Things I Love Thursday

Every week, I write my list of things that have made me happy in the past week. This week I am particularly grateful for:

♥ Some of my friends who have been giving me the most valuable support for the past several months. This is my thank you for asking after me even when I say I’m fine.

♥ I am proud of myself for confronting one of my biggest fears in life this past weekend. I won.

♥ Getting a week off from work while my parents are here. It’s a much needed breather. (Thanks!)

♥ Pictures like this:

may your hope not be hidden

(Secret: Sometimes I write messages on fogged-up windows and in other places that no one is ever likely to look just in case someone happens to blow their breath on that particular pane of glass. I like to remind myself that beauty can be found in the unexpected, and it exists even when no one knows about it.)

♥ Finding a new warm spot where I can just curl up and read under the filtered sunlight.

♥ Music that gets you through the hard times and mundane days — Sara Bareilles’s ‘Let the Rain’ has been particularly good to me as of late.

Have a lovely Thursday!

Celebrating Halloween

It’s that time of year again when gravestones pop out of the grass in people’s front lawns, bats are suspended across porches, cobwebs dangle precariously around doors and great yellow CAUTION signs are taped across front entrances. Some particularly enthusiastic houses have even acquired a coffin or two!

For people who’ve grown up with Halloween and take these preparations for granted, my giddiness must seem bizaare charming. Of course, when you consider that Halloween was almost non-existent when I grew up in Hong Kong, it’s a lot more understandable. The one and only time I went trick-or-treating, I took the lift up and down our block of flats to knock at each door, but only a few opened up and even fewer gave me candy (not being prepared for this very North American tradition in the middle of Asia). I think I ended up with two handfuls.

But here!

I once saw a tiny Asian girl clutching her pumpkin bag with a very intense expression on her face as she moved her rapid little legs as fast they would carry her over to the next door of magic candy-giving goodness. You could tell how serious this mission was to her, and I thought, ‘That would be me if I were five.’

Being too old for trick-or-treating (sigh), I’ve been looking for various other ways of having fun. A couple that I’m planning on doing this year are:

Visit the Dunbar Haunted House

One of the Marine Drive Residence Advisors told me about the Dunbar Haunted House, a famous haunted house that spends three months setting up for Halloween and is run by over a hundred volunteers. They raised over $67 000 for charity last year. Wait times can apparently go up to an hour and a half but I want to take a look anyway.

Go Trick-or-Eating!

Trick-or-Eat is possibly my favourite Halloween cause. Join a team (or make one with your friends), dress up in your costume of choice and go door-to-door asking for non-perishable food items on Halloween! All food donations go to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society. I participated with Trick-or-Eat in 2009 and really enjoyed it — people are wonderfully generous with food at this time of year (and a few also gave me candy, so I guess I got my trick-or-treating experience after all!).

(UBC students can just look under Locations/Vancouver/University of British Columbia to join, but you don’t have to be a current student to do this — I’m going with a bunch of my brother’s friends, all of whom are alumni.)

Have you got any other suggestions for Halloween that I might like to check out? Let me know in a comment!

Oh yes, my best friend from home just reminded me that it’s Diwali today. Happy Diwali!

speak the truth

speak the truth, even if your voice shakes

even if your voice shakes

Vancouver Signs and Graffiti

Once in a while, someone comes along and changes your life in ways they never imagine, much less remember. Once upon a time, I met someone who encouraged me to carry my camera around with me wherever I go to capture the small moments and details I want to memorize.

Of course, I forget sometimes, then kick myself when I see something like you are georgeous (sorry mis-spelled) spray-painted across a wall. It would be gone the next time I passed by, too.

Since then, I’ve had more luck photographing the graffiti I’ve liked and have built a small collection of favourites I thought I’d share a part of with you (what else do you do on a rainy day, after all?). See if you know where any of them came from!

never hesitate to love

box squeezing oranges out of itself

you don't have to be alone :)

:P

I'm tired of waiting for the bus - I don't think it's coming, I don't think it's coming

be brave

Now to actually write up an assignment for Co-op.

Have a georgeous Sunday. ♥

Things I Love Thursday

On a less cross note than my last post, my weekly list of reasons to smile:

♥ My mother is in town and we’ve been having dinner together as a family for the last few days. My father is joining us tomorrow and I can’t wait to have all of us in the same house again.

Hyperbole and a Half is a hilarious comic blog that’s been around for a while but which I’ve only just discovered. Favourite posts so far are ‘Dog’, ‘Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving’ and ‘How a Fish Almost Destroyed My Childhood’. Check them out for a laugh! (Thanks for the recommendation, Dan!)

♥ The beautiful autumn weather we’ve been having lately.

♥ Started helping children learn to read last week and love it. Six-year-olds are adorable.

♥ While I haven’t watched many musicals, a great love of mine is Les Misérables, and one of my favourite performances is the finale of the 10th Anniversary Concert:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPpkTgMbhRU]

 
By the way, if you’re around the Student Union Building tomorrow, check out the Speakeasy art project/message board that will be going on in the South Concourse from 11:30 am to 3:30 pm (as part of Thrive Week). There will be lots of smiles, colour and a tree, and my volunteers promise it will be lots of fun!