Football and Fireworks

After 4 weeks in the NFL season, I finally got to watch my team on tv. I think it's stupid that where you live in the province reflects which teams are broadcast. Thankfully, I have digital cable so I was able to watch my team on the Montreal channel. Sadly, they lost. They really lost. But my team is very good at losing, so I'm quite used to it. In case you're wondering, I'm a Buffal Bills fan.

It was a rainy and dull Sunday, which was great for watching football and baking cookies :)

This evening, I was on the phone, talking to my parents like I do every Sunday, which I head a loud noise outside. At first I thought it was thunder. But then it happened again and again. It was fireworks. I ventured out onto the balcony and I could see them over the top of the neighbour's house. They were quite pretty except some kept getting lost in the clouds. Who in their right mind lets off fireworks in the rain? The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association of Canada, that's who. LOL

They put on a free Christian Rock Concert this weekend at the park not too far from me. I think that's a pretty cool idea. A free rock concert is a free rock concert. But fireworks are pretty expensive. Billy Graham and is ministry must be doing pretty well to be able to afford a free weekend long rock festival and fireworks. I can't help but think that that money could be better spent. But that's just me being a little skeptical of ministries that make large sums of money. If the weather had been better, I might have gone down to check out the bands since I'm always looking for new music. It's just the preaching part I have issues with.

Speaking of new music, I recently discovered a band called "Throw the Fight". They're from Minneapolis, Minnesota and they kick ass. I highly recommend checking them out. They've got a wicked cover of "I Just Died In Your Arms". I adore it.

Good Night!

Sarah

The Journey

Believe it or not, but I actually enjoyed working today. I know, that seems odd being it's Saturday and all. But it was nice. It was a huge change from my regular routine and I quite enjoyed that. I was actually able to focus on one task and was able to keep at it, without interruptions, for hours on end. That never happens!!! It was great. I enjoyed learning a new process too. I think learning things keeps our minds sharp.

Afterwards, I did a little shopping, visited with a friend for a little bit, did a little more shopping and got to ride the train home. Granted, it only has 5 stops beginning to end, but it was a nice change of scenery and I was enjoying being out and about. Tonight I watched "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" and half of The Avengers. The first one was a total rip off of "A Christmas Carol", just turned into a rom-com.  The second one has been good, but I'm too tired to pay attention anymore.

Not sure what tomorrow holds for me yet, but organizing my life seems like a good plan. I know where I am now. I know where I'd like to be. Now I just have to figure out how to get from A to B. Perhaps if I organize things better and re-arrange some things, I might be able to catch a glimpse of the path between the two and I'll have an idea of where to head.
It's hard not knowing how to get somewhere. I suppose it would be easier if I just broke it down into smaller bit, like stepping stones. As I make my way from the first stone to the second one, the third one will appear. They say that life is all about the journey, not the destination. But it's the journey that is the hard part, the scary part. But nothing in life worth doing is easy. And no one ever said that it would be easy - just that it would be worth it.

Good Night,

Sarah

"Boy Toy"

What a day! I was at work by 7:20am to set things up and get our pancake breakfast underway. After a few hiccups, we were ready to rock and rock we did. We raised $301 and fed nearly 100 people. That's so awesome. I can't believe it went off as well as it did.

The rest of my day is a bit of a blur, half due to being busy and half due to being sleepy. Our techs were in and we got a lot of long anticipated equipment installed, which seemed to make the people happy.

One the way home tonight, someone cut one on my very crowded bus and I thought I was going to die. I understand that everyone needs to fart but come on! If you're on a crowded bus, be respectful of those around you and HOLD IT IN!!!!!!!!!

After dinner, I had to make a Walmart run to pick up a few things. Afterwards, I decided to treat myself to a sundae from the McDonald's that's inside Walmart. After I got my sundae and I was picking up some napkins, I heard the cashier ask the woman who'd been in line behind me "You want a boy toy?". Say what? My first thought was "You can order those at McDonalds" closely followed by " I didn't see that on the extra value menu". Damn. I'm going to have to do that the next time I'm in McDonald's. Walk up to the counter and say "I'd like a boy toy please". LOL. I am fully aware of the fact that the cashier was asking the lady if she wanted a Happy Meal toy for a male child, but the way that the cashier asked it just struck me as incredibly funny. Boy toy. Hee hee hee. So what if my mind is in the gutter. I'm sleepy.

Speaking of sleepy, I was going to try to watch Grimm tonight but my eyes are having a hard time staying open so I'm opting to blog and go to bed instead. I get to sleep in a tiny bit tomorrow as I said I'd be at work for OT at 9am. I'm only planning on working until 1pm, so I can still get in a little fun tomorrow. Not sure what I'll get up to as I'm flying solo, again, but I'm sure I can find something to keep me amused and occupied.

Good Night!

Sarah

Big Bang Baby

No, I'm not talking about the Stone Temple Pilot's song. I'm talking about the tv show, The Big Bang Theory. It started back up for the new season tonight. It was a pretty decent episode, but it wasn't nearly as funny as some of the episodes last season. I hope they get back on track soon. It really is a funny show and I love it. It's witty and sassy. LOL.
Glee was ok tonight too. It was a very predictable episode and I totally called the ending.

Work was long and busy and I didn't get done everything that I needed to but I guess it will just have to wait. I did some OT tonight and had one of my co-workers help teach me how to do the new task that I'll be doing on Saturday, so that was good. I have to be into work early tomorrow. We're having a pancake breakfast for the office charity campaign. I really hope it's a great success and I think that it's going to be a lot of fun :) It's most likely going to be a lot of work too, but it's for a good cause so it's all worth it.

My soup turned out well and I'll post it on my food blog when I have time this weekend. Seeing as I don't really have any plans other than working for part of Saturday, I'm sure I'll find the time. I wish I had the money to be able to escape somewhere fun for the day. Oh well. My apartment needs some TLC anyhow.

I really should get to bed. I have to be up extra early and then I have to get my butt in gear. That should be oodles of fun!

Good Night!

Sarah

Random Monster Truck (yes, I was at the show)

My Eyes Are On Fire!

My eyes feel like they're on fire at the moment. God damned onions!!!! Even the most mild onion makes me cry when I cut it. It's brutal. It's like my eyes are uber sensitive or something. It totally sucks. I was cutting onions tonight as I'm making Cauliflower and Cheddar soup for dinner tomorrow night. I was cutting up all the veggies for it tonight, so that I just have to toss everything into the crock pot in the morning and turn it on before I leave for work. It will be mostly done by the time I'm home. I just have to puree it, add the cheese and couple remaining ingredients and then it will be done!

I made it through my french class today, just barely. It seemed very long today and my brain would not focus. That and the teacher disappeared for half hour at one point. He gave us a second 15 minute break and a half hour later, he still wasn't back yet. Just as we were all trying to decide what to do, he came back. Very odd. Work was then very busy as I played catch up. I wanted to be gone early as I had work related errands to run but alas, I was still out more than an hour late. At least I got everything I need to pick up for our pancake breakfast on Friday. With how busy things have been at work lately, I'm feeling like I've been rather anti-social. I haven't been eating lunch with the other lately and I actually miss it. Today I didn't eat lunch until 3pm and then I just wolfed it down at my desk before running off to hand out pay cheques. I think I'm sticking around to do overtimes tomorrow evening (on purpose) but I'm going to do the "other" job I've been trained on. It will be a fun break from my regular stuff.

