Contest! With Prize!!!!

You know what my blog hasn't done yet? Had a contest.

So Imma have one! Here are the deets:

1. Post a comment below with your favouite VEGAN recipe - get an entry
2. Tweet about my awesome #vegtober project and your contribution to it - get an entry (you can do this every day)

Midway through #Vegtober I will randomly draw a winner. What could you win??

How about this copy of  Inside by Alix Ohlin?! 

It was the only book this year nominated for both the Rogers Writers' Trust AND longlisted for the Giller prize, so you know it is gonna be good! 

And just to spice it up I will make you a pretty little card to go with it. All I'm looking for are some yummy vegan treats, so help me out, yo! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blogger Fail / September Wrap up

Yeees, I have been neglectful. What can I say? Real life got in the way. Real life like work, school, more work, errands, and work (again).

Things are trucking along though. For those of you reading this via Facebook, you are likely aware of my nutty electric shock injury (gas stove ignitor got me and messed up some muscles in my neck. It hurts. I slept for 15 hours last night). That has been a real bummer. I made a trip to Ikea yesterday to puck up some "make my apartment a home" stuff and had to leave in a hurry because I was in so much pain. Even now, almost 48 hours after the initial injury, I am hurtin' - my head is in a permanent tilt to the left, which sucks but makes me seem like a more caring, sympathetic person I think :) Before you tell me to go to the doctor, I am going to. Tomorrow.

Right - to the wrap up:

1. Running has been put on hold. I REALLY want to start again in October but between my doctor telling me to pull back and now not being able to turn my head, I may have to be a little patient on this. 
2. Vegan month starts TOMORROW!!!! I have done a bunch of research, have some recipes in waiting, and I've pretty much indulged all my dairy loves over the past week, so I'm ready to go! Expect to see a lot of pictures of food over the next month. The highlight? Cooking my own completely vegan Thanksgiving dinner next weekend. Gulp!
3. Quit my Job - not yet. Apps and skill development in progress. 
4. No drinking - not a problem. (side note: the Bookstravaganza event I went to earlier this month was open bar - OPEN BAR! That one kind of stung) 
5. Knitting - it is really coming along! Slowly, but surely. Check out my scarf progress (at bottom)
6. Make a quilt - still trying to find a sewing machine. I think Santa may bring one for me...
7. Volunteer - putting this one off until later in the year. 
8. Apartment decoration - doing okay. Got shelves (still need to be painted) and have worked on my work area a lot (photos below). I really want to tackle the kitchen organization next and then once my sewing machine and I meet, there will be a lot of textile work. 
9. Yard Sale - in spring
10. Vancouver - no progress
11. Print 20 photos per month - On my way to print these today! I'll post a photo of the photos later. The thing that I learned this month about this one is that if I want to print photos of things, I need to TAKE photos of things. So events like dinners with friends, markets, outdoor festivals, etc - take pictures of things that I will want to keep. 
12. Dinner Party - scheduled for later in the year
13. Chicago - planned for later
14. Surprise Party - I can't write about that anymore...
15. Cards for B-days/Anniversaries - Yeah. I sucked up this one this month. Going to make a point of getting on top of October. 
16. Mail a letter - sending it today!
17. Get a Dog - Need to think of something new for this one...
18. Go to Dentist - scheduled for later
19. Retirement Fund - totally forgot about this one. Shit.
20. Book/movie/album recommendations from family - they are slowly coming in! I'm excited to get started
21. Journaling - I may amend this one to journaling specific days. Maintaining this blog daily as well as trying to work on my other one is a big time commitment. So I may need to cut back on this one and focus more on the book blog. Don't worry, you will you still get to hear all about this exciting stuff (</sarcasm>) 
22. Rock Climbing - I have that scheduled for a particular month. I can't remember which one or find my yearly schedule...I should get on that. 
23. Birthday date - check!
24. Poetry reading/book event/concert  - went to Bookstravaganza all myself! 
25. ass-kicking glass - scheduled
26. Call my sisters - going really well. It is hard to schedule with them but we are talking a lot more. 
27. Beginners art class - I found a book binding workshop yesterday! So I am going to do that, but I also want to find an actually weekly class that runs for awhile. 
28. Boston - scheduled
29. Credit Card - app sent in. Waiting. 
30. Museum memberships - going to get these in October

So there you go! I think I'm doing pretty well, all things considering. 

Now enjoy some photos...

Desk-area is coming together slowly; I have too many lots of really great books to read this month; My scarf so far

My younger sister will be the recipient of the first of my hand-written letters. I hope she likes it!  

On a lighter note, my favourite pub has LOTS of vegan options including the best veggie bacon ever. Ever.  

Cue Sad Trombone

The interview didn't turn into a job. Sad face.

