five ways to have a better day

I'm going to be honest with you: I've been a little cranky these past few days. right now, Husband is in Beijing for a long weekend. he's chaperoning some students for a conference, and they are participating in a walk-a-thon on the Great Wall of China tomorrow. seriously. on the Great Wall.

I am NOT in Beijing this weekend, and I do NOT get to see the Great Wall. and that is the source of my crankiness. you see, getting into China is actually a little difficult. since China considers Taiwan to be part of China, there is no Chinese embassy here. which means you have to go elsewhere [usually Hong Kong] to apply for a visa before you can actually go to China.

note: even if you have a Taiwanese visa, one does not simply walk into Mordor fly directly to China. you still have to apply for a visa in another country that has a Chinese embassy.

where I'm not. photo via.

when Husband started organizing this trip for his students, I was still back in the states. he asked the travel agent who was making the arrangements when I would need to apply for my visa. after a few days of working through the bureaucracy we discovered that there would not be enough time for me to apply after I got back to Taiwan. why? because I am not currently employed and do not have a work visa in Taiwan [only a resident visa] my passport would have to travel all the way back to the United States in order to get an entry visa for China.

the other option would have been for me to apply for my visa separately, in person while I was still in the states. but I was unable to due to a. the travel agent had not yet booked flights and I needed proof of my itinerary to apply for a visa and b. I had less than a week in the states and didn't want to risk missing my flight back to Taiwan being passport-less.

SO. this is all to say that I was not in the best of moods this morning. or yesterday while Husband was packing and I was... not. but my being upset about something completely out of control wasn't going to change the fact that I couldn't go to Beijing this weekend. so I made a conscious effort to cheer myself up and have a better day. and you know what? it worked.

five ways to have a better day:

1. take a nap. no, I'm serious. take a nap. go back to bed. Husband left for the airport this morning before 6am and for some reason I thought I would just start my day then. nope. I went back to sleep and woke up at 9 feeling much better.

2. go outside. fresh air and sunshine always make me happier. giant inflatable ducks help, too.

3. treat yo' self. I don't know where that phrase came from, but I like it. I stoppped by the mall and didn't find what I was actually looking for [instax film] but picked up an adorable fairy-tale themed planner for 2014 and a berry macaron. I'm going to have to show you more of this planner later, because it's ridiculous. in an awesome way.

4. sweat it out. there are studies [somewhere, really] that prove moving your body produces feel-good endorphins. I stopped by the 18 peaks park on my way home and climbed all the way to the top. there were a lot of stairs involved, but the view was worth it.

5. do something you love. when I finally made it home I started writing this post. I skyped with Husband [who, yes, made it safeley to Beijing] and now plan to spend the rest of my evening with guilty pleasure DVDs + a bottle of cider.

have a good better day!

life lately + ww #3

it's been a busy couple of weeks. I think I've finally settled back in to life in Taiwan, cultural oddities not withstanding. Husband is gearing up to head to Beijing for a long weekend [NOT with me, sadly] and we are entering the weird Taiwan weather pattern I like to call "it's November but feels like an early Michigan September. [speaking of Michigan... my MSU Spartans whomped on the Wolverines this past weekend. awesome.]

but first things first: I'm so totally psyched to tell you that my first-ever blog ad is now up and running on The Nectar Collective's sidebar. I'm doing happy backflips... and using phrases like "so totally psyched." I also added a new page of buttons + badges if you would like to take a little bit of me over to your own blog.

in other news... we went to not one but TWO music festivals in Taipei. the first was a collection of cover bands [both expat + local] and had the largest group of white people I have seen in one place in Taiwan. and also, cider on tap. the second was called the Moonrise Kingdom music + fun festival and headlined Explosions in the Sky and The Flaming Lips.

this past weekend we went exploring a little closer to home. we investigated a new craft beer store in Jubei called iBeer [and obviously I had cider.] afterwards we went to check out the peking duck place that always has a line wrapped around the building. the food was SO tasty... until I realized my delicious side dishes all had tiny shrimps in them. wah wah. but we still had a great afternoon - and thanks to the benadryl I always carry - no serious allergic reactions.

and now for some weekly wishes! this week's photo theme was "warmth." there's not a whole lot of need for scarves and hats just yet... so my photo is warm coffee, but also something that gave me the warm fuzzies. Husband woke me up yesterday with a Starbucks delivery, and that's about as awesome as a morning can get. yep, I picked a winner.

last week's wishes:
1. finish and post a font download. done! you can find the new OutLine Font download here.
2. organize the bookshelf in my office. or at least start. I started by clearing off the collapsable table that has been residing in my office and collecting junk. now everything that needs to be on my bookshelf is on there, though it isn't organized. I DID get my 52 weeks project photos up on the wall.
3. watch Hocus Pocus. check! I love how many of you also agree that this is one of the best things about Halloween.

this week I want to:

1. have 2 or more writing sessions for the book. I've been putting off book writing in favor of blog writing and other things [like binge watching Buffy and Angel, oops.] I've started, which is a good... start. but I need to get into the habit of writing more consistently.
2. catch up on Everyday Happy homework. it's the last week! and I'm a week behind.
3. actually organize my bookshelf. 

happy monday!