Young Girl Smacked in the Face with Adulthood at 9:05 Yesterday Morning

So I'm twenty now.

Despite this impressive age I've managed to attain, I got excited like a five year old on my birthday. The night before I was giddy, and I spent pretty much all of Friday with a big, stupid grin plastered all over my face. I wouldn't have it any other way.

I started my day with a google hangout with my Mom before leaving for class. And that Spiderman present I've been holding on to? Nailed it. Totally a book.



But I didn't have a clue that it was Hyrule Historia!!! The best part about this present is that not only will it look fantastic on my shelf/beside me forever, but it came at the perfect time. I've been listening to the 25th Anniversary Legend of Zelda Symphony Orchestra CD all month and I've been dying to dive back into Majora's Mask. In summary, I have been in such a Zelda lately, and now I have this. Joy.

What I didn't know was that there was another little surprise in that bag, these lovely, lovely sterling silver (right? I think that's right.) celtic earings. So pretty. If I didn't mention it, I trained my ears to wear earings again this summer. After around six years of never really wearing them this was very exciting and totally worth the pain. Since the summer I've been wearing earrings almost every day, so this was, once again, the perfect gift. All of my gifts were perfect, I guess, because I don't think that something purchased with love for you could ever be less than perfection. Gift giving trumps all.



My whole family, but especially my mother has kind of a thing for anything celtic, so I like that these earrings make me think of her. Also Charmed. But that also makes me think of comfy afternoons couching-it with Mom and plowing through a few seasons of our favorite witch-y show.

As you might imagine, with all this excitement, I was late to my 10:30 class. To my credit, I was only around ten minutes late, but still. Eventually I ran into the two best friends in all the world, and more gifts were given. I'm just going to put pictures of all of them here because let's face it, you can show off on your birthday. It's not my birthday anymore but let's pretend that the rules still apply.

I got some German coffee that I am rather excited to enjoy. Another addition of the summer was a kind of addiction to caffine, which I'm pretty much over now but I do still really enjoy a good cup of Joe. Plus isn't this just the perfect present for a student? The answer is yes- yes it is.



Along with this I got a glorious Clinique Chubby Stick. It's in the shade 'Whopping Willow', which is really (I imagine) just a typo for 'Whomping Willow'. But you guys. This colour. You guys. Let's go full beauty blog on this and swatch it. Oh yes.



I feel I should offer some form of explanation here. Remember last winter when I got crazy into vlogs on youtube? This summer that subscription sphere grew to absorb beauty channels, and now... yeah. Make-up. I cannot wait to get this shit all over my face. It may seem kind of weird for a twenty year old woman to only now be delving into the world of make-up, but just shush. It's not weird at all. I've been busy. Point is, perfect present, because I would never have bought something like this for myself.

But that's not all! I feel like my friends really upped the game on birthday presents this year, to which all I can say is challenge accepted. I got this Star Trek Earl Grey tea (it smells out of this fucking world). I have to say that the tea itself is a ridiculous bonus to the prettiness of the actual tin it comes in. I also got the Teatanic, which is a tea infuser SHAPED LIKE THE TITANIC. I know, right? This gift was perfection because I have this weird thing. I'm not sure how to explain it. Essentially I consider time in relation to the day the Titanic sank. For instance, WWII started in 1939, right? So to give myself some perspective on the world at this time, I just automatically think to myself, 'oh, that's 27 years after the Titanic sank'. It honestly does help me picture the time period even though I wouldn't say that I have a crystal clear picture of 1912 or anything, it's just... this thing that I do. Teatanic!



As for my actual day, after classes I went shopping with friends and had the best time considering that I have no money, and then I actually had to go to a student involvement training thing on campus for like two and half hours. Not my favorite birthday activity, but hey. We got free dinner. After that it was off to finish The Hobbit with tea and my personal favorite, cake. My friend baked this for me last night. It's true. She baked it for me.

