And I'm Comin' Home....

I'm pretty excited today.... I am going home to visit for the weekend!!!! I haven't seen friends or family for a month now, and the time has gone SO quickly. Oh my god, it really has.

I have to work all day today, hopefully I can get outta work at 7 instead of 8 and that'll get me on the road by 8, and me home around 1am. Thats the plan anyway. We're gonna hope that I don't have any car trouble or anything like that.

I don't have any major plans for the weekend as of yet. Basically just going to hang out with my closest friends, go to the beach, get my eyebrows done, maybe get a haircut and pack up some stuff that I should have brought up here with me ages ago.

I'm pretty excited! Wish me a good trip!

Sore!!

I have been limping my ass around all day... it's sucked something fierce, let me tell you!

I manged to gimp up my knee last night after leaving the bar, and so I have been kinda hobbling around all day. But I've also been stiff in both my legs and I wasn't really sure why.

Then I remembered. Roller flailing.

No, not rollerblading, because that sounds like I look graceful. Roller-flailing is much much more accurate description of what I look like on rollerblades.

Matt loaned me his skates so that I could get to work in a reasonable manner. And all went well. I didn't actually fall on my face, though it came close. The stopping wasn't too bad, provided I had something to stop me... and I'm not referring to the brakes they put on these things.

But I think I used a bunch of muscles I'd forgotten exist. I'm more or less sore in every muscle between my ankles and my ass.

Stupid asshole...

I should have been writing more... but I have been kinda busy. Sorta.

Sat SUCKED. I walked out the door to go to work to find out that someone stole my bike. FUCK! I guess it's partly my fault, I didn't have it locked up (there's no where to lock a bike up outside my place and it's a huge pain in the ass to bring it in and out of my building cuz theres no where to store it really). I have no idea what I'm going to do with myself now in terms of getting to work... I'll have to get a new bike I guess.

And then today I went to get in my car to go to the grocery store only to find out that my car had been ransacked too... which I just didn't understand because I could have sworn my doors were locked... Only thing I can imagine is that my back door was unlocked from when I came home and made 2 trips into the house with my laundry. Nothing was taken, thank god. Amazingly not even my gift cards for Crappy Tire/Roots/Zellers.

Matt's loaned me his rollerblades, not sure if they will fit, but they are worth a shot. Anything to get me to work a bit faster than walking!!!

Have to talk to the landlords about getting a light put up outside because it's really dark behind my building and though I thought it was safe, clearly not the case!!!

I'm really looking forward to going home next weekend to see my friends/family.

And escaping the drama I create everywhere I go... haha

Making a mess...

I'm digging myself a hole... and I've got to get myself out before I bury myself.

If I go any further, I'm going to risk making a mess of a couple good friendships. And going further would not be true to my heart and just me not saying the appropriate words at the appropriate time.

I need a (clean) break.

But a break never happens!! I just bump along from one to the next, never finishing off one before moving along, stringing bits and pieces behind me.

I was talking today and realized that I'm a heart breaker. I fall out quickly and don't give others a chance to catch up and I move on regardless of what I've left behind.

And fuck if I didn't remember that I actually did care about one piece... and it was picked up and swept away. And I want it back....

And that clean break isn't happening because I'm still searching for that piece... and collecting other pieces in the mean time to fill the void.

And I'm a nut job because it's almost 4am and I'm vaguely writing gibberish thinking that if those involved read this they might know it's them... but if not, at least names were not used.

It's time for bed.

A Team May 24!

So this has been an interesting May 2-4. Very unlike any other but just as good.

Ange came to visit me, so it was an A Team May 24, and it was lots of fun. She got here on Sat afternoon and spent time wandering around the market while I was at work. Sat night we went out to dinner at this little sushi place just around the corner from my house and then we met up with her friend Larysa to go to Zaphods to see a band play.

The Ottawa Sentators won their game on Friday night against Buffalo, so Ottawa was a bit insane. We left Zaphod's and went to Elgin Street (Aka The Sens Mile) and marveled at the crowds of people cheering, honking their horns etc.

