Home Sweet Hotel Room

Today has been a gong show.  

Why is it that every year I fly home for the holidays (and by every year, I mean this year and last year) there has to be some ridiculous snow storm exactly when I am traveling? Is mother nature so cruel that she would send her frozen fury right at the time that everyone wants to travel for the holidays? Is she bitter that she doesn't have a family to visit for Christmas, and is taking it out on us? No Father Nature to cozy up to? No little mini-natures running around the...uhh...earth or sky?

Today started out with me being worried I was going to miss my flight at 4:40 p.m. Turns out I didn't have to worry at all. I could have even stayed home for a few more hours. My flight didn't leave until 9:30 p.m. This would be all well and fine if it was a direct flight to Hamilton.  Except this flight was only 36 minutes to Calgary, where I was supposed to catch a connecting flight to Hamilton. The connecting flight did wait, but not long enough. So here I am using a hotel voucher from Westjet at the Travelodge, which I arrived at with my voucher for a taxi from Westjet. Do I have a flight tomorrow? Nope. What did they say to do? Call between 10 a.m. and noon. WHAT!? I just tried calling Westjet and got a message along the lines of "Due to the immense amount of phone calls Westjet is experiencing, our phone system is not capable of holding your call. Please try again later." 

Honestly, I don't even mind the delay itself. There is no rush to get home as long as it's before Christmas. What upsets me is that my flight hasn't been rescheduled. And I'm sure any remaining flights to get anywhere in southern Ontario between now and Christmas are booked solid. And all I can think about is that I'm going to end up spending Christmas in neither of my homes, but in a Calgary hotel room. And that thought is so depressing that I may have to break into the mini bar. Actually I don't even see one in this room. Probably a good thing right now.

I have to say, so far, and despite what I have written, I'm proud of myself for taking all of this so well. Up until I found out my flight wasn't rescheduled, I was doing great. I was even laughing at the ridiculous things other pissed off travelers were saying. "You know it's all Westjet's fault right? They new from the beginning it was going to be delayed that long. They just kept delaying the flight by 30 minutes so we wouldn't get upset."  Now with this logic, either Westjet is incredibly stupid as obviously people would be more upset in the end, or the person who told me is immensely stupid for believing a conspiracy theory between Westjet and it's customers. I'm going with the latter.

What really gets me is the people who think they have a right to scream and complain to anyone wearing a westjet uniform.  When the customer service desk rep was asked when another rep was coming to help him with the insanely long line, he said soon, and some huge jackass behind me in line actually had the nerve to yell out "'Soon' according to Westjet means an hour and a half." This was after he discussed with someone how in "flight attendant school" they have a special course for time terminology (such as soon=an hour and a half). He also advised not to ask too many questions because they wouldn't be able to understand. I finally turned around and faced his immense beer belly and said "They're doing everything they can. There's no need to be a jerk!" He nodded and, I think, concentrated on not tearing me a new one. Anyone who thinks that Westjet intentionally delayed the flights and caused the chaos at the airport is off their rocker.  I wish that full grown adults had the maturity to realize hey, it sucks for everybody. Snowstorms screw up flights. It happens. Deal with your anger in a "grown up" way instead of complaining and screaming at people. 

Some funny things have occurred through all of this.  It was the first time I had seen a roll call done on a flight. We all raised our hands as we heard our name, just like in grade school. I wanted to yell out "PRESENT!!" but lost my nerve.  My favourite part was when they asked if Ryan Hays was on board;

Stewardess: Is there a Ryan Hays on board? Can you raise your hand please? Ok, I see two hands there. I only need one for Ryan Hays. Thank you.

I guess one was Ryan Hays, and one just really wanted to be Ryan Hays??

