more blogcation

Well I made it back from Regina in one piece. A very tired piece but still together. As for my health well that's not going so well right now. I was pretty good through our whole trip but since I've been back it's been pretty crappy.

Anyway I think I'm going to take a break from blogging for a while. Just until things settle down a bit.

Going to Agribition

I am so excited about going to Agribition it's really the only thing that has gotten me through the last couple of months. This is the first time in the history of me that my family is taking cattle to show in Regina. It's a big deal and there is lots of work to be done.

The cattle are going tomorrow and I'll be arriving on Wednesday. Then the show is on Thursday and the sale on Friday and then home again. I'm going to attempt to blog this trip on my travel blog. This is my first real trip since I went to Scotland. Well actually that's not true. I just haven't taken my camera along on some of the others.

So wish us luck and follow along if you'd like.

It appears that I have gone missing

Hey there,

Listen I'm just going through a prolonged period of illness right now. Things seemed to be getting better and then they got worse. So what does this have to do with you? Well mostly I just wanted to let you know what was up since I disappeared rather suddenly. It's hard to get to a computer when you're not feeling well, even though I have two of them. So I really do apologize if anyone actually kept checking to see if I'd written something new.

So thank you for supporting my blogging addiction. I promise I'll get back to it as soon as I can.

Lots of Love,

Janalee

Looking for ideas

Along with a whole lot of other things in my life my inner blogger is broken. I don't know what to talk about. I try to keep my blog mostly positive, but lately I'm seeing only grey. So commenter is there something you'd like me to talk about? Some subject I've never touched on but should? Something that I've mentioned and since forgot about? I'm throwing this over to you because you make the effort to read at least occasionally.

That's it next year I'm getting Sunday Ticket

So it's football season again. Actually we're almost half way through the season. Up until now I've been able to find a game to watch on Sunday. Considering that there are 4 teams (Indy, New York Giants, New Orleans and Chicago) that I will watch if I can find their game. However this week they aren't showing any of those games in my area except the Giants game which is the Sunday night feature.

My brother has NFL Sunday Ticket which allows you to watch any game you want, which is pretty sweet. But I didn't want to spend the money to get it. Maybe next season I'll re-think that.

Sometimes you just get bored

As you probably know by now I watch a lot of TV. When I'm not watching TV I'm probably watching something that I downloaded so that I can catch up on past episodes. As you can imagine from time to time I get stumped about what to watch next. It's time like these I turn to my friends.

A friend suggested that I check out Castle. I was a little skeptical at first since I'm not big on cop shows, but I have to admit that I really like it. So what about you? Have you watched it? Do you like it? What else would you recommend for the next time I run out of ideas?

Week 2 is in the bag

It was pointed out to me recently that it's been a while since I posted and well it has. I just haven't had anything exciting to say. I really do try to leave a lot of my personal drama out of my blog simply because I don't want to bring people down.

So my only new is that I got through my second week of return to work. Tuesday was a little wavery but I powered through. Hopefully I can get back to full time soon.

Wine-ing, Dining and nearly getting electrocuted

I've been driving for nearly 10 years, more than that if you count illegally hitting up the back roads back home, so you'd think that I would know well enough not to leave my lights on. Well then you would think wrong.

I went out for dinner with an old friend that I hadn't seen in more than 2 years. We went to the Olive Garden which is my all time favorite restaurant. I don't much like driving in the city to begin with and we went to the one that's on the opposite side of the city so I had to meet her there. I was a little nervous but it turned out that it wasn't a problem.

We had a nice dinner and tasted some wine. I couldn't finish my meal though since I filled up on soup, breadsticks and appetizers, so I've got left overs for tomorrow.

Then after our meal we walked outside to the over-flow parking where incidentally we had both parked when I realized I had left my lights on. So I sort of panicked. Well on the inside anyway outwardly I was pretty calm. But I have no clue about cars so I didn't know what to do. So I asked my friend and she thought we could probably boost it.

In my nearly 10 years of driving I've had my car boosted probably half a dozen times but I've never done it myself. I have a general idea of what to do but I'm certainly not confident enough to do it myself. Did I mention it was dark because that's probably an important part of the story. So anyway we connected the cables red first to her car and then mine. Then we tried the black cables in the same order. And let's just say the sparks flew. Luckily no one was hurt.

Anyway we were just about to give up when I decided to try my car one more time and by some fluke of nature it started and I was on my way.

Our Technological Age

You know that game you play where you pick 3 things that you couldn't live without on a desert island? Well I had a random thought while I was getting ready to go out for dinner with an old friend, I think all of the things I couldn't live with out require electricity.

Seriously how did we ever live without internet? Or cell phones (I actually do live without a cell phone but only because everyone else has one so if I need to reach them I can)? Or a flat iron?

So what can't you live without? Do tell.

This would only happen to me

So now that I've started a travel blog I wasn't sure if this would fall under my regular everyday blog or that one. But since this is strictly a shopping trip and not a sightseeing adventure it's going here.

Anyway my brother and I had a fairly uneventful trip to Fargo. The first thing we did after we checked into the hotel was check out the pool facilities. This included a fairly decent sized pool, a rather luke-warm hot tub and a sauna.

After my initial disappoint at the hot tub we tried out the sauna. And I managed to blister my back by laying down on the hot bench. Yup, this could only happen to me.

Maybe it's never the right time

I've been thinking a lot about fate lately. It's my way of getting through a lot of the tough things in life. I don't believe in God per say but I have to believe that something is guiding us to certain things.

Take the relapse of my illness. It doesn't just happen. It showed me that I needed to make changes in the way I'm living my life. It was really crappy timing what with my promotion and everything but it is what it is. Maybe it will lead to something wonderful. But then again maybe not.As I said previously there was a job opening that I was interested in, but this just isn't a good time for me.

I have a friend who talks about going back to school but just hasn't found the right time to take that leap.Maybe the challenge is not so much finding the opportunities that we want as overcoming the problem of bad timing.

Soothing Words

Has anyone seen the movie Sidney White? No well it's a kind of modernized version of Snow White. It stars Amanda Bynes where instead of 7 Dwarfs (dwarves?) there are 7 Dorks (which I would be reminded actually means whale penis) and the mirror is a Hot or Not page. It's kind of amusing in a fluffy trying to kill time kind of way.

Why am I giving you a movie review instead of doing a blog post, you ask? Well see the Witch in the movie (Rachel Witchburn) has soothing words like Gucchi and Prada. And after today I had to come up with a few of my own soothing words.

Jay Cutler's Pouty face:

Shoe Shopping:

Starbucks Coffee... or anything really. And meeting friends for coffee or lunch. Now mind you this is not in anyway a comprehensive list. It's just a few random items to keep me going until the next time.

That didn't go as well as planned

Today was a big day for me. It was the first day that I was back at work after an extended leave of absence. It was really weird walking in there after all of this time. Everyone seemed happy to see me and when people asked about my health I gave them the stock answer "getting better".

Which got me thinking why do people even ask "how are you?" the expected answer is either good or fine. Anything else and you become something of a Debbie Downer.

Anyway I didn't realize how much I missed everyone until I saw them again. I guess if nothing else I can enjoy the social atmosphere at work.

Watching Baseball

I can't believe I watched baseball last night. I hate baseball. To be completely honest I was also watching the Colts game so it was kind of a flip back and forth kind of deal. So what was I doing watching baseball then?

Well see it started because I was out at the farm for the weekend and my dad was watching the game. So I sat down to watch with him until the football game started. That's when I realized it was the Twins vs. the Yankees. Now because I don't like baseball and therefore don't follow it the only player I knew besides Jeter and A-Rod was Joe Mauer of the Twins.

So Lisa if you're still following this one's for you. I've been trying to get you a Joe Mauer bobblehead for the last year but the 2009 versions are terrible so here's a picture instead.

Just another reason to get on with my GRE studying

You know you've been away from the real world too long when you don't even realize that one of your favorite (but then again I have lots of favorites) players switched teams in the off season.


Martin Havlat signed with the Minnesota Wild in the off season. So I guess that means I'd better get studying so that I can move to Minneapolis.

Actually I'm going to Minneapolis next weekend. Well if we aren't shopped out by the time it's time to go there.

