Eleven.

I know it's been a while (a LONG while) since I've even attempted to write a blog post. I have a few partially-written posts saved in my drafts, long forgotten and neglected, but I've been EXTREMELY lazy when it comes to blogging. One of my New Year's resolutions, actually, is to get my act together where blogging and vlogging are concerned. But anyway, seeing as I am leaving for my ringing-in-the-new-year festivities soon, I should probably get to the point. Resolutions will come in the next post.
So. It's New Year's Eve. I'm off work, sitting in my pajamas watching CommunityChannel videos back to back, which pretty much sums up the past month or two of the year, and I remember that I need to write my annual end-of-the-year blog.
This year's list is a bit... nuts. There's a lot. Bear with me.

In 2011, I:
-reached the 2 decade mark in my life
-began my junior year in college
-changed my major again (art with a concentration in photography)
-went to LeakyCon and had one of the most amazing times of my life
-met several of the marauders and tons more of my online friends at LeakyCon
-went to Wizarding World of Harry Potter and cried with happiness (hush, you.)
-went back to Disney World
-met some of my favorite authors
-literally just (just at this moment) finished watching every single CommunityChannel video. An amazing accomplishment, I'm sure.
-finally saw Hank Green live!
-saw the last Harry Potter movie the day before its release, in the theatre full of huge Harry Potter fans, and cried my eyes out
-danced on stage at LeakyCon, making me feel more BA than I ever have
-Visited the largest McDonalds in the world
-saw Harry and the Potters live and had my first ever marauder meeting when I locked eyes with the Ali during "The Weapon"
-went on my first date (shut it.)
-got my first boyfriend (again, shut it.)
-got my first kiss
-went through my first breakup
-had, not my first, but my hardest heartbreak
-got through it, got over it, came out stronger
-finished my first ever song (lyrics and music)
-got into the Pottermore beta
-got sorted OFFICIALLY as a Ravenclaw!
-bought myself a legit camera
-finished NaNoWriMo for the second year in a row
-maintained my passion for writing
-hit 100 subscribers on Youtube (well, I'M proud of it.)
-saw my favorite musical, In the Heights, again and got to meet some of the cast
-met two more of the FiveAwesomeGirls (INCLUDING Hayley G. Hoover, and we all know how I feel about her), bringing my total to having met four of the five. Next up, Liane Graham!
-learned zumba
-decided I wanted to teach zumba and helped teach the class I was in
-got my first traffic ticket
-got my Jeep, whom I named Amy Pond and love to death
-moved into a new home
-gained several more family members and one soon-to-be stepmom
-finally watched all the Lord of the Rings movies during a one-day marathon with my best friend
-learned how to play Magic: the Gathering and got my own deck
-made countless memories that will stay with me forever

This is honestly all that I can think of right now, although I know there is so much more. This year has had more ups and downs than a roller coaster, and I can't definitively say whether or not I hope for another year like this. What I do know is that I learned so much this year, and that even the things that I lost and the low points I hit taught me things and made me stronger. And the good things, well, they were more than good. They were amazing. I can't wait for another year full of them.
My goal for 2012 is to make huge changes in my life. By the end of 2012, I want to be able to say that I did everything I could to get to where I wanted to go. No more sitting around waiting, which I did a lot of this year.
I hope you all achieved everything you wanted to in 2011 and that you do the same this coming year. I love you all and I can't imagine what my life would have been like without my family, my friends, and the good Lord watching over me.
God bless all of you and your new years. =)
<3

Currently reading: The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
Song of the Day: Set Fire to the Rain- Adele

BEDA 4/9 Now the Theme Park's Done, and I'm Going to Hogwarts

So today my sister came home from her spring break in Florida. I've been there three times, but I haven't been there since the opening of the Wizard World of Harry Potter last year. She got to go to it while she was there, and she was telling me about it tonight and it sounds SO amazing. I don't care if I have to work full time this entire summer, I am going to get enough money to pay for the park when I go to LeakyCon. It sounded like it was everything I could have hoped for in a Harry Potter theme park, and for me, to hear that my favorite book series, the world I wish I could live in, the world that has made me who I am, has come to life in a way- it's like magic, corny as it sounds. It may have always been real to me and the other fans, but now it's real to everyone. It's actually there. I cannot wait to go. I think I'll actually cry from happiness when I'm there.

Also, my friend Luke and I are starting a band called The Neverland Dreamers and it is going to be all about Peter Pan and we are going to meet Andrew Ducote and marry him. So there's that.

