Another Year Begins

So I guess I'm not migrating this blog (yet, anyway). If I'm going to move to Wordpress, or wherever, I feel like I need to actually look into setting it up correctly on a server and not just the free hosted version.... and frankly, my brain doesn't want to deal with that now. So you may just have to deal with the ugly layout here for a while. Sorry.

This is going to be a more personal post (and even then, not as personal as it could be) than I expect most posts to get - but this year definitely threw me some curve balls, and after Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing I sort of feel like I need to talk about what this year was like for me... both personally and professionally because in my life the two are fairly intertwined.

On 2011...
(Breakups...)
I can't say I'm sad to see 2011 closed out. 2011... was a ride, let's just say that.
2011 was the most stressful and most emotionally intense year of my post-college adult life (granted, that's like all of 4 years...)

March brought breakup emotional hell, exactly at the time I stopped traveling for work for  what ended up being 3 months so there was no escape from the emotional shitstorm. (However, rather than "3 months at home" this was "you might need to travel next week"... for 3 months straight.) I lost 10 pounds (at least) without realizing it... apparently I don't eat when I'm stressed out. Without really going in to details here, suffice to say that set the tone of the year and took up a lot of my emotional and mental capacity.

It's not all bad though. I hadn't been single in 6 years for more than a month at a time, so it was definitely an experience (seriously, I couldn't legally drink the last time I was single for any extended period of time!) Sorting out myself as an adult in the real world was probably a good thing. Nashville and the volunteer trip to United Cerebral Palsy to build wheelchair ramps served as a trip in self reflection (somehow, out of 4 trips to UCP, 3 of them marked some major life event or pivot for me).  I got an amazing trip to San Francisco in, and a handful of crazy trips to Champaign. Because of the breakup, I did get a lot closer to some fantastic female friends in the city and launched in to a ridiculous habit of dancing until 4am and ridiculous weekends full of Karaoke. Seriously, my friends are amazing and I'm so so so grateful for their support, encouragement, and the ridiculous shenanigans we get ourselves in to (both those friends local and those far away, you all rock!)

(Work)...
2011 was interesting for me work-wise. I was working at a client at work that was interesting and that I was good at, but somehow it wasn't enough for me. And the work never seemed to be scoped correctly, so I was usually doing the work of 2 or 3 people. That's in addition to traveling 4 days a week, since October 2010 (minus those 3 months mentioned earlier) - you barely get time to breathe and hang out with friends or just relax, let alone sorting out what "newly single" or "mid to late 20s and single" means. My project team was cool, the client was cool, the work was interesting, I was being recognized for busting ass... but ultimately not something sustainable for me (nor desirable).

This basically led to me being so stressed (and burnt out) that I got shingles. Seriously?! Shingles is an old persons disease, right? Shingles is definitely triggered by stress... not surprisingly, several of my friends in their 20s have also experienced the unpleasantness.

In the week between first having shingles symptoms and actually getting it looked at, it was announced that my work group would be closing in Chicago. Options included : move to San Jose, switch groups and stay in Chicago, or start looking for new opportunities. The way this all was handled was terrible, cut off the community that was keeping me to the job - I've ranted more about this than I care too, and it's still pretty touchy.  But again, emotional wreckage and stress added on to (already) being stressed about the day to day work I was accountable for... it pretty much made August - October a wasteland of traveling for work, being super busy, AND trying to sort out what was next in my career. Ultimately, things worked out - the wreckage made it easier for me to walk away from the company and allowed my colleagues to talk (more or less) openly about the opportunities we were considering. It was an... awkward, emotional, and complicated end to 3.5 years + an internship doing some exciting work with amazing people, but it made the decision very, very easy to leave.

(The end of the year...)
2011 wasn't a complete waste. Things have turned around since October or so. My friends are amazing and we've had a lot of really incredible times, though a lot of my friends have had rough years as well in terms of career and personal bullshit ("What is HAPPENING this year to everyone" may have been uttered a few times).  I can't imagine being in a better place than I'm at currently with the new job (see prior posts). The vacation between jobs was epic, even if it was only a week and a half long.  My step sister had a healthy baby girl Memorial Day, so I'm now an aunt. My sister graduated college and adopted an adorable puppy. Housing situation took a turn for the awesome with Trish moving in and Nik moving in to the apartment behind ours. We've hosted two epic parties (Halloween and NYE) and have grand schemes for more events. I spent way more time at home in Kentucky than I have in ages and every trip was really solid (2 of my closest friends from high school's weddings, bachelor/bachelorette parties, visiting home to see my step sister, etc).  Life forced me to shake things up a bit, but the year ended overwhelmingly positive. I can't say I'd have predicted where I'd be right now this time last year, but I can't complain about the way 2012 is starting. The last few months really turned 2011 around for me... but I can't say I'm sad to see 2011 close out. 2012 has lots of exciting things on the horizon.

On 2012
I don't really like making resolutions, but I do like having goals.
1) 25 books this year (I was so close in 2011! I hit like 24.25... and then was just too busy to read. Seriously, this feels like the first time I've sat still since December 22!)
2) Cook more - dinner, at least 3 times a week.
3) Pack lunches more : goal is 4 times a week.
4) Travel once a month. Since I'm not traveling for work, the goal is to get an average of 1 weekend a month where I'm going somewhere, visiting somewhere, or just not doing the "usual" weekend thing.
5) Keep blogging!
6) Find some freaking hobbies. I haven't really had hobbies since graduation due to the possibility of traveling. It's time to fix that.