Why my days off are busier than my days working....

Today was a LONG day.

I got up this morning after going to bed late (last night was fun though, and worth the late night. Got to see a boy with silly hair and a nice smile. :) ) and made my way to the dentist for the first time in over a year.

The dentist was not fun. Definitely not nearly as fun as the eye doctor was. I hate the scraping sound of the dentist. You start to wonder if you have any tooth left after the hygienist is done with you. And I got some news from the dentist that I was expecting, but didn't want to hear... "You need to get your wisdom teeth out". As if I have money for that! It's gonna cost anywhere from $800 to $1200 and I just do not have that kinda coin! So we'll have to see about some kinda benefits for this girl.

After the dentist I went home and my mom and I left again to go back to Elmira and work on cleaning out my grandma's garage. But first we went to the market in St. Jacobs where I proceeded to convince her to buy me silly things that I have no need for. Like a balloon animal kit and a turtle umbrella. Yeah, I don't need these things, but man they are amusing. The lady at the shop laughed at me, asked if I was actually going to use the umbrella and I said "oh yeah!" and my mom laughed and said "Well, we know she's definitely not a shy kid". I think the lady definitely thought I was like, 17.

When we got back to Elmira we spent 3 hours going through all the stuff in my grandma's garage, which was a feat in and of itself. There was so much stuff in there, stuff that had been there since my mom was a kid. Ugh. Not fun at all.

I got home around 5, and then I had to wait for Jer to come back with my car because he'd taken it off somewhere. And he gave me some bad news... apparently something is screwy with the steering rack and pinion (more car terminology that I need to learn, I guess) and it will need to be fixed sooner or later. I can only assume it's from when I went into the ditch...twice... and all the times I got stuck this year. Argh! So annoyed.. I just want my car fixed!!!

I took my bike up to Jer's house to collect my car, and it was freakin cold out while I was doing that... no better motivation to remember how to bike with no hands than wanting to put them into your pockets, let me tell you! Once I got there I had to figure out how to get my bike home. I crammed it into my car the best way I could... it's interesting...

Now I'm heading out the door to hang out with Bailey... gonna go for coffee. I've done a lot of that this week, but I've been so bored and had so much time off at night that what else am I going to do!?

Can't wait til tomorrow... the maple syrup festivities begin!

Elmira Maple Syrup Festival

I don't know if there is anything that I love more in a year (besides my bday, and maybe the summer as a whole) than the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival.

For me it means a lot more than just maple syrup. It's a chance to see family, friends, eat my weight in things available on buns and sticks, watch the population of Elmira triple (and all the people are on the main street) and sit on my grandma's porch and people watch.

I've been attending the MSF since I was born. Actually, I can pretty much guarantee that I was there as a fetus. The MSF has been part of my family's background from the very first event, almost 40 years ago. My mom actually clearly remembers the first festival.

When I was a child, we had a booth along the main street, right smack dab in front of my grandparent's house, which is an Elmira landmark in itself. We sold, surprise surprise, maple syrup that we got from neighbouring farmers, maple butter, apple butter, dried apples and maple sugar. The night before the festival was spent bagging the apples (8oz bags, I seem to remember...maybe less) and counting out the maple sugar and putting it into baggies.

My cousins and friends would bring the mattress from the futon downstairs and pull all the cushions off the couch to create a giant bed in the front living room. This is where we would sleep, going to bed late at night and getting up super early to watch the people start arriving to sample the goods around the "mall". As a teenager it was always great fun to sneak out of the house at night and go running around town, watching the people set up their booths and chalking the lines on the road to mark out where the booths all go.

The morning of the festival always starts with the sound of a hammer outside. We would get up, put away all our bedding and take a quick walk up one side and then back down the other side of the mall, giving everything the once over. Then back to Grandma's house we would go, to make pancakes or waffles (I've only actually eaten pancakes at the festival once...) and drink coffee. The day is then spent sitting on the porch watching people go by. Friends and family are always stopping in, sometimes the occaisional stranger comes in the door not realizing that the little green and white house is just that - a house - and not another buisness.

Favorite attractions have always included the wagon ride back and forth between the downtown area and the parking located a bit farther out, Old MacDonald's Farm, the pony rides, the back bacon hecklers (they'll should at you while you walk by), maple taffy, and sometimes going to the sugar bush.

This year promises to be just like all the rest. I was so upset last year when I missed out on the festivities. I've already promised myself that I'll never miss a festival again, and my travelling will always start after the first weekend of April and end by the 2nd week of March to make sure I'm home in time.

However, this will be the last year we have my Grandma's house as home base. With her recent passing away, the house is no longer in our possession and I don't quite know what that means in terms of the festival. One of us will just have to get a house right near downtown, I suppose.

