Hey M'dears, 

I finally have most of my things unpacked. Okay, so there is a whack load of boxes still in the basement that need to be dealt with *rolls eyes* They are mostly books, kitchen supplies, and bathroom supplies... with the exception of whatever box happens to be hiding my cell phone charger. Thankfully dad has the same phone, so I've been using his. Anyways, I thought I would post some pictures of my bedroom for you! It might help to know that my room is a square, and I took photos from each corner of my room. 

ENTRY WAY: On the right is the door into my bedroom which has a hook currently decorated with my tutu, a short colourful boa, and a longer blue boa (all gifts). That "Ireland" tshirt hanging on the wall was also given to me, but is too small for me to wear *sigh*  The door on the left with the mirror is my closet which is uber aggravating as my clothes are basically scrunched behind that small bit of wall there. You can see in the mirror my TV stand and the movies within (referred to again with the last photo). 

OFFICE: On the right side of the photograph you can see my bookshelf which is next to my closet, facing my bedroom door. At the back of my bookshelf is a standing lamp with a lei decorating the lampshade, and a matching hanging light over my dresser -yes, I like a lot of light by my computer. In front of the standing light is my drawer unit for desk supplies, and in front of that is a ducky garbage pail. To the left of those three things is my desk and around the corner is my dresser. My Papa custom-made me that set for two years worth of birthday/christmas gifts and I absolutely love them!

BEDROOM: My bed consists of wooden "feet", a box spring, and two mattresses which all come up to nearly my waist! I have a folding table in the corner serving as a nightstand as it holds my alarm clock and touch lamp. On my wall beside my cd stand is a collage of various places in Ireland;I think I made in while in university and it's been travelling with me to various bedrooms since. On that same wall, but higher, there used to be a huge photo collage and later a world map where I would track all the places my friends/family were living plus all the places I wanted to travel to. I've not yet decided what to put there yet this time...

Over my bed is a square I marked off with tape that says "What would Jesus do?" and "Pray until something happens". I first started my prayer wall in 2005, during my last year of high school. Within the square are the things I am currently praying about/for, and the ones outside are the prayers that have been answered. To the right are the prayers answered with 'No' (9), below are the prayers that were partially answered (5), and to the left are the prayers answered with 'Yes' (30). It is a great way to see that God really does listen... and the perfect way to use sticky notes! 

LIVING ROOM: The folding table you see on the right is directly beside the cd stand seen in the above picture. It has a light clipped to it for added brightness in that corner of the room, plus where I keep munchies while I'm reading or watching movies. On the left is the cabinet holding my tv, vcr, and dvd player all facing the couch; the shelving faces the other direction holding my favourite movies (as seen in the mirror of the first picture). Above my tv you can kind of see my netting that was supposed to be for stuffed animals, but I only have one ceiling hook. It holds my university grad cap, the three stuffies I was given for various graduations from relatives, and two scarves from Rome.  

SUMR

This is the day to remember God loves us so much He gave his only son, Jesus, to die on the cross,

so that those who believe in him will not perish but have eternal life with Him in heaven.

 SUMR

I have now been home for a whole five days. Dad and I got back to the house after midnight on friday (or rather, saturday) and we unloaded the vehicle of my things. Dad said he was too tired to unpack, but it's not like we could put the trailer in the garage since he has it so full of junk we can't get the blasted door open. I freaked out because my dresser/desk is custom made (thank you, Papa) which would be ruined if it so much as gets damp, and it was starting to snow. Thankfully mum was willing to help, so she and I moved nearly everything ourselves while dad played around with his tarps and ropes. I will admit that he helped with the two or three heaviest things, though. 

The majority of the boxes were shoved in the basement until I get around to unpacking them, but the big items -bed, desk, dresser, couch, bookshelf, tv stand, etc- all went into my room. I basically have a two-foot wide "L" shaped pathway to move around in -a space between the bottom of my bed and the couch, and another between my bed and my desk/dresser. My room is slightly more crowded than it was before as there are more things crammed in here.

