2015 Recap (Trips, Comic-Con, Life)

Well I completely sucked at writing in this here blog in 2015. My last post was March. Good job me. I wish I could say there was a reason for that other than laziness, but alas.

2015 turned out to not be awful. I took a trip to San Francisco for my birthday in June with my wifey/bestie. We had an amazing time and I learned to not mix vitamin supplements with Dramamine when you fly. The results are not good.

But! Mixing Gin & Tonic with Dramamine works pretty well

Irish Coffees, not too bad

Alcatraz yo

Painted Ladies

Full House!

I put my hair through the ringer by changing the color a few times. It was fun, but man my hair is begging me to not do it again. Plus it was way too much upkeep!

I saw the grandparents this past summer. We celebrated my grandma C's 86th birthday in June, and then saw my Grandma & Grandpa E for my great aunt's funeral. It was so nice to see them all, and I need to make a better effort to see them more!

Grandma hated my purple hair

I did Salt Lake Comic Con again in September which is always fun. It's the one thing I look forward to twice a year, every year.

Marina Sirtis. She was hilarious, and I want to be like her at that age

Gandalf.

Don't Blink

She didn't seem to be having too much fun, but I'm glad I got a pic with her anyway

Exterminate!

The Stig!

This is what waiting in line eventually looks like (thanks for modeling Jordan)

Best Green Arrow I saw there

Waiting for Ian Somerhalder to come out, he took forever!

Seriously though

John Barrowman always has the best panels

Those eyes...

I told him to grab my breasts, he did not decline one bit

I decided to get healthy in 2015, and actually succeeded! I still have a bit to go, but down almost 35 pounds in 9 months by the end of the year isn't too shabby.

I hung out with this little guy throughout the year. I wish I had taken more pictures, but he is a crazy little ball of energy and I love him to death.

He loves me so much he smothers me

My little badass

Never a dull moment

We celebrated Halloween at work where a few of us chose to dress up. I think we did pretty well this time!

We had our work excursion in November, and we went to St. George to see David Archuletta at Tuacahn. I wasn't overly thrilled about it, I'll be the first to admit, but he did a good job, even if it was outside in 30 degree weather! We stayed at the gorgeous Cliff Lodge with a beautiful overlook of the city.

Balcony selfies ftw

I had the typical ups and downs with life, but really overall I ended the year pretty happy. And for that I can't complain.

Hopefully this new year I will be better about writing. I say that every year. And one year I will mean it.

TV Review: Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor

So the Doctor Who Christmas Special happened, and it left me confused, sad, excited and meh all at the same time. That's a lot of feelings from one episode. And I don't think it's a good thing entirely. Here's why:

In typical Steven Moffat fashion, we got an episode where the storyline was way overworked and left most everyone going "huh?" I had to watch the episode twice to understand it, and I truly still don't know if I do. Instead of giving Matt Smith a simple beautiful send off story, Moffat had to try and go big and showy, and I think it kind of backfired on him. When I first watched the episode, I kept running through my head, "I'm going to have to re-watch this." But at the same time, when it came to the actual regeneration time, I was a complete mess. It didn't hit me until the day of that I was going to have to say goodbye to Matt. I had been so excited about the 50th anniversary that it really didn't register with me. And now I had got to the part where he's about to regenerate and we again get a big show without a lot of sense, and then a tender moment with Amy Pond which sent me into hysterics, and then blink and you miss it, he's regenerated. And that bothered me a lot. I feel like Matt Smith deserved so much more than the send off he got. He deserved a better storyline, a better regeneration, and a better goodbye overall. At the same time, even though I didn't care for the story, I did feel the emotions behind it all. The fact that he sent Clara away twice wasn't lost on me. He'd done it before with Rose, and it's a self preservation thing more than a saving my companion thing. He doesn't want to see them die in his name nor feel the pain of that kind of permanent loss. There were also a few funny lines, and a few quotes that will stick with me. I'm still unsure why they needed to point out that Matt was wearing a wig by saying the Doctor shaved his head. The wig didn't actually look all that bad, but we did get a nice little line out of it about his delicate eyebrows, which had me laughing. And then the Doctor's final speech just before the fastest regeneration there has been happens, where he speaks of people changing throughout life, but at the same time staying the same person. It's so true and speaks volumes. I think Matt did amazing with what he was given in this episode. He acted his little heart out, and I commend him for that.

So in the end there were good things and bad things about the episode. I think with the Christmas episodes Moffat has been more miss than hit. I'm sad to see Matt Smith go, I never thought he would grow on me as much as he did, and I'm grateful he did. I'm excited to see what Peter Capaldi's Doctor has in store for us. And also thrilled that Clara is the second companion in the Doctor Who reboot to actually watch a true regeneration happen and experience like Rose did, the differences it brings out in him.

Geronimo!

On a side note, I guest posted on my dear friend Jordan's blog about all of the past Doctor Who Christmas episodes. Go check it out! And her blog, because it kicks some butt.