paint the sky with stars

Life's been a bit of a whirlwind the last couple of days. On Thurs night, friends and I went out to celebrate my birthday. Friday was my birthday (the big 3-0!) and I took the day off, got a tattoo (picture below), saw The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel with my parents, and went out to dinner with them. Then on Saturday we drove up to Ajax to go to my cousin's wedding. I took the train back yesterday to pick Imriel up from my aunt and uncle's before he caused any trouble (he was mostly okay), had family dinner that night complete with chocolate birthday cake, and then played a ringette game.

I ended up taking today off because my stomach has been acting up all weekend (probably due to Thurs celebrations) and I am still feeling pretty wiped. But it was lots of fun.

( My long-planned Kushiel's Legacy-inspired tattoo! )

I am back home from a long weekend at Toronto for FanExpo and visiting. I had an amazing time but am now hitting the ground running to get caught up with work, fun times. I do have some new costume pics though that I will share eventually, though it may not be tonight because I have a meeting to go to at Church (I somehow got talked into being the chair of the Christian Education committee, lucky me!).

Idea snagged from bucaneve. Posting 3 good things that happened today.

1. I got my haircut and, while I'm a bit sad at the loss of length, I am hopeful that I will have less tangles now!

2. My co-op fees were paid AND turned out to be less than I was anticipating.

3. I made good progress on my website, which is partly for school and partly to promote my writing, more on this when I've got it looking a little closer to how I imagine it to be.


I've decided that I am going to stay home this weekend instead of going with my parents to celebrate Easter with Dad's side of the family. Not exactly my favourite plan but definitely a necessary one, since I really can't afford to lose a long weekend and I know that I won't be getting anything done if I'm not home.

Also, I avoid having to try and sleep on an air mattress in Grandma's sweltering house with my parents snoring beside me, so that's a plus.

I has the Fire Emblem 3DS! Very shiny and exciting. Sadly, I am working tomorrow which means tonight I need to get shit done and so can't just play the game. I actually would not have gotten it now except that the set (as well as the game) was selling out pretty fast and I wasn't sure if they would make any more. So I had to buy it now, just to be sure.

I am awesome at rationalizing such things ^_^

I am working tomorrow to make up for missing Friday to get to Kingston for the ringette tournament this weekend. Very excited for that, I haven't been to the Kingston tournament since I was in grade 12, probably (I'm assuming we went that year, since I think we went every year). But I do have two things due on Thursday so I need to get a move on.

Hopefully I can get things done faster than expected though and get another chapter or two done.

And maybe one of these days I'll go down and finish Radiant Dawn, since I think I may be one the last battle for that one.

And one day I should pick up Shadow Dragon as well.

YAY, IT'S FINALLY A SNOW DAY! I was so disappointed on Monday when the roads turned out to not be bad, so I am glad to have a reason to stay home today ... even better, it was only going to be a half work day anyway.

So, I have a lot of baking to get done over the next couple of days, though I can't get started until we manage to get out to Bulk Barn, which probably won't be for awhile. So I have some cleaning and some writing to keep myself occupied, as per usual.

Life is pretty good (provided the baking at least mostly turns out how I want it to).

Why is the weekend over already? Especially given that this is going to be a busy week since I work five days, have Shannon's bridal shower on Friday, and then am volunteering at Ottawa Comic Con all weekend (sadly it will now be without Patrick Stewart but I'm still looking forward to crazy geeky fun!).

As people who've read this for awhile probably already know, I tend to go a little crazy when there is just too much to be done. Hopefully this week will turn out to have more rest periods in it than currently expected but I'm not exactly counting on it :(

Shannon and I went to see Rent last night as Mom bought me tickets for my birthday but didn't want to go with me herself (it's not her type of show really). It was really awesome to finally see the stage show and how much the movie changed. The main thing which freaked me out is that Seasons of Love isn't at the beginning and I sort of wish it was. The movie took a lot of liberties when it came to the song order.

As far as this production went, it was definitely a good show. Standouts were Mimi, Joanne, and especially the girl who was Maureen because I honestly think she was as good as Idina Menzel and that's impressive. I was talking to Shannon about it and we both agreed that Over the Moon has got to be an intimidating song to perform and she did it spectacularly. I wish Maureen was actually IN more of the show.

We also did a bit of shopping, mostly wedding related. I also bought new pillows because two of the ones I had were probably once white but now are very much now (though some of that definitely was caused by the cases they were in ... but they are also probably 10-15 years old).

Today is going to be a bit busy. Church in the morning and then I have to book it out of there to get to work for 12. There is a visual change tonight so everyone is working but I was able to get my shift changed so that I could go to family dinner tonight, since it's birthday celebration week and I didn't really want to miss it. I'll be away from home for a long time though, almost 12 hours. At least I don't work tomorrow. Or the next day, though I need to figure out when I should go out to Jean's since I am working Wednesday.

Day off today! It has to be a productive day to because I am in a bit of a tight spot for Himitsu (though salvageable, I think), I haven't really done much of any writing lately (and even less art!), and I have to do some work on my resume because I have two potential things to apply to out there and more (apparently everyone in Ottawa wants to help me, which makes it nice to be back ... CONTACTS!).

So, busy busy busy but I also need to take some time to relax because I worked just over 40 hours last week and it's really making me feel like I'm in TO again in a bad, worn-out sort of way.

I have a rare two days off in a row starting tomorrow, hurrah! This period is going to have to be SUPER productive because I have a lot to do.

And thus, here are THREE to-do lists, all in one!

Wednesday

- dishes
- put up fourth spice rack (I have expanded my collection enough to need it)
- make turnip gratin (except I bought a rutabaga, not a turnip, but close enough!)
- watch Glee while working on with Wii Fit (which I am finally trying to start up again)
- put together the pieces of my series bible for class tomorrow (which will clear things up for...)

Thursday

- write script for pilot
- groceries
- go to class
- DDR marathon! (as well as at least weighing in with Wii Fit)

Friday

- mail Kate's present
- finally get my d*mn hepatitis shot
- laundry
- clean as much of the apartment as I can manage before Margaret and Ryan arrive for another weekend of fun (they are coming up to see Fiddler on the Roof and to hang out some more, since last weekend wasn't as long as initially thought)
- finish my A/R exchange fic? Dare I even hope for time for this? Apparently yes, yes I do.
- DDR or Wii Fit, whichever I feel like most

Because it's my book, I will take upon myself the task of making sure book club people remember we have a book to discuss soon-ish! Our schedule got nicely messed up with the last one but hopefully we can get back on track. I'm going to be finished soon, enjoying it quite a bit so far.

I finally got laundry done today, hurrah! And I am making bread (rolls and hotdog buns). It is pretty good.

Tomorrow I have lunch with Bruce and I also really need to tackle cleaning the kitchen. And then maybe get through the other two rooms of the house.