Other things that happened:

• Got "randomly selected" to be padded down by security. A VERY thorough pat down, mind you. I had to swallow back "So...are you going to buy me dinner now?" jokes.
• Asked for a tea when the beverage cart came by. Got it just as the pilot announced "we are now beginning our decent. Please place your trays in their upright positions and prepare for landing." Subsequently had to chug hot tea.
• Nearly yelled "DOWN IN FRONT!" at a child in the way of the Shrek Christmas movie they had playing at the gate.
• Voucher said "Travelodge, Mcloud". Taxi driver said there were two on McLoud. Naturally, only one took the vouchers, and we went to the other first.
• Fell asleep clutching my cell phone and laptop in a comfy chair in Second Cup.

Things that are happening now:

• I'm going to bed.
  

Here's hoping I make it home for the holidays. I'd give just about anything to hug my parents and hold my baby niece right now.

We're All The Stars Of Our Own TV Shows

I was accosted the other day on my way to work.

I had just stumbled off of my bus ride in my usual early morning zombie-like state and made my way to the street corner across from my work. I immediately noticed a few people standing around the corner with a tv camera aimed at them. Before I turned my head in an attempt to discretely walk by, I saw that it was two people collecting for the Salvation Army with a bell and a collection ball hanging thingy. I'm sure there is a more technical term somewhere.

Turns out it was someone from Citytv breakfast television trying to help the Salvation Army rep collect donations. I made the mistake of turning around and accidentally making eye contact which she used as her opportunity to ask me if I would like to donate anything to the Salvation Army. 50 cents, a dime, ANYTHING she says. Not wanting to be the jackass that turns down a charity, especially on tv, I dug out my wallet, faced the camera, and wished I had been a little bit more attentive with my make up that day.

When I put it in, the Citytv host asked me if there was anyone I wanted to say good morning to. Knowing that A) there would be nobody I knew who was watching that

station at that time and B) well...actually just point "A)" again, I stared terrified into the camera and said something resembling "uuuuuummmgggguhh...gooooood moooorning...uhhh....Edmonton???" to which she responded "Well said!"

I was actually able to retrieve a shot of me being on tv. Here is a screen shot of the incident:

After this, I swiftly walked into work extremely flustered and hoping nobody saw my tv debut.

Nikki wasn't in yet, so I went up and left a note on her desk saying "I was accosted this morning." but left it unsigned. She called me about 15 minutes later. Our conversation went like this:

Nikki: How were you accosted?

Lorraine: How did you know it was me?!

Nikki: Honestly Lorraine...you're the only person I know who would use the word "accosted."

She knows me too well.

Premonition

Driving home on Saturday night:

Thought process in Lorraine's head:

Why are these freakin' cars driving so slow?! Why do people drive EXACTLY the limit here? Get out of my way. Yeesh. Finally, I can accelerate. Okay, I'm only going 70k/h in a 60 zone. That's not bad, I can live with this. Hey, it's weird, I keep hearing about how they have photo radar here, but in the year I've lived here, I've never gotten caught. Which I'm pretty lucky for, because I speed a lot. Although now that I'm thinking about how I've never been caught, I'm probably going to get caught. Ha, wouldn't that be a crappy coincidence. That would suck. *Looks around nervously*

*FLASH*

Me: Nikki. Did you see that.

Nikki: Yes. You just got caught on photo radar.

Desperate for a drink

Nikki and I are waiting to get drinks at the bar at the bowling alley. The server is checking ID for some people ahead of us.

Server: Can I see some ID?

Young girl: *hands a piece of paper that looks like an official government document*

Server: *pause* I'm sorry, I can't accept this.

Young girl: Why not??

Server: Well...the picture is taped on.

In a recent MSN conversation with my UK buddy...

Me: So speaking of Gandhi, do you think non-violent non-cooperation could work in modern day society?

Euan: ...is this not the cutest squirrel EVER???

Further Evidence That I Should Not Procreate

It's getting harder to laugh at the stupid things I do when they occur so often.

