Holidays Are Here Again

Happy Holidays! 

These past few days have been extremely busy. Yesterday I worked all day before heading directly from work to meet my sisters and father at a restaurant for "Christmas Eve Family Dinner" after which we headed out to my aunt's house to their "Christmas Eve Open House." So needless to say yesterday was pretty busy. 


That brings us to today, Christmas day. I was woken up at 7:00am sharp by my younger sister so we could go downstairs and open stockings/presents. (I feel that I'm past the whole OMG! PRESENTS ARE THE BEST PART OF CHRISTMAS stage) Moving on, after everyone got ready (and we all stood around waiting for my older sister to finish her hair and make-up) we headed out to my grandparent's house to watch the three remaining kids open presents and have lunch. From there we stopped at home to let the dog out and grab a few more presents for my dad's side of the family before making the trip to my cousin's house to visit with my dad's side of the family. After a few hours of visiting we headed back home to grab something my sister forgot before continuing on our way back to my grandparent's house for turkey dinner. After we got home from there, I made 7 layer dip to bring to our work potluck tomorrow and now I'm relaxing and I should really head to bed soon because I have yet another busy day tomorrow.


Tomorrow I'm going to get up a little bit early because I have to cut up tomatoes and then put them on top of the 7 layer dip before going to work. I'm really not looking forward to the Boxing Day madness. We aren't having any fantastic sales or anything, in fact our sale started on the 19th. I'm hoping that it just stays steady all day so that time passes quickly without it being too crazy. There is also the one thing that I'm really looking forward to about tomorrow, my boyfriend comes back from his mom's house. He's been gone a week and a half and I can't wait to see him after I get off work. 


Anyways, I should go try to get some sleep so I'm not too exhausted for work tomorrow. I hope that everyone had a fantastic holiday! 

Sometimes it's the Little Unexpected Things That Make Your Day

I spent all day today working. It wasn't very busy, but the best part of my day by far (other than getting to go home) was when we got a return in the mail. In this return was a pair of pants and a note. The note basically said "I'd like to return these pants, they just didn't work out, here's my information and the receipt is in the pocket." Normal enough, until we flipped the note over. She had written this note on a page from one of those "page-a-day" calendars. This particular calendar was a Chippendale's calendar, so there was a large picture of an attractive half naked man on the other side. To which my co-worker immediately exclaimed "BEST CHRISTMAS CARD EVER!" It was pretty great. We eventually decided that she probably just grabbed a random piece of paper and didn't even realize what it was. But when we were getting ready to mail the "refund" receipt to her we did include a note thanking her for making our day (we did clarify how she'd made our day) which really makes me wonder what she's going to think when she gets the note/receipt.

Other than that there's really nothing new. Just really glad that I'm done my Christmas shopping.

A Break to Take a Breath

So now that the semester is officially over, finals and all AND all of my Christmas shopping has been purchased I am finally free. The only other thing is that I'm working like an insane workaholic over the holidays. On the plus side I'm hoping that my insane work schedule will distract me and cause time to fly. This is because my boyfriend went to visit his family for Christmas. As a result I'm kind of counting down until Boxing day as opposed to Christmas because I'll get to see him again.

But other than the waiting, I am really glad that I finally get a break (no matter how brief). I am also going to use this time to catch up on some pleasure reading. I have a small pile of books to read and a few more that I ordered off the internet that I'm waiting to arrive.

Honestly I haven't been updating this blog because I don't have much to say and I still don't. I've been studying and doing school work up until now. But now I'm done and slowly getting grades back which are only depressing me and dampening the Christmas spirit a little. Meanwhile I'm jamming out to Christmas music, working, reading and spending some quality time with the family.

It's Time for an Update

Clearly it's been a while. I'm not going to do the apology thing, I'm just going to fill you in on what's been going on since the end of September. I've started and finished the whole midterm thing, I've been doing the working/school thing. I found myself a fantastically nerdy boyfriend, I spent way too much money on cheap Halloween candy on Nov. 1st, and I celebrated my birthday. 


Out of those things the boyfriend and my birthday would probably have to be my favourites. The birthday thing was great because we end up having a family gathering and those never fail to remind me how much I love my family... They're a little bit crazy, but that doesn't matter. It just makes for hilarious family gatherings. 


My boyfriend is great. He's taller than me (which was not a necessary thing it's just a happy coincidence), and we get along fantastically. I met him in my abnormal psychology class (which my coworkers teased me mercilessly about). 


But now I just have one more paper to write and then I'm just gearing up for finals. So hopefully that goes well. After finals it will be Christmas which I'm not sure how to feel about. I'm excited because the semester will be over and I'll get to spend more time with my family, but I also work in retail. And I work Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. I do get New Year's Eve off so that's always nice. Just have to take it as it comes and see I suppose. 

Stress and Therapy

The other day I was sitting in lecture and I guess I brushed by hand against the side of my chair? But somehow I cut myself. So later when I got home I said to my younger sister "I cut myself today." To which she responded "You cut yourself? Like emo on purpose cut yourself? Or by accident?" She then went on to say "Well I guess I know what to get you for your birthday." So I made some sarcastic comment like "what razor blades?" To which she replied "No, therapy." Later I told my dad that I cut myself. Instead of asking me how I did it, he also assumed that I did it on purpose. I guess it's good to know that my family thinks that I'm inflicting injury on myself and I require therapy. So thanks family, I love you too. 


I suppose the part that's slightly ironic is that it's getting to the point in the semester where everything starts to pick up. I had an in class paper to write today, I have a midterm coming up on Tuesday and I have an essay proposal along with an annotated bibliography due on Wednesday. Plus I may have just decided to do a semester abroad and that requires me doing more research as well as saving money and getting my GPA up. Bring on the stress...

INSANE Sunday!

Today I went to work like I do nearly every Sunday. This Sunday was different however, I think that this is the busiest Sunday I've ever worked. There were people waiting outside the store before we opened and we had people in the store until we closed. During the 5 hours we were open there were really only two extremely memorable moments. Both of them involved me getting yelled at by a customer. The first was while I was working in shoes, the second was while I was working in ladies wear. 


First incident:
I was cleaning up in between rushes when this slightly disheveled looking woman comes in and starts looking at the shoes. She then asked me if we had any "Hunter" brand boots. I replied that we didn't. She then asked me if we had any rubber boots at all and I said no we didn't. She then continues looking around and asks me if we have any riding boots. I asked her if she had a specific boot in mind and she doesn't answer me. We stand there in an awkward silence (she has her back to me) and all of the sudden she turns around and says to me in a harsh tone "Well, are you going to show me the riding boots you have?" Because I work in customer service and the customer is always right, I start to show her some of them and I hand her a catalogue to see if there was something specific she wanted. She finally shows me and I tell her we don't have that one in yet and she goes "I got this catalogue three weeks ago and you're telling me you don't even have everything that's in it yet?!" (Because apparently I control that) She then walks away from me muttering to herself about how "the store is going downhill" before walking away. Now what you need to understand is we were a different company a few years ago. That company went bankrupt. Now we're owned by a different company so things are different. 


Second incident:
At this point I had gone for my break, come back and just relieved someone else who had been in ladies wear. So basically I'm working in ladies wear by myself. My coworker came back from her break and all of the sudden this lady sticks her head out of the change room and goes "Why is everyone ignoring me. No one said "hi" to me, no one's asking me if I need sizes...This happens every time I shop here. What? Do I look like I'm going to steal stuff? I have money, I'm going to pay for things...I want your names (she points and me and my co worker) so I can write a letter and complain." As we're trying to calm her down and explain that we're not intentionally ignoring her we're just busy, she just walks back into the change room. We let her cool off in the change room then she comes out and yells at us for ignoring her again. In the end my co-worker ended up helping her find a pair of jeans and she never asked for our names so we didn't ask her if she wanted them. 


