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

Metaphorically Speaking of Course

So, I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before (ok, I'm pretty sure I have. I'm just not gonna go back and double check), but I have a shit-ass digestive system.

**WARNING** I'm gonna describe me being in a slight amount of pain. If you are a worrying mother, I may prefer you don't read this. Unless you make dad hear the aftermath instead of me. Then it's cool. :D

For those of you who dont know (or who, like me, are too busy to go back and look if I ever explained details), about 2 years ago my stomach decided to stop digesting, well, food to be perfectly honest. I went from being one of the least picky people pretty much ever to have a diet that is essentially restricted to plain rice and plain vegetables (assuming of course that these veggies arent overly acid. Or onions). Why? No idea. Am I going to a doc for it? Yes, its been 2 years, I'd be a bit of an idiot if I hadn't looked into it by now, wouldn't I? Is it Celiac? No. Is it lactose intolerance? No - that means I can't drink milk. Not that I can't eat. Look it up. Is it - ok, I'm gonna stop you there. No. Or I dont know. But unless you have a crazy, weird, obscure suggestion, I'm going with probably not. Most of the others have been looked at. But wait, what about IBS? You mean Iritable Bowel Syndrome? Here's a lesson in IBS for people out there - IBS is what is diagnosed to people who have stomach pain from an undeterminded source. So yes. You could say I have IBS, technically. That still doesn't mean I know what it is.

Anyway, moving on. So the other night I had, well, pretty much the worst stomach attack of my life. Normally my stomach problems reveal themselves in annoying, but livable ways - acid reflux, slight pain, some nausea (thankfully vomiting not included), bowel-type-movements most people dont like hearing about - pain in the ass, but I can deal. Valentines Day night I didn't sleep. Ok, thats a lie. I slept 3 very disturbed hours between which I wreathed in pain as an invisible knife was repeatedly stabbed into my gut and dragged across my abdomen and into my back. Not pleasant (Also for all you mothers and stand-in jewish mothers out there who are still reading [you know who you are :P] I am fine, don't worry about me, life goes on, nothing can go wrong, shit happens, I'm optimistic and really it's not as bad as I make it seem, I'm just good at description... or something like that).

The whole point of that explination is essentially this - I've noticed that when I describe my stomach issues, I often tend to speak in metaphor... well, simile technically. Tho the knife one was definitely a metaphor. For example, the day after (well, afternoon after, but I digress) when my friend was over and helping me out a bit and asked me how I feel I kept telling her (and others) "Essentially it's like last night my stomach beat the shit out of me and today I get to feel all the swelling, cuts and bruises." Or since then, esspecially after I eat, I still get shorter, less intense stomach spasms. And I find myself thinking "Its kinda like my body just had an earthquake and now I'm experiencing the aftershocks." Or "I hate going to the doctor, I get there and its like I've forgotten everything I wanted to tell them or ask them and they treat me like an idiot child." Wait... no... thats not a simile, thats real life.

I guess I find it kind of interesting that my brain does that. Just like when I'm in the worst moments of pain I start thinking of fantasy reasons for my problem. I don't have digestive issues, I'm actually a witch and it's my power's way of expressing myself until I am able reign it in and control it. Or I'm turning into a super hero, like the Hulk. I've actually got an alien inside my stomach and it's bursting to come out. Maybe I'm a werewolf except instead of full moons being my trigger, it's food. I was actually supposed to be a twin, but it started developing late. Maybe I'm 2-years pregnant with the next Messiah (with that whole virgin-birth thing and all). I'm pretty sure I've come up with a hundred of these things.

I think it's a pretty commen fact that the brain protects itself in times of weakness or pain or trauma. I like how my brain protects itself. Its interesting, and relatively optimistic (ok, maybe not about the alien wanting to burst out of my stomach, but you get what I mean.) Also it can be distracting from the pain some times and even inspires some pretty sool story ideas that I never tell anyone but sometimes develope as I'm falling asleep at night. So yes, stomach pain sucks. But my brain is pretty awesome. Unless it is migraining - then less so. But in general, I approve of it.

So Internets, thanks once again for reading my babbalage. Also, once again, I am fine, don't worry about me, I deal, life goes on, it's getting better, really, yes I am still eating, life is wonderful, hakuna matata, nothing can go wrong... go wrong... go wrong...

Governmental Rural Aging in Health

Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

So next week is a pretty big week for me school-wise. I have 3 assigments due (as well as 1 smaller weekly assignment which I have due every Monday) and my first midterm. Now, I'm not overly stressed about these things. Not yet anyway. For the most part, they are quite nicely spaced out, two assignments due Monday, one Thursday and midterm on Friday. So my issue isnt *really* about timing. I'm just having so much trouble sitting down and writing these things.

For my Rural Health class I have an essay-outline due. Two pages, stating what my topic is and then outlining three questions and three references I am going to be looking at in my actualy paper. Not difficult. Except that I can't think of what to say to stretch it to two pages. It really is just basic writers block. I'm compeletely blanking. Which is weird for me - I dont know if you've noticed, but I can normally write a lot with while saying very little.

The same is happening for my Health Policy class. I have to write two pages, a question per page, on the levels of government involved in policy making for seniors ( yeah. I know. Just reading that sentence puts me to sleep too.) I've done the research, I know the levels of government. And all I can think of to say is "Policy making for senior citizens is made throughout all levels of government. Period. The End." Not exactly worth two pages. Maybe if I bang my head against my desk a few more times I'll knock something intellegent out of there and onto my screen...

