I've been tagged

Four jobs I've had:

1. Massage Therapist. Still doin' it, like it.
2. Massage therapy instructor/clinic supervisor. Didn't like it.
3. Office administrator in a funeral home. Liked it ok, it was just a job.
4. H&R Block girl. I was the one who printed and signed the "cash back" cheques.

Four movies I can watch over and over:

1. Bridget Jones
2. Love Actually
3. Chicago
4. Pirates of the Caribbean

Four places I've lived:

1. Here
2. There
3. _______
4. _______

Four places I've vacationed:

1. Orlando, FL (family vacation)
2. New York City (quickie vacation)
3. Haiti (working vacation)
4. Vancouver, Nanaimo, Whistler (long vacation)

Four of my favorite dishes:

1. Pizza (I know, that's pathetic)
2. Beef stroganoff
3. A meal involving pot stickers
4. Not turkey

Four sites I visit daily:

1. BBC News
2. The Weather Network
3. Job bank
4. People Magazine

Four places you'd rather be right now:

1. Bed
2. _____
3. _____
4. _____

Four bloggers I am tagging:

I don't have four more bloggers to tag :(

Obedience you say?

Mother-fuckin' mutt hound. I almost cried again at non-obedience class. Freakin' dog knew how to do everything we went over tonight and he was just flagrantly non-compliant.

I wanted to quit.

I actually didn't look up for a couple of minutes because I was fighting tears.

"SIT FUCKER SIT!"

Uh oh

It's doing it again...you should hear this! My coffee mug is ALIVE.

It sang to me

In my early morning stupor I dragged my feet across the floor to pour myself a cup of crack...er, coffee. I retreated to the living to sit, stare, and drink.

"Boyfriend, come here! Do you hear that?"

"Yes, what's in there?"

"Just coffee."

"Do you want me to pour it out?"

"No. I'll just drink it."

"Don't cry to me if something jumps out at you."

*eye roll*

My coffee mug was making weird noises and fortunately I had a witness to confirm I had not OD'd on marshmallows last evening frying more brain cells than what I could spare.

Weird.

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As I had mentioned earlier, I have two midterms coming up this week. One is in sport psychology, which I absolutely love so expect future posts on perception and personality and such. Love that shit! LOVE it!

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I bought a gazillion pairs of fleece slipper socks from the evil store I try not to shop at anymore. They had these booty fleece slipper socks on sale for $2 and I bought a pair in every colour. I love the darn things. I had great intentions of buying them as part of my Christmas shopping in an effort to cure my condition, Last Minute Shopping Syndrome. In doing so I realized not only do I suffer from LMSS but also Me Me Me Disease. This is bad.

High as a kite

I had a great day procrastinating my studies! After sleeping in later than I had intended boyfriend and I walked Vince with friends of his, which took an hour and a half but we all enjoyed our outing. It was a beautiful day of sunshine and relatively warm temperatures (-4 C) for January.

Once we got home I had about 30 minutes to regroup for my afternoon skating session with Ms. D. We decided to head to the lake where the pond hockey tournament is to be held. I boiled some water and packed the marshmallows for hot chocolate after our skate. We were on the ice for over an hour and we each took a spill although Ms. D. caught some serious air where you could see the transition point from moving up and then pausing briefly before the crash! I'm surprised she didn't get whiplash from that maneuver! My fall was much less exciting.

We skated up and down the length of the ice and actually worked on our weak areas of skating (there are several!). Once we had had enough we wandered back to the car to warm up with the hot chocolate for four (we were expecting CJ and CJ Jr.) which we thought we should drink the WHOLE thing. And by drinking hot chocolate I do mean pouring just enough hot chocolate over a mountain of marshmallows to moisten them. The skaters retiring to their vehicles stared at us as if we were having a tailgate party in the sunfire. We did get giddy and suffered a sugar high from which we crashed 15 minutes later.

I decided after our sugar withdrawl that I had better shower before dinner with the in-laws since I hadn't seen the working end of a shower head since Friday morning, possibly Thursday morning. Eeeeek!

Mmmmm, I smell good!

Mission Accomplished

After purchasing a new rug for the entry/kitchen in my apartment I spun off into an all out kitchen overhaul. A much needed overhaul I might add. I love my place even though it isn't a large space it has character and my kitchen has been suffering neglect to "n"th degree!

