Reilly and I were so fortunate to have tickets to Monday’s opening ceremonies dress rehearsal thanks to Shan, who is performing in the closing ceremonies later this month. I have to admit going in – I didn’t have huge hopes. Beijing was amazing, and I was kinda expecting – as Kimli suggested in a tweet today – something along the lines of a re-do of the Log Driver’s waltz with a few traditional aboriginal outfits thrown in for good measure. I wasn’t holding my breath.

And while we didn’t get to see every last detail (they have to keep some things a secret from everyone, of course, but this means it will actually be better than what we already saw), HOLY CRAP. Wow. All I can say is a huge GREAT JOB to all involved in the ceremonies, and I can’t wait for the world to see! It is so very Canadian, the visuals are stunning, and it really really appealed to my prairie girl roots. I couldn’t believe how they could transform such a simple space, providing so much eye candy and an *experience* for the viewer, in so many different ways.

I won’t lie – the culmination brought tears to my eyes. I felt proud to be Canadian. You are all in for a treat!

I hate being sick.

I am not really sick, just today haven’t felt well, and was sniffly a couple weeks ago. Regardless, I don’t like not feeling 100%. This ties into the broken leg. Surgery is now looking like April. Yay! Another summer unable to walk. And related, I feel out of shape and unhealthy. I AM out of shape and unhealthy.  My knee impacts what activity I can do and can’t, and my muscles are weak because I can’t properly use them, and it’s all a catch 22 cycle. And I eat when I am stressed, so I gain weight. And I know I have nothing to complain about when there are so many things in life that can be worse, but at 3 months to the two year mark, my never ending supply of cheerfulness is running thin.

I hate that I don’t feel like I can talk here.

This blog isn’t private. I don’t feel like I can really say anything. I actually think I should delete the above paragraph, but I won’t. But I should. And I hate that.

Moving to a new “anonymous” blog is not a solution, because nothing is anonymous, and if you think it is you’re in for a surprise when it doesn’t stay that way. Bleh.

The new kitten is cute

Bella is a small grey ball of fluff and she has been with us for around 6 weeks. She is fun and loving and distracting. She is super friendly to everyone, constantly underfoot, insatiably hungry, and super independent. She still doesn’t understand that she doesn’t need to eat everything in front of her, but if we feed her too much it makes her sick so we have to feed her multiple times a day, which I find endearing but obviously not really a solution long term. Hopefully she grows out of it.

Darwin is dealing. Occasionally they voluntarily sleep together, but mostly she wants to play and he doesn’t. Sometimes she wants to play and so does he, and that’s fun, but lots of times she’s jumping on him and biting his neck when he was trying to sleep. I’d swat at her too.

Oh – and she wakes me up by biting my nose mostly. And her favorite place to sleep is under my chin. And she was bottle fed from 4 days old, and bottle fed kittens often suckle inappropriate things (super sad but super cute) so she often suckles my earlobe when I’m sleeping. To date she hasn’t turned my ear purple, so I let her. Except the sucking noise is loud, so I can’t much sleep.

Work is awesome and stressful

I am stressed every single year at this time, this time when we have a bunch of bookings but not all of them and I convince myself that no one will ever book us again, which is hilarious seeing as we are super regularly booking new weddings and new portrait sessions. The economic climate has caused people to book less far out than they did a couple years ago, and with it we no longer have our entire year booked 12+ months out, which is totally fine but I liked it better the other way. Of course, business owners in retail and so on are totally envious that we get any advance notice at all, so at least we can see ahead of time what things will look like.

To be honest, this feeling comes from the fact that – unlike what I hear from many, who were excited about a new year and a new start – we had a FANTASTIC year in 2009 for so many reasons. Business was great, new home was great, and so on. And honestly? I have a hard time imagining things getting *better* and so I kinda am having a hard time moving forward. As in, what if we NEVER HAVE ANOTHER YEAR AS GOOD AS LAST?!

Say it: THREE – OH

All of the above? Ya. In just over a month, I turn 30. I will no longer be in my twenties. I move from the “OMG – you’re so young and doing something with your life!” pile to the “OK, well what ELSE are you doing?” pile. I know all of my insecurities are related to this. It’s making me panic. I didn’t think it would make me panic. I am excited to be in my 30’s, but don’t feel like I’m as far as I wanted to be. I feel vulnerable. I feel unclear about the future, and I always have a plan. Always. Right now? I don’t have a plan.

What will my 30s hold? Can they possibly be as awesome as my 20s were? Can I grow as much in the next 10 as I feel I did in the last?

Honestly, I don’t exactly know. And it’s completely stressing me out.

I thought I did great in May, and this time I sold nearly 3x what I did then. Novel! I could have sold way more as well I just ran out of stock on basically everything to do with typewriter keys as well as some of the letters for the scrabble necklaces.

Parties were fantastic, house is assembled on the outside and slowly being organized, and life is good.

And while I apparently didn’t take any of my own iphone shots, here’s one of me that Tracey took:

]]> http://www.sassycontessa.com/2009/12/07/got-craft-2/feed/ 1 http://www.sassycontessa.com/2009/11/30/almost-forgot/ http://www.sassycontessa.com/2009/11/30/almost-forgot/#comments Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:58:34 +0000 miranda http://www.sassycontessa.com/?p=1024 Last day of NaBloPoMo and I almost forgot to post!

