What a year. What a year. What a year.
2010.

I guess I should start this off by announcing at the end of last year what the ‘written’ goals were (you can find my 2009 yearly review + 2010 goals here).

#1: Our business opening up…. and yeah. That’s about it.
#2: Dan + I getting married–> Check !
#3: More Pitchmen Pilgrimages–> Check!
#4: Looking forward to Pitchmen Season 2–> Check! (And…then some.)
#5: Boat ride, ball pit party, jjjjimmy + pirate juice = a no go… but… who knows what can happen in 2011 ;O)
#6: Finding the missing Turbo Snake–> Yes, I found it.
#7: Making it close to 50,000 tweets? I’m not quite yet at 50,000 – I would think something’s wrong with me if I made it to that. Haha. What would be wrong? I talk too much!
#8: No to Push Pin Memories being finished/prepped for publish, no to my emo poetry book being done and no to pirate hooker book.
#9: Overall, 2010 was a great year… just like I hoped. Things had fallen in place and falling more into place than ever. Sadly, our business didn’t take us anywhere but we definitely got to spend more time with our favorite people…and it was great!

Alright, now that we’re down with that…. Here goes…

January started off by Dan and I throwing our everything into trying to come up with our business, Poetic Expressions Photography. It didn’t do so well and I say that lightly. Yeah, I’m a little sad about it… however, it wasn’t me per se. Throughout the year, better photos have been trickled down and we just quit taking care of it after the first quarter of the year, pretty much. My boss decided to give me another job – of taking care of ads. Also, Dan and I started watching Arrested Development and I found my new middle name…Maeby. This entry pretty much sums up my thoughts for the beginning of the year.

February, other than getting flowers and Frederick the Bear for Valentine’s Day, I don’t remember too much. To note, I disappeared from my posse on Twitter and came back to a missing milk carton photo with my picture on it, as well as many ‘we miss you’s and such. Oh yeah… we apparently went to DC right after one of their big snows, ate at Bellissimo Pizza Cafe and met a fellow Pitchmen fan who owned the place. Had a great time in DC, despite the cold and snow.

March made me have an Erin Brockovich day of which I described that as a brutally legal non fiction day. Somehow, my “freak flag” was unleashed… and I had flown it high (well, once I drew it and showed it around haaaa!) March 9th: Bedclothes (well, just the *talk* of bedclothes) was born. March 10th was also our 3rd year anniversary! NOT TO MENTION, we made it one year living in North Carolina! March 24th: One year Twitter anniversary!

April I discovered a pretty tiny lake called Lake Crabtree about one or two exits down from where I live….and my soul was revived with water once again! I was going through some big emotional thing around this time within myself… things I needed to take care of myself and this happened.  I don’t even want to discuss any of that, because… it has been left behind me for good reasons (and I became happier, as things had progressed greatly throughout the year). Also, we cancelled the ceremony for our wedding because we were just running out of time. On 4.20, Jimmy Buffett released his newest CD and I had got it! (Actually, Dan picked it up for me and then he scalded his hands because he was afraid of getting JB germs. Heh.)

May took us back to DC, as we were wanting a tiny weekend-ish vacation. You can read about the vacation here: http://dearannefrank.posterous.com <– That was the very FIRST writing project I’ve finished in quite some time. It deserves to be read. Also, somewhere in there, Dan and I went to Got To Be NC festival – it was pretty cool.

June brought another celebrity death, Rue McClanahan. -_- In memory of her, I wrote this piece to go in Push Pin Memories whenever I actually finish it. I GOT MY IPHONE….theeeeeeeeeeeennn… my wonderful iPhone case (which is PERFECT for a ‘pirate hooker’ – haha). Everyone who were friends of Billy Mays (especially on Twitter) celebrated his birthday in his honor. The fun with bedclothes and anything else that went with it kind of died down… my relationships with a few people also died (at the time), sadly.

July was full of poetry writing… including this one that was written with purpose. I also started a lot of theme writing for my 3rd poetry book. This month I ALSO finally bought my name domain (this current one) and brought all of my blog entries before July over. Somewhere in there, we went to see Rent live in Raleigh (by a cast in Raleigh). Dan went to Vegas with his family and I stayed home, working and organizing our house. I will never be away from him again… I think this is one time that brought us together even more. I bought my wedding dress for the next year, my truck broke down for like the five-hundredth time this year and I “celebrated” one year at my current work place.

