couldn't we make it just like we want it?

2014 was an interesting year for me. 

I was looking back at my last New Year's Eve post, and I didn't make any resolutions then. no resolutions but there have still been plenty of changes. well, one big change, and then a long (and enjoyable!) period of adjustment. there weren't a ton of significant achievements or events, but 2014 was good to us. 

I didn't travel to a lot of new or exotic places, but I spent most of the year exploring this city; my new love. ♥ being a tourist, hosting tourists, eating buttloads of pizza, going to free concerts, meeting awesomesauce people, and eating even more pizza. I'm telling ya, this is the life. 

I did get to travel to two great cities with two of my favourite people; Toronto (/Niagara Falls) with Caitlin, and Washington DC with Brando. these two little trips satiated my wanderlust for the time being, but most of all they allowed me to bask in the gloriousness of two of the finest humans to ever have existed. there is nothing I miss more about Canada than my friends, and this year I am resolving to see much more of them. and as for Brando... well, he's around all the time. but with the crazy year we've had, it's nice to get away once in a while and just be us. 

all that being sad, I am itching for travel BIG TIME, and I think now that things are getting sorted here this year will bring a lot more of it for me to enjoy. 

2014 was a crazy mess of changes and emotions and adjustment, and it flew by all too quickly.

I'm gonna skip the specific resolutions and half-hearted goals again this year, but I do have an idea of what I want 2015 to look like. I want to travel more. I want to visit a new continent. I want to check more things off my "30 before 30" list. I want to make more friends and really enjoy the crap outta the amazing ones I have now. I want to focus on doing things and not just reading/dreaming about doing things. I want less idle, wasted time.  I want to take more photos, hear new music, speak new languages, make something. I want to make this city my bitch. I want to learn. 

that's not so much to ask, is it?

and I really think it'll all work out this time. :)

a great, big thank you to the people who made 2014 so beautiful. you know who you are. at least, you should, or I haven't done my job!

2015, you are going to be awesome.
happy new year, all!

a change will do you good

happy new year, bloggerinos!

(fr. google)

I know that once again  I have taken a massive blogging hiatus, but I swear I'll be better! it's a whole new year and the perfect time for a whole new start.

2013 flew by far too fast. it sounds cliche, but it really does seem like just yesterday I was writing this post for 2012. the big difference is that I was glad and relieved to see the end of 2012, while this past year has been filled with good things and happy memories. I'm so thankful and happy about the turnaround!

I really can't believe that 2013 has come and gone, but when I stop to think about it, it was a pretty great year.

I moved back to my favourite city into a great apartment. I spent tons of time with my very best friends, and I'm ecstatic that we were all together for another year. we celebrated graduations, PhDs, new jobs, and weddings. we went whale watching at Cape Spear, danced to our favourite local bands, drank champagne in the freezing cold on Signal Hill, and played a million board games that turned into mini-parties. I threw the best birthday kegger ever (my opinion, haha) with one of my dearest friends. basically I had a year enjoying the crap outta St. John's town.

Brando and I got the sweetest kitty in the world! she is so loving and cuddly and she brightens my day, every day. it might sound silly but she has made this year so much cheerier just by being my furry little friend.

I went on my first road trip across North America with my best friend and had the time of my life. six provinces and ten states of museums, sightseeing, beer, laughter, hotel swimming pools, humidity, and finding everything funny. I satiated my wanderlust for a short time, but mostly just got bitten by the road trip bug, and now I want to spend my life driving around Canada and the US.

I got a job at one of my favourite downtown restaurants, and I enjoyed it completely. I've never had a job that I liked showing up for every day, so it was nice to know that it was possible! I also made some wonderful new friends there.

best of all, things really started to look up for Brando and I. for the first time since we've been together, both of us had paying jobs (one of us was always in school) and could actually afford things like paying our own phone bill! we started to really enjoy just hanging out again. we became a codependent threesome with netflix. we started going to the gym together. Brandon passed his physiotherapy license exam and is now a registered physical therapist in the US of A. and the cherry on top: he has a job waiting for him in New York City! and that's how we are going to start the new year- with a move to the city I've dreamed of living in since I was a kid.

(old, old pictures from my family trip to nyc in 2011)

in conclusion of this rather self-indulgent, reflective rambling, 2013 brought welcome and happy changes. 2014 is looking even more promising! new adventures in a new city and a whole new chapter in our life together.

happy new year, everyone. I hope all your hopes come true. ♥

it's been a while

ok, I guess I kind of abandoned the internet there for a bit. fellow bloggers have already settled in to 2013 with optimism and productivity, while I feel like I slept through most of january.

in my defence, the month went by too fast. I didn't get my usual dose of bitter-sweet nostalgia and catharsis. so this is going to be the start of my new year.

it's impossible to write anything regarding new year's celebrations without getting that Death Cab song stuck in your head. that is one thing that has not changed since, oh, around 2006. I think that's comforting?

either way... so this is the new year!
(see?)

I had a look over my last new year's post- which also was of course incredibly late because punctuality is never a resolution of mine- and I realized, sadly, that I didn't do a single one of my resolutions from last year.

