You Know It's Friday When...

I'm sure we're all guilty of it. You're tired or distracted and get into an elevator and then you stare blankly at the buttons, trying to remember why you're in there and where you're going.

This afternoon, when I pushed the elevator button, 2 elevators showed up at once, which is really rare. So I opted to get into the one that had less people in it. In fact, it just had one woman in it. I looked at the buttons to select my floor, and realized that none of them were lit up. So I looked at the women. She was totally oblivious, reading her phone. Ok then.

I hit my floor and away we went. I got off the elevator on my floor and the woman started to follow me, then she looked up and said "Is this the ground floor". Gee lady, what the hell do you think. I was already around the corner and half way down the hall by now, trying not to laugh out loud. I heard her mumble something that sounded a lot like "damn". LOL. I know. It was a Friday afternoon. It's been a long week and a long day so it's understandable. But geez people, try to pay a little bit of attention when you're in public.

Thankfully there weren't any strange people on the bus tonight. However, when I was buying my bus pass at the ticket place this evening, so guy butted infront of the lady in the next line to ask the ticket agent where the nearest Home Depot is. Huh? Why are you asking a bus ticket counter agent where the Home Depot is? Also, why was it so important that you had to jump the line to ask. And guess what? There isn't a Home Depot anywhere in the area so he was was shit out of luck.

Good Night!

Sarah

Part of the "ruins" at the McKenzie King Estate in Gatineau Park

Bus Adventures, Part 1

I take the bus a lot. In fact, I take it a minimum of 10 times a week (twice a day, Monday-Friday). For the most part, the ride is rather uneventful. And if you take the bus a lot, you get used to seeing certain people. Like the woman who's on my bus in the morning quite frequently. She's almost always chewing gum...with her mouth open. Always.

Anyhow, the ride is usually pretty un-eventful but every now and then, you get a unique character on the bus. That happened on the ride home this evening and unfortunately, it happened to me.

Near the back door of the accordion buses, there is a 3 bench seat. Each of the 3 seats is segmented off so it's clear that there are 3 seats. I was sitting by myself in the seat on the left. About 3 stops after mine, a man gets on and comes and sits beside me. Rather than sitting in the far right seat, he sits in the middle of the 2 unoccupied seats, which means that he's actually sitting on the metal part rather than the seat. Ok, whatever. As the bus starts to move and hits bumps and stuff, the man keeps falling over and of course, he keeps falling towards me. I try to ignore him.

I'm listening to my iPod and had just finished sending an email on my phone so I was now just going through my in-box when the man leans over, looks at me, then my phone and says "What's the temperature out?". Thankfully, my iPod was on low enough that I actually heard him. I look up and just say "I have no idea" and then go back to reading my emails. He thinks about my answer for about 45seconds then looks at me again and said "Sorry. I guess I shouldn't have asked."

What?? He didn't say it in a rude or sarcastic tone or anything so I really have no idea where he was going with that. I just replied with "no problem." I think pulled out my book and started reading. Strange man looks at me again and then leans back in the seat, stretches out his legs and rests his hands on his chest, as if he was at home on the couch. And he was still sitting in the middle of the 2 seats.

Thankfully strange man got off the bus shortly there after and my book and I were left in peace.
When I see someone with ear phones in, I don't get a sudden urge to talk to them. Ditto for people reading a book or paper or playing on their phone. It's kind of the universal signal for "leave me alone". It's not that I'm being anti-social, it's just that usually I'm either not awake yet and need to listen to some loud rock music to wake me the hell up, or I'm coming home from work and am listening to loud rock music as a way of dealing with my day so that I don't snap and terrorize everyone on the bus.

Some people I tell ya.

Good Night!

Sarah

I don't have a bus photo, so I'm using a train.

Let's Talk About: Flu Shots!

I managed to make it through my 2nd last french class (of this session) today with only minimal confusion, so that was a nice change of pace. Just 1 more class to go. I think I'm going to have to re-read my notes and such every week or so to ensure that I don't forget anything along the way.

This afternoon I went and got my flu shot. Other than my arm being a little on the sore side when I move around a lot, I feel perfectly fine. As I knew I would seeing as this is the 12th year now that I've got the shot.

I am definitely a big supporter of the flu shot. I think everyone should get it. When I lived in Calgary, I was volunteering with seniors and getting the shot was mandatory in order to keep working with them. The flu is very dangerous to the elderly as well as babies and anyone with a weak immune system. I hear a lot of people say that they don't need the flu shot because they don't get sick. Good for you. It doesn't mean that you don't have the virus. You can carry the virus and in turn pass it along to others without actually getting sick. You can feel fine but end up giving the flu to the nice old lady you sit next to on the bus.

And for the love of god, you CANNOT GET THE FLU FROM THE FLU SHOT!!! The vaccine does not contain the live virus. It's dead. It can't make you sick. You can have a reaction to the vaccine that presents with similar flu-like symptoms, but it's not the flu. And if you're already sick and just haven't developed a full blown flu or cold yet, the shot isn't going to stop that from happening.

In this day and age, with so much medical research being done and such wonderful advancements being made, it's hard to believe that the flu still exists and that there is still a need for the flu shot. Or the flu nasal spray if you really hate needles. But when you stop to think about how many billions of dollars the drug companies make every year from the sale of cold and flu remedies, you can see why it's not quite so surprises that science hasn't been able to eliminate the flu (or the common cold yet).

Other than not wanting to pass the virus onto anyone else, why would I want to get the shot? Well...back in my first year of University, I got the flu. The Sydney flu to be exact since that was the name of the strain going around that year. My god was I sick. For an entire week, that damn flu knocked me on my ass. Never again do I want to get that sick. So the next year, I got a flu shot. And the year after and so forth and I've never been that sick since. In fact, I've never had the flu again. I've had colds, sinusitis and a broncular infection once, but no flu. If the world health people predicted the flu strain correctly, the vaccine is 70-90% effective. I like those odds. And seriously, who actually likes being sick? I certainly don't.

Here's a link to the Government of Ontario's Health site on the flu:  http://health.gov.on.ca/en/public/programs/publichealth/flu/about_flu.aspx
And here is a link to Health Canada's website with info on vaccine safety (all, not just the flu): http://www.healthycanadians.gc.ca/health-sante/medicine-medicament/misconception-eng.php

Ok, that's it for me and my soapbox tonight. My book awaits :)

Good Night!

Sarah

Photo my parents took in Alaska

French - How I Loathe Thee

I am not an idiot. Ok, well most of the time I'm not an idiot. Judging by how badly I just did on my french homework, an argument can be made to the contrary. Even after re-reading my notes I still couldn't get it. The fact that the teacher hadn't covered this off in class yet might have something to do with it. I have a vague recollection of him mentioning something in the last 10 minutes of class that kind of hinted towards what we needed to know for our homework assignment but that's all.

Just to make sure I hadn't blacked out or something during our last class, I contacted my co-worker who's in class with me and she confirmed what I'd been lead to believe. No, we didn't cover it in class. Now I don't feel quite as much of an idiot. It's nice to have someone to confirm that you're not as stupid as you feel.

What pisses me off is that our teacher is assuming that we'll know this. Some of the answers I was able to figure out based on some deductive reasoning but the rest? No fucking idea. If the teacher would have just taken the time to clearly explain how/when/why each one is used, I'd be able to understand what's going on. But he didn't and now I'm just confused and frustrated. Nuts to that. I'm giving up on the french and reading my book. It's much more entertaining.

There are only 2 classes left in this semester. I can do this. I can get through this. I'm thinking at this point, it might be easier to hire one of my co-workers to tutor me. Seriously. They've been speaking french all their lives. They learnt grammar and spelling so they should be able to explain it. And maybe explain the how, when and why too. A couple of our colleagues have looked through our french books and they just start laughing and then wish us good luck and walk away muttering about it not being "real" french. I think I'm doomed.