Finally the day was over and we got to close, finish cleaning out the change rooms and leave. After work the three of us went out for dinner and got to unwind. Basically the best part of my day was the end.

The Procrastination Has Already Begun

I am currently trying to work on debate notes (this debate is tomorrow) for which I have a topic I personally don't agree with. My side of the debate is: "Third wave feminism is problematic because it assumes that individual self-expression and pop culture creates liberation for women. Furthermore, making feminism accessible to people who are not women ignores the important battles for equality left for women to fight." The really sad part is I am required to have 10 good points written down ready to hand in at the end of the debate. I currently have 7. Even worse is I have a 2 hour break between lecture and the tutorial at which point the debate will take place, and because I am a procrastinator by nature, I keep going "oh, I have 2 hours after lecture tomorrow to finish this." And currently some of my points aren't so much points as they are quotes that I feel I could use to build points around, so I suppose that's what part of my break tomorrow will be used for.


The debate is for my "Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies" class. Also known as "The class I have to read Twilight for." I'm still not looking forward to reading Twilight. I kept avoiding reading it because I've had so many people tell me that it's not well written (and what's the point in reading a book if it is not well written?) And I am also going to have to do a debate about Twilight after we read the book at the end of the semester. But I'm not going to worry about any of that until the time comes where I actually have to read the book/participate in the debate. I have other things to worry about in the meantime such as the midterm I have in 2 weeks, or the form I have due in a week which requires me to basically plan out the rest of my degree. 


Something else I realized today is that I can officially declare my major as soon as I finish this semester. I am taking the last class required before you can declare a psychology major. So that is somewhat exciting, because then it's official. But I really have to go back to working on my debate points, well either that or go to bed...

Taylor Swift and INFJ

Sunday night I went to a concert with my sister. Although the artist is slightly irrelevant I shall share it with you anyways. We went to a Taylor Swift concert. Now, my sister and I don't get along. To provide context I'm going to share with you a part of a conversation I overheard her having before we left (and this was completely by accident). I think she was on the phone but who she was talking to is also irrelevant, either way I only heard her side of the conversation.

Her: "I'm going the Taylor Swift concert with Erica tonight"
Person on the phone: *I can only assume made some comment about having fun*
Her: "Ya, it should be fun unless she annoys me"

And that really irritated me. I hadn't done anything to her at that point but she already was counting on the fact that somehow I was going to ruin her night. Overall the concert was fantastic, one of the best I've been to in fact. But I think that the one comment my sister made before we left really set the tone for the night. It probably would have been different if I hadn't heard her, but I feel like it darkened the mood a little. This is probably also partially my fault. She was probably just talking and not expecting to be overheard (and in my defense I really wasn't trying to hear her) but our personalities are all slightly different and we interpret things differently. I'm a little bit over sensitive and I accept that.

In fact, today was part of "Clubs Days" at school. While walking around from booth to booth I found a few clubs to join like the Psych Student Union, the Skeptics Society, a DFTBA club and even an Introvert Society. (I think I joined the last one more out of the fact that I found the concept of an Introvert Society ironic). But in order to join the Introvert Society you had to do a personality test. More specifically the Briggs Myers personality test. According to said test I am INFJ (which I did know before hand).

Based on this my personality (likewise the personality of any INFJ individual) is "traditional, original and sensitive. Tend to stick to things until they are done. Extremely intuitive about people and concerned for their feelings. Well-developed value systems which they strictly adhere to. Well-respected for their perseverance in doing the right thing. Likely to be individualistic, rather than leading or following."

I do agree with some of that, mainly the sensitive and concerned for people's feelings. I'll put other people first to a fault. I'm kind of a doormat like that. Anyways I have class tomorrow and should be sleeping or studying.

Creepy Conversations on Public Transit

Now that I've just wrapped up my first week of a new semester, so far so good. I still haven't had one of my classes yet because Monday was the holiday and I'm not sure what to expect. I'm really enjoying my classes so far. (I'm taking an introduction to abnormal psychology class, an introduction to developmental psychology class, a gender, sexuality and woman's studies class (I have to read Twilight for this class and I'm not impressed). and the class that I haven't had yet is introduction to data analysis in psychology, so basically a psychology stats type course). Now all I have to do is reading. So now that you're up to speed on my current life activities (working which is still nothing too exciting and school) we're brought to today. 


And today I met yet another creepy guy on public transit. I was on my way to work this morning, and all of the sudden this guy walks up to me. Our conversation went as follows:


Him: "wow, how tall are you?"
Me: *thinking oh, geez, here we go...."like 6'2"..."
Him: "wow, can I like have your autograph or something?"
Me: *stares at him blankly*
Him: "I'm not trying to creep you out or anything, I've just never met a woman as tall as you or as pretty as you, are you single?"
Me: "yes..."
Him: "Wow, that's hard to believe. Do you do modeling?"
Me: "No."
Him: "Oh, well you should consider it. My name's Jessie, do you want to be friends? I could give you my phone number and then you could text me and then I could have your phone number."
Me: "umm... sorry but no thanks....."


At which point the conversation ended and he walked away. I swear I must have some sort of beacon which goes "HEY CREEPY PEOPLE! COME TALK TO ME!!" Because I get a lot of strange people that talk to me. For example, there was one homeless guy last week who tried to talk to me. He had a huge grin on his face and a sign that said "smile if you masturbate." We'll see what next week brings. 

Vacations Are Never Long Enough

This was my first week of vacation time since I started working at my current job back in May. It definitely wasn't long enough. During my time off I went camping in the states (naturally it rained on Monday which happened to be the day we left to go camping and therefore we set up camp in the pouring rain), went shopping in the states and came home yesterday so I would have today to myself. I used today to go buy textbooks at school, get a pedicure and go to the aquarium with some nerdfighters. 


While I was at the Aquarium I watched a Beluga whale show, saw lots of fish, watched some adorable sea otters, saw some snakes, frogs and monkeys, and currently there is a bird exhibit. While I was in the bird exhibit, I felt a tap on my shoulder. Naturally I turned around and there was this Asian couple standing there. The woman looked at me and this is what she said: "Can we take a picture with you? We're from Taiwan." I really didn't know what to say to that so I just agreed and now I guess I'm going to be in a random Taiwanese couple's vacation photos which I find weird. I understand that some people would think that it's awesome that people want to take photos with them but I'm in no way famous and I'm the one who isn't comfortable being the center of attention. I'm the listener and not the one offering up insane stories at parties of all the things I've done.


 On my way home I bought the first 4 seasons of Bones (I'm really looking forward to a marathon) and now I'm really wishing that I didn't have to go to work tomorrow and wondering why my jaw is throbbing. I've also been re-reading the Harry Potter series. It's been strange. Now that I'm reading it after I've seen all the movies I can't help but think of things that the movies got wrong or that were left out as I read. I'm continually comparing the two. 

It Begins With Ice Cream and Ends With Injury.

Today started off so well. I went to work as normal and during my coffee break I was given a free ice cream bar. And not just any ice cream bar, a good quality delicious Hagen Daz ice cream bar. After that things went downhill. After my coffee break I was working on unpacking some boxes and someone wanted to buy something. I went to go and ring her through and our conversation essentially went like this:

Me: "So you found something that worked for you?"
Lady: "Yes, is it ok if I pay in American cash?"
Me: "Yes."
Lady: "So if I'm paying in American money, I want to pay the American price."
*at this point is is important to know that our price tags show the price in Euros, Pounds, and in Canadian and American dollars. On this item the U.S. price was $79.00 and the Canadian price was $85.00, so this was really over $6.00*
Me: "I'm sorry but because you are in Canada you will be charged the Canadian price regardless of the currency you pay with. Part of the problem is that it costs more to ship things into Canada and the price on the tag reflects when the stock was purchased, not the current exchange rates."
Lady: "So I can't have the American price? You guys shouldn't advertise it if I can't choose which one I pay."
Me: "Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to change it and I don't make the rules. I'm sorry."
Lady: "Well you should talk to your supervisor because, that's false advertisement, and it's illegal."