August was so good for me–or should I say… good TO me? Wait – good for BOTH Dan and I. It just so happened that my boss was going on vacation the first week (week of my birthday), so I decided this is when we’d go to Tampa again. I will never forget how amazing the whole trip was. Dan and I met Terri, John, Olga and Tracy for the very first time–they are amazing folks! I got to hang out with B3, Sug & Kate (for the first time meeting them too), Arwen & Jess. I was on one tall cloud being surrounded by some of the BEST people on this Earth in those few days. I was just extremely happy and so was Dan. Dan and I saw our first sunset above the ocean and it was absolutely amazing. I got to drink a dirty monkey (?) and eat another crab pretzel, also have the BEST she-crab soup everrrrrrrrrrrr. There’s just so much to the trip, it was beyond amazing. When we got back home, Pitchmen Season 2 started and soon after, it went off air.

September led us to cancelling cable and going to Netflix…to save money AND because Pitchmen was the only show we were watching that couldn’t be found online the next day. Alas, it being cancelled = us cancelling cable. We went to Lady Gaga’s concert in September! All of the monsters within me were definitely released, and like I mentioned before, it was quite the ‘religious’ affect(?)… I’m a free bitch baby.  I took Dan to eat at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and had an amazing time. I tell you what, going out with such a hothothothothot man all dressed up….mmmmhmmm!!!! AND, I had my first taste of Irish Coffee and… that, m’dears, was amazing.

October blew us into 10.10.10 where Dan and I got married – happy times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, I had to hand in my reign of being a free hooker to become a married hooker. I had to hang my pole aside, take my hooker boots off, put on some clothes and get rid of my red hair. (Just kidding. I’m totally not that way, if anything, I’m still a pirate hooker and I’m the most modest one you’ll ever meet. ROFL) We went to the NC State Fair the next week to the Twitter event and also another random day in the week. We got to meet Bob and The Showgram radio personalities!

November I did NOTHING but…. National Novel Writing Month. I finished MY FIRST novel, ever. Sitting at 50,000+ words and 138 pages. It’s still up for grabs for anyone who wants to read it. (Side note: For those who are wondering if I will publish – I have much editing to do before so but hopefully soon.) Dan treated me to Red Lobster and I treated myself to some new clothes for my BIG accomplishment.

December had me lost for at least a week. I was trying my best to catch up with everything, considering I let it all go in November when I was ONLY focusing on NaNo. But, I got Christmas cards out early, we did shopping pretty early… and had a great first married Christmas. Oh, and to top off the Merry Ho Ho Ho… we find out that Vinyl Fever (Tampa) store is closing… I found that place last year and loved the heck out of it. It’s a bummer.

Oh – and – I have to say that I am not sure when I met *everyone* but… for the ones that are entrepreneurs, inventors and fans and all that I have met because of PITCHMEN – thank you for being such great friends and support and I’ve really enjoyed talking with each one of you! ALL of you have made some impact in my life and it’s wonderful. Thank you!

PREDICTIONS & THOUGHTS FOR 2011:

Now, we are all about making good things happen for us… and we’re doing a little bit more soul searching and hopefully those dreams will come true soon. With that being said, I’m hoping to see more warmth (sunlight) in our future.

I hope that Dan and I get to hang out with our favorites more in 2011.

I hope to carry out and have one heck of an amazing ceremony next year.

I hope things on my job front changes….and hopefully, I will be doing some professional writing. Hopefully. Or… possibly maybe something or anything to do with… DR industry! :D

Oh, and, Ms Arwen! You need to become my official mentor, please. :O) Ribbon ceremony and all! Just kidding. But still, I need someone to help lead me to a great career path!

I’m going to be prepping my first NaNoWriMo novel for publishing… I hope to AT LEAST have it in a publisher’s hands by end of next year. Also, I want to start book 2&3 and at least have them done.

For NaNoWriMo next year (well, it all depends on where I’m at), I need to be into a new novel and hopefully finished with that one within the 30 days.

Oh – and there BETTER be….Hooker Tea, seeeeeeafoodseafoodseafood, JB MUSIC, jjjiimmmyy and pirate juice, boat rides, trips to the Witch’s Brew, cleansing of stuff, weight loss, organization, more sun, new car, LOTS of writing, fishing, hopefully selling some of my photographs (once we fix the website or place it on Etsy),  Twitter-friend meet ups (hiiiiiint), dinner/lunch with our awesomespecial friends, eating at JIMMY’s restaurant, more DATES with my hotttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttty of a husband………………and so much more in 2011!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m looking forward to the brand new year! That is all.

:D

So, you know the movie Home Alone 2? Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure you do! It’s been around forever, and if you are anything like me, you’ll be playing it almost every other day. Anyway, so you know how Kevin’s family settled for going to Florida to have a summer kind of Christmas, whilst he would have rather spent it where it was cold and lots of snow and ‘real’ Christmas trees with snow? Well, I would’ve wanted to jump in on the family’s vacation…

This year, for the first time in a long long time, we got the white Christmas and I would have gladly traded it for a summer breeze and decorating a palm tree in Florida. No white Frosty poop, no ice, warm(er) weather. Yes. That.  I used to love snow all over but I cannot tolerate the cold anymore. Nonetheless, traveling in the $@%^.

