Another Weekend Gone

This weekend was incredibly lazy, interspersed with moments of activity. I baked some cupcakes, which I had intended to send some home with my family when they came up on Saturday, but found out that they had made cupcakes themselves as well. So I have all the cupcakes now. I'll probably take them into school tomorrow. I've been doing a lot of baking and giving it away recently. Not necessarily because I set out to be generous, but because I'm bored, so I bake. And then I have tons of baked goods that I can't consume on my own, so I give them away. Rice Krispies have been made multiple times already this year.
As I mentioned before, my family (minus my dad) came up to Stratford on Saturday to see a showing of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. It was well done; I especially liked how they did Aslan. The legs had a very realistic movement, which I appreciated.

While at the theatre, I ran into the Dyck family, which is the family I lived with over the summer. Boy was I surprised to see them. I ended up hanging out with them after the show and getting dinner with them. We went to about 6 restaurants before giving up and getting Wendy's. A rookie mistake: if you want to eat a meal immediately before or after a show in Stratford, you need to have a reservation. Even Swiss Chalet didn't have room for us. 

This morning a group of us when to an arts and crafts show at the Rotary Complex. It took us about 40mins to walk there because it's way out on the edge of Stratford. It was fun to go though. There was over 100 vendors. There was a raffle to win this massive gingerbread house. It was like the ones you see on TV in the competitions. My favourite part was that they had left the back corner open so you could see inside the house, where they had done the entire interior as well, complete with mini gingerbread people. I was freaking out over it, and somebody from the Stratford Gazette asked if they could use my picture. I said yes, obviously, so now I'll have to keep an eye out for my picture in the paper. I managed to get some things, including a butter alternative that is primarily composed of garlic. It's basically garlic butter but healthier. I'm going to start making myself garlic bread all the time. And might even put it on my sandwiches. We decided to get a cab back, since we didn't fancy walking all the way back. 

I had trouble falling asleep last night, so spent the afternoon in bed lounging around. I watched an episode of The Crown on Netflix. It's about Queen Elizabeth II, starting with her marriage to Prince Philip. I'm loving this series. And it's also surprisingly accurate in terms of what actually happened. I've been doing lots of research into the Royal Family because of it. I'm also starting to manage wrapping my head around the Royal Family tree. I've tried to do that before, and struggled. It's basically a history lesson that's also entertaining. 

This evening I went out skating again, and set a new record with my Misfit (and officially this time, since there was no time change nonsense). 2030 points :D The skate costs $5, which is a bit much to go skating for an hour and a half, but I'm calling it an investment in my health, since the Wii Fit, while motivating, I'm not exactly sure can be called a 'workout'. 

In other news, I'm counting down the days till the term is done. Not even particularly because I'm desperate for school to be over, but because I have so many ideas planned for what I can do during my break. I'm especially excited to be able to sew again. I'm going to try and pump out two quilts in one month, which I've never done before. Heck, I haven't done one quilt in a month before. And of course, Christmas baking. Big plans :)

QOTD

371. Have you ever looked down on someone because you thought your religious views were superior?

Not knowingly, although I'm sure I've done it subconsciously. I know that when people mention that they don't believe in God that I make note of it and generally try and steer conversation away from religion, but I don't look down on them. 

Black Mirror

It has been a very slow, motivation-lacking weekend. Luckily, there wasn't much that I needed to get done. That being said, I'm not a fan of having unproductive days. I like to be able to say that I did something. Hence why I'm blogging.
Everybody has been frantically working on their work term report that is due on Tuesday. I had mine done about 3 weeks ago, so I've been doing my own thing. I actually submitted the report, so I officially don't have to worry about it any more. Did some laundry, went grocery shopping, 3D printed a couple more hexes for Settlers of Catan, baked some snickerdoodle blondie bars. Sill slowly hacking away at the list of things I need to do to my website.
This afternoon I went to the Perth Pop-Up market. It was disappointing. The space was very crowded and it was very dark, both of which made it difficult to see what the vendors were actually selling. I doubt I would have wanted much of it anyways. Since walking around the 'market' only took me about 5mins, I decided to pop into a couple of the stores along Ontario St. Again, didn't really want anything they were selling, but it occupied the time and it was nice to be outside. It actually wasn't that bad out today. This cold weather feels like it's come out of nowhere because we had that one weird patch where it was 25C.

