I love going away with my family or my hubby, but there’s something so amazingly fantastic about a girls getaway. I’ve been lucky enough to have a few, including most recently going away for two nights to Mont-Tremblant with two of my besties. We spent an afternoon at the spa, indulged in great meals and a few sweet treats, we slept in, and we laughed till we cried (on numerous occasions). I feel like having great girlfriends is like always having a lifeline – if they’re true friends they love you unconditionally, even when you screw up, they’re there unconditionally, even when it’s not convenient, and they’re your biggest fan, even when you’re a dork. You can tell them anything, really anything, and even though they might playfully rub your little nose it in later, they listen and care and keep your deepest secrets.

Girlfriends really are the spice (and bread & water) of life. And it’s important to make time to be together. Life gets so hectic so quickly, and before long we’re sucked into adulthood and are pulled in a zillion directions. But a quick weekend away together can be the perfect way to recharge and reconnect. And I had an absolute blast this past weekend. Thanks Amanda and Jax! I love you.

I knew one day we’d leave this apartment and move into a house. But every summer seemed to pass, and we’d help friends move, or watch neighbors downstairs pull big trucks up to the front doors of our building, load up and move on, and yet we’d always stay put. The rent was ridiculously cheap. It was comfortable. I became self-employed and suddenly we were on a forced two-year waiting list.

But the time has FINALLY arrived after 10 long years of living in a crammed space, rearranging closets to fit just one more box of stuff, and we’re moving out. We bought our first house. It has everything we wanted in a home – lots of room, a nice backyard, a great neighbourhood street… everything! I’ll finally have my own office and won’t be relegated to a desk in the corner of my bedroom (hooray! No more living like a college kid in a dorm!). I won’t have to let my frosted cookies set on fold-out tables around the apartment at Christmastime, and presents won’t be hidden in cupboards and under the bed, only to be discovered months later as I smack my forehead and let out an “OOOOH so THAT’S where I put that sweater for mom!”

I’ll have an office. An entire room just for my work. A space where I can put my university diploma on the wall for the very first time. I can also display all of my professional keepsakes – press passes and magazines signed by the entire staff when I both started and finished a job, not to mention pics and other fun mementos. I’ll have a chalkboard wall and a sitting corner, and I’ll hang a curtain in front of the closet, which will be outfitted with floor-to-ceiling shelves.

We’ll have a guest room (as well as the futon in the basement den) – an actual livable space so people can FINALLY come and visit us! And the full bathroom in the basement is perfect for out-of-town guests.

We will have a real kitchen – not a built-in closet with a two-foot workable countertop. Actual SPACE to roll out dough and both comfortably cook together without tripping over ourselves.

We’ll finally have the space to have dinner parties and birthday parties and just-because parties.

We’ll host Christmas this year at OUR HOUSE.

When people come over we can give them an ACTUAL tour instead of jokingly standing in the entrance of our apartment and offering guests a 360-view of the place by just doing a circle in their spot.

I was so excited for our wedding and to marry Mike, but when I was little, I wasn’t wearing a pillowcase on my head – I was playing house. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about something in my whole life!

So, my faithful readers, I present to you: OUR NEW HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sometimes you meet people because of other people. When I first moved to Montreal I didn’t have a lot of my own friends – I had a lot of friends through my now-hubby Mike, who had grown up in Montreal. And naturally, I became friends with his friends’ girlfriends. True, I didn’t meet these girls on my own terms, and there are many of them I no longer keep in touch with. But there are still those special two or three girls whom I meet by association but remained connected to by choice. And the lovely lady who tops that list is Jess.

Jess, who ended up marrying my cousin and Mike’s best friend Jamie, is one of the most well-rounded people I’ve ever met. She’s always had an amazing work ethic and yet she’s also a blast in a glass! She’s smart and savvy and oh-so-responsible, but she’s also funny and a wonderful listener and oh-so-amazing. When Mike and I first got our apartment, the four of us practically lived together – in fact, when I got home from class or work, I automatically boiled the kettle and put out mugs for four. We had our “Idol” and “Big Brother” nights, and we’d play “You Don’t Know Jack” until the wee hours of the morning. Jess and I were study buddies during our last few years of university, and we would sit reading and highlighting textbooks while the boys watched sports.

Jessica has the most beautiful smile – it can light up a room. She’s one of those special people who loves you unconditionally, who would move the heavens and earth if you needed her to, and I’ll be forever grateful to my cousin Jamie for choosing such an incredible person to marry – because he gave me a lifelong best friend.

Happy birthday Jess! I love you so much!! xxoo

Yep, I’m writing about cereal today, and nope, I’m not running out of ideas. I just reeeally love cereal.

