Downtown lights will be shining on me like a diamond.

I was sick sick sick last night, but I think I managed to literally boil it out of me.

I was feeling a little off for a couple days, but being typical me, I refused to let that throw off any my social plans, until last night when I was chilling out with my going-to-pop-out-a-baby-at-any-moment work spouse.

First of all, you know things are off if we order Swiss Chalet, and all I ask for is soup. As we watched "Big Daddy" on TV, and ate and WS complained of baby cramps, I thought that I must be having sympathy cramps or something, 'cuz my stomach was not happy. After the movie was over, I apologized that I had to go home 'cuz I did not feel well.

After an endless subway-ride home, I drew a hot bath as fast as I could (of course throwing in a Lush bath bomb to ease my pain). I could feel my teeth chattering, and I looked in the mirror and saw that my lips were blue. I keep my bath water hot by leaving the hot water running most of the time and dreaded leaving the water to the cold air of my apartment.

After I was extremely prune-ish and came to accept the fact that I could not sleep in the bathtub, I changed into my warmest pjs, put my warmest hoodie over that (with the hood up), and piled every blanket I owned onto my bed. I passed out before I even turned off my lights. I woke up sweating at about 2:30 am, removed some of the blankets and my hoodie, and then went back to sleep.

I woke up this morning feeling 100% and thankfully did not have to cancel today's social plans. Thank goodness 'cuz you know I hate doing that.

And that is how I boiled out some nasty bug that was making me ill.

Anyway, here are some random NYC pictures from last weekend.











The Will Ferrell show was just as funny as it sounds. I loved it. I laughed so hard that I almost cried. That show was the highlight of the trip for me. Other things that we did included eating lots of good food, lots of shopping, wandering around Greenwich village, walking around Central Park, nerding out at the American Museum of Natural History, and enjoying the view of the city from Top of the Rock. I also like the bottom of the Rock 'cuz it makes me think of 30 Rock. And I loved being amongst the rich at the Waldorf even though I'm not so rich.

Speaking of the rich, it's almost Oscar time! Hmmm, if I win this year's Oscar pool, I'll be perhaps $100 richer.

But I got my philosophy; it keeps my feet on the ground.

NYC was awesome! I think I had my best birthday ever! I'll do a post-trip post complete with pictures and more details and stuff later.

The only downside to our trip is that our return flight was canceled, so we ended up getting in pretty late, so that had thrown me off. I love Air Canada. And the best was that they were all rude and condescending about it.

Tonight I went to my first show of 2009: Ben Folds. It was all sorts of awesome!

So tomorrow is the first day of Lent. I like to give up stuff for Lent to test my willpower. Last year it was celebrity gossip blogs. This year I am giving up:

a) solid chocolate (hot chocolate still allowed)
b) candy (don't want to start eating gallons of Skittles in place of chocolate)
c) baked treats from coffee shops

I'm going hardcore this year. I'm actually looking forward to this challenge. I'm crazy. I blame one of my traveling buddies for this.

Anyway, trip photos and recaps to come in the future. Work is kicking my ass these days. Boo-urns to that!

Edit: After checking my calendar, it turns out Lent starts next Wednesday here too. LOL I guess yesterday was too early to eat that last pack of M&Ms.

and float down grand street in daylight

I know that Grand Street is in Brooklyn, and I don't know if I'll be going over to Brooklyn this weekend, but I really like the Matt & Kim song "Daylight". In fact, I really like their whole album "Grand". It's super fun and New York City-ish.

Which is appropriate because I'll be in NYC in less than 24 hours for my second annual long weekend in NYC, which happily corresponds with my birthday! :)

This has been a fun and busy week so far. I survived Boot Camp at school. It was really fun doing power yoga with students. They are less co-ordinated than I am, so I didn't feel so self-conscious.

On Wednesday, I went to a very exciting Raptors' game with my work spouse, whose last day of work before her maternity leave is tomorrow. I'm going to miss her, but I know I'll be visiting her lots to catch her up on gossip and such. Not that I'm a gossip...

Tonight I've been tidying my apartment and getting all ready for NYC. One of my friends from home is joining me and two work pals on our fabulous trip, so she's crashing here tonight. I hope Rilo's not bothering her.

My bags are pretty much packed. I hate packing. Determining what clothing I will need is so tough. While packing, I asked myself if I *really* need three pairs of jeans for what is essentially a three day trip, and the answer is yes, of course I do.