Lots of pictures to come....

Driveby Photography

Took a few quick pictures of the nice weather yesterday....

This is the album

I can't wait til this weekend... It's the Maple Syrup Festival!

"Wow, I could fist your eye" ... and other thoughts from today

Today was interesting. ...

First I woke up looking beautiful. Kinda like I was visited by the princess of 1980 and blessed with some beautiful hair and a gorgeous wardrobe. I'd gone to bed with wet hair and woke up and put my velour zip up sweater on... and then saw myself in the mirror and burst out laughing. I thought everyone would enjoy it, so I took a picture....

(Oh, and then pulled my hair into a pony tail and hoped for the best... I took it out 10 hours later and it looks pretty much identical... thats where I'm at now)

Then I headed off to the eye doctor's for my 8:15am appointment. I got there and no one was there. Nobody showed up until around 8:20... so much for that early start.

My eye doctor kinda scares me. He's twitchy and looks sorta strung out most of the time, which when he's going to be leaning close to your face in a dark room can be somewhat disconcerting. My mom went to highschool with him and ever since she told me that he was a known acid dropper, I've been a bit apprehensive to say the least.

The appointment went as most do, starting with me holding this thing that looks like a flattened spoon up to my left eye and reading a row of letters with my right. For the most part I could see the letters and read them off... then I switched eyes. I couldn't see a thing. Evidently my left eye is significantly worse than my right. Though, this I already knew. It's part of the fact that I have bad depth perception... and my clumsiness comes from that and the fact that I don't wear my glasses very regularly.

(which reminds me, if I did wear my glasses chance are I'd have less unknown bruises on my body. I have a big one on my arm right now and this massive one on my side, between my ribs and hip.. not sure where it came from.)

Anyway, after the flat spoon test came the tests with the weird thing they put in front of your eyes and turn dials and switches and ask you "which is better, one or 2?" "two" "which is better, one or 2?" "two". Sometimes I feel compelled to say the opposite of what I really think just to mess with their diagnosis of whats really wrong with me.

I can't remember what other tests happened, but I know I had a lot of lights shone into my eyes and it hurt. And then the drops started. The first batch was to "numb" my eye. I have no idea why we needed to numb my eyes, but I was warned afterwards no to touch my near my eye in case I poked it out cuz I wouldn't feel it. This was a really hard thing not to do, because I wanted to know if I would in fact, not feel it...

The 2nd batch of drops were the glaucoma (which my brother later this evening mistakenly called guacamola when I was telling him this story) drops that enlarge your pupil to the size of dinner plates and make you look like Mr. Burns as the alien. Now, the part I don't understand is this. He puts these drops in my eyes, tells me they will make my vision blurry and then puts on March of the Penguins and leaves the room, taking his coat with him and closes the door. I'm guessing the drops had to sit for a bit, but why put on a movie that I can't see due to the fact that A: I'm near sighted and have a hard time seeing anything far away and B: I was just told that they would make my vision blurry.

When he finally returned like, 15 or 20 min later (I was at the part in the movie where they have met their mates...) he proceeds to shine a light into my eye for like, 10 minutes making me hold my eyes wide open while he looks into my eyeball via my massive pupil. I had a pretty hard time not laughing when he put on this like, mining hat with a pen light attached to it. It looked slightly like a medieval torture device... Seems all is good inside my eyeball, which was the consensus after I held my breath through the whole procedure.

When all was done, I went out and got an RX for my glasses that I'm going to order tomorrow and then got into my car. It was around this point when I realized that I couldn't quite see anything unless it was around 3 feet from me. Nothing closer, nothing farther away. I put on some sunglasses and drove to work...

The blurry vision lasted til around 3, and it was really hard to type or read stuff... But I managed to take a picture of my Mr. Burns eyes even though I nearly blinded myself taking the picture. Hence the bizarre expression on my face.

Tomorrow is new glasses day, which should be exciting. I'll have to take pictures. Of course I will. I take pictures of everything from the beginning of my day to the end.

I'm going to the dentist on Thursday. I can only hope that my day is just as exciting there....

(P.S: thanks to Nordo for the title of this entry)

Ottawa Progress

I think I have decided on a place to live in Ottawa...

It's on Besserer, and it's a house with a bunch of girls. I'm not quite sure how many. A bunch...Not so sure about that part of it, but the place itself has a lot to offer...

Parking, wireless internet, cable, super close to downtown, a decent sized room...

I just have to let the girl know tomorrow... ooo!

I'm not an emo kid, but...

I really like emo-y music.

I'm a sucker for My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy. Yeah, the trendy shit.

I can justify it by enjoying stuff that isn't mainstream.

Do I need to justify it though? I don't even know....

All I know is that I'm sitting in my room rocking out to the new FOB album...

