A meme post is better than no post at all...right? RIGHT?

{via}
The book that’s been on your shelves the longest.
I know this sounds lame, but basically the Houghton Mifflin Canadian Dictionary of the English Language. And some sort of thesaurus. I moved out with them and through everything I've managed to hang onto them. Weird, eh?

A book that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time).
My grade 10 and grade 11 yearbooks. Nothing says specific time in your life like a yearbook does! I somehow managed to lose my grade 9 yearbook though.

A book you treasure the most.
That would probably be my most favourite book in the world - a hardback copy of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: A trilogy in five parts by Douglas Adams. Besides being my favourite book, the way I got it was beyond awesome - I was complaining one day via MSN to my best friend Peggy that I had lost my copy in one of my many moves and how much it sucked. A week later I got a call at the front desk (I was living in Residence) that I had a package for me; it was from Amazon. I opened it and there it was! Peggy had bought it for me for "Christmas" without ever telling me about it. Have I mentioned how much of an awesome person she is and how much I love her?

The most recent addition to your shelves.
I've been on a book buying spree the last three weeks - I've bought Another Faust by Daniel Nayeri & Dina Nayeri Viergutz, The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, The White Queen by Phillippa Gregory, Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman and Runaway Devil by Robert Remington & Sherri Zickefoose (a non-fiction account of the 12 year old girl in Alberta who murdered her parents and brother in 2006).
And then, of course, my monthly issue of Cosmo & Readers Digest (I swear, sometimes I think I'm the only person under the age of 50 who reads it).

Your current read, your last read and the book you’ll read next.
Currently: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova - I keep reading other books which is why I haven't finished it yet.
Last Read: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown would be the book I technically finished last.
Next Read: The Official Drivers Handbook for my license and Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman.

post & dash

I have such a busy week ahead of me - if I'm not in school, I'm working. Including today - I have to get ready and leave in a half hour, so this'll be quick. Tomorrow I won't get home until close to 11:30 - and we're celebrating the end of 26 weeks of weight management AND the finale of Big Brother 11 (which I'm probably more excited for than it warrants) with Chinese food! YUMMY! I haven't had Chinese food since I started this program, so I'm just REALLY looking forward to it (again, more excited for it than it warrants, but hey, it feels good!)


My first group project is due next Tuesday. As in, the Tuesday after tomorrow. WHAT? Holy hell. I have no idea when I'm going to find the time. Add to my general anxiety about the whole thing is that the college-based e-mail system is down at the moment, so I can't even get in touch with my effing teammates. I HATE when technology fails.

And we're going out to celebrate our 2 year anniversary next weekend with a nice dinner. I've informed Keith that I am buying 2 dozen roses (yellow, red and orange, of course) for myself. This works out well because a) I love roses b) Keith thinks they're a waste of money because they die and c) I don't feel put out when he doesn't get them for me. Win-Win!

My engagement ring is at the jewellers for repairs. I'm trying not to be supersitious about the whole thing. (I was fiddling with it; it dropped on the ground and the centre stone popped out.) My finger feels so naked! Sigh.

Somehow managed to sell 3 textbooks to a fellow student for 80$. Textbooks that I was going to chuck into the recycling bin (the bookstore doesn't accept these books for re-sale). Effing SCORE.

Bought my first high heels over the weekend. They're an adorable pair of the Mary-Jane style. And to conquer my fear (and general inexperience) of walking in them, I have made myself promise I will wear them at least once a week.

Shall we have a picture? Why yes, let's exclaim over their adoreable-ness!

You may commence exclaiming now. ;)

Grinding my gear

Dear Lady with the Weird Accent;

Look. I'm pretty sure you're an awesome person who loves her family and dog and goes to the Y every night, yadda yadda. But CONGRATULATIONS! You won the "Piss Sarah Off" Award last night while shopping. It's her #1 pet peeve, when some poor unsuspecting fool asks if she can get something from the back - often a piece of clothing in a different colour, size, what have you.
And look, I get it. Asking someone to get something from the back might work in a small, boutique-y type store, and yeah, it's pretty much expected in a shoe store.

