The hills are aliiiiiive...

Last night the Sound of Music was on (and of course I sang along), and the night before, Matt put on the Sound of Music record that he bought me (and of course I sang along to that) so I'm in Sound of Music heaven! There's just something about it that makes me so happy. I don't really know what exactly it is, but on the whole it's great and it makes me think of my mum and my sister and makes me smile!

Christmas came and went. Matt and I flew to Toronto on the 18th, which worked out flawlessly! We were really worried, since there were huge storms, flight cancellations, and all the flights to Toronto were sold out for about days. We decided to just go for it, so we packed an all day picnic, brought all sorts of things to amuse ourselves, and baked treats for the staff, and were mentally prepared for a full day at the airport. We got there around 4:30 am and by 7 we were boarded and ready to go on the first flight of the day! I had to sit up in the flight deck while Matt got some person stuck in the line-up's seat, and we were so relieved. As we were walking down the gate thing we were giggling and smiling and so happy! Anyway we got to Toronto and went straight to his little brother's hockey game, and then the Christmas festivities began. Christmas dinner here, there, at this Aunt's house and this other person's house. It was a lot but it was great. His parents were SO great about the whole gluten free thing. They were so careful, they'd watch every person and make sure they didn't use the same knife in two things, make sure no one touched this or that, it was awesome. Matt said we should take a page out of their book because I don't think we're even that careful. They even bought me a new toaster to keep at their place!

Christmas was fun at their place. His little brother got rock band, so we had fun playing on that for a while. Matt's parents got us a GPS for the car, which is really cool. We've already used it a few times and now Matt wants to take a road trip so we can use it more! My stocking was way bigger than any of theirs, and they all made fun of it, but Christmas came around and theirs were overflowing and basically had the same amount as mine. Anyway I got lots of nice presies and I had a great first Christmas away from home.

We made it home without a problem either, so all in all, standby travel at Christmas worked out really well. I thought it would be so much worse, and it really wasn't! Yay for us!

Now we're home, getting ready for Christmas number two with my family. We have new year's fondue, then on Friday we're doing Christmas with everyone here. It will be fun.

On a side note, I got a new coffee maker with my giftcard from futureshop. I would never have spent this much on a coffee maker, but since it was a gift, I decided to be frivalous. It's a kitchenaid coffee maker with a timer, a re-usable filter, a thermos pot, and a built in grinder. It's incredible. Our old coffee maker and grinder were the cause of much chagrin between the two of us. Matt hated the grinder, which really was terrible and would put grinds EVERYWHERE, and I was defensive over this poor grinder for no reason whatsoever. The coffee maker was once awesome, but the coffee started tasting really bad, and brewing all funny, and we tried a lot of things to make it taste better, but nothing worked. I still haven't gotten rid of it because it has an espresso maker attached and a frother, and I like making espresso drinks. I do have a stovetop espresso maker but no frother, so until I get something else, I'll keep it and pull it out when I need it. Last night we set the timer, put in the water, whole beans, and this morning at 5:30 I woke up to "burrrrrrrrrrrrrrwhirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgrinddddddddddddd drip drip drip" which made me giggle. Yay for new appliances!

I hope everyone has a good new year!

It's a storm!

Calgary is snowy. I don't like driving in the snow much, but it has to be done. I walked as much as possible today and yesterday, but I did have to drive to my mum's and check on the cat. The drive was alright, though I went slowly. The cat was lonely and sad to be locked out of my mum's room. My mum had put notes on every door saying "please leave closed" so even though Willow was meowing outside them, I had to obey the post-its.

I'm leaving for my last pairing of December tomorrow. I'm happy to have the rest of the month off, though I wish I didn't have to fly standby over the holidays. I have a feeling it will be a smidge busy.

I made some fudge last night. It's from Kirsten's recipe and it's super easy and delicious! I just need to stop eating it every time I open the fridge. I only take a little taste, but I'm thinking all those little tastes add up to a little more than I should have.

I got a $200 gift card for Future Shop at my second job's staff party! I couldn't believe that I won something, finally!!! I never seem to win draws or raffles, and this time I did! Now I need to figure out what to buy with it. Any suggestions?

Have a good week!

Don't mind me, I'm a little woozy.

