2011 Year In Review

One of my photography professors once said that the only truly profound things in life are birth and death. If that's the case, 2011 was the most profound year I've had in quite some time.

Normally, I summarize things like what music I listened to (Daft Punk still steady from last year at #5, Stenobot barely missing my top ten), what restaurants I ate at, how my weight fluctuated, that sort of thing. This year will be just a little different. I still have some fun and frivolous stats to report, but some of them fell by the wayside over the course of the year, due to me focusing on more important things.

I started back on the Pill in the Fall of 2010, due to some female issues I was having. As promised, it regulated my cycle and lessened my cramps and fatigue. It also made my periods lighter, and by January, they seemed to have nearly disappeared altogether. In fact, it was so light for January and February that I started to worry that something was amiss, so I called my OBGYN.

Long story short, I was pregnant.

That kind of put the kibosh on a lot of my New Year's Resolutions and plans, whether because of physical limitations (like running x number of miles and x number of 5K races in 2011) or simple distraction (like taking photos with every one of the film cameras in my collection). Some of my resolutions didn't seem to matter as much anymore (like watching at least one movie I'd never seen before every month).

A lot of the things I'd decided to track in 2011 also fell by the wayside, like restaurant meals (fell behind in logging) and alcoholic beverages consumed (for obvious reasons). One serendipitous idea, though, was for me to track all of my doctor visits in 2011; I had no idea the list would become so epic when I tracked my first dental cleaning last January.

We took a daytrip out to Cleveland to hang out with Aaron's cousins in March. For literally years, we'd all been saying how we needed to get together and hang out; it figures that the first time is likely to be the last, thanks to parenthood. Ironically enough, even though we had all the cousins there, we couldn't tell them about my condition yet, since it was still early and we hadn't told anyone yet. So, I spent the entire day with my baby bump disguised and carefully unmentioned. (Which was hard.)

We'd already planned and purchased our annual vacation by the time we found out I was pregnant. Luckily, four to five months pregnant is the ideal time to go on a babymoon! So, we took a tropical vacation to Aruba in early May. I stuck with the fruity non-alcoholic beverages, while Aaron tried out the Balashi (Aruba's Beer) and other drinks at the all-inclusive. The food was delicious, the snorkeling fun, and the sunsets gorgeous.

 
 

Once summer hit, I was starting to look more obviously pregnant. We also started hitting garage sales to get stuff for Connor. We only went garage sale-ing six days out of the summer, but we hit 62 sales on those six days. (Much fewer than 62 were actually profitable, but I didn't track them in that much detail.) We scored mainly 3-6 month clothes, because we expected our son to be a big baby like his mommy was, but we made sure to buy a wide range of sizes, from one pair of preemie pants (which I picked up on accident) and a smattering of newborn clothes all the way up to an 18-month onesie and a 24-month aloha shirt.

My BFFs Sheryl and Amy planned an awesome baby shower for me at the end of August. We hit up Sakura Japanese Steakhouse for dinner, then opened presents at the Starbucks around the corner. Pretty much anything I didn't have by then, I got at the shower, like crib sheets and bibs and whatnot. I loved getting to connect with all my friends, some of whom I don't get to see very often, and most of whom I knew I wouldn't get to properly hang out with for a while after the baby was born.

 
 

The very next weekend, Connor was born. He was three weeks early, weighing 5 pounds 15 ounces, but he was healthy, despite being a long, skinny guy.

My eleven weeks of maternity leave went by in a rush of sleep deprivation and conflicting emotions. We had some visitors: Sheryl brought us dinner that first night home, Mark and Rocky loved to come see Connor on a regular basis, my Mom came to stay for a couple of weeks, and Aaron's Dad came to our house to meet Connor once. We also got to deal with some plumbing issues that became more expensive than we'd anticipated. For the most part, though, the span of time between Labor Day and Thanksgiving got sucked into a big black hole of babyness, documented for posterity on Twitter and Instagram.

Come to think of it, the span of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas kind of flew by, too. Same routine every day: Feed Connor, pump, get ready and go to work, work all day, come home, see Aaron off to work, feed Connor, feed myself, hang out with Connor, put Connor to bed, go to bed myself.

Then, the day before Christmas Eve, as I was getting ready to wrap things up at work and skip out just a little early, I got a phone call from Aaron: "You need to come home now."

Aaron's Dad had died.

There's not enough room in a simple year-end blog post to even gloss over the unexpected immensity, on so many levels. Suffice to say that 2012 will continue to be a year of change because of it — not that it wouldn't have already, with Connor in the picture now.

If I could boil 2011 down to one (hyphenated) word?

Life-changing.

2010 Year In Review

Last year, I thought I'd join the infographics revolution and show my Year In Review in all graphs and numbers and stats. As it turns out, that doesn't even work for me very well — it's difficult for me to really pin down what happened and when, with everything aggregated to such a degree.

This year, I'll be mixing text and graphics to spice things up. Hopefully it's a little more engaging than either alone.

It's also going to be a bit lengthy. You have been warned...

