There is nothing better than a beautiful Fall day and a fantastic song to frame it. Nietzche said "Without music, life would be a mistake."
I hope you've had this feeling, dear readers,
Walking to class yesterday, I was enjoying the changing colours of the trees. I was also enjoying the tunes from my iPod, when it shuffled to the perfect song. It wasn't about Fall, it wasn't about changing colours, it wasn't really about anything at all, but it was a perfect song. It made me physically smile; my back straightened, my step quickened and adopted a slight bounce. If I were a little more eccentric, or at least a little more secure, I would have started dancing, right there. I even considered skipping.
Music does this. It tames the savage beast, soothes the soul, and can make my entire day, no, my entire life, change. I wasn't having a bad day, I wasn't having a spectacular. It was just an ordinary day made exponentially better by a single song on my iPod. It's the little things.
I cannot express how much I love music. How much it affects my life. And I don't always realize it. I no longer drive, seeing as my car is parked in Sault Ste. Marie and not downtown Toronto. This means I no longer have a solitary place to belt-out my favourite ballads, croon to my favourite country tunes, and sing my usual soundtracks. I sing quietly in my room, but I have no place to perform, and it's leaving my soul a little hurt.
In high school, I was asked to make a soundtrack to my life. The songs on that list have changed, and I'm not even sure any would make my list today (other than "Drive (For Daddy Gene)" and "I Hope You Dance".) It just goes to show how much things can change in such a little amount of time. I leave you with five songs I'm listening to now:
1.) Awake My Soul - Mumford and Sons
2.) Hurtin' Alberta - Corb Lund
3.) St. Andrews - Bedouin Soundclash
4.) #3 Roxburgh Street - Captain Tractor
5.) Another One Bites the Dust - Queen
Keep singing dear readers,
Cait
Friday, October 29, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Too Long
Long time no see, dear readers,
I'm sorry for my absence. Busy life of a grad student/social butterfly has kept me away.
Too many things have happened since I last wrote for me to get them all in, so I think I may just start anew. I will mention some events that took place. Went to Ottawa and had a great time with my sisters. Had fantastic Thanksgivings with the McDiarmids, Hergets, and Sorochans. Met with a member of the school's staff to discuss my internship (I'm hoping for a job in Ottawa!). Went out for drinks with some classmates after Thursday's class, then went out for a friend's birthday on Friday night and had a fantastic time. Learned to bake cinnamon buns. Learned to make won ton wrappers. Had a great evening discussing governance and institutions, eating great Thai food, and drinking a multitude of martini's with another friend. Too much stuff!!!
Anyways, to start anew, I found a new app for my iPod Touch that is called "smidge." It's run by Pfizer and it's a 21-day good habit maker. Today is day one. You're given 6 daily tasks/goals to do:
1) Drink more water
2) Take the stairs
3) Do a deep breathing exercise
4) Train your brain
5) Eat more fruits and veggies
6) Be positive
So everyday, for the next 21 days, I will be attempting to drink 11 cups (not glasses, cups) of water, eating 9 servings of fruits and veggies, taking the stairs up to my suite, doing a breathing exercise to relive stress, doing a brain teaser to challenge my brain and taking a picture that stimulate positive thinking.
Today's picture is supposed to be one of a close friend and I'm supposed to reminisce about good times together. Considering my closest friends are home in Alberta, I have gone through my old pictures on my computer and found thing one instead of taking a new one:
I took a cake decorating course with Amanda a few months back and this picture reminds me of how much fun we had. I miss everyone at home, but I'm happy that I'm doing what I love, and I'm positive they are doing what they love at home.
I'll leave you with a quote from a little book Mom got me called "Keep Calm and Carry On.":
I am an optimist. It doesn't seem too much use being anything else. --- Winston Churchill
I promise I'll check in more often,
Cait
I'm sorry for my absence. Busy life of a grad student/social butterfly has kept me away.
