My 2021 Reading and Writing Goals

At the end of my last post, I mentioned that my word for 2021 is ‘Present’, supported by ‘Simplify’, ‘Connect’, and ‘Balance’. I spent most of 2020 feeling discombobulated and disconnected, and this year I want to be more mindful of how I spend my time, what I choose to focus on, and creating a healthy, sustainable work-life balance.

Reading Goals

With ‘simplify’ in mind, I decided not to join any bookish challenges this year. I’ll be doing my yearly Goodreads goal (I’ve set it at 90 books, same as last year), but last year I signed up for various year-long challenges on bookstagram and blogs, and I spent more time focusing on the challenge aspect than actually reading. I don’t want reading to ever feel like a chore; it’s something I do for pleasure and to relax and escape.

Because of that, I’ve also decided I’m going to try to limit the number of ARCs I request and accept. I got so bogged down in review books last year and barely read any of the books on my own shelves or Kindle. I love getting review books and it’s a privilege I don’t take for granted, but I want to have the freedom to go with my mood and not what I feel I ‘have to’ read because of release deadlines and commitments. There are dozens of books that have been sitting on my shelves for years and I feel like they’re mocking me.

My other reading goals are things I want to continue from last year:

★Read more diversely (last year about ⅓ of the books I read fit this goal, but I know I can do better and read more books by and about BIPOC and the LGBTQ+ community)

★Read more books by Canadian authors (last year I read 17)

★Read more books by indie authors (last year I read 19)

★Read more backlist books (I didn’t specifically keep track of those last year, but the vast majority of the books I read were new releases)

Writing Goals

In 2020, I wrote chunks of three different novels, as well as a complete novella. My goal for 2021 is to complete those three partially-finished WIPs, and possibly the half-finished book I started writing in 2015. To make those goals less daunting, I’ve decided I’m going to start setting quarterly goals. I’m hoping by doing this I won’t be so overwhelmed by the big picture and my goals will feel more manageable.

My main writing goal for the first quarter of 2021 is to finish the first draft of the next book in the Perry series. I don’t plan to publish it until the fall, but since it’s my most recent project, I want to finish writing it early in the year and be ahead of the game. If I finish it before the end of March, I’ll assess my yearly goals and see which project to tackle next.

Smaller goals within that quarterly goal:

★Cut back on time spent on social media (as in less mindless scrolling)

★Put my phone out of reach when I’m working

★Set better working hours and take time for relaxation and self-care; I typically don’t do enough of that but when I do, it always helps with my creative flow, not to mention my stress levels

What are some of your reading and/or writing goals for 2021, or just general goals? Do you have big yearly goals or do you break them down into bite-size bits?

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2020: A Year in Review

Well, we officially made it through 2020. After such a chaotic year, I debated whether to do my usual Year in Review; I wasn’t sure I wanted to look back, plus so much of the year feels like a blur. I also saw a lot of social media posts saying how year-end posts would be a mixed bag now more than they ever were and would have a lot of people feeling a variety of emotions since some people managed to accomplish a lot while others' accomplishments were simply making it through the year and living to tell the tale. For me, 2020 fell somewhere in between, but the things I did accomplish were hard-won, which I think should be celebrated.

It was a difficult mental health year - I spent a good chunk of time in anxiety spirals, especially early on in the pandemic - but I also learned new coping mechanisms, and I had great friends to lean on (virtually, of course). Since my 80-year-old mum and I live together, we had to go into lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic in order to keep her safe. As of now, we’ve been in isolation for nine and a half months. The hardest part has been being separated from the rest of our family, especially my little niece and nephew, who we always spent a lot of time with. Thankfully we have each other and we're very close, and we’ve had incredible, generous friends picking up groceries for us weekly. I also found a great deal of pleasure in books and TV, namely the Star Wars movies, The Mandalorian, Schitt Creek, The Baby-Sitters Club, Jane the Virgin, New Girl, and Never Have I Ever.

