You know what it's like: you get up a little late, you're falling behind, the time that you should have left home comes and goes without your departure, and later rather than sooner, you're rushing out the door hoping you didn't forget anything too important. Then you have to deal with ETS. Amazingly enough you only have to wait 30 seconds for the bus that's two blocks away to get to your stop. And then there's even a seat for you. Wow, the students must all already be at school! But there are 6 stops between you and the LRT, a long flight of stairs and the you know how unreliable the 'every 5 minutes' rule has been lately. But look! just as you get to the bottom of the second (of three) flights of stairs, a wave of people starts coming up. You know you're almost home-free. You've caught this train, you know, because people down at the other end are still lining up to get on. So you make your way down the train, getting on about halfway because you don't want to tempt fate. Look! there's even an open seat left!
A few minutes later you hear the "train is now leaving the station" electronic doorbell sound, the doors lock and the train lurches, then stops. As you sit there remembering all the times this has happened in the past, you realize that the train may have lurched in the wrong direction. But it was such a small lurch, you can't really be sure. Then the doors unlock and a few stragglers hop on.
Five minutes later, after the LRT operator has run by, jogging to the front of the train, you're still sitting there. Finally when the train does start to roll for a second time, you notice the lights indicating an incoming train other side of the platform. You are stopped again, waiting for that train to clear the tracks. As you get underway, the operator comes on over the intercom and lets you all know that there was some trouble with the train this morning, as well as other trains and the switching gear, and you sit uncomfortably listening to a voice tell you that your main mode of transportation is unreliable.
The apology, however, does make the whole situation much more bearable.
When I graduated from high school, almost everyone I was friends with wasn't planning much for their futures. Even the people who moved away from our town didn't go far; most of them stayed in Saskatchewan, moving to the city only an hour's drive away. I can't say I had any great plans, but at least I was moving to a city. When I went back to visit, people were still mostly the same, just as I had expected.
That was one thing I loved about people around me in University... they had a plan, they were going places, they wanted to do things with their lives. They were intelligent and had goals and plans to achieve them. In a way, it made me look down on the people from my hometown.
But when the people from university started moving away, I was a bit shocked! I was the one who left the others for some great adventure, some wonderful future! But others moving on and leaving me behind? That wasn't the way it worked!
Now, again, I'm going to be the one who's leaving, moving on. In fact, I've mostly already left. And I'm thinking about those times again... Now I'm a little wiser and slightly more mature, I've got the feeling that if I ever come back after leaving this University life, there won't be anyone here and everything will have changed. All the people will be like me, going off to live the next part of their life... like the people who've already gone. I know that I've set this in motion, by not keeping in touch with most my friends who aren't in school. We don't have the common ground we once had, and it's easy to go my own way.
Of course, there will still be the groups of people who were close, and some will keep in touch for years, but things won't ever be the same as they have been these wonderful years. I'm not one to hang on tightly to tiny threads... If you hold on too tightly, they'll cut you. Hold just tight enough that you don't let it slip out of your hands.
For a long time, I've been aware of the future before me as though I were looking through a dusty window. My heart was here, but that's all changed. I've finally wiped away some of the filth from the window. I've found hope and inspiration again*; now finally I am ready. I will give myself up to the universe to show me the opportunities I can grab onto and ride like a wave into the next phase of my life.
Yay! I made an icon for this site! Now I can be a cool geek like Jesse, with my own icon and all! Apparently, it doesn't work in IE, so all you windows lusers go get a better browser (try Firefox! Everyone's doing it!).
Yay! I made an icon for this site! Now I can be a cool geek like Jesse, with my own icon and all! Apparently, it doesn't work in IE, so all you windows lusers go get a better browser (I use Mozilla Firefox - it's great!).
If the way to a man's heart is his stomach, what is the way to a woman's? I don't know if cooking a nice dinner would win my heart over, but it sure would impress me! I love good food and I love treats. I would have to say my favourite dishes are seasonal ones. The special treats that come out only at certain times of the year hold a special place in my heart - and hearts are the treat of choice, this Valentine's day. A bag of cinnamon hearts to appease the "single and bitter" part of me, but mostly it's just a treat that I look forward to every year. It's candy, and the significance of the holiday is lost on me.
