Well, here marks the end of another year: 2012; the year that was supposed to be the end of the world. Notwithstanding the three and a half hours of 2012 remaining in my time zone, the world didn’t end, so I think I’ll write about what happened in my life this year, as I’ve sort of done in the past two years.

Let’s start with the pictures: 2012 was by far the year in which I posted the least number of pictures to Flickr.

In 2006, I posted 208.
In 2007, I posted 302.
In 2008, I posted 130.
In 2009, I posted 408
In 2010, I posted 333.
In 2011, I posted 213.
In 2012, I posted 36.

There are a few reasons I can identify for the low number this year. One, a good chunk of my Flickr friends haven’t posted much this year, which reduced my interest in being online. Two, I haven’t taken a whole lot of pictures this year. I still went out on photo missions, but it feels like I went out on significantly less this year. I probably took more pictures with my iPhone this year! Finally, unlike the last few years, when I was employed on and off at the Zoo and had loads of free time…

In 2012 I went back to school! Some of you know this already, but I’ll summarize here again. On January 4th, I started a graduate certificate program in Addictions and Mental Health. It was my first time in school since April of 2008, and it had been framed by the program co-ordinator as being equivalent to the workload of a Master’s degree condensed into one year…and boy, was it ever! During the first semester, I studied my ass off and consistently got great marks. I got As in almost everything, which was a nice change from the roller coaster of university marks. However, I wasn’t allowing myself to socialize very much, because with the exception of a few weeks here and there, I had tests or assignments due what seemed like every other day. Although I was determined to keep my “winning streak” going in terms of getting As and A+s, I groaned every time I had to say “no” to an invitation to hang out with friends or even family. I was pretty stressed out, to say the least.

I had three weeks off between semesters, and after learning about self-care in my Counseling Women class, I grabbed onto that concept like I grab onto discount gingerbread houses after Christmas. I went out planespotting, hung out with friends a lot (including being a second-opinion person while my friend Cecilia went apartment shopping), and bought a classical guitar. My family went to Cuba, and I stayed at my mom’s house to watch the dog, since I couldn’t afford to pay for the trip and since my brother had stayed home to watch the pets when we went to Europe in 2008.

Encouraged by my final marks from first semester, I decided to take ‘er a little easier during the summer semester. That’s right – I was going to be in school the whole summer. The summer semester felt more disconnected than the winter, because people were skipping classes more often, and it sucked to spend gorgeous days indoors in the air-conditioned classrooms. That was one definite source of frustration for me – keeping the classrooms chilled to February-like conditions during 30-degree heat waves. But at least I had Mondays off, and was able to sit out on my back deck at my apartment and soak up the sun when I wasn’t in school!

Anyway, as I was saying, I decided that it was good for my sanity to work a little less hard, which ended up being more like “budgeting my time more effectively.” I allowed myself a lot more time to socialize, and at the end of the term, I was a lot less stressed out and my final average had only slipped by 0.4%. Needless to say, I was in a much better state of mind by the end of my second semester!

Of note, the summer of 2012 was the first summer in 8 years that I didn’t spend at the Zoo. I worked there on and off from May 2nd, 2005, to October 31st, 2011, and I definitely miss it. I’ve moved on to a new chapter in my life; finally using my brain to earn a living as opposed to using my body (manual labor, folks, not prostitution). But I’ll never forget my life in the Zoo ;)

Now, I’ve gotten off-track in terms of chronology, so bear with me as I organize this on the fly.

On December 29th, 2011, I moved to Oshawa for school. I spent New Years Eve at a house party at my friend Kyle’s house in Kensington Market and we later went to Nathan Phillips Square, which is where I’m going tonight with Ally.

The winter was pretty quiet for me – sort of. I didn’t go out very much, although I dated a girl for a few months, went ice fishing a few times, bought Super Mario Bros (the original) for my Wii, recorded a few songs, and took some pictures of Venus and Jupiter. I was primarily focused on school during the winter, which, despite the workload, was a lot of fun with my new classmates-turned-friends.