I guess it wasn't meant to be

I tried really hard in the middle of the night last night to order a Jay Cutler Chicago bobblehead for my desk at work. But since I'm in Canada I wasn't able to complete the purchase. So I called in today to order. Turns out shipping on the item is as much as the actual item. So I decided to skip it. My desk will just have to continue to be bobblehead-less.

In the Christmas spirit... in October

I know it's still over 2 months away and it's not even Halloween but I can't stop thinking about Christmas. I love Christmas. The lights, the smell of spruce trees, the turkey, wrapping presents. I love it all. I especially love shopping for gifts for everyone else. Well that and it's the only time that my whole family gets together anymore.

I am commencing Christmas shopping next week and hope to be done by the end of October. Now I don't expect anyone else to have started their Christmas shopping yet, but have you started thinking about what you want to receive? Or who you might shop for this year that wasn't on you list last year?

You might say it's too early, I say bring it on.

My 2009-10 Fantasy Team

There is only one word to describe this year's team and that word is suck. They suck, which I guess means that I suck since my team has yet to win a single match up AND I've got the fewest points in the league.

I do however have a much more clever title for this year's version. Last year I called my team "So Bad" as in "this is going to end so bad". This year I named my team "Off Constantly" which means that whenever someone is talking about when they beat me they end up saying "I beat off constantly". I can't take credit for this brilliance though. I have to give it all to my younger brother since he thought of it first.

I don't even have any bench QBs to be excited with this year. Last year I sort of fell in love with Jay Cutler (even more so now but that's a story for another time).

Instead I get this:



and the incredibly old Kurt Warner.

Have I mentioned that my team sucks?

Paralyzed with Fear

Maybe it's fate or kismet or the universe trying to tell me something, I just wish I could figure out exactly what that is. Just as I'm planning returning to work after my sick leave the job of my dreams opens up. In fact this job is the one that I said I wanted in my high school yearbook.

But I'm not sure what to do. In the past when I've applied for jobs and not gotten interviews I got upset. But when I have gotten interviews and don't get the job I'm even more upset. I wish there was some way for me to only apply for jobs that I'm going to get. I also don't quite know what to do about references. It's always a bit of an issue when you're in a position and applying elsewhere, do you ask the boss and risk pissing him (or her) off or do you try to find an older reference hoping that they will at least give you a glowing recommendation.

Anyway the details of the job go like this:

• Small-ish town, which is totally perfect for me since I hate living in the city
• perfect fit for my education and training, even if the advertisement says Master's preferred
• 2 year term, so I'm not going to feel like I'm stuck if I don't like it and it ends with just the right amount of time off before I'd head off to grad school
• Much better salary range than I currently make, but then again I'm over qualified for the job that I have.

New boots for all

Okay well maybe not all, but definitely me. See I was having a rough day so I went to visit my brother's girlfriend just to hang out for a while. But she happens to work in a shoe store. So I may have purchased the boots below. Did I need 2 pairs of boots? no. Did I need even one pair of boots? Probably not. And yet some how I ended up with them both. Sometimes you just have to do something nice for yourself even if your feet don't agree that it's nice.

The First Hurdle to Cross

The last time I talked about getting serious about going to grad school I was looking at writing the GRE. Since I've been studying for the GRE for a while I realized that I don't seem to be doing very well. I'm doing practice questions now and well I kind of suck.

So now I'm thinking maybe instead of killing myself to do well on the GRE so that I can get into my dream schools, maybe I ought to be looking for schools that don't require the GRE. None of the Canadian school that I would apply to require the GRE and some other schools like Oklahoma State and North Dakota State don't require the GRE. So maybe I should just take the easy way out. Then again I might kick myself for not at least trying to write the GRE.

Alright that's 7 mentions of the GRE in one post. Far more than enough.

I've started writing again

If you've been reading this blog for a while you already know that I'm a terrible writer and if you're new well I guess I just spilled the beans. Despite this fact I occasionally enjoy writing. That's part of the reason I started this blog.

I've also been known to write short stories. Terrible, awful short stories. I don't do it with the hopes of being published or anything like that. I know my limits. These stories are just for fun. The last on I wrote was back when I was in University. It amused the other girls in residence and gave me something to do when I was bored in class.

When bad TV shows happen to good movies

Now I'm no TV critic but I do watch a whole lot of it. Recently I downloaded the show "10 Things I Hate About You". Now I really enjoyed the movie so I had high hopes for the show. But sadly it blows and yet I still intend to watch every episode.

I do have to say though that while I've seen a lot of books turned in to movies, this is the first show I've ever seen based on a movie. Or at least that I can remember. Can you think of any?

Are we heading to another election?

Didn't we just have one of these? See, this is why the Canadian electoral system is kind of screwed up. For those of us who went and did our civic duty last fall, we told our MPs exactly what we wanted. Essentially we said "hey look go back there and act like adults." Clearly they aren't.

Although it sounds like the NDP isn't going to go along with the Liberal plan. Which is good because instead of spending money on an election the government should just cut a check to every adult in the country.

Slight Delay on the Dream Train

Alright so now that I've decided that I'm going to apply for my Master's degree I'm starting to get into a little bit of research. If I intend to apply for next fall I need to be able to pay for it. As of right now the only place I will be able to afford is right here at home. In order to afford anywhere else a year from now I'm going to have to live off Kraft Dinner for a year.

So now I'm thinking I should be looking forward to the fall of 2011 so that I don't have to be completely miserable for a year in order to afford the next two years. That takes a lot of the pressure off since now I'm giving myself another year the prepare for the GRE. It also means I'll be 29 before I'm finished grad school.

Just trying to keep it together

I just don't know what's wrong with me. No actually that's not true I have a diagnosis so I know exactly what's wrong with me. What I don't know is why I feel so bad. A week ago I was on top of the world, now I want to go jump in front of a moving vehicle.

Actually I saw a bad car accident today or the wreckage at least. A van had into the back end of a semi-trailer. Scary looking stuff though my brother figures that only a couple of legs were broken based on the condition we saw the cars in.

I guess I just have to focus on one day at a time and hope things work back.

That's a scary thought

You know how I was talking about my job here and some of the crap that happened while I was away? Well I had a little chat with my boss and they've already filled the position that I was in and he said that the person that they hired is over qualified for the job and probably won't stay long which got me thinking.

If people in my industry are applying for jobs for which they are over qualified doesn't that mean that there aren't many jobs out there. And perhaps rather than complaining about my job all the time I need to realize that at least I have a job. It also puts into rather sharp focus the importance of going to get my Master's degree before it's too late and I do actually have to compete for jobs with the over qualified.

It's finally here...

... well almost. And it is football season. The first game is tonight and it's Pittsburgh vs Tennessee. It always seems so long between football seasons and being sick all this summer didn't exactly help either.

I am participating in the fantasy pool this year with the guys from work and this year we have another girl playing with us. Look like maybe I should be thinking about organizing a girl's pool for next year. I thought about doing one and a whole draft based on hotness but everyone else would have to share my level of commitment to make it work. I'll try to get it going for March Madness and the hotness bracket this year. Of course now it's getting to the point where it's creepy for me to say that Freshmen are hot. So this will probably be the last year for hotness bracket... sigh.

What was I worried about

I've finally gotten around to studying for the math section of the GRE and let me just say I wish I had taken this test right after grade 9. But then again I've also taken Stats and Calculus at the university level since grade 9 so this just seems easy.

Has anyone noticed that they always put the verbal section first in these GRE study books. Of course that's probably because the verbal section is first but I feel much more confident having completed one math chapter than I did after the whole verbal section.

Sometimes you just need the right motivation

So I have many times mentioned the passing thought that perhaps I should apply for grad school. Well yesterday I made the decision to get really serious about it. I know I've said that before but I'm pretty sure it will stick this time.

See work has once again screwed me over with their HR policies and so I'm being demoted because I got sick. But the thing is I deserved that promotion. I put a lot of work into it and now it's all gone by the way side.

And so my renewed commitment to higher education.

I swear computers were invented to make me cry

So I finally got my laptop back which is super exciting. yay! But it took me 4 hours and a phone call to Shaw in order to get internet. But now we have internet set up and that's awesome. Which means I can probably start doing more regular posting again.

Another birthday another U.S. Open

Is it sad that I think the best thing about my birthday is that the U.S. Open will always start just shortly after?

It was my birthday on Thursday and I didn't do anything really exciting but today the U.S. Open started. Now that we've switched to Shaw I don't have to miss a single point (well that's not exactly true since they don't televise every game). Not only can I record the games but I can also watch them in HD (provided my brother doesn't want to watch wrestling).

