Obligatory New Year's Eve Blog - Highlights and Resolutions

2012, AKA the year the world didn't end...

I can't not acknowledge that 2012 had its lowlights, most significant - the death of my grandmother,  but also my first overnight stay in an emergency ward and some recurring illness; moving from a job I honestly believed I was great at, to one I've totally lost all confidence in; to my family going through a lot of career and emotional trauma. However, I've decided I'd rather focus this blog on the good moments that happened, and the little surprises etc.

Obviously the biggest moments of joy from me come from my travels. This year saw another great trip to the US and finally booking a trip to Paris, a place I've dreamed of seeing since I was a child. London is also on the agenda which is very exciting.

My US trip , I won't mention as it has been well documented in this blog, except for the last day which I forgot to blog about. The highlight/lowlight of that day was me running into Joan Rivers in LAX and making such a fangirl fool of myself that I've not been able to watch Fashion Police, as I find myself wincing with embarrassment every time I see her.

The London and Paris trip will get its own update blog later so moving on.

So here's a highlight reel for 2012

- Going to see the Avengers on its record breaking opening weekend while in the US. It was really cool to be part of something that huge. Enjoying the movie so much was a good bonus.

- The Hoot Cake! I was so stupidly proud of this. It's the first attempt I've ever made at a character cake. Truthfully the first non-Betty Crocker iced cake I've ever made. It was so important to me that I pulled this off, yet after the 16th tantrum I thought it wasn't going to happen, and then it just suddenly came together (well as much as it could.) I was also super proud of the "churro" flavoured cake I made for Aaron's birthday. 

- Oh yes, Luke Perry called me gorgeous. Yes, he'd say that to all the girls, but frankly I don't care, he said it it me. Meeting him and Gareth David-Lloyd at Supanova was a real highlight. 

- The announcement that Weezer were finally touring Australia again! It's in three weeks and I'm so excited! 

- My birthday present from Aaron, when he took me on the Cheetah Experience at Monarto Zoo, which allowed us to go into their exhibit and walk with them, and amazingly pat them. Sure I spent a lot of it really terrified, but it was amazing. Especially when they started purring.

- A new Bond film (yay!). Although my favourite film of 2012 was Argo. It was amazing - it balanced humour and tension so well... and Ben Affleck was really good looking in it... *ahem*

- I got Aaron to like a musical! We saw my favourite musical - Rock of Ages - on Broadway and he loved it too. (It greatly helped that he was rather smitten with one of the girls in it!)

- Christmas went super well. I made punch! I'm, like so totally domesticated.

- It sounds sad/silly/funny but I've found an Iphone game this year called Cause of Death and I'm so in love with it. The best bit was probably getting my sister addicted too, so we both eagerly await Tuesday mornings when the new episode arrives and we both babble about it. It's fantastic. (It's a crime, choose your own adventure style thing.)

- Manchester United won, New Zealand won a test in Sri Lanka and North Melbourne made the finals (then apparently there was a giant alien invasion and they couldn't play the finals game... I'm sure that's what happened, I seem to have gone hazy...). As for all other sporting teams etc... it's best we just talk about the weather.

-  Storage Wars and Man Vs Food came into my life. Yes I like reality tv.

I know there's so much more but I can't think of them. I may come back and edit. 

And how about those resolutions I made for 2012 - how did they go?

1. Getting healthier and into a better routine eating wise and exercise wise and cook some different things  (so far eating is better, exercise isn't)

2. Clean my two back rooms out

3. Solve a Rubik's Cube

4. Watch more movies

5. Cuddle a Koala

6. Not cut my hair (except for trims to make it healthy and for my fringe - that stays)

 

Um... yeah. I failed all of them. But my hair does have a nice side fringe now... and I'm planning on buying a treadmill. (Note planning, can't guarantee will!)

 

This leads me to resolutions for this year. I did come up with one which was to make sure I laugh every day, because laughing feels good, and I will try and do that, but I don't want to call it a resolution, just something I plan to naturally incorporate. And obviously, I suck at keeping resolutions.

I could always say the standard "lose weight, get fitter and healthier" etc, but I've worked out that's not something I can just flick a switch on, I still need to work through some emotional issues regarding that, so it's not a resolution.

