Happy anniversary to me! 
It's a year since I became an SG!
Secret Garden went live one year ago today. And the things I've, the people I've met, the places I've been since then, I couldn't have imagined how much of my life could be shaped or influenced by one li'l (OK big) web site.
And now I get to write a fun retrospective journal about my first year on the site.
First let's backtrack a few months to mid-August 2008 when I shot my first set with Shazzy and joined SG. I had little idea what I was doing aside from doing something I'd been wanting to do for a few years, I was staying up late for no reason other than to read all the threads I could and figure out this SG thing, and I was beginning to make some wonderful friends... Especially Delancey, whose first set came out about the same time as mine, went pink shortly before mine, and with whom I discovered the beauty of Skype!
(If you want to read or re-read my funny entry about turning pink right after a cavity filling or whatever and still high on dental drugs, go here.)
After about a month and a half in MR, up went Secret Garden to the front page on 14 November. The whole process was really exciting and I was running around really giddy those days... My friends thought it was pretty cool and my roommate was SO kind and put up with my talking about SG all the freaking time.
Around that time Delancey and I were planning a New York trip for me, a much-needed vacation in mid-December. I flew down almost exactly ten years after the first time I went to NYC and had some of the best eight days of 2008! Delancey and I had a lot of laughs thinking about how strange it could seem (to some) that we were relative strangers who'd met on a web site all about boobs.
Customs thought it was interesting... I hadn't flown internationally for a while so I forgot about that whole "knowing your destination address" thing. And how they grill you about the people you're staying with. Apparently, "Umm... Delancey lives in Brooklyn, I don't know her last name actually..." isn't a very good answer. Oh well! Life lesson learned. And in the end he let me through with just a phone number and a bit of a lecture. Fun was had!
New year!!
In January Shazzy and I shot Asana, which was a total joy to shoot. I miss my Montreal yoga studio... Ah well. I'd really hoped that set would go live, but it didn't. I probably won't ever take it down though because it really meant a lot to me and I still love it!
That's good enough for me I guess!
In February Agy and Mneylu came to Montreal for a few days and we drank loads of alcohol and had many hours of fun girl time. (Thank goodness the video of that never surfaced! ...and yes, I had to go back and read my old journal entries to find when this happened and only then read about and remembered something vague about recording...
Later in the month I went down to Toronto and we had some more good times there. The next month Mneylu came back to Montreal at the same time as Fatality was up visiting. These lovely ladies certainly helped me survive a long, hard winter and long, hard last semester of school!
At the end of March Shazzy and I shot The Red Shoes, which has since been taken down. I was really, really excited about that set, but when it went to MR it was a total bomb with comments. You win some, you lose some, right? Looking back there were aspects of the set I felt I got so right but I might've done some other things differently. It sure was a blast to shoot, though! We took over a boutique around the corner from where I lived one Monday morning (it was closed), drank a bottle of red wine, Shazzy did some shopping, we played with a stray kitty they'd taken in until they could find a home. Pretty sweet morning!
In April I passed all my exams and graduated with a BA in geography! Holy hell I was so relieved...
In June Shazzy and I shot For Girls. This one's interesting because I got a ton of "lose the cigarette" comments and yet no one told me to stop kissing serial killers. What's up with that? You mean you approve of my relations with Mr. Dahmer?
At the end of June I left Montreal for the Bay Area, which was so exciting and awesome! I arrived just in time for San Francisco Pride festival partying with sarahg, kcaHack, ThrottleBitch, vegemite, and others, and giggly Haight wandering with Machete.
Right after that, on my birthday, I moved in with Rambo! We had an amazing summer and so many laughs. And I miss her kitty!
One of my favourite memories from the summer is when Rambo, Rockezi and I drove down to LA for a weekend of pool partying and fabric shopping. FUN!! I fell in love with LA and can't wait to go back... don't know when I'll have the cash to go again, but as soon as I can... I met so many other SGs that weekend, sean and Evette were our kind hosts, Rigel makes awesome cinnamon buns, and I got to ride around Hollywood in a 1960s-I-think (so not good with cars) Camaro with Reagan! Funny enough, I met another Canadian SG down in the city of angels, Shaddix, who put up with my metro needs and being amazed at how ridiculous and ridiculously ornate the Scientology Celebrity Centre is. And she wasn't the only Canadian I met in California! A few weeks later Friskey and her brother stopped in on us back in the Bay Area while they were on their summer roadtrip. That same night, Brooklyn and Machete were in town. Did we have a party? You bet we did!
I MISS California... but I am happy to be in BC!
In September I went back to Montreal and made it in time to spend a day at the Montreal Art Tattoo Convention with a few other lovely ladies! I missed them. Now I miss them!
After that I went to Toronto to visit family and do this:
It was SO hard keeping quiet about that set and ensuring it would be a surprise on Halloween!! (OK, so I told my Montreal roommate and showed her the photos, but only because she'd always gotten to see my sets as soon as I did and that was tradition.) SO MUCH FUN to shoot! Shazzy worked her ass of running around trying to coordinate that many girls busy playing with fake blood on boobs.
OK so rapidly changing gears here... I start a new waitressing job today, wish me luck! Working both the lunch and shifts, I suppose provided the lunch shift doesn't go disastrously.
Whew, can't wait to see what happens in the next year!
Happy weekend!
♥ yulia
Maybe in year 2 I'll be able to figure out how to get these #%@%#&!! photos to resize...
It's a year since I became an SG!
