It'll all snow over
I very randomly bought this little journal when I was shopping online the other night. It's a five year book, with a date and question on each page and then five spaces underneath. You're supposed to answer the same question on the same day every year for five years. Five years seems a bit like an eternity, but if I can actually remember to do it every day I think it will be pretty interesting to see how my answers change - or don't change. I'd like to start writing, or at least doing some sort of entries, in a physical journal again. I have a whole freaking box of journals in my parents basement, I've journalled ever since I was a kid. A lot of them are incredibly boring, some are on the embarassing side, but there are a few that are pretty cool, mostly the ones where I spent some time adding quotes or pictures or ticket stubs or whatever was getting me through my days at that point. And it's THAT that I want to do again. Although first I should probably finish chronicaling my travels as I've got piles of random travel stuff just sitting in a pile here beside me....
My office needs a major tidying. All my other areas and things are neat and organized, but for some reason this room never really got properly unpacked and set up when I moved back in, nearly two years ago. I don't know why I can't seem to get around it. I think at first it was this sense of, if I get it all put together then that makes things really permanent. Although I'm over that now, and I think it's just a bit overwhelming as it will take a lot of time and effort to get it in the state I want it to be in. Plus, I'm a little afraid that if I start "organizing" I won't be able to find anything!! Ha.
Along the lines of journaling and handwriting, I've decided that 2013 is going to be the year of the Snail Mail. I want to send a birthday card to each of my cousins (on my Mom's side), and also a card of some sort at some point to my closest or favourite or oldest friends. I think it'll be fun, and perhaps challenging, but hopefully rewarding.
I'm reminded again and again just how much people enjoy a little attention. Even just emailing/messaging people to get their addresses has been fun, as a lot of friends have responded quickly and with great enthusiasm and appreciation. Every once in awhile I kind of wish that other people would be the ones to reach out to me, but I've learned that if I want to have caring people in my life, I need to show them I care.
Other odds and ends:
My online shopping has gotten a tad bit out of control. I'm not sure what's going on, but I've been a hard core spontaneous purchaser of all kinds of goods lately. One item was LaVanila's Vanilla Passionfrui perfume. I wanted to order this makeup that was recommended, but I needed some more $$ for free shipping, so I perused the site until I found that perfume, then added it to my order. I'm picky about my scents, I get headaches from normal perfume and a lot of things just don't smell right on me. So it was totally a gamble. When I first sprayed the perfume on, after receiving it, I really wasn't sure what to make of it. But I wore it every day last week, and I kept getting compliments on it, and by the end of the week I'd decided that I loved it. Love love loved it. Strange. But somehow exciting. (wow, is this what my life has come to? Excitement about perfume I've been wearing for a week?!)
Definitely adding to my online shopping addiction is this site that my friend Emily introduced me to when I was up in Cold Lake with her. www.HauteLook.com It has an app as well, and I've started shopping in bed at night for like an hour before I go to sleep. Dangerous. It's a shopping site (obviously) that has new brands every couple of days, and limited quantities and times for the items they're offering. It probably would be extra exciting if I was a fashionista and knew what any of the brands were, because they'll have like $300 jeans on for $110. I'm still like, "$110 for jeans?!" but if I knew what I was looking at I bet I'd be floored. Mostly I just look through for cute, cheap items that I don't have to go to the mall for. I've received two orders in the mail already, and all three items have been a perfect fit and really nice. Score. Check it out!! But don't say I didn't warn you....
Yesterday Quinny was so freaking cute I thought I might die. I had some time to kill in the afternoon before work, so I sat on the couch to indulge in an episode of Mad Men. She jumped right up and positioned herself on my lap. She VERY rarely is a lap cuddler, it's just not really her thing, so I was pretty surprised. I was even more surprised that she stayed there for over an hour and a half!! It was oh so nice and I didn't want to move. Later that night when I got home from work, she got all mad at me because I wouldn't feed her at 12:45 am, so she got all combative and petulant, going so far as to jump into the air in front of me with her paws all splayed out, making her look like a starfish. I'm sure she thought she was being really intimidating, but in reality it was hilarious. Funny kitty. I ordered her a couple of Christmas sweaters, and I'm ridiculously excited to wrangle her into them and then photograph the crap out of it!!! Oh come on, as if a kitty in a sweater isn't HILARIOUS and AWESOME. She hasn't completely demolished the Christmas tree, so I'm hopeful that the sweaters will be a success.
Our Nica trip is pretty much fully planned out and organized, which makes me somewhat pouty - I like to have some flexibility and spontaneity on vacation, but it was just so busy at this time of year and we wanted to make sure we'd get to do and see all the things that were on our list. I'm sure it will be great. (It had better be, as it's turning out to be much more expensive than I'd anticipated.) I'm mostly excited to stay at and check out an organic coffee estate. I've seen jungles and monkeys and beaches galore, so I'm really stoked to see something new. I'm also hoping to stay at this ecological, self-sustaining permaculture farm. It's all walls made of discarded bottles and sun-warmed showers and hippies everywhere... it sounds amazing.
