Zombie CPR

The season is upon us. Tis the season to get heart attacks!

...wait, no, that doesnt sound right..

Tis the season to get scared to the point of your heart stopping!

... closer...

Anyway, tis the season where I spent the last month and a half being a small part of  massive organization undertaking for an event put on last night by the Heart and Stroke Foundation (HFS) (specifically the Ontario branch). Event was called the "Undeading of Wonderland" or "CPR Undead" for short. Our goal was to break the Guiness World Record for the amount of people learning CPR at one time. This marketing scheme for this event was done to the theme of Zombies and took place in Canada's Wonderland during their "Halloween Haunt".

For this event, the HSF put out probably one of the better PSAs I have ever seen. Lets watch, shall we??

Last night was the big night. Now, unfortunately, we did not manage to break the world record. The world record was 7909 people and set in Signapore. In the end, we managed approximately 5000 people. But that is still 5000 more people who know how to do CPR and hopefully will one day save a life.

Now, I know I could go into some intimate detail regarding exactly how the event was set up, who set up it, my involvement in it, the road trip to Toronto for the Event, the road trip home, etc. etc. etc. But I feel as though some people might lose interest. So I guess I'll just stick to the highlights.

The event itself was both fun and disapointing. It was fun because I got a really nice, fun, chatty and easy going partner as well as a decent group of people to work with. (In order to be able to make sure everyone was counted, people were divided into "pods" and assignment a volunteer and a CPR instructor). It was disapointing because the organization could have been better. As a volunteer I was not completely clear on my roll and the "training" involved us being vaguely told what to do but given none of the tools. I guess it all still worked out in the end so I am not going to make too harsh of a complaint.

After the event, as a volunteer, I got to go in and enjoy the park for free. Now, if you have never been to Canada's Wonderland for the Halloween Haunt/Fear Fest, its pretty cool. The park is covered in fog (fog machines every few meters) and the lights are turned down or programed for different colours giving the park a delightful creepy atmosphere. They have people dressed as zombies or in random creepy costumes that will creep out of the fog or jump out of the fog to scare people. And they have the "mazes", which are essentially mini haunted houses or walks, each with a different theme. By far my favourite was the Corn Maze. It was dark and creepy and the staff they had set up to scare people were stuble and creepy, rather than in-your-face and obnoxious.

We also managed to hit up a few rides, which are always fun. Now, I love rides, but I hate heights. So it is always a fight for me to first get up the courage to go on most rides. But once I get it up, it stays up and I love them (... thats what she said...). I mean, I refused to go on the "Drop Zone", which raises you high into the air and then drops you, and I think I may need another time or two at the park before I can work up my courage for the "Leviathan", which is Wonderland's newest roller coast featuring a 80 degree drop. But I was good for all the rest.

The unfortunate thing, in my old old age of 23, is that I have managed to develope a rather weak stomach. So by the time we left the park, I was definitely a little too queasy for the two-hour ride home. I think next time it would be a better idea to stay overnight in the city... or possibly pass out in the park and hope someone is there to carry you home lol.

At the end of the night something kind of cool happened. I managed to run into Corey Vidal and Samantha Fall, two of my favourite youtubes from the Apprentice Eh/Apprectice A youtube channels. I knew they were going to be at the park, and while I was hoping to run into them I didnt *actually* expect it to happen. Unfortunately I did not get to meet the whole Apprentice A team. It looked like Sam and Corey were headed out a bit early while the rest were still enjoying the rides. It was still pretty cool as these were the first youtubers I have ever met in person. I also managed to surprise myself by how cool and smooth I was going up to say hi and asking for a picture with them. I appreciate how nice and gracious they were in exchange.

So that, in short, was my night. And yes, that is in short. If you want me to give you the long version you may need to set aside a large part of your night for the length of post you will be reading.

Good Night Internets, Happy (almost) Halloween!

Hair today... Original Title Tomorrow

I've been bouncing a couple blog topics around in my head for a couple days or so, and finally I have time to actually follow through on them. Of course, I dont remember what the second topic I had to talk about was, so as follows, you get to read an exciting blog post about.... wait for it... MY HAIR! WOO!

