2011 in Review part one.

As 2012 is sure to bring a lot of changes, what with the wedding and moving back to Mr. Catkin's stomping grounds, I would like to review the whirlwind of a year that we just put behind us. 2011 was a roller coaster of a year.

January

We rang in our first new year as an engaged couple totally pissed off at each other. You see, here in Austin, late December-early January marks the beginning of Cedar season.

Cedar? The horror!!

Y'all, I am allergic to EVERYTHING. Seriously. I have two different types of allergy pills and an EpiPen in my purse at all times. I also have to get allergy shots twice a month just to keep my immune system in check. So when this effing awful time of year rolls around in the Hill Country, my body goes bazerk.  I become this sneezing, eye scratching zombie. Guess which day the cedars decided to grace us with their pollination in 2011? Yep, December 31st. I could not keep my shiz together. My newly minted fiance so badly wanted to go downtown for NYE. I can't blame the guy, this was our first time living in a real-honest-to-God-city. I did my best and trudged along for most of the day. We went to a pretty good Impressionist exhibit at the Blanton Museum of Art and had a great dinner at Spaghetti Warehouse. We went to Zilker Park for some family friendly fun (because 6th St. just isn't my bag baby) and after an hour or so of being outside I couldn't contain myself. I was covered in snot (sorry guys, this hotness is taken), and exhausted from power sneezing all day. What's a power sneeze you might ask? It's one of those sneezes that feels like an explosion, scaring the bajeezus out of your companions, and leaving your body riddled with fatigue. When cedar is in season, all of my sneezes are power sneezes. After me begging, and him bitching about how I never want to do anything fun and I ruin every good time he every tries to have (yay let's get married!) I ended up passed out on the couch with a fever. I remember waking up in a stupor to catch the epicness that was the NKTOB/BSB routine on Ryan Seacrest's Dick Clark's Rockin' NYE.

The rest of January was met with transitioning to a (much better) management team at work and really kicked off my wedding planning. The book we read in book club this month was the last 3 books of Harry Potter. Amazeballs of course!

February

Ah February, the shortest of the months, The month of Valentines. The month when I read (read=obsessed over) The Hunger Games. This is also the month that I decided to go to an upscale beauty school to get my hur did. It took 7 hours for highlights. That's not a typo and it was definitely not ok. As someone who is prone to migraines, I was PISSED. They were very sweet at this unnamed beauty school. They let me go without paying and were gracious when I explained that I had only brought enough cash to tip to the first person who worked on my hair. That's right, there was a shift change in my highlight process. Son. Of. A. Bitch. They did a fantastic job. So fantastic that Mr. Catkins had no effing clue that they had even done anything to me. Super. Back to The Hunger Games. Have you read this shit? It is amazing! I couldn't stop thinking about it. During said hell-hole hair appointment, all I kept thinking was how Katniss wouldn't put up with this and Cinna's team would have this crap knocked out in no time. 

Reeeead Me!

 

March

March was  a scary month for me. This was the month we could no longer look at looming wedding tasks and say, "eh, the wedding is over a year away, we'll worry about it later." No, this was happening. And it was happening in 12 months. Holy. Balls. This month I took on one of the biggest tasks and found our amazing photographer Lisa Hackbarth from Illuminate Photography. She is one of the sweetest and coolest people we have met in our short stay in the ATX. She agreed to take our engagement pictures on a Saturday. That's like un-freaking-heard of. Not to mention it was the first weekend of SXSW and we just had to have our e-pics taken on South Congress. To those of you not familiar with the area, that's akin to wanting portraits taken in Times Square on New Year's Eve. Well, maybe not that bad. But it is freakin' crowded down there. Austin during SXSW, or any event, or any Tuesday for that matter, is like Mecca for hipsters. 

 

I couldn't pick just one 

 

What's that? You want to see some of these engagement pics? Ok, I guess. Keep in mind this was almost a year ago and we hadn't really hit our stride at the gym yet. 

All images courtesy of Illuminate Photography

There's a lot more but my computer takes forever to upload them. If you want to take a peak that the whole set you can see them on our Wedding Web page. 

April - June

 

Not a lot happened these months. I read Water For Elephants and thought it was aight'. Our book club saw the movie and the best part was the mimosas at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema...ya know, besides R.Patz. Will and Kate got married and I like every other nerd in America watched with bated breath. I DVR'd the hell out of it and even cried during their vows. F*ck I'm a sap. In June, I read Wicked and fell in love with Elphaba and the rest of the gang. Now I can't watch The Wizard of Oz without giving that bitch Dorothy the side eye.

In my next post I will share months July - December and how my whole world crumbled but became so much stronger.