jenna rose pillow, $60
andrea rund carpet {ikea}, $299
wall decal, $18
last night was a very late night, followed by an early morning. and i felt as though something was missing. i was looking through mouse's blog {currently occupied by the lovely amanda} and came across some eddie izzard, who might be my favourite comedian of all time. and it broke it. i have had this serious, i have to do everything right, and right away atmosphere hanging over me for the past week, and eddie broke it. thank god!
i had been neglecting laughter, and smiles, and beautiful things. pretty things. yes, eddie izzard is pretty.
i was searching through my bag for my lunch, and found to my shock and dismay, my engagement ring. i thought it had been on my bedside table all this week, but not that i think about it more, it was actually in my bag, from the gym, which i finally had with me again today {something else that i have been neglecting}.
i picked up the ring, held it, examined it, and promised it not to forget about it for a very, very long time {i'm at the point where i don't feel anymore naked with or without it...}
anyway, i'm back. i promise. at least for a little while.
image waleed
“Success is never final. Failure is never fatal."
i'm sitting in the library, where i should arguably be reading on rock and roll as a cultural practice. however, it's been a sort of a bitch of a day. but, only because i'm allowing it to be. the train was forty-five minutes late, i happened to try to do all my errands over lunch, forgetting that the rest of the world eats around then to, and it turns out my application for graduate scholarships failed.
given that the application was a yes or no sort of deal, and that the scholarship was in the neighbourhood of 10K per year, it feels a bit epic on the fail scale. but, failure is an event. not a person. and i should arguably be celebrating the opportunity to create more debt for myself {debt, which will be paid off much sooner than most, because it will nonetheless be on the small side}. as unfortunate as it is.
i now return to my regularly schedule program of reading, wrting and editing in such a fierce way one would think that i were a monkey at a type-writer.
i promise, that this blog will become more wonderful in the coming weeks.
i have but one exam this term, my final exam, of undergraduate school. it's tomorrow {today} at nine a.m. go figure, one exam and it's a saturday morning.
the topic is easy. introduction to canadian studies. and the exam is only worth 35%, a fraction of a half-credit course. and i'm doing quite well in the other 65% of the course. it's not that i don't want to do well in the exam, because i do. but between my sizeable term paper on bowie, and the end of my government contract, i have had more on my plate than was manageable.
so, here i sit at three a.m., some six hours before my exam, contemplating the last four years of studying, and exploring. reminiscing before it's over. a girl i had courses with will leave for her first full-time job in the north tomorrow. and, i of course, am cramming for this exam. except not really.
because if university has taught me one thing, it that knowledge is power, but being quick off the draw in acting on that knowledge is possible more important.
right now, however, all i can think is "man, when i lived in residence, i could get upten minutes before my exam and stroll into the room in pyjamas". but for the part where i never did that.
|image vermontferret |
found. one very lovely, well-priced dress, unique and ideal for the following:
hurray. now, if only they can special order my size!
the more i thought about all of this, the more i realized the importance to me, of being practical. and yet, being fun. but not too frivolous. also, for the record, captions marked with an asterik will be used in our wedding. as in, this is what this puppy is going to look like. {which only raises the question what the whole day will smell, sounds and taste like!}
from top left...
perhaps, it's just me. but a four day weekend lends to a lot of time in social butterfly mode. as much as i truly love my family and friends, at this junction i feel a bit like being a hermit.
which, for the blogging world is great, because i do my bestest blogging when i'm feeling antisocial.
this weekend never wanted to end. and in someways, i think i was glad for that.
i took so many pictures, did so many things. ate so much chocolate. i relaxed. i slept. i watched back to the future with my niece. i ate more chocolate. i played tag. i fell down the slide and smacked my shin, leaving a huge bruise. but i did not cry. i read and a wrote, and i was read to. i baked. and i cooked. and i shopped. and i spent time with some family and some friends.
it was my favourite things amplified. this is sort of what i want our wedding to be like. and yes, if you tag my on my wedding day, i will run after you. which is precisely why i'm not wearing heels.
om nom nom.
i was looking through glam rock music libraries tonight, as i so often do on sunday nights {actually, i'm presenting a working draft of my paper tomorrow}, and came across this character, mr. lou reed. did i know who he was? nope. why not? i'm not sure.
needless to say, i thought velvet underground sucked on principle about two years ago. and then juno came out last year. and then i fell in love. and only now do i realize that this guy is this cool.
on an unrelated note, i decided last night that leonard cohen sounds exactly like my uncle. exactly. bar none.