Back in July (July 27th or 28th I think) I made a big change to my appearance and general annoyance level in the world. I cut my hair. Pretty astounding right? But I didnt just trim my hair, or make a slight style change. I chopped off 9 whole inches of my hair to donate to make wigs for cancer patients. So essentially I went from looking like this:

To this:

So definitely a big change.

And as soon as I cut my hair, everyone LOVED it. Oh short hair suits me so much better than long. Oh I look so much more grown up. Oh I am such an amazing person for donating my hair, they could never do it, they would just bawl, yadda yadda yadda.

But I hated it.

Ok, that's kind of a lie. I didnt HATE it. I definitely agree that short hair suits me really well. But I just didnt like the cut. I didnt like the hair on the back of my neck. I didnt like how awkwardly it curled. I didnt like that I had NO idea how to style it. I didnt like that when I had a bad hair day, I was going to have a bad hair day - I couldnt pull it up to hide it anymore. ("Yeah, but you could put a hat on!"... not at work I couldnt :S).

And more than anything, I was told over and over that short hair would be so much less work than long hair - and that was a lie. If your hair is straight, maybe that's true. But not with curly hair. If curly hair isnt styled just right, it looks SO wrong. Now, I'm not someone who wants to ages and ages of effort into my hair on a daily basis. Once in a while, maybe for a special occassion - sure, why not. But I am way too busy and have way to short an attention span to want to have to do this every single day.

But I bore with it. Maybe it would "grow" on me (ba-dum-chh). Maybe it would look better, feel better, style better, if I grew it out a bit. So I told myself that I would wait until November. 3 months. If it was still bugging me then, I would cut it.

And then I spent the last month and a half fighting with myself, convincing myself that NO, I am not going to cut it today.

Now, it wasnt all bad. There were days when I could make it look quite attractive on myself. I just never knew how I did that. I would try to repeat what I did, and it never EVER took. Oh! Using a hair dryer, THATS The trick. Or not. OH, I need to use a cream in my hair, not a mousse. Nope, thats not it either. OH, I should comb my hair and then muss it. Or I should never attempt that again... it was all so very frusterating.

And to be quite honest, I was quite happy about half a week ago when I discovered my hair was not long enough to pull back into to cute little pigtails. Best I think I felt I had looked since I cut my hair.

Then the next day I woke up, went to the gym, had a shower, left my hair to dry... and halfway through the day I walked into the school hair salon. I was sick of my hair and well aware that pigtails everyday was NOT the answer I was looking for.

Of course, I made two big mistakes there.
1) Spontaenously deciding to get a hair cut. Sure I had been thinking about this for a while. In fact, I had quite the expansive list of qualifications for how my hair should look (not TOO short, spunky, better defined curls, easy and quick to take care of, etc. etc.) but I also had NO IDEA what I wanted. And if I have learned something from all this hair cutting I do is this: Hairdressers are not magic. Sure, you can get some really good ones. But for the most part, they are people, and they cannot read into the depth of your soul and pick out your perfect hair cut. Though, man, life would be so much easier if they could!

2) Going to the University hair salon. Now dont get me wrong. I've been there before. When I had long hair, I came away satisfied each time. Maybe not raving in praise, but satisfied. However, whenever I had long hair getting a haircut always went something like this:
"So what do you want done today?"
"I dunno, just a trim and tidy up. Keep it looking pretty much the same."
Which is essentially the same as tell the hair dresser "here, just cut along the lines". Sure there is always room for screwing up, but generally the task is not all that complicated.
But if you have a new haircut and you are scared of how it might turn out, here is a lesson for you. Dont go to the place that costs $20 for a haircut. And dont go to the one peron in the entire salon who barely understands english, which means that all those fun qualifications I had listed in my head? I dont think she understood any of them. (Ok. To be fair, she did get "short" and "I just dont know what I want" down pretty well).
Not knowing whatI want, and not knowing english the greatest, she was unfortunately reduced to shoving those STUPID hair-style books in my hands. I hate those books. With a passion. No matter how you cut your hair, it will NEVER turn out looking like those books. Those girls are over styled and probably had 10 minutes of hair touch up between every shot. On top of that, every single style in both those books were for STRAIGHT hair. In case you hadnt noticed, my hair is anything but STRAIGHT. And my hair is THICK. It looks *nothing* like the hair styles in those stupid books.