Now take two seconds. LOOK AT WHERE YOU'RE SHOPPING. It's huge, right? Over 80,000 products for your purchasing enjoyment? Wow! Look at everything you can buy! From ice cream to a dresser, the newest DVD release to a flat screen TV. Amazing that it can all fit into one store, right?

Now with that in mind, ask yourself this; DO YOU THINK OUR BACK ROOM IS ANY SMALLER?! If it's an oversized warehouse out here, do you think our stock is somehow crammed into a teensy tiny room somewhere in the back? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

And yeah, I totally understand that I'm just a part-time employee that works nights. So yeah, my "power" is pretty limited. But geez, how rude do you have to be to imply that I'm somehow not to be trusted with the precious, precious back stock? Eff you and the donkey you rode in on, asshat.

For your information, we have people in the store 24 hours of the day. Working to bring you products so you can go find that lovely flat screen TV you want, making sure everything is stocked for your grocery lists, unloading trucks, what-have-you. It takes around the clock work to make sure this type of store runs smoothly. We get trucks with thousands of items daily. Do you see those people walking around with stacks of boxes on those fork-pronged yellow things? They magically start appearing around 10:30 every night, in case you haven't noticed. Guess what those are? And where they come from?

And THEN, imagine this, THEN we have people in the morning who open the boxes and put the stock out on the shelves. They spend half their shift doing this, believe it or not. Including the medium-sized pink plaid Bum shirt you want for 16$. And since A) I don't work overnight, and B) don't work in the mornings, I'm simply afraid that getting you a different effing sized shirt from the back is simply outside of my limited, untrustworthy hands.

Next time, don't even effing ask.

Thanks for shopping with us -
The Girl in the Blue Vest.

Rundown (School Edition)

This semester I'm taking four courses - Landlord & Tenant, Dispute Resolution, Corporate Law and Comm II (Business English).

I have Mondays and Wednesdays off, and since I'm knitting together random courses that I've failed before, I don't have the same people in any of my classes. Disputes is a level 1 course, and that's going to be, um, less than wonderful? Full of 18 year olds just graduated from high school. OH EFFING YAY. (Can you smell the sarcasm?) I think the most fustrating thing is all the Blackboard issues with new students. Drives me INSANE.

The great thing about this semester? Well, the two great things?
All my classes are in the afternoon. I'm aiming for an grade in the A range in every class, and I think it's actually possible! The only one I wasn't sure about was Corporate Law, but I'm in class right now and it actually seems to be achievable.

Anyway, since I'm in class, and the prof has already told me to "stop my e-mailing" (wooooops), I better go.

3:45am, and this is what I occupy myself with....

In between randomly checking Facebook, Twitter, and reading Just A Titch in its entirety (thanks Laura!), I have complied my yearly list of the premiere dates of TV shows I watch; categorized by channel, of course. Behold, my addiction (and indiscriminating tastes, apparently);

Monday;
House - Sept 21, Global.
Big Bang Theory - Sept 21, CTV.

Tuesday;
Sytycd(A) - Sept 8, A Channel
Sytycd(C) - Already on, CTV.
Big Brother - Already on, Global
18 Kids & Counting - Already on, TLC

Wednesday;
Sytycd(A) - ibid
Sytycd(C) - ibid
Toddlers & Tiara's - Already on, TLC
America's Next Top Model - Sept 9th, CTV
Glee - Sept 9th, Global **new**
CSI: NY - Sept 23, CTV
Criminal Minds - Sept 23, CTV

Thursday;
Grey's Anatomy - Sept 24, CTV
90210 - Sept 10, Global
Big Brother - Already on, Global

Friday;
Flashpoint - Sept 25, CTV.

Sat/Sun;
Project Runway 6 - (Sat) Sept 12, Slice
Degrassi - (Sun) Oct 7, CTV
Desperate Housewives (Sun) - Sept 27, CTV
Amazing Race (Sun) - Sept 27, CTV
Cold Case (Sun) - Sept 27, CTV
Big Brother (Sun) - Already on, Global

Upon reflection, this list is CRAZY. (Aside; does anyone remember when Thursdays were the 'big night' for TV? Now it looks like Wednesday is the night to have your ass parked on the couch. What's up with that?)

