My Life in January: O.Noir, Potted Potter, and Dino Hunts

January was a fun month! There were several exciting events that pertained to my boyfriend and I. First up: our 4 year anniversary.

We went to O.Noir for dinner, something that I had been curious about trying out for a while now. If you don't know, O.Noir is a restaurant in Toronto (and Montreal) in which you dine in pitch blackness. No jokes. Dining in the dark is meant to heighten your remaining senses so that you can savour your meal more than you would otherwise... well, I don't know about that. But what I do know is that the experience was just plain cool.

The servers are all blind and it's a good thing too, because they have the experience needed to guide you through the restaurant and through your meal. I really love the concept of this restaurant. It gives you a feel for what it must be like to be visually impaired and the challenges that come with that. And there's a role reversal here: usually it is the sighted that lead the blind, but here we were utterly dependent on the guidance of our blind - and very kind - server.

At some point during my meal, I must have left my fork on the plate of my starter, which was then taken away by my server. When my main dish was put down in front of me I realized I no longer had my fork, but was too embarrassed to call out to my server to ask for another one. So I ate my dinner by carefully scooping up the food from my plate with my knife. LOL! I also lost my napkin at some point during the meal, so it was a bit messy... But like I say, it was definitely a very cool and fun experience!

We also went to see Potted Potter, a semi-improvised parody of all seven Harry Potter books told in seventy minutes by only two actors. It was pretty fun! It was cool to be surrounded by fellow Potter fans who understood all the Potter-ish inside jokes. We played a live game of Quidditch in the audience and my team (Slytherin) won when our Seeker, a very enthusiastic and feisty young boy, full-on TACKLED the Snitch, ensuring our victory. Definitely check this show out if it comes to a city near you!

And finally, in January we celebrated the reveal of a new ceratopsian dinosaur at our place of work at the ROM. My boyfriend is a fossil preparator at the museum and he is also featured in a new TV series on the History Channel about palaeontology in Canada. All month long, there was a live feed running on the History Channel website in which you could tune in to watch my bf work on the fossils of this new species. I spent much of my month doing just that... avoiding my own work in the process, heh. Ah well, it was a once in a lifetime event and I am quite proud of my boyfriend for being so successful in his field!

Blog Posts in January:

Waiting On Wednesday: HarperCollins Spring 2015 Catalog
Review: Waistcoats & Weaponry by Gail Carriger - 4 Stars
Review: Dreamer's Pool by Juliet Marillier - 3 Stars
Review: Alistair Grim's Odditorium by Gregory Funaro - 3.5 Stars
Review: Catalyst (Insignia #3) by S.J. Kincaid - 4 Stars
Muggle Monday: New Images from the Fully Illustrated Edition of Harry Potter
2014 End of Year Book Survey
My 2014 Bookish Stats
Thoughts on on my 4 year blogoversary
November and December Recap: Berlin and the Holidays

Best Book Read in January:

Ermahgerd!! I finally read Isla and the Happily Ever After this month and obsessively read it over the course of a few days. SO MUCH LOVE!! It's been many years since I read Anna and the French Kiss so it may be hard to say, but I think Isla may be my favourite book of the trilogy! I just adored it and I'm sad that it's over, but I can't wait to read whatever Stephanie Perkins writes next!