| |
| Husband and I did Dorkmas today: we slept in, went to see Sherlock Holmes, had sushi at a nearby Japanese steakhouse, then went back to the theatre for Avatar. I was quietly hopeful about Sherlock Holmes. I'm not sure if any of you know, but it was one of my first fandoms, though one that I simply lurked in, I never wrote or anything. I love the stories, I love the characters, I love the Holmes and Watson repartee. So when it was first announced that RDJ would play Holmes, there was an outcry: wrong body type, etc. but I was still hopeful because I really like RDJ. Then I was hearing things about Holmes having "ninja skillz," and I worried a bit. Worry not friends, SHERLOCK HOLMES IS AWESOME! ( Cut for possible (very minor) spoilers. )- Mood:happy
| |
|
| 1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Had a baby, had 2 surgeries, stayed almost 2 weeks in a hospital, graduated university, moved out on my own
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
For the most part yes. I eliminated a lot of negative people and negativity from my life.
Also I wanted to stress out less and relax more. I don't think I was able to accomplish this very much because I gained so much responsibility this year.
3. How will you be spending New Year's Eve?
Not sure yet.
4. Did anyone close to you die?
no
5. What countries did you visit?
USA
6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
health, more intelligence, activity, closer friends
7. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
April 1st - Evan's Birth
August 18th - My gallbladder surgery
May 29th - My brothers Wedding
8. What was your biggest achievement(s) of the year?
Graduating from university, have a baby for sure, learning to say no a little easier.
9. What was your biggest failure?
not keeping myself healthy, consuming vast amounts of garbagey foods and gaining a LOT of weight.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
lots of illness. My gallbladder broke down, I nearly died of HELLP syndrome with Evan, I injured my back.
11. What was the best thing you bought?
honestly nothing really....beads? crafty stuffs?
12. Where did most of your money go?
more craft stuff that i really don't need. silly little pointless things that hold my attention for 5 seconds.
13. What song will always remind you of 2009?
I feel sad that I didn't get to listen to a lot of music. Blue Man group songs remind me of 2009 as well as crystal castles
14. What do you wish you'd done more of?
purging my junk, organizing my things, exercising, going to the beach,
15. What do you wish you'd done less of?
being very very very ill
complaining
EATING
sitting on the computer during the nice weather
16. What was your favorite TV program?
dog the bounty hunter :3
17. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Nope, I try not to hate anyone at all. Maybe extremely dislike, but never hate.
18. What was the best book you read?
Eat Pray Love, Child rearing texts. LOL
19. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Lady Gaga, Justice, Crystal Castles,
20. What was your favorite film of this year?
No clue.
21. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I did a whole lot of nothing with no body. And turned 26.
22. What kept you sane?
being obsessive compulsive
23. Who did you miss?
my grandma and grandpa vidal
24. Who was the best new person you met?
Cara, hands fucking down.
25. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
To eliminate those who are always negative or cause me drama
To not fret over stupid little things I cannot change
To realize that advice is only advice and the only person I ultimately have to listen to is ME
To begin to say no when people are using me.
What does 2010 hold for me?
I hope hope hope health. Growth for me and Evan, Maybe acceptance into the faculty of education? Something happy for my business...? New adventures at Barrier Bay and the new cabin, new friends, new creativity, new direction, and hopefully less chaos.
Now you all give it a try :) | |
|
| Merry Christmas to all my LJ friends who
celebrate!
Happy and blessed New Year to you all!
I am off to Christmas Eve dinner and church
services with my girlfriend in the East Village.
Tomorrow gifts and dinner at home with her family
on Christmas Day. then off to see my family
up near Rochester NY Saturday and return to NYC Wednesday.
New Years in NYC.
If I dont make it on LJ til the New Year hope you
all have a wonderful one! - Mood:happy
| |
|
| HUSBAND COMES HOME TODAY!!! I work from 1-5 at the store, and then drive out to the airport to pick him up. I'm so excited! Husband and I are having Dorkmas tomorrow. We are either going to... A.) Stay in bed all day and watch all three (extended) Lord of the Rings movies OR B.) Go to the theatre for a double-feature Avatar and Sherlock Holmes viewing, with probable lunch break. Sushi will hopefully be involved, but I'm also thinking that in the evening it might be nice to have some butterbeer and lembas bread. - Mood:dorky
| |
|
| For various reasons, I've really not had much to write about concerning my day-to-day. Life has been pleasantly uneventful. I've carved out this simplified Christmas with no decorations, very few cards going out, giving toward our community Giving Tree, and creating a lot of my gifts for family and friends. Christmas is still Christmas, but without a lot of the icons.
