Auditions, Day II

Today was the second day of auditions. I'm really happy to be back and helping, but I'm getting some weird vibes.

This is going to be stiff competition for the limited roles available, but I hope to be able to help a lot more on this one. I've really been looking forward to this show!

Auditions!

All last week I worked late so that this week I could leave early and go to auditions for Romeo and Juliet! Today was the first day of auditions! It was a great time and I was thrilled to be able to do something with theatre again! It's going to be a tough show to cast, because there are so many girls, and only one Juliet! But I think it will be an excellent show! It'll be a nice sendoff for the old auditorium since this is the last show that will ever be performed in it.

It was wonderful to be back! More auditions tomorrow, and call backs on Wednesday! HOORAY!

Sundays Are Boring

I'm not a fan of Sunday, and I can't say that I ever have been. First, it's the end of the weekend, so you have to go to work the next day. Second, in order to go to work you need clean clothes, so you have to do Laundry, and iron, and fold, and BLAH! Next, you have to go get groceries so you have something to eat during the week.

Sunday is a day for chores.

Sunday and I are not friends. In fact, I HATE YOU, SUNDAY!

MIFA Districts

Today was the District MIFA competition, where our kids performed Half an Hour at Novi Middle School. MIFA always stresses me out. For the most part I'm fine through out the day, but when we get to the spike time and everyone suddenly starts feeling stressed, I totally can feel it and then I get all stressed. This year seemed a little worse than usual, but I'm not sure why, they have a good script and some excellent actors.

Things went pretty well up there on stage. They got dinged on a few items, but they can fix those up. They ended up getting straight 2s which is a solid score. They also advanced to Regionals, which is February 11th. I would say that's great, but EVERYONE advanced to Regionals. That kind of bothers me, because I can say that there were certainly people who should not have advanced. Also, what is the point of competing if EVERYONE advances every year? There is no point to having a district competition because it doesn't weed anyone out. I mean, I guess it's nice that you get a chance to show what you have and get some feed back. Kind of like a dress rehearsal. But at the same time, it's expensive to be in these competitions, and if it's not really a competition, then stop scoring us and just give us feedback.

Anyway. They've got 2 weeks to fix some things up before Regionals. I hear it may be in Ann Arbor, which would be awesome!

What To Say?

You know, I don't really have much to say today. It can be quite difficult to come up with a post because my life is so boring. Today I made name tags at work. So, that was.... something.

You know what else. People on Facebook need to go die in a fire. I'm really sick of the animal abuse photos. Now, I'm not saying I'm pro-animal abuse, but I'm anti-animal abuse photos. Here's why.

1. That's graphic and grosses me out.

2. I don't need that all over my news feed, because frankly I am aware it happens and showing me that isn't going to do anything.

3. In fact, I don't think that picture is suddenly going to make people have an opinion on it. I'm pretty sure it's one of those things we can all agree on. And if we can't agree on that, then we know who the abusers are, and they should bet a hot wire shoved up their pee hole.

4. IT DOESN'T DO ANYTHING POSTING THOSE! This is Slacktivism. Posting this doesn't help any animals. It doesn't do anything. If you want to do something donate some money to the Humane Society, or the ASPCA. But your little Facebook post is about as helpful as crying at a fire in hopes that your tears will put it out.

Now, as I said, I am very anti-animal abuse. The internet is full of crap, and I have accidentally seen too many pictures or videos of animations that make me sick.

So, enough with the stupid posts on Facebook.

MIFA

Hey everyone, MIFA is this Saturday at Novi Middle School. You should come see it, we perform at 3:00.

Let's Fly, Let's Fly Away

I want to go somewhere. Last time I said this I got to plan a trip to Europe. The question is, where should I plan to go this time? I mean, we could go to Disney and Harry Potter world, and that would be fun. We could go out West, since I've never been, thought I'm not sure of the format of a western trip. But I want to plan to go somewhere, and I want to go to that somewhere in the near future.

The down side is that I don't see anything happening prior to say, May. May is far too long and I want to so somewhere sooner than that, but that doesn't seem possible. I suppose there are short weekend trips, but I don't know where I'd go for a short weekend trip. Anything within range would not be interesting. I suppose there's DC, but it's a bit colder. I want to go for the Cherry Blossoms, which would be late March or early April.

So, yeah, I want to go somewhere.

The State Of The Union

Tonight was the State of the Union address. I enjoy this night because even when we had a stupid president, it's a nice ceremonial event that for one night can bring people together more rather than driving them apart.

