A Likely Story

2012-02-17T21:03:00.001-08:00

I wish I had a mango tree
In my backyard
With you standin next to me
Take the picture
From her lips I heard her say
Can I have you
Caught up in what to say
I said you do

I said you do
I said you do

Through my eyes I can see
A shooting star
Weavn it's way across the sea
Somewhere from mars
Down the street we would run
To scratch our names in the park
Young and free in the sun
Wheels upon the tar

I said you do
I said you do
I said you do.

2012-02-14T23:31:00.001-08:00

Don't ever forget what a wonderful person you are.

2012-01-30T10:22:00.001-08:00

2012-01-29T22:51:00.001-08:00

I'm pretty sure I already sent this link to like half the people in my contact list, but... SO FUNNY!!

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DFMghvnqDhT8&v=FMghvnqDhT8&gl=CA

Theres somethin in the bottom of this drink ive just gotten and it dont look like a worm to me.

2012-01-24T13:21:00.000-08:00

Hellooo, all you night owls out there! Of course, the one night I can actually get to bed at a halfway decent hour, I absolutely can not sleep! And now it's not even a halfway decent hour anymore, it's actually technically "tomorrow..." But, alas, I have decided that I might as well do something productive with my time, and soo, I have decided to upload some Mexico pictures for you! Hurray! And I mean A LOT of pictures, so prepare yourselves!

Out trip was AWESOME! I had THE BEST time! We went in my birthday, but more than anything, I was just soooo excited to spend time with my whole family. It was ridiculous how stoked I was to have Mason, Libby, and Oakes all trapped in a car with me for six hours on the drive to Seattle. No sarcasm. Speaking of the drive down actually, we totally got pulled over by a crazy cop on a motorcycle! Both my parents and me! But guess who got a ticket?! Hint: it wasn't the birthday girl ;)

Anyhoo once, we got there, (I ended up in a mexican airport wearing fuzzy sherpa moccasins... what was I thinking!??!) we tried to find our rental vehicle, which we had been informed would be waiting for us at the airport. This was not the case, and I was starting to freak out that the entire thing had been a scam. I guess I should mention that my mum booked our cabana privately, we didn't stay in a resort. Anyhoo while my mum was making phone calls, I was hyperventilating and one guy asked me how old I was, another if this is my natural hair colour, and a third asked if I would marry him. (whats new? haha) Luckily my mum figured things out and our rental car was on its way to the airport. If you can call this a rental anyways... My mum failed to ask what year our Suburban was, so we were all suspecting something big and shiny like cops tend to drive. Alas it was not so. Our Suburban rocked like a boat and had a bent frame, and there was a trick to do with the windshield wipers to turn it off without draining the battery. It had Alaska plates to boot, but we grew to love it, and I don't think we even ended up having to pay for it in the end:

My mum was kind of freaking out at this point, saying things like "if this condo is ANYTHING like this vehicle we are NOT staying there!!" But it was all for naught, the place was BEAUTIFUL! The pool was ten feet from our front door, and the ocean just a hop, skip and a jump from that!!

We did a lot of super cool activities, like a glass bottom boat tour, where you could see all these fishies swimming around under the boat, and we went out to the famous lovers cove which is on TONS of tourist-y type magazines.

The harbour was really beautiful!

I kinda wished I was on this boat.....

This was Scooby Doo according to our awesome captain! hahahahaha

Lovers Cove! The tide was in but maaaan, is it ever gorgeous!

Seals playing hide and go seek ;)

Snorkeling, was also a TON of fun! I could have done it all day, but, surprise, surprise, I was getting burnt because my sunscreen was just not that waterproof - but I did get to see some sweet little watery beasties, included a big huge eel, and a huge purple fish with all white eyes and huge fangs!! We also went on tons of little excursions on our own, it was so cool to actually see the real mexico, instead of just the inside of a resort, though at some times it was a little scary :P we found a couple of really cool almost completely deserted beaches!!

Me and the sis reading... again :P

My papa swimming. It was sooo shallow the whole way out!

My mama lookin HAWT.

Ghetto Mexico:

A couple of the restaurants we went to, they ONLY spoke Spanish! It was really cool, but hard to order, and i'm pretty sure sometimes I had like no clue what I was actually ordering at all haha. One place we went to, my mum got this huge "stone bowl" - it was SO COOL and seriously the most DELICIOUS thing I have EVER tasted! Ever!

The pictures make it look really weird, but basically it was just pork, cheese, cactus, and onion! Roasted and served in the stone bowl, on the wooden pallet they pulled it out of the oven on!

Another one of our favorite places to go was called Shooters. Ten peso beers!! That's less than a buck!! The servers were all sooo friendly and funny, and they served just boring old american food like bacon and pancakes, and I was all for that!!! In all honesty I don't actually much like beans or salsa hahahaha.

The one other restaurant I LOVED was fairly expensive but the servers were fantastic. The owner of the place came up to our table and introduced the entire crew of staff working! I had the most AMAZING fish, topped with a TON of seafood including octopus, which i LOVED!!!

Anyways, it was really a fantastic family trip, and this past week of minus thirty degrees has really made me miss it!!

I discovered my reflection in my dad's sunglasses... hahahahaha.

Us looking cute as usual.

At the market!

Maybe a bit much tequila for these kidsssss. *cough, cough, i mean adults of legal drinking age, cough*

Just some more ghetto mexico, nbd..

THE HUGEST BOAT EVER with a helicopter on it! Whaaat!?

I really only drank beer if we weren't at home because I was soooo afraid of getting sick from the water! Juice - scary. Water - scary. Margaritas - scary. Pop - ice, scary. I never did actually get drunk one single time though, I just became a weird casual drinker or something... Plus, I despise tequila. Nevertheless, I ended up being the only one that actually DID get sick, but luckily it held off until we got back home...

My mum trying to get a nice picture with the boys.... keep dreaming :P

Talk about bad lighting! This is the totally spanish-speaking restaurant. YUM

We so cute.

My favorite picture of the trip I think! Not too shabby for the ol iphone my mum was actually brave enough to bring on a BOAT! Mine stayed turned off in my suitcase for an entire 10 days :D

Words can't even describe...

Mmmm, belly button fuzz....?

I did SOOO much creeping on the surfers! Like.. SO much.

This guy was just out and about on the beach everyday trying to sell his colourful bracelets and necklaces. We ended up buying quite a lot of stuff from him on one of the last days. He told Libby she has nice teeth.

Its actually a shower!! I didn't notice for like at least five days..

Poisonous!! Luckily we only saw dead sea urchins.. they were sooo coool!

Do you see a face? I see a face.

I read SIX BOOKS while we were there! Thanks to this handy bookshelf full of books in the workout room! They were all just left from tourists, I think. Lib and I spent houuuurs in front of this thing. It was amazing.

Trying to get a nice family picture of something... hahahahhaah. Mum doesn't understand that the lack of perfection in all of our "family photos" is what makes them so perfect.

THEY'RE TRYING TO WET WILLY HER HAHAHAHHAH

So funny I almost passed out... ahh...

My awesome surprise birthday present from Oakes!! Best thing ever!!

Anyhoo, y'all, one day i'll put these all on fb so that I can tag them all properly, but since it took me like a WEEK to make this blog, i'm just faaaar too lazy now :)

still a little bit delirious

2012-01-22T10:43:00.000-08:00

2012-01-07T13:17:00.001-08:00

New Years Resolutions:

1: eat breakfast
2: quit palming the steering wheel
3: get a credit card
4: learn to hate subway

I will find strength in pain

2012-01-05T20:44:00.001-08:00

You know how "secret santa" type presents from work can sometimes really suck? Not so, this year. Our "Chinese Christmas" gift exchange worked out most excellently. I ended up getting what Kim contributed, and I just want to say that it is AWESOME! It's a Starbucks travel mug (which is awesome in itself) that gives you FREE tea or coffee for the ENTIRE month of January! Needless to say, I have already saved like... A bajillion dollars and it's only the sixth. I get tea like 3-4 times like every day, and I think I've tried like every single kind they have hehehe. That was the goal though of course. Yesterday when I went they embarrassed me slightly by saying that I must work in the area, but it was in a great joking manner, and we exchanged names. How nice. I just don't really like to switch it up and go to one of the other ten locations because these people are just toooo nice, and all for me completely abusing the system :P

That's really all that I have the energy to write tonight, I just haaaad to fill you in on how stellar it is!!

Anyhoo i'm off to stuff my face with another butterscotch apple scone and call it dinner. I really have no idea how to feed myself without Amanda and/or Graham here to cook my evening meal :P hahahah. I know, I know, I'm spoiled.

Climb over my way, we will paint the town red, get a little crazy

2011-12-30T23:19:00.001-08:00

Hey y'all,

I've been too busy to blog as of recently, (my spare moments have been taken by the diamonddash app in my phone) so today I leave you with a bit of advice and wishes for a happy new year! Good luck to all who are buying gym passes...

2011-12-29T08:54:00.001-08:00

Watch out for nargles.

2011-12-25T23:15:00.001-08:00

If I see one more chocolate, I am seriously going to hurl. I don't even LIKE chocolate! I just apparently have absolutely no willpower, because every time I walk through my parents dining room, or the lunchroom at work, I'm like "OOH, PURDYS!" and I stop and snack for ten minutes. Like some sort of wild animal grazing.

It's just chocolate that I've developed an aversion to, however. Throw some rum-eggnog homemade cheesecake at my face, and I am once again a human vacuum. Mana and Chris made seriously the BEST Christmas dinner I've ever had without a turkey this past Thursday! I'm talkin amazing beef in gravy with mushrooms, drool-worthy roasted lemon potatoes, and Greek salad, here. The cheesecake was the perfect finishing touch. It was so so so nice to have a sit down dinner with friends. It's something I haven't done much since everyone moved and Manda went away. Definitely makes me miss the good ol cooking lesson days, that's for sure! Though I did make French toast, bacon, and eggs for breaky this morning with Libby! If you know my sister and I at all, you're probably surprised it even turned out edible, but I have to say, once we sured out all the smoke and actually got everything in the table, it was really not bad. Not bad at alllll, so against all odds, i'm actually improving. :)

So anyways, the fact that I've probably gained twenty pounds and now have as much acne as a 13 year old boy who doesn't shower every day aside (curse chocolate): this Christmas was a wild success! My wonderful, wonderful coworkers let me take off from work at TWO! I was sooo incredibly excited! I hate driving in the dark, and I was so impatient to just get back to ol dub el. It took me like seventy trips in and out of the house past a ginormous, overly excited German Shepard with no respect for my space bubble to load the car full of presents! When I was unloading then at my parents, I felt exactly like how Santa must feel. It was kind of amazing. The moment I got home, my mum surprised me by making deviled eggs (my FAVE!) and she made me theee nicest air mattress bed a person could ever ask for! Score for not having to sleep on a shitty couch in the rec-room with no pillows and my brother! (September visit...)

Last night we had a faaaantastic turkey dinner with all the trimmings, and Manda and my grandparents came over! I got THE king of care packages from them! I couldn't be more excited that the whole month of January I won't be eating pb & j sandwiches made with stolen condiment packets from restaurants! My grandpa and Mana has the same conversation about seven times, and we spent the evening drawing and playing board games just like how Christmas eves should be spent in my mind! (After my parents finally relented and turned off the shitty reality tv shows anyways...heh)

We woke up early to open prezzies, me out of excitement, some of the others, (and I'm not naming any names here *cough* *mom* *hack* *snort*...) because Mason had to work at nine. I think it's safe to say that everyone really loved what I got them, and I'm sooo happy about it! I got absolutely stellar gifts too: my family must really miss me or something, because holy guacamole did they do me good this year! Mason ended up being a total little buggering liar face, and he didn't have to work at all, he just wanted to start tearing up gift wrap 20% earlier hahahahahahahahahahahaha. I nearly died it was sooo funny.

Anyhoo, I hope you all had a lovely festive time with your friends and families! It's that time which matters the most. Today I leave you with what is possibly the funniest thing of my entire life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VogjLauTNOk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Unfortunately i'm on the blogger app on my phone, so I'm not sure that that will actually become clickable, but make sure you copy and paste because it's well worth it, and I know you could all use a little laughter.

Cheers!

A partridge in a pear tree

2011-12-21T11:22:00.001-08:00

Only four more days guys!! The time feels like its going by really slowly for me actually - I think because I've actually done all of my Christmas shopping and I'm saving the rest of my wrapping for Christmas eve so I can do it with my mum... Also because I CAN'T WAIT to be home! We're leaving on the 23rd as soon as I'm off work, which could be anywhere between 4 and 6. It's going to be a full car this year with Manda, her sister AND her sister's bf, so that'll be kind of nice, not least because j won't have to fork out quite so much for gas.

Anyhoo, just a quick post today, I'm just killing time at Honda waiting for my customer... Again... Gosh I love waiting. Love it. Who needs to be productive or get any real work dine anyways? Grrrfbbbthhh

So, alas, it is here that I leave you with an excellent Christmas recipe. Slightly out if character you think? Well... Read on :)

Christmas Rum Cake Recipe

Once again this year, I've had requests for my Christmas Rum Cake recipe so here goes!

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
1 cup Sugar
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1 cup Water
1 tsp. Salt
1 cup Brown Sugar
Lemon Juice
4 Large Eggs
1 Bottle Rum
2 cups Dried Fruit

DIRECTIONS:

Sample the Rum to check quality.
Take a large bowl; check the Rum again to be sure it is of the highest quality. Repeat.

Turn on the electric mixer. Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.
Add 1 teaspoon of sugar. Beat again. At this point, it is best to make sure the Rum is still OK. Try another cup just in case.

Turn off the mixerer thingy. Break 2 eggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

Pick the fruit up off the floor. Mix on the turner.

If the fried druit getsa stuck in the beaterers, just pry it loose with a drewscriver or whatchamacallit.

Sample the Rum to test for tonsisticity.
Next, sift 2 cups of salt. Check the Rum.

Now shift the lemon ice and strain your nuts. Add one table and a spoon of sugar, or whatever you can find.

Greash the oven. Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over. Don't forget to beat off the turner.

Finally, throw the bowl away. Finish the Rum and wipe the counter with the cat.

Cherry Mristmas!!

Yellow diamonds in the light.

2011-12-17T17:13:00.001-08:00

You know when you're just so tired that you can hardly hold your head up? Your eyes are watering and everything coming out of your mouth is just random sounds (or drool) and it seems like you're speaking in wingdings or something? That's me right now. It's probably not even safe for me to drive. We'd all better hope I don't get another call or somebody's gonna get a hurt real bad (you better all be thinking of russell peters right now). Anyhoo, the point of this post is to advise you that yes, even though it may seem like a good idea at the time, taking a trip back down memory lane to say... Grade 3, and having a three person sleepover in one double bed may not really be the best idea ever if you want to be sane for work the next day. Also don't throw in two psychotic cats that like to spend the entire night leaping on and off of you like a springboard to and from the windowsill, whilst alternately scratching their claws on the paint in your living room, duplicating the sound of nails on a chalkboard to a T.

Bet you wish you had my life.

My hands, theyre strong but my knees were far too weak

2011-12-16T12:12:00.001-08:00

Do you ever wonder if maybe you're too good at hiding your true feelings from the rest of the world? Or should we all just be thankful that we're excellent liars?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBcMKwbMEcQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

2011-12-15T13:14:00.001-08:00

You all did your snow dances! Good job! It snowed about a foot this morning; I actually woke up to the sound of shoveling and it put me in the best mood ever! I went outside with mittens and boots and a hat all ready to scrape the icy, goopy, freezing slushy mush off of Elliot, (you guys obviously know that this means I was rushing out the door ten minutes late with no coat, high heels and wet hair) and low and behold, the snow was already completely cleared off! My landlords are THE best! I often toy with getting the heck out of Dallas and moving into town because it would be way more convenient, but I totally don't want to move now! I might have to rethink the saving thousands of dollars and getting a roommate deal because how will i ever find this nice of people to live above me, ever again?! They even put a super sweet Christmas card in my mailbox! Made my day.

Today was an important day for another reason than snow, however! Today, I bought a planner. FINALLY! Seriously, I can't even handle life without them. I was going absolutely CrAzY. I need to write a daily to-do list or else I accomplish absolutely nooothing. I pretty much had a crack itch, like some sort of super drug addict. The first thing you think of when I say 'crack itch' is definitely a drug addiction, right? I think I should probably start saying something along the lines of a 'heroin itch' or a 'meth itch' because my dear mother thought I was referring to scratching my rear. Hm.

Tonight was our office Christmas party, and everyone brought an appy and a gift, and then we did an exchange - Brandi and I made cream cheese stuffed, bacon wrapped jalapeños and OMG were they ever friggin delicious. Hit of the party. (I'm totally lying, I'm at work right now, and we haven't tasted then yet since everyone shouldn't be here for like... Another 6 minutes.)

Anyhoo, I'm gonna go shake presents under the tree and drink palm bay now. Cheers!

nobody knows where to go, when you come to a fork in the road

2011-12-13T19:43:00.001-08:00

Brotip #1383: The more you do something, the less value there is in what you're doing. (See: complimenting, tweeting, etc.)

Today I thought I'd share with you seriously the most stellarrrrr song that I discovered yesterday! Listen and love:

Sooo, you all remember when I was whining and moaning and groaning (like four posts ago) about Manda abandoning me to go live in the more eastern, french type speaking region of our country? Well, believe it or not, the day has come that she is finally returning home! This Friday! I'm surprised, but it actually feels like the six months just flew by! I think having weekly skype dates and texting nearly every single day might have something to do with it, hah! Anyhoo, I'll be picking her up at the airport in like, two days! AHH! I guess this means I had better start wrapping gifts, hah.

Did you all realize that it is actually Christmas in TWELVE DAYS?! Where did the time go?! I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I actually miss snow, because it must be what actually puts me in a festive, merry spirit, (that and food,) December just isn't the same without fluffy white falling from the sky!

Everybody bring on the snow dance!

2011-12-13T00:45:00.000-08:00

Hello there, bloggity type people!

I apologize for the abandonment, I hope this doesn't bring back any bad childhood memories for any of you... heh. Seriously, though, I think this is possibly the longest time I have gone without blogging in my entire like... what is it... four year blog history?! Don't worry, I have faith in you all, I know you'll all be reading again loyally as soon as I start actually talking about something of importance!

Where to even begin? I guess I'll give you a little general life update.... I bought THIS:

I named it Elliot, and he is basically the love of my life. Think six speed, manual trans with a turbo, and a 1.6L engine... So basically what i'm saying is that it gets the most fantastic gas mileage ever while still managing to kick some serious ass. Believe it or not, I seriously have already managed to put 12,000 kms on it, since August! Thats averaging over 100kms a day! I can just feel it depreciating in value by the second... KIDDING! :P But not really. I'm actually kind of so obsessed with this car, its almost disgusting. Seriously, for a while at every deal I did, no matter what dealership, I would seriously have practically sold the customers on the Juke before they even saw it! I'm pretty sure it made the sales guys a little antsy for a bit, because a lot of times the deal wouldn't be completely sealed by the time they actually got to me for insurance - believe it or not. Anyhoo, I'd take my customers out and show Elliot off to them like 95% of the time at their request, and man, not a lot of things make my day hearing something like "Man, I have to see this thing!"

Anyways, enough about my freakish love for that big hunk of metal, I just thought of a serious question for y'all. (I can't believe I just used that word... "y'all"...what a terrible abbreviation!) For the last year or so, I have had a WEIRD number of random strangers come up to me and tell me that I look like like Alyson Hannigan. If you don't know who that it, you're not alone. I just found out that's her name like a few days ago. Usually, their wording is something along the lines of "You look like that redhead off of American Pie!" or "Omg you're the spitting image of Lily off of How I Met Your Mother!" I personally thought maybe it was mostly just to do with the red hair, but I asked a couple of people, and they actually seem to think there might be a real resemblance, so I've decided to attach a photo for your viewing pleasure:

Let me know what you think! I definitely think we all probably have a doppelganger out there somewhere, and so far, I guess this is the closest I've found! I just had to mention it because it happened AGAIN today while I was just standing in line minding my own business at Starbucks.

Speaking of Starbucks, actually, I just want to say: I'm OBSESSED, and its breaking the bank!! So I've decided that after Christmas, I'm going to totally ban myself from fast-food, Subway included, because seriously, between that place and Starbucks every month, I could probably afford a mortgage payment instead of a tiny overpriced bedroom suite in Dallas. Jesus.