 

I've been pondering whether I wanted to make anything else a resolution this year but it struck me, that there wasn't anything I wanted to wish for, or wanted to change. This belief isn't a lack of ambition or passion but I have an awful lot to be content about in my life and I simply can't think of something that's really missing. Also, I've realised that this year, a lot of my misery regarding my job etc was because I was trying too hard to control things or worrying too much about how well I was doing etc, instead of just having some faith in myself, and realising that life goes on, and things always turn around or upside down and it's so often that things that look bleak or difficult aren't, or even if they are, there's something else that will come along as comic relief. So, I'm not going to stress a need to want things outside of what I normally have (or the holidays I plan) or put pressure on myself.

 

I really believe that 2013 is going to bring some changes, I'm not sure what they are but I feel good about them and the year.

 

Hope that everyone reading this can reflect on a bunch of highlights from their own 2012, and have a 2013 full of new ups and all dreams come true.

 

So much to write about, so little of it interesting...

I've worked out what gives me blogging block. The thought that I need to say something really interesting/profound/witty etc, that makes it worth publishing. So I end up saving a bunch of thoughts till I have enough to blog about it, and then by the time I get there it's a jumble of thoughts and too hard, and I give up halfway through a draft. I've decided to make myself a challenge of posting at least twice a week from now on, and they can be simple paragraphs about a tv show I'm watching, or essays on life and chocolate.

So it's been ages since I wrote. I'll write up a review of 2012, and the hopes/dreams/plans for 2013 after we know if the world ends Friday. It'd be a total pain to sit there and work out 2013 is the year I'm finally going to complete my life size cross stitch of The Big Pineapple if life is wiped out before I can start the project. For now here's just a quick run down of what's been happening in Courtney world.

- I was having a very difficult time with work a few works ago, there was a lot of uncertainty, I felt I was failing as a manager and as a worker and I was very unhappy. Things have improved, as I've got a better understanding of where things are going and I feel way more settled.

*Ooh an "I've spotted a shiny thing" interlude - Everybody Get Up by 5ive is an awesome pop song. I really like 5ive.

- Man Vs Food is my new favourite show. Of course it's not on anymore and I'm just catching up on old episodes but man I love it. American tourism and culture and ridiculously delicious looking food. It's a winner.

- It's a week to Christmas. For those who know me, Christmas is when meek, mild-mannered Courtney, turns into a crazed tinsel flinging control freak.  I feel like I've not been able to spread my usual Christmas cheer to people around me this year which has saddened me. I've also been really conscious/guilty regarding how easy it is for me at Christmas, I can change decorative colour schemes at the drop of a bauble, don't blink when buying presents for people etc, and having the reality hit me that some people can't even eat at this time of the year, have no toys for their kids etc, and so many animals are abandoned, hit me hard. So I've been trying really hard to donate to charities, in the vague hope that I can spread some cheer to someone who could really use it or at least take the pressure off them worrying if they can eat that day.

*Interlude, I love the way Cerys from Catatonia rolls her Rs when she sings Road Rage...

*Oh Stephen Gately... RIP :(

- In news I think is really exciting, after spending ages umming and ahhing about what I want to study next. I've decided that I really want to study interior design, despite not being sure I have much talent for it at all. I know I can't draw! (Art was one of the classes in school I quit as soon as it become non-compulsory.) I do definitely have an interest and I do think I'd be somewhat good at it but we'll see how it goes. More on that in a future blog.

- Saw the latest Bond film, Skyfall - I love James Bond so much, and was basically in tears halfway through the film as it felt like I was watching a Jason Bourne film rather than a Bond one, but then it got really good, and had lots of nods to the Bond geeks like me. I was very pleased to have the character of Q back.

*A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton is a really special song to me, that, Complicated by Avril Lavigne, Hella Good by No Doubt and the entire Spirit Room album by Michelle Branch, send me straight back to my first trip to the US. Instamemories. Oh! The Greatest View by silverchair too. I don't like them at all, but that song reminds me of heading to Universal Studios on a beautiful summer Californian day, on my sister's birthday.

- The trip planning has moved on since I last blogged, airfares are officially paid for, hotels are booked, all the scheduled Paris sightseeing is booked, and we're slowly booking London sightseeing. Again this is worthy of it's own blog post so will update more about it shortly.

Um is that it? I feel like the last month has just disappeared, I've been permanently sidetracked but feel like I'm getting into a more cleared head. I have a week off from Christmas Day (hurrah for office shutdown) and I'm so looking forward to it.

Hope things are well for anyone reading this.