What will I ever do with my life??!!

Tonight I'm going out for a beer with friend of the family to discuss "my career". Remember the interview I had a while back? Well nothing came of it. All that stress was for naught.

So last week I met Mr. Banker for a coffee to discuss the possibility of me working in "the Finance Industry". He's super nice, and we had a great chat. I'm going to meet him and his wife (also a bank employee) for a post-work beer and continue a conversation about life in the finance world.

He suggested that in the meantime I think about other industries I would like to work in; which is a hilariously difficult request for me. My whole problem and the root of much of my stress is that I have not a clue what I'd like to do, or which career path I should choose.

So over lunch I took an online quiz to tell me which jobs best suit me (okay, so I took 2 quizzes..)

Quiz #1 says my ideal jobs are:

artist

historian

banker

novelist

university professor

photographer

veterinarian

paralegal

graphic designer

online content developer

webmaster

producer

managing director

nutritionist

advertising

nursing

Quiz #2 suggests these as suitable career choices:

editor

journalist

teacher

strategic planner

consultant

performing arts

marketing

communication

research and development

Interesting. Some overlap. 'Banker' is represented, but other than that no jobs that I believe Mr. & Mrs Banker can really assist in. Almost all of these require (in my view) further schooling. Helpful? Kind of, but not really. Huh.

Time change is kicking my ass this morning. Operation Americano is about to happen in a big way.

Tonight - via dailydoseofimagery - I stumbled upon Joe McNally's Blog. As you may have a thing for photography so I perused. I was intrigued, but not invested, not until I read this post. Here's a snippet:

Photographers. We’re strange, right? We can’t stop. We run when others
walk. We work when others relax. We have no sense of weekends, holidays, time
off, time on, or time in general, except as it relates to sunrise or set... We
shake our heads, punch buttons on expensive cameras, eyeball perfect strangers,
ask odd questions, and wait for light. What an odd thing to wait for. We also
have restive, restless, roaming eyes. Eyes that don’t shut down. Eyes that often
feel hemmed in or framed by a 35mm lens border, eyes that correspond to a 24-70,
or a 200-400, depending on what they encounter. Eyes that curse the dumb
conglomeration of plastic, brass and glass we place in front of them, asking
that mix of pixels and wiring to be surrogate vision, supple as the real thing.
Hah! We might as well ask a fucking toaster oven.

I'll be visiting again to read some more rants and stories, and ogle some more beautiful images.

Coco, you are just the coolest.

Was going to share a quote from quick-witted and classy Coco Chanel, but turns out she has so many good one-liners that one quote was not enough:

" Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door "

photo source

" As long as you know men are like children, you know everything! "

" Nature gives you the face you have at twenty; it is up to you to merit the face you have at fifty. "

" A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous "

Y'know what I just realized?

Yesterday I posted my 200th post! Perhaps I should have made more of a fuss, because 200 is a lot. Maybe I'll save the pomp and circumstance for 250...200 is a lot, but 250 seems oddly more impressive; so stay tuned: Post250. It's gonna be a party.

Found: Dream Home

I want to live here. I want to go to Paris. I want to stay here. I want this to be my life.

Who doesn't want to start their day with a salsa dance?

Hanging on

So Roomie is here, the apartment is in relative chaos, and there is currently a man drilling a hole through our basement wall.

BUT despite all of this, the apartment is coming along.

We have been on a hanging-spree for the past couple of days. Mirrors have gone up, hooks, photos, art, frames, it's all happening people. It is happening, and it is a LOT of work. We're working on a "feature wall" (if you will) in our living room. Yesterday we had a grand time turning our living room floor and all of our frames/posters/photos into a puzzle. We've now got a pretty good idea of what we want and I'd say about 1/4, no, 1/3 of all items are currently affixed to the wall.

Of course I don't have any photos of our progress yet (once all of our mess gets cleaned up I promise I will take some photos and post them. For now, here is an idea of what we are going for:

photos via desiretoinspire, apartmenttherapy and theselby

SPRING!! What a novelty..

It's 11 degrees and sunny right now. Time to get off the computer and go about accomplishing things so I can go outside and enjoy this beautiful day!

Quote of the Day

“The difference between school and life? In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson.”
- Tom Bodett, American author, voice actor and radio host

via Beyond the Gray

I'm sharing this because Roomie capital "L" Loves James Dean.

Man Candy Monday

...Like seriously, we're going to have a lot of James Dean in our apartment - but that is okay because he was one helluva good-looking man.