Two of my bookshelves are in my mum's "office" and she commandeered a few of the shelves which is annoying because I have more books than I do shelving space. She now says I have to go through all of my books and get rid of half of them. Excuse me? They are MINE not yours!!!  Though admittedly, I do intend to get rid of the ones I never read a second time, but that isn't anywhere close to half. 

Saturday and Sunday were spent unpacking and organizing the most important boxes, and what does it tell you that I didn't even get around to unpacking my suitcases of clothing until Monday? I wore pajamas all weekend because I had nothing else to put on! Mom is freaking out because not all of the boxes are unpacked and there are three still sitting in a corner of the dining room *rolls eyes* 

Tuesday is the night I have an online work meeting which I informed my parents of in advance. I tried to get some work done on the MS I'm currently editing, but every time I started Mum would freak out and make me unpack more boxes. She even kept interrupting me during the meeting though I kept telling her to leave me alone for one frikken hour. I also found out I was given the wrong due date for an MS though the author was told the correct one; instead of having three weeks to finish up the book, I now only have one!  And since not all the boxes are unpacked and mum's constant pestering I can only hope I get it finished tonight. 

I did take a break by going shoe shopping today. I had gone a few times in Toronto and Ajax looking for some nice footwear to go with my bridesmaid dress, but couldn't find anything nice and affordable. But my mum had a 20% off coupon she saved for me  that ended this week and with the holidays messing with store hours I thought it best to go now. I first tried the mall and saw two pairs that I liked, but neither were in my size. I lucked out as the other branch in my town had the one style in my size and they put them aside for me as it was the last pair. And because the shoes were not in the store I was at and had to drive across town to the other, I was given another coupon for $6 off. This means my $45+tax shoes ended up costing me only $35... and my parents gave me $20 as an early Easter prezzie

To lead up to my new shoes, here are pictures of my bridesmaid dress and some of the shoes I already tried on before decided on the winning pair! 

Myself and another bridesmaid trying on what was eventually chosen for our dress. I have on one in purple and Ash has on the brown, but our dress will be strapless and black with a green sash. You may notice it hits her just under the knee and on me it is at mid-shin, so needless to say mine will be getting hemmed up before the big day. 

Ash found a pair of shoes at the store we tried on the dresses. They are super cute wedges, but they didn't have a black pair in my size... and to be honest I liked them in red better. I did try them on and found I would have a hard time dancing in them as I have better balance in actual heels. 

I tried on a pair of black pumps, too, but they didn't pass the "walk-and-dance test" either. Laur happened to snap a photo of me while doing the dancing part of the test on the shoes *L0L* Sadly, the blasted things wouldn't stay on my feet unless I didn't move an inch. It was then suggested that I only purchase shoes with straps so I can't fall off or out of my shoes. 

These are my new shoes! I saw them first in Toronto, but I wasn't overly sure about them because I wasn't all that fond of the ruffley thingie. Plus they were a bit too steep for my unemployed budget. I kept searching, but these were the nicest black heels I could find that looked good on me. Two sales girls and two randoms both liked these the best *L0L*

So will my shoes look good with my dress, you think?

SUMR

 It's that time again, the end of a month when I assess how well I have been keeping my new years resolutions! 

1. Go for a half-hour walk once a week and ten push-ups a day
I managed to do about four hours of walking, but any other exercise has been nonexistent. Well, unless you count endless hours of packing and five hours of loading the moving truck.

2. Brush and floss teeth before going to bed every night
As per usual, when I'm so tired I can hardly drag myself from the couch to my bed -if I haven't already fallen asleep on the couch- I forget to deal with my teeth.  

3. Do something social twice a month with or without friends
I went shopping the first Saturday of the month with @LaRyn24, had a sleep over with @Karoline1982 the next weekend (once again planning to hand out resumes), had @x-ginger-x over for an afternoon, attended a St Paddy's party at Laur's, had dinner with my sister-in-law, and spent a day with Liane and Karo. 