Some backlogged items:

3. A month or two ago I told Nikki that the drain in one of our double sinks was clogged. The water was murkey and I couldn't see the bottom. Turns out I just completely forgot that I put the plug in. I discovered this two days later. (Thankfully before I contacted our landlord)

2. A month ago I was working late and realized I had to move my car as my parking had expired. Got my car, moved it into the company parkade, then tried to use my keycard to get up to the lobby. Didn't work. Had to wait for someone to come out the door and then snuck in. Got to the lobby, couldn't scan in the elevator. Got security to scan me in. Got to my floor. Couldn't scan into my floor. Went back down to the lobby. Security calls our company rep. Gets permission to scan me onto my floor. I leave a message for Facilities to fix my dang card. I grab my stuff and leave. I go to scan into the elevator on the off chance it will work. I hold up my key card and realize...yes. I have been using my apartment keycard instead of my work keycard. Yes, they look identical. But are on separate keychains.

That brings us to today's incident.

1. I tried baking a carrot cake last night for our United Way bake sale today. I got as far as getting the batter ready in a bowl before taking a break and subsequently crashing. Tonight I attempted to finish, which I thought I had done successfully until I realized I had forgotten one vital item; the carrots.

I'm getting kinda scared. Hold me.

Note to self: don't...do...anything.

Nikki: You're a disaster today.
Lorraine: You tell me that every day.
Nikki: No, I usually say you are a mess. Today you're a disaster!

I'm not sure if this is the way I have always been and I just never really took note of it, or if this is something new. The last time I felt this clumsy was probably around puberty, when my body started growing rapidly but had apparently left my hand-eye coordination behind.

Lately I've been doing things like walking into walls, coffee tables, various other inanimate objects, and just getting hurt in very strange ways. (Moreso than usual, is my point.)


I guess they aren't only strange but also stupid. For example, I can't keep a drink from spilling to save my life. I also keep perpetually walking into the corner posts of my bed. On closer inspection, it looks like someone specifically designed the posts for this purpose. Despite the obvious lack of esthetics, I am still considering buying foam or some type of padding and using duct tape to securely fasten to each post. *brief moment of affection for duct tape*


Then there was the incident a few days ago where I seared my finger on a broken part of a mixer that belonged to a movie-theater style popcorn maker. How did this happen, you ask? Well, first of all, I'm an idiot and immediately grabbed it when it fell out of the popcorn pot without it even occurring to me that it would be ridiculously hot, and secondly, it was part of my volunteering duties for our United Way campaign at work. Since it did occur on work time, I briefly considered filing for workman's comp, but discarded this idea due to the consequence of having more people find out about my stupidity, and subsequently creating a safety incident report which would soon be circulated to the entire company.


Unfortunately, this was not the only incident with the popcorn maker...oh no. I also had a burning hot kernel fly out of the pot and target the gap between the collar of my shirt and my chest like a fat kid on a smartie. Fearing I would accidentally bare my breasts in front of my coworkers during my mad attempt to remove it, I ran away clutching my chest. (You can imagine how graceful and sophisticated this looked.) Two days later, I have three very red and very large blisters from where it first fell beneath my breast, stubbornly moved to a second spot under my breast, and firmly planted itself in the center of my bra, the part which provides the most pressure against the skin. If I could put up a tactful picture of this, I would.


I can't help but wonder how this particular kernel found it's way three feet away from where it was sitting and into the tiniest crevice of my shirt. Really...the angles must have been so precise and exact, along with the amount of velocity it took to shoot out of the pot. AND it knew to do it when somebody I had just met on the United Way committee was talking to me. Which makes me hope I haven't developed a reputation as "girl who burns herself by accident a lot." Yes, there is no doubt...this kernel was out to get me. This kernel HUNTED ME DOWN. (Kudos to anybody who got the Dane Cook reference.)


I've been trying to come up with a good reason that these things keep happening, and after ruling out brain tumor (mostly because that is clearly a child of my paranoia), I have yet to come up with a good explanation. So for now, let's go with a second puberty, and I will heartily await to grow another few inches taller.