But the cinnamon hearts are not alone. Each season seems to bring its bag of goodies that I particularly enjoy: chocolate eggs at Easter, Mandarin oranges and Egg Nog at Christmas, and who could forget bags upon bags of mini chocolate bars from halloween?
So to anyone who wants to see if the winning over my stomach and tastebuds can win over my heart: try the seasonal goodie of the day.
If the way to a man's heart is his stomach, what is the way to a woman's? I don't know if cooking a nice dinner would win my heart over, but it sure would impress me! I love good food and I love treats. I would have to say my favourite dishes are seasonal ones. The special treats that come out only at certain times of the year hold a special place in my heart - and hearts are the treat of choice, this Valentine's day. A bag of cinnamon hearts to appease the "single and bitter" part of me, but mostly it's just a treat that I look forward to every year. It's candy, and the significance of the holiday is lost on me.
But the cinnamon hearts are not alone. Each season seems to bring its bag of goodies that I particularly enjoy: chocolate eggs at Easter, Mandarin oranges and Egg Nog at Christmas, and who could forget bags upon bags of mini chocolate bars from halloween?
So to anyone who wants to see if the winning over my stomach and tastebuds can win over my heart: try the seasonal goodie of the day.
Today is Friday the Thirteenth. When the elevators at work aren't working and there's no other way for me to get to my floor/office/cubicle, I'm going to take that as a sign that I shouldn't be here. It's probably because I don't really want to be here... And if everyone were to do it, we can't all get in trouble, right? ;)
The road trip to Calgary this past weekend was super fun... I can't believe it's already Wendnesday and I have yet to post something about it! It was great seeing everyone I hadn't seen in a while... It's too bad a few people were missing (you were in my thoughts though!). And I believe everyone who was there will agree that it was a great time!
The plan to get out of town by 5pm was delayed by a delicious trip to Badass Jack's and a few stops to pick up forgotten things. The roads were nice enough, but the lack of winshield wiper fluid made it hard to see out the windows.
Once in Calgary, Shaj led us to his place, but stopped to help a car in the ditch. We hadn't seen it go in but there was only the one guy. By the time Kirstie and I walked up to the car, Shaj had already been trying to push it out of the ditch. The wet, deep snow didn't help and the car had actually smashed into the guard rail. The driver seemed well enough, but he was smoking, stumbling around and a little hard to understand. That's when Kirstie and I looked at each other, realizing this guy was drunk! While Kirstie convinced Shaj that it wasn't a good idea to put the drunk man back on the road, we realized Shaj had lost his cell phone. So back we went, looking around the car, and finally noticed that one side of the windshield had been smashed in, as if with a rock. Just as we found the phone, an ambulance pulled up! We waited around until they had a chance to talk to us (not that we had any useful information anyway), and a fire truck pulled up too. Standing on the side of the road, wind whipping through our hair, we were now part of the scene of an accident. Then we heard the sirens and a police car showed up, and yet another ambulance. We just stood and watched, completely useless. Just as I was thinking it couldn't get any bigger, a helicopter shone its light on the scene! It was unreal to have all these emergency response units come out for one vehicle hitting the ditch! Either it was a slow night in Calgary or the person who had called in this accident had made it sound worse. It didn't take long for them to realize that we had no pertinent information, and we went merrily on our way, but wary of overpasses and falling rocks. If that rock or whatever it was that had smashed his windshield had been a few feet over, the guy could have died! Not a very comforting thought....
The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful, with beer and foozball and plenty of visiting, laughter and even a little sleep. I'm almost certain more things happened that I could write about, but I'll leave that to Jesse!
By the time we got home, it was Sunday night, and here it is Wednesday already, and I still feel like I need a weekend holiday!
Most people think Mondays are terrible: having to get up early at the end of the wonderful weekend, but I don't have that problem. I actually have something to look forward to at work on Monday mornings! For almost an hour, my cubicle is mostly warm because the fans and cold air blowing around have been shut down for the weekend. It's nice to come in from the cold and know that when I take my jacket off, I'm not going to want to put it back on right away.
I also find that I feel somewhat refreshed from the weekend. I ususally work at my second job in customer service instead of in front of a computer; I get to see friends, watch movies or party or just hang out; and Sundays are usually reserved for 'me' days. I don't want to see anyone, and I usually wind up holed-up in my room with warm clothes and a good book, spending hours and hours reading.
With a weekend like that, I come to work Mondays thinking, "just another 5 days until the weekend!"