Things I accomplished in 2020:

★I published a full-length contemporary romance, Hung Up on You in January

★I wrote and published a holiday romcom novella, A Very Perry Christmas in November

       ☆I figured out how to format paperback books after almost nine years of being an indie author and created A Very Perry Christmas as my first ever paperback

      ☆Four different book clubs chose A Very Perry Christmas as their monthly read, which absolutely blew me away

       ☆For the first time in my entire career, I had dozens of people posting about my book on Instagram 

★I wrote a chapter about bookstagram for a collaborative non-fiction book called Indie Writing Wisdom, which released on December 1st and hit the Amazon US bestseller list in new releases

★I wrote chunks of three different novels (for my own future reference, the working titles of those books are Christmas Queen, Sexy Beach Read, and Perry #2)

★I read 100 books (see my Top 10 Favourite Romances of 2020 here)

★I supported various small businesses, mostly Canadian ones, and did my best to promote the ones I loved most (Always September, Fox + Wild, Bibliophile Belle’s Boutique, SJWonderlandz, Lakeside Craft Corner, and Reading in the Country). I was also chosen for two separate terms as a bookstagram representative for Always September, which was a highlight of the year.

★I rediscovered my love of cooking, largely with the help of meal prep kits like GoodFood, Chefs Plate, and Hello Fresh (if you’re in Canada and would like a discount on any of these, I’d be happy to send you one!)

While 2020 wasn’t all bad, I’m eager to move on, look ahead, and hope for brighter days. I’ll be talking more about my reading and writing goals later this week, but for now, I’ll say my word for 2021 is ‘Present’, supported by ‘Simplify’, ‘Connect’, and ‘Balance’. All these things go hand in hand, at least in my mind. I spent most of 2020 feeling discombobulated and disconnected, and this year I want to be more mindful of how I spend my time, what I choose to focus on, and creating a healthy, sustainable work-life balance.

What were some of your 2020 highlights? Some of the things that made you smile, brought you joy, or reminded you there’s still good in the world?

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Previous Yearly Recaps:
☆2019: A Year in Review

☆2018: A Year in Review
☆2017: A Year in Review
☆2016: A Year in Review
☆Looking Back on 2015
☆Reflecting on 2014 and Looking at the Year Ahead 
☆2012: A Year in Review
☆2010: A Year in Review

Celebrating Bookish Friendships on Galentine's Day: Why I Write Stories Where Female Friendships Are as Important as the Romance

Every single one of my books has some element of friendship in it, but my last four books have had themes of friendship that are arguably as important as the story’s romance. Mistletoe Kiss, Only You, and Maybe You are interconnected standalones featuring a group of friends; it was so much fun to write about Bridget, Ivy, Meredith, Celia, and Piper. When I wrote Mistletoe Kiss, I expected it to be a standalone - a sweet, super fluffy Christmas novella to get people in the holiday spirit. I can’t remember at what point Bridget’s best friend Ivy appeared in my mind, but she kind of took over and became a bigger part of the story than I anticipated. I had countless readers tell me they wanted a best friend like Ivy...and they also wanted more of Ivy.  

And so Only You was born. With this being a full-length novel, I got to play around with the friendships a bit more. You get to see more of Bridget and Ivy, but you also get to experience a budding new friendship between Ivy and Meredith. I worked hard to make the friendships realistic and relatable; Bridget and Ivy were still best friends, but things were changing between them as Bridget became busier with her promotion at work, plus a lot of her free time was spent with her new boyfriend. I’ve gone through this myself and I have many friends who have experienced it too. Even when you’re happy for your friend, it can be hard not to feel like you’re being left behind or even forgotten. I think a lot of people assume that as you get older you’ve finished ‘growing up’, but part of the human experience is dealing with growing pains and learning hard lessons, no matter how old you get. It’s also difficult to make new friends the older you get, as Ivy points out when she meets Meredith. 

One of the weird lessons I’ve learned since my college days is how hard it is to make friends as an adult. Other than Bridget, I haven’t made any close friends in years. Some of that is my own fault, between being an introvert and feeling fulfilled by my close bond with Bridget. The other part of it is trying to find things in others to connect with, especially since a lot of people my age are already married and starting families. Meredith seems different, though. I’m cautiously optimistic I’m in the process of making a new friend. ~ Ivy in Only You

I loved getting to play with friendships both old and new in Only You, as well as the ups and downs, misunderstandings and miscommunications, and the deep love and affection between friends.

I continued exploring friendships in Meredith’s book, Maybe You. She and Ivy became even closer, and she also befriended Bridget and another of Ivy’s friends. There’s also a platonic male-female friendship in Maybe You that I loved writing. I tend to write about ride-or-die female friendships, but I absolutely loved the relationship between Meredith and Hugh. They loved each other deeply and always had each other’s backs. I’d love to see more platonic opposite-sex friendships in books.

And finally, there’s my newest release, Hung Up on You. Julia and Dee became friends in college and have been inseparable since. Neither of them has much family, so they became each other’s family, and I loved exploring that dynamic. 