Speaking of mortgage payments, actually... Remember how buying my car was supposed to be a "5 month plan?" It sort of turned into a one month type deal, so now I find myself again without a goal! And haren't many things I hate less than not having a goal, so here we are: Operation Buy a House. I know, I know, you're all like "WHAAAT?!" and "Niki, you just turned 20 like a month ago, get a grip!" and that I'm kind of in a hugely different place than a lot of my friends around my age, but really, guys, its never too early to get started, and its not like i'm going to run out and do it next week or something. If you think about it though, I just throw away $8400 per year! Practically into the air! I'm seriously actually BUYING my landlords' brand new Dodge pickup! That should be buying ME something, wouldn't you agree? Now, I won't get into all of the math of it, but I've been pricing and figuring and adding and subtracting and I figure its feasible. I've also decided that I think maybe its about time I get a roommate. You know, I've lived by myself ever since I moved out two and a half years ago, and I'm just kind of bored. Like sure, I'm going to miss walking around naked like 100 percent of the time, and its going to be weird to not always be able to have random dance parties in my kitchen, but I just kind of think that its probably one of those experiences I don't want to miss. Besides, maybe if I do that, I can cut down the wasting from to $8400 to $4200 a year, and really stack away some cash for a downpayment, you know? So anyhoo, I guess most of you know that I've been known to jump the gun once and a while, and here I go again...! I'm pretty sure I'm cutting the 5 Year Plan back into a 1 Year Plan... But I liiiike itttttt. I think it just feels good to really have a purpose again. Like seriously, I loooove my job, I loooove my car, I have faaaantastic friends, but it was time to aspire for bigger and better and greater and grander! Wish me luck!

Speaking of my job, I kind of feel like we're sort of on the brink of something big. Just sort of in the middle of that somethingsgottagive phase, and it has only made me more motivated, because I feel like i'm one of the only people that really actually likes what I do, and is motivated to get better and it, and learn and sell and set goals. I want to be the person that everyone thinks is the best. I want to know the most. I want to feel confident with everything I do every day. Would you still take me seriously if you found out I was listening to Justin Beiber's Christmas album right now? HAHA. Don't worry, I switched it, and we're now onto a playlist which is basically a mix of The Black Keys, The Used, and As Cities Burn. Yep, that where my mood is right now.

Has anyone else noticed that The Hunger Games are being made into a movie?! I am fairly excited, I just read the first one while I was in Mexico, and I actually think it will make a fantastic movie. Actually I read like five books while I was in Mexico... I forgot how much I miss it, so I think I'm going to make a point of buying a new one every payday... OH YEAH... Guess what?!?! Yep, I went to Mexico! It was FANTASTIC! I went on my birthday, with the whole fam! That's a whole other blog post though, because I really want to be able to illustrate, but I don't have the pictures here, they're all actually on the work computer, and the whole ancient stupid chunk of plastic had the computer equivalent of a heart attack halfway through sending all of the pictures to my personal email today... Eff. Looking at all of the pics seriously made me miss everyone though, I can't WAIT to be back in WL for Chrismas even if it is only for like four days! Weeoo!

Anyhoo, this has really turned into like a huge novel.... Look forward to the Mexico sequel shortly! I'll leave you with three recommendations to fill your time with:

1) Get Twitter. Because if you said something hilarious, you can bet I tweeted it, and wouldn't you want to know whats coming out of your mouth and ending up on the internet?

2) Check out TED.com. It will probably blow your mind if you have a few spare brain cells that you actually might like to stir into action.

3) The Phillip DeFranco Show Everyone should know whats going on in this world from day to day, and c'mon, we could all use a laugh, or at least a smile.

Go on, now. Click one!

2011-07-30T21:09:00.001-07:00

"We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love."

apricot

2011-07-23T17:01:00.000-07:00

aeronaut, aliquot, angle shot, apparat, aquanaut, argonaut, astronaut, beauty spot, bergamot, booster shot, burning ghat, cachalot, Camelot, caveat, carry-cot, chamber pot, chimney pot, coffeepot, cosmonaut, counterplot, doodley-squat, floreat, flowerpot, flying spot, follow shot, gallipot, granny knot, guillemot, Gujarat, hit the spot, honeypot, Hottentot, Huguenot, juggernaut, kilowatt, Lancelot, like a shot, lobster pot, megawatt, melting pot, microdot, monocot, monoglot, noble rot, Nouakchott, ocelot, on the spot, overshot, paraquat, parking lot, passing shot, patriot, pepper pot, peridot, piping hot, polka dot, polyglot, running knot, samizdat, sansculotte, scattershot, scot and lot, shoulder knot, single knot, Southern blot, stopper knot, surgeon's knot, terawatt, tie the knot, tommyrot, touch-me-not, tracking shot, turkey trot, underplot, undershot, Western blot, Windsor knot, Wyandot, wyandotte

must be doing something right

2011-07-14T21:13:00.000-07:00

Today I Wish I:

-didn't have Wendy's for lunch.
-had filled up my car four hours earlier when gas was still 20 cents cheaper
-exercised

Today I'm Glad I:

-worked on Vincent the beast for two more hours
-told Steve @ KFL I've decided to not take the mini coop
-finally told my mother what else was wrong with my passport.
-sold two Colwoods
-took my vitamins.

That's all I can think of, and that last point was definitely a stretch. What an uneventful day, eh? Ah well, tomorrow is a work barbecue of sorts that I am actually fairly looking forward to (Kim and I are bringing pineapple kabobs, which are basically the most original and cool thing to bring to a bbq EVER), it's payday, AND believe it or not, its only something like a 30% chance of rain, which is extraordinary for this March. Or wait.... is it July?

like a freight train, rolling down the tracks

2011-06-28T17:03:00.000-07:00

hello lovelies! i am proud to announce, blogging is back! it seems that everyone is getting into the groove of it these days! I am soo excited to have blog friends again, given i'm going to have to have something to pass the time once manda leaves for the eastern region of our great country in a mere 8 days! luckily i am making her a "katima-blog" so that she can keep me updated with the details of her government funded volunteer life for the next six months! anyhoo, i'm really going to have to develop a hobby or something to fill all of this extra time. ideas?

right now i am just enjoying the last day of my three day weekend by alternately eating cinnamon scones and reading harry potter, and doing mass amounts of laundry. (i had the bright idea that i would take every single article of clothing i own out of my closet and dresser and refold it, because it was driving me mad) but it turns out that i have a LOT of clothes, and that this is a full day project.... but it needed to be done. my house has now had a lovely cleaning overhaul, which it really needed, because i have been out of town on all my previous two days weekends. speaking of which, i went home to wl last weekend, and ended up having a most fabulous time! possibly one of my best visits ever. i got to see almost everyone i wanted to, and managed to spend some really good quality time with the fam on fathers day too! i even managed a trip to Quesnel, where it turns out that people actually CAN have fun! who knew?! probably had something to do with the whiskey, and the good company of tyson and kyle, but i ended up having a blast. i actually wanted to stay in the cariboo longer, which is practically unheard of.

trust me, no one in their right mind would normally choose cariboo over thompson-okanagan.

anyhoo, i really should continue with my folding... the dryer just buzzed, and i think i'm about ready for a nap too - last night was absolutely ridiculous. i was up until about 7am, purely thanks to the influence of an iced coffee (which i won due to my prowess in 5 pin bowling) at about 9pm... the evening was a lot of fun, i saw a few people i hadn't hung out with in a while, and it ended up being a really good time, but i should have thought twice about the caffeine. i read an entire book last night. in one sitting! i guess that is one way to get it done though, right?

2011-06-28T01:22:00.000-07:00

i like a punk rock chick, with hair just like rihanna, like a go-go girl, who dance like lady gaga

2011-06-09T22:41:00.000-07:00

I figure its high time that I start blogging semi-regularly again, wouldn't you say? You must all have been so bored without my insight. The truth is, I've just been busy lately. Haha just kidding, thats not the truth - the truth is that I just haven't really been motivated to do much at all between work and... well... yep, just work. Speaking of work, though, things have been going great, or they would be, if you could subtract a clinically insane manager from the daily mix, but I really can't post much about her significant lack of brain cells here on the world wide web... besides, just the thought of her makes me want to punch infants. Luckily, I'm not within an arms reach of any other human beings right now.

On with the more important things in life... I have developed a couple of new short term life plans... better known as the 5 year plan, which then turned into the 1826 day plan, as Logan deemed was necessary, so that we aren't all constantly reminded of Stalin and his failures. The 1826 day plan then was altered slightly by kyle, to become the 1826.25 day plan, because though Logan and I did account for a leap year day, we did not account for the extra few hours in the 5th year, and alas: the 1826.25 day plan was formed. Believe it or not though, before that I really had no idea why we even have that one extra day in every 4 years... -shame-

Anyhoo, I present to you, The 1826.25 Day Plan:

...actually nevermind, I think I must first present to you, the 5 Month Plan.

I present to you: The 5 Month Plan

Its fairly simple, really... I just save $500 dollars a month for the next five months, and then I will have a $3000 down payment on: THIS!!! <--- click it, you know you want to. So yup, thats what I will be buying myself for my birthday in November. I'm so excited, and being forced to drive by it like 12 times a day doesn't make me any less impatient!

Now, the 1826.25 Day Plan is much along the same lines.... It begins the day after the 5 month plan ends. I continue to save $500 a month for the next 5 years, and then I will have a $30,000 dollar down payment on a lovely $300,000ish home, with a basement suite that I can rent out for $1000ish a month, which would leave me with the rest of the mortgage payment/heat hydro, which according to the RBC Mortgage calculator, will be about another 1500 a month, which is completely feasible, because I already pay $700 a month now, plus I'll be used to putting away that $500 a month already, which leaves about a $300 dollar difference, give or take, depending on the economy 1826 days from now... In any case, I really hope I'll be making at least $300 dollars more per month 5 years from now... hahaha.

Sleep time pour moi.... dream happy dreams of houses and cars!

i used to be your silver lining, but now i'm gold

2011-05-23T23:40:00.000-07:00

ladies, another reason to support the boys if you don't already....

i give you Kesler.... without his shirt.

http://www.thisiswhatwelivefor.com/

want to be in a sweet canucks mosaic? i am. thats right. only 6000 entries max! go, go, go!!

and I can't find a reason to be loved

2011-04-18T19:04:00.000-07:00

life is a dance floor, and you are the music

2011-03-19T08:59:00.000-07:00

"What makes you feel alive?"

It is a good question, definitely one that i have never been asked before. I had to think for a couple of seconds, but what immediately came to mind was: Anis Mojgani, sunshine, dancing, soup kitchens, afghanistan, and lastly, church choir. Allow me to elaborate:

Slam poetry is a new discovery of mine, but i am now borderline obsessed, and Anis is definitely my favorite, being my first experience with this form of literature. You have to hear it and see it to understand what I mean (and if you scroll a couple of posts down, you can actually watch Shake the Dust.)

Sunshine has always put me in an extrordinairily good mood... when i go outside see an endless stretch of blue sky, it improves my mood to the power of ten, i feel like anything is possible; i feel alive.

Dancing, and singing, maybe it is really just the music, i'm not sure. There is just something about expressing yourself without having to use your own words, or any words, that is so empowering; the adrenaline, the confidence you have to feel to be able to dance in front of even yourself.

Soup kitchens to me just symbolize humanity. How we continue to feed the hungry, even though the majority of the people on the street will never be able to feed themselves. Disabilities, addictions, society... the truth is, most could make a half decent living for themselves if they took advantage of the tools out there, but most never will, yet we still continue to save them. Many think it is wrong, but i think it is right. Did you know: "72 percent of all grain produced in the United States is fed to animals raised for slaughter. It takes 15 pounds of feed to get one pound of meat. But if the grain were given directly to people, there'd be enough food to feed the entire planet."

As far as Afghanistan goes... the more of a reality death is, the more of a reality life is.

Church choir is probably one of the last things you would come out of my mouth, as the majority of you probably know i am an atheist, there is just something about their music that embodies such power and good will and just... faith that nothing else can really express so strongly, even though it might not be the same type of faith a church has, i still beleive in something, i'm just not sure what it is yet.

dream big

2011-03-16T23:41:00.001-07:00

if you're breathing, you're surviving

2011-03-05T16:47:00.000-08:00

sooo i found this great new song - its constantly stuck in my head, awesome lyrics, eclectic, just plain great! i'd post the youtube video if I weren't at work right now, because they block youtube :/ so instead i settled for making the title of this blog a link to a site where you can play the song. go click it!

anyhoo, you're probably wondering why i'm bloggin at work, but it is because i got here at quarter after eight, and don't start until nine. painful, i know, but thats the way the bus goes.

oh wait - i probably haven't mentioned i lost my license, have i? ah well. i lost my licence. for two months. BUT on the plus side, only 26 more days to go! "why?" you ask? well, short and sweet: too many tickets. while you have your N (two years) you're basically only allowed one ticket (impossible, i know) once you hit two, they whisk your license away faster than you can say "Tiburon."

anyhow, i don't really want to tal about that, i've sort of been hiding it from the majority of people, really... but i'm working on this great blog aout people on the bus, so i was going to have to spill the beans eventually.

what i ACTUALLY wanted to blog about, was my first ever trip to Vancouver! Now, now, i hear you all gasping and shaking your heads... "First trip to Vancouver, how could that be?!?!" Well, its true. But I have finally emerged from beneath my rock, and have started to travel the world! sort of. anyways... katherine and I drove down Sunday morning, and made awesome time - 3.5 hours and we stopped in Merritt! Do I ever love the coquihalla... i was itching to be driving my cqar sooo badly! Anyways, it was GREAT! So much fun... I got to go to stanley park and walk part of the seawall, which was beaauuutiful... who knew there was so much OCEAN EVERYWHERE?! It was simply amazing. We went to the aquarium and go to see the dolphin show and the beluga show, and there was a sloth and snakes and jellyfish! The jellyfish were by far my favorite... if i was at home right now, i'd upload a picture! Though i guess you all have probably been there before and know exactly what i'm talkign about already, but, alas, it is all new to me! I got to experience Chinatown and all of the grossness of the fish market, and we went for Dim Sum, which was super crazy... we were ina raestaraunt that seated 1000, and there were just people pushing carts around to each table, and each cart had different food on it, and you just picked what you wanted. You could tell the cart pushers made commission though, because they really tried to force you to have their stuff... some of it was really good, sopme of it... not so much. We went to robson street, which was absolutely so cool, with all of its insanely expensive stores; there was Guess EVERYWHERE! Be proud, I bought nothing. In the evening, we went for malaysian food, at this cool place called the Banana Leaf , which was abso-freaking-lutely delicious! My new favorite ethnic food for sure. in fact maybe the best fod I have ever tasted in my life. Yeah. For sure. By the time we finally checked into the hotel, it was like midnight, and by the time I actualyl went to bed, it was 2:00am and i'd been awake for a solid 21 hours. My mind was exhausted... so many new things in such a short period of time! It was insane. The hotel we stayed at was so cool... it was relatively cheap, on robson street, and it had big rooms, with a sofabed that was pretty iffy. But the WHOLE SIDE of one wall was just these HUGE windows, and so was a part of the other side of the wall, with a balcony.. nine floors up! I thought i might pass out when i stepped out there.

The next day not as much happened, because we had to drive home, but we did manage to fit in some ten-pin bowling - which i might add, is like basically a billion times more fun than 6 pin bowling. i don't even know why! Just way better. Or maybe it was the fact that I was way better at it than regular bowling for some strange reason? hahaha. This bowling place was pretty swell too, all sorts of neato planets painted on the wall and there were like 50 lanes!

Anyhoo, i am off to work now, later, alligators.

shake the dust

2011-02-06T10:14:00.000-08:00

one word: amazing.

While we're on the topic of AMAZING videos I've been watching on youtube, check out Zeitgeist, which is just something EVERYONE should see, its fantastic, it makes you see the world in an entirely different light, it allows you to see past the blinders you've been wearing since day one. watch it.

And if you haven't seen any of Micheal Moore's films yet, i highly recommend you start right now:

'cause I've got one hand in my pocket, and the other one is giving a high five

2011-02-05T16:18:00.000-08:00

I moved!
and its amazing.
just downright fantastic.

its amazing how this new place feels like home already, and the old one never really did. it looks damn good inside, too, i'll tkae some pictures this weekend and post them!

i've decided the next two months are going to be dedicated to hermitism, and i'm going to get super fit and run the 10k in Boogie the Bridge on May 1st, and i'm going to write my CAIB 1 insurance exam on May 4th, so LOTS of big goals for May. So far, i've got a good start on the CAIB thing, i made like a billion excellent flashcards today, but the exercising thing hasn't really been going at all, its just SO HARD to exercise alone when its FREEZING COLD and DARK. ew. but spring is in the air, i feel it, so hopefully it warms up and i'll be able to ge toutside and start exploring my new home in Dallas!

I'm broke but I'm happy

I'm poor but I'm kind

I'm short but I'm healthy, yeah

I'm high but I'm grounded

I'm sane but I'm overwhelmed

I'm lost but I'm hopeful baby

What it all comes down to

Is that everything's gonna be fine fine fine

'cause I've got one hand in my pocket

And the other one is giving a high five

I feel drunk but I'm sober

I'm young and I'm underpaid

I'm tired but I'm working, yeah

I care but I'm restless

I'm here but I'm really gone

I'm wrong and I'm sorry baby

What it all comes down to

Is that everything's gonna be quite alright

'cause I've got one hand in my pocket

And the other one is flicking a cigarette

And what it all comes down to

Is that I haven't got it all figured out just yet

'cause I've got one hand in my pocket

And the other one is giving the peace sign

I'm free but I'm focused

I'm green but I'm wise

I'm hard but I'm friendly baby

I'm sad but I'm laughing

I'm brave but I'm chickenshit

I'm sick but I'm pretty baby

And what it all boils down to

Is that no one's really got it figured out just yet

'cause I've got one hand in my pocket

And the other one is playing the piano
And what it all comes down to my friends

Is that everything's just fine fine fine

'cause I've got one hand in my pocket

And the other one is hailing a taxi cab

if i could relive those days, i know one thing that would never change

2011-01-28T17:45:00.000-08:00

I feel like I’m so ahead of the game with things right now – I’m just barely 19, and I’ve been renting my own place for a year and a half, I have a full time job with benefits and job security. My company actually pays for all of my insurance courses, and I like what I do. Give it another 6 months, and I’ll be running road full time, and I’ll be bringing in close to what the manager of my office makes. I want to have a house by the time I’m 25, and I’ll be right on track, or I’ll even be there! But then what happens? I run the road for 5 years, and then without a doubt, just like everyone else, I WILL get sick of the road, and I’ll want a job without insane amounts of stress, and I’ll want to go back to working in the office, or worse, I’ll finally figure out what I want to do with my life, and I’ll decide I want to go back to school. If I go back to working in the office, I’ll take a huge cut in pay, and then maybe I won’t be able to afford my mortgage – or the worse option: I’ll enroll in university. By that time, I will not be ahead of the game anymore, I’ll be far, far, far, behind the game. I’ll be 25 and in my first year, and I probably won’t even be able to get a student loan because the government will look at my nice car and my house and be like.. uh no way. So then I’m really screwed, basically.

Thoughts?

Of course, ideally, I’d just decide what I want to do with my life, like now, but I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon, I just can’t seem to find that ‘niche’ everyone else seems to discover. Of course, by that time, I’ll have a level 2 license in insurance, and all of my CAIBs and be certified to manage an office/have my own brokerage, etc etc, but I just don’t really see myself working in an office for the rest of my life.

Anyhoo, that’s my rant for now. I’m moving this weekend, so the next two days of my life will be spent packing EVERYTHING, and I haven’t really hardly started yet, oops. I’ve just been an eat-sleep-work-watch greys anatomy mode, and its quite sad. On the other hand, I’ve been doing a fair bit of walking lately, which has been pretty excellent, I feel better for it actually. And the other day I spent FORTY FOUR dollars on groceries, and I actually have SO MUCH FOOD, its so amazing. And rare. I’m really enjoying it while it lasts. I have a bunch of photos I’ve been meaning to upload, and I know I need to change the music, but next time, hopefully!

Cheers

I wish I could say that's it's all black and white but it's grey, it's the same, it's the same and I'm so tired

2011-01-15T20:43:00.000-08:00

i have decided that i'm sick of being on fb/skype from after work to sleep while eating dinner and watching greys anatomy. i'm going to lose my hermit status starting this monday. (technically i started yesterday, but that night was a write off, and tonight i am a prisoner in my own house because the roads are pure ice. too icy for the sander machines to even be on the roads apparently.) anyways, seriously.... 3 weeks ago i only went on fb like 3 minutes every two or three days. ridiculous.

drowning on dry land

2011-01-11T21:05:00.000-08:00

New Years Resolutions:

~~Wash my car~~
~~Set the date for my CAIB 1 exam~~
~~Set up my RRSPs~~
~~Do a spring cleaning overhaul of my house~~
Take my Class 5 Road Test (i tried to do this yesterday but i had a tail light out.... @#&%(&@#

pretty good for january the 12th, i have to say! but now i can not WAIT for summer. i am sick and tired of wind and cold and snow. i want green grass and waterfalls and hiking and blue sky and sunscreen and floating down the river and horseback riding and swimming and puffy fleecy little clouds that hold no moisture whatsoever!

