Day 31 - The End!/New Year's Eve

The apartment is clean, the dishes are done, the jello shots are in the fridge. I'm ready for 2011! This is my final post of 2010 and of BEDD! It will be short but sweet because I still need to get dressed (lol!)

I spent the day tidying the apartment, getting ready for tonight. Tyler and I are having a couple of friends over to ring in the New Year. No crazy party (not even close to how many people we had in here on Halloween), just a couple people getting together.

I'm relieved that BEDD is over. It wasn't the way I expected it to be. I'm planning on still blogging fairly regularly, but looking forward to not having to force myself to at the end of every day.

I have some ideas in mind for a couple of topical blogs, blogs that will be more thought out than the mess that has been this last month. I hope you all enjoy them.

Happy New Year and thanks to everyone for reading!

Day 30 - Goodbye 2010

Last year, around New Year's, I wrote a post called Goodbye 2009, it listed off some of the things that I did in 2009 and some goals for 2010. Looking back at it, it's shocking to realize that I actually accomplished some of these things!

"I'm going to be taking a sign language class with my friend Amy (hopefully - I have to make sure that they'll still let me register!). I plan on completely editing my novel (from nanowrimo) in the next few months. If I get it done by July 1st they will send me a free paperback copy of it."

I actually did those things! I finished my novel and ordered my free copy (it came out pretty cool looking too!). I finished levels one and two of ASL and had fun doing it. The next class is coming up soon (in the next few weeks). I don't think I really feel up to doing it, but I probably will end up going, just to get it over with.

Some of my other goals were: graduate, move out and start planning my wedding. I only did one of those things. I have made progress on the graduating part though, I am almost done and I'm hoping to finish it completely by my birthday at the end of January. Tyler and I moved out on October first into an awesome apartment. It has been great but definitely an adjustment to what we were used to before. And the wedding...Obviously there were some setbacks on that this year, but I would like to start thinking about a date again soon.

So what have I accomplished this year?

I finished Holding Hands (my 2009 Nanowrimo novel)

I started another novel (tentatively titled Under Ground) and completed more than 50,000 words during the month of November

I completed levels one and two of ASL and got good grades :)

I moved out with Tyler

I flew to Georgia all by myself

Made the decision to take my cat back to my mom's house (and then somehow ended up taking in a kitten less than a week later)

Probably read even more books than the 90 that I estimated for last year

Hosted my first party on Halloween

It doesn't seem like much, but this was a good year. This year was the hardest year of my life. I went through some of the toughest stuff that I've ever dealt with before. But I got through it. I learned a lot about myself, how much I can take and how much I am willing to take. I realize now that I am a strong person.

I'm glad that I went through everything that I did this year though. It changed me and it changed my relationship with Tyler. For the better. Tyler and I are so good now, so strong and I am so so happy. I am so glad that I made the choices that I did and I have no regrets.

What do I want to do it 2011? I dunno, I think I'm just going to live it one day at a time and see where the wind takes me.

Day 29 - Repeat?

I think I accidentally wrote yesterday down as Day 29 as well, oh well!

So Tyler and I were tidying up the apartment tonight and decided to take all of the Christmas decorations down. I was going to wait until New Year's or after to do it, but since we're probably having people over on New Year's, I figured it was time for it to come down.

We set up our new microwave (which works perfectly! The plate spins so fast and smoothly! Thanks mom and Claudio!) and our new lamp. The lamp that Lisa and Matt got us...I don't know where they got it or how much it cost but it looks like a million bucks! I said to Tyler, now we have this fancy lamp and microwave, everything else in our apartment suddenly looks very shabby!

This lamp is seriously awesome though. It is a big tall lamp with the shade and lightbulb at the top, but it also has a small reading light that comes off the side. If we point it at the window, the reading light alone is enough to light up the whole balcony! I will be able to read outside so much easier from now on! Love it!

Surprisingly it's nice to have the Christmas tree and everything else down. The apartment suddenly seems bigger. It's awesome. I'm hoping that Tyler can get the Christmas stuff down to the storage locker tomorrow so we can get it out of the living room before Friday night.

Anyway, I'm outta here! G'night!

