Month: December 2014

It’s been a great year! Thanks for sharing it with me.

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If you’re on Facebook the title of this blog may sound familiar to you.

For about a week I’ve been seeing my Facebook’s friends’ years summarised into a cute little e-booklet of sorts. But since I’m me, I wasn’t possibly going to settle for a small, Facebook provided recap. No no, I’m ending this year with a blog reviewing some awesome moments from 2014. Literally just like the Facebook thing, but longer.

Ran my first RunOrDye with Mama and Clara – March

Went to Prom – May

IMG_3427 Graduated High School and celebrated at Universal Studios – June

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Started my Yoga Certification – June

 

New York Trip with Mama – July

 

 

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Celebrated my 18th Birthday – August

 

 

 

Got my driver’s license – September

 

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New York Trip with Mama and Pahpah – September

 

 

 

 

 

Said goodbye to friends and family and packed up the house – September

 

 

 

 

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Drove over 2,000 miles from Tampa to California – October

 

 

 

 

Cali Adventures – October to Now

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2014 has been a whirlwind of a year. There have been lots of ups but also a lot of downs. But I got past and learned from those downs with the help of my family and friends. I’m incredibly excited for the new year and all of the adventures and lessons in store. Here’s to growing not just older but wiser as well.

I hope you all have a wonderful time celebrating in 2015!

Family Christmas Trip 2014

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Out of town Christmas trips are the greatest. And no, not like driving to your grandparents house in Milwaukee like you do every year. I mean the I’ve-been-waiting-for-this-trip-since-July-and-I-haven’t-slept-in-weeks-cause-I’m-so-excited kind of trip. Maybe you take one earlier on in the year, or maybe you have two trips, or maybe you don’t go out of town every year. My family and I don’t have annual Christmas trips, but I absolutely love them.

I think they’re fantastic because you get to see how that particular city and its locals celebrate Christmas. And if for some reason the city’s decorations and Christmas spirit aren’t all that different from what you’re used to, then it’s just your new holiday home away from home. My family and I have taken a few Christmas trips. All of them filled with so much fun.

Like in 2011 when we spent Christmas in New York. It was amazing! It’s one of the best cities to visit during Christmas, with the Rockefeller tree and the countless gigantic decorations all around.

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And in 2012 we spent Christmas/New Year in Orlando. That one was fun because we stayed in a resort that was really more like a small town. We didn’t really have to get in our car, the resort was big enough for us to explore.

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And this year our (pre) Christmas trip was in the good ol’ 702…or 725 as I’ve just found out. Anyway my point still stands, we took a trip to Las Vegas. I wasn’t exactly sure how present the Christmas spirit was on The Strip, but I was eager to find out. So here now are some pictures to show some of my favourite Vegas sights. (Some Christmas, some not)

Caesar’s Palace

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Paris’ Eiffel Tower Restaurant

Eiffel Tower Restaurant Distance Eiffel Tower Restaurant

And this awesome statue somewhere inside Paris

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Huge trees that greeted us when we went inside Aria

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This B-E-A-Utiful chocolate sculpture of The Grinch inside the Jean Philippe Patisserie – Aria Resort

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A few treats and a delicious drink from Jean Philippe Patisserie – Aria Resort

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We had dinner one night in Serendipity (located on the same block/area as Caesar’s Palace), given my absolute love for this place I just couldn’t resist adding a picture into this post

Dinner at Serendipity

As self-titled thrill seekers, Pahpah and I absolutely had to visit Adventuredome at Circus Circus
Rides shown are The Canon Blaster and The Inverter, respectively

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This delightfully cheerful tree right outside of the Palazzo

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Last but definitely not the least is the Bellagio:

The fountains found in the very front of the resort

Bellagio Fountains

Adorable Christmas displays inside the lobby of the resort
There are a whole lot more, but these two are my absolute favorites

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One of so many beautiful sculptures created by Richard MacDonald located in the lobby for Cirque du Soleil’s show “O”

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The pictures here are just highlights of my time on The Strip, and don’t even scratch the surface of what Vegas has to offer.

While it is the gambling capital of the world and often called ‘Sin City’ I would be lying if I said I didn’t experience the Christmas magic during our stay. Which only proves that Christmas, and everything it symbolizes, is powerful enough to be present everywhere. Even in the city where excessive everything is the norm.

I understand that it is two days after Christmas, but just because the actual day has passed doesn’t mean we can’t keep the spirit going. I’m incredibly grateful that my family and I were able to experience Christmas in a new city. And that’s a big part of what Christmas is, experiencing life, both good and bad, with the ones you love. I can only hope that you all have had joyous Christmases with your loved ones,  and maintain happy spirits for the week ahead.

Journal Entry of the Week

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Every Friday I will pick my favourite journal entry from the week. I just so happened to choose today’s prompt.

Write a paragraph that begins with the colour orange and ends with the colour turquoise.

