"Bridge"

So I'm hiking with Janine in Minnekhada park, when suddenly I stopped in the middle of the trail, wondering if it had ended and Janine says, "Over here, we just go over this bridge.."


I would call this more of a log with a railing.

Family night giving back

Last night dad, mum, Aleisha and I all went to donate blood. Well, the three of us went to donate, Aleisha came as moral support. We had fun joking about the weird questions they have to ask you around drugs and sex to screen for Aids, and poking fun at the grumpy nurse.

I'm AB positive, which only 7.6% of Canadians have.My donation didn't go as smoothly as it could have, but I was back to myself after 10 minutes and we laughed it off at the cookie table. I know they're always asking for donors, so my suggestion is, bring a friend. :)

Clean window = bad day for birds

Today while Aleisha was studying in the living room, a bird hit our front window. When Aleisha looked out, it lay quivering on the lawn. We were both slightly dramatized, and decided to take it to the Animal Hospital, just in case it was dying. Apparently, wild birds don't like shoe boxes. When I tried to nudge it into the box, I guess it decided my arm was less threatening. I'm not sure who was more weirded out by the whole thing.


But when we did get it in the box, and drove to the vet, it flew out of the box as soon as we opened it. My friend Zoe at the Animal Hospital said they would feed the bird, and let it loose in a few hours, but chances are it would be just fine. I snapped this shot in the examination room. Fly away little birdie! 

Just once...

When I take Indy for walks, he always sticks his head in all the storm drains.
Just once I want him to find one with a squirrel or other small creature living in it. 

Stacked

Dad says, "space is at a premium on a boat."

I think this is what happens when it rains and the parents can't go play outside.

Smelly people

For a multitude of random reasons, I've been taking the skytrain a lot in the last few weeks. I understand that there will always be people who stink, and that wanting to eradicate them is up there with world peace, but today was just gross. When I was walking through the Commercial street skytrain station, the guy in front of me stunk so bad I could hardly breath. I was so relieved when he boarded a different car on the train, until it happened. I realized that I still smelled like him! His stinky smell had actually stuck to me!  I don't understand how he couldn't know he smells that bad?

My boudoir adventure

It was easy for my friend to convince me to get boudoir photos done for my boyfriend for Valentine's Day, because I'm always looking for ways to be romantic in a guys perspective. But as the shoot got closer, I started to get hesitant about it. Friends of ours had used the photographer, Leida from True Colours Photography in the past, and I liked their pictures. It was just hard to imagine meeting a photographer for the first time, putting on lingerie and making it look super sexy all in one hour.It helped that I went shopping before hand, and got some super cute (and CHEAP!) outfits to wear and I also stole Greg's cowboy hat while he was in Scotland.
When I got to Leida's house in Abbostford, I felt comfortable almost instantly. She'd asked her husband to leave for the day, which I found super respectful. Leida was so professional and encouraging. I could tell as soon as she started taking photos how passionate she was, as she climbed on chairs, and rolled around on the floor getting good angles. She gave some much direction with the posses, I could tell she'd done her homework about boudoir. She also took the time to fix small details like tags sticking out, and pieces of hair here or there before she took photos. At one point during the shoot, I was actually holding myself in and it was that point that I thought, "ok, this is the bounds of where I'm comfortable.." One of the first things I thought when I got in the car was, "I can't believe I did that...and I can't wait to show my family!"
Within a week, I got the chance to preview the pictures after editing, and got a disc in the mail with over 20 shots. I was super pleased with the results, and so was Greg when I gave him an album full of the pictures yesterday.

I think it's healthy to try something slightly out of the box sometimes, and constantly test where your boundaries and levels of comfort are. I had such a great experience with Leida, I would definitely recommend her and True Colours Photography next time you want professional photos done, especially if you want to try boudoir.

Cutting it out

Since I came back from Ucluelet, I've been working on re branding myself to get another position in the writing field. This means I had to change my Twitter account, get new business cards and almost completely re-do my portfolio. When I said down to make the changes to my portfolio, I was surprised how much emotion I felt while literally cutting the words "Journalism" and "Journalist" out of my life.

I value the experiences I had in Ukee, and will never regret it. I'll be honest though, in the actions of moving forward, some of the stranger experiences have caught me off guard.