I have to think that a lot of the simplifying has to do with protection. I am no longer a daughter, yet I'm still someone's sister, wife, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, niece, aunt, granddaughter-in-law, friend, and coworker. Being all of that to so many is a true blessing, yet my heart will always quicken to realize that I'm otherwise on my own in most ways. That said, I chose to keep things tidy, this year.
It's a strange freedom, but talking about it--yes, even sharing it here, this morning--trips me up in my throat. Those of you who know me will be quick to say that I choose to be an open book. I still believe, and will always believe that being open is extremely healing. Healing, however, most likely takes a lifetime. Triggers are everywhere, and that's OK; yet I've filtered the triggers, this Christmas, and I rather like it this way. In the end, I'm rather nice and mellow about it all.
Ironic that I hold a very warm place for nostolgia, though, isn't it? In fact, without gushing about my latest turn with where I'm going with jewelry, I'll simply say that those kinds of icons--the ones that I manipulate with my fingers--warm me straight down to my toes. And I must admit that my house IS littered with those sorts of icons, these days, and as long as I don't drop too many sharp-edged bits on the floor, Wayne's toes remain warm and content, as well.
Now.....as we usher in Christmas, let's not forget that because of my Savior's birth, we are never truly alone. I hope and pray that if Christmas is a holiday that you celebrate--if the Reason for the holiday (forgetting all about the arguements regarding true dates for Christ's birth aside) is true for you, that you will keep your heartlight aglow and growing. Share His love; share His message. It's an icon that's always in season.
| |
|
| Time for one of those Year In Review posts, huh? The beginning of the year saw me, my then-fiance/now-husband John, and our friends Mark and Cassandra set out from St. Augustine, Florida and drive up to Washington D.C. to meet our friends Tina and Aaron, and to attend the Inauguration of President Barack Obama. It was epic. I wrote about it for LJ Idol. We froze our asses off; I can only explain my grin by saying this was approaching hour 36 with no sleep and hour 24 with no food and I was clearly delusional. In March, Tina and Aaron got married in Florida. John officiated, and it was awesome. Love those kids! Afterward, I noticed that one of the tissue paper decorations matched my dress, and turned it into a hat. In April, John graduated with his Bachelor's in Physics. This is me, him, and his mom, who is totally fierce and fabulous. We look so Floridian in our sunglasses. In May, after the requisite months of insane planning, John and I got married. It was mega-awesome. I had a Star Trek communicator (my father's) pinned to my bouquet and everything. After that, we left for our honeymoon in New Orleans and ate ourselves silly and had a really good time listening to jazz, going on a walking tour, and visiting the aquarium. Unfortunately, John's father went into the hospital with a heart attack a few days after we left, and with the help of some amazing friends, we were able to get a flight home early to be with him. The month that followed is far too exhausting to recap, but I wrote about it here. On June 17th, he passed away. This is a picture of him and John from our wedding.  in July, my baby brother got married, capping the Year of the Wedding. It was totally adorable, and the most "traditional" of the three major weddings of 2009. Afterwards, John and I pretty much fell off the face of the earth, as we had only until September to complete the massive clean-up and preliminary renovations of the Campbell house. And I'm not talking about fancy-pants "onyx countertops and gold-plated refrigerator" renovations. I'm talking "holy shit, there are FIVE holes in the roof and it's hurricane season," renovations. There were "he's saved every piece of junk mail since 1985," levels of hoarding. Like...I don't have the words to describe the sheer scale of the task which John, myself, his mom, his stepfather, and a handful of close friends took on this summer. I quit my job at Walmart partly to take care of this family business, and partly because they gave me a hard time about going on personal leave when Mr. Campbell went into hospice care. John and I snuck away to Disney for a weekend to "finish the honeymoon" and prevent complete mental and emotional collapse at some point. Honestly, those months are a blur of meetings with lawyers and contractors, sifting through piles of papers, hundreds of phone calls, eating whatever was placed in front of us, and collapsing into bed afterwards. In the midst of this, I came to realize that I was an atheist. Though I broke spiritual ties with my religious group, I maintain ties of friendship and love with people I met through my involvement in various religions and spiritual paths. "Coming out," as an atheist, however, was a trying experience and I dealt with some private fallout. In September, we moved to Columbus, where John is attending OSU's graduate physics program. I started classes at Columbus State Community College and rediscovered my love of science. I'm intending on a Zoology degree, though genetics is an equally fascinating field. At the moment, I'm finding myself fascinated with marine invertebrates, though who knows where I'll be headed in another year or two. I also started writing short fiction and am in the midst of my first several SF/F short stories and a potential SF novel/novella idea. I just finally said no to fear, especially since I realize that I have quite a bit of shoddy work to get out of my system and I'm not getting any younger. (I turned 26 in December.) This fall, I also interviewed one of my favorite authors, Caitlin R. Kiernan ( ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) greygirlbeast ) for Constellation Magazine, and I don't think I made a drooling fangirl idiot of myself, either. Before school started, John and I went to the Creation Museum, which I wrote about here. Also, I rode the Triceratops. 