Last night I watched my first football game in HD. It was pretty awesome, even if it was only pre-season.

The 3 month itch

That's right it's been 3 months since I've been to work. Everyone tells me that I should take it slow but now that I'm starting to feel a little bit better I want to jump right in with both feet. I've been having a little trouble with staying on task the last couple of days though, hopefully that will get better. Anyways I've got 4 weeks of treatment left and then hopefully I'll be ready to go back. I'm just getting bored.

Oh I wish I had my laptop back. I've been using my brother's computer to do stuff but it's really really really slow and crappy and I miss the portability. I've considered getting a wireless card for my desktop but then I think what's the point since I won't use it once my laptop comes back. Have I mentioned that I hate computers.

Every day it gets a little bit easier

I was a little bit skeptical about starting these new treatments but I think they're helping. I'm starting to feel somewhat normal again. I'm getting excited for football season and the U.S. Open tennis and even hockey season.

A couple of days ago I saw people from my work on the bus and I didn't quite know what to say. I wasn't sure how much they already knew and I didn't want to give out more information than I needed to. So I just didn't say anything. Today I saw someone else that I work with on the bus and I even got up and moved closer. It was good that it was someone that I'm really comfortable with and who kind of knew what was going on without me really having to tell her and she seemed genuinely excited to see me too.

So yeah some day I might be able to transfer buses infront of my work and not feel like I'm about to bawl. And that will be the first sign that maybe I can think about going back. Until then I'll just continue to take it one day at a time.

Folklorama Llama

I love Folklorama. For those of you who aren't from Manitoba and don't know what Folklorama is it's a cultural celebration over 2 weeks in which residents of Manitoba celebrate their origins. Or something like that. It's broken up into different pavilions where you can buy food and souvenirs and watch entertainment provided by cultural groups representing their pavilion (a lot of singing and dancing).

This year I've been to 7 shows. Columbia, Belgium, Slovenia, Alpine (Switzerland/Austria/Germany), and 2 different Ukrainian Pavilions. I'm going to take in one more show tonight and that will be the end of Folklorama for me this year. If you ever get a chance to go to Folklorama you should do it. They often have bus tours that bring people from all over Canada and the United States. But be prepared to spend money. I've had to go to the bank twice since it started to get more money for the shows.

update to arrg...

I talked to the company that I bought my computer from and they said that they were able to ship it off to the manufacturer today. Hooray.

The Mid Summer update.

I know it's been a while since my last post but a couple of things have been happening. First is the still unresolved computer issue. The second is that I've started a new treatment for my illness so I have to go to the hospital every day. Don't worry though it's just until things stabilize a little bit. But anyway that's why I haven't been around much.

I have been reading up a storm though. I've been thinking that maybe I should start a book club. It was be more of a social activity than I'm used to and I DO love to read. Anyone interested?

arrg...

So you know how I was saying last year that I love my laptop well now I don't. It's got major crashage issues and because I decided not to run internet into my bedroom and just went wireless I don't have internet so I stuck using my brother's crap-puter. No seriously this thing is a piece of junk and he's constantly trying to download stuff so it's always really slow. And the company I bought my computer from is having trouble communicating with the company that made my computer and I'm stuck in the middle sans computer.

I miss the old days. When life was simple and my parents fought my battles for me. Or at least owned everything I used so they were responsible for getting things fixed.

It's so boring at home

In case you've missed it the first several times I mentioned it I've been off work since the end of May. The first month flew by but July seems to be going on forever. I'm hopefully going to start a day program in August which will at least keep me busy and hopefully help me with some of the stress issues that I've been dealing with.

But for now I'm bored. I used to think that I wanted to work until I had enough money to retire and then just sit around and read books all day but even that has lost it's appeal. I've been doing alot of knitting lately but even that's boring. I guess I'm going to have to take up some other hobby.

Things I wish I was at work to say

I've been off work for almost 2 months now and despite what you might think it kind of blows. The highlight of my day is going to Tim Horton's though I have to say in a fight between the Starbucks Caramel Machiatto and the Timmy Ho's iced Mocha I'd pick the Mocha every time.

That being said there are some things and people at work that I miss. If I was at work right now some of the things I would say are:

• My trip was amazing. I love Scotland but everything is uber expensive
• Shark week starts on August 3rd (KEG tell Mike I told you to tell him this, he'll know what you mean)
• I'm with the guys on switching to Shaw, which I will be doing at the end of August
• I miss everyone terribly and I'm hoping to come back soon

but the first thing I'm going to do when I get back is give people my home e-mail so that I can get e-mails. I miss getting random follow up e-mails about random topics left over from our lunchtime debates.

I must look like I need saving

Okay I don't often discuss religion but I'm going there today. I am an atheist. There have just been things in my life that some people would call "challenges" that have lead me to be a non-believer. But I certainly don't discourage other people from believing. I know a lot of people for whom their relationship with God has been a great strength and I am extremely happy for them. I just don't like people pushing it on me.

If I want to hear about your beliefs I'll go to church or temple or whatever with you. But for some reason I seem to be approached by those spreading the word of God more often than the average person and frankly it makes me a little bit angry.

The Update

Alright there has been a lot of stuff going on recently so I'm just going to try to throw everything into this one post.

• On the illness front I'm still off work. I'm hoping to return late this summer or early fall but we'll see what the doctor says.
• My laptop is broken. Well not completely broken but it's randomly shutting down for no reason and I haven't been able to get it down to the shop for repairs yet. It's only started doing this since we got back from our trip.
• I currently have 3 books on the go. That's reading not writing. One is the next Diana Gabaldon book from the Outlander series. One is a history of Scotland and one is a romance novel that I borrowed from the library.
• I got a new cat. and by new I mean new like I got him today new. The Humane Society had a sale on cats and since I wanted a new one anyway this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I've named him Davey Crockcat. Yes I'm just that geeky.

It's almost over

2:59 Pm London Time

We're back in Glasgow now and we've parted way with the others. We fly out of here tomorrow and spend about 19 hours before we get to our final destination.

I have some more pictures to add to my blog but I left my SD card upstairs in our hotel room and I don't really want to go up and get it so I'll add them later. Since wireless is only available in the hotel lounge.

We're staying in the same hotel that was stayed in at the beginning of our trip so it's like we're back tracking our steps now which is kind of neat.

Our day in Edinburgh and at the show

7:01 PM London Time

It's been a while since I did an entry. There has just been so much to see that the days were packed and I have been really tired. Today was a shorter day. Mom and I went into Edinburgh city centre today where I bought a new ring and bracelet as well as some souvenirs for my brothers at home. We saw the castle and Holyroodhouse Palace but we weren't able to enter them because the Queen was in residence at the palace and we ran out of time at the castle.

As for the Royal Highland sow it was pretty damn good. The show itself was interesting. There were a lot of things that they did differently over here than we would but overall it was mostly the same. As for the grounds they were pretty huge. There was all sorts of things to do and see. There was a sheep shearing competition and crafter's tents and an outdoor living section with chainsaw sculpting demonstrations and pole climbing exhibitions. It was very interesting. Oh and the Queen was at the show too but we missed her.

Tomorrow we head up to the Highlands. It's supposed to be beautiful scenery and I'm sure there will be lots of pictures taken.

9 Pm London Time

Yesterday we were in Portree in the Isle of Skye. We took a drive around the island and then returned to the hotel. I'm now done all of my gift shopping so anything else I buy should be just for me. Today we're just outside of Fort William at a B&B. Fort William is an outdoor town.. It's right on a lack and the highest mountain peak in the UK is right here. I of course hate the outdoors so this is not my kind of town.

Also our traveling companions are starting to get on my last nerve. I don't want to stereotype Americans because I do know a lot of really nice ones but these ones are obnoxious. For example we left the Isle of Skye early this morning and hopped on the ferry back to the mainland (or at least as much of a main land as you can consider a larger island). Anyway we arrived at the B&B an hour before check in which I knew would happen because we left so early. So we drove all the way back to Fort William for an hour of shopping but only an hour because our driver was tired. And he wanted to come back and unpack the van and then maybe we could drive back to Fort William. It turned out okay though because daddy and me took a little nap before supper and mom did some reading.