Another retail rant

Did you know my name is Ummmm? Especially when I used to work at a video store, people would approach the counter and say.."ummm.....do you have this movie, what that guy who does that thing..?" What's worse is when you approach a customer and ask them if they need any help, and they say, "No.... but do you have that flavour of soap you used to have that kinda smelled like..." I'm always tempted to walk away as soon as they say no. Clearly you need help, so just say YES! Also, only google "ummm..." if you're already having a strange day and you're super bored.

Snuggie

I first heard about Snuggies through a friend of mine at school, who hated the whole idea. For all the reasons she didn't like them, I completely wrote Snuggies off. And then I got one for Christmas and my whole world changed.

For someone like me who LOVES snuggling on the couch and being comfortable, this was the perfect gift. So perfect I decided to get my Grammy Ivy one, and I know she'll love it too.

Give Snuggies a chance, they're totally worth it. :)

International shipping

Tonight I fell victim to the irresistibly low prices on an American website, again. I knew I was in trouble when I couldn't enter in the last digit of my postal code. For those of you who don't shop online, trust me when I say .ca and .com become increasingly important. If you do find yourself  in Yankee web space, just for laughs check out what they'll charge you to ship an item. Many charge international shipping to get it to Canada. In some cases, they'll charge the same amount to ship from Seattle to here as they would to get it to Europe. We're your neighbours to the North people, we're not that far away!

Roller walk

Last week when the first couple sunny days came around after winter, I decided I both wanted to go for a rollerblade, and needed to take the dog for a walk. Why not kill two birds with one stone? Oh about 13 logical reasons, all involving basic physics. Lets run through some scenarios. If Indy likes the direction and speed I'm going, we'll do just fine. But say he sees another dog/pole to pee on/something shiny/nothing at all and decides to stop suddenly...well in that case, there's only a small rubber patch on the back of my right foot between us and DEATH. Needless to say, our walk was an adventure for us, and an opportunity to laugh real hard for all the motorists that passed us.

For obvious reasons, I couldn't find too many pictures of this..except for this jerk..

Irresponsible influence

A while back, Greg's family had a large rock thrown through the window of one of their vehicles. Nothing was stolen, the rock was solely vandelism.

It's cliche, but I have to shout out to our towns teenagers. It's time to take responsibility for the influence you have on your generations reputation. I spent a lot of time as a teenager volunteering, and doing good deeds in the neighbourhood to have a positive change on how older generations expected me to act based on my age. When I acted against their perceptions, they were surprised. Think back, how many times did you walk into a store, and be asked to leave your backpack at the front? Or watched while you shopped? To change this perception, the majority need to outweigh the negativity of a few.

Mall Fire

At work Saterday, a fire alarm in the mall started to go off intermittently in the early afternoon. The funny thing was, no one stopped shopping. A couple people approached us and seemed mildly concerned, but for the most part, people ignored it. When the alarm went solid, that's get-the-fuck-out time, and one customer was angry she couldn't make a purchase because we were closing the doors and running for it. Shortly after it stopped, and they made an announcement that everything was fine. I wonder when panic would have set in, smoke? Flames?
I hope there's never a fire at the mall.

Free candy?

I was walking by The Garage the other day in the mall, when I saw this sign:

It's obvious this ad is targeted at their mostly pre-teen audience, but I couldn't help but think it could have said, "FREE CANDY..when you climb in our big white van and help us look for our puppy.." 

Indy's antics

On our walks, besides having trouble learning that car tires are an inappropriate place to pee, Indy gets distracted by other dogs. The other day when I was walking him, he got all worked up when someone was walking their dog going the other way on our street. He pounced and jumped at him as we passed, and even resorted to walking backwards to see it. He was so preoccupied he didn't see the parked car...*WHAM* He broadsided it. His whole body made full contact with the bumper. And then he jumped back like "where did that come from?"

Near accident

I was going over the Coast Meridian Overpass last week, when I tried to change lanes. I checked all my mirrors, and glanced over my shoulder as I started to merge over. There was a car in my blind spot. I had to swerve back into my lane to avoid an accident. An accident that would have been 100% my fault. I felt somewhat grounded after making this obvious error. Of all the mistakes and near accidents I've witnessed since driving, that frustrate me to no end, and actually I can make an honest mistake too. Btw, sorry older lady in the blue car, but congrats, you give a wicked dirty look.