Ange got it in her head that she was going to go for a ride in this Honda S2000 she saw driving up and down the street and when she saw it pulled over she went running off and actually got in the car and got the guy to give her a ride. It was pretty amusing yet I probably shouldn't have let her get in a stranger's car! While she was out with the random dude we went back to Matt's house to wait.

We left Matt's, walked home and crashed. Slept in til almost noon on Sunday and then went out for breakfast at Cora's downtown. (Mmmm I love Cora's!) The service was pretty shitty though. Left there and went to the mall. We spent who knows how long there wandering around and shopping. I bought a shirt and a tshirt dress thats super cute. I probably spent way too much money though.

We were thinking of going to a party with Larysa on Sunday night but we got cozy after shopping watching movies. The farthest we made it out was to the same sushi place again for dinner. After dinner we came back to my house and ended up watching movies again until 2am.

Today we got up around 10:30, went to Cora's again for breakfast, and had shittier service than yesterday. It was pretty sucky. After breakfast we went and walked around parliament and took pictures before Ange went home.

It was a nice relaxing weekend.... pictures to follow!!!

Clumsiness

I'm seriously one of the clumsiest people I know. I run into things, fall off of things, and trip over things on almost daily basis.

Yesterday was an especially bad.

I thought it was a great idea to crawl up on the counter at work to put something away by balancing on a bin on the floor. I put a bit too much pressure on the outside of the bin and thats when the trouble started.

You know how in cartoons when someone steps on a rake, it smacks them in the face? It was something like that. The bin flew up, hit me on the calf and the force of that threw me off the counter towards the computer. Luckily Matt caught me just in time and I didn't really hurt myself too bad. I do have an insane bruise on my leg though.

One of the customers that a coworker was helping looked over and goes "8.6" and then went back to whatever they were talking about.

- - - -

Today is the beginning of the A Team May 24 weekend! Ange arrived today and though I'm not sure what's in store for us this weekend, I'm sure it will be amusing.

Stories to follow

Yesterday was a odd day

Yesterday started out kinda lame. It was raining.. and I didn't have the mental capacity to think ahead and either figure out what bus to take to work or leave early enough to walk, and thus I took my bike, and got totally wet in the process. Ick. I just love that wet stripe you get up the back of your ass when you bike in the rain. Definitely a fashion statement.

I was completely lethargic at work, and couldn't find the motivation to do much of anything besides drink coffee. Which isn't really doing anything.

Part way through the day one of my co-workers came up to me and told me she was going to get her nipples pierced, and did I wanna come along? Sure, I said... it's on my way home and why the hell not. So that became the plan for the day....

While I was on my lunch, I saw an ad for shoes on sale at Sportchek, 2 for 24.95, and I love a shoe sale... I try to refrain and only buy when they are on sale... whoot! So I added that to my list of things to do after work.

America's next top model ended last night, and I totally expected Renee to win, not Jaslene the one that looks like a drag queen. I guess I understood the reasoning behind why Renee didn't with, but it didn't really justify it.

So, we left work and walked down to the piercing place. I left my bike at work because for whatever reason it was just easier. Which means I have to walk my ass to work today. Blah. Oh well. I've never seen someone get their nipples pierced before, let alone really many girl's nipples in general (and definitely not many of my friends). We both thought it was pretty funny that the first time we hung out outside of work I got to see her boobs and needles being jabbed through 'em... but whatever, boobs are boobs. It was actually pretty funny, the piercer was having a hard time putting the ball on the 2nd piercing, it probably took like, 10 minutes.

After the piercings (which in some ways made me miss getting stuff done) we went to Sportchek to find these shoes I had seen. I was able to find one pair that fit, but not a second, which means I'm going to another sportchek today to keep looking. I'm determined!! (see picture for the elusive 2nd pair....

We raced back to her house to watch ANTM and ate some soup. Was tres excitement!! (haha thats the extent of my french for today) I got lost on my way home, but thats just cuz I'm clearly a moron and turned one set of lights too soon.

On my way home, my cousin Camille phoned me and started reading this letter I had written to her in GRADE 9. 10 years ago. I was apparently a boy crazy kid. As if that surprises anyone. But it was pretty hilarious. I had a crush on every boy. (I believe thats a line from a Teen Girl Squad Cartoon)

Anyway, I have to get my butt in gear. I'm walkin to work today... ick.

