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!

2015 reading goal accomplished!

I reached my Goodreads Reading Goal of 25 books by August 22. This tells me that next year I might need to set my goal a little higher.

All of these books are on Goodreads, if you want to look any of them up :)

Biographical

Yes, Please by Amy Poehler
The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir
You're Never Weird on the Internet by Felicia Day

Childrens books

The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems
Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
Hug Machine by Scott Campbell

Classic (and classic feel)

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Georgiana Darcy's Diary by Anna Elliott
Little House in the Big Woods*, Little House on the Prairie*, Farmer Boy*, On the Banks of Plum Creek* by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Tuck Everlasting* by Natalie Babbitt
The BFG* by Roald Dahl

Fantasy and Science fiction

Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Fairest, Cinder*, Scarlet*, Cress*, Winter by Marissa Meyer
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone*, ...and the Chamber of Secrets*, ...and the Prisoner of Azkaban*, ...and the Goblet of Fire*, ...and the Order of the Phoenix*, ...and the Half-Blood Prince*, ...and the Deathly Hallows* by JK Rowling

The Well of Ascension and The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

Storm Front, Fool Moon, and Grave Peril by Jim Butcher
Pawn of Prophecy*, Queen of Sorcery*, Magician's Gambit*, Castle of Wizardry*, Enchanters' End Game* by David Eddings

Religious

The Infinite Atonement by Tad R. Callister
Daughters in My Kingdom
Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Ezra Taft Benson
Our Search for Happiness* by M. Russell Ballard
The Book of Mormon -- twice!*

Theatre and plays

A TheaterGoer's Journal
1776 the Musical by Peter Stone and Sherman Edwards
Is He Dead? by Mark Twain and David Ives



Books marked with * are ones I've read before and reread this year. Reading the David Eddings books again felt like coming home!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (No spoilers)

Finally! I saw Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens at 9:30 on the 17th. Yep, the day before it officially opened. What can I say? I'm a nerd and I'm friends with nerds who wanted to see it as much as I did, and I definitely needed to see it before anyone could spoil it for me.

The movie was HUGE. It broke records for presales, first-day ticket sales, weekend ticket sales, and hit $1 billion within 2 weeks - fastest ever. Good thing it was a good movie. Well done, Mr. Abrams! The Force was with him.

I watched A New Hope and Return of the Jedi with Allison and her friends the week before The Force Awakens opened, so it only made sense we see the movie together. (Don't worry, I watched The Empire Strikes Back, too, but couldnt make the group showing).

Note that Allison is wearing a sweater reminiscent of Jedi robes,
and my shirt indicates a starry sky, plus the Sith red scarf ;)

I loved it. It did a great job bridging the original films with the new characters, the special effects and characters felt true to the Star-Warsian (hey! I made up a new word!) galaxy, the story was a fun mash-up of all the things I love about the originals (and now I hope we can move on with something new), included easter eggs for the fans, wasn't too complex for those new to the universe, and brought up as many questions as it answered. I laughed, I cheered, I applauded, and I cried (only a little). I am relieved and very happy.

I've seen it three times already. I need to see it a few more before it leaves theaters, but I have to see it with people who have seen it because I have a LOT to say about it!

I cannot WAIT for the next one (due out May 2017 - only 16 months to go).