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2009 Year in Review

NOTES:

This presentation of annual data is highly influenced by the Feltron Annual Reports. Nicholas Felton is a master of infographics and data visualization, and I continue to be influenced by his work.

Percentage of Miles Walked in 2009 only includes data from 27 April 2009 forward, since that is the date on which my Omron HJ-720ITC Pocket Pedometer decided to un-lobotomize itself and synchronize to my computer again.

Dining Out in 2009 is missing some of September's and most of October's data, due to my ignorance of the fact that Weight Watchers Online only saves 60 days' worth of tracking data. I switched from pen-and-paper tracking to eTools tracking after 27 September 2009.

Top Ten Musical Artists of 2009 is derived from data at last.fm/user/dianaschnuth.

2008: Year In Review

It's become a New Year's tradition for me to write a retrospective of what has happened over the course of the past year, and I've found that I really enjoy going back and reading past years' reviews. They tend to encapsulate the important things, the high and low points, and some things that I would normally have forgotten by the end of the following year.

For quick reference, I have Years In Review from 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and now 2008.

Instead of going entirely chronologically this year, I'm going to group the major happenings by topics.

Hot topic #1 for 2008: Weight Loss. I started out the year with a weight-loss challenge against my friend and former co-worker, James. We both started out strong, but fell off the wagon after about a month and a half. In March, we spearheaded a new Spring Challenge, which lasted for another couple of months before we mutually decided to call it quits.

I didn't call it quits entirely, though. Shortly before we decided to end our Challenge, I joined Weight Watchers — on my 32nd birthday, in fact. Since then, I've lost about 20 pounds in eight months. Aaron's joined up, too, with the online program, and lost over 60 pounds in six months. We're both looking and feeling much better, and a "normal" and healthy weight is just within reach.

Hot topic #2, closely related to #1, was Health and Fitness. At the end of January, I tested for and earned my ranking of 6th kyu in Aikido. I'd been practicing for about six months at this point, and earning my rank felt like a major goal achieved.

Unfortunately, testing time closely corresponded with bronchitis time, and Aaron and I managed to infect much of the dojo on testing day. We both spent some time off of work, and I spent some time away from Aikido. This was just the beginning of the end of my Aikidoing; I went back to the dojo sporadically between February and May, then never made myself go back after our vacation.

Before I go off on a tangent about this year's vacation, let me wrap up the topic of fitness: Aaron and I made a habit of walking the University/Parks Trail together on the weekends during the summer, then started the six-week HundredPushups.com program in November.

OK, on to hot topic #3: Our Hawaii Vacation. This was the follow-up vacation to 2007's Japan vacation; we never thought we'd be able to afford either, but there we were, affording them. Granted, Japan was funded by credit cards and carefully-saved stash, and Hawaii was mainly funded by the unused severance pay from my previous job, but still.

Our Hawaii vacation was awesome for different reasons than our Japan vacation had been. We went snorkeling, parasailing, took multiple bus tours, ate Japanese food (thanks to the prevalence of Japanese culture and tourism in Hawaii), shopped, luaued, and learned to play the ukulele.

Also under the topic of travel is one bit of info that I failed to post to my blog, but Aaron posted to his: our trip to the World Crokinole Championship in Tavistock, Ontario. Aaron and I traveled with our friends Mark and Rocky up to rural Ontario, where we participated in the annual crokinole tournament. The good news? I won the early-bird drawing and received a free World Crokinole jacket. The bad news? Out of 136 entrants in the Adult Singles Division, I came in DEAD LAST.

Apart from these main topics, a few other events deserve an honorable mention. Concerts don't happen very often anymore, but we did get to see Matthew Sweet, MC Frontalot, and Avenue Q (more of a musical than a concert, but it still fits). We've also scaled back our anime convention attendance, but we hit Anime Punch (our favorite) in Columbus in April, and used our frequent flyer miles to head out to Providence for the first-ever 21-and-over anime con in October.

On a more egotistical note, I donated 13 inches of hair (again) in July and, not long after, bought my first pair of jeans at Buckle (a "real" clothing store, instead of a specialty store for plus sizes). I also celebrated my one year anniversary at my new job.

One other happening that can't be forgotten: in August, Aaron's grandmother passed away. She'd been suffering from Alzheimer's for several years, but hadn't been in poor health, so her passing was sudden and unexpected. We all got together to remember Grammie, and to honor her life, and I think that we all learned something new about her and about each other in the process.

If I had to pin one label on 2008, I'm not sure what it would be. This year wasn't the year of change that 2007 was, but it was, at the very least, another banner year for weight loss for myself and Aaron. We're hoping to keep that going through 2009, and to make the coming year a year of maintaining momentum.

2007: Year In Review

Well, it's that time again: time to look at the past year and check off the big and important things that happened in my life. Accomplishments, tragedies, travels, things like that.

Generally, it's easier to do these things in chronological order, and I'm not going to break with that policy this year. It means, though, that possibly one of the worst things that's ever happened to me gets to go first in the retrospective: my miscarriage. I was pretty vague about it at the time; I hadn't made any sort of announcement to my blog readership in general, since I was only ten weeks along.