2011-01-11T19:14:00.000-08:00

We bear your name,

and you let us say

you are something that you're not.

As if you were made after we saw our own faces,

and knew we were gods enough.

I think we were made too pretty.

We're caught up in a stare we cannot break.

We know nothing changes too slowly.

Someday we might come down,

but who's to really say?

And if we are the body,

how'd the pretty men get so ugly?

How'd he get all these spaces between each limb?

And if there is one thing bigger than my head,

that's the distance I've been mislead.

'Cause I think we were made too pretty.

We're caught up in a stare and we can't break.

We know nothing changes too slowly.

And someday I might come down,

oh, I don't wanna come down.

I think we became too pretty.

We don't want a God we don't see in ourselves don't see we're in need.

I think we were made too pretty.

We're caught up in a stare and we can't break.

I think we were made too pretty.

Yeah, so much we don't see it yet.

We don't see it.

We know nothing changes too slowly.

i have learned

2010-12-28T16:53:00.000-08:00

I've learned that you cannot make someone love you.

All you can do is be someone who can be loved.

The rest is up to them.

I've learned

That no matter how much I care,

some people just don't care back.

I've learned

that it takes years to build up trust,

and only seconds to destroy it.

I've learned

that it's not what you have in your life

but who you have in your life that counts.

I've learned

That you can get by on charm for about fifteen minutes.

After that, you'd better know something.

I've learned

that you shouldn't compare yourself

to the best others can do, but to the best you can do.

I've learned

that it's not what happens to people that's important.

It's what they do about it.

I've learned

that you can do something in an instant

that will give you heartache for life.

I've learned

that no matter how you slice it,

there are always two sides.

I've learned

that it's taking me a long time

to become the person I want to be.

I've learned

that it's a lot easier to react

than it is to think.

I've learned

That you should always leave

loved ones with loving words.

It may be the last time you see them.

I've learned

that you can keep going

long after you think you can't.

I've learned

that we are responsible for what we do,

no matter how we feel.

I've learned

that either you control your attitude

or it controls you.

I've learned

that regardless of how hot and steamy

a relationship is at first,

the passion fades and there had better be

something else to take its place.

I've learned

that heroes are the people

who do what has to be done

when it needs to be done,

regardless of the consequences.

I've learned

that learning to forgive

takes practice.

I've learned

that there are people who love you dearly,

but just don't know how to show it.

I've learned

that money is a lousy way

of keeping score.

I've learned

that my best friend and I

can do anything or nothing
and have the best time.

I've learned

that sometimes the people you expect

to kick you when you're down

will be the ones to help you get back up.

I've learned

that sometimes when I'm angry,

I have the right to be angry,

but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.

I've learned

that true friendship continues to grow,

even over the longest distance.

Same goes for true love.

I've learned

that just because someone doesn't love you

the way you want them to doesn't mean

they don't love you with all they have.

I've learned

that maturity has more to do with

what types of experiences you've had

and what you've learned from them

and less to do with how many

birthdays you've celebrated.

I've learned

that you should never tell a child

their dreams are unlikely or outlandish.

Few things are more humiliating, and

what a tragedy it would be if they believed it.

I've learned

that your family won't always

be there for you.

It may seem funny,

but people you aren't related to

can take care of you and love you

and teach you to trust people again.

Families aren't biological.

I've learned

that no matter how good a friend is,

they're going to hurt you

every once in a while

and you must forgive them for that.

I've learned

that it isn't always enough

to be forgiven by others.

Sometimes you have to learn

to forgive yourself.

I've learned

that no matter how badly your heart is broken

the world doesn't stop for your grief.

I've learned

that our background and circumstances

may have influenced who we are,

but we are responsible for who we become.

I've learned

that sometimes when my friends fight,

I'm forced to choose sides

even when I don't want to.

I've learned

that just because two people argue,

it doesn't mean they don't love each other

And just because they don't argue,

it doesn't mean they do.

I've learned

that sometimes you have to

put the individual ahead of their actions.

I've learned

that we don't have to change friends

if we understand that friends change.

I've learned

that you shouldn't be so eager to find out a secret.

It could change your life forever.

I've learned

that two people can look at the exact same thing

and see something totally different.

I've learned

that no matter how you try to protect

your children, they will eventually get hurt

and you will hurt in the process.

I've learned

that there are many ways

of falling and staying in love.

I've learned

that no matter the consequences,

those who are honest with themselves

get farther in life.

I've learned

that no matter how many friends you have,

if you are their pillar you will feel lonely

and lost at the times you need them most.

I've learned

that your life can be changed in a matter of hours

by people who don't even know you.

I've learned

that even when you think

you have no more to give,

when a friend cries out to you,

you will find the strength to help.

I've learned

that writing, as well as talking,

can ease emotional pains.

I've learned

that the paradigm we live in

is not all that is offered to us.

I've learned

that credentials on the wall

do not make you a decent human being.

I've learned

that the people you care most about in life

are taken from you too soon.

I've learned

that although the word “love”

can have many different meanings,

t loses value when overly used.

I've learned

that it's hard to determine

where to draw the line

between being nice and

not hurting people's feelings

and standing up for what you believe.

"I Have Learned"

Kathy Kane Henson

i go back to december, turn around and make it all mine

2010-12-27T22:54:00.000-08:00

boy oh boy has it ever been a long time since i have blogged! did i tell you that i was planning on taking a spontaneous road trip? i think i probably mentioned it, but if not, here's a quick recap: kyle was working in Edson, only six hours from here, instead of the usual fifteen, so he suggests i visit - i think excellent idea! a weekend away from home, and it gives me a real reason to take the extra vacation day i have floating around! the way it went wasn't exactly kosher with the way i imagined it... for starters: the weather was horrendous, but i didn't start to REALLY seriously worry until two lanes became one, and when there happened to be oncoming traffic, i was forced to maneuver my very summer oriented car halfway into the six feet of snow to my right that was apparently supposed to be a highway. so i thought that was bad, and then the lane disappeared and my car was basically just trying to slog its way along through fresh unplowed snow. apparently clearwater, barrier, blue river, avola and all of the other villages along the Yellowhead highway don't own plow trucks. go figure. so i just did between 50 and 65 kms the whole journey, the entire time telling myself that i could just stop or turn around at any point if i needed to. i eventually get to blue river and figure maybe i should gas up, but that was not an option because the entrance to all gas stations was like seven feet or churned up snow that only some sort of monster truck could maneuver without getting stuck in. i get to about 50 kms past blue river, on ice 6 inches deep and in washboard form, because this stretch of highway has literally NEVER been plowed, when i start fishtailing. i control it for what must be at least 100 feet but then i lose it, and i do a 180 across the oncoming traffic and end up backwards in the ditch facing the direction i'd came. woah. long story short, i eventually force my door open, get a ride back into town with some weirdos, and a tow truck pulls out my car: i'm fine, car is fine, and i decide that there is NO WAY i'm turning around now, so i trek on. i STILL can't believe i crashed! i was that annoying person doing like 60 kms in the 100 zone the ENTIRE trip! unjust! after 3 more hours of intense fog, snowstorm and broken windshield wipers, i make it to jasper, and kyle come to meet me, because the thought of driving another two hours to jasper makes me feel like passing out. in any case, the weekend ended up being lovely, and i got to spend a day wandering the shops in jasper! though by the time i did get to Edson, i had decided to live in Alberta forever because i was NOT planning on driving the Yellowhead ever again. my worries were groundless however, the roads back were beautiful! so beautiful, in fact, i got a ticket. yes, it was an expensive trip o_0

this guy was so close! probably only about ten feet from where i stopped on the highway, and he just chilled while i talked to him and took his picture! he was drinking from a puddle!

for those who were wondering....

2010-12-25T23:21:00.000-08:00

22 REASONS WHY I AM VEGETARIAN & PROUD

1 You'll live a lot longer. Vegetarians live about seven years longer, and vegans (who eat no animal products) about 15 years longer than meat eaters, according to a study from Loma Linda University. These findings are backed up by the China Health Project (the largest population study on diet and health to date), which found that Chinese people who eat the least amount of fat and animal products have the lowest risks of cancer, heart attack and other chronic degenerative diseases. And a British study that tracked 6,000 vegetarians and 5,000 meat eaters for 12 years found that vegetarians were 40 percent less likely to die from cancer during that time and 20 percent less likely to die from other diseases.

2 You'll save your heart. Cardiovascular disease is still the number one killer in the United States, and the standard American diet (SAD) that's laden with saturated fat and cholesterol from meat and dairy is largely to blame. Children as young as age 3 who are raised on fast food and junk food show early signs of heart disease, according to the Bogalusa Heart Study done at the Louisiana State University. Cardiovascular disease is found in one in nine women aged 45 to 64 and in one in three women over 65. Heart attacks are also deadlier to the fairer sex: 53 percent of women who have heart attacks die from them, compared with 47 percent of men. Today, the average American male eating a meat-based diet has a 50 percent chance of dying from heart disease. His risk drops to 15 percent if he cuts out meat; it goes to 4 percent if he cuts out meat, dairy and eggs. Partly responsible is the fact that fruits and vegetables are full of antioxidant nutrients that protect the heart and its arteries. Plus, produce contains no saturated fat or cholesterol. Incidentally, cholesterol levels for vegetarians are 14 percent lower than meat eaters.

3 You can put more money in your mutual fund. Replacing meat, chicken and fish with vegetables and fruits is estimated to cut food bills by an average of $4,000 a year.

4 You'll reduce your risk of cancer. A study in The International Journal of Cancer concluded that red meat is strongly associated with breast cancer. The National Cancer Institute says that women who eat meat every day are nearly four times more likely to get breast cancer than those who don't. By contrast, women who consume at least one serving of vegetables a day reduce their risk of breast cancer by 20 percent to 30 percent, according to the Harvard Nurses Health Study. Studies done at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg suggest that this is because vegetarians' immune systems are more effective in killing off tumor cells than meat eaters'. Studies have also found a plant-based diet helps protect against prostate, colon and skin cancers.

5 You'll add color to your plate. Meat, chicken and fish tend to come in boring shades of brown and beige, but fruits and vegetables come in all colors of the rainbow. Disease-fighting phytochemicals are responsible for giving produce their rich, varied hues. So cooking by color is a good way to ensure you re eating a variety of naturally occurring substances that boost immunity and prevent a range of illnesses.
6 You'll fit into your old jeans. On average, vegetarians are slimmer than meat eaters, and when we diet, we keep the weight off up to seven years longer. That's because diets that are higher in vegetable proteins are much lower in fat and calories than the SAD. Vegetarians are also less likely to fall victim to weight-related disorders like heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

7 You'll give your body a spring cleaning. Giving up meat helps purge the body of toxins (pesticides, environmental pollutants, preservatives) that overload our systems and cause illness. When people begin formal detoxification programs, their first step is to replace meats and dairy products with fruits and vegetables and juices. "These contain phytochemicals that help us detox naturally," says Chris Clark, M.D., medical director of The Raj, an Ayurvedic healing center in Fairfield, Iowa, which specializes in detox programs.
8 You'll make a strong political statement. Each day, 22 million animals are slaughtered to support the American appetite for meat. "It's a wonderful thing to be able to finish a delicious meal, knowing that no beings have suffered [to make it]," says Erik Marcus, author of Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating (McBooks, 1998).

9 Your meals will taste delicious. "Vegetables are endlessly interesting to cook and a joy to eat," says Deborah Madison, founding chef of Greens restaurant in San Francisco and author of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (Broadway Books, 1997). "It's an ever-changing parade of flavors and colors and textures and tastes. Everyone can enjoy them, but vegetarians are more likely to think about cooking and eating vegetables."
10 You'll help reduce waste and air pollution. Circle 4 Farms in Milford, Utah, which raises 2.5 million pigs every year, creates more waste than the entire city of Los Angeles. And this is just one farm. Each year, the nation's factory farms, collectively produce 2 billion tons of manure, a substance that's rated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as one of the country's top 10 pollutants. And that's not even counting the methane gas released by cows, pigs and poultry (which contributes to the greenhouse effect); the ammonia gases from urine; poison gases that emanate from manure lagoons; toxic chemicals from pesticides; and exhaust from farm equipment used to raise feed for animals.

11 Your bones will last longer. The average bone loss for a vegetarian woman at age 65 is 18 percent; for non-vegetarian women, it's double that. Researchers attribute this to the consumption of excess protein--the average meat-eating American woman eats 144 percent over the recommended daily allowance; the average man eats 175 percent more.Excess protein interferes with the absorption and retention of calcium and actually prompts the body to excrete calcium, laying the ground for the brittle bone disease osteoporosis. Animal proteins, including milk, make the blood acidic, and to balance that condition, the body pulls calcium from bones. So rather than rely on milk for calcium, vegetarians turn to dark green leafy vegetables, such as broccoli and legumes, which, calorie for calorie, are superior sources.

12 You'll help reduce famine. Right now, 72 percent of all grain produced in the United States is fed to animals raised for slaughter. It takes 15 pounds of feed to get one pound of meat. But if the grain were given directly to people, there'd be enough food to feed the entire planet. In addition, using land for animal agriculture is inefficient in terms of maximizing food production. According to the journal Soil and Water, one acre of land could produce 50,000 pounds of tomatoes, 40,000 pounds of potatoes, 30,000 pounds of carrots or just 250 pounds of beef.
13 You'll avoid toxic chemicals. The EPA estimates that nearly 95 percent of pesticide residue in our diet comes from meat, fish and dairy products. Fish, in particular, contain carcinogens (PCBs, DDT) and heavy metals (mercury, arsenic; lead, cadmium) that cannot be removed through cooking or freezing. Meat and dairy products are also laced with steroids and hormones.
14 You'll protect yourself from food-borne illnesses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that among Americans, there were approximately 80 million incidences of food-borne illness a year--resulting in 9,000 deaths. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, 25 percent of all chicken sold in the United States carries salmonella bacteria and, the CDC estimates, 70 percent to 90 percent of chickens contain the bacteria campy-lobacter (some strains of which are antibiotic-resistant), approximately 5 percent of cows carry the lethal strain of E. coli O157:H7 (which causes virulent diseases and death), and 30 percent of pigs slaughtered each year for food are infected with toxoplasmosis (caused by parasites). All of which leads Michael Klaper, M.D., author of Pregnancy,. Children and a Vegan Diet (Gentle World Inc., 1988), to comment, "Including animal products in your diet is like playing Russian roulette with your life."

15 You may get rid of your back problems. "Back pain appears to begin, not in the back, but in the arteries," says Neil Barnard, M.D., president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and author of Foods That Fight Pain (Harmony Books, 1998). "The degeneration of disks, for instance, which leads to nerves being pinched, starts with the arteries leading to the back." Eating a plant-based diet keeps these arteries clear of cholesterol-causing blockages to help maintain a healthy back.

16 You'll be more "regular." Eating a lot of vegetables necessarily means consuming fiber, which pushes waste out of the body. Meat contains no fiber. Studies done at Harvard and Brigham Women's Hospital found that people who ate a high-fiber diet had a 42 percent lower risk of diverticulitis. People who eat lower on the food chain also tend to have fewer incidences of constipation, hemorrhoids and spastic colon.

17 You'll cool those hot flashes. Plants, grains and legumes--especially soy--contain phytoestrogens that are believed to balance fluctuating hormones, so vegetarian women tend to go through menopause with fewer complaints of sleep problems, hot flashes, fatigue, mood swings, weight gain, depression and a diminished sex drive.

18 You'll help to bring down the national debt. We spend between $60 billion to $120 billion annually to treat the heart disease, cancer, obesity, and food poisoning that are byproducts of a diet heavy on animal products.

19 You'll preserve our fish population. Because of our voracious appetite for fish, 39 percent of the oceans' fish species are overharvested, and the Food & Agriculture Organization reports that 11 of 15 of the world's major fishing grounds have become depleted.

20 You'll help protect the purity of water. It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef, but just 25 gallons of water to produce a pound of wheat. Not only is this wasteful, but it contributes to rampant water pollution. A 1997 study by the Senate Agriculture Committee found that 60 percent of American waterways were polluted, and the major reason is animal agriculture. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development lists nitrate pollution (from fertilizer and manure) as one of the most serious water-quality problems in Europe and the United States.

21 You'll provide a great role model for your kids. "If you set a good example and feed your children good food, chances are they'll live a longer and healthier life," says Christine Beard, a certified nutrition educator and author of Become a Vegetarian in 5 Easy Steps (McBooks Press, 1997). "You're also providing a market for vegetarian products and making it more likely that they'll be available for the children."

22 Going vegetarian is very easy to do. Vegetarian cooking has never been so simple. Supermarkets carry packaged convenience foods like tofu hot dogs, veggie burgers and soy yogurt, milk and cheeses. There's greater availability of vegetarian options in mall and arena food courts. Many more restaurants specializing in vegetarian food have opened, and others have added "veg-friendly" dishes to their menus. Even traditional fast food chains now offer salads, veggie burritos and vegetarian pizza.

....also, as a side note, today my mum mentioned that it seems like my allergies have diminished right along with my appetite for meat, which is SO TRUE. In the last couple of months, my allergies have been disappearing at an alarming and most fantastic rate! When i first got baby Boris, i ahad to take like a triple dose of allergy meds every few hours, and even then i'd end up wheezy and with a few hives. just touching the tip or a kitty's ear without taking anything meant i was due for red itchy eyes and wheezy lungs in about 2.5 seconds... (though the younger the cat, the less potent it seemed to be) BUT NOW: i somehow own TWO nearly full grown kitties which i snuggle and love and kiss and sleep with, and the most a get is a couple hives here and there, now and then! and that is with noooo allergy medication at all! so, i am a strong believer, that YES, the gross toxic chemicals in meat have an adverse affect on my body, and maybe my immune system too? i really think it is possible, it just seems like too perfect of timing to now be, but it IS possible that i have just FINALLY begun to outgrow my allergies.... thoughts, anyone?

the whole world stops and stares for a while

2010-12-11T14:37:00.000-08:00

so i really need to think of some things to think of for christmas! any ideas? cool things you've seen, or that you want for christmas that i could want too?!

so far, i'm asking for:

- a shoe rack
- a toque
- books (girl with the dragon tattoo series)
- skin for my computer
- a la senza, grocery, or gas gift card
- a bracelet (maybe?)

- ~~my favorite pictures all printed out~~ (i just don't like picking my own gifts and knowing what i'll get :/)
- a ~~nice coat from ricki's~~ (once again, see above)
- ~~snowboard~~ - (got that already)

so today, i was at work. working away productively (on the phone with the veterinarian) and i got an email, saying "theres been a seriosu bomb threat nearby, everyone is to lock the doors and evactuate" from soemone in our main branch downtown, and she sent it to all branches and i was like HOLY CRAP and i all but hung up on the vet, and ran around frantically locking doors while my heart was pounding out a beat that rivaled a kindergarten percussion practice. thankfully, it turned out that this woman, whilst panicking, forgot the key point, that only a portion of downtown was being evacuated, and that us in the valleyview branch really had nothing to worry about. it sound serious, however. they're flying in the bomb squad from vancouver, and everything is still evacated. apparently they discovered a suspicious package that looked sort of like a tool case, with wires sticking out of it, right by a gas pipeline, and another "suspicious object" in a pipe nearby. but its really probably nothing. i figure if the bomber reall wanted to cause some havoc, he'd be exploding the thing asap, not waiting until the bomb squad gets there and everything has been 100% evacuated and nearly resolved. like come one, he's got to be listening to the radio right?

we'll see how it goes. the bomb squad is supposed to get here around 2 or 3. its 2 right now, but all thats on the radio is chris daughtry. OOOH THE bomb squad is in the air! should be here within a half hour apparently, but the RCMP estimates that that part of the city will be on lockdown like 3 more hours.

but i'm really gettign sick of not publishing this just so i can listen to bad radio hoping for news, so i think if you want to hear the end of the story you'll just have to watch the news! tah for now.

shake it up, shake up the happiness, wake it up, wake up the happiness.