Day 28 - Ugh

I am so freaking sick of going to the dentist, you have no idea. I have seriously been there five or six times in the last few months. Every other week I have an appointment at the dentist. My next one is at the end of January, I'm supposed to be getting a crown put on one of my teeth. I am probably going to cancel it soon though because I can't really afford the almost four hundred bucks that it would cost me.

Today I had two cavities filled. The were both on the right side, one on the top and one on the bottom. They used so much freezing! I was seriously frozen for like five hours. I wasn't frozen nearly that long when I had my wisdom teeth out! On the other hand, I didn't feel a thing!

Before I went to the dentist, I finally went to Value Village to buy work pants. They didn't have much but I did manage to get a pair of black pants for work, a pair of jeans and two nice shirts.

After all that was done I went to my mom's for our Christmas get-together. I hope everyone liked what I got them, I know I like what I got! My mom gave us a microwave!!! She also gave us some casserole dishes and a circular glass dish for baking stuff in the oven (I don't know what it's called...). Lisa and Matt gave us a gorgeous pole lamp and she gave me a cool wrap sweater thingy.

The food was awesome (as always) even though I had to chew carefully and drink through a straw (the right side of my mouth and a good chunk of my face were still very frozen at this point). I love going to my mom's too so that I can see my Tiny. I miss her sometimes!

Anyway, I'm off to bed, have to work at 9!

Day 27 - Post Christmas Laziness

Does anyone else not feel like doing anything? Seriously, nothing at all? I don't know if it's because I had to work Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, but I just don't feel up to doing anything. Christmas is supposed to be a break from everything and I guess since it was only one day for me this year, it just didn't feel like that at all.

I didn't feel like being at work yesterday or today. I don't feel like doing laundry or making my bed. I didn't feel like putting the gift bags away or doing to dishes (but I at least did those two!). I don't feel like putting away all of the new stuff that we have now (I did put away at least half of it though). I don't feel like putting the board games back in the very top of the closet or cleaning out my old purse.

I'm looking around and there are a million things that I could be doing right now, but you know what I want to do? I want to sit down and watch I'll Be Home For Christmas with Jonathon Taylor Thomas, so that's what I'm going to do.

The rest of it can wait until tomorrow for once.

Day 26 - Risk

I bought Tyler the board game Risk for Christmas - awesome we love it! The only problem is, we were a little rusty on the rules and the instructions that came with the new version that we have now are very confusing and try to explain the three "new" ways to play all at the same time.

I googled more detailed rules and found a very interesting wikipedia article (linked to the title). I found the rules, most of which were familiar and some of which we didn't know existed. This wasn't the most interesting thing that I found. The most interesting part of the page was the list of all of the different versions of Risk.

The game came out in 1957 and was originally called La Conquête du Monde (The Conquest of the World) and since then there have been a whole lot of different limited edition and collectors versions. These include more than one Star Wars and Lord of the Rings versions. There is also one that is Ancient Greece where all of the territories are from Greek Mythology. There is one called "Castle Risk" where each player is guarding a castle rather than individual territories.

I think the coolest ones, and the ones that I would like to get are Risk Junior: Narnia and Risk 2210 AD. The Narnia one is based on the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The other one is a futuristic map that includes moon territories and water territories.

Tyler and I love this game and will definitely be looking into getting these other versions. If anyone has like...eight hours of spare time, feel free to come over and play!

Day 25 - Merry Christmas!

Totally short blog tonight. It's been a long day and I am exhausted. It's also 2am and I have to work at 9 tomorrow.

Today was awesome, as Christmas always is. The best thing about this year is how spread out Christmas has been for me. I've been listening to Christmas music and doing baking for the last few weeks so that felt Christmassy to me. I also spent time with my family when my dad was up last weekend and then time with Tyler's grandparents and the rest of his family yesterday and then dinner with my family tonight. We also still have a Christmas get together with my mom on Tuesday night.

