Well I didn’t do too bad when it came to my resolutions for 2013. If you remember from my previous post, I was to budget more efficiently, make some art and post more on my blog.
One out of 3 ain’t bad, is it?
I managed to stick with my cash-only budget up until my birthday in March. Then I got lazy with tracking my purchases. But I’m still using mainly cash to purchase any items, and really thinking about what I’m buying (less impulse purchasing) which is a good thing.
As for art, I didn’t really start the painting aspect of it yet. But I did get some picture frames to house my photography, and stemmed the ‘art’ side to my baking: I made the cutest birthday cake a few weeks ago (yes, it was for my own birthday, so sue me). Will post photos soon.
I know I’ve been bad about keeping this blog updated on a semi-daily basis. It’s not that I don’t have a lot of stuff to blog about. It’s just that I procrastinate doing other things before focusing on my writing! This will change soon!
So as is the case when I usually sign up to play a new organized sport for the season, I get injured in the face. A few years ago it was an elbow to the mouth as a girl was going up for a rebound, last summer it was a fist to the nose as a girl was running towards home plate and I was waiting for the throw (why she didn’t use the safety bag is beyond me, and most recently it came full circle and I sustained ANOTHER elbow to the mouth in basketball defending a layup.
I should really start wearing a football helmet when I play any organized sport.
Anyways, I went down immediately on Wednesday night, but my primary concern was my braces. I really shouldn’t be playing with my Invisaligns in, but I didn’t think that I would get hit in the head again (I mean, what are the odds). Almost immediately after impact my upper lip started swelling and ballooned to double the size (I would post pics, but it’s gross). Taking out my top Invisalign I examined it and let out a sigh of relief that it wasn’t cracked (I really didn’t feel like forking over $250 for a new tray).
Then I rinsed out my mouth and made sure I wasn’t missing any teeth. Some slight bleeding along the gum-line of one tooth, but other than that the skin wasn’t broken on my lip (I’m pretty sure my braces acted kind of like a mouth guard in that sense).
After I got an apology from my perpetrator, I got a ride home from one of my team mates. Luckly I had some Ibuprofen on me, so I took two. I also had a ziploc bag handy and filled it with snow to ice down my lip on the way home, and iced it a bit more before bed.
It wasn’t until the morning when I saw that the swelling was still prominent that I called up Telehealth Ontario. I never called them before, but after remember seeing some commercials and some stuff on the government website, I decided that some help from a nurse practioner was needed.
The call went so smoothly. I was only on hold for about 40 seconds after the initial operator picked up, before a nurse took my call. After answering a few questions about myself and my injury she was able to give me some great advice on a remedy, and told me that it would be approximately 2-3 days for the swelling to go completely down, and to watch out for signs of infection if the swelling increased at all over 2 days. Also noted that I should rinse with some salt water, stay away from any spicy or hot foods while my lip was swollen.
Took the day off work obviously (as tempted as I was to tell my students that the reason for my busted lip was that I got in a bar fight), and continued to ice it (Freezies helped and were oh, so tasty) and take a couple Advil every 4 hours.
The swelling did go down a lot and as of 36 hours later I was able to back to work without looking like I was it a UFC fight.
So, thank you Teleheath Ontario for your super-friendly, quick and helpful assistance.
Telehealth Ontario offers free access to a Registered Nurse 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They can be reached at 1-866-797-0000.
Ginuwine rode his pony into Sound Academy in Toronto last night. My friend won tickets to the “For the LOVE of R&B” Concert through radio station G98.7FM, and I was lucky that she chose me to tag along. Headlining the evening, which in support of Big Brothers Big Sisters Canada, was platinum recording artist Ginuwine along with Bobby V.
Comedian hosts Jay Martin and Trixx had the audience rolling in laughter with their banter and throwback musical snippets (thanks to DJ Charlie Brown). They even had something for all the “white people” in the crowd: a track from Backstreet Boys, N*Sync, Aqua and my personal favourite–Spice Girls. Surprisingly everyone–including the “black folk”–got into singing along with the latter when “Stop” was played. I’m not gonna lie: I even did a bit of the choreography.
After some great performances from openers Jay Evans, Haley Small and Kim Evans (can she ever sing), we were finally graced the presence of R&B crooner Ginuwine. For 42, this man is looking good! His set was filled with so much energy and his smooth vocals were on point. He had all the women swooning (evidence from several “take off you’re shirt!” hollers).
I truly respect him more as an artist now after seeing him live in concert, knowing that he still went on with the performance even though his family had recently suffered a tragedy, and that he’s keeping the music going strong (I’m looking forward to hearing new things from TGT, an R&B supergroup of Ginuwine, Tyrese and Tank).
What ever happened to real R&B? I miss the days when I used to listen to soulful tracks with romantically powerful lyrics from the likes of boy bands like Boyz II Men, New Edition, 112, Jodeci, and Dru Hill. Everything now seems auto-tuned, repetitive in their lyrics and “pop-y”.
