goodbye 2009, hello 2010.

it's going to be hard topping 2009. from getting engaged to starting a new career path, a lot of pivotal things happened this year. plus, i read 20+ books. awesomeness.

so yes, due to all the pivotal things that happened this past year, 2010 has a lot to live up to. with that being said though, i already know next year will be a great one because while this year was pivotal, next year will be monumental: we're getting married. :)

a little premature but...happy new year everyone!

merry christmas!

merry christmas from me, calvin, and hobbes. :)

olympic torch relay: with glowing hearts

(note: sorry for the bad picture quality - my camera ran out of batteries, so i had to use the camera on my phone instead.)


^ panoramic shot of the stage area. got a little wonky (2 flames?) but that's the general idea.

yesterday justin and i went to the olympic torch relay celebration in our neighbourhood. it was a lot of fun and even though i missed the entrance of the torch by 5 minutes (gahhhh), it was still worth the trek out into the cold. school was let out for the day (or at least the morning) to celebrate the torch, so there was an abundance of elementary school kids running everywhere and making a lot of noise. it was pretty funny. :) people were just excited all around - for the flame, for the torch relay, for the olympics in general - so it was a pretty lively and exciting in general. highlights included seeing the torch leave (at least i saw it in action!), hearing a speech given by the mayor which including him attempting to greet everyone in different languages, and listening to a celtic band/family (the leahys) do their thing which also included some highland dancing - sah-weet!) it was funny because the bassist, keyboardist, and guitarist kept trying to shove their hands in their pockets or rub/blow them whenever possible. poor guys, haha.

all in all, it was one fun morning. :)


^ another shot of the stage. i think the guy with the mic was our mayor.


^ the flags they were handing out. they were everywhere, including all over the ground. haha.


^ watching the olympic torch leave the ceremony


^ frozen cold, but so worth it. :)

term one of six: done

i'm finished my first term of OT school! :D the exam itself was alright - 2 hours of non-stop writing, but my hand managed not to cramp up so that was good. fortunately i write pretty fast so i was able to get all my thoughts down on the paper, but i think that if you're a slow writer you would have be so screwed. or maybe i just had a lot to write.

either way i'm free until school starts up again next year and the break couldn't have come any sooner. sah-weeeet!

one more...

my exam tomorrow is the only thing standing in the way of me and my christmas vacation and as i sit here typing out this blog i can safely say i am screwed, haha.

i just want this term to be finished - generally i'm enjoying it, but right now i'm so over school. in fact, i think i'll go to bed now...g'nite!

engagement pics

we did our engagement photo session back in october and our photographer, the talented glendon tang, just posted some pics on his website! click here to check them out!

fun times and awesome pics - what more could i ask for? :) enjoy!
...
for more details and updates, check out our wedding page.

OT practicum: term one, week four

as of today my first practicum experience as an OT student is finished! i still can't believe it's over...it went by so quick. all in all, i really enjoyed my time at the hospital despite the steep learning learning curve and feeling totally overwhelmed more often than not. it was a great experience and i definitely learned a lot. all that's left of term one is my exam next week and i'll be done!

it's too bad my motivation levels are at an all-time low. guess i'll crack out the books...tomorrow. :)

from body worlds to harry potter

omg, look what i just read in the star: harry potter exhibit coming to science centre

:O!!!!!!!!!

first body worlds (warning: bodies made of exposed muscles and other innards are the among the first things you see when you click here) now this?! wow, the science centre just keeps getting cooler and cooler. or maybe it's just me becoming more and more uncool. :P whatever.

p.s. speaking of body worlds, i actually really want to go see it - anyone else interested?

OT practicum: term one, week three

the bulk of my practicum is finished! the experience has been good, but tiring. everyday i roll out of bed at 6:30 to get to the hospital for 8 and by the end of the day i'm left feeling exhausted. i gotta say though, the 8-4 workday is pretty sweet (sans the having to get up early bit) in that you have more of the evening to relax. it's too bad i have a lot of work to do. and it's really too bad i haven't been doing any of it, haha.

only three more days of practicum left! let's do this.

occupational therapy: (y)

apparently OT is good to go in the US - it made it onto the best careers 2009 list. looks like i picked a good one. :)

december? really?

i can't believe it's december already, but all the signs are here: mittens and scarves, winter coats and boots, wool, fleece, and christmas decorations which have popped up all over the place! (i loooooove christmas!) is it just me or has this year has flown by ridiculously fast? i mean, two weeks from today my first term in OT school will officially be done!

don't get me wrong, i'm enjoying school but the break couldn't come soon enough. (i'm so exhausted when i come home every night that laziness and lack of motivation are really starting to set in. this is quite problematic for me right now with the work i'm supposed to do for my placement and the studying i should be doing for my final, ughh.)

so yes, not too long to wait for the start of my christmas break! until then, i'll try to keep swimming in the water that is slowly getting colder and turning into ice. 14 days, 14 days...

OT practicum: term one, week two

i'm just about halfway through my first placement and i've been learning tons as a result of the super steep learning curve. actually, everyday i leave the hospital excited but exhausted - and acutely aware of how little i actually know, haha. my preceptor is still just as cool as she was last week and i really appreciate how she encourages me to ask questions and actually do things as opposed to just standing around watching all the time. while it's nerve-wracking being 'thrown to the wolves' (as she so nicely put it at one point), i think i've learned a lot through being pushed to be more involved in patient care. thankfully, my preceptor recognizes that this is my first placement in my first term of OT school (read: she is fully aware that i have no idea what i'm doing, haha) so that helps to take off some of the pressure.

in any case it has been two weeks since i've started practicum and i'm still enjoying it so i think this is a good sign. :)

john mayer | b a t t l e . s t u d i e s

for the past couple of days i've been listening to jm's latest, "battle studies". a lot of people have criticized this cd saying stuff like 'he sold out to pop with this album' or that 'this cd just doesn't compare at all to continuum'. meh, i guess people will always have their opinions.

for me, what impresses me the most is the fact that this album is so different from his last one (continuum), but it still sounds so...him. i think that's the mark of a great and super versatile musician who is just so damn good. bottom line: i think the battle studies cd is commendable and i like it.

favourite tracks off this one include 'heartbreak warfare', 'who says', and 'assassin'.

man, i could listen to him sing forever. it doesn't hurt that he's been looking less like a sick ghost these days either, haha. :)

click here to watch the official 'who says' video.

