I’m home, finally! We got home at around 2 am yesterday morning, and then went straight to bed. We then got up at 7am to get the rental car unpacked and returned. After we came home we lazed around a bit and then went over to my parents house for a late lunch/early dinner of Steak Bake Casserole (one of my favorite foods my mom makes), and then came home and lazed around some more, as we were both ridiculously tired. I’m not sure what it is about traveling, it’s not intense physical activity, but it just wears me out! Later in the evening we searched our storage for my stationary supplies(and found them!) so I can write letters!  I need to look for a thank you card to send to The Boy Creature’s mother, as she made the holiday pretty darn special even though the circumstances weren’t the greatest and the trip was basically completely unplanned. His parents did treat me well during the holiday, and even got me presents! I got a pink Nebraska beanie, a pink journal, a pink parker pen, a pink bic mechanical pencil set, A gift card to JC Penney, a gift card to Burger King, a hello kitty gummy sucker, licorice international red scotties(puppy licorice! But it had coconut oil in it so it gave me an allergic reaction), 3 Books, Gummy Bears, Swedish fish, Extra fruit sensations gum, a pair of cute socks, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites, Trail Mix, and Personal Trainer: Walking DS! So that was super cool and made me feel special, so I really want to send his mom a thank you card.

On the way back we stopped in Williamsburg, Iowa at a big outlet mall called Tangers. They had so many stores. The one that excited me most was the Claire’s outlet store. There, I got 10 pairs of earrings, and 2 hello kitty barrettes for $10. It was awesome. There was also a coach outlet, and an old navy outlet that we stopped at, but we didn’t find anything there really. It was a pretty decent trip back, and we took our time, and even though we ended up driving straight into the new year, the drive was pleasant.

Happy New Year!

On Thursday we rented a car to head to Nebraska to visit the Boy Creature’s parents. The plan was to drive straight through the day and be in Nebraska late that night (the drive from Ohio to his parent’s house is about 12 hours on a good day, straight). Unfortunately we encountered a storm near Des Moines and got stuck there, so we stopped to spend the night in a hotel and got off in the morning. It wasn’t the greatest of circumstances, but we ended up making it to Nebraska around 4:00pm CST Christmas day.

So now I write to you from the middle of nowheresville, USA where my cell phone doesn’t work, I’ve not seen a Starbucks in 4 days, and there isn’t even a Wal-mart in this little town (however they have a gas station! Yay!). It’s colder than it has any right to be and there is so much snow that it might still be here come summertime. Celebrating Christmas with his parents was certainly different. I’ve not celebrated Christmas without my family…ever. It wasn’t honestly something I ever fathomed doing, but The Boy Creature wanted to have Christmas with his family, and we didn’t want to be apart, so this is the way it worked out.

Anyway, I hope everyone has had a lovely and safe holiday! I’ll see you in the new year!

Happy Holidays!

Seems like I always make up a wish list for Christmas, but rarely get anything on it, but for some reason I still feel compelled to make the list. I guess it’s just because I love making lists, and making the list is fun for me, even if I don’t get anything on it! However, if you feel like getting me something on my list, I won’t say no!

-Wii Fit or Wii Fit Plus
-Wrist or Arm warmers! (want so much, always)
-Anything on my Amazon books wish list
-An ebook reader (sony reader!)
-Kinder Eggs (We can’t get these here, but I have an obsession)
-Anything Hello Kitty
-Super cute pink things!
-Legos (another obsession)
-Personal Trainer: Walking for DS
-Awesome 360 games that I don’t already have
-Microsoft Points!
-Post Cards, Stationary, Stamps, Pens, Pencils, memo sheets, rubber stamps (I have an office supply obsession)
-stickers!!! (Cute ones)
-cute kitchy long long strands of pearls
-Anything anyone thinks I might like!

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone! In honor of Thanksgiving, I’m posting 50 things I am thankful for!

1.) My family for being awesome and loving me!

2.) My friends (Online and off)

3.) Water! (Especially awesome flavors of it)

4.) Fabric Stores! (Even the craft department in Wal-Mart)

5.) restaurants, grocery stores, other food establishments!

6.) The fact that I live in a house! Houses are good.

7.) Having a car, and places to go in said car.

8.) My new guitar hero guitar with Taylor Swift Faceplate!

9.) Having a pretty cool job.

10.) Books!

11.) Sweet Tea!

12.) Duct Tape!