Anyways, I have a huge project I'm supposed to be working on, so I'm gonna go do that. See you all tomorrow.

Currently reading: City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare
Song of the Day: 2012- Jay Sean

BEDA 4/5

Hey guys! Today's cop-out-*ahem*-BEDA post is a new post on my other blog!
Here you go: http://thesecretlifeoftheamericanroommate.blogspot.com/2011/04/maybe-theyll-make-comic-strip-about-her.html

BEDA 4/4: Hunger Games Casting- Peeta and Gale

Okay, guys. So, today it was announced who would be playing Peeta and Gale in the Hunger Games movie. Josh Hutcherson, the boy from Bridge to Terabithia, is playing Peeta and Liam Hemsworth, the love interest from The Last Song, is playing Gale. I'm pretty disappointed that Hunter Parrish will not be playing Gale, but I guess Josh will be an alright Peeta. With blonde hair he looks a bit younger, and he's got a sweet face, and he's a good actor, from what I remember. I saw some of The Last Song, but don't remember much of Liam's acting skills; however, he looks NOTHING like Gale. Gale is supposed to be 18. Liam is 19, but he looks about 30. And he just doesn't fit the dark, mysterious, handsome, tough-but-kind Gale that I had in my head.
While I'm disappointed that the actors don't really fit my pictures of the characters, if they're good actors, I'll be okay with it. I'd rather have really good actors who don't fit my idea of the characters as much than actors who fit perfectly but can't act. I don't want a repeat of Twilight- two leads who fit the description but give an emotionless performance.
And I'm also really worried that the movie won't live up to the books. Of course, it won't be as good, because the movies never are. But I'm just really hoping they don't ruin it.
For example, I love the Harry Potter movies. While I did read the books before I saw the movies, I still was able to love and appreciate the movies because they were so well done. Holes was another book I loved, and when the movie came out, I was really pleased with it. It wasn't exactly like the book, but I really loved the way they did the movie, and they didn't change it so much that it was completely wrong.
However, when Ella Enchanted, one of my favorite books as a child, was turned into a movie, it was so different from the books. Everything I loved about the book had been taken away and turned into something different, and it was terrible. I'm just worried that this will happen again with Hunger Games, because of how intense the books are and how difficult it's going to be to portray that on film.
Anyways, I guess I'll have to wait and see. I hear Suzanne Collins is writing the screenplay, and I trust her to keep it similar enough to the books.
Anyone else have any opinions on the cast?

I should go, since I have four minutes until midnight.

Currently reading: Rebel Angels by Libba Bray
Song of the Day: Mama Who Bore Me (Reprise)- Spring Awakening

BEDA 4/1

HELLO TO THE TWO PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING TO READ THIS!
Welcome to my blog! You are just in time for BEDA!
I am going to write a quick post right now before I go to bed, since I'm not sure if I'll have time later, but I'll add to it if I have time.

I have already pulled the best April Fools joke ever on my friend, and it is the first successful April Fools joke I have pulled ever in life. It was a really good one and, needless to say, I was very excited that she actually fell for it.
I'm watching Into the Woods right now (finally!) for the first time, and I love it already. I have a date today, which I'm excited about, and work tonight, which I'm not.
Although I actually had a really good day at work last night- we pretty much had a sing-along night. Kelsey started singing Don't Stop Believing, and I joined her, and then a bunch of us were singing. Then I mentioned that my roommate had been singing Dora the Explorer earlier, which prompted everyone to start singing that, and then the national anthem, and eventually Backstreet Boys and then Grease. I was having so much fun that I forgot how much I hate my job. Haha.
Later my manager Melissa put on her iPod and played Another Day from RENT for me, and I was dancing around and singing. It was an unusually interesting time.
But now I really need to go to bed, so tomorrow's blog will hopefully be of much higher quality than this. Let me know if you're doing BEDA so I can follow along!
I'm doing VEDA as well, so if you want to follow along, here's the link to my Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/myxgiftxisxmyxsong