The only bright side to this seems to be that my use of numbers in french has improved and I'm getting better at asking questions in french. Still can't spell in french to save my life but we'll take it one hurdle at a time here. 

Good Night!

Sarah

Unsuspecting Life Lessons

So I had an interesting day today. It got off to a rough start when the nice people on the radio said that it had snowed overnight. Well crap. I was seriously tempted to just turn off the alarm clock, crawl back under the covers and just hibernate until April. But I figured that wouldn't go over very well in the long run, so I got up. I will admit that the first thing I did was look out the window to see if the radio people had lied to me. Sadly, they hadn't.  This resulted in me digging furiously through my closet for my boots about 2 minutes before I needed to be out the door. I found them! Which meant that I made it to work with warm, dry feet and I didn't fall on my ass in the process. So that was good.

I managed to finish a project at work that I've been working on for almost the whole month. That was super awesome, especially since I've got a new, bigger one to work on now. D'oh! I guess that's just the way it works. They've very different projects too, so I guess my brain will appreciate the change of pace.

Some other crap happened along the way but it dawned on me that it's not worth getting into. In the greater scheme of things, it doesn't matter. Once I was home from work. Facebook provided me with a little shinning beacon in the dark. That happens from time to time. Kind of like when my brother suddenly says something profound. You don't see it coming, but when it happens, it stops you dead in your tracks. LOL. Anyhow...a friend posted a quote from actor and musician Will Smith. It said:

"Don't chase people. Be yourself, do your own thing and work hard. The right people - the ones who really belong in your life - will come to you. And stay"

That's so incredibly true. And perhaps why I've been a little "meh" lately. I haven't been doing my own thing. I've been letting myself get way to caught up in other stuff and other people. And the worst part is that none of it matters one fucking bit. I need to focus on me and just ignore the rest. I have some truly wonderful people in my life. They belong and they've stayed with me for a very long time. They're the ones that are important. They're the ones who matter. I need to focus on that.

And I need to finish my book! It's gotten really, really good. It's been hard to put it down. In fact, I read through dinner. I had to keep putting my book down so I could cut my meat. LOL. I think I'm going to get ready for bed and go curl up with my book and finish the sucker. No worries, I have the next one in the series so I can keep going. I may have to pick up the 3rd one (or 4th) before I head home for Christmas ;)

LOL!  Good Night!

Sarah

Stepping stones - Century Gardens, Calgary AB.

Who knew that blogging could be so Therapeutic?

Wow. 4,026 page views. Incredible. My random ramblings have been viewed 4.026 times. That still blows my mind. I can't believe it. I can't believe that this is post number 129 either. I guess I've been blogging for almost 4 months now. That's pretty cool. And I've blogged every night except for one..the night of the Hallowe'en party. That's a pretty good track record. And to tell you the truth, I think it's helped me a lot. My mind is quieter. I do lie in bed thinking about the day quite so much anymore. I think I'm a little less stressed (well, some days). I think being able to sit here and write what's on my mind and just leave it here on the screen is helping me to deal with things.  Which then allows me to walk away with a clearer head. Who knew that blogging could be so therapeutic?

I had a good day today. I was productive, which means I started to see results in my cleaning/re-organizing/getting rid of crap I don't need/use quest, which in turn made me feel better. My back is a little pissed at me as I managed to stain it at some point but oh well! A little pain in the pursuit of progress isn't so bad. The trick will be carry this momentum through the week with me. If I do little bits and little areas each night, I'll be in awesome form by next weekend. It's all the little bits that seem to add up. Like emptying out and organizing the bathroom closet, then kitchen cupboard, my pantry shelf, dresser etc...I'm also thinking about re-arranging the livingroom but that can wait.

My parents finally got their computer fixed today. They've been having an issue for 2 years now with it so dad enlisted the help of a "computer geek" friend of his to come over and help. Now I don't have to listen to them complain about it anymore and hopefully this now means that they can buy books online and update the library on my mom's Kobo. Now if they'd only get their act together and give me a decent Christmas list to work with....Sigh. Same for my brother and his wife. I think I'm getting them all coal :) Christmas is only 1 month away.

I'm really looking forward to going home this year. I'm happy about going home every year, but I'm usually somewhat apprehensive about it too. But so far this year, that apprehension isn't there. I'm just really looking forward to going home, spending time with my family and getting to relax for a bit. It's not some warm sunny beach in some tropical paradise, but in my world, it's pretty damn close.

I think it's time to turn in. I've got a full week ahead of me so sleep is a good idea.

Good Night!

Sarah

View from the observation deck on Sulpher Mt. in Banff, AB

I Came. I Saw. I Shopped. It Snowed. I Whined.

I came. I saw. I shopped. And am happy to report that I have a good 75% of my Christmas shopping done and there's still a month to go before Christmas.

And I even braved the snow to do it. We kept getting flurries on and off today. I kept asking Steph to make them stop but she just kept patiently explaining to me that she didn't have that kind of power. Dammit. LOL. We did almost get blown away while scurrying between Chapters and Michaels though. It wouldn't have been so bad out if it wasn't for the wind. God bless Steph for putting up with my whining about the damn snow!

For the record, I don't think I've bought so many baby clothes in my life. I bought stuff for 3 different babies today, one of whom isn't even born yet (but will be in early 2013). Some of the sales were just too good to pass up. I nearly bought myself a new Sens shirt since it was 50% off but I was good and refrained from doing so. I have to admit, I had a bit of a good baby buzz going after looking at all the cute baby clothes today. But then there was a baby on my bus who cried the entire time. Killed the buzz. They're cute. Their clothes are cute. But they still scare the crap out of me.

Steph and I tried to solve a mystery in Walmart today. The area between the front doors at the entrance of the location we were in reeked of rotting garbage. And then, once you got inside the store, the entry area smelt like fish. Apparently, the fish smell is quite common. There's a McDonald's to the left of the entrance but we couldn't fathom the filet-o-fish being popular enough to be the cause. The bakery area of the Walmart is to the right. No fish there. And Walmart does not have a fresh fish counter so we're a little stumped on that one. Maybe they spray the area to keep people from loitering? It was rather bizarre. Our next Walmart adventure was to find the present my nephew had asked for. After 15 minutes of searching, I actually had to call my brother and ask which department the damn things were in. Thankfully, we found them and all was good. I still can't even being to explaining what the hell they are, but I hope the kid likes them. And we still don't know what the smell is. It was still there on the way out too.

My poor little phone was getting quite the work out today. I was having 3 separate text conversations at the same time. Steph took to playing the guessing game everytime my phone chimed to let me know that I had a new text message. I even managed to get a wrong number call (happened while we were scurrying in the snow so I didn't hear it ring). It was a little kid calling to tell her grandma that she hoped she had a good day. It was a adorable. And clearly a message not meant for me!! LOL.

The best deal of the day was the 1.2kg box of Catilli Smart Pasta - Rigatoni at SuperStore: $0.94. Really. 94 cents. I couldn't believe it. I bought 3, two of which I donated to the food bank. 1.2kg will go a long way for a family, so that's awesome. And it's the high fibre kind too. I'm sure my box will last me a few months.

I've also decided that some teenagers are truly insane. While I was waiting for the bus home (I wasn't done shopping so Steph left me at the mall when she went to pick up her hubby), two teenaged girls walked by. One was wearing a dress that was so short it barely covered her ass. She had to keep tugging it down every 10 steps or so. No leggings or tights or anything and it was -10 with the windchill. Insane. And I'm not the only one who thought so. Another teenaged girl and her boyfriend were beside me and the girl commented to the guy something about short dress girl being nuts and I think she mentioned trashy too. Or slutty. LOL.

Tomorrow will be a much quieter day. I have to find a place to store all the presents I bought and I need to clean and organize so that I can decorate :) I'm glad that Steph decided that shopping with me would be more fun than watching hamburger thaw. LOL.

