I was going to say that if Sex and the City was still on you could bet your boobies Carrie would be sporting one of these, but apparently I’m not the first to make this oh-so-clever connection so let’s just pretend I never mentioned it (sniff).
What is it? Why, it’s a custom made Twitter ID necklace by Survival of the Hippest.
Honestly, I can’t think of one tweeperella who wouldn’t go gaga-bananas for one of these. (I know I would!)
Now that’s what I call Good Finking.
So Bob Ross, Starry Night, Knocked-Up Barbie and Dog the Bounty Hunter walk into a bar…
… you finish the rest.
Happy belated Halloween!
Ever since I Shazam-ed it at H&M the other day, I have been totally and utterly 100% obsessed with this song:
I can’t get enough of it! The beat makes my tushie bounce around the room all on its own and I’m not even joking.
I love it so much I was compelled to look up the lyrics but is it just me or do they not seem to match the happiness of the tune?
Your heart is broken
To your surprise
You’re sick of crying
For blue eyes
So tired of living
Misunderstood
Think hard woman
I think you should
Come, sorrow is so peculiar
It comes in a day, then it’ll never leave you
You take a pill, wonder if it will fix you
They wonder why sorrow has never left you
I’m talkin’ bout blue eyes, blue eyes
What’s the matter, matter
Blue eyes, blue eyes
What’s the matter matter
So blind, so blind
What’s the matter, matter
Blue eyes, blue eyes
What’s the matter with you?
Whatsa matter matter? Why, nothing at all. Sure I haven’t blogged in awhile but truly, everything is… wonderful! Just like the tune of this song, which is probably why I love it so much right now.
Now please excuse me while my tush takes me for a spin around the room.
Well if felt like our vacation-moon was “ten million years” ago two weeks back, now it feels more like a thousand million. Is there even such a thing? Maybe I mean billion. Anyway, you get the point.
Sorry it’s been snooze-ville around here lately. I promise I will get around to sharing some photos from the rest of our trip soon (along with my less-than-glowing review of our cruise… yes, it’s true) but today instead of looking back, I’m looking forward – to this weekend and Thanksgiving!
That’s right my lovely Yankee friends – Canadian Thanksgiving is mid-October which, if you ask me, is way better than waiting until November. I mean, if you’re anything like me, it’s around this time that it’s easy to get a bit bummed; summer seems so long ago and Christmas vacation feels way too far away. But a holiday in October is juuuuust riiiiight. Let me rephrase that – a holiday in October WITH TURKEY AND GRAVY is just right. Because I know you have your Columbus Day an’ all but really, does it compare to TURKEY AND GRAVY? Yeah, I didn’t think so.
This weekend I’m flying to Calgary where I’m spending a crazy giggles-and-girl-gossip filled evening with my bestest Miss P before heading up to my parents’ place a.k.a. ‘El Rancho’. I haven’t been home since Easter so I am BEYOND thrilled. Seriously. I am so far past thrilled, that thrilled is not even visible in the distance.
Just thinking about mama’s kitchen filled with the sweet aroma of cabbage stew (don’t laugh – it’s my favorite) and dad’s horsey-smelling hugs and conspiratorial laughs with my sis-in-law and long late-night trips down memory lane with my brother and oodles and oodles of tickles and kisses for my 2 year old niece fills me with such JOY I think I will burst.
It’s funny. I was contemplating making a list of all the things that I’m grateful for in this post but you know what? I’ve already mentioned the most important ones.
When I think about how blessed I am in this regard, I am truly humbled. Because not only was I born into one of the most loving, funny, sentimental, loyal, considerate, affectionate families in the history of the universe, but I also married into another exactly like it. And if that wasn’t enough, the friends I’m surrounded with are absolutely the same (and yes, that means YOU).
So that’s what I’ll be thinking about on my short little flight across the Rocky Mountains… alone. Unfortunately Mr Fink isn’t able to come with me because of work. I was really crushed about it at first but then I realized it’s all about perspective; this way, our Vancouver family will get half of us and our Calgary family will get the other half, and isn’t that a nice way to look at it?