So there I was, no idea what I wanted and dealing with a hairdresser that could only guess at what I am saying. So did I do the logical thing and say "Actually, I think I will come back another time"? Pffft. No. Since when do I show forsight like that?! Instead I said "Ok, well, a friend of mine suggested I do a bob. So why dont we try that out..." and she smiled, nodded excitedly and started babbling something about "short" and "layers" and "very good, very good" that I unfortunately could barely understand through her accent...

She then sat me down in the chair, choked that stupid reverse cape thing around my neck, and for the first time since I got my glasses told me to "no. Leave on." Because, as it turned out, she was going to get me to approve every single layer after she cut it. Which is a WONDERFUL sentiment, if you know what the hell you want your hair to look like. Me? I had no idea. So I smiled and nodded and said the obligatory "cute" every time she held up that damned mirror, hoping that everything was working out for the best.

Spoiler alert: It didnt.

When she finished cutting, I asked her if she could blow dry my hair so I could see what it looked like dry. She she obligingly did. With a round brush. To straighten it. In the worst possible way imaginable. I dont even know if I can describe it. She blew-dryed (... blow dryed? Blew dry?) my bangs so they were hair of the side of my hair and had my hair hair straight except for where it curled under my ears. Effectively making my head look square and giving a very definite line right around the middle of my face. It was AWEFUL.

And to top it off, it wasnt what I asked for. Or, at least what I thought I had asked for. I thought a bob was shorter in the back, longer in the front. And maybe I am wrong about that. But either way, it was very much the same length all the way around my head. I hated it.

So I went home, I stuck my head under the tap, washed the style out and tried to style it myself. After watching several youtube videos about short hair. And it turned out... ok. pulled it back with a headband, and I was happy enough to trek off to work anyway. But still not happy.

So after tossing and turning for a night, reading many blogs and articles about what to do with a bad haircut, and spending much more time than I would have even wanted to trying to style my hair, I decided I was going to go back and ask to have my hair redid. And I did. And I explained a bit better about what I wanted, because I now had a bit better of an idea. And I walked away... satisfied. Its not perfect. Im pretty sure one side is longer than the other, one side has more hair, etc. etc. But I can happily live with this. And in the end, I suppose that is what is most important.

So without further ado, my new haircut:

From the Back

... I am really bad at taking pictures of myself...

So, now that you have all been thuroughly put to sleep from reading about my hair adventures, I will bid you adieu. So long Internets!

More Os Please

Oxygen.

I love oyxgen, in fact, you could almost say I live off oxygen. I love the feeling you get when your muscle contract, your chest starts to rise and you that slight breezy sensation in your mouth as you suck in that air from the world around you (and yes, there is a good chance I stop and concentrated hard on how my body feels when I breath *just* so I could make that description).

However, apparently my seems to feel a current need to deprive my body of oxygen. And this makes me sad.

I have a cold right now. And all you out there are thinking to yourself "Oh boo-hoo. A Cold. Your life is rough. I do hope you survive all these trials and tribulations life constantly seem to throw at you." And this is all true. Colds suck. You feel gross, you are dribbly and sneezy and just look and sound way to gross to be around the rest of the world. You feel dizzy and sore and you just dont want to do anything (gives a fabulous excuse for procrastination however). But you get over it. Both in the literal and figurative sense, You. Get. Over. It.

But I feel like being whiney. Sorry guys, its one of those posts.

Ever since I was a kid (*flashback to thrilling story about idiotic doctor which I wont actually be telling at the present time*), if my cold gets anywhere NEAR my chest, my asthma kicks in. And then, the cold will go away and, for most people, that is the time of joyusness and wonderment where you can take the time to brag to all your friends about the monsterous beast of sickness you managed to fight off after seemingly endless days and nights of toture.

Unless you have a crappy asthma chest.

In which you get to sit there, coughing like you've spent the last 40 years of your life smoking several packs of straight tar , making everyone around you back away slowly even though you have nothing contagious left within your person (other than your charming personality, great smile and wonderous laugh of course).