Beautiful Day!

It's absolutely fucking beautiful outside today... just gorgeous. I should be out on my bike, cuz who knows when I'll have a day off and it's the first proper day of spring?

(On a side note, my car isn't fixed and thats sad.... )

Anyway, I got to thinking about Canadians today. How we are a pretty funny group of people... We spend like, 6 months of the year in weather that is considered unsatisfactory by the majority of the rest of the world. I think only Russia can relate! From abouts the end of Sept til the end of April we have to wear layers and coats and hats and all that fun stuff. It doesn't get above like, 13 degrees most days, and at night it's hovering around zero.

And yet, as Canadians, we hold on to EVERY single bit of warmth Mother Nature throws our way.

Today was a perfect example. It's around 13 or 14 outside, sunny and no wind. PERFECT spring day. I was driving along the highway doing some deliveries between schools, and noticed a fry stand open. There were people outside sitting at the picnic tables, eating french fries... nevermind they had their winter coats on, it's freakin nice out!

I was driving with my windows down, sun beating in... nevermind I had the heat cranked on my feet, it's freaking nice out!

There was a kid who's picture I took today, he was wearing shorts. I asked him if they were his gym shorts, he said "no, it's a nice day!".

Canadians make the most of every single beautiful day we have... it doesn't matter if it's unconventional, we do it anyway... because we should, and because we have to!

How do these things only happen to me?!

Today, it was an INTERESTING day.

Yesterday was spent trying to determine what exactly was wrong with my car. We decided it was the axle, so Jer ordered parts... fine.

I went to work this morning, in my car, drove it to Guelph. It was kinda acting weird, making that horrible disgusting sound that it makes when I drive it.... that sound like metal through a meat grinder.... the metal equivalent to nails on a chalk board... yeah,that one. And having spasms again. GREAT. I figured it was due to the dampness of the roads and stuff. Who knows. All I know is that turning corners kinda freaked me out.

Set up, started taking pictures, didn't think we'd have enough paper to print the pictures out, and at lunch it was decided that I would take my car over to one of the other schools and get some more proof envelopes. I did that, and the whole while my car was like, jerking all over the road... not fun. Believe me.

Made it safely back to the school, finished shooting, and got my car packed up amidst a french play recital (there were little kids practicing this french play in the room we were shooting) and then headed out of the parking lot.

Turned right, got about 10 feet and heard this horrible grinding crunching sound and then my car wouldn't go anywhere. I put it into park and it doesn't stay put... which meant I had nothing! I put the E-break on and got out to look... there were ball bearings all over the road!

"Fucking hell" I thought. "the fucking wheel bearing exploded!"

Now, don't ask me how the hell I knew what a wheel bearing was. I don't. I think I heard the word and it made sense..... but anyway, thats what it was. So then I felt stupid cuz I thought it was my axle.

I had to phone Cdn Tire Roadside Assistance and get them to send a tow for me.... which came like, an hour later. THEN I had to sit in the tow truck with this sketchy driver (aren't they all?) all the way to Jer's house.... I figured, he's already ordered the parts for my car, he might as well fix it.

When I got there, after an hour with the tow guy, Jer wasn't even at his house! So I had to phone my brother to come pick me up and take me home.... I went up later to Jer's to get my equipment from my car for tomorrow's shoot and he says that it was my axle and it basically exploded. GREAT! It's a good thing he got the parts for it today!

I should have my car back tomorrow. I can only hope!


On another note, I got to see someone I haven't seen in like, years. Tonight was fun. I hope it gets to happen again. To talk about traveling around and randomly picking up and doing stuff, it's nice to have someone know where I'm coming from.

I'm glad that it's only tomorrow morning standing between me and the weekend! I'm hoping I can make it down to Woodstock to hang out with wDave, and then Sat I'm off, so I'm going to make the most of it. I have to work a bunch next week, so to have a full day off will be nice!

It's late, I should go to bed.

Cars are too expensive!

I was right about my car problem.... it was the axle.... it just took me going out for coffee with Jer to find that out. I usually try to limit the amount of time I spend alone with him.... but this is how I get my car fixed for a nice low price of almost free! Too bad parts are expensive.

While up there at his place we investigated everything under the hood of my car.... and it was discovered that my rad is in pretty poor condition. Argh! That'll be another $250 at some point. I should probably get all that fixed before I go to Ottawa.

But it will hopefully be better on Friday...

It's been one of those days....

Today, it's pretty much sucked from the get go... and it's oh, 1:56pm and I still have to work til 9.