In October, I got my job at White House/Black Market, which is about 500% more fun than I thought it was going to be. I've never worked part-time before, and it's been wonderful, especially since I took 17 credit hours my first quarter at school. I've also never worked with a group of all-women before, and I was nervous. I feel I am, essentially, a boy-like construct and I'm always nervous about interacting with large groups of women. ("They will sniff me out and know that I am not one of them! Danger! Retreat!") But my coworkers are so awesome and kind, and I actually like my job.
The remaining few months of the year have been taken up with school work, work, trying to write, and getting adjusted to a new city and schedule. I have a lot of hopeful plans for the new year, and a lot of exciting classes to take, and maybe even some travel if we can squeeze it in to our academic schedules.
So, yeah, 2009 was a mixed bag of wonderful and terrible, of losing and gaining the same 10 pounds roughly 3 times, and of the abrupt beginning of a whole new way of life. But, you know: I've got rhythm, I've got music, I've got my guy, and who could ask for anything more?
- Mood:contemplative
| |
|
| Shamefully I have to admit that 90% of my presents this year are store-bought.
I'm sorry!
I've just been so busy with my new, busy, exciting, stressful, full on, adventure-full job and moving into my new digs that I just haven't had time to make any handmade gifts.
But there is one person who'll be receiving a handmade present this year.
These handmade, hand embroidered Link slippers are for the "S2BDIL" (soon to be daughter-in-law!) of a good friend of mine.
You might remember I made some last year, well it's always good to go and revisit old projects and I'm really happy with slippers v2.0.
This time I played around with some vinyl for the soles - This time I tried a vinyl sole - it's got lots of grip on smooth surfaces (no lino skating with these!) but is durable enough for quick outdoor dashes to the rubbish bin/mailbox.
What handmade gifts have you made this year? | |
|
| Had a blessed and quiet, reflective Yule
last night and enjoyed the energy of the
Winter Solstice. Always lovely and peaceful.
Christmas shopping in the Greenwich Village
at lunch was fun and even bought a new journal
to write in for the new year for myself as a
gift. This coming year I intend to be more
loving and compassionate to myself as I am
to others.
Still a lot of snow on the ground.
Restless at my last days at work like
a school girl waiting for Christmas
vacation. Hope tomorrow will be a slow
day at work so we get out early! Then no
work til January 4th for me-vacation! :) - Mood:restless
| |
|
| The snow finally arrived in NYC Saturday
during the day and lots of it! While we
were selling our yummy gluten free cupcakes
at the Brooklyn food market it was already
snowing and beautiful going home. I was happy
to spend Sunday a bit lazy and warm at home.
The market was really fun selling as well as
meeting and trying other homemade food people.
Today is Yule and Winter Solstice and am
enjoying the energy and look forward to
solitary ritual and meditation tonight.
I feel positive and happy as the promise
of the sun's return is upon us and the light
in the world! I feel I have let go and rid
my life of a lot of baggage and negativity
this year. I feel more healed, light, and hopeful
then I have in many years. my heart feels more
open again and light filters in.
I am so looking forward to a long vacation. Wednesday
should be a half work day and after that I have off
until January 4th of the new year!
Bright Yule Blessings and Happy Winter Solstice to
my LJ friends who celebrate! :) - Mood:contemplative
| |
|
| Where is the best place to purchase kawaii cute stuffs that is NOT on etsy. Thanks for any help ladies! | |
|
| Again, thank you all for your coupon offers to upgrade to a paid account. I accepted one and hated to have to decline the other that was directly sent to me, but thank you ALL the same.
While I'm still doing the Blogspot Boogie, I will continue to enjoy all the fruits offered with a paid GracedLace account. Cooooolz. | |
|
| You know the problem with Christmas crafting? You can't post it until post-Christmas, lest you ruin your surprises. Aargh.