I am not going to sit here and say I'm not disappointed (I am) but I'm really okay with it. This was a last minute application that I sent in on the closing date last Wednesday, so it has barely been on my radar for a week. Also, the "plan" is to really go for something that starts in the new year. I want to give my employers notice, let them know that I'm looking and give them time to prepare for my departure. Also I need to save up the money. So this is really okay.

Yet as okay as I am with this, it does make me wonder. This is the third interview that I have had for an internship. I have received very positive feedback on my resume and experience. So I can't help but wonder if it is me.

I don't mean that in a self-depraved "I suck soooo much" kinda way. More in that I have never had to interview professionally before. Ever. And I'm probably not very good at it. I don't think that I go in and say the wrong things, more that I go in and miss opportunities to say the best things. I don't really sell myself. I am positive and honest, enthusiastic and open, but I don't really use every chance to state why I am the best candidate.

So I'm going to look into speaking with an employment officer or something; someone who can couch me on my interviewing skills and offer constructive feedback.

Why? (other than the obvious)

I got in touch with my faaaaavourite press. Yes, the same one I got in touch with for review copies of books to review. I asked them about internship opportunities and they said there will be one coming up this January. Hello perfect. They are expecting my resume later this fall.

So I need to nail that interview. I need to be a champion interviewee by December.

Have any of you struggled with this? Tips are welcome!

My Desk

As I have been spending a lot more time at my desk, I decided it should get some attention, aesthetically. I had been using a system of clustered post-its on the wall for awhile, so I decided since that was working, just to stick with it.

I bought some crappy $2 frames from Value Village and prettied them up with craft paint and a varnish. Then instead of putting their glass back in, I cut cork board to size and put that in. Voila! Mini bulletin boards for all areas of life! I even had an extra so I'm going to use it to keep business cards as I collect them.

There were definitely some issues - mostly with getting the cork board to fit properly, but overall I like the end result. And it is useful, which is a double win in my books!

 I'm thinking about putting a hanging plant above the printer to fill in that dead space a little. Thoughts?

First month, coming to a close

Hi friends, 

So my first month of 30x30 is nearing its end. While I haven't been able to fully cross anything off my list, I am feeling really good about how things are going so far! 

Best of all is that I am SO much more aware of how I spend my time. And how quickly it can go by. I can't believe that a month has already flown by! I definitely feel like my days are more full. Even if my plans are to come home and knit, or get up an hour early to run, I feel like I'm doing more with the time that I have. 

Where do I want to step it up? I need to get back into the running routine. I had my doctor tell me to scale back and my lazy-brain heard "stop" and I did. 

Also, the cards and letters. I need to be aware of these ones and plan into my days and weeks time to make and send them. I didn't send out two birthday cards in September but my plan is that as these happened before the start of the project, I will get them next year. Lame? Maybe, but I'm okay with it. Keeping the goals of the project in mind when I make that decision. 

Regarding the photos - I am printing them this weekend. Saying that (writing that?) has made me realize that I need to start taking photos that I will want to print. I take a LOT of photos, but not many that I necessarily want to keep. So I need to start doing more of that. I want the photo thing to evolve into me taking photos or more meaningful things - people I care about and the times that we spend together. Not just 20 random photos from the month. At the rate that I'm going though there are going to be a lot of pictures of babies with diapers on their heads (they think it is a funny hat...I have to agree). 

As for the quit my job one, there is a plan in place for that. I interviewed yesterday for an internship so we will see if that works out. If not, there is still great stuff happening. First, the woman I interviewed with was really  impressed with my resume, so that is so encouraging. I'm also continuing to work to build it. I have successfully started a book club with other publishing students and we are going to meet near the end of October for the first time. Then I am getting involved with a friend's charitable endeavor (which isn't public yet so I can't talk about it...). I've contacted my favourite publishing house and they are sending me advanced readers copies of up coming and new releases so that I can review them for my blog. I'm also going to expand my work with stellaa.org and do more blogging and outreach to authors for them. I'm trying to get involved in any and all ways that I can and not only build my resume, but get real experience that will make me more marketable. 

Next month is Vegtober! I'm excited to get started on the vegan experiment, though I am going to miss cheese so much! But if October flies by the same way that September did, I won't have a problem! As part of my goodbye-to-cheese, I got Danforth Pizza House the other night. It was INSANE and cheese and soooooo good. But so cheesy that I don't think that I could eat it again for a month again regardless, haha. 

Okay! That's it for now xo

Zzzzz

Hours of volunteering yesterday at Toronto WOTS: 10
Lost children I reunited with a parent: 2
Books bought: 4
Hours of sleep last night: not enough

Sorry for no update yesterday. I was working all day at the Word on the Street festival here in Toronto. It was SO MUCH FUN. I was in charge of taking care of all the exhibits in the kids' zone for the afternoon and it was very cool. I got a walkie talkie, which is pretty awesome no matter what Is happening. Plus book nerds everywhere!