Getting Dee as a roommate was like winning the lottery; she drives me crazy sometimes and can exasperate me beyond belief, but I love her like a sister and she’s always made me feel like part of her family. ~ Julia in Hung Up on You

Dee knows how to push every last one of Julia’s buttons, and although Julia gets frustrated at times, she knows Dee does everything from a place of love. To be completely honest, Dee is the type of person who would drive me bonkers in real life - overbearing, outspoken, meddlesome - but she sure was fun to write about and I feel like she and Julia made an amazing duo.

There’s so much to explore when it comes to friendships, and I love writing about the different dynamics. I weave in things I’ve observed over the years, as well as my own friendships. This was especially true in Only You which, in a way, was like a love letter to my best friend of thirty years. A lot of our (mis)adventures, conversations, and inside jokes got worked into that book, which is why I dedicated it to her.

“Now I feel weird around him. We cleared the air last night at the bar, but when he dropped me off, we had a…I wouldn’t call it a moment, but close enough.” 

I expect her to ask me to elaborate, but she probably thinks we’re running out of time before Hugh arrives. Instead, she nods and says, “So now you’re all awkward penguin.” 

I scoff. I don’t remember the origin of the term ‘awkward penguin’, but it’s been one of our many inside jokes for years. When I start to like a guy—whether it’s a new attraction or a sudden crush on someone I’ve known for awhile—I have a tendency to become awkward. I try not to let it happen, but I can’t seem to control it. “Doesn’t apply in this case, Bridge. I only go awkward penguin on guys I have a crush on. I don’t even know Hugh.” ~ Ivy and Bridget in Only You

I think it’s safe to say I’ll always include friendships in my books. I love romantic relationships and watching characters falling in love, but there’s nothing quite like friendship. Not everyone has the opportunity to fall in love or experience grand romance like we read about in books, but friendship is something that's more universal, something most people can relate to. It's important to see all kinds of friendships reflected in books - strong ones, casual ones, online ones, forever ones, broken ones.

If you’d like to read about the fictional friends I’ve mentioned, all four of these books are available on Kindle, Kobo, iBooks, and Nook. Only You and Maybe You are currently on sale for just 99 cents each in honour of Galentine’s Day. The price will return to $2.99 on February 19th, so hurry if you want to snag these deals!  

★Buy Mistletoe Kiss (99 cents) 
★Buy Only You ( currently 99 cents, regularly $2.99) 
★Buy Maybe You ( currently 99 cents, regularly $2.99)
★Buy Hung Up on You ($2.99)

Who are some of your favourite fictional friend duos or groups?

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*Please note I'm an Amazon affiliate, and some of the links in this review are affiliate links. All income made through affiliate sales goes directly back into maintaining Ramblings of a Daydreamer. Thank you for your support!  

January 2020 Recap

Happy February! The general consensus from people all over my social media channels is that January was the longest month ever. Who else felt that way? It was cold and dreary here, which is typical for the first month of the year, and I went through spurts of being super productive and doing all the things to feeling completely unmotivated and exhausted for days on end. Overall, January was a good month, but I’m hoping February brings more sunshine and more energy.

Writing and reading
★I published a new book in January! Hung Up on You - a sweet and sexy slow-burn, friends-to-lovers, fake-dating romance - was my fourteenth publication. The reception it’s received so far has absolutely blown me away, and I'm grateful beyond words.
★I managed to write the first several chapters of a Christmas book that'll be published later this year. I’d hoped to write more, but the lead-up to publication is no joke. I spent countless hours making graphics, scheduling posts, seeking out reviewers, and doing a-million-and-one other tasks both big and small. I’m pleased with what I accomplished, but I want to ramp it up this month.
★I read a total of six books in January. I participated in the Lunar New Year Readathon on bookstagram from January 24th-26th, and I’ve joined a variety of 2020 reading challenges, including Romanceopoly, Tackle My TBR, and Read Diverse Romance. 

Books read in January:
★Getting Hot With the Scot by Melonie Johnson
★Almost Just Friends by Jill Shalvis
★Tweet Cute by Emma Lord
★Mermaid Inn by Jenny Holiday
★One Bed for Christmas by Jackie Lau
★The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

If you want daily updates on what I’m reading and loving, be sure to follow me on bookstagram.