I have to say that I really enjoyed the speech tonight. There really didn't seem to be a lot of blaming or finger pointing, but rather a feeling of lets work together and be Americans who do big things. I like that, we need to do big things, and I think the speech was very inspiring and reminded me of the 2008 Obama who I supported and was thrilled to see elected.

I have been far less happy since then with some of the things he's done, not done, or simply caved into before the negotiations even started. I know he's up against tough opposition, but still, there are things that he could have done differently. I think this seemed more like a leadership moment that he hasn't really had many examples of lately, and that's what I wanted to see. I'm sick of Presidents who don't ask us to do anything. I want that Kennedy "Ask what you can do for your country" approach. I want the Kennedy "We will put a man on the moon" ambition. I want that FDR "We will throw everything at this problem until we find something that works" method of solving problems.

So, I'm pleased with what I saw tonight, and hope we see more of it, and more action in the future.

Would The Members Of The School Board...

That quote has nothing to do with much, other than the fact that today we went to the school board meeting, and this was a quote from The Music Man. We skipped the last one because it was really long and had a bunch of formal stuff because it's a new term and they had to vote in the officers, etc. This meeting was thankfully short.

I considered skipping the meeting. I've lost a lot of my drive to attend these sort of things. I'd rather go home and eat dinner. But I suppose it's only twice a month. But I'm losing interest in things and would rather just sit at home.

Nothing big happened at the school board meeting. There's a new member who I'm not sure how I feel about. We'll see how this new member settles in to things.

Farmer Jason?

I've been toying with the idea of planting a garden. Now, our neighbors have a little garden, but I'm not so sure I want to take up what little yard space I have and put a garden in it. I mean, the benefit would be (in addition to fresh food) that I mow less. However, I'm not sure what "Stepford" would say about that, and I'm not sure the soil would be great.

I'm thinking of seeing if I can borrow some of my gran's land and plant on it. I'm sure she probably wouldn't mind as I'd have to come over quite often to tend to it. And, of course I'd cover the watering costs associated with it. She didn't do a garden last year, but I thinks he did the year before. Hmmmm. More thinking shall be had on this subject. But, it could be nice.

Deceptive Weather

This weather is driving me nuts! One day it's cold, then it's warm, then it snows, then it's warm.

Today I went out and shoveled the snow. I don't know why I did it. The weather says that over the next few days the temperatures are going to rise and most likely all this snow will be gone again. If I had just waited I would have saved myself some work. Though, I can count it as exercise, so I did it anyway.

This weather is totally deceptive because it feels more like late February or early March than it does mid January. I don't necessarily mind. I hate to shovel snow, and we've had very little of it yet this year, so that's good. I also hate when I have to walk the dogs in freezing temperatures. I feel like last January was in the teens or lower all month, so it certainly is much nicer not to freeze my butt off every night. It's also good because when it gets that cold Simon has troubles walking around in the snow.

The down side is I keep feeling like any day now it's going to start getting even warmer, we'll see leaves budding on the trees, flowers sprouting, and the grass becoming greener. I'm looking forward to the warmer weather, the spring, the summer, and all the good times that will come with those things, and this weather is deceiving me into thinking it's sooner than it is. CURSE YOU WEATHER!

But, keep it up, because the less snow I shovel, the happier I will be.

Friday

I hate that I count down to Friday, but I do.

That's the kind of thing you do when you hate your job, count down the days to the next vacation, the next break from work, the weekend.

I keep looking for something else, but every time I look I find nothing, and then just end up in a worse mood than I would have been in if I hadn't looked at all. If I don't look then I can just hate my job. When I look and find nothing, I hate my job, feel trapped, get really angry that I worked my ass off in school so I could NOT do what I'm doing now, only to find out that it's the only job I can get. Then I get mad at anyone who says "well at least you have a job" because fuck that. I'm not one to settle for a job. If that was the case I'd still be working on an assembly line at Ford. Yeah, it's all well and good to get a regular paycheck, but who cares if you go home every night wishing the office would fall into some unexpected chasm that formed right under your building. Then I get mad at anyone who can't seem to understand my lack of options, my utter misery, and why I'm angry. That leads me to want to punch everyone I see in the face.

But, today is Friday, and today I get to go home and not have to wake up and do this again tomorrow. So, HOORAY for a day!

