12/31/11: So yup…my “holy shit” moment has kicked in. The calendar year ends here. I honestly couldn’t even think to this day just 364 days ago when I was eating a Chick-Fil-A sandwich and thought of this idea. I find it somewhat serendipitous that I was at the same place that I began the year today without even thinking of it…the Burlington Mall. However, I walked through the mall today a much changed man from who I was on January 1, 2011. For one, despite my love of their chicken sandwiches, I no longer eat at Chick-Fil-A because of their contributions to anti-same-sex marriage causes. There’s some symbolism with my recognizing such causes as this year wraps up. This year brought me many things…a masters degree, a new job, a new home, and new colleagues and friends. There are so many people who I have crossed paths with this year who have contributed to my being now. My UVM classmates taught me how to power through late night paper writing sessions and supported my food cravings at weird hours in the evening. My colleagues taught me the power of perseverance and determination, just six months into the job. My friends taught me the power of positivity and continuously made me laugh. My family reminded me how to love and support one another through thick and thin. Through all these interactions, I have grown as a scholar, a professional, and above all, an individual. However, this year didn’t come to a happy ending so easily. Somewhere in the past 364 days, I’ve learned the importance of allowing relationships with others to change, grow, or go away, all for the better. I struggled to find answers to questions such as “Why her?” when I saw what my sister had to go through to get rid her breast cancer. Through it all, I’ve found that there’s a reason for everything, and as Katie Perry catchily reminds us, after hurricane, comes a rainbow =). So this year ends truly at a rainbow.

One honest confession as I’ve continued adding to this blog. Somewhere this past year, I forgot that this blog was public and it would take moments like someone approaching me in person to comment on something or publicly “liking” a facebook post or retweeting a tweet for me to remember that the Tumblr was public. Quickly into writing this blog, I found that it was more of an outlet for me…and I didn’t think twice much about someone seeing it (hopefully I don’t regret that upon looking back!). It was cathartic to reflect on the day, attach words to a photographic memory, and look back on it once in a while. So, for those of you who followed, liked, commented, or RTed, thanks for doing so. I wish I could say it was for you, but…ok, sure, we can say it was for your enjoyment as well. =) What happens next? I knew that 2011 was going to be a year of transition. Not only transitioning from grad school to being a new professional, but in relationships, personal growth, and the way I saw the world. This growth will continue daily for me, and I look forward to that. However, every day this past yeas was special for one reason or another and there is no way that I could ever duplicate that. With that, this is the end of my Photo 365 project…only to allow for the start of something new. I must say, as someone who reflects daily with pen and journal (or at least try to), this photo project was a bit difficult to keep up with sometimes. There are definitely posts that had to wait until the following day, and my obsessive compulsive disorder couldn’t handle that. I’d like to say that my plans for my next blog will allow me to pursue one of my biggest passions (and hold me accountable to it), while allowing me grace time to not have to post daily. With that little teaser, I hope everyone had a fantastic year. May you ring in 2012 with at least one positive thought of this past year with the goal of achieving more happiness, joy, and love in the year to come.

And now, time to count down to 2012…tight and bright style. Here’s a preview of my ensemble! Happy New Year, everyone!

12/30/11: On one of my last days of vacation, it was nice to spend another late morning in bed. However, after quickly realizing that I had a laundry list of things to do, I got on with my day. About halfway into my day, I had an “oh shit” moment and realized that I had about 36 hours left in 2011. This realization happened as I pulled back into the parking lot and noticed the sweet sun setting over the city of Boston. Aside from getting nostalgic for Burlington sunsets, I took it as an opportunity to slow down the quick paced day. Alls I can say is expect a long last blog post tomorrow!

12/29/11: The year doesn’t end before celebrating Jenny Dukes and Vuders’ birth into this world! After a delish dinner with the soon to be Mrs. Leavitt and some of her other friends in her wedding party, we were off to one of my fave places in the city…Howl at the Moon. It wasn’t too long after getting there we met up with Vu and his newly made friends, who was also celebrating her birthday. She’s pictured here, in maybe one of the highlights of my night. And I’m sure Joy and Jenna would agree. Happy day of birth, friends!

12/28/11: Today’s highlight was heading to Alexandra’s after she left work feeling sick. Not only did I get to watch her complain about her headaches, I got greater joy in watching her learn how to use her new Macbook Pro. Here she is figuring out how to charge the macbook…note that the plastic cover is still on the head of the plug. Also note, this photo was taken before our epic nap that ended when she woke up at 5PM and yelled “Holy shit, is it the next day?”…followed by tripping over her cord and dropping her new computer on the floor. Clearly as this year comes to an end, I realize that I get much pleasure out of my friends’ pains. Perhaps something for me to reflect on in 2012.