OT practicum: term one, week one

last night i had some major gi issues which is how i am blogging right now instead of being at the hospital for my practicum (since i need to be symptom-free for 48 hours before going back). i won't go into anymore detail on the gastrointestinal front because it is and was gross, haha.

what do i think of my practicum? so far, i'm loving it! i'm doing 3-weeks at an acute-care hospital on their in-patient rehabilitation floor, primarily working in geriatrics. my day starts at 8 and literally goes non-stop until 4 aside from a lunch break from 12-1. there's always something to do, patients to see, charts to read, assessments to review, and many things to observe and learn, so i never feel unsure of what to do even if i'm on my own while my preceptor does her documentation. it's weird, but good, in that i don't have any desire to check my e-mail or surf the internet during the day, haha. anyway, to date i feel like i've already learned a lot just going through patient charts with a medical dictionary to figure out what is going on in there, and observing my preceptor in the way she interacts with patients, so it's been a really good experience thus far. i've also learned a ton about wheelchairs, different foot rests that fit on different wheelchairs, elevated articulated foot rests, and the different types of wheelchair cushions and when you would use them. obviously i still have a long way to go in terms of the things i need/want to learn so sometimes it's overwhelming, but that's ok because i know that someday i'll get there.

bottom line is that i'm really liking my placement! it has been so cool.

so cool that last night when i realized i wouldn't be able to go in today, i was actually disappointed. imagine that, disappointed to not be able to go into work! i've never had that before - even throughout my music therapy internship, i was always kind of relieved to not have to go in.

this is just another reason why i think going back to school was one of my best decisions ever. :)

a duncan and tonic kind of night

tonight i listened to the following:

duncan sheik - barely breathing
tonic - if you could only see

it was like i was back in 1996 and yes, after 13 years, i still love these songs. :)

H1N1 vaccinated

as an OT student, i'm part of the health care worker/professional group of individuals that are considered high risk for h1n1 so i got my vaccination shot today (read: i was poked in the arm with a needle loaded with the virus.)

actually, the shot itself didn't hurt at all (the nurse was great!), but so far the aftermath has been less than pleasant. about 15 minutes after my shot, my arm got a little itchy and then the soreness started to set in. i got it around 3:45pm this afternoon and since then my arm has progressively gotten sorer and sorer. it hurts to extend, flex, adduct, and abduct - basically, it hurts to move my left arm in general. ughh.

the nurse warned me of the arm pain so i suppose it was to be expected, but still...boo. she advised me to ice it during the night to help with the pain, but i'm not sure if going to sleep with an ice pack (read: bag of frozen peas) on my sore arm only to wake up with a bag of defrosted peas in a puddle of water on my bed is the best way to go about things tonight. plus that would be uncomfortable. and cold.

oh well, i'm just gonna suck it up and go with it. let's just hope my body holds up for the next ten days (the approximate time it takes the vaccine to kick in) and doesn't get sick. otherwise the vaccination would have just been counterproductive and all the soreness would have been for nothing. :P

remembrance day 2009

today we had a remembrance day celebration in the IAHS (Instititute for Applied Health Sciences) building at Mac. it was short but sweet, and full of a lot of awkward moments:

- the audio kept skipping in and out during the last post.
- the MC kept slipping up words like "receipt" instead of "recite"
- "O Canada" was cut off because they forgot to ask everyone to stand.
- they then asked everyone to stand and started it over again.
- the audio player continued to skip during our national anthem
- one lady sang really loudly pretty much by herself.
- as the cd skipped she filled in the gaps. alone.
- after the national anthem was finished, there was scattered clapping.
- i think they were clapping for the singing lady.

despite the awkwardness, it was still nice that something was done to remember what was done and the lives that were lost in the process. i remembered, we all remembered, and that's what today was all about.

image taken from freefoto.com

cooking corner: chili con carne

from monday to thursday, my housemates and i cook for each other and eat dinner together. it's nice to be able to eat, laugh, and chat with them after a long day at school plus it's convenient in that everyone only has to cook one day a week.

anyway, my housemates cook good food. i've never eaten so well at school before and as a result, i've felt the need to up my game a little. ok, a lot. gone are the days of instant noodles for dinner everyday (although i totally still have it for lunch sometimes, haha) and here are the days of cooking better and healthier food. yep, i've been slowly expanding my 'cooking repertoire' and have - so far - cooked things like curry chicken, pasta and soup, and shepherd's pie.

tonight was my night to cook again and this is what i made: chili con carne



it was my first time ever making chili, but my housemates said it tasted really good so everyone was happy tonight. i also made rice to go with it but the rice didn't make it into the picture. :P my goal is to hopefully cook as well as my mom one day...yah, i have a long way to go, but i feel like i'm slowly improving. slowly. :)

5 embarrassing things about me

1. i like reading ellie in the living section of the toronto star. so much drama, my goodness. i generally enjoy reading 'dear abby' more than 'ellie' though because sometimes ellie annoys me.

2. i have a weakness for young adult fiction. (from the luxe - which i haven't written a review on yet because i'm waiting for the last book to come in the mail so i can finally finish the series - to the mortal instruments, i'm all over it.)

3. instead of hemming my pants properly, i used to just staple them. at work of course, as to use up their staples instead of mine. bahaha, talk about professional. i've since hemmed the majority of my pants now.

4. i try to keep my room in hamilton tidy because i'm in the basement and the last thing i want is bugs and spiders all up in my stuff. unfortunately, my room at home is still a huge mess, boo.

5. i'm a chronic procrastinator who just doesn't seem to learn from my mistakes. like, for example, right now i should be working, but instead i'm blogging and typing up random stupidness, haha. everything always get done in the end though, so i feel a little bit better about this. a little.

novel withdrawal

it's been more than two months since the last time i sat down to read a novel - i know, it's so sad...and pretty nerdy that it makes me feel sad, haha. anyway, my problem is that i generally don't really have time to read and when i do, i'm either too tired or so sick of reading journal articles/OT books that i just don't feel like it anymore. gah. over my christmas break i'm going to plunk myself down, curl up in my favourite armchair, cover myself with a blanket, sip some hot chocolate, and get lost in the pages of a book. no wait, make that books.

can't wait!

p.s. it's already november, can you believe it? :O

i...

- am officially not pursuing my MTA (music therapist accreditation) anymore.
after getting an e-mail from my supervisor a couple months back, i very honestly let her know where i was at and she wrote back today saying that she completely understood and i'm completely relieved that she doesn't hate me (she still wants to meet up so this is a good sign.) :) it took at lot of thinking and rethinking and talking to multiple people (ranging from justin to family to my faculty advisor), but ultimately i think i made the right decision for myself. i'm at peace with it and i'm glad everything is working out. :)

- am starting my first placement the monday after next monday.
i'm feeling pretty nervous, but excited. looking forward to being at a hospital (yay!) and finally being able to see and experience firsthand what an OT does not only as a volunteer, but as a student.

- am i'm getting more used to hamilton now.
...but i will still continue coming back to toronto every weekend. fo shizzle.

- am making tuna casserole for dinner tomorrow.
i eat dinner with my housemates so we all only have to cook for each other once a week since there are four of us and fridays we don't eat together. so far it's been working out great! and, my goodness, i've never eaten so well at school before. or cooked such good food - it always used to be either (the same) kind of pasta or instant noodles, haha. i still have much to learn, but justin and i will reap the rewards of my living in this house and having to up my game in cooking later on, i'm sure. :P

- am still loving OT.
it's been two months since i started school, and i can honestly say that the switch from MT to OT has been the best switch for me. i don't necessarily like every single little thing, but i'm generally really enjoying occupational therapy and i feel so much happier doing what i'm doing now compared to three months ago. it makes me kind of sad because i really do feel that music therapy has a lot of offer, but it just really solidifies the fact that it just wasn't for me. if anything, a lot of my thoughts towards music therapy are more positive now that i'm no longer working in the field. i will definitely refer people to music therapy where other people can do MT sessions with them, haha.