Believe it or not, I think my little crystal meditation worked last night. By the time I got into bed, the pain in my shoulder was gone and I feel asleep quickly and didn't wake up until 3:15am and then I didn't really wake up again until my alarm went off at 6am. Usually I have to pee around 1am and then I wake up again between 5-5:30am, which really pisses me off since I get up at 6. I'm hoping for another restful night tonight.

My blog continues to grow. I have over 2000 page views now and this will be my 71st post. And for the first time ever, I had someone from Peru check out my blog. Very cool! I really wish I could connect with the people over seas who read this. If you don't know me (aka, aren't a Facebook friend), please email me or leave me a comment. I'd really love to say hi!

I think it's time to give my fire eyes a break and hit the sack.

Good Night!

Sarah

Pushing 2000 and Positive Energy

Guess who's blog is only 3 page views away from hitting 2000??? LOL. Mine of course and that's so amazing. I can't believe that people read this or that I'm still actually writing. Truth be told, I'm loving it. I love writing. Even is I don't always right what's on my mind, I love it. Even when something totally unexpected and highly emotional ends up coming out, I love it. This is my art, my craft. I've never been able to draw, I'm too tone deaf to be able to sing, dancing it totally out of the question except for when I'm home alone...but writing. That I can do. And do pretty well if I do say so myself.

It was a long, busy, frustrating and rewarding day at work. So that make it a little on the odd side. We were having an "Ugly Tie" contest for the charity campaign. I won! That makes me the event winner two years in a row. Insane. LOL. I bought a novelty clown tie at a dollar store and that's what I won with. We raised almost $50 for the campaign too. That's the best part. And no, I didn't load my own vote envelope with money. I only put 50 cents in mine!

My shoulders are tense from stress and I'm feeling bogged down with negative energy. I think I'm going to sit with my positivity crystal and meditate a little bit before bed. Yes, you read that right. I have a positivity crystal. It's a very pretty chunk of quartz if you must know. LOL. I know how it sounds, trust me. I thought the same thing when I read about it, but it friggin' works. I don't know if it's a mind over matter thing or is a pretty rock really does have energy in it but something about it makes me feel better. I would bring it to work with me but I might be too tempted to throw it at annoying co-workers. LOL.

BTW, there's exactly 3 months until Christmas!!!

Good Night,

Sarah

Cold-Job-TV

Good God it was freakin' cold this morning. When I got up at 6am, the nice people on the radio said that it was +3C out. When I checked Environment Canada's website at 7:30am, it was +1C. It fucking got colder!?!? Yeah. I wasn't impressed. To make matter worse, my office is like an oven. So I have 2 options: 1. Dress warmly and be comfortable on the way to work and then roast all day at the office or 2. Freeze my ass off on the way to work and be semi-comfortable in the office. I went for option 2. I did try to pull my socks up high enough to meet my skirt though (didn't work).

At worked today, I was asked (more like told) if I would get trained on another job that we do in the office. I said sure and we started training this afternoon. Our office is doing voluntary over time and I signed up for a couple of Saturday shifts. I'll be doing the new "job" during my overtime shifts. I'm actually kind of looking forward to it. It's so very different from what I do now that I think I might actually enjoy the break. I get to use our database again, which I haven't really used in over a year so a refresher isn't a bad idea. Being flexible and having a variety of skills are good things to be/have.

I got to watch two brand new episodes of two of my favourite shows tonight: Bones and Castle. And thanks to time shifting, I got to watch Castle at 7pm instead of having to stay up until 10am. Awesome. I can't wait for Thursday though. That's when The Big Bang Theory comes back. I adore that show :)

Ok, enough rambling. I'm going to bed.

Good Night!

Sarah

Random Blog = Random Photo

Lonely Soul

What to say about today? It was an up and down and up and down day. And not in the fun way that many of you are probably thinking.

I got to sleep in this morning, which was pretty awesome. I really needed the sleep. I then ran some errands and got the bread that I forgot to get yesterday. I came home and reluctantly, started doing the dishes and other mundane house work actives.

Somewhere in the middle of it, a few of my demons escaped and I was overwhelmed with some negative thoughts and emotions. I fought it for a while but eventually gave up on the dishes and gave in. My soul was sad. It happens. Then my doubt demons run amuck for a bit. I took a time out, sat on the edge of my bed and looked out my window, watching the sun dance between the leaves on the tree. And I let the tears flow.

I remember a time when this was almost a daily occurrence. I hated my life so much and I was so miserable and I didn't know why. Nothing made sense. I was scared, angry, confused and lost. Thankfully, I sought help and found the light at the end of the tunnel. Now the sadness makes sense. The demons are under control and stay locked up, most of the time.

In fact, today was the first day in quite some time that I've felt like this. It was a sudden and very profound sense of loneliness. It happens. I've been single since 2006 and haven't been on a date since 2009, so things are a little bleak in my relationship sphere. My family isn't near by and I've spent an awful lot of time by myself lately, so it all kind of ganged up on me. I gave myself permission to be sad for 30 minutes. And then I dusted myself off, got back up and continued on with my afternoon, feeling much better. I experimented with dessert and ended up with a very yummy baked apple.

Now I'm just sad about the fact that the Emmy Nominees from The Big Bang Theory didn't win :(

I hear my bed calling so it's time for me to log off.

Good Night!

Sarah

Elvis, Roy Orbison and A Flock of Seagulls

It's currently 12:34am. I am awake, thanks in part to the bottle of diet Pepsi and bag of M&Ms that I've been nursing for the last 2 hours. A co-worker lent me "Snow White and the Huntsman". Horrible movie. I very much disliked it. It is cool to see Charlize Theron as the evil queen. She did a good job. And Chris Hemsworth is easy on the eyes. But the rest of it...so not worth the 2+ hours. I ended up past forwarding through a lot of the final battle scenes because I just wanted it to end. "Mirror, Mirror" with Julia Roberts definitely gets my vote for the Snow White movie of 2012.

Anyhow, it was an interesting day. I braved the shitty weather (which actually cleared up a bit) to venture downtown to the market. With today (ok, yesterday at this point) being the first day of autumn, I was inspire to cook and if you're going to do it right, you need the best ingredients available. So a trip to the market to get fresh and local food stuffs was the order of the day.

I got celery for $1. A mixed bag of onions, potatoes and carrots for $5 (about a half quart of each), a turnip for $1, a head of broccoli for $1 and 2 heads of cauliflower for $1.50. I think I did well. I also hit up the Italian store for some hard to find pasta and special canned tomatoes and lucked out. The cheese I needed was on sale there so I grabbed it too. I got some freshly made turkey and apple sausages from the butcher and a trip to the Sushi place for lunch rounded out my market experience.

On the way back, that's when things got entertaining. While waiting for the bus, I noticed a man in an electric wheelchair. The thing was, he kept getting up out of the chair, would talk to his buddy, walk around and then sit back down. He did this about 3 times. He eventually turned towards where I was and that's when I saw his shirt. It said "Elvis Presley Roy Orbison Impersonator". And wouldn't you know it, the dude did look a little like Elvis (over weight, old Elvis). Sideburns and all. Some ladies stopped to ask him if a certain bus had passed and they thanked him by saying "Thank you. Thank you very much" and then laughed hysterically. They then took a photo with said Elvis/Roy impersonator, who once again got out of his wheelchair for the photo op. Odd indeed.