The only thing better than how pretty it looks is how delicious it tasted. And it was full of apples. Guys, I love apples. She baked this. We ate it while we watched The Hobbit. It was like a dream come true.

As a side note about that movie, does anyone else feel like it's sort of a dream when they watch it? I feel that I was waiting for this movie to be made and to come out for so many years that sometimes I still can't believe that it's actually a thing that exists now. Every time I watch it I'm struck by this happiness that this is a thing that exists in real life, not just in my head. It's like when I was little and I got a Buffy the Vampire Slayer advent calendar in the shops. That was a thing that existed, and I was there when it did. Happiness!

After the movie I caught a bus home and played Majora's Mask for about fourty minutes before going to sleep. It may sound like a boring way to end a birthday, but to be honest I think I've done something exciting every Friday night since school started and it was euphoric to be able to spent this Friday scarfing down an amazing cake with some friends and enjoy my favorite story ever happen on the screen in front of me. Ending that magic with going to sleep in my own bed was icing on a fabulous birthday cake.

Birthday #20: Successful.

Young Student Seeks The Creation of Accent Walls

I want a desk! I want a desk!

Does anyone else experience this lamenting struggle upon returning home from school? The September that I came to Uni my parents moved from Trinidad to Tobago, and in the process got rid of my bedroom. That sounds kind of horrible when I put it that way. It really wasn't a jumping for joy at getting rid of the last kid kind of thing (I hope), it was just something we'd been talking about and my Dad's work and all the rest of that life stuff. I sleep in the guest bedroom now.

Okay never mind it is horrible.

My brothers live in an apartment together,  so they have rooms to call their own, they have lovely, expansive desks and even desk chairs. I have a suitcase. I love my suitcase, but it's driving me!

The problem is that I live on my computer, and therefore I live at my desk. I do my work there, I write there, I have my fun there. When it isn't there I have to wander the house for a wall plug and play MMOs on the floor. Technically, my old desk from highschool is down here, in storage along with some of my belongings while another much larger chunk is in Ottawa and another much smaller chunk is in Guelph and Ronnie is somewhere between all of these places in a land called Frustration. I may or may not be sick of my transient lifestyle right now.

Which is weird! I love being on the go! I love living out of a suitcase and heading off to who knows where at the turn of a dime, but I have come to the conclusion that a home port, no matter how expensive and awkward it may seem, is really a necessary part of life. So I think that's my problem. The boy's apartment isn't home, but Tobago isn't really home anymore, either. At least, it's not as much home as it used to be. I'm only around for a few months of the year anyway. So where is home? Where is my desk? Guelph especially isn't home right now, Guelph is where I am really and truly homeless (to save on tears let's change the topic). I had always imagined that out of university I would keep this life up as best I could, and try to keep as mobile as I can, but now I want a pad. I want a crib. I want a fucking desk. When I get out of here I want to go to wherever it is that I decide I want to go after my undergrad, and I want to rent a place. I want to nest like nobody has nested before. Independence, ahoy! I'm coming after ye.

This post deals entirely with my own feelings and love of sailor slang; it has nothing whatsoever to do with my recent enjoyment of interior design blogs. Nothing at all!

My Degree is Half Full!

New layout, new design, new title, new blog!

I get the strange feeling that this blog gets a revamp every time exams season rears its ugly head. In any case, hope you like it! I think it's much more neat and clear than previously. When I was designing it the comic theme just kind of asserted itself, and I think it works.

Obviously I haven't been keeping up with the blog this semester so I'll just jump right on in to the complexities of my life.