Too many things have happened since I last wrote for me to get them all in, so I think I may just start anew. I will mention some events that took place. Went to Ottawa and had a great time with my sisters. Had fantastic Thanksgivings with the McDiarmids, Hergets, and Sorochans. Met with a member of the school's staff to discuss my internship (I'm hoping for a job in Ottawa!). Went out for drinks with some classmates after Thursday's class, then went out for a friend's birthday on Friday night and had a fantastic time. Learned to bake cinnamon buns. Learned to make won ton wrappers. Had a great evening discussing governance and institutions, eating great Thai food, and drinking a multitude of martini's with another friend. Too much stuff!!!
Anyways, to start anew, I found a new app for my iPod Touch that is called "smidge." It's run by Pfizer and it's a 21-day good habit maker. Today is day one. You're given 6 daily tasks/goals to do:
1) Drink more water
2) Take the stairs
3) Do a deep breathing exercise
4) Train your brain
5) Eat more fruits and veggies
6) Be positive
So everyday, for the next 21 days, I will be attempting to drink 11 cups (not glasses, cups) of water, eating 9 servings of fruits and veggies, taking the stairs up to my suite, doing a breathing exercise to relive stress, doing a brain teaser to challenge my brain and taking a picture that stimulate positive thinking.
Today's picture is supposed to be one of a close friend and I'm supposed to reminisce about good times together. Considering my closest friends are home in Alberta, I have gone through my old pictures on my computer and found thing one instead of taking a new one:
I'll leave you with a quote from a little book Mom got me called "Keep Calm and Carry On.":
I am an optimist. It doesn't seem too much use being anything else. --- Winston Churchill
I promise I'll check in more often,
Cait
Thursday, October 7, 2010
A Week of Small Failures
Welcome to my shortest post yet,
Today is just a quick little recap of the things I failed to accomplish this week. While I reconnected with my work email, I failed to send updates to my much missed colleagues back at Alberta Energy. I will write them all emails this weekend.
I failed to write a blog about my fantastic breakfast with Scott this past Sunday. Wonderful conversation about the U of A, the Students' Union, Toronto politics, and random events happened and it was nice to connect with a little piece of home.
I failed to write a blog about my plans for this weekend. Suffice it to say that I am attending not one, but two Thanksgiving dinners and I am very appreciative of my family here for including me. Good bottles of wine will be brought to all by a thankful cousin.
I also failed to go to the gym as often as I had planned to. Sleep took precedence on more than one occasion, but I will be more committed in the future.
These are things I failed at, but on the kick ass front, I'm pretty sure I aced the first test of my graduate studies career, I got top marks on my first graduate studies assignment (eat that statistics) and somehow, I know I will not fail in watching hockey tonight.
Home opener for the Oilers - Edmonton v. Calgary. With Shawn Horcoff as the new captain (a slightly angry blog post to come on this subject) it will be interesting to see how the lack of true veterans (ie: Sheldon Souray) will play out on the ice.
Until tomorrow,
Cait
Today is just a quick little recap of the things I failed to accomplish this week. While I reconnected with my work email, I failed to send updates to my much missed colleagues back at Alberta Energy. I will write them all emails this weekend.
I failed to write a blog about my fantastic breakfast with Scott this past Sunday. Wonderful conversation about the U of A, the Students' Union, Toronto politics, and random events happened and it was nice to connect with a little piece of home.
I failed to write a blog about my plans for this weekend. Suffice it to say that I am attending not one, but two Thanksgiving dinners and I am very appreciative of my family here for including me. Good bottles of wine will be brought to all by a thankful cousin.
I also failed to go to the gym as often as I had planned to. Sleep took precedence on more than one occasion, but I will be more committed in the future.
These are things I failed at, but on the kick ass front, I'm pretty sure I aced the first test of my graduate studies career, I got top marks on my first graduate studies assignment (eat that statistics) and somehow, I know I will not fail in watching hockey tonight.
Home opener for the Oilers - Edmonton v. Calgary. With Shawn Horcoff as the new captain (a slightly angry blog post to come on this subject) it will be interesting to see how the lack of true veterans (ie: Sheldon Souray) will play out on the ice.
Until tomorrow,
Cait
Monday, October 4, 2010
A Weekend of Hockey and Sleeplessness
Hello my friends,
Quick little update for you all today. I realized I hadn't blogged anything since last week. If my goal is to consistently blog and keep people up to date, a week of no blogs is not the way to do that!