I'm not quite sure but maybe, just maybe, the Christmas spirit might be creeping into me. But for now, it's time for bed.

Good Night!

Sarah

Christmas tree that I had in Calgary

Sad, Frustrating, Long, Hard Daze

This week has been a rough one and I'm very glad it's over. Today was the worst of the days.

It was a strange day. I was crazy busy but didn't seem to be able to make any headway with anything. I just kept running into road blocks any time I tried to accomplish anything. Which is crazy frustrating.

We had 4 people leave today. One's only been there for 5 weeks, 1 was kind of already gone but now has really left (was on leave but was offered another job, came back from leave early to take it) and the other two are people who've been there since I before I started. I am a little sad that I won't get to see them each day but I know that they got an awesome opportunity, so I'm very happy for them. And they're not going to be far away at all. Same building in fact :) It's more that the change is hard. That's all. So much keeps changing there, that it's nice to have some consistent things. My office is now more than 3 times bigger than it was when I started there 19 months ago. There are only 8 people left who were there before I started. It's crazy. Which makes it hard and sad.

The other side to today was the sheer immaturity and unprofessionalism of some people. We aren't an overly strict office, which is nice, so long as we all do our work. But lately there has been a core group of people who have being conducting themselves like this is high school rather than a professional office as of late. The frustrating part is that I am not their manager in any way, shape or form but the other supervisors and managers keep coming to me to complain about said group. WTF?

I didn't actually take a lunch break today. I ran out for 10 minutes to buy a sandwhich, but I only ate half and that took nearly 45 minutes to accomplish. And you know what? I don't really mind. It's not something that happens every day. I'm incredibly thankful to have a job. And a good one at that. And one that I actually enjoy doing most of the time. And I get to work with some pretty awesome people. So having to work through lunch from time to time isn't so horrible. I just wish some people would grow the fuck up and realize just how good they have it too.

I'm sure a lot of what I'm feeling right now is just be being over tired. I think I'll go and read for a bit and then head to bed. I can sleep in tomorrow for a little bit, which is nice. I need to get some Christmas shopping done too. I'm just really not in the Christmas spirit. Hell, I lost interest in watching "Frosty Returns" tonight and I shut it off. Oh. And it might snow tonight. Which sucks.

Yeah, I'm going to bed before I get even more cranky than I already am.

Good Night!

Sarah

Crazy Daze

My brother sent me an awesome video this evening. It was of my niece. She was crawling for the very first time. So awesome and so cute! I can't wait to see her at Christmas. She really is the cutiest little thing in the world. Who knew that my brother could create something so wonderful?

Long day at work today. It was one of those days when you're constantly busy and are on the go the whole day, but feel like you didn't actually accomplish anything. I'm hoping that tomorrow isn't as crazy because I have a lot of stuff that I need to get done. We've got a farewell party in the afternoon. Two of our staff are moving on to other jobs. One of them has been with us for a quite some time. The original little core group in the office is slowly shrinking. Makes me wonder if something bigger and better is waiting for me around the corner. Who knows, right?

I think they're pumping drugs into the air in the office. People have been acting crazier than usual as of late. I don't know if it's cabin fever setting in or the fact that Christmas is just over a month away but it's starting to get out of hand. Large quantities of candy was introduced into the mix today. That really can't be good. Crazy plus a sugar high is not a good combination for a combined space. Since tomorrow is Friday, I suspect that the crazy might get even worse. I think I need to find a place to hide.

Good Night!

Sarah

Heading for my book in 3...2...1

So spending the last half hour on Pinterst didn't inspire anything for my blog tonight. Neither did texting my brother. So I really don't know what to ramble on about tonight.

My co-worker and I survived French class. We only have 2 more left. Screw counting down to Christmas, I'm counting down to the end of French. Then I can think about Christmas. Which reminds me, I really need to get my butt in gear and do some shopping. Too bad that a couple of certain someones won't send me their damn Christmas lists. Seriously, it's going to be lumps of coal for everyone.

I got to meet up with my friend Xtina for a half hour at lunch today. I haven't seen her in a very long time. It was great to see her again and to get caught up on all the gossip :) I just wish we could have chatted longer.

Ok. I seriously have got nothing tonight. All I can think of is "Finish the damn blog so you can go and read your book" so that's exactly what I'm going to do. Here's hoping for something a little more entertaining tomorrow. We're having Quail for lunch at work, so that might lead to a decent blog. I'll just have to wait and see.

Good Night!

Sarah

I just felt like posting this. LOL.

Wild Thing

My friend Michelle lives in the middle of nowhere... also known as just outside of Sudbury. She keeps trying to convince me to go there and visit. But they have snow so that's a big no. And this evening, a fox climbed up on their windowsill. That's a definite no. First it's a fox then the next thing you know I'll get a paniced text from her saying that moose has her trapped in the garage or something. Or a bear ate one of her kids. No thank you.

But her fox encounter got me thinking about some of the odd animal encounters that my family has had over the years. Most of them involve raccoons. And my dad.

For years we went camping at Sharbot Lake. It's a beautiful campground. There's also a wonderful bakery just off the highway. One day we stopped in and my dad got a blueberry pie. That evening, my dad opted to leave it and a bag of buns out on the picnic table inside the dining tent. My mother warned him not to but he assured her that they'd be fine as the tent was zipped shut.

For those of you not familiar with raccoons, they're fucking sneaky, especially when food is involved.
Later that night, my mom woke me up and said "you've got to see this". My dad was outside the tent trailer, yelling at something. Our dog was hiding inside the doorway to the trailer and my dad was trying to coax him out to "get it". The dog was not moving. The "it" turned out to be a raccoon who was up the nearest tree, with the bag of buns and what was left of my dad's treasured pie. Dad approached the tree and tried yelling at the raccoon some more. The result? The raccoon threw a bun at him. I'm serious. One of the funniest things I ever seen. Dad gave up and went to bed.

The next morning, leaning up against the base of the tree, was a perfectly clean tin pie plate. Even raccoons know how to say "screw you". LOL.

Same campground, many years later, my family and I are alseep in our 2 room tent. A noise wakes me up. It's a damn raccoon. He came down the tree and landed on the tarp over our utility trailer. He then jumped onto the roof of our little 3 person dome tent, which is where we keep the food. I listened to the raccoon rattle the zipper for some time, not being able to open it. It eventually gave up and started to sniff around.

Thanks to a lantern at the next site over, I could see the shadow of the raccoon moving around. I decided to flick the side of the tent to see if I could scare it off. Just as I flicked the tent, the raccoon decided to sniff it and I ended up hitting the raccoon in the nose. The raccoon shrieked, I screamed and jumped out of my sleeping bag, and then proceeded to jump backwards, tripping and falling over my brother in the process, which really woke him up. As the raccoon ran away shrieking, all I could hear was my parents in the front of the tent killing themselves laughing. Stupid raccoon.

While the country is very nice and quite, I think I'll stick to the city. I like the idea of not waking up to a bear on my balcony or a deer in the neighbour's pool. That's what camping it for :)

Good Night!

Sarah

Picture my mom took of a skunk in their neighbour's yard.

We Are Family!

Monday, Monday. I think I would totally vote for any political party who promised to change the work week to only 4 days. LOL.

It came to my attention today that my brother reads this blog every morning. This morning he emailed me a critique of last night's blog. Apparently he didn't like it very much. LOL. Well it's my blog so :p

Let me tell you about my darling baby brother. My parents created me first. Since I was practically perfect in every way, they decided to try again. And that's when it went downhill. LOL. We didn't get off to a very good start. When he was just a baby, I used to scream my head off and throw quite the tantrum when anyone tried to hold my brother. I would let them feed him and change him but that was about it. I guess I had some jealousy issues. We're pretty close in age, I'm 21 months and a week older than than he is.

