I have so many things to look forward to in 2010, it’s ridiculous. I start school in January. My divorce should be finalized soon. I have an epic trip planned for a weekend in March. I’ll be able to go into the city every weekend to see my friends. I’m sure there are plenty of other things for me to look forward to, but those are the landmarks. There are parts of my life that aren’t so hot (like being in debt, not having a place of my own), but for the most part, I can safely say that this is the best my life has ever been, and it will only continue to get better. I’m about 95% content with who I am and where my life is headed.

I only have one New Year’s resolution, and that is to continue to better myself and keep my life on the right track.

And now, a FLCL-themed cosplay holiday greeting I made for you all:

(click to view full)

Hah. Yeah, right. Let’s see how long I can keep that up.

Anyway, I spent last night at Christina’s with her and Eric, and despite it being fairly quiet, we had fun. While Eric watched The Wrestler on Christina’s computer, Christina and I played Guitar Hero 4 *fixed* (at which I really suck now, because I haven’t played Guitar Hero in ages). I tried out the vocals on a couple of the songs, decided it was boring, and attempted the drums. Haha, that was a sight I’m sure. I’m spastic as it is, and me + anything requiring coordination = epic failure. I played a song on easy with Christina on the guitar, and then when she went to upload something on the computer, Eric played a song and I switched the drums to medium. In the middle of the song, Eric paused it and walked away from the game, because he couldn’t stand the sound of me smashing on the drum pads with those drumsticks any more. Haha. I begged and pleaded for him to finish the song, coercing him by saying I wouldn’t use the drumsticks.

In fact, I did better without the drumsticks, and banging on the shit with my hands instead. Christina suggested I go to Africa and play the bongos. It was funny.

Since Christina doesn’t have cable, we pulled up a random news website for the countdown 6 seconds before midnight. I was the only one who decided to be obnoxious and make a lot of noise.

2008 was a pretty good year. It got off to a rough start with being kicked out of my mom’s house, losing my job, and struggling to make ends meet, but things eventually smoothed out. I made a lot of new friends and had a lot of adventures. I got a penpal in another country, worked at the Empire State Building, went to my first comicon, sang karaoke, started learning another language, got married, and essentially started turning my life around to make things better for me and Eric. We had some ups and some downs, but now I’m a little bit happier and a little bit stronger. Here’s hoping to an even more awesome 2009.

I still haven’t upgraded to WordPress 2.7 yet. And I still haven’t finished the new spiffy layout I’d promised well over a month ago, at least. I do have excuses though. I’ve been busy with a client website, several DVD covers, and… um… fanfiction. *ahem*

For Christmas, Eric got me My Japanese Coach for Nintendo DS, and is also going to get me a rice cooker (we’ll go together to pick one out). That’s really all I wanted, and I got him an 8 gig iPod nano, since he’s been jonesing for one. I also cooked a 14-pound turkey last night (and might I add, I make a mighty good turkey) for the two of us. We’re going to have leftovers forever. I’ve been using the DS game almost non stop since last night (that’s when we exchanged gifts), and it’s really helping a lot. Hopefully before long, I can write to my penpal in just Japanese!

… Yeah. It’ll be a while. Hah.

Speaking of my awesome penpal, I got a letter from her the other day. She sent me a business card from the hostel she works at (so now I have a business card from Japan! Yes!), and also sent me Kit Kats white chocolate, muscat, and caramel macchiato. The muscat-flavored ones were a little weird, but the caramel macchiato ones were really good. It’s a shame they don’t make those kind of Kit Kats here. I’ll just have to ask her to send me more.

Since all of the major winter gift-giving holidays just passed, I’m sending her a little holiday gift along with my 7 and 1/4 page letter. I included a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (she loves to cook) and some Ghirardelli chocolate bars.

Anyway, happy holidays to everyone (whichever one you celebrate) and have a happy new year!

So yesterday I started my day off by getting into full costume at about 10 in the morning. (My costume was Orihime from the anime Bleach.) I trekked my way over to the Empire State Building, where I was supposed to meet up with a former coworker who was also dressing as a Bleach character, but he never showed. So instead, I spent a good few hours over at the ESB’s lobby, chatting with other former coworkers and taking pictures with eager tourists. At one point, two Asian kids came up to me, with wonderment in their eyes.

“Orihime…?” They asked timidly. I nodded happily in response. “…Kon!” They exclaimed with glee at the stuffed animal I was holding, and then the girl jokingly punched it in the face. (For those who don’t watch the anime, Kon gets beat up quite a lot.) Then as their family was gearing up for their group photo, they pulled me in with them. A few other tourists took pictures with me, and then I left to go meet Christina at her job.

On the way, I passed through Times Square, which in retrospect was probably not a good idea at my current state of dress. I got hit on by the tin man, a guy with a gross beard and REALLY short shorts, and even stopped to argue with a supposed Bleach fan because he called me “Rukia.” (By the way, I kind of hate Rukia.)

