One Twenty Five

I nearly floated away but hi hey hello. Here I am sticking with that  new Year’s resolution of mine. 

I just got back from a week and a half in Naples, Florida. I had never been before and it was such a nice trip.  Florida definitely gets a fairly negative rep., but I very much enjoyed it. Granted, Naples is a super duper rich area (I had no idea!), but beyond the mansions and brick streets, and perfectly curated gardens was the west facing ocean!  The ocean is so beautiful and calming and can make any bad day good again. It’s so peaceful to look at and simply by sitting on the beach doing absolutely nothing, time is being well spent.  I think one day I’ll send up near the beach.  Not today, or tomorrow, or truthfully anytime soon as my U.S. visa/Greencard keeps me tied to New York City (and i’m not done with the city yet), but one day. 

I have such a bad habit of always thinking “I’m not busy at all,” but have come to realize I kinda sorta maybe am. This past weekend was busy with a virtual baby shower I threw, a product management workshop I did on Sunday, flying back to NY, a doctor’s appointment etc. etc. 

My apartment is like 80% clean. Like, it’s not super messy or gross, but there are things laying around I want to put away or clean and I just don’t. It just stays in this constant state of nearly really clean. Maybe after I’m done this post I’ll actually clean it. 

“Do you love where you live?” I think about this question a lot.  I find most Americans/people will eventually move back home, but as my home is a across a border (and I’m 100% going to stay in the states), I wonder where I’ll end up.  My fear is ending up in limbo. A suburb or in-between area - where you can’t actually frequently go to the city, or walk/see a beach/mountains. I want to be *in* a city, or way out by a beach or mountains. This is the gift that I personally find most Americans take so much for granted. It’s so cheesy to say the states is the land of opportunity, but I am awe of how many cities Americans can choose to live in. And cities with enormous variations in temperature, climate and scenery, and cost.  I love Canada, but all the cities are hugging the U.S. border (for warmth) and there are just so few options. It also really bothers me that to vacation in Canada (at least Ontario) you have to move North - where it’s colder! I’m rambling a bit now, but I find this so amazing and such a shame Americans don’t really realize how lucky they are. 

What else is new? My scale is broken and it occurred to me today how I haven’t really cared about that. Wild. I will replace it soon, but I used to weigh myself five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred times a day, so what. a. change. 

My mom comes to visit me soon in NY! So excited - we’re heading to Broadway to see Hamilton, Swan Lake the Ballet, and the view Vanderbilt view spot - assuming covid doesn’t ruin everything again. 

There is sooooo much going on at work right now it’s crazy. Sometimes I feel paralyzed from everything going and like I can’t get anything done. But today I have someone a 10% raise which is my favourite part of the  job as she deserved it so much, and I love moments like that. 

This morning I got a pap test. My first pap test in one thousand moons. Ridiculous. If you haven’t got a pap smear in the past three years please go and do it - it was SO EASY.  While she was all up in my hoo-ha I thought, “Huh. I can’t believe someone chose this as their career path” - what a job. 

What TV shows are y’all watching recently? I need new shows. I think i’ll watch Cheer’s Season 2 tonight. No, wait - I must clean!

Snow is pretty rare in New York City, at least in comparison to Toronto, so it was such a treat to wake up Friday morning to sticky snow in the city.  

I took an early morning walk around the West Village to admire it before it turned to sludge (which it promptly did by Friday afternoon). 

I am home - in New York - hurrah! In my cozy apartment which I love very much.  The place is a mess, I’m functioning on way too little sleep, my plants appear to have died while I was home for the Holidays, and I have a work and personal to-do list which feels overwhelming, but I’m so grateful and happy to be home.  

When I’m in Canada I feel like I hit pause on my own life. Like I step into my sister and family’s lives and exist in a weird state of pause. I’m not too sure how to explain it, but every-time I return to the city I feel a sense of peace, like it’s exactly where I’m supposed to be.   Last night my plane was early flying into LaGuardia so it circled Manhattan and my heart went ka-boom looking out the window. I have an overwhelming sense of happiness here. This morning I walked around the West Village after a night of snow (lots of snow pics in my Instagram stories) and appreciated every detail I saw.  But... I think I’m going to move soon. Well, let me re-state that, I have to move soon.  I need and want more space.  I want a two bedroom apartment as all signs point to I will be working-from-home forever, and I also have big new little plans on my horizon, which means a fourth floor walk-up won’t soon cut it. (Not to mention the insane construction next door.) As I’m Canadian and working towards my Greencard I have to stay in New York City (or the surrounding area) so the question is, where do I move? If I had a magic wand and a lot more money, I’d stay in my area and move to a better apartment, but as we’re talking about $7,000/month rent, lol, that won’t be happening.  

In the early days of the pandemic I told my sister that I thought single women 35 to 40ish were going to get screwed the most by the pause on life from the lockdowns.  Today, I still somewhat believe this (although I also have a serious soft spot for the kids isolated during this time (Ontario is headed into yet another lockdown with schools closed starting tomorrow), the high school and college kids missing out on those epic years, and elderly people not seeing their loved ones). 

Time is a scarce resource in general, but for women who know they want kids, every passing year of missed opportunities feels like it has a greater negative impact.  Life paused for nearly two years, especially in the dating world, and it really sucked. I wanted those years... needed them. 

I actually still tried to date during the last two years as I was so conscious of time slipping away, but, well, it was way harder.  My first pandemic date started off like a movie, “let’s meet under the Washington Square Park Arch” at 6pm and go for a bike ride.”  Perfect.  When I showed up he was wearing a full gas mask, it was his first time leaving his house in 53 days, and he was so paranoid we could never get close enough to chat. Ummm... okay.  

