s w o l l e n

after a year of being swollen-eyed-free, this happened again on sat, completely out of the blue. i was completely fine for the whole morning, but in the afternoon things went a little crazy. one minute i'm in the car driving to the mall with an itchy left eye, the next i'm in the mall and then driving home while blinking and trying not to rubba-a-dubb-dubb my eye as the itchiness spreads to the right and the swelling starts, and the next i'm lying on the couch with both of my eyes swollen beyond belief.



it was worse than the last time it happened in that while it took a couple of hours to get from the first picture to the fourth and it only took about 45 mins this time around. two days later, the swelling is almost gone and i'm starting look less like cristina yang and more like myself again.

i still have no idea what allergen i was exposed to that caused this bad of a reaction which makes me nervous. i've gone over the morning again and again, searching for something, anything, which may have been the cause. so far i've been unsuccessful, but for now i'm just thankful that the massive swelling has gone down and life is getting back to normal. here's to hoping it doesn't happen again.

the beginning of a new era...

in our attempt to live a little healthier and exercise more (ok exercise, period) adrienne and i decided to get off our butts and go play some 'tennis'. and by 'tennis' i mean running around a tennis court with our racquets trying to hit the ball. anyway, it was great fun and we were able to get in some good playing time for about 40 minutes before the lightning started and the rain fell. all in all it was good times, so we've decided to (try to) make it a weekly thing. i'm excited - yay for tennis thursdays! :)

p.s. i bought a new tennis racquet a few years ago because my hands were too small for the other one and i must say, the smaller/thinner handle makes such a huge difference: the racquet feels great and my wrist isn't in pain this time around. sweet.

book nook: little women

little women
louisa may alcott

i recently worked as an accompanist for a small theatrical production company during the auditions and callbacks for their upcoming production of little women, the musical. after listening to lines being read, songs being sung, and conversations about the characters themselves, i was intrigued.

by the time i got home from the first day of auditions, i had already decided i was going to read the book. someone gave it to me way back as a present, but i never got around to reading it and forgot all about it as it got pushed farther and farther back into the labyrinth that is the back of my closet. (i'm so glad i was able to find it.) actually, the version that i have includes both little women and good wives, the original sequel to little women, making it an even sweeter discovery. :)

the book is set in america with the american civil war serving as its chronological backdrop. centred around a family of four daughters, the book is about the lives of the sisters, their hopes, dreams, and loves. all in all it's a heartwarming book written in a way where it's impossible not to love the characters (or at least most of them) and become submersed in their world for a little while.

full of many heart-tugging moments, and zero trashiness, this book is one that made me laugh, cry, smile, and feel warm and fuzzy inside. i recommend it to those who are interested in reading it, but haven't had the chance to yet.

brad doggett and jeremy "passion" manongdo

youtube is home to a lot of stuff. some of it is great, some is not so great, some is really awesome, and some is just plain crap. on the music front, these two guys are definitely part of the really awesome category.


this guy, brad doggett, does covers of a lot of songs from different genres; from britney to wyclef jean to oasis, this guy does it all and does it well. he may not be the greatest musically, but his videos and music have an authenticity to them, a 'grass roots' and feel if you will, that really appeals to me. it's just him being himself and his guitar. that, plus the fact that he has one of the nicest voices i've ever heard, makes him my favourite musician on youtube right now.


this guy, passion, is just plain solid. his guitar playing is solid, his voice is solid, and his music is solid. so good. he seems to do a lot of talking in many of his videos, so i'll just leave my description of him at that. haha.

...and now i must go and practice guitar, bye!

things that go kaboom in the sky

^ sadly i can't take credit for this picture. image from chromasia.

i went with justin and some friends to see the fireworks at the unionville festival yesterday. as per usual, the fireworks were big, bright, and beautiful - and worth all the mosquito bites. there was just something so heartening about the scene as a whole, standing there beside my favourite person in front of toogood pond watching explosions of light illuminate the sky while hearing the sound of laughter, oohs, and ahhs escape from the crowd around me.

it's all about enjoying the small moments in life. :)

so slothy

so far, today has been one of those days - lazy, unproductive, and slothy. i've been trying to get working on my case study, but i've had such a hard time focusing. motivation is at an all-time low, which is unfortunate seeing as i really need to get this bloody accreditation file done so i can move on to bigger and better things in life. sid the sloth may be cute (in a really ugly and demented sort of way), but slothiness is nothing but fugly to its core. must get past this hurdle and out of this hole.