And it should come as no suprise to hear that I am incredibly in love with my PVR. No, seriously. If marriage to an inanimate object was legal, I think I'd be entered into holy matrimony already. Sigh.

So now that I've shared - what are you looking forward to this fall?

Bullets

• In-law's had to put down their dog this week. Kayla (a golden retriever/samoyed) was at least fifteen years old and had been steadily declining all summer; at the end she only weighed 13 pounds and had to be carried into the vet's office on a stretcher.
• It's hitting me harder than I thought it would.
• I think I found the place we're going to get married. Still fits our criteria - actually in the city (none of this country-bumpkin-just-outside-the-city-rustic shit) and beautiful grounds, yet more in-line with our budget. I go by it every time I go to & from work, and today they had the doors open and I saw a bride and realized they did weddings! Eff ya!
• Besides, it's right next to a Tim Horton's. How can you go wrong with that?
• I need school to start RIGHT THIS VERY SECOND. Please and thank you. Let's just get this year going already!
• Speaking of that, my Landlord & Tenant prof posted our first 'assignment' - a web-based scavenger hunt due Sept 11.
• I'm already finished it.
• Does anyone want to lend/give me fifteen grand so I can actually get married when I originally planned to?
• No?
• Well, then, I guess I'm back to being depressed.
• Gah.

Needless to say, Keith isn't on board with this idea...

I'm in such an incredibly bad mood tonight, and I have absolutely no idea why. But the day didn't start well with me waking up at 5:30 (after going to bed at 1:45) from a nightmare, and then waking up again around 11 crying from a really mean, nasty dream.

Ugh.

Anyway. Remember when I wrote all these crazy, fanciful visions and dreams about how I wanted my wedding to be like?

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Bwahahahahahahahahaha. ha. ha. ha. HA.

Ahem.

Excuse me.

Yeah. Now that I'm looking to do a B.A.(hon) next fall (Honours because that allows you to do a Graduate degree afterwards, and I'm not about to close doors over a few measly extra credits) - anyway, now that I'm adding potentially another 3 or 4 years to the being-so-broke-it-hurts style of living, well, um. Let's just say the wedding won't be until, what? fifteen years? after the world was supposed to end?

And this depresses me. Immensely.

Right now, this is how I want to get married;
Marriage License; 145$
Rings; 2,500$ (we both want custom-designed pieces with bling)
Nice dinner out; 120$

And in a few years, when we can actually afford a big party, we'll throw one. Big effing woop.

Replay perfection

The last time my laptop crashed, I decided not to install any music downloading software. This was a pretty painful decision, since I used to listen to music constantly, but it seems to have helped with keeping my laptop going (that, and a fan I bought to put underneath). So I've been relying on youtube whenever I get the itch to listen to music; I find a song and usually play it on repeat for about an hour (it drives Keith CRAZY). But this song sums up my attitude these days perfectly; it started playing and I spontaneously started singing along to it.



Go on, have a listen - I dare you not to sing along too!

(Not-So) Wordless Wednesday

• Found out via Facebook that Tim Wojna's killer was found guilty. Relieved doesn't even begin to cover the array of emotions I'm feeling right now. Mostly, I just miss him.
• I beat my weight-loss goal this week by a pound. Total loss over five months? 35 pounds. Go me!
• Just went to put my laundry in. Kay, in our laundrymat, we have two double load front-loaders, and the rest are just regular old washers. Both were clearly showing they had two dollars owing to them to make them work - so I start loading one up. Naturally. And then this old lady with an incredibly thick accent comes over and quite loudly says "I PUT MONEY IN THAT, THAT'S MINE!" No, no you didn't, lady, it says - 2.00$. If you put money in it, it wouldn't say that. Asshat.
• My mother arrives this afternoon. Hilariousness will ensure, I am sure. /sarcasm.
• The elevator smells like hot garbage.
• I'm effing hungry. And lazy. Someone come make me lunch. Or buy. I'm not picky.
• Sigh.