I was actually speaking to a friend about this recently; about how women in their 30s are broken into categories; those who don’t want kids, those who know they want them, and then those who are in limbo - if it happens, it happens.  I am in the middle category; I know I want kids. I also greatly envy women who confidently do not want children.  I don’t know how I know I want them, but I just do. If i had to explain it I’d say I have an overwhelming sense that it’s a major experience of life and one I don’t want to miss out on. One that i am confident would leave my life feeling unfulfilled if i don’t do it.  I have a (biological, I assume) desire to be pregnant, breast feed, experience delivery, and the love I have for my nieces and nephew sometimes hurts, so I want to experience it for myself with my own kids - because whoa, it must be so crazy and beautiful and amazing.  

But for those women, like myself, in that middle category - who want kids, but haven’t met someone yet - well, the pandemic pause was horrible. I felt robbed of time and life and experiences. Robbed of potential moments and nights out and cupid’s arrow having a shot in hell at hitting me.  ----

Let’s add some colour to my blog as walls of text aren’t fun to scroll past. 

Whenever I’m bored (usually on planes, trains or automobiles) I create collages and then they usually sit on my phone and are never viewed again. But wait! Here they are... a rough visual timeline of my 2021. It’s impossible to capture all the friends and moments and life, but here’s my attempt January

Work from home

Empty New York

Lots of walks

February

pretty pretty snow in NYC

March

Fostered dogs

April

Flowers and drinks and vaccinated 

Chess (lots and lots of chess... throughout the year, actually) 

May

Don’t remember much 

June

Iceland (a collage of collages!)  

Volcano

Birthdays, parties, rain in New York

July

Boston

Rhode Island

Grand Bend, Ontario

Best friend’s wedding

Lake Superior Road trip with friends

cottage with the family 

August

More cottage/being outside

Chicago weekend with besties

September

Toronto trip home to renew my viisa

Friendssss

New York

Livin’ 

SLT

October 

Haloween

Canadian Thanksgiving 

Construction

Pretty leaves

Ballet & Broadways (Swan Lake, Hamilton, Come from Away, Company) 

November

Italy (Florence & Venice)

Paris

Utah (for US Thanksgiving) 

December

Rockettes

New York Christmas Walks

Home for the holidays 

I am writing this post to you from Toronto where I headed home for Christmas. I usually spend my time at my sister’s place, but tonight I am in my old high school bedroom at my parent’s place which is a bit of a mind f*ck for me and makes me feel very behind in life.  I love elements of heading home for the holidays, but I always feel like I hit pause on my actual life in New York when I do.  

In 2018 I bought a small apartment in Toronto (woo!) which I now rent out to a lovely couple. I drove past it yesterday just to take a peak and suddenly decided that a future life goal of mine (when the mortgage gets wayyyy down) will be to furnish it as my Toronto go-to-spot for when I come home (and probably airbnb it out at other times) . As a side but related note, my mortgage rate is 3.49% which makes me want to cry. It was a fixed 5 year, and now I feel like I’m just throwing money at the bank.  Pre-pandemic the place nearly paid for itself, but I dropped the tenant’s rent 20% during the pandemic, so now I lose roughly $700 a month (including maintenance fees, taxes, principal, interest) which is too bad, but I’m still happy I own it. 

Today I went to a beautiful Birth Blessing Ceremony for my dear friend Sarah who’s due at the end of the month. It was such a wonderful hour of women blessing her and her future baby, and if you’re looking for an alternative to a baby shower, I would highly recommend one 

My mom is coming to NY in February and we’re going to see Hamilton and Swan Lake - I’m so so soooo excited to have her back in New York for a bit, but I’m also worried about covid... 

After over two weeks off,  tomorrow I head back to work and I genuinely looking forward to it.  A few hours ago I was rummaging through old posts from years past looking for a photo, and came across this post on my OG blog, heyliz, and it was crazy to read posts about how much I wanted to escape the finance world.  I also stumbled across this “secret/anonymous” blog, My Skinny Therapist, about when I wrote about doing therapy.  

Like I said in a previous post, stepping back into your own thoughts is weird. I don’t actually think humans are meant to remember and document everything at the clarity and consistency that we can; our memories fade for a reason. 

This was a very random post! Tomorrow, let’s do some photos. 

My life has settled into this comfortable rhythm of a single-something woman in New York City. I stay in more, have less but higher quality friendships, travel when I can (pandemic and all), am doing very well in my career, head to broadways and ballets and evenings out often, and return home to Canada to see family frequently..  

But I think this is is why I’m back in this space. The lack of my life advancing has scared me. Does scare me. Sometimes I think the scariest thing of all is when there is no change in my life; I’m feeling this feeling strongly lately. My photo albums and summers and winters and apartment photos are on repeat. Even gorgeous dinners out in the West Village, or walking the streets alone in New York I find myself asking, is this really it? The elephant, of course, in this post is that I’m single. Still single. After all these years, so I think I’m just tired of always being alone, y’know?

I think most people naturally advance move to another phase in life when they meet someone and/or have kids. But when you’re single you sit fairly still in the phases of life. I’ve even noticed the average age of my friend groups dropping as I stay in the going-out-seeing-doing-and-eating phase, as friends my age move to the family one. And this would all be fine and dandy and even fabulous if it’s what I wanted, but I don’t. I want more. I’m ready to move out of this current phase that is on repeat. Last year I got really into “manifestation,” which is essentially a fancy way of saying “constantly think about your goals.” I quickly learnt that I’m actually very good at it. I’m very good at obsessing and thinking and believing and setting goals for myself - from travel to money to friendships to career moves to my apartment in New York City which I so clearly imagined for myself when I live in Toronto.  It’s remarkable, really. How thinking about something consistently will adjust your behaviour and decisions to work towards whatever it is that you’re thinking about and then one day, poof, you’ll have it.  Well... I’ve never ever been able to obsess or think or believe or imagine a partner or family for myself.  It’s always been this weird mental block for me.  Even when I was writing out manifestation things each day, I struggled to write any to do with love.  I once wrote out the words (actually, many many times) “I deserve the love I want” and I just stared at them, not quite believing them. 

