New Year's Resolutions

I've never been a New Year's Resolutions type of girl. It was mostly because I never had changes that I really wanted to make in my life. But this year I've had a few swim around in my head already because of the transition from student life to "hey I'm a grown-up now, with a paycheck" life. A part of me thought they would just happen, but obviously they have not. Writing them down makes them more concrete.

I will...
1. Go to bed by 11:30pm on regular weeknights.
2. Eat at NORMAL hours. No more lunches at 3pm and dinners at 9pm.
3. Incorporate ALL food groups into my diet. Especially fruits and veggies.
4. Cook healthy, well-balanced meals. Poutines don't count.
5. Be well-watered.
6. Clean up my room every night before bed.
7. Figure out a plan to exercise regularly...somehow. Endorphins are good.
8. Stay within budget.
9. Put more effort into my relationships with everyone.
10. Not neglect breakfast.
11. Go easy on junk food.

Basically...live a healthy lifestyle.

Affirmation

Today I met up with a supporter who has known me since I've moved to Canada. He's a missionary himself and he's seen me grow from a rebellious teen who swore profusely to now, so I see him as a father figure. He said to me, "You've done good, kid. I'm proud of you." Those words meant so much to me.

One Person Duet

This person sang BOTH parts of "A Whole New World" from Disney's Aladdin. Blows my mind.

Eagerly Anticipating...

1) Visiting the four corners.
The four corners is the ONLY point in the U.S. where four states, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado come together. I've wanted to go since I was in elementary school. Geeky, I know. Two times I've been only 20 minutes away, but have never gone. This time the visit shall prevail!

2) Seeing my family over Christmas and dazzling them with my fantastic cooking skills acquired in the wilderness of city-living.

3) Winter Conference

4) New Year's Eve at Winter Conference

5) Staff training

Illusions of Grandeur

This year's theme for the New Year's party at Campus for Christ's Winter Conference really excited me. So much so that I spent about 3-4 hours researching a costume idea that I had online. Then as sleep lifted from my eyes this morning so did my illusions of grandeur. The headpiece itself takes at the very least a week of diligent work to make for an experienced costumer. With all the Christmas presents already vying for my attention and spare time, I doubt I'd have time to put it together to my satisfaction, but oh my soul yearns to tackle that project!

Humility Classes

Every Tuesday night I go to a class to learn humility. It's also known as a dance class. Whatever pride that I have in my fab self is in shreds by the end of the night.

No Filter

The elevator stops. We get out and walk towards Steph's apartment. Light shines from the end of the hallway. The door from her place is open. Someone is either coming out or going in. A person appears, but it's no one we know. It's a strange man. What the heck?

"Is this the sixth floor?" Steph asks.
"No, it's the fifth," He answers.

We walk by the man to the stairwell to climb the stairs to the sixth floor.
We pass him and I say:

"I was wondering why there was a strange man coming out of your apartment."

5 Good Things

1. Quaint Coffee Shops
2. Honest Mechanics
3. Family Dinners with Friends
4. Christmas Carols
5. Musicals

Royalty

This morning I had a chance to hear Queen Noor of Jordan speak at a health conference courtesy of my friend, Dan R at the Metro Toronto Convention Center. While she was speaking to an audience of health professionals and the like, the talk was very much development oriented or so it seemed to me. There was a lot of development ideology and jargon thrown around like micro-finance, empowerment, and etc. I was really thankful for my degree at this time. It definitely helped me to understand and analyze her talk to a deeper level than if I hadn't come from an International Development background. While I didn't agree with everything that she said, I do agree with this one line:

"Inequity, not scarcity is the problem."

According to Her Majesty about 1 Trillion is spent on arms a year where the expenditure for health and development is significantly less. I can't remember the exact numbers for those two, but no surprise there.

Her talk got me to rethink my cynicism in regards to development. The Queen was definitely inspiring in that she continues to persevere despite all the challenges she has faced in her humanitarian efforts. One could only imagine all the nasty red tape.