Nose, meet grindstone. - Mood:busy
| |
|
| At any rate: That little somethin'-somethin' that I referred to at Blogspot?
Stay tuned for a how-to (if you require one, that is).
That, as well as the backstory, to come later.
 | |
|
| - New laser gun icon. Pew! Pew! - Husband left Wednesday for a sojourn to Florida. He returns Christmas Eve. I miss him. - It has snowed a bit. The world outside my kitchen door is sugar-frosted. - The ongoing probate clusterfuck may be resolving itself soon, which would be amazing since it will only have taken 6-7 months of unspeakable bureaucracy. - Why I need to check NASA's website more often: Amelia Earhart's watch will accompany astronaut and pilot Shannon Walker into space next year. "Recognizing the significance of Earhart’s watch going into space with her, Walker says she is “very excited and honored to fly the watch” and hopes “that by flying the watch people will become interested in the continuing story of women in aviation, and perhaps draw some new pilots to the field.” Badass! - It is tiresome to have to repeatedly point out that Baby Jesus is supposed to be an all-powerful sky-God and as such, I'm sure he does not need the most powerful people in the most powerful country on this planet raising a butthurt stink over whether or not people wish each other a happy 2,009th birthday on his behalf. *sigh* For serious, humanity, grow the fuck up. I long for the day when the most pressing "concern" in this world is how the 78 year old Walmart greeter acknowledges you as you scurry in to buy tampons and a flatscreen, but that day is not today. - On a related note: an Asheville, North Carolina city councilman may face a lawsuit because he is an atheist. "When Bothwell was sworn into office on Monday, he used an alternative oath that doesn't require officials to swear on a Bible or reference "Almighty God."That has riled conservative activists, who cite a little-noticed quirk in North Carolina's Constitution that disqualifies officeholders "who shall deny the being of Almighty God." *face fucking palm* - Amanda Palmer posted an awesome vlog of a song she wrote about her thoughts on pop music, Lady Gaga, and art. It's totally brilliant, on-point, and I love this dame.
- These are my current (fiction) library books:
The Orphan's Tales: In the Night Garden by Catherynne Valente (aka yuki_onna ). I actually already finished this one and it was totally, mind-blowingly amazing. I am now very cross that I did not pick up the second volume, In the Cities of Coin and Spice, while I was at the library. This is the kind of book that I wish I had as a little girl, like whoa. I think I am sort of having second girlhood lately through all these books and media that I so desperately needed, like, 18 years ago. The heroes in Valente's tales are women, and yet it does not suffer from the sort of "conscientious feminism" that mars a lot of works of that sort, which are so self-aware of how they are bending the trope that they get in the way of the actual story. ItNG sucks you in effortlessly, its characters are detailed and flawed, and above all it tells the truth. Children of God by Mary Doria Russell. This is the sequel to The Sparrow, a book that reached into my chest and sucker-punched me in the heart. My ventricles are still bruised. I haven't started this one yet, but I'm looking forward to it. Anathem by Neal Stephenson. This is one of those that I picked up thinking "I suppose it is my duty to read this author" as I am peeking my head under the circus tent that encapsulates sci fi, fantasy, speculative fiction, and an array of various -punks and -streams. I've been curious about this book whenever I see it in stores, not the least because it's 1,000 pages long. Yet, one Amazon review said that it takes 200 pages to get to the main plot, which filled me with quiet despair. I'm about 20 pages in at the moment, 10 of which have been describing a single building, my hand to God. Husband claims that I've already resolved to hate it, so now I must prove him wrong. I will love this book if it kills me. The concept of math-monks intrigues me, so hopefully I just need to be a brave little soldier for 200 pages (you know, 2/3 of a standard novel...) and then slide into 800 pages of speculative fiction win. - Mood:geeky
| |
|
| Very sleepy today and thankful
it is Friday. Im ready for the
weekend and preparing for Winter
Solstice/Yule here Monday.
Tomorrow Ill be doing the food
market with my gf-a holiday themed
one which should be fun. Making
cupcakes and cookies tonight all
gluten, egg, and dairy free. I eat
only gluten free myself.
Sunday I plan to have an art day-work
on my painting and some spiritual
study as well as get ready for Yule.
Did some holiday shopping at lunch today.
Got some of my online purchases delivered
as well. Almost done with shopping and glad
to be ahead this year.