2010-12-05T18:29:00.000-08:00

having cats is just like having kids. but WORSE.
oh so much worse.

you don't have to fight your baby tooth and nail for your dinner.
your baby doesnt try to sleep on your face
your baby doesnt hate you
you don't have to have another baby to keep your baby company
your baby won't claw the furniture
your baby isnt so dumb that it thinks your feet under the blanket are some sort of alien life form that must be destroyed immediately.
your baby doesnt drink only out of the toilet
your baby won't track litter into the bathtub and clog the drain
your baby won't throw itself at the walls/window repeatedly just to see if slamming itself against a solid object will hurt every time
your baby won't lay in the sink on top of your makeup when you try to get ready
you can drop your baby off at your parents house for a few hours.
your baby won't jump on the stove while the element is lit
your can trap your baby in a play pen
you don't have to fight the inch long dagger like claws it has to stuff your baby in a cardboard box with holes every time you need to take it somewhere.
your baby won't lay on your keyboard every time you try to stop petting it so you can type back to your friends on facebook chat.
your baby wont wake you up by batting your face with it's dripping paws (wet from the toilet where it was drinking)
you don't have to neuter your baby
you don't have to ask your landlord if you can have a baby

i think i've said enough.

on a better note, I'M DONE ALL OF MY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING WOOHOO! except one teeensy thing. and on an even better note than that, next weekend i will be embarking on a roadtrip to ALBERTA! i'm visiting Kyle, and man am i ever stoked to get out of town. A little (very very very) nervous about the scary 6 hour drive by myself though. eep.) on another wonderful note, i was asking for a used (very used) snowboard for christmas so i can try it out, aaaand, low and behold, my very, very, generous, kind and giving friend Matt GAVE me his!! bindings included! and now, i am SOOO EXCITED! :D thanks matt! Also, roadrunning has been going GREAT! i really love it, and i actually got to go the last threee days in a row! woohoo! i'm definitely feeling more comfortable in the dealerships, and i know where most of them are now :P

this is the first every "modernized" christmas song i have found that i actually like:

i think he can see through everything but my heart

2010-11-30T23:15:00.000-08:00

I don't think that passenger seat

Has ever looked this good to me

He tells me about his night

And I count the colors in his eyes

He'll never fall in love he swears

As he runs his fingers through his hair

I'm laughing 'cause I hope he's wrong

And I don't think it ever crossed his mind

He tells a joke I fake a smile

That I know all his favorite songs and

I could tell you his favorite colors green

He loves to argue, born on the seventeenth

His sister's beautiful, he has his father's eyes

And if you ask me if I love him, I'd lie

He looks around the room

Innocently overlooks the truth

Shouldn't a light go on?

Doesn't he know I've had him memorized for so long?

He sees everything black and white

Never let nobody see him cry

I don't let nobody see me wishing he was mine

I could tell you his favorite colors green

He loves to argue, born on the seventeenth

His sister's beautiful, he has his father's eyes

And if you ask me if I love him, I'd lie

He stands there then walks away

My God, if I could only say

I'm holding every breathe for you

He'd never tell you but he can play guitar

I think he can see through everything but my heart

First thought when I wake up is, "My god, he's beautiful"

So I put on my make up and pray for a miracle

Yes, I could tell you his favorite colors green

He loves to argue oh and it kills me

His sisters beautiful he has his father's eyes

And if you asked me if I love him

If you ask me if I love him, I'd lie

and to all a good night

2010-11-30T22:51:00.000-08:00

so i had this great idea, that getting Boris a companion might cure his loneliness and huge attachment disorders, so i decided to bring monster (his sister) home with me. BAD IDEA. they DESPISE each other! not even hate or just dislike, they DESPISE each other. in the incurable sort of way i think :( so now i'm screwed basically. because i have fallen soooo in love with little monster, she's just so sweet! and QUIET! none of that nonstop yowling that Boris does if i'm not in the same room as him. and affectionate - she follows me everywhere! i was standing with my back to the counter today, and she just jumped right from the counter to my shoulder and perched there like a parrot! but now i hope she isn't making boris jealous, because he doesn't want to come hang out with me if she's with me, and she doesn't leave my side! ugh. there is just no win. on the plus side, boris hasn't been yowling with loneliness, he's been too occupied fighting with his sister and doing nonstop growling/hissing.

on the plus side, i got tons of christmas shopping done today!! i just have to get masons present, and the other half of oakes and dad's gifts, mom and libby are totally done! woohoo! can't say too much here though, i know they read this once in a blue moon ;)

i spent SEVENTY dollars on food today :( twelve of which dollars were on DISGUSTING veggie dogs. they taste exactly like hotdogs, but the texture is naaaasty. like fall-apart-in-your-mouth nasty. and before you cook them they look like... barbie. thats the only way i can describe it. like barbie doll flesh. ew. to justify the rest of the seventy dollars, i must also note that i bought a HUGE bag of catfood. because i'm rapidly turning into crazy cat lady. my internet tech guy even said so today when he had to come in to fix my router. but hats right - i have REAL INTERNET for the first time in a MONTH!! its AMAZING! heart heart heart heart.

anyhoo i should really sleep now because i was so tired today i could hardly keep my eyes open. my lack of sleep is due largely to my cats constant bickering last night. and when i mean constant, i MEAN constant. like... never ending.

you got your head in the clouds

2010-11-30T22:24:00.000-08:00

I was trying really hard to sleep. really! but its just one of those things that is impossible to do after you've slept all day, and then went and slept some more. also, how am i supposed to sleep, when my mind is occupied trying to guess my christmas presents?! yes people, its that time of year again!! woohoo! i already have christmas lights in my kitchen, but don't worry, the christmas tree will wait until december 1st.

anyways, back to the present thing - i'm waiting patiently here for a hint on my 1st christmas present, but unfortunately, the giver has fallen asleep!! what kind of crap is that!?! whats worse, is that i can pretty much GARUNTEE that i will get a text at 5:30am, replying, and hinting and teasing and tantalising - and sooo i will NOT be able to ignore it and sleep, as my curiosity is simply too great! for now, i'll just lie here in bed, and hope to god that it isnt a tiburon. yes, you heard me right. i am hoping it is NOT a tiburon. allow me to explain... a couple of months or so ago, somehow, (i must have been brainwashed), i ended up agreeing that if kyle bought me a tiburon, i would get a tattoo on my arm that says "kyle is always right" this was of course, before i had a tiburon. i think? anyhoo, what i did not factor into this agreement is that one day kyle will undoubtably be filthy rich, and would probably find it simply hilarious to follow through on this preposterous idea. not to worry, i specified that it would have to be like... at least current model year, fully loaded, with AT LEAST a V6, fully operational, and electric blue, and NOT a teensy key chain model or something. (i hope you're reading this). nevertheless, my christmas gift strikes icy cold fear into my heart.

on this whole christmassy note, have i mentioned, it has snowed about 12 feet here?! AND NOT MELTED?!?! I know, its a miracle! snow in downtown kamloops! i love it. love love loveeee! in fact, i even listened to xmas music today! the nice traditional kind, but with a little brad paisley christmas thrown in too.

i feel like there were sooo many other things i was going to blog about.

oh just thought of one: so i'm pretty sure all of my readers/friends know what a disasterous cook i am, but just in case you were uninformed: i am a terrible cook. so terrible, in fact, that i burnt water. yes, you say it can't be done, but allow me to educate you: it is possible to burn water. salt water anyways. i simply was trying to boil salty water for some good ol kraft dinner one night, and then i left the house. oooooooops! came back to a very black crunchy pot. weird burnt crunchy salt bits in the bottom of the pot and everything, and the pot wasnt looking so good itself. as a matter of fact, when i put it back on the stove (forgot to turn the element ON this time...) it immediately started leaking (not that i noticed). a half hour later i returned to a huge puddle under my coil element, and some very lukewarm water. thats right, i burnt a hole in my pot. trying to make kd. clearly something is wrong with my genetic makeup. lucky for me, i still have one undestroyed pot left, and a lot of friends that feed me.

tomorrow i bring niko and monster in to be spayed. at EIGHT AM. ew. that means i have to be out in westsyde by like 7:30. i'm giving a bit of a time allowance because i assume it just isnt going to be very easy to get two angry, hungry (they're "fasting" all night) cats into one teeny cardboard carrier together. ah well. the things i do for... wait what am i doing this for again?! i can't rememeber. anyhoo, then i drive home. then at three i drive alllll the way out to the northshore to pick them up, then out to westsyde to drop niko off. then aaaalllll the way back home, WITH monster, so i can see if her living here will make my cat less crazy and cure his attachment issues and yowling and scratching and habits of destroying all that is in my house. and also, it would be nice if i didnt have to drive halfway across the planet once a week just to clean for and feed the darn thing. good thing she's so cute.

a nickel's worth of common sense

2010-11-17T17:53:00.000-08:00

this post is a little deeper than most, but its somehting that is constantly at the back of my mind.

every so often, i sit down and i think, "where am i with my life?" "where do i want to be?" "how am i going to get there?" and then i figure it all out. every time i do this, the one thing that i KNOW must happen in my life, is to volunteer in a third world country - to really SEE the world, not just the sugar-coated portions. And so, l;ast saturday, when work was excessively slow and boring, i spent my time doing some good karma type things. (side note, i dont actually believe in karma, i'm just putting it in terms you'll all understand....heh) Whilst playing (i mean losing) a ridiculous number of solitaire games, sanitizing my desk, and eating cookies, i: became an organ donor, volunteered for big brothers and big sisters, AND applied to Canada World Youth - a six month volunteer travel program where you spend 3 months with a host family in canada, and three in a third world country doing volunteer work while living with a host family. Hundreds upon hundreds of people apply every year, and they make a decision in January, but i can hope hope hope! I'll keep you posted.

Now, on another note, here is the whole reason i did post today, because at lunch i was reading a blog i follow (sort of creepily) but i saw it in Laureen Carruthers' blog - the amazing photographer lady who did my grad pics, clicked it, and have been hooked ever since!

fairly few people know this about me, but to my close friends, i suppose its common knowledge. I don't want to have kids, ever. and if i do ever feel the need, i'll adopt a child in need. why create introduce another pampered, spoiled child into the world, when there are SO MANY other out there that need homes and care so desparately? would i really not adopt just so that i could pass on the redhead? Anyways, i was reading it today, and i really loved this entry, so i thought to help people better understand what motivates me, i'd post this:

A Nickel's Worth of Common Sense:

"After experiencing the roller coaster of reunion with my sister, I suddenly found myself experience a whole other side of the adoption picture - The abandoned. The starving. The dying. Baby, after baby, after baby.

I came from a globally minded family, or so I thought. We had sponsored a child through World Vision my entire life. My parents sat us down to watch those Saturday morning "starving child" specials on tv. The high school I attended supported a school in Haiti. We did hot dog sales to raise funds. We made dresses in Home Ec that were sent to children. It made me feel I was doing something. At 16, it felt like I was doing enough. My life was pretty easy. Private school. A beautiful home. Good friends.

And then I went. Flew to the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Young, incredibly naive and completely unprepared for what I would see. Port Au Prince with its crowds, heat and constant beggars was shock enough. Hordes of malnourished children. Piles of garbage. Crowded orphanages. It was, I thought, as bad as life could ever get. What I didn't realize is that they were the lucky Haitians.

We left the city and drove several hours. We got out in a small town simply trying to survive in the midst of being decimated by AIDS. 50% of all adults were HIV positive. There were orphaned children everywhere being taken in by neighbours, friends, grandparents, and churches. Disabled children dragged their broken bodies through the dirt. We were shown the morgue. Young people lain on whitewashed slabs. Mothers, Fathers, Children. Body after body. Again, I thought that must be as bad as life could ever get as I struggled to absorb it all.

Then we left the village. No roads, just a foot path. Tired, old and emaciated donkeys carried our young, healthy, teenage bodies up a mountain. A mountain where a village had been found. A village of the starving. The living dead. We were supposed to be bringing them hope. A few boxes of seeds. Assorted medical supplies. Toys.

You might think you understand what it means to hold a child that is dying. You might think you understand what it feels like to look into the eyes of a child dying from a preventable cause. But until you have lived that; Felt it in your very soul, you cannot begin to understand.

When you realize that I, as a teenager with a stethoscope and box full of deworming medication was the best medical care, the ONLY medical care, this village would ever see maybe you can fathom the enormity of the experience.

6 year olds the primary care givers of 3 younger siblings because their mother had died in childbirth. All near death. All severely emotionally disabled from lack of affection, lack of attention, lack of hope. Pregnant women so anemic that death was inevitable once they went into labour. Starving mothers and fathers. Children so near death you know your touch might be the last. Mothers explaining that they had given birth 9 times but only two of their children had lived to a year of age.
It was a week that you cannot fathom. A week that changed my life. A week that the simple act of putting it into words has kept this post locked up because I fear I cannot do it justice.
It is here I saw the need. The desperate, absolute need of children. Heart breaking, desperate, overwhelming need. Need that can't be solved with rhetoric or policy. Need that even money couldn't find a solution too. The need was simply there. Desperate, dying children. Alone. With no one, nothing and absolutely no hope.
On our last day, the lucky children, if you could ever say that, had parents that begged us to take them. I would be holding one child and a mother would rip it from my arms and press her own baby into my arms. As the translator shared her appeal. "This one is cuter, take it please, take my baby to Canada". Then another, then another, then another. Cuter or younger or a boy or a girl. All mothers desperate to save their child in any way they could. Even by sending them half way around the world with a stranger. A child stranger at that.
We left. A group of 16 and 17 year olds completely silent. Tear streaked faces. The nurse we were working with before the trip had STRONGLY advised us not to "get attached" not to hold the babies or the toddlers left motherless. As we left she said something that I didn't completely understand at the time but do today.
"It's worse for them now. Those kids know what they are missing. Before they didn't know what a hug felt like, now they will miss it."
We silently progressed down the mountain on our donkeys. Spread out. Each needing our own space, deep, deep in thought. I passed a hut. Small, mud bricks with a tree branch roof. Suddenly a woman ran out screaming.
With great force she threw something at me.
Instinctively I reached out and grabbed it as it flew by. I realized it wasn't an it. It wasn't a something. It was a someone.
A beautiful, gorgeous, precious baby boy wrapped in a rag.
He was also a starving, dying baby boy.
And as I held him, his weeping mother hit my donkey so it would run off with me carrying her baby in my arms.
And I turned. And I threw that baby back. Back into the arms of his mother and she collapsed to the ground. Yes, back to his family of origin. Yes, back to his home culture, language and place of birth. But also back to certain death.
My life suddenly became more complicated. At home I faced those questions that maybe some never face. Why am I so blessed? Why, through a twist of fate, was I born to a family in Canada while an equally precious child is born into dire poverty in Haiti.
It is on that trip that I lost all sense of "us and them". My world perspective shattered and then expanded globally. Those children I held weren't any different than my newly found niece and nephews. Than my adored baby cousin. Their eyes were a different color, our skin looked different but we were the SAME.

And I became aware of a world where children died alone. Where babies never were held. A world where brothers and sisters were separated out of necessity. A world where mothers were so desperate for their child to live they were willing to beg another to take them.
Haiti changed my life. It will always hold a place in my heart. We continued to send money to that village for a long, long time. Many, if not most, of the children we met that January in 1991 died.

40,000 children died today from starvation and preventable starvation related illness. 40,000 more children will die tomorrow. Each as precious as the child you love most in the world. Each with as much hope. As much potential. Each with a mother who bore them in love. Not to die an agonizing death before ever experiencing life.

Within a year I would be immersed in a culture where there exists very few orphans, and again I saw another side of story of children without families of birth. "

http://anickelsworthofcommonsense.blogspot.com/

And now you know why i feel the way i do.

I'd go, I'd go, I'd go somewhere with you

2010-11-13T16:03:00.000-08:00

If you're going out with someone new

I'm going out with someone too

I won't feel sorry for me, I'm getting drunk

But I'd much rather be somewhere with you

Laughing loud on a carnival ride, yeah

Driving around on a Saturday night

You made fun of me for singing my song

Got a hotel room just to turn you on

You said pick me up at three a.m.

You're fighting with your mom again

And I'd go, I'd go, I'd go somewhere with you

I won't sit outside your house

And wait for the lights to go out

Call up an ex to rescue me, climb in their bed

When I'd much rather sleep somewhere with you

Like we did on the beach last summer

When the rain came down and we took cover

Down in your car, out by the pier

You laid me down, whispered in my ear

I hate my life, hold on to me

Ah, if you ever decide to leave

Then I'll go, I'll go, I'll go

I can go out every night of the week

Can go home with anybody I meet

But it's just a temporary high 'cause when I close my eyes

I'm somewhere with you, somewhere with you

If you see me out on the town

And it looks like I'm burning it down

You won't ask and I won't say

But in my heart I'm always somewhere with you

Laughing loud on a carnival ride, yeah

Driving around on a Saturday night

You made fun of me for singing my song

Got a hotel room just to turn you on

You said pick me up at three a.m.

You're fighting with your mom again

And I'd go, I'd go, I'd go

I can go out every night of the week

Can go home with anybody I meet

But it's just a temporary high 'cause when I close my eyes

I'm somewhere with you, somewhere with you

Somewhere with you

I'm somewhere with you

Somewhere with you

what you don't know you just gotta believe

2010-11-13T10:50:00.000-08:00

My computer is broken, but I thought I’d give you a real quick update because this is one of the only chances I’ll get and SO much has changed I can’t believe its been so long! So, in extreme short form:

• Sold the jeep

• Bought a Tiburon

• Moved to Valleyview office for work and don’t like it

• Currently doing roadrunning training and love it

• Computer’s motherboard went kaplooie

• Am officially a hermit because I have no tv, computer or radio and I don’t get the newspaper

• I CAN FINALLY DRINK LEGALLY

• I keep having dreams about moose attacking me

Wait… did anyone read that last bullet? Yeah that’s for real. And I’m going to tell you about them because they are just SO WEIRD.

Dream #1

Libby, Oakes, Mason and me are walking through the woods, and all of the trees are skinny and poplar with very white trunks and orange leaves. Its fall, and there are leaves all over the ground too. Its quiet. We only walk for a very short time, and we reach the edge of what must be the ocean, because a tide is coming in or going out, I don’t know which, though it feels like a lake. Really close to the shore in the sand just barely covered by water is like a sink hole/little water tornado looking thing which is gyrating and sucking water into it. It’s dangerous, but I’m the only one that really pays any attention to it. The best way I can describe this thing, is by hoping you’ve seen The Rescuers when you were little, and remember the well that penny was trapped in, because that is actually what this reminded me of in my dream. You know the movie, come on, the one with the alligator and the crazy lady with the gun and the little mice who befriend orphan penny? Think real hard. ANYHOO, I look around, and suddenly standing beside me is this thing that looks sort of like a tiny panda, or a small badger, standing on its hind legs. Its legs and arms are like the limbs on really really old teddy bears, the ones you can move around. The badger, I decide it is, has really red rimmed eyes, but not in like an evil way, just like it is really really tired or maybe high. I try to warn Mason and Oakes and Libby that it’s a baby badger and that the things are really vicious and that we should get out of here before its mother comes and destroys us. They don’t pay me any attention and tell me that it is actually a baby panda and not to pay it any attention. We’re just keep doing nothing off in our separate ways but still close together when I look over to this hill-ish bank that has tree roots entwined in it and a scattering of leaves on it, when I see something in the ground move, and up comes a huge antler, and a moose is like climbing out of the ground! A huge moose! Huge! Anyways in the dream, its like the moose is the baby moose’s mother, and it was like after me. It charged and I tried to get away but I wasn’t fast enough so I jumped in the water and tried to swim away from it while my siblings are telling me to get out because obviously it can swim faster than me. While I’m in the water I become very conscious that I have my new iphone in my pocket, and some obscure part of my mind is freaking out because it is getting wet. (NO I do not have an iphone in real life.) Anyhoo I get out of the water and we start running back through the woods and we lose the moose and find my dad just hanging out by some big boulders. I show my dad my moose wounds which are like big huge long scars from like my ankles all the way up, and I remember distinctly one going over my knee cap that looks exactly like the scar on my elbow, but a bit wider. My dad is fairly unconcerned, maybe even disbelieving. I phone my mum on the iphone that is amazingly still working and not waterlogged. She’s shopping and i’m disgruntled because I think she should have been here to scare away the moose or something? The end.

Dream # 2

I’m driving home to Williams Lake and see a huge moose in the middle of the highway and so I pull over into someone’s driveway and get out of the car. The woman that lives there is like 45 or 50ish and she has short hair. Actually, she’s short too. We’re all like “omg you see that moose?!” “Oh wow yeah me too!” and crap, and then it like comes over a hill and starts running at us. So we start running from it, around a neighbor’s house, and then we’re kind of creeping around her house, backs to the siding (which is white and looks like my Williams Lake house) but it finds us, so I run up to the deck, but the woman is too slow, or stupid or something, and I try to wait for her, but I can’t anymore, so I go inside her house, which is kind of dingy and dark. Her son is in there, he’s about 30, just sitting in the living room, which is really cramped, and all of the furniture is really tall. Like it has been stretched upwards, and it’s kind of slanting in towards us. Everything is like darkish and brown and this guy is like really ashamed of his house. There’s a huge flat screen TV in the corner. We peek out of the blinds, trying to see what’s going on, but we’re looking out on to the deck and can’t really see anything. So I look out the front window towards my car, and I see the moose smashing his huge horns into my windshield! All I can think is “thank god it’s just the windshield, I need a new one of those anyways. (and I really do.) but then I look harder and I see that the whole hood is actually crunched in and he’s put a massive hole in it! The end.