For supper we took a ferry to a little restaurant/inn. It was really nice and I got to see most of the Andy Roddick/Lleyton Hewitt match on the TV in the bar. Roddick of course won. I can't believe I'm in Britain during Wimbledon and I'm not there.

In search of Nessie.

5:39 PM London time

Today was probably the best day of our trip so far. it started off a little shaky, I got up really early, unnecessarily. And then we got out of the hotel too early and nothing was open which meant a lot of useless walking around. I should be used to this walking around by now. My mother loves to just walk around. Personally I'm not a huge fan AND the blisters on my feet were screaming at me to stop. Then we got on a Jacobite tour of Loch Ness. First we bussed from Inverness to the Loch. Then we jumped on a boat to go to Urquhart Castle which is really just the ruins of an old castle but that's what you see in a lot of pictures of Loch Ness. Anyway then we hit up the visitors centre there before getting back on the bus again to get to the Loch Ness exhibition centre. It was really interesting. I'm rather convinced now that the Loch Ness monster is a giant sturgeon.

Then we came back to Inverness on the bus and found a used book store where I picked up some book including a history of Scotland. I love books stores. I also love museums which is what we did before returning to our hotel.

Our vacation Act II

8:31 London Time

For those of you who have been trying to follow my trip each day I do apologize for the sparseness of my blogging. I have only had free WiFi at one hotel that we've stayed at and well frankly I don't want to spend the money for the ridiculous internet rate over here. So that's what's been happening. That's also why you'll see some backdated entries.

Okay now on with the vacation update. Today we drove from Edinburgh to Inverness. The day started off kind of disastrous. We didn't get as big of a vehicle as we thought we would and we weren't sure if we could fit all the people and luggage into the van (there are 6 of us traveling in a 7 passenger van). But we packed it in there pretty tight and just barely made it.

The people we're traveling with are kind of difficult. Although this trip has been pretty difficult for me since I was the only person under 50 on the first part of the tour. One of the people that we're traveling with makes me particularly uneasy. And given such close quarters it's difficult to avoid him.

Tonight we actually went for supper at a restaurant owned by the cousins of one of the farmers we went to see on the earlier portion of our trip. It was very good. Funny story we ran into a tour guide outside the visitor's centre and told him where we wanted to eat and he laughed. He said he'd never been asked where that particular restaurant was and asked who recommended it. Then we had a nice little chat and we might go on one of his tours tomorrow. We'll see how we feel.

Tomorrow we're going to try to get on a boar cruise of Loch Ness. Of course I'll be keeping an eye out for Nessie. I'm almost done all of my shopping for this trip, at least the souvenirs for other people part. The rest of it I haven't quite decided.

Cattle Day

10:54 PM London time

Today was the first day of the cattle portion of our trip. I haven't been on the farm fr a while so I've kind of lost the ability to pick a good animal in a herd, but anyway. There was nothing really eventful today. Although I've noticed that they feed you really well on this trip. I do love e some food. We even had entertainment for our evening meal. It was a jazz band, they were pretty good for all I know about jazz music.

The first day of the rest of my vacation

9:05 PM London time

So we've left Scotland and come back south to northern England to meet the rest of our crew. We're in the lake district and well these lakes are not exactly the most awesome lakes I've ever seen. I live in between 2 lakes that would be considered ginormous compared to these. Here's a picture that I took of the lake.

Here's another little detail that I failed to omit in my previous post mostly because if I had he would have read it over my shoulder but my seatmate from Montreal to London was super cute. I chatted him up for a while but it's hard to be flirty when your father is sitting in the seat in front of you. Anyway he was on transit to Israel and his name was Zach.

Alright moving on. Today we went to Gretna Green to meet the rest of our tour. Here's the deal with Gretna Green, way back in the day people didn't exactly have weddings. They just kind of said "hey we're married". Then a law was passed in England and the legal age was 21 and you had to get married in a church. But the law didn't apply to Scotland and the age of consent was 16. So English couples would trek over the border and Gretna Green was the first town they'd come to, so they'd get married in the Blacksmith's shop. We saw a mock wedding and visited the little shops and museum. One cool thing is that you can still get married or blessed there. Oh and they had a bagpiper (left) that you could hire out.

As I said we're in England but we're going back to Scotland the day after tomorrow.

Welcome to Scotland

8:47 PM London Time

I think I'm going to like it here the first thing I saw once we had gotten through the baggage claim here in Glasgow was Starbucks. It's reassuring that even so far from home I can find something that's just like home. That's the joy of the franchise industry. It's built for people exactly like me. Here's a picture we took of the special Scottish Edition Starbucks mug.

We just got back from supper in the restaurant in our hotel. Now I don't know if this is just a kind of high class establishment or if there really isn't anything like a hamburger in Scotland. Here's what we hate from supper.

Salad with Goat Cheese, Lamb Chops and Stuffed Chicken Breast

In the Middle of the Night

7:08 PM Montreal Time, 2:08 AM London Time

Wow it sure does get dark when you travel forward into the night. It's probably about midnight outside the plane right now even though it's only 8 PM back home. We're supposed to be landing at 7 AM in London so we've got another 5 hours on this place. Actually it'll probably be a bit longer since we got off a little bit late.

Is it pathetic that I've only been away about 12 hours and I'm about ready to come home? It's just been a long day is all. One down, 10 days to go.

Success!

7:08 Montreal Time

So I've made it to Montreal and now we're on our way across the Atlantic. It's pretty insane, but I'm super excited. The first part of our trip has not been without it's ups and downs. First of all my mother and I got into a bit of a row on the tail end of our last flight. Then mom and dad got into it just a little.

Everything at the airport is s incredibly expensive. Here I was thinking $25 was plenty of domestic currency to leave with me since after all we would be overseas after the first day. Clearly I was wrong about that.

I'm seated in the window seat and my poor seat mate is going to know more about my bathroom habits than anyone should about a complete stranger but I have been informed that he's not one for sleeping on planes so at least I know he'll be up. It's also really noisy since it's a large plane and I'm right behind the engine. Good seating choice mom/CAA. But at least my seat mate is cute.

It's here it's here it's finally here

Well actually it doesn't arrive until tomorrow, and "it" is my first trans-Atlantic trip. I have seriously been planning and saving for this trip for well over a year and now it's finally arrived. We fly to Montreal and then to London and on to Glasgow tommorow and then return on the 3rd of July. I'll try to post some stuff while I'm over there but I'm not making any promises. I suspect there will be little to no internet access at some of the places we're going but we'll see.

I'm so excited I may not be able to sleep tonight.

Why you shouldn't hang out with your brother's friends

I have a few brothers. Usually far more than I want to have but I'm pretty close with them. I'm particularly close with my younger brother, and since my friends can really only handle me in small doses I don't have a lot of people that I go out with regularly. So sometimes I end up hanging out with my brother and his friends. Which is fine until you realize that the guy you've been chatting up all night is 19. Of course this would never happen with my older brothers since they still refer to me as their little sister even though they date women younger then me and we don't hang out very often anyway.

I changed my background again

The other one was super pretty but it just didn't do the things I needed it to do. So I've discovered this one which is oddly exactly what I'm all about. Yeah yeah I realize it just looks like a bit of denim to everyone else but it says something to me about my roots.

I might just have to switch back

Alright the new background is awfully pretty but I just can't get the date stamp to work correctly. It's making me crazy. I just can't figure out how to change it without completely ruining the integrity of the template. So I might have to change it to something that I can control a little better.

See I can do some basic HTML stuff but I haven't really done a lot of it since high school and this is a lot more complex than anything I've ever done before. So depending on how fed up I get with it you might be seeing even more changes in the near future.

More changes

It's May long weekend and in honor of such I thought it was about time for a little spring cleaning. Also spring is supposed to be about flowers and such so I changed the blog background. I can't believe how much cool free stuff is out there. I borrowed this one from the Blogger Templates site.

I actually really like this one and might have to take a look at it the next time I feel up for a change.

Goal of the Week

It's been a while since I've done one of these but this week's goal is to finish reading Trial by Fire by Nancy Taylor Rosenberg. It's a pretty good book and I'm about 3/4 done so it shouldn't be hard but I guess it depends what else I do this weekend and the rest of the week.

It's time to get down to work

I've been talking about it for a while now and well I think it's finally time to get to work on writing that GRE. I've pretty much had it with work and now that I've got enough money for my trip I can start to focus on saving my money for grad school.

