merely talk

Went shopping again yesterday. It seems I really don't like saving money. I picked up the latest Jack Johnson CD. With the nice weather here in Van-city, I've been listening to On and On non-stop, so it seemed to be a good idea to pick up another Jack Johnson for some variety (also it's awesome, I highly, highly recommend it).

I also managed to drop a pretty penny at RW & Co. I actually found not one, but two dresses that fit well and we're flattering. I only bought one, because while I do have some money in the bank, I don't have enough to be frivolous. However I'm still thinking of the black one I left behind, so who knows what the next few days will bring. The one I did buy, is a very pretty blue with some subtle flowers on the skirt, and a very flattering neck line. It's simple enough to be an everyday dress, but nice enough to wear out to a nice dinner, therefore a perfect dress ( I went to the website to find a picture, but they don't have one, sigh). I also found a nice pair of dressier pants on sale. They are a lovely chocolate brown, and will be helpful for those times when jeans just won't cut it.

After shopping, I went to work and then headed down to Jericho Beach for the tail end of a BBQ. It was awesome. I've missed the beach, and the sunset was breathtaking. Sadly, while the days here have been summer-y and warm, the nights are still super cool. Especially right down at the water. What I haven't missed is that feeling of putting your feet into shoes after walking in sand barefoot. It just feels so wrong and I'm not sure why. Maybe someone smarter than me knows. I'm not sure knowing why will make it feel any less icky, but a girl can hope, right?

Awesome.

I guess it's only fair, women have had access to padded bras for years.

I had a lot of fun at Miranda's graduation party last night. I'm still not over the fact that I know people (and by people I mean peers, not like my parents) who actually have finished four years of University and have that lovely paper to show for it. Unlike me, who has finished four years of University and will be returning again next year, and the year after before I get my shiny paper.

It's crazy I tell you.

The Cellar is an awesome little club which was ever so kind enough to let Miranda rent it out for the evening. That girl has a lot of friends I tell ya, because the place was kind of packed. The band was good, but loud and the atmosphere awesome. I went to the Cellar years and years ago, when I was underage and I remember it being fun, but slightly intimidating. This time it was just fun.

Oh and Miranda's Dad was kind enough to supply us all with our first drinks, and some people's second as well. Yay!

So I had good time, met some good people, and am now super exhausted. Fortunately (well for me at least) my morning session was cancelled due to my kid running a fever. So I got up, had some coffee and watched the episode of Veronica Mars my mom was so kind to tape for me last night. Just a note to all my friends here in Vancouver. For the next two Tuesdays there is no way I'm leaving the house, or picking up the phone between 9 and 10. Because everything is coming together, and I must find out who killed Lilly and who raped Veronica.

I've rediscovered my love of coffee. It happened the morning after the tarts and vicars party. I wasn't hung over (shockingly) but I was exhausted and the prospect of facing my kids with 4 hours of sleep was just too much to bear without a strong infusion of caffeine. So now I'm sitting here on my lovely morning off, enjoying a cup of that fabulous brew.

I had a pretty busy, but awesome, day yesterday. It started with church, which was kind of fun. Except that it was the kick off day for their annual fundraising project and instead of a homily, we got a video presentation about where all our money would be going. That kind of annoyed me, because I don't really go to church that often, but when I do, I've always enjoyed the homily, and I was looking forward to it. It also made church approximately 15 minutes longer than usual. Sigh.

Anyway after that I met up with Anna at Janice's work and enjoyed a lovely blueberry muffin and a few cups of coffee. We had timed our visit well, and Janice was able to hang out with us over her break, which was awesome. After brunch we headed down to the beach. We even viewed this idiotic couple try to get their dog to leave the beach. Their method: stand in the parking lot, and yell at him. They did this for about 20 min. Then the man went down halfway to the beach, and tried to yell at him from there. That, amazingly, didn't work. Finally he went all the way to the beach, took the dog by the collar and led him to the car. Why he didn't do that in the first place, I'm still a little unclear on. But whatever. He was kind of cute, but had super bad fashion sense. He was wearing a white T-shirt and brown cords, with this black tux jacket, which had a bright blue skull, or something, painted on it underneath the arms. Very strange, and fugly.

Anna had to head to work, and I headed downtown to meet up with my friend Shirley who had taken a train trip to Vancouver as a grad present to herself. I did manage to slip into Off the Wall and buy a really pretty zip up sweatshirt, before meeting her though. We ended up going to lunch at Moxies. It was good to hear what's going down in E-town. After that I met up with former roommate Steve, and we went to Starbucks for some coffee. I had a really great time with him as well. I love when people come out here, especially when the weather is as gorgeous as it's been. I love showing off this city.

My brother returned from UVic last night. My little apartment now has three people living here. It's a little crowded, but I think it'll work out. We all seem to have slightly different schedules. So we'll see what happens.

is not my friend.

