2011: A year in review

This is a super long post, mostly for my own self indulgence, and I don't expect you to read it all. But it pretty much sums up everything of any significance that's happened over the year (if you're a new reader, this will catch you up!). I wish I could say this year was amazing and the greatest year yet, but it was more like a serious roller coaster and I am definitely NOT a fan of that ride.

January

January started off promising enough. I was working at the perfect little xray clinic with normal hours, I made my sister's save the dates, I got my tragus pierced and I asked Kim-Anh Nguyen to design a custom tattoo for me (which I STILL have yet to get).

February

Only 2 months into the year and it all went straight to hell. Our pug, Cyrus, got sick. We thought he had a bad cough, but it turned out to be a collapsed trachea. We had to put him to sleep and it happened to be on my sister's birthday. I never felt pain like this before in my life. More than when a grandparent died even. That makes me sound insensitive but it was the truth.

March

I turned 29 and for my birthday I donated all proceeds from sponsors that month (plus a little extra from us) to a local pug rescue in Cyrus' name. I threw a little blog party for my birthday, and participated in the first 30 Days of Lists. To ease the pain of Cyrus passing, we looked on petfinder.com and found Monty. It may seem like not enough time passed to mourn Cy, but each hour felt like a day and each day felt like a week. We needed Monty like how he needed us. I still mourn Cyrus and it's nearly 2012.

April

I made my sister's wedding invites and flew home to NY for her engagement party. When I got back from the trip, my supervisor told me I couldn't come back to work because they accidentally scheduled me over the cap of hours I was allowed to work by 300 or something ridiculous. And with them trying to save money, guess who didn't go to work for 3 months?

May

May was mostly spent relaxing and having fun since I was out of work. We went on a failed camping trip and I started getting into cross stitch. Brian and I celebrated 11 years together on the 15th so I made a little slideshow with pics over the years. I tried growing strawberries on the patio and failed at that too! What else is new haha.

June

I started loosing my shit when it came to applying for jobs but at least I had the time off to visit my sister in Virginia Beach. Brian and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary but I didn't blog about it because it was Cyrus' birthday on our wedding day so I was too sad to write anything. 

July

I got my job back but I took on a full time position which meant crap hours and total insanity and bitchiness on my end. I had some time off so we went on another failed camping trip but had fun anyway. We took Monty to his first visit to the beach and we recognized the similarities between him and Stripe from The Gremlins!

August

I participated in The August Break photo challenge. And tried to remain sane with work.

September

I participated in the 2nd 30 Days of Lists challenge. And started to lose my sanity (and myself) with work. My sister got married on 9/10/11 and it was awesome!

October

I gave my two weeks notice at work and we went to Disneyland (I'm surprised I didn't post pics but I think it was because I lied at work to get the time off so I didn't want to risk getting caught on the interwebs and all). 

November

My last day of work was on the 14th and I couldn't have been happier to have my sanity back. I bought a Kindle, and we visited some wineries -- life is sorta back to normal. Thanksgiving was spent in our apartment, just the 3 of us. And we decided to add another doggie to the family. We visited Mabel for the first time. Also, The Curious Pug turned 2 years old this month!

December

I was really in the Christmas spirit this year because I didn't have to work so I had the time to decorate, get crafty, and get ready to spend the holiday in our apartment. Mabel came home to live with us on the 2nd, so no trip home to NY for Christmas this year. I'm looking forward to what the new year will bring!

Here's to hoping 2012 will be better than ever!