"Dolphin Center" - The Donkeys

Good times at the condo always

Lots to tell, but I barely know what to say.  I've been extraordinarily happy for seven months now (yes, I'm counting). It's weird because I wasn't even looking for happiness, but I guess that's how these things work. My job is challenging and great, my friends and I make mature, yet ghetto, attempts to throw dinner parties, I met someone, we bought our dream house, and it's all been very grown up.  

I sold my condo today. I've lived here for six years, by myself.  Everyone is congratulating me, and smiles all around. I'm mostly relieved, but  feel a little bit panicked. What have I done? No one really warns you what growing up feels like, but this must be it. It's great in many ways, it's a new kind of  happiness. But it's a different kind of happiness.Previously, happiness to me was; cuddles with my dog, a beach day with high UV, or getting wasted with my best friends - waking up on a boat, and then crawling home at 5am.  

"All For You" - Sister Hazel

The French have an interesting expression, "le coup de foudre." Literally it means "a bolt of lightning" or "thunderbolt", figuratively it means, "love at first sight."  There has been one instance where I've experienced "lightening", but other than that, my skies have remained relatively calm. Lightning always follows thunder, and thunder means unstable weather.  I have learned, that although unstable weather can be exciting, dangerous, and makes your heart race, it never lasts.

90's long hair - don't care, Sister Hazel

The more that I love, and lose, or leave, the more I think that maybe there's something more to it.   Maybe being successful in love, is less about finding someone that loves all of the great things about you, and more about finding someone that loves you, despite all of the not so great things.  What if in the long run, it matters less that someone will buy you flowers and write you love poems, and more that you can wear your retainer to bed with them, and that they'll take the dog for walks when it's cold out?

"Wake Me Up" - Avicii

I'm going to re-enact this pose on my
birthday every year for the rest of my life

Fall is here, and with that comes my Birthday. After the age of 25, birthday's stopped being as much fun. I remember being younger, and looking forward to my special day all year long, now, instead of excitement, I feel something akin to depression.  Now my Birthdays serve as a reminder, that despite protestations.. I'm getting older.

I've previously referred to my "quarter-life crisis", which began shortly before my 26th birthday last year.  25  is a perfect benchmark age; a time to reflect, and look back on all that you've accomplished (or not).  It's enlightening to compare what  I thought I'd be at 25 with what I am. 

"Untitled (Love Song)" - Counting Crows (The Romany Rye Cover)

Yup, pinned this one

"Don't stumble over something behind you."  One of the many "past is past" type quotes I have pinned to my Pinterest board (yup, I'm that girl).  But as much as I try to leave the past out of my present, there is always this one part.. (person) that I can't seem to let go of.  Said "past", was actually one of the reasons I started this blog.  I figured if I wrote it down, I could leave it there and move past it. 

"Hasn't Hit Me Yet"- Blue Rodeo

Lawrence Harris "Afternoon Sun Lake Superior"

I love art.  I would have been an art history teacher if not for the large amount of schooling required, and the not-so large income that accompanies.  Art is similar to music in so many ways.  An incredible amount of passion and emotion goes into both, and many have underlying stories.  The most famous group of Canadian artists is The Group of Seven. The group originally included A.Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald, Edwin Holgate and LeMoine Fitzgerald.  The group of Canadian landscape painters was also associated with Tom Thomson and Emily Carr, arguably the most well known of the bunch.  The group travelled across Canada creating works of art and initiated the first major Canadian national art movement.

"Everybody Hurts' - R.E.M.

I've had an article waiting, flagged in my inbox, for at least a month.  I couldn't find a song that would suit it.  Usually I find the song first,  and then inspiration comes - but sometimes it's vice versa.

Go ahead little guys 

Now, I'm the kind of chick that stops traffic to let baby ducklings cross, and rushes injured baby rabbits.. pigeons (yes), etc.  to the local Humane Society. The kind of chick, that loses my shit watching Marley and Me.  So,  when I found this article while at work one day - you can imagine how I tried desperately to wipe the mascara tears off my face, and exclaim to my co-workers, "wow, it's so dry in here, my eyes won't stop watering!"  The article is about a whale named 52 Hertz, otherwise known as, "The Loneliest Whale In The World."