...and now it's done!

I have thrashed, donated, and relocated most of my kitchen "stuff" and now have EMPTY draws and cupboard space! I currently have occupied about 1/3 of the space I had originally crammed with my crap! I'm a happy girl!

Normal

Everything's back to normal with the website. My web hosting company called me yesterday and had their dates off by a week. All was up and running again by last night.

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The ice princesses were out last night (Me, CJ, and Ms.D). We hit the ice and ripped off several laps around the rink. No major slips and falls although Ms. D did perform quite the rock-star slide into the boards.

I was expecting my arse to be sore today but it is not! You all can rest easily now knowing that!

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The tentative exam schedule made it's first appearance today. I write on April 18th at 9 am and on April 19th at 2 pm. At least I'll get them all finished at once!

Suspended

My professional website has been suspended for 30 days for lack of payment. I asked my web hosting company if they paid the annually domain name fee and they said they would. They apparently have not.

Need to know basis

Working in the health care industry leads to hearing interesting things from clients/patients eventually.

For instance, last week while doing a regular run-of-the-mill back massage my clients tells me his wife was a nympho back when they first started dating 30 years ago. I didn't ask him that, I didn't need to know that.

Later, a female client, who I do not know that well outside of work, blurts out the fact that she has an appointment to get breast implants. Again, why? I didn't need to know that either.

I don't mind though. I hold interesting, incriminating, embarrassing facts about a lot of people...and I'm bound by confidentiality. Maybe that's why...

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I totally scored a rockin' belt from my dad's closet on the weekend. I grabbed this brown leather belt with a solid buckle on it that surely would not fit him, even on a good day!

Today

My first class today ended abruptly when a student passed out in the middle of class. A few people giggled thinking he had just dozed off but it turned out that he had fainted or something worse. The instructor approached him to check on his state and he had started showing signs of life but was very groggy and incoherent. We were dismissed as the instructor and a few of the student's friends waited for an ambulance. The poor guy had crawled up onto the desk (a very long one) and was stretched out on it when I left. Freaky.

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I'm off to register Vince in level two obedience classes after my next client. I'm not overly confident this time around but we shall see...

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Boyfriend and gang are off to Haiti again in February...without me...again!! I vowed not to go again until I finished my degree. Stupid degree. My only consolation is I'm house sitting for a couple that organizes the whole venture and they have a great spot. There'll be me, three cats, four dogs, one hundred acres, a hot tub, a frozen pond to skate on, a sled and a hill... It's the perfect winter haven!

My luck ran out

I pumped my tank full of gas yesterday and didn't squeeze in any extra dribbles to round off the dollar figure. I grabbed a liter of milk and proceeded to pay. It came to $40 even. Cool. I then have the cashier check my lottery ticket. Nothing. Dammit!

Monday, again?

I cannot believe it is Monday and I have to go to classes. This past week has been so wonderfully busy with work and the weekend was busy with social activities! I worked in my home town on Friday and Saturday, which pleased my parents with my overnight stopover! I finished work and got back to town just in time to go to our dinner party with a couple visiting from out of town. I had low expectations of the evening which turned out to be an absolute howl!

This is from our walk home (me and boyfriend).

Splurge

Ok, I'll admit, it's excessive but I spent $30 on a new stylus for my Pocket PC. I purchased a Dell Axim X30 in March and have managed to hang onto the original stylus all of this time. I lost it earlier this week and decided to get myself a new one. I called Dell and...THEY DON"T MAKE THEM ANYMORE, not for my Pocket PC anyway. It hasn't even been a year! This news forces me to go to Staples where they only have small ones for Palms and such. I needed a normal full size pen/stylus to clip to my case so hence the $30. But, it's a stylus, pen, pencil, and hi-lighter all in one!!

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Work has been insanely busy this week, which I'm thrilled about! Unfortunately this doesn't leave much time for socializing and I'm feeling a bit of withdrawal!! I have only seen my friend that's visiting from California because she came in twice for a massage, God love her!! It's sad when work and play have to overlap. She takes off early tomorrow and I'm quite sad, we used to have a ball when she was living here :(. I only saw her three times in the month she was home and I was bummed all day after she left my office yesterday.

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So my office mate proposed a flash trip to Toronto to see this exhibit at the Science Centre about human bodies that have been preserved and then modeled with plastic to display the human anatomy. I'm not going as I'd be gagging all of the way through! It is kind of neat though.