On the blog
★I reviewed Mermaid Inn by Jenny Holiday, Almost Just Friends by Jill Shalvis, and Tweet Cute by Emma Lord
★I celebrated the release of Hung Up on You
★I shared some of my favourite things from last year in a 2019 Edition of Friday Favourites

What I watched
★Toward the end of last year, I decided it was finally time to watch Star Wars. It wasn’t that I wasn’t interested all these years, I was just overwhelmed by how many movies there were and didn't know where to begin or where to watch all of them...then came Disney+. Also, I’ll be perfectly honest, I started crushing on Oscar Isaac and wanted to see him in the new Star Wars movies, but figured I might as well do it right and watch all of them. I started watching on the first day of the new year and made it through all eight movies; The Empire Strikes Back and The Force Awakens are my favourites. I still need to watch Rogue One, Solo, and The Mandalorian, and I need to see Rise of Skywalker, but I wasn’t able to catch it in the theatre.
★My Oscar Isaac obsession continued through the month and I watched Ex Machina (it’s official: movies about artificial intelligence are not for me), Life Itself (somehow depressing and hopeful at the same time), In Secret (also depressing, but sexy af before the depressing stuff), and Inside Llewyn Davis (also - you guessed it - kind of depressing, but Oscar sings and plays guitar, so it’s worth it for that alone).

And the rest...
★I didn’t go out much or do much else in January, but I did kick ass with my step goals through the month. My bestie invited me to participate in a Workweek Hustle group challenge on Fitbit with her and six other people, and it was exactly the motivation I needed to get me moving again after weeks of sitting at my desk way too much. The first and second weeks I made it to second place, and last week I made it to first place with about a 10,000 step lead over the person in second place.
★On bookstagram, I entered a rep search for Always September Shop and was chosen as a rep for February and March! Carly specializes in book sleeves but also makes fabric bookmarks and scrunchies; I bought three of her sleeves last year and I’m so excited to have the chance to represent her business for the next two months. I love supporting small businesses, especially ones run by women, and especially ones owned by fellow Canadians. If you’re in the market for some beautiful, high-quality book sleeves at a great price, be sure to check out Always September on Etsy and you can use the code SWEET10 to save 10% until the end of March.

That pretty much sums up the first month of the new year - and the new decade - for me. How was January for you? Did you read any great books? Do any writing or anything else creative? Accomplish something you’re really proud of? I’d love to hear from you!

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Hung Up on You Release Day!

Hung Up on You is now officially out in the world!

I can't believe this day is finally here. I started writing this book three years ago, finished two years ago, and then set it aside to work on other projects. Late last summer, I knew it was time to finally pull it out again and see if it was worth publishing, and I immediately fell back in love with Julia, Zack, and the other characters. With help from two amazing author friends, I came up with a title and synopsis, and my wonderful team of beta readers helped me make the story itself much better. Writing is such a solitary thing, but all the rest of it involves so many moving pieces and people behind the scenes.

Now on to the book! Hung Up on You is a sweet and sexy slow-burn, friends-to-lovers, fake-dating romance. It's set in Canada and features Canadian characters. Friendship is an important aspect of the story, and you can expect plenty of giggles and swoons. Sound like your kind of thing? The ebook will be 99 cents for a day or two longer and then the price will go up to $2.99 so be sure to snag a copy soon!

Julia and Zack aren’t really dating. Their ‘relationship’ is fake. Julia’s heart did not get the memo. 

Julia is single and happy, thank you very much. Try telling that to her happily-coupled bestie, though. She’s so determined to pair Julia off, she brings an extra guy friend along on a weekend getaway, in what’s clearly a set-up attempt. Julia’s interest is immediately piqued by sweet, sexy, nerdy Zack. There’s just one problem: he’s still hung up on his ex. Big time.

Despite knowing that - and despite her attraction to him - it doesn’t stop her friends from throwing them together every other second, insisting they’d make the perfect couple. But Julia is determined to friend zone him...at least until he suggests they pretend to date to get their respective friends off their backs.

At first, their fake “dating” is more friendship than fireworks. But as they get closer, the lines begin to blur between them, and Julia realizes she has to either shut down her developing feelings for Zack or let him in. The question is: can she fully trust him with her heart? Or does his heart still belong to his ex?

★Amazon US

★Amazon Canada

★Amazon UK

★Kobo

★iBooks

★Nook

★Smashwords

Hung Up on You is making the rounds of the blogosphere as well as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter this week thanks to Xpresso Book Tours, so be sure to keep an eye out for posts featuring reviews, excerpts, teasers, and more! There's also a tour-wide giveaway, which you can enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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2019: A Year in Review

2019 has been a memorable one for a lot of reasons, both good and bad. I’ve grown and changed a lot, gained a ton of confidence, and have been through things that have left me with both literal and emotional scars. When I look back at the last twelve months, I have the urge to both laugh and cry, but overall I’d say it was a good year. I wanted it to be a year of big changes and it certainly was that. 