Today I don’t know if I do. I want to believe it, and sometimes do, but other days just can’t fathom someone really liking me and vice versa. I also often feel like I’m dramatically overthinking being single - there’s so much chance and luck and pure randomness involved in it all, and in a world where men statistically are taking a back seat, I don’t think my single status is all because of me, but rather this place of transition society is finding itself in. 

Hello you. It’s me, Liz. Are you still there? It’s January 1st, 2022. Can you believe it?  For whatever reason as the clock struck 1am I came to this blog and read all my New Years posts from years past.  It was weird doing that. Like stepping back into my mind and soul for a brief moment in time. I got to re-read all my self-deprecating (annoying!) posts about goals and weight and life and my great concern of turning 25. But it was also neat to see my life advance and to remind myself that once upon a time I did live quite a bustling and lively life.  Isn’t life and its phases wild? A few days ago I walked past the elevators I had once used nearly every single day for four years for work, an alleyway I had once made out with a guy in, the bar I spent many late nights and brunches losing track of time with friends in, a park where I sat on a bench and cried about some guy to my sister, or the corner I called my mom from to tell her I was moving to Detroit, and then two years later, New York City.  Toronto is filled with memories of my twenties. Ghosts of myself and my past. Memories of another time and phase and person. I imagine this happens to everyone. Time ticks on and all your thousands and thousands of incremental decisions advance you forward and then one day you’re older and wiser and living a completely different life than you once were.  Today I live in New York City and today I am 37. Did you know that? I don’t really mention my age anymore to people; at work, on Instagram, to my friends. I’m one of those woman now. Sometimes I even lie about it. But here I am, in 2022 at 37 years of age, and I am good. Really f*cking good. Despite the pandemic and being single and still over weight thing, I am good.  About twelve hours ago I wrote on my Instagram my purposeful lack of resolutions for 2022, but as I type this I do actually want to set one: to write more in this space. I miss writing and getting things out there.  Unraveling my thoughts and using words to help me solve my own questions.  I genuinely love taking photos and truthfully with or without publicly blogging I write a lot regardless, but it’s more fun to share my words and thoughts and photos with you.  And thus I want to try to find the momentum of posting again in this space as I used to love it so much, it’s good for my soul, and I know one day I’ll look back on being 37 and at this phase in my life and want to see what I was up to when I was still so young. 

Like a crazy cool one that was exploding like a kid’s science experiment. 

It absolutely blew (PUN!) my mind, and I still think about it so much that here I am back in 2008 on my little Tumblr blog telling you about it.  

I feel so fortunate that I was able to go to Iceland, and even more fortunate that I was able to get so close to Fagradalsfjall - the volcano that was erupting - as the next day the lava had crept up enough that they closed off the super-duper-close-section which we had got to admire it from. 

I don’t like saying things like “I’m not religious” or “not spiritual” because I have my moments, and watching liquid rock spew out of the ground was indeed one of those moments.  

Feeling the warmth of the volcano on my face, and listening to its thunder-like sounds made me spiral into a deep thought web... it gave me the same inconsequential feeling I get when I look at the stars for too long; What’s the purpose of life? Who am I? Why do i exist? Why does the world exist? 

When my friends and I started the one-hour hike to the volcano at around 6am we passed a group of American guys heading back to their car, as we crossed paths with them I said, “how was it?” and one of them replied, “It was the coolest thing of my entire life.”  And OMG he was absoltely right.   Perhaps giving birth could surpass it? Or seeing the world from space? But for me it was the absolute highlight of my existence and I am left in awe of our planet and world and feeling all the feelings of gratefulness. 

I’m not really sure what I was expecting walking towards liquid rock  spewing from the Earth, but nothing  could have prepared me the eruption.  The hike was fairly easy and took us exactly one hour.  It was a baron hike until we rounded a corner  and saw the volcano and the “lava rivers.”

In the videos of the eruption (which are posted in the Iceland highlight on my Instagram Stories) I squeal like a school girl with excitement - it was pure, genuine joy for what I was witnessing. 

As you can see from the photos, we are practically the only people there - this is in part because Iceland had just opened up their borders, and because we had started the hike at around 6am.

The volcano would erupt every few minutes so we found a spot on a little hill very close to t he action and waited in awe for for the lava to suddenly do it’s thing

As II noted above, tourists can’t get this close anymore - we literally (by chance) went to the volcano on the very last day they allowed people in this spot. One of my most fortunate life moments. 

(As a random fact, these hiking boots (which I bought on Aug 22, 2011 wearing one of my favourite twenty-something-work-dresses - see post here) have now hiked all over the world with me! In Nepal to see Everest, New Zealand,  Australia, Patagonia, Canada... and  now Iceland!) 

I wanted to stay for hours and hours and forever and forever as it was just the coolest thing I’ve ever in my life  - and I’m so thankful my two good friends were with me too (originally I had planned to do this alone). 

As with all incredible things, photos and videos don’t do it justice, but below are a few more attempts to try to convey how magnificent it was (the videos on my Instagram showing the lava moving slightly give you an idea of it all).  

My Iceland highlight story wheel also shows how the lava rivers eventually become lava tunnels - as the lava will cool on top first, but the hot lava will continue to run for years,  and how it takes (ready for this?) 100 YEARS for the lava to fully cool down *insert mind exploding emoji here*

This is a kind Anon message - and I am! 

[Updated January 2023]

Hey hi hello, let’s dive right in, shall we? We shall. Introducing the Budget Template... 

Wait, it actually shouldn’t be called a “Budget Template,” but rather a “Bookkeeping Template” - as it’s simply an organization tool for your money, and to understand what the heck is going on...

How much do you earn? What do you spend it on? How much do you save/go into debt?   