All The Good Ones Are Taken

It's just so frustrating.  Every time I find a new one that I think has potential, I find out just as soon - taken.  What's a girl to do?  You know what I'm talking about...email addresses.

The one I currently use I have had since I was in gradeschool.  As I type, there are 286 unread emails sitting in the inbox that consist of everything from forwards I'm too lazy to read to special offers from amazon to notices that it's time to pay my utility bills.  Aside from the sheer mass of emails I receive that I neither need nor want, my user name has underscores in between each word, and gosh darn it, I'm lazy. I want a user name/email address that I don't have to reach all the way up to the numerical row to type in. Plus, trying to tell it to someone goes something like this: "Ok. So my email is 'just, underscore, little, underscore, old, underscore, me.'" A slight pain in the ass.

So off I went to gmail to see what was available. (Too much spam in hotmail. I was baffled as to why I wrote viagra.com as there was clearly a Re: in the subject line. Those tricky tricky penis enlarging/sexual drive enhancing advertisers.) 

I finally figured out one I liked. One that was cute and encompasses everything I am in a simple few words.  rainyc. But...this user name is taken. *dun dun dun*

rainy.c is taken.  Lorrainey.c is taken.  I could do rainyc with a number on the end, but I have always vowed to stay away from that. It feels like selling out somehow. Sure, I could have my own unique email address, but the only thing differing it from the other rainyc's out there would be the number. I am not just another rainyc. I am an original rainyc. Some other unoriginal rainyc's just got to my username first.

I have a plethora of other names I have considered:

• twiddlingmythumbs@gmail.com (taken)
• eniarrol@gmail.com (Lorraine backwards) (taken)
• iwalkintowalls@gmail.com (taken) (also true story)

The only ones I could find that were available were:

• sushimakesmegag@gmail.com
• overflowfrommyhead@gmail.com
• stillneedsabib@gmail.com
• iwalkintocoffeetables@gmail.com

Even 'allthegoodnamesaretaken@gmail.com' is taken. It's ridiculous.

Now I know I'm making a big deal of this, I know I should just pick one and stick to it. But it's a big deal for me. So many things are linked through email nowadays. And you have to pick one that is simple, that is age friendly (I don't think my mom would love an email address like hellsyeah@gmail.com) and you're not embarrassed to give out. 

And so the search continues. I'm open to suggestions.  

Best Friend Conversations

Having a conversation with Nikki about work using extremely advanced technical IT jargon:

Nikki: You don't need to do a computer account request form, just an equipment move request form. All you need is your asset number on your...box...thingy.

Lorraine: ...you mean your hard drive?

Nikki: ....yes, that.

Lorraine: You DO realize you work in IT, right?

Nikki: Shutup!

Sensitivity

Nikki: Yeah, that guy was huge.

Dani: Yeah. And his girlfriend was kinda hefty.

Nikki: Dani!! That's not very nice. It's not like she was a cow!

Crazy Edmonton Weather

Things I have learned about Edmonton weather:

• Don't laugh at the "No parking: Snow route" sign when you are parking because the weather has been in the plus twenties lately. Surely, you will wake up to your car buried in two feet of snow the next day. (True story.)
• If it's sunny in the morning, there is probably more of a chance that you will get rained on later in the day than if it is rainy in the morning.
• 'Tornado warning' in Edmonton does not mean a huge F4 or F5 tornado like one in Kansas or Oklahoma is coming. It means 'funnel cloud might touch down in a farmer's field and whip up some corn'.
• You CAN play softball an hour after a severe thunderstorm and heavy rain and flooding so bad in one part of the city that it went over the hoods of cars.
• If it's raining and thunderstorming in one end of the city, it's probably nice and sunny in the opposite part.
• My car can stand up to hail a lot better than I thought it could.
• Apparently one time it snowed at least once during every single month of the year here.
• The day you don't bring your umbrella to work is the day you will get caught in heavy rain.
• It's a very strange feeling to be slipping on ice from large hail stones when it is +20 outside.