Learning Curve

I spent the afternoon/evening with my cousin and her 9 month old son, Wylie. He's seriously the cutest kid I've ever seen.

He was kinda grumpy today, but after feeding him he was content to sit on the floor with his toys. I was kinda watching him playing with this little toy with 4 balls in the top and when you bonked the balls, they fall inside and you watch them go down a slope, spin around a thing, down another slope, hit the wall, and bounce back and come out a hole in the bottom.

It started out looking unintentional, but as I watched him, he had figured out how to use the hammer and hit the balls to make them go through the slopes. It was so interesting to watch him go from flailing a hammer around to actually knowing what happens when he hits the balls with the hammer..

Watching kids grow up is seriously an amazing thing. Eventually I'll be able to do it with my own.... but not for a long while!

With a lack of...

I've got nothing exciting really to post today. I've spent my morning sitting aroudn in my pjs wondering what to do...and now maybe I'm going to go shoes shopping and then grocery shopping because I went to eat my cereal and realized I had no milk.

And it made me sad.

I've been hitting the stumble button on my firefox browser all morning and found some amusing things...

such as this:



Some how someone summed up my life in a flow chart. haha. Except that "Don't do it" rarely happens after "Do I want to do it?"

Randomness

This has been a great weekend.

Friday night me, Matt, Meghan and Ren went to the Heart and Crown to meet up with some other Henry's people. We started drinking at Matt's house and then took a cab to the bar, and then poor Meghan wasn't feeling well, so Matt and I took her back to her house, and then went back to the bar... Ren dropped his camera in his beer, somehow... how one does that I really don't know... and over all it was just an amusing night.

Work all day yesterday was crap, but thoughts of Sangria got me through. I love that already we have all these weird little inside jokes. Had some strange customers yesterday... one guy comes up to me and he's like "So, whats the difference between these newfangled digital cameras and the old school film ones?" And I reply "Well,for starters they are digital". And then he goes "Well, I've been in prison for a long time, and so I don't know whats new...." ... I mean, I thought the neck tattoos were a bit prison-y but he didn't have to go and confirm that thought!

Last night I came home after work, attempted to have a nap, and then went over to Matt's house to make sangria. Such a nice guy, he made me dinner!... Apparently cheese and crackers just doesn't cut it. We sat around drinking and then Jasmine and her bf Mike met us and then we drank more with them. Finally left for the bar around 11:15 or so. Got to Zaphods, didn't have to wait in line, it was great.

My camera's battery died while at the bar so I didn't get too many pictures, sadly. I did however get the Bananaphone song stuck in my head, as well as Christopher Walken's sketch about needing more cowbell... hilarious.

RING RING RING RING RING BANANAPHONE!! CLICKY CLICKY!

After the bar we went back to Matt's house and continued drinking sangria and watching randomness on you tube until I eventually fell asleep on Matt's couch, where I awoke this morning...


And now I'm home. Not really sure what today has in store, but I guess I'll play it by ear.

Because I promised to blog about it...

I was informed that I made a serious mistake in forgetting to mention Sarah Catherine in one of my previous entries :P

So this entry is dedicated to her... because I'm just awesome like that. (Wait, I guess that sounds more like it's dedicated to me... )

Anyway, my whole work day was lame... it was hot at work and all of us were grumpy. I did however get an awesome drink at Second Cup across the street... some Passion Fruit Green Tea combo of sorts...It was tasty.

After work SC met me at my house and we went to Place D'Orleans where we went on a search for shirts.. I think I bought some at maybe the first or 2nd store we went into, and then continued to walk around making fun of the clothes everywhere else.

I forget exactly what made us crack up so much, but I do specifically remember discussing face herpes on the way back from dinner.. At least it wasn't AT dinner because one could counter that face herpes (or herpes of any type, really) aren't necessarily dinner conversation... And the evolution from dust bunnies, to dust gorillas to dust mammoths...

I'm glad I have SC... she laughs at the ridiculous garble that comes out of my mouth on a regular basis... thats what a true friend is...