ANYWAY, Thursday afternoon we left NC for KY. When we got into town, we got to meet Dan’s brother, mom and her fiancée somewhere for dinner. After we ate there, we went back to his mom’s house to sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

Friday, Christmas Eve:

We had some free time, so we went to the mall. I got to see Leah at Rue like I wanted and Dan got to eat some food that he wanted. Oh – and my parents just happened to be in the strip mall over by us, so we got to see them in the food court too!

That evening we went to Dan’s aunt/uncle’s house for Christmas with his mom’s side. We had a really good time there. They had made up these quizzes about Christmas songs and wow… I cannot believe I couldn’t think of all the answers. It was like this: if they hadn’t asked them, I would’ve been able to think of the answers. Oh and we learned about sauerkraut and peas! It was a very, very short story. hahaha.

When Christmas dinner was over, we opened presents and when all of that was over… we headed out in a blizzard (for what you COULD call a blizzard in Kentucky). His aunt/uncle lives out on back roads in the country and um… we kinda slid at one of the stop signs because it was snowing and getting slick out. We made it safely to his dad’s house, where we had to wait for his grandma to get back to her house.

About thirty minutes later, we head out to his grandma’s house. Sad Christmas story: Lily, a very small unique (rare) dog, that she’s had the past couple of years died not too long ago. Since I loved that dog to pieces – it was extremely hyper and all over the place and lovely pet – she told me the story. In short: The puppy was laying next to her then crawled up on the dresser and died. :( The dog, Bella, that she has now… has apparently previously been beaten and it is afraid of everything and doesn’t get off its pillow for anything.

Saturday, Christmas Day

We got up early (after NOT getting to bed until closer to 2 am–sheesh). Took showers, get ready, pack up our stuff – have Christmas with Dan’s mom, dad, sister & her fiancée, brother and us. At 11.30ish we take everything of ours out to the vehicle and leave for my parents house.

At my parents – we had Christmas lunch….everything you could imagine. I got to see my aunt and uncle and two cousins! Oh and not to mention my parent’s dog (my mutt sister), Bella! :D We had a great time, had to leave for Dan’s other aunt’s house (his dad’s side this time) around 430ish.

We spent from about 5pm to almost 8 there then headed back to my parents where we spent the night.

Sunday, day after

We didn’t make it out of Nicholasville until afternoon (eating, getting gas) and then headed back on our journey for home. It was not a really relaxing trip because all we did was run run runnnnnnnnn and get literally no sleep. The drive took us until really late that night because the snow was coming down, and when the sun went down, the roads were getting pretty nasty and icy.

Despite the terrible drive (due to the weather) and no sleep (due to everything running together), this was a special Christmas because…… this was the first Christmas Dan and I were married. :)

It added a little spice to Christmas, one that meant a little bit more than before… just a nice feeling. Like, something I just can’t explain.

At my parents house, it was mentioned that both Dan and I looked really great and really happy. Um… yeah. We’re happy together, this is what happily married folk are SUPPOSED to look like. I am thankful for the nice compliment but it just… makes me think twice that if you aren’t happy or can’t be happy currently then please get out of whatever you’re in and make happiness elsewhere. I’m just… a little speechless on that end. Or, am I just taking my thinking to a different level? Well, more thinking than I need to..

Anyway, it was just that great. It was just a great Christmas visiting with family, getting to spend Christmas with a HUSBAND and…. all of the puppies that we had every where for Christmas!!! (I was in Heaven when we were at his aunt’s house – there were 4 dogs there :D)

Not to side track from the real reason for the season but… I want to share some of the things I got.

From Dan: Plants VS Zombies “The Zombies ate your brain” t-shirt, a book about writing novels (this would’ve helped me during NaNo!), a pirate hooker’s dream necklace (skull with roses & hearts – it’s pretty big), and Yoda stuffed animal !

Random presents I asked for: Nadirah Shakoor CD (I wanted this because there are Jimmy Buffett songs on it & he’s on it, but… I ended up loving songs that aren’t his!), AB Rocker thing (my fat self needs one), Jimmy Buffett shirt, Red Queen purse, this cool pen set with a fountain pen (as seen on tv) and a coffee maker! Lots and lots of gift cards too – which I wanted so that I could buy things that I wanted or needed throughout the year.

Dan and I both got a lot of random things that we needed in stocking gifts and what my mom calls the ‘mix it all’ or whatever… We just got a bunch of stuff that’s going to help us in the bathroom and kitchen, refills on soaps, toilet paper, paper towels and so on… I know I’m thinking like a grown up but those are definitely the best gifts because we need them all throughout the year and it takes a little off on us needing to buy it.

But still, the BEST gift was…. having my husband there enjoying the moment with me. It’s awesome being married to him. :)