After WOTS I got home and took care of some stuff. Namely: my book club. People have been hard to rally together over the past few months so I decided to call it quits and start a new one. And what better place to recruit than my publishing program?! So I emailed the director and she loved it! I sent her information and she posted it on the Facebook page and boom- 6 people right off the bat. We are going to expand this year and go to event together and write book reviews, so it should be a lot of fun :)

Today I have a ridiculous day: work at 6:30am until 4 and then an interview at 5 (all your fingers should be crossed!). Then I need to WRITE! This week is really nuts: work or class every night, early mornings every day, working all weekend. Bluarg.

I'm back to running this week though! Tomorrow I'm back to it and actually looking forward to it.

Okay. I'm done! Updates on the book blog re: WOTS later today. Maybe.

Book-Nerd Post!

I got new books!!! I am finally reaping the rewards of being a September baby, after years of feeling overshadowed by the beginning of a new school year. You see the fall season in publishing is the biggest season of the year, when some of the most exciting titles are released by some really amazing authors. And since people know I love to read, they get me books! Or gift cards! And then I get to buy all the books I have been drooling over (well, not all. A fraction of them really, but it is still very exciting).

So I picked up these on my way home tonight.

If you are interested in knowing more about them, I talk about them a bit on my other blog. Or you can google them. Let's just leave it at "I'm REALLY excited to read these books!" for now, shall we?

I know that I probably owe you a "real" post soon, since mostly I've been posting pointless drivel that spills out of my head at the end of an exhausting day. But you don't leave comments, so you will just have to wait. I do have things in the works though, so be patient!

I can't say

I can't post about what I want to post about. But it has been an exciting 24 hours. More to come when I can share...

Class last night was excellent! My teacher is hilarious and so knowledgable. And I seem to have a real knack for publicity, which is soooo nice to realize. I feel a little lost at times, mostly because I'm not super familiar with all the media in Canada (who knew not having a TV would come back to kick my ass like this?!)

So! I need your help:

Friends who live in Canada but NOT TORONTO, especially in or near larger cities: what are you reading (papers, mags), listening to (radio) and watching? Doesn't have to be for books. Just in general. Also- any awesome local writing festivals your way? Help me :)

If you do I might share my exciting news...

Great week :)

There are moments when I wonder if this whole "I want to get a job in publishing" dream of mine is a total waste of time. I often feel completely overwhelmed by the volume of information that is out there and my not knowing very much of it at all. I listen to articulate and intelligent people speak about the business of books in Canada, the history of book selling in Canada, and the people who are involved in this industry and to be honest, sometimes I feel totally lost.

And then, sometimes I don't. Last night I had a group project to work on (we are participating in Pub Fight, which is hosted by BookNet Canada. It is like fantasy football for publishing nerds and it is amazing). We had a week to talk in our group about titles we wanted, what sold well last year, and what kind of strategy to use. I felt like I contributed as much as I could to the choices we made, but my team was so impressed with the experience I had and my ideas, it really was nice! And after class I was talking to one of my team-members about my internships and experiences so far in the industry and in doing so I had the opportunity to really see just how much I did know.

Then Laurie Grassi (Book editor at Chatelaine) commented on my book blog which made my night/week/month. Then Sarah MacLachlan replied very kindly to one of my tweets which made me shriek with delight (she is the publisher at my favourite Canadian press, House of Anansi).

Not "big and exciting" stuff necessarily, but definitely showed me that I do know people, and I do know the industry better than I thought I did.

Update on non-book-nerd-stuff:

• job apps job apps job apps (one for a real job, not just an internship where they don't pay me!)
• running has been reduced to twice a week. Medical advice. So - that is happening now. 
• WOTS is this weekend so I'll be volunteering both with the festival and with stellaa.org; if you're in Toronto then come out

I think that is it. Not too much exciting stuff to share I guess.

Bookstravaganza!

Take one very tired and somewhat cranky nanny and give her a ticket to an awesome book event. 

Apply awkward quasi-formal wear so that she stands a good chance of fitting in. Bonus: it has pink. 

Let simmer for 1+ hours with book lovers, publishers, authors, and other professional nerds. Oh, and add a dash of conversation with Chatelaine's book editor (who adorably introduced me to numerous people as "Cmacmizzle! From Twitter!") Sprinkle with free swag. 

Result: One happy book nerd!

The swag was awesome! I am most excited for the copy of The Sweet Girl as it will be my first read from this year's Giller long list. Also - dry shampoo has me kind of intrigued (but in a much different way). 

A VERY fun night indeed!

Rain = blah

So my run got rained out this morning. Boo. Yes - I'm actually disappointed. Weird, right? Before you start judging me for not sucking it up and running in the rain, let me just say that it was raining a lot. And I don't own a raincoat/anything that is waterproof. So I think in the interest of not getting sick I did the right thing. I'll go tonight or tomorrow morning - no biggie. I figure a Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday schedule works best for me but I am flexible and will adjust where need be. How often do others run?