My final assignment shouldn't be as hard, at least not in the sense of writing. I have to pick a day and for the entire day immiate something an elderly person would experience (eg. loss of hearing, sight, memory, mobility... yeah). I have plenty of ideas for this. I don't, however, have plenty of time. I keep feeling as tho every day is the wrong day to do this. I have school. I have work. I have... a lot of excuses esentially. I really should just do it, I mean really I think a lot of the point is the distruption of daily activities right? So I should stop complaining and just do it right? Ugh.

Anyway. Anyway Anyway. I suppose I should go back to beating my head against my desk. This has been a nice procrastination, but the sooner I can get all of this done the better right? Right. Bye for now Internets!

EDIT: Apparently sometimes you just need to bitch. I literally pressed publish on this post, went back to my policy assignment and it is now finished. Go figure lol

Many Blood Sucking Tics

I hate politics. I hate the pointless bickering, the indecisiveness, the drama. I hate that everyone thinks politics are so important. I hate how people gett so into politics. Most of all, I hate how I don't believe any of that anymore.

I used. I used to believe all of that and more. Politics was something my family argued about around the dinner table or at family reunions. Politics was boring extra school work. I just didn't care, because why should I? If I don't have an opinion, it doesn't affect me right?

I think you see where I am going with this - no, not right. Very wrong in fact. Not only because it does and always will affect me, but because, low and behold, I *do* have an opinion. Lots of them. Lots and lots and lots of them. Hell, some people have a hard time getting me go shut up about them. But don't worry, this blog won't be about those opinions, nor is this a post on why you too should become involved in your local politics. I guess what I really want to talk about in this blog is how strange life is... but don't worry, its not that deep. I mean, since when do I do *deep* anyway?

But life is strange. Life is strange in the way that I can go, in a year and a half, from hating every little thing about politics to being more deeply involved that I think anyone would have believed I could be. I doubt anyone in HS would believe me now if they heard me talk lol. I used to believe that I had no opinions - my sister, my best friend, my dad (no those are not all the same person lol) now THEY had opinions. But me? Naw, I'm a neutral third party. Also known as, I'm in denial. Because, trust me, I have opinions. Trust me. Which are obviously better than your opinions unless your opinions are the exact same as mine. Lol, or not.

And you know what I blame? Not my overly political family, who I lived with for 18+ years. No. I blame education. What is it with education anyway? Expanding my horizons, pffffft. Like that's good for me. I mean, look what it did for me - expanding my horizons, opening my mind to new ideas, making me a smarter and more well rounded person - who wants that anyway?... damn them.

But that is the difference. Not just the education either, although that has played a major role in my transformance, making me realise there are issues I care about and am willing to fight for. But I also credit my friend Vanessa. Everyone needs s Vanessa in their lives. Not only is she the most postive influence ever, but she is the most passionate person when in comes to people and issues she cares about. You can not be around someone containing *that* much passion and not have it rub off. She really brings to light not only that it is important to fight for what you believe, but why.

So yes Internet, that is what post secondary education does to you. It, or people met through it make you care. I mean, unthinkable eh? Who would have thought? Just let that be a lesson to you who decide to move forward in your education - education changes you. But don't worry, if you learn from my life lessons, we will all get through this OK :P.

Have a wonderful day!

Streamers

So I have a problem. Like, there should be an AA-type gathering for this type of problem. Ok, maybe not that bad - not so much addiction, more of an obsession. My problem is old TV shows.

I find a great way to take a break from studying, relax, and just do nothing for a while is to watch a TV show. And I love the internet just for that reason, I'll start a show I haven't watched before or possibly have watched numerous times in the past, and I have something to amuse me for months, a semesters worth of study breaks if they show is long enough. Or at least, that is what it should be. Herein lies my problem - watching old TV episodes is like eating chips - you can't just stop with one.

I get obsessed, I really do. I've always had a somewhat obsessive personality. Many of my friends and family can still recall the LOTR phenomenon of 2003-2007...8...9...ish. I wore the Ring around my neck for all 4 years of high school and could quote any part of any movie on comand without hesitation. More recently I have been going through a Doctor Who phase, tho I am trying so hard not to be as bad as LOTR. It takes a lot of will power, let me tell you. But I only have 2 posters up in my room (at the moment...) and no I dont carry my sonic screwdriver with me at all times (besides, the batteries are dead). But I'm sure I would if I didnt keep myself in check.

But so my problem is. I study for a few hours, decide to take a half hour/hour long study break (depending on the length of my current television show) and then I will get back to work. Of course, once that show ends I just HAVE to see how the next episode goes - do they find out something new?! Was that a subtle cliff hanger at the end that I need to solve?! Will so-and-so be revealed?!. But here's the thing- I dont really watch the most suspence-intense shows. I've done this for shows like Scrubs and How I Met Your Mother. Or my recently finished "problem" show - Charmed.

Charmed is not what one would considered a "top-notch show". It's fun, it has its moments dialogue or story-wise. The acting is so-so to good, but not great. But its fun. And I have a weak spot for anything to do with magic or witches or what have you. Yet somehow, it turned into one of my worst must-keep-watching type shows. To the point where Sunday, when I had school work to do (dont worry, I got everything important finished) and a room to clean (... ok, that probably wouldn't have done that anyway), I watched almost the entire last season in one sitting. How bad is that? And I complain I dont have time for blogging... yeah right. I convinced myself that if I got it all done in one fell swoop, it wouldn't distract me for the rest of the semester. Which isn't technically a lie, but it is also not a good excuse for eating up the majority of the house's bandwidth, leaving us to only do the most minimal amount of internet surfing for the next 2 and a half weeks until our new billing period starts again. Ugh.