Soon I'd taken over and was bossing him and the other neighbourhood boys around (there were no girls my age on my street). My brother was a very shy child and I used to do all the talking for him. I remember once, when he was in Scouts and they were selling tree saplings. I went door to door with him, making the sales pitch, claiming that my brother was sick and had lost his voice. My brother stood with me and just looked sad and coughed a bit. We sold a lot of saplings that day. This worked well for school fund raising as well. I made his G.I. Joes marry my Barbies. And I dressed him and one of the neighbour kids up likes girls from time to time too :)

My brother and I are almost polar opposites. I'm short and stout, he's tall and lanky. I was good in school and loved reading and being in the drama club. My brother didn't do so well in school and he participated in sports. And we fought. A lot. The top of my middle finger is crooked thanks to him. After fighting in the basement, I chased him up the stairs and when he stopped in the doorway to the kitchen, I swung to hit him. He moved and I hit the door frame instead, breaking my finger. He got grounded and I got out of gym and music class for a month. One Christmas morning, he opted to wake me up by standing in my doorway and threw batteries at me until I woke up. Nice kid eh? Too bad Santa didn't see that. I'm not totally innocent. I once locked him in the bathroom of our house trailer (not on purpose!). And I once fed him a bag of jellybeans with some "Bert's Every Flavour Jelly Beans" mixed in. Watching his face when he bit into one of the gross flavoured ones (vomit, sardine, pepper) was priceless. He wrecked his knee playing football. I painted his toe nails black and then had to remove it before his surgery. It tickled and he kept trying to kick me. That was an adventure. After the surgery, he was in a soft cast from hip to ankle for some time. We went away camping over the labour day weekend to Long Point on Lake Erie. There are a lot of sand dunes there. I pushed my brother down one of them and he got stuck and couldn't get up. I was laughing so hard that I couldn't pull him free either. Mom came to the rescue but then she was laughing so hard she couldnt' help either. It was great. He got his revenge later by throwing his crutches down the basement stairs just to see how fast I'd come running in case he really fell. Jerk. LOL.

We went to the same high school but ran in different circles so our paths rarely crossed. He did date a couple of my friends though but that was short lived. As much as we fought, he never picked on my at school and neither did any of his friends. And when our mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, we leaned on each other for support. The day my mom was having her second surgery, I was headed to the office at school to sign myself out ( I was old enough to ) and I ran into my brother in the hallway. He was planning on skipping class to head home. So I signed him out too and we headed home together. It was instinct. When our great-grandmother died and I was giving part of her eulogy, my brother stood at my side and even finished it for me when I got too choked up to speak. I did kind of have to punch him in his side and growl "read it" at him, but he came through.

One night in our late teens, the neighbour kid brought my brother home from a party, very drunk and bleeding. My darling brother fell over a cinder block. While trying to clean him up and bandage him up (and not pass out from the fumes coming off him), he just kept telling me what an awesome sister I am and how much he loves me. LOL.

And this morning, he told me that he loves reading my blog because it makes him feel like I'm sitting across the table from him, talking to him and telling him what's on my mind.
It's funny. No matter how much we've fought or how long we've gone without seeing each other, we still have a special bond between us. And I have to admit, the older he gets, the more he seems to be more like me. And listening to him talk about my niece just melts my heart. That darling little girl has be totally smitten and wrapped tightly around her finger. Boy, is he in for trouble later.

I can't wait to see him (and my parents and niece) at Christmas. We're going to go out and shoot some pool one night. I bet we can get ourselves into a little bit of trouble ;)
I could sit here all night and share stories of the crazy stuff he's done (like eating an entire tin of ginger cookies with our cousin in New Brunswick or the time he coloured a certain body part with a permanent black magic marker...he was 3) but I do need to get to sleep at some point.

So, baby brother, I hope you have enjoyed reading tonight's blog as much as I have enjoyed writing it. I miss you lots and love you even more.

Good Night!

Sarah

My brother and I at Bolt Castle on Heart Island, wayyy back in the day :)



"The High Road"

I've been listening to a lot of music lately. It's my vice. Music is how I deal with the world around me. It's my escape, my inspiration, my salvation, my amusement. One of the albums I've been listening to a lot is the new Three Days Grace's album, Transit of Venus.  My favourite song on it is a track called "The High Road". I just love it. The lyrics are awesome and so's the music that goes along with it. I actually find the song to be rather romantic.

So for tonight's blog, I've simply pasted in the lyrics to the song (thanks to azlyrics.com for them!)

You can check out Three Days Grace at: http://www.threedaysgrace.com/


"The High Road"

"I told you I was hurt
Bleeding on the inside
I told you I was lost
In the middle of my life

There’s times I stayed alive for you
There’s times I would’ve died for you
There’s times it didn’t matter at all

Will you help me find the right way up
Or let me take the wrong way down
Will you straighten me out
Or make me take the long way around
I took the low road in
I’ll take the high road out
I’ll do whatever it takes
To be the mistake you can’t live without

Standing in the dark
I can see your shadow
You’re the only light
That’s breaking through the window

There’s times I stayed alive for you
There’s times I would’ve died for you
There’s times it didn’t matter at all

Will you help me find the right way up
Or let me take the wrong way down
Will you straighten me out
Or make me take the long way around
I took the low road in
I’ll take the high road out
I’ll do whatever it takes
To be the mistake you can’t live without

We’ll I’m not gonna give it away
Not gonna let it go, just to wake up someday gone! Gone!
The worst part is looking back
And knowing that I was wrong

Help me find the right way up
Or let me take the wrong way down
Will you straighten me out
Or make me take the long way around
I took the low road in
I’ll take the high road out
I’ll do whatever it takes
To be the mistake you can’t live without

I’ll do whatever it takes
To be the mistake you can’t live without"

 

 

I hope you liked them as much as I do.

Good Night!

Sarah

 

 

Three Days Grace at Bluesfest 2011 (thanks to Xtinktor for the photo!)

 

 

 

 

 

Eyes Open, Wide Awake.

I'm beginning to thing that having a Starbucks grande Caramel Brulee latte this evening was a bad idea. It's 10:40pm and I'm pretty much still wide awake. Actually, I've had a crazy productive day and it feels awesome. And I didn't take my iPod with me when I was out today. Usually I turn it on and tune out the world. I love being able to escape into the music but today I decided I needed a break from my own head and choose to explore without my tunes. It made for an interesting day.

I got 3 loads of laundry done, a whole mess of dishes done, rotated my mattress and changed the bedding, put the laundry away, took the recycling out, did some minimal Christmas shopping and ran a bunch of errands at 2 different malls (by bus no less), made dinner and I'm pretty sure I had a shower somewhere in the middle of all of that. I hope that this productivity runs over into tomorrow. I really want to get my apartment re-organized soon. I don't think the clutter is helping my mood much.

I'd also like to get some baking done :)

Being wide awake today, I noticed/had a few odd things happen. First off is the strange guy who keeps trying to get into our apartment building. One evening last week, he buzzed everyone in the building until some idiot let him in. He then started knocking on random doors asking people if they "knew where the lady with no teeth lived". I was smart and didn't answer my door door when he knocked. So today, someone starts buzzing everyone again. I decided to go downstairs to see who it was as one of my neighbours has been known to accidentally lock herself out while letting her dog out. I get down the stairs and it's the strange guy again. I stopped halfway down the stairs and asked him what he wanted. He said that he lives in 106. Yeah. I don't think so. I've seen the new people from 106 and I'm pretty sure it's a white couple and this is a black dude. So I told him that I didn't know him and I wasn't letting him in and I went back upstairs. I talked to one of me neighbours about him and she mentioned that she'd seen him on a different day too, doing the same thing. I think it's time to talk to building management again and get them to remind the tenants about "stranger danger".