On the fun end of the life-spectrum, I am going to Bookstravaganza tonight at the Ritz Carlton here in Toronto. It is a little party thrown by Random House Canada and Chatelaine Magazine to highlight some of the fall releases. It should be fun! I am looking forward to meeting in person of the people in Canadian publishing that I have thus far only dealt with online. The only complicated part is that I didn't find out that I had a ticket until I was already at work this morning, which means I will have to go home at 5pm, change, go to an appointment in fancier attire than normal until 7:30 and then scoot down to the party an hour late, hopefully arriving at 8pm. Living in a big city is fun but sometimes the time/effort to takes to go places really just sucks the fun out of them. In any case - I'm excited to be going! Photos and comments will be coming your way! 

Applying for a slew of jobs during my "break" today. All the fingers should be crossed for me. All of them. 

Yawn!

Thanks to those of you who got in touch regarding the running with keys problem I had. I am all good to go now, jingle free :)

Not much to update you all on. I had a busy weekend with school work and reading and trying to get a review ready for my other blog. Hopefully that will be up by Thursday. I'm also trying to get a round of applications ready to go out this week. Lots to do!

I spent a good chunk of time on Sunday working on a crafty project, but it is half finished and I am too tired tonight to get it done and take pictures. Tomorrow!

Those of you in the Toronto area should come out this weekend to Word on the Street. I'm volunteering at not one, not two, but THREE different places on Sunday (Tightrope Books, the festival itself, and Stellaa.org). I'm excited to be involved but kind of sad I won't get much free time to wander around and meet people.

Running again tomorrow. I learned an important lesson with my run on Sunday: eat light the night before. I was doubled over in pain during my run from the cheesecake I'd had Saturday night. So tonight I ate a light dinner and I'm getting to bed at an absurdly early hour.

Oh! And one last thing. My mom is sending me all my grandmother's knitting and crocheting needles! She has EVERYTHING and it will all be shipped out to me this week :) I want to try crocheting the kids I take care of some slippers and/or hats for the winter. Fun! That said, my scarf has yet to be started...I keep choosing sleep over knitting this week. I should have a good chunk of time tomorrow night though.

Okay. I'm officially boring now so I'll sign off.

Thoughts on Running

I was talking to a friend last night and we started talking about my running project. I should stop and say that while I love all the encouragement that people have offered regarding the running I do feel just a little silly accepting it. It has only been a few times that I've gone and it doesn't feel like much of an accomplishment (yet). But the encouragement does help a lot, so thank you :) Anyway, so we were talking about the running and how it was going and I told her that I had been avoiding the outdoor track near my house because it was always being used by "real" runners. I had realized that I was a little scared to be seen running. It wasn't because I was embarrassed by the lack of finesse my run would display; I am clearly not a "real" runner. But I feel about the act of running the same what I felt about speaking Mandarin when I lived in China: people need only take one look at me and they will know I have NO idea what I'm doing. It takes away a lot of the intimidation factor when the pressure to do well is eliminated from the get-go. So if I wasn't afraid of being (rightfully) pegged as a newbie, what was causing me all of the this anxiety? Running Culture and my being decisively on the outside of it.

What I mean by "running culture" is all of the stuff that people who run seem to know: what to wear, when to wear it, and what it is worn for; how to plan a route and what my route should include and why; which shoes to wear for different terrains and based on my physical needs. Also running culture encompasses the answers to all these questions I never knew I would have: what do I do with my house keys while out for a run? Those in the know certainly had this figured out and my having my keys jingling at my side felt more embarrassing than gasping for breath after 2 minutes of light jogging.

I'll admit it - not having the "stuff" has made me feel like an outsider too. Not that anyone has said anything to me at all, but in my head I judge myself for not having the outfits and the iPhone holder and all the fancy things that "real" runners use. But this is one thing that I am actively trying to avoid - buying the "stuff." The reasoning is that I am not doing this to become part of a club. I am not looking to be identified as a "real" runner. I just want to get my runs over with and (hopefully) enjoy the physical and mental perks of some good exercise. I don't want to change who I am into a runner, but rather I want to adopt running into my current life. So I have decided for this reason (as well as because I am trying to save money so I can quit my job) to only buy what I need. For now, that is shoes, a couple pairs of exercise pants, and a couple sports bras. My keys can jingle in those pockets for now.

I can be crafty?

Well, I can give it a solid attempt. I was out running errands today (more on that in a second) and I saw these pretty red labels. I needed wanted to label the mason jars I had moved my dry goods into and I have been itching to break out the stamps that I bought in Philly. Overall I am really pleased! Not complicated project at all and now my jars look so pretty.