Thank God For Chicken Pox

I was supposed to work on this big event today, but the guy got Chicken Pox, as I mentioned earlier this week. I'm actually glad that the thing isn't going to happen because I HATE working/planning events like this. It's my second least thing to do, right behind scheduling meetings (which is pretty much the same as scheduling events). Oh, and I hate getting people coffee. I think it's fair to hate getting people coffee when you spent $40,000 going to college. I could get people coffee without spending $40,000.

But Chicken Pox has saved me from this terrible fate of event managment. I still have a big event at the end of the month, but for today I didn't have to worry about that.

Censorship

Today was the internet black out in response to SOPA and PIPA, two measures currently being discussed in Congress that in the end could amount to censorship. I had considered just posting a giant black picture, but I decided instead I'd just say a few words on it.

See, I don't agree with this sort of thing, regardless of what it's trying to solve. I think you can't be a free nation that gives Iran, China and North Korea shit about censorship, and then open the door for it yourself. Now, people will say, "well that's not the intention, blah blahblah". Well, that doesn't matter, because as time goes by, the people who intended the law to do a certain thing are no longer around, and then someone else will do something else with it. You can't open the door to that sort of thing. The truth is that it's not going to stop it, and in the end would just lead to many possible unintended consequences. So, I wrote to my senators and told them what I though. And I posted about it so others can learn about it.

If only people paid this much attention with the Defense Authorization Act... Git-mo for 'Mericans! WOOTWOOT!

Sick

I'm sick. Going to sleep. No blog today,

Slow Day

Nothing much today. Though a bit of funny happened. I've spent a TON of time at work (as a % of time worked, that is) on this big event that is happening this week. Well just got an e-mail saying the guy can't make it to his own lecture, so we have to cancel the whole thing. Now, you may wonder why, and it turns out the reason is illness. What illness?

CHICKEN POX!

You've got to be kidding me.

Writers Block

I haven't really had much to say lately. It's kind of annoying because you would think that I'd at least figure out something worth talking about once a day, and yet, nothing.

I lead a terribly boring life. I have a job where I do nothing of interest. The best story I may have goes something like this.

"It was a quiet day at the office; your typical day where the silence seems to be surrounding you, and out of the corner of your eye you see what appears to be a tumble weed roll past your door. The stillness only perforated by the occasional hum of the printer as it kicks into life to print off something that surely could have just been saved as a PDF.

Yet, this was not some ordinary day, rather it was a day that would hold the biggest crisis the office has seen since the great cup shortage of '11.

The Directory happily bounced into the office that morning, greeting those he passed on his way to his door as he muttered something about needing some liquid energy. After setting down his stack of papers, he headed to the coffee machine to start his day.

That's when the tragedy struck! He placed the K-Cup into the machine, pressed the blinking light, and was assaulted by the sound of an angry coffee maker. The machine was out of water!

How could such a thing be? Why was this happening. Frantically he looked around, confused and upset. I rushed over to see if he was ok and after assessing his wounds found that the only remedy was a hot, Colombian roast, STAT! I opened the cupboard, pulled out the container and began to fill it using the water cooler, but it was taking too much time. I decided there was no time to lose, and pushed down both the hot, and cold levers! The pitcher filled in half the time. I then sloshed the water into the machine, reset it, and seconds later the director was merrily on his way.

It's days like this that really make you think. Poor guy."

Another Old Photo Dump!

Well, as not much has been going on, I thought I'd delight you with a few old photos for you viewing pleasure! ENJOY!

The Nerd Herd in St. Louis

Me at 17

Me and Cindy during The Music Man

Me and Dante during Music Man

Me and Bec during Music Man

Blah

I didn't feel well today, so I called in. Not much going on, just stayed in bed most the day, then sat around. So, that's all I'm going to post for today.

Oh yeah, and happy Friday the 13th! OHHHH NOOOOOES!

Faster!

This week is going way faster than last week. Also, this month is moving right along too. I mean it's already the 11th! In two weeks we're doing MIFA districts, the week after that it's February and we're doing Mid-Michigan theatre Festival, and then the week after that we've got MIFA Regionals! I mean, in three weeks, we're already done with the first month of the year!

I'm glad time is moving, I'm looking forward to the spring, because winter after Christmas really is boring and terrible. Plus, I've got plans for the warmer months of this year! PLANS I TELL YOU!

Too Long!

Six hour training should be outlawed. It's really too much, and in the end it's worthless because I'm not going to remember anything from it. I will say that it was better than the training from yesterday because at least today it was interactive.

Yet, my brain is still leaking out of my head.

