2011 in pictures (inspired by Shari’s post). My post is kind of long; sorry.
January
A rainy and warm first day of the year. A week later, plans for taking pictures in the snow with Laura. Instead we retreat to a cafe and talk about her traveling plans. She is leaving in June and it seems so far away.
February
I spend a lot of time visiting my parents. I have my novel draft printed out, and carry it home from the print shop in a paper bag, clutching it to my chest to keep the snow out.
March
I go for a sleep study and it feels like an otherworldly experience before it even begins. J & I spend a day with Jen and Silas in Trinity Bellwoods and it always feels so good to see them.
April
I vote in a Finnish election for the first time. J & I spend a day in one of my favourite places in Ontario. I turn 31 and celebrate by having brunch with some lovely friends. For the rest of the year I will forget my own age, over and over again.
May
J & I travel to Alberta for his mother’s wedding. We spend a couple of days in Calgary visiting friends and eating good food and going for good walks in our old neighbourhood, and it’s everything I love about Calgary.
June
J & I spend as much time as possible on our balcony to escape the heat. We start a short tradition of having a drink out there when he returns from work, and we look at the people and dogs running in the park and talk while Ellie sleeps in the sun.
July
Hot. That’s the only thing that happened in July. Just hot. It overpowered everything. Though I was born and raised here, I’ll forever have an Albertan reaction to humidity, it seems.
August
J & I continue our year of Ontario exploration in Stratford. We go to Alberta again, for a wedding in Edmonton and a couple of days in Calgary. Andrea is in town and me and my little Calgary group of three closest friends are together again for the first time in years. The trip in May was cozy and comforting. This trip is cozy and highly disorienting. It has a bleed-through effect onto my life in Toronto.
September
I discover I like chai tea, and three months later it firmly usurps my lifelong favourite, Earl Grey. I try making bread again and fall in love with it. J & I spend many days walking in forests and ravines.
October
J & I take a six-hour walk in a provincial park. We go to the Badlands with Jen & Silas, one of my favourite places to see.
November
I begin my winter hibernation early, and most of my photos from this month are taken indoors. I return to editing my novel draft for the first time since March. I am bemused to discover I was only five chapters away from the end when I gave up all those months ago.
December
Yesterday I met Laura for coffee in the late afternoon. She’s back in town – in the country – for the month, so I’m spending as much time with her as I can. On the streetcar the man sitting next to me got into a shouting match with another man. It ended quickly and calmly, but still I got off the streetcar early and walked quickly to the cafe, my hands jammed in my pockets, my heart racing. Laura was already there, and it was the cafe around the corner from where she used to live, and it felt normal and strange because it felt normal. We sat for a while and left just as the place was closing, and I decided to walk home. Laura walked with me a bit, then I was alone, and everyone was getting off work on King Street, waving goodbye and talking on their phones and holding presents. There were lights everywhere, and I am not often downtown so yes, I craned my neck up to see, I took pictures. I stopped at the LCBO on the way home and bought crème brûlée beer for J and I. I discovered that night that I like stout. So this year, that makes chai tea, breadmaking and stout. It was nice, that night, to be with my friend who I’ve known for so long, to spend time in a different area of this city I am becoming so disillusioned with, to discover that I like something I always thought I wouldn’t. And at the risk of sounding cheesy, it’s kind of a nice way to end the year. It’s how the year was for me.
