2011 certainly was a momentous year, one that I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to match again, though that isn’t necessarily a bad thing (usually, changes in relationship status, residency — legal and physical locale — and career all at once won’t all go in the positive direction!). I didn’t photograph nearly as much of it as I would’ve liked, but looking back through my archives, the key events were at least captured in one way or another.
After the previous year’s exhilaration of being in a radio karaoke competition, I realized that I really had let my love of singing fall to the wayside. So I bought a keyboard, learned a couple of songs, and took part in an open mic night for the first time. (I wouldn’t say that I was great by any means, but it was a start.)
Marriage was a conversation topic that Corey and I would casually visit from time to time, as he was undecided on whether or not it was something he would ever be interested in. Then one April night, in the midst of me being drugged up from kidney stone painkillers, he revealed that not only did he want to get married, but that he wanted us to do so…as soon as possible!
Other girls may have dreamt of their wedding forever, but I wasn’t one of them, so Corey and I purposely kept things simple — we had a private ceremony, then held a small reception following that. Despite restricting attendees to close family and friends, throwing everything together in a month was utterly chaotic. (For the handful of people considering this path — learn from my mistakes and avoid such insanity!) I’m still surprised that everything managed to work out!
Besides the three aforementioned highlights, my earlier half of the year had primarily been a blur of work. For many reasons, I knew that the time had come to move on; I hired a replacement and said goodbye to BillShrink in May.
It was only after I stopped working and had gotten all my green card paperwork mailed out that honeymoon plans began. The Miami part of our trip was fun, but Key West was where our fondest memories took place, and we left knowing that we would return again someday.
With the very real possibility that I would soon be working in San Francisco, Corey and I looked around for pet-friendly places further up the peninsula and ended up landing in Redwood City.
To further indulge my musical tendencies, I took voice lessons for a few months and went on to audition for The Voice. It didn’t work out, but I have no regrets!
We traveled again in September, though this time to Austin, Texas for a good friend’s wedding. Unfortunately, despite delightful hospitality, it turned out that Austin air did not agree with me, as I suffered from extreme hives for weeks and ended up having to take steroids after we got back.
Because two pets just weren’t quite enough, we went and added a Savannah cat to the household. Fingolfin, named for the King of the Elves in Tolkien mythology, has been endless amounts of both fun and trouble, as well as the cuddliest lap kitten to boot.
To cap off the crazy year, after a bit of interview madness and with my brand new semi-permanent residency, OkCupid was the company I started at in December. Or more specifically, OkCupid Labs, which is devoted to creating new products — dating and non-dating — that help people connect online. I’m hopeful that our team will have exciting things to show come late winter/early spring!
Now it’s the end of the year and we’re off to see friends to celebrate!
How was your year?