brand new day.

Some kind of magic
Happens late at night
When the moon smiles down on me
And bathes me in it’s light

I fell asleep beneath you
In the tall blades of grass
When I woke the world was new
I never had to ask

It’s a brand new day
The sun is shinning
It’s a brand new day
For the first time
In such a long long time
I know
I’ll be ok

Most kind of stories
Save the best part for last
Most stories have a hero who finds
You make your past your past
Ya you make your past your past

It’s a brand new day
The sun is shinning
It’s a brand new day
For the first time
In such a long long time
I know
I’ll be ok

This cycle never ends
Gotta fall in order to mend

And it’s a brand new day
It’s a brand new day
For the first time
Inn such a long long time
I know
I’ll be ok

bon voyage.

Grams left for Shanghai yesterday and I received this e-mail update:

Hi guys I got here just fine - it is a beautiful city - I didn't expect all the greenery. Perry's flat is just gorgeous and the grounds are too. We are off to a bar to hear perry and his friend from England play so haven't slept since 4 yesterday.but will get caught up tomorrow. Did an exchange of money from some guy on the street that Perry knew - was the strangest thing. Going to Bejing tomorrow night on an overnight train. Love you lots Grams/Grandma/Mom/whatever

Hope you are having a fabulous trip, Grams! No one deserves it more than you!! =)

(a darker shade of) ORANGE & BLUE

I was quite excited that Tebow was drafted to the Denver Broncos!! ... not that I normally cheer for them or anything (come to think of, I don't cheer for any NFL team) but look! They have the same colors as the Gators ... just a bit deeper shades of Orange and Blue!! ... I won't even have to change my cheers or my wardrobe for game days ... which are obvi the most important parts of the game! Go Big (dark) Blue!!

on day fifteen, she rested.

Saturday marked the halfway point of my thirty day challenge and I'm not sure how much more bending and balancing my incredibly inflexible, out of shape physique can handle! I had a migraine for three days and I'm pretty sure it was due to a combination of doing yoga in a 100 degree room Thursday night sweating out every drop of water in me and pretty much bending my spine in half ... and then twisting ... every day for the past two weeks straight so I decided to celebrate the fifteenth day of my challenge by boycotting the yoga studio and giving my sore, aching body the much needed break by going for a therapeutic massage at the Solstice Spa in Elk Horn. Grams and I drove up for the afternoon and saw the cutest black bear who looked so sleepy he must of just woken up from his winter's long hibernation on our way back!! The mini-vacation from yoga was just what I needed to get myself reexcited of the thought of yoga for the next fifteen days as I just got back to Winnipeg and I'm heading to the studio to take 2 classes tonight. Wish me luck; and by luck I mean I hope my spine doesn't snap.

ode to italy.

My Sweet Italy -- It's been about four years since I spent my summer exploring your cobblestone streets and I just want to tell you that I miss your Tuscan touch incredibly! Sometimes I miss you so much it sends lightning strikes through my heart!

I miss your breathtaking views.

I miss your landmarks.

I miss your waterways.

and the way you navigate them...

and the handsome Italian men that navigate the navigation.

I miss your day hikes to the top of volcanoes looking out over

the Mediterranean.

I miss your statues of naked Greek Gods in fountains.

I miss your bascilicas.

You've left me in ruins, like those in Pompeii.

If only I could speak your language, I would tell you that I'm sorry for leaving you but that I never stopped loving you. Distance makes the heart grow fonder and currently, my heart is pained by a giant boot-shaped hole, so incomplete without you. I long for the day I get to see you again.

-ooxxo- Jocelyn

Happy Earth Day!!

In honour of Earth Day, I thought I would share my favourite parts of the environment and the lens I see them through...

concrete jungles and metropolitan skylines.

the moon rising in the east; the sun setting in the west.

blue skies and popcorn clouds.

dusk and its stillness.

canyons and their continuity.

the ocean and its jedis.

a Gator Girl's dream.

Tonight marks the start of the NFL draft ... I'm secretly hoping Tim won't get drafted to the NFL and will decide to come to Winnipeg to play in the CFL for the Blue Bombers ... what? a Gator Girl can dream!

behind the scenes.

While in LA a couple of months ago, Mitchell and I met up with one of his friends from college who works in creative advertising at Universal Studios making movie trailers and as she put it, tricking people in to seeing not so great movies like Couples Retreat. She took us on a private tour behind the scenes via golf cart to see all the studios on the Universal lot like the plane crash site in War of the Worlds and the original Jaws set. Desperate Housewives was filming that day so we didn't get any pictures on Wisteria Lane but it was fun being able to hop on and hop off and run thru all the sets especially where Westerns are filmed with the saloons with the small doors to make the cowboys look huge! =)

magnificent Monday.

Yesterday was a very exciting Monday!! It was roughly 75 degrees out (or more accurately, whatever 23 is in Celcius) and as I sat in an education class all day staring out the window at the bright, sunshining sun ... I mean learning about new and exciting ways to be a neonatal nurse (that was not the magnificent part of my day)... Mitchell had his dentistry interview across the street in the dental school... Fingers crossed, he finds out at the end of June whether he will get into University of Manitoba's dentistry program... and whether my 'greens' fantasy will ever come true ... just kidding!!

