Welcome to my Bucket List

I've decided that I'm cool with only updating this blog every now and again. It's interesting to read back through these blogs so that I can realise that, although it may be at snail's pace, I am making some kind of progress in my life.

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you my bucket list - a list of things I want to do before I die. I haven't done very much of it, but I'm desperately trying to keep myself inspired, so here goes (ones in green are ones I have completed):

1.  Sing in front of an audience of at least one hundred

2.  Make a video with at least one thousand hits on Youtube

Okay, it may only be three seconds long, but I'm on 1002 so far!

3. Go to a My Chemical Romance gig

4. Meet My Chemical Romance

5. Go to an Evanescence gig

6. Learn to play piano

7. Go to a gig with my MCRmy friends

8. Follow an MCR tour

9. Write a book

10. See Les Miserables at the theatre

11. Go to university (even if it was for four months...)

12. Have children

13. Get married

14. Make a difference to somebody’s life (I'd like to think I have achieved this one)

15. Have enough money to live comfortably

16. Be a bridesmaid for a friend

17. Have a swimming pool in my back garden

18. Live near the sea

19. Create a collage of what my ideal life would be (I'm starting working on this right after I finish this blog)

20. Kiss in the rain

21. Go on a tour (as in music tour, from a behind-the-scenes point of view)

22. Visit Italy

23. Visit Paris (July!!)

24. Visit America

25. Visit The Grand Canyon

26. See the Northern Lights

27. Visit Niagara Falls

28. Go to Disney World (with kids)

29. Go on holiday with friends

30. Travel the south coast of England in a campervan

31. Go on a road trip with no destination

32. Go on a penny walk (flip a coin for left/right at each junction)

33. Complete Race For Life again

34. Go ice skating

35. Ride a horse on a beach

36. Go on a helicopter ride

37. Get a tattoo

38. Have a picnic in the sun with friends

39. Make a movie/music video with friends

40. Go Zorbing

41. Ride a rollercoaster

42. Go to a psychic

43. Get a massage

44. Ride on a sledge being pulled by huskies

45. Go to an Ann Summers party

46. Hire a stripper/go to a party where there is a stripper

47. Raise money for a charity

48. Sleep under the stars

49. Have my portrait painted

50. Send a message in a bottle

51. Take a dance class

52. Do a 24 hour sponsored silence

53. Have my hair and make up done by a professional

54. Do a finger painting

55. Design my own dress and have it made

56. Make a scrapbook of something exciting

57. Win a pub quiz

58. Get into the Guinness Book of World Records

59. Buy something at Harrods

60. Buy a designer handbag (it may not have been the most expensive, but I'm counting my Jasper Conran bag)

61. Buy some shares of a company

62. Watch a sunrise and sunset on the same day

63. Put a pound away every day for a year

64. Walk on a beach by moonlight with the person I love

65. Have a star named after me

66. Tell someone the story of my life, sparing no details

67. Write a letter of complaint when I say I’m going to

68. Be better at DIY

If you have any questions about any of them, wish to add any suggestions or would like to share some of your own goals, drop me a comment!

P.S. I am aware that there is a "2." at the bottom of this blog, but I can't get rid of it. You have no idea how infuriating I find it.

Remember me?

I haven't posted on here in over a year and a half! So for those that knew me back then, and for those who did not, here is what has changed in that time:

January 2011

I quit university. I was studying Psychology, and I hated it. I used to enjoy Psychology at school, but at uni it just seemed so worthless. To me, it felt like I was constantly asking pointless questions like "why is the grass green?" Who cares why the grass is green?! It just is, deal with it!

Apart from that, the people I lived with were horrible. Their daily routine was wake up at about 6pm, make some dinner, drink heavily until about 11pm, go out into town, come back at about 3am with whatever drugs they'd managed to find, put their music on really loudly and get high, then finally turn off music and go to sleep at 9am. Basically, they were selfish assholes who always did drugs and were pretty aggressive and not pleasant to live with. With the lack of sleep, I had no motivation to do any work or go to lectures (which I didn't enjoy when I did go), and it was making me super unhappy, so after some thought I left. I figured I couldn't justify spending three years being miserable when it was costing me so much to be there.

This is just one of many reasons I quit...

February 2011

I followed MCR on tour (well, I went to four of their UK gigs)! This was probably the best experience of my life... just indescribable. Here's a really brief summary of it, and I'll leave a few links afterwards if you want to read more.

It began in London, where a friend and I camped out for the show and managed to get to the barrier for their first UK gig of the tour. We then took an overnight bus to Birmingham, where we camped out (we arrived at 4am). However, at about 8am we decided to forfeit our place in the queue due to sickness to go and sleep in the hostel we had booked for that night. After the Birmingham gig, we had a few days rest, and then I travelled to my friend's home town of Cardiff, where we queued from 10am (we were actually the closer to the front of the queue than we had been for the gigs we camped out for!) but unfortunately got pushed back during the support act so didn't get to the barrier. The following day we took a bus to Newcastle (9 hours suffering the worst driving skills in existence), to see them for the final time, and that was my experience over :(

The line outside Wembley Arena at about 11.30pm

The signed Danger Days CD cover after meeting the boys after the Birmingham gig.

