[Off Topic]: Moved back to my apartment!

     Thank the gods, I'm so beyond happy that I was finally able to move back to my old apartment last week on Friday. I've been waiting 9.5 months to move back here. MONTHS man. What happened, you wonder? Well in August, there was a flash flood and my apartment got ruined. They went in and while assessing the damage they realized that the asbestos insulation they used to line the walls had been damaged, which means asbestos exposure and poisoning for me. Yay me...so I had to be evacuated, along with everyone else on my floor, and they shoved me in some horrid little temp apartment across town. And I walk to work. Ugh! So frustrating. My landlord assured me it wouldn't be more than 2 months to get it fixed up, but when the 2 months passed and I asked, they said it wasn't ready. They kept putting it off and not giving me information and taking forever about it. I was about to give up! But I had a lease with them sadly. But it's all good cause I'm finally back. And I gotta say, it's much improved! Like a brand new apartment! New wood flooring, tile in the bathroom, walls all repainted! Very pleased! It looks overall much nicer, and with the new design it also looks bigger, more spacious! Which is definitely what I need with a 1 bedroom shared with 2 cats and lots of cosplay! I spent the week unpacking all my stuff, putting everything away, redecorating, and buying groceries and things to fill my cupboards. Now I can't wait for payday haha. Also it sucked that when I moved, I of course had to move my internet as well, and they had to send an agent to hook it up for me, but there wasn't one available until Friday (today) so I had to wait one whole week to get my internet. I thought I was going to die of boredom, I swear! You have no idea how much you miss your internet until you don't have it anymore! So sad!

     But on to other news! Rift has....for rather flakey reasons, renamed their expansion. It's now called Prophecy of Ahnket instead of Starfall Prophecy. They said it was because they didn't want to get it confused with a new charity program they signed on for, which has Starfall in the title. Rather an odd charity name, dontcha think? Also this weekend, you can grab the expac for free! For those of us who didn't pre order it anyway....cough cough. For those who DID already have the expac, and paid for it too, we got a box of things in the rift store. A pretty white fawn pet, a 20 sided dice for dimension, upgrade parts, dungeon charges, a few odds and ends. It's appreciated, but doesn't equate to having an entire expac free. Of course, there wasn't much of an expac to look at anyway when we did buy it since it was missing a good chunk of its end game! I got my internet just in time to log in and claim this reward, as well as my weekly and daily rewards today. So pleased to finally be able to log in to Rift and WoW and see my beloved characters again! <3 I missed them! Yes I know, I'm weird...but I did get a bit of things accomplished in this dry spell before I got my net back. I finished sewing up my Loque'nahak plushie! (He's a very rare, very beautiful kitty pet you can tame as a Hunter in WoW) and I also started on making a custom Barbie doll figure of my second fav female character in WoW: Tyrande Whisperwind. I'm making her out of a monster high doll I got online. The doll already came with bluish green skin, which was perfect, since Tyrande is a Night elf. I just uprooted all the monster high doll's hair and added my own wig wefts, punching it in with a needle in aqua blue. So far I'm pretty proud of it! For pics of my finished art, see my art section, and for progress pics of what I'm working on currently or in the future, check out my facebook cosplay page! Links for that are also in that tab of the blog. Please, go look and let me know what you think of my hard work! It's always appreciated to be complimented!

     I was also FINALLY able to get the next chapter of my Warcraft novel uploaded online, a whole year later. I feel so horrible for taking so long, but it just seemed like time escaped my grasp, what with the flood and the fires and the conventions and the move and xmas and working so many hours! It just never ended up on my priority list. In fact, even my priority items never got finished. It took me a whole year to finish my kitty stuffed animal, after all! But I have plans to better manage my health and time, and I'm hoping I can accomplish my goals for this year. I'll write them down here in my blog to provide some inspiration for myself!

2017 Goals:

• Complete an armored Onyxia cosplay for BlizzCon in November
• Create a dog plushie for a friend who lost her pet
• Start an RRSP account so I can actually retire at a reasonable age
• Save up money for a trip to New Zealand next year
• Save up money to go visit my mom in early fall
• Eat healthier and lose belly fat for my cosplay
• Make a Tyrande, Onyxia, Alexstrazsa, Ysera, and my 2 main character dolls
• Make druid cat plushies
• Make a moonkin kigu for my sister
• Get out the next chapter of my WoW fiction
• Work on some art projects
• Get my blog up to date to this year
• Get my Rift characters to 70 and prepare for end game content and next expac
• Organize my cosplay space and start keeping things in designated boxes
• Break some bad habits
• Be more responsible about my finances and life
• Practice patience, respect, honesty, and remaining silent in social settings
• Help others whenever I can
• Start using the microwave and my phone less

Those are just the top ones that come to mind right now. I'm sure there are other goals I'd like to accomplish for this year, but I haven't thought of them yet. I think those are very noble goals, but I need to get cracking on them since 2017 is already half over. Yikes! So stressed about a lot of things right now, but all of these items are easily fixed starting now, and I've already started on a lot of them! I'm excited to get started on all my projects and finish them all in time before the new year! I think it's a good motivation to have these goals, since I turned 30 this month and I'm feeling the middle age creeping in like a creeper. I don't wanna be old, waaaaa!!! It helps that everyone assures me that I don't look or act my age, although sometimes I don't think they mean it as a compliment haha. Ah well, can't please everyone!

     Okay, I'm done for now. Going to go catch up on all the things I missed in Rift, then WoW, then work on my Tyrande doll some more and have a shower for the night. Have an 11 hour shift to get through tomorrow! Dark out!