Wedding Shoes (final), my shopping trip, and Automatic for the People

Today at Scarborough Town Centre I picked up a pair of silver sequined sandals from Call it Spring that I had ordered online.  They cost me $18 (they were on clearance) and I bought them because they looked like they would suit my needs: they would fit, they had an ankle strap so they'd stay on, they had a heel, they had a platform (which I prefer but my mom thinks is insane) and, best of all, they have rubberised soles so they're not slippy on smooth floors (this is critical).

I wanted to share images on here but apparently I can't load images from my computer.  In lieu of that, here is a link to the website instead. I know they're on clearance now for $9 which makes me a bit sad, because I paid $18 for them.  But I still got a good deal compared to the original $60 price!  They are on clearance so that link won't work forever, so I apologise if you've come to this blog late and the link is broken.  Here is the best I can describe them: they are sandals with a wedge heel, a platform base (about 1 inch high), and they are completely covered in little silver sequins.  They not only have a sling back, but they also have an ankle strap to keep them on my feet.  The sole is rubberised, as I said above, and it has a slight little heel to it at the back (about 1 millimetre).  The overall look is very fancy, very shiny, and very chic.

Anyway I'm currently wearing them to break them in!  My mom doesn't know I've bought them yet.  I want to break them in a bit and surprise her with them when she's up next.  She will say they're too high but I'm fine on them and I don't wobble like I did on the other pair of silver shoes I had purchased from Spring.  The other pair were a normal pair of heeled shoes only covered in silver glitter.  They're very pretty, but they have a smooth sole which makes it very difficult to walk on smooth surfaces.  I will probably just have to sell them on eBay or something.  Which is a shame because they really are nice, but they just won't have any practical purpose for me.

Also on my trip to Scarborough Town Centre I made a couple other stops.  I went in Claire's to get ring guards (the stupid clear plastic kind, but it will suffice for now), but came out with a couple fashion scarves, and a couple pairs of hand warmers (arm warmers that only cover up to the wrists; I call them hand warmers).  One scarf is more fancy and is black with silver lines through it.  I will wear that for dressy occasions.  The other one is blues/purples and looks like the night sky with nebulae.  It's definitely more casual and would be better with jeans.  The hand warmers, one pair is black fishnet and the other pair is black lace.  Not entirely sure when I will wear them, but I've wanted them for the longest time so I will find a suitable occasion.  The lace ones are meant for summer specifically, but could be used for dressier occasions too, I guess.

On my way out of Claire's I saw Ecko Unltd.  I used to have a sweater from them that I had bought at Canada's Wonderland ages ago.  I had bought it because it was a cold day and I was under dressed and I needed something warm.  It was like $65 or $70 but I wore it a lot and definitely got my money's worth from that sweater in the end.  Unfortunately, it was a medium and I grew too fat for it and somewhere it disappeared from my wardrobe.  So I went into Ecko Unltd to see what they had, since they had HUGE signs saying "up to 70% off."  Well, I ended up coming out with three sweaters (buy 2 get 1 free) for $67 after taxes.  Not bad, eh?  I bought one black hoodie with the Ecko logo on it in shimmery silver, a blue hoodie which has "Ecko Unltd" written on it in blue sequins, and the sweater I got for free is an oversized (not really) light and dark grey striped sweater with a glittery Ecko written in stylised font on the front.  That one will mostly be for sleepwear.  I mean I could totally wear it out, but it has a wide neck and I can't see many times I'd want to wear a sweater out of the home but not have something near the neck.  At home it doesn't matter as much.

When I got home, a friend linked on Facebook a video of R.E.M.'s song "Losing my Religion" but in a major key instead of a minor one.  Well, it definitely sounded "sunnier" but it just sounded.. wrong somehow.  I had that album back in the day, but I also had the album Automatic for the People on cassette.  I listened to that album a lot, especially on the road.  There were many times we'd come back from my aunt and uncle's and I'd listen to this album while watching all the farm fields go by out the window.  Very relaxing, and a lot of good memories.  Now I can create new memories with the album, since I just bought it from iTunes!  But really, it is a fantastic commute album.

