Busy, busy, busy

So, I've been very busy lately - go figure. This week is Reading week. You know...the one where you get all this freedom to catch up on lectures/assignments and to study for upcoming midterms? The one where you end up doing none of the aforementioned and instead slack around, sleep for days, indulge in all the movies/shows you've missed and then wonder what happened to the entire week? Yup. That's the one.
I've had a few projects going on though so I haven't entirely wasted this precious time. For one, our house is getting painted so I've had to force myself to clean and pack up my room (which so far has been highly unsuccessful, but I'm going to include it anyway because it makes me feel productive).
Also, I've had to do a bunch of random errands (dentist appointments, etc.). Pleasant, right? ...or not.
I've been writing a lot too (yay!) and have come up with about seven different short stories in the process of completing one short story to enter in a contest. It turned out to be a tougher process than I expected. Ideas kept popping fully-formed into my head and I would write them down, so happily, thinking that this was the one. 
So not the case. Each story ended up being extremely different from the other, but still lacked that "something" that would make me want to send it in. I finally buckled down and wrote a story that made it all the way through, and after furiously editing it for a few days and asking my friends to read it with brutal honesty, I was somewhat satisfied. The only thing is...I had no time left to mail it.

Uncle Vernon: Ahh... it's Sunday. The best day of the week. Why is that, Dudley?

Harry: Because there's no post on Sundays?

Uncle Vernon: Right you are, Harry! No post on Sundays. Ha!

Well, unfortunately for me, Uncle Vernon is absolutely right. I finished the final draft on Wednesday evening. The deadline to enter is Sunday, midnight. The catch? Even though the deadline is Sunday, the offices are closed on the weekend. And even if I did mail it, "no post on Sundays" - or rather on the weekend at all. So I was in a dilemma. Since I live about an hour from the city, chances were slim that even if it was sent Thursday morning...my entry would arrive in time.

But enough about all those technicalities. Basically, I decided to go down there myself and drop it at the office. Now, Thursday was an unfairly glorious day, but I had other commitments that I couldn't miss. So that left Friday (aka today - talk about cutting it close). And turns out there was supposed to be a snow storm arriving. Lovely.

But don't hold your breath, I did make it there. And I did hand it in on time so there's my happy ending. Turns out, the "storm" was milder than expected and because school buses were cancelled I got to have a fun, downtown-day with my little brother.

It was unbelievably chilly and the winds were insane, but we made it to the newspaper building (pretending to be pioneers sort of helped). When I opened the lid to drop my envelope though, I cried a little inside looking at the huge pile of entries. I had this tiny thought in my head to grab a few and toss them in the trash, but the security guard was right there. Totally natural and harmless thinking though :P

After that was over with, we celebrated with some hot chocolate. I love going to Toronto (love my city!) but it was too cold to explore it. So, we walked back to the train station (making a small detour at the Air Canada Centre) and came home to watch some all-star basketball. Overall, a good day :)

Anyway, enough with the oh-so-exciting details of my life. Two quick things: I will post my story eventually because even though I highly doubt I'll win, I'm proud of it nonetheless. But only after the contest ends so I don't get eliminated for breaking some regulation or whatnot.

The second thing (and most important part of this post) is this: I'm a part of my university's chapter of a national charity called Students Offering Support (SOS). It's a student-run organization that provides tutoring to students, makes trips to communities in Latin America, and donates the money raised. While there, we also build homes and renovate local schools. It is an amazing, amazing charity and I'm thrilled to be a part of it. But why am I telling you this? Because I'd like to ask you the favour of voting for SOS in a charity challenge.

Go to this website and VOTE for Students Offering Support to help us win a makeover. It doesn't matter where you're from or who you are, every vote is meaningful. Thank you - I will be forever grateful! :)

As always, thanks for dropping by, have a wonderful weekend and be safe!

xx