On Friday, 6 new episodes of Black Mirror came out on Netflix. It's a great show. I found out about it a couple years ago from a classmate but never looked into it. It's all about technology in the future, in a grim, sci-fi kind of way. It's not hover-boards and time travel; it's eye contacts that film everything you see and implants in the brain that control digital selves. Each episode is a stand alone story, so you don't have to watch all of them or in any particular order.
It came up again in one of our lectures this term and I decided to watch it. At the time, they only had one episode - a Christmas special - on Netflix. Marissa and I watched that one, and we had our minds blown. It was very well done. I then looked into the actual seasons and was surprised to see that it's like Sherlock: there are only three episodes a season. I watched the first season, and while the stories were good, they didn't compare to the Christmas special we had watched. I have yet to watch season 2. Apparently the show was dropped or put on pause, then Netflix brought it back for a third season with 6 episodes. I was very happy to see that these new episodes are on the same level as the Christmas special. The episodes are about an hour long, give or take 10mins. I highly recommend it. Oh, and it's by the BBC!
Fun fact: it's called Black Mirror because when the screen of our electronic devices are off, they become a black mirror. I thought that was clever :)

QOTD
370. Ever been on a plane?
Yup. Lots, in fact. At least 18 (wow).

Christmas Countdown

In case you don't follow me on other social media, I recently discovered that there are exactly 100 days between my birthday and Christmas. As I have a fondness of counting down the days to Christmas, I was A) happily surprised by the coincidence and B) shocked that it took me 21 years to figure that little connection out. (In case you were wondering, there are 71 days till Christmas.)
I don't have any exams this term, so I'm going to be done school on December 5th. I'll have almost exactly a month off, and I'm quite looking forward to it. I have many plans, most of which involve some form of creativity. I'm hoping to work on two quilts. My friend asked me to make a quilt out of t-shirts she doesn't want to throw out, but doesn't want to wear. The other is a quilt that I've been putting off for about 5 years, for a lady at church. That quilt will be much more time consuming and difficult than the t-shirt quilt (hence why I've been putting it off).
And of course, I'll continue my tradition of making a gingerbread house from scratch. I'm thinking of doing a gingerbread train this year. I feel like there's a lot of potential with things that you can put in the carriages of the train.
Back to reality, I had 6hrs of class today. This was particularly harsh because I usually have Fridays off. The timetable this week was messed up because of two 'reading week days'. I'm not feeling too stressed about schoolwork this term so far. It definitely helps that I'm only taking two courses. One course is worth 4 credits, so I have the workload of 5 courses. But only having to worry about assignments, groups, and due dates for two courses instead of five is making it easier.
I am hoping to get some 3D printing done this weekend. I'm currently printing 3D tiles for the board game Settlers of Catan. I've done one so far and it turned out really well, so I'm hoping to print one for each resource by the end of the term. I'm also tweaking a keychain I made last year. Interestingly enough, a friend asked if I would print some #GBDA keychains for her this weekend - she wants 6! I'm happy to do it, but you can only print one thing at a time and 3D printing is a long process (a Settlers of Catan tile takes ~3hrs). So we'll see how it goes. At least once you've started the printing, you don't have to do anything till it's done. I might be spending a lot of time on campus this weekend. But to be honest, I don't mind it. There's hardly ever anyone there on the weekend, so you basically have the building to yourself. And now that they have massive beanbag chairs, it can even be comfortable :) I'll set my laptop up and watch the last couple episodes of Stranger Things.
Until next time!

369. You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go?
Ever since Emily went to New Zealand, I've been wanting to go! So New Zealand. #screwschool

Hello, can you hear me?

title taken from Adele's new single, "Hello"

A friend just told me about Mark Manson (specifically this and this article). I really enjoyed them both. And it made me think about what my passion is. Truth is, I don't really know. What I do know is that two days I really wanted to do something creative. More specifically, I wanted to create a font. Ever since I got my drawing tablet and found a website that lets you create your own font, I have had a bit of a thing for typography.