Tyler put a lot of thought into the gifts that he got me this year. My stocking was full of candy and hair elastics (which I definitely needed!). He got me a gorgeous purple housecoat that I absolutely love. He also bought us a Nintendo Wii that came with Wii Sports and Super Mario. It's awesome, I know I'll love it even though I haven't really had time to play it yet. I think my favourite thing of all of the gifts that he got me though were the necklace and earrings that he bought me. He said that when he went out he was looking for diamonds. He got me amethysts instead! I love them, the amethyst studs and necklace are very me :)

I bought Tyler the board game Risk, I know he has been wanting it forever. Lisa and Matt came over and we played it. We actually didn't even finish it, we would have been here all night if we had!

Anyway, good night everyone! I hope your Christmases were as awesome as mine. :)

Day 24 - Christmas Christmas Christmas!

Ok, so it's actually officially Christmas now even though this blog is for Day 24, I got home late!

I love the Christmas season. I love remembering the story of the birth of Christ and listening to the hymns and carols all through December. It helps me to remember the real reason that we all celebrate at this time of year.

I think that most about Christmas though I love spending time with my family and the good moods of all of the people around me. Today, at work, it was so busy. By all accounts it should have been a terrible day, but it wasn't. Everyone was in such a good mood, all of the staff and all of the customers too. It was great.

After work I went to Tyler's grandmother's house. This is the sixth year that I've been there for Christmas Eve and I love it. They have always made me feel so welcome and it is always a good time being there and seeing all of them.

After that we went back to Tyler's parents to exchange gifts with them and with Brittany since we won't be seeing them on Christmas day. That was fun too, we all just sat around chatting and watching TV.

I also delivered some gingerbread today, I hope that all of the people that got some enjoy it!

Merry Christmas!

Day 23 - Fresh Prince of Bel - Air

Is it just me or is The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air the best show of all time? Seriously I don't care if it's twenty years old and no one even watches it anymore. It's the best ever.

The entire cast is so hilarious, especially Will Smith and the guys who play Uncle Phil, Geoffry and Carlton. The jokes are classic, the clothes are so 90s and it's awesome!

Tyler and I have the first three seasons on DVD. Last night Tyler unhooked the cable wire in the living room and put it in the bedroom so we could watch TV in there. Rather than hook the cable back up while I was icing my cookies I just threw Fresh Prince in and watched eight episodes in a row.

One of the other things that I love about this show are the serious episodes. Most episodes are absolutely hilarious and are just full of jokes one after the other. There are a couple of episodes though that are so serious and so sad that they will make you bawl, like the one where Will accidentally gives Carlton drugs. Oh man! It's amazing that the cast of this show can switch from one to the other so easily.

I could (and do!) watch this show for hours. I think it is one of the greatest shows ever and it is definitely my favourite!

Day 22 - Resting and the Novel

I am so excited for Christmas! I am also quite excited for it to be over. I feel like I have been going non-stop for the last two weeks or so and I'm looking forward to a well-deserved rest afterwards.

Between decorating, shopping, wrapping, baking and running around like a chicken with its head cut off, I feel like I haven't had much time to do the things that I actually want to do. I haven't written a word of my novel since I hit 50,000 at the end of November.

To be honest I'm looking forward to Christmas and BEDD being over so I can get back into my writing. I'm glad I took this break from it though, it makes me even more excited to get back to it. The characters and the story are still fresh in my mind, but not so deeply engraved that I can't think of anything else the way they were in November.

I feel like I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with this novel so far. I feel like the concept is good, I'm happy with the way the plot is going. On the other hand, I'm worried that there wasn't enough character development at the beginning. I don't think you really get to know my two secondary characters until to far into the story. I also feel like it jumps around a lot. There are boring parts and then there are action! parts, I need to work on the stuff that's in between.

I haven't decided yet how I'm going to tackle my novel yet once January gets here. I don't know if I should go through what I have written so far and try to fix all of that or if I should just keep pushing through until the end and then go back and fix it after. I think it will probably be easier to finish it and they go back and edit it all at once. On the other hand the crap that is in what I have written so far could drive me insane before I am able to finish.

Any suggestions?

Day 21 - Gingerbread, Gingerbread, Gingerbread

The gingerbread that my mom and I made last year.

