New Year's Eve was my last day in Florida. Was woken up at a time that felt earlier than it was by the usual loudness of the family, then we all headed to the beach, where I played with the cousins. After some convincing, I got Becky to come with me for lunch, and though she whined at first we walked along the ocean, and chatted a lot as we waited for our meals on the boardwalk. Went to the pool, though I just read for awhile, trying to get the sun to lighten my hair while I still could. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, as we always do, though parking had never been such a bitch before.
Upon our return to the appartment, I went night swimming again, Becky soon joining me for a bit. I stayed a fair while after she left, ignoring the cold, and watching the fireworks. I actually had a better view of all the fireworks down the coast than everyone upstiars, and they were absolutely gorgeous. I really didn't want to, but I finally headed up, in the chilly night air, showed, finished packing, and staying up on the laptop until about 12:30, when I gave up on trying to bring the internet back. Most of the adults woke up to wish us happy new year, but that was it for our celebrations. Still a pretty good end to the year, even though wake-up the next morning was for 4:30.




So, now I jump on the bandwagon of LJ posts talking about how 2008's over. I definitely liked this year. Got in some good films, a new American president, messy Olympics, a Rickroll to America. Made lots of friends, got some writing done, learned things, got a job, found the world of otakus, cosplayed, made sales to strangers, called and met friends from the web, saw a great off-broardway, got hypnotized, grew up a lot, got a little taste of a new world.

There was lots of shit, of course. But looking back, it all seems kind of silly, and it hardly holds a candle to everything else from the year. I've done things, met people, did well, made mistakes, learned lots.

Yes, 2008 was certainly a good year. Poor 2009 will have a lot live to up to. XD


For the upcoming year, my plans are...well, I don't really have any plans. Mainly to read more books, especially my new book on writing, do a fair bit more writing - especially the telling of Marina's story. Make more friends, become closer to old ones, learn more things, do more acting, figure out what I'm going to do for university.

Nothing in particular, really. I just want to...live more, I guess. Find more beauty and inspiration in my world, give a helping hand to those who could use it, give support and strength, just be a good person. I'd like to...make the next year one I can look back and be happy with, like this one. Make it a good one.

Yeah, I'd like that. Make the next year a good one - that seems like a solid resolution.




The drive home wasn't very interesting. I didn't really make an effort to take note of things, I guess. We woke up at 4:30 on Thursday, and spent the entire first day of the year in the car until dinner. The lowering temperature from one gas stop to another was very noticable even on the first day. We stopped at the same hotel as last year, all of us cramming into a fairly small room with the parents on a king, Becky on a hide-away, Michael on a tiny cot and myself in a sleeping bag on the floor in the bathroom area.

Friday we were out of the hotel by about 6am, and it was horrible to look out the window every hour or so and see the skies become greyer and the ground become whiter. I at least felt better being in the Catscales mountains in New York - I think I missed the mountains. And at least the clouds became less thick as we went further north. Still, as nice as it was to be returning home, I'm not exactly happy about the cold or the snow. There are only two interesting things I can think to say. One was when we were at a gas station for a pee break, I wald into a stall, and gah something tugs at my shoelace! I kicked the stall door, from under which a hand had been reaching, and hurt my shin, to which my sister in the next stall bursts out laughing. XD Great. Then when we were a fair bit closer to home, I don't remember how the conversation started, but we were talking about awful song lyrics, and my mother mentioned something about a Rod Stewart song. I asked which one it was, since I have one of his gigantic CDs on my iPod, and my dad didn't want her to say. After some convincing, I finally got it out of her. I did, in fact, have Tonight's the Night, and I put it on, and oooh myyyyy goooood. What a damned awful song. The line that made me burst out laughing was the "wings" one, but I have to say the "virgin child" was also...ugh. The lyrics are horrible, it's kinda creepy, and when would ever listen to this song? When you're trying to seduce a little virgin? What the fuck, Rod Stewart. What the fuck. XD

Anyway, we were lucky to be fairly free of traffic, be quick at the border, and not face any snowstorms like on the way down. We got home before dinner, and so had plenty of time to unpack without my mother getting all fussy and insane, and my grandfather came over for pizza. Been just relaxing since.



Called Sam later in the evening, and we just had a great chat. SO GOOD TO BE BACK WITH THE GANG! We laughed at treefrogs and have decided to make the most brilliant piece of artwork ever. Because, really, doesn't everyone want to see a penis wearing a pair of sunglasses?