So I have had a busy two days. Yesterday I tore myself away from my vampire books and went to the GI doctor. This is the appointment I have been waiting for since February. I go in, we talk about celiac disease and I tell him I'm on a gluten free diet so I understand that in order to get an accurate result of a biopsy I need to go back on gluten. He asks me when I went off gluten, and I told him about 2 or two and a half months ago. He tells me "alright, lets do this tomorrow." TOMORROW. As in, TODAY. More funny things happened in that appointment but they're too embarrassing for the internet. Lets just say my face was SO red that his student Dr couldn't look at me and he even got a little embarrassed.

So this morning at 7am, I went to the hospital for an endoscopy. I didn't really think it was a big deal, and I really didn't expect it to be as hospital-y as it was. I did, however, expect it to be terrible. I went into a big room with a bunch of beds, was ordered to strip (but I was allowed to keep my socks, how kind of them), put on the backless gown, and put my things in a locker. I kind of felt like I was going into a gas chamber, but I begrudgingly obeyed. Then a nurse came over, told me what was going to happen as another nurse was putting in an IV. I really didn't think I was going to get an IV. I knew I would be sedated, but I thought there would be gas or something. Anyway it was really hard to concentrate on the talking nurse while the needle nurse was searching for a vein. Eventually I got wheeled into the procedure room, saw the doctor, had to sign consent forms with an IV, the nurse sprayed my throat with local anesthetic, and then she injected the medicine. It wasn't general anesthetic, but just sedation. From that point I don't really remember much. The nurse said I would feel the stretcher go down my throat (that goes down before to make room for the camera) and gag, and then they would tell me to swallow, but I really don't remember a thing. I heard them call my name a few times, but I don't know whether it was telling me to swallow, or if they were saying "all finished"... I seem to remember that. Anyway I woke up in the recovery area when the doctor came back to do something terrible and I don't want to talk about it, but luckily I don't remember that either. I remember saying "at least you're wearing purple gloves" and him laughing. Enough about that (though that has to do with the embarrassing things that happened at the appointment yesterday). I woke up a little later, had some apple juice and gluten free cookies, slept a little more, tore out the breathing nose thing, slept, woke up, got dressed, and that was that. I honestly have no recollection of the procedures at all. Yay!

After I saw mum in the waiting room, the Dr. called me back to discuss his findings. He said that even though the biopsies have to be sent for official testing, he could without a doubt say that I have celiac. My intestine is slightly damaged, which is good because it shows a positive result, but also because it means the gluten free diet is working. Horray! Done! Not even close to as terrible!! But more hospital-y. Oh well. Anyway I'm woozy, and am legally impaired until 7am tomorrow, and then I'm off to Maui!

I am officially a teenager

I realize that I'm 24 years old, but trust me, after this post, you'll all be thinking "OMG Heather is like, totally a teenager".

I LOVE the "Twilight" series of books.

I didn't even know what they were last Thursday. I worked with a flight attendant who couldn't put down the second one, and I asked her what they were. She sheepishly said "Umm, well, they're teenager books about vampires" to which I replied "give me one."

Our next stop was Edmonton, where they have an Indigo in the airport. She ran off the plane, bought the first one for me, the third one for her (since she was almost done the second one), and the two of us read every second we could for the rest of our pairing. I finished it by Saturday and she lent me the second one to take home with me. I finished that one in two days. I was pretty bummed that I didn't have the third one, and when I got home yesterday from a pairing, Matt had bought it for me! A big step, since when I came home from the first pairing talking about my new vampire books, he reminded me that his 11 year old brother reads them too.

These aren't small books either. They're easily over 500 pages each, but they're easy reading. I figured they'd just be whatever, nothing crazy, but I REALLY liked them. I cried several times in the second one. CRIED! It's crazy. I'm not going to pretend they're going to change the world, but for a light read, they're awesome. I guess Stephanie Meyer, the author, had a dream about one of the scenes in the first book, and they all stemmed from there.

Best news? The movie of the first book comes out THIS WEEK. So the flight attendant who introduced me to them and I are going on Friday, just because we can. We'll probably be the only ones there without a chaperone. Go ahead a laugh, but once you read one, you'll love them too.

