V-Day, Chinese New Year, Anniversary, and the Olympics. Oh My!

This was an event-filled weekend for me, even though I really didn’t do much.

Anniversary, Chinese New Years, and Valentine's Day

As you all know, yesterday was Valentine’s day.  As I described in this post, the tulips were my V-day present to myself.

The tangerines are from my parents to celebrate Chinese new year, which was also on Valentine’s day.  We went to their place for new year’s eve dinner on Saturday and also went to dim sum on Sunday, where we saw a lion dance at the restaurant.

I made a video of the lion dance and was hoping to show it online, but the file size is too large.  It was a decent lion dance; the interesting thing is that one of the lions were made more modern with blinking LED lights covering the eyelids and various patterns all over the body.

Although I only made a video of that lion, I captured the second lion in a photo (shown below) while it was dancing around getting red pockets (i.e. tips) and bringing luck to each participating table in the restaurant.

Today is also the first year anniversary of my and my husband’s marriage.  We completely forgot about this, but my mother-in-law kept and froze the top of the wedding cake for us.  We are in the process of eating it.  It still looks as pretty as it was a year ago.

I don’t have much to say that’s inspiring about all this.  I am just thankful to be able to celebrate life.

Lion dance at a Chinese restaurant in Richmond Hill

To be honest, I spent most of this weekend watching the Winter Olympics.  I was so happy when Alexandro Bilodeau won his gold medal in freestyle skiing.  I loved seeing how ecstatic his brother was.  It was also great to see how happy Bryon Wilson from USA was for getting the bronze medal, which was in stark contrast to how unhappy Dale Begg-Smith, who is a former Canadian and came in second, looked on the podium. Great sportsmanship Mr. Wilson!

I also watched the female speed skaters and while I don’t love the Canadian team’s uniform (why oh why must it look like some weird S&M strappy get-up with saran wrap shorts over the uniform?), I love all three ladies on our team.  Congratulations to Kristina Groves for getting bronze in the 3000m.   Martina Sablikova was fierce though; it’s easy to see why she is a favorite.

Anyway, go Team Canada!

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Valentine’s Day – A Day to Love … Yourself?

Valentine’s day is today! This is the first year ever where I had to go to a mall or a shopping district just before February 14th, so I was a bit shocked to find that all the shop windows are a blur of pink and red as I drive by.

My biggest shock was on Friday afternoon, as I walked past Tiffany’s at Yorkdale Mall. There was a line up of men waiting to go into the store, and there wasn’t a sale as far as I can tell. It took me by surprise, as I’ve never seen such a sight before. I couldn’t contain myself and laughed heartily as I walked by. Maybe they thought I was nuts, walking and laughing out loud all by myself, but I couldn’t help it.

An hour later, I walked by Tiffany’s for the second time. Again, there was a line up; this time, there were a couple women in line too.  I was expecting the line up, so I only chuckled quietly to myself. I don’t think badly of these men, I just find the scenario extremely amusing. While I love jewelry, I personally don’t think Valentine’s day warrants an extravagant gift like that.  Obviously, that’s just me.  I only wish that I took a picture of the line up for this post.

How about if we just do something nice for ourselves instead this Valentine’s Day? If everyone is nice to themselves, no one will be left alone.

To celebrate Valentine’s day, I got myself a bunch of mini tulips — my favourite flowers in my favourite colours. I am married, but who says that I can’t do anything nice for myself?

They didn’t fit into a single vase, so I had to split them up. The apartment finally looks like a woman lives here!

My Valentine's Day Gift to Myself

It was a spontaneous gift; I was actually getting a bag of cactus soil.  The purchase of the cactus soil was also a spontaneous decision after bringing my husband’s mouth guard to him because he forgot it at home.

Because of various situations that I didn’t plan for, I spent the day doing nothing from my original to do list.  Instead, I caught up with something that I love doing.  All in all, I enjoyed my day.  The apartment is still messier than I like, but I created some pretty things that I will show you soon!

What did you do for yourself this Valentine’s Day? Please leave a comment, I’d love to hear about it! ♥

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Lost Generation: A Brilliant and Creative Video

A friend sent this to me today. I thought I’d share:

A palindrome reads the same backwards as forward. This video reads the exact opposite backwards as forward. Not only does it read the opposite, the meaning is the exact opposite.

This is only a 1 minute, 44 second video and it is brilliant. Make sure you read as well as listen…forward and backward.

This is a video that was submitted in a contest by a 20-year old. The contest was titled “u @ 50” by AARP. This video won second place. When they showed it, everyone in the room was awe-struck and broke into spontaneous applause. So simple and yet so brilliant. Take a minute and watch it.

I love the creativity in the writing. Upon study, it doesn’t look hard, but someone obviously needed to think outside the box to come up with the idea.

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Introduction

Hi! My name is Macy.  I’m a twenty-something year old residing in Toronto who has been in the environmental/civil engineering field for about eight years.  My desire to write is getting strong, however, and I hope to make a transition to a writing career in 2010.

My interest varies greatly and I tend to at least dabble in everything.  I have an interest in health, alternative medicine, relationships, psychology, fitness, anomalies, travel, food, indoor gardening, and opinions on various social issues.

Although I may blog about the aforementioned topics, my intention for this blog is to promote positivity and inspiration among readers.  I believe the world is so focused on the negatives and trivial that we sometimes forget what we can achieve.  Many people have so much wasted potential who don’t believe they can change the world; I hope to inspire readers to be amazed at who we are and become empowered to do some good.

My secondary intention, of course,  is to practice writing and hopefully create an interest in potential clients, so if you like what you see and would like me to assist you in your writing projects, please contact me at galapogoz(@)gmail.com.  I would be delighted to help.

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