more prepared to marry than i was last week

dear people, it's been a rocky hiatus. multiple personal deadlines and nothing much to show for it. sleep at weird hours. and continuing cold. but time moves on (which is a positive thing? ugh, i shudder) and wow, it's march already. phew, it's almost mid-march already. on the downside, we have daylight saving time tonight, which will destroy my sleeping patterns further, if possible. on the upside...i'll know more about the upside tomorrow evening after 6 p.m. not that i'm unhappy with the quantity of light we're getting so far.
but ok, one more thing out of the way. soon i'll be able to call it spring without rolling my eyes.

beginning of march, some half-assed sporadic snow. why go out, though.

ok, this is last day of february, 5.30 pm. (and my weird habit of waiting for the light to go and noting the time before i turn on the lights. not after daylight saving, though.)

so i was waiting for a letter from my parents and i got a package. who knew. this is the official celebratory spring package, with a few other secondary/accidental connotations.

1. as a result of the fact that i'm still talking to my parents about my day-to-day life, and that i've had 2 colds this season, and that i lost my voice for a bit during one of them, and that i've complained that advil has no effect on me, now i have the best romanian medicine shelf this side of jarry street. seriously, this is only part of it, because i hadn't finished the rest of the stuff i arrived in canada with. maybe because i don't really take medicine. hm. but i will take all the throat lozenges and vitamins. preemptively. ok.

2. the actual reason for this post: my mother thought it appropriate to send me this bedspread from the village, which is part of my official 'dowry'. she knows it was one of my favourites of the bunch, and that i kept telling her i wished i could take some of them with me. eh, voila! my dowry is making it across the ocean, bit by bit, apparently! she felt the need to mention that this was an 8th of March = women's day present.  so yeah. 

3. companion pieces to the bedspread: tableclothes (at least those were bought by myself, thank god) and...yeah, i don't know exactly what this other thing is, except that it's obviously old and traditional. a long table-cloth too or something you'd drape on the frame of a religious icon. but  they are dowry, ok. 

and the 1st of march traditional things, which i'm tired to explain what they are. you pin them on and wear them between 1st and 8th of march. i asked for one with a lion (for reasons that will be painfully obvious to some readers) and i got a zodiac lion, which i think is hilarious. but it's a heavy-ass silver pendant, so of course i'm wearing the hell out of it. 

so yeah, spring presents. i also did my spring clothing-shopping, of which i'd like to present to you the most amusing items:

ballet flats and golden socks! (and the card from a., which i've just included because it fits)

it's not a real leather riding jacket, with a crimson lining, but you get the idea. i'm glad the idea is vague enough  while the   jacket is still wearable. if i'd had 600$ to spend, it could've been the other way round. 

so, yes. clearly more prepared. progress all the way.
c