The errands were in an attempt to check things off that list I posted yesterday. Work was a no-go so I did laundry, and picked up some stuff I needed for the house (future project is in the works). I went to Home Depot for paint, and then foolishly realized that before I picked a paint I needed to pick a paper for the back of the bookshelves. So now I have to figure out where on earth to get wallpaper that won't cost a fortune.

The run this morning got pushed back to this evening (give me a break - I get up at 6am all week. I wanted to sleep in).

Now: nap time and then some cleaning.


**side note - how cute is that curtain? I picked it up for $6.99 at Value Village yesterday.

My ambitious plan for the weekend

The weekend plan is ambitious not only in the volume of tasks I am going to tackle, but what some of those tasks are. There is the list, it should speak for itself:*

1. Interview Friday after work for another p/t job
2. Pick up eggs Friday after interview
3. Spend my night washing down my kitchen and all my floors (the original plan was to go out for a birthday dinner with my friends, but none of them seem to be available. Take out and cleaning it is!)
4. Run Saturday morning (Ughghghghghghghghguyuugyhushdghsdlkjghsldfg goodie)
5. Brunch! Something fun! Yay! No one could make it. Boo.
6. Either:
1. work all afternoon
2. go get primer, paint, and wall paper to turn my ugly new bookshelves into something that looks pretty (see below)
7. DO LAUNDRY OTHERWISE I WILL BE A DIRT BAG! (side note: I don't have laundry in my home and this has never really been an issue. I mean I would definitely prefer to have laundry here, but I kinda like the laudromat, so it's all good. Or was. Enter running, aka: Let's wear something for only 30 mins that is gonna get gross and sweaty. This means that every day that I run, I wear THREE outfits - sometimes four! Running Outfit (1), Work Outfit (2), Potential change of shirt and/or pants for school so I don't have baby snot/sweat/food/dirt on myself in public Outfit (3), PJs (4). This is, in a word, foolish.) 
8. Get home and do homework/write/read (fun Saturday night or what?!)
9. Make chili Sunday morning
10. Meeting with Internship-supervisor
11. Knitting and tea! Something fun! Yay! 
12. Get primer, paint and wallpaper if I had to work on Saturday and couldn't do it then. 
13. Homework/write/read
14. Two job applications

Some of those are gonna be fun (yay brunch and knitting and writing and all that!) but some of them are gonna be HARD. 

Namely, the bookshelves. I just don't have any design sense. I  know what I like and I know what kind of feel I want in my home, but I am not good and bringing things together to create a cohesive "feel" for a space. So I have no idea if these bookshelves are gonna be great or look silly, but I am moving ahead with them all the same. I spent $20 on them so I want to keep the makeover cheap too. I really have been digging the look of wallpapered bookshelves like this one. I just don't know how it will look in the space, and if it will be too much to have two of them wall papered, and how bold a paper I should use, and so on and so on. But we will see! I figure they can't look any worse...









*Disclaimer - this isn't an "I'm so busy and important and everyone else sucks" list. It is an "If I don't write all these things down now Imma forget something and feel like a moron" list. 

My posts have gotten decided more dull. You can't say I didn't warn you.

Today was Run #3. It was less awful than I expected, which was a nice surprise. I guess I will wait and see how much pain I am in later haha.

Last night I had my first class of the semester. It was great to be back and in that mindset. It definitely gave me a boost to put more time into the volunteer work that I'm doing and seek out new opportunities to build my skill set. I have my second class tonight, which should also be fun. This semester I'm doing the two classes that I am really excited about, so I get to geek out with much more enthusiasm than usual :)

I have been neglecting my other blog this week, but I am writing a review to post this weekend. I finished a great book while on vacation and need to talk about it, even if it is just with the internet. On that note - I think my book club has officially died! Everyone seems to have moved on and lost interest, which is very sad for me. I may try to organize another online via twitter.

Okay. Donezo. I'll try to be more interesting tomorrow.

Vegan-izing (Not a Lecture! I promise!)

I was speaking to someone about the vegan project I'm embarking on next month and it got me excited to write about it here.

I was asked what motivated me to make try out veganism after 16 years of sitting comfortably in my state of  vegetarianism. It does seem odd, to me anyway, that I would decide to eliminate one animal product from my diet but not any others. Why the divide? What was the difference?

To answer this question I first need to tell a little story about how I became a vegetarian in the first place. If you did the math right, you figured out that I was 13 when I made this lifestyle choice. To say I "made a lifestyle choice" would be a pretty impressive stretch. I was 13. I didn't make lifestyle choices. I am more than willing to admit that at that age I enthusiastically followed trends. I liked what my friends liked and what my demi-god older sister liked (though I would never admit this at the time). So when my friends all decided to declare that they were VEGETARIANS!!! I was more than happy to say "me too!"

