Allison's Wonderland

2011 Has been an absolutely wonderful year. I definitely can't complain. Although its been a great year, there have been negative points along the road. Last year I posted 5 things that I wanted to accomplish in 2011. They were:
1. Move out of my Hometown 2. Lose weight 3. Finish my Master’s Degree 4. Make the trek to Ireland. 5. Land a job I actually enjoy. I must say I've done pretty good. I accomplished 4 out of 5. The only one I didn't accomplish was finishing that Master's Degree. I was only three classes away, but when you feel like you're just wasting your time, well then, you might as well quit.

2011 was wonderful for many reasons. I got to go to Ireland, Italy, Bermuda, Texas and Mississippi where I saw some of the most beautiful antebellum homes. I was also able to see Britney Spears, Katy Perry, One Republic, The Legwarmer's, Josh Radin, Pete Yorn, Jason Derulo, Sara Bareilles, Jack's Mannequin, and Matt Kearney in concert. I was able to take my best friend to see Niagara Falls for the first time for July fourth which was so flippin fun. I quit my job and moved to Italy. I had some amazing times with my best gills where we ran around and jumped in fountains and had Finer Things Club. I also had a wonderful girls weekend with my family on Bald Head Island. I also got to see the show "Wicked" for the first time in Richmond which was OUT OF THIS WORLD although I kinda had crappy seats. I went White Water Rafting down the Lower Gauley which was also on my Bucket List. My favorite and most exciting thing for the year was meeting my brand new niece Raeleigh. She's probably one of my most favorite people in the world besides my Grandmother.

On New Year's Eve me and a couple of the other girls here went down to Mondovi and got supplies for dinner from La Famila. We then made dinner in my apartment which consisted of lots and lots of veggies. Two of the girls are vegetarian so that's what we decided on. I like vegetables, but I need some meat in my life! While turning on the oven, something flipped and we blew a fuse. I hit the little button to make everything return to normal and that didn't work. So I ran upstairs to try and find someone who knew what to do and I ran into Ronaldo (Simona's Dad). He came in and did the exact same thing I did. To no avail we were still in the dark. So we get some candles from upstairs and start cutting up veggies by candlelight. So romantic. Ha! After about 45 minutes in the dark Gian stops by and fixes the lights. YEAH! After dinner we got all dressed up to go and headed down to the Conga. We ended up welcoming the New Year right by the Pist in a side parking lot watching the fireworks with a beautiful view of Cuneo's lights in the valley. It was pretty sweet. AUGURI we all shouted which in Italian means "Best Wishes". I will admit that I might have stopped to pee on the side of the mountain. Hopefully no one saw me from their balconies! Yikes! :)

The Conga was having a big concert, so all four of us girls headed that way. We got into the middle of this like mash pit type thing and were jumping up and down to the music. It was pretty fun. I started getting that claustrophobic feeling though in the pit of my stomach being stuck in a wall of people. I was kinda of glad that Jess G. started feeling sick because she pulled us all out of there to get a breath of fresh air. Whew. Relief. There's been some type of terrible sickness going around Prato that consists of vomiting and diarrhea. Not fun. We ended up dancing the night away at Snow Fever and it ended up being a pretty sweet night. No complaints here.

Happy NEW YEAR! Hopefully this year will be as great as the last. I'm still working on my New Year's Resolutions for the year, but I'm not quite ready to commit to a few. We'll see. :)