2000
Age 12. In Grade 6, my final year of primary school. I remember I had a major crush on a guy in my class. Getting ready to head off to high school. Killing Heidi were (and still are) my favourite band. Started really getting involved with computers and webdesign.

2001
Age 13. My first year of high school. Felt awkward and out-of-place. Met some beautiful people, and some mean ones too. Discovered my real love for webdesign and got stuck into it. Had many high school crushes. Met my best friend (at the time), Sarah. Started wearing makeup. Achieved high grades and was awarded an Outstanding Academic Achievement award.

2002
Age 14. Barely remember it, but this is the year I started dance classes at school and fell in love with it. Discovered more friends and made my first male best friend. Got my site hosted for the very first time. Started learning how to use FTP. Achieved high grades and was awarded an Outstanding Academic Achievement award.

2003
Age 15. Fell madly in love with a guy I met online, only to be dumped and told he’d been cheating on me. In the interim, fell for another guy online (Michael) and met him in November. Lost the ‘V-Plates’. High school musical production, great fun and awesome experience. Achieved high grades and was awarded an Outstanding Academic Achievement award, along with three subject awards for Social Science, Dance and Media Studies. Passed Learner’s Permit test and started driving lessons with my mum and dad.

2004
Age 16. Final year of high school. Many trips back and forth to Melbourne to see Michael. Entered the Rock Eisteddfod Challenge with my dance class, and came fourth out of about 20 schools. Grades dropped a bit, enough to miss out on the OAA award for the fourth time. Didn’t care; was in love.

2005
Age 17. First year of college (Year 11). Had a ball this year – great classes, more relaxed learning atmosphere. Studied English, Maths, Psychology & Sociology, Environmental Science and Religion & Philosophy. Hated Enviro Science, and quit. Went to Vanuatu in September for Michael’s sister’s wedding. LOVED IT. Decided to move to Melbourne at the end of the year to be with Michael.

2006
Age 18. Living with Michael and his mum & stepdad. Enjoyed it, but a lot of tension at times. Studied Year 12 via distance education but gave up. Started looking for work. Got my first proper job with a government initiative for apprentices. Loved it. Bought Inspirata.org. First nephew arrived, Jonah. Got engaged on New Year’s Eve.

2007
Age 19. Continued working. Moved into our own apartment in April. Enjoyed the freedom but it was expensive. Got our first pet, Layla. Got my first and second tattoos.

2008
Age 20. Got another kitty to keep Layla company, and called him Hendrix. Went to my first arena concert to see Ozzy Osbourne. Came out of the broom closet. By June, decided we’d had enough of paying an exorbatant amount of rent and decided to move back to Tasmania. Got my third (and kind of fourth) tattoos. Packed up and left in August. Moved in with Mum & Dad to get us on our feet. Michael got a job at a printer cartridge store. I continued looking for work.

2009
Age 21. Huge party for my 21st, with friends coming down from Melbourne. Layla passed away. Cried. A lot. Moved into a rental. Bought Terri.nu Had two job interviews in May, and accepted one position as Legal Secretary. Started living a little, since we now had two incomes. Decided to get married with 5 months to plan. Married in November.

2010
Age 22. Managed to hold down my job for 12 months +. Lost a close family member to suicide. Moved out of the rental and bought our own house. Became DIY-lover. Resced Delilah. Continuing to work. Michael’s best mate got married. And … ?

So for reference, here are the posts about the bigger events that happened in 2009.

The New Place – moving back into our own space was excellent, after living for something like 9-10 months at my parents’ place. We’d lived together on our own before, so it wasn’t a particularly outstanding achievement or event in itself, but it was a regaining of our freedom and independence.

New Beginnings – moving to Terri.nu was a big change – I still use the name ‘Inspirata’ for my website design stuff, but I felt it was time to move to something bigger and better. Terri.nu was a domain name I’d wanted for a while – it’s me, of course, and my name isn’t changing any time soon! Again, not much to this event, but it was something I did that stood out this year.

The Wedding Post – and of course, the biggest thing that happened in 2009 was our wedding. What can I say but it’s the start of the next phase of our relationship, true commitment to each other. The happiest day of my life.

And that’s about it. I did get a job in 2009, as well, which I am grateful for. I didn’t listen to the radio at all, unless I was in the car with my parents. I watched far too much TV and spent too much time playing The Sims 2 & 3. I lost 8kg in 12 months without even trying.

We lost Layla in February, whom we miss dearly (RIP Mama-Puss), which was a real breaking point for me, since I loved her so much.

Thankfully, though, Layla was our only loss this year – I wish it could have gone without any losses, but I suppose when a person’s or animal’s time has come, there’s not much you can really do about it.

In general, 2009 wasn’t bad. But, bring on 2010!

I’ve lost nothing, but I look a little smaller – maybe I’ve toned up a little?? This month was a bad month, due to my birthday, seeing friends I haven’t seen in months and eating out a lot, and emotional eating due to the loss of my kitty. Next month, I will be back on the horse. I promise!