It's Wednesday

I hope everyone had a nice remembrance day. I went to the hockey game against the leafs last night and there was a nice little ceremony there before the game started. It was a fairly boring game, but the flames won so that felt nice. I went with five people who were in leafs jerseys so I was happy to win.

Maui was great. I won't get into details since I'm sure no one wants to hear them, but running on the beach watching the sunrise, yoga on the beach, beach relaxing and fresh pineapple were among the highlights. I got a little bit of a sunburn on my feet/ankles where I missed reapplying sunscreen but other than that I did ok.

Yesterday I had my first shift at the tech shop. I had a great time! It's a super relaxed atmosphere and they people seem nice so far so I'm happy. I have tonnes to learn still, since I got through maybe five of the bazillion shoes on the wall, but the workers and nice and helpful and I'm happy. I go back today so hopefully it goes as well.

Yesterday a 19 year old girl got kidnapped at gunpoint while she was getting into her car at a strip mall in Calgary. The guy she was with was forced to the back seat, and the kidnapper drove around for four hours, stopping periodically to sexually assault the girl while the guy sat and watched helplessly. That's pretty close to my worst nightmare and it's very scary that it happened in the middle of the day. I tend to be on the paranoid side when it comes to attackers, but mostly at night. Now I'll have to up the paranoid level in the day. When I heard the story on the morning news I dropped my mouth open in shock and teared up quite a bit. I couldn't even imagine what that would be like for her or the guy she was with. Terrifying. Anyway I hope they find who did it and he gets the help he needs, because the only way I could think someone could do that would be if they have some mental and psychological problems. If he doesn't, well I hope he goes to jail for a long time. Anyway I guess we all need to be a little more aware when we're getting into our cars.


In the states (or at least Maui), Starbucks has their Christmas cups out already, but here we don't! Should be happening soon, no?

I didn't see President elect Obama in Hawaii. (What's with the President elect business? Isn't it just President Obama?) I thought I might see him when he went to his Grandmother's funeral in Hawaii, but I think she was in Waikiki or somewhere other than Maui. I have to admit I'm excited for what's to come for the good ole U S of A. I found out on the plane on the way to Maui and I got shivers! Yay Obama!

Have a good day!

Muffins, Maui and More

I made some more muffins today. Raspberry, oats and vanilla yogurt. They are special gluten free oats that I ordered from a farm in Saskatchewan. I hope they're good!

Tomorrow I'm flying to Maui with work, and I get back on Thursday, then leave on Friday to do the exact same thing. The flights are red eyes, so I think I'll be tired by the time I get back on Sunday. Speaking of Sunday, when I arrive, I have to rush down to the Talisman Centre and hopefully make it to my field hockey game. Yesterday's double header was especially rough and I got a little bit pummeled. Today both ankles, one knee and one hip are REALLY hurting. It's a rough sport I tells ya.

Kristen made me some gluten free brownies when I was in Ottawa, but I didn't get to taste them. Because of this and that we didn't make it to their place and I was tired. She tried hard and made them from scratch, and hopefully she and Jordan enjoyed them! Thank you and next time I will taste them.

I got a second job at the Tech Shop today. I think I'll start next week. I'm pretty excited to get doing something else and learn a bunch more about running gear. I think I'll have a good time. I've been avoiding a second job like the plague since my experience at the coffee shop wasn't great near the end, but this I think will be a new challenge. I'm really looking forward to it. And the pay is great, so that's a bonus. I'm needing cash lately so this will help.

I like all the posts about the 100 omnivore's list. It's fun to go through and see what you've eaten. You should check them out. It really makes me think about all the food that I might never be able to try because of the celiac. I love food and trying new things, so I have to admit it makes me a little sad, but some of the greatest food I've ever had is gluten free, so I think I'll manage.

Here's to hoping I don't get a sun burn!

I stumbled across this...

... and I thought someone might find it interesting!

Enjoy!

I guess no one has any thoughts about organic milk...

I bought some new running shoes... My old ones are worn out.

Kristen had a nice long visit here. It was great. Sad to see her go though.

I bought a candle for our coffee table in hopes that it will get the musty smell away.

It's supposed to be nice here tomorrow!

I did a lot of laundry yesterday.

I have my first field hockey game on Sunday. I hope I have fun.

