Everyone Report To The Dance Floor

I debated doing this one twice, since I did it early on (Sept 2011) but of course gained it all back and then some by now. But I figure I accomplished the goal nonetheless. Many of my weight-loss related goals have been altered, and I think it was fair to keep this one.

So I did lose 25 lbs, and got down to 174.8 lbs (oh to be there now).

Even the cat was in awe. But I can get there again. Soon.

Say It If It's Worth Saving Me

It was surprisingly exhilarating to start an RSP. It was ridiculously easy to do, took about 5 minutes online (if I had've known that, I probably would have set it up a while ago; I actually figured we'd have to make an appointment and go into the bank to speak to someone). It's perhaps a bit sad that I'm 31 and just opening an RSP know, and perhaps not super that it's only $25, but it's open, I can start contributing randomly when I can, and once I get a permanent teaching job, I can set up an automatic deposit.

I'm actually proud of myself, for a seemingly small task. It feels like a very grown-up thing to do.

And I Don't Wanna Fall To Pieces

I'm not sure what possessed me to want to complete a big puzzle. I've never really been a puzzle person. Well, maybe I shouldn't say that.

When I was 8(ish), my dad bought me a huge poster size puzzle of New Kids On The Block, which we did and then glued to bristol board and hung in my room. At the time, it was pretty darn cool. We always try to buy something for Christmas that we can do; one year was a clock made entirely of paper (yes, true), and another year was one of those 3D foam puzzles. That one was probably one of my favourite puzzles.

I actually had a hard time finding a puzzle I liked (that was 500+ pieces). Apparently I'm picky on design. But eventually I found two; one was a winterscape, the other was L'Arc de Triomphe. I started the winter scene, but soon discovered it was to be excruciating (it was almost all white!!). So I bailed on it.

Eventually I could procrastinate no longer. I decided Nick could help (since the other one was 1000 pieces) and over a few weeks, we picked at it and put it all together. It definitely had it's frustrating moments, and I don't know that I would have had the patience to do it all by myself. You really need somewhere convenient to leave it to sit for a while, to keep coming back to it. Our kitchen table over the holidays was NOT a convenient location.

Note to self: no puzzles next time.

Under Them Skies Of Blue

I really wanted to try geocaching; it was basically a scavenger hunt while hiking, so it sounded perfect. I wish that a city nearby did a Great Urban Race, but no such luck.

I actually ended up trying it while on a school camping trip to Warsaw Caves. We actually had legitimate handheld GPS units with the coordinates already put in, and we did manage to find 3 different caches. The kids loved it, and I really enjoyed it too.

So I did it again, so Nick could come with. We found a nearby spot (finding the parking entrance was sadly one of the trickier parts) and followed the trail. It wasn't too hard to find the cache nestled in the crook of a tree. It was fun to leave a note, to take a small token and to leave one behind. We had downloaded apps on our phones that worked just fine. I would love to do this more next summer.

Once A Gentle Breeze Weaves It's Spell Upon Your Heart

There's not much to say about this one, I would take any excuse to do anything by moonlight. The only thing I would like to point out is that this was late May, and yet you'll notice I'm wearing a winter jacket. I was freezing. We had all kinds of outdoor plans for that weekend, but needless to say, some were a bit of a bust. We did have the candlelit dinner though. I needed to dance just to keep warm. But yes, that is both a full moon AND Lake Ontario behind me. It's almost like a planned it that way.

You Burn Your Clothes And You Pray To The Stars

When I was in Grade 8, my teacher had us make 1000 paper cranes, based on the story of Sadako Sasaki. I've since been to the Peace Memorial in her honour in Hiroshima; people leave thousands of folded paper cranes there even to this day. It's a beautiful tribute.

I had bought some origami paper while I was in Japan, but never really made much use of it. So I added it to my goal list. I actual got a origami kit for Christmas from Nick's mom a couple of years ago! So over a few different attempts over the 1001 days, Nick and I tackled a few different folding sessions.

First came the penguins...

Then the Christmas tree and the mushroom...

And finally the star and the lotus blossom.

I think the star was my favourite. We actually found a website that had really good instructions with clear pictures to follow. Who knew we had such skills!

Tattoos Of Memories And Dead Skin On Trial

My first tattoo came in the form of the Japanese character for eternity. I know it's cheesy, but having lived in Japan, having got it during the year I lived in Japan, I think it fits on my a lot better than all those other people who tend to get Japanese kanji tattoos. Oh and yes, I double checked that it actually meant eternity before getting it done. That was 8 years ago.

I knew I wanted another one, but I just couldn't decide on exactly what and exactly where on me. I seemed to be stuck on the idea of an image that was a tribute to my grandma. I had this perfect image in my head of what I wanted it to look like: a snowman that looked like the one from claymation Rudolph (she collected snowmen) holding a teddy bear (which she also loved and sorta collected) with either angel wings or a halo. It was meant to mimic a Christmas ornament that I had given to her years ago, that she kept out all year round. It looked perfect in my head, but with worse artistic skills than a 3 year old, there was no way I could design it, and I don't know that I trusted that anyone else could get it just right. Plus I had no idea where on me to put it. It seemed to fit the back of my shoulder in the guardian angel kind of way, but I wanted a tattoo that I could actually see this time (my other one is on my back, and I usually forget it even exists to be honest).

Eventually I just did a Google image search, and it took me quite a while, but eventually I came across this.

I loved it. It was Christmas-y, and with a few minor tweaks (that Nick could easily handle in PhotoShop) it would be perfect. I always associate the song Silver Bells with being in my grandma's kitchen at Christmas time, playing on the little radio she always had on in the corner. It was always a version like this one, not quite gospel singers, but close. So change the bells to silver, and I still had my tribute to my grandma.

Surprisingly I didn't think on it as long as I thought I would have. Once I knew that's what I wanted, I went for it within just a couple of months. It took a bit of time deciding where to put it, but I settled on my ankle; I really don't mind showing off some Christmas spirit in summer time sandals.


Here's Nick's modified version (for some reason I liked it better flipped since it's on my right ankle). The peach background was just to get an idea of how it would look on skin. The biggest change was really just the colour of the bells; apparently it's difficult to do silver, both in PhotoShop and a real tattoo.

 And here's how it turned out:

This was literally the afternoon I got it done, so it looks a little healthier now, but you get the idea. The red looks a little deeper, which is nice. I can still pick out a few tiny things that I don't love about it (the bells don't look perfectly circular and there's a snowflake missing, nor are any of them white) but as a whole, I'm happy with it. I love having Christmas on me all the time. I can't wait till summer to show it off more.