My baby sister...

My baby sister turned 40 today. I went to Atlanta (technically a suburb, but you get the point) over the weekend to celebrate. I gave her a Spock cookie jar. (The detail is amazing!) I meant to write a lot of little notes about childhood memories but I a) Didn't have time b) didn't want to take him out of the shipping box for fear he might break in transit. Still, looking at my baby sister I see the woman she is now, but I also see the little girl who ran around in her Garfield night shirt and pretended to be Dyna Girl to my Electro Woman.

I love her.

1976 with Mom

1987 Halloween

1988 Debbies graduation

Early 2000's

2004 cruise

2009

2010

2011 pirates on the Disney Cruise

John Green did something I hope I never forget..

He spent 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, for a month signing pages to go into his new novel The Fault In Our Stars. I sort of wondered why he did this. I watched his progress through his vlogs, tweets, blogs, and other social media venues. John even got his brother Hank involved. Hank is basically as popular as John in the social media. Hank took some of the sheets John autographed and drew little angler fish on them and dubbed them Hanklerfish. I digress.

So recently I found out why John went to the trouble of pre-signing all these papers for so long. I mean seriously - imagine how many Sharpies he went through! How many hand cramps he had! How many times his eyes must have crossed. I am glad his name is short John Green and not long like Rumpleclothesfromnosleep Vegetabletsandwichdude.

Anyhow.. John Green did this because he knows he can't go on tour everywhere. He only tours to major cities usually. And even if he toured to small cities, he can't hit every single one. And John Green wanted people to have the chance to get an autographed copy. He wanted ~everyone~ to have a chance. That includes me, here, in my town that doesn't even have a book store.

Thank you John Green. I hope when I become famous like you that I will remember to give everyone a chance too. People in small towns don't get book tours. People in small towns without book stores are drowning in desperate need of connections to the world of literature.

Side note: I really would love to get a Hanklerfish. But if another Nerdfighter needs it more than I do, I'll sacrifice my fish.



Edit @ 7:02 p.m.: My book arrived! I did not get the Hanklerfish but I did John Greens signature in a green sharpie! Ya know what? That is a score! I am happy. I'm also putting my current read on hold so I can go through this book. I've been waiting a long time to read it! DFTBA!!

2012 is going to be amazing. I can feel it in my bones!

2011 was a year of transition for a lot of people I know. Professionally, emotionally, relationshipy. 2012 is the year things will happen. We (as a collective whole) will live up to the dreams we talk about. We will reach out for those goals. We will find peace in ourselves that nobody else can give us. We will connect as people and build each other up instead of tearing each other down. This is gonna happen in my world. I hope you'll be a part of it.

2011 in review

2011 was a really fun year! 2012 is going to be even better! Here are some highlights of my year. Truthfully I had far more epicness than I can fit into a post that won’t put us both to sleep. Still, I think this will cover some fun stuff.

January was the start of the New Year. In my office we were missing some of the students who graduated and left. As a collective group we drew collages for them. Someone drew a rendition of the person and then we all put expressions, and other art that reminded us of the person.  

February reminded me that nerds like me are everywhere. I found graffiti in the women’s bathroom at a restaurant. It reads: Make Love Not Horcruxes and has the Deathly Hallows symbol. It made me happy.

Also, that month I got a little joke played that just shows how fun and awesome my daughter is. I had neglected my breakfast grits for a meeting. When I came back there was a sad face in them – compliments of Lana.

March brought us Megacon. Conventions are the only time of year I can wear THIS hair. I love this hair!

April was the family vacation. We all piled onto the Disney Dream and had an amazing cruise. It was the best ship I have ever ever been on.

The ship was so fancy that it had mirrors in the bathroom stalls!

In May Jimmy Wong (youtube sensation) spent some time tweeting to all of the members of the office! We all fangirled (and Barry fanboyed) about spending about an hour conversing with him online. So we sent him a group photo.

In June I took the kids to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. You know what that means – Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

July was Leaky Con! This traveling Harry Potter convention was in Orlando this year. I got to see my fav Wizard Wrock (Draco and the Malfoys) band play! I also got to see other awesome Wrock bands play too. I met Kristina Horner! Brian Malfoy! Hank Green! Jason Munday! Alex Carpenter! Danced 10 feet away from where Evanna Lynch was dancing! Oh, and Luke Conard offered to take his shirt off for me. I only said no because I needed another favor from him. XP But in general, just so many awesome things!!!!!  Bumped into old friends like Moody (aka Andrew) and made new friends like Lucius (aka Perseus).

Scar photobombed this intimate moment with me and Luke.

But the super awesome part was that I got to experience all of this with my bestie! Scar (Scarlett – aka Louanne) and her hubby Marcos were there too! I stayed in their hotel which was super duper cool. I hung with them the whole time I was there. I LOVE these people.

(note: I cannot find my pics but a summer highlight was seeing old friends from highschool! Hanging with Lora and Sarah was just like old times!)

In August my daughter turned 21. I asked her where she wanted to go celebrate. She chose Disney World. So we went! We had a lot of fun at the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. It was just so much fun. And we stayed in the Pirate rooms on Disney property. It was just freakin awesome.