On my way out to the 2nd mall of the day, I passed one of my neighbours on the stairs. He was wearing fuzzy pj bottoms with penguins and was just in sock feet. This isn't too odd but he'd just come in from the garbage room like that. Ewwww. I'd never venture out of my apartment without shoes on and definitely wouldn't go to the garbage room without foot ware.

When I got to mall # 2, I'm walking through the one covered parking area and a guy comes out of the mall, with his iPod on, signing at the top of his voice. LOL. It was quite amusing. He seems oblivious to everyone around him and seemed rather happy. Good on him :)

I also should point that I did not kill the girl on the bus who was using it as her own personal jungle gym. She was swinging from the handles that you use to hang onto when you can't reach a pole. And I didn't bitch slap her mother who was letting her do it either. At one point, she almost fell out the door when she swung too close to the open door. Frankly, I think it would have served her right. All her mom said was "watch out for the door". WTF?? And it was an older kid/mom too. I'd say the mom was in her early 40s and the kid was 10-12. I would have never been allowed to act like that on a public bus when I was a kid, nor would I have tried. I was raised better than that.

I picked up a new book today too. I'm switching from Vampires to Werewolves for a change of pace. And this one is written for grown-ups too. I was reading the first book in the "Game of Thrones" series but I'm finding it really hard to get into and I've been watching the first season on DVD so I already know what happens in the book. I read the first chapter of this book over lunch and it seems pretty good so I'll give it a chance.

It's pretty cool what you see and notice when you really focus on and pay attention to the world around you.

I probably should go and finish making my bed and then maybe I'll curl up and read more of my new book and see if that counter-acts the latte. LOL.

Good Night!

Sarah

Christmas Card in November??!!

It has been a very long day. I spent 11 hours at work today, so that's probably why I it was so long. LOL. I didn't get a chance to escape for a break either. Oh well. I was going to work OT tomorrow but it got moved to Sunday so now I have my weekend back. Not sure what I'm going to do with it. The Help Santa Toy Parade is tomorrow but I'm not sure if I feel like going downtown to watch it.

Meh. I'm tried so nothing seems like a good idea other than sleep :)

Going back to last night's blog for a minute, about rushing the season. I got home from work tonight and waiting in my mailbox was a card from my crazy-ass friend M. She lives up north and I'm pretty damn sure the cold has frozen her brain. The card was a CHRISTMAS CARD!!! She's nuts. I'm going to hide it under my couch until at least December 1st. It was a nice card though.

Sleep time for Sarah.

Good Night!

Sarah

Bah, Humbug.

It was a "meh" day but a good evening. The Big Bang Theory was pretty darn funny, my football team is winning at the half and Glee didn't butcher Grease so that was awesome. And I managed to make dinner and do the dishes in there somewhere too. I just need to get through work tomorrow and OT on Saturday and I'm good!

Speaking of Saturday, the Ottawa Santa Claus Parade is Saturday. For some reason, that seems really friggin' early to me. Why do so many people feel the need to rush the season?? CTS is already advertising that they're the Christmas station and will be showing Christmas movies starting this weekend. Almost every mall in the city had their Christmas decorations up last week, if not sooner (except Carlingwood Mall and kudos to them for waiting until after Remembrance Day to do it!) and stores are already playing Christmas music. Christmas is still more than a month away. It's insane.

I quite like Christmas. It's my favourite holiday. But I don't like how rushed it is. I don't see why it has to be ushered in so soon. For the love of pete, let November un-fold on its own. Don't try to morph it into the Christmas season too. That's what December is for. Even my damn Christmas cactus is blooming already.

And if one more person tells me that they just want a "gift card" or "nothing really" for Christmas, I think I just might snap and take them out. I like giving gifts. I don't care if it's a $2 novelty toy I found at a discount store or a $200 necklace that I've been saving up to buy, I like giving thoughtful gifts that make people smile and feel appreciated. Picking up a piece of plastic and loading money onto it is not creative. I don't have much money, so when I actually venture out to spend my savings on gifts, I want to be special. A child's eyes do not light up when they open a card and a gift card falls out. We live in such a consumer driven society that most of us go out and buy the crap we want for ourselves right away, so there's nothing left to ask for for Christmas.  On the flip side, people keep harassing me for my Christmas list and then end buying me a bunch of stuff that isn't on the damn list and that I didn't want/can't use in the first place. Yes dad, I'm talking to you. Where's my jersey!!!!!!!!??????????? With the NHL being locked out this year, you should be able to find it on sale.
I have too much crap to begin with. If I ask for something, it's either something I really need or something that I want but have not been able to justify buying it for myself.

And there's part of the rub too. I don't live in the same city as my family. So when I got home, I take the train. I don't have the luggage space to bring very much back with me, so I do end up asking for gift cards because they're easy to transport. I also try to ask for other small gifts that are easy to pack, like perfume or an Ottawa Senators Heritage Hockey Jersey. I'd love to get a new tv or a Blu Ray player for Christmas - but guess what? They don't fit in my luggage. I can't even buy one on Boxing Day - same problem.

I know, I know. Christmas is not about gifts. And all in all, it's supposed to be the thought that counts. Which is why I'm pretty damn sure I'm going to be giving a lot of "Charity" gifts this year. If people tell me that they don't need/want anything, well there are millions of people around the world who do. And I think I have an idea how to help.

Yes, I know this rant/blog is all over the place tonight but I'm kind of cheesed off at the moment at some people are frustrating the hell out of me so this is my chance to vent before bed. This way I don't lie awake all night thinking about it.

Please people - don't rush the damn season and try to put some damn thought into gifts. It's not about buying just any gift, it's supposed to be about the person you're buying the gift for.

Bah, humbug.

Good Night.

Sarah

*Insert French Swear Words Here*

French class was so horrible today, that I can't find the right words, in either language, to describe just how awful it was. The sinus headache that arrived around 10:30am and stayed with me for the rest of the day didn't help either.

Our teacher had everyone so confused that the entire class revolted. Usually, one or two people are a little lost (and we all take turns) but today, it was all of us. Our teacher should win a prize for that or something. It was brutal. What's worse...my co-worker hijacked some of the staff last night to help her with our French homework. Today in class, none of their answers were "correct" as to what the teacher was looking for. 2 of the 3 people helping her last night are from Montreal and French is their first language. One of them keeps looking through my work book and says "IT'S NOT REAL FRENCH". I'm so friggin' screwed.

And the rest of my dad sucked because I had to play catch up and my headache opted to keep me company all afternoon. I had planned on getting a whole bunch of chored done this evening but I'm so flipping tired that all I managed to do was some dishes.

Thank God it's a short week.

Good Night!

Sarah

Butterflies make me feel better :)

An Early Piece of Christmas Magic

So it was an epic fail with the French homework tonight. It's not that I'm not motivated to do it, it's that the instructions are terrible. They don't really explain well what we're to do. Not only that but there's no guidelines or explanation about how the questions come together - eg. The pro-noun comes before the noun or crap like that. Basically it's memory work. Which isn't really learning. It's memorizing the order things go in but I sure as shit can't explain back to you why they go in that order. Sigh. Here's hoping there's no math in the class tomorrow. And I only have 4 classes left :)

We had a fire drill at work today. At the same time, we got a little snow flurry. Thanks Mother Nature. We sure appreciated that one.

I got something a little magical in my email this evening. I got a video from Santa. Now I know what you're thinking. I'm too old to believe in Santa, right? WRONG! You're never too old to believe in Santa or magic (or the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, The Great Pumpkin or Zombies). It's what keeps our inner child young and in turn keeps us young at heart. Other than I'm slightly worried that Santa got my favourite colour wrong. Hmmm. LOL. And I really don't know why Santa is concerned with the speed at which I put on my make up.

