I’ve posted yearly recaps since 2008. I’m a stickler for tradition so here’s my recap for 2011.

Previous years: 2008, 2009, 2010

I had a good year.

Note: All links open in a new window.

January

• Rang in the New Year at Speakeasy with Alan, Jennifer, and company.
• Had girls’ night in with crepes.
• Battled an eye infection for a full month. It was gross.

February

• It snowed.
• I didn’t see Alan often because of his work.
• BDF (Best Dudie Friend) visited Austin! This ended up being the only time I saw him this year.
• BDF surprised me with cookies. His note gets me Google search hits that make me a little sad.
• Sent out Valentine cards and socks to my girlfriends.

Alan and I hanging out

March

• Alan took me to my first NBA game, Heat vs. Spurs.
• BFF had cake balls delivered to me at work.
• My solemate (deliberate misspelling) visited Austin.
• Went to Austin’s 2nd Annual Bacon Takedown.
• Went to Sketchbook Project 2011 tour stop in Austin.
• Hosted my first giveaway on the blog.
• Attended a free screening and Q&A with director of Meaning of Tea, a fantastic documentary about tea. Really!
• Alan and I had a two part dinner to celebrate our three year anniversary at Haddington’s and Uchiko (my favorite restaurant).
• Attended Austin Food Blogger’s Alliance Launch Party and applied for membership.
• March was a turning point in my life. I faced myself in therapy. I’m still reaping the benefits.

At Sketchbook Project event

April

• Visited Houston for dad’s birthday.
• Did a month of video blogging everyday in April (VEDA).
• Had a pillow fight in Ikea.
• Puppet showed a conversation between my parents for VEDA.
• Alex, Hillary, and I met up in San Angelo, Texas for a girls’ weekend.
• Took my little (Big Brothers and Big Sisters) to see a presentation about being a teen parent.
• Alan and I went to a drive-in theater for the first time and saw Back to the Future. Drive-in was on my life list!
• Joined Austin Food Blogger’s Alliance.

Hillary, Alex, and Me at the San Angelo Library

May

• I got bangs impulsively, changing my do for the first time in 5 years.
• Took a canoe trip with coworkers, facing a handful of irrational fears very reluctantly. Obviously, I survived.
• I participated in Leo’s Habit Course and developed a palate for vegetables by eating one serving a day for 30 days.
• Flew to Boston to see BFF. We drove to New Hampshire, Vermont, and Rhode Island, all three were states I’ve never visited.
• Read 8 books this month.
• Totes Awesome Channel was founded.

June

• Went home to Houston for Father’s Day.
• Rolled down a hill inside of a ball.
• I hit a boulder with my car. I always hit non-moving objects. Anyway, this was the start of a chain of bumper problems during the rest of the year.
• I hemmed my first dress! As part of my new year’s resolutions, I wanted to do 10 learning tasks with sewing. This was my first major lesson.
• Went to third Annual Cupcake Smackdown

July

• Met Ashley D, Ashley, and Nicole of Totes Awesome Channel and recorded a vlog.
• Celebrated my 28th birthday simply with a dinner with Alan and then a movie and drinks with friends.
• Made my favorite video: 28 Life Lessons from 28 People (for my 28th birthday).
• I caught up to 2007 and got my first smart phone!
• My friend, Naz surprised me with a vlog from my dad.
• I got really cozy with Tennessee Williams and his movies. Cat on Hot Tin Roof is excellent!

Celebrating my birthday

August

• Successfully completed VEDA despite being out of town twice and moving!
• Met up Hillary and Alex in Dallas for our second girls’ weekend of the year.
• Moved in with Alan.
• Used my passport for the first time since renewing it 2007. Alan and I took a vacation to Vancouver, Canada, my new favorite city.
• Saw the bats in Austin for the first time.

In front of the Vancouver Aquarium

September

• Adopted Bob from a shelter.
• I went to some of my Ten Year Reunion and was pleased to see all my classmates have blossomed to beautiful women.
• Brandi and I attended Jessica’s wedding.
• With a lot of conscious effort, I averaged 6 hours of sleep in the month of September! (I’m usually sleep deprived.)

Class of 2001

October

• I had a fluffy cable TV show debut.
• Had my first blogger date with Treavor.
• Donned a borrowed construction hat and went as Heidi in Home Improvement for Halloween.
• Cindy visited Austin!