I had another one too but I forget now, it’s been so long. I actually wrote this blog like… two weeks ago and have just finally decided I should really get to posting it. Actually I’m at work, so really I should probably be invoicing something but there is nothing to invoice anyways and I’m the only one in the office and GAWD is it ever boring. I can’t believe I just spelt that with a ‘w’, I really hate people that do that but if I had said it out loud that’s how it would have been pronounced so I suppose I have to convey the proper image and whatnot. I CAN NOT BELIEVE I’ve only been at work for an hour and a half. I guess time does tend to move extra super slow when you’re deathly ill. (hungover) and extremely sleep deprived (by choice). I can’t even think of fireball (oops I just did) without having my stomach heave and my mouth water in a bad bad way. It was a great night though.

Anyways I guess I should like pretend to work now or something.

i just tried to find a picture of my car for you all but none are taken from good angles. stupid google. anyhoo, its a black 2001 hyundai tiburon in case anyone is curious. pictures to come soon! wait. nevermind i'm lying. i don't have a computer. whatev. time to work. blech.

gin and juice

2010-09-23T15:04:00.000-07:00

SIX emails about the Jeep in the last two days!! Boy, does Craigslist ever work! ….not to mention a price reduced by 1000 dollars! I CAN’T WAIT to sell the Jeep! Emails and calls from people interested almost seem like they must be scams or something, simply because my life is just going along so great, it seems almost impossible that I’d be allowed a Tiburon too! Knock on wood, though… (if you believe in stupid wives tales like that, I mean…. though I most definitely do not, I don’t think it could hurt to have a bunch of you faithfuls out there rapping on trees, just in case it makes even the slightest difference in the outcome…) The Tiburon almost seems surreal… I think I’m mentally blocking it so that I don’t get ridiculously anxious about not being able to drive it… When I do let myself think about it I get this strange swooping feeling, like falling, or looking down from high up, or.. having my name drawn for a prize.

Anyhoo, here is some more shameless plugging….. :)

If you're interested, see my ad on craigslist, and send me an email though that! :)

CRAIGSLIST & KIJIJI

vegetarianism

2010-09-19T09:55:00.001-07:00

I've always toyed with the thought quite a lot over the last couple of years, but now, i'm really thinking about it. In fact, I can't really STOP thinking about it. Check out Paul McCartney's clip called Glass Walls on Meat.org, it is just so disturbing, and inhumane.

I've been doing some reading on it too, and there are actually way more health benefits than i thought. visit PETA if you're interested in learning more! I just pledged to be a vegetarian for 30 days about two minutes ago, and so, it begins! :S

These women were supporting PETA in Kamloops a couple of weeks ago, read about it here:

Peta Protesters Dress Down for Vegan Diet

well, now that i'm thoroughly depressed from watching all the meat.org videos, i think i'm going to wrap this up and go get myself a lovely breakfast apple

i'm dreaming in colour

2010-09-12T14:43:00.001-07:00

i'd love to hear you say,

anything but silence.

you're different colours,

on the edge i hope,

inside i choke, i'm falling under.

don't wake me 'cause,
i'm dreaming in color.

black and white is not my friend.
i know that, I should stay here for a while.

listen to the sound
of my shaky heart.

shark

2010-09-08T23:25:00.000-07:00

so, i am the proud new owner of a tiburon! yes! i really bought one! my life is complete! or at least, materialisticly, i couldnt ask for more! yes, today has been a truly wonderful day! i cant wait to get some pictures on here for you all to see, but i have to wait until tomorrow, because alas, it is much too dark. gosh i'm happy! but i havent even given any details on it yet! what sort of crap blogger am i, anyways?

its a 2001 Hyundai Tiburon, 5 speed manual trans, coupe, beautiful, amazing, handles like a dream, powerful for a 4 cylinder, black interior and exterior, brand new clutch, and it came with winter tires and a block heater! did i mention that it is basically theeee most fantastic, fabulous car i have ever owned? and that it handles like a dream? hyundai for life, and long live timmy. okayokayokay, i know i'm getting a little carried away, but i've only owned it for like four short hours, give me a break! i probably shouldnt have blogged until tomorrow, when the adrenaline has worn off a little.

so now, i just have to sell the jeep! asap! i'm leaving the beast insured, because i dont want to be buying $40 permits for everyone who wants to test drive it :/ i think not getting to drive the tibby will be pretty motivating though. i can't wait to say buh-bye jeep! so the new baby is just sitting in amanda's formerly unoccupied driveway, attracting drooling passers by.

anyhoo i should really get back to bed,
work tomorrow after my blissful four days off!
be kinda good to get back on track, really.

hammerfall

2010-09-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

so, i mentioned i bought a jeep, right?

well, i'm selling it! check out my ad on kijiji : JEEP!

i do really looove the jeep, but i just don't really have the setup to take the top off and stuff, and whats a jeep, if you can't take off the top, right?! i think i just found out a car really is more my style... soo...

i'm on the hunt for a tiburon! i want one SO BADLY! preferably electric blue, 2005, V6 manual, but thats sort of wishful thinking i think haha. i need one to fulfill my happiness! with a tiburon, my life will be complete! so kyle and i are driving to kelowna today to go look at two, and hopefully a third in Lumby, if the people call me back before we leave k-town! they're all standard, five speed, so i'm feeling hopeful! i'm SOOO excited! its like christmas! but not as certain! :P i'm soo ready to go! but i don't want to disturb the little beast sleeping on my lap right now either (boris) .. if kyle didnt take as long to get ready as a girl on a first date, we could probably be in vernon right now, yeesh! haha. good thing i was early!

so here i am, waiting, and drinking my triple-triple, and considering drinking kyle's too... :) anyhoo, i shall update when i get back to town, and hopefully it will be good news! :)

be excited for me!

no one needs to say goodbye

2010-08-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

get caught in the race, of this crazy life

2010-08-26T22:41:00.000-07:00

Long time no blog! I think it's been over a month, I am so disappointed in myself! Not to worry though, I’ll be back on track again shortly I believe. Quite a fair bit has happened, but whether or not I will be able to remember it or not is the real issue! Of the most importance, I got a “promotion” of sorts! September the 28^th is my start date for becoming a Junior Office Roadie in the Valleyview office! I’ll be spending four days a week in the office, but every Friday or exceptionally busy day, I will be out on the road, driving from dealership to dealership, doing insurance in dealerships on my little laptop! It will be really nice to not be in the office 24/7, and I also make quite a decent amount of commission and get paid mileage! I’m super excited but also a bit nervous top start in a new office – mine is just so great here! But anyways, once a position becomes available (probably not for a couple of months at leasttttt) I’ll be upgrades to a full time roadrunner, then eventually, after that, maybe a senior roadrunner! Senior roadrunners work 4 ten hour days a week – gosh that would be amaaaazing!

Anyways, on a less professional note, last night Amanda, Angie, Braeden and I had THE most fantastic idea! We drove out to Chase, and tromped around creepily in the dark until we found a huuuuge corn field! Then we parked our car down the road, and we grabbed our bags and our bins, and we struggled through and over barbed wire fences until, SUCCESS! Manda and I were so excited we probably almost woke up the farmers with our grade nine-esque squealing. It was an amazing success – I had so much corn bundled into my arms and overflowing out of bags I could hardly walk! Getting over the fences on the way back was totally another story though. At one point I actually got stuck with one leg half over a barbed wire fence, while Amanda was trying to hold it down with her foot from the other side, and I ended up toppling backwards over it into a spiky field and my entire huge bags of corn fell all over me, because I was so terrified that one of the spikes was going to get me! Have I ever mentioned I have like... a huge fear of barbed wire? Well I do. Not to mention we were so pumped on adrenaline that hysterical laughter was about all I could manage in the way of communication.

I’ve also been watching quite a bunch of movies lately – Kyle and I watched Patch Adams, with Robin Williams on Tuesday, and I always thought I’d hate Robin Williams, but I’ve seriously been converted. I guess only having ever seen him before in Jumanji, Casper, and Flubber, I wasn’t exactly getting the greatest impression apparently. The Kingdom was another REALLY good one, but it was heart wrenchingly sad. Last weekend when Mason was visiting, he forced me to see Step Up 3 with him, and a more plot less film would be hard to find. Not to mention the acting. Oh horrendous acting. But really, all aside, it was actually pretty good, the dancing amazing obviously, and it was very “feel good”.

anyhooo, its late, and i am sleepy x 928375

tah for now.

Couldn't wait to get goin'
But wasn't quite ready to leave

There's a wild, wild whisper
Blowin' in the wind
Callin' out my name like a long lost friend
Oh I miss those days as the years go by
Oh nothing's sweeter than summertime

Get caught in the race
Of this crazy life
Tryin' to be everything can make you lose your mind
I just wanna go back in time

2010-07-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

so last night, kallie and i went to see Despicable Me in theatres, (BEST MOVIE EVER) and we had a great time catching up! anyhoo, the whole time, i was thinking about how i would definitely NOT forget my phone face down in the cup holder, but low and behold, i get home, dump my purse, search my car and nearly have a heart attack: its not there. mason phones the theatre, and gets gord to search all of the seats, and it still isnt there! i decide we should drive down there to search the parking lot, because i thought maybe i set it down on the back of my car when i was grabbing my keys: its not there either. so i demand libby ad mason scan the road the whole way home, just in case by some chance it fell off the back of my car while i was going to fast around a corner. i drove like 20kms per hour the whoooleee way homee :( AND THEN I SPOTTED IT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET, AHHHHHH! We found it!! in the middle of the road! ilovemyphone ilovemyphone ilovemyphone ilovemyphone ilovemyphone ilovemyphone!! :D

soo anyhoo, yesterday we had a lovely nice family reunion out at our relatives from hong kong's summer cabin too! (no they arent asian..) i had such a great time kayaking and swimming and water-trampolining! it was a good time with all my frenchie relatives, thats for sureee. actually, i had such a great time kayaking that i gave myself a wicked bad dime sized blister on my thumb from racing oakes :( ow.

and nowwww....i'm in alberta for the first time ever! WOOHOO! its pretty great, doesnt feel much like alberta yet though, because we are only in jasper, but wow this town is beautiful! the mountains are amaaazing! it reminds me of whistler a little bit actually. tuesday heading to edmonton, and WOW am i excited to spend stupid amounts of money on material things while in the mall! i think we're doing roller coasters/water slides too :) the street signs are strange green and ywellow colours, also, instead of good old green and white, anddd some of the street lights are sideways! how strange! wow i feel uncultured.

promise i will post some pics soon!
♥

life's like an hourglass glued to the table

2010-07-05T10:01:00.000-07:00

have i mentioned how cute the kittens are before? have i? this morning i woke up and one had its little nose almost touching my nose, and all of the rest of them were gathered around my head! soooo amazing! they're all still a little bit afraid of me, (sad..), so this was very good news! so besides not being able to breathe with all this surrounding kitten fluff, this has been a lovely morning.

oh yeah, and i'm STRANDED.
thats right, stranded.
okaaay maybe not so great.
niki @ westsyde
car @safeway
safeway @ sahali
...yup i'm screwed

yesterday i discovered tomatillos! we werent sure what it was at all, but apparently its just a green tomato, disappointing a know, but i look how cool they look! i think i love them:

hinkey pinkey ponkey

2010-06-29T22:31:00.000-07:00

you're stuck in a well with a goat and a slinky, how do you escape?

me? i cut the slinky into four equal peices, and attach these peices to the goat's hooves, then, i get him to bounce, while i sit on him.

what would you do?

without a wrinkle in today, cause there's no tomorrow

2010-06-29T18:30:00.000-07:00

pie for breakfast. teen burger and pie for lunch. strawberry frappuchino. pizza and pie for dinner.
jeesus i obviously want to be a whale, fml! but i did at least mow the lawn right after work, somewhere in between pizza and pie..

saw karate kid on friday, and the movie itself was a little too long and a little unrealistic, but i thought jayden smith (will smith's kid for those of you who do not yet know that this is an amazing actor in the making!) did pretty much the best he could do for the kind of movie it was. its official, i'm a fan! the rest of my weekend was spent boating and cleaning and walking and drinking and for the shortest time, camping out at the shushwap! so really it was pretty much fantastic! and it felt really long too which is seriously rare and amazzzzinnggg! in fact, it's like triple amazing, because i only have one more day of work, and then a day off, WHOOT! canada day! manda and i are gonna go a little crazy and make great red and white outfits! wheeeeee! i'll be sure to post some picture.

if you're in the right mood... this is pretty much the FUNNIEST thing you'll ever watch.

i'm done for now, off to watch Knight & Day - it looks friggin hilarious.
in fact, i'm going to be doing a looot of movie watching, because twilight comes out tomorrow and i REALLY want to see grown ups tooo! :D and i just saw A-team, which was basically the best thing since jim carrey, so i highly recommend it!

an old dirt road, and i'll be just fine

2010-06-25T20:23:00.000-07:00

a full moon tomorrow, and welfare wednesday earlier in the week has made for suuuuch a hectic few days at work! i was ready to pull my hair out today, but at the same time, i looove being busy! it just makes the day fly by, especially when you have reasonably happy customers... also, a significant mount of people took my card today which was sooo stellar! our office is so funny, there is constant banter back and forth which i think amuses as well as sort of scares the customers, because by 4:30 we're all a little hysterical and on coffee and sugar highs hahahaha. it was customer appreciation day at the bank again, (they serve FREE cookies and coffee!) so i went like four times to "get change." so great.

today trina gave me such a good reason to be watching the world cup... (i'm a hockey person all the way, soccer takes a serious backseat, in fact, it doesnt really have a seat at all)... the players are ALL GOREGOUS! helllooooo portugal! seriously. plus, holy VICIOUS too!

make sureee you click to see all the pictures bigger and not transparent!

after work i drove home, changed, and headed out to see my ponykins! i didn't ride, just spent an hour or so brushing and cleaning and loving and feeding hollywood, and then after that i sat on the grass while he ate it. jeez i love horses, the feeling of such perfect silent companionship was so nice. i even got a nice whinny when i got up and came back. miss me much? i was gone like 30 seconds! made my whole day.

niko's babies have also gotten SO FRIGGIN MADLY CUTE! i probabaly won't be able to help but put up like twenty pictures of them :D they're about 5 weeks old now, and its like the most perfect age, i wish they could stay this way forever! i think kyle decided to keep the other black and white one, and erin is oing to be getting the grey and the niko looking one when she moves back to kamloops, so along with mine, kye's going to have like 5 cats for a few months!! hahahahahhahahaha.

smashbox

2010-06-24T19:24:00.000-07:00

today started out lovely, i had a cute outfit, the sun was shining, i was on time, i even remembered to bring a lunch: i was all set to have an amazing and productive day at work!

that lasted about ten minutes.

i was almost at the bridge to the northshore, singing along to "the script" when suddenly i saw HUGE FLYING CHUNKS OF CAR flying over to the right lane from up ahead! the SUV in front of me braked and swerved slightly left into oncoming traffic, and i hit the brakes so hard that my back seats popped open (internal trunk entry, snazzy, i know), and stuff flew from out of my trunk into the back of my seat! it wasn't enough, and i hit the bumper of the car ahead of me with my car, fml. fmlfmlfml!

my legs were shaking so badly, i could hardly hold the clutch down, so i pulled over to a parking lot right beside the accident. when all of the cops and the firetruck and the ambulances had all arrived, everything just got a little bit crazier, and people eventually began to piece together the entire story...

the person at the front of the line had made an illegal left turn too suddenly, or hadn't signaled or something, which caused the guy behind him to slam on his brakes; in turn, the guy behind him rear ended him, and so did the person behind him, AND the person behind that guy! the woman in front of me just managed to avoid these four cars, but in turn, i hit her. so it was a six car pile up, plus the douche that made the left turn, and then headed for the hills as soon as he saw what he had done. two cars were completely totaled, and every single one had some form of damage.

luckily, since the lady in front of me didn't have any impact with any one ahead of her, our claim is completely separate, thank god, because that could have gotten messy. timmy the car isn't too badly damaged, i'll probably post a few pictures later, but for the most part he is fine. i didn't really do much damage to the vehicle ahead of me either, so that is reaaally great. right now my options are: have a 40% surcharge on my insurance for three years (a 2100 dollar increase) or pay icbc the cost of fixing this woman's car before my next insurance renewal, and have no surcharges. i'm pretty sure she definitely doesn't have two grand worth of damages, but who knows! and i don't really have tons of extra cash lying around, so weee shall seee what happens.

uuuuuuuuurghhhhhhh!
oh and i'm fine of course, just a slightly sore neckk.
could have been so much worse, but it still blowwwwsss

groove, shark.

2010-06-18T01:24:00.000-07:00

so yesterday, i went to work, all set and ready to dish out my fairly owed 300 dollars to icbc. i walked in with bank card at the ready, and game face on. the sort of game face that says "i think icbc already makes enough easy cash, and i know that i deserve my tickets, but really 300 dollars?! fml. f lots of things... the establishment, cops in general, you name it." anyways, i really had to renew my insurance if i wanted to keep driving to work, so i was facing the music (terrible quality, probabaly along the same sounds that came out when Beijing attempted to play our national anthem on the organ...)

anyhoo, moving on.... john tried to find my tickets in the computer without having my ticket, and as somethimes happens, it didn't work, so i went and actually got that horrific little peice of paper from under the seat in my car, so he ould type in the ticket number, and alas, they did not show! so we attempted a renewal, (under NO circumstances can you renew insurance with outstanding icbc fines) so we expected that it would pop up then, as has been known to happen, but to our amazement, THEY WERENT THERE! ohhh em jeeeeee! holy bejeebus! so we did the renewal and it worked, and now i'm home FREEEE! its a miracle! so i'm thanking my lucky stars, and hoping they don't show up in six months! but even if they do, its better than now! :D yay. so that pretty much made my day. wait... day?! WEEK! at least week, maybe fortnight. month if everything else continues to go as well as it has been... ahah.

anyhoo that was just a quick update, don't worry, i promise a music change next time! i know half of the songs stopped working... but while you're waiting, check out http://grooveshark.com/ ! :)

hope you are all having lovely sunny days! leave me a comment! i know you visit, and i want to hear some feedback, gosh darn it! so i'm a little closer in that perspective, now that i have a hit counter! tiny little thing at the end of the right hand column :)

what if....?

2010-06-16T19:35:00.000-07:00

Q: If you were able to do whatever you wanted for a day... and not have to worry about the distance or the money or anything... what would you do?

Niki: i only have a day?! that is seriously limiting! i suppose i would hire someone to go out and buy as many properties and stocks as humanly possible with my unlimited money, while i was pre-booking all inclusive round trip tickets for like a 12 month long trip around the world or something! and then i would go spend the rest of my day hanging out in turn with bruce willis, jim carrey, taylor lautner, and josh hartnett.

pirate radio

2010-06-16T19:29:00.001-07:00

Wow, I know its been ages, but I just haven’t been able to get into the blogging groove lately, I have actually tried, honestly!

There have been a few great adventures over the past month or so, but my favorite was definitely last weekend when Amanda and I climbed Mount Paul! You know, (or you should know at least,) the mountain in Kamloops with the peace sign spray painted on it! Well, on Monday Amanda and I decided to at last tackle this particular aspiration, and climb it! (this has been the plan since we met, practically.) It was super challenging, one leg of journey was seriously like a 70 degree angle, it was ridiculous! But so frigging amazing once we got to the very top! I can’t really even properly describe the feeling, its something you have to experience for yourself almost. Once we were at the very peak, we could seriously see from like barnhartvale to westsyde, and even out towards Savona! There were these huge cliffs that you could almost dangle your feet off of, and we were looking down by about 300 feet at the peace sign! Seriously, I used to think the people who did that were so crazy, but man, they are actually kind of sad, they only made it a quarter of the way up the mountain! But don’t get me wrong, it’s still flippin cool.