So yeah, I can be a bit of an idiot some days. But I am going to try not to do it again. I am setting myself parameters. I am not watching any more TV online, past HIMYM and The Big Bang theory which each come out once a week, until my semester is over. I am also going to try avoiding starting seasons of TV shows online and resitrict myself to borrowing DVDs from friends or something. Such as Star Trek: TNG that I will be borrowing from a friend this summer, once my school is done. Because, of course, the other reason for my complete-series ban  is to not distract myself from school, because, lets face it, I dont really need any extra help to accomplish that.

Oh, and for the next couple weeks I have to limit my youtubing as well. How will I live?! (Also I screwed my roomates over... which I do actually feel quite bad for. And I wont do again. Tho it would help is my landlord raised our bandwidth cap. Which he is working on. But yeah. Still not doing that again. Bad Paige.)

And that, my dear internets, is my tale of woe. I know, feel bad for me. I do live through some hard struggles. But I suppose that is what you get when you are cursed such as I am :P. Goodnight Sweet Internets!

Scene and the Reads

So in the last few days I have read a book and watched a movie in theaters in which I would like to review. And by review I really just mean talk about...

So first and foremost:

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST 3D
So, ok yes, not a new movie. Thank you for that, I think we all know this. Doesn't stop me from wanting to "review" it. And by review - I mean gush. Because I love Beauty and the Beast. It was apparently the first movie I ever saw in theaters and according to my dear mother "my eyes were as wide as saucers" (tho they probably didnt dance like the saucers in Beauty and the Beast :P). But seriously. I love this movie. I can sing almost the entirety of Be Our Guest without hesitation... and I dont think I've ever actually sat down to actually TRY and memorise. Same with Tale As Old As Time. But yes - I'd say the hardest thing for watching it in theaters was me trying not to belt out the songs in the middle of the theater.

HOWEVER, as awesome as it was to see in theaters - the 3D sucked hard core. At best it made everything look like layered paper dolls. At its worst the animations looked VERY distorted. It also made the backgrounds MUCH more obvious, which is again a pro and con. On the one hand, I never realised how gorgeous some of the background senery was - I didnt know that the majority of them were hand painted. I really enjoyed that. On the other hand, it also made me notice things like how the back-ground characters did not move during song scenes unless the focus shifted to them. Again very paper-doll-esk. And also took away from the... visual experience I suppose. Also was just funny to see LaFou flat under Gaston's chair and then all of a sugged have his head turn into a distorted balloon when it came his turn to sing.

My other mini-non-review is the much anticipated

The Fault In Our Stars
By John Green.
with, I promise, absolutely NO SPOILERS.
So I, like everyone else, have been waiting for this book for quite a while. Longer than I should have been truthfully. I kinda expected that if I pre-ordered it, I would  be getting it within a day or two of it coming out. Not a week later. Nice job Amazon. But, meh, whatever. Shit happens. Move on.

So it arrived,  I had my lovely green J-squiggle, and after my classes where done that day, I sat down and read it. First impression - fast read. Read the entire thing in 3 hours. That is not a bad thing, just thought it would be a bit longer lol. And the book was fabulous. The one thing I really like about it is that I didn't hear Johns voice in my head the entire time I was reading it. Normally I do with his books. I enjoy his books, but they always sound LIKE HIM. This one didn't. His characters were a little... too smart maybe. Or at least I thought that at first. Then I realised a couple things - one, I've heard my best friend talk in similar manners both now and when she was a teenager, so I shouldn't judge. And two - these are people dealing with cancer trauma and not particularly in touch with "Everyday" school people. There is probably a good chance that the difference in educational styles would have an effect on the level of intellect they exude.

I really did like this book however. I've never been a big fan of emotional or dramatic books. And I hate crying. I mean, I almost never cry. I am too "tough" and too stubborn and too "against-female-crying-stereotypes" and under too much of my dads influence to cry. So normally I would never go and seek out a situations where I would chance crying. But John wrote this, and put so much effort into it - not to mention all the signing. So I did. I think my real mistake was reading it in a public venue, aka the school library. I hate to sound like everyone else, but it really was as people said - one second I was laughing aloud with out realising it and then next I was stubbornly blinking away tears. Never read a potentially tear-jerking book in public if you hate people seeing you cry. Lesson learned lol. But kudos to John for bring that side of me out. I call that a win for him (as for myself - I'm still on the fence) (also if my mom reads this (Which I know she will) as far as you are aware, I didnt actually cry. So dont you dare say anything :P).

So I hope you enjoy my over-due reviews Internets (And by overdue I mean I watch B&B on Monday and ready TFIOS Tuesday but then got interupted in the middle of my original review so had to continue on with it today). I shall talk to you again soon :)

Luckintosh

So yesturday, as many of you might be aware, was Friday the 13th! Ooooo, scary. Or maybe... not so much.

I know that Friday the 13th is, realistically, just another day on the calendar. And that realisticly, a lot of bad (or in my case good) luck happenings just get more noticed that day because bad luck is what the day is known for. Be that as it may, I have always had weird good luck in Friday the 13th. For example, being a kid and finding $40 on the sidewalk or finding out I dont have to get teeth pulled that I thought I did or silly things like that. And yesterday was no exception.

So a little back story - Thursday night was kind of a horrible night for me. I hadnt slept well the night before, woke up early and tired and then had a very busy day of volunteering and school and so when I got home I just want to take a nap, finish up some HW and spend the rest of the night on the computer or reading in bed. This was, however, apparently not what was in my cards. Instead I got home to find out that once again my roomate did shit to annoy me. Which sucks on a normal day, but when you are shit-ass tired it just makes you want to punch said person (which I didnt. When he came in and it was mentioned, I walked out of the room before I could say or do anything I regreted). Then my other roomate (Whose actually a really good friend of mine) needed someone there for her because she found out a good friend of hers had been killed in a car accident that day (which, don't get me wrong, I'm happy to do. But my brain was having trouble going from tired to angry to sad and sympathetic) and THEN I found out that my puppy (who is 13 years old btw. So I have had her for 13 years of my life. And although she lives with my parents now, she is forever going to be MY puppy) was very sick and potentially had to be put down - so by that point I was nearly in tears. And THEN I found out that my good friend had gotten dumped by her boyfriend (just to add to the many emotions that was my night more than anything.) So by the time I went to bed I was just emotionally exhausted but slept horribly because I was so worried about my puppy and my friends.

