Combating the winter blahs

As I mentioned in my last post, I was a disaster last week. I was stressed out and cried a lot and surprisingly, but coming to work on Friday actually made me feel better. I share an office with a girl who I absolutely love. She may have started out as a coworker, but she's become a real outside-of-work friend.

We've recently made our office a bit more homey and colourful. Our whole office, from the walls to the cabinets, is this terrible boring beige.

We hung silver and red balls of various shapes from the ceiling with various lenths of ribbon. Then we realized that from this one ball in the centre, we can see our whole office! People comment how it finally looks like Christmas in here, but we needed colour. And we'll add more colours as we come across them.

On Thursday, we were having a crap day at work. We went to the grocery store at lunch and purchased fancy cheese and crackers (best work pick-me-up ever) and this $2 pot of tulips. They're now three times the size they were on Thursday and they've bloomed -- it's crazy. We have many plants in our office but they're all just green; it's fun to have some flowers.

Our boss was off on stress leave for a little bit, and my darling office mate asked her if she was happy to be back the other day. Boss thought for a second, closed our door behind her, and said, "Truthfully, I didn't want to come back, but I've missed you guys so much! I almost emailed you on Christmas..." It's how I feel somedays. I love my job, but even on days I don't, I work with such incredible, happy, inspiring people that I still enjoy coming here.

Twenty-ten

[Peggy's Cove via The.Rohit on Twitter]

Last week I was in a real funk. I don't like to whine and complain, but it seems like all I did was cry last week. I was stressed over school, the hormones were raging, and it seemed like stupid people were popping up in every aspect of my life. On top of all of that, messages of breakups kept rolling in about friends who were previously engaged and/or living with their men. One of these in particular managed to completely break my heart. I was so sure that [the now ex]Roomie had managed to find something spectacular; I even wrote him a love letter!

Roomie is someone who deserves so much good, and I thought she finally had found a piece of that. She's so sweet, always puts everyone else first, is smokin' hot, and she's a domestic goddess; she's been through a lot of crap in her life, brushes it off, picks herself back up and moves on with a smile. Tonight I'm pouring the wine and hearing the full tale. I only hope I can provide a fraction of the support that she gives to everyone else in her life.

When the sadness rolls in, I've got to try to see the bright side of things. I also need to remember that I signed up for school; essays aren't something horrible being done to me.

Every year becomes the best one yet and this one is no exception. Twenty-ten will be full of fun things like concerts (Muse and U2), shows (Chicago and Sweeny Todd), and cross-Canada journeys (so far: Fernie, B.C. for a week of snowboarding and mountains in February; Halifax, N.S. for a week in June -- I'll get to see the lovely Andrea!; home to Ontario for my cousin's wedding in August; and Victoria, B.C. for three more weeks of intensive learning in October). This year is literally a Canadian coast-to-coast adventure! This year I'll complete more than half of my Masters and I'll have logged over 3 years with my Love.

I just hope that all my friends get to be this blissful.

What are you looking forward to in 2010?

I:
a) take pictures of myself in front of the kitchen,
b) apparently look a little cross-eyed at 6 a.m., and
c) crochet things.

Resolute

I don't do new year's resolutions. I've found there are so many little things that pop up that I want to do, or changes I want to make, that it's best if I just adopt new things when the mood hits.

Weird things, too. For example, so far, I've curled my hair 3 out of 4 days in 2010.

I've made a kick-ass scarf that I absolutely love (really that was back in 2009, when we were at home in Ontario with no Internet) and I'm making B a hat. With cables. And I taught myself how to make mittens with cables. The way I make mittens is so easy, but they're also made the same way for the right and the left hand... so unless someone wanted a cable on the back of one hand and the palm of the other, I really had to think about this one. I love yarn crafts and I want to do more of them. This year I may or may not go through my yarn stash and a) figure out what I shall use each skein for (I see more socks in my knitting future) or b) get rid of it.

I want to not procrastinate so much, but this is an ongoing thing for me. I have to work harder at it. It was so easy to get assignments done days in advance when I was in Victoria; now, not so much. I'm facing three 2,000 word essays due in four days and I'm freaking out a little bit (but probably not as much as I should be... there's still time!).

I want to wake up early. I make this goal every night before bed. And usually I fail. I've learned that breakfast helps. And coffee. Lots of coffee. I've adapted my work schedule, effective today, that I get to work a half-hour early and bank that time to take days off every now and then for school. Motivation!

I also always want to be a better blogger, write more letters to my far away friends (email me your address!), and remember to wear lip gloss/lipstick.

It's worth having cross-country friends if only for the hilarious drunken messages

Calling to wish you Merry Christmas?... No, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I think it's a Happy New Year! *giggles*

HAPPY MERRY NEW YEAR!