One-Liners

"I'm too old." ~A man's excuse for sitting down during our routine tonight.
"I don't have a ligament." ~My teacher's retort.

"That's not vodka, is it?" ~Elevator man's comment after I loudly chug the rest of the water in my clear 1L Nalgene bottle. (FYI: There was 25% left.)

An Ear for a T- Shirt

Yesterday I went to the most exciting Raptors game EVER against the Celtics. For highlights you can read it at their website because they'll definitely do it more justice than I can. I was on the edge of my seats in the fourth quarter and part of me could barely stand to watch. It was so nerve-wracking, but oh, so good. So many last minute 3 pointers.

The highlight of the afternoon that wasn't related to the game was when we were all going for the free stuff that they were throwing out during the time outs and everything else. The whole point was that the crazier you were, the more likely you were going to get something thrown in your direction although catching it might be another story.

So there I was, waving and screaming like a madwoman for the Sprite Zone guy to throw me the t-shirt he was holding. After teasing the crowd for a while he finally slings it in MY direction. What luck! I catch it, but I fumble and it slips out of my hands and lands on the ground in the row behind me. Anxious to grab it before the guys in that row gets it, I bang my left ear on the railing in an attempt to make the grab. Luckily J gets there first and she snatches it for me.

We sit down and everything is honky dorey except maybe for my ear. It's throbbing a little bit, but it's always been temperamental, getting sore at the slightest touch, so like...whatever. Then J tells me that it's bleeding.

The ring apparently ripped a bit in the back and punctured a hole in my head. Not a big one though. Most of the bleeding came from the piercing. The funny thing is I was debating whether to take the piercing out permanently because it still hadn't healed after a year. This decided it for me. It came out. Now I just have boring lobe piercings unless...

Five Good Things

1. Starbucks' Peppermint Mocha with extra whipped cream and the peppermint sprinkles.
Gosh, what a romantic drink. (And yes, by now you should have realized that I have odd definitions for the term 'romantic'.) It's like drinking Christmas.
2. Chinese pastries. Especially the ones with red bean.
3. Good, non-sketchy, funny, fluffy chick lit.
There's times when you just want to read fluff.
4. Extra strength Tylenol.
5. Eyebrow threading.

Get Your Groove On

Owwwww.

Just got back from a beginner/intermediate hip-hop dance class with Irene. 120% sure that I will be shuffling from place to place for the next little while. What an amazing work out. So much fun, but a lot of work. It was great to bust a move. There's just something about those beats in hip hop that just helps you to unleash and let everything out. Rawr. Like my instructor said, who needs therapy when you can dance?

Dancing's definitely a mental and physical workout. It takes so much mental energy to focus on the moves, the timing, and the style, and so much physical energy to execute them. Right now I'm having a hard time executing the right moves at the right time. No style whatsoever. We'll work on that later.

It definitely made me realize that I need to get in more shape. I've become such a couch po-ta-tooooooe. By the end of the lesson I just couldn't do the moves because I couldn't lift my limbs. But I love it. The instructor's awesome. Very upbeat and very patient. I don't feel like such a tool when I have to ask her to do something over. The teacher makes or breaks the experience. She's so pro.

Roots

God has really blessed me with the transition back to Toronto. I had put down some deep roots for the first time in my life in Guelph, and I thought it would be rocky, transitioning to a new kind of life in Toronto. In my head I had this mental picture of me brutally pulling and ripping out my precious roots so that I could put down new ones. I've had to break some ties, like my involvement in the ministry at Guelph, but thankfully the friendships have been preserved. So there really wasn't much blood shed. The transition has been surprisingly pleasant thus far. It was the smoothest move I've ever made in my entire life. Thank God. It also helped that I expected and wanted this move. I knew that my university life and my time in Guelph was limited, and I wanted to return to Toronto.

But it makes me wonder if I'll have the courage to pull up these roots that I'm laying down, pack up and move overseas in a few years, because in my head my stay in Toronto is indefinite. I could be here for a year, two years, five years, ten years, or until I die. There is no "time's up" like there was in Guelph. So really...I don't have to leave. Of course when God calls, the call will be enough to compel me to go. But I also do wonder...am I getting too comfortable?

