buncha random thoughts

I can't quite start working yet even though I'm painfully aware that it's 9:44 already, and my three-page-long to-do list isn't getting any shorter. I think I just need to rant and get all these thoughts out of my head!

First of all - Christina got married! I was totally hoping to get to her wedding in Taipei as part of my trip to Taiwan in Q1, but there she went having a small ceremony with just family...congrats Christina! :)

My desktop background is a picture of Nyac the otter. The same picture can be found under my entries with the tag "otter". She was adorable!

Kasia got my package, which is great...I still owe the girl at the post office money for the bubble wrap stuff to hide the cookies in, I shall go pay her back some time tonight. She will obviously have no idea that I nicked two of those bubble wrap bags for my cookies but it's an honest thing to do to pay her back, right? I was desperate!

Trip to Taiwan - I need to start doing research! I think I want to swing by Bali for a week of sun and relaxation (and visit that healer from Eat, Pray, Love)! The thing is, everything looks kind of expensive right now so I have to do some more research to find cheaper alternatives and plan things a bit more DIY to save money. You're all invited to join me and Terence in Bali, by the way.

South Beach - I have been on it since Monday morning. I just woke up and decided it was time, and so far, I am incredibly glad I am doing it. My eating habits have gotten SO BAD. When I think about what I might've been eating if I weren't on South Beach, I cringe. I would've probably had a nice greasy English muffin with sausages and an egg for breakfast, had a soup and sandwich for lunch (which is probably the healthiest part of the day, usually), and snacked on Halloween candy from my coworkers, eaten lots of fruit (another semi-good thing) for the afternoon, binged on rice cakes or crackers as soon as I got home, eaten some sort of a dinner (not always healthy), and snacked on whatever else came my way, including anything I bake. For example, yesterday I went to Loblaws to buy some stuff because I'm having some coworkers over tonight. The old me would've cracked open the Pringles right there in the parking lot because I hadn't had dinner yet and was starving, and probably would've bought a Kinder Surprise or something to "tide me over". It's not that I was eating a lot in quantity, it's that I had absolutely NO filter and would just eat whatever was available around me - it's like I was constantly walking around in Costco waiting for samples to be thrown at me. That, my friends, is dangerous.

My naturopathic doctor (yes, I went back) did have a chat with me about the way I have been putting on weight, especially in the last year. As you may all have heard because I whine about it so much, my ass grew a healthy two inches in the last year, and I don't even want to think about how much my waist has grown. I never used to put on weight in my butt; if anything, my limbs were more likely to suffer in hard times (see pictures from beginning of third year after a summer of toast with my freshly churned, delicious butter in England). Anyway, he mentioned that in stressful times, your organs can't process fats as quickly and you tend to gain weight differently...so basically, the last year and a half have been stressful for me and that should explain the weight gain in awkward areas. It's kinda funny, because I really don't have overall complaints about my job and the type of work I do, and I never thought of it as stressful in a harmful way. I'm much happier than I was at my previous job, that's for sure.

Christmas party...I feel so disorganized this year. I think there's a bit of work to be done with decorations (will be starting this weekend - first official December weekend), and the menu planning is driving me bonkers in my head. I kind of know what I want to do, but it's so scattered in my brain and I feel like I need to be constantly jotting down things and ingredients to make sure I don't forget anything. I need to write myself a project plan!! Just need time to sit down and do that now...So many ideas in my head, so little time. Also, I take slight offense to people feeling like they need to bring food. I'm not sure why, other than maybe it interferes with my masterpiece slightly and goodness knows I can't have that. So if you're reading this, and you're coming to the party, please refrain from bringing food. Especially the store-bought saddo-looking type. Homemade food? I am open to discussion, but no promises.

Christmas presents - again, another drawn out list of the nonexistent presents this year. We've decided to go super small this year, so there's quite a bit of brainstorming going on, as well as supplies-procurement for those DIY gifts. I'm excited though, somehow living frugally thrills me a little bit because we had so much fun living frugally in England and forgetting about material goods for a whole summer. I find that my life was much simpler back then and thus more time to have fun and relax!

Anyway, ranting time is over and it's 2:40pm now - I guess I should get back to work ;)