So it was kind of an expensive day (to be fair the shoes had been ordered in advance, I was just picking them up), but I think I did well.

Two forays into ZG later...

So I've learned I'm not as good at vanilla druid healing as I had hoped, but I"m still learning and gearing up.  I have joined a guild that is helping me to gear up and is teaching me the ropes so I hope to become a great healer with their assistance.  It's a lot of fun doing this old content again at level.  I never really got a chance to do this stuff at level the first time around and really missed out on the experiences involved.  Unfortunately there is a lot of pain-in-the-ass involved as well, but that comes with territory of raiding.  ;)

In other news, I need a ring guard for my engagement ring.  My fingers have shrunken with the colder weather and my ring keeps threatening to fall off so I've taken to not wearing it anymore.  I have tried People's but they don't sell them.  They suggested Wal-Mart but Wal-Mart says they don't sell them.  Online says that most jewellers don't sell them but Claire's does, if I want stupid plastic ones.  My mom insists that she had hers done at some jewellers in St. Catharines so I might just have to get it done when I see her next week.

TTC tokens and Vanilla WoW

Back in late December I paid for 20 TTC tokens at a subway station when coming home from work.  I paid my fare, entered the station and counted my tokens: 16.  Adding the one I just used for fare, that meant I was only given 17 tokens instead of 20.  I didn't want to leave the station again to argue that he had given me the wrong number of tokens (he didn't use the dispensing machine, he counted them manually) and besides there was a line up.  Because I put the tokens in my change purse there was no way I could prove that he had accidentally given me the wrong number of tokens.  So when I arrived at home I went to the TTC website and put in a complaint, explaining the situation and saying I only wanted the three tokens.  Well today I received a letter from the TTC Senior Customer Service Representative and taped to the letter were three tokens!  So that was good that they gave me the tokens I was owed, but from now on I'm just going to get my tokens from Shoppers Drug Mart since they dispense them 5 at a time into bags so they're always given out in correct quantities.

In other news, while watching videos on YouTube of World of Warcraft music I saw a couple comments mentioning a private server set in Vanilla (1.12).  I started playing in Burning Crusades so I never really got to experience WoW when it was new.  Since private servers are free, I decided to sign up for a couple and check them out.  They both used the same client, but one seemed to be working better for me than the other and so that's the one I started a character on.  I hope I don't get in trouble with Blizzard for doing this, because really I'm just satisfying my curiosity.  It's not as though I'm going to stop being a subscriber to the actual World of Warcraft.  Anyway, I've noticed some things about WoW 1.12 and the private server that are worth noting:

Private Server features:
- The realm I started on creates level 60 characters instead of level 1s.  That way you can jump in and get to the end game content and pvp ranks.  Since the realm is PVP, it also prevents people from being ganked by high level toons since you won't really be questing.
- Upon rolling your character you get a portal to the nearest city.  When you port into the city, there are vendors with rings, cloaks, totems/librams/idols, and dungeon 1 gear sets.  All of this is free, which is good since your toon is starting at level 60 in level 1 gear.  Thnis is a great way to get you set up quickly so you can start enjoying the game and not have to grind up dungeons for gear.
- The riding vendor is free for regular riding, and one racial mount is free.  No running around until you can earn some gold!  You only get a 60% mount, but it's better than nothing.

