Well, a new day has come, as Celine Dion is fond of saying. And today is my first full day of being 24 years old. I've been inspired to take a second look at this blogging business, thanks to my younger sister who's set up a little running commentary of her own. I read it today, and she's kind of funny, actually. You know, as funny as I can admit my younger sister is, of course. This whole business should be pretty natural for me, actually, since I make my living as a writer. Let's get the hard part over with right away though - the requisite self-description.

Okay, let's play the "Who Am I?" game.

Round One:

I am...

I am at a loss as to what to say. I just sat at my desk for ten minutes wondering what on earth to write about myself. I mean, I could say what my job is, where I live, what I like to do... but that's not really who I am. It's merely a scratch on the surface, a superficial look at the exterior, with no real sense of who I am. How will you ever know the real me?

Ahh, fuckit.

I'm 24 years old, as of yesterday. I live in Canada, the Great White North. It is pretty white right now, being winter, but it's not like that all the time. Any Americans out there? Canada has summer too. I'll devote a whole separate essay to why I'd rather live in Canada some other day. I'm supposed to be talking about myself.

I'm married, as my title suggests. The big day was June 20th, 2003, and if there's ever been a bride who threw up more on her wedding day, I don't know of her. I have a problem with nerves, you know. Not that I had cold feet or was reconsidering my decision, of course. No one was more excited to be getting married than me. It was the Expectation Of Perfection. And the drugs. Bad time to find out that my body won't tolerate anti-anxiety meds. I was high as a kite. I don't remember much. But the pictures are nice.

In case you're wondering, I was a Bridezilla, that villain of reality television. Fits were pitched, tears were shed, feet were stomped. But that's what I'm like normally, so no one paid me any mind. I like to consider it endearing. And hey, he married me, right? I can't be that bad.

Round Two:

Like I said before, I'm a writer. I work for a television production company writing TV episodes, commercials, press releases, and anything else that comes my way. To date I've worked on three shows that have made it to air, and I'm currently working on two more, one of which - cross your fingers - could end up on TLC. Which is only my favourite channel. Eeeee! It's the first show that I've created myself from scratch, and it shows a lot of promise, or so Those In The Know say. I'm sure as we get into the filming portion of it (right now we're still in pre-production) there will be many hilarious postings detailing all the fiascos that are a part of making TV. It's not all glitter and pizzazz, people. It's a gong show. Anyway, I love my job when I get to work on exciting stuff like that. When we're not busy though, it gets kind of dull.

I also do a bit of freelance writing here and there, mostly just to supplement my income. I've written for both of Calgary's newspapers and a couple of its magazines too. Yep, I'm a real-life journalist. I gots me a degree n' everything. I've done a bit of freelance editing as well, mostly in exchange for beer. I'm a total grammar nazi, very nit-picky about these sorts of things (can we say obsessive-compulsive?) and it gives me actual physical pain to see something mis-spelled or incorrectly punctuated in a publication. If you ever happen to notice me wincing as I read the newspaper, it's not because I'm horrified at the latest tragedy, it's because of a double negative or a lack of subject agreement. Not to say that you won't find the occasional error in my postings. Every editor's downfall is their own work - you can't help but look at it and think it's perfect just the way it is. So while I may give my postings a quick skim, I already think I'm God's gift to grammar and won't be looking for mistakes, because in my head, there's no way there could be any. Sometimes I wonder if I highlighted all the mistakes in the newspaper, wrote corrections in the margins and sent it to the Editor-in-Chief, he would give me a job.

Bonus Round:

I have diverse interests. Who doesn't? Mine aren't that different from anyone else's, you're not going to be shocked or surprised by anything. Appalled, perhaps, but not shocked.

I spend a lot of my free time with my friends. It seems like we're feeling our age a lot more these days and don't do any of the wild partying that we used to. I know my body thanks me. We're more apt to meet for a pint or a coffee than do body shots at the club. Fine by me. I hate being the oldest girl in the bar.

We also do a lot of camping, hiking and other outdoor pursuits. We've even been caving a couple of times, always challenging for me, the claustrophobe. When you live as close to the Rockies as we do, you don't spend your weekends in front of the TV! It seems like a lot of our income goes towards upgrading our 'gear' these days - better sleeping bags, more efficient camp stoves, base layers, and more. Case in point - when Darcy and I got married, our friends all went in together to get me a new camping backpack and Darcy a set of hiking poles. How cool is that?!? Yep, we're gear whores.

We both have the travel bug pretty bad, and try and visit fantastic places whenever we can. We spent a few weeks in Ireland last July, a lifelong dream for me. We did an eight-day walking tour of the Southern coast before spending some time in Dublin, arguably one of the world's coolest cities. The year before that it was Mexico to try out the all-inclusive lifestyle. I recommend it, but it's hard to get used to not being able to just leave the restaurant without paying once you return home. Next year I'm thinking Bahamas, maybe Greece, which comes highly recommended by my older brother (who isn't actually older than me, just the older of the two). Sadly, trips to exotic destinations don't come cheap.

I'm also pretty into wine, and these days, beer. Now I'm not one of those people who spends $20 on a 30-pack and chugs it down. I like to think I'm a bit of a connoisseur when it comes to these things. I worked in a specialty wine store for three years, so I know my stuff. That store still gets a lot of my money, and as it stands right now, I'm going to work for them the week before Christmas for a little extra cash. You just can't escape some places, you know? Maybe they'll pay me in Pinot Noir. One way or another, you always know you're going to get a nice drink when you're over at my place. My liquor cabinet is the stuff of legends.

What else do I like... pop music and reality shows. Wow, and for a few paragraphs, I had you thinking I was cool, didn't I. Well that's down the toilet. If it wasn't for Survivor and Justin Timberlake, I would lead a hollow life. It's called popular for a reason, you know. Someone's gotta like it. It takes so much energy to be full of angst. I'd rather spend it on a nice long hike.

Of course I love my family and enjoy spending time with them. My husband Darcy, who was introduced in a roundabout way a couple of paragraphs ago, is my best friend and someone who I never get tired of being around. We have two cats, Frances and Catrina. Neither of them will ever be rocket surgeons, that's for sure. (Rocket surgeons? Why, the only people smarter than rocket scientists and brain surgeons, of course... you gotta be pretty smart to know both rockets and surgery.) They hate each other, which is too bad, because we brought home Catrina to keep Frances company while we were both at work. They're mellowing out a bit though. It only took two years.

I have an intact family, meaning no divorced parents. Very uncommon in this day and age. Two brothers, one sister. All simultaneously cool and lame, the way siblings are. I'm the oldest, which means I have always had to Set A Good Example for them. I don't know how good a job I did... so far they've turned out all right. As far as I know they don't do anything worse than I did at their age, but that isn't saying much. I wasn't known for my good behaviour when I was a teenager. We don't need to hear those stories though. The pictures are bad enough.

That's about all I can wring out of myself today. It occurs to me that if you're reading this, you probably know all this crap anyway. Oh well. Enjoy the refresher.