The highs and lows (some of which came simultaneously)

The first real curveball 2019 threw at me came in May. One day I suddenly developed what felt like really bad heartburn; when it didn’t go away after two days, I finally headed to the ER. After hours of waiting and a few tests, I was finally told I likely had gallstones and would need to spend the night to have an ultrasound in the morning. My first thought was 'Spend the night? In the hospital?!' My second thought was 'I don't care, just give me drugs'. By that point, I was crawling out of my skin because I was in so much pain (afterward I had a couple of friends tell me they'd had gallstones and the pain was as bad as or worse than childbirth).

They put me on heavy-duty drugs and by some miracle, I got my own little cubby-like room in Emergency where I spent the night. The ultrasound the next morning confirmed I did indeed have gallstones. I was told I could go home and would be contacted soon by a surgeon who would assess me and likely want to remove my gallbladder. I felt okay as I left (except for being queasy), but by the time I got into a taxi to go home, the pain was returning. It increased throughout the day and I wasn’t able to keep anything down - including the morphine they’d prescribed me. I ended up back in Emerg the next morning, where they did another ultrasound and then admitted me.

Long story short(er): besides the gallstones, I also had jaundice and pancreatitis, so they decided to keep me so they could manage my pain (I was at a level 8 or 9 by the time they admitted me), give me antibiotics, monitor my blood work, and prepare me for surgery. In the week leading up to my surgery, I had an MRI (not gonna lie, I’m still traumatized by that), and a procedure where they put me under and basically shoved the gallstones back into my gallbladder. They removed my gallbladder two days later, and I was sent home the next day after being in the hospital for a total of nine days. I spent the next six-ish weeks recovering.

This whole thing was obviously physically trying, but it was the emotional aspect that’s had a lasting effect. This was the hospital where my dad spent countless days and weeks while he was dying of cancer in the early 90s. This was the hospital where my Grama died eight years ago. There have been good things there too - all four of my brother’s children were born there, and I was present for my youngest nephew’s birth. But that hospital stirs up a lot of stuff for me. Then there was the fact the elderly woman in the bed next to me was dying. Her family was there pretty much 24/7, which made resting difficult. The constant noise (they made no effort whatsoever to be quiet, day or night) added to my stress, but somewhere along the way, this ragtag group of people adopted me and my mum and we became this strange little family in the span of a few days. I listened to them say their goodbyes over and over, pray over her with ministers, tell her they loved her, share stories and memories, all while quietly crying from my side of the privacy curtain. Being attached to an IV and being weak from not eating (I was on a liquid diet my entire stay because they were never sure when I might have surgery) meant I was stuck in my room a lot of the time, so I was an unwilling witness - and at times participant - to this family’s final goodbyes.

It stirred up so many emotions over my own beloved Grama’s death. It set off a chain of events that would lead to me feeling like I was in mourning all over again, even though it’s been eight years since she died. That whole experience changed me in many ways. I don’t want to sound dramatic, but I feel like I dealt with mild PTSD in the following months. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t think of anything other than my hospital stay. I’d replay it all over and over in my mind. I’d have strange, vivid dreams, and wake up thinking I was still in the hospital. Despite all of that, I was honestly amazed by my own strength. I managed to stay calm throughout my whole stay and all the various procedures and tests, plus the emotional trauma. My best friend Krista came to visit me one night and when she took my mum home, she told her how surprised and proud she was at how calm and collected I was. Having known me for thirty years, I think she probably expected me to be a blubbering mess, but I guess all that yoga, meditation and inner work I’d been doing earlier in the year really paid off!

The whole experience was also a really interesting and enlightening reminder of who my true friends are. Krista checked in with me every single day (which you might expect since we're lifelong best friends, but we don't normally talk daily), as did my amazing friend Jaimie who lives in Wales, and another friend who lives on the West Coast. A few other friends checked in regularly during and after the whole ordeal, and the people who didn’t bother to check in, despite knowing what was going on, confirmed things I already knew about how important our friendship was to them. That was further compounded by the other low point in 2019…

Just a few weeks after my surgery, my mum’s only sister lost her long, brave battle with cancer. We knew she was terminal and it was only a matter of time, but she suffered so much. It was agony watching my mum’s anticipatory grief, knowing what was coming, and then the full-on grief of actually losing my aunt. The visitation and funeral - which were an incredible tribute to my aunt, with hundreds and hundreds of people attending - were like a nightmare for my family. My aunt’s death also continued to stir up that shallowly-buried grief over my Grama.