So as you can imagine I didn't stop to think about why I should or shouldn't be a vegetarian in that moment, I just did it. I stopped eating meat. I kept at it after the near-immediate realization my mother hated it; I was at the time close to 5 10" and barely 100 pounds soaking wet, the last thing she wanted was for me to stop eating anything. But it stuck.

Since then I have obviously found many reasons to choose this lifestyle - one doesn't stick with something for 16 years just to piss their mom off (at least I don't...I love my mom!) I have since learned a lot about how meat is produced and many of the environmental, social, ethical, and health impacts that this production can have. It has become clear to me that meat is something that I am simply not comfortable eating.

I often get defensive when talking to meat-eaters about my choices when they claim they could never give up meat because "it tastes so good" or they would "miss it too much." I feel like the pleasure of a food shouldn't nullify the negative impacts of its production. And 99% of the time I don't feel deprived of anything by not eating meat. It doesn't have to be about not eating something and can easily be reframed as just eating different things. And I have maintained for a long time that you don't have to give up meat; reducing consumption can drastically impact the many of the negative impacts of meat production, as well as increase your over all level of health. It doesn't have to be hard!

The problem is that dairy and egg production is just as bad. And slowly, in the past 5 years or so, I have moved towards a more vegan diet. Milk was the first to go, and my consumption of dairy in general dropped dramatically - yogurt, cheese, ice cream, etc. Once you let your body show you just how lactose intolerant it really is, you very quickly learn to watch what you eat. More recently eggs have been what I have been hung up on, until I found Eggy Weggs which brings local, happily-raised chicken-laid eggs to my neighbourhood. But still, this move to veganism feels natural in a lot of ways.

The ironic part is that those meat-eater arguments up there are the exact thoughts that have kept me from really giving veganism an honest attempt. Give up goat cheese?! Blue cheese?! But where will I eat? How will I bake? It is going to be such an inconvenience! Etc. etc.

So I just decided to do it. To put my mouth where my...mouth is? That's not right, but you get the point. And I don't know what the end result will be. I may decide to go back to buying my hippy eggs and eating cheese, I may not. But I do think that I owe it to myself to see what my vegan life would look like and what kind of changes it brings about. So am I bummed about giving up goat cheese for a month? Totally. Will it suck? Not at all. I am excited for the challenges of what is sure to be a fun and eye-opening experiment.

Sorry Sorry Sorry

Fail. I didn't post yesterday. Reason: I left my computer at work. I did journal though, kinda. I spent my break at work writing an article for the blog-tour I'm organizing to be guest-blogged on one of the participating blogs. Check it out at jennsbookshelves.com

The other thing I did yesterday: run at 6:30am. I wish I could sit here and tell you how great it felt, but I can't. It sucked. It hurt. It wasn't that I was tired or out of breath, my muscles just refused to lift my legs for me. But I did it and today is a rest day and while I'm still sore, I'm not feeling too bad! So that is encouraging. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I'm looking forward to running again tomorrow, but I'm not completely dreading it...that's something, right?

I also interviewed for a part-time childcare gig last night (extra money = can live while I do an unpaid internship in the future) and bought book shelves, finally. So it was a productive day! The shelves I don't think will be permanent, but they were $10 each and hold my books, so in they went. I'm going to wallpaper the inside of them to fancy them up a bit, until I can figure out my home office and the floating shelf situation.

Oh! I found this the other day on my run. I am thinking of washing it down, painting it up and making some kind of mail-holding situation. Thoughts?

This is so uninteresting. Sorry.

Class starts tonight - which is pretty exciting for me. I missed being in school, and these two classes are the two that I've most been looking forward to. So a long day for me (7:30-5 work and 6:30-9:30 class, blah) but it will be a good one!

I'll leave things there.

"Carrie, Party of One!"

Tonight was my first date-night with myself. I went out after my first day back to work after two weeks off and I certainly needed the treat (I've said it before and I'm saying it again - babies are exhausting). I went to a favourite restaurant and tried something new, which was fun and delish.

I must admit though that I'm having a bit of a not so great day. I'm not sure if it is the return to work, the aching muscles (so jazzed to run again tomorrow at 6:30am, really), or just a natural low after being excited for so much over the past few weeks. Maybe all of the above. Tonight definitely wasn't how I envisioned self-date night to be. I wanted it be a time to think, reflect, and give myself a pat on the back for things accomplished and plan ahead. I wanted it to be a night of self-care: to spend time treating myself well and maybe spoiling myself a little. Instead I felt really unmotivated to do anything nice for myself, tried to talk myself out of going, and spent a good portion of the meal engrossed in a book (a very good book, but that isn't the point). Honestly, I mostly felt rotten. And while it was a total treat to have a tasty meal cooked, served and cleaned up for me, I left not really feeling like I had gotten what I was looking for.

Not that I'm trying to garner sympathy - I'm not. I just don't see the point of coming home from a long, tiring, and mentally sucky day to write a post that is a complete lie.

