Quote

"Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever."
- Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See

Friday, 26 December 2014

A !#FFFFFF Christmas

I suppose I could take one of these depressingly-not-cold nights to write a blog post (my mother gives me looks when she checks my blog and there isn't a new post). I wish there was snow, to be completely honest. I miss needing to bundle up in scarves and gloves to go outside. And I can't believe I'm saying this, but I miss shovelling snow. It was always a time that I could exercise, enjoy the outdoors and have quiet time to myself, all in one. So I'm a little disappointed there's no snow and it's been weeks since the temperature dropped below zero.
I was thinking that we shouldn't call it Christmas Day, but rather Christmas Hour(s). Because there's the Christmas celebration in the morning, but then the rest of the day is just any other day off (except for Christmas dinner). My grandma is visiting and we had my aunt and cousins over for a few days. It was god to be able to see them again, even if I didn't hang out with them that much :/ We had the classic turkey dinner with all the side dishes. My favourite is always the stuffing. My dad has started making the stuffing outside the turkey and while he thought he would never admit it, he likes it better that way. In no small part because now you can make so much more stuffing, which is good news for me :) Eating recently has been a bit of a struggle because I got my wisdom teeth out a week ago. I'm no longer in any pain, but I can't open my mouth all the way. Which I only notice when I'm eating, which has caused me to dwell on how I use my mouth. I never really thought that I took particularly large bites, but evidently I do. Nevertheless, eating takes me a while (bad news for securing seconds and thirds). There has also been an abundance of baked goods around which is bad news for my waist line.
The one big notable gift I got this year is a drawing tablet, which I've been wanting for a while. It let's me doodle and draw and have it show up on the computer (I thought this was common knowledge, but everyone I've told about it has asked me what it does). I also got a lot of tea and tea related merchandise. I asked for a temperature set kettle, and I got one, which I'm so happy about. My dad doesn't understand this, but if you make some teas with boiling water, you can burn the tea and give it a bitter taste. To prevent this, I usually wait for a while after the kettle boils before making my tea. But now, with my temperature set kettle (I don't know if that's what it's actually called, it's just a term I came up with) I can make my tea right away. My brother got me a earl grey tea sampler from The Tea Haus. Now, when I think sample, I think enough to make one or two cups. The box was a decent size, so I was expecting 10 or 12 different samples. Instead, it was 4 full sized bags of loose leaf tea. Like the bags that DavidsTea comes in, packed full. It's a lot of tea. I've only tried one so far, but I really like it. My sister got me a tea steeper that looks like a little man chilling on the edge of your mug. It's pretty cute.
I really want to see the movie The Imitation Game. My parents have also expressed an interest in seeing it, so I have high hopes that I'll be able to convince them to go see it in the near future. This evening we watched Grand Budapest Hotel. If I had to give a quote to promote the movie, I would choose "Visually intriguing". It was not what I expected (mind you, I didn't know much about the movie going in). The cinematography was very different that most movies today are; kind of indie? It actually kind of reminds me of 500 Days of Summer in that way. Not really what I was expecting, visually different than the status quo and generally a good movie (in my opinion, at least).
I just finished reading We Were Liars by E. Lockhart and wow. What. An. Ending. I think I mentioned it in an earlier post and gave the book description, which ends with "And if anyone ask you how it ends, just LIE." That was what got me interested in the book in the first place. And it lived up to it. The beginning of the book was a little slow, but worth it for the ending. (And no, I won't tell you the ending). Now I want to try and read one more book before the end of the year to complete my goal of reading 20 books this year. Something I want to do in the new year is read more often. Because this past year, reading was put on a back burner to school and surfing the internet. Less tumblr, more reading. And creativity. I was given some art inspiration for Christmas, and I want to make a real effort to try and be creative more often. I may also steal J's idea of getting rid of something everyday. It probably won't be everyday, and being away at university will make it hard, but I want to make a real effort to get rid of things I don't need. Because Lord knows I have way too much stuff. Kijiji, here I come.
I have a ton more stuff I want to write about (like Elliott's birthday party, Boxing Day shopping, how the break is almost over, and saying "saucy" in a British accent to my Grandma), but I want to go to bed before the sun comes up, so I'll draw this to a close.

293. What was the last movie you watched?
The Grand Budapest Hotel

294. Favourite day of the year?
Christmas is one of them. But birthdays are also nice because their your own special day, and nobody else's.

295. Are you too shy to ask someone out?
You betcha,

296. Can you do a headstand (not using the wall)?
Is the pope atheist? (Hint: the answer is no).

297. Hugs or kisses?
Hugs. And then if I decide I like you, kisses.

In case you were wondering (which I know you are), #FFFFFF is the colour code for white, and "!" represents "opposite" or "not" in computer programming. 

Sunday, 14 December 2014

For those of you who never understand my 20min naps:

Saturday, 13 December 2014

I've been told I need to add some spice to the blog -_-


The Holidays Have Arrived!