Now all I have to do is to get through tomorrow. It's a PD day, and I'm sure what they have planned is all sorts of boring, and they're not even serving us lunch! I guess that's the economy for you.

I'll leave you with an awesome picture of Rilo yawning (taken by Becca T), which is what I'll be doing lots of tomorrow during the PD, and until I land in NYC.

Hoodies and chuck-ts.

On Friday night, I thought that I had organized a sushi-night with my pals Becca T and Mathew. I had picked the date, the time and the place.

When we met up at our selected meeting place, Becca told me that a couple of our friends were having dinner at a restaurant close to the sushi place and that she told them that we'd drop by and say hi.

We got to the restaurant (a cute Mexican place that I'd heard was good) and we looked around for them and then went to the second floor. Immediately I saw my friend David and though "oh, he's having dinner with them too, how nice." Then I saw my friend Jamie and thought "I didn't know that he was hanging out with that group these days." Then I saw my friend Flora and thought "what the fuck?" Then I looked around the table and saw all kinds of people that I knew.

"Wait, I know all of these people. This must be for me!" I exclaimed and then slapped my own face like a total dork. I won the prize for slowest surprise party realization ever. And there is actual photographic evidence of me slapping my face and people laughing at my slowness. Awesome.

Anyway, I was so touched that my friends planned this party and so many people came out. It's so fun spending the evening eating good food and laughing and being silly with all kinds of good friends.

And I got a bunch of cool stuff too!



From Becca T, I got the Harajuku Lovers perfume (Music) that I'd been coveting. I really like Gwen Stefani things for some reason.



Also from Becca T, a fun sparkly box with a ring in it that says "Lance". I purchased said ring for her as a joke (back in university when N Sync was around). I'm pretty sure she'll be getting it back at some point in her life.



From my pals Jon & Ali (the decoys), I got a journal and a mini-book on the elements. Being the science nerd that I am, I got really excited about that book. I'm going to bring it to school and read it to the kids.



My friend Flora got me bird cards, bird earring and a box with birds on it 'cuz I like birds.



I got a gift certificate from Indigo from my friend David 'cuz he's impressed with my resolution to read 52 books this year and wants to help the cause. (Note: I slowed down this week in my reading but I'm determined to finish book #7 before I leave for NYC.)



My friend/colleague/travel buddy Fea and her husband got me a super cute lululemon hoodie (!) and a lush bath bomb.

And la piece de resistance of bday presents, of which I've heard about the making of it since January is from my pal Mathew...



He managed to make me a replica of the Simpsons' sailboat picture above their couch using his mad photoshop skillz. How awesome is that? I guess I'm going to have run into my apt and towards the couch and perform some sort of couch gag every time I come home now.

Anyway, the rest of my weekend was fun (shopping, sushi, chilling, and a baby shower), but the party was def the highlight. I love my friends so much.

My week will start off really hard because I have managed to be talked into doing the fitness boot camp that my friend (who teaches phys ed) is organizing. She is hardcore, and I'm terrified, but I'm going to do it.

I also have a Raptors' game this week with my work spouse (for whom the baby shower was for), and then on Friday I'm off to NYC for my birthday weekend! Yay!!!

I certainly haven't been shopping for any new shoes *and* I certainly haven't been spreading myself around.

Listening to: the album "Extraordinary Machine" by Fiona Apple

Reading: Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. Finally. This was last year's birthday gift from my pal Mathew, and I gotta get it read before this year's birthday. I started it, but then got diverted by a book about the dwarf planet Pluto, of all things. That book was awesome by the way.

Just watched: The episode of Simpsons where Marge paints Mr. Burns' portrait because I wanted to hear the line "and yes, even a rhombus!"

Last night: Becca T and I saw "The Wrestler". It was good.

I'm baking: banana-blueberry muffins. From scratch.

Rilo is: sleeping on the couch.

I'm not watching: the Superbowl. Quelle surprise.

I'm waiting for: the special one-hour episode of "The Office" to start.

I'm looking forward to: going to see the play "Medea" with my work spouse on Tuesday. Then, Thursday is the postponed date of our second annual semester one smashdown. It had to be pushed back to this week so that all five founding members could attend. Lastly, I'm looking forward to NYC in less than two weeks!

I don't want to think about: going to work tomorrow morning. It's the start of a new semester. Going to be exhausting. Oh well, one cannot have March Break without a new semester, so that's how my glass is half-full.