She then paid with a credit card and that was the end of it.

This is actually slightly embarrassing. I was in the stock room putting away stock and in order to do that I had to use a step ladder. While I was on the step ladder (it's literally 2 steps) I turned and because of my crappy knee I guess I turned wrong and my knee gave out on me, which resulted in me falling off the ladder. So now my knee and my wrist are sore. I'm aware that I'm a klutz, but this one wasn't really my fault.

Trying to keep my mind on the positives of life. I'm excited because I get to go see Mama Mia! tomorrow. First I have to spend my morning studying, but I get to go out for dinner then go see the show. Which gives me one thing to look forward to before my final on Friday.

In Desperate Need of a Vacation

As my "summer" continues to vanish, time seems to have slipped into overdrive. I don't feel like I've had any form of a vacation (mostly because I haven't) and I would really like one. I haven't had a full day off to myself since May. And dealing with the insane customers I deal with on a daily basis is enough to drive me completely over the edge. Today was a prime example.

Apparently within the last hour and a half before we closed every tall woman in the city decided that it was absolutely essential that they purchase clothing and shoes, NOW! So as the three of us are running around trying to serve everyone (myself alone in the shoe department and my 2 coworkers in ladies wear) my sister comes in. I say hi, but continue running around trying to serve my other customers because my sister was really shopping for pants anyways.

As I'm in the middle of checking some woman out at the till, this other lady who is sitting in one of the chairs calls to me loudly "Are you the ONLY one working down here? Because I've been WAITING!" Like heaven forbid this woman should have to wait for anything. But because I'm polite and pleasant at work I calmly apologize and inform her that I am the only one working in shoes and tell her I'll be with her in just one minute. (Essentially I got yelled at because  she wasn't my only customer and therefore was not getting my undivided attention). When I get to helping her I go back and get her all the shoes that she wanted to try on I notice 4 shoes sitting beside her that we haven't discussed so I ask her if she'd like the mates to those shoes and she replies "No, those are just sale shoes that didn't fit." I'm aware that it is my job to clean up after you should you decide to make a mess, but in all the time you were sitting around as I inconvenienced you by waiting on other customers you couldn't have bothered to pick up after yourself? (I've since been informed that I'm expecting WAY to much if I want that to happen). But anyways, I go and put these shoes away and in the process I notice that this woman hasn't tried on any of the shoes yet. She literally had pulled out her Blackberry and began typing an email for 10 minutes. She got angry with me for not waiting on her hand and foot and when I did she pulled out her phone and types an email? Lady, get your priorities in order! In the end she did purchase 4 pairs of shoes, but that wasn't enough she asked if I could ship them to the other side of the country for her to a city where we have another store that would have the exact same shoes she just purchased. So I told her I couldn't ship them for her.

I really need a vacation before I explode at one of these customers...

Still Nothing Exciting

I'm aware that it's been a very long time since I posted anything. This is due to the fact that school was wrapping up, I had a 10 page paper due (which I finished at 2am on the day the paper was due, but it was submitted on time none the less), and I've been working like a maniac. The only other thing that happened is I got my schedule worked out for the Fall semester at school. That one involved a few frustrations but everything got straightened out. 


Really nothing exciting is happening in my world at the moment. I do have a few things coming up though. On August 16th I'm going to see Mama Mia! Which should be amazing, on August 19th I have my final exam (which I should be studying for now, but I'll probably start studying for on Tuesday), after which I will finally have some time off from work and I'm going camping with the family for 5 days. 

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2

I finally got to go see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 today. So if you haven't seen it yet and want to draw your own conclusions without having your mind contaminated by the opinions of others you may want to stop reading now. 


So obviously it wasn't 100% accurate and true to the book, but that is to be expected. But I enjoyed it. It's pretty high up in the rankings of the movies for me. I enjoyed basically all of the Harry Potter movies with the only exception to that being Prisoner of Azkaban. But because I don't want to be one of those people who ruins movies, I'm not going to go into details of what I liked about it as far as plot goes. I did think that the special effects were very well done though. Something else I will say is that I found myself very close to tears a few times. Which goes to show that it was well acted and that my post-potter depression may be kicking in a little. Which is something I feel I'm entitled to because I know I'm not going to go crazy overboard with it and it was something I had for basically all of my childhood. 


While I am addressing my opinions of things I'm going to switch topics here and let it be known that the "new" old spice commercials are ridiculous. I hate Fabio as the new old spice guy. I did watch some of the "Mano a Mano in el bano." And I say some because I couldn't sit through the Fabio parts, I only really watched the "old, Old Spice guy" (Isaiah Mustafa) responses. So if anyone from Old Spice reads this please keep Isaiah Mustafa as the Old Spice Guy and stop with this Fabio ridiculousness. 

Stopping Birds in Their Tracks, Mosquitoes and Music Videos

So before I begin telling you about the Mariana's Trench video shoot I was at the other day, I'm going to tell you about something I forgot to mention like a week ago.


As I left for that party at my friend's house (which I walked to) I noticed there was a bird on the other side of the road. As I left my lawn, it flew away...Right into my neighbor's window. Literally "BAM" into the window then it fell straight to the ground. Don't worry it did get up, although I didn't see it fly away... But apparently I'm just that good looking, I stop birds. 


But now onto the video shoot. Like pretty much every video shoot this one was running late. My group was supposed to be there at 5pm, so my friend and I were there at 5pm, and there were still people from the first group there, some of which didn't leave until after 6pm. The first group was supposed to be there at 6am that morning. Meaning they had been there for 12 hours. So after my friend and I killed time for like 5 and a half hours, some of the people who were in the scene right before ours started coming out. We were excited because we figure we'd get to go in soon (the holding area was outside, it was getting dark, raining and there were mosquitoes...) I talked to one of the girls as she was leaving and she told me that they weren't done, in fact the only reason she was leaving was because she got kicked out because there were too many people. Which really sucked because she had waited for HOURS and then nothing. At that point because it was now 10:30pm, my friend and I were both taking public transit home (which stops running at around 1am) and if they still hadn't started with our group yet there was no way of knowing how long it would take for us to get started and finished, plus we both had work the following morning. It was that point where we decided to leave and head to Denny's for an ice cream sundae before heading home. So the irony here is that I might be in a behind the scenes video, but not the actual music video... In the end all I got for my near 6 hour wait was a guitar pick and 3 mosquito bites (one of which is located in an extremely awkward place)


Now I have to go attempt to work on my 10 page research paper which is due in a week and a half...School is almost over until September!! 

Amazing News!

Lately my life has been extremely lame. Just more of the norm. Work and school. I have yet to see Harry Potter. I really want to go, but at the same time I'm reluctant. Once I see it, that will be the end. The phenomenon that has been a huge part of my life for the majority of my life will officially be over.

But taking a break from my impending "post-Potter depression" and jumping back to reality...My prof gave us another assignment last week (which is due on Tuesday and after serious neglect, still hasn't been started). I planned to sit down and get a good start on it tonight, but naturally I checked my email first. There in my inbox was an email which just made my day, and quite possibly my life.

I'M GOING TO BE IN THE NEWEST MARIANA'S TRENCH MUSIC VIDEO!! 