Last night I attended a tart and vicar party. For those who don't know, it's a party where you either dress up as a whore or a priest/nun. Three guesses as to what I dressed up as.

It was a good time. I think. I drank too much. Except not really. I only had three drinks, which isn't too much ( at least compared to what I normally drink). And usually alcohol doesn't affect me like it did last night. My usual drunkenness lasts a few minutes and then I sober up again. Last night, not so much. I was drunk and I just kept on being drunk. And my reality was so skewed. Even as everything was going on, it felt like a total dream. I would have a conversation with someone, than totally forget what happened, or I would remember their mouths moving, but not what they were saying. So random.

Anyway I've never wanted to be someone my friends had to look out for when drinking. So thanks to Anna, Amanda, Evi and Geoff for making sure I was okay and keeping me from doing anything too stupid. I've decided there's only two ways for me to not be "the drunk girl" again. I either don't drink ever again, or I drink a lot more, more often and get my tolerance back up. Guess which one I'm leaning towards right now.

Okay. Now I have to do that work thing. Sigh.

So, to replace the sprinkler on my porch, the lovely fire safety guy had to cut a HOLE in my wall. And then he didn't even dry wall it. I'm sure my landlord is going to love this.

The surprise party for Anna went off without a hitch. It was wonderful to catch up with everyone and hear about where life is going to be taking them in the next few months (including New York and Montreal...woo!). The food was amazing, especially the awesome chocolate mousse cake. I hope everyone had a great time.

On Sunday I headed to the US of A for a little shopping with Anna's family. I randomly ran into one of the other interns from my work down at the mall, which is so weird. I never see her in Vancouver, even though she lives quite close to me, but I run into her in a mall in a different country. She's pretty much done the program now. She's finished her paper and has two weeks before she moves back. I'm pretty jealous I got to say. At least about the paper. It's still looming over my head, and it doesn't help that the first question my mom asks me everyday is about how it's coming. It was good to see her though.

Anna and I had quite a bit of success in the shopping department, she managed to find a new bathing suit, and I got a cute little top. I did find a super cute little sun dress, but of the two sizes I grabbed one was slightly too small, in an area I wasn't going to lose weight in and the other was too big all over. Sigh. Why is my body not compatible with fashion?

We went to the Olive Garden for dinner. I was amazed and the sheer amount of food they give you once you order. The table gets a big salad, which is constantly being refilled, as well as unlimited breadsticks. By the time my gigantic meal came (manicotti...so good) I had enough room for approximately four bites. It was good though, and now I have manicotti for dinner tonight (and probably tomorrow night as well).

Anyway despite the beginning of it, this weekend turned out to be pretty awesome.

So I'm better today. Still not 100% and there aren't a whole lot of foods I want to actually eat, but better. I was able to go to work this morning and eat breakfast. So go me.

I thought of a pretty awesome positive to this whole sick thing. I've lost like 3 pounds in the last 2 days, simply by having absolutely no drive to eat at all. It's kind of great, well at least to my deranged mind which would rather be skinny than healthy.

As I mentioned before it's so much better to be living with a parent when your sick. Usually I have to take care of myself, and I'm not really good at it. For example when I had Mono, I didn't really slow down at all, I still walked to university, went to all my classes and hung out with my boy and friends. Or when I had my wisdom teeth out, I kept getting out of bed. But this time my Mom was home with me. We watched Joan of Arcadia then she went and made my bed and made me get in it. It was awesome. I even fell asleep right away and didn't even hear her watch the news.

So yeah. Overall this sick experience wasn't too bad. The actual sickness was pretty awful and gross and painful, but a lot of good stuff happened anyway. I learned that my Mom is great, and not eating leads to a massive loss of weight.

You know, I do love my job. My kids are all adorable, they mostly listen to me, and I have a lot of fun. What I don't love about my job, is the way children happen to be little germ factories.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the stomach flu. Blah. I spent last night in various stages of pain and anguish, but since the sun has risen I've gotten steadily better. Hopefully I'll be fully recovered for the weekend. Cause I got big plans.

Anyhoo, one of the positives to this latest illness is this time my Mom is here, so she's been very good and mother like, taking care of me, and ordering me to not go to work. Thanks Mom, you are awesome!

Y'all, Britney Spears is pregnant!

Thanks to everyone for the answers. I feel a little better informed now.

I had a lovely day yesterday. I went to go visit Janice at work and managed to even get some reading done for my stupid paper while waiting for Anna to meet me there.

Then Anna and I went shopping, which after a few rough starts was actually quite successful. I got a new jean skirt from Winners. It's a little shorter than my usual fair... meaning that it sits about two inches above my knee verses below the knee. It's pretty cute and will be awesome for summer.