I can't tell you how glad I am that gingerbread is a Christmas cookie and that this is the only time of year that I have to make it! Don't get me wrong, I love gingerbread, everyone that I know loves gingerbread and it is totally worth it to make it. It is just such a time-consuming cookie to make.

First you have to make the dough, then chill it for four hours. Then you have to roll it and cut it and bake it. Then you have to wait for the cookies to completely cool. Then you have to make the icing with milk, icing sugar and food colouring. Then you have to ice all of the cookies and leave them laid out so the icing can harden. The whole process seriously takes at least ten hours.

This year I am making three batches of gingerbread for various people. Tyler and I don't have a lot of money, but we do have all of the ingredients to make gingerbread. Some people are getting gingerbread for Christmas or as part of their Christmas gift this year.

The first batch that I made I did all in one day last week. This batch was given to my mom, Tyler's dad, Catherine and Lisa. This week I am making two batches to give to my grandparents and aunts and uncles and Tyler's grandparents and aunts and uncles. Instead of doing it all in one day though I am going to spread these two batches over three days.

I made the two sets of dough tonight and I'm going to leave them in the fridge over night. Tomorrow night I am going to cut and bake all of it. On Thursday I am going to ice all if it so that it is ready to go on Christmas Eve when we go to Tyler's grandparent's house.

I love baking and I love eating cookies, it certainly can be time-consuming though!

Day 20 - The Vlogbrothers

A lot of people probably don't know that I am addicted to watching youtube videos, especially Vlogbrothers videos. The Vlogbrothers are John and Hank Green (brothers who live across the country from each other) who started posting daily vlogs back and forth to each other in 2007. The challenge was that they would eliminate all kinds of 'textual' communication between each other and only communicate through the vlogs (or on the phone). If they did accidentally communicate through text, they would be punished by having to do something awful as voted for by their fans.

The year was a huge success and they gained so many fans that they decided to keep vlogging. John is an author and Hank is a musician who has released four albums, but youtube is their fulltime job now. These brothers don't just make silly videos back and forth though. Their videos are fun and informative. They are also hugely involved in charity.

From the beginning they have used the community (the nerdfighters) to raise money for various things. One of these things is the Uncultured Project. Their friend Shawn went to Bangladesh and John and Hank and the community raised funds for him to go and to help the people there. Shawn posted his own youtube videos to show the donors how their money was being used.

The Vlogbrothers also teamed up with the Harry Potter Alliance after the disaster in Haiti. These two groups, along with many others, managed to raised almost $125,000. This was enough money to send five fully loaded planes to Haiti to help the people there.

If those things weren't incredible enough, the Vlogbrothers did something even bigger. They started the Project for Awesome. The P4A started in their first year and was practically a hacking of youtube. The Vlogbrothers and their fans each made videos about their favourite charity and posted them to youtube at the same time on the same day. Each video had the same P4A thumbnail. The nerdfighters then spent the day all over youtube commenting, watching and favouriting other P4A videos. This made these videos all get to the top of the most watched list and all over the front page of youtube.

They have done the Project for Awesome every year since and it has just gotten bigger and bigger. This year they had huge support from youtube and did a fancy live show the whole day. They ran a raffle with a lot of awesome prizes from other youtubers. Some of the prizes included guitars from youtube musicians, signed copies of John's books, a copy of an original, never-to-be published book by John, having Hank's next able named after you, Dan Brown's crocs, tshirts signed by youtubers, Shay Carl's beard and so much more. Each different prize can be one by buying a ticket. Each ticket is bought by making a donation to the charity of that youtubers' choice. The raffle is not over yet and they have already raised $130,000.

I think it is so incredible. When youtube first started a couple of years ago, it was really just a place where people went to watch music videos or movie trailers or clips of kittens doing silly things. I think it's so awesome that these people are using their fame and this website to do something so awesome.

Anyone that reads this, I highly suggest you go to youtube and search for the Vlogbrothers!

Day 19 - Fail

So I didn't post a blog yesterday...I guess I'll have to post two today! I was exhausted yesterday and passed out on the couch watching TV really early. I staggered into bed a couple of hours later without stopping at the computer to write. So this will be blog one of the day.

