I don’t think I ever posted a photo of Bruges, Belgium. It was my eurotrip’s last stop and it was of course, a stunner just like everything else in Europe.

I updated my iPhone with a few of my favourite pop Christmas Songs. May I share to help you get into the holiday spirit? :)

All I Want For Christmas Is You – Mariah Carey
All I Want Is You This Christmas – Nsync
Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home) – U2
Happy Christmas (War Is Over) – John Lennon
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Christina Aguilera
I Don’t Wanna Spend One More Christmas Without You – Nsync
My Only Wish (This Year) – Britney Spears
O Holy Night – Mariah Carey
Please Come Home For Christmas – The Eagles
Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time – Paul McCartney
The Christmas Song (Holiday Remix) – Christina Aguilera
This Christmas – Christina Aguilera

I’m working away on my Christmas letters; I’ll have to mail them out soon!

Last night, I waited at the bus stop for 50 minutes, FIFTY MINUTES, for a Mississauga Transit bus to come while slowly freezing to death. It didn’t help that it was 13 degrees that morning, so I wore a light jacket and then winter decided to say hello at 5pm, when the Mississauga Transit also decided to F up my life.

Then the bus came and I asked the driver “What happened?” (keeping my language PG here), he says, “Yeah, everything got messed up.” No, really? That’s all you have to say? At that point, I was convinced that hell was better than the Mississauga Transit.

That was last night.

As for tonight, the Mississauga Transit bus did not come at all. There was a half ripped yellow sticker stuck to the bus shelter that said “This bus stop is out of service.” And then there was an arrow pointing to God knows what direction directing you to an alternative bus stop. I took a guess and waited at one of the possible alternative bus stops and of course, no bus. At that point, I was ready to die. So, I went back to the office and worked until 6:40pm while I waited for my dad to pick me up.

So, how was your day?

Hey, Mississauga Transit, you are a royal piece of you know what. You need to start firing your whole company of stupid people and start hiring some smart people to clean up this gigantic mess that you’re making that is near the point of no return. I hate you, I hate you, I hate you. EVERYBODY hates you. I’m going to buy a car because of you. I want to start my series of The Mississauga Transit Trash Talk and buy www.TheMississaugaTransitTrashTalk.com so I can build a community of haters for you.

I was cleaning up my drawers and I came across my keepsake box from junior high school and of course I pulled out the crinkled notes, old photos, celebrity cut-outs, etc., laid them all out like so, and snapped a photo.

Remember when we were 13 and graduating from Grade 8 and singing and crying to Graduation by Vitamin C? Remember how we memorized the whole song and thought how amazing it was that someone out there wrote the perfect song, just for us, on our graduation day? What I’d do to go back to that very moment and freeze time. Everything was perfect in that universe. Nothing has topped Grade 8. In junior high, you are old enough to appreciate life and old enough to create memories and old enough to remember them, but still young enough to be carefree.

My favourite lyric now is in Keane’s Somewhere Only We Know; the line that sings “Oh simple thing, where have you gone?” because life is getting more complicated every day.

Anyway, I thought that Vitamin C’s Graduation should accompany this post because when I reminisce about junior high, this song plays in my head like a broken record. Lyrically, the song is most appropriate for high school graduation at 17, but we rocked it at 13. No biggie.

I will be doing another Topdeck Tour next summer; this time with this girl. We’re looking at the Paparazzi Parade tour, which hits Spain, Monaco, France, Italy and Switzerland. The key is Spain. Then after the tour, we’re going to do our own thing for a few days before flying back. That’s the plan!!! Gotta save to book now.

Somebody tell me why standard vacation time is only ten days? It’s inhumane.

I don’t drink coffee but I like sitting in Starbucks because it makes me feel good. Starbucks has mastered experiential marketing with their cozy, pretty, feel-good atmosphere that makes you want to get up and give out free hugs, or simply sit there and have deep, inspiring conversations with friends for hours and hours. Kudos, Starbucks, you got us!

And they’d appreciate it if I shared them on my blog, so I will.

I have a bad habit with seat belts; I don’t wear them unless the car persistently beeps or the driver yells at me. FACT.

I didn’t know what Triscuits were until a month ago, when my colleague brought some. FACT.

I have a bad habit of not holding doors for people, so they slam behind me and people think I’m rude. FACT.

I despise Excel and spreadsheets terrify me. FACT.

I didn’t know that pickles were cucumbers and that you can “pickle” things. What the..??? I thought pickles grew out of the ground? FACT.

I don’t watch ANY television, so I feel left out when people talk about stuff that happened on this episode and that episode of any show. FACT.

I can’t remember the rest.

I’ve finally invested in a brown winter parka from Aritzia. Finally. I’ve pushed this off for three years because every time I’d try to buy one, I always get distracted by their dazzling wool coats and end up buying those instead. They’re not half as warm and they’re double the money but they’re much prettier and I value the pretty factor more than anything else – who cares if the thing works or not. This is one of the few times in my life that I will purchase something solely for its functionality. I look like crap in these big jackets because I’m so small that I drown in them. But the thing is that I really, really, really, really need a solid jacket that keeps me warm. It was time.

I bought NKOTBSB tickets, June 8th, 2011, 7:00PM, Section 102, Row 12. Going with my other half. STOKED!

I promise that if you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. But I also promise that if you throw me under the bus, I’ll throw you under a train.

I took this photo at the African Lion Safari in the summer. I didn’t realize how cute it turned out to be! I take a million photos everywhere I go and I never actually look through any one album entirely because it takes too much time. Then weeks or months later, when I’m slacking with taking a real photo a day (like today and the past two days), I go through those albums and get excited over photos that I took that I’ve never actually seen and ooh-ed and aah-ed about.

When I start to miss Europe, I run to my summer albums to dig out a photo to edit. I don’t know if it makes me feel better or worse though. Bittersweet, I guess.

Here’s a memory of Venice, Italy.