THEN we got another highlight! Finally after all these years I got to meet Miri (aka Ruzena)!!   She brought her new hubby and Jeremy and I bonded over Final Fantasy. It was a fun dinner with them.

Dragoncon is always in September. Labor Day weekend is one of my fav weekends of the year because of that. This year we brought the kids! They costumed as Brock, Ash, and Misty.

Myself, Kris, Lana, and Anna all picked someone from Final Fantasy. I said in 97 I wanted to dress like Aeris someday – and I finally did!

And let’s not forget I got to meet the legendary Wil Wheaton!

In October the Anime Club hosted the Fall Game Night along with the Library staff (who are always supportive and awesome in this twice a year event). We decorated for Halloween and even had a costume contest. Such fun. It was like a mini-convention!

November showed me some real camaraderie. One of my Anime kids was in a wreck on campus. As each of the Anime Club members drove by they stopped to wait with her until the whole scene was cleared up. Since we were all starving by then we headed to Cazbors for food. It was freezing that night. We all brought out extra hoodies for those friends who had none. In the end we not only supported Sparks, we supported each other. I. Love. These. Kids.

Johnny is missing because he was taking the photo.

Also in November we started working on the annual college Christmas Float.

December we got to show the float off! We were pretty proud of it. We had more prop trouble than I could explain, but in the end it all came together and it was really pretty. Also, the parade was fun as always.

Christmas! ‘Nuff said.  

Christmas gifts, and a few deep(ish) thoughts..

It’s that time of year when Christmas reminds me how very blessed I am in my life. I have had Christmases so poor I couldn’t afford Christmas Cards, and Christmases so indulgent I bought way more than I should admit. But more than any of the material things, the one thing that has stayed consistent is my friends and family. I have never found myself alone on Christmas. Now I don’t mean physically alone, sometimes I have had to work and not been able to have family festivities, but I knew my family and friends loved me even if I wasn’t there/there. And truly, above all else, that’s a miracle. Sometimes I am not so loveable. They  love me anyway.  And for that I am grateful.

On the fun side of the holiday.. I have to tell you, I got some really cool stuff this year! I have grown more and more fond of the giving part of Christmas. As a child it was about whatever I got – as I get older I am more and more excited about what I give. I love seeing people like what I got them! I like to think I am a pretty good gift giver. But this post is to show you what cool people I have in my life. So let’s talk gifts! I couldn’t possibly cover them all, but I want to share a few amazing things. I loved every single gift I got, please don’t get me wrong – but some were just really like..whoa.

My mom got me a mirror armoire for my jewelry. We had no full length mirrors in the house, so now we do! Also, I have so much jewelry (I am a fan of $10 big bold jewelry) and no place to put it all. So now I have one central location. It’s just beautiful! Also, a reality check – where did all that butt come from?!

My daughter got me a Daichi Miura CD. Might sound boring, it’s just a CD. Except it’s not! This is my Japanese singing obsession. If any star can turn me away from Keanu, it’s this guy (or Ming Na!). I love the way Daichi sings and I love the way he dances. His heart goes into his music. He can dance like no other. And his little boy smile that shows his heart of pure gold is just .. there are no words for him. I love him in all ways a fan can love a singer. However… he is NOT available in America. I have searched high and low. Nothing. But my daughter ordered this CD from across the ocean. It’s real. And it is amazing.

My sister got me a framed piece of art. The artwork combines 2 of my favorite things. It is Star Wars meets Where The Wild Things Are. Luke starts as Max, various SW creatures play the Wild Things. It is just..awesome. Star Wars, as you all know, is my obsession. Where The Wild Things Are is another favorite of my life. I grew up reading it. I just felt like I knew what it was like to be Max. I understood him. I got it. When I felt like nobody else in the world could understand me, I would think about Max. I knew Max got me like I got him. Not to mention the entire world Max played in with the Wild Things. What an amazing place! So now I have SW and WTWTA all in one.

Another of my top 5 amazing gifts was given to me by the lovely Joy. Warner Brothers released a limited edition Harry Potter Deathly Hallows watch. There were less than a thousand made. She made sure I got one. As a lover of watches and a Harry Potter lover, this is just awesome. Also, I love being able to say it’s limited edition. Now I have other limited edition watches and I normally do not wear them. I keep them on display. But I have recently got to thinking: who sees them? On display in my bedroom, who sees them? Nobody. On my wrist who sees it? Everyone! So I am wearing this gorgeous Deathly Hallows watch.

I feel a little weird listing some of my favs. I really did like everything I got. Tons of socks (YES!), nail polish, Queen Amidala shirt, Star Wars earrings, a messenger bag, butterfly mirror, peacock necklace, limited edition lipglosses, the coolest stapler in the world.. OH let me tell you about that.

It’s called a Stampler. My son got it for me. When I staple papers there is also a stamp around it. The staple becomes the smile of a smiley face and it reads “Have a nice day.” I thought that was so cool!! Can’t wait to staple things and send them around the campus.

I am really fortunate to be surrounded by good gift givers. Not really the amount they spend, but what it is. I really would prefer a $5 gift of something I truly love than a $50 gift of something that will sit on my shelf forgotten.

Thanks for letting me gush over these awesome gifts. Feel free to tell me about you favs. I have already been getting Tweets and Facebook messages about peoples favs. You can tell me here too!