Birthday week blogging

My birthday week has officially begun. Unlike my Mother, who takes an entire month to celebrate her birthday, I have decided that seven days is the perfect amount of time for sustained celebrations. On Saturday, March 7th, at 11:42 am, I will mark my 28th year in the world. In a fit of unprecedented discipline, I have vowed not to open a single birthday related envelope, package, or bag until the morning of March 7th. So far this has been easy, as there are only two envelopes and one package tempting me. But with every mail delivery this week, as I watch the birthday shrine grow, it will become more and more difficult to refrain. It is a most delicious anticipation. That is why I started my birthday week so early – so that I can enjoy that anticipation fully.

I find March is a month full of anticipation. Anticipation for my birthday, anticipation for Spring, anticipation for SXSW (this is Mike’s anticipation, not mine), and this year -anticipation for wedding invitations. Is it wrong that the creation and coordination of wedding invitations is my favourite part of planning the wedding? I admit that choosing cake was also excessively pleasant, but the invitations are still tops. Pure glee. Choosing stamps will be an integral part of this process – do I choose something by Canada Post, or do I design my own? So many possibilities.

I shall go and ponder my options now.

Snow

Reasons I don’t mind the snow this week:

• I like to shovel when the snow is light and fluffy
• Fresh snow makes me want to bake cookies
• I never feel like shopping for Christmas until it snows
• I like being warm and comfy inside while the snow falls outside
• Drinking tea feels more natural
• I can justify many more hours of book reading and movie watching

By the end of December, however, my love affair with snow will have soured considerably. But for now, warm fuzzies.

The downside of being too organized

People mock you. A lot. But I’ve learned to ignore that.

So, in an effort to reconnect with my favourite hobby (sending and receiving mail) – I am doing a hardcore Christmas card mail out. I set a timeline that would see my cards in the mailbox on December 1st. So I’ve been working to meet that deadline. Here are the things I’ve been mocked for thus far:

• Spending an hour designing return address labels with a little candy cane on them.
• Using MS Word to complete a mail merge and print my addresses on special clear labels that were more expensive than plain labels.
• Becoming giddy over the purchase of the new Christmas stamps.
• Engaging in detailed comparisons of the new Christmas stamps to previous years of Christmas stamps. (Of my two personal favourites, which do you prefer – 2007 or 2005? Please vote by leaving a comment!)
• Spending undue time matching cards to people on my list, and then preparing all of the envelopes with addresses, return addresses, and stamps, all the while compulsively keeping them in alphabetical order.

So now all I have left to do over the next few weeks is sit down and write my personal Christmas messages in each and every one of those 33 cards. And I’m genuinely looking forward to it.

If you’d like to exchange Christmas cards, or otherwise enable my hobby by becoming my penpal – please send me your address. I have a large arsenal of stationery and mailing supplies at my disposal.

Didn’t I warn you about November?

So now it’s here. November 1st marks the beginning of Christmas shopping season for me. Or at least it marks the time I start procrastinating for Christmas shopping.  Maybe this weekend . . . I’ve also heard rumours that there’s something going on down in the US of A today – I’ll have to check that out.

Anyways, Halloween was a chocolate dipped extravaganza. Mike and I dressed up as the Let’s Go guys from Human Giant. That decision was based mostly on our mutual desire to wear warm, comfy track suits. We gave candy out to about 35 children before heading out to a friend’s Halloween party. Here are some things I noted on Halloween:

• Kids no longer wait until they’re out of earshot before they start discussing what they got and whether or not they like it.
• If you have cats, kids are not opposed to walking all throughout your house to look at them.
• There are very few cute little kids in our area, but lots of kids bordering on too old to trick-or-treat.
• Although I was desperate to get rid of our leftover candy, that didn’t stop me from buying more on Saturday when it was 50% off.

So there you have it.

November is sneaky

You turn your head for one second, and it’s practically November. Sheesh. It’s been a pretty busy month, so Mike and I took a mental health day on Friday and spent the weekend watching the fifth and final season of Six Feet Under on DVD. Good times. But now our lazy weekend is over and we have to turn our attention back to the business at hand: finding Halloween costumes and carving a pumpkin. Important work. I’ll let you know how it goes.