Last night I had a dream that I just blew up one day at work and quit. You know I'm not very far from it right now. I'm not actually feeling as bad as I have in the past when I get home from work but I am having some trouble containing my anger. I'm terrible for bottling up my emotions and then letting them bubble up and get the better of me.

And so it's time to go. I just don't know where. But this is the first step.

Book of the day club

Some of the women in my department at work have been doing a book trade for as long as I have been working here. Recently they've included me in their regular rotation. But it takes me forever to read the books I'm given.

It's not that I'm a slow reader it's just that I don't commit myself to a book. First of all I have to be in the mood to read. I go through stretches where I read a lot and then others where I just won't even think about picking up a book.

I'm also often busy doing other things that aren't exactly conducive to reading. Watching NHL playoffs for example. Although I've developed a system for this now. I mute it during TV time outs and intermission and read rather than listen to Don Cherry gripe about how soft Europeans are.

Countdown to travel time

I'm sure I've mentioned it a couple of times but I'm going to Scotland in 6 weeks. Well 38 days to be exact. It seems like I've been talking about it forever and now it's almost here. I guess it's about time to get excited.

I haven't had a real go away type vacation in about a year and a half. The last time was when I went to Quebec with my parents. I actually like traveling with my parents because they like to see a lot of the same things that I do. I really like history especially Canadian history so when we went to Quebec we did things like visit Old Quebec and the Citadel and the Chateau Frontenac.

A few years before that we went on a trip to Saskatchewan. It wasn't very exciting but we did get to see some cool stuff. We went to Batoche and then the Saskatchewan Western Development museum in Yorkton. Yup we're dorky like that.

I'm just hoping we can get some of the historical stuff in too while we're there. We are going to Loch Ness and I'm pretty sure there is a museum there. Even if it is dedicated to a fictional lake monster. I totally want to go.

I guess I'm just not a Cosmo Girl.

I have been known from time to time to buy random issues of Cosmo. It's never my intention when I walk into a store, but excellent product placement and a workforce of bored looking teenagers is sometimes enough to get me to buy.

Funny thing happened this time though. It was Saturday afternoon and I had spent most of my day catching up on the current season of Gossip Girl (hey don't judge me I was bored), so I thought I'd pick it up. But once I got home and started to read I realized that it just wasn't holding my attention. Even the Cosmo confessions seemed boring and uninteresting. Seriously the guy confessions were mostly about getting caught cheating. Super classy.

I think this experience was enough to convince me to avoid Cosmo from now on. Unless there is a really good celeb interview or something.

Cabin Fever

It seems to me that everytime I ask someone what they're doing this weekend the answer is "going to the cabin". So I started thinking about it a little bit on my way home.

I guess I don't really understand the allure of the cabin. Perhaps this is because until I was 18, I lived less than 10 minutes from a lake. Sure I thought I was pretty but I never had a desire to own a piece of it. Additionally I'm not the most outdoorsy person, so sure the cabin is better than say camping but still, no electricity, no running water. Nope not for me.

Then I thought about it some more and I realized just exactly how far I've come. You see the other people at work who are my age have family cabins, that is cabins that actually belong to their parents. I realize that not all cabins are created equally but I can't help but think that perhaps some of these people come from money and got where they are because mommy and daddy helped them. I had to earn it.

I can't help but think now about the cabin people who came in to my town in the summer and referred to us as "townies"meaning it entirely derogatory, as if somehow we weren't as good as them. But you know what? I think I've just proved that I AM better than them.

What I've been up to

I'm going to have to apologize for not writing more frequently. Things have just been a mess lately. I also don't really have anything interesting to say. I've been watching a lot of hockey lately, which isn't all that surprising given that it's playoff time. I've also been catching up on the new episodes of Greek, which is good times.

Oh and I found an ice cream place I really like.

Athlete Crush of the Day

Alright I think you all have realized by now that when it comes to athletes I'm pretty fickle. About a month ago I had a huge crush on Marc Kennedy. Last summer during Euro 2008 it was all about Fernando Torres. Who could forget my love of Jay Cutler? And as far as baseball goes I think everyone will agree that Joe Mauer is super hot.

So yeah my athlete crushes come and go. This week it's Chris Pontius of D.C. United. Again I know nothing about soccer but hell I might just have to learn. I stole this picture from Kickette which provides regular gossip on all things soccer related.

The Story of Cheap Chinese food

I don't even like Chinese food but I do sometimes feel compelled to eat it. I actually do like fried rice and chow mien but most of the meat is off limits. But today in the interest of being social and lazy I decided to partake in cheap, food court Chinese food with a friend. What a stupid idea.

First of all I only ate about half of it at lunch and saved the rest for later. Of course I had the brilliant idea to stick it in my purse. Lucky for me it didn't spill or anything but my purse does smell like cheap Chinese food.

I ate the rest of it at my desk later this afternoon. Which also seemed like a good idea at the time. But now my stomach is punishing me. So I'm probably off Chinese, even good Chinese for at least 6 months.

And once again I'm late to the party

So I watch a lot of television but sometimes I get so wrapped up in sports that I don't actually watch a lot of the good dramas and comedies that are out there. But then there are the down times when there isn't really much on TV and I don't really want to get out and experience the world so I lock myself down with my computer and just watch stuff.

Last year it was the first 3 seasons of Bones which came highly recommended. Then Greek which has just started airing new episodes again.

And now I've gotten into watching Kings. Which I have recently discovered as been all but cancelled. There are supposed to be new episodes starting up in June but who knows how long that'll last.

Anyway I had seen the trailers for the show and had wanted to watch it when it was on TV but I just kind of missed it and since they only showed 6 episodes it wasn't real easy to just pick up. But at the end of every episode I watch I actually end up saying "what a good show". I hope it does better this summer and that NBC picks it up for another season.

Thing I take for granted

I've never much thought about it before but I really need to thank my mom for all of the things I learned to do as a kid.

There are things that are just so second nature to me now that I don't even think about it. Recently SA posted on her blog about making her first grilled cheese sandwich. Although her second attempt looked pretty good. I don't know when I made my first grilled cheese sandwich but I'm going to guess I was probably about 11. One of the joys of growing up with boys is that you learn to cook.

Another of my friends told me that she didn't learn to do her laundry until she moved away from home for school in her early 20's. Again this is something I've been doing for so long that I don't remember when I started.

Just the other day I was complaining about having to clean the oven when I moved out of my old apartment to a woman in her late 20s who recently purchased a home but didn't know how to clean an oven.

I never really thought of myself as independent. My family is really close and we certainly help each other out a lot, but having to move away from home at 18 to go to school does lead to a certain amount of Independence I suppose. I even did my own taxes this year.

I know my Mom won't read this since she barely uses the Internet but thank you anyway Mom teaching me how to take care of myself and thank you for taking care of me even though I could do it myself.

Goal of the week

It's been a while since I've done one of these but I feel that it's about time that I got back into the swing of things and started to challenge myself again. So this week's goal of the week is to finish unpacking the stuff in the new apartment.

There really isn't too much left, 1 box of bathroom stuff, a couple of milk crates of personal stuff and then the sports stuff. That should do it. There is also still some stuff in the old apartment which we may go and retrieve this weekend. And there is also cleaning and stuff to do there but maybe that will be next week's goal. We'll see.

And yet another reason to be pissed off at Kevin Martin

Okay so I'm a little late in getting to this but I feel it still needs to be said. I had almost forgiven Kevin Martin for blowing the gold medal game at the 1998 Olympics. But now with the huge mistake on Sunday at the World Championships he's dead to me. The rest of his team however is not. Seriously if any of those guys need some comfort I've available.

I've already mentioned John Morris and Marc Kennedy a little bit and really Ben Hiebert probably isn't hot enough to make me cheer for him alone, like if he left and joined a different team I probably wouldn't cheer for that team just because he made the jump. But as long as the three of them all stay on Martin's team I will probably cheer for them.

We're getting there

Well we're moved. Mostly. We had to leave a little bit of stuff at the old place. There just wasn't room in the car/truck. We moved at least one car load of stuff everyday last week and then 2 carloads and 2 truck loads on Thursday night.

It was quite the ordeal. Then I went to my parents for the long weekend which meant that I unpacked pretty much nothing. Getting ready for work this morning was a bit of a challenge since everything is still in boxes or crates or bags.