November

• Posted a blog post everyday in November.
• Ran two blocks of a 5k for Race for the Cure and raised 460 dollars. Thanks to a lot of you!
• Went to Texas Renaissance Festival with Brandi and Jessica. It was our third year going and we decided to only do new things. We threw knives, shot bow and arrows, and had our face painted. It was the first time I’ve ever had my face painted!
• Had my second blogger date with Treavor.
• Attended a We Are Girls conference with my little. It was incredibly insightful.
• Had a Thanksgiving picnic with friends at the park. We threw a whole cooler’s worth of ice cubes into an enormous fountain, to create ripples, to help push a soccer ball to a sad toddler across the fountain. We were successful.
• Had a progressive meal day with Kim, Thomas, and friends.
• During breaks between eats, we made paper cranes for Kim’s tree.
• My bumper nearly killed Kim and me and got us murdered in the woods.
• Made our sparkly tattoos dance.

December

• I decide to like Christmas. I discovered it took more energy disliking it than it does to give into the cheer.
• Partcipated in Austin Food Blogger’s food swap.
• I was without a car the whole time I was in Houston for Christmas (the bumper needed to be replaced) and was touched to have friends pick me up for dates.
• Sewed couch pillows with help from mom.
• Hosting a “Never Have We Ever” dinner party tonight. Post to come!

Bob hanging out with snowman

In writing this post, I realized this year was really sweet for relationships. It may have a lot to do with my prioritizing close friends over acquaintances and then learning to set boundaries. Recently, I’ve been in a funk about not having a life’s calling but I have to say, I’m really content with my tribe. Word on the street is that it’s the relationships that really matter.

Wishing you a terrific end of year celebration! Lots of love!

I was 22 years old and had just gotten my heart broken by my first boyfriend of four years. My parents had taken to blowing up my phone because I was MIA for three days. I usually talked to them everyday but couldn’t bring myself to talk to anyone. My dad left a voice mail threatening to come up to Austin if I didn’t call him back. Not wanting to deal with hovering parents while I grieved, I reluctantly called them back.

That was our conversation in totality. Note how he didn’t even ask the whys and whens of the split. He didn’t need to know. It was enough that we were over. It was enough that I was crying and my ex was not.

The next day he called to apologize. He told me he was sorry to be so rough with me the day before but he just wanted me to see this break-up as practice. I remember being so perplexed on what he could possibly mean by “practice.”

“You know, when you meet that someone who is perfect for you and get married and have kids and live your life, what do you think will happen?”

I remember being afraid to let him finish this thought but I braced for it anyway.

“He’s going to die!”

My dad had tried to make me feel better about my first break-up by likening it to practice for when my future spouse dies. It’s so awful that the memory of this still makes me laugh 5 years later and this story still gets requested by my friends at gatherings.

Brutality aside, I think I get what he was trying to tell me. We are on borrowed time. Nothing and no one is really ours. Everything and everyone gets given back. A break-up is just one way things get taken from us and at the time, my break-up was just a small introduction to the greater losses life will bring me. No wonder I’m so scared of losing my loved ones. I can’t imagine how unbearable the pain will be when the losses become bigger.

This week was kind of hard for me. My bestie was having a hard week and when she hurts, I hurt. My best dudie friend left for his hometown of NYC after a too short couple of days. My boyfriend’s sleep cycle has been completely opposite of mine with no overlap. He too is having a hard week, and when he hurts, I hurt. For the first time in my life, I kind of want to skip Valentine’s day. Normally I’d have wrapped gifts by now to send out to my gals around the country and something for my parents, but I still don’t have anything and I’m babysitting tonight. The joke about me is that you know something is seriously wrong, if I, Food Fanatic, skip a meal. Well something’s gotta be terribly wrong if I, Obnoxious Valentine’s Day Cheerleader, want to skip Valentine’s.

So, last night, these thoughts and bad moodifers were pulling me down when I grasped onto the idea of making chocolate chip cookies from scratch. I had all the ingredients sitting around, including Ghirardelli’s chocolate chips. Great quality chocolate chips! Off I went, measuring ingredients and cracking eggs and being completely present in the glory of making cookies. I felt at peace. Things were going to be okay. I was about to have my favorite, chocolate chip cookies. I got my hand mixer and turned it on, within seconds, it. died. on. me. It’s 20 something degrees outside and I really didn’t want to leave my toasty apartment but, these cookies had now become the holy grail of fixing piss poor moods. Grudgingly, I sent my best dudie friend who happened to be online, a bitchy rant. “I NEED COOKIES. MY MIXER BROKE. I’M NOW GOING TO PUT ON EIGHT LAYERS OF CLOTHING SO I CAN GO OUTSIDE IN TWENTY DEGREE WEATHER TO BUY A NEW MIXER. BYE.”