12/27/11: If I go through my wardrobe, about 50% of it consists of apparel with college names printed all over them. Between t-shirts from events, hoodies repping my alma maters, and sweatpants that obnoxiously have Vermont written down the leg (that will never be worn in public), I could definitely wear about a months worth of these clothes without needing to go through a single load of laundry. So, after doing three loads of laundry this morning (much of what I was washing were new clothes and my OCDness makes me wash clothes before I wear them), I threw on my Holy Cross pullover without thinking twice. And of course I didn’t think about it until I sat down at my favorite coffee shop in Waltham and noticed that a woman kept on staring at me. So, I do what I always do when I notice people staring at me…I stare back until it’s really awkward! Fortunately, it didn’t get too awkward and the silence was interrupted when the woman finally asked me “Do you go to Holy Cross?”. I smiled at the compliment of forever being a college student and proudly told her I was an alum. I quickly let out a big sigh of relief for not saying something stupid to her when I initially caught her staring at me when I found out that she was an alum from “back in the day”. After a long conversation with her, I was reminded of why I’m proud to be a Crusader. While I didn’t get much writing done as I intended, I learned that I should be more cautious of peoples’ intents when staring…and maybe put some more thought into what I wear on my days off. =)

12/26/11: I’m not quite sure what my sister and future brother-in-law were thinking when they asked me to deliver a reading at their wedding in March. Of all people, my sister My is more often than not, the one person to yell at me for always talking fast and never enunciating my words. She never lets me blame it on my deviated septum or having braces for over 4 years (I have no idea why I, myself, think those are related). Regardless of the reason, I am honored. So, to turn my less than productive day into a somewhat more productive day, I started looking for some readings that would suit the occasion. Secretly, I’m really hoping that I can find a Charlie Brown excerpt that suits well…or if not, something by Chelsea Handler. The latter may be a bit difficult…but hey, I’m always up for a challenge. =)

12/25/11: When you wake up in your nephew’s bed surrounded by Thomas the Train stuffed pillows and you’re wearing the Forever Lazy you got in the family Yankee Swap yesterday, it must mean the previous night didn’t end well. Wrong. Well, maybe not completely. There was just so much greatness yesterday that there was little time to reflect on the day. As with all Doan family holidays, we can never predict the outcome of the day…but we can always be assured that when the 14 of us (and counting) get together, it will always be epic. Yesterday’s highlights included watching Dad play Dance Central on the X-Box Kinect (and losing to his six year old granddaughter), having Mom steal my Yankee Swap present of remote control cars so she could give them to my nephew (only to feel bad about it afterward but I didn’t care because I ended up with my Forever Lazy onesie that she really wanted), or partaking in a mile-long race around the neighborhood because my four brother in laws are all crap talkers (yes I ran in my onesie and boat shoes). Of course at the top of the highlights was opening my Secret Santa present from Mike and screaming STFU when I saw a signed photograph of Anderson Cooper. So sure, yesterday was a lot about receiving…whether it be gifts, family love, or laughter from being together. With so much of the holidays being about family, I always think about those who don’t spend times with their immediate loved ones…especially those who are on call to respond to any of our emergencies. With the past month being a rather difficult one for the firefighters around the state of MA with the loss of two of their own, it was important to say “thanks” to them and wish them some holiday cheer. And Alyssa and Dylan agreed and were excited to partake! So, before yesterday’s festivities began, we baked three dozen cookies and delivered them to a couple local fire stations. They loved doing it, I loved talking to them in the car ride about why it was important to do, and I look forward to making this a tradition with them…if only I can figure out how to make them not fight about who gets to actually hand the fire fighters the cookies… But for now, another bottle of Gatorade sounds delicious right now. And this onesie is kind of making me sweat.

12/24/11: Merry Christmas Eve, Happy Kwanzaa Eve Eve, Happy Forth Day of Hanukkah, and Happy Start to weekend of eating lots of food and drinking lots of drink. And it starts off with a dinner out with the family and some extended family…all 25 of us at a restaurant. File this one under, “we’re attractive and are just contributing to the craziness of an average family dinner but no one notices us because the kids are all running around the restaurant, because yes, we’re that family, anyway”.