• I had to wake up early this morning... that part sucked.
• I had to drive to a school to to grade 8 pictures, and I've gotten to the point where shooting makes me grumpy every time I have to do it.
• As I was driving to the school, my car started having a seizure. It was wobbling all over the place, not fun.
• I got to the school, realized I didn't have my trolley to bring everything inside, which meant like, 6 trips.
• I realized that I didn't have my background stands...thank god I had a spare light stand with me, and a half broken tripod and some duct tape. McGyver Alanna to the rescue.
• Started setting up, and then came to the more serious realization that I didn't have my grad gowns. I phoned my coworker who said she would meet me half way to bring them to me.
• On the way to and from our half way point, my car started to have seizures again. I thought maybe I was a complete moron and my tire was flat and that was why it was making horrible grinding noises and the steering wheel was pulling hard to the left and shaking like a paint mixer. I checked when I got out of the car at the school... no such luck, it looked fine. I'm guessing it's the axle
• Started taking pictures, and there were no kids who had any idea how to pose, how to dress themselves, how to brush their hair for that matter. Only one kid knew how to do up a tie. Not TIE a tie, no no, DO UP. It was already pretty for him. Repeat after me "Drape over head, tighten".
• Most of the kids also didn't know how to put on the gown. It's like a big housecoat. One girl put it on backwards. Seriously, these kids grew up under a rock.
• Didn't finish taking pictures til around 12, and then still had to tear down my stuff. I had to be at my other job at 1.... and it was definitely almost an hour away.
• Left the school at 12:40, and tried to convince my brother on the way to my other job that he should come get my car and fix it for me... no such luck. My mom needed her car too, so I couldn't even trade with her.
• Made it to work at about 1:20... after some more grinding and seizuring...
• And now it's boring here.... so I am writing this.

St. Patty's Day Fun

Oh, St. Patty's, how you always seem to bring out the classy side of me...

But it was fun times. I don't know how much to elaborate on the subject, to capture the amusement of the evening in a few words is nearly impossible.

Pictures

Now it's back to the grind for me... working 11 hours today, 14 hours tomorrow, I think only 8 on Wed....

And I find out about Ottawa today... which is exciting.

Dinner with Sartaj

I went out with Sartaj tonight, it was awesome....

We drove to Guelph, and Guelph apparently sucks for places to eat. So then we went to Morty's for wings. I love wings. When my butt gets as big as a house, that will be due to wings.

And the cheesecake I enjoyed at William's afterwards, that doesn't help....but along with cheesecake came lots of talking. Sartaj holds the title of one of the 2 people I know that can out-talk me. My cousin Camille is the other.

But we had a great time. I'm so happy that I get to see her again, that our schedules work better now. And I'll be sad when she moves to Toronto cuz I won't get to see her as much.

But I do enjoy going to visit people various places...

Random Memories

I went into Elmira today on my way home to pick up and drop off some stuff at my grandma's house, as well as make an eye app't and go to Shoppers. While running into the eye place, I glanced down the alley way between it and the stores facing the main street. Over head there are these pipes that run across. Behind the eye doc's place there is a slightly sloped roof and a lower part where it was easy to get up on top of.

When we were kids we used to go behind the eye doc's place, and climb our way up until we were on the roof, and then jump across to the roofs of the stores facing the street. From there we could get on top of Shoppers Drug Mart and other various buildings. And from the top of there we could see all around Elmira.

I miss being a kid, doing stuff like that.

I had another random memory today while driving. I think it was when I drove past a playground. I thought about Ty's birthday party in London, and being drunk with Dave on the playground near Ty's house. That was the night of the best mistake I ever made... I remember laying around on the pullout couch all day the next day, talking about all kinds of misc stuff... and then I remember driving to St. Catharines to visit my cousin Meg and crying cuz I didn't know what I had done. (I didn't realize it was the best mistake I'd ever made until later)...

Actually, I had another Dave memory this afternoon. (It's really not that uncommon... theres a lot of things that remind me of him. .... ) I drove past the place where I gave my pet sheep to, and I got to thinking about that sheep, and when I got her... That night we went over to the James' house to drink, and when we got back my poor sheepy was so scared, and my mom was being insane... she made me cry and that was probably the first time he saw me cry... but he was there for me and I knew that we had something good...

One more random memory, and it's not about Dave this time... I'll spare everyone because I'm the only one that cares, I'm sure. And if I recounted every memory I have on a daily basis this blog would be a novel.

I went into my grandma's basement this afternoon, and down there is a chalkboard. Now, I was a very bossy kid (I'm still a bossy kid) and when we had all the cousins together we would force James and Keelan to come down to the basement and we would play school. It's only with hindsight that I realize that not only were they unimpressed because we were bossing them around, but what kid wants to play school on their march break/christmas vacation/weekend? Anyway, Camille and I would be the teachers and a lot of the time we'd arrange various field trips. These trips usually went around town to various places... usually the back way around everything.

