2005 - The Year in Review - Part One

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Ok, Pause. After some teasing from some of my old friends from college and high school (probably the only people who read this blog!), I’m finally bucking up and updating the poor thing. Sheesh! Alright already! BTW, I’m committing from here on out to blog approximately once a month – mark your calendars faithful friends. J

Ok, so back to 2005. I’m a little scared to write about it, because it was the most fun and most disappointing year of my life. Filled with lots of memories, beginnings, and endings. Apologies in advance for the some of the details – sometimes blogs are just as much to help you remember your life as it is to share it with others. Here goes, month by month:

January 2005: The year started out with a super-fun trip to Minneapolis with David Joyce, my steady boyfriend at the time. Fell in love with Minnesota and am still listening to my KQRS joke tapes and dreaming weird dreams about Denny Green. Eww! Mid-January, I unfortunately freaked out and broke up with Dave (way to start off the year, Les! keep reading….)

February 2005: As you can imagine, I suffered from severe sad-clown-face syndrome, which was only temporarily interrupted by an amazing family vacation to Aspen, CO to go skiing with my dad, and brothers Keith and Kevin. By the end of the trip, I was skiing diamond blacks (ok, so I only skied one, and it was on accident)! All time not spent skiing was spent in a hot tub, cooking (Kevin actually ate it, and LIKED it), or playing Texas Hold ‘Em. I also celebrated my 27th b-day.
March 2005: I spent this month going to see the doctor constantly for all kinds of weird stuff. Word to the wise: after reading “House of God” and going to my family practice doc one too many times, I realize that my doctor really doesn’t fully know what the heck is going on 75% of the time. Just when I thought I was turning into a hypo, I discovered my body was just really stressed out. It was definitely a Wayne’s World “mono” moment. :P Thankfully, no pics for this month.

April 2005: After long conversations and some fun and low-key “hangout” dates, including Swing Dancing at Borders books (for Houstonians, its every 1st Friday of the month, and SUPER fun) and an excursion to go look at the Texas wildflowers in Brenham, David and I were officially back in business and back together. At the end of the month, we drove to BR and spent a great weekend with my family celebrating the marriage of my cousin Shelly Pace to Mr. Charlie Leake. It was so fun to get to see the whole fam all dressed up. Congrats newlyweds!
May 2005: After a hysterical surprise “Jedi” 30th birthday party for Dave, I hooked another surprise and flew up to NYC to help the Joyce’s celebrate Daniel’s graduation from NYU. It was my first time to visit NYC, and it was a blast! We went to Central Park, to a broadway show, and to Little Italy, among many other adventures. Thanks, Dan! After we got back from NYC, a group of our BSF friends dressed up to attend the premier of Star Wars III: Revenge of the Ubernerds (Please note that I am NOT pregnant in these photos...it's a pillow, representing Luke and Leya :P). To round out the month, I got to join the Lancon’s and Pace’s (along with my mom) to celebrate my cousin Catherine’s graduation from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Congrats, Catherine!
June 2005: The Montana crew made the trek all the way to my stomping grounds in Louisiana for a trip to New Orleans, which has now been made even more memorable by the fact that New Orleans as we experienced it will probably never be the same again after Hurricane Katrina. We went to the D-Day Museum (excellent, BTW), the French Quarter, and to the Bourbon Street blues clubs (only for the purpose of making out in public, of course, JK), just to name a few. After New Orleans, I went back to BR for my roommate Denise’s wedding to Mr. Eric Schneider. Congrats guys! After that, the crew traveled up north for Montana 2005, another amazing and unforgettable adventure. After Montana, I barely had time to catch my breath when David packed up and moved back to Baltimore, MD to finish up his surgery residency on the 21st. It helped me truly appreciate the modern miracle of cell phones and nighttime minutes.
July - December coming up in the next post! Happy New Year to all!