2011 Year in Review

It’s 2012. So that means it’s the end of the world as we know it. And I feel fine.

Oh, c’mon. Like y’all haven’t said that at least once to yourselves since 2012 began.

Cheesy and incorrect associations with the Mayan calendar aside (and I must scoff a bit at TNT, playing Deep Impact on New Year’s Eve), it’s time for Sonnet 87’s 2011 Year in Review (hey, better late than never, right?). And what a year it was.

Kinda. Well, let’s see:

January 2011: Looking back at the blog posts for 2011, I’m surprised that my heavy discontent with my old job began so early in the year. With the news that the consultant/crony hire was going to be taking on writing tasks that I was absolutely tailored for, I’m floored. Utterly floored and somewhat heartbroken to think that my former company valued me so little. It was something of a blow because—and here’s why I’m surprised at the timeframe looking back—the change was truly abrupt. Now that I think about it, it coincided with the ascension of the crony’s friend who got her the job. And that coincided with me distancing myself from a coworker who kind of had a “Married Mexican Female” fixation on me. In abandoning her to her own devices (and essentially allying myself with everyone else who’d realized she was crazy and manipulative—yes, I was slow on the uptake), she realized she was on her own and decided to essentially go rogue. And that meant screwing everyone else over. Bad part? It worked with the VP and that, in the end, was all that mattered. How a company can be skewed eleventy billion to two and still have the two come out on top is mind boggling. But there it is. For fun, IP and I visit Mathgeek in Boston (and it is frickin’ cold!), enjoying some time with him while he works through his independent activity period. We also traveled to New York City—I got to see my first Broadway show (Wicked). The end of the month was spent in a cold-induced stupor thanks to PEPCO’s inability to keep the power on.

February 2011: I celebrate five years in the city, getting my only DC Blogs mention of the year out of it (which doesn’t surprise me—at this point, DC Blogs is so predictable that I can tell you which blogger will be cited which day of the week, so I’ve stopped reading). I post a bunch of book reviews that month as my reading gears up for another page-heavy year. I begin training for the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run, and reassure myself that starting over from scratch, running-wise, isn’t the worst thing in the world. There are rumblings of a shutdown, and I’m so unhappy at work that I hope for it to happen.

March 2011: My work discontent continues, so much so that I take a mental health day. But I’m so stressed by the situation that my stomach starts to act up, big time—I’m in constant pain, am perpetually worried, and (TMI) forever running to the restroom. It’s worse during morning commutes, but I still feel sick during my evening rides, too. I try not to let it bother me, but it starts to hamper my everyday life and my race training. I just can’t get rid of my anxiety, but at the time I don’t make the connection to work. My parents visit and my mom encourages me to apply to a particular, venerable institution, saying they’d love me (well …). Funny enough, said venerable institution has a job opening that’s up my alley, posted the week after my mom makes the suggestion that I go work there. I apply. What the hell, right? IP and I celebrate nine years together.

April 2011: What the hell is right. I’m given a phone interview with venerable institution shortly after I apply for the job. I think I do okay—I flub one question, but otherwise I think I do fine. I’m proved right when I get a callback for a full interview. As government shutdown rumblings continue, I nobly sacrifice my need for time away by detailing what I’ll do if we go into shutdown mode. As predicted, my noble sacrifice is accepted and the government continues to run. I run a successful Cherry Blossom 10 Mile race, shaving seven goddamn minutes off of my last time—seven minutes, y’all! Let’s hope this year sees something similar. I join IP in volunteering for a new project that he’s working on and end up meeting a lot of great people. Over the year, I’ll become more involved with the project and enjoy the work I’m doing. Dear lord, if we both could do this full time …

May 2011: I have my interview, which I feel goes well. Aside from interviewing with my would-be boss, I don’t interact with other members of my would-be team. That unnerves me just a bit, but I decide it’s all good and just resolve to put the interview out of my mind because after it comes … Cancún! IP and I enjoy our favorite resort once again, basking in the glowing warm glow of the Caribbean sun and loving every minute of it. I turn 33 and get to see Paul Simon perform on my birthday proper—an awesome gift if there ever was one. An even bigger gift: the weekend before my birthday, I’m told that I’ve been offered the job at venerable institution. I’m so happy that I break down crying at Rosslyn Metro.

