Au revoir, 2009!

Well, it certainly is that special time of year, the 'most wonderful time' as some have taken to calling it, and while it is wonderfully enjoyable it is also incredibly busy! I left my last update with finals yet to be taken, and those are finally over. Obviously. I wrapped up my first semester at Texas A&M with 2 As and 2 Bs and a respectable 3.461 GPR. So one of my goals for 2010 is to bump that up to at least a 3.5. But that's another story.

Right now I'm sitting here (watching The Simpsons, as per my usual habit) and thinking, "Where in the world did 2009 go?!" It seems like only a few months ago I was ringing in 2009 with friends. Looking back, there have definitely been a lot of things that happened this year. Some good, some bad. Even still, it seems like it went by very fast. I made some big changes this past year. I graduated from Navarro with an associates degree and transferred to Texas A&M to complete my undergrad. That included a move about three hours away from home to College Station, Texas. Lost almost 40 pounds! (and gained a few back, but...that's neither here nor there. And I intend to lose them again. You listening, 2010? You better be!).

2009, with all of the ups and downs, is coming to an end. It's time to welcome in 2010, and it is with high hopes that I do so. I have a lot planned for the coming year. A list that, I'm sure, will come to you in more detail in the next post or so. I've only mentally started to compile a list of resolutions, but they've been on my mind.

As it is, I'm about to ring in the new year with some close friends so it looks like the actual writing of the list will have to wait until after midnight, but I feel that that's acceptable.

So what have you all spent your last day of 2009 doing? Me, a few things, some productive, some just fun.

1. I slept in.
2. I lounged around watching The Simpsons, and from there moved on to lounging around reading The Picture of Dorian Gray (so far quite an entertaining read, if I do say so myself).
3. I got out with Dad and ate a way-too-big lunch at Saltgrass Steakhouse. Bread, BBQ chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, and two Bud Lights later, I'm still stuffed. And it's been several hours.
4. I bought a calendar, so now I'm totally prepared for the new year. Take THAT, 2010! Look who's one step ahead!
5. I picked up a copy of Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles, which I can't wait to read. Read it several—and I'm talking SEVERAL—years ago, but I have a sneaking suspicion it was the dumbed-down children's version, and after seeing the new Sherlock Holmes film—twice, since it was FANTASTIC—I've decided it's worth buying.
6. Now I'm with Heather and Cadessa, and shortly we'll be trekking to Gabi's to welcome 2010.

So, to all of you, I say HAPPY NEW YEAR! Stay safe, be careful, have fun! And start off 2010 with people you care about, or by yourself, or wherever you want to be, but remember that this whole new year is about to start, and with it comes endless possibilities!

NaNoWriMo, Registration, Bad Days, and SNOW

Well guys, it's been awhile since my last update and I'm feeling kind of like a bad mother. I haven't meant to neglect you all, but things have been so crazy in the Life of Sarah! November was hectic; not only were classes starting to wrap up, but also NaNoWriMo was in full swing and amidst all of the other homework, writing 1600 words a day, it turns out, isn't so easy! So close to the end of November found me struggling to keep up and I was a good 30,000 words behind, so things were looking a little on the dismal side. But, hark! Miracles DO happen, and I managed to forcibly rip from my fingertips the remaining words needed for the NaNo word count in the days between Thanksgiving at November 30th. Yeah. It was rough. But well worth it! Crossed the 50k finish line at, oh, like 11pm? Just an hour shy of the deadline. But we know me, and it would just be unnatural if I didn't wait until the very last to get it done.

But anyhow, that's my story of NaNoWriMo '09 VICTORY. Novel Title: Unhinged. And, as it happens, it's still in progress. And I'm pretty excited about it.

Moving on!

My first semester as a Fightin' Texas Aggie is almost up! And it can't come soon enough. I'm more than ready for a break, and I'm much more enthusiastic about the classes I'm taking next semester. (Which, incidentally, I registered for between furious writing sprints to catch up on my word count.) Officially I'm down to two class days left, which is fabulous. If I can just endure finals....

