17 days

After a long day at work it's nice to come home and just kick up your heels.  It's also nice to chat on the phone with somebody you like...

I'm so excited for Christmas!  I've only bought one present so far (ewps) but I have a feeling I'll come across a day (Lord willing, soon) where I feel completely motivated and get a good chunk of it done.  The most difficult thing is narrowing it down to one thing that you really want to get someone- that's all the budget allows.  Roommate and I decided to get a Christmas tree (I know it's kind of late, but better late than never) so I bought some decorations at Zellers that were cheap as borscht at $2.99 for a box of 12- and they're actually pretty classy.  Good job Zellers.  I also can't wait to stuff my face with apricot oatmeal cookies....(mom, can you make some?).

What else is nice?  Pay day Fridays.

*Christmas Countdown: 17 days*

sick day

Yesterday I took a very rare sick day.

Somehow I seemed to contract a stomach flu bug and it hit out of nowhere.  Let's just say nothing stayed down in my stomach and I was flat out in bed every single moment of my day yesterday other than making the trips to ease my stomach pain and nausea.  I guess the picture above of tea isn't relative to yesterday- there's no way I could have had tea, other than water and a little apple juice, I ate a total of 9 soda crackers and 6 Pepto Bismol.

Hadn't been sick like this in 5 years!

But I am feeling a whole lot better today, I can actually stand up without fear of a sprint to find a bin- must've been a 24 hour thing.  I hope none of you pick it up!  Today I guess I can watch some tv shows/movies/read to pass the day unlike yesterday- there was no hope of me doing any of those without making the belly churn.

Time to start gaining back some strength, on the menu: toast.

black friday off

Today is Black Friday for our American neighbours and Canadians were preparing to create a similar situation for our retail stores here.  Fortunately, I have the day off!

So I've spent most of my morning browsing tumblrs and as I was checking mine, I was updated with a fact that someone I don't know actually re-posted a photograph I had taken that I'd posted on my tumblr!  For any average tumblr person with many followers, this might be a regular occurrence.  For me, however, I was kind of excited!  Means I've created something that's worthy of space on another persons private domain (some of these 'domains' are so incredibly creative, I'm in awe).  For those unfamiliar with tumblr, it's simply a place where you can share either photos, quotes, etc, that inspire you or just appeal to you-  you can either post things from your own personal collection or re-post things from other people's tumblrs.

Also appears that I am getting readers from a broader spectrum than my inner group of friends or family here on this blog as well!  So thanks to those who actually read this!

Anyway, once I decide to put myself together for the day, I'm going to go and visit my cousin who just had her little baby girl, Chloe, a week ago; I haven't yet met the little munchkin.
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Exactly one month until Christmas!!

It's winter.

My roommate and I had done pretty good with not turning on the heat in our house due to our heated kitchen floor which kept our toesies warm enough.  However, the night that it snowed enough for us to have a more permanent blanket of snow on the ground (aka, shovels were brought out), the temperature in the house dropped to 11c...that was enough for me to cave.  Especially when my nose felt like it had been subjected to an evening in the fridge.  I've been wearing my wool socks from Peggy's Cove on a daily basis.

And now that the snow seems to be more permanent, I've looked at how many weeks there are til Christmas: 4 weeks!  Looks like it's the perfect time of the year to watch my favourite movie Love Actually.  And I also happened to stumble upon a box of new Christmas mini-lights in one of my boxes- those will add to the warmth and coziness of my little cabin-like home!

fresh bread

 

One of my favourite smells is freshly baked bread!

I decided to throw the ingredients into the bread machine before I left for my basketball game.  It smelled so good when I got home; it's so welcoming opening the door to the warmth and smell of that freshly baked goodness.

Don't hate because I documented bread...

It also snowed all last night so we've got a layer of white outside.  What's keeping me "okay" with it is this homemade-bread toast with homemade jam and some Christmas music playing.

fake english

You're sitting in a coffee shop and you hear a couple beside you rattling off in some other language and you have no blessed idea what they're saying.  I had a Korean roommate one year in college; you can imagine the (often humorous) barriers...  I've always found it so interesting to think that those weird sounds they're making actually make sense to the other person.  Sometimes a language difference can cause you to think the person is less educated (it's shallow, but don't deny it, it happens).

So I've always wondered what we, as English speakers, must sound like to foreigners.

This gives me an idea.

i like change

Do you ever get that feeling of realizing that you've changed?

People are constantly going through changes in their lives and I think everyone, at least I do, has a moment where they actually realize a significant change from a moment in their lives til the present- and it doesn't even have to be a great time lapse to get those changes.

I'm not talking too in depth about anything in particular, but I was thinking as I was driving home tonight (darkness outside, a misty atmosphere, and being el solo in the car are a perfect setup for think time) about my thoughts on a certain subject (can't remember the exact subject at the moment) and how they've changed from only a few short months ago.

Some might attribute it to growing up or the crowd you hang out with, but whatever the case, I kinda like it.  Crazy changes like moving to a new country might be a little dramatic, but changes in what you think about something are little exhilarating.  Maybe that word's a little too strong, but sometimes people get caught up living life day in/day out without ever exploring or allowing themselves to gain a new perspective on something.  I know I get pretty unsettled with that.  And sometimes your mindset has changed without you ever realizing it was happening until a random moment- like an epiphany (sometimes a really lame small one, but none-the-less...).

Sometimes you only have that angle of thought for a short period of time until you get a new perspective...but the cycle can continue.
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Weird how I haven't really been a committed blogger for awhile and I come up with that...

more east coast

More shots of my trip to the East Coast this past August/September.

I've been so busy!  I was frantic trying to find a replacement tenant for my old place before I had to pay October rent.  Yes, I've moved!  But only down the road.

The week prior to this one I was busy with job interviews at a few places; in one instance, I had two interviews for one place.  I ended up taking that one particular job and filled out the paperwork on the very same day that I found a replacement tenant for my old house!

No need to worry about paying rent at two places and finally finding employment so that I'm not nearing the big goose egg in the bank account anymore!  Can you imagine the weight off my shoulders?!

So I started my new job the very next day after I willed out the paperwork and worked evening shifts for the next three days.  Having been off work for a significant period of time, it was a bit of an adjustment being back on my feet all day and having to actually look presentable for a good portion of the day.

I now how the weekend off to attend a friends wedding in Winkler (congrats Janelle & Ryan!) today and be with my family and my guy for Thanksgiving!!  I absolutely love Thanksgiving with all my heart.  I love the food, the pie, the fellowship (of the rings), the fall-ness, and I really love that it's a day that can hold me accountable to be thankful for all that I've been blessed with.  Having had a difficult summer, it was easy to focus on the negative and allow stress to overwhelm me, but I always had things to be thankful for.  Of course I should focus on those blessings more than for one day or weekend, but in reality, it doesn't always happen.  So, one thing I'm thankful for is that there is a day out there specifically created to get my out of my own head.

Now go drink & be merry!

Happy Thanksgiving!