The other night I was hungry for a snack and didn’t know what I felt like, so I curled up with a bowl of Corn Flakes. And I realized how diverse cereal really is!

It’s a comfort food, for me anyway. There’s something that sparks the child in me when I hear the snap, crackle and pop of Rice Krispies or bite into a crunchy Lucky Charms marshmallow (which is weird – marshmallows are supposed to be soft, but the really “fresh” ones in a Lucky Charms box are crunchy, and only when they’re stale do they soften… but I digress…). Warm cereal like raisin instant oatmeal from Quaker reminds me of chilly mornings before school – it was always what my mom made me because it would “stick to my ribs.”

Cereal is a great meal. If you can’t decide what to eat for lunch or dinner, cereal’s it!

It’s versatile. Cheerios are yummy to begin with but they’re even better with sliced strawberries or banana (and a sprinkling of sugar). You can jazz up oatmeal with maple syrup, brown sugar or jam. Even dried fruit or nuts are delicious in cereal.

Cereal is cheap. You can always find some brand or flavour on special.

Cereal is healthy. So many cereals are now made with whole grain. Granted I’m probably not getting my vitamins from an oversized bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch but it’s better than finishing off a bag of potato chips!

Cereal is fun! Little toy or candy surprises, puzzles and mazes on the box and bowls with built-in straws (thanks Jo- now I drink my cereal milk!) – who wouldn’t love a food that’s so many things?!

1- There’s no possible way to speed up the process of folding laundry or shaving your legs… trust me – I’ve tried (and what a clean but bloody mess!)

2- I hate lotion scabs.

3- Some of the quotes you use on your Facebook status are cool but most of them are annoying.

4- Wanna see one of the coolest pics I’ve ever received in an email forward?? How’s this: an aerial view of the tulips fields in Amsterdam…

5- I miss the candy Dweebs – they were made by Willy Wonka and came in a box dispenser like Nerds, but they were round and softer. Sooo yummy. I don’t think they make them anymore.

I recently hit up etsy to do some gift hunting and thought that maybe I should share the link with my Facebook friends since a lot of people still don’t seem to know about this AMAZING INCREDIBLE WARM AND FUZZY site. Etsy is an online store for people who “make” things, everything from jewelry to artwork, wedding stuff, clothes, home decor accessories, and so so much more. I go to the site regularly, and before long I’m meandering through pages of incredible homemade labels having completely forgotten what I went there for in the first place.

Etsy is super easy to use and the vendors on there are amazing. Sometimes you can bargain too. I’ve made quite a few purchases through etsy and thought I would share em.

I bought this for my mother-in-law last Christmas – I just loved the two birds and the exposed gears, a really strange but beautiful combination of objects.

This is a tree of life pendant – I had it sent to my best friend while she was pregnant with her first baby.

These were pretty opal earrings I had made for my bridesmaids. They were all wearing black and I had hoped that these were earring-styles they’d wear again – I chose opal because it signified strength, which is what each of my girls has given me.

Everyone knows that I’m a keepsake hoarder. But I’m also a technology keepsake hoarder.

I have saved text messages that I can’t seem to erase. Admittedly I have a few racier texts from my hubby, but I also have pregnancy and birth announcements from friends that say, “It’s baby time” or “Had a late start to my day Auntie Jenn Jenn Jenn,” which could possibly only mean one thing: a new baby will be arriving in a few months. I even have texted photos saved in my phone, like when my friend’s little guy Mayson got his very first haircut (and went from being a baby with a head full of soft curls to a little man with a side-part). I’ve snapped photos with my crummy little phone over the course of two years because they were moments that just had to be captured – smiles from kiddies and the first portrait of my engagement ring – and even though I’ve uploaded them to my computer and looked at the grainy images, they’re pics I love flipping through while on the bus or waiting for a friend at a cafe. So they’re still in my phone.

Technology hoarder… that’s me.

I have a “personal” folder in my email – they have the most random messages ever, ranging from wedding quotes that are three years old to long-distance correspondence with old friends that contain pics of pregnant bellies. I can’t seem to delete them. And to be honest it’s not often that I go through these. But for some reason, I feel content knowing their tucked away in a special file in cyberspace.

Technology hoarder…

And finally there’s my saved Facebook messages. I know I had quite a few, but until I wrote this post I couldn’t remember what they were (then they must be really important, eh?). One is this completely random email with a link to a guy playing “My Heart Will Go On” from “The Titanic” on the recorder – my friend sent it to me after I ranted on Facebook about my annoying neighbour who was INCESSANTLY playing the recorder (an instrument I deem to be BY FAR the most ANNOYING sounding thing on God’s green earth). I don’t know why but the guy playing the recorder in the video is hilarious and yet aggravating all at once, but again, hitting “delete” on this message is not an option. I also have Facebook emails with phone numbers and addresses – I have no idea why I don’t just copy them into my address book once and for all.

