2012: My year

It was the year…

I completed a year of blogging in January.

M and I broke up… and it was the saddest and strangest time. Nothing seemed right. I had thought we were the problem. We weren’t. After about 2 months apart, we found our way back. We went on a date on Good Friday, in April. Our own Good Friday Agreement, my Mum called it. The relief and gratefulness was overwhelming. I woke up on Easter Saturday with a smile. That hadn’t happened in a long time.

My 23rd birthday passed without much ado. I’m still not really used to being 23! Must be grown up if I didn’t want a party or too much attention.

Lots of lovely Josh Ritter things. He continues to follow me on twitter, with 87 other people. In June, M and I went to Dublin to Josh’s book signing and hung around to meet him. Josh was lovely as usual and recognised me from twitter and before. Just so happy. Best day 🙂 I’m just honoured to be his fan. What a wonderful guy.

I graduated from Queen’s University Belfast with a 2:1 in English (Major) and Philosophy (Minor). The final year was hard for me, with lots of personal stuff going on. Am proud of my achievement and still hoping that my degree will help me in my quest to work with words. Three years in Belfast seemed to pass in a flash. I was happiest with my living arrangements in the final year, lovely flat on University Avenue. Bitter sweet: Proud and happy to graduate but am still missing the small things about being in Belfast. Friends, lectures (I didn’t have many in final year, just awful seminars. I LOVED listening to someone intelligently speak of books for an hour at a time.) and oddly, Common Grounds on University Avenue. It seemed that just as IO got into the swing of Belfast life it was taken away.

M moved into Fort Will.I.Am, giving us some space and peace. I don’t live with him but I have somewhere to escape to whenever I want.

I saw Foo Fighters at T Vital in Belfast. It had a festival feel and it was a brilliant show, despite comical drowned-rats episode as we queued in a thunder-storm.

I continued work with the job I have been in throughout university. I appreciate the work. I like my colleagues. I yearn for more.

I took up Zumba and Yoga within a week of each other  They lasted longer that I expected them to… but yet not that long. I did enjoy them… but weird nervousness did rear its head, and exercise is not a strong point for me. I know it’s importance though, and am unhappy with my body as it is so will have to rethink my strategy.

Had a very lovely visit and a lemon cake from my best Belfast friends in October. Hope to have many more visits and meet ups, and to stay in touch via my favourite form of communication: snail mail in between times.

We sadly lost Maria, M’s grandmother in November. Christmas was a hard time for everyone in her absence. We will keep her light shining.

Two little bundles of kitten came to live in Fort Will.I.Am. They are Buttons and Brave and we have been making gradual headway with them. Very shy little things. I like them a lot.

Christmas was special, I always love Christmas. I felt a bit like George Bailey and really appreciated what I have. On Christmas Day I’m always at a loss at what to do. M and I ended up watching the traditional screening of It’s a Wonderful Life in my overcrowded living room, with my parents and sisters. I could tell there was many other things he would rather be doing and he wasn’t too impressed with the old black and white film, but it meant a lot that he would sit with us. And it did me good to see the old feel good movie.  I loved this blog post entitled ‘Clarence’ by Lou Morgan.

I will hush now to muster my hopes for 2013 and savour the last hours of 2012. Thank you for reading and commenting in 2012, I’m going to try to be more efficient and organised and present next year for you all.