ravnsdaughter

I have spent the entire last two or three weeks thinking "OMG it's been SOOOOO long since I've posted, I really need to remedy that" and then getting totally sidetracked and not posting. So I think I'm going to do a list post to try and catch up the past few weeks here.

i. Snow! It snowed last Thursday, not very much, but enough to put a pretty white frosting on the roofs around the city. And then again last night it tried to snow, but it turned to rain, so there's none on the ground. But I'm so totally ready to curl up into a ball and hibernate for a few months.

ii. I am exceedingly proud of myself for what I've accomplished in the past 2 1/2 weeks. When I got my paycheque 2 1/2 weeks ago, I decided I was absolutely fed up with the state my finances were in (and the bills being behind), and I sucked it up, got all the bills caught up the same day I got paid, and told myself that I just had to quit acting like a baby and eat breakfast at home every day and pack lunch to work every day. And I have. I haven't purchased breakfast or lunch in over 2 weeks. As a reward, I got to go to Starbucks and buy a fancy drink on Friday, so I had a caramel brulee latte. I fully intend to keep going with this, and every time I manage a full two weeks without purchasing breakfast or lunch, I get to go to Starbucks on payday. I think that's a good tradeoff. Friday was payday, but the next two weeks are going to still be really tight, because this cheque covers rent, my car payment and car insurance, with very little left over.

iii. What is going to make the second point there even more awesome, is that I'm going to go into December with all my bills caught up, and then December is going to be a 3 paycheque month! Plus, I have a $250 refund coming from cancelling my car co-op membership, and a $50 refund coming from Shaw for a payment I'd accidentally made to them a few weeks ago.

iv. Christmas around here is going to be a handmade one, mostly handmade by yours truly. I don't need any more expensive generic foreign-made crap- our apartment is full of stuff already. And same goes for my family and friends. That's not what the holidays are about, and I'm putting an end to it. If you're someone who would be giving me a gift, seriously, all I want is time with you, and if you really feel like giving me something tangible, make me something. If you don't make things, buy me something inexpensive that was handmade by someone else, preferably a small crafter (and local is even better, though there's definitely plenty on my Etsy favorites list for ideas, though be warned, I often put things in there as ideas for things I want to try to duplicate).

v. I'm planning my first tattoo! It's going to be a raven holding a sprig of holly. Both the raven and the holly have personal significance to me. I'm really really excited. I'm probably going to get it sometime in the first week or 2 of December, so that hopefully it will be mostly healed by Christmas. And I've already started planning my next two tattoos.

vi. We're going to be going to visit my family for Christmas for the first time in a few years. We didn't go last year because we didn't have the money to travel, and the year before that, my parents told me not to come because we'd found bedbugs a few weeks before that (they were gone by Xmas, but my mom was being paranoid). I am really looking forward to it! We'll be driving over and taking Cody with us, of course.

vii. Wedding planning is proceeding quite well. I'm going to do another post with some of the details here in a bit, so I won't comment any further on that right now, other than to say I found my dress!

viii. I've been picking away at the mess in the house for the past week or so, and it's looking WAY better than it has in a long time. I have a lot left to go, but I'm definitely making awesome progress.

ix. Things have been AWESOME with Ian lately. :)

It looks like spring has finally sprung here in Vancouver! The past 2 days have been gorgeously sunny and I have the blinds in my office drawn all the way back to let the gorgeous rays in.

I am very tempted to take a blanket and a book after I get home, and go lie outside on the grass in my backyard to soak up some of the gorgeous sunshine, as who knows how long it will last for, considering Vancouver's schizophrenic weather.

I had a 4 day weekend last weekend, and it was wonderful. The boy worked a short shift on Friday, so he was able to come over while it was still light out, and we spent the whole weekend minus Monday (which he had to work) together. On Saturday night, we went to watch the first bout of the third season for the Terminal City Roller Girls, and then we spent Sunday afternoon at his sister's place, having an Easter chili dinner (so they're a little unconventional. I am starting to really adore his family actually, they're quite awesome).

I think I've figured out the source of my antsyness. I was doing so well the first two weeks of my new job with the exercise and crafting and music, and this week I haven't done any of that, and have been spending all my spare time playing WoW, trying to get my alliance toons as high as possible before my RAF bonus wears out.

I'm not going to change that too much, since I really do want to get the toons as high as I can, but I feel better having just figured things out.

Barring anything else going on that weekend that I need to be in town for, I think I will take the Friday-Sunday of Easter weekend and head over and visit my grandparents. I could use a few days of relaxation and spoiling and Gramma-hugs. The office is closed on both Good Friday and Easter Monday, so I will already be working 4 day weeks for both of those weeks, and if I come home on Sunday, I can have Monday for laundry etc. before I get back to work on Tuesday.