Rewards

For the past eight weeks, I've been a standstill, weight-wise. I'd lose up to 2.5 pounds just to gain it all back the following week. Lose, gain. Lose, gain. Part of that was going back onto food, and owing the gym 226$ (since fixed and now going semi-regularly), but now it's mostly just fustration and lack of motivation from the lack of success. I realize I need some concrete goals tied to when I hit specific amounts of weight, so I've been thinking -

On Tuesday, if I lose what I gained last week, plus another half pound (2.5 to be exact), I get new headphones for my mp3 player.

When I reach 270, I'll treat myself to a mani/pedi.

Reach 240, and I will get my hair professionally cut, dyed/highlighted, blown-out, etc. etc.

Reach 200/180, and I will treat myself to Lululemon pants. I'm kinda drooling right now thinking about them, to be honest! (The reason for 200/180 is that I'm not sure I'll actually FIT into Lululemon pants at 200, so we'll see.)

Reach 150 and I will get my make-up professionally done and learn how to take care of my skin and do my makeup properly. Also will invest in some quality makeup/skin care stuff, as well as contact lenses.

And when I reach my goal weight, which is around 140 to 135, OR if I maintain 150 successfully and happily for 6 months, then I'll buy myself a violin. And lessons for 6 to 12 months, depending on cost. (I have no idea what my 'ideal' weight is because I've been heavy for so fricking long; it might be 150, it might be 135, or it might be anywhere in between - I won't know until I get there, really. )

I'm also giving myself around 14-15 months to complete this, but I'm not going to beat myself up if I'm not 135 by that time. As long as I'm working towards the end goal, if October 2010 rolls around and I'm higher than that, I won't really give a shit. The main reason for that is I want to be as close to my "ideal/goal" weight as possible when it's time to go dress shopping (and I don't think I need to get into all the reasons for that line of thinking, I'm pretty sure you can figure it out), but pffft. Dress shopping can be pushed back a month or two (or six).

I like that pretty much all these rewards have something to do with making myself look better. I haven't liked how I've looked for a really long time now and I think by celebrating my new self by improving other cosmetic aspects (hair, nails, pants that make your ass look delectable) is such a great thing to do. And, as I move from student into young professional, probably necessary as well. The violin thing is because I've wanted one for a long time and I miss playing so much that I think it should be my end goal.

So what do you think? If you're on the weight-loss train, what goals have you set for yourself that work? Have you achieved any of them?

Why do these things exist? WHY?

Cleaning out the second bedroom has yielded some treasures, let me tell you.

Treasures like this book;

Why! That sounds promising, let's just open it up and take a gander, shall we?

Cripes! First off, who's bright idea was it to stick random roses on that girls dress? Did they think it would make it look better??! And secondly, ANYONE who makes someone wear something that hideous to be a part of their wedding party SHOULD BE SHOT. No questions asked. Seriously. That is the mother of all butt-bows, that is. Yuech.

And then there's this gem:

Seriously, Keith? SERIOUSLY? I can't believe you spent money on this. And if you got it for free, I'd re-think your friendship with them. Whoever gave it to you needs their lobotomy reversed.

But the best one is a board game (and I use that term very, very, very loosely here) called French Kiss. Check what's written on the back:

Be prepared for the sexual act? Your sexuality will be in extasy? What.The.Hell?? First off, ecstasy is spelled wrong, and um, be prepared for the sexual act??? I'm surprised the game didn't come with a sheath of condoms.

And then you open the baby up, and WOW, IT'S MICHAEL JACKSON! Nice celebrity endorsement there, although anything endorsed by him should have normal people running for the hills, in my opinion. And he's next to an .... ostrich?! Wha? What do ostriches have to with ANY part of the "sexual act"? Unless you're into that sort of thing, and in that case I think you should be looking in the yellow pages for a licensed therapist, not playing an "erotic" boardgame. Just sayin'.

And I don't know about you guys, but a random coloured strip of practically naked baby cherubs dancing around does NOT do it for me. What a horribly inappropriate thing to have on something like this!! WHAT CRACK ARE THESE GAME DESIGNERS SMOKING???