13.) Having electricity. Especially in my kitchen.

14.) Green Bean casserole on holidays!

15.) Tylenol, ibuprofen, and motrin!

16.) My DS Lite

17.) Candy!

18.) New Shoes!

19.) My T-mobile Sidekick and Internet EVERYWHERE

20.) Hello Kitty

21.) My BFF!

22.) Pouches

23.) Sour Patch Kids!

25.) Cool T-shirts!

26.) Video Games!

27.) Video Games where I kill people with guns.

28.) Video Games with cool peripherals

29.) Video Games with Neat Music

30.) Neat Music

31.) WordPress!

32.) Nice Weather

33.) Gum!

34.)  My ipod!

35.) 25 Gigs of my favorite music on said ipod

36.) Skullcandy for making all my favorite headphones!

37.) My 360!

38.) Anyone who actually pays attention to my blog!

39.) Twitter!

40.) My Crafty Gene! (Thanks Gramma!)

41.) Cool places to sell things I make!

42.) Holidays where very good food is made!

43.) Cute Pink Netbooks!

44.) Super balls

45.) Netflix

46.) People in my life who won’t ditch me at the first sign of a minor meltdown

47.) Youtube!

48.) Awesome Gaming Communities (Buddy System Gaming!)

49.) environmental Consciousness

50.) Most of all: The fact that I live in time when, due to awesome technology, the world can seem so small even when it isn’t.

Wow. It’s actually sort of difficult to think of 50 things I am thankful for. It shouldn’t be! So that’s it. I just want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! Hope your holiday is full of good food, and great company. Be thankful!

Last night I had a dream. I know I don’t usually share too much about me, and that my journal is mostly about gaming and craftiness, but I really would like to change that a little. So I’m going to tell you about my dream!

I was running through a forest, there were dense patches of fog hovering all around, and moss and rocks all over the forest floor. The trees were mostly tall and green, and there was a worn dirt path that I was running along. Emotionally, I was completely excited, and slightly curious, definitely not scared at all. I felt like I was running toward something, definitely not away from anything. Eventually after running for nearly 20 minutes, probably, I came to a tree that was huge, and right in the middle of the path. It had two words carved into its trunk. One of them was ‘Look’ and it was carved at eye level straight across. The second word was ‘Stop’ and it was scratched in much messier than look was, and it was diagonal at about knee level. I crouched down, and traced my fingers across the word ‘Stop’ and pulled out a knife, stood up and carved in ‘Don’t’ in between the two words. I then turned around, feeling completely satisfied and walked away.

And then I woke up. Upon waking I felt pleasantly rested (a rarity) and had no bad feelings at all. I’m not the type of person that thinks dreams are important, or send messages from our subconscious, but I can’t help but feel that I was supposed to take something from that, or that it had some meaning that I’m not understanding. Oh well. A dream is a dream! I just happen to feel like this was a particularly good one.

Recon has always been the big, exclusive thing in Halo. In the beginning so few people had it, it was hard to get, and everyone wanted it. I was never terribly interested in it. I’m still not really, but the completionist in me really wants to get it. I got all of the Halo 3 vidmasters quickly and I was really looking forward to getting the ODST vidmasters. Endure was okay, and Deja vu was a whole bunch of fun, so I went to try out classic.

Not cool.

Not. cool. at. all.

It seems like classic relies heavily on being able to drive, which in halo, I’m rubbish at. I cannot drive in halo. So it looks like I won’t be sporting recon – probably ever. It’s not a huge deal, I don’t really care so much about recon myself, but I wish I were a better driver, so that I at least had a chance.

oh well.

 

A little while ago, I got ODST thanks to  my awesome gaming BFF and it is pretty cool. I like playing as an ODST, and I certainly like seeing a different side of the UNSC. The game is darker, scarier, more intense, and even a little harder. The Campaign is a bit too short for my liking. Total Campaign playtime on normal was about 3 1/2 hours for one full run through. I’ve had quite a bit of fun though going back to get all the audio logs, the ‘naughty, naughty’ achievement and it’s counterpart, ‘Good Samaritan’ for deciding whether killing things that are new and different is good, or bad.

Firefight is also an amazing experience, and was definitely something different to add to the general halo experience.  Firefight seems like it can just go on for as long as you can last without losing all your lives, and therefore, the game. My first match of firefight, on lost platoon with 3 players lasted 3 hours! We actually ended up just screwing around in the end and losing all our lives, because we just didn’t want to keep going for fear that it would go on FOOOOREEEVVVEERRR!!!

