twenty eight and one month

1 - get enough sleep. this has been all systems go and it was sheer luxury to be able to sleep when and for how long i pleased in the dominican republic. sleep in until 10am? absolutely! have a nap on the beach? why ever not. go to bed at 6 and sleep for 15 hours? done.

2 - buy a home. no progress whatsoever and with impending lay offs left, right, and centre, i am a bit nervous about this. but, i still have 11 months left of 28 to figure this one out.

3 - reduce my level of anxiety. i am kicking anxiety's arse and taking names. all things considered, i am owning the anxiety and making it my own. and by that i mean, things are going really well in this department.

4 - take better photos. i lugged my fancy camera all the way to the caribbean and even bought a new camera lens to replace the one mysteriously lost at a wedding shower, but i took all of one photo with it and instead carried my little digital around with me, which turned out to be much better at snapping the snaps of dance parties, sunglasses named blanche, and me sitting in an enormous piece of pottery.

5 - become financially confident. this is going to be a work in progress...

6 - be happy where i am. this may be a challenge in the coming months. partly because i just read a book set in sudan and my old stomping grounds of kenya (including mentioning my former office) and it got thoughts in my head. nothing too crazy, no plans at the mo, but being settled and happily settled may be difficult.

7 - visit friends who live in other places. still no plans that fit this goal precisely, but the trip to the dominican republic was wonderful and fabulous and all that i could have hoped for, but nothing that i could have expected.

8 - sort out my relationship. done, sorted, over. and if a certain someone shows their face in these parts, he can expect to be strung up with a piano wire by his balls.

and there's more!

my sis' photographer, kristy reimer, has posted more photos of their wedding day!

preoccupied with sickness

i should be writing about how AMAZING my sister's wedding was, how she looked like a princess in her dress, how much fun we had throughout the whole day, and how happy i am that everything worked out perfectly to result in the best wedding ever.

or i could be writing about how excited i am to be going to the caribbean tomorrow to lay on a beach, drink cold beer, and read books all day.

but instead, i am on day three of a sickness that is taking over my life at the moment. fever, congestion, shivers, clammy, achey, coughs, and general ickiness. blah.

sneak preview of the best wedding ever

a few photos can be seen here.

what the photos don't show you is how cold we were!

lazy list writing

i often find other authors who can articulate my own jumbled thoughts into something coherent and interesting. i secretly hope to be one of those such authors myself one day. but until then, i will rely on people like the author of this editorial who captures exactly how i feel (and then some) about the new fad of listing of 25 random things about yourself on your facebook page.

i've been tempted to post a similarly styled list here but am totally resistant to a list of that nature on my facebook page and hadn't really understood why. until now.

not so sweet potato pie

while i wouldn't give it as much praise as other reviewers have, i quite liked the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. it took me one week of train rides commutes to get through it and contrary to my regular opinion on the format, i enjoyed the letters, notes, and telegrams that went back and forth between the characters.

i absolutely adored the main character of Juliet Ashton in all her imagination, idealism, and wit. she travels from post WWII london to the island of guernsey, which had been occupied by the germans during the war. as always, i loved the elements of history in the story and it covered a lot of ground and pieces of the plot without rushing or oversimplifying, which i think was the result of the authors (Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows) choice to use the letter format.

and perhaps i enjoyed the book so much because i do love sending and receiving mail, especially that which comes through the letter box (although my inbox excites me too) and this book allows you into the personal writing and receiving of the various and diverse characters.

need an easy, lighthearted read about the acute effects of the the second world war on a small island in the united kingdom? pick it up!


i also must read more about oscar wilde. read the book and you will see why. (i did kiss his headstone in a cemetary in paris, well pretended to anyways)

nerves of spaghetti

there is a most important wedding coming up this saturday. one in which i am the maid of honour. one in which i need to deliver a toast that i have not yet written. one in which i am sure will be a wonderfully fun time. one that i am rather nervous for!*

all this primping and preparing and planning (and i didn't even need to do most of it!) is making me nervous. more nervous than my sister is, i think. i am feeling overwhelmed with the enormity of this day and how important it is for so many people, including me.

the bride seems to be completely calm, cool, and collected and it is me who is fretting. but my dress is altered, my 3 pairs of tights have been purchased (i am not sure which will be the best colour), my nails have been filled, my pedicure is booked, my wedding gift has been purchased (but not yet wrapped!), my hair has been coloured, my jewelry has been picked out, my coat has been drycleaned, my pearly whites are pearly and white, my shoes have been selected, and my skin has been exfoiliated. so i should be good to go, right?

now, just that toast...

* i tried to rewrite that sentence so as to not end with a preposition, but my brain is a little too overworked and full of excitment and stress at the moment to do anything but end with 'for.' oops, and i just did it again.

eight for twenty eight (and one week)

i am 28 and one week old and thought i might take a recap of how i have progessed on my goals for this year. don't worry, i have no intention of doing this every week.

