Digital Masquerade

I know I’ve been quiet for a while now but that’s a good thing because it means life….is pretty damn awesome.

Gary and I just wrapped up the Festival of Fear (pictures will be coming this weekend I hope), my sister is moving in next door, my Mom is having a milestone birthday and I got a promotion at work.

Top that off with my always present amazing friends, living with the love of my life Gary, and having my sweet puppy Pandora, I could not be a happier girl.

I’m even wrapping up some projects at work so that mens I’ll be able to spend some time working on the various projects I’m supposed to be doing.   I’m about a month behind on my blog reading but I plan on catching up on that fairly soon so be expecting some random comments from me on old posts.

I’ve finally finished processing and resizing the pictures from Montreal and thought I’d do a little day by day run down of our time there. We walked a lot. We laughed all the time and overall we had an absolutely restful few days in a city we both love. I’ve put the rest of the entry behind a cut since there are quite a few pictures.
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Since I was already messing around with the backend of my site I decided that I would integrate my photo gallery into my sidebar again. I really missed my random photos I had up there originally. I also removed the “Daily Photos” because honestly the photos were being added about once a month. Nothing daily about those at all.

I also uploaded the pictures from Gary’s birthday party last month. I had them up on Facebook but I thought I would share them here as well.

I’d include links to the photos but my WPG2 image chooser is not working and I’m too lazy to troubleshoot it right now. Besides they are currently developing an updated version that will support Lightbox…sure I could modify it now but why duplicate work that perfectly amazing developers are already doing? It’s not because I’m lazy *ahem*.

Happy birthday, baby. Thank you for being the best part of my life. I love you.

We went and saw The Creepshow on St. Patrick’s day in London and they always put on a great show. If you live in Toronto you should check them out at the Bovine tonight. You can also drool over the three new t-shirt designs that Gary did for them for their European tour.

My personal favourite is the zombie hand holding the creepy microphone.

I won’t be there tonight because I can no longer walk due to a hockey stick in the ankle at last night’s floor hockey game.

I was meaning to write this on February 5th, our two year anniversary, but after our meal at Red Lobster and me slipping into your anniversary gift..well…things got a little bit…busy.

Sometimes I find it hard to believe that it’s been two years since we started dating. Looking back I honestly can not imagine a happier time in my life. I won’t say that you complete me, because frankly, we are perfectly complete on our own. Instead, I’ll say that we we compliment one another.

You came into my life when I was not really looking for love. In fact, all I was looking for was a good roll in the hay and maybe a laugh or two. You gave me that and so much more.

You are, without a doubt the kindest, most loving and talented man I know. Every day with you is gift. My life with you has been filled with laughter, friends and treasured moments. You’ve given me a life I never thought possible.

Yes, I know I’m being cheesy, and I’m not normally a sentimental fool, but I do want to say thank you for loving me as much as I love you.

Love,
Me

Gary just made his first tutorial up at The Abbatoir, it’s called How to make a zombie (illustration that is).

I think he did a fine job describing the process that he goes through to create a cover illustration. I highly recommend checking it out even if it’s just to look at the illustration in the different stages.

It’s now 4:10 in the afternoon and Gary is still asleep. You see, we went out last night for Rod’s birthday party and the poor boy decided to continue drinking after I went home at around 2:30. A surge of worry washed over me at around 5:00 am when I woke up and he wasn’t home. I decided to ignore it because I knew he had only gone next door to Rue Morgue and was likely still drinking.

He came home and crawled into bed at 7:00 am. He’s sick, hung over and I love him more then ever.

Gary and I are different in quite a few ways, one of which is our ability to stay up all night, drink and be social with friends. I can do it on various occasions, but more often then not I bow out early and let him continue the night without me. A friend once commented that she thought how wonderful it was that I let him do it, and I was a bit shocked. First of all I don’t think I “let” him do anything, he’s a grown man and makes his own choices. Second, it has never occured to me to guilt trip Gary into coming home with me when I wanted to call it quits for the night. I’d rather he stay out and be his laughing, lovable self with people he cares for rather then laying in bed resenting my sleeping and slightly snoring form.

I think that’s one of our strongest parts of our relationship. We accept our differences and allow each other to be ourselves. He has never tried to change who I am, and I don’t think I’ve tried to do it to him. We don’t complete one another, by any means because frankly, if you think you need someone to complete you you have big problem. Instead we compliment each other and help one another be a better person.

To me, that’s love (or maybe love is the fact that I haven’t thrown on some really loud Misfits while he tries to sleep ).

Well today is my 31st birthday and a lot has happened this year. I’ve decided to focus on the good things below, because I’m all about the positive attitude today:

• I moved in with Gary
• I got promoted at work
• I removed several toxic people from my life
• I’ve become busier then I ever imagined both in my work life as well as in my personal life
• My new apartment is now a home filled with things Gary and I both love (monsters and faeries!)
• Gary’s family has become an extension of my own family and I’m very lucky to have them
• I’ve been blessed with amazing friends
• I’ve been spoiled rotten by loved ones
• I got to see NYC for Halloween and meet some incredibly talented artists
• My dog Pandora has been an absolute angel and has wormed her way even deeper into my heart.

While this year has had its hard times, I’m constantly reminded how lucky I am and how many wonderful people make my life a joy every day.

While I sit and revisit what I’ve accomplished this past year, it makes me focus on what I want to accomplish next year:

• Complete my new Digital Masquerade layout
• Create a site for Brain Lava
• Travel (hopefully to Europe but at least to Las Vegas)
• Work out more often
• Take dancing lessons
• Save up some money to start work on my 3/4 sleeve tattoo

Not a huge list yet, but I’m working on it.

I hope everyone has a wonderful New Years in case I don’t post again.

In my week off I’ve managed to get Gary’s Store up and running (check out his new shirt that we’ll be getting in the new year) and come up with a concept for a new redesign for Digital Masquerade. I still have a lot of work to implement it but overall I’m pretty excited. I did a few other things in my week off, but those two in particular made me feel very accomplished.

I also got to spend some time with a few of my friends I’ve been neglecting and some quality time with Gary. Overall I can’t complain about this week, it’s left me feeling warm and loved.

Right now we’re getting ready to head over to my Mom’s for our Christmas Eve tradition where we gather at my grandmother’s with the whole extended family and talk about our lives. Really, we are all silently judging one another and Gary and I will be the token “freaks” that baffle the family with the fact that we are successful in our chosen careers. I’ve gotten past the point of caring, and am just pleased to be able to be able to spend time with my Mom, sisters, grandmother, the aunts, uncles and cousins that I do adore.

Christmas Day will be an early dinner with my sisters and Dad and then we head over to London to spend the week there. We’ll be back on Friday night, just in time to get ready for my 31st birthday on Saturday.

That was strange seeing my age in writing. I thought when I reached my 30’s I’d be wearing ill fitting pants, knee high nylons, a bad floral shirt and would have teased hair. Thankfully that hasn’t happened…yet.

Have a wonderful holiday everyone…spend time with the people you love and try eat as much holiday baking as you can, because it only happens once a year.