Tonight I'm hanging out with my friend Sarah and I made these antipasto lettuce wraps to have for supper. I hope they are good.

The sliding door in our apartment is getting foggy now that the heat is on. I wonder if it's not sealed properly.

I bought a new toaster so that my bread won't be contaminated. A gluten free only toaster.

Tomorrow I'm going to China Town to get some cheap salad roll ingredients. I know they're cheap as it is but they're even cheaper in China Town. I'm stoked.

Those are a few random musings for now.

Miak

Why is it getting cold?? I'm not interested.

I bought organic milk the other day as a test to see if I can taste a difference. So far it's pretty similar, but I've only had it in cereal. It seems less blue than regular skim milk... And it's double the price. I think the difference is less in taste and more in the actual contents of the milk. I know if lots of regular milk there are other things that make their way into the milk so I think that's the major difference. Anyone have any thoughts?

Worst. Flight. Ever. (and by flight I mean getting on a flight)

I'll share with you the terror that was Matt and I getting home from Toronto. When I looked on Saturday, all the flight from Toronto to Calgary were decently open. There were about 5 flights on Sunday after 1:00 pm, so I knew we wouldn't have a problem.

When I checked on Sunday after the race, all of a sudden they were all full. We scrambled to get packed and rushed to the airport in hopes of making it there in time to get a good priority number. We made it there about 2:45 before the flight (when 3:00 is "first in line"), so we checked in, and waited. We found out that one of the flights was canceled because the plane got struck by lightning, so that was the reason all the other flights got busier! So we didn't make it on to 2 flights, and things were looking pretty terrible for the third and fourth. Oh, did I forget to mention that Monday was Matt's first day at his new job, and the new job being an electrician apprentice?? Yeah so we were kind of desperate to get home.

Here's a major side note. Since I am an employee, I can sit up front in the jump seat in the flight deck with the pilots. I told them that I would only do this if there was a seat in the back for Matt, because I didn't really need to get home as quickly as Matt so I'd just wait until he got on a flight and I'd sit in the jump then. On the first flight, at one point it looked like there would be a seat for Matt, so I was going to be sitting jump. As we were excited that we might get on the flight, the crew walked by. I let out this huge gasp and Matt said something like "HOLY SHIT" when we saw one of the pilots. I'm not sure if I enlightened you about our Hawaii extravaganza, but there was a pilot who basically made our life a living hell and has since retold the story over and over again to his crews, antagonizing this terrible flight attendant and her awful boyfriend. This guy is the world biggest prick. I don't normally use that word, but he just is. He's terrible. And if I had to work with him, I would call in sick. He's that awful. Anyway the thought of me sitting in the flight deck with him the whole time was less appealing than getting an old person's nasty gross feet rubbed on me. I also thought that if this captain had a say in it, we wouldn't even get on the flight even if we were next in line. Luckily, we didn't have to make the decision because there were no seats for Matt, but it was scary. I was actually glad we didn't make that one.

The fourth flight was on one of the bigger planes, which hold 166 people. There is a minimum crew requirement on airplanes, meaning the crew/passenger ratio is 1:40. Normally we carry 4 flight attendants on all planes, and if the flights are full on that bigger plane, they'll pull a flight attendant from somewhere else and put them on that flight. That didn't happen for this flight. So there were 6 seats on a plane that had to remain empty, while there were 10 people in the toronto airport DYING to get home. So as a flight attendant, there is a chance that I can work in order to get myself home. That is, if you have a uniform. So I stood at the counter in the boarding lounge and was talking with the Customer Service Agents, who ultimately control my and Matt's fate, and said "well I'm a flight attendant, but I don't have a uniform." So sorry Heather, no uniform, no working. At this point, Matt and I had been at the airport for about 5 hours, Matt had called and left messages with his new boss explaining that he wouldn't be at work for his first day, and we were feeling all in all terrible.

I decided to go up to the counter one more time, just to remind them I was there, yeah, hi, over here, love to get on a flight, when the CSA said "hang on Heather, we might be able to track down a uniform for you." OK LET'S GO! I ran back to my seat, grabbed my pass for the airports, and we ran down to this crazy mystery uniform room. While we were down there, a the CSA got a message via walkie talkie that I needed to call crew sked, who control the crews and are the people you want to be friends with, because if you're on their bad side, you're in trouble. And the last time I spoke with them, I was less than polite. Needless to say, I was expecting them to say "NO! HA!". I called, stated my purpose, and was SO expecting them to say no that when they said yes I just said "ok thanks!" and hung up. I couldn't believe it!