After I got home and had lunch, I had to run to the grocery store to pick up the few things that I didn't get in the market. On the way home, I could hear some seagulls making quite the fuss. I live close enough to the river that the seagulls are around. The fact that there's a Wendy's across the street and the woman 2 houses down feeds the damn things, keeps them around. Anyhow, I had just made it across the street when 4 seagulls came flying out from the front lawn of my apartment building and swooped over me, low enough that I had to duck. The lead seagull had half a bagel in its beak. That explains all the fussing. The 4 stupid gulls then proceeded to circle around and chase one and other at a rather low altitude. I guess the bagel was heavy. Stupid birds. Thankfully I managed to get inside my apartment building before I got shit on, so that was good.

For dinner I made a lovely soup. You can read all about it and get the recipe in my new blog: Cooking Shenanigans This blog is strictly for my kitchen adventures (or misadventures, of which, there are many). You know, one blog wasn't keeping me busy enough. LOL.

Thankfully I get to sleep in tomorrow. With my luck, I'll wake up at 6 or 7 and not be able to fall back to sleep.

I think it's bed time. Good Night!

Sarah

Taken in St. Stephen, NB in 2006

Zoom, Zoom, FOG!

Please excuse me right now if there are a lot of typos in this blog. I'm A: Very tired and B. Have been drinking :)

So there was a bunch of work peeps going out for dinner and drinks after work at one of our favourite bars. I said I'd go. That was before I had an insane week. So by 4pm, I didn't want to go anywhere other than home to bed. Didn't happen. I ended up working late to help get some stuff done for Monday morning. While meeting with one of my managers, a couple co-workers kept texting me "Where are you?" "Are you still coming?" "Why are you still at work" and so forth. I ended up missing Mr. Robertson, who I used to work with (really swell guy) so that sucked. But in the end, co-worker Mandy's text messages wore me down and I decided to head to the bar. That was at 6:30. Thankfully some peeps were still there. I got to have a couple of drinks and a nice dinner and some fun conversations. 

I got to the bus stop and just missed my bus. No big deal. It wasn't raining anymore. I got to stand around and look at my favourite fountain (which I did not jump in despite being unchaperoned at the time) and I waited for the next bus. In hind site, I should have run to catch the first one. The driver was insane. He had 3 speeds: Fast, Faster and FULL STOP! Jesus Christ. I can't recall the last time that I made it home that quickly from down town. Or the last time that the bus was going so fast that I nearly flew off the seat every time we hit a bump. I also think I had whip lash from the sudden stops he made. I swear we were doing over 100km/h down the straight stretches on the transit way. Until we hit the Parkway. Suddenly, we were going at an almost normal speed....which is when I looked up from my phone and realized that I couldn't see anything. Yes, it was dark out but you can still see the street lights and lights on in house windows. I could barely make out the tail lights of the bus in front of me. We were in one hell of a fog bank. Downtown had been crystal clear but as soon as we got near the river: BOOM! Fog. I now became rather concerned that we were going crazy fast in such limited visibility conditions. Maybe my driver figured that the bus in front of us would hit anything that popped up and we'd be fine. I dunno. I made it safely to my stop and then got to wander about in the fog for half a block. Watching the fog move past the street lights is very cool.

Upon my safe arrival home, I sat down at my computer for a bit but soon found myself rather chilly (as I am again now). So I made a very lovely hot chocolate with my Kurig...and then amped it up a notch by adding some Caramel Bailey's to it. That shit rocks. And it worked to warm me up. But alas, it is long gone and after playing 12 games of "Song Pop" my eyes appear to be closing on their own. We're in for some pretty shitty weather this weekend so I'm thinking hibernation is a good idea. Sadly, I don't think that will work out. A trip to the market for some supplies might. Or Ikea....a dangerous idea indeed. Guess I'll just have to wait and see :)

Good Night!

Sarah

This is actually a photo I took of fog moving in over Calgary

Random Homelss Guy

Another busy one at the salt mines today, but it wasn't quite as insane as the other days have been. There seemed to be a little bit more order to things, a little less crazy. Unless you count the "mis-heard lyrics" conversation that occurred late this afternoon. That was a whole other brand of crazy.

A rather wonderful "fire" popped up this morning and I spent a good part of the day, off and on, assisting in extinguishing it. The upside was that it was dealt with and we're on track. There were even a few laughs along the way thanks in part to our tech team. It was very nice to be able to report back to my boss that the project was done, issue resolved and we could move ahead. It was very welcome news. And somehow I still put in 1.5 hours of over time.

On the way home, something truly random and really amusing happened. I was walking to the bus stop with a co-worker. We were having a conversation, regular stuff. Just after we crossed the street, we passed one of the homeless guys who's frequently in the area. As we passed by him, he put his finger to his mouth and made that blubblubblubblub noise that you make when you run your finger quickly up and down over your lips and blow out air at the same time. My co-worker and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. It was so fucking random!!!! I've walked past that homeless guys about a hundred times. He's never done anything like that. He may mutter to himself every now and then but I've never seen him do something like that before. So bizarre! The homeless guy wasn't even asking for money. He was sitting outside a Starbucks, several feet back off the sidewalk. I honestly didn't know what to make of it. I have to admit, there are days when I'd love to do that to people (random jerks and co-workers alike) but I guess I have more self control. It did make for a rather amusing walk to the bus though.

Thankfully, tomorrow is Friday. From the sounds of it, half the office is heading out to a local pub/bar after work. I do believe that I will be attending with them. I don't think I'll be drinking much. Mostly because I'll be tired and I'm on the broke side. Also, it sounds like there will be A LOT of people going. I'm not overly comfortable with that many co-workers seeing the unrestricted me. When it's a small bunch of us that I'm more familiar with, no problem. But a full house of colleagues? Not quite my cup of tea. I'm hoping that a few former co-workers will come out to visit with us as well. It's been too long since we've seen some of them.

Anyhow, I'm tired (I know, shocking), so I should be off to bed. Maybe I'll have some random drunk stories tomorrow night ;)

Good Night!

Sarah

Coffe Rant and New Year's Eve

I'm a little cranky tonight. Maybe it's because I'm tired. Or maybe it's because I'm super stressed at work. Or maybe it's because there was nothing good on tv tonight. Or perhaps I just need to get laid. Maybe it's PMS. Or maybe it's that someone who's supposed to be one of my closest friends appears to be deliberately ignoring me as of late. Or maybe it's all of the above. I'm opting to go with the first option at the moment. I'm tired. Very tired.

I had french class this morning. It went well and I got all the answers on my homework correct. The problem is, by the time class is over, I'm totally drained and just want to nap. Having to focus and think in another language for 4 hours is mentally exhausting. The fact that my jackass teacher kept making me say one word over and over about 10 times (yes, I kept pronouncing it wrong, EVERY FUCKING TIME) didn't help the cause either. Once class was over and I got back to the office, I didn't even make it from the door to my desk before I had people bugging me. Fuck, I didn't even get to the elevator. The commissionaire was giving me a hard time about the coffee delivery guy and not being able to reach who he was looking for. Best part? I have nothing to do with the fucking coffee thing. Another co-worker looks after that and she'd given the delivery guy her cell phone number so that he wouldn't have to ask the commissionaire to call up. I then had conversations about said coffee delivery with 2 other people before I was able to reach my desk. Seriously, what a fucking gong show. I deliberately didn't want to get involved with the coffee thing because: A. I very rarely drink coffee so it was of little interest to me and B. I already have way too much on my plate. Yet somehow, it's landed back in my lap. Fuck. We have nearly 150 employees. Surly someone else can step up and take care of the damn thing. Sigh. On the up side, the woman I'm training to help me is catching on very quickly and is very eager to learn and is doing a great job. I'll be happier once she's up to speed and then I'll be able to do my stuff and she'll be able to do hers and we'll be good to go.