Excuse me while I go run around in circles screaming for joy... This latest video is going to be for the song "Haven't Had Enough." I'm so stoked! Wednesday is going to rock!! 

Sadly now I have to seriously try to go focus on my homework, which probably no, definitely won't happen tonight...

Who Invited All The Crazies to My Work?

Lately work has been full of crazies. I've been yelled at like 5 times in the past few days over the fact that my store doesn't have a public washroom. One lady gave me an entire spiel about how she had driven for 3 hours and she couldn't even use the bathroom. I also got a lot of frustrated customers because we're in the middle of a sale so sizes are at a premium. But today takes the cake. There were two Asian men that came in. They walk around for a second before coming over to the counter. The one man begins to speak loudly in a language that I can't understand and make gestures with his hand. Essentially he takes one palm lays it out flat and traces around it with his finger. I have no idea what he wanted. He then looks at me like I'm insane and walks out of the store with his friend in tow. 


Basically I'm doing the usual for the moment, spending more time than I'd like to at work and the rest of the time at school. 

Crazy Customers

I could really use a vacation. Friday was Canada day, but I still had to work. There was one woman who came into the store on Canada day and she was looking for some shoes. She had me pull out 6 pairs of shoes. Which is fine but as I was coming back out with the shoes she was trying on one pair from the shelf and she pulled so hard on a leather tassel that it came off. She broke a shoe and basically went "I broke your shoe, oops, haha." I really wanted to make her buy them at that point and she really began to irk me. Then, as I put them away after she left (she bought 1 pair) I realized that she hadn't even bothered trying on 3 of the ones she had me bring out. Then she came back in today. She wanted to return the shoes she bought on Friday claiming that "they don't stay on her feet." and she "walks right out of them." Because we're in the middle of a big sale and nearly everything is on sale (including the shoes she purchased) I told her that she couldn't return them because they were final sale. I'm pretty sure that that is a common thing. Sale items are final sale in most stores. At which point she began to argue with me claiming that she was never told that they were final sale even though it's on a sign beside the cash register, it's on the receipt and I'm pretty sure I told her when I sold her the shoes on Friday. Eventually she demanded to speak to my manager (there is no management there on Sunday so I grabbed my co-worker who's been with the company for 6 years and she's the closest thing I had to a manager today) and because the customer is always right, we exchanged the shoes for a different pair. 


At work there is also this dress from last year on clearance I think it's around $40 now it's basically a "flapper girl" dress. I think it would be perfect for Halloween but I'm not sure if I want to pay $40 for a dress that I'd only wear for Halloween. I would also need shoes and accessories to go with it. Speaking of shoes I tried on a pair of ridiculous heels that I can't walk in and that make me like 6'6". They are some pretty sexy heels, but I would probably kill myself trying to walk in them. 

The past few nights, well really last night and tonight. My little sister has been so hyper and been driving everyone crazy. To deal with this issue I have began taking her for walks. My sister is in high school yet I have to take her for walks as if she's a puppy. I suppose in the long run it's good for me too, I'm sorely out of shape and a little bit of exercise wouldn't hurt me.


I think that because I'm starting to feel overworked and burnt out a little bit I have vacations on the brain. I just decided that I want to save up some money (well more like A LOT of money) and go to Europe. I told my friend about this and said we should  both do it and she said "deal, we'll go in 5 years." Fair enough. It will probably take me that long to save up the cash and get the time, plus I should be finished my BA by then. So it sounds great. Although who knows what's really going to happen. Regardless I plan to start saving and either way I'll end up with a nice little nest egg that I can either use to pay for my masters, or a vacation or some unforeseen event. 

Sometimes Life Gets in the Way

I started off my day today by writing a midterm. I honestly have no idea how that went, I'm kind of afraid to get it back in fact. But luckily when I got home John Green was live on Youtube so that was great for my mood. During this live broadcast he was reading the first chapter of his new book. Because I missed the beginning I tuned in about 3/4 of the way through and was thoroughly confused at first. But confusion quickly subsided into delight and now I am really excited for this book. The excitement quickly turned into a full out nerdgasm when he announced that if you pre-order the book called "The Fault in Our Stars" you will receive a signed copy. I just about had a heart attack on the spot and immediately pre-ordered the book. The excitement began to ware off and I realized that this book isn't actually going to be released until next year. May according to Amazon, and possibly March or April according to John Green. So that's a little bit sad, however, I have a spontaneous book delivery to look forward to in the first half of next year now. 

After the joy of pre-ordering the book I got a call from my dad telling me that his company needs a receptionist for August. This is something I've done for them in the past and other than having to get up at the crack of dawn it's not too bad. They pay better than my current job but I think that I'm going to have to turn it down for that reason. I have a current job. Even though I don't earn as much as I did working as a receptionist, I think in the long run it's probably smarter to keep the job in which you have the opportunity to keep instead of taking a job for the money that you will only have for a month. 

I finished off my day by going to my old middle school and meeting up with two of my friends and former high school teammates to play some basketball. I can't believe how much I miss it. There are aspects of playing that I definitely don't miss at all, but overall I really do miss playing. We decided that we need to get the whole team together at some point but there is no guarantee of that happening because everyone is so busy working/vacationing/getting ready for school. Sometimes life just gets in the way. 

Wrocking On!

On Thursday I went to my first "wrock" (or wizard rock) show at the library. For those who don't know what wizard rock/wrock is, it's music about Harry Potter. The band at the show I went to was Harry and the Potters, and they did not disappoint, I had a lot of fun at the show with some fellow nerdfighters. That was probably the highlight of my week. Because it was my first "wrock" experience, I wasn't really sure what to expect. But I really enjoyed it and there was a lot of humor in the music. There were also a few really bad jokes when a cable needed to be replaced. The jokes were really nerdy and one of the best parts about the crowd was that they were all nerdy enough to understand the jokes. I love nerds. 


At work we're getting ready for our summer sale, so because it hasn't been busy lately and Sundays aren't usually busy most of today was supposed to be spent sticking price stickers on shoe boxes. But because we actually had something that we were supposed to get done today, it was busy. Most of the boxes have yet to be stickered and the sale starts tomorrow. Luckily I have tomorrow off to cram for Tuesday's midterm but I feel bad for my co-workers for all the work that they're going to have to do.


Today at work there was this one customer who was really frustrating. There was a girl with her mom and her aunt (?). The girl was looking for shoes for some occasion and was trying on shoes. Because it's my job I brought her the shoes she was asking for and one of the first pairs she tried on was a size11 and it fit her perfectly. Then her aunt(?) goes "I don't know...I think you should try the 12." So I go and get it knowing that it's know going to fit her. And shockingly it's too big for her. Meaning there's just one more shoe I'm going to have to put away later. After she did this with about 5 more pairs of shoes and I had a pile of about 12 shoe boxes in the back that needed to be put back together again and put away she finally decided on buying 1 pair of shoes and ordering in another pair from another store. The other pair that we are ordering in may or may not get here for when she needs them because apparently she needs the shoes for Friday. The fact that you would leave it that late to shop for the shoes is mind boggling to me. 


Then my favourite customer of the day (literally) was this transgender individual. (I'm never sure what gender to call them and I don't want to offend anyone so we're going to call him/her K). The two of us got along great and there were a lot of laughs. Which was probably why K was my favourite. K was also the last customer of the day and K's sense of humor and personality was a nice change from some of the ruder customer's I'd dealt with earlier that day. 

Contradictory Horoscopes

So it's been a while since I posted anything, and that's been because I've been super busy. Sadly it's not with anything exciting just more work and school. 