12/23/11: Great first day of vacationing! After sleeping in this morning and having some breakfast in bed, it was only appropriate to blast some Michael Buble Christmas music in the apartment on the maximum volume and bass as there was no one around to hear or judge (sorry if you heard it, LP!). Shortly after, I ventured to Target to pick up one last thing before making my Christmas shopping complete. Now, let me be clear. This is the earliest I have ever completed my Christmas shopping. I fully blame this on the busy schedule of being a student the past 20 years of my life (I wasn’t old enough to shop by myself when I was 4…sorry). So, being it my first time around at working a big boy job leading up to the holiday season, I started and finished my shopping much earlier than usual…which is typically Christmas Eve…at 6:00 PM. Not only did I finish shopping before December 24 this year, I have everything wrapped! Of course it took me a couple hours and lots of putting my OCD tendencies aside to complete it. And, I guess the special hot chocolate didn’t hurt anything…except for the perfectionism of wrapping the last present.

12/22/11: As the holiday season is upon us, I’m reminded of the importance of “giving”. It’s usually during this time of year, after watching CNN Heroes, that I constantly ask myself, “what can I do for others?”. Sure. This may sound like a nice side of me, but I wish I didn’t think about it only during this one time of year. So, when LP asked me if I could help her transport about 3,000 individual travel sized toiletries (that’s how you spell it, Lauren) to the St. Francis House in Boston, the answer was easy. Not only was I checked out of being in the office, it was a simple gesture to pay it forward. And of course, great way to get rid of the hygiene packets that have been laying around campus since First Week. After loading five or six bags and boxes of deodorant, body wash, laundry detergent, and toothpaste into Bertha (and hitting my head with my car door for the second time this week), we were off to do good. And with that, I have solidified my plans for next years blog to replace Photo 365. Stay tuned!

12/21/11: Since I’ll probably fall asleep watching Crazy, Stupid, Love (for the second time this week), it’s probably smart for me to blog now. There’s no other way to celebrate a successful closing for my first year res life friends than cranberry juice, candy cane rice krispy treats, and watching a movie with Ryan Goslin. All while listening to a car alarm going off in the Trees parking lot outside my window. Congrats, friends!

12/20/11: As it gets colder outside, my motivation to head to the gym after work has slowly dwindled…but I’ve managed to keep up with somewhat of a routine. In an effort to get myself back into shape for my upcoming GQ photo shoot (ok, maybe that’s in a few years), I thought it would be fun(ny) to try out the Wii Fit again. So after a run at the gym, the Fit was set back up, the Mii was created, and I was told that I had a normal BMI! And oh yeah, apparently my Mii age is 44. F U, Wii Fit. That is all. Guess I have more motivation to head to the gym now…I need to get my old age body in shape.

12/19/11: As I said yesterday, there’s never a dull moment when I get together with Klang. Today was no exception. After joining me at a full day of work (she slept in, of course), we were off to more adventures. Yesterday consisted of going to Target for the first time since Thanksgiving (if you haven’t lived in VT, you don’t understand the excitement that comes with going to Target) so we had to raise the bar today. And what better way to do that than with a trip to IKEA?! Clearly we made most of Kristin’s first time that the best place that Sweden has ever given to America. So much so that we showed up almost two hours late to dinner with Kim and X…only because we had to stop halfway through our shopping trip for a bite at the Ikea cafeteria. Yum Swedish meatballs! And of course the person who volunteered to take this picture was the only other person in the entire store who was taking photos of his family pretending they were sitting in their living rooms as well.

12/18/11: After a productive morning of making my way to the gym and doing grocery shopping, I was reunited with this! It’s been about two months since I was in the presence of Klang and like always, it’s never a dull moment. Especially when a day involves dinner with the Cao family and being in awe of how much Carter keeps growing up. This was in the middle of us playing Silly Feet and watching Carter do downward dog yoga poses. It’s official that my 20 month old nephew is more flexible than me. Now, a night of peppermint goodness while watching Crazy, Stupid, Love!

12/17/11: When your day begins with fighting for parking spots in the Burlington Mall parking lot during holiday shopping season, it’s likely that the rest of the day can only get better from there. Wrong. How about being in the toy aisle at Target and having a woman use her purse to swing for a box on the top shelf, only to have it fall on your head. Then she doesn’t apologize and has the audacity to tell me she’s “sorry I was in the way”. Lucky for her, her little son was by her side (only after she yelled at him for playing with one of the toys) and I walked away. Things finally took a turn for the better at dinner time when CAB convened for an end of the year celebration at John Brewer’s. And shortly after, just as Brennan diagnosed, I listened to some Michael Buble as I wrote my last Christmas cards then turned to Elf on the big screen at the last Falcons UNite event of the semester. And now, tuning in to watch SNL…and Michael Buble just happens to be hosting. I guess it does get better!