Secret Garden went live one year ago today. And the things I've, the people I've met, the places I've been since then, I couldn't have imagined how much of my life could be shaped or influenced by one li'l (OK big) web site.
And now I get to write a fun retrospective journal about my first year on the site.
First let's backtrack a few months to mid-August 2008 when I shot my first set with Shazzy and joined SG. I had little idea what I was doing aside from doing something I'd been wanting to do for a few years, I was staying up late for no reason other than to read all the threads I could and figure out this SG thing, and I was beginning to make some wonderful friends... Especially Delancey, whose first set came out about the same time as mine, went pink shortly before mine, and with whom I discovered the beauty of Skype!
(If you want to read or re-read my funny entry about turning pink right after a cavity filling or whatever and still high on dental drugs, go here.)
After about a month and a half in MR, up went Secret Garden to the front page on 14 November. The whole process was really exciting and I was running around really giddy those days... My friends thought it was pretty cool and my roommate was SO kind and put up with my talking about SG all the freaking time.
Around that time Delancey and I were planning a New York trip for me, a much-needed vacation in mid-December. I flew down almost exactly ten years after the first time I went to NYC and had some of the best eight days of 2008! Delancey and I had a lot of laughs thinking about how strange it could seem (to some) that we were relative strangers who'd met on a web site all about boobs.
Customs thought it was interesting... I hadn't flown internationally for a while so I forgot about that whole "knowing your destination address" thing. And how they grill you about the people you're staying with. Apparently, "Umm... Delancey lives in Brooklyn, I don't know her last name actually..." isn't a very good answer. Oh well! Life lesson learned. And in the end he let me through with just a phone number and a bit of a lecture. Fun was had!New year!!
In January Shazzy and I shot Asana, which was a total joy to shoot. I miss my Montreal yoga studio... Ah well. I'd really hoped that set would go live, but it didn't. I probably won't ever take it down though because it really meant a lot to me and I still love it!
That's good enough for me I guess!In February Agy and Mneylu came to Montreal for a few days and we drank loads of alcohol and had many hours of fun girl time. (Thank goodness the video of that never surfaced! ...and yes, I had to go back and read my old journal entries to find when this happened and only then read about and remembered something vague about recording...
Later in the month I went down to Toronto and we had some more good times there. The next month Mneylu came back to Montreal at the same time as Fatality was up visiting. These lovely ladies certainly helped me survive a long, hard winter and long, hard last semester of school!At the end of March Shazzy and I shot The Red Shoes, which has since been taken down. I was really, really excited about that set, but when it went to MR it was a total bomb with comments. You win some, you lose some, right?
Looking back there were aspects of the set I felt I got so right but I might've done some other things differently. It sure was a blast to shoot, though! We took over a boutique around the corner from where I lived one Monday morning (it was closed), drank a bottle of red wine, Shazzy did some shopping, we played with a stray kitty they'd taken in until they could find a home. Pretty sweet morning!In April I passed all my exams and graduated with a BA in geography! Holy hell I was so relieved...
In June Shazzy and I shot For Girls. This one's interesting because I got a ton of "lose the cigarette" comments and yet no one told me to stop kissing serial killers. What's up with that? You mean you approve of my relations with Mr. Dahmer?
At the end of June I left Montreal for the Bay Area, which was so exciting and awesome! I arrived just in time for San Francisco Pride festival partying with sarahg, kcaHack, ThrottleBitch, vegemite, and others, and giggly Haight wandering with Machete.
Right after that, on my birthday, I moved in with Rambo! We had an amazing summer and so many laughs. And I miss her kitty!
One of my favourite memories from the summer is when Rambo, Rockezi and I drove down to LA for a weekend of pool partying and fabric shopping. FUN!! I fell in love with LA and can't wait to go back... don't know when I'll have the cash to go again, but as soon as I can... I met so many other SGs that weekend, sean and Evette were our kind hosts, Rigel makes awesome cinnamon buns, and I got to ride around Hollywood in a 1960s-I-think (so not good with cars) Camaro with Reagan! Funny enough, I met another Canadian SG down in the city of angels, Shaddix, who put up with my metro needs and being amazed at how ridiculous and ridiculously ornate the Scientology Celebrity Centre is. And she wasn't the only Canadian I met in California! A few weeks later Friskey and her brother stopped in on us back in the Bay Area while they were on their summer roadtrip. That same night, Brooklyn and Machete were in town. Did we have a party? You bet we did!
I MISS California... but I am happy to be in BC!
In September I went back to Montreal and made it in time to spend a day at the Montreal Art Tattoo Convention with a few other lovely ladies! I missed them. Now I miss them!
After that I went to Toronto to visit family and do this:
It was SO hard keeping quiet about that set and ensuring it would be a surprise on Halloween!! (OK, so I told my Montreal roommate and showed her the photos, but only because she'd always gotten to see my sets as soon as I did and that was tradition.) SO MUCH FUN to shoot! Shazzy worked her ass of running around trying to coordinate that many girls busy playing with fake blood on boobs.
OK so rapidly changing gears here... I start a new waitressing job today, wish me luck! Working both the lunch and shifts, I suppose provided the lunch shift doesn't go disastrously.
Whew, can't wait to see what happens in the next year!
Happy weekend!
♥ yulia
Maybe in year 2 I'll be able to figure out how to get these #%@%#&!! photos to resize...
VIEW 11 of 11 COMMENTS
indiebuddhist:
I do know they lose all the time, I've mentally prepared myself for that. I'm happy other Cdn teams are doing well though.
matter:
happy anniversary!