In early May, I went to Cleveland with my parents to check out the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

In June, my class had a field trip to Great Blue Heron Casino as part of our Problem Gambling class. It was fun, although it was also sobering to see how quickly people would place bets in succession on the slot machines – it was part of our assignment to count how often people were placing bets, and I counted a few patrons betting every four seconds. I sat down to one machine and parted with 10 bucks in about 30 seconds. Although I had never had much interest in gambling, it cemented my belief that one needs to be very careful – it was clear to me just how incredibly quickly one can lose a lot of money at a casino. If the teacher’s goal was to illustrate the temptation and the loss – the devil in gambling – then he achieved his goal.

On July 2nd, I did my Pinewood presentation – an hour-long group presentation with my classmates Cecilia and Keturah in front of about 30 drug addicts and alcoholics. This was the biggest test of all of our learning; the most nerve-wracking project of all, because we were going to be judged by people on the outside, and not just our teachers. However, it went smoothly, and the audience enjoyed it, and the best part is that we got ours out of the way and didn’t have to worry about it for the rest of the summer ;)

Also in July, I logged onto a few dating websites, intent on finally finding someone – and I did! Ally and I had our first date on July 15th, where we walked around downtown and it pissed rain the whole afternoon. We went to the Pickle Barrel near Yonge and Dundas Square and like a moron, I didn’t bring my glasses (just prescription sunglasses), so I took those off and couldn’t really see her…anyway, we ended the date with a hug, and neither of us were sure if we were still as interested. However, we had a second date in Oshawa a week later, where we drove around, I cooked her dinner, and she played guitar and sang for me…then she looked at me with an awkward smile and I knew that was my chance…so I leaned in and kissed her, and we’re still together, five and a half months later! We spent a lot of time doing things together in the summer and this past month, and we managed fine while I was off at placement during the fall and only seeing each other on weekends.

Also in July, I got rear-ended on the 400 at highway speeds, and my bumper was mangled, which pissed me off. Thankfully insurance paid for it, and my car was otherwise fine. And I got to drive around in a 2012 Altima for 10 days, which was pretty sweet.

In the middle of August, I finished my classes and exams, and had a few weeks off before my placement began. I went to Alex’s bachelor party in Niagara Falls, which was an highlarious time. I went to the Ex with Ally, which I hadn’t been to since 2008. I moved to my dad’s house in a smaller town up north on August 28th, and I was sad to leave Oshawa…A bunch of friends had extended their hands to me during my short stay in the ‘Shwa, and I also liked living with reasonable landlords in a nice, bright apartment that was all mine. I enjoyed eating breakfast in the kitchen under the skylight, and sitting out on the deck during hot summer days. I also enjoyed learning to cook to a much greater extent and maintain a living environment to my standard of cleanliness and décor. But it was time to take the next step.

On September 2nd, my friends Alex and Lisa got married. They were my first friends to get married, and it was cool to be the headlining band – Alex and Lisa are my band’s guitar player and keyboard player, and we learned a handful of songs that were not typical of Adam & Evil, but were fun all the same. It turned out to be what I think was our tightest performance ever, and later I got to dance with my girlfriend, which I was finally old enough to not be self-conscious about (I’ve always shied away from dancing).

As of this moment, the wedding is the last time I’ve jammed with my band. Other than the summer rehearsals for the wedding, we only jammed about five times in 2012. But we were busy; Alex had three jobs, Jenn and I were both busy with school, and Sam and Lisa…I don’t know as much, but I’m sure they were busy too. In October (I think), we were asked to clear our gear out of the church, so I brought my drums up to my dad’s house. But we never formally disbanded, and if I move back to the Toronto area, Adam & Evil may rise again. And if we don’t, at least our last show was a hit!

