This past weekend I attended the wedding of Jess' little sister, and it was so much fun! I'm totally pooped and require copious amounts of coffee today, and you better believe I'll be taking a cat nap with Leia (who by the way has been very clingy lately, what up?)

You guys were really into the video I posted last week, so I have another one for ya! When I was a kid I had a pet hamster named Elmo. He lived a very fulfilling three years spinning on his little wheel and chasing after my dog in his fluorescent pink ball, but before he was ridin' dirty, Elmo went straight up Houdini...

Hey guys!

I have some exciting news. Since I've been having such a hard time getting my words out on here, I've decided to join Youtube.

Y'all know how I love to tell my stories, and sometimes, just rambling it out on camera is the best way to do it. So if you want to keep up with me, subscribe to me on there, and I'm going to try and do a video once a week!

Here's my first "vlog" about my awkwardness on the TTC.

I have not forgotten you-- I could never forget you. I have missed you all, and while I've been gone for what seems like forever, I needed this break and I hope you understand. Things have been crazy with me, and now, while some things seem to get crazier, I've realized how much I needed this blog to "let it out" and how much I needed to you spur me on.

Please be patient with me, I'm sorry we haven't spoken in a while, but I promise we'll catch up soon.

Image source.

Let me tell you something, if you are a student who works and who also has the time, and creative power to write a blog on a daily basis-- I have mad respect for you. Last week was rough for me, and it was great getting so much support from y'all, but I've miss you! I'm finally out of the Fire Swamp that is final papers, and free to write about things that don't give me hernias. Metaphorically speaking.

I celebrated my new freedom Friday by going to this vegetarian/ vegan restaurant here in the city. I had never heard of it before, and I am no vegetarian, but my friend recommended it and said it was amazing and since I'll eat practically anything, I went and met up with her. 

The restaurant in question is called Fresh. Forgive me now, because I am partially a bad blogger and also because I was so hungry I could have eaten my left hand, but I failed to take any pictures, so I've stolen these wonderful images off of the Fresh website. 

That's what the little place looks like at the location I went to on Spadina. There are four of them across the city, all listed on their website.

It's a nice-sized place, but is often very busy (it has a great reputation). The seating is a little cozy-- my butt nearly knocked over my neighbour's glass of water trying to squeeze into my booth. And of course, because it is busy it does get a little loud, but I didn't mind that.

They also have a very large menu, which I loved! There was so much to choose from and it all sounded so yummy! They had salads, fresh bowls, pastas, wraps, juices and so much more! I ordered the delicious soup of the day, which was a barley-based soup with a small salad and some corn bread. It looked a little something like this...

The service was fantastic-- our server was very kind, offered helpful suggestions to the newbie at the table, and the food came out very quickly. I didn't feel rushed to eat and get out (which often happens in busy restaurants in the city) and literally could have reordered my meal and ate it again (not because it didn't satisfy my hunger, but because it was just so. dang. good.)

Wanna hear something even cooler? The folks at Fresh have also published a number of cookbooks! So if you go and end up loving some of the delicious vegetarian dishes, you can go home and try your luck at making it yourself!

I would definitely recommend anyone who lives in the city, or plans on visiting to check this place out, it's super yummy--even if you love you'r meat.

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Here's something cool that's happening! I'm participating in a giveaway this month hosted by Christine at Life With A Side Of Coffee!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

First of all, you guys are so amazing! I received so much support after Friday's post, and it really pumps me up to have you guys encouraging me! I definitely needed it! I tell ya, working five days a week and trying to fit in two major papers on top of getting a never ending cold is exhausting and so stressful. This is what my life is like right now and it's awful.

I'm writing this post partially to give you a heads up that I may or may not be MIA for a few days this week as I finish out my papers from hell, and also because I'm the queen of procrastination and I just want to write anything other than my paper. Seriously, I'm writing this post on Monday night, and as we speak I'm watching How I Met Your Mother and scrolling through Tumblr.

What is it with procrastination anyways? Why is it as soon as we need to sit down and focus we suddenly remember fifty million things, and have the desire to clean the house from top to bottom (even vacuum the corners of the floor).

Earlier I was searching through my iTunes to try and find a good jam to start of my writing, and it turned into me Youtube-ing karaoke versions of Pharrell Williams' "Happy".

I'll just be glad when these papers are done. And while we're talking about things being done, I'll be even HAPPIER when this stupid winter is over. Seriously, do we live in Westeros?

Tootlepip! Wish me luck on these awful papers!