On the letters that I send out every week, I like to try and make the envelope a little more interesting than just a name, address, and stamp. This usually results in me putting a lot of effort into writing out their name (and then realizing I didn't leave a lot of room for the address, and therefore have to write it really tiny, but that's not the point). The past couple of letters I've done a geometric type font, and I was fond of it. I decided that I wanted to make the whole font.

When I actually went about creating this font, I realized that I didn't have my sketchbooks with me. I own 5, and I hadn't brought a single one with me to Stratford. Neither did I have my drawing pencils, nor my paints. Anything, really. (I do have some markers and colouring pencils with me). The sad part is that I distinctly remember packing for Stratford and thinking I wouldn't want to be creative, that I wouldn't need any of my tools. And that is where I limited myself. It's true that I don't often have the desire to paint or draw or create fonts. But when they do come around, it really sucks when you don't have the tools to do so.

I got my drawing tablet out (ok, so apparently I do have creative tools with me, just not the right ones) and tried drawing some letters straight into my computer. It didn't go to well. There were two reasons for that: 1) I used Illustrator, which I've only used a handful of times and am not completely aware of how to use properly and 2) it's hard to create a font when you've never done it before. I looked at some articles online about typography and creating fonts, which were enlightening.

But what I really wanted was my sketchbook and a pencil and eraser. Because that was how I wanted to be creative. "Being creative" is such a vague term and I'm lucky that I have so many different ways that I can be creative. Just not the right way, apparently.

After my disappointing first failed attempt at creating a font, I made some origami lotus flowers like the ones in an episode of Sherlock. It took me multiple tries to get it right. I could get all of the folds, but the last step is to invert the petals so they stand up, and it's a lot harder than Sherlock makes it out to me. My main issue is that the paper would rip because it was so thin. I eventually used some tape to reinforce the spot where it always tended to rip, despite the fact that I despise using tape, glue, or scissors in origami. Hopefully one day I can make one without the tape (and no rips).

I've been thinking recently about my term abroad. I am definitely going to blog while I'm away, and it will probably be the main way I tell people in general how I'm doing and what I'm up to. But I can't decide if I want to use this blog or create a new one. If I create a new one, well, I'd have two blogs. And I don't like the idea of having two blogs. It's like one person having two cars. Why do you need two? You can only drive one at a time. It doesn't make sense.

On the other hand, if I use this one, then I run into a bit of a situation. I want more people than the people who know about this blog to be able to hear about my adventures in England. But do I want those people to be able to read everything I've written here over the past 4 years? Because if they're anything like me, I know that they'd go through and read every single post. And I'm pretty sure I don't want that. Also, I'm pretty sure some people (really, just one person that I am thinking of) would get mad at me that I hadn't told them I had a blog.

Fortunately, I have 3 months to think about this. But I don't think the way I stand on either side is going to change over that time, and thus it really isn't that fortunate at all.

(I don't want to toot my own horn here or anything, and I know I've said this before, but I am proud of my writing skills. And I know that sometimes the way sentences sound in my head doesn't always make it to the keyboard, but I could probably be a writer for something. Like a blog that has a purpose, DIY Central or Recipes From Home, not just a personal blog. I think I have a good mastery of the English language, and know how to make it sound good. And using big words is fun. Although I have a tendency to overuse commas. I love 'em :) That's all I have to say).

366. What is your superpower of choice?
Those of Elastigirl, from the Incredibles.

All Alone...

Today was my first day completely alone in this house. It was all good (no worrying about strangers hiding in corners), but it was lonely. I wanted to go for a walk, but it was raining all afternoon, and then it was dark :( Hopefully I'll have the opportunity tomorrow. I've been positively bored all day, regardless of whether I was doing work or avoiding it. I might watch a movie. But to occupy more time, QOTDs.

361. Give me the first thing that comes to mind when you hear "heart".
Body organ.

362. What's your favourite colour?
Green, but verging into teal.

363. What is your current desktop picture?

364. If you could press a button and make anyone in the world instantaneously explode, who would it be?
Although some people are tempting, I wouldn't wish that upon anyone.