I'm not particularly upset about that, but it does perpetuate the theme of 2012 being pretty much the worst year ever.

I've been trying to catch up on my blog reading (which is coming a long very slowly, man, you guys are interesting!) and it seems like 2012 was much kinder to most of you. or maybe you're just less bitter and jaded, haha. I have to say, while last year had its highlights, overall it kinda sucked.

I choose to see this as motivating.

I won't get into all the reasons why last year was terrible. that's pointless and sad. I will say that while last year at this time I was hopeful, confident, and excited, I'm starting 2013 with no job prospects, a complicated family life, and an intense sense of failure.

again, I choose to see this as motivating.

so for 2013 my goals are very different. they're less about fun, trivial pursuits, and more about general life improvement. and finding joy in the midst of a stressful time.

in no particular order, this year I want to...

- travel again. I keep seeing other people's travel pictures on pinterest, and my feet are starting to itch again. I cannot express how badly I want to go everywhere. I didn't get to a new continent in 2012, so this year I'm going to make a more realistic goal; just travel. find a way to go to a new place. whether that's British Columbia or regular Columbia, just get there.

- have the ideal Newfie summer. or spring. if I plan on moving away again in the coming year, before I do I want to squeeze as much awesomeness out of Newfoundland as I can. I want to take a haunted hike, go camping in Gros Morne, see an ice berg up close, go whale watching, see local dinner theatre. Newfoundland is great. I will have concrete, photographic proof of that.

- be better at blogging. I really want to be more consistent with this blog. but not consistent to the point of mundane. I mean that I don't take, you know, month-long breaks without notice or reason. I need something constant in my life to make me feel a slight sense of accomplishment, or at least productivity. and who knows, maybe I actually will accomplish something on this thing.
                  
- read at least one book a month. this is one from last year that I failed miserably. if I want to figure out how to go back to being a real person, I need to spend less time watching reruns of Friends and more time actually using my brain. and with all the internet time I bank, lets be honest, my brain needs a little exercise. watching Jeopardy! might not be cutting it anymore.

- re-learn guitar. know what happens when you neglect to practice an instrument you didn't learn till you were 21? you forget how to play it at all. which is especially frustrating when you consider how many hours it took me to perfect my inconsistent version of "Blackbird".

- move to nyc. I don't care when, I don't care how, I don't even care why. I've wanted to do this since I was 16, and now, at 25, it seems miraculously within reach. I'm done dreaming about it; next year I wanna be writing my extraordinarily late new year's post from my shoddy/hipster Brooklyn apartment.

DO OR DIE, Y'ALL.

except, not die. really hopefully not.

and there you have it. my optimistic, yet realistically attainable, new year's resolutions.
so I guess, happy january you guys. let's make 2013 our bitch.

(pardon my french. ooh! french! I should re-learn french, too...)
 ♥

and I don't feel any different

since January is nearly over, I guess it's about time I did a new year's post. yeah, that seems about right.

new year's eve was pretty low key this year, but still very very fun! got together with good friends at a party, played boardgames which induced much drunken shouting, and safely(ish) set off some small fireworks at midnight. your typical small-town ringin' in.

me & Janet havin' a larf.

Brandon got to practice some physio, and Ev got a massage!

lovely faces on the boys.

party peoples // blurry friend love

there aren't many pictures for two reasons; one, almost all of them were blurry anyhow, and two, I don't see the need of plastering this blog with photos of people you don't know and whom I only get to see once a year, usually. seemed unnecessary and probably uninteresting pour vous. 

I guess this is where I'm supposed to make some resolutions to try and stick to in the coming year, but really I'm not all that good at seeing things through. not a great quality to have, but I'm a hummingbird. I just flit from one thing to the next without much sense of achievement. so I never make resolutions. 

I do, however, have a sort of 2012 bucket list. not really resolutions of things to finish or do, like lose weight or play guitar everyday or learn how to bake or something. just things I want to do in the next year that are things to look forward to, and things I can look back on and be glad this year meant something. 

maybe that's a resolution, I don't know. 

so (in no particular order) here's the list:

1. go to a new continent. before 2012 ends I want to have visited either Asia or South America or Australia. the goal is to go to six before, well, death. I've got three down. one this year will do.

2. read one book every month. it's kind of depressing that I'm making that my minimum. I used to read one novel a week. ironically English degrees can suck a love of literature right outta ya.

3. get published again. it probably won't look good to hand out portfolios with the most recent published article dated 2010. 

4. make a new friend. cheesy, but nice. just one new, good friend. so I can write down the process and remember it for next time.

5. start really listening to music again. I used to be obsessed with music. I know everyone says that, but lying on the couch, listening to my ipod and doing nothing else, for two hours was a daily activity for me. now I have so many albums I want to listen to that it overwhelms me and I just end up listening to all my old stuff again. musical reeducation starts now.

well, it's a short list. maybe I'll add to it as ideas come to me. but I'm already a month behind, so maybe I'd better focus on those five for now...

happy new year!

playing: new year- death cab for cutie