Perogies and smoothies and I'm about to explode

It was freaking HOT out today.. Well, hot for May. Maybe? I dunno. Maybe it was just cuz we didn't have the A/C at work and it was humid... who knows...

Anyway, what that has to do with anything I don't know... but my new friend Matt at work gave me this idea to have perogies for dinner... And then I couldn't get that idea out of my head. I walked down to Loblaws (thank god it's so close or I'd be having pitas and hummus again for dinner) and bought some perogies, cheese and crackers (thats a meal where I come from!) and some Red River cereal. Are you familiar with this stuff? I remember it from my childhood... it's essentially bird seed that you heat up in the microwave.. It's chock full of things like iron and protein and I think it will be good for me.

So far I've realized I am subsisting on an veggie diet... Hmm... not so bad...

Alright, so I made my perogies for dinner, they were fantastical. mmm.. Complete with sour cream (fat free... cuz I'm going to pretend that it makes up for the fact that perogies are nothing but carbs) and cheddar cheese. Mmm... cheese. Cheese makes EVERYTHING even better.

And when I was done eating those, I got this ridiculous idea in my head that I should make a smoothie with the blender that this place came equipped with. Now, I have a tonne of yogurt in my fridge that I brought from home and some frozen fruit that my cousin Meg sent me home with... and some crazy grape and acai juice I picked up yesterday... let me just say, it was a FANTASTIC smoothie. And it made me feel like I was going to explode.

Go figure I go from eating hardly anything to making WAY too much food for one person.

*groan*


On a totally separate note, I have been totally engrossed by this blog: BSC Headquarters

My cousin Meg sent me the link, and basically this woman is re-reading the Babysitters Club books and analyzing them as an adult. And it's hilarious. I remember reading those books as a kid and it's just too amusing.

Biking

On of the reasons I love Ottawa is the massive amount of bike paths that are all over the city. There are paths that run on either side of the canal, as well as all along the Ottawa river.

I've been biking to work every day and I've been loving it. Today I decided to get off my butt and go for a bike ride. I got on my bike, and went down my street until the end, over the Rideau River, and along the bike path that follows it. I went until I came to a bridge, which took me over the river and to the old Algonquin computer nerd campus, and down Lees ave which took me to the canal. Rode all along the canal, and then to Dow's lake where I went around the lake and back to my place.

I'm going to go tomorrow too, probably along the Ottawa river. Theres just so many places to go, and it really doesn't take too long to get anywhere. It only takes like, 10 min to get to work. It's fantastic!!

** Updated**

I went on another epic bike ride today, this time mostly in Hull...

Ottawa on the street

I decided to go for a walk today, take pictures of stuff downtown. I've never been good at street photography, so I made it my mission to practice, taking people pictures and stuff like that.

So that's what I did.

Check out the album: http://picasaweb.google.com/alanna.foell/OttawaDowntown

- - - - - -

On another note, I just don't understand people that talk to me on the street. Really. It happens on a regular basis.

On my way back to my house, this guy was kinda in front of me, and then behind me, and then in front, etc... We met up at the crosswalk when I was waiting and he starts talking to me, asks where I'm from, why I'm in Ottawa, etc.. We were right in front of the Bytowne cinema (an independent film kinda place) and he's like "I've never been there, mostly cuz I've never had someone to go with... wanna go with me sometime?" And I'm thinking to myself "Geezus, here we go again". So I told him that he could give me his number and I'd call him sometime (Not giving my number out ever!) and he starts looking embarassed, so I ask why and he says that his phone got cut off, so whats he do? Gives me his work number. All this and I hadn't even got his name yet. I say "Well, wait, what's your name?" and he says "Luke".... and he doesn't once ask my name, so I offer it up, on the off chance I might actually call him.

The whole thing is very weird.

New Store vs Old Store

I started my new job today.

It was weird, because it was the same job, but in a different location and with different people. I spent a great deal of the day comparing things to "my store"... even though this is my new store. Nothing is in the same place, and the people are all different, but very similar.

Everyone gets along much the way we do at our store, and they were all very welcoming to me. There's a dirty old man type, and a few other types that aren't really people from our store, but nice. The front cash girls are all cool, 2 of them have tattoos and piercings, so I don't feel like I stick out.