A friend of mine used to have a closing line and on one of his shirts he had the saying, "Jump Into Cold Pools". What it basically meant was to do something that makes you feel uncomfortable. On June 7 (the day before my birthday, YAY) I am jumping into a cold pool. Figuratively, not literally.

I tweeted the other day that I wanted to participate in one of those marathons where they throw the coloured corn starch at you. It's called Run or Dye and yesterday, I made it official. I'm running a 5K colour race!

Now I'm a far cry from an athlete. Heck, I'm a far cry from athletic. The most athletic thing I do all day is the trek I take from my room the the fridge and back, but I'm turning over a new leaf. I want to try new things, and make lasting memories! I've rounded up some of my closest friends and we're all going as a birthday celebration for me. What a way to ring in 25!

The race is also being held in an area of Toronto that I am told has an incredible view of the city, and is a place I've never been before, so I'll be knocking some things off of The List! I'm really excited and couldn't wait to tell you guys!

The marathon celebrates friends and family, and isn't competitive so it's great to bring all ages, sizes, and shapes and have fun! Heck, you don't even have to run (but I will be!). I want to encourage you that if you want to try something like this, so it! And if you're in Toronto, come join me!!

Just visit RunorDye.com to find your location and register!

Thanks so much for your support and excitement, I can't wait!

Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope you're all fully recovered from any St. Patrick's Day festivities! Today's post is really exciting because it's my very first guest post! Yahoo! I'd like to introduce to to Caroline Gant. Caroline runs Everybody Behave Naturally and she was one of my very first blogger friends! She's super funny, and identifies with Liz Lemon and Jessica Day, which you know, we can all relate to. I asked Caroline a few questions and today she's answering them. Go and head over to her blog to get to know her a little bit more!

1. Tell me a little bit about about your blog!
Everybody Behave Naturally is a little blog about an awkward twenty-something. I even decided that I have a tagline: Sometimes I’m funny but most of the time I’m just awkward. And that’s what my blog consists of….the world of awkward like you have never experienced it before. I also enjoy sharing unimportant parts or exciting moments in my life, or whatever the heck decides to pop into my head. It’s a party over at Everybody Behave Naturally.  It’s a party for your reading abilities!
2. Here on Odd One Out, I share about The List. Do you have any bucket list-type goals? 
Some goals that I have on my bucket list would most definitely involve traveling. I want to go on a huge road trip, and along the way go visit the cheesy roadside tourist traps. You know those places that have the worlds largest something or another? I want to go see it. Another goal would definitely be to take up hiking. I have wanted to take up hiking for about a year now and I live in the south part of the US where there ain’t a lot of mountains. At least not real close to me. And something that is the highest part of my bucket list is the fact that I want have a family one day. That’s is my DREAAAAAAM.
3. It’s March, and that means spring break! What is something that you’ll be doing (or have done) during your time off?
I have unfortunately already had my spring break. I spent it staying out way later than I should have, with my friends. And waited tables. It’s a supah fun combination. ☺

 Thanks to Caroline for sharing today! Go check her out on Everybody Behave Naturally and go follow her on Twitter, @CtotheOLINE.

If you're interested in being a guest blogger here at Odd One Out, head on over to my sponsor section and find out how!

Meow!

The Human has had a long weekend, and is recovering from the, how did she say it, "jackhammer in her brain"? It's convenient for me, because I feel like I've been misrepresented on here, so I'm writing today to share a little bit about what it's like to live with a control freak totally amazing and loving person.

That's me and The Human. She's a bit of a party pooper. Can you believe she won't hang out and party with me all night long? I mean, I'm technically older than her and I can boogie woogie with the best of them. Novice.

She also doesn't appreciate my creativity. I mean, I love playing with all of the toys I have, but sometimes I get bored with the same fuzzy mouse. So every now and then I like to use my thinker and come up with new toys.

This one turns into a bunch of different toys! I can't imagine why she wouldn't want me to play with it, I mean, she left it out for me. If she didn't want me to play with it, she wouldn't have left it out.

Okay, so this one surprised me a little. It started leaking this stinky liquid.

Another thing I don't understand is why The Human gets mad at me for sharpening my nails. Doesn't she know it takes serious work to look this good? Besides, I think I've made the furniture look better. 

Antique is in right now, isn't it?

I mean sure, I throw up sometimes, but it's only because I have a hearty appetite and I get really excited, but there's no need to embarrass me.

Yesterday I read a blog post by Whitney that really resonated with me. She said (among other amazing things): If you can't love yourself, why should anyone else?