Needless to say, all the items mentioned above WILL be donated to poor unlucky Value Village sometime in the near future. Even if Keith wants to keep them. There is absolutely no effing way I am having them in the house. NO EFFING WAY.

In which I talk about an issue you're supposed to pretend doesn't exist -

Money.

Ugh. Even the word is making me cringe. We're in that awful last month, where my student loans are so tantalizingly close to being disbursed and all the money from the last student loan is gone. The part-time job I got three weeks ago is a huge help in keeping us afloat right now but we're still definitely feeling the squeeze.

Case in point; within the next two pays, we have to find the money to pay for Keith's part-time course for the fall semester. These courses aren't cheap! Five hundred and some change a pop. Geesh. However, it's a super necessary expense, absolutely non-negotiable. Five hundred has to be found, and paid, and that's it.

Ideally it would be the next pay, but the next pay is technically rent. You know how they say your housing costs should not be more than 30% of your net income? Yeah. Right. Excuse me while I laugh. We don't live outside our means; we just don't make enough. I go to school full-time and work part-time, Keith works full-time and goes to school part-time. There's not much else we can do. (And I am, in NO way, saying we live in a fancy place. We don't. We actually live surrounded by a pretty bad area of town; our "pocket" is nice, but that's it. Renting in Ottawa is INCREDIBLY expensive.)

Add to the mix that paydays are wonky for the next little bit - as in, next payday is August 21st. Rent? Due Sept 1st. Payday after that? You guessed it. The fourth. Sigh. OF COURSE. And the fact that we're in a loop for payday loans right now adds to the stress.

On the 21st, we will not be paying rent. We will write a self-cheque for the amount on the 30th, put it in the bank account, and keep writing cheques until the payday on the 4th. On the 21st, we will be paying back the payday loan, the gym cheque, Keith's course, some groceries, and gas money for Keith's parents. That's all we can afford right now. The Rogers bill will go unpaid, as much as I hate doing that. Oh well. There's really nothing you can do if you don't have the money.

We can't afford to even go to the movies, or dinner out, because if we do, then we're scrambling for money for the next three pays. Yes, we go on "vacations" and trips home (and in all honesty, I've been home twice with Keith, 2 weekend-trips, and one week-long one. In a year and a half), but those are carefully planned, budgeted excursions. I think you'd all agree everyone deserves a little R&R. So please, no judgment.

It absolutely SUCKS living like this. I won't lie; the big draw to me to start working in a professional career when I graduate as opposed to going to University for another 3 years is the money. I'm so tired of struggling. I dream of the day we can pay bills and rent with ease. I dream of the day we can look at our bank accounts and have money left over for saving. I dream of the day we don't have to resort to a payday loan, cheques don't bounce, and we don't have to resort to writing ourselves cheques to cover rent.

Sigh. It'll get better; it has to. Some day.

Frozen boobies will occur

The past few days I've been feeling the cleaning bug and getting a few apartment projects that I've been wanting/needing to do since I first moved in. A year ago.

I finally got tired of waiting around for Keith to feel it too and decided I would think of myself as "single" in order to get these projects done. As in, if I lived alone, these would be done already, so stop waiting on the other half to help. That sounded a lot worse than I intended it to, but sometimes that mentality helps. It sure does in this case.

Basically there are three things that need to get done; cleaning out the hall closet, cleaning and re-organizing what we affectionately call "The second bedroom", and putting the damn shelves up.

I cleaned out the hall closet yesterday and donated a whole black garbage bag of jackets, mitts/scarves/toques and other assorted items that were left over from K's ex. I was expecting it to be a whole lot worse than it was; it turned out to be a quick hour (or two) job. I don't even know why I waited a full year to even look at it. And now it's all organized and cleaned and PRETTY.

The second bedroom is a bit more of a challenge; its probably going to take me two or three days to get it done - really it's an onsite storage closet that has served as a catch-all for EVERYTHING over the years. There's a small freezer in there as well as a couple of deep wall shelves and two shelving units with doors with floor space left over, but we have so much on the floor that you can't really use any of the storage stuff. The shelving units used to be used as extra pantry space, but honestly? There's candy in there thats 4 years old. (Aside: Does anyone know if canned spaghetti sauce goes bad? Gatorade?) The freezer runs off the lightswitch; guess who turned out the lightswitch for months unknowingly? Yeah. NOT looking forward to opening that baby up and seeing the damage.