- really need to get back to work.
later dayz. :)

today i bought a poppy

i'm not sure why, but lately i've been thinking about gord.

during my time working in long-term care as a music therapist, i must have seen maybe 100 residents during any given week, but out of everyone i don't see anymore, i miss him the most. i actually thought of dropping my hours at his home on more than one occasion, but i never did largely because him. he was my favourite resident and i couldn't bring myself to leave as long as he was there - and it was in my control to stay.

even though he passed away in april 2009, i still get sad when i think about him. i never got to tell him i would be going back to school for OT. i never got to tell him justin had proposed to me and that i was going to get married. i never got sing certain songs with him, and thanks to a stupid outbreak that lasted for a month prior to his death, i never got to say goodbye. :(

anyway, gord was a veteran having been in the army for six years in his late teens to mid-twenties and he had a tattoo of his infantry on his arm and a head full of memories and stories as a result. while i've always respected veterans and remembrance day, i was never really into buying poppies until i worked in long-term care and the donation boxes were literally right there. i'm no longer working in long-term care, but even so i picked up a poppy today and on my way home, with gord on my mind and a lump in my throat, i decided i would buy one every year from here on in. it would be my way of remembering the fallen soldiers and their sacrifice, and my way of remembering my favourite veteran who has now joined his fallen comrades, gord.

i won't forget.
and i will certainly never forget gordon.
rip gord, rip. you are missed.

happy birthday!

...to my hubby to be. :)

wedding website/blog

justin and i have a wedding website/blog that we started earlier this month, but kept hidden away as we've slowly added content and made it look presentable. now - with just under 10 months to go - we're finally ready to uncover it and share our site with you guys...and the rest of the world (as is the case with the internet). anyway, it's there for you to poke around. enjoy!

find our site at: jusandsharon.wordpress.com
don't forget to sign the guestbook! :)

a productive day of doing no work

this past week has been crazy so today i gave myself the day off after my evaluated interview in the morning. (i'm not sure if i'll come to regret my decision to do almost no work today, but i'll deal with that later i guess. :P) since i decided not to do any work, but still wanted to do something productive, i ended up taking a little trip to the textile district here in hamilton in search of fabric for my bridesmaids dresses. (random fact of the day: apparently this area of hamilton is the home of the original tim horton's store.)

the area itself seemed a little sketchy, but the people in the stores were all super friendly and helpful. i went in empty-handed and left the area with little snippets of fabric samples, stapled to business cards. surprisingly, finding certain fabric in specific colours is pretty difficult (in retrospect though, i'm actually not sure why i thought it would be easy, haha. wishful thinking i guess.), but i'm glad i was able to find potentials.

next step: show justin and see what he thinks. :)

...and the wedding planning continues.

swamped, but almost out of the murkiness. kind of.

oh man, this past week and a half have been nothing short of crazy - i forgot how stressful being a student can be! i thought undergrad was stressful at times, but so far grad school has proved to be much worse. o_O

anyway, even though it's only tuesday, this week has been hectic. i had a big assignment due yesterday, another big assignment due today, and a presentation this morning in addition to all the other work i've had to do for classes and tutorials which, to some degree, has kind of gotten lost in the cracks. aghhhhh.

thankfully the craziness is slowly coming to a close. tomorrow we have our evaluated interviews where someone from the community comes in and we do initial interviews in front of groups of 6-7 (ahh!) and after that the big things will be out of the way for this month. although i still have something due next week. oh wait no, make that two things.

good grief, it just never ends. o_O

good thing i'm sentimental...

...and don't delete anything. even off computers i don't use anymore, haha.

so, as all of you already know, i was super sad when my hard drive died and i lost all my pictures since nothing was unrecoverable. :( anyway, i woke up this morning wondering if i had left my pictures on my previous laptop which is now my parents'. i didn't really have high hopes as i thought that i had transferred all my pictures onto my usb to put on my mac and deleted all those pictures as to not take up disk space on my parents' computer.

i guess i chickened out from deleting them off their hard drive because when i clicked "my pictures" what came up but all my pictures from when i got my first digital camera to 2007 when i got my new computer! :D yesssssssssssssss. i'm still missing pictures (obviously) but at least the gap isn't so big anymore, yay! :)

next step: transfer pictures onto macbook and back up, back up, back up!

my last 'single' thanksgiving

so i had thanksgiving dinner with justin's family this past monday night and it was a great meal full of lots of good food. highlights included justin somehow knowing what i would and wouldn't like (yes he knows me that well) and doing a little quick switch on the plates to make it look like i ate what i really didn't. not sure if we pulled it off well, but no one said anything so maybe we did, haha.

after dinner i was stuffed of turkey and ready to crawl into bed or sit at the table for another hour or two trying to digest everything. unfortunately, i couldn't stick around for long once i had finished eating because i had to drive back to hamilton so i really couldn't choose either of those options. anyway, while i was getting ready to head out the door, one of justin's aunts reminded me that by the same time next year, i'll be a mrs.

:O

...and i suppose justin will be a mr. but since he already is one, that just doesn't have the same effect, haha.

thanksgiving weekend 2009

this weekend was nothing short of busy. every night was filled with meeting up with friends, a worship team practice, and thanksgiving dinners, and the days were packed with our engagement photo shoot and thanksgiving lunch. not to mention we had breakfast at a friend's place before the madness began on sunday. oh and i had a paper to write that i handed in today.

all in all, it was a productive weekend filled with time spent with those i love. yup, i have much to be thankful for. :)

twenty-six

today i turned 26! :O a friend asked me a pretty interesting-but-tough-to-answer question tonight: in my 26 years, what were the two most memorable highlights?

here was my answer (i.e. the first two things that came to mind):

1. performing my piano concerto with the north york philharmonic at 15.
2. when justin proposed to me. :)

thanks for all the birthday greetings everyone! can't wait to come home this weekend.

t e n

we're ten months into 2009 and ten months away from the big day. :)

kseniya simonova | s a n d . a n i m a t i o n

a ukrainian sand artist depicts her country during the second world war on ukraine's got talent. she is so creative and super talented...and this video/her work is moving. check it out.

eddie on csi: miami

eddie cibrian is now a regular on csi: miami, which yet another reason to tune in on monday nights (i love that show!) unfortunately, every time i see him all i can think of is his whole affair thing with leanne rimes (ughh, what a let down. what is with hollywood?)

oh, that and his failed boy band, 3deep. bahaha, they were so bad.

in the hammer: week three

time is flying by and i can't believe it's already the third week of school. the leaves seem to have gone into shock as well (re: flying time) and have been slowly dying and falling off trees in response.

ah fall, how i love you.

anyway, i came back from another weekend back in toronto all ready to crack open my books and get to my work for tomorrow morning (haha, yah i'm still a procrastinator at heart despite my best efforts to change bad habits). as i read through the reading list i realized that i never got around to buying the books needed to complete my homework (one of them is like a 50 page manual going for $60...umm, no thank you). so...yah, that was that. how anti-climactic. hope i'm not the only one going in with blank pages tomorrow.