You can download the spreadsheet here: 

2023 Budget Template (download the file from Google Drive]

2023 Google Sheets Budget Template (”copy as” and create a new one)

The Spreadsheet History 

Back in 2016 I wrote my first “budget” blog post (here), and since then the spreadsheet has been downloaded over 5,000 times (woo!), and it’s consistently one of the most asked for posts. *grins*

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again that once upon a time I stressed my mom out a lot with my spending habits, and rightfully so! I hated money and bills and had debt up to my hoo-ha, so yea, I promise this post is to hopefully encourage those who also aint-got-time-for-money to actually sit down, look at your money, face reality, and track it because oh-so-very-sadly money is not magic, and it won’t just magically work itself out.

Here are some (dare I say it?) testimonials from my Instagram account. I love hearing how the spreadsheet has helped others too, and I encourage you to try it out and start the next decade our right!

Over the past ten years I’ve probably created ten different budget templates in Excel. And none of them really worked for me before this one.

I would set budget goals way too extreme, quickly break them, and then give up (similar to weight loss, eh?). Then one fine day in the middle of the night I sat down to create yet another budget, and I had the revolutionary thought that I should probably figure out where my money goes before I create a set percentage budget for myself, and that’s exactly what I did.

The results? Amazing. This spreadsheet has allowed me to travel as much as I do, fight for more money at work (as I’m motivated to save more), and has removed that awful guilt feeling I used to have about not having my sh*t together when it came to money.

I now find money interesting, and even look forward to keeping track of it.  I’ve also drastically stopped spending as much as I used to because I clearly see how $12 here and $17 there add up fast.  I now know exactly what I spend on rental cars each year, or on groceries each month, or how much my lunches cost.  

And on that note...

 My personal tips for getting a handle on your money:

Understand your spending habits today. As I noted above it’s incredibly hard to suddenly say I’m only going to spend 20% of my income on food, when I have no idea how much I spend on food today. Understand your money first.

Buy everything, and I mean EVERYTHING on debit or Visa cards. Ban cash from your life. Really, there’s pretty much no need for cash anymore. From the subway to meals out, swipe and tap away. Budgeting is significantly easier if everything is tracked online for you. If you do use cash, keep receipts until you’ve logged it in your budget, but for reals, don’t use cash, It’s so easy to lose those receipts, and never add them back into the spreadsheet, and not mention cash slips through your finger tips with nothing real to show for it. (As a fun fact: In 2018 I withdrew NO cash. In 2019 so far it’s $300, so it can be done).

Take a few hours and figure it out. Commit the time to it.  The initial setup of a budget is the hardest. Once it’s set up it’s incredibly easy and quick to pop in and update it.

There are many fantastic tools out there like Mint.com, but I find they’re almost too automatic. Everything is done for me, so I don’t need to go in and track and look and see it, which means I ignore it. And because it’s automatic, I don’t learn and understand it. Therefore, start with a manual process to really understand your money.

Keep your budget simple. Screw what you learned in school - fixed expenses, variable expenses, balance sheets, assets, etc. Follow a budget that you understand. Something clean and simple. If you download mine, you’ll see it’s simple: Money-In (my income) minus Money-Out (everything I spend money on = savings/debt.  No fancy words.

Instructions

Other people’s Excel Templates are always a little challenging. So I’ve tried my best to make the majority of the template automatic. I’ve also added simple instructions.  You will need a basic understanding of Excel to use it.

First, you need to know there are three tabs in my Budget:

2021 Budget (this is the heart of the whole thing)

2021 Travel (**new**)

2021 Summary (this is automatic)

STEP ONE

Download the spreadsheet here

“Make a Copy” of the Google Sheets version 

STEP TWO

Customize the spreadsheet to reflect your personal life.

Review all the blue squares (in column C) and edit them to reflect you. For example, within the Transportation category, if you have a car, you could add “Gas,” “Insurance” “Parking,” and/or “Maintenance” and remove “Uber” and “Rentals.”  

Or you can even add an entire new sections like “Kids” and then have “clothes,” “diapers” or whatever the categories are within that that you want to track.  

Important Note: if you do add new rows, add them in the middle of the category (that way the totals will pick them up). And if you add an entire new section, remember to insert the new row on Tab 2 too.   To check whether a total is adding the right cels, double click on the red number; the cells it’s adding up will be shown.

STEP THREE:  Enter your data

Enter your data into the white and grey sections. It’s a little odd writing this before the New Year, as obviously you won’t have data for January 2020 yet, but once you do, this is what you do (so just pretend a week or two has passed).

For January, enter your income into cells F7 and/or F10 (I set it up by paycheque, but you could customize it to your incoming income).

I created an example column (column D in green) to help you see what it looks like. For example in the month of January each pay cheque is $2,000. The person’s rent is $1,200. And they spend $60 on the Internet, $78 on Cable, and $48 on utilities etc.

NOTE: All the totals are automatic. You do not need to touch the red sub-totals, but it’s worth double-clicking on them to see they’re adding up the right columns.  

The Majority of expenses:

For everyday expenses (not once-a-month-ones) I do a quick Excel equation in the appropriate square. For example, let’s look at dinners out in the example column:

You can see when I click on the cell below with “$137″ in it, the equation is appears at the top and shows, “ =8.99+9.2+6+18+64.83+13.88+17″.   That’s right, I’m manually adding these in every few days from my Visa and Chequing account statements.

And yup, I am looking at my Visa or Debit statement to find those numbers.

To look at another example, let’s look at my bank statement statement:

I would add the following expenses into my spreadsheet like this:

Jcrew = Clothing December column “+36.54″

Dropbox = Other (in entertainment) “+119.88″

FrameItEasy = House Decore “+131.77″

UPS = postage for Christmas cards therefore Gifts  “+28.50″

Netflix = Entertainment Netflix “+10.62″

Trader Joes = Groceries “+44.55″

I realize this seems challenging, but if you do it every few days it’s so EASY and QUICK and allows you to A) check that your statements are right, and forces you to re-think things when you buy them; do you really want to add “+80″ for a new sweater to clothing?

