2011 in review

2011 was a really fun year! 2012 is going to be even better! Here are some highlights of my year. Truthfully I had far more epicness than I can fit into a post that won’t put us both to sleep. Still, I think this will cover some fun stuff.

January was the start of the New Year. In my office we were missing some of the students who graduated and left. As a collective group we drew collages for them. Someone drew a rendition of the person and then we all put expressions, and other art that reminded us of the person.  

February reminded me that nerds like me are everywhere. I found graffiti in the women’s bathroom at a restaurant. It reads: Make Love Not Horcruxes and has the Deathly Hallows symbol. It made me happy.

Also, that month I got a little joke played that just shows how fun and awesome my daughter is. I had neglected my breakfast grits for a meeting. When I came back there was a sad face in them – compliments of Lana.

March brought us Megacon. Conventions are the only time of year I can wear THIS hair. I love this hair!

April was the family vacation. We all piled onto the Disney Dream and had an amazing cruise. It was the best ship I have ever ever been on.

The ship was so fancy that it had mirrors in the bathroom stalls!

In May Jimmy Wong (youtube sensation) spent some time tweeting to all of the members of the office! We all fangirled (and Barry fanboyed) about spending about an hour conversing with him online. So we sent him a group photo.

In June I took the kids to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. You know what that means – Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

July was Leaky Con! This traveling Harry Potter convention was in Orlando this year. I got to see my fav Wizard Wrock (Draco and the Malfoys) band play! I also got to see other awesome Wrock bands play too. I met Kristina Horner! Brian Malfoy! Hank Green! Jason Munday! Alex Carpenter! Danced 10 feet away from where Evanna Lynch was dancing! Oh, and Luke Conard offered to take his shirt off for me. I only said no because I needed another favor from him. XP But in general, just so many awesome things!!!!!  Bumped into old friends like Moody (aka Andrew) and made new friends like Lucius (aka Perseus).

Scar photobombed this intimate moment with me and Luke.

But the super awesome part was that I got to experience all of this with my bestie! Scar (Scarlett – aka Louanne) and her hubby Marcos were there too! I stayed in their hotel which was super duper cool. I hung with them the whole time I was there. I LOVE these people.

(note: I cannot find my pics but a summer highlight was seeing old friends from highschool! Hanging with Lora and Sarah was just like old times!)

In August my daughter turned 21. I asked her where she wanted to go celebrate. She chose Disney World. So we went! We had a lot of fun at the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. It was just so much fun. And we stayed in the Pirate rooms on Disney property. It was just freakin awesome.

THEN we got another highlight! Finally after all these years I got to meet Miri (aka Ruzena)!!   She brought her new hubby and Jeremy and I bonded over Final Fantasy. It was a fun dinner with them.

Dragoncon is always in September. Labor Day weekend is one of my fav weekends of the year because of that. This year we brought the kids! They costumed as Brock, Ash, and Misty.

Myself, Kris, Lana, and Anna all picked someone from Final Fantasy. I said in 97 I wanted to dress like Aeris someday – and I finally did!

And let’s not forget I got to meet the legendary Wil Wheaton!

In October the Anime Club hosted the Fall Game Night along with the Library staff (who are always supportive and awesome in this twice a year event). We decorated for Halloween and even had a costume contest. Such fun. It was like a mini-convention!

November showed me some real camaraderie. One of my Anime kids was in a wreck on campus. As each of the Anime Club members drove by they stopped to wait with her until the whole scene was cleared up. Since we were all starving by then we headed to Cazbors for food. It was freezing that night. We all brought out extra hoodies for those friends who had none. In the end we not only supported Sparks, we supported each other. I. Love. These. Kids.

Johnny is missing because he was taking the photo.

Also in November we started working on the annual college Christmas Float.

December we got to show the float off! We were pretty proud of it. We had more prop trouble than I could explain, but in the end it all came together and it was really pretty. Also, the parade was fun as always.

Christmas! ‘Nuff said.