A Day With Lauren

As we near the end of January, I find it crazy how people’s emotions are a pendulum from the beginning of the month - the promise of new resolutions and optimism for the new year ahead - and then mid month hits and the pendulum hits a giant boulder and you almost feel stuck. You realize you go to work when it's dark, come home when it's dark and, for Vancouver, the winter rain has set in and that can be a bit of a downer.

I've been deemed a bit of a "planner" among my friends, I love organizing group events, hosting dinner parties, volunteering and getting involved in different events in the city - I want to admit that part of my motivation is that I am single and live alone and if I DIDN'T reach out and organize things I would lead a sad life sitting in my apartment binge watching Netflix, alone. That's why I have a rule: say YES to as many invitations as possible - especially if it's outside of your normal routine! It's always hard getting there but usually 95% of the time you're happy you went or it's an experience to talk about.

A few things I said YES to this week:

A visit to Grouse Mountain! I usually just visit the mountain after doing the traitorous 3km hike up. This time we went up to see the snow!! Crazy this mountain is just 20 minutes outside of downtown and it transports you to a winter wonderland with activities like skating, sleigh rides, skiing and some epic photo ops in the twinkling lit forest walk. See exhibit A: My loud cackle captured on film.

Another fun (and NEW!) thing I participated in this week was volunteering for the Vancouver Symphony Ball! It was a black tie, "Singing in the Rain" themed event and all to support a good cause - what better way to spend your Thursday night? I'd also recently purchased some black tuxedo pants that I needed to debut at the perfect event... on a white carpet.

I joined one of the many "new" online dating apps, "Bumble", yes ladies, there are bee's out there waiting for you to talk to them! And by Bee's I mean men. This site is a bit different than the other ones because the woman needs to make the first move within 24hours of being matched - I'm a fan of the concept, but I won't lie, my rate of return on responses was about 5% (Insert defeated emoji here.) HOWEVER, I did connect with a guy and am proud to say I am going on a date this weekend!

So you can see the theme here: say YES...JUST DO IT. You won't regret it! Well maybe you will, but then you'll have a story to tell over a bottle of wine with the girls and you'll always have your sweats and Netflix to go home to ...

Happy Weekend!