2012: A Year in Review

I woke up to this final day of 2012 with snow falling outside. Though it was not a white Christmas, it looks like it is DEFINITELY going to be a white New Year. I hope the snow doesn't impact our fireworks plan for this evening!

The Year in Review posts are among my favorite (2011) for they provide me with the opportunity to reflect back on the past year, remember the highlights, and embark on the new year with aspirations, resolutions, and hope that the new year will exceed the one before. Onward and upward!

2012: A Year in Review

• Embarked on a two-week adventure to Thailand with my sister in January.
• A visit from one of my best friends, Kari, in March.
• My first trip to Phoenix, Arizona for a work conference in March.
• Spending Easter in Lexington, Kentucky with two of my best friends from college, Ash and J.
• I started the INSANITY program in May (completed in July!)
• Celebrated Memorial Day weekend in Deep Creek Lake Maryland with the McDutton wedding party.
• Traveled to Memphis in early June for Melissa's wedding.
• LeaderShape National Session in Lake Tahoe, California in June.
• The blog turned 4, I celebrated two years in St. Louis, and had one of the best summers of my life (Rock Climbing, Wig Stomp, Memphis the musical, Cardinals games, the Muny, Budweiser Made in STL Party, Wednesday DC crew, STL PRIDE, weekends at the pool, and many, many, MANY happy hours and nights on patios).
• I channeled my inner Pinterest and made a headboard out of a door with Kelly.
• Celebrated my 30th birthday with my closest friends in the city at Taste.
• McDutton Wedding in Pennsylvania in September.
• A trip home to NOLA in September to visit the family.
• The Odd Quad formed.
• Football saturdays in the fall at Club Drexel.
• Conquered the Warrior Dash with Danielle at the end of September.
• The Rusty Kickers went 0-1000 in kickball at Tower Grove Park.
• ATL PRIDE (and a grad school reunion) in October.
• Presented at the Residential Curriculum Institute Conference in St. Louis in October.
• Traveled to the waterpark capital in the nation, the Wisconsin Dells, for a work conference in November.
• Maized and Cornfused set out to have a better record with cornhole than we did with kickball. 
• A NOLA Thanksgiving.
• Won two ugly Christmas sweater competitions with my Christmas tree outfit!
• Accepted a new job at Tulane beginning in February.
• A NOLA Christmas and Pickert family reunion on the beach.

Sprinkled throughout the year, I made several trips to interview across the south in late spring and early summer seeking out my next career adventure. I am a firm believer that things happen the way they are supposed to so even though the opportunities did not work out/were not the right fit in Alabama, Memphis, Chapel Hill, and Winston-Salem, I was thrilled to accept a new position down in New Orleans at Tulane right before Christmas. 

So I will begin 2013 by ending this chapter in St. Louis and beginning a new journey in NOLA. I look forward to seeing what 2013 will bring and am excited to celebrate the final hours of the year this evening and ring in the new one with good friends! And hoping the snow does not impact things...

Happy New Year! Cheers.