Today at work a girl who I used to play basketball against came in. She still plays, in fact she got a scholarship to a school in Dallas for it. Speaking of work, I've found that since I've started working there I've come to embrace my height a lot more and I've even started to consider wearing heels. *insert shocked face here* I mean I work at a store called "Long Tall Sally." How ridiculous would it be to work at a store that is essentially a specialty store for tall women if I hated being tall?


Let's see is there anything exciting coming up in my life at all....Midterm Tuesday, Hanging out with my friend on Thursday, work, school.... So other than hanging out with my friend (we're supposed to go have a picnic unless it rains), nothing too exciting is happening. I should really be sleeping, or studying if I'm not going to sleep. In fact my horoscope today (well one of them) told me that I should study and save my money. At work we all bring in newspapers, resulting in a big pile of newspapers everyday so I opened another one to see what that one said, and it told me to stop being boring and do something spontaneous. So those two pretty much contradicted each other dramatically. 

Stanley Cup Fever

So tonight my hockey team (the Vancouver Canucks) were beaten out by the Boston Bruins for the Stanley Cup. As disappointing as the loss was, I have to give credit where credit is due and say that Tim Thomas is a fantastic goalie and he deserved the MVP for his play throughout the series. What was more disappointing than the loss however is how the fans reacted. Riots broke out downtown just like 17 years ago when this happened the last time. However last time there were less people so I'm afraid of how much damage is going to be caused. 


I'm also wondering if I'm going to have work tomorrow or as a friend pointed out to me, more specifically a place of work tomorrow. I'm enjoying my job so I'm going to be frustrated if my place of work does get the windows smashed in or anything. However if I didn't have work tomorrow it would give me more time to work on my project proposal for my psychology class which is due on Wednesday and still needs A LOT of work. Not that I'm wishing for bad things to happen because I'm not, I'm just trying to look for positives in a hypothetically bad situation. 


On another tangent, I'm sick. As far as sickness is concerned I suppose this isn't too bad. I've been a lot sicker and everyone I've been around that has been sick before I got sick had it much worse with ailments spanning bronchitis and chest infections to allergies and the common cold. I believe I just have a cold and one that really isn't too bad at that. It started off with a sore throat (which wasn't even that bad), woke up the next day with a bit of a cough (which is basically completely gone now) and I'm now at the stage of congestion. Hopefully I'll wake up tomorrow feeling even better than I did today because I seem to be on the road to recovery. 

One Wicked Night

So Wicked was absolutely AMAZING! The only thing that would have made it better was if it had been the original Broadway cast, but that's probably asking too much. So my Wednesday night was pretty awesome. I may have developed a slight addiction to watching live musicals though. Mama Mia! is coming in August and now I really want to go to that too. Oh well at least this addiction is healthier and probably less expensive than drugs. 


Switching topics...Last night was pretty terrible (well I guess it all started early this morning). This morning at 2:00am I woke up feeling nauseous and proceeded to toss and turn before running to the bathroom to throw-up. So today got off to a great start. Roughly 5 hours later it was time to get up to get ready for work. After downing some Pepto before I left I headed to the bus stop. The bus then decided to be 5 minutes late and be full of children. I felt like I was taking a school bus to work. Then an old guy gets on the bus, out of courtesy you might have thought that even ONE of those kids would have offered him their seat considering they are taking up like 98% of the bus. But no, one did offer him a seat like 5 stops later but that's really not the point. 


Now at this point I'm running late and I get to the first transfer point on my ride to work. This is where some guy steps on my foot and didn't apologize. Not cool. Typical day for me I guess. I did make it to work with about 4 minutes to spare, so I wasn't late. The day then proceeded with customers who wandered in and out of the store and either had the disposition of very nice/friendly/pleasant or extremely grouchy and rude. One lady came into the store walked around picked out all these things she wanted to try on and got to the dressing room to realize after trying on 1 thing that she had picked out the wrong size in absolutely everything. Her solution was to hand me two armfuls of clothing and request that I run around the store trying to find her the correct size in everything she had picked out. (I enlisted the help of a coworker on that one). I was also promised that if I worked instead of taking my afternoon coffee break I could leave 15 minutes early to go home and try to catch more of the hockey game. at 5:21 (we close at 5:30) it was realized that she forgot to tell me to leave. So I got no break and only got to leave 5 minutes early. But on a positive note my team won the hockey game and they are now 1 win away from the Stanley Cup! So that's exciting.  Oh and I think I've been infected with whatever it was that my sisters had, some cold/flu type thing. 

Maybe My Dreams Are Trying To Tell Me Something?

I'm going to see Wicked tomorrow night with 5 of my friends and I'm ridiculously excited! But there will be more on that in the next few days after I actually go and see it. 


But the real topic of today's post is my dreams. Not dreams in the sense of ambitions and hopes for the future but dreams as in that thing you do while you're sleeping. The last few nights all of my dreams have had a common theme, and I'm wondering if my subconscious is trying to tell me something. Lately the common dream theme seems to be some form of problem and then a guy comes to rescue me. The common fairy tale storyline. They aren't dramatic, graceful or even that interesting for the most part but there seems to be an underlying theme. 


One such dream involved me in a cooking competition in which I was literally given a gigantic plate of assorted meats to cook. When everything began burning (which is weird because I'm not actually a terrible cook) and I was walking away in defeat this really cute guy came over to help out and calm me down. Then last night's dream involved work drama and a different cute guy (who was apparently my boyfriend?) coming in and saving me from doing things I would have regretted and calming me down. 


What I'm getting from this is a few things. Possibly including (but not limited to): 

1. I get angry/frustrated/upset too easily
2. I need a boyfriend
3. I'm reading too much into this because I'm an intended Psych major
4. Something is bothering me
5. Disney movies from my childhood have screwed me for life

Time for Reflection

I am still super busy with work and school and having no life, (I do get a brief break on Wednesday to have a life because I'm going to see Wicked with my friends, I'm SO EXCITED!) but today I somehow found some time to think. 


While I thought, I was remembering back in middle school, grade 8 I think when we were asked something along the lines of what would we like out of life. I remember that I answered with "I want to be able to look back on my life with no regrets." And I've already screwed that up. I can think of regrets about the roads not taken and relationships with people. I've failed myself already. Maybe I was naive, or overambitious, either way the fact remains that I'm not going to be able to look back on my life with no regrets unless I manage to accept things the way they are and accept the possibility that maybe things happened the way they did for a reason and that I really did make the right choice even if it doesn't feel like I did.  


I know that at least for the rest of this month I'm going to be extremely busy between school and work especially because my manager is going away to London for business at the end of this week and she'll be gone for a week. I know that this is the reason why she was so reluctant to give me time off, but I need to study for my midterm. She does need to hire someone else because I have another co-worker who was hired to work 4 days a week and is currently working 5 days a week. 


Thinking about the positives in my life right now, my hockey team is 2 wins away from bringing home the Stanley Cup, I'm going to have an amazing time on Wednesday night when I go see Wicked with 5 of my friends, I have Thursday off (even if I do have to use it to study and go to the dentist) and the weather is finally starting to get nice (even if I don't get to enjoy it because I'm working/going to school everyday). 

I Thought Bad Things Came in 3's?

Today was not great but I suppose by my standards was not completely terrible either. I started it all off by going to work and during my commute I stubbed my toe so naturally some guy had to step on it. After I got to work I helped some customers including a snobby girl from Texas and  Australian lady. I don't know if it's just me and my luck but the last few Australian customers I've had have been well let's just say interesting. 


