Do what you gotta do...

I can't believe my summer is almost over here in Ottawa.... sometimes it feels like I just got here and other times it feels like I've been here forever.

Either way it doesn't really feel like there is only about 5 weeks left here.

And the closer I get to my departure and the return to "normal" life back home the more I have people here telling me to stay and enjoy Ottawa.

And I would... if not for having to fulfill one thing that's been bugging me for quite sometime. If you know me well, you know what it is. It's that dream I've been holding onto for just about a year now. It's that chance to try one simple thing over again. It's a chance to fix my perhaps only real regret that I have... or find out if it's really a regret at all.

Yeah, I know thats vague.

I came up here to Ottawa in search of answers to a question I hadn't asked. Or maybe thinking that Ottawa was the promised land. And in some ways it has been what I needed. A break from the drama that follows me around, especially at home. But at the same time the same things that existed as "problems" before I left are still there... and I know that leaving doesn't change anything, it just puts it off until a later date.

I'd like to come back to Ottawa on a more permanent basis, and perhaps I will. But right now, as Matt said to me earlier, "you gotta do what you gotta do". He knows I have stuff I have to work out, even if he doesn't actually know what that stuff is... and thats why he's been such a great friend.

I was thinking about the philosophy I gave myself a year ago... "If it's not worth taking the risk, it's probably not worth doing". And I'm still living by that... I've risked things this last year by not completely moving on... but at the same time, by completely moving on I might have risked what I (think) I really want.

I really hope it doesn't all blow up in my face. But deep down I'm still convinced I'm not crazy for holding onto this...

Vacation

I need a vacation. If I don't get some time off soon, I just might snap.

Saturday I worked 14 hours. It sucked. We had to stay after the store closed to do inventory. Which isn't even done by us, but by a company called Western Inventory Services... but we have to go back and double check everything that they count to make sure they did it right. Argh. Sucks.

It was after 11 when I finally left the store.


Thank god I had today off. Matt and I went up to Meg's cottage and got to go out on the pontoon boat and take pics of the osprey nest on the other side of the lake. We went swimming off the boat and jumped off the rocks.

And it was so great to just not be working.

I have only Monday, Wed, Thurs, Fri and Sat between me and 3 days off. I'm heading home again to check up on things and taking Matt with me to show him what it's like in my neck of the woods. It should be good. I'm pretty excited about showing him around home.

I have to start planning my trip to Calgary... I can't wait to go out west again. I wish I could just spend all my time traveling around instead of being stuck indoors.

Amish in the City

Does anyone remember that show that was on a few years back? I dont really remember the premise but I think it had something to do with Amish kids being sent to live in the city and then they had a choice at the end to go back to their roots or to continue to live outside the community...

Anyway, I got to work this morning and saw an interesting sight. Walking down the street were 2 Amish people, I know this because, being from Mennonite Country I know the key differences between Mennos and Amish. (Most obvious: Amish have beards, Mennonites don't.)

And then I realized something. This is a strange sight. I'm in Ottawa, not in like, Elmira. How many Amish are rockin the Ottawa valley? It's so common to see Mennonites and Amish in the KW area that it didn't even faze me this morning. (Note, the picture on the left is from Elmira... I drive past this church whenever I go into town.

Funny that something like seeing a couple of Amish people walking down the street would confuse me to such a degree.

I miss home sometimes...

Dreams

Ever have a dream that you just know could come true?
I'm not talking about dreams and aspirations... I'm talking about the kind you have while sleeping... and I have dreams that are so realistic sometimes that I'm afraid they might actually happen!

A lot of the time it's my brain trying to work through my thoughts... usually my most current drama or perhaps I'll dream something that will revive some drama that I've for the time forgotten.

I had some dreams a while back about a certain someone... and they are always the same. I couldn't feel content until I'd asked him if he had dreams like that... and felt justified when he told me he did. Though thats another story all together.

The dream I had last night was interesting. It was a menagerie of all the stuff thats gone on with me this summer, this past year. It was a big Oh Alanna Reunion. There was drama, heartache, confusion. A lot like perhaps an episode of Sex In The City... sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't have got into that show because it's probably a lot like my life....

The nice thing about this dream I had was that when I woke up everything was fine. It had all worked itself out and there was no more drama.