Star Sighting

Oh and by the way, when I was downtown the other day for the symphony, my friend and I walked pass The Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson. She looked like she stepped out of the page of her biography, and onto the sidewalk. It was somewhat eerily just how normal she was. There no entourage, no nothing.

Five Good Things

1. Cheesy mando pop on a chilled morning.
I don't know why. I really really like it.

2. Whirlyball with my staff team. Whirlyball= lacrosse in bumper cars.
Wanted to play since high school, but I never had the chance. Loved it. Got four blisters from steering.

3. Thai food. Mhhmm.
Really wish I could make this. I want to learn. So many things that I want to learn.

4. Cleaning.
There's something therapeutic about organizing things, but yet I always procrastinate when it comes to cleaning.

5. Mark Driscoll sermons.
The man is visionary. After listening to him yesterday while working on my newsletters I wanted to leave a legacy up to a thousand generations. I love how he exhorts men to be patriarchs and great fathers. It makes my eyes watery.

The Symphony

Life is good.

Last night I went to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra with a girl friend to hear Dvorak's Symphony #8. It was beautiful. Not just the music, but the musicians. It was mesmerizing watching their body move to the music as they were playing, and the way the bows of the stringed instruments moved in unison. I don't have enough words to describe it. There were so many cool things. Like how all these different instruments came together to create such a cool...melody instead of some raucous noise. It just blows my mind to try to fathom it because they could very well just be making noise.

I felt so sophisticated and grown up, traipsing downtown in heels for a cool Thai meal and then going out to the Symphony afterwards. It was only something that I imagined myself doing when I was "younger". Sometimes I still feel like I'm 16 inside. Last night was definitely one of those..."Pinch me, and tell me I'm awake," nights. I can't believe I'm living this life!

Cookie, Muffin, and Other Desserts As Terms of Endearment

So terms of endearment came up twice in conversation the past few days, and it got me thinking. Why is it that for the most part words that are used as terms of endearment are food products? I.e. Pumpkin, Honey, Sugar. And why are a lot of them desserts like muffin, cookie, and cupcake? What is it about those words? Who wrote the unwritten rule that the best words to be used for terms of endearment are to be desserts?

What? Some guy wakes up one day and thinks, 'You know it'd be pretty cool to call my wife by a dessert today,' and boom everyone just starts doing it? Why not inanimate objects? Like spatulas or forks or tools?

"Oh spatula, can you pass me the peas please?"

Ok, so it sounds awkward right now, but I suggest to you that's only because desserts are socialized into us. But even within the category of desserts some are left out. Like Nanaimo bars. Or even apple strudel or eclairs. They're pretty good desserts. Just as good as cupcakes and muffins. I like them. Why aren't they used as a term of endearment? Don't you think they'd feel left out when 'muffin' or 'cookie' gets all the special usage?

"Nanaimo, can you rub my feet please?" That works just as well don't you think? We ought to start a petition or try coining it. Which I'd totally do except I'm not really into using terms of endearments or being called a dessert by anyone. It makes my skin crawl.

That is...unless you're white, related to my dad, female, have a warm southern drawl and I just happen to call you "auntie". Then it's totally 150% cool, and I love it. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Awww....

Got Boring?

It's 2:00am. I've failed yet again in my recent resolution to go to bed before 10pm or at least midnight. Pfft. Just getting really restless these days. So I decided to put labels on the rest of my posts of my blog from way back when. Some of the older posts were definitely funnier! What? Did MPD suck my sense of humor from me? I was so much more amusing last year than this year. I mean...I still laugh a lot...at myself. So why is my blog boring? Humor come back. I'm almost tempted to go do something stupid. Nothing awkward has happened this week yet. Hmm....This is so not normal! Wait... no, awkward moments have happened. I just can't post them. Ha!

Serenade

I want to serenade Toronto with the violin
in stilettos
on my balcony
...in a year and a half.