Bench in the Field

Orange and reds painted the sky, as if the finest paints known to man were collected and used to decorate the sky. Mary didn’t have much time. It’s been about ten years since the last time she and her father drove to the open field and watch the colours of the day mix with those of the incoming night. After her father got sick, she just couldn’t bear to go back to their spot on her own. But something pushed her to go today and as hard as she tried to talk herself out of it, she just couldn’t do it. And she was glad that she couldn’t. As difficult as it was for her to make the drive alone, she was amazed at the sight that greeted her when she arrived. There in the middle of their field, right next to their tree was a bench. She walked towards it and found a short note darkly etched on the backrest:

“Darling Mary, I may not be with you to watch future sunsets but that doesn’t mean you can never enjoy them. I’ll always be with you. All of my love, Poppers.”

She couldn’t help but giggle. Of course he signs it ‘Poppers.’ He never passes up the opportunity to undo his own tender moment. She did follow her father’s last and enjoyed the view above her. She’s seen sunsets before, but none like this one. There were the usual oranges and yellows but there were also colours that one would never associate with the changing sky: a bit of dark blues, bright pinks and, much to Mary’s delight, even a bit of turquoise.

I never thought of myself as a master of writing fiction. This journal will boldly tell you that. I obviously couldn’t follow instructions because I wrote more than one paragraph, but I like where I went with that story. And I look forward to writing more short stories like this one.

Little Seed of a Gift

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I’ve been writing on this blog for a little over three years now. For a while it was just something I was doing because I was told to. Every week my mom would tell me that I had a talent. That I was given the gift of writing well. And I never believed her. I refused, maybe not out loud, but on the inside I refused with every fiber of my being. I found it ridiculous. She continued to tell me, and I continued to not believe what she was saying.

My disbelief only grew when I transferred to a magnet high school my junior year. There was an entire department filled with kids who constantly justified my self-doubt. There were tons of students who knew exactly how to explain something. They used extremely proper grammar and SAT words. But not in the same way the rest of the human population uses extremely proper grammar and ten dollar words. No. They weren’t using these tools blindly to meet the minimum page requirement. They know exactly when to use semicolons and they say “bombastic” without it ever being about the Shaggy song. (It’s spelt differently, but I absolutely cannot be the only person who connects those two together)

They just know how to turn their thoughts and feelings and ideas into beautiful pieces of rhetoric. They’re able to read and analyse tough pieces of literature with ease. It’s like they were born exceptional writers. But that’s usually not the case. People aren’t born able to write italian sonnets about the woes of loving one who loves another. That’s not to say they’ll never be able to. The talent they’re born with matches that of a seed. If you just wait for the seed to bring up something more, nothing will ever come. Same thing goes with whatever talent a person is born with, they can’t just realise that they’re decent at something and hope for the best. They have to continually work on and nurture their talent to see any improvement.

The point I’m lingering on to make is, I wasn’t born with a level of talent that bests many celebrated writers. And or years I have denied my having the talent at all. It hasn’t been long that I’ve really accepted that writing truly is a part of me and not just something I was decent with in school. I don’t know who I am as a writer, I don’t know where writing will take me. But I do know and accept that I was given this little seed of a gift, and I’ll work on it and nurture it to the best of my ability and see what it blooms into.

The Desk of Promise

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For the first two months that we’ve been in California I had to see my bubble-wrapped desktop sit in the corner like some troublesome child. We didn’t exactly have proper surfaces to support our all of our computers and work spaces. I mean I could have set up on the dining table, but that would have just been more trouble than anything else. But I don’t need to worry about all that. Because now, right now, at this moment, my iMac is sitting on a beautiful ikea desk.

It’s weird looking at a big screen again. I’ve been browsing and working through my iPad, sometimes on my mom’s laptop both with screens that don’t even compare to the desktop. No complaints though, of course. The bigger screens makes everything feel super important. Like I’m typing up the speech that unites two warring countries, or the script for the next year’s most inspirational film. But I’m writing this. Certainly not a speech that results in the fate of thousands or the next Oscar-winning movie, but still. It’s something I felt the need to write.

I need some sort of celebration post about how I get to work on nice desk again. I need it so when I don’t feel like writing I can remember how excited I’m feeling right now. So I don’t succumb to that ugly monster we all call laziness. And just in case it brings its friend self-doubt I’ll remember that writing whatever came to my head, whether induced by a prompt or not, felt awesome. I overcame some sort of circumstance today so that I can write. It wasn’t some life-altering circumstance, but it was a circumstance that could have prevented me from writing what I’m writing here and on my journal. But I didn’t let it, I wrote.

So take that writer’s block! You’re a fighter but as it turns out, so am I.

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Monday INspiration

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A wonderful bundle of quotes to help anyone get out of their Monday – quite frankly ANY day of the week – blues.

For the Everyday Woman

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This morning a lot of us hit the snooze button on our alarm clock five or ten times. But we got up and faced the dreaded ‘Monday after a long holiday weekend.’ It’s a struggle starting the week after a good long weekend. Maybe some of us need to a little sprinkle of inspiration today, so here are 10 great quotes from great men and women who made an incredible difference in our world.

1. “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” Maya Angelou

2. “I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.” E.E. Cummings

3. “Home is where one starts from.” T. S. Eliot

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