The bus ride in this morning was a lot less painful than I thought it might be. Between my new home and work you're in one of the scarier ends of town so you never know who's going to get on that bus. I get the feeling that a book and my iPod may become my new best friends.

Moving is bad

So I'm moving. Only about half way across town but it's plenty far enough. We've taken 3 car loads and one truck and we still haven't moved any of the real furniture except for one bed. 

We're on the 3rd floor of the new place and while there is an elevator we're also at the very end of the hall so it made more sense at the time to just go up the stairs. But today I'm paying for it. Seriously I think that I've gotten more exercise in the last 2 days than I have in the entire 2 years I've been living here. 

Anyway we're pretty happy with the new place. So far our neighbours seem nice. One of them helped us haul a book case up the stairs. He also had an incredible Aussie accent. 

At least things can't get any better...

Oh what a week, and it's only Tuesday. It all started on Saturday when my laptop decided to go on the fritz. It would insist that it wasn't plugged in even when it was. If you wiggled the cord a little the light would come on and all would be well, until you bumped it again. So I decided to take it in to have it looked at.

The computer place informed me that the company that makes my laptop is no longer in business and that they didn't have the part and weren't sure if they could get it. I only bought my laptop about 8 months ago so it's still technically under warranty but if the company doesn't exist well who knows.

Then today I left home with my purse but apparently no wallet. Thankfully I played good Samaritan yesterday and lent a co-worker some money which he paid back today so at least I can eat.

Bracket Update

For those of you have been living under a rock for the last week it's NCAA tourney time. Which means I have put together some bracket-y goodness. This year I decided not to do a hotness bracket. And the later decided to do one. I also did a serious bracket, for bragging rights at work. So here's your Janalee bracket update as of this moment with 2 games left to come tonight:

Hotness bracket - The only reason I still have teams in the hotness bracket is because only half of the Sweet 16 games are played tonight. Teams left: Duke, North Carolina, Gonzaga, Oklahoma, Michigan State, Kansas and Louisville.

Actual Bracket - This one looks a little better. Mostly because I didn't have any crazy upsets picked in the first couple of rounds. Teams left: Louisville, Kansas, Michigan State, U Conn, Missouri, Memphis, UNC, Syracuse, Oklahoma, Gonzaga, Pitt, Villanova, Duke.

I'm currently 3rd and 6th on 8 in our office pool.

You know you have a problem when...

Alright for those of you who haven't been following all the off-season Jay Cutler drama (or who don't really get sports) let me boil it down into normal work terms.

Imagine that you are doing a job and then you find out that your company went to other companies in the industry to find someone who does the same thing as you do and tried to hire them without telling you. You'd be a little pissed right? But eventually you'd get over it and all would be well. Or you'd try to find somewhere else to work. OR you'd covertly try to screw your company and undermine your boss while continuing to collect a pay cheque and explore other options.

That's pretty much what's going on here. Except instead of handling the situation like a mature adult Cutler has decided to go the whiny child route. And instead of being disgusted by his lack of maturity I find it somewhat endearing. What does that say about me?

Connor Atchley, you will be missed.

One of the problems with college sports this that eventually the players that's you've grown attached to graduate or leave college. Sometimes they join the pro ranks and you might see them play again. Sometimes they decide that it's time to move on with their lives.

In any case the Duke-Texas game was going to end badly for me either way as both Connor Atchley and David McClure were playing in the game. Neither of them are big names so I somehow doubt they'll end up playing pro but you never know. Both of them are seniors this year so this is the end of the line for them. Duke came out on top in that game and so today I say goodbye to Connor Atchley.

New Purse Store May Cause Brokeness

So there is a new store near my work. There are actually a lot of random indie clothing stores and stuff near where I work. Which is kind of cool. But they've opened a purse store about half a block away. Now normally I'm not exactly a girly girl kind of girl but every once in a while I like to pamper myself a bit. So today I bought myself a new purse. Frankly there are about 5 others there that I also liked.

So yeah I can see this ending badly. Although KEG has said that now we can't go back until at least April. It's 2 weeks into March so that's not so bad. Let's just hope I can stick to it.

Oh curling I've missed you

So it's Brier time again. For anyone who has missed me saying it before I used to curl. Not very well but hey I tried. But I do love watching curling. Especially men's curling. Women's is okay but they just don't make the same kind of shots that the men do. They also don't seem to make as many of the tough shots as the men do but then again maybe that's just a percentage thing.

If you're not so inclined to the strategy of the game well then there's always the men to check out. Some of my personal favorites include:

Brad Gushue - Skip - Newfoundland & Labrador

John Morris - Third - Alberta

Marc Kennedy - Second - Alberta

You'll also notice that Marc is a lefty which earns him double hot points. But spells his name with a "c" which is just wrong. Anyway at the moment Alberta is leading the standings as they have no losses, followed by Ontario, Newfoundland & Labrador and Manitoba.

When it rains, it pours

So you know how I've been freaking out about being homeless? Well we think we've found a really good place. We just can't seem to get our application there, since the office is only open from 9-5 which means we're at work. Anyway so checked out the place on Saturday and picked up some applications we just haven't submitted them.

Of course now that we've found a place all of the places that we left messages at before are starting to call us saying that they have something. It's pretty crazy. Especially now that I've calmed myself down about the whole homeless thing.

I'm sure everything will work out. I'm just nervous that if we turn down some of the other places and then we don't get the one we want we'll be back in the no place to live situation.

I'm boring

So I had set up some goals for the month of February . Let's see how far I got.

Finish reading Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon. I'm currently on page 135 of 1070. I'm probably about half way through now. I actually lost my book for a while so I couldn't read it and I also read another book in between. Haven't really been in a reading mood lately to tell you the truth.

Finish watching Season 4 of Weeds. Done and Done. I finished this, caught up on The Tudors and have started watching Big Love. Yeah I'm weird and clearly have a lot of time on my hands.

Research and determine 3 grad schools to apply for. This one amuses me since I'm almost ready to give up on grad school. Taking the monetary hit, plus the whole fear of not finding a job when I'm done. But we'll see what happens. It depends how the next couple of weeks go I guess.

Set a tentative date for the GRE. This one goes right along with the last one.

Watch some college hoops. Done. I watched the Duke-UNC game a couple of weeks ago, the Texas-Oklahoma game and one other Duke game this past weekend. Other than that I've spent a lot of time watching curling.

Finish sewing the dress I started last year. I've thought about this a couple of times but I never did pull it out to finish it.

Buy and elliptical machine or a bike. I'm now waiting until I move to do this one. No point in buying something just to move it 2 weeks later.

So that's how I did for February. I'm planning to go back to the regular goal of the week, for March. So we'll see how that goes.

Dream Diary Episode 8: Another what the hell moment

As you know from all of the previous dream diary posts I've done I have some screwed up dreams.

Last night I dreamed that I was curling, which I haven't done since I was in high school and even then not very well. This is easily explained by the fact that I've been watching 2 matches a day. It's the National Women's Championships this week for those of you who didn't know.

The second one involved a guy that I work with where we had a moment in an elevator or something and then when I asked if we needed to talk about it he said he didn't have time to talk about it. I'm not even sure what that says about me, that even in my dreams guys don't want to start relationships with me. I can't say I blame them though, I'm totally scattered.

My emotional baggage

I haven't written anything lately because I don't even know where to begin. Not to mention that I'm totally unfocused these days and can't concentrate at all. So let's do a quick run down of things in my life.

Work - I suppose it pays the bills. Actually it's going fairly well. Except for the sabotage. Seriously my paranoia is getting so bad that I actually thought that someone purposely took the papers off my desk yesterday just to get me in trouble. Turns out someone just accidentally took them off my desk but still.

Home - Home is pretty good. I'm still having trouble with the neighbours and I'm not renewing my lease for this coming year so I'm going to have to find somewhere else to live. That's not going so well. I've probably made about 30 phone calls and have gotten about 5 replies. Only one of them would work and they don't have any openings right now.

School - School is on pause for now. I'm seriously considering quitting my job and going back to do my pre-reqs for lab. It's tough to give up the money but it's probably worth it in the end. Well maybe. I'm thinking though that I would probably do part of a Master's degree by distance ed at the same time. I don't know sometimes I think I think about this stuff too much.