I made the dreaded trek. While parking at the grocery store, Boyfriend called and we got into an argument! He caught me at such a grouchy time. I snarled at him. Why do we do that? Snap at those we miss? My need for homemade cookies was all consuming now. I bought my mixer and went home.

Determined, I resumed cookie making. I didn’t feel completely defeated, just defeated enough to be pathetically crying into the cookie dough. I mixed the dough, dolloped two dozen sizable morsels of dough on my pans, stuck the pans in oven, and waited the instructed 10 minutes.

10 minutes later they came out burnt.

Burnt.

I went to bed.

After screaming.

The screaming maybe didn’t help.

This morning, feeling deflated and defeated, I updated best dudie friend’s facebook wall. “Cookies came out burnt. :(”

Less than an hour later I get a phone call while at work from a beloved and famed Austin cookie delivery bakery telling me they’re in the hallway outside my office with a package.

2 dozen cookies ranging from my beloved chocolate chip, to butter scotch, snickerdoodles, and oatmeal chocolate in a happy birthday box, 2 containers of ice cold milk, and happy birthday balloon.

The card contained a postscript: “P.S. If you get fat, no one will love you.”

I know who gave me the cookies.

A postscript of my own: My birthday is in July.

It’s that time of year again! I share with you my personal recap of 2010. This year was much better than 2009 (which was much worse than my 2008). It was a year of recovery and regaining balance. I feel very fondly of 2010 but I’m ready to embrace 2011. Bring it!

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January 2010

• Rung in the new year with Alan, Jen, and friends.
• Started a book club.
• I finally organized my books.
• An old high school and college classmate randomly invited me to Gourdough’s. I’ve since had 13 of their donuts.
• Made a cooking video with my mom. Significant because it’s the most popular youtube video I’ve posted with over 10,000 views.

Celebrating New Year’s Eve

February 2010

• Will came to visit from Dallas.
• Launched a separate food blog.
• Sent out Valentine cards and socks.
• Had a Valentine’s Date with Alan at Joe DiMaggio’s and received beautiful flowers from Cindy and a lovingly abusive voice mail from Jon.
• Progressive meal in Houston that took us to three restaurants for one meal.
• Organized a trip to San Antonio to eat a 42 inch pizza.
• Spotted a car hoarder. This blog entry got a lot of Austin search hits.
• First real book club meeting. Discussed The Shack.
• Despite all of the above, it was still a tough month.

March 2010

• Watched An Education by myself.
• Had a crawfish broil.
• Went to Austin’s first annual Bacon Takedown!
• Participated in a food blogger’s workshop, called TechMunch during SXSW.
• Celebrated two years with Alan.

Crawfish Boil

April 2009

• Saw Anthony Bourdain speak!!!
• Went to Houston for my daddy’s birthday.
• I piped my first cake (disaster) and saw the famed albino squirrel at the University of Texas.
• Posted my first video blog.

May 2010

• Made my first lasagna.
• Learned to be more careful. More specifically, not to roam gas stations at night.
• Treated Alan and myself to a date with Conan.
• I ate a double down.
• Austin Wine Festival with Brittany.

The back of Conan

June 2010

• Went canoeing for the first time.
• Moved out of my 2 bedroom apartment which I shared with Brandi and into a 1 bedroom by my lonesome. Meanwhile, Brandi moved to Dallas for culinary school.
• Started a weekly writing exercise with my best friend.
• Celebrated Brittany’s birthday at a bingo hall.
• I ran into the same cat, dog, and mouse that I had previously first seen in San Francisco the year prior.
• Saw Anthony Bourdain speak for the second time this year. Also had the pleasure of meeting him. And touching his tricep.

July 2010

• Celebrated Fourth of July poolside and downtown.
• Seriously started to write letters and my pen pals actually wrote back.
• Hosted a girls’ weekend. Alex and Hillary drove in from Houston and San Angelo and we ate, drank, and were merry.
• Celebrated my 27th birthday with two celebrations. An one-on-one date at a fabulous new sushi restaurant and then a group birthday with a handful of friends.
• Jon who flew down and was able to make it to my birthday dinner, was in town an extra day and we spent all day eating, drinking, and being merry.

Jon and Me at my Birthday Dinner

August 2010

• Participated in VEDA and met some wonderful people.
• I vlogged my scoliosis scar which was a difficult feat for me.
• I had my heart broken by someone dear to me.
• Participated in an attempt to set a world record of most amount of people icing cupcakes at one time.
• Finished my 21st book of 2010 : A Man Without a Country. One of my favorites.
• Went to Houston to celebrate Aishah’s 27th birthday.

