2011-ish in Review
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Starting 2012 by, what else, looking backwards. Lots of bloggers do a Year in Review post, and I'm no different, except for one thing. My 2011 will start in Dec. 2010, because that's when I took the fork in the blogging road that led me to where I am today. (Thankfully!)
Towards the end of 2010, while home recovering from my kidney transplant, I discovered Reverb10, which was a daily posting project for December of that year. It was through Reverb-ing that I first made “Twitter friends,” and it motivated me to write in a way that I hadn't felt since high school English class.
On January 7, 2011, I contemplated what it means to be a “blogger” as opposed to a “person with a blog,” and I think I can safely say I've crossed over. I set a goal to become more involved in the blogging and Twitter communities, and there's a VERY good chance that you're here reading this because of one of those two things! Now that I've been to Blogher, of course, I totally understand what happens at those conferences! How you can change in a year, huh?
I posted a list of seven things I find myself saying on a regular basis, when I was doing Saturday Seven for a while in February. Reviewing the list now, almost a year later, it's pretty much the same, except that I can replace “Use your words” with “Can I have five minutes of quiet please, kiddo?”
I discovered the Red Dress Club in March, and jumped into creative non-fiction with their prompt about a time I had forgiven someone. (TRDC is now Write on Edge)
April is mostly about Max and celebrating the amazing kid he is, so we celebrated his 3rd birthday with an awesome animal-themed party at the zoo.
I joined in with Vlogtalk in May, and one of my earliest videos was the story of my and Jamie's proposal, on Christmas Eve 2005. (And then you can see how far my video skills have come, thanks to my dad, if you take a look at my intro video from this fall!)
I reflected on the passage of time and the little moments I'll mess, in this “Last bite, Mommy?” post from June. I hadn't even realize that he has stopped asking for help until just the other day, when he needed me to help him with the last bits of Jello, which stick more than other things. Another baby milestone gone by…
In July, I had a dream come true, when it was possible for me to go to Blogher12 in San Diego… over the course of 2 weeks, I went from this to this, and ended up having a fabulous time!
I came home from Blogher in August with an entirely new blogging fire lit under my butt. I met up with an incredible group of local bloggers, who I am now honored to count among my dearest friends. My Blogher review post sums it up, but doesn't encompass the whole experience. Not by a longshot.
One of my favorite posts from September was this response to one of Mama Kat's writing prompts. I would love to revisit this in the future and see how it changes!
The big event of October was my move from Blogspot to WordPress, but this breakup letter to Klout also got a lot of hits and even though we've since reconciled (I have topics AND have gotten some pretty killer Perks) I enjoyed writing this post.
We spent an amazing Thanksgiving out in the country with Jamie's dad and stepmom (Max's Grandpa and Bubba) and we always love the time we get to spend with them.
I didn't do a lot of writing in December; life gets crazy around here, but I did start what I hope will be an ongoing series of photography-related posts.
So there it is, 2011 i a nutshell! Here's to 2012 and all the adventures that are sure to come!
Glad I met you in 2011 and look forward to lots more laughs in 2012. And maybe some more dancing. : )
So glad to have met you. You are a phenomenal person (and your kid is ADORABLE). It’s been a fantastic year!
I hope that BlogHer fire keeps getting stoked! What a rush that was. It was so good to look up to you there, even though I’m no shorty myself ๐
That is an awesome post. I was just wondering where you were when I was on twitter last night! Funny how a little thing like twitter can make such a big unexpected difference in our lives, eh?
And, KIDNEY TRANSPLANT? We must talk. I sense a podcast in your future.