Have a great long weekend everybody! I’m grateful for YOU.
I’ve only been at work a week and a day and yet our vacation-moon already feels ten million years away.
I’m so sorry to have left you all hanging for so long but, well, the same thing happened to me after this vacation as after our wedding last November. I’d been looking forward to it and planning it for so long that when it was finally over, all I could do was flop in an exhausted heap on the couch – and not so much from physical exhaustion either (though let me tell you, that 9 hour jet lag sure packs a punch), but more from mental exhaustion.
You see, my mind is still sifting through memories and I’m fighting with myself as to the best way to share them. The unhappy consequence is that I get myself all in a tizzy and end up sharing nothing at all. Do you ever do that? I feel like I do it a lot. Seriously, if you know a way to fix this let me know.
Anyway.
Maybe some of those stories will make it on here one day and maybe not. But the least I can do in the meantime is share some photos*.
Here’s Part I – Our trip to Switzerland for a friend’s wedding
And the same night, a few hours later? We were on our way back to Geneva to catch a flight to Barcelona.
* I really, really, regret not bringing our D-90 camera with us. We thought it would get annoying to babysit all the time, especially on the cruise portion of our trip, but {sigh} as you can see by these pictures, we should have taken it. I’m mentioning this in case you’re having the same dilemma yourself. Just take it – sure it’ll be annoying at the time but that’s better than being annoyed for the rest of your life when you look at your photos.
Whee! It’s finally the day before the vacay and I swear, I should do this more often. I haven’t had such a spring in my step and grin on my face since… well… er, since my last vacation. Seriously. I feel so high, that if this is what taking drugs is like, then for the love of God, keep ‘em away from me when I get back.
I finally started packing last night. I don’t know about you but my packing technique consists of making little piles of stuff and strategically placing them all over the floor of our guest room. One pile for shirts, one for dresses, one for shoes… and one for books! Because yes, I plan those in advance, too. Well, I try. I still haven’t made up my mind!
First off, a huge thanks to everyone who weighed in with their suggestions on Part One of good books to take on vacation. Your suggestions were so great that I had to create a whole new wish-list of books! Not that I don’t already have enough of those. But I’ll get to that in a second; first, I wanted to share your suggestions with everyone so here they are:
Leah:
Time Traveller’s Wife
Summer Sisters – Judy Blume
Practical Magic – Alice HoffmanKat Forsyth:
The Book Thief
Temeraire
Peter Abrahams’ Down the Rabbit HoleHope:
The Eyre Affair
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie SocietyPenny
The Help, by Kathryn Stockton
As the Great World Spins, by Colum McCann
The Blood of Flowers, by Anita Amirrezzvani
Property, by Valerie MartinSarah:
any of the 3 books by Maarten TroostAnna:
Julie and JuliaLisa:
Loving FrankCharmi:
In the Woods – Tana French
God of War – Marisa Silver
My Sisters Keeper – Jodi Picoult
Naked – David Sedaris
Thanks again so much for all your contributions. I am almost overwhelmed with the delicious possibilities here. In fact…
Can I tell you secret? This is pretty awful so I’m just going to blurt it out before I have time to think about how much I might regret it one day: Sometimes? Sometimes I secretly hope that I one day I will have an extended hospital stay just so I can get caught up on all the books I am dying to read.
There. Terrible, right? I know, I know, I KNOW. Who would wish for such a thing? But there you have it. If I were to send in a Post Secret postcard, that would be it (though I guess it’s not much of a secret now that I’ve told all of you, eh?).
*receives impatient tap on the shoulder*
Oh. Right. Where was I?
After considering your most excellent list of books to read, I was itching to go to the bookstore and weave dreamily between the shelves to find them and caress their lovely crisp spines and slip them off the shelf and inhale their gorgeous fresh inky goodness IMMEDIATELY but… something told me to stop.
