2011 Highlight Reel: Part 1

Holy guacamole! Another entire year has gone by. My yogurt has 2012 expiration dates on it. Isn't that sometime in the future when robots rule the world? Nope, I'm as surprised as you to realize that it's actually just something that comes into existence in a few days. Seeing those expiration dates makes me think I have all the time in the world in which to eat those little cups of apricot/peach, "pur", or vanilla delights, but really, I had better eat a lot of yogurt and STAT because they're about to be expired 2012 yogurts!

Last year, I created a Hightlight Reel from the year. Stories and pictures from 2010. You can read it here. Well, this year I thought I'd do the same. But really, this year's start is so vastly different from this year's end, that I might be about to create the longest blog post the world has ever seen. I'll try to keep it as short as possible so that I haven't lulled you to sleep by "April", but my world endured quite an alteration this year, so no promises. It's two parts, so be sure to catch Part II as well. And now, without further ado, here is the highlight reel from my 2011!

I rang in the new year in home sweet Wyoming with my family during my vacation from work between Christmas and New Years. While Christmas 2010 was 40 degrees and sunny, new year's 2011 was the polar opposite. We had so much snow, freezing temperatures, and of course crazy stupid winds- weather that is far from my favorite thing (see the word "frigid" over Casper on the newspaper). I had just gotten a Nikon d3100 camera though, so the season and the weather at least gave me something to putz around with. I celebrated midnight DC-time watching the festivities on the East Coast on the TV and being a little bit home sick. Then I celebrated midnight in Wyoming 2 hours later with champagne, confetti poppers, my mom, sister, and aunt, and it was so wonderful to also be at home there.

 I headed back to DC right after and back to the grind at work. I started swimming again in fall 2010, and I decided to step it up in January by swimming my first swim meet in 7 years. Not only did I have fun, but I had a couple decent swims considering where I was at conditioning-wise. I joined CUBU Master's swim team- a group of swimmers that are each so unique and are incredible individuals. I felt so lucky to meet these people this year and become friends with them. The group was one of the best things that happened to me in 2011, and I miss CUBU! I also lucked out in having a swimming buddy occasionally for the early morning swims I'd have on days when I knew I couldn't make it to practice. Good motivation.

My cousin Hilery got married in mid-February in Casper. I flew to Wyoming for the celebration. She looked lovely, and she and Bill are seemingly enjoying their first year of marriage. I loved the time with my family. And, bonus! Allison's birthday was the following week, so she flew back with me to DC for her birthday week! We had too many good adventures to list them all, but some of our hightlights were a Washington Wizard's basketball game, dinner at Zaytinya with Jenny, Jimmy, and Emma, a trip to the wax museum where we had hilarious photo shoots, a birthday walk around the Capitol, breakfast with Emma and her mom, and Dunkin Donuts for birthday breakfast! I flew Allison back to Wyoming the following weekend. Due to a delay in our flight out of Washington, we got one extra night there and I ended up in one day flying round trip from DC to Casper. I got to see the family for approximately 2 hours in Casper before I headed back to the airport. Whew!

I swam the Albatross Open short course meters meet, and then I was off to meet my family in Hawaii! Because of how vacation days work, March is a terrible time to ask for time off, so like 2010, my office was wonderful enough to approve a handful of days for me to go meet my family, who would be there a few days longer than I. On March 11th, I took off from Dulles airport en route to LA two hours late. Then, my flight was LA to Honolulu was also delayed, so we didn't leave until around 9pm. I'm pretty good at sleeping anywhere, and have often claimed that I would probably sleep through a natural disaster. Well, that's exactly what I did. Kind of.

The devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Japan on March 11th occurred while I was in the air on a 5 hour flight to Hawaii. I woke up 4 hours after take off to an announcement by the captain of the news of what had occurred and that Hawaii was also under tsunami warning, so we had turned around and were 2 hours from Los Angeles again. A 6 hour flight departing from and arriving in LA landed me with a hotel room for 3 hours. I was lucky enough to be able to contact my family and make sure that they were OK. They were already there, and had prepped for the tsunami to hit. I watched the news until I fell asleep, and woke up at 5am when it was scheduled to hit Hawaii. With some exception, Hawaii went mostly unscathed. I was lucky enough to get a seat (I have no idea how-- thank you travel gods) on a plane the next day and joined my family. My friends and work were so wonderful to worry about me and keep check to make sure I was also OK. I enjoyed 4 days in Paradise with my fantastic family, watching Pipeline break, surfing with my brother (not in Pipeline), visiting friends, leaving a lei for my dad, walking around old memories from living there, and drinking lots of POG! Many people in Japan were not so lucky, and the country is still reeling from the tragedy that played out there.

