Busy day at work with all sorts of loose ends but I’m letting go right… now.

Do you plan your outfits the night before or the day of?

I’m too tired to think of anything decent to write. I just want Popeyes combo #4 and a movie.

Oh, I have a makeup photoshoot tomorrow afternoon for a talented makeup artist and I’m stoked!

Make it a great weekend, everyone.

This photo was taken at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto during Nuit Blanche. Didn’t think I’d ever post it but it’s just so appropriate considering the rain has taken on an obsession with Toronto – if the rain could sing to us, it would sing Just Can’t Get Enough (of Toronto) by Depeche Mode. I always hate the rain except when I’m curled up in bed under my blankets. In that case, let the thunder and lightning join in because I love sleeping to the titter-tattering of rain on my window coupled with the unpredictable, staggering roars of thunder and together, making the perfect symphony of sleep. But otherwise, snowflakes would be my preference over raindrops.

Also – now that we’re headed the way of Winter, there is talk of the Winter blues. I don’t get the winter blues. I get the grey-sky blues. The cold is not what gets me. It’s the big thing of grey that hovers over my head and makes my world dark in any day of any season. I can sport a hot winter coat and be lifelong friends with the cold if you can promise me all day every day of blue skies with just the right number of puffy white clouds that look like coconut-flavoured cotton candy.

Bumper to bumper traffic on the 401, 427, and QEW when I had only 35 minutes left to get to the train station to catch the 6:43 train to Toronto for the Raptors game. The fact that I couldn’t possibly hop on the train without my camera, so I had to go home to grab my camera before heading to the train station, which meant that I had to rush even more. The fact that I got to the train station on time but practically dying of a panic attack from all the rush, only to find out that the train wouldn’t come for another fifteen minutes. The fact that on the way back from Toronto to Mississauga, Chivalry died on the GO Bus. I had to stand in the aisle the whole way and not a single gentleman even faked to offer a seat.

But you know, it’s about getting up and showing up. This photo is from the game tonight. Don’t ask me who these people are.

“Summer romances end for all kinds of reasons. But when all is said and done, they have one thing in common: They are shooting stars – a spectacular moment of light in the heavens, a fleeting glimpse of eternity. And in a flash, they’re gone.” -The Notebook

I was walking down Queen West and stopped to snap a photo of this pretty mailbox. The mailbox reminds me of letters and letters remind me of The Notebook, that’s why I’ve quoted The Notebook just about everywhere.

But more on letters… I wish we still wrote handwritten letters to each other. Nowadays, we’ve got Microsoft Word and a few fancy fonts that make a nicely typed, impersonal letter that take a fraction of the effort of a handwritten letter. The closest we get to a handwritten letter is a greeting card with a personal message, which really isn’t the same thing. The worst is when you go the way of e-cards – the utmost effortless and impersonal. Nothing feels quite like the sensation of half crinkled, crunchy paper in between your fingers and the comfort of familiar scrawls on a page. When I was at a couple of stationery shops this weekend (The Paper Place and Valhalla, both on Queen West), I was like a kid in a candy store and I didn’t know what to do with myself. Stick me in any stationery store and my heart starts to feel every emotion in the world. Pretty pens, papers, envelopes, stickers, notebooks, journals, binders, notepads, stickys, make me gaga – and they do have to be pretty because I’m not talking about stationery at Walmart or Staples made by Hilroy, Crayola, and Post-It. I’m talking about real stationery with neat, intricate designs and absolute creativity – think Japanese stationery.

It was at The Paper Place that I was suddenly struck with a new mission: I am going to start handwriting letters to friends on pretty paper, wrapped in pretty envelopes and send them out in the mail in time for Christmas. Christmas won’t get any more personal than this!