I suppose its not ALL bad. I mean, it does get you out of numerous chores, works your oblique muscles like nobodies business and is a great way to avoid any and all sorts of unpleasant conversation.

But it also restricts the amount of activity you can do, makes everything take twice as all (based purely on the amount of time its takes to complete that string of hacking coughs), keeps you up at night and leaves you constantly wondering if you remembered to grab your inhaler before you walked out the door that morning.

Anyway, I really shouldn't be complaining. I have had *WAY* worse colds and way worse coughs before. But my best friends is sicker than I am, and all my other complaint outlets have had much worse versions of this cold than I seem to have gotten, leaving me feeling pansy-ish and guilty to complaining to feircly at them. So I suppose what I am trying to say in as many words as possible is, WAH! Im sick! Feel sorry for me in all my pussy-esk glory! I dont deserve your pity, but I currently desire it anyway. *pathetic face*

And now, with that out of my system - but alas, the cough still reigns, I bid you adieu Internets. Breath deep, and breath well.

And I'm... Still Alive

Hello again Internets. Have I lost all my, um, 4 followers yet? :P

So I'm sitting here having a conversation with my sister telling her that she should start a blog. She is a very passoinate, opinionate person who has a lot to say about multiple topics. Currently she volunteers for a dog rescue and has been posting on fb frequently regarding many differnt aspects of said volunteering and just the general topic. And thats just one of the many subjects she feels strongly enough about to voice her opinion on facebook.

But she isnt interested in blogging.

Which is valid. Not everyone likes to write. Not everyone has time to write. She also feels that blogging wouldnt reach the right audience, which may or may not be true. She also has points about how she doesnt nessissarily have the resources to go out and get as in-depth as she would like if she did start herself a blog. She can't fosters, she doesnt have the money to drive all over the country to rescue dogs on her own, etc. etc. (tho seriously, of all you... ppl?... still with me, if she wrote that blog, who'd read it? I know I would)

And it just got me thinking, her and I have somewhat opposite problems. She has a lot to write about but isnt a writer/isnt able to. I love writing and constantly think about how this blog is left, sad and alone, but I have nothing to write about. Seriously - I've talked in the past about how blogs of a person's everyday life aren't that exciting but if I updated as often as I keep stupidly promising (and totally not following through on), that is what my blog would become. I have some issues I am interested in, but nothing I am passionate about enough to start blogging regularly on. And even non-issue stuff, just interests in general. I've got nothing like that. I mean, my sister is a pretty kick-ass pole dancer. If she really wanted, she could totally write about that and probably never run out of topics. I got nothing like that. Unless you want to hear me regularly update you on my studies "Hey Internets, found a new study technique today! It's called "cue cards" - it's pretty rad. Did you know that Cue Cards can actually help you with MEMORIZATION?! I KNOW RIGHT!"... yeah, that sounds thrilling.

So I suppose this is just a blog complaining about how I have nothing to write about again, sorry. But seriously, if any of you... 1 ppl (I assume my mom will stumble upon this eventually right?) have suggestions of how to keep this interesting, please, share with the class. Otherwise I suppose it will be something that gets updated every time I have a thought I'd like to expand on. I PROMISE at LEAST once every 6 months - hmmm, actually, I dunno. That sounds pretty ambicious... one a year? Man, with promises like this, I could become a politician (ba-dum-cchhh).

And with that mon petit Internets, I shalt see you in the future. Maybe by the next time I post, they'll have invented a machine that can just turn stream of thought into a decent blog post without all this tenuous typing I'm doing now. We can only dream right?

Tube-ular Experiences

Well Hello Internets. Ready for another installment of Paige's Stomach Drama? Alright, GO!

So a couple weeks ago I had an appointment with a Gastrointestinal (GI) specialist to have this installed:

Yup, my face had become tubular. That stupid thing got shoved in my nose and down my throat down to the opening of my stomach from my esophagus. Before I had that installed however, I first got to go through another procedure where they shoved a tube down my nose that was about 3 times as thick as the one I am sporting in that loverly picture (thick one was about the size of a pen. The thin one was about the size of the ink cartrige inside of a pen). The thick tube then slowly got pulled out of my nose as I drank gulps of water. And yes, it was about as uncomfortable as it sounds. I spend the majority of the time trying not to gag up the water while asking the nurse if anyone has ever puked on her during this procedure. The answer? Yes, yes they have.

