Sangria & summer

Since last week, we have been blessed with good weather. April was a a cool month and rainy – April showers bring May flowers, they say. So for the first time yesterday, it was hot enough for me not to put a cardigan or a jacket on. It was such a gorgeous day: blue sky, just a bit of wind. I went running and it felt so good! I felt alive! Which is a major change from the winter grogginess.

I feel like reading outside without checking my phone every 5 minutes! I feel like not watching tv! I feel like eating fruits at every meal. I even feel like eating vegetables! I feel like going for walks just for the sake of it. Man, I love this feeling. Is that what it feels like all year round for those who live in a hot country? Or maybe I’m just really appreciative because we just had 6 months of hell in the form of snow and cold weather.

So yesterday, since it was really nice, I invited my friend over to drink sangria, eat chips, listen to music, soak up the sun, and to relax on my patio. I made some sangria, and she said it was the best sangria she’s ever had, so I thought I would share my recipe here, so that everybody can drink yummy sangria.

Ingredients:

Raspberries, kiwi, apple

White wine (I used Voga, a pinot grigio from Italy)

Raspberry vodka

Peach schnapps

Peach flavoured sparkling water

Orange juice

Preparation:

The morning of, chop up the kiwi and half of the apple in small bits. Add the fruit bits, as well as the raspberries, to a glass serving container. Add 2-3 shots of vodka, and 1-2 shots of schnapps. Poor the white wine in (not all of it, keep about a glass in the bottle in case you need to adjust the taste). Put the liquids and the fruits in the fridge, and let sit for a few hours. That way, the fruits will absorb some of the liquor and it will be very good. Before serving, add the sparkling water. Taste. If it tastes too watery, add the remainder of the wine; if it’s too strong, add more sparkling water. This sangria isn’t really sweet, so if you want a sweeter sangria, just add some orange juice. Put some ice in your wine glasses, and serve!

Yesterday, when I opened my fridge, I realized I didn’t have a new bottle of peach sparkling water. The one I had had been opened for two weeks. So what I ended up doing is using it anyways, for the flavour, and I added some wild berries sparkling water. Half peach, half wild berries. Still tasted amazing! This is what I love about sangria, you can play with flavours and you always end up with a decent drink! Want a more citrus flavoured sangria? Switch out the peach schnapps for triple sec, the raspberry vodka for regular or citrus vodka, the berries for oranges, lime, grapefruit. The possibilities are endless!

Dream journal – May 1, 2015

A friend of mine is getting married this summer, and although I haven’t gotten an invite, I think I’m going. Well, if I end up not being invited because it’s a small wedding it’s totally fine too. But that’s besides the point. The dream. 

Yeah, so my German friend – who isn’t friends with the bride and do not even know her – got invited to the wedding! So, she booked a flight and I told her she could stay here at my place. I had to drive her around to the rehearsal dinner and the wedding too, and I waited in the car. Weird. 

Dream journal – April 25, 2015

I think someone was mad because I didn’t have a coffee machine at home. I only have an Italian bialetti, and apparently it didn’t cut it. I don’t remember the rest, I was too hungover. #sadlife

30 things to do before turning 30 – Update

It’s been a month since I posted my other post so I thought I would post an update, especially that I have new things to talk about!

Yes, I will soon be able to scratch #29 off my list, because I’m going to somewhere truly exotic. Yes! I’m doing it! I’m going to Nicaragua! Even though it doesn’t seems really far especially that I’m in the same time zone (I think), but to me, it really does feel like the end of the world. I had never imagined visiting Nicaragua, but I guess Nicaragua found me. It’s kind of a funny story.

My friend got engaged last fall, and is getting married this summer. She now lives in the United States, while I’m still in Canada. But we still talk. When she told me she got engaged, I really was ecstatic. Couldn’t be happier for the both of them. So, in December, she told me that she would do something cool for her bachelorette maybe in February, but it was just talk. I figured she changed her plans and didn’t hear anything from it. I kinda forgot about it. So, a week before Easter, I was just telling another friend my other friend’s wedding and that I hadn’t hear from her in a while. So I told my friend that I would message her the next day and ask if she needed help with the wedding, and if she did something for her bachelorette or if she was still planning it.

Of course, the next day, I forgot to message her. But that night, I got an email regarding the bachelorette! Can you imagine my surprise? The email had all the details in it! I was so shocked and surprised by this coincidence. Or was it fate? destiny? Anyways, I carefully read the email where it invited me to Nicaragua for a week. I didn’t know what to think: I didn’t really have any money for that (I’m planning another trip in the Fall). And then I asked myself: when else would you go to Nicaragua? The answer was: probably never… So, I decided to be bold and I replied: Yes, I’m in! I can’t wait to go, and to see my old friends. It really felt like that trip was meant to be. Like I was destined to go there! Maybe, while being down there, I’ll be able to cross other things on my list. Who knows? If I had listened to my head, I would have said no and would have probably regretted it later on. I did like Danny Wallace, and said yes to life, and I can’t wait to see where it takes me. Who cares if I eat bread and water for a few weeks… I like being a yes woman better!

