On 2009 (the top-five version)

Last year I ripped off a post from Fifikins (aka the woman who keeps kicking my arse in Words With Friends), reflecting on my 2008.

It’s actually one of the better meme/survey thingos out there for that sort of thing, so I’ll use it again later this month.

But it goes without saying that 2009 has been my year. Sure, some of it has been shithouse, but it pales into comparison to the rest of my year.

And on that note, I present my 2009 top five:

1. Started by own business (now known as Rah!Creative)
   Things have been slow, but that’s kinda how I need it. I can’t handle having a full-time job as well as a needy home business. I’m learning heaps, I passed the Tax Man’s rules and regulations and I even made a profit in my first financial year. WOO!
2. Got my first blog gig (at That’s Noice!)
   I helped Leigh with setting up That’s Noice! at the end of 2008, but we launched in Feb this year. Fark knows why Leigh trusted me enough with one of her projects, but I’ve LOVED it. It’s not always easy coming up with content and I’ve had to get my head around all the technicalities of having a ‘real’ blog, but it’s been a great experience and hopefully 2010 will be an even bigger year for the blog
3. FINALLY had our water feature repaired
   After 709 days, our leaking loungeroom wall was repaired. We were also told our building should be condemned in the next 5-10 years, so we at least have a goal for moving out (?)
4. zOMG Dan proposed!1!!!!!!
   Easily the most amazing event to happen to me. There’s someone in my life who’s willing to tell the world he wants to make it permanent? Crazy. Just don’t ask when/where/how the wedding will happen, cause we still can’t decide!
5. Ben Folds at the Opera House, thrice
   Ahh, the week that Dan and I played excited fangirls, seeing Ben Folds at the Opera House. Each of the gigs was unreal, but the hands-down favourite was the ‘by request’ gig where we had perfect seats, Ben played my favourite song and played Dan’s actual song request. Blew my mind and we still talk about it to anyone who’ll listen

Have you got a top 5 of 2009? Join in and do yours too!

I found my wedding dress

No, I’m not turning this into a permanent bridezilla blog.

But you’d be forgiven for thinking such.

But my brain is fried with dealing with life atm.

I miss you.

But really, I did find my wedding dress:

A no-brainer

I probably haven’t mentioned this before, but I love Momversation. Apart from seeing some of my favourite bloggers in video form, the topics and resulting conversations are interesting. I even find the “mommy” topics interesting, when I haven’t even got offspring yet.

This Momversation was posted a couple of weeks ago:

And given my current pre-wedding state, this really struck a chord with me.

This is a topic that has come up over the years with me and Dan. My surname will end if I get married and change it; there are no more boys on my dad’s side of the family to carry on the Kane family name. Same thing happened with my mum when she married Dad.

I feel a connection to my surname given I lost my Dad when I was 8. And Pop, Dad’s dad, was a Senator involved in the creation of the Democratic Labor Party. I’m proud of my Kane heritage and proud of what Dad and Pop did in their lifetimes.

Dan had even said years ago that he would consider changing his surname to Kane if we got married.

That said, now that we’re engaged, I’m planning to take Dan’s surname when we get married.

For me, the last eight years with Dan has been my transition from being a sheltered, wide-eyed, innocent and gutless victim of my own life. The person I was before is unrecognisable to the person I am now. Not to say that I’m done with my transformation – because there is still SO much of me that needs repairing.

But there have been steps in recent years that I see as real progress in reclaiming “me”. Starting and completing a TAFE course. My 2007 UK Christmas holiday. Starting to take better care of my health. Stepping away from friendships that caused more harm than good. Starting my own business. And getting engaged.

“Me” is evolving. And I see that changing my surname is a continuation of that evolution. Accepting my past for what it was, how it got me to where I am and how it got me to this point where I’m ready to make a life-long commitment to my future husband.

My ring is loose

Can’t believe it’s been almost three months since I got the promotion from girlfriend/defacto to finace.

I can’t string enough words together to explain what I’ve put myself through in terms of planning The Event – and we still haven’t made any real decisions about anything. It reached the point where I’ve banned myself from thinking about it for the time being. (Smart move, Rah).

One thing I’ve tried to do is stay on the healthy wagon. Which is going pretty damn well considering I haven’t done much more than try to eat better. I’m down 3kg overall, including the 1.2kg I lost in the last week.

So while I’m stoked that I’m starting to get a bit more room in my work outfits, the downside so far is that my Beautiful Handmade Diamond Ring doesn’t fit the Correct Finger anymore.

I think it’s also to do with the cold snap in Sydney this week (can Mother Nature please turn up the heating now, kthnxbai). But when I attempt to do the little housework I do and The Ring falls off three times? Yeah, time to keep it in a safe place for a little while.

I hate not wearing it, so after a few days I decided to wear it on the wrong finger – but it’s too loose even for the ring finger on my right hand – so it’s back on my left hand.

Eventually we’ll get our gorgeous jeweller to weave her resizing magic, but I’m in no rush just yet.

I can get married now I have my new Gmail account

When Dan put my ring on my finger, my brain immediately went into Bridezilla-mode:

• Who do we have to invite?
• How long have I got to lose the fat?
• How the hell are we going to pay for this?
• Etc, etc etc – thoughts that occupied my brain to the extent that I had trouble sleeping for at least two weeks. I was even incapable of napping while we were on our beloved holiday!

Not long after that, my brain went into nerdBridezilla mode:

• I need a new Gmail account!
• I need a new domain for my blog!
• I need a new domain for my business!
• I need a new Twitter handle!

It turns out that my married name* is more common than Kane, so it’s limited my options when choosing a new Gmail account name. Gmail is the centre of my online universe, so picking an appropriate account name ranked pretty highly on my list.

Do I go with my nickname for a Gmail account? Maybe the new business name**? Do I spell everything backwards?

I ended up grabbing 2 Gmail accounts, one featuring my full name including my middle name and one featuring my nickname. At least I have 18 months to work out which one I’ll use :)

Now I just need to work on my colour-coded wedding invite list. It’s colour-coded based on importance of particular groups being invited (i.e. red = must invite, yellow = if we can afford it, etc.)

* Yes, I’m going to be all traditional and take on Dan’s surname. Is that considered old-fashioned these days? Meh, whatever. Being a Kane girl has been a hard slog for the last 31 years and I think I’ve earned the chance to graduate to a new surname.

** New business name yet to be thought-of. Suggestions welcome!