Training Joy

Today I had to go to training for budgeting. I'm not going to be creating budgets, or really doing much of anything with budgets, and I haven't done anything in the six months I've worked in my job. However they thought that I should take it so I have a broad understanding of it. So, I went to the class. I nearly fell asleep in the class. Luckily it was only a 4 hour class. Tomorrow I have one that's 6 hours... how will I survive?

Uneventful

Today was boring. Uneventful.

I decided that I just didn't have it in me to sit through another school board meeting, especially since today was the first one of the new board (only one new guy, the rest are the same as always). So I decided to skip it and stay home to watch our Netflix (Public Enemies, which I may have fell asleep for a portion of it... how did he break out of that jail?)

After I woke up I did some photo work, which was fine.

I want it to be summer. I'm done with winter, and nothing fun is happening in winter. I want to have something to do, and January is lacking in that. Blah to all of that!

Holmes!

Today I bring you my second movie review of the year, Sherlock Holmes!

Now, I enjoyed the first one. I like Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes, and I enjoyed the overall story and set up of the movie. I have to say that I enjoyed this one as well. As it was done in the same format, and continued the story of the first one. I also enjoyed that they didn't try to change too much in the formula of how they make the movies. Sometimes you have a good movie, and then the subsequent movies really blow (i.e. The Matrix).

I thought this one had a good story, though I'm not sure if the villain was all that villainous. Really, he just seemed like a greedy butthead ala your Wall Street types. I mean, I guess money is a good motive, but I kind of expected more out of the Professor. There were also a few moments where you really have to suspend reality because some things like the fighting or the action obviously is more crazy than necessary, but it's not totally impossible. Other things we know, from Mythbusters, are total bologna.

Anyhow, I enjoyed the story, and I like that they throw so many clues in, but in turn that makes you think everything may possibly be a clue that you have to pay attention to. I think this really works for them because then you never know what is an actual clue and what is just a harmless piece of set/prop/dialogue. It's a lot of fun, and I enjoy fun movies. So, if you liked the first one, then I suggest you get out there and see this one, if you haven't already.

An Unscheduled Day!

What in the world am I to do today? I have nothing on the agenda!

That's not completely true. I do have a few things to do today, but nothing major other than that. Last night was a fun evening playing games. We played the game of Things, which was a lot like Loaded Questions, but was really a great time. Then we played this game called Blockus! OMG! I LOVE THIS GAME! See, you have all these Tetris like pieces that you put on the board, and then you have to get as many of your pieces on as possible, because you have 3 other players who are also trying to get on the board. So it's a bit of Tetris, but also a bit of strategy! So, that was a great time.

In other news, tomorrow our young house guest will be returning to college and vacating our guest room. It was fun to have him around, as it brought a lot of life into the house. He was out a lot, but yet there was still a lot more going on when he was around. I enjoy the hustle and bustle of people coming and going. Plus, we got some comedy gold going on!

So anyway, first week of 2012 is over. Only 51 more until the end of the world... right? RIGHT? haha!

TGIF!

Why was this the longest week in the history of ever? Seriously! For a four day work week it seemed like it lasted for a month! UGH!

But happily, today is Friday, and this evening we have Pizza for dinner, which is one of my favorite dining choices, and a game night at the Yateseseseseses. So all in all tonight should be an entertaining evening!

Back To Business

Last week flew by way to fast. It's been really hard to get back into work mindset. I mean, it's been really quiet around work because people are taking vacations and there's not a lot of projects in the pipeline.

So, my quiet job has been pretty silent lately, which is boring. But it was really nice to have some time off last week and just be at home and relax a little (though it was extremely busy every day).

Memory Lane

Good news, I've been scanning like a nut, and have done nearly 10 rolls in the past week or so! I've mentioned before how I feel about scanning. Part of it is really fun, and I'm thrilled to be able to get my photos digitized so that I don't lose them in the event of some sort of catastrophe. On the other hand, it can be a little sad. For example, I just uploaded probably the last normal visit I had with my one grandfather, and it seems like every year I start to get curious about the family history. I also wish I had been able to ask questions and such. For example, I know he was in World War II, and I never had the opportunity to speak to him really about that. Regrets.

In other news, I've started my first book of the year, and I'm about 2% into it. I'm reading Inheritance, which is the 4th book in the Eragon series. The problem with this is that it was so long ago that the last book came out, and each one is like 800 pages, that I couldn't remember if I had in fact read the last one. Turns out I did. So far there has been some unnecessary nonsense that is irrelevant to the story. I mean, I suppose it paints the picture of what's going on, and apparently gives them a major plot point, but doesn't seem to do much for the plot. I don't often read fantasy, mostly because authors seem to feel in order to be an elf they have to use three As in every word, and they all seem to be a million pages long. But, I'm reading this, because I started and I want to see how it finishes. Though, given the liberal borrowing of plot ideas, themes, and imagery I probably could guess if I really tried.

