Five Goals for 2011

I've never been one to make New Years' Resolutions, but there are several things that I hope will happen during the next year.

1. GET A REAL JOB - Self-explanatory, really.  I need a job in my field and with a proper salary, not a part-time retail position.
2. Go on a Road Trip - I love to travel, and there's nothing more fun than piling friends into a car and driving somewhere.  The only problem is coordinating schedules, so we haven't done one in nearly two years.
3. Expand My Cultural Horizons - I missed a lot of cool exhibits and plays when I was living in Carrollton because I could never get home on the right weekends.  Birmingham has a lot of fancy-pants cultural experiences, from art and orchestras to Broadway shows and museums, and I need to take more advantage of them.
4. Get My Own Apartment - Really, this goes hand-in-hand with getting a real job because I can't afford it until I earn a decent salary.  Living with my parents is convenient for many reasons, but I really miss having my own place like I did in graduate school.
5. Study the Bible More - My only real resolution, since everything else is an event and not a promise to change my daily routine.  However, now that I'm finished with school and its required assignments, I can no longer hide behind the excuse that "I never have time."  And what better time to start than on January 1, right?

Top Ten Moments of 2010

Like any year, I had my fair share of ups and downs, but overall, 2010 was a fantastic year and one that I'll never forget.  Since I did a rubbish job of keeping up a blog for most of the year, I don't really have a record of everything that happened to me.  However, here's a list of the most memorable moments that made 2010 so great.

1. Defending My Thesis - This easily tops the list because I worked on my masters degree in history for two and a half years, and it was such a relief to be done.  I'm also really proud of my thesis, from the research I performed to the fact that I could answer every question my committee threw at me.

2. Haley and John's Wedding - I've been friends with these two for years, even before they started dating each other.  I've watched several friends get married in the past couple of years, but this was the first wedding where I was a bridesmaid.  It was an honor being part of such a beautiful wedding and sharing in their special day.

3. Meeting Alison Weir - Alison Weir has been one of my favorite authors for years, and her books have helped increase my knowledge and love for the Plantagenets and medieval England.  Since she lives in England, I never expected that I'd be able to meet her, but she did a short U.S. tour for her new book this summer.  One of the stops was Atlanta, and she was just as lovely as I knew she'd be.

4. Les Misérables 25th Anniversary Concert - Ever since I saw it on stage last summer in London, I've been completely obsessed with the musical, Les Mis.  This year was its 25th anniversary, and it celebrated with an extravaganza of a concert in London.  Obviously I couldn't hop on a plane just to catch a musical, but some movie theaters in the U.S. aired it the following month.  It was probably the better option for me personally, considering that I had a better view of all my actors!

5. Moving out of River Place - Moving is never fun, but after two years, I was thoroughly frustrated with my apartment complex in Carrollton.  After our air conditioner remained broken for two weeks in July (in the stifling Southern heat), all three of us were eager to leave it behind and move.  The night before our lease ended, my two roommates and I spent hours and hours moving stuff into a storage unit, and our celebratory meal at Waffle House at 3 AM will remain one of my favorite memories of those girls.

6. Last Day as a GRA - For two years, I was very grateful for the Graduate Research Assistant position I had, which waived all tuition fees and provided me with a small stipend.  However, I was more than a little glad when my two-year limit had reached its end.  In the seven months since I left, I haven't missed the endless construction in the library, the drama surrounding my boss, or the tedious work at all.

7. My Internship - A month after my GRA ended, I took a two-month internship/archives class, and I absolutely loved working there.  Three of us that took the class worked in the library, and we always talked about how different the two atmospheres were.  Whereas we dreaded our shifts at the library, we couldn't wait to drive to Atlanta for our internship; we were all sad to see it end.
8. Watching British TV on hulu.com - 2010 will forever be known as the year that I wrote my thesis while watching British television shows on hulu.com.  Not at the exact same time, obviously, but alternating throughout the day.  Many of the shows I found are not even available on DVD in the US, making each one I discovered that much more exciting. 

9. My First White Christmas - Here in Alabama, snow is always a big deal, and snow on Christmas Day is completely unheard of.  It's something everybody fantasizes about but knows will never happen, which makes it all the more magical that this year it did!  It frequently changed from snow to sleet and back again, and it never stuck to the ground, but I was happy just watching it fall for hours on end.

10.Watching Series 5 of Doctor Who - Last, but certainly not least, some of my favorite memories will be watching this year's series of Doctor Who.  Not only was I excited about new episodes because the show took last year off, but I always watched the new episode with my friend Laura.  Although we were in grad school in different towns, we managed to get together for several of the episodes, and for the others, we talked on the phone while we watched it.

An Introduction to Me

Over the past six years, since I started college in the fall of 2004, I have tried twice to keep up a blog, but both times I have failed.  During my freshman year, the friends I made online convinced me to get a xanga, and since they all updated their xangas, we kept each other honest for about a year.  However, as life went on and we all got too busy to be bothered to regularly update, my xanga fell by the wayside and has probably been deleted by now.  When I started graduate school in the fall of 2008, a separate group of friends were on livejournal, so I got an lj account as well.  I still login there every day because even if my friends stopped updating, most of the communities I joined are still going strong.  At the very least, they keep me updated on my British actors and allow me to squee with like-minded people.

Now it is December 2010, and I've decided to try once more.  All of the blogs I currently follow are on blogger, hence my new account on a new website.  I'm graduating this semester with my masters degree, so a new chapter of my life is beginning, making the desire to document it even stronger than before.  I never feel like my life is exciting enough to write about, but keeping a regular blog would help me remember all the fun little moments that I might forget down the road.  I also think a blog would be a fun way to share all the movies, TV shows, books, and music that I find.  I'm always looking for new things to love and obsess over, and in the past few years, nearly all of my discoveries have occurred through the internet.  So if even one person discovers the joy of Doctor Who or McFly through my blog, even if it's someone I don't know, then I'd say this blog has been worth it.

All right, I've explained why this blog exists, so I guess I could say a little bit about me.  Here's ten random facts, and maybe in the future I'll do some more (gotta save something to blog about later!)

1. I have two degrees in history (bachelors and masters), and yes, I've resigned myself to being poor.

2. I've lived in Alabama my whole life, and I never want to leave...except to live in England.

3. I've spent the past year researching and writing my masters thesis, so if you ever need to know something about Alabama's Constitution of 1901, I'm your girl.

4. My favorite TV show is Doctor Who, my favorite band is McFly, and I can confidently say that they will still be my favorites ten years from now.  From the moment I first encountered each of them, I knew it was true love.

5. I almost exclusively choose which movies to watch based on the actors...I've watched many a sub-par film in the quest to see one of my obscure British actors.

6. I played clarinet in middle school and high school, and I was absolutely rubbish at it.

7. Speaking of rubbish, I've watched so much British TV and movies that I occasionally slip British slang and pronunciations into normal conversations.

8. Now that I'm finished with school, I fully intend to start learning Spanish again (I was a Spanish minor as an undergrad) and I plan to learn a little Korean too.

9. I've only been out of the country once, but I hope to travel to Europe every couple of years once I get a real job with a proper salary.

10. If I have extra money, chances are it'll quickly be spent on a book or a DVD.  The best investment I will ever make is to buy quality bookshelves instead of cheap ones that lean under the weight of all my books (like the one currently in my bedroom).