Speaking of amazing, this girl Jade and I met at the massage school in Chiang Mai has this company where she and her husband go all over the world, teaching communities about good food and how to cook. Food and travel - my dream!! They were doing some training program thing, which I should really check out. Who knows where it might lead, right?
On that note..
My office needs a major tidying. All my other areas and things are neat and organized, but for some reason this room never really got properly unpacked and set up when I moved back in, nearly two years ago. I don't know why I can't seem to get around it. I think at first it was this sense of, if I get it all put together then that makes things really permanent. Although I'm over that now, and I think it's just a bit overwhelming as it will take a lot of time and effort to get it in the state I want it to be in. Plus, I'm a little afraid that if I start "organizing" I won't be able to find anything!! Ha.
Along the lines of journaling and handwriting, I've decided that 2013 is going to be the year of the Snail Mail. I want to send a birthday card to each of my cousins (on my Mom's side), and also a card of some sort at some point to my closest or favourite or oldest friends. I think it'll be fun, and perhaps challenging, but hopefully rewarding.
I'm reminded again and again just how much people enjoy a little attention. Even just emailing/messaging people to get their addresses has been fun, as a lot of friends have responded quickly and with great enthusiasm and appreciation. Every once in awhile I kind of wish that other people would be the ones to reach out to me, but I've learned that if I want to have caring people in my life, I need to show them I care.
Other odds and ends:
My online shopping has gotten a tad bit out of control. I'm not sure what's going on, but I've been a hard core spontaneous purchaser of all kinds of goods lately. One item was LaVanila's Vanilla Passionfrui perfume. I wanted to order this makeup that was recommended, but I needed some more $$ for free shipping, so I perused the site until I found that perfume, then added it to my order. I'm picky about my scents, I get headaches from normal perfume and a lot of things just don't smell right on me. So it was totally a gamble. When I first sprayed the perfume on, after receiving it, I really wasn't sure what to make of it. But I wore it every day last week, and I kept getting compliments on it, and by the end of the week I'd decided that I loved it. Love love loved it. Strange. But somehow exciting. (wow, is this what my life has come to? Excitement about perfume I've been wearing for a week?!)
Definitely adding to my online shopping addiction is this site that my friend Emily introduced me to when I was up in Cold Lake with her. www.HauteLook.com It has an app as well, and I've started shopping in bed at night for like an hour before I go to sleep. Dangerous. It's a shopping site (obviously) that has new brands every couple of days, and limited quantities and times for the items they're offering. It probably would be extra exciting if I was a fashionista and knew what any of the brands were, because they'll have like $300 jeans on for $110. I'm still like, "$110 for jeans?!" but if I knew what I was looking at I bet I'd be floored. Mostly I just look through for cute, cheap items that I don't have to go to the mall for. I've received two orders in the mail already, and all three items have been a perfect fit and really nice. Score. Check it out!! But don't say I didn't warn you....
Yesterday Quinny was so freaking cute I thought I might die. I had some time to kill in the afternoon before work, so I sat on the couch to indulge in an episode of Mad Men. She jumped right up and positioned herself on my lap. She VERY rarely is a lap cuddler, it's just not really her thing, so I was pretty surprised. I was even more surprised that she stayed there for over an hour and a half!! It was oh so nice and I didn't want to move. Later that night when I got home from work, she got all mad at me because I wouldn't feed her at 12:45 am, so she got all combative and petulant, going so far as to jump into the air in front of me with her paws all splayed out, making her look like a starfish. I'm sure she thought she was being really intimidating, but in reality it was hilarious. Funny kitty. I ordered her a couple of Christmas sweaters, and I'm ridiculously excited to wrangle her into them and then photograph the crap out of it!!! Oh come on, as if a kitty in a sweater isn't HILARIOUS and AWESOME. She hasn't completely demolished the Christmas tree, so I'm hopeful that the sweaters will be a success.
Our Nica trip is pretty much fully planned out and organized, which makes me somewhat pouty - I like to have some flexibility and spontaneity on vacation, but it was just so busy at this time of year and we wanted to make sure we'd get to do and see all the things that were on our list. I'm sure it will be great. (It had better be, as it's turning out to be much more expensive than I'd anticipated.) I'm mostly excited to stay at and check out an organic coffee estate. I've seen jungles and monkeys and beaches galore, so I'm really stoked to see something new. I'm also hoping to stay at this ecological, self-sustaining permaculture farm. It's all walls made of discarded bottles and sun-warmed showers and hippies everywhere... it sounds amazing.
Speaking of amazing, this girl Jade and I met at the massage school in Chiang Mai has this company where she and her husband go all over the world, teaching communities about good food and how to cook. Food and travel - my dream!! They were doing some training program thing, which I should really check out. Who knows where it might lead, right?
On that note..