oh and i got sick over the weekend so i'm currently drinking a cup of neo-citron before heading off to bed "early". tastes like gross. *shudders*

from bad to new

update on the macbook situation:

so i took it into the apple store, got help from a funny and super friendly genius at the genius bar, and got a new hard drive (thank you applecare). the good news is that my computer is now up and running again, and i got to keep my old hard drive (which they usually don't let you do so yay!). the bad news is that my old hard drive is still dead and the information on it has, so far, been unrecoverable. gahhhh.

this piece of information would haven't been too horrible if i had backed up my files and stuff, but unfortunately i didn't so i probably lost everything. hmm...is it bad that i'm more depressed about the fact that i lost all my pictures than all my documents?

alright lesson learned: back up your stuff people, back it up!

bad apples

my macbook stopped working yesterday.

i heard clicking noises and the whole thing froze up so i, and in retrospect this probably wasn't the best thing to do but oh well, did a cold reboot because usually that works. then things went crazy and my computer went bonkers. :(

first came the darkened screen. then came the beeps. then came the flashing file folder with the question mark instead of the apple. then came the disk utility repair attempt fails. then came my attempts to reinstall mac osx only to find that my hard drive wasn't even listed as a location to reinstall it anymore. o_O then after my three hours of looking things up on the internet, trying the things i found on the internet (from legit sites, obviously), and cussing at the damn thing, i gave up. i couldn't even call up applecare because everything happened after 9pm, ughhh.

long story short, my macbook is dead. and my hard drive is probably a goner too.

so...it's off to the genius bar today. all i can say is, good thing i bought applecare.

*click*

and...we now have a wedding photographer. :) i'm very excited about this one, yay!

o-week finished

can't believe i made it through my first week in hamilton already. :O time really flew by. hopefully this is a good sign of things to come.

highlights of the week:
- meeting a lot of nice people
- getting to know people more throughout the week
- almost getting mauled by a dog while cutting through the park to go to school.
- almost getting run over by the frosh parade (they were soooo loud and there were so many of them!)
- meeting the OT faculty at mac. they are funny and i like them.
- giving my legs the shock of a lifetime with all the walking i've done
- seeing justin on friday when he came to pick me up
- coming home for the weekend

mac is no laurier and hamilton is definitely no toronto, but i have a feeling these next two years are going to be alright. :)

mac ot o-week: day three

wow, this week has gone by fast! i can't believe i'm almost finished my first week at mac - one more day to go! :O so far things have been going well, so i really can't complain. my classmates seem really nice so it's been great meeting them and getting to know some of them better. actually, despite thinking that i probably wouldn't attend a lot of the optional o-week events, i ended up going to all of them sans tonight's program on account of my tired and weary legs.

oh my legs. let me tell you about my poor legs.

so this past week i've been doing sooooo much walking which has resulted in achy and exhausted legs. mcmaster is about 30mins away from my apartment walking at a good pace and i, on average, have been going back and forth from school about twice a day in addition to walking around campus and all that other stuff. why? because apparently i have terrible planning skills, haha. so after walking about 12km today, 15km yesterday, and 14km the day before, i just did not have the confidence in my legs to go back to school tonight even though i was planning to go to. (tonight's event was going to boston pizza for dinner with the PT students.)

oh well, it worked out for the best and i managed to be productive even though i have no work to do (for now). i ended up having dinner with my housemate (which was really nice, i like her), and then i cleaned up my room and swept the floor, swept the floor of the bathroom and kitchen, and took out the garbage. oh yah, then when i went upstairs to return the dustpan, i had a conversation with the babysitter looking after my landlord's kids since they were out tonight. it would have been good to go out with the OTs and PTs tonight, but having this time to chit-chat and relax, as well as giving my legs a chance to recover was nice too. :)

in hamilton

so today was the "big move" from toronto to hamilton. (i say "big move", because i'll be going back to toronto pretty much every weekend, haha.) so far it, meaning everything, is nice. my housemates are nice. the landlords are nice. even the neighbourhood is nice and everyone has been really friendly so far.

not too shabby.

anyway, can't believe that the summer is over with the coming (and going) of labour day. school starts tomorrow (well, at least o-week does) and it will be the official beginning of my journey towards becoming an OT! craziness, pure craziness.

sting | f i e l d s . o f . g o l d

there's something about this time of year (end of summer, beginning of fall) that always brings me back to this song. i'm have no idea why, but i'm not complaining by any means - fields of gold is definitely one of my all-time favourites. sting rocks. :)

i'm not quite as sold on the music video though, but i guess it's to be expected from the early nineties. :P

yep, all in a day's work

after a lull of not really doing anything or getting any wedding planning done, yesterday was a super productive one on the wedding planning front - we got confirmation on our church, booked our restaurant, and i bought my dress!! we still have a lot more to do and think about, but at least the three big things done now, phew!

seems like things are starting to come together...feels good. :)

seven years going on forever... :)

^ photo taken by james on a patch of grass somewhere in the distillery district

p.s. the whole matching t-shirt thing was completely unplanned, honest.

september = back to school, once again.

i can't believe september has rolled around again. it's been three years since i've been a full-time student, but the time has come for me to trade in my guitar and musical instruments for pencils/pens, textbooks, and paper. it's both exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time.

to me, going back to school is about more than just being a student again - it's about leaving the field of music therapy and venturing out into a new field and career path. it's funny because i feel like i've waited for this fresh start for such a long time now, but now that it's really here, i can feel my feet getting a little cold. don't get me wrong, i'm positive that everything happens for a reason and i really do believe that i'm making the right decision to go back to school...i'm just a little nervous. i'm sure everything will be fine though and will work out for the best. :)

now i just need to start packing up my stuff and getting everything i need together for my move out to the hammer. o_O

book nook: what i did for love

what i did for love
susan elizabeth phillips

yep, it's yet another book review.

i've been trying to burn through the pile of books i borrowed from the library since i figure in a week, when i go back to school, leisure reading will have to take a back seat to anatomy textbooks, ot journals, and other school related things. ughh. (where did summer go?)

this one centres around the protagonist, georgie york - a washed up actress, recently dumped by her first husband, with a string of bad movies behind her name. basically her life isn't the greatest at the moment, and with the paparazzi coming at her from every direction now that her first husband is remarried and is having a baby with his new wife, it's at an all-time level of suck. anyway, the story is about how her and one of her past co-stars whom she hates, bramwell shepard, basically try to use each other after a stint in vegas until things eventually...um...change.

all in all this book was quite an quick and easy read although it was a little predictable which, i guess, was kind of to be expected. this book definitely doesn't make it to my list of favourites, but it's still pretty enjoyable all the same. :)

book nook: the other bolelyn girl

the other bolelyn girl
phillipa gregory

the other bolelyn girl was on my list of books i wanted to read for a while, so i was pretty thrilled when i was finally able to track down a copy.

this novel is considered to be part of the sub-genre of fiction, historical fiction, and is based on the lives of anne and mary bolelyn, the second wife and the mistress of king henry VIII. gregory creates a world rich in descriptions and good story-telling - i could visualize scenes playing out in my head while i was reading, so that was a plus. the story is set in historic england, centred around the two bolelyn girls, and written from the viewpoint of mary bolelyn (anne's younger sister in the book, but according to historians she's actually older than anne.)