Saturday night was probably one of the best evenings I've had since making the big move out here. My cousin called me Saturday morning as I was walking around Kensington Market and offered me some sweet (and I mean SWEET) tickets to the Toronto v. Detroit pre-season game. While I'm not really a Leafs fan and I am by NO means a Wings fan, I am a hockey fan and would never pass up the opportunity to see some guys on skates try to score ;)
My friend Beth and I arrived a little early to take in the atmosphere. Air Canada Centre is definitely not Rexall Place. For one, it's relatively new. For two, there are definitely way more concession options. For three, while the beers come in three different sizes (wussy, regular, and gigantic) nothing compares to my beer guy and friend, Wyatt at Rexall Place. Service isn't as good, and there were no friendly faces to greet me with a cold one.
In terms of talent, Detroit is an extremely talented team. Even if they only played their second and third liners (guys like Mike Modano and Nick Lidstrom weren't dressed) you can tell that Mike Babcock can really coach a team. Toronto had a little flare, and they did win, but it was their top line guys dressed (Dion Phaneuf, Phil Kessel, etc).
After our little hockey outing, Beth and I wandered around downtown to peruse the "Nuit Blanche" exhibition. An all night "arts" party, basically, there were exhibits, shows, etc all around Toronto and it was all free of charge. We met up with another girl from our program, Jamie, and her friend, and walked around taking it in. It was a little too busy for my liking, but City Hall was pretty trippy (lights, electronica music) and at Hart House on campus I experience one of the most awkward experiences I've ever had an an "art" show when the exhibition we saw was literally for us "viewers" to walk sideways between two naked women. Weird.
Anyways, I have again rambled on, making this blog post a little too lengthy. I am trying to work on my conciseness, I promise. I've got another blog waiting in the wings about Sunday breakfast and another on my weekend plans for Thanksgiving merriment. I will hopefully be able to blog my success at watching an Oilers game on television this week since CBC is broadcasting the home opener.
Until then dear readers,
Cait
Quick little update for you all today. I realized I hadn't blogged anything since last week. If my goal is to consistently blog and keep people up to date, a week of no blogs is not the way to do that!
Saturday night was probably one of the best evenings I've had since making the big move out here. My cousin called me Saturday morning as I was walking around Kensington Market and offered me some sweet (and I mean SWEET) tickets to the Toronto v. Detroit pre-season game. While I'm not really a Leafs fan and I am by NO means a Wings fan, I am a hockey fan and would never pass up the opportunity to see some guys on skates try to score ;)
My friend Beth and I arrived a little early to take in the atmosphere. Air Canada Centre is definitely not Rexall Place. For one, it's relatively new. For two, there are definitely way more concession options. For three, while the beers come in three different sizes (wussy, regular, and gigantic) nothing compares to my beer guy and friend, Wyatt at Rexall Place. Service isn't as good, and there were no friendly faces to greet me with a cold one.
In terms of talent, Detroit is an extremely talented team. Even if they only played their second and third liners (guys like Mike Modano and Nick Lidstrom weren't dressed) you can tell that Mike Babcock can really coach a team. Toronto had a little flare, and they did win, but it was their top line guys dressed (Dion Phaneuf, Phil Kessel, etc).
After our little hockey outing, Beth and I wandered around downtown to peruse the "Nuit Blanche" exhibition. An all night "arts" party, basically, there were exhibits, shows, etc all around Toronto and it was all free of charge. We met up with another girl from our program, Jamie, and her friend, and walked around taking it in. It was a little too busy for my liking, but City Hall was pretty trippy (lights, electronica music) and at Hart House on campus I experience one of the most awkward experiences I've ever had an an "art" show when the exhibition we saw was literally for us "viewers" to walk sideways between two naked women. Weird.
Anyways, I have again rambled on, making this blog post a little too lengthy. I am trying to work on my conciseness, I promise. I've got another blog waiting in the wings about Sunday breakfast and another on my weekend plans for Thanksgiving merriment. I will hopefully be able to blog my success at watching an Oilers game on television this week since CBC is broadcasting the home opener.
Until then dear readers,
Cait
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