Patience

Lord teach me patience...

Awwww fuck it, hand me an axe so I can chop the hands off of the loud typer sitting next to me! She's sitting here in an on-campus computer lab with her MP3 player blaring in her ears (and a bit in mine too) BANGING away on the freaking keyboard.

*Bang, bang, LOUD FUCKING SIGH, "sweeeeet," BANG!!!!*

I'm going to smack her, I'm going to smack her...

Excrement

Oh dear. I have been eating dried figs like there's no tomorrow and I've been making sure to consume all of the suggested water to keep one healthy. The only problem, my digestive system is pissed, or thrilled, it's difficult to distinguish the two. I have enough gas to power North America and I have enough pee to run a turbine to power the rest of the world.

During one of my client's treatments this afternoon I had to pee so badly I wanted to cry. When I finally did go to the washroom my waterworks went on and on and on and on...ahhhhhhhhhhh.

All in the name of healthy living!

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Work is taking a turn for the better *knock on wood* with the new year. This time of year typically is busier anyway plus my Yellow Pages ad is out, which is the source of a large percentage of new clients.

Now for overhauling my website...

Kong

I think I may be part owner of Kong now after my huge investment in Kong toys yesterday. Vince has chewed through all of his toys and once they're destroyed sufficiently, he eats them! I have seen stuffing, orange teddy bear limbs, plastic eyes, and much more in his poop after his various toy feasts. Dogs do stupid things.

*Jess, don't read this part*

I spent $65 on dog toys! Eeek.

I bought the Classic Kong, I bought the Kong Dental Stick, I already had the Kong Retiever and the Kong Ball, I bought the Kong Peanut Butter Stuff'N.

I should be getting paid for this post.

Toots

Vince is laying beside me on the couch and farting at me. I can hear the air seeping from his arse. It is vile.

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I'm just returning from Ms. D's birthday/going away party for her snogger. I drove all around familiar territory looking for a street sign that had been ploughed down by the provincially operated snow removal "professionals." Everyone seemed to have a good time, especially Ms. D and PC (her snogger). I think PC's mother particularly enjoyed hearing about Ms.D's various trists, drunks, and losing of virginity. Way to impress the potential mother-in-law!

Reason to not invite me to your birthday party:

"Happy birthday PC, can you fix my windshield wipers? I forgot to bring you a card."
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I feel like I'm finally getting caught up with my friends that I wanted to visit with over Christmas! I saw friends that I haven't seen in quite a while! I'm feeling better about that!
I even learned how to play dominos...and I like it!

FYI

Fascinating:

1) Rabbits can sleep with their eyes open.
2) Although commonly thought to be rodents, rabbits belong to the lagomorph family.
3) Rabbits are crepuscular, meaning they're most active at dawn and dusk.
4) Rabbits snore.
5) There are so many rabbits put to death daily in shelters they don't even keep count!
6) Rabbits can get pregnant an hour after giving birth. SPAY AND NEUTER!
7) Rabbits are litterbox trainable.
8) Rabbits can live peacefully with non-aggressive cats, dogs, and other (non-predatory) creatures.
9) Rabbits love to play with toys.
10) Each rabbit has it's own distinct personality, complete with humor, idiosyncrasies, even pet peeves.
11) Rabbits can't vomit.
12) Rabbits are too much responsibility for a child.
13) Dental cavities in rabbits are a relatively new health problem, another reason to avoid junk foods.
14) Rabbits produce two kinds of waste. The regular fecal pellets, and cecal pellets consisting of nutrients not absorbed by the small intestine. They eat these. What a way to take your vitamins!
15) If lost, rabbits cannot find their way home.
16) Because of the placement of their eyes, rabbits cannot see straight ahead of them, making them easily startled.
17) Rabbits can die of a heart attack if frightened.
18) Rabbits are too domesticated to survive in the wild.
19) Rabbits are used to test many cosmetics and household products. Don't support the torture, buy products labeled "cruelty free" or "not tested on animals".
20) Rabbits rule!

Bad Kiki! Bad!

So how's this for eating to lose 20 lbs.? This is my count from yesterday.

Total calories: 1865
Fat (g): 110
Carbohydrates (g): 205
Protein (g): 48

I guess that large bag of chips for supper didn't serve me well in the grams-of-fat department. Crapola!