Friends - I don't see a whole lot of them these days. Well if you don't count work friends anyway. it was spring break last week and exams and papers are coming due this week. It's hard having a lot of friends in school when you're not.

And there I am. Oh also I've been watching a lot of curling lately mostly because it's on.

It's been a while

I haven't updated in a while. I just haven't really had a whole lot to say. I've got a terrible head cold this week so all of my thoughts are consumed with being ill. I even took Tuesday off work which seemed like a good idea on Wednesday when I felt better but not so great when I felt even worse today.

But besides the sniffling, sneezing and teary eyes there isn't a whole lot going on with me these day.

Business Ethics

I love the movie Billy Madison, my brother and I have watched it so many times that occasionally we will knock on each others doors just to quote the movie. Yes we are that dorky.
Anyone who has seen this movie knows that the other guy selects "business ethics" as his topic for the final phase of the academic decathlon.

I make this connection because I've been trying to determine if it's unethical to be sending out my resume while I'm at work. It probably is and it's not like I've seen postings that I want to apply for but then I haven't been looking real hard either.

It also reminds me of that episode of the Office where Dwight doesn't want to be a time thief. Seriously if you do not watch this show you really need to. My brother has also suggested that if I'm angry at my co-workers I might try suspending their office supplies in Jell-O (see first season). I'm very, very tempted to try this.

Numbers Never Lie

As you are already very likely aware I'm not always confident about the career path that I've chosen. I often consider further education, changing jobs or perhaps just becoming a homeless person. However my aversion to change often prevents me from considering such options but when I'm in a bit of a funk, like now, I like to see what's out there.

One of the things I like to do is take personality related career quizzes to determine if I'm where I should be. About 4 years ago I took one that had to be sent away for grading, it was very long and really scary, but it told me that I was probably taking the correct course of training for the professions best suited to me. I just did a color based career quiz and it said that the place I should be is somewhere very much like the place I'm in now.

It's just a little frustrating because I'm so unhappy being where I am now. Anyway if you'd like to check out the quiz it's here .

How to get over a bad day at work

1. Check out apartment building in different area of town to remind you that you are moving in just over 2 months.
2. Blog about how to get over crappy day.
3.Remind self that the Duke-UNC (aka evil and evil-er) game is on tonight and that you must watch to see if blood will be shed (answer: god I hope so)
4. Re-read (or read if you haven't yet) baby punching post as this is possibly the most hilarious thing you have read this year.
5. Find baby to punch.

Well okay maybe not that last one.

Think Happy Thoughts

I can just see this going wrong. I don't think anyone who reads this would be shocked that I have had more than one office crush at my current job. I've been here almost 2 years these things are bound to happen. But today I have to work with my very first office crush ever. You know that scene in Love, Actually where the boss calls the woman into the office and asks her how long she's been in love with the toque designer and it's like since the day she started? Yup that's pretty much how it is.

So you can see how this might be a little bit weird. Of course if I think it's going to be awkward then it definitely will be awkward so I just have to keep thinking happy thoughts.

Edit: you know what the easiest way to deal with above awkwardness is? Don't work with them. It's probably a long story that I shouldn't bother getting into.

Misery

I hope it's just a seriously bad case of the winter blues and that it's not a sign of something else, but I can't help but be unhappy these days. I don't really think it's just the weather. Since people who have just returned from vacation are equally miserable.

It's funny I was always told that there is always someone worse off than you and that you should be happy with the things that you have and not worry about what everyone else has. It seems like the only way to stop being miserable about what everyone else has and get the same things is to go against my better judgement and do all the things that would make me miserable.

I have a constant struggle with myself to reconcile the way that the world is with the way that the world should be. I don't think that people should get ahead in this world because they know someone who can help them get ahead. I have trouble understanding a world where 25 year olds are still living at home with their parents. I don't believe it is the place of management to determine whether you should be offered other positions in your company. I don't think that any of these beliefs are entirely out of line and yet they are all contrary to what happens in the world.

The saying goes life isn't fair, but beyond that life is morally bankrupt (in so much as an inanimate object or idea can have morals).

I guess I'm turning into a shoe girl

This has been the most ridiculous week. Actually the last couple of weeks have been pretty crazy. But anyway like a typical girl I decided that the best way to get over my problems was to go shopping. Oddly enough yesterday was also a pay day so I had just finished paying down my credit card bill.

So I went on a bit of a shopping spree. I bought some new tops and a new dress, two necklaces, a new bag and wallet and these shoes which I love because they go with everything.

The Economic Crisis and Me

I read a lot a blogs. Probably more than one person should. I particularly enjoy sports blogs but I also like reading people's personal blogs. Some people's lives are just so much more interesting than the average person. 

One common theme that I've noticed in my reading of late is people's worry about the economic situation. A lot of people are randomly losing their jobs. I always feel horrible for those people. Because no job means no money, no money means no rent, means no place to live and so on. It makes me feel kind of guilty about complaining so much about my job. At least I have one. Okay so it's not the greatest of situations but it exists. 

I just can't help but wonder why I go to work sometimes. And the answer is so that I can pay my bills so that I have a place to live. Unfortunately my thoughts turn slightly morbid after that and it really puts a damper on my whole perspective on life. 

Well at least someone agrees with me

The last couple of days I have been a bit of a Debbie Downer about my work situation. But you know at least I'm not the only one who sees it. It may not be a ringing endorsement of my persistent bitching but, knowing that I'm not alone in my outrage makes me feel just a little bit better about being outraged. 

Anyway I'm sure you're all sick of hearing me complain so instead I'll just offer this picture of Larry Fitzgerald who likely would have been the Superbowl MVP if Arizona would have won instead of just looking hot in a suit. 

It's Done, It's Done

Thank god there are 24 hours in the day. I nearly forgot to post today. Today being my last day of NaBloPoMo. It would have been a shame to put in all that work only to see it fall apart on the last day. 

Now I can go back to my regularly unscheduled blogging. Also because I haven't mentioned it tomorrow is the SuperBowl. I will watch but I could care less about the outcome.  

My Last Vacation Day

Today was the last vacation day I can take before my trip to Scotland. I need to save up everyday between now and then in order to go. But I think it'll be worth it. 

I only accomplished some of what I wanted to do today. I attempted to check on my graduation status but they apparently have to get back to me. I did go to the bank to see about mortgages and have discovered that I will never be able to own a home. Life just isn't made for single people. I also got my hair cut and colored. It's short and dark but I love it. I had wanted to get together with some people I hadn't seen in a while but it just wasn't going to happen. And I only got some of my laundry done. Oh and I didn't call my potential grad schools. 

Funny story about that. So I went to the bank for 10 and didn't get home until about 11:30. Then I had a little bit of stuff to do before I left for my hair appointment at 1:00. So I figured I'd call when I got home. Unfortunately I had left my phone on my desk so when I went to make my call the phone was dead. I wonder if it's kismet? You know the universe telling me I just really shouldn't be going to grad school.

I also did some unexpected stuff. Like go to the mall for supper/shopping and then go to watch my brother play volleyball. That was nice. I haven't seen him play in a while. And I bought and expansion pack and a stuff pack for the Sim 2. I realize that the Sims 3 is coming out soon but I'm probably not going to buy it right away anyway. 

It's been a really weird week

Today was my last day of work for the week and thank god for that. I'm really tempted to give notice. It seems like there is nothing settled in my life right now and since I'm not really a big fan of change this is really difficult for me. 

The whole job situation is really messed up right now. I feel like everyone is conspiring against me. I'm probably just being a little more paranoid than normal but it's hard not to feel that way when there is lots of gossip surrounding my job that I don't even know about. I get that there are things that can't be said until they are finalized and who knows if a lot of what we're hearing is crap but if it does turn out to be turn then I'm not in a very good place work-wise. 

As for my living arrangements well my lease is up in a couple of months which means I either have to commit to staying put or try to find somewhere else to go. On that front I'm going to see the bank about mortgages tomorrow. Just to see what they'd offer me so that I can decide to buy if I find something I want. Otherwise my brother and I will probably be moving across town. 

Which brings me to my next point, grad school. I'm almost at move it or lose it time on this one. I graduated from University almost 2 years ago so it would be hard to get back into the whole school thing. It also brings more uncertainty with the having to move and where do I want to go and where might I get accepted. Right now I'm think about doing a distance ed program. It's not exactly what I want but it's a Master's degree and it doesn't require me to make any real hard choices. But first I want to make sure that by doing this I'm not closing any doors for doing a full research/thesis Master's at some later point, you know just in case. 