Behind the counter is SUPER squishy, and there isn't much counter to speak of. The store is in total disarray, everything is a mess, and hardly anything behind the counters is merchandised. The customers come in waves, because it's all gov't workers that come on their breaks, which last about an hour... so it will be dead for an hour and a half or so, and then be crazy busy for an hour, and then be dead, and then busy, etc. It was great to be done at 8 tonight!

I only answered the phone "Thanks for calling Henry's waterloo...er, Ottawa" and the woman on the other end laughed. I had to tell people a few times "Sorry, I don't know where anything is, it's my first day at this store". Had a bunch of good sales though. Canon 70-300is, epson p5000, tz3, some random accessories. It's hard to remember to put in K at the beginning of the postal code isntead of N.

Everyone at the store is facebook addicted too, but because of the bandwidth limitations over the weekend it's really lame when it's dead.

I'm going to have to work hard though to prove myself, because I'm the only girl in sales. There's a couple guys that are pretty sexist, so I'm on a mission to prove myself. I've always considered myself to be "one of the guys" so hopefully they see that and don't act like asses.

I had a few moments where I had no idea what people were saying since they spoke french and I don't, but it was still good...

Tomorrow will be interesting as well, I'm sure....

Things Learned

I've learned/remembered some things about Ottawa/Me today.

1. I hate grocery shopping/cooking for one : I have limited space in the fridge, I'm not really sure how much space I'm allowed, and basically, it's fend for yourself, so with that in mind, I went to the grocery store and bought a whopping amount of food... milk, peanut butter, english muffins, pitas and hummus. Yup. Thats all. Next time anyone sees me I'll be half the size.

2. My body doesn't do a lot of walking : I walked the distance over to the store I'll be working at. I wanted to clock how long it took me to get there. And then I walked back, and both times I walked in not a straight direction. Now my leg is SO sore, my hamstring is all tight and knotted and I can't walk without hobbling. Go figure.

3. Zaphods is a great bar : Went for a drink with Nordo tonight, he was on MSN at like, 10:45 and said we should go for a drink... so walked down to Zaphods, which is just like Phils back home in terms of atmosphere and music, but not as cheap and doesn't stink quite the same way.

4. I'm pretty solitary : I love being around people, but when it comes to my living quarters, I'm a solitary person. I haven't really met many of my roomies, and I've spent what time I've been home here in my room alone. I'll meet them in time, and I'll probably make friends with some of them, but right now I'm content with hanging out with myself I think.

5. The house I'm living in was a woman's shelter : This explains a lot. The weird layout, the individual rooms, the kitchen, bathrooms, showers... the "gym" room and the "study" room. And explains how you can logically put 10 girls in one house. (I'll post some pictures soon)

Road Trip To Ottawa

I have to admit, I was a bit nervous this morning when I left home to move up here to Ottawa. I'm leaving a bunch of stuff behind at home that I'm going to miss a lot and it's kinda nerve wracking

But the trip up was fun. Cartmell was thoroughly amusing and we sung punk songs the whole way here. Thank God for lots of NoFx and Sublime! Ottawa was referred to as "NewHome" the whole day, which cracked me up, and other various jokes were made at my expense.

Long story short, I would have made it up here in about 5 hours if not for stopping for coffee at Tim's 3x, a lunch break and getting pulled over for speeding.

Yeah, I got pulled over, again. The cop lowered it a bit though, so that it's only a $100 something dollar ticket and 3 points instead of 4 points and a $300 something ticket. I can't win.

My room is pretty nice, its big and roomy, so if I have visitors it shouldn't be hard to figure out some kinda second bed situation or whatever. I've got a bed, dresser, beside table, desk, "closet", and bookcase. One real big window and 2 smaller ones, and my room is right by the side door so it's almost like having my own entrance. Bathroom is just around the corner. Not sure where I'm going to put my bike yet, but I'll figure that out. Haven't explored the whole house yet...

Tomorrow is kinda up in the air as to what Im going to do all day... going to meet the people at the Ottawa store, and then not overly sure what I'm going to do to amuse myself.

If you wanna see more pictures from the day,

CLICKY CLICKY CLICKY!