4. Go on a date if someone asks (provided they aren't creepy) 
I have stopped going on the dating site, because after over 150 emails that were essentially identical I was bored by it within a month. I really don't think online dating is for me, so no one else has asked. 

5. Work on assignments for at an hour every day -two if still unemployed
At the beginning of the month I was doing every other day, which is good. Towards the end of the month, not so much. I blame that on moving. 

6. Write for an hour a week on any WiP
Occasionally think about WIP, but get no further.  

7. Save and plan for UK dream vacation
I still do not have a job, but I did look into a work exchange program. If I don't have enough money by my 30th year (as in before my birthday), I think I might do that.   

  SUMR

So the dreaded day has finally arrived. I am once again becoming a boomerang kid, among the generation who returns to their parents' home after graduation. Admittedly I managed to stay for another seven or eight months with my own place, but now... *le sigh*

On my last day I finished reading my last library book, made garlic bread and cheese (which my mum doesn't allow at home cuz she hates the smell), and watched the movie Sabrina. I have loved Audrey Hepburn films for years, but I decided to see the remake with Harrison Ford for the first time. Harrison was the best thing about the movie in his role of Linus, though Julie Ormond did a decent job at the Sabrina role and looked rather similar to Audrey. The actors playing Sabrina's father and Greg Kinnear as David were all right, but the actresses playing Maud and David's fiancée weren't stellar. The scenery was well enough for the most part, but the costuming was sadly lamentable. The movie was decent in itself, but no match for the original; had it been anything but a remake of a masterpiece I may have liked it better. 

Speaking of the library, some of you whom I have on face book will have noticed that the library had been close for over a week due to a labour dispute. I was getting worried about how I would return my library books if the library didn't open before I left. Even all the drop boxes have been locked -which isn't a surprise since some of them are just inside the library doors. I emailed the media contact to ask what I should do and was told to either find someone I trusted to drop them off for me (none of my friends actually live in the city) or to come back when the library opened  Thankfully, it has been posted that the libraries will in fact be open as of 10:30am on the very day I am to leave. Lucky or what? 

I posted pic my apartment as I was moving in and photos after I unpacked, so now I am going to post more pic I've taken just before the last of my things are loaded up. It is a sad, sad day. 

my cupboards are empty... 

and my closet nearly is too...

for my wardrobe is stuffed into suitcases...

and everything else into boxes...

but I miss my bookshelf-wall the most!

SUMR

Last week I mentioned my sister-in-law inviting me out for dinner when she was in town and being worried about how it would go. If you recall, she has never gotten along well with the family, which means I was nervous about the meal being abysmally awkward. She ended up being stuck in traffic for about an hour as there was an accident and her GPS had her driving downtown before coming east *shakes head* We went to Whistlers, which happened to have a jazz band playing when we got there. I did most of the talking, though I can't recall now what all I said. I do know I made her laugh a few times, so I guess things went fairly well. She said we should go out again once I'm back in town, which was odd since one of the things she did tell me was about how busy she was, leaving her no time to so much as read. 

On Friday my dad was coming up to pick up the first load of my things to move. He and a friend of his had an award ceremony to attend in Markham for the previous year's marksman competitions, so they picked up my things prior to that. It took over two hours to get the majority of my things loaded into the trailer so they were slightly late for their meeting. I was a little worried about all of my things just sitting out there while my dad was inside, but it was covered with a tarp and tied down pretty good so my dad wasn't worried. He didn't get home until midnight and he had planned to leave my things in the trailer and unpack them the next day, but my mum was waiting to help dad unload my things. Thankfully she was since it poured rain that night and my stuff would have been ruined as the tarps tore some during the trip and my things would have gotten soaked. BTW, my dad won two awards. 