It's the end of my second year of university! And I'm starting to get really excited for third year. As of this semester I got a lot of prereqs out of the way and can focus entirely on taking the courses that are interesting and significant to what I want to do in my life. I suppose that's where the trouble begins, really. Next year these courses really will count towards whatever it is I do with my life after my undergrad. My marks have to be better than ever and just the thought of that is exhausting. Not only that, but this semester I've been elected president of the student organization that I'm involved with on campus. The world now has to refer to me as madam president. Also I don't think I can adequately describe how much it means to me that I've been given this incredible responsibility. On the one hand, yeah, it's just a club but on the other hand it's my go-to example of something that I just dove into without really thinking (or over-thinking) and I've actually succeeded. Not that I don't ever succeed at things, but this was different. I'd never done anything like student government before, but in first year I just picked up a form and decided it was something that I wanted to do. That kind of direction and, frankly, stalwart optimism that things weren't going to blow up horribly in my face is kind of the way I want to live my life.

So in other words, I sort of don't want to fuck next year up.

It's exciting, but also very worrisome. On top of this stress heap I also have teetering the monumental issue of not having anywhere to live for next year. I know things will work out (see that optimism? See how good I'm getting?) but I just want to run out and sort them right now. I keep finding myself caught in this very awkward life stage somewhere between relying on parents and relying on myself. I know it's a learning process for the parents too, they don't really know when to assign me to helm control for my life and I don't really know when to maneuver. Somehow I feel like the confusion is driving us towards the edge of a cliff and into a deep dark crevasse of adulthood (optimism gone), but I had been picturing a spaceship with this driving analogy so cliff sides shouldn't be a thing. In a perfect world I don't want to have to worry about stupid and largely pointless things like where I'm going to live for eight months of the year.

Overall, the future looks bright, even if there is a thunderstorm rolling through Guelph this fine evening. My spirits shan't be dampened! I found an incredible masters program at the University of Glasgow last week, and after what could accurately be called the year where I didn't know where the hell I was going with all of this education shit, I think I may finally have a new goal. Her name is MLitt in Environment, Culture, and Communication, and I think you're going to like her.

Final note- I just discovered upon tagging this post that I last tagged 'Glasgow' when blogging about my acceptance out of grade 12. Well, I can't really afford her, but she clearly wants me. ; )

What's for Dinner?

I am a nodder. I'm one of those students who feels the need to keep professors in a continuous state of reassurance that I understand what they're saying (even if I don't). I keep a constant rhythm of nods for them throughout class. It's fairly static, but the tempo can increase dramatically when/if they make eye contact with me.

It's come to my attention in recent times that most people don't do this, which makes me feel slightly alone, but every now and then I'm in a class where there is more than one of us nodders, perhaps even a few of us, and I know that we have an understanding. A message for all of those nodders out there, possibly nodding your comprehension of this very sentence: you are not alone; I feel you.

Now for food. Living in a townhouse this year has afforded me the opportunity to actually make food, and through the past three months I've managed to get visual evidence of my cooking skillz to share with the web. One day, I hope to look back on these culinary masterpieces and laugh heartily because I'll be eating so much better by then... right?

Yeah, eggs are pretty much all that I can do. However, I do do them rather well, if I do say so myself. My favorite part of these pictures is that you can clearly make out my laptop in every one except for toad in the hole. So please, future me, tell me that you eventually stopped slobbing every meal at your desk. Tell me we purchased a table. Please.

Also, grating cheese for that pasta was my being 'fancy'.

And now, a final thought: I'm doing better in all of my English courses than any of my Biology courses. This happened last year as well. Is this a sign? Should I be re-thinking my life?

Other final thought: My back does not ever crack, and I cannot remember it ever happening before, which leads me to believe that if my back were ever to crack it would be the most incredible crack in the world, ever.

Good Job, Bruce.

I applied to my first ever real-live (part-time) job today! I'm still not entirely sure whether or not I'll have the time for it what with school and Batman: Arkham City, but I finally decided that if I didn't take the plunge and give it a go, then I'd never have any money for my entire undergrad. So wish me luck!

Something that's been bugging me lately: poorly written textbooks. They cost so much money, and involve so much work, to have to cause so much pain as well? Now that I'm in my  second year of university (I'm in my second year of university!) I've been exposed to enough good and bad textbooks to know that the fifth edition of Vertebrates: Comparative Anatomy, Function, Evolution doesn't need to be the walls of text made of up of endless pages of big, dry terms that it is. It could be exciting. It could have colour! They could even plan out the formatting so that some of the figures and diagrams are on the same page that they're referenced on.