Aishah’s 27th Birthday

September 2010

• Alan took me to see Joe Rogan!
• Went to the wedding of Alan’s childhood friends.
• Finished Reading Cook’s Tour by Antony Bourdain. My 28th book of 2010.
• Made Bucatini All’ Amatriciana , my favorite recipe of the year.

Me & Joe Rogan

October 2010

• I planned and organized a regional conference for work.
• My dude turned 26! We celebrated for over a week.
• Tried my first absinthe.
• My half sister whom I haven’t seen in over ten years found me on Facebook.
• Dressed up as a cop for Halloween.
• Auditioned for a travel reality TV show after receiving an email from a casting director. I took Neville as possible partner and he totally outshone me.
• A close friend’s brother died unexpectedly. Being with her has been a top priority whenever I’m in Houston. I’ve grown deeper in love for and with her.
• Tried out Breakfast Klub, a culinary highlight in 2010.

November 2010

• Voted!
• Went to Austin’s first trailer park food festival.
• I posted a blog post everyday in November as part of Nablopomo.
• Walked Race for the Cure with Brittany and raised over 500 dollars for breast cancer research.
• Saw Louis C.K. thanks to lovely boyfriend.
• Saw old friends in Houston over Thanksgiving.
• I listed 100 things I am thankful for.
• Sent out Thanksgiving Day cards
• Joined the Sketchbook Project.

Brittany & Me at Race for the Cure

December 2010

• Participated in Reverb10.
• Road trip to Oklahoma! Why Oklahoma? To cross off another state.
• Attended annual Christmas Party for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America with my little and her cousin. This is our third year in attendance!
• Had hot pot on Christmas day twice. Lunch with Mary Ellen and her mom and her brother, and dinner with my own family. I did exactly this last year for Christmas!
• Tomorrow’s plan is to party on a rooftop downtown in celebration of a new and fresh year. A stretch Hummer may have been rented.

Annual Christmas Party with my Little

That was my year! I’m happy to have shared it with you and have your support, comments, and readership. It means an awful lot to me. Thank you!

I’m killing myself over here. I took on this challenge of blogging everyday in November. So far, 8 or 9 days in, I’m doing okay and haven’t missed a day but only just barely and not without anxiety and developing a twitch. I had mad blog block already on Day 2 and struggled throughout the rest of the first week. My bestie (who I’ve roped into doing this with me and isn’t having a hard time at all) is about to kill me. My first tough day, Day 2, she gave me countless ideas on what to blog about and I nixed them all. I remained infuriatingly disengaged. She told me to blog about voting and I told her no way. I do not have anything to say about voting except to say I was going to vote, therefore I won’t blog about voting. I dillydallied and struggled and held out. What happened late evening on Day 2? I fricking blogged about voting.

Today, Day 9 is also another excruciatingly bad day. I finally gave my neglected food blog some love and blogged a full post (as opposed to just posting pictures) and it left me tapped out for today’s post on this blog. Bestie kept telling me I can just post a note on this blog directing you to my food blog. Seriously, that makes sense right? It IS a blog post written TODAY by ME, only just on a different blog. Right?! But no, that gave me anxiety. I’m no perfectionist and find that perfectionism can creatively block you. However, for some reason this gave me the same frustrations as a 4 year old perfectionist who is crumbling in tears because she colored outside the lines in her coloring book. I did NOT want to deflect today’s blog post to my food blog post because they are MIXING. The challenge was for my personal blog; I cannot deflect to my food blog! Doesn’t this remind you of those people who freak out when their mashed potatoes are touching their meatloaf?

Sigh. So instead having a blog post about how my post for the day will be at my food blog, I decided to make it about how this gives me anxiety. This is my loophole. Go check out my food blog – I blogged about Vince Young Steakhouse.

