2012 in Review

What a year, eh?

I don't know about you, but I'm normally a big advocate of the use of the number ranking system. And if I were to give this year a number from 1-10, I would give it a solid 6.

It was a good year. Not fabulous or mind-blowing by any means, but it was definitely good. Full of adventures, but also full of adjustments and changes. It was hard, but I learned a ton.

Rewinding to a year ago today, I was living back at home in the Chicago suburbs. This blog hadn't even been born yet, and I was trying to save up all my coin to make the move out to the East Coast to reunite with my beau.

That took a solid two months to accomplish, and on Februrary 13th 2012 (just in time for Valentine's Day) I made the move out to the Baltimore are.

I was blessed, so blessed to find a full-time job in just over a month's time.

Simultaneously I was training for the Boston  Marathon, which snuck up on me in mid-April. Andrew, Bri and my friend Meg traveled up the coast to the land of awesomely thick accents and Red Sox fans to watch me plod 26.2 through the beautiful city of Boston in 80-something degree weather.

It was definitely one of my all-time favorite memories. If you ever get the chance to run Boston, do it.

Summer came along shortly after and taught me the true definition of humidity. Holy. Cow. The summer was packed full of beach trips, bachlorette parties and country music.

August gave us a grand finale to my first Maryland summer with two epic events.

1. A week-long getaway to the Colorado mountains... followed by one of my very best friend's wedding in the best city in the world, Chicago.

2. A beach getaway to Deleware with a group of a few of our closest homies over Labor Day weekend.

Shortly after, Andrew and I traveled up to Philadelphia to both run in the Philly Half Marathon. It was Andrew's first half and he absolutely killed it, while I surprised myself with my fastest half marathon to date. We both had a blast and enjoyed our first authentic Philly Cheesesteak on the ride back to Baltimore.

And then, tragedy struck and my IT band started hating on me, hard.

Running/training came to a screeching hault throughout most of the gorgeous, color-filled fall, and my Physical Therapy office quickly became my second home. In the meantime, I learned to love other forms of physical activity such as spin class, weight lifting and even some raquetball.

I'm still working on the yoga.

Andrew and I journeyed back to Illinois to get in some quality family time over Thanksgiving, and basically... here we are. Christmas Break 2012 was a fabulous refreshment for me, and I loved spending time with my family, and my parent's new puppy Jane.... in case you couldn't tell from my past couple posts.

I'm feeling stronger, my IT band has quieted down, and this past Saturday morning I was able to run about 70 minutes without any pain. That makes me so happy.

A lot of things make me happy.

Like being able to spend New Years out here in gorgeous Colorado with my boyfirend and his family.

I'll wrap up by saying, I have this sneaking suspicion that 2013 is going to be amazing. Like absolutely epic. I've been telling a lot of people that lately.

I'm going to make it epic. With the full understanding that now, just because something is hard, challenging or even sucky doesn't necessary equate to the fact that something is bad or sad.

I choose to make 2013 an awesome year. Without looking back.

I hope you do to.

Resolutions to come soon, but in the meantime...

Cheers to a brand new year!!