For CJ

You may want to rethink that "hottie" comment.

I have no pride whatsoever!

Vanity

These pictures are here for motivational purposes. They are all pre-ass-explosion. As I scrolled through these I noticed there was a lot of partying going on then, perhaps I need more of that. Hmmmm?

Mission: Lose 20 lbs.


This is at my friend's wedding in 2001. Not sure why my mouth has gone all Katie Holmes on me but at least my Goddaughter makes up for it!

Apple picking 2001. This is only here because the breast augmenting apples made me laugh.



Pre-boyfriend in 2000. I'm actually the taller one for a change, all 5'3" of me!

There may have been some Hydroxycut and rigorous exercise involved here. I'm at my parents' place about to go out and get SMASHED at a hockey party. Wow, I haven't used those words in a sentence together since...this picture!

Smashed! This is after meeting boyfriend in 2000. We'd been dating for about 2 months here. No, I did not have sex on the first date. I waited two more... Damn, I'm easy.

Why the hell am I on the floor?

This is just after my brother's wedding in 2000. I was celebrating being out of the horrific dress I was forced into as an attendant...on my brother's side. This was also between romps...yay for hairspray!

Welcome to 1980. Just thought these were cute (hence title, "vanity")

Time

I cannot believe how my "spare" time is being totally sucked away before my very eyes. I've only been back at classes for a week and already I feel like my time is no longer my own. I actually enjoy my courses so far so I don't mind attending class at this point but I don't feel like I accomplished all I wanted to over Christmas break. I have so many people I intended to visit with that I had not seen at all and the friends I did see I didn't see enough of. Whine.

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Today I had to attend a lab, which is additional class time on top of the regular 3 hours/week of lecture time. We did EMG and Interpolated Twitch. I am SO glad I wasn't the subject. The poor guy had one of his quad muscles involuntarily contracting and then had to endure 30 second stints of maximal contraction over 10 minutes. He was sweating as if he ran a marathon.

It was fun though.

Love At First Sight

Two years ago I joined a medical humanitarian group that concentrates on physical rehabilitation in Haiti. This group has a clinic in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti where people with physical and/or intellectual disabilities can seek treatments of various forms; prosthetics, orthotics, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, surgery, massage therapy, you name it! We each packed one small carry-on bag for the plane allotting the remainder of our allowable luggage to carry prosthetic limbs (or various parts and materials to make such limbs), crutches, canes, wheel chairs, etc. Groups of medical professionals make the trek to Haiti and provide their services while training Haitian volunteers to perform the necessities for patients to carry out a thorough physio program to rehabilitate from various disabilities. The ultimate goal is to have the clinic self sustained by Haitian workers. I love this idea!

Of anything I have ever done in my lifetime, this one week in Haiti is what I am most proud of, hands down. It is truly amazing to see people from all different backgrounds pull together for a common cause. I can't say I changed much in Haiti but Haiti certainly changed much in me.

During our stay in 2004 there was a great deal of unrest in Haiti much like today. We were not certain until two days before leaving if our safety could be ensured enough to even go. We did go. We went out and visited orphanages and hospitals and tended to the organization's own clinic amidst the political chaos, which by the way, was portrayed to be much worse in the media.

A small group of us visited the General Hospital in downtown Port-Au-Prince where there was an abandoned children's unit. This place was unsanitary and an ultimate death trap. Kids went there to die. This unit had 17 children but only 12 beds. It was in this abandoned children's unit where I fell in love. Her name is Ellen.

After assessing the children inside the unit for physical capabilities, Sarah (the physio) and I stepped into the outdoor annex to examine the remainder of the children. On an uncovered crib mattress thrown onto the concrete ground I saw a baby about 18 months old. She was on her belly supported by her arms gazing off into nowhere completely lacking emotion. Sarah and I assessed her and concluded there was nothing intellectually or physically wrong with her. I held her the rest of the day. She slept in my arms, she played with my watch, she even laughed after a great deal of effort. I did not work anymore that day aside from hold this precious little girl.

After three hours we had to leave. I put her into one of the cribs and walked away. She cried. I picked her up and one of the nurses from our team took her and I left the room.

I knew after that day that I would never be concerned with having or not having my own biological children as I knew I could fall in love with a child and love her forever more. In fact, I would love to adopt a baby like Ellen.

