Helllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooo!

So yeah, it's been an awfully long time since I've written a danged thing here. Like, since my birthday. Which was in August.

Yeah.

It's not like things have been tame, however.

After the birthday we started up yet another IVF cycle which, if you happened to check out my infertility blog, you'd know was a bust. Big, fat, huge bust. Very disappointing. I really thought that was our time, that come May of this year we'd finally have our bundle of joy. But alas...we have no joy, and the only bundle I see is the bundle of debt we keep adding to as we spin the wheel of infertility and keep turning up Whammies.

So that was August and September. October was rather crap, all things considered. Lots of time mourning what wasn't to be, as well as many a family birthday (wait - that wasn't crap) took up the bulk of our time.

November rolled around and with it came my latest challenge - National Novel Writing Month. As you can likely tell I enjoy the whole writing thing, so this was an opportunity to flex my creative muscle and finally do something just for me. NaNoWriMo involves writing 50,000 words during the 30 days that make up November. That's about 1,667 words per day, if you're averaging it out. Which I most certainly did.

I'm exceedingly happy to report that I did, indeed, complete the challenge, and that by November 29th, I'd submitted what I'd written for word verification and I clocked in at 50,330-something words. I'd done it!

What I haven't done is finish the book.

Believe it or not, I literally haven't opened that Word file again since I got my wee winners badge. I dropped my main characters like literary hot potatoes, and they've sat there, stagnant, for well over two months. Poor things. I really should get back to it, because I was nowhere near done. And I'd really like to be done, ya know? To finish what I started. And, horrors, to let other people read it and see what they think.

At the end of the day, even if I never write another word or if I actually do finish it and people hate it, I'll be just fine. For me, the biggest rationale behind even starting this in the first place was the challenge aspect. To finish. I haven't done anything even remotely artistic in months if not years, and this couldn't have come at a better time to help both distract me from the events of the previous few months and focus me on a singular task. And it was all good.

Except for the actual writing. I have no idea if it's any good or if it's complete, abject crap. Guess only time and critics will tell. If I ever finish the danged thing!

So that was November. Then we all flew headlong into December. I got right into Christmas this year...the baking, the decorating, the shopping, the music, the wrapping, the tree...I was Christmas obsessed. We hosted a lovely Christmas dinner with my family that went from civilized to disaster as cats, dog, and small children collided in a frenzy of presents, smushy faces, smudged chocolate and flying red wine. All over our recently cleaned off-white carpet.

But that's a whole other blog post. Merry Christmas to all.

We rang in the new year with four of our friends playing Wii and eating yummy nibblies. And then it was 2010.

If you've read anything I've written during a winter month, you know how much I abhor the cold and white season. I detest snow, get nervous about Hubs having to drive around in bad weather (even though he's an excellent driver - it's all the other buttholes I worry about), and hate standing on that wind tunnel of a GO train platform waiting for my tin can of germs to shuttle me along the lakeshore to my downtown Toronto workplace.

But truthfully? How can anyone complain about this winter? Hardly any snow, reasonably mild temps (give or take a day here and there) and every day we're one day closer to spring. Even I can't justify ranting and raving this time around.

January is that long, dark month that hurts in so many ways. It's dark when you leave home to go to work and dark when you leave your office at night. It's when the holiday bills start rolling in, and it's when they start taking the CPP and EI off your cheques again, so you're poorer than you were only a month before. And those credit card bastards still expect you to pay up. The nerve. So needless to say we've been feeling the pinch these past few weeks.

And here we are in February. I like February...it means January's over, it's a short month so it's not like we have to put up with it for all that long, and there's Valentine's Day squished in there for good measure. Not that we'll be fete-ing it up this year (see above paragraph re: finances) but I do have a special gift for Hubs that I'm sure he'll love, and we'll find our own low cost way to celebrate the day one way or another.

Today in particular is a very good day. It was three years ago today that we got the keys to our first home. Hard to believe it's been three whole years already, but we're still delighted with the house and have no plans whatsoever to make any move.

Today also marks the very last day of Hubs' classes. That's right - he's been in school each week since April 27 of last year, and as of today he's done the classroom stuff and bright and early Monday morning he begins his placement.

It's a day for celebrating indeed. He's worked so hard and has done incredibly well, and as trite as it sounds, I'm really proud of him. He's so cut out for what he's going into I can't wait to see how it all unfolds for him. He's got eight weeks of placement and then it's all over and he'll hopefully be back in the working world, making a difference in so many lives.

So yes, right now every day is not only one day closer to spring, it's also one day closer to Hubs having a pay cheque. Bring it on!

And there you have it...we've caught up on five months of activity in one short blog post. I'm going to do my best to try to write more frequently but hey, we all know I've said that before and have been less than stellar at keeping my word. Maybe this time it will be different!!

Besides...I'd be surprised if anyone was even reading anymore! :)

And that's your daily dash. How's your diva doin'?