1 - get enough sleep. i went to bed too late on saturday night and woke up at 8:20 when i was meeting my running group at 8:30 for our 9km run. obviously, this is a sign that i need to reprioritise my sleeping. but the 9km was awesome and not difficult and enjoyable, even the hill and the other people, which is sometimes the challenge in running with a group.

2 - buy a home. it is clearly a bit premature to be updating on this, but i did go shopping (again) and i need to start looking at what i need to save and how i plan on going about that. and i am afraid that a savings plan may mean fewer pairs of boots and fewer handbags.

3 - reduce my level of anxiety. this is going well. for a number of reasons, but medication and counselling are two of them. i also had a friend ask my about anxiety and it even made me feel good to share my experience in hopes that it might be useful for someone else who may be faced with similar challenges in the anxiety department.

4 - take better photos. the only photos i have taken in my 28th year were some of us ladies drinking wine on friday night, i had a fabulous time and that might be the reason for my substandard photography skills...

5 - become financially confident. i think #2 sums this one up. it will surely be a work in progress.

6 - be happy where i am. so far, so good.

7 - visit friends who live in other places. no plans yet, but i have booked a tropical vacation and that dominican beach is calling my name. good thing i have been practising up on the spanish.

8 - sort out my relationship. also, so far, so good.

bring on the books!

i finished the book The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett awhile ago and wanted to recommend it to anyone who is looking for a new title to pick up. i really enjoyed this book, even with its sometimes repetitious vocabulary, predictable events to move the story along, and the oft described hair of one of the main characters. but i suppose in over 1000 pages long, dark curls can only be described in so many ways.

i felt a guilty pleasure in reading this book, almost like it was a scottish romance novel that i just had to keep going back to to find out what would happen, but i do feel as though i learned a thing or two about medieval england and the process and politics of building cathedrals in that time. don't be afraid of the length and weight of the book, you'll fly through it and enjoy every minute. it offers genuine, wholesome entertainment.

just yesterday i finished Any Known Blood by Lawrence Hill and i am afraid that i am not nearly as enthusiastic about this book as Follett's. i must have had good luck in the book department lately because it has been a long while since i have not recommended a book i have read, but i would suggest you give this one a miss.

i liked Hill's novel The Book of Negroes and thought Any Known Blood would be of the same caliber, but it was much less intriquing and i never had much sympathy for the main character, Langston Crane the Fifth, in his quest to uncover truths about his family. i also felt that Hill was making too many blunt distinctions between canadians and americans and although there is surely truths to each of his comparisons, i felt they were forced, almost as if he had an alterior motive in positioning the two societies against one another. it was a story, a decent story, but one you shouldn't spend your pennies on.

eight for twenty eight

i stole this concept from heather who stole it from her big sis. i thought it was a great idea so i made a few tiny changes to the format and here you have my 8 goals for my 28th year.

1 - get enough sleep. on a recent visit to my new (and awesome) doctor, i learned a lot about the importance of sleep. she really drove the point home when she said that there is a reason that sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture. i have been doing well lately, but i need to keep it up for the next year.

2 - buy a home. i think this is a reality for me this year and that is a nice feeling. i am not sure where or what or when, but in the year of 28, i want this to happen.

3 - reduce my level of anxiety. this is something that i have already started working on in 27, but i believe it will be a life long challenge and i plan to make some serious headway in 28. i never realised that it is not normal to live with underlying anxiety every day, but sometimes things need to get really bad before you have such a-ha moments.

4 - take better photos. i want to improve the good photos i take to become awesome photos, especially now that i have a swank new camera. whether i just take a lot of photos and learn through trial and error or whether i take a course, one way or the other, i want to learn what works, what doesn't work, and have something to show for it in the end.

5 - become financially confident. not necessarily make more money, but learn more about what to do with money once you make it. how to invest. how to save. how to spend.

6 - be happy where i am. by 'where' i mean not only physically but where i am with my relationships, my career, and myself. i do not expect that this is something that is achievable in 28, but i do think that it will be a priority this year. sometimes i just need to remind myself what i want and not what i think i should want.

7 - visit friends who live in other places. i have a few ideas in mind of people and places that i would like to visit in the coming year. top of my list are washington dc, chicago, vancouver island, but this all depends on schedules, timing, and money. so i will leave it general for now and see what develops.

8 - sort out my relationship. nuff said. not sure why i didn't list this as #1. and it may just take a full 12 months.

on my birthday...

• i was gifted organisational tools. organisational tools!
• i tried my new underwear on over my sweatpants and chased my future brother-in-law around the house (oh yeah)
• my bestest friend made me pepper and leek quiche for brunch
• i ran nearly 7km
• i waited in a queue for an hour to have dieter washed
• my mama made me lasagne for dinner
• i got a kitchen aid mixer! and a martha stewart cookie cook book (bake book?)
• i had a latte (with real milk!)
• i listened to some cbc podcasts while making mexican dip
• i got this shirt from someecards.com from my sis

and that is what you call a good birthday.