Currently reading: Poison by Chris Wooding
Song of the Day: Happy Now- Take That

Home

You’ve all heard the phrase “a house is not a home.” I know this to be true for a fact, which is what makes the events of today so difficult. Today I spent the entire day moving. We’re not moving far, something for which I’m very grateful; we’re only moving two streets away from the house we’re leaving. However, I didn’t really anticipate quite how difficult it would be to actually leave the place that has been my home for the past six years.
I’ve lived a lot of places in my life. Eight different houses (not counting the one we’ve just moved into), two apartments, and one dorm room. Of all those places, only two- the house I grew up in and the house I’m moving out of today- have ever felt like home to me. The one I grew up in was home for obvious reasons. It was all I knew. My parents moved there when I was two and I lived there until I was ten or eleven. It was where I met my childhood best friend when I was four and a half, not to mention every single friend I had in elementary school. It was where I learned to read, where I learned to ride a bike, where I played kickball every day in the summer, where my mom dropped my Barney cake on the white carpet on my fourth birthday. It was also home to some not-so-good memories: my parents telling us they were getting a divorce, my first time having to get stitches, my best friend moving away. Most of my childhood memories occurred within a few miles of that house. It was terrifying to leave it. I was young, and I was leaving my friends and my school district and the only home I’d ever known. But I got through it, because that’s life and that’s what you have to do.
Both of my parents have moved several times since then, but when I was thirteen, I moved into this house with my mom and sister. Now, two weeks before my twentieth birthday, I’m leaving it. I spent all of my teenage years here. All of high school, countless sleepovers and parties and Thanksgivings and Christmases, my first job and my graduation and becoming an adult, learning about the real world and then going out to experience it for myself, while still always having this place to come back to. This house watched me grow up from a silly, nerdy, irresponsible, naïve thirteen-year-old into a silly, nerdy, slightly more responsible but much more experienced adult.
Silly as it may seem, it’s really hard for me to leave this house and all the memories it holds. When my mom told me a few weeks ago that we had to move, I was upset about it, but now, sitting on the floor and looking around at my nearly empty basement, it’s really hitting me that this is no longer my home. I deal with change as it comes, but I’m not really the biggest fan of permanent change. I attach such strong emotions to everything I do and everywhere I go that it makes it especially difficult when those things end. It’s a part of life, I know, but it’s not a part of life I enjoy, and while it’s something I’ll always have to deal with, I don’t think it’s something I’ll ever get used to.
My winterguard coaches back in high school often used the metaphor that we were pebbles. If I remember correctly, they would say that in the same way that each pebble in the road makes that road what it is, each of us, and each memory, was a pebble that helped shape their lives; their “road.” I guess it’s the same way with everything you encounter in your life. Things may change, but each change results in a new pebble, shaping the road that you travel throughout your life. It may be hard and scary, but I want my road to be long and winding, and if that means I get lost on that road along the way, then I’ll make an adventure out of finding my way back.
Anyway, to finish off the last blog post I will ever write in this house (sniff), I just want to say thanks to the people who knew that this was a bit difficult for me and who have been encouraging me instead of rolling their eyes and reminding me how insignificant it really is.
Here’s to a new chapter. Adulthood, a new home, a new start, and just another pebble that makes this road what it is.

Song of the day: Vision of Persistence- Kevin MacLeod
Currently reading: Sloppy Thirds by Megan McCafferty

Expecto Patronum.

My patronus is something I discovered just over a year ago, but I can no longer imagine my life without. A year ago in October, I became a nerdfighter. And this past July, I joined the temporary staff of HPAFTW, a Harry Potter Alliance campaign, and became part of the Harry Potter fandom. These two communities changed my life and made me more comfortable and happy and proud of myself than I ever have been in my life. Comfortable, because I’ve come to realize that being a nerd and being myself no matter what is not something to be embarrassed about, but rather something to be proud of. Happy, because I love who I am now, and I love the amazing friends I’ve made and the wonderful people I’ve met in these communities. Proud, because these communities have made me realize how good I have it and help reach out to people less fortunate. I’ve never been one to reach out or do any kind of charity work, but since getting involved in Nerdfighteria and the HPA, there have been so many charity projects I’ve been involved in, and it makes me feel so good to know that I can have so much fun doing something for other people instead of for myself. I won’t even start in on the friends I’ve made and the people I’ve met and the role models I’ve discovered, because I’ll be going on forever if I do. But these people, these moments, these communities, and the way I feel now that I’m a part of them are things I will never ever forget, no matter how long I live or what else happens in my life. I will never stop being grateful to Nerdfighteria and the HP fandom, and never forget what they’ve done for me, and I’ll never stop being a part of them. I thank God all the time for bringing me to them, or them to me, when I needed them most. They are my patronus and I wouldn’t have it any other way.