Before this, last weekend we also decided to make our own adventures, and decided to be greasy, and drink…. At the park! Hahahahah. It was great! And not like Williams lake at all! Such good times, we sang Shania Twain at the top of our lungs while walking around downtown, picked toooons of flowers from gardens and city fixtures, and then Amanda got carried away and somehow ended up whipping me in the eye with a thorny rose! Ack! I’m lucky I’m not half blinded! Manda ended up picking up dudes off of the street to hang out with for a while, so that worked out well, but jeez! *shakes head* craziness.

Last night, Kyle and I seriously watched one of my new favorite movies, it’s called Pirate Radio, and I highly recommend you watch it, it is soo amazing! I just grinned the entire way through! You will probably have to download it though, because it was made in the UK, but it is well worth it, everyone should watch this movie!! And obviously, it had great music for the era! I can’t wait to download the whole soundtrack! Here’s a taste:

Lyrics and video soundtrack

Stay With Me Baby (Duffy)
All Day And All Of The Night (The Kinks)
Elenore (The Turtles)
Judy In Disguise (With Glasses) (John Fred & His Playboy Band)
Dancing In The Street (Martha Reeves And The Vandellas)
Wouldn't It Be Nice (The Beach Boys)
Ooo Baby Baby (Smokey Robinson)
Crimson And Clover (Tommy James & The Shondells)
Hi Ho Silver Lining (Jeff Beck)
I Can See For Miles (The Who)
With A Girl Like You (The Troggs)
The Letter (The Box Tops)
I'm Alive (The Hollies)
Yesterday Man (Chris Andrews)
I've Been A Bad Bad Boy (Paul Jones)
Silence Is Golden (The Tremeloes)
The End Of The World (Skeeter Davis)
Friday On My Mind (The Easybeats)
My Generation (The Who)
I Feel Free (Cream)
The Wind Cries Mary (Jimi Hendrix)
A Whiter Shade Of Pale (Procol Harum)
These Arms Of Mine (Otis Redding)
The Happening (The Supremes)
She'd Rather Be With Me (The Turtles)
98.6 (The Bystanders)
Sunny Afternoon (The Kinks)
Father And Son (Cat Stevens)
Nights In White Satin (Moody Blues)
You Don't Have To Say You Love Me (Dusty Springfield)
Hang On Sloopy (The McCoys)
Let's Dance (David Bowie)

more later, so much is new, but i have no time to tell it at the moment! keep checking :)

there is no certainty, only opportunity.

2010-05-03T19:15:00.000-07:00

i got a bullseye yesterday! thats right, apparently i kick ass at darts! haha jk. pretty sure it was a mixture of luck and skill, a little heavy on the luck portion, but still, it was wicked!

i had a good weekend, mason came up, and we had a good visit! too short, however, he went home at noon today. i think i really need to make a trip back to wl soon, i find myself sort of missing home a lot lately. my mum is coming up this weekend though, and that will be fun!

anyone else following the playoffs?! just going to give a shout out to the canucks right here, because they are playing right now, and kicking chicagos ass once again! whoot!

so i got my brakes done on friday finally, and that was a whopping 530 dollars, jeesus! i knew it was going to be expensive, but i didn't expect my calipers were effed too.rotors and pads i knew were a sure thing though.. ugh. o_O ah well i cant live without my car, so what must be done, must be done. anyways, to make the day even better (i hope you all understand that this statement is absolutely dripping sarcasm from every letter..) amanda and i were cruising around aberdeen, looking at amazing beautiful houses we will one day own, and alas, i blew a stop sign, and got pulled over. FML right?! at least he was good looking. so i came out of that day with 280 dollars in fines.. (no N, no stopping..) that would be an 800 dollar day for me, eff eff eff eff eff. i guess considering i've been pulled over 9384754 times, and those are my first tickets, i am relatively lucky, though sort of miffed that my cute girl charm didn't work for the first time. i guess thats what you get for driving stupidly at the end of the month... also, he didnt find the mickey of vodka under the seat, which was a bonus hahahahah.

and if any of my siblings are reading this (libby) i'd really appreciate if they didnt break the news to our dear mother and father unnecessarily. i'm planning on just paying them without them ever finding out, i could do without the lecture. i get it.

anyhooooo on a parting note,
today is my first day with my own desk/cubicle @ work :D
congrats to meeee! hahaha.

also, everyone just pretend that the music is actually a mixture of CCR and techno, because thats what i'm feeling right now, but i am simply just too lazy to go through all of the strenuous html to change it at the moment.

i've been a few places, mostly here or there, once or twice

2010-04-27T23:03:00.000-07:00

if i had a million dollars....

yes i know this image is watermarked, but i just find this so touching, i want to help in third world countires soooo badly one day! i really admire david beckam for his work with unicef.

anyhooooooooooooo..

so much new, i dont even know where to start! i have clearly not been doing a very good job keeping you updated on my life, eek! ah well, better late than never!

so, i dont remember when i last blogged, but in short.. I GOT THE JOB @ BARTONS! so i've been working @ the northdore office for the last two weeks, and it has been great, i absolutely love it, even though i've just been studying mornings and shadowing someone in the afternoons! tomorrow morning, i take my exam, and then i am officially certified to sell general insurance, WOOHOO! just an ICBC course after that, and i'm set to go, whoot! i should most liekly be studying right now actually, but i just dont think any more information can be absorbed by my brain.

a bonus of working full time is that i find that i appreciate my time off soooo much, and that i actually make good use of my free time now! this weekend was jam packed again, riding with katherine and phylis saturday morning @ 8, lunch with tyson, and then a fantastic spaghetti saturday dinner @ amandas with regan and kyle and marj! then we went to dairy queen and had a most excellent salf fight... truly epic. luckily we left before we got kicked out, but i'm pretty sure i've still got spare salt grains in my shoes and purse, and kyle even has a shaker haha. i got him really well with a sneak attack outside the exit, but man did i pay for it. then we watched law abiding citizen, which i HIGHLY reccommend to anyone! amazing movie! sunday was another early morning, but it was a good one. hung out and had brunch with tys, went for a like four hour long coffee date with nick @ riverside - we found a really cool wharf where we could sit in the sun and splash out feet in the cold cold river! and then we even saw a swimming marmot battle - seriously a highlight of my day! after that, watched the hockey game @ matt and kyle, went and got more blizzards, and had a lovely but short bowling session, where we observed the boys put back enough alcohol for about three weeks hahahah.

i'm going to be quite sad when regan leaves though! :( tomorrow is her going away dinner @ kelly o's! :O

finally made an appt for my brakes to be done on friday, thank goooooodneeessss! i know i left it too long, but i just didnt have the money to get them fixed until this payday, even though i knew waiting would make it more expensive in the end, my parents have better things to use their money on, so i didnt want to ask to borrow it. but i'm pretty sure the rotors are shot now too :/ ah well. whenever i use my brakes, i picture someones scraped knee draggin along the road... it feels like hitting the brakes is actually causing me physical pain through my guilt for timmy's condition :(

anyhoooo, i have much more to say, but perhaps there is a better time to say it than the eve of my exam, i should sleep, though the nerves may make it impossible :S

goodnight, sleep tight!

she acts like summer and walks like rain, she listens like spring and she talks like june

2010-04-09T17:37:00.000-07:00

i have had a lovely week/weekend so far, its looking like a good sign! ^_^ monday was matts's bday and amanda's tuesday! made AMAZING pasta with tyson (alfredo sauce with fried spiced zuchinni and red peppers and prawns) and watched titanic wednesday (tyson had never seen it?!!? :O ) and yesterday played risk with john, kyle and tristan! no i didnt win, but i was definitely second to last, amazingly! gosh i love risk, such a long game though, we started at like 8:30 and didnt finish till about 12:30 o_O ahhh the wonders of world domination. risk night ended with the most epic indoor water fight there ever was between kyle and i, whaaat funnn ^_^

this morning i went to rescue all of my clean towels from amanda's house (where i accidentally abandoned them... i've been air drying after my showers for days :S haha), and then we ended up having lovely tea before she had to work! after that, tyson and i attempted going for a hike but ended up just washing and vacuuming bartleby? (tyson's car, obviousllyyy ahha.) and then i went and got this absolutely fabulous haircut: more layers in the front, proper bangs, and about three inches cut off of the ends (eep!), and i love it! it feels so light and healthy and i can actually run my fingers through it without them getting caught in a gigantic tangle.

i have spent some time making a new playlist for my ipod, which is compiled mostly of movie soundtracks (the invention of lying, bounty hunter) random old classics like the beegees, blue rodeo, bob marley, rolling stones, otis redding, supertramp, counting crows, and some randoms, including cage the elephant, a journey/lady gaga remix, as well as a lot of train and rise against, and of course, mr blue sky - electric light orchestra. there's a little peek into my eclectic music taste for youu.

i start bartons @ 9:00 monday morning! :)

and i finally beat kyle at mafia wars! hehe. but it feels weird, now i dont really have a goal hahahahha.

i love the lyrics in this song:

sittin on the porch, drinking ice cold cherry coke

2010-04-06T13:47:00.000-07:00

after a series of interviews and a personality assessment quiz thinger, i got the job @ bartons insurance! i am now an auto advisor (or almost) i'll be working full time and on salary, and i even get two weeks paid of vacation! for the fisrt three months or less, depending on how long it takes me, i will be shadowing someone in the mornings and learning all about what i will do, get trained, etc etc, and in the afternoons be studying my insurance fundamentals course, so i can take the exam and be certified asap! its a great opportunity, and i am really excited, because i caan actually go places with this job, whereas retail, not so much. but it was very sad to quit bootlegger, i really liked it there :( if things work out i might be able to keep one day a week or something. i felt really bad though, because i was just about to become shift manager and get a like two dollar raise.

i'm so excited to have money, and not be living paycheck to paycheck! there are a few things i really need to buy, like a filter for my fishtank, new brakes for my car (eep) and things like a new toothbrush and some more dishsoap hahah.

my mum is coming down this weekend too, and we are going to kelowna (partially to celebrate her birthday, partially to shop for some dress clothes pour moi* for work, since i start monday and own the grand total of like one outfit i could wear haha :S i am tres tres** excited!

last night was matt's birthday/going away party @ frick and fracks, i had amazinggg prawn and chicken penne! it was irritating though, amanda's birthday is today, and they wouldnt let her have her free dinner a couple of hours early!!! garh. and our waitress was terrible. anyhoo, it was fun but totally sad, and now matt has gonee and i forgot to give him his card agh! i think i shall mail it, however. once regan has left too things will be weeird haha, i've known them since basically right when i first moved here now that i think of it! o_O

today i cleaned the heck out of my house, and it feels so lovely! vacuumed, washed dishes, cleaned kitchen, room, and bathroom, and even dusted! i did get a little too raid happy though, so i am now airing out my house :/ brrrr. so all thats left is the fishtank, but i think that might have to wait, i'm really getting sick of cleaning! :S

you know how i have terribly bad car luck? well it continues... the other day i got rear ended driving UPHILL TO A RED LIGHT wtf, how do you even do that!?! it was some psycho old woman, god was i ever mad, but timmy escaped without even a scratch, thank goooodnesss! anyways, then the next morning, i wake up and someone has apparently tried to pry the plates of my car :/ fack. but at least they are still there, thats what really matters i suppose.

wooooh, a couple days ago they had a pretty sweet techno show thing, with all sorts of laser lights etc etc, and i ended up just having such a good time, it was wicked, i danced for like five hours straight haha. kyle and i definitely ended up being the last people on the dance floor @ like four thirty in the morning, people probably thought we were crazy (especially since neither of us are particularly good dancers hahahaha) but it was a lot of fun anyways.

just a little sidenote here: the weather has been amazing, sunny and about 15 degrees everyday, but this morning, i had to dig out my ice scraper aaaaghhhh!!! much nicer now though, i have the windows open in my house.

anyhoo, i suppose i should finish up my cleaning!
au revoir, mes amies! ***

ps: for those confused with the sudden french substitutions, please see below for a mini french/english dictionary extract:

*pour moi - for me
**tres tres - very very
***au revoir mes amies - goodbye my friends

j'ai appelé mon vide Edgar :)
ten points to whoever can translate that first.
(its cheating if you already know edgar.)

on a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair

2010-03-27T21:55:00.000-07:00

so i'm just going to throw it out there... you all better have been participating in earth hour this past 8:30-9:30! cmon guys, even all of the tim hortons' did! its getting to a be a big thing, i'm stoked.i did but had absolutely no idea what to do in the pitch black besides sleep, so i cheated and used this laptop. my candles were a no go since i couldnt find a lighter haha. and actually the lights are still off because i forgot until like nine hahaha.

so anyways, i had a grat day off today, so i figure i'd share it with you all! okay well to start with it wasnt really a day off because i worked 10-2, but it was supposed to be, and getting off at two pretty much made it feel like a day off, whcih was lovellyyyy. tyson and i went out to his jam space out at the north shore, and i learned how to play the drums! it was fantastic, but difficult! i think i love it though haha, i have been obsessively looking up drum tabs on the internet for ages tonight lol. turns out that i can actually play the drums in keith urban's song you're my better half! haha. man that foot pedal gets me somethimes though lol. anyhoo, after the drum learning, we went for a stroll along the beach that is like three feet away from the jam space, and gosh it was nice out today! i tried to make a sand castle out of dry sand which tyson rapidly turned into boobs... then we went to panago, got a lovely discounted pizza and some juice and ate it at pioneer park, went home and watched some season five kenny vs spenny, which was awesome.

and yup that pretty much sums up my day! i'm actually sort of glad to be home tonight, its weird having nothing to do, but all of the boys are at ufc hahaha.... go george st pierre! at least there is sunday funday tomorrow, i am stoked! wish i wasnt working though, i would have liked to have joined in the botchee ball portion i have heard tell of haha.

OH EM JEE: i finally won something (a coffeeeee) off of a roll up the rim! but kyle brought me this stellar winner tea yesterday, so maybe i'm just unlucky haha.

i am currently listening to the eagles on repeat :)

all things said, and plenty done

2010-03-25T23:32:00.000-07:00

hectic hectic hectic life!

i have been busy from the moment i wake up until the moment my head hits the pillow every single day! which is 90% a good thing, but having a life is hard work sometimes haha. i wish there was more time in a day or more days in a week! it seems that i barely have enough time to incorporate everyone into my schedule properly! :S and to top it off i feel like i may be catching a cold o_O but seriously everyone i know is sick, so if i escape this epidemic unscathed it'll be a miracle!

work has been totally great lately which is fantabulous! i think i'm going to be promoted to shift leader in like a week which means a two dollar raise and more hours, whoot! though i have been getting 30ish hours a week right now actually which is awesome! i picked up another shift on saturday too, whcih is good but bad because i was sosososo looking forward to having that day off, but oh well. now i have monday off and amanda and i are going fake grad dress shopping :D as in.. we dont need them, but we want to try them on hehe.

it has been so lovely and warm here lately, its totally fabulous! the other night tyson and i went for a midnight picnic on the beach which was sweet, we brought soo much good food! potato salad and strawberries and roast chicken sandwiches, chips and dip and peach 5 alive! it was great haha. i think midnight picnics are my new thing hehe.

yesterday david and i washed and cleaned my car last night (which was welllll overdue, let me tell you) and today it is raining, and i am soooooooo irritated! garh. some would call this murphy's law, (*cough* kyle), but i am stoically maintaining my opinion that murphy does not exist in any way whatsoever, and that people who do believe in this are simply brainwashing themselves into believing that there are reasons for things where none exist excepting pure coincidence!

also, i got a call for an interveiw from the head honcho guy at barton's for an auto adviser position, so keep your fingers crossed!

anyhoo i really need a night of good sleep so i'm going to end this here, though i could most likely prattle on for an almost endless span of pages. goodnight bloggers!

can you feel this magic in the air

2010-03-16T21:41:00.000-07:00

so today... it was plus TWENTY! yup yup, summer is here! well except for the freak windy rainstorm in the evening haha. i am sooo excited about this though, i simply love the sun! and honselty i'm not too fussed about storms either, expecially when they're still strangely nice and warm. i hope it is just as nice tomorrow too, as i am going for a ride with katherine!

work was great today, my goal was 400, and i did 1200! yay :D i'm pretty stoked on that actually, i was a little bit nervous about meeting my goal in such a big mall/different atmosphere, but i think it is easier actually. i forgot how hard it is to work in retail and not buy anything though :S there is so much stuff i want! namely this one adorable guess tank, and more than anything this AMAZING bench jacket... let me see if i can find a picture online.

...
...
...

gosh the bootlegger website is slow.

aha found it!

loooooveeee! but its like a zillion dollars so i will just wait until i win the lottery or it goes on some sort of freakish ridiculous markdown :/ oh well, i can dream! :)

anyhoo i am now off to a lord of the rings movie marathon with erin and kyle so goodnight to you bloggers!

more of this or less of this, is there any difference

2010-03-13T12:27:00.000-08:00

You hold your head up to the sky
You say "What kind of blue are you, are you?"
Then you ride a pony round and round
It's digging a hole right through, right through

You stumble down a yellow brick road
Spinning you shoes in the air, the air
Then you hold your breath and count to 9
Hoping that soon somebody will find you, find you

courtney

2010-03-11T17:18:00.000-08:00

courtney is amazing and i love her!

you hold your head up to the sky, you say what kind of blue are youuu

2010-03-10T15:54:00.000-08:00

hurray, we have music at last! if you dont want to listen, just scroll down until you hit the music player in the right hand column and click pause :) song suggestions are welcome, my taste in music is ever changing and basically all inclusive, so i'm always open to some new ideas! just leave me a comment with any as the comment page is once again working, i'll remind youuu, so leave me some feedback dang it!

i drove to williams lake this morning, but upon arriving i immediately missed the sunny, ice-free climate of kamloops, as the lake is frozen here, and there is snow on the majority of front lawns. on the other hand, however, i am thrilled to be here! i havent been back since christmas, so a visit was well overdue, i missed everybody quite a lot, but i am only here for two days, so its gonna be tricky squishing in all of the people i need to see and things i need to do! feels like all of my siblings grew about twelve feet since i saw them last time... libby in fact has been sitting with me during th short time i have been fiddling with my blog, and has already consumed a huge baked potato with sour cream and bacon bits, and a huge bowl of cauliflower with cheese sauce (that looked like soup, ew), and now she's making a big pot of pasta o_O now, if you know libby, you would realize that her consuming that much food really appears to be a virtually impossible feat, however, she makes like a Hoover and just sucks it all up... i'm not even sure if she chews.

the drive down was georgeous... sunny with blue skies, not a lot of people on the road except for psycho truck drivers all hopped up on caffeine and good weather, nearly creaming my car as they attempted to pass me going up hills, around corners, and while entirely monopolizing the mere two lanes of bumpy, dusty highway i was supplied with.

upon getting out of my car, i was greeted by mason, who instantly began playing the harmonica, singing kareoke and playing guitar, all hooked up to his amp, virtually all at the same time. i think its pretty much one of the most hilarious things ever, but my dad and oakes are to say the least, sick of him singing "big green tractor" in altering screamo/rap and beatboxing genres. oakes generally then attacks him, and then they wrestle, then mason retaliates with mushy lovey dovey talk and hugging, which scares oakes off pretty quick. libby basically just sat in a corner singing loudly to her ipod and alternating between the hokey pokey, head & shoulders knees and toes, and dinosaur by ke$ha...

needless to say, things have been loud, but i like it.

banana pancakes

2010-03-08T16:45:00.000-08:00

i feel like i have finally gotten enough sleep, and maan is that ever a goood feeling! hadn't been home in three days, and i didnt realize just how much i missed my bed until i was in it! however, itss not going to last, because i already have plans for tomorrow night, (cooking lesson, woohoo, tacos here i come!), but thats okay, i like my crazy life :)

well, most parts of it anyways,
i love the spontaneity or my life, and the crazy, random nights, but i do wish things were a little more stable in the job department. i've has like five jobs in the six months i've lived here, simply because i am so bored by them all. i want a job that captures my attention, that challenges me, and that actually engages my brain a little bit, and so far, a movie theatre, a card shop, a shoe store, and a clothing place have not really done that, but hopefully bootlegger will prove itself worthy, because i loved it in williams lake, and i start tomorrow. the problem is, i feel like maybe i wont get a job i actually like and that challenges me until i go to school and actually get some sort of degree/qualification.... but i dont know what to go to school for, and i really cant afford to spend money on random courses that will most likely turn out to be a waste of time when i finally do figure out what i want to do with my life. i think i have changed sooo much since i moved here, i dont even know what i want whatsoever.

i'm off to williams lake wednesday morning and i am sooooo excited! i simply cannot wait, i havent been back since christmas and i miss everyone soo much!

ps: i am on such a jack johnson kick!
♪ can't you see that it's just rainin, there ain't no need to go outside ♪

the world just opened wide

2010-03-05T14:06:00.000-08:00

so i got a job at bootlegger! :O omg! exciting, yes? i'm really stoked, i have actually quite missed working there, it was so much fun, it will be nice to have a job that i actually like and that isnt as boring as sin! its only part time for right now, but i'm actually okay with that. having another job too will add some variety and keep me on my toes and entertained i think!

i'm really really hoping to get a job @ bartons too, and so i am going in monday morning to talk to someone about it! i'll have to take a course or two, but it will be totally worth it, i'm just not sure if i'll have to pay for it myself and then get the job, or if they would actually hire me and pay for my training as i go along, because mom thinks that that is a possibility, and maaaan would that ever be ideal! but we'll see how it goes, either way, i plan to work there sometime in the near future!

another peice of exciting news that i received today is that jodi is making a spontaneous trip to kamloops to visit and i am so so so excited because i have not seen her for AGES!! i am picking her up @ the bus stop @ 12:55 :D

frances, katherine, and i had a great day hanging out with lady the other day, making her all beautiful and clean, and taking some pictures with her, because tuesday karla came and picked her up, and took her back to wl for her retirement :( i am soooo sad, but i know will give her a great home and take care of her really well, but boy will i ever her miss her, she's just always been there, it will be weird without her here.. on a happier note, frances and i are welcome to ride shadow and hollywood any time we want, which is awesome! hollywood is going to be our little project, because he is SO out of shape it isnt eve cool, but i really see him as having some potential, so we will seeee! and i heart the little shadow, (nephew od lady, coincidentally, what a small world, jeez!) though he's sort of in the "you cant teach an old dog new tricks" stage. he's an awesome little trail pony and lots of fun with a sweet personality, but he's pretty much useless in an arena hahah... i will try to get a cute picture of these two to put up here also! :)

hahaha, in this one, katherine fed lady a teensy bit of what she thought was a reat frrom her pocket, but it was definitely not edible, so lady made all sorts of funny faces hehehe. priceless!