365. What would be a question you'd be afraid to tell the truth on?
What's your dirty little secret?

Long Time No See

If I tried to tell you all about my summer, I could go on for pages and pages until my hands went numb from typing, and still have more stories to tell. So I'm not going to say much. I loved this summer. It was easily the most exhausting and demanding summer I've had at camp, but I loved every minute of it. And I'm so proud of everything I accomplished. From being nervous about how to do my job, to getting into a routine, to becoming comfortable enough to change the routine just for the sake of changing it. Not many 19 year olds can say they ran the entire kitchen operation of a summer camp for 400 people. I loved all of the people I worked with in the kitchen, and all of the people I got to hang out with in my brief times off. I'm going to miss them, and I'm going to miss camp. As much as we get sick of it, I know I would go back to camp in a heartbeat.

Now I'm in Stratford at UWaterloo's satellite campus. I'm not really looking forward to classes (who is?) but I'm really excited about living in Stratford. It's a really nice town. And I'm a small town kind of person. Some (a lot) have decided to commute between Waterloo and Stratford. It will be interesting to see how that works out and how often they miss class because of the commute.

357. How can I win your heart?
I'm not sure, but you can get close to it with food ;)

358. Can insanity bring on more creativity?
Definitely.

359. What is the single best decision you have made in your life so far?
To follow Jesus.

360. What would you want to be written on your tombstone?
Kind of a strange thing to think about. My name, b. date and d. date. A quote, maybe? The reference to my favourite bible verse, whatever it happens to be at the time. 

Wait, Camp?!

Spring is officially done! Our last retreat group left on Wednesday (safe and sound, after surviving a wild thunder storm and a tornado warning). A bunch of us stayed up late on Monday to watch the lightening storm. It wasn't raining and there was hardly any thunder, but there was lightening almost every 30 seconds. It was so cool to sit in the field and watch it flash across the sky. There were some streaks that would go horizontal, which was pretty neat. 
Right now I have two days off, whereas most other people have one day off.  I realized a while ago that there wouldn't need to be any meals served today (Thursday), so Nola (my partner in nutritional provision) and I had no reason to be there. One day off! But then I got thinking and the only person it would affect if either Nola or I were missing would be the other. So if we were both down to do a day on our own, then we could have more days off. So Nola got Wednesday and Thursday, and I get Thursday and Friday. A pretty sweet deal, if I do say so myself. I'm glad I'll have extra time to rest before camp starts. I realized belatedly that I wouldn't be there when all the staff arrive tonight and would miss all the introductions, but I've come to be okay with it. Most people already know who I am anyways ;) 
It's really hard to believe that in 3 days camp starts! We're going to need to make 93 pizzas to feed everyone Sunday dinner. Luckily, I have another oven now! This extra oven is a life saver; we now have double the oven space that we did before. (Where the two ovens are stacked on top of each other we used to only have one). What used to take 3hrs to bake can now be done in 1.5hrs. It is going to make my life to much easier and less stressful. 

I also just found out that the girl who did my position last year is going to come up for part of this week to help out, which I'm really grateful for. I'm not as stressed as I thought I would be. I thought I would be worried about how many people I have to feed (this week it's 312). It will be a bigger number than I've ever done before, but we've had meals during the spring with over 250 people, so it's not a huge jump. And I've become more confident in myself in this position, as well as gained a lot more knowledge about prep time and quantities. 

It's going to be a wild summer, but I couldn't be more excited for everything that's going to happen :)


354. You are at the doctor's office and she informs you that you have one month to live.
a) Do you tell anyone/everyone you are going to die?
I would tell my family and close friends. And probably the people at camp as well since that's where I am right now.
b) What do you do with your remaining days?
I would probably want to spend some of it at camp. I wouldn't do FSD, I'd probably wander and do whatever I wanted to do (climb high ropes) and just hang out with people. 
c) Would you be afraid?
Yes, but I think that within the month given I would come to terms with it.

355. What's a song that always makes you happy when you hear it?
Blame It On The Boogie by The Jacksons

356. In your opinion, what makes a great relationship?
Love, honesty, trustworthiness, humour, dependability, basically everything lined out in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8: 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.