I tried to follow up on Ellen through the child welfare department in Haiti. They said she had been moved to another orphanage and was being adopted. I was sad it wasn't me adopting her but thrilled she has a chance.

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And just because I'm me and can't be serious for more than 10 minutes, I'd like to point out that within 24 hours of being in Haiti I inspired a skinny dipping extravaganza! Oooops, rum punch.

Lamp shades

I've continued working through my apartment and throwing shit out. I have managed to accumulate a lot of random crap that I don't even realize I possess. My apartment is not large but I absolutely love this place so I want to create an enjoyable and functional place in which to live.

Bags: I have purses, backpacks, shoulder bags, tote bags, laptop cases, canvas grocery bags. Must decrease number of carrying devices.

Lamp shades: I have three lampless lamp shade. Either find lamps for said shades or chuck 'em (I vote for at least one to be chucked...ugly forest green...).

Papers: Countless papers unfiled and envelopes unopened. Burn 'em.

Clothes: I have filled yet another garbage bag of clothes that I just don't wear. I suspect more of this to come.

Cat Beds: Cats sleep wherever they desire. Owning four cat beds is pointless and a waste of space.

Underwear and socks: I have chucked all of my thongs that snuggle up into places they don't belong (i.e. the infamous "Front Wedgie") and socks with holes or socks that are permanently divorced from their spouse.

I could go on all night but rest assured Internet Land, I am making progress.

Pond Hockey

There will be a pond hockey tournament here in February. I need to be in it.

The Dog Show

My landlord popped in this evening while picking up the garbage and Vince jumped all over him! Not cool since it was a huge deal to even have him here in the first place. I told him to sit (Vince that is although I'm sure Jim would have love to sit down for a minute) and he did...for a moment before proceeding to demand Jim's attention. Yeay for obedience classes! I told Vince to go to his bed and stay, and he did. Jim was in awe of his obedience and commented several times how impressed he was with him (in spite of the very excited greeting at the door!). It's a good thing to impress the fellow who could potentially evict us all!

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Classes are underway and so far so good, I'm maintaining my excited about my courseload. However, it's an unusual feeling to realize I'm probably older than at least two of my instructors.

Strange.

One is hot though. Not bad, a little eye candy for my learning pleasure.

HTML

You wanna talk about procrastination...I'm teaching myself how to do my own personal website. I have someone who has put one up for me but we've never really discussed the way I really want it to look and I'm not great at relaying the image in my head to someone else. I figured creating some bits and pieces of what I'm thinking about might clarify exactly what that is.

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Everyone around me is off.

I want to hug them all.

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I'm reading a great book that I don't recommend for everyone but I do recommend it highly. "Why do Men Have Nipples?" It discusses all of those medical questions people tend to ask physicians at parties once the booze have taken effect. Funny stuff.

FYI: poop is brown because of billirubin but look out for beets, blueberries, etc. but you already knew that!

I'm so easily amused!!!

*wedding crashes is out on dvd today!!!*

Off we go

I mowed my man-legs and I'm ready to roll!

The right start

Ooops, I got drunk this afternoon. In my defense, I found the eggnog and thought it must be polished off before it sours.

I'm sober now, I'm OK!

*will not start classes hung over*

Where'd it go?

My Christmas "vacation" is officially over tomorrow morning at 8:30. It doesn't even feel like I've had much of a break from school although I'm looking forward to a fresh start for this next term!

I spent New Year's Eve at a couples thing! I realized it at one point during the evening and it struck me kind of funny that I attend couple things now! Oh, and I actually quite like them! We had an awesome time just hanging out watching Ms. D. get publicly shagged (hehehehe!! Sorry Ms.D. I just couldn't resist!).

We whipped out the 90's Trivial Pursuit which you would expect me to be good at since those were my "hay day" years but I apparently wasn't socially aware back then. Ahhh, we started the year off on the right foot anyway! We woke up to snow and cottage full of friends and the odd beer bottle! Empty.

Boyfriend and I drove back to my parents' place and spent New Year's day with them, my brother, and my nephew. I was curious to see if Vince would eat the baby by mistake but everyone's limbs are still in tact!

Vince was a happy puppy after getting to run in the freshly fallen snow. It was so beautiful to see the trees with the powdery snow just sitting there so peacefully.



Cheers! To 2006!