2012: A Brand New Year

I abandoned GoDaddy last week . In a move that was both bold and stupid, I forgot to backup every last file from my GoDaddy hosting account. When you change hosts with a ProPhoto blog, it’s important to remember to backup your shizz. I failed to do that… hence the bold and the stupid. Stupid because I forgot, bold for how I’m going to handle it.

I’m not even going to attempt to recover my old posts. There were about 115 blog entries from the past year and a half that are just going to be lost. Gone forever.

Am I upset that I made such a dumb mistake? Yes. There was a lot of time and effort put into writing and editing those posts. At the same time, though, I’m kind of relieved. Most of my posts were pointless. They were posts to be posts. Afterthoughts. It’s somewhat refreshing to have them wiped clean. It still twinges a little to think of the heartfelt posts, or the posts that detailed where I’d been this year, that are now gone.

In order to move on from 2011, here’s a quick recap of what the year held for me and mine.

• I second shot a handful of weddings with the incredibly talented (and wonderful person!) Paige Butcher. It was both a rewarding and exhausting experience. I can’t even begin to express how much I learned from Paige and the experiences that those weddings held. Wedding photography is a totally different world, and I can’t thank Paige enough for letting me be part of them.
• As part of the second shooting experience, I got to drive to a lot of places I’d never been before: Wheeling, Kane, Jane Lew. All small and not very exciting, but I’d never been there before, so it was exciting for me.
• The boyfriend and I went on a vacation! We finally went to Chicago, which was amazing, exhausting, delicious, and weird. Also beautiful. What a beautiful city.\
• My boyfriend got accepted to Oklahoma State University for an MA in Film Studies. We drove halfway across the United States to deliver him to his new home, Stillwater, OK. It’s been hard to be apart, but thanks to an accepting and understanding boss, I’ve been able to see Dillon almost once a month since he moved. I flew. No more driving that far. Yeesh, how exhausting.
• I drove halfway across the country back to my home — BY MYSELF! This a huge feat for me, you have no idea!
• I, sadly, said farewell to some friends who moved away to the beach or to a Peace Corps stint in Africa. My life is decidedly less fun filled now that they’re away, but 2012 brings me one year closer to them being home.
• I said welcome home to a friend who came back from a Peace Corps stint in Moldova! Even though we have opposite schedules, I’m thrilled that she’s home.
• I went on a tour of the East Wing of the White House!
• My parents took in two very sweet Boxers.
• In the last couple of weeks, I’ve learned that “it’s never too late for now.” So… here’s to a brand new, blank slated 2012!