Maybe if you watch the video, it will all make sense:  http://magicsanta.ca/gateway.html?code=STXCUT

I think it's pretty cool. We certainly never had anything like that when I was a kid. I do remember phoning Santa at the North Pole one year though. That one stuck with me. I was so impressed! As much as I claim to not be a fan of children, I have to admit that I love seeing the magic come alive in their eyes and smiles at Christmas. There's something very special about that.

I also got a gift this weekend, or rather tonight. I got some piece of mind. For the first time in a long time, I feel hopeful. I feel like maybe, just maybe I've got things under control. That I've got this. That I'm not quite as messed up as I thought I was. That maybe, just maybe, I have a handle on this being a responsible adult thing and that there really is a light at the end of the tunnel. And no, that light isn't a freight train. A couple of angels helped me to find the piece of mind. Not sure how I'll ever be able to thank them enough - thank them for trusting me and having faith in me.

I think there really is a little hint of magic in the air .

Good Night!

Sarah

Heritage Park in Calgary

A Lovely Day

Well that took forever. I quite often do online surveys for companies. I understand how important consumer feedback is so I like to do them. I just did one for Canadian Living's New Product awards and I didn't think it was ever going to end. It took well over an hour. Holy moly. That's insane. If you're hoping for someone to volunteer to do a survey like that, give them a reward for their patience. Geez.

Anyhow.... LOL. I had a great day out with a great friend and her adorable 6 month old. Yes, I just said that. I'm pretty sure my ovaries ran and hide when I said it too, so we're good. We had the baby out all day. He was really, really well behaved. He fussed a bit when we were out at lunch (after he'd sucked on the edge of the table and tried to pull the table cloth off) but that was about it. He did extremely well in Walmart and he even helped me pick out a Christmas present for my niece :) After Walmart, he promptly feel asleep in the car. Apparently all that shopping tired him out. And I got to see their beautiful new house. I admit it, I'm crazy jealous of the house. I'm sure they're going to be very happy there and make millions of wonderful new memories in it.

We were blessed with some warm weather today too. In fact, we set a new record for a high temperature. It should be about 5C this time of year and it was 20.9C today. Incredible. It's super windy now and the temp is dropping as a cold front moves in. Oh well.

I also managed to get 2 loads of laundry done today. I still have more to do. I wish I had a house cleaning fairy. I can handle the rest. I like to cook. I just don't like to clean. Perhaps that will be a good chore for this weekend: Clean.

It's back to work for me tomorrow. It was very nice having a long weekend and not really doing any OT this past week. It was a great break and I'm feeling better. Here's hoping that the work week goes by quickly and smoothly. I need to go and organize my lunch for tomorrow and then it's off to bed.

Good Night!

Sarah

Sunset last night

Lest We Forget

"War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothin'!" That's the chorus from the 1969 song by Edwin Starr. While it was an anti-Vietnam song, it's still relevant. Wars are destructive. Wars are expensive. Wars take lives, tear families apart and have ever lasting effects. Which brings us today. Remembrance Day. People all across Canada (and the US) gather today to remember. And for the ever growing majority of Canadians, we're not sure what we're remembering.

World War One ended 94 years ago. There are no longer any living Canadian WWI veterans. No one left to tell their stories. To remind us, to give a face and humanity to such a catastrophic event.

World War Two ended 67 years ago. We still have veterans from this war in Canada. They still come out to ceremonies every year and watch the proceedings with more sadness in their eyes than anyone should ever have to know.

WWI saw just under 65,000 Canadians killed and WWII saw just over 45,000 killed. That's almost the entire population of PEI killed in just over 30 years.

Why?

The easy answer is freedom. Canada went to war to help our allies in Europe ensure that everyone would be free.  We'd all get to have freedom of religion, speech, association. The ability to go to school, have careers, have hopes, dreams and futures.

When you stop to think about what these people sacrificed for us, a simple "Thank You" really doesn't seem like it's enough. And that is why we remember. As the wars slip further and further into the past, it becomes even more important for us to remember what happened and why and to thankful and grateful to all of those who fought to keep our countries safe and to give us the freedoms that we have today. We've lost soldiers more recently in Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan too, though the reasons for our involvement in those wars seems a little more hazy. But they all have one thing in common: freedom. Keeping it, and making sure that others get it.

My great grandfather fought in WWI. He was in France for almost a year before taking some shrapnel to the head and being send to a military hospital and then sent home. My grandfather fought in the Navy in WWII and mainly served on the HMCS Swift Current.

I never knew my great grandfather and unfortunately, my grandfather died before I was old enough to understand what war is. How I would have loved to have heard his stories. I would have liked to have written them down and kept them for future generations to read.

The Canadian government is doing a great job of keeping the stories alive. They have wonderful records and they're making more and more of them available online. I was able to order my great-grandfather's military record and thanks to the government's online war diaries, I can track his troop movements across France and read about the missions and day to day operations. One day I'd actually like to go to France and see those places that he fought in and for. And see the Vimy Memorial.  I'd also like to see our memorial in Belgium. My great uncle Doug's uncle's name is on that memorial. He was lost during the fighting and never found. Which means he never came home. But his name is there so that people don't forget him and don't forget the others just like him. Lost, but not forgotten.

To honour all of those who fought and died, or were wounded or were just never the same again because of what they saw/experienced, we can remember. After all, if we don't respect history, we're doomed to repeat it.

Good Night.

Sarah

National War Memorial

 



Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Cheap Chicken and A Man In A Skirt

It was a very successful day out shopping with Stephanee. To start off, I had awesome hair today. While killing time this morning, I decided to break out the hot curlers and go to town. It was very fun "Saturday Hair". We managed to avoid getting into any real trouble. Steph did get a rather nasty look in the Dollarama from some lady after Steph laughed just a little too loud. And I found the perfect santa hat for myself there too.

We also discovered and awesome deal for lunch/dinner. There's a place called Scores, which it a chicken place (Like Swiss Chalet or St. Huebert) and it's got an all you can eat soup/salad bar. Well, as we discovered, when you order the 1/4 chicken dinner, not only does it come with a side, but it comes with the free salad bar. So for a grand total of $13.28 (with tax), we got a 1/4 chicken breast, fries, dipping sauce, a roll and all the soup/salad/fruit we wanted. We got our money's worth and both left with a take out container of chicken. Super awesome! And the waitress was great too. So all in all, it was a good call.

Moving on to Walmart...it was a mostly routine visit until...we were just making out way to the cash when some fun t-shirts caught our eyes. While we were looking at them, I looked up and saw a man walking by. He had grey hair, a really long beard (think ZZ Top) and was wearing a women's padded white spaghetti strap tank top and short cut denim skirt. It was a total "People of Walmart" moment. Wow. Really don't know what to say about that.

I managed to get a new light weight winter coat at 50% off. I love surprise Saturday sales. They rock.

Tomorrow Steph and I are at it again but it will be a much more somber and dignified day. Or at least the morning will be. We're heading downtown for the National Remembrance Day ceremonies. Then we're hitting a craft sale and Costco. I trip across the river to hunt down jeans for Steph might be in that mix too.

I hope that everyone takes a moment tomorrow to reflect on what living a free country truly means and to think about all those people who came before us. All those who fought bravely and proudly and some of whom made the greatest sacrifice of all - so that we could have that freedom. And please don't forget the ones who continue to serve for our country. Lest We Forget.

Good Night!

Sarah

Hair - with the fun curlers in.

 

Finished product. Lots of curls!

 

The fun "Princess Santa Hat" that I found in the doller store.

 

 

Up coming Saturday Shenanigans and Extreme Sport Shopping

Just an ordinary, typical Friday today. With maybe a hint of silliness thrown in since it is Friday. And for some of use, it's a long weekend too. I'm excited about the prospect of sleeping in tomorrow but I've even more excited about getting to have an afternoon/evening of Shenanigans with Steph. It's been far too long. I'm suffering from a serious case of cabin fever and friend-type interaction and venting.