The first Australian lady was the most indecisive person I've ever met. She spent almost an hour the first day she came in trying to decide whether or not to buy something. We finally convinced her that she could bring it back and she bought it and left. Yesterday she came back twice. The first time was to return something and try some things on. But because she is very indecisive she couldn't decide whether or not to buy one of the things that she tried on so she had us put it on hold for her. Half an hour before she closed she came back and bought it. Because she doesn't fly out until Sunday she'll probably be back. 


The Australian lady who came in today was very demanding. After I helped her find some pants she asked me what the difference was between two pairs of them. After I explained it to her I guess she wasn't satisfied with the answer I provided because she hit me with one pair of them. She also came back later in the day to continue trying things on. But because the customer is always right I just smiled and helped her again later. 


After I finally made it to my lunch break, because I didn't bring a lunch I went out to buy something. My original plan was to go to Tim Hortons. Sadly that didn't work out because there was a police incident and there was a huge section of the road blocked off. Apparently some guy had a large knife and was waving it around but as far as I know no one got hurt. I changed plans and ended up buying an expensive sandwich at Starbucks. 


I finished my shift late because there was a couple and an adorable baby in the store and they weren't quite finished shopping. They ended up spending $2240.00 so we were glad we let them stay. this is the one time that I think that it's too bad I'm not on commission. Although the husband did try to tip me $10. I honestly wasn't sure what to do. I told him I couldn't accept it but he left it anyways. I work in retail, how often do you get tipped in retail? I've never seen it happen... So after I got home a lot later than I expected, I started to cook dinner and my pot boiled over. They say that bad things come in threes but technically that is at least 4 depending on what you count as bad, so hopefully nothing else happens. I don't think that anything else can go wrong today though, mostly because today is almost over. 


Moving on to my plans for tomorrow. Tomorrow's plans include going to school, grabbing lunch with a friend to talk about our projects for class, getting a pedicure (mostly so I can wear open toed shoes at work and because I want to be pampered), and finishing my outline for afore-mentioned project. Hopefully I can get that all accomplished especially the last thing because the outline is due on Wednesday. 

Juggling Acts

Lately I've been so busy I barely have time to stop and take a breath, let alone finish my readings and do my homework. (Hence why I haven't blogged in a while)

My days basically look like this:
Sun: Work
Mon: Work
Tues: School
Wed: School
Thurs: Work
Fri: Work
Sat: Work

I think I'm going to have to ask my manager if I can reduce my hours to four days a week. I don't care which day she picks as my day off I just think that I'm going to need another day off especially with this HUGE research project I'm going to have to do for school. Speaking of which the project outline is due Wednesday and I haven't even started yet...I should get on that. I did stop back in at the Starbucks by my work, but sadly my favourite Barista wasn't there. Maybe I'll just have to check back more often. And now I have to go to work...

First Day at a New Job While Looking Fantastic

I made it through my first day of work! Because I'm a paranoid person and it drives me insane when I am late for things. (and I thought it would be a TERRIBLE idea to be late for my first day) I took the bus half an hour earlier than absolutely necessary and therefore ended up with half an hour to kill. To kill this hour I went to Starbucks and got something to drink. The barista was nice and he started talking to me while he was making my drink. I told him I was going to start my first day at a new job to which he replied "well you look fantastic." I appreciated it, so thank you random barista. I may now have to visit your Starbucks more often.


As for the actual work day, it started off pretty slowly and it was boring because I had to read a manual which reminded me of reading my textbooks. I then got to try on some of the clothes to familiarize myself with different rises and fits of the jeans. Which ended in me finding a pair of jeans that fit me perfectly and me having to buy them. But it's alright because I get a clothing allowance, which is nice and may help prevent me from going broke. The only other thing I did was hang stuff up and steam some things. 


I work again tomorrow because my manager said she wanted me to be trained as soon as possible. I am also working 5 days a week. I get Tuesdays and Wednesdays off because I have school. This is going to positively affect my bank account but I'm not sure how well my social life will fare, which is probably a pretty fair trade off I suppose. Maybe tomorrow will be slightly more exciting and will continue to go well. 

Enjoys Long Walks in The Sunshine

I survived the gym! I worked out for around 45minutes-1hr, then I started getting bored. So I decided to walk home. It took me an hour and 20 minutes. But after the walk my head was clear and the little things that were bothering me and stressing me out didn't seem to matter as much. I felt good after my walk. 


I think that the best part was after the walk when I was talking to my dad. Who then said "You're crazy, your school is like the black mountain of Mordor, and the walk home was the long journey." Win for the nerdy reference. This is also coming from the man who said "Lord of the Rings, was my Harry Potter." 


Today was pretty low key. It was my day off. I started it off by making cookies. After which I spent some time outside pulling weeds in the garden while my dog sat outside. When it became really obvious my dog just wanted to go inside I brought her in and relaxed for a little. After I medicated my dog and my sister got home I walked some of the cookies over to a friend's house and we hung out for a while. After walking home the first thing my younger sister said to me was "FINALLY! I'm HUNGRY!!" Because apparently she is incapable of making her own dinner, even when it was just pasta with pre-made sauce. All that had to be done was heat the sauce and cook the pasta. Not exactly rocket science. 


I start work tomorrow! I'm excited but nervous at the same time. Just normal pre-work jitters I guess. Hopefully it will go well. 


Meanwhile, my dog is still sick. She's off the codeine now and is just on one painkiller. Hopefully it works, she seems to be doing slightly better, but it's still a little bit heartbreaking to watch her.

One Small Ray of Sunshine on a Stormy Day

Yesterday started off pretty badly. First my dad wouldn't answer his phone and I was trying to check which medications I was supposed to give my dog. It eventually got sorted out with me almost missing my bus. But the important point is that it was worked out. Then after my class I had a job interview so I went to catch the 12:30 bus home so I could let my dog out and get changed before heading out to catch the 2:00 bus to go to the interview. 


There was one minor problem. The 12:30 bus never came. So I was stuck at school waiting for the next bus which came at 12:50, seriously reducing the time I had at home. When the bus finally showed, the bus driver wouldn't let us on right away, and when he did everyone just climbed on the bus through any door, not worrying about bus fare because at school we get a bus pass as part of tuition costs. So naturally we're all loaded on this bus waiting for it to be 12:50 (it was probably like 12:45 when we were on the bus) and all of the sudden "transit police" climbs on the bus and goes "EVERYONE PULL OUT YOUR BUS FARE." So we all had to show him that we had bus fare as he walked around the bus. 


So I finally got home around 1:10 and dealt with my dog. Then when I was getting ready I couldn't find the skirt I wanted to wear, and when I finally found it it was ridiculously wrinkled and needed to be ironed (which I didn't have time for). So I had to swap that out for another outfit and then it was time to go. After much struggling with my dog and once again almost missing my bus, I made it and was on my way. I arrived early to the interview and I got the job! So that was a good part of yesterday. 


Today has been pretty uneventful, especially in comparison to yesterday. I went to school, came home for lunch and to deal with my dog, and later I'm headed back up to school to go to the gym with a friend. So I may die... Allow me to explain, in prep for this gym visit I went for a run on Monday. I couldn't even do a 10 minute run, that's how out of shape I've become. High school athlete and now after 1 year of University I'm super out of shape. I haven't been this out of shape since I don't even know when. So I'm making an effort to fix this. We're starting off slow in the exercising my friend and I. But I'm considering walking home from the gym afterwards, which may be an hour or more. The weather is finally taking a change for the better in my city and that means I better get back in shape, and fast. 

Today's Forecast: Bad News with a Slight Chance of Positive Outcomes

Because I didn't have tutorials/labs for this first week of the semester, I went to my grandparent's house. During my time there my grandma taught me how to make her "hamburger soup" and her "7 layer dip" which are 2 of my favourite things that she makes. 