So up I went to the gate in pants that looked like they were crumpled in a ball for the last 5 years, a shirt that was too big and a sweater, with my sandals still on. I didn't have shoes or socks. Well one of the flight attendants working had an extra pair, and the CSA who helped me gave me her own shoes!!! I couldn't believe it! So in another mad dash, I got my stuff, went down to the plane, got all ready to start working. Matt got one of the seats, 5 other standbys got on, plus two more in the jump seats in the flight deck. So I had to work, which was fine, though I was a tad on the tired side since I had gotten up before 5:00am and ran a race and all that jazz, but we got home. Matt got to sit in a comfy seat and watch movies and get service, but don't worry I wasn't jealous. We finally made it home and went straight to bed.

And that was our terrifying adventure. Should I mention that I've never not gotten on a flight before? And we didn't get on THREE. Crazy.

Mmmmmuffins

I made some muffins today. They are pumpkin carrot. I haven't actually tried them yet, so I can't say if they're good, but they smell good! I made them with chickpea flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, ground flax, applesauce, pumpkin, carrot and other normal muffin things. I also made a corn and bean salad to bring with me on the road. I met with my dietitian again today and she told me I don't get enough grains. Well duh! So together we came up with some ways to get more grain in my diet, hence the muffins. These ones, since they're homemade, are much healthier than other muffins and have added sources of fiber. We came up with some other meals that I can eat on the road too, so I have a list of 4 breakfasts, 5 lunches, and a few different snacks. Once I get used to these, we can come up with some others. They aren't too far off from what I eat, but there are a few differences. The addition of grains, (but I can't seem to find gluten free wraps), making sure there's protein, which I try to do but doesn't work super well, and honestly, it's a little more food than I normally eat. Anyway, I'm learning, and Sarah the dietitian is helping.

The race weekend went well. I made my personal record, barely, of 26 minutes. I got 26:57 for my 5Km. I didn't specify that it had to be 26 or UNDER, so in my mind I made it. I've learned I'm terrible at pacing myself. I really need to work on that. Kristen and Jordan did well, but were a few minutes off their goals. Still did great though. I managed to see Kristen, Jordan, and my mum cross the finish lines, so I was really happy about that. We had great spots to cheer them on and every one of them heard me cheering, so I felt very successful. My family met Matt's family as well and we had a great time, so that was another notch in the successful column.

Matt started his job as an electrician apprentice this week after a horrifying trip home which I'll save for another post. The flying wasn't the bad part, but the almost NOT flying was. I'll elaborate later. His second day on the job went swimmingly and the third even better. It started a little rocky, but he loves it now. I hope everything continues to get better and better!

All in all, we've had a great weekend/week!!

Gluten Free = Anything good Free

I have been living Gluten Free for what seems like forever. I don't even know actually, but I think it's something like 2 weeks or a week and a half.

I'll just come right out and say it: It's a whole lot of shitty. Before you all think "come on, it's just food", I know. I know it's just food, I know I don't have cancer, I know I don't have diabetes, I know life could be so much worse, and I'm not pretending that my life is coming to an end. BUT, it's incredibly difficult and I hate it so far.

I was in Community Natural Foods after about day 2 of being gluten free, and I was looking around for snacky foods. You know, when you're running out the door and need something to throw in your purse in case you get hungry, or when you just want as a little something at home. Anyway, I'm looking, and looking, and looking, and all I find are some bar thingys. There is HUGE selection of bars at the store, so I'm thinking there HAS to be something that's got some nutritional value, not too fatty, and reasonably priced. Well, there are three brands that are gluten free. THREE. (I know I didn't look at every single one, but three out 15 I would say). There's the Larabar, which I know and love, but really, not much of a nutritional bar, more of a "I'm craving something sweet so I'll choose this instead of candy or a chocolate bar". And it's also between $1.50-$2.00 per bar. Then there are these Glutino brand bars, which are basically like those Chewy tendres made by Quaker, which are $7.50 per box of five. Lastly, Bumble Bars, which are about $2.50 per bar, and are good, but again more like the Larabar in nutritional content. They are so strange though, made with little tiny yellow dots... I'm thinking by the name maybe they're made out of some kind of bee product. Anyway that's the snack part of the trip.

