Tuesday, Dec. 16 ... interesting.

What a day....
Today started off fine. I got up, came to work, transcribed some stories.
And then three people were laid off and 600 within the company - one in my department, and two others (one of whom has been here for 33 years). No one is safe.
I also looked at my credit card because I've been thinking about booking a flight to Abbotsford, but the annual fees came out and now that isn't possible anymore - and it's not like I can actually leave for a week anymore anyways.
But it seems getting help for Dad could be soon...which is good.
It also means I will likely be going to Strathmore for Christmas. I am trying to be positive about Christmas, but a large part of me would rather spend it here by myself.
I'm also thinking of running away - partly to get away from that whole thing and partly because it's really cold here and I would go someplace warm.
Sometimes I just don't have the energy to deal with the crap in life anymore and I just want to scream.
That's all. I'm going to head home soon and make some chocolate chip cookies for the Christmas potluck for work tomorrow. I love my cookies, but likely won't have any. I ate part of a cinnamon bun and some hot chocolate yesterday and didn't even enjoy it. Yeah for the cleanse. I feel much healthier and my stomach is happier than it's been in months. Although my stomach doesn't like stress either, so its still not completely happy.
OK. Bye.

Back...for now

Well, it's almost been three months since I last posted on the blog. I'd be lying if I said I even tried to post anything during that time, because the opposite is true. In fact, I had no desire to post anything at all.
How have the past few months been? Where shall I begin? Well, I had a fantastic time in Portland with Karen and Kim. It was nice to just get away from life and have some fun. As well, my old roommate moved out and I now have a new one - who cleans, does her own dishes and pays rent on time (very important things).
But, I've not at all been feeling well during the past six months. It was exhausting continuing on day after day when I all wanted to do was crawl back into bed and cut out my stomach. It was hard going to work everyday when I felt so horrible, but I tried my best not to complain about how I was feeling -- mainly because it wouldn't help me feel better and others really didn't need to hear about it.
As well, I'm sure my stomach has been unhappy because I have significantly more stress than I would prefer.

Frustrated

There is one week left in this month, and sadly, it doesn't feel like it can go fast enough. Do you ever feel like you want to knock two heads together? How is it possible for people to have such a lack of maturity? Is it that hard to at least act your age? Do I really need to act like someone's mother?
Perhaps some people just lack the common sense others seem to have? I just don't know. Perhaps some people are simply just stupid?
I think I'm pretty easy to get along with, but I see an explosion in the near future. Perhaps some people should just kiss my pasty white ass.

Busy, busy, busy

Well, 'tis me. It's been a very, very busy but very, very fun summer. In the past few months I've had very few weekends in Lloyd. Instead, I've gone camping a couple of times, went to Body Worlds in Edmonton, saw a friend in Saskatoon, went to Big Valley Jamboree and just have had a really good summer. In a few weeks I will be heading to Portland with Karen and Kim to do some shopping and sightseeing.
Karen says hello. She is pretty fantastic and always a lot of fun. I am at her house....should be another fun weekend. Had a massage today. It was great, like always.
Anyways, not much else to say.

It's me....

Well, as everyone knows, I now have two jobs - one at the Booster and another at Starbucks (which will officially open on July 23. My life will turn from busy into chaotic as I will be working well over 60 hours each week. On the bright side, I will hopefully pay off some of my debt a lot faster and maybe, just maybe I will some day be able to buy a new car or something equally exciting.

Two days ago I got back from camping up at Brightsand Lake (a little over an hour from Lloyd). It was nice to just get away for a few days ---- on my first-ever paid vacation!! Woohoo! While it rained the entire day before we got up there, the weather was pretty good most of the time while we were up there.


See? Karen was pretty excited about it too...haha.



And here's Kim...just hanging out by the fire. The tent in the background is mine. Putting it up is super easy. You basically pull the top and it builds itself....unfortunately the taking down part isn't quite as easy --- let's just say, I wanted to throw it in the garbage and walk away. Luckily, I figured it out last night and for the next camping trip I have a super duper great tent. It's small, but I am hoping to upgrade sometime in the future. :)
The red tent you can partially see, is also mine. I bought it for $17 last year at Canadian Tire. While its also small, its done me well. My aunt gave me the other one.


And here are my three campmates from when we went geocaching. All in all the whole weekend was tons of fun.
And...for the rest of the summer, I will be a disappearing act for the most part. Between work and then the weekends I do have stuff planned, I may just be hard to find.

What happens when you can't sleep.....

It's midnight. 12:16 to be exact and I am not asleep. Unfortunately, this isn't an unusual thing for me. I often lay awake until the wee hours of the morning, wishing that I could sleep. But alas, it eludes me, so I turn on my computer to see who else isn't off in dreamland.
Speaking of dreamland. I had a very entertaining dream last night. (I slept for a four-hour stretch...what a fantastic thing). In my dream I was getting ready to fly somewhere (not too sure where) with Karen and Kim. We got to the Saskatoon airport and I realized I'd left my passport somewhere, so I had to go back and get it. We were already running late and the time would set us back too far. I made it back with my passport, and the plane hadn't left yet, but they weren't letting anymore passengers on. Luckily for us, someone talked to the pilot who said it was OK for us to get on the plane. And we were off!
Except not really, we began taxiing down what I believed to be the runway, when I looked out of the window to see that we were taxiing down Highway 16 (going towards Lloyd). I was extremely confused because that is not how it works. We were following someone and just couldn't get up enough speed to take off (who'da thunk?). We finally started taking off, but hadn't had enough speed so the plane landed just a little farther down the highway. Haha. Yep, kinda entertainingly funny. I learned one valuable lesson through this dream though....make sure to have passport with you......
Well, I suppose, now that I've bored you with my boring dream, I have hopefully bored myself enough that I can sleep.

A preview....

Does this look disgusting? Most people think so. But, I am slightly off balance, so I think it will be fun. What is it you may ask? Well, according to Wikipedia, it is is a "traveling exhibition of preserved human bodies and body parts that are prepared using a technique called plastination to reveal inner anatomical structures." Cool, huh? I will be going to the show in Edmonton in July.
The summer looks to be a busy one, once again --- two camping trips planned with Karen, Ian, Kim and the Nicholet crew. I imagine it will be close to Lloyd, so it will require little driving and gas and I've slowly been stocking up on the camping gear I will need, including a brand-new fishing rod I purchased yesterday with the help of Mr. Ian Green. Camping is so very relaxing with this bunch, and I am in dire need of a vacation...no matter how short. I've been at the Booster for more than a year now, and am definitely entitled to some time off.


I may also go to the Big Valley Jamboree again this year, with free tickets courtesy of the Booster. It'll just be a short one-day excursion.

Other than that, I will take some of the other weekends to just relax and take it easy. I need to take the time and space to make myself the number one priority in my life. We all have things in our lives that take our time and
mental energy---sometimes too much of it---thankfully at 30, I no longer play the martry---everyone has the thorn in their flesh, so to speak, even if we can't understand what the next person is dealing with.

And, I've booked some holidays for September. Karen has asked Kim and I if we'd like to go with her while she takes a course (related to her massage therapy). With an open invitation it just felt like it would be a relaxing way to spend some time sightseeing and exploring --- and maybe do a little bit of shopping.

So, with my summer planned out, I am eager to be able to spend some time relaxing....without having to spend too much on gas (because the price of it is outrageous!)

Meanwhile I still have to figure out how to handle a double-edged sword.