Yesterday Nikki and I witnessed a hail storm from her apartment. Here are some pics I took with my cell phone:

Please note the cute neon in the distance, bravely braving the weather.

Hail gathered under a tree.

How big the hailstones were.

Here are some other pictures I have randomly taken around Edmonton with my cell phone of the whacky weather:

Just getting onto the Whitemud from 159th street. My first attempt at tornado chasing.

I love this picture except for my stupid day pass at Elk Island ruining it in the reflection.

For a storm lover such as myself, I have to say...I totally moved to the right city.

Metaphors, milk and mushy. Mmmmm.

Me: I need to get an oil change.


Nikki: ...is that supposed to be a metaphor?


_________


Lorraine: I want a muffin. And a glass of milk.


Nikki: What are you, five?


Lorraine: What are you, NOT five?


Nikki: What?


Lorraine: It's the best I could come up with on short notice.
________

*Lorraine and Nikki are listening to music on Nikki's ipod in her car*

Lorraine: Did that guy just sing 'I am a mushy!?'

Nikki: NO, he said 'I am a machine'

Lorraine: Ohhhhhhh.

*Machine line is sung again and Nikki starts giggling*

Lorraine: You TOTALLY heard 'I am a mushy' that time didn't you!

Key Calamity

First of all, I'd like to acknolwedge how crappy it was of me to send a note out to everyone saying "Hey, I'm blogging again, check back often!" and then proceed to not post anything new. I think I kinda scare myself every time I do that. You know. Because that means people might actually be reading this.

I seem to be having bad luck with keys today.

I was so proud of myself for getting up early (by early, I mean on time, which really is early for me). I went to leave the house when I realized, as usual, I had forgotten my car keys downstairs in my room. The weird thing is, they weren't in my room. Or in my purse, which I tore apart, or in my jacket pockets. Or in the tv room. Or on the kitchen counters. Or in the upstairs hallway. (You get the point.) I'm starting to snicker at the irony that the one day I am actually early/on time, I'm going to be late because I can't find my car keys. So I finally give in and grab the spare set, which I don't like because the lock remote doesn't work (I know, spoiled). Halfway to work, I remember; yesterday I had softball and was wearing my rain jacket. Guaranteed they are in that pocket.

I feel a bit better pulling in to work. Until I get up the elevators to the electronically locked door. I hold my purse up to activate my keycard (because I am too lazy to take it out at the time, and it still reads it) but the little red light doesn't turn green. You've gotta be kidding me.

In my search for my car keys, I took my keycard out of my purse because it has little keys attached to it that fool me into thinking it is my car keys. Evidentally, I forgot to put it back in.

Funny how losing one set of keys can cause you to lose another.

I also walked into the corner of the open metal drawer of my desk.

It's 9:00 a.m. Can't WAIT to see how the rest of the day will go.

*AFTER PUBLISHING NOTE: I asked for an extra keycard from our admin. It was when she brought it to me that I realized my keycard was already hooked on my beltloop, and not in my purse. I didn't forget it at home, I forgot I was wearing it!! That's the LAST TIME I'm going to get up early for work!!!!

Absent-Minded

*Staring blankly at screen*

Today I drove to work. I pulled into the dreaded Impark parking lot that I hate but have no choice to park in and parked beside the machine I have to buy a ticket from. I got out of the car, went to the other side of my car closer to the machine, and proceded to open my gas tank. After staring blankly at it for a few minutes I remembered that hey, there's no gas station here, and hey, I'm trying to pay for parking, not pump gas.

I did something else absent minded today but I can't remember what. HA.

Innovative Car Repairs

I don't know why it is people keep hitting my car when they are backing out of parking spaces. Is my car invisible? Because it looks silver to me. If I have been driving around with an invisible car, I would hope that someone would have told me by now. The idea that I have had an invisible car this entire time and not taken advantage of it is upsetting to me. I wish Impark personnel couldn't see my car the way these people that keep driving into me don't.