350. Where is your best friend?
Toronto.

351. What were you doing last night at 12am?
Trying to fall asleep.

352. Are you the kind of friend you would want to have as a friend?
If this is to mean would I want a friend with the same personality as myself, I would say no because as a quiet person, us hanging out would just be a lot of awkward silence, I think. But in terms of what I do for my friends and the effort I put into my friendships, yeah I would have myself as a friend. I am not the one to suggest hanging out often, being an introvert, so I would be okay with that. I don't know. This is too much thinking for my tired brain.

353. You are walking down the street on your way to work. There is a dog drowning in the canal on the side of the street. Your boss has told you that if you are late one more time you're fired. What do you do?
For the record, I think punctuality is key so would never be in the situation of late-one-more-time-and-you're-fired. That aside, I would keep walking and not save the dog.

The calm before the storm

I can't believe the first two weeks are over already. No more just staff; school groups and retreats start next week. I'm kind of nervous about doing school groups, but I'm more worried about just getting stuff done on time and making sure that I represent Forest Cliff well. I also got my very own Forest Cliff email :) I truly have reached the top.
I moved into Cookys this past week (the cabin behind the dining hall). I love my room and having my own space, but that building has no insulation and it went down to zero at night. So it was a few very cold nights. Hopefully it only gets warmer from here on out. Reagan is my roomie, and I'm super excited to get to live with her all summer. She's been such a mentor and inspiration to me ever since I met her. And she's quietly hilarious ;)

346. Love or lust?
Love.

347. In a relationship?
Still no.

348. How many relationships have you had?
Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

349. What is your secret weapon to get someone to like you?
Clearly not a very strong one.

BORED

I can't believe I'm done second year university. And I'm never going back to Waterloo again. This is wild to think about. And in a week, I'll be heading up to camp. I'm really excited to be going back to camp to be with all these awesome people. But I'm really nervous about actually doing my job (seeing as I don't actually know how to do it...).

I'm bored, so lots of questions today...

339. Do you drive? If so, have you ever crashed?
I love to drive, and no, I've never crashed.

340. What's the worst injury you've ever had?
I tore the cartilage in my knee while I was in high school...apparently sometimes I still limp because of it.

341. Do you have any obsessions right now?
Finding things I no longer want and posting them on kijiji.

342. Ever had a rumour spread about you?
Not that I know of.

343. Do you tend to hold grudges against people who have done you wrong?
No. I suck at holding grudges. Which when I discover that someone is still holding a grudge about something that happened X time ago, I'm shocked. For a long time I didn't know that holding grudges for a long time was even a thing.

344. What is your astrological sign?
Virgo.

345. What's the last thing you purchased?
Groceries.

Running from the dark but I just can't hide

title taken from 'Losing Sleep' by John Newman

Do you ever not want to go to bed, even though you're exhausted?

2 down, one more exam to go. It's stats, which I though I would be worried about, but I'm feeling pretty good about it. And then I can finally go home. For a week, then I'll be off to camp! I'm really excited about going back to camp, but I'm also freaking out inside because I have no idea how to my job. I know logically, of all the potential people to work in the kitchen, I have more knowledge than most because I worked there last summer. But that does not mean I have any idea what I'm doing. I'm going up to camp for a day to talk to the representative from our food supplier, so hopefully that will clue me in on how things go a little bit.

337. What's the worst place you've ever been to?
Wow, I don't know. I can't think of a place that's actually bad. There was one time I was disappointed about a place. There's an old house in Uptown Waterloo that's been converted into a book store. It's called Old Goat Books, and looked really cute and old in a kind of hipster kind of way. So I decided to go in, but it was just books on book shelves. There wasn't any of the charm that I was thinking would be inside. Not the worst place I've been to, but one of the disappointing ones.

338. Most attractive singer/s of your opposite gender?
I think Dan Smith of Bastille is pretty cute.

I love to read the words you used

title taken from 'Thing We Lost in the Fire' by Bastille

331. Are you happy with the person you've become?
There was no hesitation in my mind when I thought "I am".

332. What's a sound you hate; sound you love?
I hate the sound of styrofoam pieces rubbing against each other. I also hate every tune I have ever used as my wake up alarm. I love the sound of rain falling when inside a car.