After my dad left I had about fifteen minutes before @Karoline1982 showed up. She was planning to go see Hunger Games that night with her sister and invited me along so I could sleep over. I thought the movie was pretty good, it stayed fairly close to the novel, but if you hadn't already read the book I have a feeling the movie would fall a little flat. There were some things missing Karo and I thought were pretty integral to the plot that would make it better. 

The reason why I was to crash at Karo's that night was so neither of us would have to get up crazy early. This is because she and Liane made Saturday "JK Day!" where they took me to do crazy fun stuff before I moved away. The plan was to pick up Liane and go to brunch, before hitting our first stop at noon... Yeah, Karo and I didn't even manage to make it to Liane's until noon *L0L* Liane had time to hit the dollarama before meeting us, and thus I ended up wearing a crown and feather boa for the day I was asked twice if we were doing a bachelorette, and once asked if it was my birthday *L0L* 

First we went to this really cute teashop called "Village Tea Room" in the Cliffcrest Plaza. It didn't look like much on the outside, but the service is great and the food is good and the dishes are adorable. I was hoping for something a little more breakfast-like for our brunch, but I ended up with a yummy ham sandwich and peppermint tea. The individual teapots were really cute and hold about two cups of tea, and now I keep craving tea... 

We then went to the subway station with free parking to leave Karo's car and head into Toronto main. We had to walk a couple blocks to get to our first destination and were yukking it up on the sidewalk all the way there.

We passed by Casa Loma and went across the way to the Spadina House Museum, which was there before the castle -the Austin family sold their personal golf course for the Pellat family to build. 

We only had an hour and a half to get to our next destination, which was the Mackenzie House. It was only open for another half-hour and so we missed the last tour, and therefore were let in for free! Even though we were doing the self-guided tour, the guy at the front counter still took us through the printing press *happy dance* Karo and I got to make our names and use the press, I totally intend to frame mine! 

By five we were starving and it started to rain, so we decided to go to Johnny Rocket's for dinner. It is tres fantastique with it's fifties styles and rocking jukebox and yummy food. We each got a burger with fries and a milkshake, as well as shared a plate of onion rings. I don't even like onion rings, but I ate some of those cuz the batter was so good! And just before we were about to leave, some of the waiters and waitresses did a "dance" routine which we like to think was for us *L0L*

After that it was back to the subway, dropping Liane off, and heading to Karo's again to watch a couple movies she had rented before going to sleep. The next day we decided to do a little shopping since there was a sale at Karo's favourite store, and just as we were leaving we noticed huge billows of black smoke in the distance. We got a bit stuck in traffic trying to get around the blockade in the road, and we learned later that a barn -which I believe held a catering business- had caught on fire.  

I had an absolutely fabulous weekend, and I will miss it even though I plan to be moving back to the big city by next year. 

SUMR

As most of you know one of my besties was living in China for nearly two years, and came back to Canada recently. Even though she's been here for about a month we still hadn't had the chance to get together because we were never in the same town nor had a car. I was pleasantly surprised when I got a text last Monday asking what I was doing the next day She was leaving for Ecuador the next week (aka tomorrow) and was trying to see everyone she'd not yet been able to spend time with, thus she was spending the afternoon with me and then crashing at another friend's house for the night. I miss hanging out with her all the time, and was glad for the chance to see her last week since I know she might not ever move back to Canada. 

Since it was march break my parents had planned to come up for a visit and to take my first load of my moving... they never showed up. It seems Da was waiting on a part for the car that didn't come in until late in the week, so in the meantime he and mum moved everything of theirs into my room while they painted. I've been gone for a year and a half yet they only thought of doing this just before I (unfortunately) move back? *roll eyes*

Dad told me that he would come up either Friday evening or Saturday morning once the part was installed, so when I got a text saying that he wasn't able to come tomorrow, I presumed that it was only Thursday... WRONG  It may seem weird that I loose track of my days, but since I'm not working it is very easy to do. I have a calendar alert set up on my phone so I know when I have an editorial meeting and my friends always text me to see if our plans for the next day are still on, so why do I need to know what day of the week it is? Anyways, because of that message I had some problems on Saturday-that-I-thought-was-Friday. 