...as long as they're not mine. *puts her pair on and starts humming "I Wear My Sunglasses at Night" because she's so damned cool*

We also came up with a mad character trait including broken nails. SHOTGUN MIIIINE. And no, we are NOT using it for the coming week, for which we spent some time coming up with guidelines for as well (omg, it's two days). That was after Penis Man and Minicock.

Also, Cookin' by the Book will continue to haunt me. I do not appreciate this. lol.





In completely unrelated news, I finally took count of pictures for the Hat Project: currently I have pictures of 35 individual friends (with doubles and a few crack pictures thrown in XD). I can't think of many more people I will have left to take pictures of; all I can think of is Vanessa (hopefully we'll have some classes together this term!), Tal, and possibly Momo, Francis, Toby and some other people I can't think of right now. I'd like to redo a couple pictures, like Shannon, Karl-Mark, Ryan, Mel and possibly Kanut, but eh, beggers can't be choosers.

Really looking forward to returning to school and seeing everybody! But I'm fucking annoyed that I'm missing my first Thursday and Friday for my cousin's Bat Mitzvah in Atlanta, though. ><



Will have to go back to working on my schedule for my last term on the 5th. Blarg. Have decided I'd prefer Katz again for Creative Writing rather than Sentes, even though Katz is doing 8am classes. Need to speak to my CinCom peeps about what courses they're in so I can make some decisions.



I wish I could remember my dreams a bit better. I know I've been having some really interesting ones with semblances of a plot, but I can't really remember them. >< Here's a couple I do remember.

-All I remember is that I was at a con wearing my flamboyant-coloured Captain Falcon cosplay. Except I had really been in a rush to get there/put it on, so I was missing most of the pink pieces, which made me feel incredibly stupid and unrecognizeable. Didn't help that I was about to go up for a masquerade show-off of my costume. D:

-I was in a strange house belonging to someone I know (no idea who it was, though). It wasn't finished yet, but we were getting a tour (or just looking around ourselves). Each room was painted a very different colour. I remember going down stairs into a basement and being in a room with very blue walls, then going into a boy's bedroom which was partly furnished. The walls here were violet, and the lighting changed as you walked around, like different parts of the room became darker or brighter at random, sort of like when you're under water.

-I actually had this dream after the vacation. I don't remember all of it, but here there was some part of a plot - it felt like a video game, really. Myself and some other people (one who I think I disliked) were on a platform in this tower of sorts, surrounded by water all around us that just went up to where we stood. We had to get into this square boat and cross the body of water (I believe it was riddled with dangerous, video game-like sea monster baddies), and we kept struggling with it, like it was a puzzle. I think we failed a few times so we had to restart from the platform.

Then I dreamed that my aunt and uncle, Kathy and Ronnie (and their kids), had rented this big house for their vacation, and it was HUGE. There was a ground floor on which you could house two families - there were perfect accomadations to allow for them both. There was also a basement (whose ceiling was fairly low) where another family could be, though there was some disadvantage to it, like any sound was really amplified, or it was very damp (I think it was below sea level or something). This was where they were staying in the house (it still seemed really nice), and it had a kitchen, bathroom and two fairly big bedrooms, each with two beds (dunno where the parents slept). However, they weren't using the house for some time, so my family was staying in this basement for our vacation. It seemed very exciting, and I remember being eager to settle in.



So I have to admit that I'm really weirded out by how Auraya, one of the gods' Chosen, is having a love affair with a god in the second installment of the Age of the Five series. She was just in a relationship with a heathen the gods hate not a year ago, and now Chaia has suddenly seduced her. And even though he has no actual physical form and is made up of pure magic, they do it every night in some half-dream state where he responds to her slightest desire and provides her with esctasy beyond any she's ever known that we thankfully don't have to witness in an actual sex scene. Of course, the annoying part is that Auraya claims that these experiences have made the real world seem all the more vibrant and beautiful, but there's absolutely no proof of this in the description; it's pure telling instead of showing.

I'm kind of worried that this entire affair isn't in the book for any reason at all. It just kind of seems like some kind of fantasy of the author thrown in to help provide a bit of failed angst. And for some reason, it really creeps me out.


I still like the series. This and the whole Leird is really Mirar thing bugs me a bit, though. And for some reason, Emerahl's story is beginning to lose interest for me, which is odd since I really liked her part of the story. Meh.

~Psychic

Location: Hooooooome, where the heart is! Feeling: happy to be home Music: TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT, BABY (lol, Rod Stewart) tags: books, dream, friends, goals, hat, vacation, wants