The baking? I won't bother. A small loaf of bread (and I mean SMALL... like the size of a baker's potato) was $7.50.

On to the sauces. I would like a salad dressing. I looked for about 10 minutes, and finally bought some balsamic vinegar that I can mix with oil. No regular salad dressings are gluten free.

I started to tear up a bit, I know that sounds cheesy, but I did. I held it together, paid $30 for not even a bag full of things, and left. As soon as I got into the car, I cried. Full on cried. I just felt sorry for myself, thought things like "why me?" and "this is stupid"... By the time I got home, I was still crying, and I walked inside feeling really stupid because things are so much worse for so many people in this world, but I just wanted to cry. Matt was here, thought maybe I crashed the car or someone died, but "no", I said between tears, "I can't eat ANYTHING" boo hoo. He was sweet and went online to order some gluten free goods. He found lots, but the shipping ended up being ridiculous, so we decided to hold off. I think there are a few other websites that may be a bit closer to home so we'll give those a shot. Anyway he cheered me up and we made some delicious thai food that we happened to have, and that's gluten free.

My problem, aside from snacks, are the sauces. For the love, why is there wheat in EVERYTHING????? Soy sauce, anything WITH soy sauce, BBQ, salad dressings, peanut sauce, chicken broth, and anything else that has a flavour. This is the tough part.

I saw a new nutritionist who is sweet as pie and we are going to work well together to find things to make, things to bring on the road, how to re-organize my kitchen, since we can't use the same toaster or peanut butter. I'm happy to have someone I can just call and say "can I have this?" and she'll say yes or no. I feel a little bit better, and things I know can only get better, but at the start, to say "you can't eat gluten, and.... GO!" and to be so in the dark and have no one and nothing is not really ideal.

I am off to Toronto for the weekend with my mum, my sister, Jordan and Matt to run a little race in the Toronto Waterfront Marathon weekend. It will be fun! Eating will be interesting, but I'll make it through!

I think I figured it out

I'm pretty sure the whole point of the "er" thing is that everything at bell is better than the rest, so cool is now cooler, sexy is now sexier, etc. It's just putting the emphasis on the superlative. (I think the word is superlative anyway). That's what I've decided anyway.

On a side note, I am now gluten free. My Dr got in touch with the GI specialist and together they decided that since I have no appointment in sight, I should go off gluten, and then I'll have to go back on it for 10 days leading up to the appointment. Apparently those 10 days will be "uncomfortable" but I think it will be worth it for now! Too bad this decision wasn't made 6 months ago...

Bell Commercial

Has anyone seen the new Bell commercials? The company name is Bell, but then the slogan is something like "Friday night's just got better" with the final er highlighted in blue. There are a few others where the final er are highlighted in blue as well, and I seriously don't understand it. What do the letters e and r have to do with Bell? For some reason this is consuming me. Please help.

When I grow up I wanna something blah blah I wanna have boobies!

Does anyone else think that Pussycat Dolls song is ridiculous? I wanna have boobies? But as Matt and I discussed, when I was younger, it's true, all I wanted was boobies. I would go to bed every night thinking "please when I wake up in the morning let me have something more than mosquito bites" and then, after lots of wishing, one day in grade 12 I woke up with glorious boobs and I've been happy ever since. Where they came from, I don't know. So, as much as it's the lamest song ever (and Matt's ringtone), it's accurate.

I had a pretty exciting weekend!

First, I saw Pineapple Express. It was pretty funny at the start, and then half way through it got a little out of hand, but it was still quite funny.

Second, I sang Karaoke!! I have always avoided singing at Karaoke bars. I like to think I'm a decent singer, and the idea of being awful in a bar full of people doesn't really sound like fun. Anyway I decided to bite the bullet and try. So I sang "Saturday Night" by Whigfield, and it was really fun. Before I went up, and thought "oh jeeze, I only know like two lines of that song!" and then after I started, I realized there WERE only two lines in the song so it was all ok. It dragged on a bunch at the end but other than that it was super fun. Matt was a big hit. He started with Purple Rain, then a whole bunch of others, and ended with Ziggy Stardust, and it was hilarious. The night was tons of fun, except when a hearing impaired guy who stank a bunch took off his shirt and got into judo chop position and threatened to kill Katie's boyfriend (who for real didn't provoke him). Actually, that was still kind of fun but a little more dangerous than we were hoping for the evening. When we got home, our neighbours were having a fire in the backyard so we joined them for a little as well. It was quite a long night!