I got home tonight and watched our hockey team win the first game of the semi-finals 3-2. Now we only have to win 3 more games and we will be playing for the Stanley Cup! Before I got to watch the game I was given the news that while I was away, my dog got even worse (she went and had an appointment with the surgeon, even though there is no way we could afford surgery). The surgeon said that surgery is the last resort and they usually wait until there is a serious problem with mobility before that happens, so we're not quite there yet. But she is on more drugs and has been put on bed rest for the next month. I'm trying to remain positive about her situation but it's getting hard to keep my hopes up. 

In some actual good news, I talked to the manager of a store I shop at fairly regularly over the weekend and I have a job interview on Tuesday! I'm excited and hoping that it goes well. The call was really surprising because when I applied around a month ago she told me that she didn't have anything for me, so I wasn't expecting to hear from her. She told me that she wouldn't be able to give me loads of hours, but at this point I think I would love working there and something is better than nothing anyways. 

Sick Puppy

After successfully surviving the work week, I hung out with some friends on Saturday (and got my ass kicked when we played Mario Kart, then slightly redeemed myself at DDR). Sunday was Mother's Day so I went to the mall, bought a card (which my Grandma said she loved) and my grandma's favourite flowers (miniature carnations) and proceeded to go to her house and spend some time with her. Monday I went to the mall with another friend and bought a book (because I'm a nerd and that's probably what I spend most of my money on). 


Today marked the first day of the summer semester for me. After doing the introduction thing, my prof then began telling us about his inflamed sinuses and how he "doesn't normally sound like this all the time, but he went away and had an allergic reaction...." and continued to talk about this for like 5 minutes before continuing to talk about actual course related content (which I'm pretty sure everyone already knew). This course is "Research Methods in Psychology." Needless to say, it's one of those classes that you only take because it is a requirement. After he started talking about the scientific method and independent vs. dependent variables he started going over our research project. Which is worth 40% of our grade. (that's more than the final and almost worth more than the final and midterm combined). I read the 3 page assignment outline (basic summary: we have to come up with a research proposal, get it approved, collect data and then write a research report which is 10-15 pages long) and I'm terrified. I'm sure once it get's explained in more detail it will be slightly less daunting, but at the moment it's pretty overwhelming. 


Meanwhile....


My dog is still sick. She seems to be getting worse again. Today I tried taking her for a very short walk, during which she walked way slower than she usually does and when it was finally time to come home it was just getting painful to watch so I picked her up and was going to carry her home. She was not happy about this in the least and began wheezing and making her displeasure known, so I put her down and we slowly sauntered home. When we got to my front yard we have steps to go into the house so I tried to pick her up to avoid her hurting her back. However, she still wanted to be an independent little wiener dog, and tried to run away from me. (which was an unsuccessful attempt, especially considering the fact that she was still on a leash...) She yelped very loudly when I picked her up and I got her inside and she just layed down on her bed and stayed there for the rest of the night. Even when my grandparents dropped by. Which is very unusual for her, she thinks she's a huge Doberman or something and barks at EVERYTHING that moves before it enters the house, and when people come over she's very excited and affectionate. At the moment she's on an anti-inflammatory for her back as well as painkillers. She gets the painkillers twice a day and we could up the dose to three times a day, but then she'd probably just be lethargic and we'd have to decrease it back to two anyways. 

Minutes Like Hours

I don't think I've ever been so glad that it's Friday in my life. Needless to say that today was one of the longest days of the week. But at the end of the day I made it to payday and I was in an extremely good mood by the time I got home. 


Yesterday the Falcon guy came to the office to try to scare away more birds. (The seagulls that inhabit the parking lot are fearless, they don't even move out of the way of the cars anymore). During his visit I learned that the hawk (so I guess he should be the "Hawk Guy") is from Mexico and it is the same type of hawk that is depicted on the Mexican flag with a snake in it's talons. 


But jumping back to today. I finished reading Eat, Pray, Love and began my next book "The Postmistress" by Sarah Blake. I also killed some time by writing something (I'm really not sure what to call it) about time. Which went like this:


Minutes Like Hours.


I don't understand time. Sometimes it goes by at the speed of light and things are over as quickly as they began (or so it feels). Other times time moves slower than a herd of turtles marching through peanut butter or a swamp of molasses. Time is always moving at the speed opposite of what you wish. The things you love doing (or anytime you're enjoying yourself really) before you know it, it's over. Where as when you are doing something you don't enjoy (such as suffering through a day at the office) the minutes drag on and the day feels as if it will go on forever.


The other thing about time is the way we always want the opposite of what we have. The young spend their childhoods wishing life and time away. They are constantly complaining about being treated like children, wishing that they could be older, all grown up. Before they know it they are grown up and are wishing for their youth to return. The older women spend ridiculous amounts of money buying and slathering on "anti-wrinkle creams" that promise to restore a youthful glow, while old grandfathers reminisce and lecture their grandchildren about "back in my day.." When we are young we want nothing more than to grow up, while when our wish is finally granted all we want is our youth back. 

The Working World

This week I'm working as a temporary receptionist for the company my dad works for. It's not too bad other than the fact that I have to get up at 5:30am and this makes the days extremely long and boring because there is often large amounts of time between phone calls. Usually I end up reading for a while and then feeling slightly guilty because I think that I probably look extremely unprofessional sitting there reading Eat, Pray, Love because I'm waiting for the phone to ring. Speaking of Eat, Pray, Love I have to say that my favourite quote thus far is "having a baby is like getting a tattoo on your face. You have to be really sure it's what you want." I've never heard an analogy about having children put quite that way before.  


However, it's really sad when the most exciting part of your day is when the mail arrives simply because then you actually have something to do. Even if that something is sorting mail, and simply using a letter opener to open mail before stamping invoices and cheques. 


Today did have an interesting moment when a man walked in with a falcon sitting on his hand. I think I just sat and stared for a moment because that is quite the unusual occurrence when working in an office setting. I'll explain and put this into perspective. My dad works at a port so there is a serious seagull and pigeon problem. The bird of prey comes in to scare away these birds so that they aren't such a nuisance.


The other moment which was intriguing was when someone came in and asked me about "Dean's Tea." Once again I was confused because I immediately thought tee as in golf tee. We also don't sell tea anyways (well at least not to the best of my knowledge). Apparently there was a man who worked at the company a long time ago who got very ill with cancer, the story goes that he brewed his own tea and it helped keep him alive for a number of years. Apparently someone in the office still brews and sells it. You learn something new everyday I suppose. 


Number of days successfully completed: 2
Number of days left to go: 3
Number of books read: 1and 1/4

BEDA Day 30: That's All Folks

I can't believe it is already the end of April! Which also means that BEDA is at an end and the few of you who read this will no longer have to put up with my drivel. 


Today was pretty lame to be honest. I watched "She's The Man" after I woke up this morning, did basically nothing for most of the day and went out for dinner to celebrate my little sister's birthday before getting in a fight with my older sister during the car ride home. After we got home I started watching Starship, before having to pause that to watch the hockey game (we're in the second round of the playoffs and we lost in double overtime 2-1, which leaves us 1-1 in the series).


Now that I've addressed all that I want to say without getting into mushy emotion bits, I think I'll end this pathetic post and go watch the remainder of Starship. I promise I'll wait until I feel I have something worth saying or something at least semi exciting happens in my life before I post again. Basically I shall attempt to try to use some form of a quality control. 

BEDA Day 29: Parties, Cookies and Sick Puppies

Today did not start off well. My dog woke me up by whining and barking. I then got a text message from my father asking me to call him when I got up. I called him and he told me that the dog's back is acting up again (which I had already semi-discovered on my own) and he asked me to take her to the vet. So I did. She had to get her shot anyways so that got done and now she is back on painkillers. Therefore she spent most of the day a little bit high on drugs. 


