A Look Back at 2011: The Year of the Zoll

Chinese astrology dictates that 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit. Team Zoll, that is, Larry and I, heartily disagree. 2011 was the Year of the Zoll, you see.

No, really:

We started noticing this shortly after the New Year this year as we wrote the date. 2011, when written, looked remarkably like our last name. So we started calling 2011 the Year of the Zoll and it just stuck.

The wine bottle pictured above is a bottle of this year’s Beaujolais Nouveau. It’s a young wine to be drunk as soon as its available – it’s not a wine with staying power. We’ve decided to ring out the Year of the Zoll by drinking our very own vintage.

2009 was officially the year we’d like to wipe off the record: I was diagnosed, Larry got laid off, and then his grandmother died, and then his great Aunt Bernice died. For reals, 2009 just sucked it hard. The only silver lining: an amazing two weeks in Japan.

2010 was substantially better, but still marked with pain: the passing of my grandmother. I released my video and received several awards, but hadn’t really yet hit my stride. We bought a house, as stressful as those circumstances were.

2011 however, has been a helluva year.

• January (technically December ’10, but whatever), I cut off my hair.
• February, I met a blog reader by happenstance at a conference for work and learned that yes, my words really do touch people.
• In March, I raised my voice in support of women’s rights to access healthcare and you all helped raised your voices with me.
• And then we took on PETA, in April.
• And then I talked about infertility on my local news station for my birthday in May.
• I had a well-read summer starting in June.
• I had my first pitched piece published in July.
• August 1st, I made the big jump from Blogger to WordPress.
• We celebrated the first year of living in our house on September 3d.
• I was in REDBOOK Magazine on October 19th and then whisked off to Ireland for a week on the 20th.
• And then I quit my job and started a new business in November.

And now? On the brink of 2012?

I’m completely changing my business, the business model and plan, and just about everything associated with it. And yes, details are still forthcoming if only because I’m starting over from scratch. I can tell you this: major name change. Because honestly? Hannah Wept, Sarah Laughed is a mouthful. But I’ll just leave you with that tidbit for now 😉

Oh, and a bunch of other great stuff happened too, that I realized never really got written up.

My niece turned a year old. Larry got an amazing new job. He bought a Beamer! (Let me clarify: bought a 9-year old used BMW from a family friend. Honestly, we’re not snobs. I promise!) I got a Jetta. I started working for RESOLVE New England. We spent so many weekends fishing in Salem. We ate well (which reminds me, I have a savory write-up about our dinner at Menton to post…) and loved and laughed and just generally had a much better year than in recent years.

The Year of the Zoll has been a good one.

I thought I’d also use this time to highlight the Top 5 Most Read Posts of the Year here at Hannah Wept, Sarah Laughed:

1. I’m 0 Weeks and Craving a Baby: I wrote this post in response to the dumb Breast Cancer Awareness Facebook Meme and never expected it to get the reception it did. This was my number 1 most read post (7000+ views). Apparently, I really touched a nerve out there!
2. An Open Letter to PETA: This post proves to me that a) don’t mess with the infertiles and b) that we have tremendous power in numbers when we put our minds to it.
3. Why Does the Government Hate Women So Much? Technically another PETA post was my #3 post, but I just kind of lump them all together. This post was written when I was utterly exasperated with my government. As the MS Personhood Amendment battle and now the what, 3? 4? new personhood amendments proposed for 2012, we have a lot of hard work ahead of us.
4. Betraying the Community: My Response to the Theresa Erickson Scandal: A post written in complete shock, this post zoomed around the infertility professional community and I received many comments and emails from folks who felt just as duped. A sobering reminder the value of integrity.
5. Mommy’s Garden: A piece I had written to help tell the story of donor egg conception, I was amazed at how many comments and emails I received about it. I wrote it more for posterity to file away to use myself when the time came but it truly moved and touched a lot of people who read it.

So we’re about to say goodbye to the Year of the Zoll… but that doesn’t mean the fun has to stop.

2012 is going to be pretty damn awesome, as far as I’m concerned, end of the world on Larry’s 31st birthday be damned.

I mean, just look at the numbers: 2 0 1 2. Zol…z.

That’s right.

I predict 2012 will be the Year of the Zolz.

Here’s hoping that come next year, we’ll be able to add #3 to Team Zoll 🙂