I'll keep track of more of these things that come to mind, and share what ones amuse me.

Impromptu Photo Shoot!

Tonight was fun, Trishelle and I had an impromptu photoshoot after we dyed her hair.

It was even her idea!

I didn't have any plans, so we just goofed off...
http://picasaweb.google.com/alanna.foell/TrishelleIsARockStar

theres a link to my album to check out more....

My Thoughts

I'm starting a little list of things in my pocket that amuse me... things that are said that are funny, or things I think about while standing around here at work.

3/14 " God, I have pale skin" (went into the bathroom and realized that the palms of my hands are darker than my arms

3/15 Alanna: Dude, that guy sounded like when you type words into the computer and it reads them back to you
Dean : Yes, he was definitely a cyborg.

3/15 "My email says that I'm sad because a beautiful woman turned me down. Am I sad? Did someone turn me down?"

3/15 "I wonder if that picture I sent from my phone went through. Hmm...."

More to come, my mind is a vast entity of randomness....

Guess Who's Going to Ottawa!

That's right, this gal!

Found out today that my request to go to Ottawa for the summer has been approved, so that means all I have to do is talk to the manager of the store in Ottawa and tell him that I want to come work there from May til the end of Aug.

This is nerve wracking, because now I have to find a place to live and all that fun stuff.

But it's going to be awesome.

I need a change.

My best attempt at a video of my night out...

Gong Show!

My birthday party was hilarious.

I don't even know where to begin to explain all the things that happened, but it was great. I wish I could really go into specifics about what made the night good, but really I can't. It was just overall enjoyable! No crazy drama, nothing like that. Just good times with friends! Every time I go out with Camille we have an awesome time. And it's because of her I had an awesome hangover this morning.

She was getting extra cheap drinks all night long. Like, 3 drinks and 3 shots for $5.25... and she was determined that I drink constantly.

I had on a white shirt and had markers there for people to write on my shirt with. It was pretty awesome, and I had a bunch of random people I didn't know signing my shirt...

It was so good to see people that I haven't seen in ages. wDave came out, I haven't seen him since I visited him in Vancouver, and it was so great to get to hang out with him. He's just genuinely one of the nicest people I know.

Ty was there, I haven't seen him since we broke up, but we're back to "normal" with each other, so it wasn't a big deal. Camille I'm pretty sure said some random stuff to him that may have bordered on inappropriate, but hahah oh well.

Today was pretty rough, I had to drive Camille back to Hamilton after brunch with the family... it was pretty hard. I need more sleep!

A link to all the pictures from the night:
http://picasaweb.google.com/alanna.foell/Birthday02

And things I remember:
*losing all of my markers.
*seeing someone from middle school and not knowing exactly how to sum up the last 12 years
*random people signing my shirt
*the bartender spraying me with water
*the same bartender signing my shirt. I think he wrote "Boob" and drew and arrow.

I'm sure theres other random things, but who knows.

Anticipation!!

I'm so excited for tomorrow, going to the bar for my birthday. Really really excited.

It's been so long since I saw everyone, all the people I generally refer to as my friends, but really don't have much to talk to about. But I'm excited nonetheless. People I haven't seen in over a year, or in some cases 5 years are coming out, so thats pretty freakin exciting! I have a feeling though, that it's going to be one of those "oh, Alanna" kinda nights. Hahaha. Pictures will follow, no worries there.

I don't have much to report tonight. I've spent my night talking to Steve, my friend from Australia, who I haven't got to talk to much because of the time difference amongst other reasons.

I've been remembering other birthdays today... the last 3 have been pretty memorable. 21 was amusing, it was a night of past, present and future boyfriends. Thats the year I hid under the kitchen table from Nick, psycho ex the stalker...

22 was another night at Phils, much like this year will be.

23 was Australia, spent at the Espy and the Elephant and Wheelbarrow in St. Kilda with Mat, Trishelle and Steve. And I had an AWESOME tan. I want a tan again.

And 24, well, that remains to be seen. Some part of me thinks I should just be ridiculous because maybe 25 will have me being responsible....

I made a wish on my birthday candle yesterday. (Yes, just one candle... my mom sang to me) I can only hope that someday it comes true. One hint, it has to do with the previous paragraph...

I dyed my hair tonight, but it's really not that different. Oh yes, I was also admiring how much my hair has grown since last year...

I haven't much else to report... My knee hurts because yesterday I went over to my grandparent's house and got stuck in their driveway. My uncle came outside to help me out, and he couldn't push me. So then I decided he could drive and I would push, and the jerk put the car into reverse and smashed into my knee. Now I have a stupid bruise on my knee!!!

Birthday!!!

Today is my birthday! As always I make a WAY bigger deal out of it than most people...

