They assure me that the greatest beginnings are often snot-covered

I'm sick. I find myself laid up, a cup of tea, stuffed squirrel, roll of toilet paper, dog, and lip balm all around me in my apartment in snowy Toronto, Ontario. THIS IS NOT RIGHT. I AM FROM FLORIDA. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME?! To be fair, I've been here since October and this is the first time I've been sick, so it could be worse. Also, I've been working out for a couple weeks, and the sickness may have more to do with my body adjusting to all of this moving (ew!) and lifting (why?) than anti-American spores in the Canadian air. Maybe.

Okay, I'm not totally gross, but I still feel wimpy. Lucky for me I have
this valiant squirrel friend to help take care of me.

Being unable to attack the dishes and laundry with my usual fervor (*gigglesnort*), I decided to finally set up that blog I've been promising everyone. Here it is! Yay! So, off the ground, this doesn't look like this is going to be the most tightly-focused, demographic-piercing blog around, and it'll probably just be a drop in the big old bucket of personal blogs. That's okay with me! I have an idea I'm working on for one of those neat blogs that everyone and their moms will flock to, but I'm still working on it and it probably won't be off the ground until I'm back in the US. In the meantime you get my life and my adjustments to stuff here, from bagged milk to the metric system. My main interests, which will probably also be well-represented here, are fitness, homemaking, my goofy pup, learning to cook, and being a better partner for my boyfriend. I also expect I'll want to share what I'm reading, listening to, or watching, and tell you why you'd benefit from giving it a chance, as well. I'll probably also gush about my boyfriend, fret about my dad (who was just diagnosed with cancer a week ago), and document my random wanderings in one of the most culturally diverse cities on the planet.


I'm looking forward to sharing my days, and having a record to look back on. I've done so much since I arrived here in October, and it's been amazing. I want to pass along all the neat things I've seen and done here, as well as document the work I'm doing on all the more mundane but no less meaningful internal stuff. I struggle with organizing and cleanliness, keeping myself as intillectually stimulated as I know I should, and with my weight. I'm so happy to have a boyfriend who wants to see us both improve. It's one of those win-win situations where if I have a bad week and don't lose any weight he'll still love me and be crazy about me, and if I'm successful, he'll be so proud of me and he'll also understand what a hard-won victory it is, because he's trying to lose weight, too.

I think that's all for now, but I'll leave you with this picture of the first time snow stuck to the ground since I'd arrived in the Great White North, and I look forward to seeing you again soon.

What is this white stuff and why is it attacking my boots?