Hello Universe!
I bet you've been wondering where I've been these past few months. No? Well, I've certainly been wondering where I have been. Life has been pretty good lately, so I can't complain but in general I've felt rather lost. Work has changed rather drastically since the summer, with changes in hours, duties, and the people I work with day-to-day. There are aspects that are frustrating as hell, but other aspects that are a great improvement. I'm torn as to what sort of direction I want to go with my life (in terms of career and education) and right now I feel like I've reached an impasse. I have no idea where I want to go and what I want to do.
September was a fairly quiet month (besides work related chaos). Josh and I went to the Zoo one fall afternoon with some friends and we had a nice time wandering around. It's a little bit sad that the Zoo hasn't changed much at all since I worked there. It's also horrifying to think that I started working at the Zoo over a decade ago now. Holy shit! My summer job at the Zoo was my first real job and while it was certainly a good summer job (who can complain about being outside all day during the summer?), I definitely would not want to go back to that. I've certainly come a long way in ten years.
Last month was my 26th birthday. (Happy belated birthday to me!). I mostly took it easy and didn't worry about it to much. I had some friends over and took it easy. Josh and Michelle piled my desk with tonnes of t-shirts, books and candy for my birthday which was totally awesome. They were more anxious to have me unwrap my gifts then I was (so much so that they had me open them a day early!). I also went out to dinner with co-workers to celebrate the birthdays of three of us (all born within 3 weeks of each other). Overall I had a great time and was certainly glad for something a little low key.My parent's gift for my birthday was getting Josh and I tickets for Mamma Mio! which is currently playing at Celebrations. We sort of picked what day to go at the last minute but we went and had a great time. The last show we had gone to was almost a year ago (for Josh's birthday) and we were pleasantly surprised to recognize a few of the cast from that last performance. We both got pulled up on stage to dance at one point to some great ABBA music and overall had an awesome time. :-)
Halloween this year was a lot of fun. Last year Josh and I didn't really get into the Halloween spirit and we only ended up having four kids come to our door. This year with both Michelle and Josh around the enthusiasm was much greater. We went all out, and I mean ALL out. Josh and I decorated the front steps, we packed goodie bags (including ones that were peanut free) and Josh carved some amazing pumpkins. I tried to help with the pumpkin carving, but I was so exhausted (and creeped out by the texture) that I was pretty much useless. We had two pumpkins out front, Boo from Super Mario Bros, and an awesome looking dragon. I wore my new Boo shirt that I got from Teefury.com and we were set!
You can check out a bunch of the Halloween photos Here.
After the high from Halloween was over and I got passed the massive sugar rush, Josh and I tried to sit down and once again do NaNoWriMo. For the past few years I've been trying to match and surpass the success of my first attempt and so far I'm failing miserably. I have a lot of great ideas, but as soon as I sit down to type my brain shuts down. I have ideas and know what I want to write, but the grand descriptions and my excessive usage of various forms of "darkness" just isn't coming to me. I'm not sure if it's a side effect of work related stress, a variety of other distractions (Heroes, Bones, Warcraft) or if I'm just completely out of practice. Whatever it is, it's frustrating as hell! I know that it'll come to me eventually, but I'm resigning myself to the fact that I'm not going to reach my goal of fifty-thousand words by the end of our month. I'm glad Josh has tried to push me to write again though and that he's offered to write with me in order to encourage me. I think I just need to lock myself into a room in the basement, disconnect the internet and tune out the world for a month or two...maybe then I'll be able to write more than a page. Maybe?
Snow started falling this week in Winnipeg. We were lucky that we had a relatively extended fall this year. Typically our spring and fall are extremely truncated which leaves us with only two significant seasons (awesome and frozen wasteland). So far it hasn't been too horrific, but it's almost time to go and shovel the driveway (for the 3rd time!!!!). We had a brief reprise last night and I took the opportunity to go out with some co-workers and do some karaoke.
I'm by default not naturally inclined towards karaoke and as such was initially hesitant about going. By the end of the night however I had loosened up a fair bit and sang a bunch of duets with Christine: Bust A Move (Young MC), Baby One More Time (Britney), I Love Rock'n'Roll (Joan Jett), All That She Wants (Ace of Base) to name a few. I totally butchered Bust A Move and probably got less then a third of the worlds...and I think Simon got video of that...
A bunch of my co-workers really impressed me. Maridel and Marielle both have really amazing voices (though Maridel couldn't focus on a song long enough to finish it). Marielle stuck to ballads, which were all very impressive. Simon is apparently very southern when he rocks out and does his country music. It was weird hearing him sing instead of mumble softly. Impressive, but still a little weird. Dana had a very soothing voice and was totally not what I was expecting. It'll probably be a few more years before I do karaoke again, but I can admit that I had a blast. :-)
I'm going to end my rambling now and leave you with the video for a song I'm completely addicted to right now. I totally blame Josh, but it's really just because I <3 Katy Perry. :)
Hubble Image Credit: NASA
Cataclysm Image Credit: Blizzard Entertainment