Sunny days, warm hearts

I'm listening to Randy Bachman's Vinyl Tap on Radio 2, as I often do on Sunday nights (just going to throw this out there: it's an absolutely awesome way to cap off the weekend)

He just played Bobby Day, and I thought that it was the perfect song to sum up the day/weekend. Spring sprung in Toronto. It has been sunny and hovering around 8-10 degrees and it makes me unreasonably happy. Picture people, dogs, families, even Toronto hipsters (!!) outside enjoying the weather, strolling the streets, sitting in parks, dreaming of summer. Now put that to music, and you've got this song:

Today I went to a free concert. Have I mentioned the free concerts at the Four Seasons Centre? If I haven't, I don't know why because I think they're fabulous.

Today it was a recital by the voice performance students at University of Toronto. The recital title was called Lachen und Weinen, Weinen und Lachen: From Ectasy to Agony and Back Again. It was (as per usual) a truly lovely way to spend a lunch hour.

One of my favourite songs was by a contemporary Canadian composer; a composer who just happened to be attending the concert and obliged in giving the audience some insight into his process behind composing the pieces (which I thought was super facinating). It was the last piece of the recital, it was song by a beautiful mezzo-soprano, it was a German poem by Heinrich Heine which translates to:

My sweet Love, when in the grave,

In the dark grave you lie,

Then will I climb down to you

And nestle at your side.

I kiss and caress and press you wildly,

You're still cold and white!

I wail, I tremble, and weeping mildly,

I become a corpse myself.

The dead arise and midnight calls,

They dance in airy swarms,

But you and I stay in the grave

And I lie in your arms.

The dead arise, and judgement day

Calls them to torture and pleasure;

But none of this bothers us,

We remain entwined below.

Umm...

Okay, I just have to talk about this for a second. I read this article this morning and I'm not gonna lie, it's been in my brain all day long.

Vajazzling. It's here people. And yes, 'vajazzle' is a combination of the words 'bedazzle' and (ahem) "vajajay".

Jennifer Love Hewitt does it, so do the hoity-toits up in Rosedale, and really all I have to say is I DON'T UNDERSTAND.


Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I can go to sleep. Phew.

(And may I just say that I am not the only one with this on my mind, which is oddly comforting, and proof that I haven't completely lost it and turned into the girl who thinks about bejeweled bikini areas.)

Roomie Cometh!!

My roomie is en route to Toronto! She is on the open road as we speak...er, as I type! She is bringing with her a big box filled solely with tea paraphernalia. Don't know if you figured it out yet, but I am a big tea drinker. By the time she is un-packed we will have no fewer than 4 tea pots, and what I'm sure will be more mugs and creamers than any couple of 20-somethings has need for. It's going to be glorious.

PS. Saw this tea set at Indigo yesterday. It is adorable, and what an homage to what is sure to be a fantastically awesome movie.

Fabulousity

via TheImpossibleCool

Cutest. Thing. EVER.

via flyingbutresses

News Flash!

Melissa of So About What I Said... has just informed me of the most wonderful news! There is going to be a rerelease of The Babysitter's Club - fancy new covers, a prequel and everything! She has more info than I do, but may I just say that this makes me happy. I used to love these friggin' books. I would pre-order them from the Scholastic catalogue and pick them up at Sir Charles Tupper Elementary's bi-monthly Book Fair and tear into tales from my friends Kristy (whom I admit I found a tad bossy), Stacey (who was the coolest because she was from New York), Mary-Anne (remember all of the Logan drama?!), Claudia (all business), Dawn (the California dreamer, and enviously pretty), Mallory (the budding writer, much like I imagined myself to be), and Jessie.

So glad a new generation gets to be exposed to these literary gems.

I wonder if they'll start up the Babysitter's Little Sister Club again? I'm sure I've got my old membership kit somewhere... ;)


Okay so I was going to show a clip from the movie (that I most definately watched/loved) but instead I found a clip from the tv series (which I didn't know existed) which stars a hilariously young and adorable Zach Braff. AMAZING.

Ciao, Chessa!: Dear Summer

Glad to know I'm not the only one dreaming of summer...

Post Script

The concert I mentioned? The music was so great I feel compelled to share some:

Taken By Trees was the open act. I really dug the "Middle-Eastern feel" to her newer songs, as well as the African-like percussion



The headliner was El Perro del Mar. She's easily one of the coolest chicks I have ever seen in real life...or maybe ever. I'd never heard of before but all my friend had to do to get me to go to the concert was to show me this video: