TamaRant The Start of 2009

No, the photo to the right is not of the moon, it's actually of the New Year's Eve Ball that dropped in Grand Rapids, MI. My friends, brother, and many thousands of people were all there for this first annual event. The Plain White Tees were even there!

But, I don't want to talk about that. Like a lot of people, I do a lot of resolution making and soul searching around this time. I think I do a fair bit more than most because New Year's Eve is also my birthday. Full disclosure, I hate my birthday. While this year was very, very different from how I traditionally celebrate it...at the end of the night I was still left with the same disappointments. I'm another year older, and the world just counted down to it not being my birthday. Birthdays are the days when we're supposed to be lavished with attention while I usually feel overlooked. My family makes a strong effort to combat these feelings, but around the 5...4...3...2...1 mark I'm pretty lonely.

Wait! This wasn't supposed to be a depressing blog post! Let's get back on track shall we? My goal in writing this blog post was to get down on virtual paper my goals and thoughts for 2009.

As I reflect back on 2008, 2008 felt like a year full of extremes. Gas prices were all over the place. The election was all over the place. Aspects of my personal life were all over the place. I don't know about you, but for me 2008 was just intense. I couldn't wait for it to get over.

That's not to say that some cool things didn't happen. They did. I got really close to my brother. I mean, we've always been close, but he's become a huge part of my adul life that I never would have guessed would be the case when we were kids. I reconnected with old friends, made some amazing new ones (hi nerdfighters!), and a whole lot of other stuff.

But then, late in 2009, something hit me. It hit me through a couple of avenues that all sort of shot at me from different directions. First, Paper Towns came out. Then there was all this Twilight hype because of the movie. Now, it shouldn't come as a shock to faithful readers that I'm a large fan of John Green's books and absolutely LOVED Paper Towns. What might come as a shock to you is that I can't stand Twilight.

I don't like Twilight for a number of reasons. The biggest reason is that I LOVE Vampires. Love them. See previous blog posts about Blood Ties. No disrespect to Stephanie Meyer, but I didn't enjoy the changes that she made to the Vampire lore, and I strongly feel that because of those changes the characters on a whole are very underdeveloped.

Now that doesn't mean you shouldn't be a Twilight fan. I get the appeal. Trust me! But, to me, it doesn't hold a candle to other vampire series that stay true to the lore. Call me a vampire elitest. It's okay. I can withstand the bite.

Again with the tangents!

Anyway, approaching the end of 2008, I realized that I should take a stab at writing. I want to write a clever book like John always seems to and I fully believe I can write a book at least as "good" as Twilight. Hopefully better.

So that's what I've set out to do. I have two very promising ideas that I'm working on. And I believe at least one of those, if I execute it well, has the potential to be well liked by a lot of people.

In 2009 I'm aiming to finish not one, but two books. If the first one turns out to be nothing more than practice I'm okay with it, because I still wrote a book. If the second one sucks that's okay because it was a good try!

I'm really, really excited about these. I think a lot of what happened in 2008 (and maybe even in 2007) has lead me to this very moment. That time forced me to begin to see the world in a more creatively aware way. It's allowed time to build relationships with people who've inspired me, and will continue to as I forge through this crazy process.

The extremes of 2008 were hard felt, by me, by everyone. Money is tight, tight, tight. I think part of why I started writing was because it's given me the chance to take my future in my own hands, with my own skills, and, frankly, it gives me something cheap to do.

So while I have lots of other little goals for 2009, like getting organized, becoming a morning person (lol, that's left over from past years), getting in shape for a wedding I'm in this July, and other typical New Year's Eve-y things... I've exhusted this blog post to its fullest.

I'm just so incredibly excited for what 2009 will hold. I hope you are too.