I had plans to hang out with Laur on Saturday afternoon, but seeing as I thought it was Friday -thanks, dad- I did errands instead. I went to the library (and a good thing, too, since they went on strike Sunday), I stopped at a bookstore, and finished by going to the grocery store. It wasn't until the clerk wished me a Happy St Paddy's that I figured out what day it was. After rushing home to change into Irish-appropriate attire, I jumped on the transpo to head to Laur's house.

I have never taken the transpo to her place before, so it was my first time going so far east on the subway, then jumping on the RT. It took me a half hour to get to the end of the subway line, and I attempted to keep myself amused by keeping track of how many people were left in the car at each stop (we were down to seven by the second last stop on the line). After taking the underground, I had to switch to the RT which would take at least another twenty minutes. I had never been on an RT and had no idea what one was, but Laur told me it was like a subway car but on above-ground rails. 

When I arrived at my subway stop, aka the RT station, I happened to see the train coming into the station through the window. I ran up the stairs where everyone seemed to be going and jumped through the doors just before they closed. I suppose I could have waited until the next one came in, but I didn't know when that would be so I was hoping like heck I got on the right one! 

I was the last afternoon guest to arrive, but more people showed up later that evening. We ate pizza and an assortment of junk food, had music going, played DDR, watched the hockey game, and all the usual "hang out" things. One of the afternoon guest brought their little boy, and when the dad was doing a diaper change the baby got away. In trying to grab his kid, the dad fell and broke the glass tv stand. Oddly enough only the second shelf shattered rather than the one holding the TV, and the dad got a small cut on his neck with no other discernible wounds. The baby was perfectly alright and barely even cried -and that was only when Laur and I were trying to get his shirt off because he was shedding glass shards. 

Only myself and Laur's brother were crashing for the night as everyone else ensured to have a non-drinking driver. My sleeping over was planned for because it is an hour by transpo or a half hour by car to get back to my place, and Laur's brother because he was drunk with no way home (his ride bailed early or was going somewhere else, I can't recall which). The brother started flirting with me at some point to which Laur told him to "stop hitting on my friend", but I was the only single girl there which I'm assuming to be the reason why he was.

Yesterday I was astounded to get a text from my sister-in-law asking if I wanted to go out for a late supper with her as it seems she is in the area for work. I had an editorial meeting in an hour and a half so the timing didn't work, but I agreed to go out the following day (today). You may recall that she and I have never gotten along except perhaps when my brother first started dating her and we were all trying to get to know her. Over Christmas things seemed better than they had been in ten years, so I have hopes that tonight won't be too terribly awkward *wince*

@Karoline1982 and Liane invited me out on Thursday I think it was, but I had a killer headache -probably due to lack of sleep since I am lucky if I managed twenty hours the entire week. Apparently in my absence they decided to take me out on Saturday and have a "going away party" of us doing fun stuff. I'm terribly excited to have such a fabulous send-off, but am worried that my dad will decide to come up that day to move my things! 

SUMR

Well, yet another Girls Weekend with @Karoline1982! She picked me up at my apartment and on the way back to her place we stopped to drop of a few resumes. Most places said they weren't hiring right now, but I was okay with that. I think I would rather wait to move in with Karo once she has her house, since she has psycho/noisy upstairs renters and tiny windows. After about an hour of browsing and resume-leaving, we went back to her place to make sloppy joes and commence with our movie madness! 

It was nearly two am before we went to sleep, and next time I'm totally making up a bed in the living room! Karo has these foam mattresses for the floor that are fairly comfortable and quite excellent for sleepovers. But between the people upstairs thumping around and Karo -who isn't the quietest sleeper- I was constantly woken up and thus slept for another hour or so after Karo got up. 