Only the initial start up is a little time consuming, but I promise if you do this every few days (or start on Jan 1st!), it’s very easy.

NOTE: I leave a quick note to myself the last data/item/amount I added in. So next time I resume from the right spot.

This is why it’s so important to not use cash. Cash is evil and disappears on you, so swipe and tap and get a record of everything.  

Once you fill in all your numbers, you’ll be able to see at the bottom whether you saved any money that month. The cell will turn green if you saved, or red if you did not.

STEP FOUR

Explore the other tabs.

Once you start to add #s in January’s column, if you click on the next tabs you’ll see your Summary starting to form, which shows you the percentage within each category. Including savings.

Pie charts or bar graphs will even start to form!

TA-DA! You’re tracking!

This is the budget I created and use all the time. I like it a lot and have managed to use it consistently for nearly five years!! Here’s a snapshot my 2020 year all filled out:

I hope this is helpful to someone out there! I’d love any feedback you have (or broken formulas you find.)

Please email me (my comments are disabled) if you have any questions ([email protected] or find any errors in the spreadsheet) - I’ll be happy to help where I can!

Hello Tumblr, my old friend. I wanted to pop into this space to share something I saw this something which brought my happiness; a flower flash! 

I’ve been following Lewis Miller Design’s Instagram since I moved to New York City and have hoped I’d get to see one of his fabulous pieces of flower art while I lived here - and today I did!  

It’s a simple context - take ordinary New York objects, explode them with flowers, and give joy to folks passing by. He certainly did this for me today.   

The flower flashes last about two hours before people start to take the flowers home.  I fortunately got to see it just before the front was dismantled - I took a single rose which also brought me delight the rest of the day.

And now I pass on the fabulousness to you. Enjoy! 

(NYC is still boarded up from the election (potential) anarchists - to my knowledge, there weren’t any) 

What a neat little title this post has - “Kayaking the shores of Lake Superior” - my gosh, that’s something I never thought I’d have a blog post on, let alone do. 

For those not familiar with Lake Superior, as the name states, it’s the most superior of the five great lakes, and sits between Canada and the United States (Ontario on the north, and Minnesota and Michigan to the west/south). 

The lake is HUGE. So huge, in fact...

By surface area, it’s world's largest freshwater lake.

It contains 10% of all the earth's fresh surface water, and is larger than all the other Great Lakes combined (plus an additional few Lake Eries) 

It would take 191 years to have all its water replaced with new water

The deepest point in Lake Superior (about 40 miles north of Munising, Michigan) is 1,300 feet (400 meters) below the surface.

And has its own weather system, which means this Great Lake is dangerous.  

Over 10,000 people have died on the lake from storms, shipwrecks, rip tides, and frigid cold water.  In fact, on any Lake Superior shore, sudden changes in the weather can whip up winds and waves to dangerous levels in minutes. It’s funny, because now as I type this out, I’m like, wait, what, whyyy did we do this again? 

But we wanted to kayak a part of this magnificent lake because along with the dangers comes the gorgeous and unique views. 

Originally when Jocelyn (of Patagonia hiking fame) and I started researching this trip, we wanted to kayak along Pukaskwa National Park. Pukaskwa (pronounced “Puck-a-saw”) is the most remote stretch of shoreline on the entire Great Lakes, but we quickly learnt that that was an endeavor for another day, as the winds and tides, beating the coast, along with long stretches of cliffs (which means you can’t safely and quickly get out of a kayak), meant we looked elsewhere for our route and adventure. 

We ended up choosing another stretch just south of Pukaskwa - equally as remote, but a little bit safer as it was along the side of a massive indent on the lake (see the red arrow on the map above). This new stretch had more stops to pull our kayaks over should the weather suddenly turn, and we needed to get to out quickly

When I think back now on this adventure, it was such a unique trip and will definitely be one of my 2020 highlights. 

Years ago when I did a canoe trip with my friend Natalie in Algonquin Provincial Park, I learnt the basic patterns of winds on lakes...  the golden rule? the early bird gets the worm, and by the worm, I mean smooth sailing before winds pick up around 2pm each day.   

Thus on the first morning our alarms were set for 5:45am and we were out on the high seas of Lake Superior by 6:30am.  

As we weren’t sure how far we could kayak each day when we started out, we cut across a large inlet to get as much distance in as possible on the first day, but we soon headed back to land as it’s mentally wayyyy scarier being far away from land incase we capsized, and we wanted to see the rugged and remote shoreline in all it’s natural glory.  

And Lake Superior’s shoreline did not disappoint! 

The water was incredibly clear and pristine - something that neither of us expected, and the coast ranged from soft, white, golden sand beaches to tall red or black cliffs.

Also, the average underwater visibility of Lake Superior is 27 feet (8.2 meters), making it easily the cleanest and clearest of the Great Lakes.  Underwater visibility in places even reaches 100 feet, and it’s been described as "the most oligotrophic lake in the world."

Both Jocelyn and I had never been as remote as we were on this trip.  It was a wild experience knowing how far we were from any humans... from any help. (Although now deeply thinking about this... part of me feels we were this remote in Patagoina too.)

Around noon, before the winds picked up each day, we’d coast along the shoreline looking for a a perfect spot to pitch our tent - and we found some pretty gorgeous spots.  The land which we kayaked along was made up of Crown land, First Nations land, and a provincial park, so we could pitch our tent anywhere we wanted (and for free!). 

The beach we stayed at our first night was spectacular. 

As I sit here in my NYC apartment weeks later, I feel an immense amount of gratitude that I got to experience this little slice of northern heaven on Earth.  