So then yesturday happened. I woke up early for class, kinda grumpy and very tired and figured it was going to be a shit day. Then I looked outside and saw it was snowing - i LOVE snow! And snow has been very scarce this year. And I think that just set my mood for the rest of the day. It led to refreshing walks, laughing at my bundled up friend and jumping into piles of snow :). I was still worried about my puppy and was checking my phone constantly so I could hear from my sister about what was going on however. So when I got a txt from my sister saying "of course the day she goes to the vet, she is absolutely fine!" my just made a complete turn around! My puppy is alive for at least another day - and hopefully many more to come :). And then to top it all off, my proff did an exercise in class about the benifits of putting yourself out there and I ended up winning the course textbook for free! (instead of paying $100-some for it lol).

Ok, so if we want to be technical and break it down - the snow happening on any other day would not be "good luck" so much as just awesome, so yes, maybe I'm reading too much into that. And yes, my puppy not being as sick as we thought is a wonderful thing, but realisitically she probably wasn't going to be put down yesterday anyway, if she was that bad they probably would have made an appointment for a later date. But the textbook thing? That was just plain good luck. I didnt win a contest, it was by my own hard work or savy or charm. My proff decided to pick me out of a class of 3-400 students and hand me an envelope that I could either keep and walk to the front of the class or give away. My only contribution was keeping it. But she cold have given that envelope to ANYONE, and somehow she picked me. That was luck. Maybe not "Friday the 13th" luck, maybe regular luck - but still luck lol.

The rest of my day was awesome, tho not particalularly different than any other day. I did some class readings, re-wrote some class notes, went to the mall with a friend of mine and then to the movies (Actually in a way we had a moment of bad luck there because we thought we had picked a movie about finding a murderer and turned out the be an exhorsism movie, which is a type of movie I can't stand. But meh, I had movie coupons so its not like we paid for it) and then I got home and hung out with my roomate for the rest of the evening (the one who lost her friend on Thursday).

So yes, in a way I suppose I am a slightly supersticious person. Not to any extremes, I do always have that voice in the back of my head telling me I am being silly and there's nothing behind these. Yet I always have that little bit of good luck on Friday the 13th that keeps me believing, if cautiously so. Judge me if you wish, but I'm never going to object to a little bit of extra luck!

Did anyone else  have an eventful Friday the 13th? Or anyone think I'm a bit of a nutcase? Let me know! :P.

So long Internets, hope you have a lucky day!

Tabula Rasa

So my edumacational period started again this week. Woo for that I suppose. I have this very distinct feeling this will not be my favourite semester ever.

Why ever do you say that?!  you ask? Well, I guess I'll tell you (cause lets face it, if I didnt think would be a relatively short and pointless blog doncha think? lol).

First off, I only know people in 2 of my 5 classes. Now of course, this isnt the end of the world. If I were truely a optimistic person, I would even go as far as viewing this as a chance to make new friends. Which it is, don't get me wrong. But sometimes it is harder than you'd like to make new friends in class. Mostly because people dont just sit down and introduce each other to the people around them (well, they did in first year. But I think that is because that's what all the Frosh Week leaders told them to do lol). And then people normally just pack up and leave at the end of class and making friends is a lot more challenging when you have to chase a person you dont know down and introduce them whilst out of breath. And of course part three to this is that I am in third year, which means most people already have their social groups relatively estabilished and it does become harder to intoduce yourself to a group of people rather than an individual person. Still, I think I can manage something. Especially considering that I have a couple group projects, so that will definitely help break a couple barriers.

The second reason is the pure amount of work I have to do. Now yes, I know, I am in University. I am going to have to do a lot of work. In fact, past semesters have been a lot of work as well. But if everything really is as the proffs have laid out for us, this semester is going to be hell. For starters, I am taking anatomy. Anatomy is a lot of work. It is not that there is any extra assigments or extra tests or papers or presentations, but have you ever looked at a breakdown of the human body? It has a lot of parts! And I have to remember all of those parts! So, um, yeah, thats fun (seriously tho, I bet its going to be a lot of fun. Just also a lot of work). And then on top of that, in my Rural Health class not only do I have an assignment, an essay and a presenations, but I also have to read 3-4 different readings per week and then summarise and review them and hand it in every Monday. In my Health Policy class I have 2 assignments on top of my midterm and exam, in my History class I have a paper worth like 60% of my mark and in my Health of Aging class I have an assignment due every other week. Also my program is VERY reading heavy and I am DETERMINED to not get anything below a 75% which means I am going to have to work my BUTT off. So yeah. Busy. Lets not forget about work, volunteerings, going to the gym, being in guitar club, keeping up with my blog and maybe actually socialising or have sometime to myself once in a while (tho at this point in time, that all may have to wait until summer). Wooo! (Paige complains, but lets face it, she likes being busy. Otherwise she would be switching and dropping things.)