Most of my computer time over the last few days has been spent looking for free books to put on my Sony Reader. I haven't bought any yet, but I have found a fair amount for free. I got Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Anne of Green Gables, Dracula, Grimm's Fairytales and a couple of other classics. I also found some on the Borders website that are new, but still free for some reason. The one I'm reading right now is called Bury Me in a Borrowed Suit. I'm about twenty pages in and is pretty good but a little strange.

I also went to the library's website, because you can actually borrow e-books right from the site. I'm a little unclear on exactly how it works. I tried to borrow a couple of books and the site told me that it would email me when the books were available. I didn't think I would have to wait for them, it's just a computer file, why would I have to wait for other people to finish reading them before I can? I dunno, I'll have to wait until they email me to figure it out totally.

I've looked through Google Books and the Borders website and I have about twenty free books so far. Yahoo has free books that you can get too so I think I'm going to head over their now to see what they have that the other two don't.

Blog #2 will be up later on!

Day 18 - Amazing Day

Today was an awesome day. I had to work 11 to 5 and that wasn't so awesome, but I don't even want to talk about that because the rest of the day was so awesome!

Right after work Lisa and Matt picked us up and took us to my Uncle Dan and Monica's new house in Stoney Creek for my Grandad's eightieth birthday party. We ate lasagna for dinner (so simple but so good!) and had cake and ice cream for dessert.

After that my Grandad opened his presents and Lisa and I exchanged gifts with my Dad and Catherine. Catherine loved the bird house and the bird feeder that we got her. My Dad also really liked what we got him. Lisa and I have been talking about it for a while, but we finally got it for him this year. We got a star named for him.

We didn't name it after him though, we named it Fred. When Lisa and I were little, we used to complain because we didn't have a brother. One day my Dad announced that we did have a little brother, his name was Fred and he lived in the closet. It became sort of a family joke, this brother that lived in the closet. My parents had to feed him flat things like ham and toast that they could slide under the door. So anyway, we named this star Fred after our nonexistent brother.

My Dad got me a Sony Ereader! It's a small electronic thing that can hold like 2000 books. It's awesome! The books range from free (!) to like ten dollars. Any book written before 1920 (I think it is) is considered a classic and is free, this means that I can get stuff like...Anne of Green Gables for free! I've been wanting one of these things for years, ever since the Amazon Kindle came out. They were like five or six hundred bucks back then though.

After that, we came back to Hamilton and went to Bottom's Up. Dan Dyer, who is a friend of my Dad's was playing. He is awesome and, as usual, invited my Dad up to play mandolin with him for a few songs. It was so much fun, we went with Lisa and Matt, my Dad and Catherine, my Uncle Dan and Monica and my Uncle Bill and his girlfriend Connie. It was truly a great evening.

My Dad also offered to drive me to work in the morning which is awesome since it is so cold! Anyway, I have to go because I want to mess with this Ereader thing for a little while before I go to bed (which I need to do really really soon!)

Day 17 - Christmas Visits

My Dad and Catherine are visiting from Georgia for the weekend. It's so nice to have them here, I just wish they were staying longer :(. It's awesome though that they were able to come for my Grandad's eightieth birthday and so close to Christmas.

They came over to the apartment with my Grandparents for tea and coffee this afternoon. It was a nice visit and I gave my dad the coco chews that Lisa and I made last night and I gave Catherine some of the gingerbread that I made yesterday as well. After that they left for a bit to go and see Lisa.

They picked us back up shortly before six and we went to Squires for dinner with my Grandparents. After that we went back to my Grandparents for ice cream. When we were done that Grandad pulled out his old pictures. It was amazing, like looking at a piece of history. At eighty years old he still remembers who all of the people are, even some of his childhood friends that were in the pictures with him.

The coolest pictures by far were the ones of his father, my Great-Grandad, while he was in the war. The pictures are so old, yet so clear and in such good shape. My Great-Grandad fought at Dieppe and the pictures looked like something that could have been straight out of one of my old history textbooks in high school. It was awesome.

Tomorrow we're going to my Uncle Dan and Monica's for dinner to celebrate my Grandad's birthday. Then my Dad and Catherine leave on Sunday afternoon. I wish that they could stay longer :(.

Goodnight all!