And then there's just STUFF. STUFF that's piled to the ceiling and Keith hasn't used in years and just really needs to be thrown out/donated. Am expecting some resistance to this, because Keith, as it turns out, is a fucking pack-rat. Doesn't want to throw out ANYTHING. Even if he hasn't used in the 2 years I've known him, and I can't see a situation where he would, ever, HE WILL NOT PART WITH IT. Which explains why I'm facing this predicament right now, doesn't it?

The shelves. Ah, the shelves. The f%&@king shelves. A YEAR AGO, I said, let's take them down. A YEAR AGO, I said, lets spray paint them red. And then winter happened. And I said, let's do a second coat. IN MAY.
They are now sitting in my living room, have been since JUNE, and they are mocking me in all their reddish glory. They need to be put up, they need to be put up NOW. And then I will ignore them for the rest of existence (or until we move).

Oh, TMI, but it has to be said: Do not lean over to reach the bottom of the freezer (which, incidentally, has a giant candy cane stuck to the bottom - those don't go bad, do they?) while not wearing a shirt. Frozen boobies will occur.

Who DOES that?

Who has class at 10am every single Thursday for four months, and yet on the last Thursday of the semester (on which day they had to be the judge in a mock trial presentation) thinks class starts at noon?

WHO DOES THAT!? WHO?

Me, apparently.

My idiocy astounds me sometimes. I don't even understand where the "class starts at noon today" thought came from - as I said before, it's been ten am EVERY SINGLE THURSDAY. FOR FOUR MONTHS. And yet, suddenly, I thought today started at noon. FOR SOME UNEXPLAINABLE REASON.

This is just proof I will NEVER work in a civil law firm. I am a flake. An incredibly unreliable flake. I feel so incredibly stupid - and rightly so. I don't even really want to tell my teammates the reason I missed the presentation today, because the excuse is just that lame. Seriously. "The dog ate my homework" is a better excuse than, "I am incredibly stupid and flaky and I totally blanked on when class starts even though its been THE SAME TIME EVERY SINGLE THURSDAY FOR THE PAST FOUR MONTHS."

SERIOUSLY, WHO DOES SOMETHING LIKE THAT?

how I'm going to do this in 'real life' is a mystery

getting up at 6:30am sucks. Sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks sucks. To make it worse, Keith gets up with me and today he is singing. Singing! WHAT THE EFFING HELL?!

It's day 9 in a row of me having to wake up at 6:30, and if you haven't guessed, YES I'M CRABBY. Grrrrr. And somehow I am incapable of going to bed before midnight. Don't know exactly how it happens, but every night despite my best intentions, midnight rolls around and I'm still awake. Such a pissoff.

I figure that if you get up and you have no e-mails waiting, ITS TOO EARLY. Way, way, WAY too early.

And it's not ending any time soon - I have class all week and then Saturday I work at 7, meaning I have to get up even earlier. AS IF THAT WERE POSSIBLE.

Last Month Crunch *squeeze*

Hey guys! Reporting to you from the trenches of "the last month crunch". Papers are flying thick around here and we're right in the middle of the action. WOW! This is intense! Now, shiny teeth and hair person, back to you in the studio. I'm Sarah XXX, CollegeNews.

Ha. All joking aside, it's been an intense week and I still have two and a half weeks to go until basically the end of the semester. I kid you not, this week I have had 5 different projects due and next week I have the same amount to slough through. Since I work better when I concentrate on one project at a time, that's a project a day to finish. And since my English credit is only 5 weeks long (well, 2 and a half by this point), she assigns something each day to be done for the next class. Pretty intensive course.

Of course, I'm crazy, so I got a part-time job last week and now I'm trying to fit in training on a day-to-day basis until I get on the schedule. Ugh.

