Happy New Year!

I don't have any resolutions that I plan to stick by, but here are some random thoughts on general goals / improvements I would like to have in the grand old era of 2007:

1) Stick to my budget
- I made one for the summer of 2006, and then adapted it for the school year 2006/2007. So far it has been going quite well. I am about $1000 under budget for the first semester of school, and that's a nice feeling. So I guess you could say my goal for next semester would be the same level of saving. Most of my money in 2007 will be going towards (in no particular order): books/school fees, cost of living from Jan-May (food, cable, etc.), cancun trip, europe trip, buying car from parents, extra accounting course fees (for the CA requirements), moving fees to Toronto, first/last month's rent in Toronto (not excited for this).

2) Excel at work
- Hopefully I'll have work to do! If they start me off not doing anything, that's not a good thing for me. I need to be motivated and busy from the beginning or I'll get used to doing nothing! Of course I would overcome this onset laziness, because I don't want to be unemployed!

3) Find a good balance between serious and care-free
- I used to be all the former, now I'm almost all the later. Balance is needed.

4) Continue being social
- As a sidebar to #3, it's worth noting that I've become ridiculously social in the last year. Sometimes I'm still shy, usually when tired, but most of the time I put myself out there, meet lots of new people, organize social gatherings, etc. This has been a great change in my life because I've made so many new friends, and I enjoy being a "go to" kind of person who always knows everyone, and what the plans are.

5) Health stuff
- This is a pretty typical resolution. Eat less, exercise more darn it!

6) Life-long learning
- Read at least X number of books. Suggestions on how high this number should be?
- Read The Economist at least once a month, or keep up on current events in some other fashion.
- Take up some kind of enriching hobby (gardening? cooking? 2nd language?)

7) Fashion
- stayed tanned (still not vacuous, I promise) and fashionable

My Future Roomie

I'd say it's 90% settled. I mean, it's still 10 months away so who knows what could happen in that amount of time, but we've agreed to room together. Who is this you ask? One of my lovely co-workers at Deloitte, Azadeh Alemi. She sounds foreign, and she is, but in an "I've lived in Canada my whole life" way. She's the one on the far right in the 2nd picture. The first picture is kind of strange because of the effect of the camera on her eyes (very cat-like).

She's really nice, and quite social, and not very particular about anything. She'll still be in school (co-opping at DT in September for 8 months, than an extra semester of school at York), so probably won't be able to afford as much of the rent as I will. This actually works out well, because then we can get a 1 bedroom+den or a master bedroom+ small 2nd bedroom, and she can have the smaller room.

We're looking to live in the Yonge & Eglinton area because it's located on the subway line between my work (North York --- Yonge & Sheppard) and downtown. In fact, I made a whole list of what I'm looking for in an apartment:

Requirements:
- 2 bedrooms or 1+ livable den
- $1600 budget (including utilities)
- 700 square feet +
- cats allowed (?)
- washer/dryer en suite
- on the Yonge subway line
- safe neighborhood
- close to grocery store, shopping

2^nd tier requirements:
- hardwood flooring
- indoor pool
- exercise room
- 24 hr security
- close to the highway, but not too close
- fairly new building / recently renovated
- balcony

Would be nice:
- 2 bathroooms
- walk-in closet
- fanciness

Halloween

Here are some pictures of a couple memorable nights recently. On the top are my Deloitte friends that visited me when I went to Toronto this past weekend. In case you care, which I don't know why you would, we have: Alex, Adam, Chris, Aviel, Liz, Sapna, Me, Steve, and Mona (yes the infamous Mona!).

On the bottom is a picture from last night's Halloween events. The three girls are dressed up as fire fighters, and the boy looks like he's not wearing a costume but he actually has brown paper bag sayings taped to him with stuff like "My ex girlfriend broke my heart" and "My brother always got better grades than me". Any guesses as to what he was?? Emotional Baggage! Lol. Anyways they are called: Serena, Ksenia, Lauren, and Matt. Ivey peeps.