January

I start the year unemployed.  Most of my time is spent at the bar where my friends graciously buy my drinks or visiting my friends, sharing cheap wine and flirting with their friends that I barely know.  Midway through the month, I apply for a receptionist position at Renys.  I email my application on a Sunday, I hear back on Monday, have an interview with a man named Dick Tiger on Tuesday and being work on Thursday.  The following weekend I go to Massachusetts to meet my best friend Kevin’s newborn son, Colin.  Its an overwhelming experience that I know is going to somehow drastically change my life.  I go back to Maine and continue my habit of spending every night of the weekend at the bars.

February

I fall in love with Renys.  Being part of a small successful business I respect is amazing and I love being a receptionist.  I attend our company’s dodgeball game and cheer loudly.  I continue visiting friends and the number of boys who express interest in me is confusing.  

March

The only two eligible young men at my church both ask me out, I’m not interested in either.  For the first time, I’m finding being single really enjoyable.  The youth pastor at the church I’ve been attending since November finds out I studied youth ministry and recruits me.

April

I begin helping with youth group and remember how much I missed it.  I also accompany my friend Lauren and a few others to a club for her birthday party.  Its probably the only time I will do that.  Renys opens a new location in Portland.

May

In May, my best friend Kevin comes to visit with our friend Pete.  And, after various conversation and madness, he kisses me.  And I flip out, because we’ve been almost but not quite starting a relationship since we met, and I’d thought we’d moved past this.  Apparently, I was mistaken. My best friend from college comes to visit me at the end of the month and some much needed girl time takes place.

June

For once, June feels like summer.  I have weekends off for the first time since I was 16 and am able to spend a lot of time at Kevin’s cabin on a lake, go kayaking and even to the beach.  Life feels good.

July 

I continue spending most of my weekends visiting Kevin, though one weekend (and then some) is spent in bed with the flu, which I’ve never had before and hope to never have again.  I go to the midnight showing of the last Harry Potter film and see Beirut in concert.  I see my friend Morgan get married in a small and beautiful ceremony.

August

Kevin drives his motorcycle from Massachusetts to Maine to surprise me at work because my life is a romantic comedy.  Renys opens a new location in Topsham which makes work stressful but exciting.  I get strep throat which I also had never had before in my life.

September

Kevin, my biffle Susie and I attend our college friend Ashley’s wedding in Bangor.  We stay at the school of my good friend Tory where many of the boys I’d spent months flirting with attend.  Kevin handles it well.  I start looking for a job in MA so I can be closer to him.

October

Kevin and I go to the Topsfield Fair for what may still be my favorite date.  He wins me a stuffed alligator I name Harrison and I get to hold a baby chick.  The month is ended with a Halloween party, where Susie and I dress as Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolfe.  We finish a bottle of wine together before guests even arrive and everyone is beat by 11, but we still consider it a success.

November

Kevin and I roadtrip to Maryland for Pie Day, a church event held by the church I interned for 2 summers ago.  We stop at my childhood best friend Elise’s house on the way down, stay with my high school friend Wade and get to take some time to see DC.  Everyone likes Kevin, me most of all.  We celebrate our 6 month anniversary but it feels like we’ve been together much longer.  I also attend Colin’s first birthday party, the first time I have seen him or his mother since she was dating Kevin.  Colin is perfect and his mother is gracious.  My sister and her husband visit for Thanksgiving, I haven’t seen her since last Christmas.  Kevin gets along better with her husband than I ever have.  We all go to dinner and see the Muppet Movie together and everything seems to fit.

December

The job search begins to get frustrating and I try not to think about how much I’m going to miss Renys.  I have a quiet Christmas with my parents.  For New Years, Kevin and I meet my elementary school best friend Allie and her boyfriend in Boston.  We go to the Museum of Science, Fire and Ice and watch the fireworks.  

I know that in the next year, a million changes will happen and I couldn’t be more excited.