Anyway. I had an oral presentation to do for English today and I was so nervous and stressed about it because the topic was "How I got here". (How to tell it's full of immigrants....Really? You couldn't?).
So I did it about my, um, housing challenged period. It actually went super well! The prof actually called it "profound" and wants a copy of my powerpoint slides. Nice. And a couple people came up to me after class and congratulated me on having the courage to present something like that, etc. One girl actually gave me a little piece of paper with all the comments/marks she had given me (we were peer evaluating each other) and told me I was the only one she had given 40/40 to. Nice!
She wrote: "Profound/moving! Well presented! Awesome! Awe-inspiring! Emotional with fantastic use of slides! Took a lot of courage! Educational and informative!"
(yes, she put an exclamation point after everything. It sounds! so peppy! and upbeat! OMGZZZ! Like, really!)

ANYWAY. Just thought I'd come here to brag, cuz ya know, I'm klassy like that. And now that my head is sufficiently blown up from all this ego-stroking, I shall go back to drafting a f#%king bill of costs. Yippeeeeeeee.

new project

Just a quick note to say that I've started a new project. Because clearly, I don't waste enough time in a day.

The basic gist of it is that it's a story-telling blog for the Legacy Challenge in Sims3. You create a Sim with humble beginnings, and then through 10 generations try to lead them to fame, fortune and success.

The most obvious rules:
Can't cheat (obviously)
Can't pick your traits for your Sims, other than the Founder.

Both those are hard rules for me to follow. I usually move my Sims into a house, and then give them 50k to afford the best stuff. And, I never let my Sims have "bad" traits, like Klepto or Insane. I much prefer them to have characteristics such as Brave, or Athletic, or whatever.

Also, the house thing. I've NEVER built one in all my time playing the Sims (2 & 3), nor have I ever done any kind of story-telling within game either. So those are definitely going to be challenges as well.

Anyway, if you want to check it out, it's called The Wisk Legacy.

I can't promise it'll be as good as The Broxton Legacy and it definitely won't be as good as Alice & Kev: A tale of being homeless in Sims3, but I'll try my best!

(Housekeeping note: the blog layout and style is still very much under construction. Thanks!)

Feel free to laugh, I sure am

This post is a part of 20SB’s Looking Back Blog Carnival, and Ben & Jerry’s is awarding free ice cream to lucky bloggers and readers. For more info, check it out here.

So this is from the very first month I started blogging - I was 15 and living at home and I had a boyfriend named Chris who lived 45 min away from me (oh, gotta love Huron-Perth county!) and holy CRAP, does that ever feel like a lifetime ago. Oh, and about the Shakespeare thing? Yeah, we didn't have to write it in iambic pentameter - I did that just for kicks. I'm kinda geeky like that.

Tuesday, December 10, 2002
I was pretty much paid the biggest compliment
of my life yesterday. And no, it didn't come from Chris. Or my mother. Or any family member, for that matter.
It came from my English teacher. I borrowed the movie we were watching in class
because I missed three classes last week, and she really needed it back yesterday, on Monday. So of course I bring it, and she went "Some people
you just count on to not screw up."
Also, today, we had to pick a topic for our culiminating task for Much Ado
About Nothing. I picked the "in-voice" journal....and I
couldn't really decide who I was going to do it on. So finally I picked Beatrice, and Ms.Kappler was like "I was kinda hoping you'd pick that person." I go..."Why?" Ms. Kappler "Because she's an excellent choice for
you....gutsy and independent" (She's right, ya know.....you gotta be gutsy
to be goin out with a guy like Chris!!....heehee, mwa, I love you sweetie)
Anyway.....anyone EVER try to write in iambic pentameter?! Stupid, stupid
Shakespeare!
Btw, how is getting everything right on a questionnaire about your boyfriend scary? So I pay attention! I'm smart for a reason, people! On that thread of
thought, why haven't I gotten that back about me? hmmmm Chris? O yea, had a very interesting conversation with Erica last night.....::frowns::..
They put too much chlorine in the pool. I swam 2 and a half hours last night and an hour and a half this morning, so my shoulders and face are burning and really itchy. URGH!!! I feel horrible. Ok, an OFSSA time for a 50 free is a
:30.25 Right now my time stands at a :35. If I achieve an OFSSA time, then I
will probably be going to Western Regions, which is a double whammy. And if I
get my time down to a :28 I'm a likely candidate for Provincials. But thats not really going to happen. At least not this year anyway. Yesterday I had choir practice at my church for like 2 hours. I get to sing soprano this year but I was trying to hit this extremely high note and falling flat almost every time.
It was so fustrating, because I'm supposed to be a good singer and able to hit
that note and I just couldn't do that last night.
My poetry blog is up and running....its called Jardin Des Reves and the
address is www.jardindesreves.blogspot.com. I have a link in this blog but since
my links are currently white, they aren't showing up. By tomorrow I should have
a new poem posted. Go check it out if you want. (Tomorrow, of course)
Chris, one piece of advice. When you write something and are finished with
it, just go Shift+Ctrl+S. That'll publish it. Another thing, at the
beginning of each post, go < font color= and type in this six
digit/letter code. 9999FF... > This will make your posts blue....which is
what you want!!