And the part three of my not-so-happy semester is the classes. Anatomy I am excited for, History and Aging I'm relatively indifferent towards. I haven't actually had those classes yet, so I dont have the best idea of what they'll be like. Policy, on the other hand, is going to make me want to shoot myself in the foot. I understand the importance of policy, especially going into the Health Feild and all, but oh MAN is it not my feild of study. I just find it soooo boring. And Rural Health. The subject matter sounds interesting, especially as I come from a Rural background myself. But the proff seems, well, either very finiky or like a super hardass. I'm not 100% sure yet. Also she doesn't seem very good at answering peoples questions and instead of emphasising points she just repeats them over and over without further explination. Or at least that's what she did when she read very single word of the 8-page syllabus. A lot of people sitting around me were talking about dropping the class. I think I'm going to stick with it, I just hope I dont regret that decision come mark-getting time.

So yeah, thats my semester. I bet it'll be better than I make it sound, I mean, people always get jittery going into a new semester because you dont know how it'll turn out right? And if it is all that horrible there is always a plus side - in less than 4 months it will be all over anyway!
Well Internets I hope you have a good semester if you are in school, and if not - have a wonderful day. Heck, even if you are in school have a wonderful day!

P.S. - This is a really stupid question, but how do you reply directly to a persons comment? Because I dont see a reply button on comments and I can't figure out any other way to do it... 

But you gotta have...

So what attracks you to the internets? There could be a lot of answers to that question- the wealth of knowledge and creativty out there, a way to stay connected to people you wouldnt otherwise be able to, a to stream/download TV shows and movies so you dont have to get cable, a place to do business, to help you stay organised, a time waster or procastinator (just to name a few). And I'm not going to lie, a lot of those things are also what attracts me to the internets. However I believe my largest attractor is the community. I love the way the internet can bring people together in a way that has never been done before, how people can have good or close friends all over the world. Yet, as much as that is an atraction for me, I don't really feel I participate in it.

Take, for example, one of my favouirte communities - youtube. I spend so much time on youtube that I wouldn't be able to calculate my time spent off the top of my head. I find the videos fun and the people fascinating. Yet when first got my current account on youtube, it probably took me a good eight months or so just to work up the nerve to post a comment. Probably took me another month and a half to post a second comment. Im used to commenting now, but there are other hurdles I have trouble overcoming. Posting something controversial for example. Participating not just in commenting, but in conversations. And my biggest one - making online friends.

It's kind of weird in a way. In real life I have no trouble making friends. While I sometimes experience some slight social anxiety right before facing a new situation with a large group of people, but that is normally brief and totally forgotten about once I'm in said situation. Once I get online, however, it is a completely different story. Normally in these online communities, you hear the opposite. The internet is known for being a place for the anti-social or the socially inept (**edit**of course, not everyone IS, but thats the stereotype). Maybe that's why I have troubles, or maybe it is because I still have all those horror stories in the back of my head about how all online friends are really evil predators out there to rape and murder me and eat my unborn (...or concieved... ) children. But whatever the reason, I have yet to make any REAL online friends.

Now don't get me wrong - I'm not feeling sorry for myself or anything silly like that. It's just an observation. I'm sure it'll happen. I just need to get over my inernet-social anxiety. I need to learn to reply to comments and not to be afraid to private message people who message me. Also to not be afraid to reply to people who message me. And maybe possibly better advertise my blog -  I mean, I have the loverly Kathy of That's What She Said who is nice enough to follow me and comment (and also has a wonderful blog herself). But I think that's about the extent of people who I do not already know personally who read my blog. Possibly because I went from posting constantly to posting once a month to not posting in like 3... I suppose it's somewhat difficult to meet people online when I don't put any effort into my own outlets lol.

Of course my other reason for not keeping up with the internet is of course school, work and general busy-ness. I suppose that pushes me away - I start telling myself that I don't have time for it. That's definitely what happened with my blog last semester lol.

So I feel like I've spent this whole blog whining about not having any friends. GAWD. NO ONE LIKES ME! WAAHHH lol. Honestly, not what my point is. I swear lol. In the end I just find it interesting that for someone who is so into the community aspect of the internet and is a great lover of people in general to be more on the sidelines than right in the thick of it. I guess you could almost say that the internet has finally found a way to shut me up *looks at length of blog* then again... maybe not.

Goodnight Internets!

Train Brain

Some keeping up with my resolution to stay on top of my blog, look, I'm posting again! 

Cuurently I am heading back to the lovely city of London, On to head back to El school. My classes don't actually start for another week but I'm heading up a bit early for work and volunteering. Actually I only work one day this week, but I've signed up for at least 3 days of volunteering it they give me the shifts. I hope they give me the shifts, otherwise my coming home early is kinda pointless and slightly disapointing. I love going home but i never have the time to visit enough (or at all) with every one I want to see. It really makes the idea of working in Ottawa for the summer all the more tempting. But then I'd be pining for my London peeps, so I suppose it wouldn't really be all that different in the end.

So did we all have a good New Years? I went to a party at my friends place. Normally I do New Years small, maybe a group of close friends or whomever happens to be in town. This was the biggest New Years party Ive ever been to, with somethingblike 25 people in a tiny loft apartment. It was awesome. I met so many awesome new people, got to watch my best friend get smashed (but in a safe way cause I was sober and was there for watching her) and got to see my friend Pearl (the hostess) whom I really only get to see once a year or so. Unfortunately my friends and I had to leave not too long after midnight (see again my drunk friend) and apparently the party went until about 4am. Oh well, next time I'm around for one of her shindigs, ill be sure to stay longer.

It makes me kinda sad as this train takes me further and further south (currently about an hour or so away from TO) how the snow has dispeared. One of the wonders of being in Ottawa for the holidays was I got to spend an entire 10 days with real snow cover on the ground. Oh sad I'd it that it is Jan 2, living in Canada and there are still so many places without snow. All the poor people who did not get to experience a white Christmas, who won't have the joys if skating, sledding, skiing, snowball fights, snow angels... I think we should start a fund! We'll call it the SFPC. Snow For Poor Canadians! We can raise money to bring down snow from up North, promote massive cooling generators. Yeah, I like this! Let's do it! Woooo! Yeah.