Look out folks, it like we're going camping on Odd One Out, because we're about to get intense!

I really love what Whitney is encouraging with #projectselflove so I'm hopping on board by dedicating this post to the project. If you head on over to I Wore Yoga Pants and read her post, she shared about how we are so quick to love the things we don't have, but very often we neglect loving what we already have. So today, I'm lovin' on myself.

I love myself. Yes, sometime I get acne, and I am a little bit fat, but I do love the way I am.

I love that I am loyal.

I love my sense of humour (be it ever so cheesy).

I love how I can find the positive in everything.

I love the colour of my eyes-- green with a little blue.

I love my smile, and I love even more that I got it without the help of braces.

I love that I have a musical ability.

I'm quirky, a little naive, completely unskilled in anything athletic, a bit of a neat-freak, totally unorganized, and just a little bit neurotic. But I love it.

I love myself.

Is anyone else still feeling the time change? I think all the travelling I've been doing is finally catching up to me because I literally have zero energy. Anyways, last week I wrote a post about my friend Rob getting his new lungs and I shared about how passionate I am about organ donation. Not long after that post I was contacted by a man named Cameron, who's wife had been diagnosed with mesothelioma, which is a very rare form of cancer that can kill people within the first two years of diagnosis. Cameron's wife, Heather, who was given only 15 months to live, ended up having a life saving surgery which included removing one of her lungs (she's now 8 years cancer-free- yahoo!).

What Cameron, Heather, and their daughter Lily did after was pretty spectacular-- they created LungLeavin' Day which is a day that encourages people to conquer their fears. LungLeavin' Day is celebrated on February 2nd, and even though that day has come and gone, I am still inspired by this story.

I'm inspired for two reasons. The first being of course that one day, Heather may need a new lung, and they only way that's going to happen is if someone donates that to her. Like I expressed last week, donating your organ can be such an amazing gift to someone who, without your help, may not live. The second reason is because I love encouraging people to conquer their fears.

I formed this blog purely because I wanted to fulfill goals that I had long been afraid of accomplishing, and I wanted to record it for others to be encouraged, and for myself to be encouraged. Heck, this blog alone has helped me conquer fears like moving to Toronto, going back to school, and even meeting new people. I've been so fortunate to build relationships with people through this forum, and I'm so excited to build more, and that would not have happened had I not decided to take a leap of faith and conquer some fears.

In fact, this week I'm going to conquer another one of my fears (and bump off goal number 4 on The List) and go somewhere I've never been. I'm not going to plan it, I'm just going to go. Don't worry, I'll bring you guys along with me!

I encourage you guys to visit LungLeavin' Day's interactive website to see how you can conquer your fears, and let me know how you did.

I really do appreciate you all, and I thank you for supporting me each and every single day.

Thanks again to Cameron and Heather for letting me be a part of this with them!

First things first, I envy all you guys south of the border who got snow days last week for like, 3 cm of snow because when I went back home this weekend, I was greeted with this:

Ew.

My hometown is literally an hour away from Toronto, hour and a half tops so it's crazy that they got so much snow while Toronto had so little. I mean, we have lots compared to other years, but wowza. So yesterday when I hopped on the Greyhound back to Toronto, I was pumped to be able to walk down the street without getting stuck in 4 inches of snow. The excitement, however, was short-lived as soon as I sat down on the bus...

The bus to Toronto is usually busy, but by no means packed; definitely enough space for everyone to have two seats to themselves with maybe a few two-seaters sharing. I made my way to the middle-back of the bus (far enough away from the chatty Kathy's in the front, but not too far back that all I could smell was the rank bus toilet). I had literally just sat down and was fitting my bag under the seat next to me (so that I could leave a seat open just in case it did get packed) when I hear a man obnoxiously clear his throat. I look up, and what do thine eye see? An old man, (and not the sweet, cute kind. The gross, grumpy kind) staring down at me.

"Can you move over one seat?" There was no "excuse me", no "please".

So I nodded reluctantly and scooted over. (It is absolutely necessary for me to mention that not only were there plenty of empty seats at the front of the bus, but there were also three empty freaking rows ahead of me). The man, we'll call him Henry, he looked like a Henry sat down and shoved what can only be described as a miniature man-purse in between he and I aggressively as if to say, that is your side, and this is mine (um, hello? You could have had your own row, kindly eff off).  By this time, I'm thinking I'm in for a real treat, and we haven't even left the terminal yet. Still waiting to depart, Henry pulled out one of those old school cloth hankies and proceeded to blow his nose. Loudly. It was like he was Louis Freakin' Armstrong playing "When The Saints Go Marching In" with his adenoids.

