Annual Roundup

First of all, I would like to say that today my little "not a blog" turns one whole year old.  Yes, one year ago today, I first provided this little gem to the internet--a post that managed to insult children, prove that I am a sucker for peer pressure and attention, as well as foreshadow subsequent visits to who I fondly refer to as my Crazy Doctor.  It also warned you all to beware of run-on sentences, in which case I direct you to the previous sentence and beg your forgiveness.  Don't you just love how you don't have to pause for breath when you're typing?!?

So, originally, I had this awesome plan where I was going to do up some catchy little rhyme to recap the past year of my life, but then I stayed out until two in the morning last night, drinking and singing my arse off at karaoke, so, um, I'm a little less than inspired right now.  However, I have had a pretty significant overhaul in my readership over the past year, so for those of you who are new(ish) to my world I'll go ahead and provide an extremely uncreative and somewhat organized recap of my year with links to corresponding posts that you can check out if you're exceptionally bored at work.  Or not.  Whatever, my head hurts so this is about as good as it's going to get today.

In late August I revealed my unhealthy coping habits when it comes to stress in my life--obsessive shopping--and also mentioned a little storm that was creeping toward New Orleans.

In September I took complete and utter leave of my senses and adopted a deathly sick, heartbreakingly scruffy puppy from an animal shelter... and proceeded to write a shitload of posts about her him (oh yeah, there's a story there).  New moms--they're so cute, aren't they?  During this time I was working round the clock shifts at work as we did all that we could do to assist in the aftermath of Katrina.

In October and November I first displayed my obsession with celebrity couples, started the 100 Things About Me List (which is still not completed...), encouraged infants not to smoke while they were in the womb, and went on a freaking awesome cross country trip with Colby.

December brought about a love letter to the holiday season, the reemergence of an ex that I'd hoped to never hear from again, cracks began to show in my relationship with Colby, and I spent the holidays at home seeing just how sick my mom's breast cancer had really made her.  Not actually such a hot month in retrospect...

In January I started trying to imagine life after the military, finally admitted to myself that I needed to get help for the depression I'd been experiencing, dealt with Colby's first deployment of MANY more to come, and started on Zoloft.

February shot off to a rollicking good start with the cannibalism of my gerbils and February 7th was Colby and my 3 year anniversary.  February 13th we broke up.  Awesome.  I dealt with these tragedies by watching a lot of tv.  No, seriously, A LOT.

In March I decided to embrace my single girl status by stalking a local celebrity and flirting with a highschool friend, losing about a bajillion pounds and marketing my diet plan of depression and heartbreak, and cyber-dating Stupid Jerk Boy (SJB) a super-crush from college (oh shut up!).

In April, I discovered that writing may be a better direction to funnel my emotions and I began my novel in earnest.  I decided that aiming for the stars was the way to go and penned an eloquent epistle to Nick Lachey.  And I finally felt comfortable enough to share the story of my family's experience with my mom's cancer.

In May, Britney Spears guest-blogged, and dude, I totally called her second pregnancy.  I wrote my obligatory quarter-life crisis entry and then remembered that I shouldn't take myself so damn seriously and went on two dates in one day and felt pretty pimptastic about myself.  In a moment of clarity I composed my very own Relationship Classification System, and FINALLY introduced Ellie to the world.

At the beginning of June I found myself questioning my "friendship" with Colby, I fell for another stupid boy's smooth lines, and then after drama with Auburn Guy I came within spitting distance of shutting down my site.  Which, uh, obviously didn't happen.

In July I continued to deal with my fears surrounding the extremely confusing relationship I had with Colby, but continued getting out and about and meeting new people.  I finished off the month by taking a 4 day trip to New York and taking the leap by FINALLY turning in my Air Force separation paperwork.

And rounding out my year of blogging, in August I confronted my fears about having close girlfriends and Colby and I finally managed to dig through the friendship myth and get back together.

So, here I am today, in the middle of my story and not really certain what direction my life will be taking from here.  Reading over the past year's worth of post has been a pretty emotional experience for me--I've discovered so many things about myself, both good and bad.  I've had incredibly wonderful and incredibly awful things happen.  I really feel that I've grown so much as a person, and I'm sure that the upcoming year will only bring more changes.  As much as everything has changed and evolved over the past year, the one thing that has remained constant is this journal and the support that I've found from each person who has taken a minute out of their day to read about my world.  So, you know, thanks and stuff, for reading, for commenting, for emailing, for your honesty.  You guys pretty much rock my world.

Comments

[Jonathan]

Fantastic retrospective. You may have started something there you know :)

I enjoy reading your blog - I don't catch it as often as I might like, but I do try to check in every week or so.

[Fraulein N]

Wow, you've had one hell of a year. Happy Blogversary!

[Airhead]

Wow, what an amazing year! It really seems like you've gone through everything . . . and it's so cool to be able to see how far you've come!

[baggage]

I liked reading the recap!

[shpprgrl]

Happy 1 year! I have alot of reading to catch up on! :)

[M]

Congratulations... on everything!!!

Hugs & kisses!!

[Becky]

Happy Blogoversary! I just realized that I've been reading you almost from the beginning b/c I remember you adopting your second dog.

[wordnerd]

This is truly amazing! What a way to celebrate your blog-year. I'm going back to catch up on the ones I missed -- not sure that there are too many of them because you and I started about a month apart.
Congrats on a great year -- both writing and personally -- growth is good, and I think you're doing great!

[anne]

Yup, quite a year! Glad you're still blogging because I like reading ya! Let me know when you are coming this way - maybe we can sneak in a quick visit between your smooches with the man!~

hugs,
a

[Anonymous G]

Happy BloggyDay! :-)
xo

[sophie]

Congratulations! I'm so glad you didn't shut things down. I need to go back and catch up. It's weird, I can't tell for sure where I started--I'm pretty sure you found me through BE if I remember correctly.....

[RisibleGirl]

Awww, girly girl, it's been great to spend the last year with you. So glad you took up this whole blogging thing.

xoxo

[AC]

HUZZAH!!!!! and I'm anticipating the next installment.

[Grins]

That was the best year in retrospect I've ever read. I think you need to hire out to boring relatives that send out those dull letters at Christmas. Spruce them up a bit.