In other news I finally settled in a name for my tablet. Instead of naming her after anything, I'm gonna call her K.A.A.T.O. (pronounce Kaito). It stands for Kool, Awesome Android Tablet, Obviously. I think its fitting, suits her for sure. Also, for those of you out there worrying, my old tablet is going to a good home. I sold her to my best friend, someone who'll treat her right and love her in just the appropriate way, the appropriate amount. See, I wont abandon her.

Anyway, Im starting to feel a little motion sick. So I think I'm gonna try to sleep off the rest of this train ride. Good night my sweet readers :).

Hello Joe

Why hello blog-reading-type people. I bet you were starting to think I had given up on this thing. Silly people. Silly, silly people. I'm just lazy, but I'd never given up on you.... well, not purposely anyway. Lol.

So this isn't gonna be the longest post ever (so by the standards on my blogs, only HALF a novel long :P) but I figured I should say something. I'm gonna try to stay on top of this blog again. After all, if nothing else its a great procrastination tool lol.

So how was everyone's Christmas/other denominational or non-denominational holiday? I gotta say, mine was excellent. In terms of presents I got absolutely spoiled. That wasn't why it was excellent btw, just a bonus. It was excellent cause its been so nice, relaxing and snowy! Finally snowy btw. I live in Canada but I had to wait til Christmas eve before I saw an real snow? Not cool weather, not cool. Great Christmas present however lol. I also have plenty of time to spend with family and friends, yet no solid plans so I don't have to stress myself out trying to schedule everyone in between other plans and run from friend to friend so I can see everyone. Just kinda taking every day as it comes and figuring out my plans that way.

I suppose I do have some solid plans, I do have a big New Years party I'm going to. That in itself is odd cause normally my New Years are just small parties with whoever is free. So I am purdy excited about that. Anyone else have big plans foe New Years? (She asks as tho more than like four ppl read her blog). 

So ATM I am writing this blog on my new tablet... my second new tablet lol. I got one super super cheap a few months ago, which turned out to be a lesson in "you get what you pay for". So I saved up a bit and used some Christmas monies (and thought up some damn good excuses) and bought myself a new (tho still slightly cheap) tablet. I love this thing, should a waited from the start. Even the fact that I *can* blog shows how much better this thing is than my old one. I'm trying to think of a name for her. Right now I'm thinking Hexm after the wizards "computer" in Terry Pratchett. I'm not sure if she feels like a Hex or not, but its starting to grow on me. What do ppl think?

Anyway, I think that is all for my quick update Internet. I have more to tell you, but i'll save it and get another post out sometime soon. Try and stick with my before-New Years resolution. Until then, have a good one!

Flabbergasted

Life is so crazy right now. I constantly look at this loverly blog and feel guilty for my lack of updates, but its hard to find the time lately. When I do have the time, I normally just want to collapse with a good book or for a nice, long nap. Anyway, hello Internets, how are you doing today?

So what has been keeping me so busy? Well, mostly work and school. This is the first time I have REALLY combined the two at a University level. I mean, last year I "had a job" over Christmas working at Sears, but that was MAYBE once a week if I was lucky. While at Talize I am working 10-20 hours a week. Plus I have a lot more assignments this year in school on top of regular readings and classes. Which I like because they help take the pressuer off exams, and for the most part I'm a better writer than I am a test-taker, but it does eat up more time. I'm ok with that though. I love being busy, it makes me happy.

I am really liking my classes this year, to my surprise. My last blog I think I promised to fill you in on what I am taking and what I think of it, so it's been a few weeks - here we go.

Health Promotion: The point of this course is to look at Health Care at both the individual and the population level and look at how better health can  be educated, promoted and advocated (so how to help make people healthy as well as help raise awareness for both the community and the governmental bodies on what would help an area be overall more healthy). I really like the basis for this course, because health is about more than sick or not sick. On top of that our proff is hilarious. And really good as well, using slides as an aid rather than reading the information directly off of them. I've gotten a bit of a chance to get to know her as well, as I did the Terry Fox walk/run with her and some of my classmates a couple weeks ago.

Childhood and Adolesence Health: This course is (atm) probably my least favourite course. Not that I dont find the information interesting, because it definitely is, but Im not fond of my proffessors teaching style. Namely that what is on the slide is what she is going to say. And she gets annoyed if we havent done the readings for class, which is always something that has bothered me. We are in University, you shouldn't sold us like children for not doing the readings - we're old enough to decide for ourselves at this point. I do like when she starts talking about her own work, which is often quite interesting as her method of research is to esentially intergrate herself into the culture she is studying and try to live the experience with the people she is studying, in the best way she can. So thats often interesting to hear about.

Research Methods - aka, Stats: Now as a general rule, I severly dislike Stats classes. I am normally pretty good with numbers, but stats is something I have incredible amounts of trouble wrapping my head around. However I really like our proff. He uses real-world examples and explinations, in ways that we can really relate to. Often in class he will actually get us to interact in the lesson as well. It is a really good way of explaining math and stats. I've always been better at understanding when the "theoretical" is taken away and I can see a real-world use to something. So I think I could actually do well in this class, as long as I keep up with the homework.