Today was a little depressing too because I'm trying to make my Christmas/New Year's holiday plans. I can't decide where to spend New Year's. It's either going to be in Ottawa or at home in Cambridge. Most years, I spend it at home. My parents and I spent New Year's Eve together, watching a movie and then a bunch of family goes for bunch on New Year's Day. Last year, I decided to try something different, and came back to Ottawa for New Year's Eve. While I was supposed to spend it with a friend and her husband, plans changed and I was left to my own devices. Which meant that I spent it home, alone. It actually wasn't that bad. I watched some of my favourite movies and made finger foods and watched the ball fall in NYC on tv and I only had to shuffle into the other room to find my bed. And there was wine in there too. However, you know the old wives tale that says how you spend New Year's Eve is how you'll spend the next year? Well it's September and that tale is bang on the money. I have definitely spent a very large amount of time alone this year. I think the only year that I recall spending more time alone would be my first year in Calgary back in 2005.
I want to party. I want to get all gussied up and put on a great dress and go out and dance and drink and laugh and just have a blast for the night. Just be surrounded by mirth and happiness and hope for a great new year. But unless I plan on doing that on my own, it doesn't look like it will happen this year either. But it's only mid-September. New Year's is still 3.5 months away. A lot can change in that time.

I think it's time for sleep. Here's hoping I can fall asleep quickly and get a solid, restful night's sleep and not wake up feeling like I want to maim half my office :)

Good Night!

Sarah

Homework

The weather today is just bizarre. It rained almost all day and it rained, a lot. I think it still might be raining now. But it was warm/humid. To the point where I thanked a man on the bus when he opened one of the windows. I was so friggin' hot. However, just before I started tonight's blog, I had to close my balcony door because it's become very windy and cold. As a result, my right arm is numb and my nipples are so hard that they hurt!! And my warm blanket is on the couch, which would require me getting up to get it. Stupid weather.

I'm going to attempt to warm up by typing this blog. If that fails, I'm going to grab my book and run to my bed (where I have the new, very soft sheets ) and I'll snuggle into my very soft sheets and my quilt and sit and read until bed time. If you're wondering, I'm currently reading "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin. Yes, this is the first book in the series which become a new hit for HBO. I've only seen 2 episodes of the show and I enjoyed them so much that I decided to pick up the book. So far, it's very good. My friend Cam wouldn't like it though. Each chapter is another character and every few chapters, it comes back to one of the characters. He doesn't like books that jump around like that. I do have to admit that you have to be paying a good deal of attention to what's going on to follow the story line.

Earlier this evening, I did something that I haven't done in about 10 years....no, I didn't have sex. Give me some credit, it hasn't been that long........anyhow, I did homework! I had french homework to do. The teacher sent us home from our first class with a sheet that has a map on it. You had to find the landmarks (8 of them) and write down what they are in French. Example: Albert Street = Rue Albert. I was actually quite pleased that I new most of them and only had to use Google Translate for a few of them. I even did the exercise on the other side of the page, despite the fact that the teacher made no mention of it. Am I a keener or what? As funny as it sounds I'm looking forward to class tomorrow. Work has been so busy and so stressful as of late, that I'm quite happy about escaping for a half day. Yes, I realize that I'll be playing catch up all afternoon and will most likely end up working late as a result, but I'm still looking forward to being able to focus on something, un-interrupted, for more than 2 minutes!!! Yippee!!

Good Night!

Sarah

TV and Food and Autumn, Oh My!

Well hot damn. I nearly forgot to blog tonight! I was all set to head to bed and the I was like "My Blog!". Oops.

Work was a blur, but that's nothing new. I had a nice evening at home and quite enjoyed the fact that Bones is back on for the season. The premiere was tonight and it was definitely a good one. I'm looking forward to the return on The Big Bang Theory as well. I also want to check out the new show "Elementary". I'm a bit of a Sherlock Holmes fan so it will be interesting to see how this one plays out. I rather like the fact the Dr. Watson is a female in this version.

I had a terrible case of the munchies tonight. I'm blaming the cooler weather. I think there's some deep seeded, biological desire to start bulking up when the cold weather arrives. Like some ancient survival instinct. Got to keep warm somehow, right? I can think of a much better way to keep warm but being single, it's a little difficult ;) I'll let you drawn your own conclusions on that one.

One of the nice things about the fall is apples. Once the first frost hits them, they're perfect. I love apple cider. I love to bake apple pie and apple crisp. I love going out to an apple orchard on a cool, crisp, sunny autumn day. It's such a simple thing but it's so wonderful. I may have been born in the spring, but I think I have autumn in my veins.

Oh! My new sheets are amazing. They were so soft and comfortable. The only problem I had was that my blue heart pillow doesn't stand out against them anymore so I ended up laying down on it when I got back into bed in the early morning hours after having got up to pee. That was a tiny bit of a surprise. They were definitely a good purchase.

I'm off to bed. I've got another busy day ahead of me tomorrow.

Good Night!

Sarah

Domestic Sunday

I think I can count today as a productive Sunday.

Before breakfast, I ran over to Walmart to pick up the filter I forgot to get yesterday and then ran into Metro to get something to cook for dinner. I ended up with a very nice roasting chicken. I came home and threw a load of towels and socks into the wash. Once that was done, I made breakfast. Ok, it was brunch by this time but whatever. It was good. Turkey bacon and pancakes with real maple syrup. Awesome.

This afternoon saw me attempting to find the floor in my bedroom. The theory being that it had to be there as it was what was most likely holding up that very large pile of clothing. I was right. There was a floor. I got most of it done. Lots of clothing hung up, folded up or put into a bag for donation. I also have a HUGE basket full of laundry. That's the downside to cleaning.

I alternated my floor hunting with the doing of dishes, just in case floor hunting was too boring. I also had to pause from all the fun in order to get my chicken into the oven. I have to admit that one of my favourite things about cooking is how awesome my apartment smells while I'm cooking. After getting my fine poultry friend into the oven, I was back in the bedroom. I got the bed cleaned off and all the random shoes/flip flops/slippers moved out of the way and then I changed the sheets and made my bed.

I'm quite looking forward to getting into bed tonight as the sheets are brand new. I bought them yesterday morning and washed them last night. Not only are they super soft, but they smell awesome too. Climbing into a freshly made bed, with fresh sheets is one of those simple pleasures in life.

I made mashed potatoes (with the skins on) and boiled broccoli and cauliflower to go with my chicken. It all turned out very well and it was very good indeed. And now I have left over chicken to take for lunch this week.

While I was waiting for dinner to finish cooking, I did find the time to finish doing my nails, which look pretty kick ass if I do say so myself.

It's been a pretty good and rather domestic day. I think I'm going to read for a little bit before crawling into my awesome bed. But before I go, I want to wish my dear, sweet, slightly insane but I still love you friend Michelle a very, very, VERY happy 35th Birthday. I hope it was a good one :)

Good Night!

Sarah

Cake from my 30th bday party :)

Nail Polish

After nearly 2 months of going without, I broke down today. I bought a bottle of nail polish. LOL. In case you're wondering, it's "Honk If You Love OPI" by, you guessed it OPI. It's a dark purple/burgundy colour. Very nice for fall.

