Past Year's Resolutions

Larissa does this thing every year where instead of making new New Year's resolutions, she reflects back on the previous year and lists what she has accomplished as if they were resolutions:

What did I accomplish this year?
Every year I ask myself this question and make my retrospective resolutions for the year. Hindsight is 20/20. And I think it is much more uplifting to relect and thing, "Wow- I did that!" than to think, "I didn't meet two of my ten goals. I'm a failure." Know what I'm saying?" - Larissa

I love this, so I'm doing it this year.

In no particular order:

• Attend Salt Lake Comic Con's Fan Xperience and meet Tom Felton, Billie Piper, Ralph Macchio, and Brandon Routh
• Play a dream role in two of my dream shows: Poppy in Noises Off! and Martha Jefferson in 1776
• Celebrate my 5 year anniversary at my company
• Get a raise nearly equal to all previous raises in the previous 5 years
• Paint a cool design on a clock
• Finish watching the original Star Trek television series, Phineas and Ferb, Family Ties, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Netflix's Daredevil and Jessica Jones, Melissa and Joey
• Catch up on Granite Flats, Atlantis, Ever After High
• Get my heart broken by someone I loved and trusted
• Lose 21 pounds (maintain within 5 pounds)
• Complete the Personal Trainer Food plan three times
• Walk approximately 70,000 steps or more each week 
• Vacation at Disneyland with my best friend and her family, including a princess meet-and-greet dinner where I FINALLY meet Mulan for the first time and am utterly charmed by Anna and Elsa
• See King Lear, Amadeus, Charley's Aunt, Henry IV part 2, Dracula, and Two Gentlemen of Verona at the Utah Shakespeare Festival
• Donate to several charities
• Be the face of Salt Lake Comic Con 2015!! Photos in the Deseret News, Tribune, adjacent Websites, and KSL, not to mention several professional photographers. Get photos with Chris Evans, Hayley Attwell, James and Oliver Phelps, and Jenna-Louise Coleman
• Have a blast with friends as Marie Leroux in Is He Dead?
• Paint an original piece of art
• Eat my way through The Food and Wine Festival at Epcot
• Get photos with Chip and Dale, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Cinderella and Prince Charming, Rapunzel and Flynn, Snow White, Mulan, Pocahontas, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck, Cinderella's Stepmother and Stepsisters, and Gaston at Walt Disney World
• Be chosen by my own ivy-and-unicorn-hair wand at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
• Hike Delicate Arch, Double Arch, and Landscape Arch
• Be nominated for as Best Supporting Actress in 1776 at the Empress Theater's annual gala
• Try paddle boarding for the first time
• Sing at CenterPoint Legacy Theatre's Fairytale Festival
• Attended the temple 17 times
• Read the Book of Mormon twice

I did manage to achieve a few actual goals, too. Not bad. I cannot imagine what I'll accomplish next year. Looking forward to finding out :)

Happy New Year!

Dicey December

I'll be honest, December was rough. There were definite highlights, like Christmas, and parties, and movies, and friend time. And yet it was all clouded over by the whole "you're alone AGAIN for the holidays this year" reality. I had a couple pity parties. There were a few times I wanted to clobber some clueless lovey-dovey folks in my circle. And some of the Facebook posts with the happy families forced me into a short FB break.

On the bright side, I'm about 15 pounds lighter than I was last year. That's nice. I can handle channeling my sometime loneliness through aggressive exercise (relaxing yoga is good, too). It's all about balance.

Anyhoo, here are some December highlights!

I made some major progress in two of my long-term projects at work. Then I took 12 days off for the holidays. What can I say? I hoard vacation time.

Just thinking about my Is He Dead? friends. "I've never seen such a long dog. That dog's not right!"

I hadn't seen any snow at the beginning of the month, but the rain and cold gave me hope!

I made my peanut butter cups for a Relief Society party and a Star Wars viewing. They are my faaaavorite!!

The Relief Society party included a cookie-baking demonstration, and some tips on how to make my cookies look extra impressive (especially when I'm in a hurry). There was also a raffle for prizes. Through a mix-up, my name was entered twice and I won twice. Mortified, I only accepted the first. Lemon cookies. They were AMAZING!

December 14: The first snow day of Winter 2015. We have had a TON of snow so far. Such a nice change from the previous two years!

I love receiving Christmas cards. I love seeing my friends' families' smiling faces and receiving something in the mail other than bills :)

I  saw Jason and several of my other friends in Babes in Toyland at CenterPoint. Rumor has it the theater won't be doing it again, so I'm glad I can say I saw it. Lots of great moments and comedic timing. The sixties scenes and music were a little odd, tho.

My ward had a goal for a sister in each Relief Society and an elder in each Elders Quorum to pick a night in a 30 day period to attend the temple so that someone was there for all of the 30 days. I picked the 16th and did initiators at the Salt Lake Temple. Afterwards, I walked around the grounds to look at the lights, but I was concerned about poking someone with the umbrella I'd brought with to shield me from the snow so I didn't stay very long. The lights never disappoint, and neither does time in the House of the Lord!

Liz's birthday party is always a highlight! I pieced together a cute cocktail-type outfit, at a bunch of chocolate strawberries, and talked about Star Wars and Christmas with a lot of terrific people. Already looking forward to next year!

With the birthday girl

Chantryce and me

One of my days off work, I spent a day at the movies and saw Spectre, The Peanuts Movie, The Good Dinosaur, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (for the third time). I managed to get my 10,000 steps in anyway by walking around The Gateway between showings.

The picture cut out during The Good Dinosaur and we spent 10 minutes hearing the movie without seeing anything. Fortunately, management rewound the film so we wouldn't miss anything. Afterwards they gave us movie passes as an apology. Oddly, the night before the sound cut out during a big-screen viewing of the Doctor Who Christmas Special "The Husbands of River Song." They also rewound the movie, thank goodness. After that, I'm a little worried something else might go wrong in the near future. Doesn't bad news come in threes?

My mom makes fantastic sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies. I couldn't get enough of the gingerbread this year. They're cute AND tasty!

Couldn't resist a few "End of the Year" apps. Here are what the internet deemed my most significant photos from the year:

Three years ago, I went to Disneyland for New Year's Eve. Two years ago, I attended a dance and an after party. Last year I played games with my best friend and her family.

This year, I had a quiet night at home in my pajamas, watching Lawrence of Arabia and 2001: A Space Odyssey, and eating popcorn and chocolate cake, and reading The BFG and Imzadi. I needed some "me" time. It was great. (I did have to ask my downstairs neighbors to turn down their music around 2 am so I could go to bed. They were very nice about it.)

Calm before the storm, maybe? Who knows. But I'm looking forward to the new year!