333. What's your biggest 'what if'?
What if I never find love?

334. Do you believe in ghosts? What about aliens?
No and no (although I would be open to convincing about small organisms on other planets).

335. Stick your right arm out; what's the first thing you touch? Do the same with your left arm.
Right: the wall.
Left: my pillow.

336. Smell the air. What do you smell?
My bourbon butterscotch candle.

They're studying business, I study the floor

title taken from "A World Alone" by Lorde

Today I presented my mobile narrative about Knox Presbyterian Church in Stratford. It didn't go too well, because there was no one at the church and the doors were all locked, despite the fact that I told the church that we were going to be there and they had confirmed it with me. I heard back later from them and the lady said there was an emergency and she had to watch her grandson. So I understand; things happen, no biggie. But then she also said "I totally forgot". Which makes me a little less understanding. I'm a little disappointed that people couldn't experience the mobile narrative as it was supposed to be. But we still got compliments on it. I was really proud to have been chosen to be in the Student Showcase and have the opportunity to show it to a bunch of people. Hopefully it gets a good mark (it's worth 50% of my grade!).
And as of now, I'm basically coasting. I have three lectures left; one is a review session and one is just watching other groups present their projects. So not strenuous in any way. Three more days, then I'm headed home. Brief moment of true relaxation and then exams -_-  I got my stats midterm back: 95.2% baby! Highest mark in the class, and it's worth 30% of my final grade :)
I was complimented the other day on my writing. One of my group projects was to write up a case study report, so we were working in a google doc together. They said, "You have great vocabulary. It's like reading a real journal article!" It made me really happy :) I know my love language is acts of service, but more and more I feel like it's words of affirmation. I never thought I was a particularly great writer, but my university experience has taught me otherwise. Some of the things I read written by my classmates is appalling. I seriously wonder how they passed English in high school. I'm not saying I'm the best writer, but I'm definitely better than the apparent average of my program. I love it when you write a sentence, and you just want to bold it and underline it and read it out to everybody, because it's perfect - couldn't have been said better. That's my favourite :D

329. How do you vent your anger?
Through rants to people who are not involved in the cause of the anger and/or can relate to my anger.

330. Do you have a collection of anything?
Oh, do I ever.
- stamps
- coins
- mini books
- objects that are not their normal size (particularly in the stationary / office department)
- Lego Minifigures
I used to have a lot of other collections as well:
- small little rubber lizards that were in the goodie jar at the dentist
- mini keychain board games
- Kinder Egg surprise toys
- mini erasers
But in fits of rage about having too much junk, those ones have been disposed of. I used to pride myself on my collection of collections.

I was riding the bus and there were these two guys talking about how close University of Winnipeg was to the University of Manitoba. "They're only, like, 40mins away from each other!". And all I could think was, "You are currently in Waterloo, where there are two universities quite literally 5mins away from each other."

326. What does your URL mean?
obsessionsareme: I have a lot of obsessions. But I'm pretty sure the URL "obsessions" was taken. So this was the next best thing that I could think of.

327. What is your greatest weakness? Your greatest strength?
What is this, an interview? I think my greatest weakness is my lack of empathy for others. I struggle to feel what others feel. My greatest strength would probably be, I don't know how to say it, my self-control? When something needs to happen, I make sure it happens, even if I don't want to do it. And if I shouldn't do it, I won't.