it became pretty clear why hollywood chose to do a movie based on this novel; it's full of everything hollywood loves - drama, betrayal, sex, more drama, royalty, scandals, and even more drama. who would have thought people could be so incredibly sneaky, conniving, and power hungry? at times i couldn't help but put the book down briefly because there was just so much drama it became a little overwhelming sometimes, haha. at times i had to remind myself that this book (while based on historic facts) was, at it's very core, fiction.

i began reading it during a weekend away at a friend's cottage, and finished this book sometime within the next week. despite some unnecessarily graphic scenes, it was actually pretty addictive once you got into its pages. for my first venture out into historical fiction, it was quite a good read. :)

lightning, lightning, and more lightning

^ image taken from daily dose of imagery
(click the link for more awesome lightning shots.)

yesterday toronto got caught in the middle of a massive thunderstorm and, as luck would have it, we found ourselves smack dab in the middle of that storm driving home after visiting family out in the west-end. needless to say, the drive home from sauga was chaotic - lane markers were next to impossible to see, hazard lights were blinking everywhere, the road was one big puddle, and sheets of rain were pouring down so hard it felt (and looked) like someone was throwing massive buckets of water at us from all sides.

it was crazy.

the craziest part of the storm though, was the lightning. there were literally lightning bolts going off every 5 seconds which came in a variety of shapes and sizes, and i couldn't help but be mesmerized by all of them. some were streaks of light that resembled harry potter's scar, and others crawled across the sky like a network of veins, while others were just bright flashes that illuminated everything in their path and burned my retinas.

i'm sure the thunder was just as impressive and frequent as the lightning (one just doesn't happen without the other), but i think it was drowned out for the most part by the sound of the rain...and the random screaming, haha. :)

summer conference 2009: one ekklesia

this past weekend i found myself back at laurier not as a student, but as a participant of my church's summer conference. for the first time in years this conference housed members from all three congregations at our church (canto, mando, and english) and i actually really enjoyed the fact that we were all there together. the speakers were good and while i generally enjoyed their messages (despite some kinks in the method of translation), my favourite part was hearing the members of our other congregations share about their testimonies and what their congregations are doing - it was a great opportunity for me to have a more holistic view of my church and hear what about going-ons beyond the walls of the inner court. what really struck me though, was how through hearing these sharings i gained a much more realistic view of where our congregation is at...

i think my heart broke a little this weekend.

forget the reception...

...bust out the dancing during the ceremony, haha!



what a fun wedding party! unfortunately i don't think that our wedding will be quite like this one - i don't think justin and i can pull this off. let's be real here, we're asian...we can't dance. :)

thanks for the link, jen!

whirlwind weekend

friday night: harry potter and the half-blood prince
saturday: distillery district/st.lawrence's market/meandering through the streets of downtown/the old spaghetti factory/yorkville
sunday: cornerstone/lick's/markville

this weekend has left me feeling exhausted with a side of sore feet (so much walking on sat), but i had a lot of fun hanging out and meeting up with different friends at various points throughout. the best part though? spending the entire weekend with my favourite. :)

wizards vs. vampires

ahh, the infamous harry potter vs. twilight debate. with the release of the sixth harry potter movie, harry potter and the half blood prince (i am so excited for this!), there has been a lot of talk going on comparing the two franchises. it's actually a little funny how dramatic things have gotten and how, umm, passionate fans have become. for example, look at the picture someone (clearly a fan) made above: "only one can survive"? that's edward cullen in the picture not lord voldemort, silly!

anyway, since movies for both series are still being made, i feel i can only really have an objective opinion on the book series which are both finished. with that being said, i gotta say harry potter > twilight. hands down.

now don't get me wrong, i don't have anything against the twilight series and i actually thought it was alright - it just wasn't anywhere near as good as harry potter in my opinion (j.k. rowling > stephenie meyer big time.) think about it this way: in ten years i'll probably still be reading and re-reading my harry potter books and talking about how great they are meanwhile, the only thing i'll be saying about twilight is how hot robert pattinson was as a vampire in the movie, haha.

book nook: bloodsucking fiends

bloodsucking fiends: a love story
christopher moore

first was harry potter with the wizards and witches, then twilight with the vampires, then the mortal instruments with the shadowhunters/fairies/warlocks/demons/vampires/werewolves, and now bloodsucking fiends with some more vampires - hmm, i seem to be on some kind of fantasy reading kick. love this genre.

anyway, i came across this book at the library and read good things about christopher moore so i decided to give it a try. this story follows jody, a young woman in her twenties who is turned into a vampire one night. it basically takes you on her journey of discovering her new life and trying to adapt to being nocturnal while meeting interesting characters along the way. there are some funny parts and i found myself giggling at times which is always a plus. i did, however, think the ending was a little weak, but that's just my own opinion.

this book is kind of a meld of different genres: there are supernatural elements making it a little fantasy, some plot twists that make it a little mystery (to some degree), and it's a love story (see title) making it a little romance too. i guess if you're looking for an light read which is a melting pot of different genres, then this book could work for you.

generally speaking i thought it was an ok read. i didn't think it was outstanding, but i thought it was alright. overall, i'm glad i gave moore a chance...maybe i'll try reading another one of his books whenever i get around to it.

book nook: the mortal instruments

the mortal instruments
cassandra clare

this book series is a trilogy made up of three books: city of bones, city of ashes, and city of glass. considered part of the urban fantasy book genre, the story is set in modern day new york city and the plot centres around clary, a teenager and the main protagonist, who basically finds herself immersed in the world of shadowhunters, vampires, werewolves, warlocks, demons, and fairies after a series of events that happen one night and her mom disappears. the books outline her journey into that world while she tries to find and save her mom from whatever - or whoever - took her away with her best friend simon, befriends a trio of young shadowhunters (jace, isabelle, and alex), and uncovers secrets about herself and her life that she never even knew existed.

city of bones is clare's first novel and she did a great job setting up the scene for the rest of the series. the world she created was creative, the character development was good, the plot kept me interested, and her descriptions and writing style in general were really enjoyable to read. city of bones itself was full of action, suspense, romance, teenage angst (haha), and humour, and the rest of the series continued to be just as good, if not better. i'm already looking forward to reading her next series (a prequel to the mortal instruments) which is scheduled to come out sometime next year.

anyway, if you liked the twilight series then you absolutely should read this one because it is so much better (cassandra clare totally owns stephenie meyer, it's not even funny.) i definitely recommend this series to anyone looking for a short book series, easy reads, and a great story line. the mortal instruments has joined the harry potters as one of my favourite book series! :)

michael jackson (1958-2009)

still can't believe he's gone. the news of his passing was shocking although i guess to some extent it wasn't entirely a surprise since he didn't look that healthy towards the end. justin and i spent a good chunk of time yesterday flipping back and forth between news broadcasts covering the story totally speechless. we couldn't believe it...so tragic.

even though he was one wierd dude, his music was and continues to be phenomenal - you just can't help but move to his beats. his death is definitely a huge loss for the music world. so tragic.

rip mj, rip.