I have a bit of an addiction to nail polish. I don't drink, smoke or do drugs, so I think I'm doing ok with the nail polish. Nail polish is one of my girlie vices. I don't really have many. I like pretty/sexy underware and love it when I can find a matching bra and panty set, and I love my nail polish. Those are my girlie vices.

Speaking of girlie...I went shopping today and my buddy Xtinktor met up with me and kept me company. We did stop along the way for a coffee and got caught up. But I had to laugh. We had quite the conversation about hair and hair products. He actually had to go back to the store where I got my nail polish so that he could pick up a special hair treatment that both he and his wife uses. I got a good giggle out of that. I helped him pick out a bottle of nail polish for his wife too. I should have made him try it on!

I spent part of the day looking at Hallowe'en costumes too. I love Hallowe'en. It's partly because I love fall and getting to decorate with the beautiful colours of leaves and pumpkins but I think I like Hallowe'en more because it's a chance to be something/one else for a day. To dress up and be creative. I love that. And before wearing black nail polish became a main stream thing, I loved being able to wear black or a funky green nail polish for Hallowe'en. See? I really do have a thing for nail polish. You should see what I come up with at Christmas. LOL.

After my day of shopping, I've just been spending a quiet evening at home. I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner with a salad. Then I did a load of laundry (to wash the new sheets I bought this morning) and now I'm sitting here, blogging and watching "Date Night". It's a rather amusing little flick. Oh yeah! And I did the first coat of nail polish too. I didn't want to risk going to bed with slightly wet nails and having them smudge, so I'll do coat 2 tomorrow morning.

I'm getting a little chilly since there's a cold breeze coming in the balcony door, so I think it's time to log off and go and curl up under a blanket and watch the rest of the movie. Or read for a bit.

Good Night!

Sarah

This is a mini candy apple that I made for Hallowe'en one year. You can see my pretty nails in it!

Where's My Crystal Ball?

Some days I really think I might be psychic. Today was one of those days.

It was a pretty normal work day. I got to run two staff info sessions, one with all our day staff and one with our night shift. Both went well and now the staff is well informed about the charity campaign that's being run at work over the next 6 weeks. Yay. I also managed to get my desk back into a little bit of order and only discovered one or two mysteries in the process.

The psychic part came in a little later.

For a couple of days now, an old friend of mine (someone I've known for a very long time) has been trying to get a hold of me. They texted and emailed a few times and actually called and left voicemail yesterday. Seeing as I haven't heard for them in a dog's age, I immediately knew that something was up (don't need to be psychic for that part ) and took a pretty decent guess at just what it was. And I was spot on.

Not only did I guess the problem, I also already knew what they were feeling/thinking and why they had opted to call me for advice. I predicted the breaking point or the 'snap factor' if you will. Maybe that isn't psychic abilities at all. Perhaps it's just knowing this friend really, really well. It was really trippy though. Listening to them describe the situation and their reaction to it was almost word for word the same as the conversation I had about them 3 months ago. Maybe there is a certain mental link to those who we're close to or have known for a very long time. Either way, it was a little un-nerving.

But I do think that I surprised said friend with the advice I offered. I think they called me more to get permission to follow a certain course or looking for me to help provide support or justification for their way of thinking. But rather than do that, which would have been easy, I listened to my instincts and proposed a different course of action.

No clue if they'll take my advice though. They asked, I gave. That's all that I can do other than offer up some prayers and hope that everything works out for the best for everyone involved.

Too bad I can't get such a good gut feeling about lottery numbers :)

It's cool and rainy here which is very good sleeping weather, so I think that's exactly what I'm going to go and do.

Good Night!

Sarah

Oddities

Well I got a little distracted by Song Pop and Facebook in general, so the blog is a little late tonight and I'm up past my bedtime.

It was an ok day. A very crazy day at work and then a Costco run with Steph after work. There's a fry truck near our office. It has a name,  but we call it the "Hello, Hi" truck. This is due to the woman who works in it. She always calls out "Hello! Hi!" to people standing in line. When Steph and I walked into Costco, a lady walked by me and I said to Steph - I think that's the Hello Hi lady. We continued shopping and when we got into line to check out, the Hello Hi lady was in front of us. It's one of those funny little things. We've never seen her outside of her truck, so it was a little strange. LOL.

Sitting here tonight, I have the tv and wasn't paying attention to it after my show ended. I just realised that Big Brother is on. I don't watch reality tv but I know what's going on on this show as a couple co-workers watch it and I've heard them talking about it. Anyhow, they're down to like the final 4 people and the "evil" guy who has pretty much played everyone all season is at it again....and people are believing it!!!!!!!! WTF???? Do people have to fail an IQ test to get on this show??? Now I remember why I don't watch these kinds of shows.

I'm rather happy that tomorrow is Friday. I have 2 staff meetings to attend and run though. I just hope that I can still speak by the time the second one rolls around. I was so tired by the end of the day today that the words weren't coming out of me correctly or in the right order. Maybe the order thing is due to yesterday's french class??

Ok, I think it's time for bed. I need to be bright eyes and bushy tailed for tomorrow.

Good Night!

Sarah

Lâche pas la patate!

Ok. So for those of you who don't speak French (like me!) or speak proper French and have no idea what my blog title says, it means: Don't drop the potato. Odd? Definitely. But based on the people I know who happen to be french, they are an odd bunch. Anyhow, the phrase actually is meant to mean "Don't give up".

So I think it was rather fitting that two of my co-workers taught it to me today. I have no idea if they know how frustrated and defeated I've felt lately about my quest for my second language. But it was the perfect phrase at the right time. And they only laughed at me for about 10 minutes while I tried to learn how to say it.

My French class went much better than expected. It's not the same teacher as last session (that my lucky stars) and this guy seems to be well organized and actually has a personality. He also told us that we shouldn't be afraid of making mistakes and to please feel free to make them.  I can do that. Quite easily in fact. Also, I wasn't totally lost. Most of what I'd already forgotten from the last session back in the spring kind of came back to me, so I was happy about that. One week down, 12 to go. Guess I'll just have to wait and see how this plays out.

The rest of my day was almost a total wash out. I had to run over to our other building to drop off/pick up stuff. It felt like a million people were asking me for things and my desk looks like a paper bomb exploded on it. Not good. I think I'm going to have to haul my ass into the office early tomorrow in an attempt to get caught up. Oh, and we had 5 new staff start today. Yippee.

Je suis fatigué (I am tired). It was a long day and then this evening I've spent the last hour and a bit working on a photo book project, so I'm a little tired of looking at the computer screen. The week is more than halfway over!

Good Night,

Sarah

Speaking of odd, check out this vase!

Something's Rotten in the State of Denmark

Bonus points for you if you know what my title is from.

I'm having a very "meh" time lately. No energy, no enthusiasm, no desire to do anything, which makes work a real pain in the ass. Not sure what the cause of it is either.

There are a few things that are very likely suspects. The days are getting shorter so there's less sun. I'm super freakin' busy at work so I haven't been taking breaks or getting outside and thus I'm stressed. There's been a lot of change around me lately. I start French classes again tomorrow. I've been alone a lot lately.

Anyone one of those could cause a "meh" but maybe it's several of them all working in cahoots.

Let me return to one of those suspects: I start French classes again tomorrow. Lord help me. It's a 13 week course. I've already taken it and survived one of these courses. It was a level 3-4 (beginner) course. The teacher said that one of my co-workers and I did well and we could move up higher than the next level so I have no freaking idea where they placed us. Problem is that I don't remember anything from the last damn course (partly due to a less than stellar teacher). I have to ask myself: What is the point?