On September 4th, I started the most daunting part of my academic program – placement. Since I didn’t want to be worrying about finding a placement all summer, I decided to contact an agency in April, and although they took a few weeks getting back to me, they called me in for an interview, and I secured it on May 14th.

I saw Lewis Black at Massey Hall as my birthday present on September 7th (not my birthday), which was a good time!

Anyway, I started placement on September 4th, and although it was intimidating at first, I grew to thoroughly enjoy it. One of the first lessons I learned was that drug addicts are people too. One of the next things I learned is that while a few of them didn’t want much to do with me because I wasn’t an addict, most of them were happy to talk with me and respected me – including the staff, which was a nice surprise. Over the course of my 489 hours on-site, I counselled people one-to-one, co-facilitated daily groups and fully led a couple of them myself, made phone calls, obtained information, ran around doing errands, searched bags, went to my first open AA and NA meetings, initiated a weekly group guitar lesson as a way to build self-efficacy, reassured new clients, tried to re-engage older clients, and overall learned how to be a professional in the addictions field. Although it would take a dozen pages to summarize my placement, it was an enjoyable experience, and I’m still volunteering there on a casual basis. The placement itself ended on December 7th.

Ally and her family went to Dominican for a wedding during my last week of placement, so when she got back, we spent a lot of time together, and really, have spent most of December in each other’s company, which has been nice :) I’ve never had a relationship as involved, all-encompassing, and loving as this, and I really like it! She spent Christmas Eve with me at my mom’s house, then I spent Christmas Day with her family at her parents’ house…and then we went to my dad’s with my extended family for a Boxing Day dinner.

In early December, I bought a computer game on the App Store, because it was time to get a computer game to play when I had no Internet. I bought Worms: Special Edition. I used to play Worms: Armageddon with my brother about 10 years ago on Nintendo 64, and it’s been great to play a new take on an old classic.

Around the same time, I was at my girlfriend’s house and put on an Al Di Meola album (Casino) that one of her roommates owned. I had heard he was a good guitar player, and I was blown away – I could easily see how he had been an influence on guys like John Petrucci and Yngwie Malmsteen. I bought his Pursuit of Radical Rhapsody album, and got Casino for Christmas.

As for the rest of December, I’ve been driving around a lot and working – that’s right, I got a job! And it’s in my field! I got hired as a support worker (a relief counsellor) at a men’s residential addiction treatment center. It’s similar to the work I did at placement, and I’m enjoying it! I’m not getting a whole lot of hours yet, but I’m ultimately grateful to have a job, and in my field, and to have secured it so soon after my placement ended. It is the ultimate validation for me – that finally, my education has paid off, and is valued by an employer in the field I want to work in. That all that hard work at school wasn’t a waste of time, but a good investment.

Anyway, I know there have been more events in 2012, but I’ve been at this for a while now, and it’s time to wrap it up and spend the rest of the evening with my girlfriend. 2012 was another excellent year for me, and here’s to hoping 2013 continues that trend! If nothing else, we can all be happy that the world didn’t end. And that Obama got re-elected ;)

Happy New Year!
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The next day, August 31st, I only took TEN pictures. This was the best one. It's the Torre Agbar, taken from the roof of our hotel. From farther away, I thought it looked like a bullet, but you can imagine other things it might look like, too.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_Agbar

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I had to get one good picture of a BMW before I left Germany...on one of the tours (I don't remember if it was the bus tour or on the way back from the Dachau tour), I learned that BMW is the biggest industry in Munich, or the most important export...something like that.

Apparently when I kneeled down to take this pic, some guy gave me a dirty look. I didn't see him...my sister told me. Whatever. If it was his car, at least I whited out his license plate before posting it on the Internet :D

Tags:   BMW 3 series blue red car headlights grille Bayerische Motoren Werke Munich München Bavaria Deutschland Germany sports sedan parked urban city street evening summer August Europe automobile 1 series 1 series

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