What last night showed me was that there is still a fan-base for R&B music. Everyone who was at that concert was singing along with the lyrics of the tracks that Ginuwine and Bobby V were belting out, and identifying the myriad of old school tracks that were sampled out before that. On a side note, I should also mention that Bobby V was rockin’ a nice pair of kicks, circa 2015 Marty McFly–The Nike Mag.
I truly enjoyed the concert. We managed to secure a good spot right in front of the stage, just behind the photographer’s pit. When Ginuwine jumped the side platform and started walking into the photographer’s pit the crowd started to go wild. He was right in front of me while he was singing “Last Chance” and he actually looked down at me, leaned down, cupped my chin for a few seconds in his mic-free hand and I was in full awe (damn, that man can sing). Moments later he grasped my hand, and then continued to make his way down the rest of the row to get back on stage.
Talk about up close and personal! Thank goodness I’m not one of those girls who freaks out at the sight of a celebrity and faints. I even caught one of the few towels he used to wipe his sweaty brow (now I can make Ginuwine clones from his embedded DNA).
Ginuwine closed out the show with an impressive showcase of Michael Jackson-inspired dance moves, and his 1996 hit “Pony” (of course my battery had to die on me right at the beginning of the song). Â I feel like listening to some of my old mix tapes now.
I’m stating this now: 2013 is going to be a great year for me! I’m going to try not think that I’m setting myself up for failure by actually making a list of resolutions this year, since my procrastination seems to get the better of me at times.
Resolution #1: Get Out of Debt
Discounts on merchandise aren’t worth it if they’re paid with a credit card with a high interest rate that’s not paid in full at the end of every month. This year I’m actually promising myself to take advice from Gail Vaz Oxlade and budget properly in order to climb my way out of consumer debt. It’s going to be a challenge, but living on cash may just be the kick I need to stop my pesky shopping habit.
Resolution #2: Make Some Art
I have a large repository of art and craft supplies: canvas, paint, fabric, glue, yarn, paper, charcoal, you-name-it. Problem is they’ve been sitting in storage containers for as long as I can remember. Heck, I promised to knit my friend a scarf for her birthday four years ago and it’s still on the needle half done! Damn this procrastination.
Resolution #3: Blog More Often
I’m not going to be specific and say I’m going to write a post on my blog at least three times a week (because I’ve already broke that resolution if you take into consideration the date of this post), but I will blog more frequently that I have been. After all, I didn’t design this site for nothing!
Over the years I’ve become quite the shopaholic. I have a penchant for finding great deals and never pay full price for anything I buy.
But after mulling over my credit card statements and finding it increasingly difficult to make a Christmas list for myself (since I have everything I “need”), I decided to take it easy on the Boxing Day shopping this year.
When I was you get I used to round up a few of my friends and we’d wake up at sunrise to head to brave the shopping mall crowds. But with the increasing popularity of online shopping, and the barrage of deals that are available through merchants even before the 26th of December, it’s become much easier to shop from home.
Not only is it more convenient to shop from the comfort of your home, you avoid the crowds, are able to get more sleep, and you’re able to multitask so to speak via several open browser windows. This year all I purchased for Boxing Day was a couple of DVDs and an electric can opener for my mother from Best Buy. But it took me 5 minutes to do (not including the 17 minute checkout wait time as the site was bogged down with other online shoppers, but at least my browser didn’t crash), and my purchases will be shipped straight to my door (free shipping).
Now I understand that shopping online may have some disadvantages: purchasing clothing and shoes can be a pain if you’re not sure of the sizing. But many stores (eg. Old Navy, The Bay) have an excellent return/exchange policy. When I had to return some clothes to the aforementioned stores, all I had to do was go into the store and show the cashier my shipping receipt and I got a full refund.
What I’ve found about Boxing Day “deals” recently, is that they don’t really compare to the discounts that I’d see in previous years. Sure there are still some great deals (more than 50% off in some cases), but with the addition on Black Friday to the Canadian market in recent years, Boxing Day doesn’t seem to add up much.
In attempts to compete with their American counterparts and keep consumers in our side of the border, a lot of Canadian-based retailers offer Black Friday/Cyber Monday discounts the weekend of American Thanksgiving. This year I scored a lot of great deals on items and actually bought more that weekend (The Body Shop and Adidas had a huge sale), than I did on Boxing Day (in which most online sales began December 24th at 8pm).
That being said, now that my credit cards have gotten a workout, they need to go back in hibernation for the next little while.
I’ve been there a few weeks ago and I’m from The Netherlands so i should know how it would taste and I got a apple crumble pie and it was the best I’ve ever had little expesive but okay it was delicious!
Ginuwine rode his pony into Sound Academy in Toronto last night. My friend won tickets to the “For the LOVE of R&B” Concert through radio station
on August 11, 2016