On another note, have you looked at the Shaw Festival’s 2009 season? Very exciting. I hope it will entice more people to come and visit me in Niagara and take advantage of my comps.

Appropriate naming conventions . . .

It was time for the change. Pridian Thoughts sounded pretentiously intellectual – which was fine when I was pretentious and intellectual. But now I’m just an apathetic, lazy blogger, and my blog needs to reflect that difference. Meh. Ish. will feature updates on the life and times of Jana Sheardown if and when I feel like it in whatever format I see fit.

Fall is a dangerous time.

Food-wise, that is. October 1 – January 1 is the most fattening period of the year for me. I think the reasons are clear: Thanksgiving, Halloween, Pre-Christmas parties, Christmas, New Year’s. All I want to do is eat – especially carbs. Hence, it’s time to get back to the gym. The summer soccer league has ended and despite playing defense exclusively all-season, I did score one goal (in a shoot-out).

So the bookshelves are up, and look great. I’ve already got almost two-thirds of my books here! Can’t wait to have them all. Also, the wedding date is set and booked – August 2, 2009. I know there are a million more details to consider, but having the church and reception venue booked seems to have taken all the stress off. In other exciting news, my Christmas cards have been selected, bought, and delivered. (mmmmmmmmmmm . . . Papyrus online . . . . ).

Now I have to turn my attention to choosing a Halloween costume for a party. Any suggestions?

On taking the summer off . . .

From blogging, I mean. It would seem that I stopped blogging when school would have stopped in April and resumed when it would have restarted in September. Totally unintentional. But interesting.

So it’s September. September and October are my favourite months, and I have been enjoying the less muggy weather immensely. Mike tells me it is time for him to start appearing in my blogs, so everyone, meet Mike. Mike is a 32 year old teacher, and as of September 19th, 2008 we are engaged to be married.

I’m not going to try and recap the past 5 months, but here are some highlights from August and early September:

• I moved into Mike’s house.
• I insisted on new bedroom furniture.
• Mike had custom bookshelves installed for my books.
• We discovered the magic and wonder that is the FURminator. Seriously, anyone who owns a cat or dog and doesn’t know what I’m talking about needs to contact me ASAP.
• We went to Ball’s Falls and had a little hike.
• I worked. Mike didn’t.
• We welcomed a new addition to the family – a Roomba we alternately call Gus, Zoomba, or Cleaning Cat.
• My mom came for a visit, and we ate well and were touristy for a little while.

Overall, it was a lovely and busy spring/summer and I’m looking forward to an equally lovely fall.

I WILL be a better blogger. Promise.

A Perfect Spring Day

If you haven’t already heard about how I prefer Thursday to Friday, know that it’s true. Since the anticipation of something is always better than the thing itself, it stands to reason that Thursday is preferable to Friday, which is generally considered “the weekend”. Anyways, if you want to debate this with me, send an email. 

The point is, today was a truly great Thursday.

In case you’re not all enjoying +22 weather wherever you are, I thought you should know that I am. Not only is it +22, it’s also payday. To celebrate the beautiful day, some of the pod-people took a stroll through downtown Niagara-on-the-Lake and bought ice cream cones. And as if that wasn’t enough for a great day, I have a massage in less than an hour. Bliss.

To recap: 22 above + money + ice cream + massage = bliss.

The Costco Never Disappoints

Seriously. Even when you go in needing nothing, you’ll come out equipped for things you never imagined. Like cleaning the interior of your car with a three-pack of armour-all wipes. Or sending cards for all occasions to 40 of your closest friends and relatives. And of course Costco is an excellent place to buy gifts. Like 3.3 pounds of chocolate covered almonds for the man in your life. Or 1 kilogram+ of gourmet jelly beans to share with your roommate. And if you need a year supply of anything – like contact lens solution or Brita water filters – the Costco is there for you. And to top it all off, they’ll offer up the 3/$8 tank tops just because. And yes, yes I would marry the Costco if I could.