The whole experience was just tragic all the way around — it was the one doctor's visit where I didn't bring Aaron along, because it was a last-minute "emergency" ultrasound; at the ultrasound, I got to see, in no uncertain terms, that my child was, in fact, no longer cute and sprightly and waving its appendages like it had been a week before; I had to break the news to Aaron when I got home; we both went to the hospital that evening so I could have the products of conception removed; I got put under general anesthesia for the first time since having my tonsils out as a kid; and Aaron just about got his heart shocked into his throat when the doctor came out of surgery to see him and was apologizing up and down, before she confirmed that I was actually fine.

I spent a couple of days being muscle-sore from the general anesthesia, and another couple weeks of being seriously depressed. Now, nearly a year later, I'm dealing with it much better. It's still tragic, but it's tragic in a slightly more distant sort of way. I think that several things in my life helped me deal with the loss, including having to work with pregnant people and getting into Zen Buddhism.

Shortly after our loss, Aaron and I found ourselves dining at Red Lobster, facing a decision. We now had a second chance to do all the stuff we wanted to do before we had a kid. Ultimately, we decided to go crazy and take a trip to Japan.

We spent six nights in Tokyo in May of 2007, and it was the most amazing vacation either of us had ever had. We're both enamored with Japanese culture, so being in the middle of it for a week was just awesome. We went on an all-day bus tour, shopped at various otaku meccas like Nakano Broadway and Akihabara, went to the Ghibli Museum, attended the Sanja Festival, stayed in a traditional Japanese inn (ryokan), took over 500 digital pictures, and used all the meager Japanese we knew.

In mid-June, I took an unexpectedly spontaneous leap and joined an aikido dojo. A few weeks later, I started sitting with the Toledo Zen Center, which happens to be led by my aikido sensei. Both practices have helped me to be more at peace with myself, and to get that mind-body-spirit connection that I was craving.

Meanwhile, I knew that I would be losing my job in September, when Sky Bank would be officially merged into Huntington. So, shortly after we returned from Japan, I started job hunting in earnest. I sent out dozens of resumes, got a few follow-ups, and landed interviews with two companies. Ultimately, I took a data warehousing job at HCR ManorCare in November. This job literally doubled my previous income, and got me further into the fields of information services and business intelligence.

Those were the banner events of 2007. Other things happened, of course: my one-time mentor, Tim King, passed away in February; I made a feeble and brief attempt to start the Body For Life diet after our Japan trip in May; my Uncle Donnie passed away in March, and I found out about it in August; I was outed as a non-Christian in the Toledo Blade in October; and I made my largest candle sale so far ($50) to my former supervisor in December.

In a word, 2007 was intense. More life-changing events happened in one year than I think I've ever experienced in such a short time. In the end, though, I've come out as a stronger and happier person for all of it.

2006: Year in Review

Yes, it's time once again to take a look back at the events and accomplishments that stand out over the past year, and to remind myself that I did, in fact, do something more than just coast over the past 12 months...

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2005: Year in Review

I've been kind of slack with posting blog entries this week. I just haven't been "feeling it," I guess. So, while I'm home from work on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and while Aaron is still upstairs asleep, I'm going to take this opportunity to blog about the major events of 2005.

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2004: Year In Review

This year has been one of a few large upgrades for myself and Aaron. Not a whole lot happened, but what did was pretty major.

In March, we bought our house. This necessitated a move from Bowling Green (where I worked at the time) to Toledo (much closer to where Aaron works).

In May, we adopted Mei. May was also our one-year wedding anniversary.

In June, I took a new job within Sky Bank, closer to home. In fact, it's practically across the street from where Aaron works. I didn't get a raise or anything, but working ten minutes from home instead of 35 was enough of an upgrade for me. That extra 20 minutes of Aaron-time made things so much better, as did the drastic reduction in petrol usage.

The summer of 2004 was the first time I'd performed with a drum & bugle corps since 1997, when I "aged out" of Junior corps. I joined up with the LakeShoremen Senior Drum & Bugle Corps, and drove my ass up to Michigan every other weekend to march in various parades. It had its good points and its bad points, but I still plan to march again in 2005.

On September 1st, I officially launched dianaschnuth.net, complete with Movable Type and CSS layout. September was also our one-year anniversary of being on Atkins.

Sometime in the Fall—September or October, I forget which—Mom and Gary bought a house and moved down to Fort Worth TX. Before they managed to actually close on the house, and while they were living with Gary's folks, Gary's German Shorthair Pointer, Joshua, died. The dog going didn't really affect me, but it really affected Gary, of course. Their moving affected me a bit, though, as it isn't quite as simple and straightforward to go and visit my family now.

Apart from that... I can't really think of any other life-shaping events that happened during 2004. No new cars (that was December 2002), no new kids (that's not until... well, whenever it happens), no deaths (that was 2003). I'm sure someone will remind me of something, though.