Speculative Fiction - Sci Fi: Oh MAN do I hate analysing books. SO much. Dont get me wrong, I LOVE reading - reading to me is almost as essential as breathing, no joke. But I enjoy the stories, I enjoy the connection with teh characters. I HATE analysing books. Yes, authors will purposely put symbolism in their books. I have learned that much from watch John Green videos. But I don't think they've put in enough sybmolism that people are still finding "hidden meanings" 100+ years later. Also analysing a book to me always feels like learning a bad secret about a good friend. I really enjoy a book and then I find out the "meaning behind it" is supposed to be, I dunno, anti-feminist or some other idea I disagree with. Then I am conflicted as to whether or not I should still be enjoying the book...

Quality of Life: this is the class I talked about last time. I still really like it. I really like the proff (he kind of looks like my Great Uncle David. Its weird). He's nice, friendly, very engaging. And again, I love the premise of the class. Health is more than just being sick - health is about the personal percieved quality of life. A person can be very sick and feel healthy because of aspects of teh rest of their life or their outlook on life, and a person can be medically "healthy" but be still be not-healthy, some aspect of their life is subpar. I feel this is one of those courses that anyone wanting to be a doctor should take. Guess what, your patient is more than just a condition - maybe you should treat them like a person for a bit and see what happens.

So those are my classes. I'm trying my hardest to keep caught up with readings and stay on top of things. My goal is to have no mark less than an 80 this year. And honestly, I dont see any reason why that shouldn't happen!

So I'm really hoping I can try and update a bit more in the coming months. Next weekend I'm busing 9 hours back to Ottawa for Thanksgiving and my 10k race I'm doing (!!!). So hopefully I'll put up a post about that or perhaps something else. Until then, keep it healthy Internets :P

Flemmingsworth

So I apparently fail at this whole updating thing. Was doing so well for so long, and then - nothing. I blame August. It's OBVIOUSLY all August's fault :P.

Why, you ask, do I blame August? Because it was such a meh month. I realise this is an unfair assesment as it had to go after July and July was just amazing, but all the same... I came back to London, all my friends were working, I had no job and nothing else really to distract me. Mostly it was spent handing out resumes and being locked up in my room. Now, not to say nothing good came out of it all. I made a bunch of jewelry to give away to ppl at various times in the upcoming year (some of it I already have done) and I did (FINALLY) manage to find a job the last week of August. Yay! Nothing exciting, your basic retail job. Working at a thrift store (called Talize. Think Value Village but with the colours of royal blue and bright-ass orange) as a cashier. At least it pays, and honestly, that is all I really wanted.

Anyway, I don't really have too much to say. I just figured I should put something up here, prove I havent died or anything (not that it was ever a threat that I WOULD die, but its still always good to know right?). I started school again this week, so probably more posting will happen soon when I start to have random thoughts or just am looking for a way to procrastinate. Like right now. I should be cleaning the disaster I call a room. Instead I am writing a relatively pointless blog. Productive, no?

I'm not too sure how I feel about my classes this semester. I've only had 2 so far (semester started on Thursday). The first I had was my Health Related Quality of Life class. I'm not too sure about the content, I hope it turns out to be interesting, but I think its going to be a lot of repetativeness on the theme that is this entire program. On the other hand I think I'll like the Proff. He's very chatty and high-energied and can be very funny when he doesnt try too hard (the jokes he purposely seems to put in often end up sounding like he is trying to appear cool to the young student crowd however). So hopefully that will keep the course interesting *cross fingers*

The other course I had was this morning, and I dont know how much I can tell you about it. I get there for my 930am class (after havign trouble falling asleep and then waking up early) for a 10 minute lecture. No joke. He obviously planned the lesson to just go over the syllabus (waste of time in general, I mean, we CAN read), but he couldnt get the new computer system to work (*eye roll* proffesors. Am I right?!) so he just talked to us and condenced the entire class into a 10 minute schpeal. I was there like "really? REALLY?! I came to class for this?!"

What I can tell you is that he seems nice and possibly even engaging, but its hard to judge at this point. Also the class is "Reasearch Methods in Health" but by looking at the course readings, apparently "Research Methods" is a fancy term for Stats. Woo-effin-hoo. God I hate stats. Sooo much. So I really hope he is a good proff, or at very least a good teacher. Otherwise I am going to start dreading Fridays.

So next week I will have the remainder of my classes. This includes a Sci-fi reading/essay-type course (which could be interesting, but I always find disecting books to the degree english classes seem to ends up ruining the book for me), Health Promotion and Health Issues in Childhood and Adolesance. I shall report on them, you know, eventually.

I suppose that's enough procrastinating for now (at least of this type lol). I shall talk with you soon Internets :)

Kanga and Roo

So, Internets, it occurs to me that not only have I majorly slacked on keeping up with my blog this month, I also seemed to have not managed to finish my Australia story. So I suppose I better do that now.

We left off on the bus home from the snow, am I correct? I really should have written this earlier, because the days now seem to blur together a little bit. Lets see...

So we got back to Sydney around 4 in the afternoon (ish... very ish). After a brief exploration of the cities train system while carrying luggage we managed to make it back to my sisters apartment. As far as I remember, we didn't do anything overly exciting that night. Brief grocery shopping, homemade wraps for dinner, spent the evening reading and going on the computer. I remember us discussing the idea of watching a movie on one of our laptops, but I dont think that ended up happening... OH! I remember the major thing that happened that night. My laptop broke. As in physically broke. The left-hand side hinge decided to give out, to my dismay. Stupid laptop, honestly never again buying an HP. Anyway, it wasnt that big a deal. The hardware and software and all other types of ware still worked, so my computer was still usable. I just had to be very careful with opening and closing my laptop until I was able to get it back to Canada and my tech-guru fasha.