So, I’m now 21 years old. Un-freakin’-believable. It’s kind of weird, because when I was 20 I thought that sounded kind of old, but 21 sounds hip and young. Then next year I’ll be 22, and I’ll feel old again. Mneh.

I had a party. Yup yup. It was awesome. We had three ‘shifts’ of guests planned out:

Shift #1 – My grandparents, and family on my mum’s side, for lunch.
Shift #2 – Pub crawl with my friends and younger cousins on my dad’s bus.
Shift #3 – Everyone else.

Shift #1 went fine – we had a great lunch of basically salads and cold meats (it’s Summer here, remember), and I got some nice gifts (I’ll list gifts at the end, it’s easier). Unfortunately it was during First Shift that I got the call from the vet about Layla, and the best option being to put her to sleep, but I managed to kind of put that to the back of my mind so I could focus on having fun and then deal with that part of life the next day.
Anyway, nothing really eventful happened during First Shift – it was nice, but no party-party yet

People started arriving for Second Shift at about 2pm, and I told my Dad that we’d probably head on our pub crawl at about 3:15pm, just to give people a chance to get to our place. Turned out that the bus battery was flat, and Dad had to call the RACT. Anyway, we ended up getting on the bus for a One-Pub-Pub-Crawl at about 3:45-4ish, which was still fun, to jump on the bus and go for a cruise around, stop in for a drink or two, then head back home.

Shift #3 people were already there, considering the pub crawl started late, and I managed to down a few more drinks whilst mingling with people, eating some food (there was so much food!) and that kind of thing. It wasn’t a huge dancefest or anything – some good beats in the background, and just a get-together, really. I didn’t want anything OTT, so it was just nice to be with family and friends. Plus it was great to see Zandra and Paul, who arrived just in time from Melbourne

We wound up at about 2am – I finished drinking earlier than that because I was starting to feel sick (and I know my limits!) and didn’t want to puke on my birthday, so I had water and a coffee.

Ok, so y’all wanna know what I got, right? Well here goes:
- $370 cash total (woah! a lot of it is already gone )
- $100 JeansWest voucher (I’ll use that to buy clothes when I’ve lost more weight)
- Two $50 Kmart vouchers (already gone, see last post)
- Pink LG KS360 from Michael
- Flowers delivered, from Michael for Valentine’s Day
- Emily the Strange t-shirt
- Emily the Strange bag
- Jason Mraz’s Album
- Two tickets to see Kate Miller-Heidke at a local club.
- Four necklaces, from various people
- A jewellery stand from my Nan
- 21st guest book from my Auntie Vicki
- Wii Fit from my mum and dad (which I’m pretty sure I’ve already mentioned)
- A Spell Kit from my sister and her boyfriend
- A Spell ‘spray’ (essential oil blend) from my sister and her boyfriend
- A bottle of Midori, again from my sister and her boyfriend
- Maxwell Williams Cherry Blossom platter, salad bowl and salad servers from our close family friends Brian and Jan

I think that’s it? I suck if I can’t remember the rest, and I hate leaving things out.

I’ll leave you with some photos – the rest are in a set on Flickr.

Anyway, onto brighter topics. I went shopping yesterday, since I had two $50 gift cards for Kmart (well, one for $50, one for $43.95 since I spent some of it) and bought:

• Hot pink eyeliner
• White eyeliner
• Maybelline’s Define-A-Lash in Waterproof
• Blusher/Bronzer
• Four eyeshadows
• Eyeshadow palette

I also bought ‘Twilight’ – no, I haven’t read it already, so I’ve been desperately avoiding spoilers online. I’ve done pretty well so far, since I only know that it’s about a chick who meets this guy who’s a vampire. That’s all I know. I started reading it last night, and am up to Chapter 3 (they’re long chapters, aren’t they?!). I’m enjoying it so far, but it’s not ‘must-read’ to me just yet, or something I’d be recommending to people yet. Obviously, because I’m only up to Chapter 3.

Then today, I went out and bought a perfume (just a cheapy that states it’s comparable to Britney Spears’ Curious perfume), cat food, hair mousse, a lip gloss and some choccies and a card for Michael, since I didn’t give him anything for Valentine’s Day. I had Subway for lunch, which was good – nice to have something that tastes healthy.

As for my site, Inspirata hasn’t seen a lot of love really, so I did a little revamping around the place, adding some more subpages, separating stuff out a little more. Happy so far.

Aanndd I need to work on my other sites more. GeekWitch.org has not seen ANY love for a while, which is a shame because I love that site, and TasPagans, don’t even get me started there. I think I jumped into that project with too much hope that it would really take off. If we haven’t got a lot of traffic by the end of March, I reckon I’ll just redirect the URL to the Tas Pagan Alliance site. Make things easier.

Anyway, that’s enough for now.

