2011 in review

Chances are I’m either typing this with a baby on my lap, or in the few and far between minutes baby is asleep (or on someone else’s lap, which is a lot more common), so who knows if it’ll actually get finished by New Year’s… but I’ll try!

Wow… I kind of can’t believe it’s over (well, almost… technically I have three more days, but I’m really doubting anything significant is going to happen.) The time didn’t exactly go fast (except for the past two weeks which have flown by!) but it seemed more, I don’t know, cohesive than other years – everything flowed together. Or maybe I’m just crazy and sleep-deprived. On to the review.

My beautiful little family <3

Highlights:

• The obvious one: meeting (and getting to know) our beautiful and amazing son, Damien Isaac. In fact, I’d even say being pregnant for most of the year was a highlight… weird, I know, but I like being pregnant. (The gestational diabetes, however, I could do without.)
• Dan getting a job, and in graphic design too! (Technically his degree is in product design, not graphic, but we were just happy he got a job in the art field and didn’t have to stock shelves at Walmart or something.) (Which may be what I’m doing in a month so I shouldn’t knock it, lol – see below.)
• Being able to work at the high school I used to attend – unfortunately my job ended in December due to budget cuts so I’m now on the lookout for a new job (well, I will be when I’ve recovered a bit more from Having A Baby), but it was fun while it lasted.
• My sister moving back to town – I know this isn’t necessarily a highlight for her (it’s not exactly a happening place, lol) but I love having her closer :)
• I would be remiss if I did not mention that 2011 was the year I FINALLY (oh holy crap after 10+ years of trying FINALLY) beat Minesweeper on Expert. Sure, it’ll never happen again, but once is enough.

Lowlights:

• We experienced a lot of loss this year. In January I had a miscarriage at 8 weeks pregnant, which was by far the hardest thing I’ve ever experienced. I’m actually experiencing a lot of the same emotions now after Damien was born, because now I know how a pregnancy can equal a real baby, and it makes the loss even more real. On the other hand, it’s hard to reconcile the idea that if that baby was born I’d never have Damien… but I think I can love them both and wish there was a world where they could both exist.
• We also lost my maternal grandfather (died the day before Damien’s baby shower) and Dan’s aunt (died on Christmas eve), and in both of those situations the awful timing contributed to the pain of loss I’m sure. I feel bad that neither of those very special people got to meet Damien, and it’s hard to imagine that they’re not around anymore. Obviously we’re still dealing with this and will be for awhile.
• General angst and anxiety from still living at home/not being able to provide for my kid/not being a real family/etc etc… my goal for 2012 is to improve on this!

Fun things:

• Overnight trip to Mt. Shasta for Valentine’s Day with Dan (and Ripley, hehe – we stayed in a KOA so she could stay with us)
• Went to several Giants games in San Francisco
• Trip to Arcata for Dan’s and my 3rd anniversary/our ‘babymoon’ (I was 20 weeks pregnant)
• The first time we heard Damien’s heartbeat (at 11 weeks)
• Seeing Damien for the first time at 13 weeks, and finding out he’s a boy at 19/20 weeks
• Baby shower! (It was co-ed and fall themed and 10x better than any shower I’ve ever been to – thanks family!)
• Is it crazy to put giving birth as a fun thing? But, in a way (a stressful and painful way), it kind of was.
• Thanksgiving wasn’t anything to write home about, but Christmas was fun

Songs that remind me of 2011:

• Three Days Grace, “World So Cold“
• Seether, “Country Song“
• Evanescence, “What You Want“
• Korn (feat. Skrillex), “Get Up“
• Bush, “The Sound of Winter“
• SheDaisy, “Baby Mine” (lol @ the link, it’s the only version they have on YouTube! And it doesn’t play the whole song either… but you get the idea)

Favorite new things watched:

• The X-Files… every season, plus the movies (I am more fangirl about this show than I have been anything since perhaps high school, lol – just a decade or so late!)
• Dexter season 4 (and I just bought season 5 for $15 at Target, so now I just need to make Dan watch it with me!)
• Waking the Dead (a BBC-produced cold case show with great characters)
• Buffy seasons 1-4 (I get really obsessed with watching, get burned out, and get back to it a few months later
• Witchblade (the anime version – LOVED this show, and since I watched it while pregnant the end made me cry)
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo/The Girl Who Played with Fire/The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (I LOVE Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth and am a little hesitant about the American versions, but will give them a try. I really like Daniel Craig so that should help.)