What makes me the most angry is knowing a simple glance in the rear view mirror or side view mirror would quickly indicate to them that yes, there IS indeed a car behind them and maybe, just maybe, they should attempt to avoid hitting it. Who ARE these people that slam on the gas pedal and think "Look out, I'm coming back, if you get hit, it's your fault!" Perhaps they are the same people that ride their bikes into parked cars. By the same logic, would you walk backwards without looking? No...so why would you operate a huge device made of steel worth thousands of dollars with you in it without watching where you are going? WHY!?

The inspiration for this rant came from a recent incident in the Best Buy parking lot. Here I was, driving very slowly, making my way over to an empty parking stall. I see a car backing out to my left. I see the car isn't stopping. I'm too far along to brake and avoid a collision, and cannot accelerate fast enough to get out of the way. So I slam on my horn and hold it down. The car still comes. I look around me trying to think of what other possible signal I can give to indicate "HEY YOU ARE ABOUT TO DRIVE RIGHT INTO ME YOU MORON". After a good three seconds of horn blasting, the car backs into me anyway, crunching my driver's side door. The wonderfully ironic part of the story is that the weather conditions were atrocious as it was the second day of our April blizzard. So one would think that car accidents would be more likely to happen. But this accident had nothing to do with the weather! She didn't slide...she didn't even try to brake. It had to do with stupidity instead.

She gets out of her car all distraught and apologizing. I say it's ok, these things happen, once I take a few deep breaths to calm myself down. After all, it could be a lot worse. After going inside her van to get a pen, and me hearing her teenage son in the passenger side say "I TOLD you to stop!" and her replying with a polite screaming "SHUTUP!!!" she advises me she wants to pay for it herself instead of going through insurance. I'm fine with this. But upon consultation of my witness, he says I might be able to just take an ordinary hardware store plunger and pull the dent right out. Apparently this is a secret weapon to many a body shop repair man. The paint isn't scratched at all, and I figure if I can do this, I can save both of us some trouble.


There is no way you can plunger your car without having someone take pictures of it. (Thanks goes out to Nikki. Ma homegirl slice. Word.)





First, I had to try to sterilize the plunger a bit. My car is dirty enough without feces on it. This is me soaping it up and doing my best to avoid touching it. Gross.

This is me doing my very best to get the best suction against the car door as possible.



This is me losing my plunging mojo. As you probably would have guessed, it didn't work.

So...anyone know a good auto body shop in Edmonton?

Spring In Edmonton

This is a cell phone picture I took from my bus on the way to work on this lovely late-April morning. That is, after I walked to the bus stop, slipped and fell on my hands and knees, froze at the bus stop for 45 minutes waiting for a bus that was, coincidentally, 45 minutes late, and froze at my transfer bus stop for another 20 minutes. Oh, I also had the priveledge of listening to someone's crappy music while snuggled tight against strangers in the bus shelter. What is with those crappy ear phones that come with ipods that make it so that not only the listener but everyone around them has to deal with their poor taste in music? That is, unless my ipod is on. Because we all know how wonderful my taste in music is. *Lorraine hopes anyone who knows that she has a song from the movie Cinderella in her itunes is not reading this.*

Let's all try and ignore the fact that it was 24 degrees out a week and a half ago. Which just happened to be on my birthday. Being as it snowed the next day, logically, the only way to make sense of what happened is to deduct that it was a birthday miracle. And Edmonton weather is spawned by the devil.

Sympathy

Nikki:  "Yeah, I still have a fever and the chills. I feel awful."

Lorraine: "That sucks. The missionaries staying with us this weekend are playing really horrible worship music really loud."

Nikki: "Ohhhhh MAN!! I feel SO bad for you!!!!!"