click here to view the greatest music video of all time.
(youtube has disabled embedding for this one.)

twilight and the mortal instruments

bahaha, this comic says it all: it's a pretty good depiction of what happened to me (and i'm sure countless others) when i first started reading the twilight series. ok it's not entirely 100% accurate, but the gist of things is there. as i've said before the writing is bad, but somehow you still get sucked into everything anyway. :P

click on the comic to make it bigger. and readable.
speaking of book series, i recently got around to starting the mortal instruments series by cassandra clare and so far i'm really liking it (although sometimes it can get really dark and a little scary). clare writes so much better than meyer and i find myself wanting to read more which always a good sign, although a little inconvenient when reading during the early hours of the morning. i just finished reading the second book a couple of days ago and have been itching to read the third, and last, one ever since. unfortunately there are a whole crapload of holds on the the book at the library and i don't want to buy the hardcover version, so i'm waiting for the paperback version to come out (release date is july 6th) so i can buy it and devour the pages. until then, i'll probably just reread the first two books...or make a trip to chapters to read that third one. hahaha. :P

musicophilia

ok this isn't from the book (which is still sitting on my shelf, waiting for me to read), but here's an interesting article about music and the brain from good ol' scientific american. :)

book nook: the wednesday letters

the wednesday letters
jason f. wright

after reading the twilight series, i was in need of a change in pace (a 25 year old can only read so many teen fiction books in a row before it starts becoming a little ridiculous, haha) and this book was definitely just what i needed.

the 'wednesday letters' refers to letters written by a husband (jack) to his wife (laurel) every wednesday from their wedding night until their passing. when these two characters pass away, jack's letters are unearthed by their adult children (matthew, samantha, and malcolm) and the novel basically follows the discovery of these letters and the uncovering of hidden family secrets while also following the 'present dramas' in the lives of the grown children.

i found myself getting caught up in the story line, sympathizing with characters, and tearing up at the ending - all signs of a good book. from family drama to forgiveness, this story touches on many things. it's a nice and wholesome, and will probably leave you feeling the warm fuzzies when you turn over the last page. a great book if you're looking for an easy read that won't take you long to finish. :)

thinking about september...

ok, now it's starting to sink in even more: i'm going back to school. yah i'm pretty excited, but now some nerves are starting to kick in as well. it's been three years since i've been a full-time student...what if i've forgotten how to do it? (what is this homework business?) the fact that i don't know anyone at mac is a little daunting as well. o_O plus, i have the feeling that the switch between music therapy and occupational therapy is going to be really different and challenging for me (it'll be one steep learning curve), but i think this change will be worth it. this is the hope anyway because it has to be. good grief, please be worth it!

p.s. anyone have any friends going to mac who are looking for housemates this september? :)

p.p.s. today is the last day before my provisional acceptance at mac becomes firm and my hopes of going staying in toronto are crushed. to be waitlisted at your first choice, but accepted everywhere else is on one hand really good, but at the same time it really sucks! :P oh uoft, i guess you and i just weren't meant to be...

the fu wedding

a beautiful day for a beautiful couple. congrats clinton and evie! :)

the final decision

after flipping back and forth, thinking long and hard, and mulling over this decision again and again, i've decided to provisionally accept my admission offer at mac.

a part of me is still hoping that a miracle will happen and i will somehow get into UofT before june 12th (which is when all provisional acceptances become firm and my name is taken off toronto's waitlist), but either way it's a win-win situation. at the end of the day, i honestly think that mac's program can and will offer me so much and really, no matter where i end up the end result is the same: i'll get a MScOT. :)

now i can really let it all sink in. i'm going back to school for occupational therapy! :D

the lengthened version

this is the longer version of how justin ended up standing in the middle of a pool in waterloo with no shoes as told from my point of view.

last weekend (may 23-24) i went to flint, michigan (birch run, baby!) with two of my best friends, jo & adrienne, for a roadtrip filled with craploads of junk food, candy, shopping, greasy food, and good times. :) on the way back from the states, they made up an excuse to drop by waterloo and so we went there without me suspecting anything.

when we got into waterloo they said that they had to meet someone in waterloo park so we made our way there. when we got out of our car, we kept walking further and further into the park and i began wondering what this person we were meeting was actually doing. we kept walking down the path, crossed a bridge, and finally came to a fork in the path.

i followed jo & adrienne down one path until i started noticing flower petals on the ground. at this point i stopped and was like, "what's going on?" both jo & adrienne didn't answer me - instead they smiled and said, "i think you've got to walk this part by yourself" and pushed me forward. they then ran away leaving me there all by myself.

at this point i was starting to clue into what was happening and continued walking up the path knowing what was going to take place, but not entirely sure what to expect. anyway, i finally got to the end of the path where there was a clearing with a pool of water on one side and as soon as i got into the clearing, i heard a guitar playing. i looked around and saw justin with his dress pants rolled up, walking towards me in the water with his guitar in his arms and a huge smile on his face.

he then sang me two songs (during which time i cried like a baby), then continued walking towards me, put his guitar down, got out of the water, hugged me, then got down on one knee, asked me to marry him, and i said "yes!" then there were hugs, kisses, and smiles all around.

...and that is the story of how my boyfriend became my fiance. :)

best weekend ever!!!

^ post title says it all. i feel like the luckiest girl in the world. :)

this just in: australia is home kangaroos, koalas, and hero doctors

check out this story. a doctor used a drill he got from home depot to drill a hole in a boy's head, saving his life. ok, i made up the home depot part - it actually came from the maintenance room of the doctor's hospital - but the rest is true. :O

wow, australians are so cool. especially the hero doctor.

decisions, decisions, decisions...

now that i've been fortunate to get into three different occupational therapy programs, i'm left with the daunting task of deciding which one to choose. i really wish that i had gotten an acceptance to UofT (the decision would have been a no-brainer), but at least i made it onto the waiting list. and really, i can't (or rather, shouldn't) complain - this is a great predicament i'm in and i'm so thankful for it. at the end of the day, no matter which program i choose, the outcome will be the same: i'll be an OT. :)

so between the OT programs at mac, queens, and western, where should i go?

and the school saga continues...

summer weddings: jon and dawn

the first wedding of the year: jon and dawn!!! :D

congrats to the happy couple!!! unfortunately i forgot to bring my camera to both the wedding and the banquet - doh! - but hopefully i'll be able to get some pics off other people. unfortunately i have a feeling some of these photos may be incriminating. yikes. o_O

p.s. it's all about drunk uncles at wedding banquets. this time around it was drunk uncle peter - he was freaking hilarious. he even got the parents of the bride to do the spiderman kiss. hahaha!

seven of seven

waitlisted at UofT!!!

i finally heard back from UofT earlier today, but unfortunately i didn't make it in. i did, however, get on the waiting list although the chances seem pretty slim since i'm #101. ah well, what matters is that i'm going back to school in the fall so i'm not complaining - i feel so relieved and thankful, it's ridiculous.

and just like that, my grad school application journey is finally over. sweet deal. :)
.....
applied: 7
rejected: 1
waitlisted: 3
accepted: 3

six of seven

i got into OT @ Queens!!!!!