Oh and the moment I landed in Hawaii, I learned that I had been accepted into a fellowship program that would send me to Germany for a year starting August 1. This is the part where time went from its normally ferociously fast clip to breaking the sound barrier.

The cherry blossoms really showed their stuff this year in DC. The trees look like they're covered in snow when the buds first bloom bright white. After a week or so, the blossoms turn a beautiful pink, and then as quickly as they came, they're gone. I kind of feel like a cherry blossom when I think about my time in DC. I got there and bloomed, but after a while I really had it going for me- great friends, great memories, great swim team, great neighborhood, unique and ever-interesting work environment... but just like that, I was about to be gone.

Speaking of good friends, I had so many nights of fun getting together with my girls, sharing some wine and lots of laughter. I lived with George and Jenny (and Cecily and Jimmy!) and still miss that little house, but I miss the people more. It was such a nice place to call home, and with Emma too, that was my DC family. Our family dinners were my favorite. Particularly the last one we did in June (but that's getting ahead of myself).

Easter came to DC, and Bettina, a fellow swimmer and German national, joined me at Emma's house for Easter Brunch. The Hill was in full bloom. DC definitely is a haven for flowers. I think if we left it to its own device, it'd be a jungle swamp in no time at all.

At the end of April, I took more time off to travel to Mesa, Arizona for USMS Nationals. The 4-day swim meet was an utter success. 10 of us from the CUBU crew made the trip, and I swam great. It was so fun, and I'm sad that I'll be out of the states for Nationals and Summer Nationals in 2012. The best part of the trip was spending time with Rachel, her 7-month pregnant belly, and her husband Devin. We shared silliness when it came to watching the Royal Wedding at like 1am Phoenix time, and I got a chance to help paint the baby's crib, feel the belly getting the daylights kicked out of it, and catch up with a wonderful friend. It couldn't have been better.

Emma and I couldn't wait for summer, oh no. The second it warmed up to being even close to acceptable to be in a swim suit, we wasted no time in heading to Assateaugue Island for a day of sunshine, magazine reading, sand, walks, and wild horses. A few weeks later it was definitely summer weather, and Macy, Laura, Emma, and I headed to Rohoboth Beach, Delaware for a delightful Memorial Day weekend on the beach! 

My brother Chris graduated from high school in June, which I traveled back to Wyoming for. Are you seeing a theme here? 2011 was chalked full of travel. I am so proud of him, and I'm enjoying him now figure out how to live a successful college life. It was a quick weekend, but it was nice to see the family and the friends that flew out to help celebrate this accomplishment.

Before I knew it, I was days away from moving out of DC so I could spend a few weeks with my family before I moved to Germany for a year. I spent as much energy as possible soaking up all of the things that I knew I'd miss while I was away. Life (and Macy) surprised me by introducing me to a man with whom I really hit it off but just as I was about to move 6000 miles away. Oh life, you scoundrel.

I moved out of my cute little house at the beginning of June, and into Emma's house for my remaining few weeks. My goodbye party was on a Friday after my final day at work, and I was so thrilled to see so many friendly faces come to wish me well. I really have met some of the best people in DC, and it was so nice to have a night to just celebrate everyone I have grown to adore. I miss your faces.

This isn't from the party, but these girls were there and I miss them.

My car packed literally to the brim (I think I would've had a hard time finding a place to stow away a pencil in there), Emma and I hit the road West. Well, first we went South to have dinner with Noor (yay!!) in North Caroline and then spend a couple days with my grandma in South Carolina. Gram adored meeting Emma, and I think both of us adored the time with Gram. We journied from South Carolina, through the Great Smoky Mountains, and through Gatlinberg, TN ending up in Nashville for the night to see Brian and Will. Oh Nashville, I vow to spend more time with you someday. You were so many things I love all at once except that you're not near an ocean, and I forgive you for that. You can't have it all. That wouldn't be fair.

Emma flew back to DC, and I drove onward to Missouri to spend the night with Seth's family. I got a hometown tour complete with time on the capitol dome and local ice cream! Next stop was to Becca in Omaha where we had a late night dessert date (I miss those from our college days!) and chatted way into the night about life. It was a blazingly hot and humid day there, and the worst part of my drive was to come: the entire length of Nebraska.

Done with driving, I ended up booking it across all of Nebraska and into Laramie for an hour of checking out the town and thinking about college memories, and then made my way to Casper a day earlier than planned.  Home sweet family.

Catch Part II tomorrow for July through December 2011!