So anyway, I met up with Christina and we came back to Queens to pick up Eric. Once Eric found out that he had work “first thing in the morning” (a.k.a. 10am), he backed out on going with us, because I guess he assumed we would be home super late.

Christina and I headed down to the village, where we caught the tail-end of the parade, but there were so many people that we couldn’t really see anything, so we just wandered around the streets, pointing at people’s costumes and taking pictures. I ran into a girl dressed as Rukia (ha… ha…), and she had the same exact Kon doll that I did, so we took a picture together. There was a guy dressed as Legolas, and after I took his picture, I shook his hand and said “by the way, my name is Arwen. For real,” and he was amused. (I know. I’m a nerd.)

We walked around some more, and then decided we were hungry, so we went down to Chinatown to eat at Wo Hop. After that, we came to the conclusion that we were immensely tired (at 11pm! Such lightweights.) and headed home. All in all, fun was had.

This is the first Halloween since ever that I haven’t gone trick-or-treating. I’m kind of sad that I don’t have buckets of candy to gorge myself on.

Ahem.

Anyhoots, I’ve decided to take off the commenter plugs at the bottom of each entry. Even though I love my commenters, it’s really a pain in my ass to put all that manually at the bottom of each entry. And also, instead of a random quote at the bottom, It’ll be an exciting potluck of either quotes, facts, excerpts, etc. Something new every time!</infomercialistic enthusiasm>

I hate Valentine’s Day. I really do. I know a lot of people who say that, but I really have no reason to celebrate or even remotely enjoy this holiday. Last year, I had just gotten home from the most grueling school trip ever on the 14th, and as if being sore and miserable wasn’t enough, my boyfriend at the time dumped me. The year before, one of my ex boyfriends said he would be my valentine, and then on the said day, didn’t even speak to me. I was the type of kid who would get like, a few friendly valentines from friends or teachers, while other people had to take their received valentines home in a wheelbarrow. There was never really much good luck in Valentine’s Day for me. I mean, really. Am I that offensive? I hate Valentine’s Day.

On a lighter note, tomorrow night a bunch of us are going to Sports Plus to celebrate Justin’s birthday. I think it goes without saying that I’ll spend my entire night at the DDR machines. Maybe I’ll pry myself away for a game or two of laser tag… only if I’m forced.

Catch 22 is going to be in town again sometime soon, but I’m passing up the opportunity to go see them. Before you scold me, here’s my reasoning: #1 – I’ve seen them already. #2 – Their new album sucks. #3 – My mom’s company is having a ski trip the same day. I’d like to get in some quality time with my snowboard before getting arthroscopic surgery.

I’m gonna go play some DDR.

I’m keeping this entry short, but in other news, the MSI concert earlier tonight was brutal. It would have been awesome, if there was some sense of decorum and/or crowd etiquette. But alas, we can’t have everything now, can we? Sigh. MSI and crowd etiquette? At the same time?! God forbid…

Also, I thought I might point this out, because I don’t think many of you know, or realize: I don’t celebrate Christmas. I’m not Christian, I’m not Catholic, in fact, I’m really not much of any religion. I’m more of an atheist myself. But as for my family (and myself, when I was younger), well, they celebrate Hanukkah (which apparently, I can never spell right, so correct me if I’m wrong). Technically, I’m a Jew. Never went to Hebrew school though… never had a Bat Mitzvah. Never went to temple. I do observe Hanukkahs and Passover with my family though.

Don’t feel bad though, I still appreciate the Christmas blessings.

I love you all, have a happy and safe holiday and I’ll be back and blogging in a week.

Well, I’m going to see MSI tomorrow, and I don’t know if that’s such a good idea, considering my current physical health, and the fact that we’re leaving on Monday to spend a week in Colorado.

Oh, how I do hate flying.

Anyhoots, Linds and Zan are really looking forward to this, and hey, it’ll be fun. But if it in any way shape or form inhibits me from going snowboarding next week, heads will roll.

On another, more serious note, I’d like to address an issue that has come up. Lately, my question form (located there above my blog) has been abused, and the abuser has been leaving insults and flames. Now, you all know me, and you know that whatever comes into my inbox via the question form, I post here publicly in my blog and reply to. And quite frankly, I’m beginning to care, because it’s annoying. I don’t want to post “rules” for my question form, because that’s stupid and I don’t think people would heed them anyway. And I don’t want to totally get rid of my question form, because I’ve had quite a few questions that the answers were helpful to people, and I don’t want to let anyone down. I think, if you have an accusation to make, at least let me know who you are to be making such an accusation. Really though, if you have a problem with me, fine. But why do you have to go out of your way to flame me on my website. Wouldn’t it just be easier for you to just ignore me?