Mother Nature might attempt to add some excitement to our outing in the form of freezing rain but I'm sure we can find a mall with covered parking to hide at for a few hours. Or Ikea :) I have a $25 dollar off coupon for one of my favourite stores and they have tops on sale for $25 tomorrow. A free top is very welcome in my world!

Someone new is moving into an apartment down the hall from me. They started moving in a little after 7pm and I do believe they're still at it. Which is highly annoying as my apartment building is less sound proof them my university residence was. Earlier, they brought some heavy piece of furniture up. It took them almost 10 minutes to go up the 2 flights of stairs and then about 5 to get it down the hall. After quite a bit of thumping, banging and grunting, I heard them talking to one of my other neighbours. Apparently whatever it was wouldn't fit through the door of the apartment. Oops. That can't be good. That's also why you should measure things before dragging them up 2 flights of stairs and down a hallway.

Back to shopping for a minute. Steph is going to think I'm crazy, but I think I might try to convince her to take me to Costco tomorrow. I know. It's a Saturday and it's a long weekend and it's only 7 weeks until Christmas...but that's why I want to go. I need Christmas cards. And baking supplies. Hmmm, I kind of hope Steph doesn't read this blog. She might get frightened away. LOL. Going to Costco most of the time is kind of like an adventure sport. On a Saturday, it becomes an Extreme adventure sport where you're not entirely sure if you'll come out alive or in one piece.

I need to get to bed so that I'm fully rested for tomorrow's adventure.

Good Night!

Sarah

Random photo of a squirrel in our back lot. He's a stumpy!

Music = Life

In his play, Twelfth Night, Shakespeare wrote "If music be the food of love, play on" (Act 1, Scene 1).  I can see where he was coming from.

Music is love for me. Nothing in my life seems to strike more emotional responses than music. While out at lunch with one of my co-workers today, we heard "Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There Is a Season)" by The Byrds. I instantly was reminded of my grandmother's funeral. That song was played during her funeral. But rather than make me sad, it made me smile as there was a rather amusing event that went along with it at the funeral. There was some confusion as to when the song was to be played, which lead to the minister getting confused and then there was this whole couple minutes of silence thing. More amusing was the fact that I don't think my grandma every actually heard that song.When I hear "We're not gonna take it" by Twisted Sister, I laugh because it reminds me of dancing around the living room as a kid (when mom wasn't watching of course). That was the first song that I learnt all the words to. "Dayo" by Harry Belafonte will always remind me of Saturday afternoons with my Gram and Chooch.  My gram would put that record on (yes, record) and my brother and I would dance around the den with her and my grandpa and sing along. And it also remind me of the movie Beetlejuice. LOL.

Music provides a sound track to our lives. When I hear certain songs, they remind me of specific points in my life. Sometimes that's an awesome thing and sometimes it isn't. There are songs that I can't listen to anymore without getting angry or really sad. Thankfully, they are far and few between.

"Secret Smile" by Semisonic will always remind me of my first boyfriend. "Barbie Girl" by Aqua will always remind me of my first year of University and my friend Heather (she HATES that song LOL). "Mr. Vain" by Culture Beat will always remind me of high school dances (and Heather and Rose). Pretty much anything by Guns 'N Roses reminds me of my brother because he's the one who introduced them to me. "Everything to Everyone" by Everclear will always remind me of my first rock concert. I will always associate Bruce Sprinstein and Def Leopard with my mom and ZZ Top and Frank Zappa with my dad. Mom gets the Beatles too. She went to one of their concerts when she was younger. Has a bit of an amusing story to go along with it too. Something about not being able to hear the band over the screams of all the girls... LOL.

"Gone" by The Tea Party almost always makes me cry. I cried when I saw them play it live the first time, because it so connected with everything that was happening in my life at that point. "If I had a Million Dollars" by the Barenaked Ladies will always remind me of grade 9 and the charity auction they held where they auctioned off most of the items from that song.

I probably could gone on all night, reliving the soundtrack of my life but you get the point. Music is amazing. It moves us. It heals us. It motivates us. It's universal. All cultures have music as a part of them. I think we all have music in our souls. It connects us and helps us find the right words and emotions when we can't think of them ourselves. Music is almost as old as time itself. Just sit outside on a still night and or sunny afternoon and you'll discover that nature even has its own brand of music and its own soundtrack.

From Lullabies to Operas, Heavy Metal to Teen Pop, Country to Classical, Rock to Rap, music is simply amazing. And my life certainly wouldn't be the same without it.

Good Night!

Sarah

Rock On!

Holy Math Hell Batman!

I like to consider myself a pretty smart cookie. In high school, I got good grades without trying too hard. When I applied myself, I got great grades. Except in two classes: Math and French.

Since I was in an advanced stream, I was told to take advanced math. I managed to pass grade 9 advanced math with 73%. Things went south in grade 10 and I got out alive with 62%. You don't have to be a math whiz to see where this is going. Grade 11 math rolls around and I ask my councillor if I can drop down to general or business math. He said no. Since I was in an advanced program, I needed to stay in advanced math. Within the first month of school, the teacher asked to speak to me and he suggested that I drop down to a lower level of math. I laughed and explained that I'd tried that already. Thank god, he decided to strike a deal with me. If I put in the effort, he'd find a way to pass me. I managed to fail both major exams that year but still managed to squeak by with a 51%. For the record, that is the lowest grade I ever received in my scholastic career.

Learning from that lesson, in grade 12 I was taking OAC 1 French (they didn't have grade 12 french, just OAC 1 and OAC 2 and for those who don't know, OAC was like grade 13. It's long gone now). After the first 6 weeks of the class, I knew I was in uber trouble so I dropped it. In hind sight, that probably wasn't the best idea but meh. I liked having that spare period.

Fast forward to today. I'm in French class this morning and what does the teacher tell us that we're doing: Math. In French.

Are you fucking kidding me? My worst 2 subjects rolled together into one. This is my idea of hell. The stuff my nightmares are made of. It was brutal. One of the worst parts being that I have to use my fingers to count by 10s to remember the number in french above 30. LOL. And we were using numbers in the millions today. Speaking of which, whoever developed the french language was a real jackass. The works in french for Thousand, Million and Billion are all almost the same fucking word! They're: Mille, Million and Milliard. COME ON!!!!!

Class wasn't entirely horrible though. My co-worker, who was equally in hell as me, managed to provide me with some awesome comic relief.  The teacher asked us to come up with 6 math questions, including the answer. We took turns reading them and another person in the class had to answer the question. My co-worker read one of hers and the other class mate gave an answer and the teacher said "correct". My co-worker looked puzzled. I looked over. The answer she had written down didn't match the verbal answer given. Hmmm. She did the math again, same answer that she had written down. That's when I noticed the problem. She had written:

80 + 5 = 90

LMAO. Oops. Blond moment apparently. But we laughed and laughed. The teacher actually had to stop and ask us if we're ok, which didn't help our laughter. Epic fail. So awesome. For the record, this is also the same co-worker who texted me tonight and said "Thank you for ur Knicks".Apparently I own a basketball team and lent them to her. Her auto correct rocks. She was trying to say "Knowledge". Priceless. Cheer up, it's almost Friday.

Good Night!

Sarah

The Great Run-A-Round

I'm feeling a bit better tonight. I still am tired and don't feel like eating but I had a nice hot bath with some lavender scented epsom salts and I used a warming mud mask on my face and now I feel a little more relaxed. Last night I woke up just before 1:30am, just after 4am (might have been the little earth quake that happened in Quebec), again at 4:40am and then at 5:55am. Friggin' annoying.

Today was a little better of a day. The morning sucked and seemed to drag on but I got some stuff done that needed to be done so that was good. Worked on getting yesterday's discovered mistake fixed and then got into a nice pissing contest with our ITHelpDesk, which I won.