Just 4 Days left

There are only 4 days left in this month which means only 4 days left of the NaBloPoMo. Thank god. Also 4 days (well 3 actually), until my nearly faithful reader KEG is off on vacation. Am I jealous? Hells yes. 

Today I'm going to focus on all of the things I want to do over the next month: 

1. Finish reading Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon. I'm currently on page 135 of 1070. 
2. Finish watching Season 4 of Weeds. Is it weird that I'm 2 and a half seasons in and I still haven't decided if I even like the show? 
3. Research and determine 3 grad schools to apply for. 
4. Set a tentative date for the GRE
5. Watch some college hoops. It's almost March and I need to get myself caught up. 
6. Finish sewing the dress I started last year 
7. Buy and elliptical machine or a bike. I'm more likely to use the bike but have you seen the thighs on cyclists?

Yeah that's enough for 2 goals each week which is far more than I'm likely to complete anyway. 

On the Budget

It was budget day today. Usually this sort of thing happens in April but since we had that election thing and then that economic update thing and what I've starting referring to as "The Coalition Debacle of 2008" the government felt that it was in the best interest of Parliament to take a little break and come back with this. Yup, that's 343 pages of what I like to call "How We Plan to Waste Your Money". There are 4 pages of Table of Contents.

I don't usually even looking at the budget because no one cares about the details, what I want to know is how you're going to spend the 1/3 of my income that you steal from me annually. In case you couldn't tell I'm incredibly bitter about frivolous government spending. Don't get me wrong the government does need to spend money on some things but there are things that the government need not and should not touch. 

First and foremost I wonder why the government has taken and "unprecedented consultative effort" to create this budget. Some one want to tell me what all of the past budget consultation meetings have been about? How is it that they managed to get more input in a shorter amount of time to release their budget 3 month early? 

The thing that gets me the most is the $85 Billion dollar deficit. Any one remember why we're dealing with this whole global economic crisis? Likely because people have been taking on HUGE amounts of debt for years by living beyond their means. And here comes our government to save us, by doing the exact same thing! 

But here are some things I DO like about the budget: 

-income tax cuts. Increasing the basic exemption and the upper levels of the two lowest brackets. Good move government. Leave me more money to make decisions with. 

- business tax cuts. If they're paying less taxes they can afford to keep more people. 

- $1.5 billion for job training. 

I'm sure if I wanted to read the whole thing I could find some other good stuff but right now I think I've said enough. 

Why do I only do this stuff when I'm alone

When I was a kid I used to love all sorts of paranormal ghost-y, UFO, crytozoology stuff. I always thought it was really cool. We used to have this book in the library that dealt with all of that stuff and my name was all over that sign-out card. As I got older I found that I didn't have nearly as much time for it as I used to.

So there is this show that deals with these sort of things ghostly and demonic called Paranormal State, where these college students investigate weird phenomena. I don't even know if the show is still making new episodes or if I'm just watching back episodes but anyway it seems like I only watch this show when I'm alone. For example, my brother is away this week so I'm alone in our loud apartment. I make sure not to watch it at night because I know how things I'm thinking about just before bed tend to seep into my dreams. But even so I find that when I wake up in the night I get a little spooked which is weird because I'm not actually afraid at all when I'm watching the show.

Well that sucked

So for the last couple of weeks I've been spending my Friday nights watching Miss America: Countdown to the Crown on TLC. The actual Miss America pageant was last night and I watched it while flipping back to the NHL All-Star Skills competition. 

I found that after watching these girls for 4 weeks I started to pick out some favorites. The same thing happened last year when they did a reality show for last year's pageant. Last year I really wanted Miss Indiana to win, this year I wanted anyone but Miss Indiana to win. And who do you think won? Oh right Indiana. But then I knew after the talent portion that she was going to win. I just found her a little annoying and kind of odd looking. I mean I guess she was pretty but in a non-traditional way. Also every time her name was called she looked like she was going to fall over. I mean okay you can be surprised but really this was a little over the top. 

A couple of changes

I can't say that I'm going to miss NaBloPoMo. It's annoying to have to write everyday instead of just writing when you really have something to say. But at the same time it does force you to think of something to say each day even if it's just "I've got nothing to say today". 

So as I was trying to come up with something to say for last night I tweaked some of the features of my blog. First you'll notice the new background. Every once in a while I like to see if there are any new templates out there that catch my eye. I kind of like this one, at least for now. Secondly you'll notice the new GRE word of the day. I'm in full GRE study mode now as I intend to apply to grad school in the fall for the following year. And really it never hurts to expand your vocabulary. Also you might notice that I got rid of the labels along the side. They'll probably return at some point but for right now I've decided to go it without them. Oh and the Archive drop down menu. Instead of it being an expanding menu I'm going with the drop down just to make things a little neater. 

What a rotten day

There was nothing in particular that was bad about today. It was just kind of an all around sucky day. The weather was brutal today after a lovely warm stretch we were back to -40C windchills. Work itself was okay. Although I was feeling both overwhelmed and underwhelmed at the same time if that's possible.  Well I guess it must be because that's how I felt. 

I was just in a really shitty mood all day and it's not really any better now. I feel bored but at the same time don't want to do anything. I can't even try sleeping because I went to bed at 8PM last night. Maybe I should just become a shut in. 

Far, Far Away

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. I don't know if that's true in my case. When I'm in the middle of a sports season I usually pick up a "boyfriend" for that sport. College basketball, college football, actual football... well you can see where this is going. But quickly after the season I tend to forget about them and move on. I mean I rarely mention Jay Cutler anymore.

Perhaps it's a good thing then that my office crush is taking some time off soon. Perhaps not being around him all the time will help me get over it. I'd really like to move on although the way things have been going in my dreams lately maybe I'm better to just stick with what I've got.

It's interview time

Alright so I'm running out of things to write about so when I saw that SA had done this interview thing and was looking for people who wanted to continue the tradition I jumped at the chance. Here's how it works if you're interested:

1. leave me a comment saying you want to be interviewed.
2. I’ll email you five questions, of my determination not yours!
3. You update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Before we start the Q & A I'd like to say that these questions are incredible and incredibly difficult.

1. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? How different is it (if it is) to what you now are/want to be?

Well my kindergarten yearbook says that I wanted to be a farmer when I grew up. My parents have a farm and I grew up thinking there is nothing greater you can do with your life than provide food for the world. However like everything that is good for the soul it pays next to nothing. So by the time I had graduated from high school I was looking more at a career in the agriculture industry as opposed to primary production. At my current job I do talk to farmers every day, so I guess it's not so far off. I also own some cattle, but I don't make any sort of decisions about them. I leave that to my Dad.

2. If you got to live in any city in the world where you live? Why?

I always thought I wanted to live in Paris. Back in my high school days I loved french class and languages in general. I now live what is considered the french quarter of Winnipeg but don't speak a lick of French. I'd still like to visit Paris and Prague and London but I'm not really a city girl at all.

3. What food have you never eaten that you've always wanted to try?

Another difficult question. I've eaten a lot of weird foods, bears ear, chicken feet, muskrat, beaver tail. But I've never had escargot. The idea of eating snails is not particularly appealing but still something I think I should probably try at some point.

4. You get 10 minutes alone with any one person in the world (currently living). Who is it and what happens during this 10 minutes?

This one is probably the most interesting and toughest question of the lot. This could easily turn smutty rather quickly but I'd like to think that there are other, better things I could do with this question. So I think I'd like to talk to Stephen Harper for 10 minutes, conduct some sort of quick interview. I don't think anyone should be too surprised by this, I'm generally a Conservative supporter but some of the stuff they've done in the past year is kind of questionable. So trying to figure out that political strategy in some of the moves they've made would be very interesting and since it's said that he doesn't allow his cabinet to make any decisions one can only assume that he had some sort of reason to do the things he did.

5. What's one thing you want to do before you die?

I've actually thought about this question a lot during my lifetime and I really don't have an answer to this question. For example, if I was diagnosed with cancer and given a 3 month prognosis today there is nothing that I would say I need to do in the next three months in order to make my life complete. Quit my job and I'd spend the time with my family. I probably should admit to office crush that I have a crush on him but you don't do that to someone when you know you're dying.

And there you go, that's my interview.