Notable differences from Mists of Pandaria:
- I miss auto-loot.
- Wow, Stormwind was really ugly compared to the revamp it received in Cataclysm.  Really this is true for a lot of the zones.  I hadn't really noticed much of an upgrade when all the zones changed in Cataclysm, but going back to Vanilla you can really see the differences in quality.
- The layout of Stormwind is different.  Especially Old Town.  Instead of the open area with the training dummies and stable master, you have some stone walkways.  The door into where the honour vendors are is a portal and you cannot get inside unless you are rank 4 or higher, whatever that means.  I have yet to successfully PVP.
- I still like the old talent trees.  I understand why Blizzard moved away from that talent model, but I still like it.
- I do not miss spell ranks.  It's very annoying having to flip pages trying to find the highest rank of a spell so you can add it to your bars.  If I was levelling, I probably would've forgotten that I even have to see a trainer every level or two to train.
- It's quaint to only have a few abilities.  I rolled a restoration druid.  She has 4 healing spells: rejuvenation, regrowth, swiftmend, and healing touch.  Also tranquility, but that's more a cooldown.  It keeps things sooo much simpler.
- I miss addons.  OH GOD DO I MISS ADDONS!  I was invited to join a guild and raid with them tomorrow night (well, it's later tonight now).  I'm not sure how to heal without addons.  I know it's possible, but I will have to get myself set up beforehand with vuhdo or clique or something.  I also need unit frames.  I'm not entirely sure how Blizzard envisioned people to heal in Vanilla.  Click a frame and press a button?  Ugh!
- Ability changes.  Abilities are similar but different form how they are now, and they are influenced/changed by talents.  It's kind of like learning the game over again.
- I miss the fact that buffs now buff a group if you're in a group.  You don't have to buff everyone individually.  In a 20 man, that will be annoying (the group I'm joining is only doing 20 mans for now).
- WTB more mana.  Spirit is obviously going to be a huge deal for me.  I can't just spam my big heals or anything.  My mana regen is stupid low, but my heals are probably decent.  Balancing gear will be a new challenge.

Unrelated:
- The guild that has asked me to join them tomorrow night is French.  I don't know much French and they don't know much English.  So this may or may not work.  lol

Overall this is an interesting experience and I'm sure I will have more to add as I play more.  I only played for a couple hours tonight (I had to raid in live WoW) so we will see how things go tomorrow.

More stuff off the list

Well, because eBay must be done in a timely manner, I bought a few things off it today for the wedding.  Unfortunately this means I spent more than I have in my bank account (yay overdraft protection!) but if Andrew gives me a little money I should be okay.  I bought my necklace/earring set, my bridesmaid gifts, a veil, and tea lights that have a white glow.  On the weekend we had tried tea lights from my work, but they had an amber glow.  In the frosted glass, the real flame looked white so we knew we needed tea lights with a white glow.  We are going for battery operated lights instead of real ones because real tea lights only burn for about 4 hours.  We didn't want them going out before the evening was through.

On eBay I also found a terrific looking invitation set.  The invites are $1.59 each, but printed on handmade paper.  They do not come with envelopes, but they will fit inside standard A6 envelopes.  They are absolutely beautiful and have a blue stylised bird on them.  Shipping is even free, even though it's coming from Europe.  However, since we would also want RSVP cards and we won't be ordering invites until July or August, I added the auction to my watch list instead of paying for them now.

Bethesda Softworks said "yes" (informally)

I just came home from work to find an e-mail from a the global community lead at Bethesda Softworks.  He said "While we don't give formal permission for that sort of thing, I don't see it being an issue."

So, yay!  That is our processional and recessional music confirmed.  :)  Now we just need to hear back from Blizzard Entertainment.  Once my mom books the DJ I will just have to confirm with him that this is sufficient permission for him to play the pieces.

Wedding dress purchased

Went to Paula's Elegant Bride today to try on wedding dresses.  Found one that fit and was gorgeous and bought it on the spot.  So that is over with.  :)

Blog to go

This is just a test blog post being written from my Blogger app on my Android phone.  Please disregard.

'sup

This is a new blog, obviously.  Not sure if I'm even going to keep it.

ETA: Ok, now that I've redirected my domain to this site, I guess I'm keeping it.  I just don't promise to update it often.  ;)