This afternoon Karo and I planned to hit up Eliot's Bookstore, which is where Adorkable took me for our "date" last month (BTW, haven't heard from him in weeks). It is three stories of wall to wall books!  They are all used books and thus don't profit the publishing industry (they only make money off brand new books and not resale), but it sure worked for our wallets! I found three books that I cannot seem to find elsewhere that I love for half the cover price *happy dance* 

Eliot's Bookshop (Yonge and Wellesley) 

Me playing on the slidey-ladder, second floor

Sitting in the stainglass window alcove on the third floor

SUMR

The problem with not having a job is that you're never really sure what day it is. You don't need to keep track because it rarely matters, and you're not counting down until you have a couple days off. Admittedly I still keep an eye out for the weekend since I have had plans for a good five weeks in a row with either my uni bestie Lauren or @Karoline1982. For example, I hung out with Lauren last Saturday and was good on my days right through to Tuesday when I have a work meeting... or rather this week the boss forgot to cancel our meeting because something came up for him so everyone but him was there wondering what the deal was. We ended up having our own mini-meeting/talk about work behind the boss's back to find out what everyone else has been up to

Anyways, I don't remember Wednesday at all, which is a slight problem since it was my parent's anniversary and I didn't call or text or email them good wishes for it. I normally do something at least, but I don't recall having a wednesday at all. I know I wasn't editing that day because I finished my latest MS and wanted to take some time off before jumping into the next one -which I still haven't done. Thursday I have a vague remembrance of because my landlord shoved a note under my door saying my apartment was going to be shown today, and I remember having spaghetti for supper. Other than that, its a bit of a blank. 

Today I cleaned my apartment and decided to put off my trip to the library until evening when my place was going to be shown. Normally I'm given an exact time and know to be gone for about 20-30 minutes, this time I had to be gone for at least 45 minutes because the person wasn't sure when they would arrive. Needless to say, walking for nearly an hour to and from the library with the windchill and the cooling evening temperature was frikken harsh!  I was seriously numbed by the time I got back and unsure whether it was safe to go back to my apartment and warm up, or if I had time to kill. Thankfully I was just checking my mail when my landlord came in with her dogs saying the person never showed up to see my apartment and so she wasn't going to bother showing it tonight. So I froze near to death for nothing, but at least I could go make some hot chocolate and soak in a warm bath in attempt to defreeze myself. 

Tomorrow Karo and I have fabulous plans to watch movies, hand out resume, hit up an awesome bookstore, and maybe stop by the church that I plan to apply for the office admin position. We're not sure about that, because knowing us we'll end up sleeping until noon Speaking of said bookstore, it is the one that Adorkable took me to. I have only had a couple texts from him in the past three or four weeks, so yeah that is not even going to end up in friendship by the looks of things *le sigh* 

I found out that the library in my parents town is possibly hiring so I sent in an application there. The stupid website took hours to function properly, but they wouldn't allow me to just send (aka have my parents take in) a paper copy when I asked about it. I was told to just keep trying since the fact I have a mac shouldn't be the issue. Turns out their website is just really cracked up and hates me. I did manage to get it to work though and they have an hour long questionnaire! Fingers crossed I aced it and get the job, even though it is part time. I might luck out and get 30 or so hours a week and for six months that will add up to a nice next egg to come back to Toronto... or I might go to Ireland first. We'll see. 

SUMR

This is a MUST see video. Please take the time to watch it and challenge yourself to do more, either with this or other issues around the world. Don't waste the opportunity to make a difference.  

KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

There are Kony 2012 events taking place everywhere on Friday April 20th dubbed Cover the Night. If you want to take part in this event or make a donation to Invisible Children, you can do so at the Invisible Children Store. 

If you don't want to give money to Invisible Children for various reasons (such as shown in this post), you can always raise awareness about Kony in other ways by educating yourself and those around you. You could be making your own posters, writing articles for print or digital media, using blogs and facebook and twitter to spread the word, writing or calling the government to make issues be known, etc.  

There is always more than one way to make a difference and we have to start somewhere.

SUMR