It's been a fantastically awesome day though. I slept in, went into the office and took a few pictures, went out for lunch, went and ate a cinnamon bun with Sartaj, got my eyebrows done, went to Starbucks, and totally ignored the gym. Haha.

My parents were good to me, they gave me some various clothing (this totally hilarious velour track suit thing... which will remain pjs, and some camouflage underwear with a matching tank top hahaha... so if I wear it in the forest all anyone will see is legs and arms but no middle..) Got some gift cards for a bunch of different places, and a pretty cool picture frame that I already filled up. I put pictures from Australia in it, the people we met and hungout with...

It actually kinda made me sad to look at the pictures. A year ago today we were hoping to sign for our apartment. And 2 days after my bday, the day we got our place, was the day Dave and I broke up. Interesting that I thought thats what I wanted but was proven so wrong when I got home.

It's a good thing I'm going drinking on the 10th this year, cuz I'm sure I'd notice the day otherwise.

I'm really excited about Sat night. I've invited lots of people, and some that I haven't seen in YEARS are coming out. Just any excuse to see friends is a good one for me! wDave, Ty, Brian, the "gang" are coming out, and it's been ages since I saw them (well, not Ty, but thats not really the point)... I'm so happy that those guys still think of me as part of the group. If I'd lost them along with everything else, I don't know....

I saw this music video today,
and that song always gets me. One of those songs that always hits home...

Things have been good today, actually.. I'm making it sound like I'm sad, but I'm not really sad. I think things over a lot, but it's not like I can do anything about it... I'll just wait it all out and hopefully things work out in my favour.

My mom is making me Strawberry Shortcake! I'm really excited about this fact... not really wanting to help her out, but excited to eat the final results!

Okay, I'm done. I have nothing exciting otherwise.

I think of things and then forget...

I got up real early this morning and drove all over Wellington County. I had to do some deliveries for work and it was quite interesting. Well, no, not actually interesting at all. It was sunny and I had absolutely no washer fluid for my car, and thus could not see.

Funny thing, washer fluid. I hate it. HATE everything about it. Hate putting it in my car, hate having to use it, hate not being able to see without it. And therefore I resist having to deal with it until absolutely necessary. Which is a point I haven't got to yet. Instead I drove 250+ km surviving by driving behind people who were kicking up a decent amount of spray.

The whole time I was driving, I had an awesome list of things I was going to write about today. I really did. I have to start jotting this stuff down so that I remember them to write about later.

I had a list of things that I just do not understand. There is a pretty good list, actually, but I have no idea now what was on it. Hmmm

I think what I'm going to do is make a bunch of little ideas and put them in a hat. Topics, I suppose, so when I dont know what I should write about I'll just pick out and write something on that particular topic.

I have a tendency to over-think things. ALL the time. Especially when it's something that I want really bad, I convince myself that everything is saying "yes" to that thing. A line of text, a simple remark, it all leads to me getting what I want. I should probably stop that.

I just realized how random that paragraph was. It was a vague reference to a person... hmm.

I had this customer tonight, who totally looked sketchy, I didn't even really want to help him. He had this curly hair that was long and bleach blond. And it was REALLY thin through the top. He had a scruffy beard and was wearing this long trench coat. And he talked like a surfer hippy. But we got to talking and he'd spent some time in Australia and next thing I knew we were discussing Arnott's cookies (mmmm Tim Tams!) and how he hadn't gone to Bondi (can you imagine?) amoungst other things. I should learn not to judge a book by it's cover.

It's weird, as soon as someone mentions travel to me at work, I get into a huge discussion about going places and doing things. I want to travel, I want to see the world. But I learned a lesson last time I did so... sometimes the things you want are what you have and you don't realize it. I learned that lesson a bit too late. And I've been thinking about it ever since.

While I was driving I was singing to myself. It's funny, certain cds and songs remind me of particular people. And I meant to write a list of these songs. Perhaps I will another day. I should take my favorites playlist on my ipod and for each song write who that song makes me think of.

I just turned on the movie Prime. The guy in this movie is cute. I think I decided that the first time I watched it. Hmm.

I've tried to stay true to my idea of this being a random outlet of my thoughts, and not overly editing what I say. I mean, I might not mention names or anything like that, though I'm sure those in question will know I'm talking about them. I think that just about wraps up my randomized thoughts for tonight.

Snowday!

I woke up this morning, with great difficult, to get ready for work. I was supposed to be shooting grad pictures at school in Guelph. Usually I give myself an hour to get wherever I'm going, which meant I had to leave my house at 7:20am. I got up at about 6.