So after that procedure happened, I got this second tube installed in my already sore nose and throat. And yes, once again, it was about as uncomfortable as it sounds. At first I thought it was hilarious because, lets face it, I looke hilarious. And I kept thinking how Im gonna be the one ppl stare at and try to be diplomatic around if I went out in public, which I was all prepared to enjoy to the fullest. However, once I got over the initial giddiness, I started to realise how much it sucked. I was constantly gagging, my throat was raw, everytime I talked or sneezed or breathed too deeply the thing shifted, making my nose ache. I couldnt eat properly, which was an issue considering the entire point of the expariment was for me to eat so the tube could detect any incidences of acid reflux. The tube ran from my nose to a heavy machine to record incidences of acid, as well as having buttons for different types of pain I may expeirence and when I ate. If I wasnt careful, I would get myself tangled in the tubes and the cord-like sling that hung over my sholder holding the machine. And, lets be honest, I've never been known for being careful... :S.

Normally I had when ppl feel sorry for me, I dont like pity or sympathy or ppl "Awwwww"-ing over me. By the end of the day I was so pissed off at the situation I was literally telling people "yeah, thats right, feel sorry for me. This fucking sucks!". Luckily, however, the test was only for 24 hours, so I was able to get rid of the damn thing first this the next day.

And then I waited for about a week and a half for my test results to come in. Which is a very short wait. I barely realised the time had past before I got the phone call to arrange an appointment to talk to my doctor. And the results? I dont have Acid Reflux Disorder or GERD. YES I have acid reflux and YES I have pain, but apparently there isnt a strong corralation between the two. Which I have been telling my doctor since day one. So, you know, go figure.

So, yet again, I have a new diagnosis. I have officially been describe with IBS, or as my nurse friend put it, Idiotic Bull Shit. Yes, legit IBS is a thing - it has to do with over-sensitive nerve endings in the stomach or bowels cause pain and reactions and whatnot. However, what IBS means in doctors speak is "your stomach is fucked and I dont know why. Have fun with that." and then they throw pills at you and stare at you until you leave their office. OR something along those lines. Essentially my doctor has no idea what is wrong with my stomach and has either run out of ideas or cant be bothered to figure out what the issue is. Yee-fucking-haw. I love doctors -.- . 

Anyway, I figure I'll try out the drugs. I mean, can't hurt right? Well, the first type cant - over-the-counter Probiotics, simple things to help food easier through the bowels. If that doesnt work, then I try my perscription meds. Those have a higher likelyhood of hurting according to the side-effects booklet. Im more worried about them hurting my psychee however, cause I have to take them 3 times a day, half hour before meals - and I've tired the half-hour before meals type of drugs before, and I can't do it. I dont normally know when Im eating and if I do, I dont have half an hour to wait before I can eat :S. However, I'll give them a shot because I dont want to move on up to option number 3, which is anti-depressants. I know many ppl without depression take anti-depressants to deal with medical issues, but it still kinda freaks me out. Especially with a history of mental illness in my family. But that option is far away atm, so I'll not worry yet. I've only been on the Probiotics since Monday, so we'll see how those go.

And that concludes this segment of "Paige's Stomach Drama" - tune in next time for a rant about stupid and inconvient medications. Goodbye and Goodnight Internets!

Subclavian Brain Explosion

Today is a wonderful day Internets. Classes have officially ended for the term - yay! I still have exams, but those don't stay for me until the 18ths so I am taking a rest day. I got up early (not by choice. My body has decided that 8am is a good time for me to be getting up, even if I have been continuously been going to bed between 2 and 3 am for the past couple weeks), worked on a couple photoshop projects for some of my friends, watched some TV shows I havent watched in weeks (on my compuator), worked on one of my own crafty projects I havent had a chance to work on in ages, now I am  writing my first blog post in almost a month. Its nice to allow myself to relax for a bit, even tho I have a large part of my brain trying to convince me that I shoudl be doing SOMETHING more important than what I am doing. I think I'm gonna have to reteach my brain how to turn off...

