Random Thursday: Things That Brighten A Rainy Day...

 

I know I did this whole apology last week, but yet here I am again, a day late! This time I have no valid excuse. I just straight up forgot. My bad. Without further ado, here's what Lin, Meg, and myself want y'all to write about this week!

Oh, man. After the last week here, I could write a book on all the things that DON'T brighten a rainy day - mainly public transit full of pokey, wet umbrellas and discovering several leaks in my very expensive and not-yet-two-year-old Hunter rain boots. Hmph. But that isn't what we're on about this week, so I'm going to tell you what makes things a bit more bearable and, in some cases, stopped me from putting people's umbrellas in places that would have freed up their seat on the bus for me. Here goes!

1. Starbucks. 

I'm not too proud to admit, there have been a couple of overpriced coffees in my recent past.

2. Warm winter blankets. 

I busted out the down comforter AND took a fleece blanket to wrap myself up in at work like a burrito. I was still cold.

3. A bath.

Unfortunately my bath plug thing broke, but I just got one of those suction plug things, so I'll be good to go - I sense quite a few of these in my near future as I get used to the new (freezing) temperatures around here!

4. Hot water bottle.

Between this and the random cats who are enjoying my winter comforter as much as I am, bed is toasty warm to get into.

5. Tea.

Yum!

6. A good book. 

Or several. I'm currently re-reading these for like the 800th time, and enjoying them every bit as much as the last 799.

7. Warm, dry socks.

If my feet are cold, I'm cold. And if I'm cold, no one is happy.

Okay, that's what I've got for you! Now share - what gets you through a dripping, wet, miserable day? Link up below!

Random Thursday: Last 5 Frivolous Purchases...

Time for another Random Thursday with me, Lin and Meg! This week's time for y'all to 'fess up to your real spending habits. We want to know what were your:

Hmmm. This one's a week early, cos I'm pre-writing this before going on a trip, and I'm sure I'll make some frivolous purchases along the way! But here goes...

1. Nars 413 BLKR Shadow Duo

I fell in love with this and... well... I just had to have it. It's gorgeous.

2. Starbucks

I LOVE Starbucks. My faves are the peppermint mochas, lattes, croissants and banana chocolate chunk muffins. Mmm-mmmm.

3. OPI Rapid Dry Top Coat

So I guess technically this is frivolous, though honestly I'm not sure what I'd do without it!!

4. Moleskine 2013 Pocket Planner

It's small and light enough to fit in my purse and I love Moleskine journals! This colour is awesome - wish they did regular journals this colour as well as planners!

5. Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight

Okay, so I haven't bought this yet - but I'm planning to stop in a B&N on my trip and pick one up! I've been coveting one since they came out.

That's it for me - what have you splurged on recently? Link up and share!

Ten on Tuesday

Reporting live from the snowy/sunny/windy/rainy metropolis of Vancouver... it's Ten on Tuesday!

1. I think that whoever devised daylight savings was an evil bastard. That is all.

2. We had a wind storm here yesterday which caused rain to hit at a 45 degree angle and parts of the city to lose power. Unfortunately not the part I work in (but magically leaving my house unaffected so that I could go home and watch TV).

3.  I have not been sleeping well. So add that to losing an hour and I'm running on about 5 hours - and that's only if you add up all the little chunks of about 20-30 minutes before I woke up inexplicably. I am not a cheerful person today.

4. So we use the space under our bed to store stuff, since I am a pack rat and we don't have enough closets. It almost never gets touched, but I decided that it was time to pull everything out, get rid of whatever we don't need, and clean under there. Sounds great in theory, but this strange urge to clean hit me at about 10 PM, which is far too late for cleaning - and for kicking up clouds of dust under your bed. Just a little tip from me to you.

5. One of my wonderful colleagues, Ceci, got me a peppermint mocha and chocolate banana muffin from Starbucks this morning, which pretty much made my week! Yum.

6. I've spent the last week working on a Kony 2012 blog post - I've published it and taken it down about 12 times because I keep thinking of other stuff to say, or coming across more info. It's getting to the point where I either have to stop trying to write about it, or just post what I have.

7. I work for a lung health organization, as some of you may know. So I'm particularly interested in the two class-action lawsuits that have been brought against Canada's three largest tobacco firms in a trial that started yesterday. The combined damages are over $27 billion and it's the largest civil lawsuit in Canada's history. Read more:

• George Stroumboulopoulos for CBC
• Reuter's

8.  It was International Women's Day last week. This is a very important day, and one that I think doesn't get enough attention (and is widely discounted and misunderstood). I wrote a blog post about it here - and if you haven't already, check out my post from 2011 (it has Daniel Craig in drag - need I say more?). I also came across a really interesting article on One's blog, that I think is worth taking a few minutes to read if you need some inspiration: An Ordinary Day with an Extraordinary Model

9. Because we all need something funny in our Ten on Tuesday:

10. After chatting with our intern, I've realized how much I miss the information I absorbed, seemingly by osmosis, in University. I also miss talking about social issues and current events at length with intelligent, enthusiastic people. Perhaps it's time to look into whether it's possible to do a Master's part time in night classes? Of course that would seriously impact my TV watching time, which would be a big problem.

Just four more days until the weekend!