June 2011: And then June arrived. June was incredibly angst-y for me; while my interview process went quickly, my offer process dragged. I provided all the information that I could, but I could not get the HR person assigned to me to budge on getting me an offer letter. What made this worse was that I had a work trip planned for July—I needed to bow out as soon as possible. Halfway through the month, the offer finally arrived. It was actually a tough decision—do I leave the work friends that I know, abandon a work trip that I enjoy, to go work for an org that had a hard time putting together an offer letter for me? Is that just a fluke of HR? What kind of a situation would I be walking into? It’s the type of job I want to do, but what will it be like? And what kind of ties would I be possibly rending by walking away from the work trip? My worry about rending ties proved to be for naught—everyone was supremely happy for me and told me not to worry about the trip, that these things can’t be timed. Leaving my work friends at the end of the month was incredibly difficult. I was unhappy with the work, but I loved the majority of the people I worked with. They’re a wonderfully funny and caring group that kept me laughing even when everything was going to shit. But leave them I do on the last day of the month.

July 2011: Before starting my new gig, I have a week off to myself that I try to enjoy to the fullest. I get errands done, do some shopping, and try to psych myself up for the new position. I am geeked beyond all belief to finally have a job that’s up my alley and want it to go well. The month is spent adjusting to the new routine, the new commute, the new people, and the new environment.

August 2011: Again with the adjusting. IP and I manage to get away for a few days, but not for anything relaxing. We celebrate IP’s birthday and our second wedding anniversary in style by heading to one of our favorite restaurants. It’s a relatively quiet month as far as 2011 goes.

September 2011: Same for September. But IP and I do enjoy the offerings of the National Book Festival, expanded to two days for 2011. We hear Jennifer Egan, Sarah Vowell, and Sherman Alexie, among many wonderful others, speak. Making an event out of it, we stay downtown and have a nice dinner out and a lovely brunch before the second day begins. This is a D.C. event we truly, truly love.

October 2011: Another busy month. I have one entry for October 2011, and it’s a book review. I can’t even begin to remember what was going on that month. I kept busy with work, my volunteer work, and reading.

November 2011: Here we start to see a sudden shift. Things at work get a bit shaky—venerable institution is going through changes and it’s affecting my unit. I start to notice that my team hasn’t warmed up to me; the arrival of a new person, and her immediate acceptance, is a stark contrast to the stiffness I still feel from my coworkers. It alarms me since I usually get along well with coworkers—sure, I’ve snarked about work moms talking too much about their kids, but at least they seemed to enjoy talking to me. I start to feel unsure of my place and begin to worry. At home, IP and I are as strong as ever, though, and he proves to be an amazing shoulder to lean on once again.

December 2011: That sudden shift begins to feel very dramatic when I’m assigned the worst thing in the world at work: an event. With the changes, the introduction of events to our workload (though I’m hoping they’re not permanent), and my coworkers’ stiffness, I begin to doubt that I’ll ever truly feel comfortable at my new job. The work I was hired to do has to be shifted to others so I can deal with areas that I’m not fond of and left my old place to avoid. I fret to IP. I resolve to take things as they come (and pretend I have no clue about events) and try not to stress out too much (I am succeeding somewhat). I also begin to casually peruse my D.C. jobs feed (yeah, I know … kinda sad, isn’t it?). IP and I head to Michigan for the holidays and enjoy the company of my family. My family, as always, is sympathetic to my work plight. My mom, psychic as ever, tells me she suspected as much; both my parents tell me that, should I want to find a new job, I could chalk this up as a lesson learned and just proceed with my life. Alongside IP, their support is awesome. We’re showered with gifts, plied with good food and alcohol, and have a relaxing, great time. IP and I ended the year as we love to—in each other’s arms, wishing each other a great New Year and expressing our gratitude that we get to spend 2012 together.

On New Year’s Day, I woke up to IP turning to me and saying “I love my beautiful wife.” And that right there, having his love: in the end, that’s all that really matters as I go through this uncertain professional period.

So I begin 2012 with a bit of trepidation on the career front, but there are things to look forward to: another Cancún trip is upcoming and we’re both looking for better balance in our lives. We’ll be celebrating a decade together this year—who knew? But I’m so happy we’re here. I’m training for both the Rock ‘n Roll USA Half-Marathon and the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run (yes, got in again!). I’m going to try to do a better job of visiting my family in 2012. I’m also going to try to not make a ton of “end of the world” jokes. But no firm promises on that front.

Onward to 2012 we go!