Sometimes I feel like I should be on Facebook more. I like the idea of being able to look back on these undergrad years when I'm livin' it up at 45 (totally gonna be livin' it up at 45) and see exactly who I was. In saying this, I'd like to mention that every time I go on Google+ and see how pretty/cool it is, I desperately wish people used it. So come on, people! Get on Google+! It's like totally super more prettier than Facebook!

Aaaand speaking of life updates, I went to the Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Godessess concert at the Sony Centre in Toronto last Saturday, and it was totally boss. I got this entirely cute blue dress for it over the summer; it had little butterflies on it. Pictures will be happening at some point. Back to the concert, not only did we get three encores (screw Montreal!), but the awesome Irish conductor used the WIND WAKER to conduct the wind waker songs. My friend and I spent most of the show trying to find an alleged Groose cosplayer mentioned on Twitter, whom we eventually spotted at the bottom of the escalator. After fighting through hoards of fans to get at him we were way too obvious about how excited we were to finally find him and I made the brilliant move of telling him we'd been talking about him on Twitter. I'd post the picture of the guy (t'was a grand cosplay), but I think I freaked him out enough already. Also I got hundreds of hits on streetpass, for realz. You can't really see it, but everyone in that picture is sitting there on their 3DS.

Three Strikes and We're Out

As of this September, I am an only child.

It doesn't really sound too surprising that though I've known this day would come since forever, it never really clicked. I couldn't even imagine life when all of my siblings entered the brave new world that is higher education. As a little shout out to my fellow youngests, I think that being the last to leave the nest is one of the harder burdens life places on us. A family separated, even on the nicest of terms (like university) is like the leftover scraps from a Sunday roast. Those left behind after the feast huddle together in shared little containers since they don't need the big plate anymore. It's not completely over, they can still be reheated and reunited in the microwave, but it just doesn't taste the same. No matter how close it is you still spend most of your time in the refrigerator.

It's an awkward comparison when I think about it too literaly (sounds like some post-apocalyptic survivor story - screw the matrix, we're really leftovers in the fridge), but right now I feel like the scraggly strips of roast someone left behind on their plate.

In my experience the parents always cry when they drop the first born and second born and so on off at the campus, or worse (and in my case) the airport. It's the younger siblings job to look on proudly, with a smile that says 'Good job! You finally made it!' The parents will always have a harder time than the siblings. I've never been alone to deal with the parental aftermath of saying goodbye before. I came home from school and my parents were sitting around, saying nothing. I didn't figure out why until I said something and discovered the terrible echo in the house.

Last weekend we moved me into my second brothers nicer, brighter, and bigger room. I still turn the wrong way at the top of the stairs, but I'm slowly adjusting. It doesn't look like my brothers room anymore, but my ownership of it feels weirdly temporary. I suppose it is; next September my mother gets to cry her last baby goodbye. In some ways I see this as a good thing. In most ways I see this as a good thing. Other times I don't want to think about what it'll be like for my parents, that boundless pride mixed with overwhelming sadness, and dusting off another empty room every once in a while... Progress is progress, however, and growing up is impossible without the crucial 'moving on' phase. Still, I wonder how they'll fight the echo when I'm not there to be loud.

We spend a lot more time together now, I think. We watch shows (V, currently). We invite people over for dinner. We don't play cards anymore (something that was once a nightly ritual for my family). Euchre is a four person game.

It's not all doom and gloom; like I said, we hit the microwave every now and then with phone calls and the wonders of Skype. But there's an awful lot of fridge time... Then again, it's only September, and the perks of being an only child (the disappearance of the want/need barrier) are a nice comfort.

As a side, I give you a view from my new bedroom window. It looks far more impressive in real life. Still, only in Trinidad, eh?