September Highlights '17

  Not gonna lie, whenever I think about the fact that it's September already I get a little bit confused and concerned and feel like I've been dreaming the entire year because it WENT BY SO FREAKING FAST OHMYWORD.

  LIFE EVENTS

• NORMALITY THAT'S NOT NORMAL//It's so strange coming back from a honeymoon and delving straight into a new "normal." It doesn't feel normal quite yet and definitely didn't at first. There's been a lot of adjustment. Cleaning up a messy house - and keeping it clean. Adapting to a new schedule. Job hunting. Fitting activities, events, work, and personal priorities together with someone else and their various things. It's been super strange and now that I think I've mostly passed through the first (and extremely emotional) period of change and adjustment, I am beginning to feel at home where I am, and that is a good feeling. 
• GIFT OPENING//Upon our return Jonathan and I went to his family's house for our wedding gift opening with both our families and were just totally overwhelmed again by the love that had been showered on us by friends and family. We were blessed with some really cool things and were feeling super super thankful for those who had given so much - not just in gifts, but in time, love, and friendship over the years.
• LARCH VALLEY HIKE//We got to take a beautiful hike to Larch Valley in Banff National Park with Jonathan's mom and sisters this month - right after I got my hands on a new and lovely camera. I was able to take some cool pictures on the hike and it was really nice to get out and stretch my legs after a week of "settling in" at home. 

• PHOTOGRAPHY//Speaking of a new camera, it was purchased for the purpose of participating in a Digital Photography program through the college's online continuing education platform. I'm super excited to study and learn more about the technical side of photography and to see how I can grow and improve.

• BIRTHDAYS AND PARTYS//There were quite a few birthdays this month: my mom, my sister Ava turned 10, my friend Lisa's baby boy Sid turned one, my friend and bridesmaid MacKenzie turned 20, and Jonathan's best friend and best man Vernon had a going away party for his YWAM trip to Australia. So yeah, lots of parties and birthdays. It was pretty fun (though I probably had too much in the way of good food).
• ALL THE HORSES//I've started back more or less regularly riding at my barn as well as riding the camp horses now that the off-season has come around. I have yet to actually ride my horses since I've been home (it's a 45 minute drive, okay) but I'm hoping to move my mare to my barn next week so I can get working with her more. I'm really looking forward to that. I got to ride my teacher's fat and retired showhorse who is totally awesome but his fat, retiredness makes him a bit on the lazy side. I made him jump anyway cause I'm cruel and unusual.

• THE HUNT FOR WORK//Has been going slowly. I guess it's only been a couple weeks of serious searching but it has been slightly discouraging. I've never held a "proper, normal" job before so my resume consists of farming, riding horses, volunteer hours, writing books, camp counselling, janitorial work and kitchen work. I feel like it's a bit of a weird mixture. However, this week I did have an interview for a nannying job and an interview at Lammles - so that's something I guess?
• MEDIA PURSUITS//Jonathan and I finished A Series of Unfortunate Events and are probably complete trash for not having read the books yet but WE WILL I SWEAR (so many books...) We also started Daredevil and that has so far proved to be pretty darn cool, like everyone in this community has been saying for a long time. 

  WRITING LIFE

  It's been more a RE-writing month for me as I fumble through my second draft editing of Faithless. I am over half-way through the manuscript at this time and will soon be on the hunt for beta-readers to take me into the following drafts, so stay tuned for that. As much as this book is currently Confirmed Trash I do really enjoy the premise of it and when describing it to people have been told it is intriguing so who knows? Maybe it isn't awful and won't be quite as awful as I feel like it is once it's reworked and fixed up.

  Other than that I haven't been doing too much, mostly taking things slow and easy and giving myself reasonably achievable goals because the BUSYNESS IS REAL GUYS. DON'T BECOME AN ADULT IT'S BAD NEWS.

  READING LIFE

  I did decently this month considering the constant scrambling from one thing to another that my life feels like right now but I'm still disappointed wishing I could have done better. Le sigh.

NEVERWHERE by Neil Gaiman
I really enjoyed this novel, it was rather Alice in Wonderland-esque and had some very interesting characters and plot twists that had me on the edge of my seat. It was also very weird, but I loved it. Highly recommended

STORM Graphic Novel
I became anti-social at Vern's going-away party and decided to dive into his comic book collection. Storm was very interesting and very well-written and gave me lots of new insight into the character that I had previously not known. I really enjoyed it.

VADER Graphic Novel
This was my second comic I managed to get into and get done before we had to leave (I had to read really fast, like twenty minutes, so I may have missed some things). I really liked this though, I've always enjoyed the character of Anakin/Darth Vader and this series of graphic novels really seems to do him justice. I'll have to look into it more in the future.

  BLOGGING LIFE

  I accidentally totally forgot about my one Sunday post day because Vernon's aforementioned going-away party was also an overnight thing (that involved watching the new Pirates of the Caribbean and having my heart melted and subsequently stabbed through). So posting totally slipped my mind until mid-week and then it was kinda too late so yeah. Apologies. Otherwise, I've been pretty good since I got back. AND I pretty much have my whole schedule for the rest of the year plotted out so I'm super excited for things coming in the next couple months.

  GOALS

Goals for September

• Start rewrites of Faithless // I am half-way through and even though I find myself smashing my head against the keyboard and being incredibly embarrassed by the mess I churned out, I am really excited to pursue this story. Betas will be needed in the near future!
• Read 2 books // Does 1 novel and 2 graphic novels count as two books?
• Blog consistently // More I less I have done this and am happy. 
• Pick a NaNo project // I think I've decided on finishing Part One of The Wandering for NaNo since I'm bound to be busy and that won't involve too too much in the way of effort for me. Just 12 chapters left to finish!

Goals for October

• Finish Faithless rewrites // This shouldn't be too difficult seeing as I am more than half-way through at this point. I do have a lot of parts that need fleshing out/adding onto though so we'll see how it goes.
• Read 2 books // I've started Fevre Dream by George RR Martin and once that is done will have to pick another from a whole slew of books that I want to read right now and that is hard.
• Promote my Secret Project across the Interwebs // As of now I'm not revealing the blog series I have coming next month, but it's going to be really cool I think (hope) and I really want the idea to take off. So keep an eye out, it's gonna be awesome.

  Well, that was my month in a nutshell. How was your September? AKA Return to Work and School and the Onset of Winter *shudder* What kinds of things are you looking forward to this school term? Do you know what you're writing for NaNo yet? Let's talk!