Hospital Humour

Yesterday Nikki and I had the pleasant experience of spending essentially the whole day at the hospital. It wouldn't have been so bad if she hadn't of been doubling over in pain and I wasn't weathered down with what I had just discovered was strep throat, a nasty sinus infection, and a nose bleed that was on the verge of needing to be cauterized. (Dry Alberta weather + sinus infection = Lorraine thinking she must be hemorrhaging from the brain.) But no, we could not be free to enjoy the multitudes of sick (and strange) people, rude receptionists and doctors, and the maze that is finding radiology. Something was wrong with Nikki, and we had to find out what.

After being guided from hallway to hallway, wrong room to wrong room, we finally found where we were supposed to be only to be told to go to the front of the hospital and go through patient registration. Back through the maze we went and got in line.

There was a sign posted at the front of reception:

MATERNITY VISITING HOURS

Friends and extended family: 4 - 8

Siblings and grandparents: 11 - 9

Father: Anytime

Nikki made a seemingly logical observation: "What about the mother?"

Lorraine: "Well...it's 'maternity' visiting hours, so...I'm pretty sure she'd already be there."

Nikki: "Oh yeah. Ha. I'm an idiot."

No Nikki, you are not. You do, however, have blonde hair...

Text of the Day

After texting Nikki for awhile while I am on the bus on my way to work, she writes:

"You're sitting on the bus beside a creep while you have a bloody nose...and I'm falling into holes. No wonder we're friends."

For Sale

One (1) soul.

-rarely used
-excellent condition
-would make lovely shelf display
-can be twisted into a cute balloon animal
-bulletproof
-comes in many different colours; most notably blue, grey, and black.
-free shipping
-no warranty available

Seller would like to sell as soon as possible. $3/obo.

Recap

SO. Last post on this blog = August 2007 eh. Interesting. I wonder if I had any loyal readers who didn't know me and wondered what happened to me. What interesting explanations would they have come up with? Ran away to join the circus? Went to clown college? Went to clown college THEN ran away to join the circus? (Logically, that would make more sense, no?)

Alas, I am alive and well. However, in the last seven months, I have....*deep breath...*

Packed up my little neon, moved across the country to Edmonton Alberta which was a lovely little adventure in and of itself involving beautiful scenery across Ontario, flat scenery across the prairies, exquisite accommodations such as The Beaver Motel, visited long lost friends along the way, kept track of gas prices across the country and how they sky rocketed the further north in Ontario you go, had a truck driver request me to take a picture of him, saw huge statues of a goose and a sasquatch, and had my GPS tell me to turn into fields once I got into Edmonton.

Since I have been in Edmonton I have....*deep breath*

Spent a month puttering around and annoying the family I rent the basement from 'til I ran out of money and had to get a job which I still hold downtown in the oil industry and quite enjoy, met my awesome best friend Nikki (also my new music guru) and her awesome sister who are my partners in crime both at work and on weekends and essentially let me live at their apartment every weekend, started dating a boy, debated nominating our relationship for the "most miscommunication and worst timing of a relationship of the year" award (which we SO would have won), tried skiing for the first time in years and only fell when trying to get on the ski lift and then at the end of our very last run when I almost collided with the rental shop, tried snowboarding for the first time in Fernie BC and fell a whole lot more, experienced the coldest temperature I have in my life, had my car towed because I never felt like paying for parking, (I HATE YOU IMPARK!), got over my fear of public transit, started writing songs and poetry and playing guitar again, gotten hooked on "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" and "Extras", mocked the Calgary Tower for being a miniature CN Tower, become an Oiler's fan, got a free ticket to an Avril Lavigne concert BUT also saw Alexisonfire, went to Yuk Yuk's by myself to see Greg Proops whose autograph is now on my wall AND......found $20 on the bar floor!!!! Meeting someone famous or finding that $20...I really can't decide which is better.

I know you are all now jealous that you don't live in Edmonton too. Unless you do. In which case...you are probably sans said jealousy.

Right now I am going to...*deep breath*

...go to bed.

BUT watch for more updates! The blog wheels are a turnin' in my head! The next post will either be about healing alarm clocks or cheap pregnancy tests! I haven't quite decided yet. But BOY if that isn't incentive to check back, I don't know what is!