I'm only employed until March 31st 2013. There's a very good chance that I won't get renewed because I'm not bilingual (there's several of us in that boat). What pisses me off is the fact that I've been doing this job for over a year now, as a unilingual, and if my performance evaluation is any indication, I'm doing it fucking well.  So why do I suddenly have to speak French? I do not deal with the general public. All manager are bilingual (which I totally agree with as they have to be able to communicate with all staff) so I have no problem communicating with them. I dunno.

It's not that I don't want to learn French. I completely get the point of learning it and I know how valuable being bilingual would be. It's just that, well, I don't seem to be able to learn it. I haven't been this frustrated in school since Math class back in highschool. I've always been a smart cookie and learning comes easy to me...until you ask me to learn a new language. As of late, all I've managed to learn is how to insult people in Arabic (don't ask). I can memorize the French grammar rules until I'm blue in the face, but that's all it is. They're memorized. I don't understand them and nothing makes sense. I can never remember which order the words go in and the stupid verb changes between present and past tense. None of it makes sense. Oh and I could roll an "R" if my life depended upon it. And don't get me started on the fucking masculine vs feminine words. That's just bloody insane!!

And God forbid I try speaking french at work. On those rare days when I get up enough courage to try it... laughter is usually the end result. And it isn't me laughing. Yesterday I nearly brought 2 people to tears as I tied to pronounce the word "boeuf" (french for beef). When I'm not getting laughed at, they usually speak so fast that I can't catch any of it. And several of my french co-workers use slang, and then I'm totally lost.

The worst part? I love my job. It's the first job I've ever had that I honest to God like and enjoy. I love the people I work with. They're amazing. And even when I bitch about my job, I still want to get up the next morning and go back to work. I'm completely and totally letting myself down and the harder I try to prevent that from happening, the worse I do.

I really don't know what to do.

Good Night.

Sarah

Papillons - Butterflies

3 Meetings on a Monday :(

What's new pussycat? If you're me, not much. Work was long but flew by in a blink. Which sometimes isn't as nice as it sounds. When you have tons of work to do and then next thing you know it's quitting time, that's not good. I suppose the 3 meetings I had today might have had something to do with it. I have one to kick off my day tomorrow too. Half of Wednesday is a write off to since I have a class from 8am-Noon. Not exactly sure where I'm going to fit all of the work in.

Downside to it all is that by the time I get home, I'm too friggin' tired to do anything else. I haven't been out walking in a well over a week.

Bah! I'm sure there's a light at the end of the tunnel and I'll figure it all out soon enough. But for right now, I'm putting this long day behind me and am heading to bed.

Good Night!

Sarah

Yes, that's a photo I took of a bull.

Old Souls

Have you ever been called an Old Soul? Or heard someone refer to someone else as an old soul? I have. Mostly because I am one and I know a couple of people who are old souls too. For those who don't know what an old soul it, I found a great definition online on Urban Dictionary of all places:

" A spiritual person whom is wise beyond their years; people of strong emotional stability. Basically, someone whom has more understanding of the world around them."

I think it's a pretty good explanation. Not 100% of the spiritual part but that's basically it. It's something I've been thinking about all weekend. I've always been mature beyond my years. My "rebellious" period was short lived and even when I went away to University, I didn't get too out of control and settled down quickly. All my life people have come to me with their problems, suggesting that I'm a good listener and great at giving advice. Maybe I am. And maybe that's due to the fact that I'm an old soul. Perhaps it's also because I was fortunate enough to have some very old and very wise women in my life early on. They made a huge impact on me. Quite literally as I have tattoo in memory of one of them.

The idea behind having an old soul is the thought that our souls are re-born after we die and it lives through another life, learning more as it goes along. The more lives a soul has been through, the older it is and the wiser it is and that has an impact on the life that gets lived.

Maybe there aren't an infinite number of souls in the universe. What if when we die and move onto whatever comes next, we get an option to live another life? So our soul gets recycled and goes on again. Perhaps over time, our souls start to retain knowledge from a previous go round and age a little. Of course, God has some fresh, new souls on reserve, or else we wouldn't have "new soul" people wander around too.

I think that old souls often seek each other out since we recognise the commonality in each other. I also think that young souls seek us out as they're attracted to our wisdom. But young souls can be mean and try to take advantage of you because they simply don't know any better, kind of like energy "vampire" (people who just seem to drain the energy/life out of you) type people do.

I am definitely very self aware. I know that I'm a realist who has optimistic tendencies. I'm a Christian who believes in God but I'm also very spiritual and am open to the idea that there are other powers at work in the Universe. I know that love and happiness are the most valuable things in the world and are the only real reasons for doing anything. I adore history and firmly believe that we can't know where we're going unless we know where we've been. Perhaps my love of history is my soul remembering something it lived through... Ditto for my love of nature. That might just be some acquired knowledge, that humans need to reconnect with the natural world around us from time to time, in order to recharge ourselves and help us find our happiness. I love learning and school. Knowledge is a powerful tool and resource and it's free. You can pick up a book from the library and learn. Too bad University isn't free. I'd go back to school in a heartbeat :)

I feel a need to help people. People I know and people I don't know. If I see that someone is having problems, I have an overwhelming desire to try to help them. Some nights I can't watch the evening news because I get so sad and depressed seeing all the hurt and suffering and I don't know how to help them. My desire to help sometimes gets me in trouble. I can't say no and end up taking on too much or getting in over my head.

Being an old soul, I also worry, a lot. I worry about my family, my friends, my job. But as I've gotten older, I'm getting better at the worrying part. I still worry about my family and friends but I'm much more relaxed with my own life. I have a faith ( or is it knowledge ) that everything will work itself out and I can't really explain my reasoning behind it. I think that this is also what allows me to be so independent and be able to spend so much time on my own. Maybe that's why I'm finding it so difficult to find a mate too? My soul mate might very well be an old soul too, and they're kind of on the rare side ;)

Who knows if this is real or not, but I'm open to the idea. I kind of like the idea of getting to live many lives, learning more and more as I go along. I like being an old soul, even if it means that I'm not quite the same as others my age and that I don't quite fit in. It's all good because it's who I am. I am me and that's the only me I know how to be.

Good Night!

Sarah

Rainy Saturday

After months of little to no rain, it rained here all day. I think Mother Nature was giving us the rainy season all in one shot.

It was actually kind of nice as we had several little thunder storms roll through. More than I've seen all summer. I love thunder storms. They're so beautiful. And the smell of the air when it's raining is incredible. It brings back happy memories from my childhood. I wish someone could bottle that smell.

Being a rainy day, it also helped me to get some chores done that I'd been putting off. I got in a trip to the pharmacy and did a full shopping trip to the grocery store. My fridge is re-stocked. Half ass cleaned out the fridge too. I probably should finish doing that tomorrow (ok, later today). I also managed to get 3 loads of laundry done, one of which is hanging in my bathroom. Showers make a great place to dry clothing you know.

I made butter chicken and basmati rice for dinner. Had vanilla bean Haagen Dasz with raseberry jam on top for dessert and then curled up on my couch and watched Sex in the City 2. Thanks to the dramatic change in the weather, my living room actually got rather chilly and I found it necessary to curl up under  a blanket.

I'm 34 and single, no kids. It's Saturday night. In theory (and if I believed the ladies from Sex in the City) I should be out, living it up at a club/bar/party somewhere. But that's just not me. The last scenes in Sex and the City 2 are set to Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors". Well my true colours are that of a homebody. And after the crazy ass week I had (doctor fuck ups and general work insanity), spending a night alone on the couch was the perfect way to spend my night.

