The Bad, The Worse, And The Very Good

Goodbye 2011, hello 2012. Here's to you being a good new year. I that when I look back on 2011, I'll always remember two things: it was a rough year in many ways, but ... I had Scotland. If I had to summarize the whole year, it would look something like this:

January
:: I officially became the bookkeeper for my church, having trained under the old bookkeeper for the last few months before he moved to Scotland temporarily with his wife. It has been challenging in a good way.
:: Having quit my main job at a non-profit a few months I finally found a good part-time job nannying twin girls, only three months old at the time.
:: My car broke down. I had it towed to a shop and borrowed my parent's Camry in the meantime.

February
:: Diagnosis on my car; the water pump broke and timing belt went out, which also messed up the pistons. 

March
:: My debit card was stolen and someone in Chicago started making charges. I canceled the card, filed a police report, and held my breath for a week until the money was debited back into my account.

April
:: Still waiting on my car to be fixed. The mechanic has given me several different cost estimates.
:: I make a wedding cake for a friend. 

May
:: The estimate to fix my car gets higher. It looks as though I won't be able to visit my friends in Scotland like I had very much hoped.
:: A friend gives me money for my car; a generous amount. I am able to buy a plane ticket to Scotland after all.

June
:: For my birthday my family gives me a zoom lens for the Canon camera I bought last year after having saved up for almost a year for it. I had a fun birthday dinner with my family and closest friends.
:: I leave for Scotland! The flight goes from Austin to Houston to Heathrow to Edinburgh.

July
:: Ten days in Scotland. I wander the streets with a map, a camera, and a bus pass. I take a tour of the highlands. I visit castles and museums and memorials. I stay with my friends who know the city and are guides and lodging in one: the chance of a lifetime.
:: I get home and my car is still nowhere near to being finished. I call around and get estimates and have my car towed to a new shop.

August
:: My camera, zoom lens, SD card, camera case and GPS are all stolen from my car (my parent's Camry that I'm still driving). I file the second police report of the year.
:: The front brakes go out on the Camry so I have them replaced. 

September
:: I make a wedding cake for the friend of a friend. 
:: The repair on my car has taken four times longer than the mechanic said it would, and he never calls me when he says he will to let me know what's going on. I begin calling the repair shop every day to see how things are going with my car and getting the new engine put in. Finally it's finished and I get it back!
:: My church celebrates their tenth birthday. It's also the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

October
:: The check engine light keeps coming on and I can't get my car inspected. I take it back to the repair shop again and again but the light keeps coming back on.

November
:: The mechanic keeps promising that he's fixed the problem; instead the car starts making a terrible grinding noise so I take it to a friend, a mechanic whom I trust who doesn't work on my type of car but knows someone who does. Their diagnosis: the wrong type of engine was put in my car.
:: I start dating a guy named Bryan and start to like him more and more.

December
:: I get pictures of all the things that are wrong with the engine and a letter from the new mechanic and send them to a lawyer my Dad knows. I wait for the lawyer to send me a letter for the old mechanic, who put in the wrong engine, which will tell him he has two months to give me my money back.
:: My brother Huck graduates college.
:: Bryan calls the week before Christmas to break things off.
:: Christmas is great. All the family is together. We exchange gifts, play games, watch It's A Wonderful Life, and enjoy plenty of good food.
:: New Year's Eve; half the evening spent with family and half with friends. Ring in 2012!