Friday, December 30, 2011

2011: Because a picture speaks a thousand words, part one.

Here's the deal. 2011 was a big year for me. So much changed that quite frankly, I can't get my head around it. Writing about it, even in two halves like Meg did, seems like an enormous task that I'm simply ill-equipped for. Too many personal things happened, and not enough cool stuff happened to me. Meg interviewed the Taoiseach, goddammit.
Then, however, Eimear from Tumblr saved the day. She mentioned that sh'd post her favourite photo from her project 365 to represent each month - and I'm shamelessly stealing her idea. 2011 will thus be summed up in 12 snapshots, each with a different meaning. Nights out, school books, new friends... Hell, I might post a song for each month, too. Anyway, let's get ready to rumble!

January.

See, I'll admit it...the best part of January 2011 was the return of a certain ginger-haired, Limerick based blogger who I happened to be quite fond of. Not to open old wounds, but the short story is that we don't talk anymore, so even though that was the most important part of that month for me, no doubt...I just can't bring myself to do it. So what else happened in January? Well, very little, it appears. I saw Black Swan not once, but twice, and enjoyed it both times. I travelled up north, and took a great photo of my dad grumpily reading "Hello!" magazine. I also seemed to do an awful lot of school work - what sort of fifth year was I?




February

Again, rough stuff was happening at this point - rough stuff that'd eventually take over and keep me miserable, until, well, August. Cheerful, huh? Now you know why I didn't enjoy this year...I did get my very first iPhone in February, as well as doing a lot of cooking and having a small party in my house. I also saw The Field, by John B. Keane, marking my year-long habit of going to the theatre. To balance this out, however, I made My Chemical Romance my single concert of 2011, and my god, if that doesn't make photo of February, I don't know what does.



March

Ah, March. Where shit got really real. Ok, ok, I'll stop now, but I spent most of this month being a moany, sad, stressed-out mess. I also found out I didn't get to travel to Zambia with my school - which, I'm not gonna lie, is still a kick in the teeth. But hey, Zambia isn't going away any time soon! There were also some lovely moments - I spent my St. Patrick's Day with a huge group of friends watching Moulin Rouge and eating. I visited Orla in Wexford and watched fireworks in the rain, and then kind of ruined a lot of things. I haven't been back since. I'm dedicating March to Orla, one of my best friends. We've had...well, we've had a bitch of a year, to be honest. But we're still awesome. Just saying.
Here are the aforementioned fireworks.


April

Christ, what happened in April? I find April to be one of those downer months, where nothing really happens. One is stuck between summer and winter, bored and grey. I know I was - I scarcely remember April, but my 365 says that I went to a bunch of parties, including Fiona's and Tiarnan's. Both were good nights, actually! I also cut all my hair off (not the first of many times where my hair goes way too short) and visited Wexford with my family. I read a LOT of books (6 Darren Shan novels in one day, if memory serves correct) and most importantly, my newest cousin, Isabella was born. She totally deserves the photo here, though she's a lot cuter now, I promise.


May

Fucking May, bro. May means summer, and summer means an upturn in Áine's spirits. Fuckin' ay! The Easter holidays finished up, and suddenly the world was one of BBQ's, grad parties and end-of-year things. I won the English award for my year, which was wonderful and (I can't lie), one of the highlights of 2011 for me. I also went to see Fucking Barack Obama, where I queued for a good six hours and was still about a mile away from him. However, the single best photo of May (and possibly the year) goes to this shot of me and Nicole in the bathrooms on sixth year grad night. She told me to look frightened. I still am.

June
June was the most fun that I'd had for the whole of 2011. I supervised the Junior Cert. exams in school, which sounds like a bore. Except that it wasn't. I made 300 euro by watching Doctor Who, chilling with some wonderful friends of mine and Mr. Gorry, history teacher extraordinare and hero of mine was there to chat with us. I repeat: 300 euro. Who cares that it took up 3 weeks of my time? It was fantastic. Other June highlights include my trip to Galway with Kate ("There is a startling lack of small free birds in Athenry!") , Franki's Come Dine With Me night (one of the best nights of the year) and the Shakespeare and performance festivals, lovely days in lovely Dublin. I also managed to get 4 A1's in my summer exams (and a B IN IRISH!!!!!) which was jammy enough. This is my favourite photo of June: on our last day of supervision, we ordered Dominos pizza. Twice. Roisín, who got quite attached to it, is pictured here doing what Project Maths does best...and by that I mean only does. Dividing pizza into 8 pieces.


Tune in tomorrow for 2011: part two, in which Áine actually has a rather nice time, despite the horrors of the Leaving Cert. beginning!

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