328. Who is your celebrity crush?
Benedict Cumberbatch.

They said get back Honky Cat

title from "Honky Cat" by Elton John

I'm glad I got to spend the weekend at home. I don't have a ton of work right now (strange, I know) so I would've just been sitting around my apartment with nothing to do. And now it's only going to be a couple weeks before I'm back again. My last day of lectures is on April 6th, which also happens to be Easter Monday. I thought that I wouldn't be able to go home till the weekend after. But apparently instead of the 6th being our normal classes, they're just bumping the Friday that we have off for Good Friday to Monday. And on Friday the only thing I have is a lab, which my prof said isn't happening since it's the last week. So I can come home for Easter :) And then I don't have an exam till the 17th, so I'll stay at home for a week, then go back. But to be honest, I wish my exams were all a week earlier so that I could be completely done earlier. Oh well. I'm not really stressed right now. In one of my classes I just have to do a presentation and then the rest of the time I'm just watching other people's presentations. Another class is the same situation. I'm not really sure what we're doing in one class, but there's no exam for that class so I'm not really concerned. There's really only two classes that I still am doing work in. Ha. It's funny I should think about this now because just earlier today I was talking to a family friend who is a teacher and she was saying that one of the hardest things for grade 9's to get used to is doing work right up until the end (as apposed to slacking off during the last month). But this semester is weird in that way - the rest of my semesters have definitely not been like this.
One thing I did this weekend was play old records on my grandma's record player that she said I could have. She also gave us a bunch of records. I love it. I just love looking at it and knowing that somehow the needle is picking up the music and sending it through the speakers. One of the only artists that I'm familiar with that my grandma had a record of was Elton John, so we were listening to his greatest hits as of 1970. The one thing that's annoying is that you have to flip the record over half way through the album. I don't mind doing it, but you only get like 15mins of music before you have to get up again and flip it over. But that aside, I really like it and if anyone wants to buy me a record of a modern album I'd probably love you forever.
I can't wait for camp to start :)

323. Simple but extremely complex. Favourite band?
Band, being more than one person and not just a singer, would probably have to be Bastille.

324. What was the last lie you told?
I have to spend 20hrs with my international peer mentee, and for our last meeting we spent just over an hour together, but on the sheet I wrote down that we spent 1.5hrs together.

325. Do you believe in karma?
Not really. Simple put, karma is "what goes around comes around". I believe that God will judge you based on your actions, so if you've been bad, then He'll treat you badly. But that's kind of a broader scope than I think karma looks at. I don't think that because I do something good today that something good will happen to me next week.

Life's for the living so live it, or you're better off dead

Title from "Life's For the Living" by Passenger 

This weekend I had the great pleasure of having my sister come visit me in Waterloo. It was a ton of fun, and we packed so much into the 30hrs we had together. Freshly baked donuts were first on the list. We stopped at a bakery that I had never been to before, but according to reddit, had great donuts. And they did not disappoint. Then we headed to the mall in Kitchener. Next, unfortunately, was the looong bus ride back to my apartment (never before had I realized how much I ride the bus, and how much it would cost me if my student card didn't work as a bus pass). We then went to the World's Largest East Side Mario's for dinner. (I wonder why and how the World's Largest East Side Mario's is in Waterloo...). Back at the apartment, we watched Pitch Perfect, because that is a great movie (thank you J for Netflix). My favourite scene will always be the riff-off. On Sunday morning we went to Cora's for brunch/lunch. I had breakfast poutine, which was delicious. It was home fries with bacon, sausage, and cheese curds covered with hollandaise sauce and an egg on top :) Alison got pancakes with mini Oreos mixed in. That was also delicious (for the record, Cora's pancakes are huge - much larger than they appear in pictures on menus).  Then we went to see Cinderella. It was well done, but because it's a remake, you already know what's going to happen, so the excitement from not knowing isn't there. But I would say still worth watching. One of the highlights was the short at the beginning, Frozen Fever. It was so cute. The songs were a bit of a let down, but there's little mini snowmen that are so cute :) Then I made dinner and we watched Friends.
Alison, we didn't have a lot of time together but we made the most of it and I'm so glad you're my sister. See you in 4 days ;)

320. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 23, give me line 17.
"A little brown house sparrow swoops out of the rafters and lands..." from All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

321. What's your religion?
Christianity.

322. If you are outside, what are you most likely to be doing?
Going for a walk (whether that walk be just a walk or walking to a destination).

So Will You Be My Life Support?