I think one thing I noticed about ODST, isn’t actually about ODST itself. When I am playing ODST and switch back to playing Halo 3, It’s terribly hard to get used to being a Spartan again. I jump off buildings expecting to lose my shields, wonder where I’m gonna get a health pack, and forget how awesome my Battle Rifle is.

Overall, I really enjoy playing ODST and see myself going back to play it again and again in the future, because while it is halo, it’s completely different, with the same enjoyability. Awesome Game!

I’m writing to you from NaNoWriMo day Three. That’s right! 3! My current word count is 2957, my main character hates me, and I’ve eaten a small child’s worth of halloween candy. So NaNoWriMo Crisis mode is green. All is good in the neighborhood. I’ve written my main characters bios, and most of my supporting characters have basic bios, I have a plot! YES A PLOT! All plotty and lovely! Exciting. I have a full outline, though it is always completely subject to change. This is just a post to check in and talk about how it was going so far, since I’ve been a bit to distracted to make a post. I am very happy though. That is all!

If my post could have background music, this would be what you were listening to as you read this post, just so you know.

So The Boy Creature is awesome and sometimes buys me things because he thinks I will like them. This time it was shoes. This is, of course, the great thing about being a size 7 nearly always and without fail. Surprise shoes! He got them from an online shop called shoe steal, which is apparently just the warehouse side of shoes.com, and they are awesome! He always knows exactly the kind of thing I will like, and even though I’ve never had a pair of shoes this style before, I really like them!

These are super cute with the pirate skull and swords/crossbones. They are DVS so I’m happy about that. The little bag has ribbons for the laces instead of normal laces, but I want to try to find some ribbon that is the pink color of the DVS logo. Cute!

Next are just some cute DVS flip flops. He said they were supposed to be all pink, but whatever, I’m a sucker for flip flops. These will definitely be lived in next summer.

And I saved the best for last! Super cute keds slip ons! I love the other pair of slip ons but these are just beyond cute and so ridiculously comfortable. And yes, they do say I <3 you. Because my Boy Creature is awesome. And the hearts sparkle. So cute.

Shoes are awesome, and when they are a great deal, that’s even better. Shoe Steal is a great way to go, and they seem to always have coupon codes. Try them out!

you can find these pictures, other random pictures and probably action shots of these shoes eventually, at my flicker.

I’ve made the decision to participate in NaNoWriMo this year. It’s been 2 years since I’ve actually participated as a writer. I have participated every year though, in some form, and I really do enjoy it. It is one chance to just write. I love to write.  I know that isn’t really displayed here, but I’m not very good at blogging. I don’t like writing about myself much, and I have trouble with putting my own thoughts into words.

I love to write about other people. People that I’ve made up, preferably. I love shaping someone elses’ life and doing what I want to it. I also enjoy the pressure of NaNoWriMo. For anyone who doesn’t know what NaNoWriMo is, and doesn’t like links, it stands for National Novel Writers Month. It’s an annual creative writing project that takes place in November, encouraging participants to create a 50,000 word novel within the 30 days, ending November 30th at 11:59 local time.

My first year participating in NaNoWriMo was 2003, and I was a junior in high school. It was crazy, and stressful, and I tried so hard, and what I ended up with was a 74,368 word novel that I still can’t read to this day because it makes me want to pull my hair out. I’m sure it is terrible. I am sure it has mistakes, but it is there, marking the fact that in my life, I accomplished something that many never dream of. It is tangible and that makes me feel great. Years later when I was participating in my 3rd NaNoWriMo in 2005, I was away at college. It was again stressful, but instead of creating tens of thousands of words full of crap, I created my best writing to date. It felt absolutely amazing to have this book that I created, and have it actually be fairly awesome. I like that feeling.

That’s part of the reason I’ve decided I want to participate again this year. I’ve been in a bit of a…mood recently, and I think this is just what I need to get myself out of it!

So you can expect to hear more about that as it comes closer to starting time. We’ll see how this goes. I imagine I will be at least decently productive, especially since I have my super awesome netbook! Which reminds me, I should probably put word on it. It came with the disk, but I don’t have it on it, because I switched to Ubuntu NBR, ended up hating it, so I had to switch back to XP. So I need to get on that soon. Sticking it on the to do list!