So attempting to remain sane, I popped my headphones in and pulled out my book to keep myself occupied for the next hour and twenty minutes. I got about two minutes into In The Air Tonight before he pulled the hankie out again and started blowing his nose (was he blowing it louder this time?). He continued to do this every five minutes for about 45 minutes of the drive until he fell asleep.

How did I know he fell asleep? Well, that would be due to that fact that his head was slowly drifting closer and closer to my shoulder with ever bump or blip the bus had. I was pushing myself so close the window that I had the imprint of the arm rest on my ribs.

When we finally pulled into the station in Toronto, he jerked up, yanked his purse out from between us, and pulled out not one, not two, but three different medication bottles and starts taking them as the bus starts to clear out. So I had to wait for him to put everything away until I could actually leave the bus and go home. Yeesh.

I take the bus almost every week I go back home, and I've never had an experience like this! I was just so exhausted because day-light savings kicked my butt so hard I couldn't handle it.

Have you guys ever had a similar experience?

It's Friday!! Woo! The concert recital last night was so great! So many amazingly talented musicians, and the songs were great! They covered everything from Fun. to Hans Zimmer. I thoroughly enjoyed myself!

It's that time of the month again! (No, not that time...sicko) It's the beginning of the month, which means it's time for March's BOTM!

This month I've chosen to read Robin Sloan's Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. Here's what Goodreads has to say about it:

The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon out of his life as a San Francisco web-design drone, and serendipity, sheer curiosity and the ability to climb a ladder like a monkey have landed him a new gig working the night shift at Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. But after just a few days on the job, Clay begins to realize that this store is even more curious than the name suggests. There are only a few customers, but they come in repeatedly and never seem to actually buy anything, instead “checking out” impossibly obscure volumes from strange corners of the store, all according to some elaborate, long-standing arrangement with gnomic Mr. Penumbra. The store must be a front for something larger, Clay concludes, and soon he has embarked on a complex analysis of the customers’ behaviour and roped his friends into helping him figure out just what’s going on. But once they bring their findings to Mr. Penumbra, they discover the secrets extend far beyond the walls of the bookstore.

Sounds exciting, eh? I've already read the first few chapters and I'm really into it. I'm not sure if it has to do with the fact that I work at a bookstore or not, but I almost missed my stop last night on the subway because I was so into it. Aren't you? Read along with me this month!

I'll be going back home again this weekend for Jess' birthday, so I'll be spending my train ride with my nose stuck in this book!

ALSO it's Friday and you know what that means!!

The weather is finally starting to get warmer, and I'll be jamming to this song while dreaming of the summer!

I'm going to a concert recital tonight! I feel very Toronto getting all dressed up to see some of my friends play classical music, and by dressed up I of course mean piling on layer after layer to stay warm because I practically live in the arctic circle.

Seriously, how do you fashion bloggers get outside to take a picture of yourself in heels, skinny jeans, and a t-shirt? How have you not caught pneumonia?

Anyways, while I'm bundled head to toe in down, I'll be wishing I was dressed to impress in something a little more chic.

Here's some of my ideas as to what I'd ideally like to wear tonight but most certainly will not because I am too fond of all my toes, and hypothetically haven't shaved my legs in a week two weeks.

Blouse (H&M) // Skirt (LC by Lauren Conrad) // Blazer (Topshop) // Shoes (Aldo)

I need your help! How would you accessorize this look?

Pasta, bagels, cookies, donuts, you name it.

Literally me 24/7.

I'm not sure when it started, maybe it was those tasty, tasty animal crackers my mum fed me as a wee sprout. Or perhaps it was the introduction to pizza day Wednesday in school every week. Somewhere between birthday cakes, cupcakes, and pancakes I developed a strong bond with the delicious, delicious food.

My name is Kate, and I love carbs.

Source

Francis Underwood is totally into carbs too.

I can't for the life of me understand why people would hate carbs. Like, when a girl says, "ew I don't like bread". Say whaaaat? You lyin' gurl! I could literally eat bread at every meal, especially french bread. Sometimes I wish I cold carry a french baguette with me everywhere I go, like a samurai carries his sword. Baguette: an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.

And sure, carbs are the cause of about 30 extra pounds around my hips, and have single-handedly contributed to my bodacious booty, but you know what? I'm okay with that. I'd take a breadstick over a celery stick any day. Actually, I'd take a regular stick over a celery stick any day, 'cause ew. Does anyone really even like celery on it's own?

Had to.