flipping through the big silver box tonight, looking for news coverage on korea, and i came across this. i have far too much work to do to actually sit and watch it, but the cinematography has me sold, and that alec baldwin and susan sarandon are in it...well, i'm going to have an evening to myself {and maybe some girlfriends} with this movie and some wine.
my 100th post. not much of a surprise, i guess, but nonetheless a bit of a milestone for me--the type of girl who is non-committal to blogging, for the most part.
intially, today was meant to be a very hectic, yet boring saturday with studying and working out, and not much else. however, my day got sidetracked into an even-more-hectic-albeit-much-more-interesting day.
last night, i told andrew--after mini-golfing--that i was going to sleep-in, go to the gym, bake, and do school work all before five pm. he did not believe me, and i thought twice about my goals when i woke up from my deep, deep slumber this morning. i figured, going to the gym and doing school work would be enough {plus i'd already slept in}.
so, i hopped the train in the wet, mucky weather, undressed of course, to the library at campus, where i hunted high and low for books for all of three hours. my arms loaded, i then made my way to the gym, and worked out. for an hour and a half. wheeeee. please note, that at this time i had consumed all of a coffee and a small bowl of cereal. stress = energy.
i left the gym at three and there was a message on my phone, from andrew and our friend rainer saying that we were invited to friends' for dinner and perhaps we ought to bring dessert. i called andrew back, and made note that they'd be home in two hours and i had to shower and perhaps we best just pick something up.
well, my dears... i walked by a stand selling luscious bright red strawberries. and i will grant you that they looked tasteless in their plastic packaging from california. but what with the weather being dreary and my wanting spring, i decided right then and there, after consulting my blackberry {to make sure we had everything else} to make rachel's strawberry shortcake for dessert.
so, i grabbed what i needed and rushed home.
was it easy like she said it would be? yes
was it tasted like she said it would be? yes*
was everyone pleased?oh, you bet
not to mention, i was able to achieve that final task that i wanted to do today. by five pm no less.
*i would argue that it was even easier, because in the time span of one half-hour, i made everything and i showered. snap.
|photo from rachel, because it all happened far too fast for me to capture on film|
silver mobile, $58
cupcake stand {i'm a sucker for these}, $44
every thursday, andrew plays ultimate {i play wednesdays}. every thursday, i get to chill out and eat whatever i want for dinner, and do whatever i want in the evening.
there is a long list of foods that andrew won't eat {fish, olives, melon} for various reasons, so thursdays are a great day for me to make/eat foods that i don't otherwise get. tonight, that meant a little bit of olive and a bit of melon into a tasty stirfry.
stirfry of random no-recipe goodness
per person
cook the sausage in the olive oil until juicy and cooked through {3 minutes). add the broccoli and about 1/8 cup of water and continue frying. boil the water for your rice at this point. once the water has come to a boil, add the rice, stir and cover. set the timer for about 12 minutes. meanwhile, add the honeydew melon and sliced olives, as well as the soya sauce, rice vinegar and cumin. once the rice is soft and creamy, add it to the sausage/broccoli mixture and stir to coat.
served with sapporo beer.
om nom nom.
under eating, i have recipes, restaurants, and blogs, under recipes i have "wedding menu", "baked goods" and "mains". under entertainment i have a whole variety of subfolders, ranging from "museums" to "photography". shopping includes "online stores", "real stores" and "indie artists" as well as "wedding registry" for the time being.
this is part of why i love opera and safari, they are very user-friendly things for organizing your internets. at work, we use internet explorer. and usually the things i save at work as favourites are recipes, and blog posts that i want to export after my contract is over. that said, my favourites sidebar is becoming crowded with beautiful posts like this that i want to remember for the wedding.
how do you organize your links?
i have been forever spoiled {up until last october}. and i have ever frittered away my money, left, right, centre, and behind me in some cases.
i looked in my bank account yesterday and gulped. and then i freaked out. and then i realized that i am far from practical with my money, and that i don't fritter away my money on magazines and drinks as much as i used to {good}, but rather on housewares and clothes and other slightly larger purchases {bad}.
i admire rachel for not shopping for eleven whole weeks. i could not do that. but, i am going to be very strict with my money from now on. and very aware of my purchases.
my debit card, ladies and gentlemen, is not leaving the house unless it is for the express purpose of either taking out money, or making a planned purchase. i will take out a certain amount of money, and subsist on that for a week. and if i go broke before, oh well. too effing bad. i can't keep relying on my overdraft. i could. but i refuse to.
new rules to spend by...
i spent the morning on macy's website. why canada does not have a macy's is beyond me. i will in fact be making every effort to stop there when i go to new york. anyway, i have it narrowed down to four, which are below...
top left: martha stewart by wedgwood