Dream journal – April 12, 2015

I dreamed that I was going to an all inclusive resort somewhere in the Caribbean with a couple of friends. We got there and we’re trying to make our way to our room. It wasn’t the sunniest day, but at least it was hot. The pools were really big so it meant that the walking area was narrow, people had to wait in line since the passage was so narrow. I got tired of waiting and decided I would take a shortcut in one of the pool. As I was putting my foot in the water, someone warned me that I would be fined if they caught me because vacationers didn’t have access to the pool.

After several minutes we finally made it on the other side of the passage, and I ran into my parents. Neither of us knew that the other would be here. We agreed to meet up later to eat dinner together. We part our different ways and continue to make it to our room. As I’m turning the corner of the hallway to my room, I notice a staircase going to to what it seems to be a crypt. Logically, I decide to go check it out and I give my friend my suitcase. I get into the staircase and follow it until the end where I land in… Diablo II. Yes, that would be the game made by Blizzard in 2000. It’s just like I’m playing the game, I can see my inventory and skills and all. I’m a necromancer with a wand that poisons it’s enemies when touched. I slowly walk in the cave, listening to any sounds. Suddenly, I can see them. An army of little goblins with their chaman who brings them back to life after I kill them. I take care of them and go deeper in the cave. I’m nervous. I’m scared. I don’t know what will happen but I already feel outnumbered and weak. I see other monsters on the right, I try to run away, they follow me, I see some on the left, and they follow me too. I run back to the staircase, but I’m out of stamina and have to walk. They catch up. They are surrounding me and I can’t take care of them all. I’m running out of health potions. This is the end. I die. I start back at the hotel lobby, without my gear with is stuck in the crypt. I decide not to get my body back, and to move on. I get to my room and start my vacation.

I hate winter

Well, more like I hate most of winter. I’m a bad Canadian, I know.

On this second* day of spring, I am honestly done with winter. I’m fucking done with it. I’ve hated almost e-v-e-r-y single day of it. As I’m writing this post, I look out the window and what do I see? It’s snowing. Am I surprised? No! That’s a real Canadian winter. I remember May 25, 2002: it had snowed almost 5 centimetres (2 inches).

Winter 2015 was particularly shitty for the Eastern part of Canada: too many days with a temperature below -20 Celcius. Like come on. Waiting for the bus is awful, going to the store is awful, doing any kind of activity outside is awful, really.  I must mention that this winter was especially shitty for the Atlantic region, they got a shit ton a snow and they nicknamed the winter Snowmageddon 2015… Check out this guy’s video to see how bad they got it.

You have to wear a toque, mittens, huge boots, and a huge jacket. You can’t look fashionable: even Victoria Beckham would look stupid and miserable. You get to work, to your friend’s house, or you get back home: your hair looks like shit (even if you took the time to make it look nice before you left), you need to blow your nose several time, and your make-up might have been slightly ruined with tears.

Every morning, I’d look at the temperature and it would be the same forecast every day: cold as balls. Today is cold as balls, tomorrow will be cold as balls, just like it was yesterday. Except one day, it seemed like a spring had finally arrived: birds were singing, the sun was brightly shining, and it looked like a beautiful day. I had never been more wrong in my life. I open my front door to go to work and the mass of cold air fucking punched me in the face. It was just as if I had hit a wall. A wall of cold air. I quickly closed the door, put my toque, my mitts, and a bigger scarf on. Winter was NOT over yet. Can’t believe that just three years ago I wore a tank top on St-Patrick’s day.

I don’t mind a dry winter… except we don’t have that. We have a humid winter, which makes it a cold-ass winter. In my opinion, it’s the worst kind of cold. The kind of cold where it hurts your lungs to breathe. The kind of cold that freezes your hair. The kind of cold that makes you tear up when it’s slightly windy. The kind of winter that will leave you shivering for hours even if you’re now inside.

My favourite part has to be when it’s so cold that your legs freeze. You get that tingling sensation at first, then you feel your legs burning. And then, you realize that, even if you’re walking, you don’t really feel your legs. All you can think of is to take a warm bath. So, you rush to your place, turn the hot water on, try to get your pants off your the two ice cubes that are your legs, and jump in the hot bath. Except, it’s hurting more. Way more. You look at your red frozen legs, and and painfully realize that you should have waited a few minutes before jumping into the bath. You the double burning sensation.

My other favourite part is when you get a cold. You feel miserable for a week or two, you pray that it goes away. And when it finally does, you catch another one! You basically spend half of your winter with a cold. If you have reaaaaally bad luck then you might even get the flu. Not a winter has gone by that I didn’t get a cold. Weak immune system, you say? Perhaps.

Sure, you can skate during winter, you can play hockey, you can go skiing, go sledding, or go snowshoeing. But I hate all of those things!!!!  The only good thing about winter is eating maple taffy and beavertails. Winter is worth it just for those two things. But I still hate it.

*I say second day of spring although I honestly thought that the first day of spring was March 21. Google has shown me I was wrong. Turns out I’ve been lied to and it has been on March 20 for like 30 years now. [I’m in a glass case of emotions.]