Happy Weekend! :) - Mood:tired
| |
|
| While I'm planning to make this a paid account (and thank you to dear friends who have sent me coupons--I'll get back to you, personally), I decided to dust off my Blogspot and put it back out there. Today's writing is something that I'd planned to write over here, but I ended up writing it over there. Walk this way.......... If you are also a Blogspot peep, follow me. I'll be sure to follow you! ♥ | |
|
| Last week i had the strangest dream
Where everything was exactly how it seemed
Where there never any mystery on who shot john f kennedy
It was just a man with something to prove
Slightly bored and severely confused
He steadied his rifle with his target in the center
And became famous on that day in november
Dont wake me i plan on sleeping
Dont wake me i plan on sleeping in
Dont wake me i plan on sleeping
Dont wake me i plan on sleeping in
And then last night i had that strange dream
Where everything was exactly how it seemed
Where concerns about the world getting warmer
The people thought they were just being rewarded
For treating others as they like to be treated
For obeying stop signs and curing diseases
For mailing letters with the address of the sender
Now we can swim any day in november
Dont wake me i plan on sleeping
(now we can swim any day in november)
Dont wake me i plan on sleeping in
Dont wake me i plan on sleeping
Dont wake me i plan on sleeping in
Dont wake me i plan on sleeping in
Dont wake me i plan on sleeping | |
|
| Sleepy and cold winter evening.
Going to enjoy a hot cup of coffee
and listen to my monthly teleclass.
I got a few wonderful cozy wintry
Christmas time mystery books from
the library and will be really enjoying
them this time of year.
Work was very busy so happy to be
home tonight. Also starting to be great
evening bubble bath with candlelight
at night weather. - Mood:sleepy
| |
|
| If you recall my elk teeth project, you'll remember that I selected one tooth for wire wrapping. To that, I added a beautiful 14k gold chain.
But what to do about the other teeth? My mother-in-law had wanted me to see if I could dangle a few from the center of a necklace, yet these ivory nuggets weren't drilled with holes, and wire wrapping a cluster of them just didn't seem visually appealing. I was practically ready to call in a good dentist.
Thank goodness for Vintaj beadcaps and E6000 adhesive! Alas, this was my first project in which I've used adhesive, but I believe that I've managed to create something wearable in the process. Besides that, if I can get my father-in-law to eventually pare down a tooth or two for smaller settings, I will feel ready to have a go at that.
At any rate, all dentition deserves the best of caps or crowns, if such a treatment is in order.
Vintaj brass beadcaps, Swarovski bicones in burgundy, and elk ivory:  | |
|
| Warmed up to 50s today and then going back
to colder 30s tonight. I have been embracing
my need to be more quiet and introspective this
week in preparation for the Winter Solstice and
Yule. I have been feeling the need to be more
restful as well and a bit more tired as we
are in the dark time of year. I also feel very
creative.
Last night I watched one of my favorite annual
holiday time films Little Women with Winona Ryder
and Gabriel Byrne. Just love that movie. It is
poetic and romantic and a lovely film in the
19th century period. I always loved the novel
as well by Louisa May Alcott. I always felt most
connected to Jo...her desire to be a writer and a
bit of a non traditional woman during her time.
I always feel inspired by her character in my
own creativity.
Tonight will be a night of crafting and just
enjoying this quiet winter period. - Mood:creative
| |
|
| OK, so the bio blogs are all blowing up with this this morning. Off the coast of Indonesia, the veined octopus is picking up coconut shells that have washed down to the ocean, and making little fortressess out of them and using them as armor. It's cool all on its own, but when you factor in that this is the first reported instance of tool-use among invertebrates...it's pretty damn AWESOME! This link from Ed Yong's blog clarifies: The trio (Julian Finn, Tom Tregenza and Mark Norman) suggest that the octopus uses coconut shells as bona fide tools. Many invertebrates, such as hermit crabs, shelter in shells but they do so permanently. The octopus, however, gains no protection from its shells whatsoever when it carries them around in the stilt-walking fashion. The shells' benefits lie in the fact that they can be quickly deployed as a makeshift fortress. The fact that the octopus picks up the coconuts for later use suggests a more complicated intellect at work. | |
|
| LJ user rep kylecassidy reports on his blog re: the LJ user profile gender issue: 1) There are NO plans to make users specify gender in their profiles. The current options are "male/female/unspecified," this will remain.
2) The rumor started because on the current LJ BETA version (being tested now by some users) a programming error made the field mandatory, the same programming also broke profile editing. Users reported the bug to LJ and they are fixing the code along with other bugs people are discovering. So, this is good news. In other news, I've just gotten up because I am officially on a lazy-ass vacation schedule. Will have to do something about that tomorrow, though, as I work much better in the mornings... - Mood:awake
| |
|
| |
