Indulgent Intermission: Why I Went M.I.A. and the Fiery Red of Mother Nature

I apologize for going M.I.A., but one thing lead to the other and I found myself simply unable to get back to the groove of writing. Before I try to placate you some more, let me explain exactly what happened.

First off, my trip to Vancouver was a blast. It's an awesome city and I was very happy to catch up and spend time with my brother (who, wouldn't you know, actually bulked up with them muscles in the few years I haven't seen him). Sushi heaven at Tojo's, belugas with love handles at the Vancouver Aquarium, seeing Storybrooke from Once Upon A Time in person, high tea at the Fairmont Empress, smelling the roses at the Butchart Gardens...all in all, it certainly was worth every penny of the round trip airfare! Unfortunately, by my second day there, I was already feeling that scratchiness in your throat that I know almost always means I'm coming down with a cold. I suppose it didn't help either that to maximize our stay, we usually had pretty early mornings and very late nights. So, it's no surprise that I finally did get a cold. I developed the runny yet congested nose while in flight and let me tell you, descending from high altitudes when your ear just can't seem to pop hurts. A lot. Not even chewing gum helped. Suffice to say, I was glad to be home but unhappy about being sick.

Now, I only had a couple days to recuperate because the weekend promised to be a busy one, what with all the birthday celebrations AND Thanksgiving going on. I loaded up on lozenges, fluids and vitamin C but by the second day, I was coughing like mad, ran a fever and was spewing what honestly looked like slime. Off to the doctor I went and got my much needed antibiotics. I certainly didn't want to be passing this off to anyone else! By the weekend, I got my coughing somewhat under control with extra strength lozenges (the kind that numbs your throat is just divine at this). I also kept sanitizing and washing my hands, because, well, better safe than sorry, right? Dining in the dark at O Noir was a very interesting experience. Cosmic bowling was surprisingly fun (especially when you're not the lowest scorer, hurrah!), too. The Cutie Pie turned two with a Dora the Explorer themed party (with matching pinata!) and Mr. J turned officially old. The festivities probably took more out from me than I thought, so I ended up vegging out and catching up on sleep for the rest of the week.

And THAT is why I went M.I.A. I'm feeling loads better now (though still coughing a bit) and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who sent warm thoughts my way on Twitter and Instagram. You guys really are awesome, you know that? Anyway, I kind of went a bit overboard with swatching yesterday that I wasn't able to do a post. That said, this will be the "I'm back on the proverbial horse" post while I work on the actual posts that do involve what we're all here for: nails and nail polish. I've got some festive nails I sported for the celebrations I talked about earlier (thankfully, I had the foresight to photograph them before I took them off) and I'm really excited about the first Halloween themed nail art I'll be showing you tomorrow (they came out so well!). So definitely stay tuned for those in the next few days!

And because this post became one gigantic wall of text, here are some photographs I took yesterday (when it was horribly overcast and windy) of my favorite tree in our backyard. The wind was blowing so hard and I feared I wouldn't be able to get photos of when all the leaves finally turned red. Last year, I waited too long and most were blown off by then. Maybe in a few more days I'll have a fully red tree shot (if the wind cooperates).

Thanks for sticking it out with us and keeping Hammie company while I've been away! We hope your week is turning out to be a great one!