It told me to go look at my own bookshelf first.
And after I looked at my bookshelf, I made a list of all the books on it that I hadn’t read yet.
And there were A LOT.
Rule of the Bone – Russell Banks
The Book of Negroes – Lawrence Hill
The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell – Susanna Clarke (did you hear it’s going to be a movie?)
Thirteen Moons – Charles Frazier
The Pillars of the Earth – Ken Follett
Brick Lane -Monica Ali
Sweetness in the Belly – Camilla Gibb
On Beauty – Zadie Smith
Quo Vadis – Henryk Sienkiewicz
The Historian – Elizabeth Kostova
The Emperor’s Children – Claire Messud
Merde Happens – Stephen Clarke
Conversations With God – Neale Donald Walsch
The Shack – William P. Young
Oh dear. I should probably get through some of these books I already have available before going out looking for more, huh.
I guess I get a little greedy when it comes to books.
Now I’m trying to decide which of those books in the above list would be a good book to take on vacation – something intoxicating but not too heavy or depressing. And, at the same time, trying to get over how funnily exposed I feel telling you what books are on my bookshelf. (Strange but true.) Oh and I suppose finishing packing some clothes might be a good idea, too.
I might be too busy yodeling, eating gelato and waiting in line to see the statue of David for the next little bit so if you don’t hear from me, see you on the flip side in a couple weeks.
P.S. If you’re looking for some good books to take on vacation yourself, check out 100 Best Beach Books Ever – it looks like a good list.
Karolina convinced me to go see the Time Travelers Wife with her this weekend.
I’d recently read a review about it which said:
So, ladies and any interested gents, be advised: Don’t bother to stuff your purses or clutter your pockets – this is definitely a Kleenex-free zone. – Globe and Mail
As I have a lot of respect for the Globe, I took this very much to heart and we were about to leave the house completely Kleenex-less when Karo said, “Well, just bring a couple just in case – one for me and one for you.”
And good thing, too.
We should’ve brought more.
This trip we’re going on next week is going to be our “real” honeymoon. A few people have chuckled when they heard this because, um, DUH Kasia, your wedding last fall was in the freaking CARIBBEAN and you stayed there for two weeks – is that not “real” enough for you?
And the answer is: when your guests don’t all leave on the same day and you spend your second (honeymoon) week running around spending time with them and saying farewells and then it turns out it’s just you and one other couple left so of course you do honeymoonish things, uh, together
and then when you finally get three days to yourselves and it RAINS THE WHOLE TIME so you spend your days getting watching episodes of Lost on your laptop…
then no, I’d say that is not a “real” honeymoon. (Not that I’m complainin’. If you want anyone to crash your honeymoon, it’s Jorkat.)
So this is why I have absolutely no qualms about pulling the honeymoon card on our trip in case it gets us any special treatment.
At the resort where we got married, it got us a lame-o plate of fruit and bottle of warm champagne, delivered the morning after the wedding by some dude who just walked into our suite while we were still in bed. (No word of a lie.)
I’m hoping we can come up with something a bit better (and less intrusive!) than that this time around.
I think this is the best blogging advice I’ve ever heard.
I’m not sure if this qualifies as advice for blogging, but I always find that the most engaging blogs I read are the ones of those people that play up the strongest, most prominent quality that they value most in themselves. If you are funny, write a funny blog. If you are emotional, write an emotionally raw blog. If you’re girly, write the pinkest, frilliest, most cupcake-and-tea-sandwich-filled blog you can write. If you don’t take shit from anyone, then… well. You get it.
Did this ever hit me like a ton of bricks.
You see, I’ve re-thinking the tagline for my blog the past couple days and getting depressed because even though it’s been 8 months since I started it, I still feel a bit lost as to the purpose of Good Finking!
I ditched the blog I’d been writing on since December 2008 2006 and started this one because I’d been wanting a fresh start. I was also hoping a new blog would help me find my voice and narrow down my scope, and while I think I’ve made some progress as to the voice, the subject matter still feels like a bit of a hodge podge.