Books read: See this list, which isn’t complete (especially for November/December), but it’s the closest I’ve ever came to keeping track to what I read in a year. Next year, I’m afraid, the list will be significantly shorter – I always vowed I wouldn’t be THAT MOM who never read, but holy crap, it’s hard to read with a newborn who constantly needs your attention, and when he doesn’t, you’re so sleep-deprived you can’t focus on anything (or there’s something else you need to do.) That said, my MIL gave me a Nook for Christmas, and I’ve found I can sneak a few minutes of reading in during night feedings (when I’m not playing Sudoku or checking my email…) Though paper books will always be my first love, e-books may be my saving grace as a reader and a mom.

Goals for next year:

• Be the best mom possible to Damien :) (and the best wife possible to Dan, too!) (and pet-parent to my furkids) (you get the idea)
• Become more self-sufficient – even in a crappy economy, you can only live with your parents for so long…
• Find a job of some sort, to help with the whole self-sufficiency thing
• Take a few classes, so I can 1) finish my degree (FINALLY) and 2) not have to pay back my student loans!)
• Experience as many new, fun things as possible!

 

songs from the skating rink, 1997-1998

photo via Google, although I probably would have worn that...

Every time the Farmer’s commercial with “Another Night, Another Dream” comes on I a, laugh (because come on, that guy in the passenger’s seat? He’s awesome!) and b, have flashbacks of my skating rink days.

I don’t know if it was just a ‘thing’ in my town, or if it was a regular ’90s phenomenon, but when I was in sixth grade my friends and I spent nearly every weekend at the roller skating rink. This particular skating rink included an arcade, a snack bar/tiny store, a hangout area, and of course the rink itself. To even get in the building you had to buy a ticket for five hours or so, so it was a relatively safe place for our parents to leave us as preteens (versus the mall or movie theatre, for instance, where anyone could come or go any time.)

Each weekend we picked out our outfits with precision and packed up our inline skates (though typical four-wheel skates were available for rental, none of us were very good at them, so inline it was.) We spent our allowances on greasy food and cheesy ’90s memorabilia (glow-in-the-dark alien keychains come to mind!) and fed quarters into the air hockey table. We skated to all our favorite songs, gossiped about all the cute boys, then giggled on the benches or in the snack bar during couple’s skate – no one actually was brave enough to ask a boy, and in our tight-knit little giggly group, no boy was going to come near! (That may have been the point, actually, since we liked the idea of boys a lot more than an actual, specific boy.)

The songs our skating rink played were probably pretty similar to what clubs were playing to the ten-years-older crowd (except for the ubiquitous Chicken Dance, which was [and ugh, dare I say is?] more popular with the drunk wedding crowd.) We hid out during couples dance songs “I Believe I Can Fly” (not exactly romantic, but slow!) and “Truly Madly Deeply“, and despite the fact that they were annoying, learned every word to “Tubthumping” and “Barbie Girl“. Then there’s the long list of dance/pop hits: the beforementioned “Another Night Another Dream“, “Men in Black” theme (also the “Wild Wild West” theme; apparently they were Will Smith fans), “Bitch” (which was especially fun because, you know, it said ‘bitch’), “When the Lights Go Out“, “Wannabe“, “Fly“, “I Want You“, “Show Me Love“, “Everybody” (seeing this music video 14 years later, it’s actually kind of awesome!), “Ray of Light“, “Crush“, “Cruel Summer“… Wow, I could go on for awhile. :)

And if you actually followed one or more of those links, I apologize for the earworms… That was the joy of the ’90s! I wonder what my preteen kids will do for fun… and what music I’ll be stuck listening to? :P

videos! for you!

1. I’ve seen this song live, and I have to say, this parrot gives Drowning Pool a run for their money!
2. Ladybug, why are you pushing around those sprinkles? You haven’t even tried out for soccer.
3. Finally, in the Christmas spirit – a terrier Making Christmas. (All my terrier can do is Destroy Christmas And Then Take A Nap On It.)

uproar

(I’ve been working on this for a few days, and WordPress keeps crapping out on me, so I’m crossing my fingers I’ll actually finish it today. We shall see…)

This week was utterly crazy: on Tuesday, I subbed for my mom’s P.E. classes (a first for me and something I’m not exactly a natural at, although I did end up enjoying it), on Wednesday Dan and I went to the Uproar festival, and Thursday and Friday I subbed junior high all day (exhausted from the concert, no less, but I made it through! And even had a bit of fun while doing it.)

