[massive post about everything that's happened so far this week below]
The MCAT is done, I'm back in Hamilton running experiments (all day, every day!), and have started hitting the gym in earnest. Also eating healthy because now I actually have time to cook properly for myself and experiment with new ways of preparing veggies.
Before I came back I faced the eternal struggle of which books to bring back with me. Here's my shelf of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time (someone borrowed The Eye of the World from me 2 years ago. They haven't read it nor have they given it back, and I recently got a copy of The Gathering Storm for $5 at Indigo, so I'm 2 books away from owning the entire series. Only The Gathering Storm was bought new; the rest came from 3 years' worth of scavenging used book stores and the Thrift Store), and Tolkien (yes, I own two copies of The Children of Hurin and The Silmarillion. Long story short, Ksenia got me the softcover version of The Children of Hurin for my birthday, but the hardcover one went on sale and she got it, but she lost the receipt to the softcover. So now I have both. And I bought the softcover The Silmarillion at Indigo, and on the same day I paid the Thrift Store around the corner a visit and voilà, there was a used hardcover copy of it. So I bought it and kept the new one because The Silmarillion is one of those books you don't just turn away. I also had an extra secondhand copy of the Lord of the Rings (movie cover edition) but my bookshelf was overflowing so I re-donated that set. The set I currently own was a Christmas gift from a family friend, right around the time I first saw The Return of the King (remind me to blog about how I got into the Lord of the Rings in the first place), so it's been around a while.). And then there are my classics collection, of which I've only read half. I've had the set since grade 4 and never really read any of it after middle school, even though now I should be able to actually understand the books. But, since I've got my Kobo, I don't need to lug around the classics because they're all under public domain and I can download them easily.
Then, there's my copy of Selections from The Tales of Canterbury. I got it for 25 cents (!) at a used book fair (can you tell I love used book sales?) while I was volunteering at Baycrest way back in grade 10 -- the same place where I bought The Eye of the World and the official Lion King piano songbook for 25 cents apiece. Because it's written in Middle English (I think), the spelling isn't standardized and it's easier to read aloud than to do it silently because it's purely phonetic.
One of my goals has been to make a new cover for the book, whether it be a dust jacket-like cover or completely re-bind it. We'll see. I know Curry's sells some book binding supplies but I've never done anything of the sort so I don't know how hard it will be.
On Monday, I stopped by Jackson Square on my way home from the lab to do some quick summer shopping because I am woefully lacking in summer clothes. I didn't really find anything I initially wanted, apart from the pair of midi jean shorts from Bluenotes I've been eyeing for the past few weeks.
The haul:
The haul:
- A wicked black sleeveless top with a cutout back from Sirens (Instagram photo below)
- Midi jean shorts from Bluenotes (standard jean shorts, nothing special)
- A pair of sandals and white flats from Ardene (I wore the sandals to Fortinos yesterday, got blisters on my soles where the toe dividers were, wore the flats to the gym today and got blisters on my right heel. I am in pain right now.)
- A pair of sunglasses from Ardene (pictured below with my wicked awesome top, which I am in love with)
- 2 belts from Ardene, the slim kind you wear with summer dresses. Now, if only I had summer dresses to wear in the first place...
Me, channeling my inner Elize Ryd.Incidentally, this is what I'll be wearing to the Within Temptation/Amaranthe concert in October.I have a pair of high-heel leather boots to complete the outfit, but they're not the best thing to wear to concerts.
Speaking of, I finally bought my ticket to see Within Temptation and Amaranthe in October! It was the first thing I did with my lab paycheck. You can see where my priorities are. Emily, Val, Diana and Melissa are also planning a road trip up to Toronto so we can finally meet each other in person and have a good time. I really hope the gals can make it, because I've known most of them for 2 years now but because they're scattered across the States I've never actually met any of them. I've actually only ever heard Diana's voice because she posted a video on tumblr a few weeks ago.
I also started reading The Count of Monte Cristo. I plan on doing a little bit of liveblogging while I read (mostly comparing the book to the movie, because I definitely saw the movie first - in like 2007 or something). It's going to be filed under The Blog of Monte Cristo. I started reading it on my tablet but after getting back to Hamilton I revived my Kobo (it kept freezing and not responding no matter how hard I pressed the reset button, so I let the batteries die and then did a factory reset).