1. VEDA – Um this was the most blooper filled experience I’ve had taping a vlog. I have one clip ready for the day we reveal some bloopers. I don’t know why but I think I was the most nervous doing this vlog because I could not stop stuttering. Which resulted in 2-3 jumpy cuts in the final product. I just had to give it up. This is good practice for something that might later be useful in life, no? Blah, whatever, here it is. 2. Just a random picture of a tower of boxes. I’ve been collecting boxes in my cave of an office at work for the boyfriend’s looming move. 3. I had dinner with my little (Big Brothers & Big Sisters of America) a couple of nights ago and it’s like she sprouts a few inches every time I see her. She went from little tiny 8 year old to an almost 11 year old and it’s unsettling in numerous ways. For starters, she’s going to be taller than me real soon. That’s no fair, right? Second, our conversations are getting a little more mature. She told me she can’t wait to get old enough to get a tattoo. I said, “Oh yeah? What would you get?” “Oh, I want a tattoo of my boyfriend’s name.” I almost pulled over. Instead I vehemently discouraged her. I’m like, “No, really, really, really don’t ever do this.” “What?! But wwwhhhy?” “Because, Little, I know you’ll meet someone and you’ll think you’ll be together forever, but the odds are against you. Really. They’re against you. Most likely you’ll break up – I’m sorry I’ve seen this and been through this. It’s what usually happens. And when you do break up, you’ll be that girl who just got broken up with with his NAME on whatever body party you tattooed it. Trust me, I’ve seen youtube videos of people trying to remove tattoos, it ain’t pretty.” To which she huffs. “I’m not stupid. I wouldn’t do it unless I knew we’d be together forever.” Face to palm. FACE to fricking PALM. My best friend suggested I take her to a tattoo parlor and let her talk to a tattoo artist. Ha. Too bad this conversation didn’t happen before I already discussed piercings and tattoos for VEDA. 4. While we’re on the topic of my crazy little. Here’s a self portrait she took of herself with my camera. She thinks I’m a grandma or something because she started to quiz me on Internet speak. Used to be called AIM speak but I guess AIM is all outdated now. She asked, “Do you know what BRB means?” Ha. I almost said, “Child, please!” (Yes, I’m channeling Chad Ochocinco.) “BRB was around before you were even BORN.” But I never belittle my little and was chill and answered her a plain, “Yeah, be right back.” She was shocked I knew. She then confirmed my level of competency by further quizzing me about LOL and TTYL. :) I’m glad I passed. 5. Current book: Eat, Pray, Love (Amazon affiliated link) Random excerpt: “Generally speaking, though, Americans have an inability to relax into sheer pleasure. Ours is an entertainment-seeking nation, but not necessarily a pleasure-seeking one. Americans spend billions to keep themselves amused with everything from porn to theme parks to wars, but that’s not exactly the same thing as quiet enjoyment. Americans work harder and longer and more stressful hours than anyone in the world today. But as Luca Spaghetti pointed out, we seem to like it. Alarming statistics back this observation up, showing that many Americans feel more happy and fulfilled in their offices than they do in their own homes. Of course, we all inevitably work too hard, then we get burned out and have to spend the whole weekend in our pajamas, eating cereal straight out of the box and staring at the TV in a mild coma (which is the opposite of working, yes, but not exactly the same thing as pleasure). ” 6. I was debating on posting this video. I cursed a lot. Bleep bleep bleep, bleep bleep bleep. But uh, cursing is what I do when I freak out. I freaked out because there was a lizard in my apartment. I videoed it under Brittany and Martin’s suggestion and because I was reminded fondly of Chitown’s insect video. This isn’t hardly as funny. So in case for some reason I find myself on the job market, I uploaded the video but it’s unlisted. If you’z friends of mine want to see a freak out of yours truly, you can ping me. I cashed in a favor from Deesh and called him at 11pm for my reptilian emergency. Offering of course to treat him to lunch :). He was over in a jiffy and freed the imprisoned lizard (I trapped it in a shoebox against my wall). He hardly reads my blog (which is on par with most of my real life friends), but just in case he peeks in, thanks again, friend! 7. Because I ran out of takes and this will tie in neatly with take #1, here’s a picture of the miniature snow globes I have at work.

Happy Friday, ya’ll!

BBBB was the most stressful birthday party I’ve been to. I don’t know how the bingo pros /elderly do it. I had one sheet of 9 cards and that’s pretty relaxing and laid back but when I decided to take one of Brittany’s 9 card sheets to help her out, I felt like I was back in elementary school doing SPEED MATH. Minus the math… At the big bingo hall in Austin, on your birthday you can buy 27 cards and a computer game for one penny. I don’t think Brit’s doing 27 cards again.

How do you make bingo classy?

You bring your own minature bottles of wine!

We managed to get Alan to come even though he swore after his first time, he’d never go back. This time he learned his lesson and stuck with a relaxing 9 cards. I love how in the following picture he looks like he’s going to stab the shit out of his bingo cards.

So you can buy yourself fancy bingo bags on the internet. For instance, this one I found on Amazon.

Or you can make your own!

The bingo bag we made last night

Time to go to work :) I’m taking half a day today off so I can face one of my biggest fears. Kayaking. Wish me luck.