I sometimes have to remind myself to chill out because hey! It’s my personal blog, it can be anything I want it to be! But the perfectionist in me craves some sort of thematic consistency.
So after reading that quote from Pengy, I sat down to have a hard think. What is the quality I value most in myself, and therefore the blog I should write?
…
When I come up with it, I’ll let you know. I find it so much easier to identify other people’s characteristics, but find it hard to describe myself.
What about you? What kind of blog do you write and do you think that it’s a reflection of what you value most in yourself?
You know that feeling you get when someone you know tell you they’re going on vacation? You’re all, “Aww… how FUN! Good for you, you need a vacation! Where are you going?”
And then while they’re telling you about their upcoming trip to far flung lands or week of blissful couch surfing, you’re secretly steaming. “Man, this is so unfair. Why should I have to go to work while they’re off eating ice cream on the beach and not replying to five hundred emails? I want to a vacation tooooooo.”
Well, that was me these past three months. Three! Months! That’s the thing about scheduling your vacation for the very end of August. It feels like everyone on the planet is having a fabulous summer except for you which is SO PAINFUL.
On the plus side, I’ve spent three months doing some delicious looking -forward-to-ing (which makes everything that much better when it actually happens, right?), and….
IT’S FINALLY THE END OF AUGUST!
So it’s my turn to tell you about my vacation while you steam. Just kidding! I wouldn’t want that. In fact, I wasn’t going to write this post at all because I know how much it sucks rocks to have to listen to someone else’s vacation plans when you’re not going there, too.
But then I reasoned that there are probably a lot of you out there that have been to these places. And who better to point me in the right direction of where to go/what to see/what to eat? Oh and goodness me, let’s not forget where to shop?!!
So.
This time next week, I’ll be skipping through the green mountains with Heidi and yodeling here: Gstaad, Switzerland.
Photo sent to us today by the groom. As if we weren’t already excited enough.
I’ve been to Switzerland once before eleven years ago (omg, has it been that long?!) when I did a spur of the moment road trip with a German friend I’d met while studying in France, but I’ve never been to Gstaad. (He had a car. That may or may not have been a factor in us being friends.)
And while going to Switzerland is pretty rad in itself, it gets better – it’s for a wedding of a good friend of ours. Which means we get to attend a bang-up event (we all know I love weddings) and hang out with some of our favorite friends who we rarely get to see.
Wow, I know. BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE.
In some miraculous amazing wonderful way (which I wish I knew so I could whip it out for future occasions), I convinced Mr Fink to take an additional week or so off work so that we could also have a “real” honeymoon.
We tossed around many, many ideas (including going to Italy, driving across the south of France and visiting family in Poland) until we (read: I) finally realized that what we really needed was something that would require minimal planning efforts. We’ve both gone through some large stresses lately so we need to just sit back, relax and leave the itinerary to someone else.
The answer? A cruise!
Neither of us have ever been on one. But I figure that it will either be super gigantically awesome, or we won’t really love the cruise experience but WHO CARES SINCE WE’RE ON A CRUISE. A win-win situation, really.
The day after the wedding, we’ll have to haul ass reeaaaalllly early in the morning (did I mention it’s the day after the wedding?) to get back to Geneva and catch our plane to Barcelona.
Departing from Barcelona, our cruise takes us to
- Naples, Italy
- Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy
- Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Italy
- Villefrance (Nice), France
- Provence (Marseilles), France
- Barcelona
We then get to spend a couple days in Barcelona before flying home.
I originally wanted to go to Greece but the timing didn’t work out. Oh well. Greece isn’t going anywhere. And apart from Rome, I haven’t been to any of these places so I’m super excited.
And Mr Fink? He was happy to go along with whatever I decided on… provided there was some deal-hunting involved. Ah, we do love a good deal.
What about you – have you ever been on a cruise? How about to any of these cities? Any MUST-DOs that we absolutely shouldn’t miss??