So, Uproar Fest:

As it turns out, we left earlier and less prepared than we meant to, meaning we arrived at Sleep Train Amphitheatre in Wheatland (formerly known as Marysville) super early and without food. Oops. We decided to try to make it through the day on extremely large cups of soda (and succeeded!) and wandered around the festival grounds until the main stage opened. I was fascinated to discover that I was ten times more comfortable being around the fest-goers than walking through my local shopping mall, despite the fact I am not gorgeous/stylish/perfect-looking/what-have-you, and that was a happy feeling. Anyway, we hung out in the grass with our soda until our field seating opened, and then we planted ourselves for the evening.

This was our one successful photo of the day... Thanks, Crappy Cell Phone Camera!

First concert: Halestorm. First of all, I was BLOWN AWAY by Lzzy’s pipes – holy crap, that girl can sing. I first heard of Halestorm when I bought my Uproar tickets, but I’m always excited to discover new female-fronted bands, and I immediately iTuned their album. Still, I often like bands better in concert, and Halestorm certainly qualified – plus, I could sing along with most of the songs. =)

Photos from the Halestorm website:

Lzzy! - from www.halestormrocks.com

The band - from www.halestormrocks.com

Next was Stone Sour. I was excited to see them if only for Corey Taylor, but they put on a really good show. I only knew three of their songs, but hey, those songs were a lot of fun (I still love “Say You’ll Haunt Me“, despite the fact it’s played on the radio every five minutes) and I’ll definitely check out their new album, because the rest of their songs were good too.

I can't find any concert photos, so here's the sun going down over the hill. Pretty!

Avenged Sevenfold came next, after a long wait as their ridiculously complicated set was assembled. It was impressive, though – there were fireworks, (constant) pyrotechnics, and even a hanged man (a real live man, although he was tethered as well as hanged.) (Interestingly enough, the hanged guy appeared during the song “Nightmare” along with LOTS of fire – two of my phobias. That IS my fucking nightmare!) (Here’s a video of “Nightmare” at Uproar. It was pretty much like this.)

FIRE! (from www.avengedsevenfold.com)

Alas, they only did one song from City of Evil (“Beast and the Harlot“), which is the only album I own by them… (that said, I’ll probably get all of them at some point, but I’ve been poor and there’s been lots of new albums out lately.) We did see them in 2005 at Ozzfest, so I guess that was our chance to hear their early stuff. =P And the rest of the concert was good too – loved “Almost Easy“, loved the tribute for the Rev, and loved the amazing show they put on.

Tribute, minus the thousands of lighters/cell phones in the audience (from www.avengedsevenfold.com)

And finally, best of all – Disturbed!

This isn't a concert photo. It's David Draiman, with a dog. CUTE! (from www.disturbed1.com)

Since Disturbed is one of my top three favorite bands, it’s no surprise that this was my favorite concert. Their set was simply genius – they managed to pack in just about Every Single Ever, which is no small feat considering how many they have. Sadly, there was one exception: Remember, my favorite. But they did play Prayer, and best of all, they did a medley of singles from first album The Sickness (not including “Stupify” and “Down with the Sickness“, which they did in full.)

My cell phone can't take photos at night, obviously... But this was roughly our view of the stage.

And, they were AMAZING throughout. In addition to the great songlist, they had  I’ve only seen Disturbed once before (again at Ozzfest ’05) and that first concert placed them in my Top 3 Bands. This concert only cemented the position further… and yes, I’d love to see them again! :D

After the concert…

Nothing like a 2am roadblock!

The ride home was pretty much a blur, but it involved cold Del Taco burritos, ramen and candy from a 7-11, fast food bathrooms, and of course the above roadblock. And then I had to get up the next morning, with a hoarse voice (from screaming), a raw throat (from smoke), a sore neck (from headbanging), bruised toes (from standing on a hill) and a constant ringing in my ears (that one’s self-explanatory), and teach a bunch of unruly junior high students.

And… that was fun too. (Not nearly as fun as the concert, but hey, I got paid for that one.)