I'm going to continue my domestic spree tomorrow. Might head to the market for veggies. I haven't decided yet. But I am looking forward to sleeping in. And on that note...

Good Night!

Sarah

A rainy day at Sharbot Lake - 2010

All Work and No Play...

...Is pretty much how I live my life. LOL. I spent my Friday evening working. Seriously, I left the office at 7:40pm. And it was all by choice. Being a short week, I was behind on some stuff so I stayed in order to get caught up. The bright side was that I got a lot of work done and will now probably enjoy my weekend more and won't be sitting around worrying about what I didn't get done.

I also cleaned out the office fridge with the help of one of my co-workers. My god it was awful. There were some pretty nasty science projects going on in there. Some stuff wasn't even identifiable.
Brutal.

I stopped and got sushi after work. It was sooo good and was a nice treat after a long day.

Looks like it's going to be a rainy weekend so I think I'm going to attempt over haul my apartment and get my fall clothes out. I'm also going to get the slow cooker out and make some soup so that I can re-stock my freezer. Might mean a trip to the market to get some fresh veggies to go into the soup. A trip to the market is worth braving the rain.

My long day is catching up with me so I think it's time for bed.

Good Night!

Sarah

Lentil Pasta Soup - One of my favourites!

Sleepy

For being a short week, it feels rather long. Perhaps that's due to how busy I've been at the office. It's bizarre. I run around all day but I don't actually feel like I've accomplished anything. Maybe I'll go in early tomorrow and try to get some filing done before the rest of the staff appear.

Today we had yet another farewell party. It's what happens when a large majority of your staff are on 90 day contracts. Anyhow, today's departure was my friend Stephanee. On one hand, I really have no reason to feel sad about it as I see her on a weekly basis. But on the other hand, I have gotten quite used to seeing her at work everyday. And for hitting her up for gum. And for having my back when dealing with difficult people.

On the bright side, when I bitch to her on the weekends about work/co-workers/general office insanity, she'll know exactly what I'm talking about :)

I'm rather sleepy this evening and my tummy is a little angry (too much hot sauce on my dinner I do believe), so this is going to be a short blog tonight. Besides, I'm still a little drained after last night's blog.

Oh! That reminds me, my mom called me this evening. My parents are having their house re-wired (they still have some old knob and tube wiring in it) and apparently, the people doing the work have been re-arranging the rooms and making quite the mess. They kind of have to and my parents knew this was coming. Anyhow, the computer isn't hooked up again yet so my mom has been calling instead of emailing. She called me tonight and said that the electrician had told her that he closed the doors to two of the bedrooms and that the master bedroom was accessible and open (my parent's room). He also said that he didn't recommend looking into the two other rooms. So what did mom do? She looked in the other two rooms. LOL. Apparently she can only get the door to my old room half way open because there's a dresser in the way. Mom said that both rooms were a total disaster. My response: I wanna see! Take pictures!!! Yes, I'm uber supportive, aren't I? They've got a new light fixture in the bathroom because the workers can't get at the wiring for the old lights without removing an entire wall. And the wiring in the old ceiling light in their dining room was so old and dried out, that it was flaking off! Crazy. I can't wait to go home at Christmas and see all the changes.

I'm going to log off now and head to bed early. I'm very happy that tomorrow is Friday. I'm thinking sushi for dinner :)

Good Night!

Sarah

Couldn't think of a good photo for this blog, so here's a picutre of Lake Louise instead.
(taken in 2007)

50!!

Believe it or not, but tonight's post is my 50th post. Honest to God, I never thought I'd really stick with it this long.

I've tried writing journals/diaries before but I've never really stuck with it for more than a few weeks. I'd get tired and forget to write or I'd lose the book under the couch for a few months. Or I wouldn't be able to find a pen. You know, crap like that. So I'm slightly baffled as to why I've been able to keep it up so long and so well thus far.

Maybe the timing was right this time?

When it comes to anything major in our lives, people always say that the time has to be right. Or it has to come at the right time. Like quitting smoking or losing weight. If you haven't timed it right, or you aren't 100% committed, it's just not going to work, no matter how hard you try. But then that one time comes along. That one right time. I don't know if the stars align a certain way, or if the moon is in the right house or it just happens to be the 1000th Thursday in the decade but something happens. It all just clicks. The obstacles that were there all fall away. Your resolve is renewed. Self doubt is locked away and courage has come out to play. I can't explain it, but it happens. Perhaps this is one of those things?

Speaking of timing....I've spent a good deal of the week thinking back to my first week and year at University. It's hard to believe that it was 15 years ago. In many ways, it feels like it was only a few years ago. Some days I wish it was :) Going to University was a very bitter sweet moment for me. Not too many people know this, but just when I was getting my acceptance letters for University and was graduating high school and becoming legal drinking age...my mom was diagnose with breast cancer. Finding that out was the scariest day of my life. I've moved away from home, moved across the country and back and still nothing has been more frightening than the possibility of losing my mom. Unfortunately, I have a few friends who know just how real that fear is as they've lost a parent.

I'm pretty sure my first reaction to the news was a selfish one, with me thinking that my chances of getting it had just increased. But that was the scared little girl in my talking. Soon the braver young woman came out and I told my parents that I didn't want to go away to University. I wanted to stay home and look after my mom. Guess who won that battle? My mom wouldn't let me stay home. So off I went. I can remember calling home a few times and my mom was too tired or wasn't feeling well enough to come to the phone. It broke my heart.  Part of me still feels guilty for not just ignoring my parents and leaving school to go home and look after my mom. I'm sure they would have killed me if I had.

My mom is an amazing woman and she pulled through. I went with her to her 2nd last treatment when I was home for reading week during my first year. I'll never forget it. I think that's the day she really became my hero. She beat the cancer :)

So when I look back and remember how scary things were 15 years ago, I also celebrate the fact that my mom has been cancer free for 15 years. I can't begin to express how thankful and grateful I am for that. What I once thought was really bad timing to be leaving home and starting school might actually have not been so bad. Perhaps it was supposed to happen then, in order for me to fully appreciate the loved ones in my life and to grow stronger as a person.

Funny how 15 years can change your perspective on things? And this turned out to be a way more emotional blog than I planned on it being. Wow.

Good Night!

Sarah

Strike 2!

I had my re-scheduled doctor's appointment this morning. It was my 2nd attempt at a physical. Here's what happened:

I get to the doctor's this morning and check in with the front desk, where the receptionist promptly tells me: "He's not in this week." WTF??? I asked why no one called me and she gave some BS answer about the doctor not giving them any warning and only told them in the afternoon of his last day that he was taking a week off. Whatever. My guess is that she forgot that the doctor was taking a week off and accidentally booked me in. Moving on.

So the receptionist says that she can get me in to see the other doctor. I ask how long that will take and she tells me that it will be 15-20 minutes and that she'd put me ahead of those waiting since I had an appointment (my doctor's office is also a Walk-In clinic). Ok fine. I get shown to a room right away and I had to wait 20 minutes to see the other doctor. I did manage to finish reading my book during this time, so it wasn't a lost cause. 

