7 years

Okay, so I haven’t done a great job posting lately, but the blog still exists after 7 years! Here’s to a decade! I will post again soon. Give me a couple weeks and then I might have some big news.

Almost a dozen things

1. Canucks Lost

2. Blackhawks Won

3. I got a promotion

4. I went to Hawaii

5. I paid off my student loans

6. I started anchoring

7. I had a magical weekend.

8. I have some great friends all over this continent.

9. I watched my little brother get married.

10. I am not giving up on the blog.

11. But I just don’t feel like writing these days.

Happy Anniversary

It’s been four years since I gallivanted around Europe.  Four years since I returned to Edmonton and a string of temp jobs.  Four years since I decided to move to Vancouver.  Four years since this blog started.

A lot has happened in that time.  I moved to BC (and have had 5 homes here), I’ve had several jobs, I went back to school, I graduated, I started a career, I watched my favourite hockey team make it to game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, I’ve had family members die, family members marry (not each other), I’ve watched my parents start a new life on the island, I’ve had relationships (fail), I’ve had an exciting personal life (the source material for a book/screenplay – both are on the go), I’ve battled anxiety, I’ve got a whole new network of great friends and despite my often cloudy outlook on life, it’s been a good four years.

The Past

When I was on the bus yesterday I saw a guy that looked just like my ex-boyfriend.  I haven’t seen Danny since we moved out of that studio apartment in Edmonton and broke up.  That was before I went to Europe, before this particular blog existed. That was more than four years ago.

Changes

The best way to start this post, I thought, would be to quote Tupac. Unfortunately, I don’t have problems with the police, crack, or jail.  I guess the changes I go for are different.

25 Things – from Facebook

So, I’m supposed to write a list of 25 things about myself. And since I’m desperately looking for ways to avoid cleaning my apartment before going to work this afternoon…

Rules: You are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

1. I own five cameras. Three are film cameras, two are digital. One of the film cameras is an SLR (but it uses 110 film). One of the digitals is also an SLR (and my primary camera). I really enjoy taking pictures, thus why I have so many profile pictures of myself.

2. I was hoping to take some Christmas money and buy a video camera to start filming a documentary idea I have. (Unfortunately, the money had to go towards a new computer instead.) It looks at people who are on the verge of having very successful lives and finding out if it ever pans out.

3. I love food. I love trying food. I love cooking food. I love eating. The only things I stay away from are veal, aspartame and double-buttered toast (ex. when someone butters their toast, and then covers it in peanut butter).

4. Marty Reasoner is my favourite hockey player. This is a pretty well-known piece of knowledge, but why? I was a HUGE Eric Brewer fan and he sat behind me once at a Tragically Hip concert. He was a dick, so I needed a new favourite player. I already had an inclination towards gritty underdogs, so the connection was made.

5. I kill plants. I buy them and name them (along with their birthday on a popsicle stick). And they rarely live a year. The problem, I can’t get a stable watering schedule. Sometimes too much, sometimes too little.

6. I’m a text messaging fiend. It’s because I hate the question “how are you?”, I mean how did that become part of the greeting?

7. I write four blogs. None of them get enough quality or quantity.

8. I have a pair of underwear that have have Steve Nash, a random San Antonio Spur and Gilbert Arenas on them. I bought them in a market in Malaga, Spain. Nash is putting in a layup over the Spur, and Arenas is in the background. They were purchased before Nash ever won MVP and they are strange: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v172/foxyloxy/?action=view&current=a139f12b.jpg

9. Speaking of travel, I miss going places. But between having few vacation days now, and they will all be spent going back to Edmonton for weddings and having no money. I’m really stuck here.

10. If I could go somewhere… my low end trip would be to Disneyland, my medium trip would be to Eastern Europe, my high end trip would be to Machu Picchu.

11. I love board games. I have at least 10 and try to have a board game night each month in my tiny apartment.

12. This year is my 10 year high school reunion. There is no chance that I’ll be going. I feel like I have nothing in common with my fellow grads. I have no husband (or significant other), kids, house, pets… And if the movies have taught me anything, that’s all a reunion is for.

13. My apartment is under 300 square feet. It’s all I really need, but it’s small. It’s two rooms – the bathroom (shower only) and the rest. Somehow it manages to get incredibly messy, incredibly fast.

14. I’m scared of drowning, birds and the surgery channel.

15. I go into work everyday, hoping for mayhem, murder, explosions… bad news. I like to do other stories about social justice, environmentalism and politics, but usually streeters trump anything I can come up with. So I’d rather death and destruction than “what do you think of the weather today?”.

16. If I could live anywhere that I’ve been, it’d be San Francisco. I loved it there. The city is beautiful – the architecture, the hills, the water. It’s like Vancouver, only the people are nicer. But what’s the chances I could get a job down there without an American husband?

17. My nose lacks cartilage. It freaks people out cause I can squish it right down.

18. I miss playing sports. Working evenings and weekends and a schedule that often changes means I can’t join a team. While I keep forcing myself to run and go to the gym, I hate it. I’m also scared to go back to BJJ because of cauliflower ears.

19. I’m more body-conscious than I probably should be. I’m by no means fat, but I’m not a small girl. Even when I trained for track at the UofA I didn’t have a flat stomach. I’m satisfied with my appearance, I just strive to look better.

20. I don’t think I have an addictive personality, but I do get addicted to tv shows but only online or on dvd. For instance, by the end of this week, I will have watched all three seasons of Dexter. Otherwise, I don’t even have cable.

21. When I’m depressed, I buy underwear. I don’t have a plain pair in the bunch. They are lacy or satiny or colourful or sexy… And I have so many pairs, that I could probably go without doing laundry for almost two months.

22. I also own a lot of clothes. I’m a really thrifty shopper, scouring the world for deals… but it just means I own a crapload of clothes. I still spend the same amount as other people, I just end up with more stuff in my tiny apartment.

23. I read a fair bit, but wouldn’t call myself a bibliophile. I tend towards non-fiction, though right now I’m going through “The Garneau Block”, a gift from a roommate a few years back.

24. I am terrified about the coming year. I’m stuck in Vancouver, without disposable income, vacation days or sports to run off some of my anxiety. This is the longest I’ve stayed in one job.. in fact, this stretch in Vancouver is the longest I’ve stayed in one place since high school. I feel so uneasy.

25. Once the Olympics come and go, I’ll start to consider my options. Maybe I’ll head to a small town, or the big T-dot, or the US. I have to wait a year to put any plans in motion. Oh, one more fact: I’m impatient.