I got myself dressed, brushed my teeth, you know, all the usual things. Went downstairs, fed the cats (twice, they're such pigs) and then made myself a bagel with melted cheese (mmm) on it to eat while dreading leaving my nice warm house and getting into my cold car. The one that I'm not supposed to let idle, and therefore can't really warm up before leaving. Even though it IS -20 today or something horrible like that.

Anyway, so I'm sitting eating my breakfast and the radio is blaring away oldies music and then the guy tells me that all the schools in Guelph are closed. Whoo!! Snowday for Alanna! This is pretty sweet considering I got screwed out of a snowday last week and had to go shoot when everyone else got a day off.

Which brings me to now. Now I'm fully dressed, ready to go somewhere and can't even leave to go to Waterloo yet because nothing's open so what's the point? I'm thinking I'll hit up the gym today though, and going to go spend some of my gift cards that I have been accumulating. I want a sweater. I have to work at the store at 4, so if I don't have to do anything before that, then I can just stay home. Oh, the picture is from my kitchen window, and the shadow just under the words is the top of our picnic table, just to give an idea of how much snow we have out there...

I remembered one of the things I was going to mention last night. Yesterday at the store it was "Customer's with an Accent" day. Seriously, half the people I talked to were from somewhere else. One was this English guy who'd lived all over... Australia, Japan, now in Canada for 10 years or something like that. He and I had a good convo about where we'd been and all that. Then, later, this guy comes in with a full-on Aussie accent, and so I started talking to him. I ended up asking him where abouts he's from and he goes "Well, do you know Australia?" and I say "Do I!?!" and he starts going "well, do you know where Newcastle is?" yup..."do you know where the Hunter Valley is?" and starts working his way down. He's from some small town in the Hunter, and I told him about our adventures pulling weeds on the echinecea farm outside Tamworth. He told me he went to school in Tamworth, and we laughed about the country music festival. It was pretty funny, he was amused that I knew small towns in Oz, and I was just amused to hear a proper Aussie accent.

Oh, I wanna go somewhere nice and warm and exciting!! It's so freakin boring here.

I had things to report, really

All day I meant to write something on here. But every time I get the chance I don't remember what it was I was going to say. Go figure.

Weird. There's a glass of juice on top of my clock radio and it's not mine.

Anyway, so I had things to talk about, really. But I don't remember then so instead I'll just write whatever thoughts pop into my head.

I woke up early today. Like, an hour before my alarm was supposed to go off. My plan was to go to the gym, then the mall and then the store at 1. I had everything all ready to go to the gym and then I got a phone call. It was work phoning to see if I could come in early. How early, I ask. ASAP was the answer. So I packed all my stuff up and figured I'd hit up the gym after work. And then I looked out the window. Total whiteout. Great.

I get in my car, you know, the one that I'm afraid to drive because of the busted rad fan. But considering James tells me that it's safe to use as long as I'm moving and it's crazy windy outside I guess I can handle that one. I drive up my laneway, and turn left onto the road. And can't see ANYTHING. Nothing. Not at all. So I start moving, and sometimes I can catch a glimpse of the yellow line thats totally buried under ice. Let me tell you, it was scary. It took me almost 15 minutes to get up to the highway, which is normally a 5 minute drive, if that. Once I got to the highway it was a bit better, but not much. The whole drive to work took about 25 min longer than normal. Ick.

I came home early from work, decided to forgo the gym because if I was going to go in the ditch (which would be like, the millionth time this year) I wanted to do it while people I knew were awake. But the drive home wasn't too bad.

Tomorrow I get to take pictures of kids. I'm SO excited. *looks around shiftily* It's grade 8 kids I think, who are far less amusing than the kinderkids.

Oh, speaking of the Kinders, they are just too cute for words. I'm going to make an attempt to record or at least remember all the cute things they tell me when I'm there. So far my favorite is this little kid with a stutter/lisp. Now, usually I get the kids to say things like "smarties" or "monkey" or "cookies". One of my lines is "fuzzy pickles". So I say to this little guy, "okay, billy, say fuzzy pickles!" and he goes "fuckin pickles..fuzk..fuzzy pickles?" and I had to keep from bursting out laughing...

My mind has been all over the place lately, and I find myself thinking about a particular person lot. Though I think about them a lot as is, I've been thinking lately about whether or not they think about me. Little things I see, or do, or hear, they cause random memories to pop into my head. And I wonder, does this happen to him? I have no idea. And I want to ask. But maybe I shouldn't? I don't know. I'm supposed to play it cool, and just let things happen. And thats what I'm doing, but I have so many questions.

I'm watching Scary Movie 4... I want these moments of my life back. And this was the best thing I could find.

I should go to bed soon, I have a long day ahead of me. Only 3 more days til my birthday! That's exciting. I'm not so excited about getting older, but excited about just having a birthday. I love birthdays. And not just mine, everyone's.