six down, one more to go! now i just have keep waiting for the one i want the most: UofT.

wow, this is seriously the best start to the long weekend ever. :)
.....
applied: 7
rejected: 1
waitlisted: 2
accepted: 3

five of seven

just got the e-mail: i got into the OT program at Western!!!!!

it's only 8:30am and already this day is amazing, hahaha. yay! still waiting on queens and UofT...
.....
applied: 7
rejected: 1
waitlisted: 2
accepted: 2

four of seven

i got into the OT program at Mac!!!!!

i still have yet to hear back from all the other schools but it's such a relief knowing that even if everything else falls through, i'm still going back to school in the fall. now i just have to keep waiting to figure out exactly where i'll be going come september...

i'm so elated! God is good. :)
.....
applied: 7
rejected: 1
waitlisted: 2
accepted: 1

book nook: the red tent

the red tent
anita diamant

i finished reading this book a while ago, but i never got around to writing anything about until now. oops. anyway, i read a lot of good reviews about this book so i set on a mission to find it at the library and man, it was hard to find. thankfully i was finally able to track down a copy at my little local village library, so i happily picked it up and eventually got around to reading it.

the story takes place in biblical times and centres around dinah, jacob's only daughter. diamant basically took what was mentioned in the bible about her and expanded on it, resulting in a fictitious story based on historical texts. the book follows dinah's life and gives the reader an inside look on what it was like for her to be a girl growing up in that time period and what it was like being the only daughter amongst many sons.

some parts were pretty interesting as they gave insight into what life was like back then (especially for females), but other parts were just plain weird. it was generally pretty well-written, but at the end of the day the book just didn't click with me. maybe i was expecting too much because of all the good reviews i read beforehand. or maybe it was because, like i said before, some parts were just plain weird.

it's not a bad book, but i didn't think it was that great either (although many people would probably disagree with me on that.) i'm glad i read it, but i probably won't be reading it again. and i'm glad i didn't end up buying it. this is just my own opinion though so if you're curious about this book i'd encourage you to read it for yourself, but guys beware: it's definitely more of a ladies book. :P

book nook: remember me?

remember me?

sophie kinsella

after reading the undomestic goddess, i wanted to read another one of kinsella's books without having to commit to reading the entire shopaholic series just yet. enter remember me: a book about lexi smart, the protagonist, who is unable to remember the last three years of her life due to a car accident. the twist is, the life she wakes up to after the accident is completely different from the life she remembers from three years ago.

at first glance lexi's life is the dream life she's always wanted (she's super rich, skinny, and has a hot husband), but after a while she starts discovering holes in her "perfect life" and realizes that nothing is what is seems. duh duh duhhhhhhh.

i thought the story line itself was pretty creative and some parts made me laugh out loud, so that was an added bonus. and there was another mention of harry potter. sweet! all in all it was an easy read that didn't take me long to get through at all. if you're into chick-lit, easy reads, and light humour then i definitely recommend this book for you.

twitter and the spotlight ep

so i caved: i'm now on twitter. i have no idea how any of it works at all and i'm still trying to see what the big deal with twitter is. so far it's pretty meh. in anycase, i figured i'd sign up with my name before someone else took it and i got stuck with some ridiculous name is like sharon12390 or something. eww.

on a completely different note, i've literally been listening to mute math's spotlight ep pretty much non-stop for the last week and surprisingly i'm still not sick of the songs. seeing as there are only four songs on the ep (three of which are actually the same song, but different mixes) i think that just shows how freakin' awesome this band is. and how much i love them. and how obsessed i am with them at the moment, haha. i really hope they come to toronto on their next tour. :)

mutemath | s p o t l i g h t

i cannot wait for their new album to come out! it's going to be so freakin' fantastic.
...and yes, this song is in the twilight movie. :)

hamilton tomorrow...

so tomorrow is my OT interview at mcmaster. aghhh. honestly, i'm feeling a little nervous (ok, maybe more than just a little), but i've done my research and practiced hard, and i still have one more night to prep so hopefully things will be ok. :)

i still can't get over fine i feel with everything that has happened. although i was disappointed at how things panned out at first, i can honestly say i'm feeling quite at peace with it now. i'm actually surprised at just how at peace i feel with everything that has happened. i think i'm starting to discover what it really means to not worry about tomorrow and really believe and trust that God knows what is best. finally.

wish me luck!

book nook: twilight

twilight
stephenie meyer

i bought this book off chapters.ca because: 1. i wanted to see what the hype was all about, and 2. i needed something to take me up to the $39 minimum so i could get free shipping. haha. anyway, i ended up buying the mass market paperback copy because it's cheaper and even though it took me a while to actually start reading it (i had a list of other books i wanted to get through first), i eventually did.

if you've never heard of twilight before (i.e. you live under a rock), the story is quite simple: there's a vampire (edward) and a human (bella) who are "perfect" for each other so they eventually fall in love. however, the thing is that bella's blood is the most appealing (and appetizing) blood ever for edward, so there's an internal battle between him wanting to be close to bella, but also wanting to eat her and drink her blood at the same time. bah hah. oh the irony. read the book to find out what happens.

anyway, now that i've read it, i have a couple of thoughts:

1. stephenie meyer's writing style is atrocious.
okay, it's not that bad...but it's definitely not very good either (no offense). i understand that it was written for teens, but come on that doesn't mean it has to read like it was written by a teen. even harry potter is considered children's literature, but rowling definitely doesn't write like she's 6. instead her writing is just so much better in terms of its narrative, descriptions, and even vocabulary. hahaha, i can't help but feel a little mean writing it, but trust me: meyer's writing style is bad.

2. i'm hooked.
i know. i was surprised too. at the beginning of the book all i could think about what how bad the writing was, however by the end of the book i had been sucked into the twilight series. so wierd. case in point: i saw new moon (the next book in the series) selling for $9 at walmart so i bought it. and i'm going to read it soon. heehee. i guess despite her bad writing style, stephenie meyer did something right.

i recommend this book if you're into at least one of the following: chick flicks, vampires, easy reads, and books for teens. oh and i definitely think that it's more a girly book than anything so guys, you will probably hate it.

p.s. i want to watch the movie now. the guy who played cedric diggory from harry potter is edward cullen so chances are i'll secretly be rooting for hufflepuff throughout the whole thing.

gordon

i met him on my first day at my first long-term care home at my first job as a music therapist. he was one of the first residents i really talked to and i could tell he was one of the "good ones". i don't know if it was because of his love of music and chinese food, coupled by the fact that i was both a musician and chinese, but whatever it was, we really connected from the very beginning.

he was a silly guy who loved music, animals, the outdoors, sports, and (up until he had his first stroke) singing and playing his hawaiian steel guitar which he talked about frequently. he was kind and brave, having served our country for six years, but despite whatever horrible things he saw overseas, he came out of his experience with his heart and humour intact.

he was gordon - a great man and my favourite resident - and i always looked forward to seeing him whenever i went to this particular home. our sessions together were always full of laughter, singing, great conversations, music, good times, and time always seemed to pass quickly.