We have 2 Help Desks: one for the special program we use and one for everything else. We had a problem with a user account. So the designated coordinator contacted the program helpdesk (like he's supposed to). They got back to him and said that it wasn't at their end, but provided instructions on who to contact to get help, as the issue lay with the group who looks after the accounts.

Here's the fun part. You can not communicate directly with the account group. You have to contact them via the main helpdesk.

So, the coordinator asked me to contact the main help desk since I'm the account contact person. No problems. The instructions from the program helpdesk said to contact the main helpdesk and ask that the issue be forwarded to the account people. So that's what I did. I provided all the necessary info on the user etc.., included a note saying that the program helpdesk told me to contact the main help desk and sent off the request. I get a canned response email back from the main helpdesk telling me to contact the program help desk. Sigh.

I email the helpdesk back and pointed out that in my request, I said that we'd already spoken to the program helpdesk and that they told us to contact the main helpdesk. A few minutes later, I get an email back from the main help desk saying to read the instructions and contact the program help desk.

You've got to be fucking kidding me. So...I hunt down the email train between the program coordinator and the program helpdesk, find the one that instructed us to contact the main help desk, and I copied and pasted it into my email back to the main help desk.

And I didn't hear from them again. But what a waste of time. It took the coordinator half a day to get a response telling us that we need to contact someone else. Then I wasted an hour emailing with the idiot at the help desk. And guess what? The user's problem still isn't resolved.

Which reminds me, I never got my help ticket # for that request. Guess I get to harass them again in the morning.

I'm not an idiot. I know how to read and follow instructions. Unless they're in french. Then I'm fucked.

Speaking of which, I have French in the morning. Dammit. At least I remembered to bring my books home tonight. I probably should get to bed. I need to be able to pay attention in class tomorrow morning.

Good Night.

Sarah

Winter blahs have arrived early

I feel like a hurricane stuck inside of a vacuum. I'm listless, bored and antsy, but I'm tired and lethargic. I kept waking up last night. I couldn't seem to sleep for more than 2 hours at a time. I had to pee, I was too hot, I was too cold, I was uncomfortable. That seemed to set the pace for the day. Every time I tried to get something done, I got interrupted. And when it was quiet, I had to force myself to focus and get stuff done because I really, really, REALLY didn't want to work. Toss in a meeting this afternoon that sounded a little like Sesame street on crack (they like to use a lot of abbreviations in this meeting) and it rounded out my day. And just when I didn't think things could get worse, they did. A lovely mistake was discovered. Crap. Can't say for sure who made the mistake in the first place, but I should have picked up on it so I'll take responsibility for it. At least it was caught faster than the last time something like this happened. Fuck. I'm so pissed off about that. I can't believe it happened again. Crap.

And adding to the delight of the day is the fact that the air at home and in the office is so dry that my poor nose keeps bleeding almost every time I blow it. And because it's dry, I'm sneezing more (dust allergy). Fun times. My apartment is a disaster yet I have no energy what so ever to do anything about it. For dinner I resorted to opening a can of Alpha-getti because I simply had no desire what so ever to attempt to cook, despite the fact that I've got some good stuff in the fridge to make.

I HATE FEELING LIKE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh yeah, and it fucking snowed today. So much for the forecast of sun all day. Stupid weather. No snow until December! And even then I'm not a fan.

I know the feeling is temporary. I know it won't last. But right now it's just so hard to get out of bed and face the day. If my doctor wasn't such tool I might attempt to talk to him but the 2 failed attempts at having a physical back in Aug/Sept hasn't really instilled any faith in him into me.

I'm just overwhelmed and over tired and probably spending way too much time by myself.

So sleep is probably a really good plan right now. I have to be able to focus at work tomorrow. I have far too much to do that requires my un-divided attention. Yeah. We're screwed.

Good Night.

Sarah

My balcony from last winter

Polar Bears

Not much to report for today. It was a dull day. I worked this morning and into the early afternoon, made a quick trip to the market for veggies and turkey sausages this afternoon. I had a late lunch and then had a 1.5 hour nap. Tonight I did some groceries. Apparently Metro isn't very busy at 8pm on a Saturday.

Oh, and I killed some strange, big ass bug that was on my closet door. It's guts were green and smelt like cut grass. WTF? I have no idea where the hell it came from and I hope it was the only one. I'm really trying not to think about it.

I came across something cool this afternoon. It's a web cam that's located at a lodge in Churchill, Manitoba. What cool is that it's live from about 8am to 8pm central time and it quite often features polar bears. When I was watching it this afternoon, I saw 4 bears. They were pretty cool. Here's the link: http://explore.org/#!/live-cams/player/polar-bear-lodge-cam

Despite my nap, I'm on the tired side now. I'm happy that we get an extra hour of sleep tonight. Hopefully I'll have a productive day tomorrow. I really should get some laundry done. Maybe.

Good Night!

Sarah

I didn't have a photo of a polar bear, but this is a grizzly bear instead :)

Pink Cow.

So I totally planned on going to bed early tonight since I get to sleep in until 7am tomorrow but I got sucked into the world of Twitter and it's now a lot later than I wanted it to be. Oops.

On the bright side, daylight savings time ends on Sunday so that means an extra hour of sleep. How lovely!

Work was nothing worth writing about. With the exception of the cow. This actually happened a few days ago but I forgot about it until now.

My co-worker Mandy keeps taking the key for the 4th floor storage room home at night. By accident. Which makes it difficult to for those working late or on the night shift to get files from said storage room, should they run out. In order to prevent Mandy from taking said key home, Mandy's supervisory bought a fuzzy pink cow key chain for the key. It's about the size of a softball. And the best part? When you squeeze it, the cow moos quite loudly.

It seems to be working. No one has lost, misplaced or accidentally taken the key home since the cow key chain was introduced. I wonder if they named the cow yet?

Off to bed because I'm back to the office again tomorrow more some more OT. I really need to get a life. And less debt.

Good Night!

Sarah

I didn't have a photo of a toy cow, so I'm using a duck instead.

I am me.

One of my favourite movies is on tv tonight. It's "Easy A". A very cute, witty and charming movie loosely based around the book The Scarlet Letter. Without giving too much away, it's about a girl who accidentally gets a reputation (based on a lie) and things just snowball from there. She ends up deciding to become the girl that everyone thinks she is and how that back fires.

Being yourself isn't a new concept. Shakespeare penned the classic "To thy own self be true" roughly 400 years ago:

"This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."
-Hamlet Act 1, Scene 3

For such a simple concept, so many people don't seem to be able to grasp it. I guess we all have an inherent desire to fit in. For others to like us and there's usually a really dumb reason behind it too. Because we want to be "cool". We want to be "popular". And what does that get us? We end up surrounded by so called "friends" who we're never sure if they really like us or not.

On those odd occasions when I think back to high school and some of the people and their shit that I put up with just because I either wanted them to like me or I simply wanted to keep the peace for the sake of someone else, my adult self wants to shake my teenage self silly.

This is one of the up sides of getting older and an up side to having been single for as long as I have. I've been able to gain a very good sense of self. I know who I am. And for the life of me, I can't think of any reason why I wouldn't always be true to myself.

American poet e e cummings said what has become one of my favourite quotes "It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are". And that's true. Growing up can be scary. And sometimes it's lonely. But it's wonderful and amazing at the same time. Being able to know myself, allows me to better connect with the people in my life. I don't need a certain number of friends, just a number of whom I'm certain. I just wish that most of them lived closer :)

If we act like ourselves and trust are true self and don't worry about trying to be someone else or try to be someone that we think other people want us to be, we'll all be happier. Actors get paid to pretend to be someone else. So why do so many people do it for free? What's the point?

I am me. It's the only person I know how to be. And it's the only person I want to be.

Good Night.

Sarah