I want to thank you all for your birthday wishes, and your sympathies regarding Layla. She’ll be missed very much; I can’t begin to explain how much my heart hurts to know she’s gone. We’re having her cremated so she can always be with us, or we’ll find somewhere that has all-day sunlight to scatter her ashes. I know she’s in a better place now, and no longer in pain, and I know that it was a decision we had to make. The pain is, however, indescribable, especially if you haven’t lost anyone/anything close to you before. My heart still aches thinking about her (yeah, it’s only been a couple of days). It’ll get better, but I’ll never forget her. She was so beautiful.

I know you’re in a much better place, a place of eternal sunlight and warmth. We love you and miss you so much, sweety, and we’ll never forget you.

Yes, I’ve failed NaBloPoMo this month, but other things have taken priority.

If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you’ll probably know this already, but here goes (and I’m bound to cry while I write this so bear with me).
Layla was continuing to not eat this morning, nor was she interested in drinking any water. I got more worried, so I went around to the Vet’s (only 2-3 minute walk) and spoke to my vet, who offered some more of the laxative she’d given Layla before, to see if she was constipated again.
I brought this home and gave Layla a dose pretty much straight away. And she immediately threw it up. I thought maybe I did it too fast, gave it an hour or so, and tried again. She threw it up again. By this time, our electrician had come around and needed access to the cat’s room, so I took them both into our bedroom and she sat in a dark corner. I gave her some water by syringe, but eventually that, too, came up.
I was getting really upset by this point, so I called the vet and booked her in. I took her around there, and our usual vet had taken off for the day, so I had another vet look at her. This new vet, Lorraine, said she was very underweight and very dehydrated (two things I knew, as it was obvious; she wasn’t eating or drinking). She suggested putting her on an IV overnight then running some tests for her blood and to check her kidneys, to ensure they’re functioning properly. She broke my heart when she said, “If there is kidney failure, there’s not much we can do”. I managed to maintain composed while Layla was put back into her carry crate and the vet took her through to the back where the animals are. I left some contact details, walked home, and as soon as I stepped in the door I burst into tears. My mum gave me a hug, and I then went back to my room where Hendrix was and cuddled him for a while whilst bawling my eyes out. It is so heartbreaking for me to see my baby so skinny and knowing I can’t do anything about it except leave her with the vet. I know the vet’s is the best place for her right now, but I just hate being without her; she’s like a child to me and I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to her. And goddamnit for this happening so close to one of the biggest celebrations of my life.

I hope she’s going to be ok. Like I said, I don’t know what I’d do without her. Some people might say it’s so stupid, it’s just a cat, but she’s such a huge part of my life.
My dad was a heartless ass tonight at dinner – I was upset, obviously, and he says something like, “Well, we all have to face the fact that everything dies”. I said, “Erm, she’s not dead yet, you insensitive bastard”, and then he says “Well, no, but she’s not well is she?”, and again (for the 5784759724th time today) burst into tears and stormed out. I was so mad – how the hell could he be so mean, when he knows how much I love her.

Anyway, I’m hoping for good news tomorrow when I call the vet’s to check in on her. I really would prefer me calling them, instead of them calling me – if they call me, it can’t be good news.

The only good thing out of today was the fact I got my new mobile phone, my birthday present from Michael – it’s really cute and I’ll take photos of it when my Flickr account is back in order. Everything else today has gone haywire; I’ve jammed my finger, ripped skin off my thumb, stubbed my toes – everything imaginable has gone wrong today. I hope tomorrow is better (although it’s Friday 13th – maybe it won’t go so well).

I’ve had a further growing concern for my Layla-puss, who’s become increasingly skinnier and skinnier. I make sure I sit with her while she eats, so I can see how much she has and ensure Hendrix doesn’t butt in to eat her food as well as her own, but she’s still not putting on the weight. I hope it’s just something to do with her still adjusting to her environment and not anything serious. Besides, when she last went to the vet, the vet said she was a happy, healthy cat. So *shrugs* iono.

I’ve had a bad food day today as well; I had a baked potato with corn and cream cheese sauce for lunch, and KFC for dinner. Not good – no wonder I’m not losing the pounds. I got down to 101.3kg on Friday, and then today I’m back up to 103kg, so I don’t know what’s going on there – hopefully it’s just fluid retention or something like that.

I had a kind-of productive night last night – managed to submit my second article to The Pagan Activist, and put up a new layout at the site for the Proud Pagan Podcasters. There was a bit of a tiff over there about a flash media player just ‘disappearing’, even though I didn’t touch the plugin that takes care of flash modules, so I don’t know, it’s all sorted out now and I guess that’s all that matters.

Things are coming along for the party – after yesterday’s effort (removing three trailer-loads of dirt and rubble from the backyard), today was a total chillax day, but I’m sure we’ll be getting straight back into it again tomorrow. There’s a little painting to do, the toilet to go in in the laundry, some electrical work (the plumber and electrician are coming tomorrow morning) and just general tidy-up and setup. By the way, most of this stuff was going to happen at some point anyway – we didn’t just call the electrician and plumber to put these things in just for the party! – but it was a good motivational tool to get stuff down around here.

So that’s about it – got to leave something to talk about tomorrow, I suppose! NaBloPoMo is working out for me so far!