I feel like I could write an entire post on this campsite as the views were simply stunning.  

Jocelyn and I also managed to squeeze in a (very chilly) swim. This was my final(!) Great Lake to swim in, which was pretty exciting too. 

I have been fortunate to hike & camp in New Zealand, Patagonia, Australia... but one thing that makes Canada unique is the bears.  

You have to be very careful with your food at night and any smells (from food to toothpaste to wipes - it all has to be safetly stored to avoid a sneaky bear showing up for dinner).  

We used our kayaks as “bear bins” each inght, which served us well, as we never saw any bears. 

But... we did see bald eagles (at least I think!). 

(I’m very proud of these photos - as I took them from a very wobbly kayak!) 

We were incredibly fortunate with our weather, well... except for our final night when the rain poured down on our tent, and water seeped into my sleeping bag making my toes wet... but more on that later, because regardless of that we were so lucky that for 95% of the trip we had bright blue big skies. 

Our campsites varied as we moved north/west along the coast, and one of the spots we stayed was this pebble beach. 

Packing for this trip was a bit of a nightmare, because with backpacks you can shove everything into your backpack, but with kayaks everythinng has to be broken apartment, put into wet bags, and then squished into the sea kayak’s compartments... but we managed to do it, and ate quite well along the way... 

Both Jocelyn and I roasted/ate more marshmallows this trip than we usually do in an entire year... Jocelyn surprised me with a boozy old fashioend tea one evening too! 

I have so many beautiful photos of this trip it’s hard to choose a few to post...

As I noted above, Jocelyn and I lay in our wet, soggy tent on our final morninng after a lot of heavy rain debating why did we do this again?!  (Which I will admit happens at least once on every.single camping trip I’ve ever done). 

We could hear waves crashing a little louder outside our tent that final morning, and I was nervous to emerge from our tent to check out the waves. 

It didn’t look too bad, but what I learnt from this trip is that wind, current, and waves don’t quite work together the way you would think.   

The final day was hard. 

Pushing ourselves, things and kayaks back to our initial starting point was very challenging.  I don’t have any photos this day, except for one of Jocelyn getting back into her kayak after I made us pull over so I could throw up from seasickness - ahh yes, good times.  

The waves were so large this day that my memory of watching Jocelyn kayaking ahead of me is only seeing her head every few seconds as the waves  bobbed her up and down.  

When we finnally pulled back into the inlet where we started I felt a huge sense of satisfaction from this trip.  It was so nice to push myself (physically and mentally), to have got to experience being as remote as we were on such a spectacular lake, and to enjoy a solid week of laughing our way through the adventure with Jocelyn and Big Blue (her kayak). 

When we returned our kayaks, the kayak rental shop didn’t even remember we had left!!! While we were out in the wild we at least figured if we didn’t come back after four days they’d come looking for us, but I don’t think they would have! This reminds me, I need to complain about this as it felt wildly unsafe they had forgotten about us. 

Below are the selfies I forced Joce to take with me: before, during, and after the trip. 

Once we returned the kayaks, we got back into the car, and turned the volumne up on Taylor Swift’s Exile song... this song, which we listened to on repeat a thousand times on our way to/from Lake Superior, will forever remind me of this trip. 

Hello September! My last post was in July so I must collect my thoughts and reminisce about the last 2.5 months...

Summer 2020. The summer that landed during the world pandemic.

I spent a total of nine weeks in Canada including the two-week government-mandated quarantine.  When I think back on my summer up north I think of lakes and sunshine, swimming with my nieces, cottages with my family, and an epic seven night camping and kayaking trip along the very wild and rugged coast of Lake Superior with my good friend Jocelyn (which come to think of it, I should set aside time to blog about).

And stress.

Because I also think of laying in bed at night at 3am searching for lawyers and looking up forums and feeling physically sick from anxiety.

Anxiety from one of the wildest things to ever happen to me.  

The full story is saved best for another post.  The trauma of the whole thing I’m still recovering from, but as to not leave anyone hanging, if you click over to my Instagram page, and click the first “highlight” (round image with champagne glasses), you’ll get to follow along on the events which pretty much defined my summer of 2020. However! despite the above incident, I have resigned my lease in NYC and am back in this concrete city until at least the end of August 2021.

I love NYC, let me preface with that.  

But I’m constantly wondering where I should move to next.  For work I’ll need to stay in the States, and my heart is pulling me towards a lake or ocean, or dare I say mountain? Stay tuned.

I fear that the above is literally all the things I can think of to say.

A speedy little update coming in with no real point other than to say hello! I am still here. Working from home as the days get shorter, and living my little life in New York.  

The rhythm and magic of New York feels off since reopening, but I also feel she’s reestablishing herself in new ways.  A covid renaissance of sorts, where distanced outdoor concerts are popping up, cute stores in alleyways, drinking in parks and on corners and on rooftops.  Human connection in new ways, I suppose.  

I was officially stood up on a date last weekend.

It was all very movie-scene like. There I was as the clock struck seven standing on West 4th and Perry Street  in heels. Under twinkle lights and amongst bustling servers waiting for my date.  My date who a mere two days before had confirmed the reservation.  I felt numb when I read his text that he had forgotten and thus would not be coming, and then the move-scene felt more like a nightmare as I froze and wondered if he had seen me and then bailed.  I wish I could then tell you I sat down and ordered a glass of wine and steak, but I shyly retreated back to my apartment feeling nothing much at all, but knowing I’d be okay by the time I went to sleep.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away today.  

I often think of the women before me who have allowed me to live this life of mine; a single female who has traveled to over forty countries (mostly solo), moved to new cities and places and countries, and who works in the male-dominated tech industry (< 25% of my company is women. And of those women, less than 10% work in the product/engineering side where I fall).  