The night won't be a total loss. I have a bath cooling off as I type, the second half of a great novel to read, and the reassurance that even if today was icky, tomorrow will be here all too soon.

Seriously - 6:30am to run?! What was I thinking?

My job may be exhausting, but sometimes I get catch the babies holding hands in the stroller.
So it isn't all bad. 

Running

I went running last night and it was embarrassingly exhausting. But I did it! I'm going to take a rest-day today and then attempt an early morning run on Tuesday. I'm already tired thinking about it.

Impressively sweaty after a light run in cool weather. 

I was so happy when that lady-voice told me I was finished!

Today is also my date-night with myself! I had my schedule confused, which is why it isn't happening tomorrow. The plan is to take my journal out for coffee after dinner, do some writing and enjoy some quality time with myself out in the world :)

And we're off!

It has officially begun! The countdown is on: 30 things to do by September 8, 2013. If anyone was wondering why I didn't update yesterday, my 29th birthday and day #1 of this project, I have a totally valid excuse:

I was traveling. 

Maybe not the most fun way to spend a birthday, but it was actually really nice. I was road-tripping back from Philly where I had been visiting with family, and had lots of bus/car time to think about the start of this endeavour and the whats and whys of all the items on my list. It just so happened that my mom had returned my copy of The Happiness Project that week also, so I spent a lot of time comparing and contrasting that project with my own. I think in a lot of ways they are similar - the goal of both being to change small, everyday behaviours in order to have a larger positive outcome. I'm not going to try to convince anyone that reading books my family recommends or spending God only knows how many hours making a quilt will change my life. But things like this will change how I spend my time, which will shape what my days look like. And hopefully my days will be filled with meaningful things that I want to be doing. They might not be "exciting" things, but they will reflect a version of myself that I am striving to be more like. One of the lessons that I took from THP is that life is what happens every day, and it is how I spend my days, moment to moment, that matters. 

Anyway, I'm back in Toronto now and excited to get started on everything! I had some birthday money kicking around so I went down to The Purple Purl today (thanks to a helpful reader suggestion) and got myself started on the knitting. 

The woman there was super helpful and got me everything that I needed to knit my first project, a scarf. I decided I want to do my scarf in a ribbed pattern, so I sat down for a bit this afternoon and practiced - check out the end result:

Not too bad, right? I ran into some problems while binding off and in the process dropped 3 stitches, but otherwise I didn't make any mistakes. Crazy. I decided to hang onto this as a little momento of one of my early projects and use it as a bookmark. 

I am pretty pleased! 

I am also going for my first "run" tonight, so wish me luck. I downloaded the Couch to 5k app for my iphone, which I'm told is pretty good for very very very beginner-runners (which I most definitely am). 

This is one that is going to be hard for me to stick to. I am a champion creator of excuses. When I don't want to do something I engage in pretty rigorous metal debate, but the "don't wanna" side usually comes out on top. I've found the only way around this is to just not start the process - if there something I'm not gonna want to do I have to just get up and do it before I talk myself out of it. This will definitely be the case with running. I want the end results - to be more fit, have more energy, etc., but because the benefits aren't immediate I am going to really struggle with sticking it out past week 2 when the novelty wears off. Any and all advice on this is welcome. Also, any runners who read this and have advice regarding what/when to eat before/after a run would be helpful. Thanks!

Happy End-of-Twenty-Eight To Me

Eek!

Tomorrow is the official start-date of the 30x30 project - my 29th birthday. Tonight I celebrated my last day as a 28 year old with my family (minus one member). We went out for Thai food, a brave endeavor for my parents who are afraid of spicy food.

I had noodles and they were delicious. 

Then we came home and my older sister gave me the best birthday present ever - Lolcat Magnetic Poetry. It was entertaining.

We finished the night off with ice cream cake - it was TASTY! 

(We actually call one another by our birth-order numbers: Oney, Twoie, Thricey - because Threeie sounds too weird - and Foury. This is why there is a 2 on my cake.)

All in all it was a great pre-birthday! The rest of the night will be spend packing (pretty well done actually), drinking Gin and playing PayDay (a family classic). I'm a very lucky lady to have such a great family.

I made something! Sorta...

So after a long day of dragging my family around Philly to look at cool things (we went to University Of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology - mummies!) I got home and decided to do some knittage. So I sat down with Snitch 'n Bitch and I made something! Well...sorta. I needed to practice my knits/purls and I have NEVER been able to bind off properly, but look! I did it!

After basking in the glory of the thing that I had made, my sister asked "what are you gonna do with it?" My response was "Be proud of it" but then I decided that maybe it should serve a function. So I debated turning it into an eye patch...