Furthermore, I think I should rename my goals, "Challenges" because when it comes to reading 12 books this year, CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!!!

Anyhow, that's all I've got going on, and for your enjoyment. OLD PICTURES!

Jason and Annie being fools

The Nerd Herd

(yes it was a thing before Chuck)

Grandad F.

Spot the cat

Gran

Goals?

Well, having looked over my 2011 goals, I guess I should set some 2012 goals. So, here we go.

Goal Number One: Get a new job
It's no secret, I hate my job. So, I need to find a new one. In order to do that I need to update my resume, so updating my resume shall be a mini-goal. I want something that will give me more flexibility like I had at Borders, and I want something that isn't mind numbingly dull.

Goal Number Two: Read at least 12 books
I didn't read at all in 2010, and got back into reading in the second half of 2011. So I think a goal of at least 12 books is reasonable. That's only 1 book per month, which seems very reasonable. I asked for a few books for Christmas, but didn't get any. That's ok, I know I have at least four that I need to read, and I'm sure it's probably more than that now that I think about it. So I should be able to get through quite a few months before needing to purchase a new book. The question is, where do I start?

Goal Number Three: Be more active CONSISTENTLY!
I had this goal last year, and technically I was more active in 2011 than I was in 2010, but it was very inconsistent. We will see how it goes. My treadmill is dead, and I can't find any reason for it not to be working, yet, it won't work properly. Being active in the winter sucks. I'll figure something out.

Goal Number Four: Digitize my photos
This is something I've been working on for a while, but not very consistently. I've got maybe 15% of my old photos digitized. So, I'd like to have all of them done before the year is out. I'd also like to have more of my movies uploaded too, but that will require a new hard drive, which I did not receive for Christmas. So, as soon as I purchase one, then I can start the upload process again.

Goal Number Five: Go out West
I had this one last year also, but I didn't make it anywhere West of here at all. So, this year I'd like to head out West. I'd love to go to California, but I'd also be willing to find something less West than that. It will depend on what we do with our vacation time because I also want to see the Harry Potter park in Orlando... Too many places to go, too little vacation time to do it.

Goal Number Six: Get That Going
That is the theatre group that was started last year. We performed Much Ado About Nothing int he park, and it was pretty successful among the people involved, and financially it did ok. I'd like to get the group doing more plays, but we had some trouble that prevented it this year. So In 2012 I'd like to get the group up and moving. Perhaps a late spring show? Certainly a summer show. A winter show also, perhaps? I keep saying A Christmas Carol...

Goal Number Seven: Do Something New
Ok, so I'm not sure about this one, but I'm going to say I want to do seven things I've never done before. I pick the number seven for no particular reason (perhaps because it's goal seven?), but that's what I'm going to say. And it can't be like "I've never had chicken for dinner on January 3, 2012 before, harhar!" No, it has to be legitimate things that I've not done. I don't know what these things will be, or when they will happen. But I think some newness could be interesting. I mean, I think last year I did things like go to Italy, France and the UK, so boom, there were three right there. So, it's a vague goal, and I don't know how well it will turn out. I won't reach for it though (like "oh it's December 27th... Hmm, let's go to this NEW RESTAURANT!" So, legitimate new experiences, not lame things.

SECRET 8th HORCRUX GOAL: DFTBA

Ok, anyway those are my 2012 goals, I suppose. We shall see how it goes. I have specific things I want to do this year, like build a deck, fix the library, do something with the green room, get rid of all the ugly rocks around our house, but I don't think they are really "year goals" and more of just a to-do list.

I feel positive about 2012. Screw you MAYANS! When we get to midnight leading us into 2013, I say we'll look back and the year will look good, with many fine accomplishments! Let's get to it!

Movie Review Number One

Well, look at this. It's only January 2nd, and I already have my first movie review of the year ready to go! I mean, it helps that we got like $200 in movie gift cards (not an exaggeration). So, today we decided to commence with the spending by going out and seeing The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Now, I was told that I needed to read the book before the movie came out, and I would definitely recommend doing the same. It's not really all that interesting to read a book that is this murder mystery story, if you know the end. At the same time it was kind of less than great to know exactly what was going to happen.

