2011 in Retrospect

There are only a few hours left of December 31st, so it’s about time I write my recap of 2011. I don’t know why, but by now I seem to have read more personal recaps about a crappy 2011 than about a happy 2011. And mine will be right along the crappy 2011 year line. Well, not all of it was bad, but all in all I’m glad that year is done, because 2012 can only get better. (Yes, I know, it could also get worse, of course, but I’d like to consider the glass half full this time).

My 2011 started with an MS attack, an MRI that revealed that my MS is progressing much more than my symptoms show and the difficult decision about changing therapy. When I finally made up my mind about the new therapy and started it, I had another MS attack in June. From that month on the MS kept silent and I don’t have any side effects from the new meds (still worry about the risks every once in a while, but I guess I’ll always do that). But basically the first six months of 2011 were defined by this disease and all the scary, worrying, annoying aspects of it. There were some pretty dark times and that’s my main reason to rejoice that 2011 is coming to an end today.

There also seemed to have been too many other health issues, that were giving me trouble in 2011. Bronchitis, stiff necks and not to forget the severe bursitis in my shoulder, which had already screwed up christmas holiday and New Year’s Eve in 2010. I started 2011 with a major healh problem and in a lot of pain. Maybe that should have been an omen to me. But I’m glad it wasn’t, because I have no idea how I would have gotten through it, if I had known what was about to happen to me in the first half of 2011.

I believe all this really serious MS health problems were part of my emotional health problems in 2011. The whole “feeling out of the loop” but also feeling stressed and overwhelmed thing that bothered me for most of the summer. Worries, anxiety, feeling bad about myself in general and so forth. I started to take some action to overcome all of this crap in the fall, when I took a course of “Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction”. I realized that this really does help me and even though I was slacking a bit in November/Dezember, I’m determined to get back to some kind of routine in that regard: yoga, meditation, just being more present in the moment… Right now I’m rather confident that I’ll even manage to do it.

All of this also was the reason that I wasn’t blogging as much as I used to. I tried various projects to get more content up here, but I failed dismally at all of them (project365, NaBloPoMo…). I’ll try to do better in 2012, but I know myself well enough to not promise anything. Noteworthy regarding this blog was the move to a self hosting platform in September of course. I still like it here, especially with the very new recent changes in the design.

But of course a few good things happened as well in 2011. I went on three wonderful vacations: Hockey World Championship in Bratislava in May, a few days of cycling in the Lower Rhine region in July and a few days on my favourite island, Norderney in September. At the end of the year I spent most of my bonus payments from work on nice things like a Fatboy (beanbag) and a Kindle. Sometimes retail therapy is a great idea to be cheered up :-) All in the spirit of feeling better, which is my mantra for 2012 anyway.

Entertainment-wise the year has been ok. I didn’t read as much as I used to and I didn’t go to the movies as much as I used to (or maybe I just didn’t remember some of the movies *g*).

I’ve read 25 books (plus AriaAdagio’s fanfictions “Lightning Strikes Twice” and “All Along The Watchtower”, both much longer than any ordinary novel). Favourite books (besides AriaAdagio’s work *g*) in 2011:

  • Robert Enke – Ein allzu kurzes Leben (Ronald Reng)
  • One of our Thursdays is Missing (Jasper Fforde)
  • The Wilderness series (Sara Donati)

Favourite movies this year were

  • The King’s Speech
  • Crazy Stupid Love
  • Real Steel

By the end of the year I decided to watch less TV and to at least not start watching another new (or old) show. So far I’ve been rather successful :-) Grey’s Anatomy did suprise with season 8, because it didn’t suck as much as I feared it would. It was entertaining enough. But favourite 3 (new) TV series are :

  • Parenthood
  • The Good Wife
  • Rookie Blue

2011 was an exciting year music/concert wise. I’ve been to a few very awesome Sunrise Avenue concerts and this band definitely is my favourite (live) band at the moment. I’ve also been to the Take That Progress Tour and that was an amazing experience as well, because it was my first ever shows of this scale. Huge and impressive. I’ve also discovered the wonderful music of Kendall Payne, who unfortunately has been off the radar since mid-2010, it seems. I hope everything’s well with her. I also re-discovered the wonderful music of Simon & Garfunkel and it can’t be a coincidence that the German public TV station 3sat is showing their 1981 concert in Central Park right this moment, when I’m typing up the last lines of this post :-)

Have a happy, healthy and wonderful 2012 everyone!

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2 Responses to 2011 in Retrospect

  1. JustHeather says:

    Thinking of a positive and stressfree 2012 for you! The year past did seem to have it’s ups and downs (although, I suspect all years are like that), but like you, I’m glad it’s over. I’m ready to see something different.

  2. Hope says:

    Here’s to a healthy and happy 2012!

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