Bebe

Absolutely delicious, decidedly nutritious....

You guys, I have food in my fridge. Real, honest to goodness yummy nummy FOOD.

For three months, all our fridge had in it was diet pop, a jug of water, and a few condiments.

Now we have diet pop, water, condiments, and THIS:You have NO IDEA how excited this makes me.

Oh! And wanna see my dinner? I swear - I never thought I could eat like this AND ENJOY IT.

Basically, that's a quarter cup of whole wheat pasta, 1 cup of tomato sauce, 3 oz of extra lean ground beef, 2 cups of chopped red, yellow & green peppers, a stalk of celery and one green onion with a side of 2 cups of steamed carrots, green & yellow beans with, of course, a diet pop to drink.

Doesn't that look amazing??!

AND, believe it or not, in about an hour (because man am I STUFFED!) I can have half a cup of low-fat frozen yoghurt with 2 cups of strawberries for dessert. Nom nom nom.

it's friday, I'm not required to think

Got this from Kelly. Mwah.

1. What is your current obsession? Sims3. And looking at my very pretty sparkly ring!!

2. What is your weirdest obsession? Collecting different versions of Monopoly. So far we have 3.

3. What do you see outside your window? Straight out: the other highrise in our complex, trees, buildings, blue sky and a highway. If I look down I can see the parking lot, grass and the pool.

4. What is your favourite colour? Yellow, Orange, Red, Silver, Blue.

5. What is your weakness? Books. Gah.

6. What animal would you be? GROUNDHOG! haha. Seriously, wtf?

7. What would you like to learn how to do? Be patient.

8. What do you want to never happen in life? Not sure.

9. What is on your bedside table? My rhiny horno, table lamp, phone, Dsi, book, a couple stray elastics & bobbypins, ring box, purple pen, a tub of mango body butter, two remotes, probably a couple of empty Sprite Zeros.

10. What's the last thing you bought? Little Pink Slips by Sally Koslow.

11. What do you think about the person who tagged you? I worry about her - she doesn't seem to be in a good headspace lately.

12. What was your favorite children's book? The classics - Hungry Caterpillar, Goodnight Moon, Love You Forever, etc.

13. Who do you want to meet in person? Keith's siblings! Damn them living on the other side of the country!

14. What did you want to be as a child? Writer/Journalist/Lawyer.

15. What did you dream about last night? I didn't.

16. Which do you prefer, day or night? Anytime I'm not tired.

17. What's your favourite piece of clothing in your closet? It's a tossup between my enormous black hoody that I've worn everyday (or close to it) since getting it last October, and my new purple tank top with lace at the top.

18. What's your plan for tomorrow? Finish nitpicky things on assignment, class, submit assignment, pay bills, look at my pretty ring, buy food for Elvis, play Sims3, read a book, play Dsi, listen to country music, take a nap & go to bed late. My life is hard eh?

19. What would you like to get your hands on right now? A RIDICULOUSLY ENORMOUS WAD OF CASH.

20. What is your must-have of the moment? My phone. Where the HELL is it?

21. What's your favourite tea flavour? Sugar. And milk.

22. If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would you go? Europe.