Boarding, Coffee...

Boarding was good. We didn't make it up to Blue Mountain like originally planned, but ended up going to Glen Eden instead. Which is fine, really. We only had to pay $20 for the 3 hours we were there, and we got a decent amount of runs in. The buckle on my binding fell off though, so that kinda sucked. But oh well.

Now I'm heading out for coffee with Trishelle, I haven't seen her all week. It's been ages. I actually can't remember what... oh yeah, I do remember. It was Thursday night when I saw her last, when I came home from work early and the day the fan when out of my car.

My brother tells me that I can drive my car, that it's cold enough that it wont matter. I'm scared. I don't want to wreck my car! But this not having a vehicle thing is starting to drive me crazy. I'm driving James' truck tonight to use up the gas that I put in it, and then tomorrow I'm going back to using my car. :S

My family is a bit strange, but we have fun. Usually at dinner time something is said that gets me laughing and into hysterics. Tonight was no exception. My mom asked my brother and I to bring up the step wood (meaning the firewood that is sitting on the basement stairs waiting to come up) and my brother goes "Step wood? Whats that? Wood from a different marriage?" And I start laughing. Then I tell him "lets go get the wood, you can piggy back me" and he goes "okay, but you have to piggy back me afterwards". So I climb on his back, he's 3.5 years younger than I am, and make him carry me around the house. And then when we're done with the whole wood situation I had to carry him to the living room... which is always an interesting feat because He's a good 5 inches or more taller than I am.

I have no idea what else to talk about. I'm going to leave it at that.

Waiting

So I've been awake for oh, 3 hours. If that. And I thought I would sleep in today.

The idea is that we're going snowboarding today, Amanda and I are. I thought we were leaving around 10 or so, which is why I got up early. But nope... it's 11:26 and I'm sitting here watching Australia's Next Top Model.

I'm such a sucker for these shows. I watch the original version all the time, and I caught a few episodes of the Canadian version as well.

But really, this one is just making me miss Australia! Even though I think that Aussie girls kinda have a strange accent. It's not at all like Aussie guy's. But they show glimpses of Bondi, the Harbour Bridge, all the icons. Right now they are using Nad's "wax" stuff on the girls, and it's making me laugh because I have memories of last year when I wasn't working sitting in our apartment waxing my own legs with the same stuff. It really does work, you know.

But yeah, I'm missing Aussie land, it's been more than a year since we landed. This time last year we were searching for an apartment in St. Kilda, wanting Roger the useless real estate guy to help us out, drinking cappuccino's at the cafe down the street. I went to the BEACH on my birthday.

*looks out window* I don't think I'm going to see the beach this year. I just realized that there is at least 2.5 feet of snow outside. The picnic table outside is completely buried.

The other day was the worst day in ages. I wont go into the whole story again, but what it comes down to is that I'm without a vehicle for the next couple days. I was driving my mom's car on Friday, which resulted in a minor (and I really mean minor) accident where I bumped into a guy at a stop light. The guy made me phone the police, and he got an ambulance because HIS BUTT HURT, and I got a HUGE ticket for careless driving. So this weekend I'm driving my brother's truck.

It's MASSIVE. Every time I'm in it, I feel like a giant, which is kinda amusing. It's this 4wd GM truck with raised suspension. The main problem is my brother's taste in music. He listens to hick music, not even kidding. And I don't have my cds right now, my ex has them, and I don't know when I'll see him again to get them back.

Okay, I'm really just killing time while waiting for Amanda to get here so that we can go boarding. I hope to not hurt myself....

So Whats This All About?

It's been a long time since I had a blog. Probably a good year since I kept up with any reasonable amount of writing.

And I really miss it.

I'm one of those people that are really nostalgic, and I love looking back on old things I've done and remembering them. And I do that a lot with my blogs. I keep all my emails too, for what reason, I really don't know. But I know that someday I might need to remember what exactly that link was that so-and-so sent me when I was talking about this, that or the other thing.

So started my quest tonight.

First I thought I would just revive my LJ, the blog I had going when I started college and kept up throughout both years away in Ottawa. But, then I realized that I haven't written anything there in almost 3 years, so what really was the point in that? I'll just leave it as college memories and be done with it.

Then I thought I would start writing in my MSN space again. So I attempted to. But I didn't like the layout anymore and couldn't really change how it was set up, so I just gave up.

I could post my blogs to MySpace or Facebook, but I'd really rather just keep those as networking sites. Not everyone I went to highschool with needs to know about my day or any of that stuff.

Which brings me to now. I guess I'll leave this particular post as one topic as possible, though that isn't usually how my brain works. Also, I'm going to make a concentrated effort to post pictures often. I need to take more pictures, so this will be an excuse.