(title taken from Sam Smith's Life Support)

I am emotionally unstable right now. Case in point: I was taking a walk around campus to stretch my legs before class and I was listening to Sam Smith and I started crying (not a lot, but there were definitely sobs). I've never been like this before. I'm pretty sure it's a mix of everything that's been going on over the past couple weeks. I haven't been in my routine for over two weeks now and I don't like it. Although I'd much rather be at home doing nothing, I'm glad I'll be able to get back into my routine. Unfortunately I can't get back into my routine quite yet because I'm trying to catch up on work that didn't get done this past weekend. I have a midterm later this week and another one early next week, and I haven't started studying yet. And this basically leads back to my previous post about stress and not being able to cope.
This weekend I'm going on a day trip to Niagara Falls with my international peer mentee. It looks like it should be fun. The only thing I'm worried about it my mentee is bringing a friend so I'll probably become a third wheel on this expedition. But it should still be fun. And it will be a big step towards the 20hrs we need to spend together this term, which had me freaking out.
I'm just praying really hard that this all works out.

316. If you could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be?
Benedict Cumberbatch (and his wife and baby).

317. What do you think about most?
How I'm going to survive what's coming up next.

318. Ever had a poem or song written about you?
Only poems that start with "Roses are red / Violets are blue..."

319. Do you have any strange phobias?
Not that it's really strange, but I fear the unknown in the not knowing what's happening kind of sense. I don't fear the distant unknown. But more like if we're going out for a day, I need to know when we're going, who's going, why we're going, when we'll be back, etc.

Relaxing night alone.
That sounds a lot more depressing reading it than it did in my head...

314. Anybody on tumblr you'd go on a date with?
Yeah, probably. I just don't know who they are.

315. Put your iTunes on shuffle. Give me the first 6 songs that pop up.
I'm doing this on my laptop, which has basically every song I've ever listened to on it, so this is bound to be wild.
1. Tchaikovsky: Symphony #5 In E Minor, Op. 64 - Andante by Yehudi Menuhin; Efrem Kurtz: Philharmonia Orchestra
2. Burning Ones by Jesus Culture
3. All I Ever Wanted (DJ Alex Extended Remix) by Basshunter
4. Sing Your Praises (Live) by Onething and Matt Gilman
5. Mercy by Casting Crowns
6. My Saviour God by Aaron Shust
I didn't think I had that much Christian music to get 66% Christian songs. But, there you have it.

310. Are you still friends with people from kindergarten?
No.

311. Have you ever fired a gun?
Yes. Not one powered with gun powder though.

312. Do you like to travel by plane?
Yes!

313. Do you have a tattoo?
No.*

*I tried looking online for a picture of a small tattoo that was in a place I could easily hide on a body that could believably be mine, or at least photoshopped to look like mine, and see if I could trick you. Alas, not a lot of people out there have small tattoos in places usually covered.

Lonely Friday Nights

I was going to go to Charge (P2C) this evening, but the bus never came, so that didn't happen. My friend who was also going got caught up with something with her family, so she couldn't make it either. Clearly we weren't meant to go tonight. But this meant that suddenly I had a Friday night ahead of me with nothing planned. So I made cookies. Red velvet with mini white chocolate chips. They're really tasty. And I didn't really do anything else. I was trying to fill a void, to be honest. My roommates went out with some friends to a pub/club (I'm not sure which) so I was alone. It got a little lonely. I was floating around on the internet but nothing interested me. I probably could have got some work done, but I used the excuse that it's Friday, so I should take a break.

I'm listening to You Raise Me Up by Josh Groban

306. Been caught doing something you weren't supposed to do?
Maybe more like something I was supposed to do but wasn't doing. When I was little we had to take these awful gummy vitamins. I hated them. So I started going to the bathroom immediately after dinner and I would spit it out into the garbage. I always made sure to cover it with a piece of toilet paper so I wouldn't get caught. I even crumpled the toilet paper so it wouldn't look so obvious. That lasted for a while. But one time when my mom was emptying the garbage, she found them. And not just one, but lots of them. I was caught. Thinking back on this now, it would have been smarter of me to not take the same colour gummy every time, because that immediately told my parents that it was me, and not my siblings, that was spitting them out. Occasionally, I would still spit them out, but in different garbage cans and wrapped in toilet paper. Thank goodness I don't have to take them anymore.

307. Do you have a best friend of the opposite sex?
Nope.

308. Have you ever loved someone?
Truly (not including family)? No.

309. Who would you like to see right now?
My family.