2011 In Review

Two hearts hanging from electrical wires

‘Tis the season for reflection. I’m seeing so many “best of” lists on the blogs, news outlets and twitter feeds that I read. It’s forcing me to think about my year in 2011. The ups and downs, the amazement and the joy of living.

My year started off stressful - planning a wedding was not a favorite fun filled activity. Most girls enjoy wedding planning. I loathed it. But once I realized just how many people would be at our wedding and multiplied that by the hours of everyone attending, I realized that I was planning for 500+ hours of time (got to love being married to someone so analytical that they can point this out). I also did 2 weeks of work travel in January. This was followed by a rash of unfortunate events in my family - I’ll spare the details, but essentially it was Murphy’s Law. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong, including me tearing my MCL in a stupid fall on a black diamond run at Kirkwood. It was a season ending tumble and I was in a knee brace for 8 weeks, but able to walk. Depression settled in, in the form of a lack of endorphins and seratonin from not being able to exercise. Healing from my injury sent me into summer, where everything flew by. A few weekends in Portland to plan the wedding, an epic bachelorette weekend in Whistler with my girlfriends, a beautiful wedding, an amazing adventure in Tanzania (a climb to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, a safari and a few days on the beaches of Zanzibar), and work travel to New Zealand and Tunisia. Autumn was full of discovering a new passion for road biking, personal travel to NYC, Seattle and Portland, and easing into the holiday season full of festivous. Not to mention the whole discovering my passions (insert Traditional Chinese Medicine reference here). And here I am now, detoxing from my weekend of celebrating winter solstice and reflecting on the incredible year I’ve had. This year has been unique as I’ve seen nearly all of my friends from abroad - one good thing about having a wedding and being able to travel. We’ve been fortunate to see our friends from Belgium, France, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, Kansas City.

And this is just my year. This doesn’t address the excitement I have about M & A’s engagement, S & B’s beautiful little boy arriving into the world, R’s new job, N’s new career, S’s Yoga Teacher Training in Bali, C’s exciting changes in NYC, A moving from NYC to Paris to be with her partner T after 2 years of being apart, and so many more things that are escaping me right now.

Today, I was fortunate enough to spend an hour with an acupuncturist (not the one I currently see). I have taken a few classes from her at 18 Reasons and was asking her about a career in acupuncture the last time I took a class from her. She so kindly agreed to meet with me to discuss the good and the bad about being a practitioner. It was exactly what I needed! Our conversation showed me that I really can do something that’s my passion and enjoy going to work everyday. Not that acupuncture is the proper field for me... still figuring that one out. But, if anything, it was awesome to hear her experiences and talk about the field as well.

In walking to her office, I realized just how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful and inspiring city. I forgot to say, that my last post celebrated the 3 year anniversary of me moving to San Francisco. I’ll never forget my last day in New York City, freaking out that there was 3 inches of snow on the ground and the fact that they had to de-ice the place 3 times before we could take off. It seemed to take forever - and finally there was R at SFO to pick me up, with that adorable smile and cowlicky hair. He took a detour on our way to our new home, which I was not so pleased about after my travels, but he took me by a very famous house just a few blocks from where we live and they have an enormous Christmas tree all lit up. Then he surprised me yet again with having our little 2.5 foot Manhattan sized tree set up in our apartment with presents underneath - which he made me open. Adorable, this man. How did I get so lucky? I knew I was home.

Some wonderful views in the neighborhood; Eye of Mordor overlooking Dolores Park

Looking south to Noe Valley on Dolores Street (the street I live on)

 More reflection - things have been really slow in our lives lately. It’s wonderful to relax, but I am starting to get itchy for a more active lifestyle. Winter must be here. Have I mentioned how much I absolutely love winter solstice? In the meantime, I’ve been doing things that I’ve been meaning to do for a long time. I made our holiday cards myself, baked a lot of homemade goods for coworkers for gifts, I’ve been cooking a lot, started (and almost finished) an album for our wedding and honeymoon in Africa (I hate to say scrapbook, but that’s what it is) and today we have almost finished rearranging our apartment. It feels so good to change our home and to realign the space (most notably, getting our desk out of our bedroom); something we've been planning for a few months.

And so here’s few updates on things I’ve discussed since starting this blog.

1. The whole not eating dairy thing failed. Epically. I just cannot live without cheese! I’ve decided to cut back on my dairy consumption instead.
2. I am in love with hot yoga. However, it’s going to have to be put on hold because the schedule sucks. So I’ll only be able to go on the weekends when I’m in town.
3. Next month I start an Understanding Traditional Chinese Medicine course... cannot wait! It’s once a week for 2 hours over 6 weeks. I cannot wait to post what I learn.
4. The job still sucks.
5. My bean challenge is going pretty well. Tonight I made a soup with Good Mother Hubbard Beans. OMFG. YUM. And I recently got a crockpot, so I’m excited to use that for when I need beans to be cooked for me when I get home from work.
6. This blog has been good for me. Even R mentioned the other day that I seem to be calmer about everything. I guess less time on Facebook, more time on a blog. So, hopefully some of you are reading it! And hopefully I can provide some inspiration from the challenges that I experience in my life.
7. 2012 feels like it’s going to be quite the year! So much is unknown, but I’m feeling something in the air...

Good Mother Hubbard Bean Soup with Cabbage. YUM.

Lastly, I'll leave you with a fantastic article that I came across today that was from Grists' 2011 top 11 read posts. This is about the Medium Chill. Confused? Yeah, me too until I read it. Here's a quote:

About a year ago, I was visiting with an old friend of mine who lives in Portland now. He's helping to run a tech startup, working 80-hour weeks, half that on the road, with barely enough time at home to maintain a relationship with his dog, much less a romance. The goal, he said, is to grow like crazy, get bought out by Google, and retire at 40. "It's the big chill, man!" (No, Boomers, not the movie.)

I shook my head and laughed. "I'll take the medium chill!"

Just read it. I promise. It's worth your time.

Is it time for reflections for you? How was your 2011? What are your hopes and aspirations for 2012?

If I have time before leaving on Saturday, I’ll post about my favorite cookbooks and how I use them in my approach to cooking. Yum!