And in other news...Have you ever had one of 'those' days? The ones where it's not that anything really big and terrible happens--it's all of the little things. Little crummy things happen and add up until finally you just feel like it's been, well, one of 'those' days?

Yeah. I had one of 'those' days yesterday. Allow me to explain.

My List of Bad Things That Happened Yesterday:

1) Morning: I wake up, sick. Allergies, mild cold, it matters not. I feel groggy and stuffed up, like someone had somehow inserted a balloon into my head (for some reason that I don't understand) and then slowly began to inflate it to full capacity. I am uncomfortable, groggy, and stuffy nosed. All in all, it's not exactly the side of the bed you want to wake up on.

2) Oh, right. Greek quiz. Super.

Oh, right. A paragraph to translate. Super.

Ultimately, the quiz was (quite possibly) a terrible failure. And the translation? Incomplete. But half credit is better than no credit, right? ...Right?

3) Driving home from campus, drowsy from meds (to fight the cold/allergies I woke up with) and disappointed about my Greek quiz. Oh, and disappointed in the fact that over THREE weeks after our test she still didn't have them graded--I kind of need to know how I did so I know if my studying was effective or not, thanks--and as I'm getting out of the car, my phone slips out of my pocket and, following the laws of gravity just like it should have, it fell to the concrete below. Cursing ensued. Phone remains functional, but finds itself babied. Possibly unbearably so.

4) Oh, right. Research paper. Due tomorrow. Super. AND I'm still groggy.

5) I'm reading research, jotting down page numbers and quotes to use, and as I'm doing so I find that I'm wrong; the essay I was reading, that I thought was an essay by Herman Melville concerning his views on Transcendentalism, but actually it was an essay by EMERSON about Transcendentalism. Definitely not the same point of view, as Emerson was a Transcendentalist, while Melville was not. So the ideas I had for the paper? Wrong! Quotes? Useless. Back to square one. Enter HEADACHE.

6) I decide to take a nap. I'm stressed and I might as well be resting because I'm not getting anything done on the paper anyway. So I lay down for a 30 minute nap, and wake up to whining and this weird noise which I eventually realize is Lola trying to dig her way out of her kennel in Megan's room. I try and tell her to stop, but she doesn't respond to commands from a whole room away, so I get up, go to the front of her kennel, and ask her nicely (or demand sternly, it's...hard to say...) if she could please cut it out so Aunt Sarah can get a little shut up before going back to the misery of writing a research paper over something I know nothing about. She seems to be agreeable to the idea. Until I get back in bed. Then she starts up again, and I think, 'Oh man, we didn't have an understanding after all!' So I get up to ask again, (or demand sternly...) and when I lay down again I realize something. I'm awake now. So, nap = fail.

7) While desperately trying to find resources for my works cited, I get a call from Dad. Long story short, I learn that I got a ticket for running a red light. Thank you, Red Light Camera. How I loathe thee. So, cherry on top of an already lousy day.

8) And I top the day by staying up until 4 in the morning trying to finish my not-so-awesome research paper on Melville and his views on Transcendentalism. And only get about 4 hours of sleep. And, yep, as you probably guessed, I did wake up again with a stuffy nose and another inflated balloon occupying the space where my brain should be. And then I was late to my English class because I stopped at Starbucks for a dose of caffeine to make up for my lack of sleep, and I swear there were at least 22 people in line. But do forgive me, that's getting in to my list of "Bad Things That Happened to Sarah Today".

But fortunately that list is much shorter, and thus requires no further explanation. And pretty much any of the bad was seriously overtaken by the simple but blissful fact that it SNOWED today!!! In College Station! Must be that 'Global Warming' thing...

So there you have it. My underdogged victory of NaNoWriMo '09! My casually terrible Thursday. And snow! And today = TGIF! I'm immeasurably grateful that it's finally "The Weekend". And, as such, I now plan to start a movie, have some pizza, and just kick back in general.

21 days until Christmas, you guys!

-Sarah