Category Archives: Things I Love Thursday

Up late, but surprisingly happy about this for once. Why not write my Thursday post while I’m awake and remembering these moments?

♥ I smell like peanut butter and sugar. I spent most of my evening baking cookies for a potluck tomorrow, and as presents for friends.

♥ My new job gives me a great amount of satisfaction, even when I’m busy catching my own editing mistakes.

♥ I listen to Yiruma’s website sometimes, especially when I’m doing homework, as it has a stream of music playing and I can’t listen to vocals while thinking.

♥ It’s still sunny these days.

♥ Seriously, baking makes me so happy and destressed, I’m considering making Wednesdays my baking nights.

♥ My brother brought me food to last my next three meals last night. Good food from Shota Sushi, too.

♥ I got to see a friend I hadn’t hung around with much lately, last night. And another friend for dinner tonight. So it was good to catch up with them.

♥ I finished ALL my readings for tomorrow and feel ridiculously proud of this.

♥ I’m just happy. And that’s the best feeling, isn’t it?

I unexpectedly met a couple of past and present members of the second(?) First-Year Blog Squad cohort last night. That was interesting in itself, but what really shocked me (in the most pleasant manner possible) was when someone asked, ‘Are you Lillienne from the UBC Blog Squad? I read your blog!’

Oh my. It feels truly surreal to know that somebody out there actually reads my blog. Most of the time, I think I’m talking to myself. I am, of course, as delighted as I am confused by this turn of events, and can only express myself by dedicating this post to you.

I haven’t been doing this in a while, because I’m so busy, but here are some fantastic things that have happened lately:

♥ K’NAAN sang a couple of songs at the Chan Centre last week, and followed them up with a really down-to-earth, honest conversation with the audience on music, politics, aid work, speaking English as an additional language, and whatever else came to mind. The only song I know the title of was ‘Fatima’—there’s something about the live performance that I enjoy more than the recorded one, so that’s what I’ve linked here.

♥ On the first day of my new Work Study job, there were very many baked goodies in the office, including E.’s divine white cheesecake-cupcake with homemade raspberry jam and a raspberry on top. I took it as a melt-in-my-mouth good omen for the rest of the year.

♥ I also love my new job for reasons other than food. (I get to be useful and edit webpages that are actually accessed by the general public!)

♥ I’ve picked out a favourite star (or what I think is the same star I like the best, anyway). It’s golden!

♥ Dress911 is one of my favourite sites to look at pretty dresses. An online store based in Canada, they have some really gorgeous creations that simultaneously cheer me up and always instill an urge in me to go to Metrotown and find something just as pretty and within my budget.

♥ One of my friends fed me homemade strawberry jam on toast last night. It was gloriously drippy and sticky and sweet and fresh. I have a renewed addiction to strawberry jam now. Especially the homemade variety.

♥ People have been so kind to me lately. Things like asking if I am okay when I look down, picking up worksheets for classes I miss, lending me board games when I needed them, giving me food because I don’t feed myself well enough, sending me emails to check up on me — thank you to everyone who has been so warm-hearted! You make me feel greatly loved, which is a far cry from those first few frightening days in Canada when I didn’t really know anyone.

♥ I have a reader!

The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.

— Flora Whittemore

Life has been exceptionally good lately. And I am proud that a lot of it has been good because I’ve been putting in the effort to make it that way.

♥ I’ve moved into residence and love my new room. It’s got high ceilings and is south-facing, with a bit of ocean through the trees. I look forward to spectacular sunrises and sunsets!

♥ My classes are panning out to be really interesting. Highlights of my term will include visiting and writing about Chinatown, walking a labyrinth while listening to music (did you know we have a labyrinth on campus?!), and getting a tour around the Museum of Anthropology — and all for class!

♥ I had my first Musqueam lesson today and can say, ‘Tooth.’ I’m so delighted for what is yet to come.

♥ We had our Speakeasy retreat at Whistler last weekend and I love the new volunteers. I’m really proud of how kind and thoughtful the vast majority of our volunteers consistently show themselves to be, and am sure the new year is going to be good.