Sometimes when I sit on my couch I feel an overwhelming thanks to the previous generations before me. A thank you for paving the way in so many ways and fighting to let women live independently. And so despite where you stand with politics, I am sincerely thankful for the work she did, and all women do to pave the way for future generations like myself. I do not take my life of choice for granted, and I am externally thankful to them for that (especially when I think about how a mere 30 years ago, this wouldn’t have been possible without their hard work).  

This is now a very wordy post, so let me add some photos to brighten up this post and not leave on such a dampened note, because overall life is good and I am happy, and I’m not too sure what else I could ask for.

Hi, hello, hey! How’s it going? I came in like a wrecking ball with my previous post. Radio silence for months and then boom! A long silly post about an apartment, thus I thought I’d write a proper update too. 

This post is coming to you from Toronto, Canada *waves the Canadian flag 🇨🇦.* So yes, lots to update you on, so here, we, go: 

On Monday, March 16th, with the rest of New York, I was mandated to work from home. In the beginning the adjustment was challenging as I’ve previously never been very good at working from home; ohh the TV! ohh the kitchen! ohh my bed, but as time ticked on and I adjusted to a new routine, I transitioned into really liking it. I (shockingly) now actually think I’ve even more productive than in the office.  

My company offered everybody an additional ten vacation days for covid related reasons (to look after kids, someone who’s sick, or if you just need a mental break from it all).  All promotions, bonuses, and 401k matching was halted, but I didn’t mind this as I’m just thankful the company is planning accordingly to help reduce/ensure job loss doesn’t happen. (I will admit I was disappointed about the promotion piece, as I was so excited to offer my reports promotions this year...). This is all to say that I feel so fortunate I’m able to work from home and grateful for my company. I love my team right now and the work I do, and I feel so fortunate I was able to continue to work and still find a routine. 

Quarantine in New York was, of course, very quiet.  About five days a week I would leave my apartment and go for long solo walks or bike rides which became some of my favourite memories.  I was always too scared to bike in Manhattan, but biking with no cars on the road was wonderful and suddenly made the city feel so small.  I’m excited to continue to bike when the city returns to normalcy (whatever normalcy may be). 

Along with everyone else I went months without seeing any friends or family and on all accounts lived a very quiet life.  There were many (many!) days I didn’t even talk to anyone.  As much as I wanted the city to reopen and life to get back to normal, there was something very peaceful and enjoyable about quarantine. 

A week after George Flyod was brutally murdered, the Black Lives Matter movement swept over New York. I attended several protests and have educated myself on a huge range of topics and lessons and was saddened by how naive I had previously been. How I had no doubt been part of the problem by being a passive person who simply believed that racism was wrong, but never deeply self evaluated my own internal biases or stepped up when I could have.  I am continuing to donate, self learn, read, and watch videos, and I hope that this isn’t just a social media trend, but rather a much needed fundamental change in the police forces and society. 

The protests in NYC seemed to awaken the city (and I was so pleased to see there was not a boost in covid cases from them), as mid June the city started to come back to life (I suppose the warmer weather helped too, as well as NY entering phase one and now two). In June I met friends for walks and bike rides, where we got outdoor to-go cocktails, and I spent many hours under trees in parks.   

It was under one of those trees watching families have picnics that I suddenly yearned for my own. Suddenly I felt trapped in New York and alone.  And that’s why I spontaneously decided to head north for the summer. To see my nieces and family.  (I also didn’t have air conditioning at the time, but since then got a really good one, and I honestly wondered if I would have booked a flight had I had a nice cool apartment!!!)

As I type this I’m on day 13 of 14 of a very strict quarantine.  To abide by Canada’s laws I got myself an Airbnb for two weeks and have been self isolating alone here to ensure I’m not sick and didn’t bring the virus with me.  It’s been a little challenging being alone not in my own space. My own space where I can potter about with this n’ that. Although I organized all my photos, got up to date on my finances, and read a lot. 

My plan: I will stay in Canada and work remotely for the summer (while staying at my sister’s house, parent’s house (if I feel it’s safe), and hopping between cottages/lake houses).  For the month of September I may head to Maine with friends and rent a beach house.  But that’s still in the planning phase, as we’ll have to see how covid is doing. 

So... I also froze my eggs during quarantine.  My company was acquired by a larger one late last year and a mandatory benefits HR session said that the new company’s benefits package covered egg freezing.  A curious phone call lead to an appointment which lead to blood work which lead to financial chats and then suddenly I was set to do it in March.  But then of course covid swept the nation, so it was delayed.  Fortunately (as my fertility results came back very weak) they allowed me to do it in May.  

If you followed my lizclaire_ Instagram it probably looked like I was out and about a lot for two weeks, and that’s because I was heading to the Upper East Side to get blood work and ultra sounds done.  I injected my lower stomach each morning and night for nearly two weeks and then had a surgery mid May.  I now have twenty(!) frozen eggs somewhere on the upper east side. (If you’re curious and would like to know more, you can follow my selfiesandsalads_ instagram; lots of info there)

The financial side of the egg freezing has been a terrible adventure in and of itself.  I was told my company covered it, but that has not been the case. It’s actually very hard to deeply understand what the heck I am being billed for (total cost so far is over $25,000).  It’s been stressful and crazy and I am shocked at how complicated this system is. 

But... the whole egg-freezing-maybe-I’ll-have-a-baby-alone-one-day is Plan B. Plan A is dating, and y’all, I have been dating in quarantine! I actually really prefer it as everyone is free, and a Facetime date really lets you get to know someone.  I really liked a few guys, but after a few dates I got the traditional “lets be friends” texts. Sigh. It boggles my mind how anyone gets married. 