I also found a lovely blouse at Sears. It's sort of that cowboy style, with snaps up the front and a really pretty flower pattern. There's also some awesome embroidery. It's just gorgeous. And it was on sale. You really can't beat that.

Then at Old Navy I got two pairs of flip flops. They are very pretty and summer-y. And the straps are made of cloth so hopefully they won't cut into my toes like the plastic kind does.

After Old Navy we decided to head out to dinner at Boston Pizza and then went to Anna's theater and saw Fever Pitch. It was cute, but not all that good. And Drew Barrymore drove me a little nuts.

Okay, I feel like I should know this, but I don't. Can anyone tell me why gas prices are so bloody high?

Also, how come the price the gas stations post on their signs are always 3 or 4 cents higher than the actual price of gas? I would think they would want to put their best price on the big sign to attract more people.

Thanks!

So I'm sure everyone's heard of this by now right?

So far I've looked up my last few houses in Vancouver, and Edmonton. Sadly Edmonton doesn't let you zoom in yet. Sigh.

It's like seeing your house from an airplane.

In other news I hate baseball. Because of some stupid game last night Veronica Mars (the coolest show on television....remind me again why you aren't watching it?) wasn't on until 10:30. Which means I didn't go to bed until 11:30....and 7am comes so soon after that.

The episode was worth it. But it was so annoying how even after the game was over, they did a recap of the game. And the whole recap was like a minute of talking and 5 minutes of commercials, then back again.

So annoyed.

I got an email from my internship co-ordinator today, letting me know that the piece of crap, stupid outline assignment I rushed doing last week, safely made it to Edmonton, and I have managed to get credit for the term. YAY!

I hated that assignment. Until you are asked to write out at least a page about the methodology of writing a PAPER, you do not fully understand the concept of "busy work". Even my boss agreed it was a stupid assignment. I love when I'm validated that way.

I just have to say that this whole time change thing, has hit me in a brutal way. I'm eating at weird times and I feel like I've been hit in the head with a ton of bricks. I'm just sort of walking around in a daze. This is the first year this has happened to me. It's all very strange.


As a Catholic, I feel the need to say something about the Pope. But I don't really know what. Some people on other blogs are talking about all the crap that the Vatican has pulled politically during John Paul II's rule (?)... but I don't really feel like criticizing my church today. 'Cause in the end it is my faith, and I really hate it when people who are un-religious go on and on about how bad the church is. Or when the first thing I hear, after I identify myself as Catholic, is about the alter boy molestation. Sigh. What was I saying...right Pope. I was talking to my Mom about this. This Pope was the fourth one in her lifetime and only my first, so I feel she has a better grasp on the whole thing. I really have nothing to compare John Paul to. I don't really know how another person would do things differently in his place. Unlike my Mom. She liked some of the things he did, but she wishes he had been a bit more socially liberal. In her mind, as a woman, she wants recognition within the church. She wants her rights and choices to be recognized. She also said that gay people do exist and don't need to the change, so the church kind of has to realize that too. Neither she, nor I, have much hope that the next guy will bring the much needed changes (would it kill them to say it's okay to use contraceptives....especially when it may help slow the spread of AIDS in places like Africa and a few teen pregnancies to boot) but you never know. It'll be fun to watch the process, all with the voting and the smoke. As Anna told me on Sunday, it's all very medieval.

So Pope John Paul II may you rest in peace and have a kick ass time in heaven.

I've had a bit of a lazy day. Well at least since I finished work at noon today. I've had a nap and a bubble bath. Which was beautiful. I even remembered my little cold eye mask, so hopefully I'll stop looking like a ghost soon (pale skin, big black circles under my eyes).

I'm still catching up on sleep from this last weekend. And here I thought that long weekends out of the city were for rest and relaxation, yet somehow I've spent the last few days in varying states of exhaustion. Go figure.

I managed to not fall for any April Fools jokes yesterday. It helps that all the kids I worked with on Friday are still a little young to understand the nuances of a good joke, and secondly that I was well aware of the date (mostly because it coincided with payday).

April Fools Day has got to be my least favourite "holiday" so to speak. I was a very gullible child, and continue to be a fairly gullible adult. I know you wouldn't guess it from my cynical and sarcastic exterior, but I tend to be very trusting, much to my detriment. I was made the fool many times in elementry and junior high school, which has lead to me feeling much relieved by the passing of April 1st.

Tonight, however, is Daylight Savings Time once again. The day where we Spring forward and lose one precious hour of sleep. I am so happy I'm not working tomorrow. It'll give me a chance to regroup. But I wonder why does such a horrible occurrence sound so happy and optimistic? "Spring Forward" it's just too glass half full to me. And it's counter part "Fall Back" seems very negative, even though it's the most wonderful time of year too me. Sigh. All very strange.