♥ I’m also the proud owner of Sara Bareilles’s new album, Kaleidoscope Heart. Unfortunately, I still haven’t had a chance to listen to it because I’ve been so busy over the last few days.

♥ I have a new job! Lined up for me just as I finish my current part-time at the YMCA is a UBC Work Study editing position that I can’t wait to start. It’s going to be a very interesting opportunity that I’m really going to enjoy, mostly because I like editing and I want to be more helpful within the UBC community. I’m also undeniably grateful for how it’s going to help pay for my housing — it’s great to feel that I’m increasingly able to take care of my own needs.

♥ I have peaches! I love peaches, and for some reason often have trouble finding them in supermarkets. Nectarines are aplenty, but peaches are a rare fruit I treasure when I do overcome my own lack of observation.

Genevieve introduced me to this particular kind of Thursday loving back when we were both in the UBC First-Year Blog Squad. Though I never did it on my previous UBC blog, I did post my happy things in life (on Wednesdays) in my personal notes.

But I feel like following the crowd now, so Thursdays it will be from now on!

Fantastic things going on in my life right now:

♥ Our dryer is fixed. It broke a couple of nights ago just when I was doing some emergency laundry. I’m very proud of myself for my relatively small panic, and for the way I artfully hung most of my clothes on the single tiny drying rack we own. It got me thinking that maybe here’s a way for me to cut down on my massive carbon footprint. I’m very glad I have the dryer back if I do want to use it, though.

♥ Yuna Ito did a cover of ‘I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing’, which of course had me listening to the original by Aerosmith and reflecting, once again, what an amazing song this is.

♥ Making mac and cheese from scratch. I had a slab of Gruyere cheese I grated up and melted, then baked with my macaroni. Sure it’s a lot more time-consuming than Kraft, but it is so good!

♥ Half of my books for one class arrived from Amazon. I haven’t ripped it apart yet, but I am so excited to nerd it up and hopefully be done with my readings before school starts. I’m really looking forward to my classes this year!

♥ Speaking of reading, I’m really pleased with myself for picking up books for pleasure again. At the moment I’m re-reading A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (one of my favourites), just finished re-reading Mary Oliver’s Dream Work (another favourite) and am starting on Linda Hogan’s Seeing Through the Sun. Also decided to pick up Canada’s First Nations by Olive Patricia Dickinson from the beginning, as I never finished it the first time I tried it.

♥ Finding the perfect present for a friend. I forgot what a wonderful feeling it is to give someone exactly what they wanted and never expected—in this case, a copy of the Mr Nobody DVD that’s only available in France or Belgium. The headache I got from trying to remember my three years’ of long-ago French was worth my friend’s joy and amazement when she got it. I can’t wait to come up with the next perfect thing to give someone else.

♥ Sunshine and blue skies! I’ve been out on every one of my lunch breaks on the days I’m working, in my attempt to soak up the summer light before the rain and grey skies set in.

♥ Lightning just flashed and thunder just rolled. Are we about to have a storm? I LOVE STORMS. Rain so rarely pours itself out here; it just drizzles. Tonight is going to be a-ma-zing. (Also, I sleep remarkably well when it rains at night.)

♥ Saw the Big Dipper for the first time last night, from the stairs to my front door. It was fantastic—I just stepped out, and there it was before my eyes. (My brother’s friend had to point it out to me, because I didn’t know how to look for it, but now I know and will remember!)

♥ Also: looking at the mountains and ocean everyday on my way to work; the new ability to call people’s mobile phones within Canada and the US for free through Gmail; getting work assignments from my second part-time; making beautiful plans for this coming weekend; having lunch to bring to work tomorrow for the first time this summer(!); discovering takoyaki at Donburi Ya on Robson and Jervis; turning my music up when I’m home alone and singing at the top of my lungs; getting a text from a beloved friend in Australia in the middle of the night; actually going to bed early instead of just saying I will; the fresh, cool sensation of the morning when it’s 8 AM and there still aren’t too many cars on the road; getting a go-kart deal through GroupOn and having a means of fulfilling one of my Day Zero goals; doing chores that have been piling up and getting rid of them; and getting phone calls from people who love me.