I'm done 2A! Wow. That's wild. But I'm glad I'm done. I'm so ready to go home and be all Christmas-y. :) I can't wait to decorate the Christmas tree and make gingerbread. Also, there are so many movies coming out that I want to see! I am so excited to see The Imitation Game.
I went to bed last night at 11 because I knew today would be a long day, what with having two exams and all. But I couldn't fall asleep until 4am. Part of it may have been the fact that my roommates came back from their night out at 3am, which probably pushed back the falling asleep. But it most definitely had to do with the Asians in the penthouse above. I've never seen them myself, but my roommates say that Asians moved into the penthouse earlier this month. And I can hear them moving around occasionally, no big deal. But there have been a handful of times when they've played music late at night (they're fans of Adele). Now, it usually doesn't bother me because I'm awake and (usually) not doing anything terribly important, so I let it slide.
Last night, however, is a different story. As I mentioned, I was trying to sleep so I would be well rested for my exams. And as I lay in bed, trying to fall asleep, what sound should come through the vents but none other than Asian karaoke. At least, I'm pretty sure it was karaoke. The voice sounded very separate from the music. Regardless, not what I want to be listening to while falling asleep. The worst part was that it wasn't constantly playing. A song would play, and then there'd be a couple minutes of silence, and then another song would start up. And that's worse than one song after the other, because during the pauses you can't help but have hope that it's over. You all know what I'm talking about; when something is pissing you off and you think it's stopped. But deep down inside you know it hasn't. And the longer the pause, the larger the hope grows. Only to be crushed again, seconds after thinking, "This is definitely it. It's got to be over".
So that went on for a couple of hours. I was seriously considering contacting the police or whoever it is you're supposed to contact about noise. Well, I say seriously. When the thoughts were running through my head they felt pretty serious. But in reality, if I had called someone, I first of all would have had to get out of bed, which would guarantee not falling asleep. Then I would have had to put real clothes on to go talk to them or something. Not to mention the fact that I don't have minutes on my phone so calling someone would have costed me money. Anyways, I didn't call anyone. (But I did imagine the conversation I would have had with the officer, had I decided to call them.)

I'm so excited to make gingerbread. 

290. Favourite holiday?
This may be biased, given the time of year, but Christmas.

291. Favourite month?
May or September.

292. Have you ever cried for no reason?
I have started crying without knowing why, but upon thinking about it, I can usually pinpoint a reason.

Wednesday, 10 December 2014

286. Siblings?
Sister and brother, both younger.

287. Hair colour?
Dark brown.

288. Eye colour?
Chocolate brown.

289. Do you wear contacts?
Nope. 20/20 vision right here...whatever that means.

Saturday, 6 December 2014

Passing That Time

I went to the mall today and came back with nothing. I feel like a failure. Who goes to the mall and buys nothing. Especially in December! *sigh* Some people are so hard to shop for.
My english exam went well. But what I'm really happy about is my final paper for that class, which we got back after we handed in our exam. And I got an 89 :D I'm so happy. And this is what my prof had to say: "This was a real pleasure to read, Heather - great ideas, very well researched, and carefully argued. Except now I'm a bit depressed about social media..." (my paper was about how mobile phones are ruining our real life interactions). Coming from her [the prof], that means a lot. I've done really well in this class, I think my lowest mark was an 83. And it's not like the course was easy or that the prof was an easy marker, because she said most of the marks are in the low 70s. So I'm pretty happy with myself. That professor was also the best professor I've ever had. She also gave me a 93 on the revised response paper (which I'm pretty sure I talked about before). I literally went up 4% because I added 5 words and fixed a typo. Man, that class was great.

283. How is the weather right now?
Well, from looking out my window, I can tell you that Waterloo is currently...dark. Not windy, high probability of it being cold. Nothing falling from the sky.

284. The first thing you notice about the opposite sex?
Their appearance. And I would just like to say something, because I think this question is fishing for what I call, a beauty pageant answer. "Oh, the first thing I notice about boys is their stunning personality!" No. No, I'm sorry, it's really not. The first thing you notice about someone is their appearance. You have no other option! Unless you meet them online or some other way that would not involve seeing them. But if you're walking down the street, the first thing you're going to notice is not their ability to crack jokes.

285. Do you have a significant other?
No.

(But Benedict does and this is what he said about her:
He's so adorable. They are so frickin cute together. )

Wednesday, 3 December 2014

280. What's you favourite Christmas tradition? And what tradition would you like to start? (Thank you J).
I don't really think we have a specific tradition? I mean, there's a lot of stuff that we do each year, but there's nothing really that's special that I would say is "my family's tradition". I guess a tradition of ours is you get to open your stocking before breakfast, but then the family opens all the gifts together after breakfast. I like that we watch each other open presents and see what everyone got, rather than a mad dash to open everything as quickly as possible.
A tradition I would like to start would probably be making a home-made gingerbread house, which I started last year. That's something I'd like to keep doing.

282. If you could be a crayon, what colour would you be?
Screamin Green (check it out here).