Basically, (and I will avoid any spoilers for those who haven't seen it) the story is about this guy trying to uncover the murder of a girl that occurred 40 years in the past. So, knowing who did it, what happened, and everything that gets uncovered is really a bit boring, but still at least if you read the book first you can see how they decided to portray it on film.

I enjoyed the film, first I thought the casting was really good. The sleazeballs were all sleazeballs, Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara were good choices, and Christopher Plummer was perfect. So that aspect I really enjoyed. In addition, they moved the plot along quite well, which really took a bit of time to get into when I read the book. I will say that as films go, they probably could have done without some items, but they kept in a lot, which meant that it was nearly a three hour film. The beginning seemed a bit choppy, which might be because they condensed a lot of the book, but once they got going it flowed quite nicely.

I do have a major complaint, and that was the change in the ending. I found it to be completely unnecessary and really just was more confusing than it needed to be. Perhaps it was because I read the book first that it threw me off big time, but it really wasn't a good shift, and I'm irritated that they took something that was completely logical and made it into something complicated, and for no good reason.

In the end, I will give the movie a big thumbs up, but if you're going to read it, and are thinking about reading the book first, then just read the book first, otherwise you'll probably never make it to the end.

2011 Year In Review

Welcome to 2012! And if they Mayans were right, then nothing really is going to happened because they didn't believe in the end of the world in the way that western cultures do, it's all cycles, people.

Well, a year ago today I was all "SO LONG 2010, you suck!" and was all "Hey 2011, I got plans for you!" 2010 did suck. I left Borders, I finished my degree, I couldn't find a teaching job, I had a temp job I disliked, and at the end of the year, I was again, unemployed.

Well, I wasn't all that fond of 2011 either. I started off unemployed again, but got to teach, so that was a high point. Then I got a temp job over the summer that I despised, that then turned into a regular full time job. It was nice not to have to worry when I was going to get paid again, but my soul is slowly being killed because I have nothing I do that I enjoy. The job keeps me from everything. So, 2011, you kind of sucked too because I'm stuck.

But, 2012 already feels different, so I'm going to predict an eventful and good year.

However, we have some finishing up to do with 2011 before we go forward. You see, last year I set some goals, and I'm going to take a look and see how I did with them.

Goal Number 1: Take More Photos

Well, I'm going to have to go with a big check mark on this one. I believe the nearly 1,000 pictures from Europe alone would have taken care of that. I'm still terrible on the day to day sort of things, but it improved a lot this year.

Goal Number 2: Express My Opinion More

I don't know if I did this or not. I feel I've been very open about my dislike of work, but I don't know if this goal was met or not. If you feel I need to do more, then I guess it wasn't met. If you feel I should shut up more, then perhaps it was met. So I don't know if I can grade myself on this one.

Goal Number 3: Buy A New Tux

Nope. I did not do this. I did not meet the conditions I needed in order to warrant the purchase of a new tux. So, that's a big no.

Goal Number 4: Be More Active

Well, I started out really well on this one, then my treadmill died, and I kind of stopped because it was winter. So I'm going to give this one a "Did Not Meet" rating also.

Goal Number 5: Leave The Country And Visit Somewhere Else

London, Rome, Venice, Paris, Normandy. I believe this was more than met. Our trip was fantastic, and if you missed my recaps of it, then you can just check my blogs from October (starting on the 12th). This almost didn't happen, but we were able to squeeze it in, and it was the best trip ever!

Goal Number 6: Go Somewhere Out West

I didn't make it out West this year. This was sad, but really not that big of a deal. Instead we went to New York City and saw some great shows! So, you only get so much time off, and can't fit everything in. I'll make it out West eventually, though.

Goal Number 7: See People More

I feel this is a yes, but not everyone. Some people were seen quite often, some people quite rarely. So, kind of a mixed bag on this one.

I also set some very specific goals, which I shall review.

• The master "water closet" was painted.
• The coat and game closets were painted
• I did not catch up on my magazines, but I have made good progress (but they just keep coming)
• I filed my piles of files
• I did not run at least 30 minutes a day on account of my dead treadmill
• I uploaded tons of videos and pictures
• I got back into reading, and read 7 books last year! (Which is 7 more than last year)

So, there you have it. A recap on my 2011 goals. Some I made, some I missed, but they were only goals, so it doesn't matter either way, because life goes on regardless. I'm fine with what got done for the most part, and I shall make goals for 2012 soon.

Happy 2012, everyone!