Even the greatest high of my year had an undertone of deep sadness. My amazing best friend decided it was time to buy a house and she did exactly that. She said she’d need to get a roommate in the fall to help with expenses, and we joked about me living with her for part of the summer as a trial run since she’d lived alone for so long. The joking soon turned serious, and I ended up living with Krista in her brand new house for six wonderful weeks this summer. It was an incredible experience; Kingston is my favourite city and, I mean, who doesn’t dream of living with their lifelong best friend at some point? The whole thing was an exercise in me stepping outside my comfort zone over and over in big ways and small. We did so many fun things together, including a Harry Potter photoshoot at Queen’s University, a visit to a brewery, fun days with her family, hikes, plus we ate lots of amazing food (I tried sushi for the first time and loved it).

But...during the six weeks I was there, Krista’s grandmother was diagnosed with cancer, went into the hospital, and died. You hear of it happening quickly for some people, but to actually have it happen within your own family was shocking and heartbreaking. One minute they were talking about a course of treatment, and the next she was in the hospital, not expected to survive. Adding to the difficulty: the fact Krista’s grandma lived four hours away so it wasn't easy to just pop up for visits. Now here’s the funny thing (obviously not funny-haha): I was originally only supposed to stay for a month. One day Krista randomly said I could stay longer if I wanted to, and in that moment, I knew there was a reason for me to stay. I was sure of it. Turns out that reason was that Krista had to leave several times to go visit her grandmother, and then she was gone for a few days for the funeral, so I stayed to look after the house and the cats. Krista provides foster care for the local animal rescue, and during the summer she had her own three cats, plus a mama and four babies. Two of the kittens weren’t well when Krista had to leave for the funeral, so I was there to take care of them. I was also there as emotional support for Krista, who would otherwise have had to deal with all of this largely on her own.

But that took me right back to having my own Grama ‘issues’ stirred up. I tried so hard to be strong for Krista (and for her mother when she came to visit us), but I would break down anytime we talked about her grandma. I’m one of those people whose emotions are always very close to the surface and I cry at the drop of a hat, so it was difficult to keep it together, even though I wanted so badly to be strong for Krista. We’ve been friends for thirty years, and I feel like this year cemented our friendship in so many ways. We spent those six weeks together, I visited her again in November for a few days, and she came to spend Christmas Eve with my family, which was absolutely amazing. I’m so, so incredibly grateful to have such an incredible friend.

Writing career highlights:

In the spring, I finished writing my contemporary romance, Maybe You, and published it in June. I also pulled out an old manuscript that I finished writing two years ago and revised it for publication. Hung Up on You will be hitting e-readers worldwide on January 14th, 2020! I’m so excited to share this story with fellow romance lovers. I’ve also dabbled in a few other projects throughout the year and have a good start on my writing for next year.

Back to the '90s

One of the other highlights of my year was attending a '90s Nostalgia concert in the Toronto area this summer. The line-up included S Club Party (formerly S Club 7, who I was obsessed with for years and still listen to regularly), Aqua, Vengaboys, Right Said Fred, and Prozzak. It was co-hosted by Rick "The Temp" Campanelli, who I grew up watching on Much Music. The whole thing was incredible and was just the balm my '90s-loving heart needed. You can see pictures and videos by visiting my Instagram account (@rambling_daydreamer) and clicking on the highlight called '90s Party.

That's a wrap

Honestly, in a lot of ways this year made me feel like I was being tested. I’ve definitely had worse years and despite everything that happened, I wouldn’t even say this year was bad, just emotional and trying. When I think back to the beginning of the year, I feel like a different person now. I’m stronger, smarter, and more confident. I’m more willing to step outside my comfort zone, and I’m learning to go with the flow more since life has a way of making you veer off the expected course. I was going to share my goals for 2020 in this post, but considering it’s already novel-length (I’m sorry! And thank you, sincerely, if you've made it this far), I guess that’ll have to wait until my next post.

How was 2019 for you? What were some of the highlights? Or the lows, if you're comfortable sharing?

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Previous Yearly Recaps:
☆2018: A Year in Review
☆2017: A Year in Review
☆2016: A Year in Review
☆Looking Back on 2015
☆Reflecting on 2014 and Looking at the Year Ahead 
☆2012: A Year in Review
☆2010: A Year in Review