the year 2010

Yes ma'am, I'm jumping on ye old bandwagon and looking back at this past year of 2010 ... and I had to correct that from the typo of 2919 (imagine living in the year 2919 - wowsers). The last few months, especially, were full of neglecting this blog which makes this month-by-month recap a good thing for me; I can truly see what I've been up to this year, things I've accomplished (or not), the ups & downs of life, etc. 

What are the moments of 2010 that first come to mind for you?

Any resolutions for 2011? 

My plans for 2011 are to try to find a decent job, hopefully get into teachers college or my M.A., and hopefully go to Europe. I like to dream small (hehe). But for now, 2010 recap time! And I'm going to try to limit each month's summary to two sentences. Let's see how badly I fail at this.

Another term at uni started, which meant pretending to be a sorceress for a friend's thesis project, and going out for plenty of bubble tea with the gals on my days off.

Celebrated Valentine's Day in the form of going to my uni's charity ball, celebrated my close friend's birthday, and went sledding for the first time in forever in the yellow sled I've had since I was about 7. 

Saw MUSE in Toronto with one of my closest friends - such an AMAZING concert. The weather was warm enough to take Shadow to the park, my mom accidentally cut my side bangs into actual bangs resulting in the disaster above, but on the bright side I got my mosquito sunglasses and met Dan and Jessi from MTV's The Aftershow, which was fun.

By the end of March, it became clear that I wasn't going to be accepted to teachers college in the fall, which meant a back-up plan in the form of ... more schooling. Joy.

From April - December under the cut!

After months days of working, I finished up my multimedia thesis with my friend/classmate (we celebrated by sleeping on restaurant tables haha), and while studying for my exams I purchased my favourite coffee mug - one decorated with Shakespeare love quotes. I also embarked on a hike with three of my gal friends, where we got lost and ended up hiking for 2 hours but rewarded ourselves with Booster Juice, and explored places like the airplane museum with The Boy.

I loved this month - it was full of good food (especially the pizzas The Boy makes), exploring the harbour with my friends, celebrating two years together with The Boy, and meeting my friend's kitty. Although I was taking a night class (for my back-up plan), I still felt pretty free.

I declared this the "party" month - though I still had my night class, I still had time to head off to Canada's Wonderland on a double date with friends, GRADUATED(!!!) on the dean's honours list, celebrated my friend's birthday at the beach, and had a belated birthday celebration for The Boy in the form of barbeques and funnels. Around this time I came to the realization of who your real friends are - it seems after graduation, most friendships just fade away, which made me grateful for those special few who wanted to stay in touch.

More barbeques, working five days a week at a secondary summer school with my favourite co-workers, and visiting my awesome online friends in Toronto filled up most of my July. The second half though, was a bit shocking - it turns out Shadow was sick again (he had surgery last year), with his lower teeth bothering him and on top of the surgery cost and not knowing if he'd recover, we then found out he had jaw cancer - although my family loves him to pieces we didn't want him to suffer anymore and decided we'd put him to sleep next month.

Probably the fullest month I've had this year and also the most bittersweet - I had to say goodbye to Shadow on the same day I flew off to Vancouver to see my sister and niece for the first time in almost a year and also meet Kym - twice! But then I also had to say goodbye to them; the memories I'll never forget, like riding a bunch of water taxis and going up Grouse Mountain and up to Whistler, discovering Bowen Island (or Shire), seeing Kooza, trying out new foods with Kym and singing along to Summer of '69 in the car, watching chick flicks with my sister ... ahh, it was an incredible two weeks. Once I flew back home, I caught up with friends by playing mini-putt, celebrating my birthday with my best friends at a waterfall, and then celebrating with The Boy at the beach and then finding STRAWBERRY KIWI ICE CREAM which made life complete.

My amazing friend treated me to the Toronto Zoo as a birthday present, which was incredible - then I spent days on campus making goofy faces with The Boy, had some more bubble tea on evenings free, and then slept over at the aforementioned amazing friend's place, and had delicious French toast the next day.

Thanksgiving dinner, pumpkin spice lattes, being spoiled by The Boy in the form of multiple homemade dinners, and celebrating birthdays filled up October. Oh, and plenty of essay-writing (yay).

This month was ruled by school (and not in a good way) - so on weekends free I ran around in a leaf-covered forest with The Boy, explored my friend's hometown where we had the best hot chocolate EVER and then was given one of the best and most practical gifts - a cord wrapper in the form of an owl. November also brought the 7th Harry Potter film, which resulted in me and my two friends waiting in line for the midnight showing with blankets wrapped around us and Wendy's as our food  (by the way, it was SO worth it) - and I also made the shirt above to celebrate!

Finally, December has been full of catching up with my friends and celebrating the holidays with family and The Boy. It's a bit of a bittersweet celebration - I'm now done school and I'm kind of scared of this newfound freedom but I'm ready to find a job and finish up my masters' application. Oh, and hopefully ring in the new year with some fun and good cheer!

I'll probably have a quick happy new year! post tomorrow, but all in all ... 2010 was a good year. I've experienced love that I've never felt before, experienced friendships I am so grateful for, got to see my sister and discover a side of my country that I absolutely adore, lost my amazing dog and didn't get into teachers college, but tried to make the most of my days.

I only hope next year is full of more bubble tea, more cuddles, more laughs, and overcoming obstacles. No real big resolutions - except to not lose my temper with my dad since I'll be around him a lot more with no classes. Wish me luck? 

Hope you've all had some good memories this year that have made up for the bad, and that you take it all in stride for the new year.