The other Dr. (I have no clue at all as to what her name is!) came in and went over my blood test results with me. Good news; I'm perfectly healthy! Well, except for the being extremely overweight part, but on paper, I'm perfectly healthy. Everything is good. My iron was good, my kidneys are working well, my cholesterol number is normal, my sugar is good. No signs of diabetes.  The Doctor then asked how my blood pressure is. I told her that I had no idea so, she took my blood pressure too and said that it was good. That was kind of impressive. I figured that with how annoyed I was, it would have been through the roof. Guess reading my book calmed me down.

 Before she left, the nice doctor lady told me to book another appointment with my doctor for my physical and pap. I almost laughed in her face. That's so not going to happen. I've lost 2 mornings so far. I'm not taking any more time off work. This is by far, the most dysfunctional doctor's office I've ever been to. It took me 3 years to get a doctor and it doesn't seem to matter. I think I have to renew my efforts and see if I can find a better doctor, one who actually gives a shit and cares about how their office is run. I wonder if there's someone I can complain to about this?

My next trick will be finding an eye doctor (not so bad) and a dentist (scared to death of them!). This should be a blast :) Stay tuned for those adventures.... LOL.

Good Night!

Sarah

The relaxing view from the dock at Steph's cottage

Writer's Block?

Good evening... and I have no idea what to write beyond that. Today was a very dull and mundane day, especially when compared to the two previous days. I did get to sleep in though, so that was nice.

But I really don't have much on my mind to write about tonight. It's back to work for me tomorrow, and my boss is back from holidays so it might be a busy day. I also have a re-scheduled doctor's appointment (for my physical) tomorrow morning, providing the receptionist didn't forget to book it. Hopefully my blood test results are back so that I don't have to go back for a third time.

I did discover two new bands today. I follow a bunch of them on Twitter and I finally found the time to check some of them out. The two that I came across today are "Hard Honey" from Calgary, AB Canada and "Throw The Fight" from Minneapolis, MN USA. You can find them both on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and iTunes. I've been in search of some new music as of late and am rather happy to have some. I just wish Hard Honey had more tracks available online to listen to .

That's it for me tonight. A very short and sweet blog. Nothing thrilling. Maybe I'll have more to say tomorrow night.

Good Night!

Sarah

Since I was talkinga about bands tonight, here's a photo of one of my favourite bands, My Darkest Days, taken at Bluesfest this summer

Young At Heart

Today was an interesting day. It involved someone very old and someone very young.

I went out grocery shopping this afternoon. While waiting for the bus home, an elderly woman at the bus stop started talking to me. Turns out that she's 90 years old. Makes me wonder at one point do people start bragging about their age? Anyhow, she was a very nice and very talkative woman who was clearly enjoying the great weather today. She made me smile and I think she was happy to have someone to talk with.

This evening I went over to visit one of my nearest and dearest friends and her family. Her, her husband and I all met 15 years ago. None of us could believe that's been that long. He husband claims that we all look the same. LOL. I'd like to believe that. It's also were I spent some time with the youngest person today. Their son is just shy of being 4 months old. He's adorable and such a happy baby. He only cried once the entire time I was there and I think that's because he had a bad dream or was hungry. Not sure which. And the crying didn't last long at all. If all babies were as calm and as well behaved as he is, I might re-consider my decision not to have one. Watching my friends interact with him made me smile too. They were definitely meant to be parents.

I still find it very surreal that one of my friends has a baby. It's not that I think they're not ready for one, quite the opposite there, but I don't feel like we're old enough to be having them. Hell, the fact that my brother is a father still boggles my mind and it's been 5 months now. But I have to admit, I don't really feel like I'm a grown up. When I was a teenager, I had an idea in my head about how people in the 30s and 40s were: how they lived and behaved. But I certainly have not become the idea that I had. Maybe I'd feel different if I wasn't on my own. Maybe I wouldn't. Maybe this is how I'm supposed to feel, kind of young at heart. I'm responsible in the fact that I have a job and support myself. I pay my rent and bills, do my own laundry and grocery shopping, but I still listen to loud rock music and love going to concerts. I like staying up late watching movies. I like giggling with my girlfriends. I still buy frivolous items from time to time, like purses, shoes and nail polish ( I own A LOT of nail polish ).

Perhaps keeping a sense of our youth in our hearts is a good thing, something that really does keep us feeling (and possibly looking) young. All I know is that I don't feel as old as my birth certificate says I am and that's a good thing.

Good Night!

Sarah

One of my more silly moments :)

Getting Back to Nature

Nature. It's all around us but most people don't seem to take the time to notice it or enjoy it. Living in the city is great. There's lots of things to see and do but city life is usually very busy and we spend most of our time rushing from one place to another. From work to home. We all need to take a break to re-charge our batteries, so to speak. And I got to do that today.

My good friend Stephanee's parents have a cottage just outside of Wakefield, Quebec. After whining to Steph that I hadn't got to go with her to their cottage this year, she broke down and agreed to take me today. It was wonderful. As we headed down the highway, leaving the city behind, I could feel my spirits lifting. With each breath I took, I felt the stress leaving me. We look the scenic route, which takes us through a very beautiful area which skirts the Gatineau River. The views are incredible and I could hear my soul start to sing as I looked out the car windows and took in the beauty that surrounded us.

The town of Wakefield almost looks like something out of a movie. It's really a very beautiful little place. It has a general store, a bakery, a candy shop (which sells amazing jam) and a bunch of other quaint little shops, cafes, art galleries and restaurants. There's even a steam train that goes through town (currently our of service awaiting track repairs). Just being there makes you believe in a more simple way of life. We stopped at their little farmer's market and I bought some local honey.

Steph's cottage is built on the hill overlooking the lake. When you get out of the car, all you can smell is pine trees, earth and happiness. The way the sun filters through the trees and leaves little spots of light on the ground reminds me of a disco ball. There are all kinds of squirrels and birds everywhere and the view from their back deck is enough is stunning. It's the kind of place where you could just sit on the deck and look out at the lake for hours on end, without a care in the world.

When I was little, my parents would take my brother and I camping every summer. We usually went to Sharbot Lake Provincial Park, which is one of my most favourite places in the world. I guess that's where my love and appreciation for the outdoors and nature started. Spending time at lake, away from the hustle and bustle of life, is filled with so many happy and wonderful memories and the come flooding back as soon as I see groves of trees and the sun reflecting back off a lake.

I know that the idea of spending time in the dirty, messy, bug and critter infested outdoors is not everyone's cup of tea. And some people prefer swimming in a crystal blue pool rather than a chilly, pebble bottom, seaweed tickling lake,  but I think everyone really should give it a try. Now that I'm older, I will admit that I prefer to sleep inside a cottage rather than in a tent, but the principal behind it is still the same. The world around us is beautiful. Being a part of nature and enjoying the wilderness around us is in everyone's soul. Sometimes we don't realise that until they get the chance to get out there, explore it and enjoy it.

My day in nature was perfect. I got to feel the sun on my shoulders, the wind in my hair as we toured the lake in a very cool boat and felt the refreshment of the lake as I splashed around and swam around in the lake. My soul is smiling right now. My batteries have been re-charged and my stress has melted away. I think that's better than any spa visit or night out on the town.

Before I end the blog tonight, I'd also like to say a special "Hello" to Stephanee, Natalie and Heather. We all met 15 years ago this weekend (ok, give or take a few days) at Carleton University. I can't believe that it was that long ago!! You ladies have made such a huge impact on my life and your friendship means the world to me. I'm so glad that I met you and I'm blessed to have such wonderful people in my life. I love you!!

Good Night,

Sarah

My feet on the railing of the deck at Steph's cottage (taken last summer)