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? 

an ode to august

Oh August - how I love you. I might be a little biased since my birthday's on the 31st of August which is  tomorrow(!!!), but I've always found myself enjoying the days more, taking the most pictures during this month, and reveling in free days, planned nights, and spontaneous Skype dates. The air is not as humid and muggy as July in southern Ontario, and there's a slight crispness in the air in the evenings as the sun sets earlier; but it's a nice reminder that layered knits and pumpkin spice lattes are right around the corner.

My simple smile for this week - besides finding sweet birthday cards and surprise packages in the mail from dear friends - is finding my own little bit of paradise this month in the form of a road trip to Bruce Peninsula National Park. We drove through towns that had a higher population of cows than actual people and made it to crystal clear (and freezing!) waters and exploring a grotto (and coming up with a song called "Otto the Grotto").

The waters looked all Caribbean-like but were so cold.

The Grotto and my freshly dyed strawberry-blonde hair! (:

When I haven't been searching for or enjoying paradise, I've been baking a lot thanks to my parents' friends who have a ton of fruit trees in their backyard. Two weeks ago I made plum cake, and just last night made a peach cake, all using the same basic recipe (which I'll probably share soon)!

The times that I'm not baking, I've spent catching up with schoolmates from university and teacher's college, either at a restaurant, cafe, or a 10km hike which kills my legs but feels so good at the same time. There's this trail that my friend introduced me to that has running streams, crazy hills, and close encounters with deer and I wish it was closer to my home so I could walk it every day.  

Two of these lovely ladies are leaving me for London; 

I unfortunately could not fit inside their luggage.

The times that I'm not catching up with schoolmates, I've spent doing an overdue reunion with two of my workmates - and crashed a TV set in the downtown for a show called Bomb Girls. Lots of 1940s garb, fake snow, and posters for 5 cent burgers and trendy fashions.

WOMANPOWER -- we can do it! We can ... cook things over a stove?

And when I haven't been doing all that, I've been trying to plan out as much of my fall as I can while also working in The Boy's soon-to-be-open shop! While we'd love to get our ideal jobs right away, this is kind of our back-up/let's-make-ends-meet route for now, and it's pretty nerve-wrecking and exciting at the same time. 

I find that I can look back at every August of my recent years with fond memories; it'd definitely be my month of choice to relive over and over if I could.

if you could choose a month to relive whenever you wanted, 

which one would it be & why?

and if you haven't yet,

please mosey on down and join the postcard project!

Tomorrow involves a surprise day from The Boy (all I know is that I have to bring my bathing suit), and then hopefully a beach day with my girlfriends on Saturday. Hope you all have a great rest of the week! (:

the postcard project no.3

In my mind, postcards are magical. They have the power to remind you of a place that you've been to; the ability to connect you with a friend in a faraway place; can serve as a blank canvas for you to spill your secrets onto; and can slowly, bur surely, turn your thoughts to wanderlust. 

For the past few years, my postcard collection has grown because I've finally been able to travel a bit and because of amazing friends who send me postcards on their travels. And I know there's people out there who love postcards just as much as I can do --

so I'm bringing the postcard project back! 

If you weren't here the first two times around, this is just a little "let's connect everyone through snail mail" project that involves you commenting, getting paired up with someone (or two, depending on how many people sign up) and sending & receiving a postcard! I thought this would be a really neat way to connect with each other; plus, postcards aren't too expensive (and if you want to make your own, by all means go for it!) since I didn't want to make a project that would break the bank. It involves:

Leaving a comment (or e-mail me) with a message that includes Your Name, Your E-mail, Your Country, and Any Preference? - if there's a continent or any specific country you'd love to have a postcard from, list it   here - hopefully we can make it happen, cap'n. And under 'any preference' you can list if you want a silly-ish postcard (if you don't list anything, I'll assume you want a postcard that is country-related!). Example:

• Your Name: Nikolett
  Your E-mail: betterthancoffee@gmail.com
  Your Country: Oh, Canada!
  Any Preference?: Anywhere around the world!

I'll e-mail you back and ask for a bit more info (address-related), and make up a list (I'll be checking it twice; and the only ones who will see your address are me and the postcard-sender/receiver).

I will pair you all up randomly (unless there's a specific preference to fulfill - just depends on how many participate!) and send an e-mail to both of you around Wednesday, September 5th - so you have two weeks to sign up!

Try to have the postcard sent out to the person by Wednesday, September 19th - gives you another two weeks to get the postcard, write it out, and send it out! The only catch - please e-mail me once you have sent the postcard so that way one person isn't left without a postcard after he/she has already sent one out. I'll be sending out a reminder e-mail to anyone who is left on September 19th!

I really liked the way this project turned out the first two times and would love it if you all signed up again :) If you want to spread the word and make it so you're paired up twice, it'd be great if you put one of these buttons on your blog, either in your sidebar or by mentioning it in a post!

<a href="http://better-than-coffee.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-postcard-project-no3.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i614.photobucket.com/albums/tt222/betterthancoffee/postcardproject12a.jpg" border="0" alt="Postcard Project" /></a>

<a href="http://better-than-coffee.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-postcard-project-no3.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i614.photobucket.com/albums/tt222/betterthancoffee/postcardproject12b.jpg" border="0" alt="Postcard Project" /></a>

If anything is unclear or you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask :) It'd be crazy to see how many people across the globe we can unite through a postcard! For now, have a great rest of the week :)

P.S. I have a lot of postcards from Budapest/Hungary and Vancouver/British Columbia so feel free to request one of those if you'd like!