four days until twenty-five

The day after I turned 24, I opened up the owl journal my sister had given me (my love for owls knows no bounds), and began to write my "25 before 25" list. Sadly, my list didn't even reach 25 items which made me question how much I actually wanted to do with my life. 

On it were things like "get your complete drivers' license" - which I did, first try, at the end of June! I also had goals for fitness and to run a race, and I have become more fit over the months and even did a Color Run! There were also failures, such as "study a language to fluency" - I practice Hungarian, but I'm nowhere near where I could be, or "bake on a weekly basis" which. And then there were ones that came out differently than I had planned, such as "visit my sister and family in B.C.", since they came out to visit us instead! Those three weeks of seeing my sister, realizing how mature and how mini-me my niece has become, and having baby fever after hugging and blowing kisses with my nephew were the best early birthday present. 

Now I'm coming to twenty-five and realizing how little of my 24th year I documented. Sure I have the photos and hopefully my memory won't fail me too early, but there's a lot of moments where I wish I would have just sat down and wrote out what happened at a certain moment. Celebrating 5 years with The Boy in Ithaca, showing two of my online friends what my city has to offer, park days with my niece ... 

The blogging world has fallen by the wayside, and it seems to be that way for a lot of bloggers. Instagram and twitter sums up everything in a photo or 140 characters, and it seems to be more convenient. So, even though there won't be a "26 before 26" list there a few things I'd like to do: a) redo this blog, and 'start over' in a sense; b) travel more this year; c) try to begin my teaching career; and d) ... 

currently...

READING and well, re-reading, all of your amazing comments from my last post (in 2012, what!). Every single comforting and warm wish sent my way definitely helped and I'm pretty much 98% back to normal from the insane month of illness (aka December). The left side of my face is still sensitive to the touch, but my smile is back to normal :) Thank you so much for all your amazing words -hugs- 

And I'm also reading The Passage by Justin Cronin; thanks to Kathy's amazing recommendation. I actually had to take a little break from reading it because it sucked me in to the point where I was reading it for two days straight; and now I'm back. 

GRATEFUL that the weather is going to return to semi-tolerable temperatures this week, which will make my walk from the bus stop to work more bearable. Speaking of gratitude, I am so thankful that I finally have a job! One of my best friends recommended me for a job that, while it might not be teaching, actually has to do with at least one of my degrees, and I get to spend my days editing!

LOVING that there's a Starbucks within ten minutes-walking distance from my work. And even though this is ancient in Internet-land, I recently rediscovered the hilarity of 'bad lip reading', and my favourite next to The Hunger Games one is definitely "Russian Unicorn" (a parody on Michael Bublé). My new jam? Possibly. 

LOOKING FORWARD TO having a February spending more time with The Boy (there's a picture of us from New Year's). And I also get to spend February catching up with friends I haven't seen in forever, one of whom has been in Taiwan and I haven't seen her in almost two years!! I am EXCITED! 

This month has just seemed to whiz by; whether it's due to the old adage "time flies by as you get older" or just having my days filled with work, I can't believe February is already starting this week! So, tell me...

what are you currently

reading, grateful for,
loving, and looking forward to?

love is better than coffee

Last week was my week from hell (and I know for many others, it was a week of tragedy). I had felt like I was hit with the gusts of a thousand plagues; I had the flu, a cough, a cold, the whole works. The one day that I did go outside last week was to go to do a small bit of Christmas shopping and mail out my Christmas cards; and it was on that day that I was reminded of the goodness in people, that infectious Christmas spirit (this was the day before the shooting in Newtown, which dampened my spirits, and my condolences go out to all those affected). 

But from the girl who randomly complimented my coat as I was getting off the bus and she was getting on, to the nice salespeople at Chapters and Starbucks, to the lady at the post office who took off tax, to the bus driver who said, "Hello! How are you doing today?" I had a genuine smile on my face, and was also a little resentful that I was homebound most of the time and couldn't go out and see that Christmas spirit more often. I was also missing The Boy, my friends, and my sister like crazy (my sister can't come here for Christmas anymore, but I will come visit you, don't you worry! And umm, Christmas Eve Skype date, please?). 

