2011 in a Nutshell...

So, today's my last day to come up with something entirely brilliant to do as my yearly challenge instead of blogging. BUT, I think blogging will actually be good for me in a sick and twisted way. I woke up this morning with a splitting headache. It was the first amazing night's sleep in months--I think I have a sleep hangover. I may have to go back to bed to cure it. I came downstairs having forgotten that my house is a disaster zone.

The nice thing about living alone is that everything is where you left it. The crappy thing about living alone is that everything is where you left it. On the days I do my infusions (happens to be yesterday) I tend to be like a tornado whipping around my own house leaving a trail of stuff everywhere I go. Shoes? On the bathroom floor downstairs--they've never been there before, so why not? DVD's? Strewn all over the coffee table. Did I watch a DVD downstairs? Surely did not... bag of chips, all of the remotes, and a container of candy on my couch. All of my infusion supplies? Out on the table. 2 dirty bowls and a plate on my counter--God forbid I get them INTO the dishwasher. Oh, and there are also the 2 boxes the dishwasher repairman left on my kitchen floor next to the measuring cup I dropped on the middle of the kitchen floor. Then, there's the blanket I left out and the sweatshirt and jacket on the floor. I HATE infusion days. I walk around one handed and then I'm too tired. Well, now today I have a headache. So, if I go upstairs can I pretend it's not there? 

I'm praying that somehow through my FML blog I'll discover that things could be much worse (kind of ironic). So, to borrow from a friend, here's my recap of 2011:

January
Broken car, whole apartment reeks of gas, found out I was having surgery in March, got a cold, friend lost her baby, was told my haircut was terrible and was asked to "put it back" by a student... and this was all by January 19th. 
But, I also got to see Wicked and the King's Speech.

February
Massive amounts of snow--to the point where life stood still. It was hauntingly beautiful. Got sick, slept on ice packs while having no heat in my apartment so I didn't get stuck with my awesome back, got my surgery moved up a week, and spent all my money... BUT I got to see Les Miserables and went out with friends several times!

March
Lost power for hours on end during the middle of a Blu Ray update. Had my labral tear repair surgery. Found out that I have some kick butt friends who took me to physical therapy and made me some yummy meals!


April
Tornado in my hometown, but everyone was safe, lots of homes destroyed, landlords decided that they would like to sell their house (aka get your ass out asap). So, hobble out on crutches house hunting, I went. Found a house I loved, but they accepted another offer. Then, I found a house bigger than the first one and in a better location. Yippee!


May
Found out that "my" baby was moving to Maryland, bought dressers, appliances, window treatments, and lots of decorations for the new house. Got my closing date for my house!


June
Closed on my house, appliances delivered, although washer was broken. Water heater was broken, so needed a new one. New one leaked through freshly painted ceiling. Movers never showed up...TWICE...moved everything ourselves.  Got a sinus infection. But, I officially bought a house and it was all mine!


July
Started my Scentsy obsession, went to Madison with a friend for 4th of July, hosted my first family party, had a horrific storm that left us without power for 2 days, went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, had some K-Town friends come to play. All in all, a pretty good month!

August
Saw Sarah's Key, got horrible food poisoning, saw The Help, had a dog eat my inhaler and birth control pills, visited my friend Keri and won 100 bucks playing bingo, started getting sick again (being back in school does that to a person), and melted a spoon in my dishwasher.

September
Horrible cough, went to renaissance faire, got new bedroom windows, started round 3 of antibiotics and prednisone, found out it was pneumonia partway to my parents' and had to get a CT scan. Figures.

October
Found out that I have hypogammaglobulinemia--aka my immune system is NOT functioning whatsoever. I then spent the next several weeks waiting for my insurance company (supposedly one of the best in the nation) to decide whether they were going to cover the medications for it or not). Geared up to make my first whole chicken. It was amazing. Had to call the cops on my neighbors for continually parking in my driveway. Hasn't happened since, so I'm happy with my decision.

November:
Had a former student spend the night at my house--it was hysterical! Decorated my house for Christmas, started my infusions, saw Breaking Dawn Pt 1, and joined Scentsy. I also bought a new tv, but got it home and screwed on the base only to turn it on have a bunch of pixels out. November was a pretty amazing month!

December
Was introduced to my neighbor's stereo at 3 am, St. Nick visited my house, baked cookies with friends, went to a late night movie spontaneously, experienced my first Reddit gift exchange, is loving my new Scentsy sisters, and had an amazing Christmas. 

All in all, a pretty crappy beginning of the year... but, the end was pretty great!

Decision to Blog

So, I'm on the phone with a friend and tell her I'm thinking of writing a blog as my New Year's Resolution. Here's the gist of the conversation:
Me: I've been having a hard time coming up with ideas for my resolution for next year and seeing as it's two days away, I better get on it.

Friend: Eh, no one sticks to them anyway.

Me: Well, I have the last two years. In fact, I exceeded them (keep in mind, I don't need to stop smoking, I refuse to do a weight loss challenge, and I'm not hokey?? enough to be all, "let's do one good deed per day or volunteer at X, Y, Z... just not my style. I do my good deeds as they pop up so they're not contrived--I'm not out looking to be rewarded for my awesomeness. I read a book a week last year and this year I watched a movie per day. Both were pretty cool challenges. I call them challenges because they were hard to do, but they were still fun. Nothing required resolving.)

Friend: So, what are your options?

Me: Well, I thought about doing something cooking related, ___ suggested I do a combination book/movie challenge, or there's a blog.

Friend: I like the cooking so I can get free meals out of it.

Me: True, but I cook anyway. I am leaning towards the blogging because it's pretty far out of my comfort zone. I haven't written anything in ages and I never share it with anyone.

Friend. What would you call it?

Me: Fuck My Life... or FML.

Friend: (laughs hysterically). That's perfect for you. Everyone would read that and be grateful it's not them... and all of the stories would be true!

So, here you have this blog. No guarantees on the quality or length or even how well I will stick to it. But, here's the promise of me trying... SO, here goes nothing.

Thank your lucky stars your life is not like this...

Have you ever met a person and you've been like nothing can possibly get worse than THAT? Well, that's my life in a nutshell. Try being trapped in your apartment because your landlord forgot to get the right bulb for your stairway and didn't have the right ladder so rigged TWO...

Health? What's that. Job? I paid $140,000 for my college degree and I'm doing something I could have done with a high school diploma. Yep, sounds about right. Finally get into a rhythm with bills and the landlord says they're selling their mold-filled house and I've got to move out. The only thing that was going right was my low rent and now I have to move.

So, I find a foreclosed house to buy (because it's cheaper than renting) and nothing goes right there (story for another post). Car? I have yet to find one that isn't a pile of crap. I spend more of my time at car repair shops, waiting for appliance repairmen, and doctor's offices in a week than most people do in a year (and I'm not even CLOSE to kidding). FML.

Hours this week at doctors' offices: 6
Hours this week waiting for repairmen:5 and he's still not here... (keep in mind, this is the 6th time this dishwasher has been repaired. God forbid they just bring a new one since the dishwasher is 6 months old and stopped dispensing soap after week 2).