For once in my life, I decided to see if I could remember what happened this year. The only reason I'm attempting this is because...well...not much happened, so hopefully I can keep everything straight. If I have a story, I'll link it in the summary. It might help to read this through in its entirety before clicking any links...there's quite a few.
January: I moved to grad school (with a little help from my family) and became the proud owner of my own apartment. After creating an office in the second bedroom, I changed my mind and converted it into a lab before deciding that I actually did need an office and turning a corner of it back into an office. I managed to write two stories and destroy a whiteboard (mine, not the school's) as well as reformat Maximum Effect, so it was a crazy month.
February: Let's see...not much happened here. I did go visit Quill's college to celebrate her birthday and raided Mom and Dad's pantry on my way back. (Food is EXPENSIVE.) After getting a job with grad school, I started trying to nail down a thesis project. Really, just boring stuff.
March: I wrote a new short story, as well as two more posts about life growing up (specifically, about sledding and building a house). I also met the twins Dale and Skipper, who kindly helped me deal with some of the mysteries of Thermodynamics--although, to be fair, they were only slightly less confused than I was.
April: My friend Ben started some chess games with me--specifically, chess by text. It was HILARIOUS. Also, I unconsciously helped him with some of his wedding preparations ("Yes, I have a suit. Why now?") for his eventual wedding in the fall (which was both awesome and hilarious). Afterwards, I began getting ready for Easter by writing a full disclosure of some incidents; afterwards, I played a lot of WarThunder. Oh, and I started getting my first rejection letters back from publishers! Yay me!
May: I celebrated Squirrel's birthday, had a chipmunk run up the inside of my pants, and wrote about golfing. It's a sad month when the highlight is having a furry rodent in your skivvies. Oh, and I guess I got a new job in a research lab and got my thesis nailed down, but that's boring stuff.
June: After officially moving into the lab (where, coincidentally, Dale and Skipper were working), I got invited out to a watery grav--er, to go waterskiing. This introduced me to the first of many days of fun under the lake--er, I mean on the lake, and introduced Dale and Skipper to Maximum Effect.
July: Princess and Chipmunk showed up for a few days over the Fourth--I managed to set my sleeve on fire lighting off some fireworks and now have a nice scar on my forearm. (Certain kinds of fabric melt, FYI.) I spent a lot of time out at the lake and in the lab. My apartment didn't see me much. Due to the summer class I was taking (finals in summer--ugh), I completely forgot about my birthday until my dad showed up at my apartment and bought me a steak.
August: Once I'd heard some of the jamming out that Dale and Skipper did in the lab (guitar and harmonica, respectively), I decided I was finally going to learn how to play guitar. Mom and Dad had given me a guitar for Christmas about two years prior, but practice was spotty until this month. This is when I started playing--er, trying to play--every night.
September: ...so apparently guitar was a little harder to master than I thought. After a month, it was still taking me about thirty seconds to switch between chords. Lord, save your people. I spent quite a bit of time with Dale and Skipper out on the lake, trying to get as much waterskiing in as we could before it got colder. The weather reminded me of a story, actually...
October: On the morning of October 10th, I still had not mastered guitar and was taking 20 seconds to switch between chords. By the evening--4:13pm precisely--my brain had decided that "Oh hey, we can do this!" and I was playing "Mirrors" by Justin Timberlake. WHAT THE...oh well, at least I attained some level of proficiency. I decided to master the culinary arts, with mixed results, and decided to write about my dancing prowess, family adventures on the pond, and the tale of how my face met up with a ski lodge (which got recited at a storytelling event and received WAY too much applause).
November: I managed to snag a copy of Windows 10 early (GO ME) and kept myself busy by helping to teach the advanced Computer Modeling and Simulation class that I was in, since I had the most programming knowledge in the class. (That helped net me an A, by the way, despite my intense hatred of public speaking.)
December: I headed back to the farm for Christmas and got there just in time to eat all the Christmas cookies. Oh, and I helped out with the family newsletter again--and POSTED IT THIS TIME. With the completion of finals, I officially have exactly one semester left at grad school and will be graduating before I turn 23!!!! Plus, for the first time ever, Princess and Chipper were able to come out to the farm in the winter and got to skate on the pond! I should really write a story about that...
Well, that's about all I can think of. Happy 2015, everyone!