I wonder what causes these dreams I have... They usually come when things are at a calm in my life, like reminder of how crazy things can get with me sometimes. Though I know I bring it all on myself.

Still more Dragon...

Click on him to get to the pictures on my picasa...

So far this Dragon thing has been interesting... I learned a few things ...

1: I need to get a splitter for the heat lamp/UV lamp so that they actually both go on at the same time in the morning and I don't have to think much of it.

2: Dragons are hilarious when they eat. I have video proof :


3: Always lock the doors to his tank because Dragons CAN fly. Or at least jump out of high places. I went to cut up some food for him and came back to find him on the floor looking about slightly bewildered. Hmmm.

4: Dragon's are confused. Poor little guy is right now trying to get out of his tank by scratching on the glass and bonking into it with his head. I don't think he understands the new surroundings.


I'm going to Little Ray's today with Matt. I'll pick up some crickets while I'm there to give to him. I'm not sure what other things I should get for him... I'll have to look into it.

DRAGON!!

I got my bearded dragon today! I'm super duper excited! He doesn't have an official name yet, so far he's been called Dragon mostly. Perhaps Puff will be his full name, and just call him whatever comes to mind.

The girl I got him from was awesome and wrote me up a list of things he can and can't eat, as well as basic care instructions. Tomorrow I'm gonna go buy him some leafy greens and fruits and get him some crickets.

I hadn't mentioned the fact that I was getting him to any of my roomies, but thankfully a couple of them really are into lizards, so I have baby sitters for when I go home for the weekend!

Already he's got photoshoots planned... haha and I'm thinkin of getting some of my desert pictures printed from Australia to put up on the back of his tank so that it feels a bit more realistic... cuz I mean, a dragon born in captivity should know what it's like to live in the Australian desert, right?

Matt and I are going to Little Ray's Reptile place tomorrow so maybe I'll get a book on beardies and find out more about how to care for the little guy. He's totally personable though. He practically fell asleep in Matt's arms when we brought him back here to my place. I can't wait to let him run freely around my room!

A Whole Bunch of Little Things

I've got to work on keeping this thing up to date on all the "exciting" things that happen to me on a regular basis... or at least the things that happen and I'll try to make them SOUND exciting.

I'm ACTUALLY getting my bearded dragon! I think the big day is tomorrow! I'm pretty excited, though at the same time kinda scared cuz I mean, I don't know shit about reptiles. But it should be good. My cousin Meg gave me a great idea for a name (muchos cooler than Midawg)... I'm gonna name him Puff! Whoot! Hahah ..Cuz I mean, Puff the Magic Dragon was cool!

I spent today hanging out with Matt (like thats somehow a surprise to anyone). We went to Fabricland (slowest cash lady EVER) and I bought some material to make a shirt. I found out that one of my roomies has a sewing machine so maybe I can finally get all that sewing done that I keep thinking about. I'm going to figure out a plan for this shirt in the next couple days, I'm pretty excited about it. The idea behind it is a tube top thats sorta open at the back that exposes my tattoos but isn't like, a belly top or something. I'm also considering putting grommets (Yeah, I like grommets on my stuff I make) at the top of the back to attach "sleeves" of some sort. Who knows...

After Fabricland we went back to my house to grab my camera and head off to Stony Swamp to take pictures of whatever animals happened to be around. We fed some awesome ducks and took a billion pictures (much the way photographers generally do) Check out some pictures!!!

We went to Matt's parent's place for dinner (cuz who doesn't love free food?) and Matt amused himself taking pictures of me doing handstands and such. Or pictures of my butt. Which I actually didn't hate. Hmm.

After that we went back to his apartment where I commandeered the television to watch something on discovery channel about a mummy in Egypt. But I started getting sleepy so I decided to come home. And now I'm watching something on Discovery about things that have got stuck in people's bodies. It's morbid.

I think I'm going home again in a couple weeks. My parents are going away to Newfoundland and need someone to make sure the house is not in shambles when they arrive home. I'm dragging Matt with me this time so that he can see what it's like where I'm from... Pretty excited about that. I like showing people what it's like at my place, cuz, I mean, I love my home!

Anyway, thats all I can think of for now as to whats new with me. I'll have plenty after I get my dragon tomorrow. Pictures and stuff to come!

10 People, One Kitchen

I recently submitted a picture of this:


to a website called "passiveagressivenotes.com"

Check out the thread HERE!