Darwin is currently on my keyboard purring and kneading away, happy as a clam. Late last night Reilly and I were downstairs and I got up to come upstairs to visit him in his nook behind the bed only to find him at the bottom of the stairs in the kitchen! He did a once-round to check everything out and has been pretty OK since. He’s been eating and drinking today and is still quite unsure of loud noises and hides when guests show up, but that’s to be expected.

Today our place actually started to resemble a home. The kitchen and bathroom are unpacked and organized, the office is mostly setup and we even have a place for Reka to work in the am (she’ll be thrilled because we bought her a new office chair).

Upstairs is a little less organized although the livingroom as it currently is (still need to sell a couple things and buy a couch) is setup which is good. The ikea assembly monkeys come in the morning, and my table should be here at 1pm!

Now, Gossip Girl!

- We got the Ikea trip taken care of today instead of tomorrow, which puts us a day ahead that way. My goal in the am is to find a company to come and assemble all of what we purchased tomorrow or Tuesday am so we can do more important things, like find clean underwear

- My fridge does this:

Thanks so very much to all the people who helped move all our many things. We are slowly sorting through the pile of boxes and I hope to have a proper update out soon

now I have to figure out upstairs heat and visit a very scared kitty

chat soon

The truck is loaded and being guarded by one of our friendly neighborhood hobos and we are just organizing the last few pieces for tomorrow. Final painting and patching in the am, a leisurely breakfast at Deacons, then keys at noon. The parking spot out front has been secured by Darren and the previous owners are all out.

Darwin is super freaked out from moving stuff out today, we will see how he is once moved over and everything is quiet for a while. Poor kitty

See you on the flip side!

Thanks all for the love and well wishes. We really appreciate it. We worked half a day today and have just been cuddling with Darwin otherwise. Thankfully Reilly has been on top of the game and we’re pretty much ready to move, just a few more things to pack and the painting etc. is almost done (we have to put everything back to white, and most of our place has been painted otherwise so it’s a bit of a job).

Darwin keeps looking for Luna which is sad, but he has been ultra snuggly which I appreciate. I don’t know that there’s been a single day in the last 6 years where I worked on my computer or sat on the couch *without* Luna on my lap at least part of the time, but Darwin has been visiting me all day so I haven’t been too lonely.

I hate that she’s gone, but I’m grateful that if it had to happen that it happened here rather than the new place. Sigh.

It’s been a weird day – frustrating news for Tanya and Barry, exciting news for Kimli & Ed, bittersweet day for us.

Here’s the fairly dramatic story of when we brought her home. The first time she jumped 9 feet head first with reckless abandon, she landed in a pile of clothes. This time she didn’t make it, but she didn’t suffer. She wasn’t scared of anything, which made her the kitty she was. Curiosity…

xoxo Lunacat

It’s also well past midnight and I’m still working (HAH! But I’m backdating this post to the 24th because if it happens before I sleep, it counts), but it’s worth it knowing how close I am to being caught up. Some highlights:

-  I chose images and designed 5 mockups for a client’s thank you cards, and sent them off for their review

- We got the wedding of some fantastic September clients online

- Reilly and I visited the lawyer to hand over all of the money for closing and to sign stacks upon stacks of paper. Closing happens on Thursday!

- I finished culling one wedding, I completed a second wedding start to finish, and I culled a portrait session as well – so a few hours all told. Those are ready to be sorted and organized and sent off to one of our outsourcers for next steps

- I completed all the overdue Indie I Do updates. The website has been tweaked and updated, the 2010 vendor list is online, the seldom used blog has been converted to a news section, the stats have been reviewed,  I posted all the major TV, radio, and other media pieces from the January show, and I’ve started up the online ads as we are just 2 months now officially from our 2010 event. Tickets have been coming in  (cool fact: first ticket sales happened in May for our upcoming January show!)

- I blogged on the Blue Olive side about Got Craft (you’re coming, right?)

- I went through all the current intern applications and contacted each applicant with an update on their status. I was nervous that I didn’t have many applicants at first but I’ve got a great bunch of people starting to come in with 5 great looking people on the shortlist and more than 2 weeks to go, so I’m no longer stressed as much about this

- After starting the day with around a typical 80 items in my inbox (which means to-do box: anything not requiring my action is filed immediately), I currently have ZERO remaining items. Really. For likely the first time this year. Invoices sent, vendor file requests filled, people put in touch, meetings setup and so on. It’s refreshing.

SO! That’s it for today. Heh.

(this was the promo pic I sent for my stuff at Got Craft)

Reilly is all kinds of incredible and the vast majority of our things are in boxes in the livingroom. Woo!

Tomorrow we take the final large LARGE pile of pennies to the lawyers and sign many stacks of paper. Side note: property transfer tax? Ya. Doesn’t exist in Alberta. Does here. I love spending near $10 000 for no good reason, which is cash by the way, not rolled into our mortgage and separate from our down payment. Anyways.

Tomorrow: Reka in the office, lots of work to do, painting, finishing drywall, lawyer, and more things I can’t remember.