♥

click to see the pictures bigger :)

dont forget to keep up with Pie in the Sky! :)

fabulousness!

2010-02-27T14:44:00.000-08:00

my goodness, its been a while since i have updated!

well, today i did what i said i was going to do! i created my dream blog! check it out! :) http://the-pie-in-the-sky.blogspot.com/ !!! i'm pretty proud of how it turned out actually, and i am looving the background image! its very... ethereal. you've gotta see it!

whats new with me, whats new with me... oh yes! I now have a lovely full time job! I am working @ payless shoes, and i think i like it! well.. sometimes i like it, sometimes i really dont, but that is okay, i think its getting better, it just depends on how weirdly moodswingy my boss is o_O but anyhoo, its full time and ridiculously easy, so i can't complain! though i do enjoy that its super simple, i am feeling like i really want to do something that engages my brain, and i am challenged with, so i'm going to keep looking, just in case. i am, however, being made a keyholder in couple of weeks, so that is sort of exciting!

amanda and i went on an absolutely fabulous adventure the other day! we decided to go walking (which turned into climbing ginormous mountains) @ kenna cartwright park! who knew that behind home depot there is a fabulous stretch of mountainous park/land anyways?! the first time we went, we ended up spending like four hours making our way up this massive mountain to a most wonderous blinking red tower! though some tricky barbed wire fence stood in our way, we made it, and i in fact, climbed it! it was absolutely amazing, and we had quite a good view of kamloops! on our way back, however, we tried to do a loops, and it worked, except for that we ended up very far from home depot. so we forged our own shortcut! we snuck between a couple of buildings, but came to a huge barbed wire fence. i tried to clime up the cement wall beside it, but the resorted to crawing under the little space beneath it, and succeeded. whilst i was standing up, and spitting dirt and grass out of my mouth, amanda went to copy me, then, laughing her ass off, simply unlatched the gate. what the heck, who would bother barb wiring the top of a fence if they weren't even going to lock it?!? i felt like a huge tool, but at least amanda realized.. we then ventured up to behind home depot, and were stumped, when we saw that it was basically a huge, fenced off storage area, and more barbed wire to deter us. so we poked around, and found that even the base of the mountain beside home depot was barbwire and fenced off. while we hummed and hawed (amanda mostly) if we could make it over, some man came out of the back of another bulding with some garbage and yelled "hey, what do you girls think you're doing?!!" and admittedly, we did probably looks super suspicious, but it wasnt like we wanted to steal stuff from the warehouse, we just wanted to get back to our car, so i laughingly told him the whole story, truthfully, and he believed us, and also though we were a bit touched ein the head, but left us alone, and most likely called the cops too. so, we resorted to climbing up the bricks to home depot warehouse, and launching ourselves somewhat unsuccessfully over a teensy expanse where barbwire was lacking, onto some pallets on the other side. i STILL have a massive bruise from the experience, which was nearly two weeks ago. once both on the other side of the fence, we panicked, just then realizing that maybe there was no un-fenced exit, and there was no way we were going back the way we came, because we'd have to drop like an addition 6 feet to the ground, thanks to the fence being on top the stupid huge cement foundation, and the only way we had made it over in the first place was thanks to the pallets!! so we went around the left side, and there was absolutely no exit, but thank got, around the right, the gate ws not yet closed, and we escaped, mission accomplished, except for that my fingers were so numb that it took us another ten minutes to get into the car.

hehe... me climbing the tower:

theeeeeeeee end!!!!

the next trip we took, however, involved an alternate route and much more adventure, and a little less climbing. we ventured to this very mysterious cliff/drop-off thinger. we managed to get to the foot of it, though it was mostly barred with huge fences with razor wire at the top (we thought that was pretty suspicious for a park.. though it is possible that the park ended a ways back.. anyhow, with our fearless kita (mandas dooggy) we checked out the strange amount of piping and chunks of concrete and random tires @ the bottom of this cliff, and simply could not figure out why it was there, so we decided to venture to the top of the cliff, which was sort of a big cool plateau thing. at the top, there was a smallish building with barred and chained and padlocked windows and doors, (quite creepy in fact) that was half buried in dirt. so we climbed up the dirt and easily got on to the roof, where in the left corner there was a MASSIVE thing that appeared to be a chimney... it was made out of red brick anyways, and stood at least three times as tall as me. this creepoid bulding, however, remains a mystery. i'll have to get a picture of it when we go back, we forgot the camera last time ehe.. anyhoo, we kept on walking past that building, and had to trek our way through HUGE bits of piping, and random, massive piles of cement junk, until we found a nice, smooth, long stretch of recently flattened dirt. we followed that until we found another creepoid building that was this time actually built into a hill, and the front doors were bolted shut from the inside, though on the reverse side, had a sort of slot built for a semi to back into it.. so we walked in there, and on one side of the huge tall cement walls there was a weird depression that looked like where you would find a james bondish type character hiding, but the double doors at the end said "beware of dangerous chemicals" so we then left quickly. alas, we kept on adventuring, and found huge piles of pallets, road signs, cement blocks, chicken wire, and chain link fencing, and, weirdly enough, a kids bouncy toy that looked like it belonged in a park, by this time, we were thoroughly confused. but we kept walking, because that was really the only option, and passed come construction vehicles, and then a REALLY REALY ancient old out of operation gas station, with a building that was charred and burnt to a crisp, but a part by the top story window looked like there had been an explosion. what the heck, you say? well we were thinking the exact same thing. so we kept walking for ages, and by this time it was pitch black and dark out, and there were some newish looking building, with construction materials all around them, and actual street lights, and we were feeling a little guilty, because thinking back to all of the razor wire, we really probably weren't supposed to be in there, and we werent sure how to get out. luckily, as we came to a fence/gate thing, some truck pulled up, and set off some sort of motion sensor thinger or something, and the gate rolled back of its own accord, so we booked it through while it was still open, because we were pretty sure that was the only way out, and we really didn't want to be stopped and questioned by the guy in the truck! o_O and alas, we were FREEEE! but we ended up on mcgill, and had to walk aaallll the way back to home depot and my car, the end! (we never figured out what the weird site was, but as soon as we do, i'll be sure to clue you all in!

ps: i'm going to try my hardest to get the comment feature up and running ASAP, so you can actually leave me some feedback! just click on "comment"! :)

edit: AND OMG ITS OFFICIAL! YOU CAN COMMENT ONCE AGAIN, YAAAAAY! :D

2010-02-06T01:42:00.000-08:00

notZ
craZ
Ztwist
Twistz
z slant
crooked z
z fake
z270
clumz
layz
zztwist

courtesy of Big Sea and The k.

rain, rain go away

2010-01-21T22:59:00.000-08:00

i was thinking about starting a dream blog. like, another blog, linked with this one, that i can just write about my dreams on, comprende? i love dreams, everything to do with them, i just find them absolutely enthralling. i love sharing my dreams with others and getting a second opinion on what i dreamt - thats not to say that i usually think they mean something, i dont do the whole "dream dictionary" thing, i think thats sort of along the same lines of astrology, which i'm not a fan of either. anyhoo, what i'm trying to say is that even though i dont think that they're like your subconcious's way of sending you a message, i do wonder why you dream what you dream, like, just what makes my brain decide that i should dream that frances is wearing my balck and white shirt? that happened last night, and it was pretty much the whole dream. she was just wearing this certain shirt, and it wasnt like i was even jealous or angry or thought it looked exceptional or really anything, she was just wearing it, no big deal. the end. like.. no message in that one, einstein.

i've always had exceptionally vivid and detailed dreams. half the time, i can tell you the name of a person that i guess my brain concocted for my dream. i can tell you first and last, and i can even spell it if i ever saw it written down in my dream. i also find that i have a lot of repetitive dreams, ones i've been having since i was really young, and could tell you about at any given time, but then also some that i never remember until i have had them again. i hear some people keep those and find crazy patterns in their dreams. plus, i find that most things make a ton more sense if you write them down, but thats just me. i learn by doing, not by seeing or hearing. (i'm pretty sure they teach you your learning style in elementary, so you know how best to study, just a random sidenote that i found of worthy mention.)

as a matter of fact i think i will possibly create this dream blog right now, since kyle fell asleep before rome had even loaded (not that thats saying much, because it never did end up loading, and that is why i am blogging, not being engrossed in the fascinating tales of the early roman empire, and cesear and pompey and marc antony.

another random sidenote: amanda and i (okay, well really only amanda...) made taragon lemon fish filets tonight, with garlic green beans and sweet potato fries, and it was amazingly delicious, i havent had any sort of fish for ageeees! and also i am officially a sweet potato fry addict, and i highly reccommend them to anyone who hasnt yet encountered this fabulous invention. i pretty much dont even like real fries anymore, they are so good! in fact i was out for dinner with frances and her dad at whitespot the other day, and frances got them, and they were pretty much the most AMAZING thing i've ever tasted, all spicy and crunchy and they came with this awesome chipotle sour cream dip.... *drooool* gosh i'm making myself hungry!

whqile i'm on the subject of food, i just thought i'd mention, that yesterday i tried TWO new things: eggs benedict, and ... um... okay i forget what the other thing was, but dont worry i'm sure it'll come back to me, OH right, arbys! so i give the eggs benny a triple thumbs up, it was sooo good, i especially enjoyed the hollandaise sauce, (how fitting, since we were eating @ amsterdam pancake house, hahahahahaha) golly i'm witty. and the arbys was quite delicious too, as a matter of fact, i pretty much didnt even know what it was until i got it, then it turned out to be amazingg! i was expecting like a burger, and well it sort of was, but it had like, roast beef sandwich meat in the middle instead of a patty, but it still was in a hamburger bun.. altogether quite delicious i would have to say.

my this laptop has exceptional battery life. i'm quite sure mine's would be long dead by now.

so much for the dream blog creating coming right now, i just thought of somehting else highly blog worthy! frances and i went out and rode lady with breanna yesterday as well! it was soo much fun, i had a blast. lady was like not lame AT ALL which was so fantastic! we just walked/trotted though, because one of her legs is super arthritic, and doesnt bend the whole way anymore, but still! it was awesome, i forgot how much i missed it until i was actually back out there. i'm not even super sore or anything, just a little bit, which is a good sign, because it means my lazy but isnt toooo out of shape! probably walking everyday has helped though. gosh how i love the warm weather. plus ten in mid january? yes please!

greys antomy came back on tv last week, and i actually have to say i was a bit disappointed, it just wasnt as good as i had anticipated, but then i just watched the newest episode an hourish ago, and it felt like it was getting good again, not so repetitive. things are changing up again! dont worry, no spoilers here, those who havent seen it yet can keep on reading!

sidenote: kyle is making very very strange snorting noises in his sleep and i cant stop gigglingmbut i dont want to wake him up HAHHAH...

i hope you all appreciate this ridiculously extensive blog, as every second paragraph, i hit some random key on this ill-organized and ridiculously irritating sony keyboard, and i somehow end up typing three paragraphs above in the middle of a pervious sentance! and this sometimes happens a couple times before i look up, so i end up playing eye spy for like five parts of a paragraph.

i'm pretty sure this poor little laptop is going to die however, if i keep typing on it for much longer, its not plugged in right now.

ttfn!

panagopolis

2010-01-18T18:27:00.000-08:00

remember when it used to be called that? panagopolis? when they changed the name to panago, i remember i was so upset as a child! i'm not sure why, now that i think back on it, panagopolis is a siiiickk name. reminds me of like.. gulping or.. maybe barfing. ew. anyhoo, i had my interview there today, and it went quite well! the guy who interviewed me was nice, but strange. (which could be why we hit it off so well..) his face looked really young, but then BAM - he turned his head to the side and he has a like... greasy grey mullet! i was mentally chopping it off the whole time we talked. the owner actually sat in too, a really nice lady named lana. altogether, i think i wooed them with my witty sayings and dazzling charm. and i think they liked the look of timmy the car ^_^ so now i can just cross my fingers that the three others that were lined up for interviews after me lacked my wooing skillllzzz. anyhoo, they'll let me know in about three days whether i got the job or not. cross your fingers everyone! and toes! and whatever else you have that is crossable!

i think these next couple of days may be the last sunny and warm ones we get, so i am making good use of them. (the weather network expects lows of -12 on sunday....) as much as i hate to be the bearer of bad news, i think we all knew winter would come back for another round eventually. but until then, i'm going to continue my days walking(dancing) every day! i say dancing, because i just cant call what i do while listening to my ipod "walking" because its really not. yes i know i look like a fool. as a matter of fact, today i walked to the park across the street and just sat swinging and listening to my ipod until my butt got so cold i couldnt feel the swing anymore and it felt like i was floating in mid air. it was absolutely fantastic.

i think that if winter comes back, i wont feel so bad about still having my christmas tree up though, that is one bonus.

i have faaaaantastic news that i cant beleive i didnt post about until now, however! it is possible that i am moving to australia. yes indeedy! i just need to save up enough money, then i'm off to sidney (or somewhere closeby) for a year! "excellent" you say? i thoroughly agree! the whole thing came on, because amanda's siter marjorie decided to go for a year for school, so then amanda also made the leap and now is going too, and well, come on, what would i do without amanda?! haha, so i am going too! which is pretty much a dream come true! because i have always always always wanted to go to australia! it fascinates me. i'm so ready to befriend tasmanian devils, and little joeys and other foreign creatures! and when christmas rolls around, i'm gonna be tracing "merry christmas" in the sand, and sending back here to canada for all of you :D

daffodil

2010-01-18T01:17:00.000-08:00

so i can not sleep.
i'm pretty much nocturnal,
and i dont like it,
not one little bit.
because,
the alarm is set,
to ring at nine,
and i have an interview,
at ten.

and it is 1:19am! ack! i think that if i wasnt nervous, i would probably be able to fall asleep no prob, but i just would reeealllly like to get this job, which just wont happen if i show up looking like a well dressed zombie with a head of flaming red hair.. (i say flaming, because i've been using my fantastic red head conditioner stuff, and it looks amazingggg) and i've done all of the most boring things possible (paint my toenails, attempt to decipher quadratic equations) but to no avail. part of me even encourages dishwashing, but the other more sensible half of me is consistently shooting down that idea as if with bow and arrow, because that will likely have the opposite affect. i'll just end up in a mass cleaing frenzy, and end up being awake until five. for some reason i just love to clean in the middle of the night, but it makes me ridiculously energized. and then i'd be so adrenaline pumped i'd probably want to go for a run, and then since it would be the middle of the night, u'd probably get stabbed in the alley behind my house and shoved in trish's garbage can or something. yes, this is a bad idea indeed. a bad bad bad and accurate scenario.

i love daffodils, they're my favorite flower. i even have them set as the background for my phone, it drives amanda crazy. she thinks flowers are uselss - how un-girl, i think. i love them more than tulips, i love them more than roses, but i'm just not quite sure why. like, they arent a particularly beautiful flower, they dont bloom in various striking hues of the rainbow, unlike the rose, they symbolize nothing, and they dont live for long... i think perhaps its the sunny color. i love yellow, its so bright and cheerful. just looking at a daffodil puts my mood a notch or two up on the scale. i especially like the baby ones at the superstore, its just a shame they have to live outside and i cant just keep them in a pot on my kitchen table.

touchdown, turnaround

2010-01-15T17:05:00.000-08:00

today turned out to be a faaaantastic friday! not only did i wake up to gorgeous rays of streaming sunlight, and the smell of drying grass, (because alas, the snow has melted and its been more than 10 degrees out most days lately), i also woke up with a message for a job interview on my phone! and then not thirty minutes later, stitches called, and told me that they would keep me on the list for occasional shifts! but wait, theres more! the tail light for my car is finally in stock as well! timmy's surgery is scheduled for next week. not to mention, greys anatomy starts again today too! life is looking up indeed! i even got stuck waiting for a bazillion mile-long train today!! :D (i love watching trains, having to wait for one is like a little slice of heaven.

upon driving home the other day, i discovered an interesting fact: i can sing pretty much ever word in pedal to the metal - kazzer. sad i know, there isnt another band on the earth thats more truly one hit wonder than these guys, yet still i love this song. and yes, if you ever end up in a car with me, i will rap it to you.

the plan for this evening consists of going for a walk with manda, possibly a trip to the superstore, and an adventure that involves lawn gnomes, but i wont go into detail on that just quite yet, since we dont know if it will be a success or not.

tuesday night, i, picky-eater-extraordinare, went out for sushi! (which as far as i knew, i loved, though really i had only ever tried california and spicy tuna rolls). however, we got the super party pack, and i'm pretty sure ended up with every single type of sushi on the menu, including the ones with giant slabs of raw fish on rice... aaandddd i ate them! and it actually was quite delicious, even though i couldnt totally block out the fact that i was consuming a pretty much live fish.. okay okay, not live.. but not cooked either >.< it was fabulous fun however, especially watching amanda throw up her chopsticks in exasperation, and start using her fingers. amanda and i even got suckered into trying this strange strange bean paste and tofu soup, and it was actually ....... quite good, i hate to admit. but come on, who would really expect watery, oily, bean paste combined with slimy tofu chunks in a cup would taste good?! it was called "miso soup" if you ever get the inclination to try it, which you probably wont after reading that vivid description. keep in mind though, i DID say it tasted good.

i just ate nine perogies and feel like barfing.

bleeechhh.

though my actions indicate otherwise, no, my ultimate life goal is not become a ginormous whale. .....my metabolism had better just keep up the good work, right through my twenties and thirties... and maybe my forties and fifties. and actually, heck, all the way to the grave would be stellar actually.

gosh i really want to go for a walk.
i wonder how long it would take to walk to the mall..
boy amanda would be surprised when i was waiting for her without a car, yessiree. i dont really know if i want to risk it though, because it might be terribly long, and it is almost all up hill... hmm. but jee it would be grand exercise. perhaps i will just walk to the top of columbia and then back..? jeez i wish i had good shoes :/

anyhoo, i'm gonna cut this off here,
i'm sure you've all had enough of my incessant blabbering by now.

au revoir ♥

back in black

2010-01-09T00:29:00.001-08:00

bonjouuuur, bloggers!

i know, i know, i did it again! i disappeared off of the blogging earth! and i wish that i could say that i am back because i have some amazing, outrageous adventure that i must report, but thats just not the case.. i've got nothin! i'm not sure what has happened, but my life has settled into... routine almost? its good, but definitely less adventurous.

my luck with cars, however, is one thing that just has not changed at all. for example, boxing day, i discover that my car has an oil leak, yay... and then this sunday i am brushing off my car to prepare for a tim hortons rendezvous, when i spot the worst of the worst, but also what i have come to expect: a flat tire. another flat tire. i'm pretty sure that this is 8 of 8 now. what the shit! but anyhoo, it was an easy fix, 25 bucks at the tire shop, a peice of metal removed, and it was good as new! until tuesday afternoon, i come out of tim hortons with amanda to find that dear old timmy (car) has a strange note on the windshield... a strange note saying "oops i hit your car, here's my name and number" ...i pretty much went into hysterics. okay well not quite that bad, but i couldnt decide whether i was laughing or crying. so its going in for an estimate on monday.

i also have developed an obsession with watching has-been tv series allll of the time ahahha... as a matter of fact i just finished watching every single episode of every single season of greys anatomy, and now i'm on to lost, and i got kyle hooked too haha. which is a good thing because a) i dont have to watch it on a teensy weensy computer screen, all blurry and covered with chinese subtitles, and b) because i will be less of a hermit if i am watching 12 hours of tv a day with another human being.

ahhh, here's a story! we have finally compiled a list of movies that i havent seen! it took about ten minutes to get it up to eighty eight. eighty eight movies that apparently EVERYONE on this earth has seen... except for me. luckily, yesterday, we crossed five off of the list. yes, five: Good Will Hunting, Armageddon, The Patriot, Four Christmases, and The Princess Bride! and they were all quite good! especially the first three. in the princess bride, i was a bit turned off by the corny fake giant rat that was clearly a man in a giant rat suit ahahhaa. but thats okay, only 83 more to go! okay actually i think its more than that, because i checked the list (now color coded and alphabetized thanks to matt haha), yesterday and it has grown a lot o_O

today, i FINALLYYY got groceries too! for the low price of only sizteen dollars, i managed to buy an orange pepper, two zuchinnis, six bagels, a bag of "spicy piri piri" chips, (whatever the heck those are, they were on for ninety nine cents, so it really hardly even matters if they are tasty or not), a 2kg bag of perogies, some alfedo sauce, and half price sun dried tomato feta! :D which is pretty much freaking fantastic, since i always drool over the feta while amanda and i stalk the cheese section of the superstore.

anyhoo i am off to wathc some lost so i shall ttyyyllll! :)
and i will blog again... soon!