Anyway the next couple days were quite fun but not exactly what you would call Ulitimate Australian Experiences. On the 25th, so the next day, my sister and I decided to hit up Patty's Market for some last-minute souvenir (and whatever else) shopping. However it turns out that Patty's Market was closed so we went to a different part of the Sydney Harbour (the name escapes me at the moment) and did souvenir shopping there. I found this awesome little store full of touristy aboriginal Art. Have I mentioned I love the Aussie Aboriginal art? Cause I really do love the Aussie Aboriginal art lol. But anyway, we spent pretty much the entire day there shopping and wandering and talking and whatnot.

That evening was awesome. We went to a all-day Pancake and Breakfast restaurant (not the awesome part, as I pretty much got plain creps and then bought myself sushi afterwards) with my new friend, my Australian counter part, Elyse (also known, to me, as Padfoot. And I am Prongs :D). It was a night filled with hilarity, newly formed inside jokes, puns, that's-what-she-saids and nerd humour. And it was awesome to see her again (met her last in Canberra, as I BELIEVE I mentioned in this post here. ). It is saddening that she is now on the other side of the world from me, but hey, isnt that what facebook is for? :)

Only picture of Elyse and I in my possesion -
Her allowing me to delight in the sight and aroma of her chocolate and whipped cream and etc. crep.

The next day Jen introduced me to her friend Louise and the three of us went rockclimbing. Not real rock climbing up like the side of the Three Sisters or anything, but at a Rock Climbing Gym. Which was pretty cool in itself as I was unaware such things existed and it was covered from floor to ceiling with rock climbing walls. And it was such a blast. I've only gone rock climbing before, at someones birthday party when I was a kid, and it didn't go well. If I had to pin-point my one major fear it would be heights. Inarguably it would be heights. And I am working very hard to, if not get over the fear, to at least be able to tolerate it. Not freeze up when I'm more than a meter off the ground. And I did it, at least with the rock walls. The first time up was pure determination, not concentrating on anything but the next grip up. The second time I froze about half-way up. And then forced myself to move. After that, it was no problem at all. Also I love the decending part after you've reached the top. So much fun.

Louise was quite good at the rock climbing thing. She does it at least once a week, so I guess she better be, but it was still fun to watch. And then there was my sister. My stupidly, annoyingly naturally-athletic sister. Helped, of course, by her pole-dancing muscles (have I mentioned that before? My sister does competative pole dancing. Anyway, back to my story) she would just scurry up those walls like a little monkey. Climbing both the walls and the ceiling, trying to find the most challenging path she could do. Little shit :P.

AFter we were done that we went to Louise's house and made pizza (or, for me, dough with veggies and chicken) and watched Sucker Punch. I really liked the movie, much better than I expected it to be. I really want to see it again because I feel like this is one of those movies with more details than one can get in their first view.

And then I left. Next day, July 27th, I packed up my bags (well, finished packing my bags, they were mostly packed the day before really) and headed off to the airport. Got there at 8:30amish expecting my plane to be leaving 10:30amish. Boarding pass, when I got it, said 9:30am - but the plane still ended up leaving at 10:30, so I think something just was weird with the boarding pass. So I said goobye to my sister and headed off through security.

So my journey home was supposed to go something like:
Sydney to Vancouver: 14 hours
stop over
Vancouver to Toronto: 4 hours
Stop over
Toronto to Ottawa: 1 hour (or less)
And essentially it went like that. However it wasn't exactly what you would call a "seemless" collection of flights.
We left Sydney slightly late, not monumentously, but something like 20 minutes or so. However our slight was slightly longer than normal because we had very little tailwind the entire time back. This resulted in our getting to Vancouver at 8am (Vancouver time), when we were supposed to be leaving Vancouver at 9am. And in that hour we had to get off the plane, get our luggage, go through custums, go to the other side of the Airport, re-check our luggage and re-go through security before boarding the plane again. Which, if you couldnt figure out, takes a little longer than an hour to accomplish. So I was absolutely running through the Vancouver airport (not, by the way, a small airport) with two large peices of luggage in hand as well as my carry-on bag and my purse. Oh, did I mention it was about 3am Auz time at this point and I had had no sleep on the plane? Yeah, definitely in the best frame of mind during all this. By the time I got to security it was 9am. I was of 2 minds - part of me was thinking that they couldn't take off yet because there was definitely more than one of us who got off that flight who needed to get back on. The other was "Please please PLEASE don't take off without me!!" Which they didnt. Of course, I didnt find this out until after I got through security, but they had delayed the flight 40 minutes.

Actually, they ended up delaying the flight almost 2 hours. The other flight from Vancouver to Sydney via AirCanada got cancelled for some reason, so they had to delay to get them onto our flight. Which ended up meaning that more than half of us on the plane ended up missing our connecting flights. Now for me, not a big deal, there are flights from Toronto to Ottawa like very couple of hours. For the lady and her 3-year-old sitting beside me heading to New Brunswick, bigger deal. There was only one straight connection to NB, and they missed it. Meaning the poor lady had to drag her (admittedly well-behaved for a 3-year-old on a long plane journey) through a couple more airports and transitions. I felt bad for her, I hope everything worked out in her favour.

But finally I made it to Ottawa. Got a new connection from TO, let my friends and family know I was going to be late (the Vancouver plane landed pretty much at the time I was supposed to be landing in OTtawa) and settled down. Had a bit of a nap on the flight and just enjoyed the thought of getting off the damn thing in less than an hour. And then I was home. Well, techincally it was my friends and families home as I am actually living in London, Ontario atm, but it was close enough. Spent a week in Ottawa before heading back to London, which was super nice - I think tht may be my next blog post. Or a future one anyway. Unless I forget. In which it wont.

So, Internets, that was my journey. From Canada to Auz, there and back again. I'm really glad I blogged it, hopefully that will let me remember specifics better in the future. So until next time Internets, this is Paige landed and signing off.