The line outside Cardiff International Arena at about 2pm.

You can watch the video I made of the whole thing here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TieU-LdeM8

Read my tour diary and see a few pictures here: http://www.mychemicalromance.com/blog/dropthedaggerromeo/please-read-means-lot-me

http://www.mychemicalromance.com/blog/dropthedaggerromeo/mcr-3

March-May 2011
Nothing interesting really happened until May... I spent the whole time job hunting whilst trying to take advantage of being unemployed! In March, the new MCRmy website opened, which probably means more to me than some people realise. I joined the MCRmy in 2007, and made a lot of friends there, many of whom I still keep in contact with. It was in 2010 that MCRmy.com was shut down (due to its host, The Street Network, being closed). This felt like we were losing our home, even though we'd been promised a new one. Some people still kept in contact via twitter, but a lot of people lost contact. I don't think anybody expected it to be so long before they gave us our home back, but in March 2011 they did! On a whim, I applied to be a moderator to this website I held so dearly, and in May my wish was granted! This was clearly a lucky week for me since the very next day, I had a job interview which had me hired pretty much on the spot. So that was May.

MCRmy.com circa 2008

June 2011 - now
I had a pretty rubbish end to last year and beginning to this year. My cat was hit by a car, but whoever hit him didn't stop to check he was okay or come and tell us. We found the cat in the garage with the left side of his face kind of hanging off, and rushed him to the vets. He'd fractured his jaw really badly and spent an expensive week at the vets before he was able to come home. We then had to feed him with a syringe because he was unable to eat for himself, and after a lot of hard work he eventually got better (he's 100% again now).

Smudge (left) and Smokey (right) warming up on the radiator

My Christmas and New Year was awful... my grandad was clearly going to pass away soon, so everybody was miserable at Christmas. My mum received a phone call on New Years Eve saying to go and visit because it wasn't looking good. I wasn't home at the time, and since they live about two hours away, my mum left straight away, so I spend NYE on my own with my grandad severely ill. On New Year's Day, my grandad sadly passed away at about 9pm. A few days later, we received a call from my other granddad, saying that my dad had been given six months to live due to prostate cancer. I haven't seen my dad since I was about seven or eight, so I didn't really know how to react to that. The past couple of months have been better, but I don't want to jinx anything!

Since then hasn't really been eventful, but that's suited me just fine. Since I quit uni, I didn't want eventful. I wanted to take some time out to chill and figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I still work in the same place, which, apart from my boss, I enjoy, but now I'm ready for something new. I'll probably post a blog about that some other time because this is getting kind of long now... If you actually read all of that congratulations and thanks ;)

Ten reasons to get up in the morning

Sometimes life can be malicious; constantly throwing obstacles and demons into our pathway. The road we follow on our journey through life will be complex and windy, but the destination is something that only you can choose.

It can often feel like there is no reason to get up in the morning, no reason to leave your home, perhaps no reason to even wake up. Bad things will come to an end... you may have to suffer the pain to live through it, but you will come through stronger. I know how hard it can be to get out of bed when you feel like there is nothing to live for anymore, so I've compiled a list of some of my reasons.

I would like everybody reading this to think of ten reasons why they, or other people should get up in the mornings. You can just think about it, write it in your journal or post it as a blog, it's up to you.

Here are mine for today:

1. To go out in the sunshine
2. To eat
3. To feed my cats
4. To talk to some amazing people both IRL and online
5. To gain experiences that I will remember in the future
6. To help others that may be in need of support
7. To be sure that I don’t miss any opportunities
8. To learn
9. To earn a living
10. To let myself dream about things that are perhaps out of reach

A new day is awaiting you each time you wake up in the morning. It is a fresh start, a brand new leaf. Grasp this new start with both hands, fight for it, and never let it go.

Nobody can change the past, but you can choose your future.

Let's grow old together?

There's nothing quite like feeling like you've known a person longer than you have.

Rather than introducing myself through words, I thoguht I'd give you a glimpse of me over the years.

After all, pictures paint an image clearer than words could ever portray...

This is the youngest picture of me that I have on my laptop - I think I was about eight. I really miss my hair being that length!

I have a feeling that this was my twelfth birthday... I look pretty bad, it's got to be said.

When I moved up to high school, I turned a bit gothic!


Then I had all my hair cut off :(


And dyed it red :)

And this is me now... well, in February anyway. My hair is brown again, and nearly as long as it was before. And I look a little less scary (although it's still there, don't worry)!

Quickest journey through my life ever? Yes.

It's funny how we change... I look back and envy some of the pictures of me, wondering why I changed and mostly, wondering why I thought so little of myself.

I wish that when these were taken I had more confidence in myself. I often wonder how different my life would be now if I had just grasped opportunities with both hands instead of being shy. However, the past cannot be changed, but the future can be.

Take opportunities; you never know if you'll ever get them again.

Believe in yourself; you never know when you might need to.

You are beautiful, I promise.

Worthless first post...

I have nothing worthy of writing currently to be honest. It's a beautiful day; it's hot, but it's raining and the smell... well, it smells of England. I really want it to thunder but it seems that there's no point in getting my hopes up! Anyway, I better go and finish making my profile and getting used to this confusing website!

P.S. It did thunder :)