On Sunday we were quite slow going (because when you sing Karaoke, drinks must be consumed prior to, during, and after the singing). What is the best cure for a hangover? Heavy yardwork on the roof! Matt and I gave my mum our services for Christmas, and she chose to redeem them with yardwork. Matt cleaned the eaves troughs, hauled rocks and we both had to clean off the garage roof of branches, pinecones, and nine garbage bags full of pine needles. There were a couple of small trees growing ON the roof as a result of all the needles too, so we got rid of those too. She rewarded us with ribs and corn on the cob and we watched some Olympics after. It was a little rough though.

The last event of the weekend came in the middle of the night last night in the form of a headache. It wasn't my everyday this is annoying and hurts kind of headache. It was the worst headache I've ever had but then ten times worse. It was in my temples, behind my eyes, AND in the back of my head, when normally I get the pain in one of those three places. No matter how I positioned my head, I couldn't get the pain to even ease up a bit. I took drugs, I drank water, and held my head in the toilet for a bit because I thought I was going to throw up for a while, I sat up, laid down, I closed my eyes, opened them, put pillows everywhere and nothing would help. Then I thought of a magic bag, which I don't have, so I went and put my head in the freezer for a little while to recreate the feeling (which upon reflection probably wasn't a good idea). I cried for a while, but then made myself stop because the congestion from the tears made my headache worse. It was awful awful awful. I eventually fell asleep but it took a long time, and when I woke up I still had a bit of a headache. I actually still do, so I'm not too sure what is wrong with my brain but it sure doesn't like me. Ouch!

That's the end of that post I think. And in five more sleeps it's my birthday! Wahoo!

Shoes!

I got new shoes! How fun!

My knees and shins have really been bothering me lately. So much that I have not been running at all because of the pain. It's not great. So I decided I should stop wearing flip flops around and heels at work. I got some new shoes with better support, and I'm going to see if maybe I need orthotics. I went to Gravity Pope to find something great, and they had a buy two sale items get one free sale. How often does that happen? Free shoes? Anyway enough talk, I'll show you the shoes!

First, some simple shoes. I dig em.

Second, some pumas. They're mostly like this but where the picture has grey, mine are black.

Thirdly, some birkenstocks. They're this style but a silver/white/grey colour.

I feel like a rock star kind of. I mean, how often do you get THREE pairs of shoes in ONE day. Bliss.

And all in all it was under 200$. Fabulous. My mum was going to get me some birks for my birthday, so I was trying to get something different, but since there were so many sales, there weren't a lot of shoes left in my size. In the end I didn't have much choice in the last pair. Either way, they were free, so I couldn't really go wrong.

Shoes!!

Still no hair pictures...

I haven't taken any that really do it justice. I'll get some good hair pics on here soon. Don't worry. (Because you're all DYING to see it, I know. All you can think about what my hair looks like and when you're going to see a picture.)

Matt and I are settling in our new place. I'm still trying to find places for everything and trying to organize things, but it's coming along well.

I tried to put a picture as my masthead but I guess none of the ones I tried were the right size. I'm not really sure what size I need, but none of mine were it. I'm bummed.

Last night was SO hot that we had all the windows open in the apartment. It was so hot that Matt got me ice packs to put on my body to make me stop complaining. It got really windy in the middle of the night, and when we woke up it looked like a tornado had hit the place. There were papers and napkins ALL over the living room and kitchen. Funny stuff.

I'm going to attempt to shave Matt's head tonight... We'll see how that goes. Maybe I can post one of HIS hair pics.


Update: * Matt wouldn't wear the cape thing that came with his clippers, so I decided to wear it instead. This is me pouting on the couch because he wouldn't wear the cape. And my extensions aren't in... Sorry.*

I moved!