In the beginning of quarantine I started the weight loss app, Noom. I really really liked it. It helped me soooo much get my own internal thoughts around food in order.  I “fell off the wagon” so to speak, but I want to restart it as I learned so much about myself and my (poor) habits while doing it

I was going to skip a bullet point about this, but I suppose this is real life, I am feeling so meh in my own skin lately. And I know it’s just a mental thing, as I’m the same weight as i was about two years ago, but still, I feel frumpy and, well, I don’t know what  more to say really.  My left knee still hurts quite a bit. Which means it’s been hurting for over two years now.  It’s so frustrating and yet I’m too lazy to do my leg exercises and yadda yadda.  I realize this is a bit of a woe is me bullet, and on all accounts I seriously am so grateful for my life in New York and friends and routine, and there are days I think f*ck it, and am confident and happy and stress free, but I’d be lying if I didn’t mention the other side too. Sometimes it really feels like being comfortable in my own skin is a slice of the pie (pun?!) I just can’t get in my control. Everyone has something, and food is my something. 

I think that’s mostly it!  I’ll be back in NY at the end of the summer and I’m excited to enjoy the city now that I’ve got a good 1.5 years base laid out.  My friends and I had a big summer list of things to do, and I hope we can start ticking things off next year, although, we’ll see what the world looks like then, wont we?

Since I started this blog back in 2007 (!!!) I’ve always posted the places I’ve lived in. From my first downtown apartment in Toronto with my good friend Veronica, to the two places I lived in Melbourne, Australia (South Yarra and Carlton), to my cute little apartment midtown Toronto, and of course my modern spot in downtown Detroit, and thus I thought I’d now my little spot New York City! 

Technically I’ve lived in three spots in NYC: a month in my first Airbnb (on 14th between 1st and 2nd), then six months in the East Village with a roommate on St. Marks Street (between 2nd and 3rd), and then finally my own little apartment, which I’ve lived in for nearly a year(!) now. 

I absolutely love this apartment, and am so pleased I found it.  I ended up seeing about thirty apartments all over New York, and chose this one because I could walk to work, it faced west (light), and had a lot of character (I’m not a new-build fan). 

When I moved into this space last August I had no idea how I would decorate it. It was a blank canvas with a large big room and a tiny bedroom (7′ x 8′).  Over the months (and with the help of Pinterest), I’ve slowly turned it into a space I absolutely love being in, and feel very at-home in. 

My Living Room / Dining Area

I ordered my chase couch from an online company called Article. It was scary ordering a couch I couldn’t test out, but I absolutely love it and would recommend it.  

My rug is from ruggable (one of those washable ones). It’s aesthetically very pleasing, but I wish I had got a more fluffy rug for my feet. 

You’ll notice that the picture on the wall changes throughout this post, and that’s because my TV is the Samsung Frame TV; a TV that looks like art!  

It swept the blogging/influencer world a few years ago, and I knew I really wanted to get one day as soon as I saw it (Young House Love just got it too!). It was pricey, but I still love it so much!  

My Dining Area / Work area

Let the record show that I eat 95% of my at-home meals on my couch. But, y’know, I still wanted a little dining area to sit in case I had guests or needed a workspace. Little did I know that the whole “workspace” thing would become so important in 2020! 

I bought wooden shelves from Target, and paid a Task Rabbit to install them on the brick wall. I love how they turned it! 

Once quarantine was mandatory I rotated my table added a monitor and created a more formal little workspace for myself.  

I *only* sit at my desk Monday - Friday during working hours, which I find has really helped me focus on work, and still feel a work/life separation.  

My Kitchen

My apartment was renovated in 2016 and I think the kitchen is the highlight of the reno. It’s a small wall-kitchen but does the job just fine. I added the island to get more counter space and to add some drawers for my cutlery.   I bought the island from Wayfair and would *not* recommend. There’s a huge crack on top, the doors don’t fully close (the magnets sent were wrong), and if you take a look at my “apartment” Instagram story highlight (on LizClaire_) you’ll see the state it arrived it; most of the pieces were cracked right through! 

But I do still love how it looks, and thing it works well in the space. 

My Bedroom

Someone told me for a bedroom to be considered a bedroom it needs to be at least 8′ x 8′, which thus means my bedroom isn’t actually a bedroom, as it’s teeny tiny coming in at 7′ x 8′. 

I recently removed a long chest of drawers and rotated my bed, and now love the layout despite the door not shutting.   

I haven’t yet decided what I’m going to do with the brick wall, but I’d like to do something... art, plants, nothing? 

My Bathroom

I remember when I first saw the bathroom I couldn’t believe how huge it was! It was an unexpected perk, especially after living in my previous apartment where I had to step over the toilet to get into the bathtub!

I bought two prints from Society6 for the wall, and a small cabinet for guest towels.   It doesn’t have a bathtub (and I do love baths!), but it has a beautiful skylight above it, which makes the light so pretty inside. 

The View!

One of the perks of being on a 4th-floor walk-up is you can get a little bit of a view.  I love sitting on my couch and looking out, and actually arranged the whole living room to optimize being able to look out the window to see the NY-y buildings. 

Storage

Ahh, yes, storage.  Glorious glorious organization and storage.  I have this (the below) large closet right as I enter (complete with a washer/dryer unit! woo!). It’s been very useful for keeping my cleaning products and odds n’ ends. 

The below photo was taken right after I cleaned it. Usually, it’s quite a mess! 

In my bathroom I have large drawers which are great and keep me organized! 

And finally, the closet in my bedroom is pretty decent! It goes right up to the ceiling which is awesome for suitcase/camping/large container storage.  I’ve still had to get rid of tons of clothes and goods, but living simply is always my goal, so pretty good. 

The below photo also shows the old chest of drawers I had in my room, which is now gone. 

Well, there you have it! A snapshot in time of my little abode in Greenwich, New York.  

I just renewed my lease, so I’ll be in the apartment for at least another year, but it is now one of my favourite spots in the world, and I feel so lucky to live here.

First come the magnolias, then the cherry blossoms, and finally the Japanese flowering almond trees... views from my walk to Whole Foods yesterday through Washington Square Park.