HOWEVER best part about today, and really the last couple weeks, AND the reason I have been staying up so late recently is thta I FINALLY get to spend time with my friend Elyse. Elyse, also known as Padfoot, was previously mentioned in this blog in my Australia series if people remember back. Being in Australia, I discovered i had a personally dopleganger. Well she decided to move to Canada for a couple years. She will officially have been here 2 weeks as of tomorrow. She's crashing with me until she has a place to live and a job, or at least some form of job expectation. And its been AWESOME. Also awful - awful for sleep patterns and concentration on schoolness (the school library is once again becoming my best friend haha), but mostly awesome.

Have you ever had that friend that you can't stop talking to? Your phone conversations seem to go on a good two or three hours past when you first said goodbye? Yeah thats Padfoot and I. Except the difference is we are in person. There is no magical off button or, more likely (as what happens with my BFF), magical batteries which die and force conversations to end. I have seen the otherside of 3am more times in the last 2 weeks than I have in the last year. Which I dont object to, except that I have also been having to get up early to finish essays and study for stupid exams. Yet, as long as I am still producing the quality work I have come to know and expect from myself, I dont really care. Because Padfoot and I are HILARIOUS and AWESOME and WONDERFUL together. Also, she is slowly learnign to ignore me and I am learning to kick her out o f my room when need requires it.

Its gonna make me sad when she moves out in a month or so. She is looking for a place May 1st-ish. In another city. It makes me very sad. No more 2am ukelele/guitar jam sessions, no more staying up and learning about the hilarity that is Glee, and HOW are we supposed to form an awesome comedy duo band when one of us will have to travel minimum 2 hours just to practice? *sigh* life is hard, I tell you.

And on that note Internets, I shall stop bragging about my new partner in crime and let you get back to whatevers you was doing. Have a wonderful weekend! Hey, if I remember, maybe you'll even be lucky enough to get anothe post from me next week about the awesomeness that will be my weekend in Montreal. Until then, Adieu!

Alive and Not Dead

Hi Internets! I'm back! Still alive and kicking! I kinda took a break from the Internets during and after my reading week, but it seems to have slowly crept back into my life so I figured it was time to babble on the internets again :D.

I'm not too sure what to say, so I figure I'll just talk about what is going around my mind atm. And that would be running. As in I am just drying off from my shower I took after going for my run this evening. I've discovered I love running in the evening. When I used to run during the day, I'd always end up feeling sick for ages afterwards cause of the heat and would never be able to run as far as I should be able to. Evening running however, none of that gross sick feeling, without the sun my body seems to be able to regulate its internal temperature much better. Also I can run further without realising how far I am running. Especially since I dont bring a watch and dont really plan a route and just kinda let my body go for as long as I can push it. Last week, as it was my first week running outside since October, I ran about 5-7km depending on the evening. Tonight I ran 9km. I'm glad that running on the treadmill hasn't killed my stamina - I think it may have even improved my speed. Then again, I have been prone to wishful thinking in the past... and it seems there are less ladies with walkers out at this time of night in which I can compare my speed against.

Speaking of outdoor - holy crap Mr Weather. It's March. In Canada. It is *NOT* supposed to be 24 degrees out! It is supposed to be cold, melty, snowy, icy and generally miserable weather... not sunny and gorgeous and shorts-and-t-shirts weather! I know, I know, why am I complaining? I should be thrilled... blah blah. Its just... its just a reflection of the way the winter has been. Much too warm. Plus, I hate the heat. Right now its not too bad, even if it is warm, at very least its not humid so its bareable. But if its already 24 degrees, I can't imagine what it will be like this summer. Plus, if we dont get a cold/below-freezing snap, we are gonna be over run with bugs by April. Bah.

Then again, all that being said, I'm not going to stop enjoying the weather while its here. Tho I'd kinda prefer it being miserable so I couldn't enjoy it - and locking myself in the library for fun study time would be much easier to do. Ah well, c'est le vie.

Anyway, I think thats it for me. Have a good night Internets. I shall try to get back on a steady schedule for your amusement again. Bai! :D