuff. It's a whole new [food] world for us. But we're adjusting.

October - Another year, another rejection for the Disney Moms Panel. Kevin and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. Steve Jobs died the same day. I don't think that's related. Oh, and we had a fun Halloween. It was kind of a slow month, other than the many job interviews I had. All of which ended in nothing.

November - Let's just face it - Nov. 10 was an incredibly crappy day in my life. As in, it sucked. A lot. It was as if all the bad news that was fit to print was printed that day. Just for me. I didn't get my dream job. And I learned that I still had to deal with a crapload of B.S. from The Bully and my former employer. (I'm seriously never buying another box of Thin Mints in my life. EVER.). And yeah. That was November. It wasn't very good.

December - Let's see. The good thing about December? Yeah, it's the last month of 2011, so it has THAT going for it. And Christmas. That was nice too. The rest of it? Nothing spectacular. More rejections from potential jobs. More frustrations for me. Other than that? A few giveaways. And not many blog posts. Oh, and I booked a flight to the Princess Half Marathon Weekend at Disney in February. I'm doing my first 5K. I guess I should start training soon, eh?

And with that I bid 2011 a not-so-fond farewell. We had some good times but we had some really crappy times too. I am choosing to remember the good times and learn from the bad.

Onward to 2012.

Happy New Year.