It went really well. I packed EVERYTHING before moving day, so when it came time to pack up the truck, it took no time at all. The time consuming part was the putting away in the new place. I had lots of help but it still took forever. The new place has significantly less space to put things, so we're still trying to figure out where everything needs to go. It will come, eventually.

I need to upload some pictures of the hair. I haven't done that yet.


I just got a new (and FREE!) blackberry pearl and it's a little bit confusing to figure out, but I'm getting there. First thing was first though, and Matt got me two (FREE!) ringtones, so when he calls me is MIA paper planes and when anyone else calls me is that song by Estelle featuring Kanye West that I really like. It has a cool black and white video and it makes me dance a little bit.

My first Stampede as a volunteer came and went. I had fun and wore cowboy boots and a hat every shift I had. About five people came up and asked when I was in the Stampede Show Band because my cowboy boots, which are the red uniform boots that I conveniently forgot to give back when I left the band. I was only in the band for a couple of months, but I never gave back the uniform and they never asked for it, and now they have a new one so they don't care. The first time I wore them I told Matt that I bet people will know that I have stolen Stampede Band boots, and he laughed at me and told me that NO ONE would ever know, so it made me laugh every time someone recognized them.

It was my sister's birthday on the 11th and I didn't even post a happy birthday post. I am a horrible sister. I just had so much going on, though that is no real excuse. I post happy birthday's to so many other people and I didn't even give one to her. I did call her and sing happy birthday when she was at work, so it's not like I forgot it was her birthday, I just forgot in the blogging world. I'm sorry Kristen. Do you forgive me? She told me I could get her a spread the net net as a present, but I feel like as much as it's a good cause, it's a smidge boring for a BIRTHDAY present. Maybe I can get a net plus something else. Now don't go judging me for not having already gotten her a present. I wanted to know what she wanted, and since I was moving it all just got delayed. (Is "not having already gotten" right? Maybe "having not already gotten" is better? I think the second one sounds better.)

After having so much time off for moving and Stampede I now have to work a bunch. It's a tough life, only having to work half the month. I don't know how I'll ever go to having a real job where I have to work EVERY week day, ALL day. Barf.

I think I need to attempt to get back to a real schedule by going to bed. I've been working red eyes to and from Montreal and Calgary for the last four days. Working all night and sleeping all day gets normal after a day or two, but now that I'm finished, I'm all mixed up. I've only been awake for about 9 hours but it's already 2:00am and if I want to actually DO something tomorrow I should probably try to force the sleep thing. I need to find a little tiny book reading light so that I can read in bed without bugging Matt. On an unrelated note, does anyone know if dry cleaners give away hangers for free? We are in desperate need of more hangers.

How to pack for a month but not actually pack a thing:

1. Have 5 boxes. A large 2 bedroom apartment can fit in 5 boxes, right? Wrong.

2. Throw a bunch of stuff out. If I could, I would throw it all out and start a new. I hate packing THAT MUCH.

3. Decide that you will use EVERY SINGLE THING in your apartment before moving day, so you can't possibly put them away in boxes.

4. Buy MORE STUFF. That way you'll have more things to pack.

5. Have your stuff everywhere. It makes things chaotic and then you won't want to pack because everything is disorganized.

6. Get more boxes, but make sure they are really small so that only 2 or 3 books will fit in each one.

7. Once you finally get appropriately sized boxes, have them all around you while you watch a superstar hair challenge marathon on TV instead of packing.

8. Find lots of other things to do instead of packing THREE DAYS BEFORE MOVING DAY. Suggestions? Make smoothies for your friend who just had her tonsils out, help set up for the stampede, go drinking with friends, go meet your mother and grandmother at the mall for lunch, go to IKEA, and write blog postings...

9. Make lots of appointments for the week before your move. You can't POSSIBLY pack the day of an appointment. You might lose track of time and MISS IT!

10. Practice putting in your new hair extensions 10 times a day. It's important that you get good at this so you have super nice hair in your new place.

As you can tell, I'm avoiding packing like the plague. I'm in trouble.

Ew?

There was just a bug crawling across my screen!!! I really need to clean and then MOVE. Seriously, I can NOT wait to move. I'm counting down the days (17) until I can get the f%$# out of here!

On a side note, it's a nice day out today. I think summer is here.