sadly i found out this morning that he passed away yesterday, just shy of his 89th birthday. even though he wasn't the first of my residents to pass on, the news of his death has hit me harder than the others. i only hope that i was able to impact his life in some way or another for the past two years that i knew him, because he certainly made an impression on mine.

rip gordon - even though you're gone now you'll always be my favourite resident. you will be missed.

three of seven

so i heard back from mac and i got an interview for the occupational therapy program! this means i made it through the first cut and i am still in the running. :)

as for the PT program i didn't get an interview but i'm completely fine with the rejection (maybe even a bit too fine) which just tells me that physiotherapy, even though it's an amazing profession, is just not for me.

time to start prepping for the interview!

three down, four to go.
(since i technically don't know if i'm in or out of the mac OT program yet.)
.....
applied: 7
rejected: 1
waitlisted: 2
accepted: 0

skillet | m o r e . f a i t h f u l

All the things my feet thought to be firm
Are falling with urgency
Tearing back my false sense of security

Some say things change, nothing stays the same
But the sweetness in my ears
Safe in your arms speak the words I love to hear

You have been more faithful than the morning sun
You have been more faithful than knowing the night will come
You have been more faithful than the changing of seasons

All things I thought that I used to know
Are falling down again

Our disillusionment is how we grow
Some say things change, nothing stays the same
In a world of inconsistency
When everything's a lie,

What can cause my heart to believe

You have been more faithful than the morning sun
You have been more faithful than knowing the night will come
You have been more faithful than the changing of season
.....
this is such a great song. even after 10+ years, i still love it.

book nook: the thirteenth tale

the thirteenth tale
diane setterfield

i snatched this book off the shelf of the library as i saw that it got a lot of great customer reviews at chapters.ca and wanted to see if this book was really that good.

the novel's protagonist is book-lover turned biographer, margaret lea, who is commissioned to write the biography of vida winters, a well-loved british novelist. the book centers around ms. winters telling her true life story before it's too late and uncovering hidden secrets of her past along the way, with a few secondary story lines coming into play from time to time.

i enjoyed the vivid descriptions found throughout the story which made it easy to visualize the scenes described, and thought that the story-telling aspect as a whole was good. unfortunately, i didn't enjoy the story line nearly as much and while i thought it started off strong, i found the ending of the book disappointing; it left me wanting more a better ending. haha.

considering this is her first novel i think setterfield did a pretty solid job, but in the end was it that good? ummmm, it was alright. it wasn't a great read, but a good one.

two of seven

i got my second response to grad school applications via mail today: wait-listed again for the speech-lanuage pathology program at UofT. i suppose it's better than a rejection, but i'm still feeling pretty discouraged, disappointed, and frustrated. gotta keep waiting, hoping, and (most of all) trusting.

i guess speech just isn't for me...

two down, five to go.
.....
applied: 7
rejected: 0
waitlisted: 2
accepted: 0

one of seven

i got my first grad school application response via e-mail today: wait-listed again for the speech-language pathology program at western. even though it's not my first choice, it's still disappointing. oh well, it's better than a rejection and i suppose this means there is still hope. :)

one down, six to go.
.....
applied: 7
rejected: 0
waitlisted: 1
accepted: 0

earth hour 2009

so this past saturday was earth hour and the big picture documented it in a great way: when you click the pictures, the lights will fade. (omg, is that not genius or what?)

anyway, i wish i could say that i participated in earth hour this year, but i really can't because i completely forgot about it. in fact, i pretty sure i was watching tv with the lights on during the hour...and more. oops. o_O

ben and harry

my mom came into the room as i was watching lost tonight, and she totally made me laugh with this comment: "hey that guy looks like harry potter!"

bahahahahhaa, she is so right! all ben needs is a lightening-shaped scar on his forehead. and to stop being so creepy. o_O

counting down the days

it has been pretty much a month since i wrote this post and i wish i could say that i've been nothing but patient, productive, and totally calm, but that would be a lie. instead, i'll be brutally honest because i feel that i owe you guys at least that much.

truth is, i'm going a little insane with the whole waiting thing this time around. compared to previous years, there's something different about this one: there's more to gain and more to lose, or at least it feels that way. maybe it's because i'm older now or because with each attempt i've invested more and more of myself into the process. who knows, but whatever. all i know is this waiting game sucks! i'm counting down the days of march. and trying not to bite off my fingernails in the process.

matthew 6 has never been more comforting or needed.

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." - Matthew 6:34

the waiting continues...

the very hungry caterpillar eats google

i've always been a fan of google's banners (i think that whoever comes up with them is a creative genius), but today must be one of my all time favourites! at first glance i knew right away where google got its inspiration from: the very hungry caterpillar - one of the best children's books out there. i still remember first reading it in elementary school (i think i was in grade 1?) and after all these years, i still love it! what a great way to ring in spring!

p.s. i can't believe it's already spring, omg.

image taken from google

book nook: the kite runner

the kite runner
khaled housseini

i've been wanting to get my hands on this book for a while now after reading the first couple of chapters (at chapters, haha) last summer. even though it took me a while to chase the book down, i'm glad i eventually found and finished it. finally.

the story is set in kabul, then later in the states, and basically centres around the relationships between people (namely two childhood friends and a father and son), with other more peripheral relationships coming into focus every once in a while. some parts touched on some pretty hefty stuff, but the book was well-written in that it never felt too "heavy" at any given point although i did tear up a couple of times.

since a lot of the story takes place in afghanistan, hosseini also includes details about life in the country before and after the russian revolution. it was pretty eye-opening since i know pretty much nothing about afghanistan other than the bits and pieces i read/hear in the news every once in a while.

overall, i thought it was a great read - i definitely recommend it!

matt wertz and new shoes

as i was perusing through the aisles at winners (gotta love the discounts) i heard the music of matt wertz coming from the store speakers and filling the space with the sweet sound of his voice. i was a little surprised since i thought that they generally played muzak in those stores and matt wertz is definitely not in this category, but meh - it's always nice hearing good music wherever you might be.

anyway, in addition to hearing matt i also found a pair of shoes. matt wertz and new shoes? i think this shopping trip was just meant to be. :)

the waiting game continues

so in continuation of this post, i ended up not getting into any grad school programs via waitlists. needless to say i was pretty crushed, but was comforted in knowing that my life and future is in the hands of the Creator of the Universe and that everything happens for a reason.

anyway despite the results of previous attempts, i decided to apply again to grad school again this year for the last time. i submitted my applications at the end beginning of last month so for now, the waiting game continues...

stay tuned.

brooke fraser | f a i t h f u l

There's distance in the air and I cannot make it leave
i wave my arms' round about me and blow with all my might
I cannot sense you close, though I know you're always here
But the comfort of you near is what i long for

When I can't feel you, I have learned to reach out just the same
When I can't hear you, I know you still hear every word I pray
And I want you more than I want to live another day
And as I wait for you maybe I'm made more faithful

All the folly of the past, though I know it is undone
I still feel the guilty one, still trying to make it right
So I whisper soft your name, let it roll around my tongue,
knowing You're the only one who knows me
You know me

Show me how I should live this
Show me where I should walk
I count this world as loss to me
You are all I want
You are all I want

happy valentine's day

hot dog! way to go hobbes, haha. :)