...but decided that it didn't really work. I do kinda want to knit a proper eye patch now though. So after considering calling it a face cover, a back-of-hand-warmer, and a Foury-hitter (my little sister's nickname is Foury), I settled on:

A fascinator! 

I know...am I the height of fashion of what?

Next up - cards!

Getting Organized

If this were a job interview and you asked why I think I'm qualified to complete this list of 30 Things in a year, I would tell you I have the one quality that it all boils down to: a near obsessive need to organize. Especially when it comes to time management - I need to map out projects down to the most ridiculous detail. And I am awesome at it (toot toot goes my own horn!)

So today I made some lists. And by the time I had finished I was feeling pretty good about my chances of getting all these things done (okay - some of them I am still totally unsure as to how/when they will happen, but with those I'm using my other above-average skill: ignoring the problem). 

Basically "The Project" breaks down into two groups - those that I do once and are done and those that are ongoing and require a little more attention. Of those ongoing items, the one I'm trying to get prepared for (because I know if I don't it is going to sneak up on me and then get out of control) is the birthday/anniversary cards and the monthly letters. It doesn't sound like much, but both are projects that a) require time and thought and b) need to be done ahead of time so they can be mailed. Enter Organizational-Carrie. 

I have made a list for each month, on which I have (and will continue to add) the birthdays and anniversaries of those I am going to send something to. 

Also on these monthly lists are the particular one-time goals that will be done that month, as well as milestone goals for the on-going goals (Eg - the "have a scarf done by November" goal I mentioned in the last post). 

As for the blog, I am going to add a widget with the appropriate monthly list of goals somewhere on the page that makes sense, so that people can see what I am planning on checking off that month. Also, I don't think I'm going to be linking EVERY post to facebook since that will get annoying and they aren't all going to be interesting (unlike this SUPER interesting post), so maybe I'll start a weekly "round up" of things I did that week/reflections/whatevers and just link that post to facebook. I dunno. Thus far people have seemed kinda interested in the project, but thus far they have only had to read two (now three) of these things. We'll see. 

Oh! If you want me to send you a card on your birthday then please let me know either in comments below on in comments on Facebook. You must be willing to give me your mailing address and potentially share the disastrous end result of my crafting attempt on this blog. 

That's all! Time to watch the news with my dad. 

Some Plans and Thoughts (Alternative Title "WTF am I doing!?")

Hi Friends.

So as the start date to the project approaches I am starting to work my head around some kind of plan for getting all these things done. Some are more long-term oriented goals and then require a bit more planning. It is unlikely that without any preparation I will be able to run five kilometers by this time next year, or have knit anything wearable (although my sister has kindly reminded me that a scarf is probably currently within my abilities). So here is what has been done thus far to get my notoriously lazy butt in gear:

• I emailed my landlords and the dog goal is a no-go. So either I move (boo!) or don't get a dog (boo!). 
• I have a running program/schedule that I plan on using and am getting myself an actual pair of shoes (current "running shoes" are 3+ year old trail shoes). 
• I've been practicing my knitting and thankfully it is coming back to me! I'm going to take the half-sarcastic suggestion my sister offered and aim to have needles and yarn bought and a scarf being worn by November to get myself back into the groove. 
• Buying Stamps this week for cards - wee!
• Applying like a mad woman for internships as they come up. Don't. Want. To. Nanny. Anymore!
• Looked into art classes in Toronto and there are some that interest me. Book binding would be cool (that counts, right?) or pottery. Finding something that works with my schedule is going to be the hardest thing - my free time (like most people) is sparse. 
• Emailed one sister about the project and the movie/book/album item - she is going to get back to me on it. 

Not much but then this certainly isn't going to be race and is much more a marathon-style project. Blogging every day is mostly going to be a matter of creating a habit of it  thus this less-than-interesting follow up post. I'm also trying to imagine how the blogging is going to look. I mean mindless prattle from me about what I am working on isn't going to be that interesting to read about, so I need to figure out some kind of system - long term updates and short term updates? I dunno. 

I mentioned mindless prattle - here is some more of that. 

So in my email exchange with my younger sister she touched on the scope of the project - setting "big" and "long term" goals and the benefit that can arise from working in that framework. It was really satisfying that she immediately got what this was all about - less about checking things off a list and more about having a motivation to DO these things. Will it be upsetting to not finish all 30? Of course? Will I see the project as a failure? Not at all. Already it has created success - it has caused me to spend hours thinking about where my life is, what and who I spend my time on and with, and think about how (and if) I want those things to change. It has forced me to look at my strengths and weaknesses and create a list of things that I know that I want for myself and not a list of "bragging rights" to put on display for others. I'm really excited to get started on all these items because they are all exciting things to me - from going to Boston (AQUARIUM!!!) to getting a credit card (ONLINE SHOPPING!!!! I mean PAYING BILLS!!!). 

Anyhoo. That's it for now. Time for goat cheese and crackers (not vegan yet!)