Yep, I’m a technology hoarder. Someone should start THAT show and then teach all of us how the “delete” or “erase” buttons are our friends. Until then, I will hold on to my texts, emails and messages and just feel warm and fuzzy inside…

Wanna know why some people get dealt all the good cards and some get all the crummy ones? Because the people who get the good cards think they’ll get the good cards – they really believe they’ll get em… so they do. You get what you put out there in the universe. It’s that simple.

It can create a vicious cycle – a Debbie Downer thinks only bad things happen to her, and then bad things do happen, so she thinks she’s right and chalks it up to the fact that she’s a bad omen. So cruddy things continue to enter her life. But I truly believe that if Debbie just chalked it up to life, understood that everything’s a balance and both good and bad will come (and go), then her life could take a change for the better.

And then there’s the “perfect one,” the person who seems to have a horseshoe stuck up his/her butt. They have the great spouse, a job they love, a beautiful home, vacations, and loads of just plain ol’ luck. They’re always in a good mood, always happy-go-lucky. Debbie thinks it’s because they have good things in their life. And that’s partially true – it’s easy to be happy when life is treating you right. But maybe life is treating them right because you get what you put out there… emit good karma and good karma will return.

So it can also be an awesome cycle!

We all know those two types of people – the eternal pessimists and eternal optimists. I think the majority of us fall somewhere in the middle. While we have our down-in-the-dumps moments we also embrace life too.

But what if we decided to just tilt the scale a bit and enjoy a few more worry-free moments? What if, the next time you’re feeling sorry for yourself, you did something for someone else, even if it’s as simple as anonymously filling someone’s parking meter? Feeling overweight? Compliment the cashier’s nail polish. Stressed about that unexpected car repair bill? Donate a few canned goods to the local food bank.

It’s an idealist way of thinking, I know, but if we all started doing something positive in negative times, rather than let those demons darken our spirits, we just may finally live in a world where people say thank you for letting them in in traffic, or who don’t turn their heads when they see an approaching homeless person with an extended hand, or are more accepting of people who are different from themselves.

And besides, why would you want to put negative karma out there? It takes so much effort and has no rewards – and karma always come back ’round again anyway…

I was watching a vintage episode of The Real World: San Francisco on the weekend – it was the third season of the show and aired in 1994. It’s funny how, watching it now, I can see where I formed certain fantasies and realities about being a 20- or 30-something adult.

For example, there’s this one guy Judd. He’s a cartoonist and wears T-shirts, vests and jeans to business meetings. In one episode he gets published in the San Francisco Examiner, the first major newspaper to feature his work. The morning it comes out he goes down to the newspaper box and buys every paper, and then he stands outside their house and hands them out to each of his roommates, and I remembered thinking, at 13 years old, how incredible it would be to experience that excitement.

And when my first article came out in the Westmount Examiner, it was a pretty kick-ass day.

I admired Pam, the medical student who not only had smarts but was a savvy dresser, and I looked to her “cool” ensembles for inspiration – she wore long floor-length skirts, Doc Martens and those ruffly pirate-like puffy shirts (apparently Jerry Seinfeld also turned to Pam for fashion advice). I loved that Pam had such a unique style. Too bad it didn’t rub off – I’m a sucker for Old Navy tees and jean shorts, not very “original” in the fashion department.

(Just as a side note, fashion-conscious Pam is now married to cartoonist vest-wearing Judd.)

Corey, the innocent naive sweet one who’s never left home, tries to get a job at a coffee shop, and I remember thinking, “How cool would it be to work in a coffee shop in San Francisco?!” I thought for sure that, during my university years, I would double as a barista in the evenings and on weekends, and have my “regulars,” and make the best lattes in town. The closest I ever got was working as a waitress in Kanata at Swiss Chalet and then quitting after burning myself/dropping things/mixing up orders three short weeks later.

It can be really fun to watch old TV shows and movies – with the help of these cultural references it seems it’s the only way to actually remember your mindset at a certain age. The Real World was the first-ever reality show and I was hooked from the beginning with Season 1 in New York with Eric Nies (huminah!), Julie and the gang when I was 13 – I watched every season faithfully from then on, including the reunion specials and special-release VHS movies with bloopers and more. And when I watch these shows now, I remember how I had looked up to these adventurous young adults who were experiencing their first taste of independence and freedom.

And it made my mouth water!