Pictures and a video from the party

Pictures from the party : CLICK CLICK CLICK

And a video for your viewing pleasure ::

Barn Burning 2.0

Last night was the 2nd (maybe annual?) Barn Burning.

This all started last year when our barn fell down and my brother got the great idea to have a huge party with bands and shit like that. It was a huge success last year and therefore we decided to do it again this year.

Now, before I start explaining, let me say one thing... when we talked about doing it again this year we had planned on splitting the profits 50/50... however, that appears to not be the case, which kinda pisses me off, but oh well.... truthfully I didn't do much to prepare for the whole thing, so it's fair I guess, but at the same time the whole point of doing it again this year was to cash in... but anyway...

This year we had 4 bands playing up on stage (which is a flat bed truck trailer) and a big baseball diamond light to light the yard. We had security people running the door, making sure people paid their $10 and got wrist bands. They were also making sure people didn't have glass bottles and that kinda thing. There were kegs for the bands/hired help...

The only "problem" we had was around 10pm when the fire department showed up with 3 firetrucks. Then the cops came because the firetrucks were there. We had a burn permit for the fire, but apparently we never should have got it. They were concerned that we were feeding the fire and it was going to get out of control.

It was hilarious, people were still coming down the laneway AROUND the fire trucks...

Over all the whole thing went off awesome. We finished the night with $4400, which means 440 people paid... and there was probably 60 people on the "VIP" list that didn't pay. However, it didn't look like there was that many people on the lawn... but from the sounds of it there were little tailgate parties happening everywhere off the lawn. I overheard someone say that someone was bbq'ing by one of their trailers!

Clean up this morning sucked, it was raining. Most of the work was done by me and 2 other girls, going over the lawn, picking up bottles, cans and garbage, all in separate bags. I'm not sure how much we'll get back for empties but at 10c a can and bottle it should be at least $150.

This day has been going on forever. I went and picked up pizza for the people still here at noon and then got chinese food for the people still here at dinner...

Tonnes of pictures and videos to come...

My Product Review

Nair No-Strip Wax Kit

This was something I really wanted to try... I'd heard it worked well, and considering the way my legs have been looking lately I figured anything was worth a shot.

The stuff itself was an interesting situation. It's a little pot of hard wax in a little pot. There is a HUGE sheet of instructions that comes with it warning you not to overheat the stuff and blah blah blah. I followed the instructions perfectly down to the only heating the stuff up for 10 seconds after the initial 2 minutes to achieve the proper consistency.

I went to my room, telling my roomies that if they heard screaming not to be worried. I stirred the goo, which smelled great and looks kinda like yellow plastic and prepared myself to smear it on my leg.

I smeared it on, waited for it to cool and rolled up the bottom like it told me. I pulled it back, anticipating pain, but it just broke off like taffy. Rolled it up again, went to pull, it broke off. Argh!

When i actually was able to pull it back, hardly any hair came with it. This was not what i was expecting at all. I've used other waxing kits and never had so much difficulty.

I tried different parts of my legs from the spots around my ankles to the back of my thighs. But no difference, the hair just doesn't pull off.

I don't know what is supposed to be so great about this stuff. I'll maybe give it another go sometime, but right now I"m just disappointed that I spent $15 on something that gave me nothing but sticky clumps on my fingers of some substance similar to plastic. Hmmm.

Canada Day Weekend

It's been an awesome weekend!!

Trishelle and Sartaj arrived on Sat night around 7... we spent some time "getting pretty" and then went out for dinner and drinks in the market. We didnt stay out too late, we're getting old or something... haha. Came back to my place, inflated the air mattress and pretty much crashed by 1am.

Yesterday we got up, ate some breakfast and went out to partake in the Canada Day festivities around town. There were buskers around town and stuff going on at Parliament. We wandered around for most of the day and then came back to my place to have a nap. (Told you, we're getting old). We ordered some pizza and then went to watch the fireworks afterwards. It was kinda a pain to find somewhere to watch the fireworks, but it didn't matter once they started. They were awesome!!

We went for Cora's this morning, that too was fantastic!! Now I have all the rest of the day off and all day tomorrow... only 3 days of work this week before going home for 4 days! Whoot!

Check out pictures :: CLICK CLICK CLICK!