And then it all came to a head on Sunday morning. I had slept in and my parents were already out, and I found myself starving since I usually don't sleep in until 11:30am. I ate brunch and realized that I wasn't chewing properly and it was hard to drink. I went upstairs to brush my teeth and realized that I couldn't move the left side of my face. I tried to smile at myself in the mirror and my smile was coming out crooked. I couldn't properly close or wink my left eye, and it felt like I had been shot up with Novocaine  It was paralyzed. And I was terrified. The first thing I did was call The Boy at work, who started going through all the options and told me to get my parents to come home right away. 

As soon as my parents came through the door I cried out, "I can't move the left side of my face!" and we immediately went to the hospital; by some stroke of luck, I was in and out of there in half an hour and the nurses and doctors were so incredibly kind. Aside from my food poisoning/dehydration in Hungary a year and a half ago, I hadn't had to be admitted into a Canadian hospital since I was born.

Fortunately, it's not a stroke. I have something called Bell's palsy, which is the inflammation of nerves causing temporarily paralysis in the face, usually either brought on by a cold or because it runs in the family (in this case, both, since my grandma had it once). I was put onto steroids and have an ointment for my left eye that gives me blurry vision but allows my eye to not dry out, and it should be back to normal in two weeks or so. But it was such a frightening feeling, not knowing what was going on, not being able to voluntarily move my face which normally is so expressive. On the other hand, I know it could have been much, much worse. 

It's really been in these last few days that I've realized that love is better than coffee. From the outpourings of well wishes from best friends and blog friends, to the random surprises from The Boy who gave me flowers and a bag of candy to make me feel better, to the little things like my mom making me breakfast and showering me with hugs ... when scary things happen, as scary as they may be, love is one of the best things to respond with. It might not make the scary thing go away, but it eases the pain. 

To end this wall of text, I hope that you've been having an AMAZING December so far, full of great times with family and friends. Since I'm most likely going to be homebound on and off for the next couple of weeks, I'll definitely try to post more often. For now, here's other things that brightened my otherwise dismal week:

(1) Mail! My new favourite shirt from Kym @ herro hachi, and Christmas cards from Tasha and my sister. Thank you so much ladies :) 

(2) Watching a pretty sunset on my one evening out of my house. 

(3) A get-well soon package from The Boy with flowers, strawberry kiwi juice, and chocolate.

Now to brighten up this post:

What's made your December bright?

And what's better than coffee (or your favourite indulgence) for you?

life in a nutshell

It's been one of those dreary, "case-of-the-Mondays" type days that really made me realize how much I've missed blogging. A lot of my life has been full of "I'll accomplish this ... later" moments, like me planning on posting a 25 things to do before I turn 25 bucket list and since I never ended up finishing it (I'm at #17, folks), I never ended up posting it. And then a lot of other things were left unsaid, and I left the postcard project at the wayside, and well ... I'm a pretty horrible blogger. I'm not making apologies or excuses, just wanted you to know ... I've missed it. I would love to be as candid as possible, but was taught to be as discreet as possible on the 'net due to my career choice. A career that seems to be in "volunteer as much as time of your life as possible without actually being paid or having an interview" mode. I'm trying to keep my chin up, I'm trying to remain positive, I'm trying to be assertive and put my name out there; nothing worth having comes easy, right? (At least, I keep telling myself this.) 

The good things? I'm celebrating 4.5 years with The Boy this weekend over schnitzel (a good thing to celebrate with, I think), I still cherish my random coffee dates and hangouts with friends, The Boy's shop is doing well, and I'm slowly but surely going through with starting my web/graphics design business while I volunteer with two different classrooms at two different schools. 

And the great thing? I finally get to meet my nephew this year; my sister and her family are coming around for Christmas and I can't wait to hold that little guy in my arms and smother him with Aunt Niki kisses. 

When I'm not volunteering, I'm catching up on "The Vampire Diaries" (OMG ELENA), "The Walking Dead" (OMG -NO SPOILERS HERE BECAUSE I HAVEN'T WATCHED THIS WEEK'S EPISODE), "New Girl", or being obsessed with the YouTube series "The Lizzie Bennet" diaries. If you haven't come across this yet, and you're a fan of Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice, or Colin Firth, please watch it. And the amazing Kathy sent me a couple of books that I can't wait to read. Oh, and um, I'm obsessed with Final Fantasy X again. No new video game has compared to it yet, though the Lego version of Lord of the Rings might give it a run for its money. 

I hope you've all been doing well and that life is full of love & laughter. I'll try to update soon. In the meantime, here's some pictures of what I've been up to lately:

 

how has your november been?

what's your life like in a nutshell?