Did You Know 3.0

2009-12-25T17:38:00.001-08:00

Did You Know 3.0

2009-12-25T17:38:00.000-08:00

rogue

2009-11-25T12:08:00.000-08:00

once upon a time, in a land not far from cache creek, a fantastic girl by the name of niki harrison pulled over at a gas station to pee and buy beef jerky on the way back to kamloops with her trusty sidekick amanda. upon stepping out of the vehicle, she was almost blown over by an ENORMOUS gust of wind! this same gust of wind also almost took off the door to the hyundai, and blew a whirlwind of enormous tumbleweeds into a frenzy! niki dashed for the gas station entrance, but alas was not speedy enough! a tumbleweed almost as big as her attacked her feet! she was trapped in a tumbleweed, and it was eating her shoe!! niki fought with a brave valiance, but so did the tumbleweed. after an epic struggle, niki freed her feet and shoes, and fled from the rogue dead sagebrush to save her life! at last she reached safety, bought some Jack Link's peppered jerky (which was impossible to chew, hard as a rock, too spicy, and most likely was made out of wild beast, not beef. niki and amanda were forced to constantly dodge tumbleweeds in the trusty hyundai the whole way home, but they finally made it safely through the little bouncing monsters. the end.

happy birthday, to me

2009-11-04T15:35:00.000-08:00

hey there, dear blog-readers! i know, its been like a month since i have posted, AGAIN, but what can i say? i'm a busy person! and also a very, very, very broke person... but for my birthday today, i got a bunch of mall gift certificates from parents and brothers and various others (notice that rhymed... :D) so i bought the most AMAZING pair of neewwww boots from Aldo! in fact i love them so much i am wearing them aorund my house right now hahahaha. just a sidenote: did you know that today, my birthday is also the 40th anniversary of sesame street? random and fantastic, you are thinking, and i sooo agree!

so amanda and i have been slightly lacking in spntaneous adventures, but just last night, we were walking aimlessly around the tru campus in the middle of the night, when we decided to follow this random new road that lead past new rez, even though the sign said not to because of construction... and we had a fantastic time, or rather, i had a fantastic time rolling tires down hills into old buildings while amanda watched and laughed as i chased the rogue escapees down the hills. i'm sure it was quite comical, actually... i just figured why carry a perfectly round, heavy, muddy, grippy object down a hill when it could much more easily transport itself? so i let it roll, and i figured i would just punch it over when it was time to stop. but it didnt want to stop... i punched and punched, and i even kicked, but the damn thing just would NOT stop rolling. i seriously like inflicted some wicked kung fu on that beast, but to no avail. so then i raced it down the hill for a ridiculous amount of time (basically until i could run no longer because i was laughing so hard, and that action had kind of claimed all of the air in my lungs..) anyhoo, there were lots of old tires, and we even managed to jump one off of a wicked lumpy hill, and into some sort of derelict (or so we hope) building.

but we got bored of this soon, because tires are heavy, and just kept walking off our boston pizza jumbalya/spaghetti filled bellies, following this suspiciously long and nicely paved road, and we followed it all the way up to this suspicious construction site that was all "no trespassing" and blocked off and crap, and there was a mysterious big work truck that seemed content with just shining his lights at us, while we debated climbing over the fences... to get to this really tall mountain which we figured would have a FANTASTIC veiw of kamloops, because even the new rez parking lot gives a pretty amazing perspective. anyhoo, hopping the fences just really didnt seem like a good idea in the current circumstances, because who knows just who was in the truck anyways. (we were thinking along the lines of cop or big, burly, angry, scary constuction workers.

so we climbed the mountain from a place further back along the road instead, amd it was EXCELLENT! we actually hiked up a random ass mountain just for fun in the middle of the night, even though we were constantly in danger of being charged by vicious (or at least manda say that deer are vicious...sigh) deer that seemed to be roaming everywhere.. i will actually admit that some of those enormous horns could probably do some damage given the right circumstancesssss. anyhoo, the veiw up there was freaking FANTASTIC!! you could see like 270 degrees of AMAZING, and i loooveeeed it! it felt like we were on the top of the world! (like in titanic when jack yells that when the are standing on the railing, yes? ^_^ everyone quotes titanic right!?) i pretty much almost yelled that but then... didnt.

anyhoo it is fantastic, and we are going to make climbing mountains our new fabulous hobby! we may even go again tonighhttt, its also very fantastic exercice, and there are a LOT of totally hikable mountains around hereee ^_^

i promise to blog again sooon
or i promise i'l try anyways haha
so yes.

i am off to read calvin and hobbes now,
(my most AMAZINGTASTIC present from lib, i probably have never mentioned that i am a calvin and hobbes FREAK! ^_^)

titanic

2009-10-06T11:57:00.000-07:00

i have decided to update all you readers on the all of the events of the last week or so. and by "week or so", i mean yesterday, and by "all of the events" i mean event.

sooo, weeks and weeks ago, amanda had a grand idea: go to hat creek and pick clams! So yesterday afternoon, we finally put the plan in action. we set out with good road trip music empty ice cream buckets. granted, we didnt actually decided to do this until about 1:30pm, and didnt actually leave the house until about threee.. and then we stopped for a dairy queen feast in cache creek, so by the time we got to the river, it was after four. as we were walking across the bridge to get down to the creek, i looked over and was all "look manda! that looks like a bazillion clams like riiighht down there!" and manda was like "no niki. those arent clams.." so i was like "fineee" and we tromped through the jungley underbrush for like ten minutes, slipping and sliding and crawling under barbed wire fences until we found a good beachey place to start clam hunting. alas... we found no clams! we hunted and hunted, and dug in the mud with improvised tools (branches) for ages! we even waded through the river to cross back and forth a few times, but to no avail. no clams. clam shells, yes. dirt filled, dead clams, yes. real live clams? NO. oh and did i mention? this is late afternoon. in a glacier fed creek. in the middle of nowhere adn the sun is setting.... we couldnt feel our feet! they were like little frozen clubs attached to the end of our legs!

finally, we gave up.
and as we're walking across the highway bridge back to our car, i looked over into the creek and was like "manda. are you SURE those are not clams??" and manda looks over and is like "ummm.. you know it kinda looks like it. omg those might be clams!" and then as we hiked down the other side of the creek, i grumbled threats about how these better not actually be clams because we just wasted half our lives splashing around upstream, because amanda was convinced that these clam-looking objects were in fact not clams. and, as you guessed. THEY WERE CLAMS! like fifty thousand clams right there! so we werre both quite disgruntled, and amanda sheepish, but we were also SOOO freaking excited that there were actually clams! but these clams were deep down, and we got SOAKED, like up to the neck, from reaching down to grab clams. we are pretty sure that's what the people in the ocean after titanic sunk felt like. we filled up our buckets in no time at all, but then realized we were greedy and needed more buckets of clams for our efforts! by this time, i'm pretty sure we were like majorly hypothermic or something because we could quit giggling, and could hardly climb the hill because it felt like we had no feet.. and as we get to the highway, this bum/hitchhiker sees us, and is clearly confused, because we just hiked up a random bank SOAKING wet in OCTOBER at dusk with heavy, dripping icecream buckets, laughing our asses off and grinning like fools. needless to say, we sort of made friend with the bum, and we told him what we were doing, and he though we were craaazyyy, basically.

so we try to find a bucket (no luck), and visit with the amazing horses across the road for a few minutes, and turn back to find out: BAM. timmy the car has a flat tire. a very very flat tire. but then the bum offers to help us, we whip out the donut tire, and by the way he's going, it looks like we'll be set to go in like.. five minutes! but alas, no. that is not the way the luck of amanda and niki goes. not at all. the last nut is STUCK on TIGHT. we flag people down to see if they have a tire pump or anything, but no luck, but lots stop to try to help get the tire off too - nothing worked. keep in mind: we're still soaking wet. people have NO idea wtf is going on, and the guy thats helping us keeps sticking his thumb out to cars.

we suspected that our hitchiker hadnt been on the road for too long however, because he wasnt very dirty, we noticed he had calvin klein underwear, and he was super duper nice. and he had what we suspect was a new zealand accent. nonetheless.. it was a bit creepy, but its not like we were going to turn away our only chance for a tire change!

one of the cars we had flagged down, (get this), had a DEAD DEER in the BACK SEAT, with its legs sticking out the window, and its ribs showing quite bloodily and clearly... it was so disturbing i could like hardly talk. we were supposed to be asking for a tire pump but all i could say was "theres a... theres a dead dead. dead deer. eeuughhh a dead deer in the back of your car. um a dead deer in the back of your car..." needless to say, they didnt help us, and then the next car that came along, picked up our hitchhiker. so then we were allll aloney, and decided, okay, time to start calling people with cars, which i noticed we actually know surprisingly few of... either nobody answered, nobody texted back, blah blah, and then my phone died. and then amandas phone started blinking its dying battery light, and we started to panic a little, because we decided to text now instead of calling because its less battery sucking... but our fingers were SO FROZEN that it took us like six minutes to make a legible message, but finally we had some luck, and kyle texted back, and decided to come saaaveee us! so we were saved, a couple of hours later, and spent a long time just roasting in my car, and changing into dry clothes we found (WHEW) ...good thing my car is so full of random crap. ^_^

but this is the worst part:
we got to amandas.
made the clams with garlic and butter and seasoning
and they were SICK SICK SICK NASTY.
sighh.
so now there are like 100 clams in the bathtub "cleansing" themselves of the disgusting, revolting bottom-feeding goop they ate.

and i may never eat seafood again.
scratch that,
i may never eat again, peroid.

so this evening, my aunt and uncle, amanda and i are heading out on a rescue mission to hat creek, to save timmy the car. :/

....gosh i wish i could write english essays with this much enthusiasm..

HOME SWEET HOME!

2009-09-30T00:41:00.000-07:00

wow this is my 200th post guys! WOW.

alrighty, everyone has been asking for house pictures, so i took some todaay! very quickly, mind, but i did take some :D - observe...

hmm i just realized i should have gotten one of the front of the house ! oopsie.. okay AAAND i just looked at the pics on the compy for the first time, and i realized JEEEZZZ are they every blurry! but the flash on my camera doesnt work anymore nso there was really no other options hahaha. i'm sure you can get the gist of it anyways:::

entranceway/livingroom/futon ^_^

living room! i have a loveeelyyy bigdesk, and where a tv would normally go... we have fishtank full of lovely cute goldfish hahaha.

kitchen! i have a good good small fridge, stove, etc etc, only lacking a microwave now actually! hehe.

lookit all those great clean dishes! hahah.

and YES i actually doo have food! mostly the packaged sort, but still. i have some! :)

i think we'll all admit that its a damn shame i can't cook!

i am pretty much sure that this is waaaay too much silverware for any one person! it would take me like two months to use all of this cutlery.... i was counting and i have like almost thirty spoons.. HAHAH.

i know, i know. its a toilet. but i felt that you need to see ALLLL of the house! and this is the entrance to bathrooom, so there you go.

ahhh, closet space. thank goodness for it! :)

siiinkkkky

bed!

bathtubbb

bed!

closetttt! or rather... cupboard. its rather odd. i have to keep my underwear on a shelf. . .

anyhoo, there you have it! my lovely humble abode. how i love it! and its yelllooowww! practically my dream home heheh :D:D and its mine mine mine alllll mineeee. hahah.

anyhoo, on another bloggable note, i had a GREAT GREAT GREAT anthropology class todaY! because frances and i showed up, we sat down, the prof talked for like 15 mins about our test coming up, gave out a handout, which i started reading while frances started texting, and then.. BAM everyone was just egtting up and putting away their books! it was tres tres confusing, we were all like wtf, we can't have a break already?! but it turns out our techer was sick! so we all just got to leave whooo! so instead of three hours of awful boringness, we suddenly had tons of free time on our hands! ^_^ it just made my day, because that like NEVER EVER happens!

ohhhmygoshhh, funnnyyy story that i felt the need to share: everyyy night, i drive amanda home, alll the way up summit drive. and eeeeveryyy day, i do about eighty going up this hill. (assuming there is no slow-moving traffic blocking the way, and when there is i just develop a mild case of road rage, and pass or honk etc etc...) anyhooo, for the last few days, every time i attempt to speed, i am just completely blocked by a huge long ass line of cars doing THIRTY kms up this hill! and it made me so angry! but then yesterday, i realized something... and it was that this was a school zone. sigh. and then i realized DAMN i had been lucky that everytime i had seen a cop i was stuck behind slow-moving-law-abiders!!

anyhoo, i'm going to head downstairs and brainstorm fun things to do tonight with frances haha. ttylll!

INTERNET AT LAST!

2009-09-28T17:48:00.000-07:00

okay! i no longer live in the stone age, because as of like... three minutes ago, i have INTERNET! WHOO. okay so here's a lovely long post for everryone, outdated, but only by a couple weeks because i couldnt publish it >.< read on:

Bonjouuuur! My goodness its been a long time since I’ve even touched blogspot! Gasp! So I will start with this: sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry ! I hope I havent lost any of you faithful readers out there! Because I am back in business, once again!

Ohhhh boy, a lot has happened in the last . . . What has it been? Like a month? Two? My life has taken a HUGE 180, and nothing is the same as it used to be, AT ALL! For starters, I have my own fully furnished basement suite! YES! YES I DO! FOR REAL! All to my self! *mine mine mine hehehe* yeah well anyways I am pretty freaking fantabulously excited! It happened basically because things just weren’t going very well AT ALL at my aunt and uncles, our personalities clashed insanely. They wanted me home at ten every weeknight, I wanted to be home whenever I wanted, all the time. Blargh. But now I have that! I’d go into great detail describing my lovely new abode, but I think I shall just upload pictures instead. Well… at a later date because I am currently typing this on Microsoft works word processor (sigh) while I eat chili from a can, because I don’t have internet here yet because I am much much much too broke. Upside: I finally have access to a camera! I will simply bring my compy to Frances’s, and VOILA!

“Niki, what on earth is the next new and exciting thing in your life?!” you may be asking? Well: I’M SINGLE! Yipeeeee! Its actually much more great that I expected! Now you all must be thinking “OMG why?!!!” But I don’t really feel like publishing the whole entire story to the world wide web, but if you really want to know and are basically oozing curiosity from every pore in your body right now, just message me! I’d want to know I if I were you too. For those who are too shy to ask.. Or are my secret readers that never leave a comment etc etc, (yes I know you are out there, no, I don’t know who you are), just know that the song “Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood” suddenly has newfound meaning in my life. And now I suspect you all wonder how I am coping, and the answer is: surprisingly awesome! I thought I would be curled up into a tiny dark hole crying my eyes out for weeks, but I didn’t even do that AT ALL! In fact, we only borke up on Thursday o_O (feels like longer). HELL YES I was suuuper angry I even did some grant-beating, and possession trashing, but now I feel relief, and there isn’t even much sadness. I cant miss someone like that, so I have moved on and am SO excited to have fun and move my life onwards and upwards. Its high time for some FUN.

Now I suspect you are all marveling at how much of a life alteration I have had in the last… week, and you wonder, what else could there possibly be? I answer you with: OMFGKDSJFKSLDFJ I GOT A JOB! Okay, okay, so its not really a thriller…. >.< I work at Carlton Cards in the sahali centre mall (tinier than wl’s) and I work with two elderly (COUGH, ancient) women (one of which has a ridiculous semblance to a turtle... But they are both nice at least! I’ve been needing retail therapy SOOO badly lately, and I finally got my chance: we are only allowed to wear black and white and dress pants! I WAS THRILLED - because it gave me an excuse to go buy cute outfits at ricki’s ^_^ anyhow, back to the job part: I work 20 hours a week basically, and make nine dollars an hour, and provide excellent customer service and selling skill’s, which I kick ass at. So like working at bootlegger without the clothes. And the fun. But whatever, so it will be boring, I’m still thrilled to finally have a job! :D:D I begin Friday at 2!

Now you ask, “Jeez Niki, what completed this 180 anyways??” And I answer you: school! It finally started, (today as a matter of fact, I had English, and anthropology starts at 5:30-8:30) and I am pretty excited! I mean, I should be… I’m paying like 8923753289578934275 dollars for it! Anthropology, Sociology and English. I’m thrilled, they are my fave fave subjects! Plus there are a couple of cute boys in my English course too, and at least I know they are halfway smart, because to be in that course, you have to get 73% or higher in Eng 12! Hurrah. ….. Oh, ps: my eng teacher is tres tres tres good looking :]

Anyhow, now I am going to sum up my 180, because I feel like you all need to understand JUST how 180ish this is. I now am single, going to school three days a week, working 20 hours a week, with my own house, paying rent, buying food, and vacuuming etc etc. I have dress pants and collared shirts for heavens sake! I party hardy with frances and the dorm guys on weekends (sans grant), and life is gooood! Correction: life is EXCELLENTTT.

OH and I got a gym pass and go every every day :] well… starting yesterday anyways ehhe.

Anyhoooo, frances is on her way here from French, so I shall blog later. Or perhaps add on to this one because I will most likely think of more bloggable things, and I cant exactly publish this without internet >.<

Ah I just thought of something! Its only three minutes, that’s okay. So, in case you were wondering, I thought I would mention that all fishies are swimming, not floating, after their secong move in 6 weeks! Boy are they ever hardy.. How I lovee them! In fact I was thinking of actually perhaps getting them a couple of new buddies from petland on buy one get one free fish day! How I love bogo!! In fact… I might even name one bogo, that would be awesome. A nice speckly one that is black AND white AND orange, like Benjamin was before he went all ninja chameleon on me.

Oooh I just thought of something else! GASP! I got a new phone! Gosh I sure needed one. My old one actually leaked battery acid! I KNOW RIGHT?! Talk about a like.. Explosion hazard. It was wicked freaky. Did lots of funky things, so my parents got me a two month early birthday present. I picked the keybo 2 on a contract, and BOYOHBOY is it ever amazing! I was never a keybo fan until this, in fact it has almost a very blackberry-esque look to it! And telus gave me this SUPER AMAZING deal on it because I threatened to go to bell! so here’s a well known tip: you want extra perks? Lie and say the other provider is offering you some good deal and if you cant get that you will switch to bell/TELUS/Rogers. Trust me, they comply. They never ever want to lose a customer. ;)

Peaceee

Okay so I definitely still haven’t published this and its been like another week, but I just thought I’d mention that by the time you are all reading this, I will have internet, WHOO! I got an awesome deal: 20$ a month, and a free modem, and it is sooo excellent! But it isn’t wireless, I have to have my laptop plugged in, which was like way fine until I found out the my one and only phone jack is like high up on the wall in the kitchen so I had to move my kitchen table to a dorky place, so I can keep my computer on it… sigh. But internet in the kitchen is definitely better than no internet at all!

So tomorrow I am going to go renew my car insurance, get a new bank card, and buy like twelve cans of raid to nuke all of the creepy crawlies creepy crawling around my house.. Because seriously its getting ridiculous how many of them are coming out of hiding.