The other text message convo I had all day in class while simultaneously paying close attention to the lectures on Retinopathy and breastfeeding was with Kara who found out she was having a baby girl and consequently, I am going to have a niece!!! =) AJ or Auntie Jocie (I'm allowing this babe to be one of the few privileged people in this world to call me Jocie among the likes of Auntie Paul and well, just Auntie Paul mainly) is very excited to spoil this sweet baby girl!! After work, I stopped at several little baby boutiques to purchase all things pink before heading to the yoga studio to take two classes in a row.

And lastly, my mum's dog Lola had four puppies on Easter and yesterday they opened their eyes!! Isn't this one sweet? Don't we need it, Mitchell?!

true friendship.

True friendship isn't being inseparable,

it's being separated and nothing changes.

cacti at camelback.

salute my shorts.

Today was the first day since I moved here that I could wear shorts outside!! I woke up around noon and noticed it was exceptionally sunny outside. I wrapped myself in my Snuggie, grabbed The Alchemist, a piping hot cup of coffee and a dining room chair (we haven't invested in patio furniture yet!!) and hoped to Helios it would be warm enough to enjoy the rays outdoor and not just through a window.... 2 hours and an entire book later, I am proud to say that I have a tank top sunburn line!! Never have I been so happy to see a hick tan. Since I knew I would eventually be heading to the yoga studio, I ran my errands spandex-clad with flip flops on my feet and not once did I feel like my toes were going to freeze off mid step. It was a beautiful thing. I never realized how much not seeing the sun from October til now affected me. I thought my inability to smile this winter was because I was having a hard time adjusting to a new country, city, roommate and job ... but when that California sunshine hit my skin in March, I felt a rebirth. I instantly began smiling and am quite positive I didn't stop glowing until I returned to the greyness of Winnipeg an entire week later. Never having lived where it wasn't summer year round, I didn't quite believe Seasonal Affect Disorder really existed?? Although the greyness of the Peg is starting to fade to a beautiful barren brown, I'm hoping that the long days of sunshine in the summer will make me want to take back all the negative things I've said about this place in the last six months when I'm basking in the sun til midnight!

california dreamin'

I know I was just there three weeks ago but I can't help but spend my days off daydreaming of being back on Hermosa Beach whale watching with the surfers along the Pacific Ocean...

happy birthday to the Mrs.'

Happy Birthday, Mrs. Williams!

Happy Birthday, Mrs. Lucas!

challenge smallenge.

ahhh .. I might of missed the first day of my 30 day challenge yesterday. In my defense, I had to work all day and missed all the classes that were offered. Then I might of spent my Saturday night with Mitch and our friends at Rumors, a comedy club in the basement of a strip mall here in Winnipeg, to watch Bobcat Goldthwait's stand-up (from Police Academy for those of us born a generation too late to recognize that name). He looked just like this, even wearing both this hat and those glasses! ... Lucky for me I can make up the missed first day this week by going to two yoga practices in one day on one of my three days off midweek and earn back the missing heart-shaped sticker on the progress chart at the yoga studio! namaste.

30 day challenge.

Not able to run or hike in the frigid temps and flat prairies in Winnipeg this winter, I spent a lot of time at Moksha, a hot yoga studio. Not only was it a fun and challenging form of exercise I could do indoors but it was also the perfect way to defrost my toes doing yoga in a room that is heated to 90 degrees! Winter is finally over!! Which means my hibernation is also over and it's time to rid myself of the extra layer of "insulation" I accumulated over the last six months in a feeble attempt to keep warm! I have signed up for a 30 day challenge that begins tomorrow... wish me luck!

first date?

Mitch and I were trying to figure out when our official first date was... I might of initiated the conversation, asked & answered all questions and decided it was unknown... so let me rephrase that by saying I was having a conversation with myself out loud while Mitch was in the same room... All that came to my mind involved an entire hockey team ... dinner at Outback... with the team. Beach and boating in Florida.... with the team. Day at the zoo, hiking and afternoons poolside in Phoenix... with at least one other member of the team. Weekend rendezvous in Vegas ... with the team. You get my point. For Christmas, Mitchell surprised me with tickets to John Mayer and I'm declaring our concert tonight our official first date... without the team!

roommate reunion 2010.

When my roommates and I made a pact to have a reunion every year after we graduated college, I couldn't help but to wonder what would be the perfect place for four young, desirable, virtually inseparable bachelor girls who lead and confide in each other in all facets of their womanhood to parade down crowded city streets in Manolos, spend endless hours shopping and galavanting thru art galleries, talk about their love (read: sex) lives over breakfast and become regular glitterati socializing amongst the cultural elite... it was unanimous... only in New York City could the four of us find the Carrie Bradshaw in all of us!!! Here is a photog chronicling of the sexy exploits that took place on our weekend away in Manhattan.

in the candy shop at FAO Schweetz

not the cash cab ...

heading uptown.

Mamma Mia

Times Square

Wall Street

Stock Exchange

love, love, love you girls!!!