Worked for an hour and now I’m ready for playtime for the rest of the day. :)

Anybody seen The Road? FANTASTIC film.
Going to tackle The Reader tonight. Kate Winslet blows me away time after time.
On a day like this, there is nothing I love more than to sit in bed with my man, some good food and a good movie.

dad, for the thirty minutes we spend together every morning chatting and bonding as we drive to work,
mom, for working so hard to put a roof over our heads,
big brothers, for watching out for me and being a reliable source of help,
little sister, for laughing with me every night until I fall asleep,
boyfriend, for loving and understanding me like no one else can,
grandmother, for being so burdened to always make good food for the family,
friends, good friends, and old friends, for being right behind me in everything that I do,
church, for keeping me by God’s side,
former and current colleagues and bosses, for making work a great second home,
acquaintances, for the random, unexpected conversations that spark an inspiration,
Twitter followers, for responding to my tweets and making me feel heard,
mentors, mamabears, and papabears, for your advice, teachings, and encouragement,
Photo A Day regulars, for driving my passion for photography and making me want to keep taking photos,
role models, for motivating me to do more, be more, give more, and see more,
life’s lessons, for slowly revealing the golden nuggets in life – the truly important things,
Golden Retriever, for watching me leave for work in the morning and anticipating my return in the evening.

There is so much more to be thankful for. I love my life and I am surrounded by all things beautiful. I have little of the material riches of the world, but I am so rich in love, genuine bonds, treasured relationships, and a tightly knit family, and I have a heart that can barely contain my happiness, gratefulness, and appreciation for everything that I have. Happy thanksgiving, everyone. :)

I love it! I’ve been waiting to get my hands on my own wedding some day and plan it to death. But here’s what I think: If you have even a hint of an idea of how you’d like your wedding manifested, wouldn’t it be smart to start planning bits and pieces here and there way before you even get engaged? The idea is to spread the “planning” over a few years rather than jam it all into one, so that you’re never full blown planning and therefore, never full blown stressed, because you’re doing this little by little without time constraint pressures. Do it at a snail’s pace and it wouldn’t matter. You’re not in “planning” mode, you’ve just conditioned yourself to make note of things in your everyday life that may work for your dream wedding down the road. If you know what you want and these desires have lingered in your heart and soul since forever, then these desires won’t change all that much over time and your plans will remain relevant year after year. Put your thoughts and ideas in a scrapbook. Jot things down as you come across them. When you’re out for dinner somewhere and take a liking to the colour of the tablecloth, cut off a piece and paste it onto your scrapbook. When you’re shopping and you happen to see a dress in the windows that tickle your fancy to no end, take a photo and slap it onto your scrapbook. If upon leisurely browsing, you run into a photographer’s stream on Flickr whose style is your style and captures love the way you want yours captured, jot him/her down in your scrapbook. All of that spread over many years so that when you are engaged, the research is done, the foundation is laid, and you’re ready to execute (although execution is always the hardest part). But this makes total sense to me! Call me crazy but I’m going to stop by Michaels Arts & Crafts to pick up a scrapbook.

Skipped a photo yesterday because I had as little as thirty minutes to spend in my house, rushing to get to a friend’s wedding after work. The wedding was heartfelt and beautiful. This is a photo of some of the girls and I.

“We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind anyway. It’s a death trap.” -Anthony Hopkins

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This photo is another one from Nuit Blanche, taken at Coupe Bizarre on Queen Street. The woman was the subject of live art, still as a sculpture, and the stylish young lad was one of many artists creating a sketch of her. You can see a few of the other artists through the mirrors.

A friend of mine passed away in a car accident three years ago on this day. Her and I only got close that summer before her passing and I can only be grateful that we had even that little bit of time together. Car accidents happen all the time, but when it’s a friend or loved one, it becomes a lot more than just another car accident. And my share of pain, grief, loss, shock is incomparable to her family’s, loved ones’, and friends’, who were closer to her than I was and who have known her longer than I have. Three years later, I still think that she’s just away on a really long vacation or that she’s living in another country and loving it so much that she has no desire to come back. Dorothy was the first death in my life that was close enough to pierce my heart. Her number is still stored in my phone directory.

But with mourning comes a celebration – a celebration of the life that she lived, the lives she touched, the relationships she built, the happiness she brought, the love she shared. A celebration of people’s love for her, people’s thoughts of her, people’s memories of her. A celebration of every soul at her funeral, who loved and cared for her. A celebration of her intellect, her talents, her beauty, her sweetness. This girl was flawless on the inside and out and I am certain that anybody who had the privilege to know her can only speak highly of her and I am also certain that every life that she touched was made better.

I am thinking of you, Dorothy. April 15, 1984 – October 5, 2007.