After we got home I looked through my house to make sure that I had all the ingredients for the cookies I was making for my friend's birthday today. The recipe calls for two eggs, so naturally there was one egg left in my house. I was not impressed. Especially because the vet is right by a grocery store. Which meant I had to walk back up there to buy eggs. 


After I returned home from purchasing eggs and had lunch I decided I should probably let my dog out again, because she hadn't been out since I had walked her home from the vet. (Roughly 3 hours earlier) I don't know if it was the fact that it was sunny or the fact that she is taking painkillers (or even a combination of both), when I put her down on the lawn she immediately sat down and looked around with squinty eyes. Almost as if she was thinking "It's sunny, and warm. I like this." After waiting for 10 minutes and her not moving, I carried her back inside and decided if she felt the urge to go outside she would let me know. 


Later, I made chocolate chip cookies (half of the dough is still in my freezer because the recipe makes like 4 dozen cookies) and then I cleaned up the kitchen and got ready for the party. At the party we were incredibly loud and one of our friends was working at the restaurant that night and we probably ruined his night (he had the opportunity to book it off, but he didn't so it serves him right) we were having a good time. I received many compliments on my cookies and a bunch of people asked for the recipe. One even told me that that was all she wanted for her birthday, as in "Literally, just make me these cookies, I will even come and pick them up."


After the restaurant some of the people were going to watch "Source Code." I didn't go because I didn't have a ride home and as much as it makes me feel like a senior citizen to say this, even though it was 9:00, I was exhausted and the movie didn't even start until 10:10. I'm completely exhausted, and the only thing that could justify it I guess would be the stress of my dog getting sick and walking to and from "the Village" where the vet is located twice. So I'm off to bed now because tomorrow I have to go out for my sister's birthday and I have to attempt to get a better sleep pattern going because on Monday I have to leave the house at roughly 6:15am for work...

BEDA Day 28: The Queen of Baking

Today was great. I kept busy by going to my friend's house where we made pizza from scratch (dough and all) and cinnamon buns. She also made me do a workout video with her and laughed at me as I failed miserably. It was fun though. 


After I came home and took a shower, I went to the movies with another one of my fabulous friends. Her treat. We saw "Your Highness." In all honesty, it was an incredibly stupid movie. It's basically all sexual humor and innuendo with a lot of swearing set in medieval times. It was funny, but I would recommend waiting until it becomes available to rent and not spending extra money to see it in theaters.


After the movie the two of us were waiting for the bus. Because there was a lot of construction in that area, we were sitting on a cement barrier. Because we were apparently being dangerous and we had our legs dangling toward traffic, some safety guy came over and took pictures of us. AFTER he took the pictures he comes over and says "I hope you don't mind me taking your picture, but I'm in charge of pedestrian safety." Why he didn't mention the fact that he was going to be taking our picture BEFORE he actually took the pictures is beyond me. What am I supposed to say after he takes the picture? "No, I'm not ok with it and I demand you delete it?" 


Tomorrow is my friend's birthday party and I'm making cookies for the occasion as part of her birthday gift. So more baking for me tomorrow. Because I tried to be prepared and got my dad to purchase chocolate chips a few weeks ahead of time, naturally I pulled the bag of chocolate chips out of the cupboard yesterday only to discover that they had been opened, and used to the point that there were not enough to make the cookies, so my dad had to go buy more today. The lesson here I suppose is that being prepared doesn't always work to your advantage, sometimes procrastination ends up being the better option. 

BEDA Day 27: There's Always a Catch...

I'm excited. It has been confirmed that I have a full time job for next week! Therefore I'm still pretty much unemployed, but I get to make at least some money. I start at 8:00am so that means that the only downside to this is the fact that because the location of the job is far away from my house I can either 
a) leave with my dad at 6:05am (because he starts around 7) or 
b) leave my house around 6am because it would take that long to get there by public transit and I don't have a car.


Oh well, it's only for a week and I managed to get through it last summer, the first day will be tough but other than that I'll be alright I think. I just bring books with me to kill the first hour before my work starts. Although if I were really smart I would stay in the car and nap. 


Today I went downtown with a friend because we were supposed to go job hunting and drop off resumes. It was pouring rain so that really didn't happen and we ended up grabbing food and talking for a few hours. It was great. 


After I got home and had dinner, I watched "The Voice" on NBC. As much as I hated American Idol after the 2nd season, I'm loving this show. I'm a huge Maroon 5 fan so I might be slightly biased because I love Adam Levine so much. I think that the concept of a blind audition is also part of the reason why I love it. Because that sets it apart from all of the other shows that are searching for the next big thing, they focus on talent without judging on looks at all. I also watched the new Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 trailer and words can't describe my level of excitement! 

BEDA Day 26: Occasionally Good News Comes My Way

Today was great. I went shopping in the states and bought a cute summer dress. After I came home and watched my cousin win his lacrosse game, returned home and watched a special 90 minute episode of Glee (which I thought was fantastic) I got to watch the hockey game which was intense. 


With a score of 1-0 for my team up until there was roughly one and a half minutes left in the third period, we were basically just hoping that we could keep our lead, avoiding overtime and winning game 7. When it got around the one and a half minute mark the other team scored and it sent us into overtime. In the end we fought hard and won it! 


I also found out that I might get a chance to work with my dad next week. The work is good, I'd be a receptionist again which was a pretty good fit for me last summer. It would also mean that I would have some money (which I desperately need right now). Regardless, this is only a position for next week because I will be returning to school the following week 2 days a week. Because of this I wouldn't be able to continue working for the company even if they need me so tomorrow I'm going downtown with a friend to go look for work. Hopefully that goes as well as the last few days have.


I also found out that I got a B in my REM class. I was hoping for a higher mark, but I didn't try hard enough on an assignment or two so that is my fault. Oh well, anyways it's nearly midnight and I have to get up early tomorrow. 

BEDA Day 25: The Notes I'll Never Send

I'm writing this while I visit my grandparents, who think that I am in bed reading right now and don't know I brought my laptop with me. Although there is really no need to sneak around or hide this fact from them, I'm doing it anyways?


Instead of the usual "this is what I did today...." that I usually post, I'm going to post a mini-project I've been working on. Every time someone in my life does something that upsets me or makes me angry at them I write it down in the form of a note or letter that I'll never send. Nothing new and not an original idea by any means. I'm calling it "The Notes I'll Never Send." Here are some examples:* 



1) you're incredibly selfish. you only talk to me when you want something. That's pathetic. I'm not saying that all the blame lies with you, but every time I try to talk to you about it and make any attempt at fixing our relationship you interupt me as if what I have to say isn't important enough to waste your time listening to. The thing that is most pathetic is that I always go back. It's like an abusive relationship that way. All I ever really wanted was your approval. But hey, we always want what we can't have don't we?


2) I don't know what I'm more angry about, the fact that you were flirting with me while you had a girlfriend and essentially leading me on, or the way that you told me you had a girlfriend. At the very least I thought we were friends and that we could be honest with one another. Now I find out that you two have been dating for three weeks now? I've talked to you in the last three weeks, you definitely could have said something. Now we haven't talked in a week because I'm waiting for you to talk to me. Maybe I'm being juvenille by waiting for you to talk to me, but excuse me for thinking that we were good enough friends that our relationship would have been strong enough to survive either of us dating someone else. The really stupid thing is I miss you. I enjoyed being your friend. I guess fate has a funny way of working out sometimes?



*Names have obviously been left out, but the people who these are directed towards could probably figure it out if they read them, but to the best of my knowledge these individuals don't read my blog.