Saturday, March 31, 2007

Juno Fever - Friday

i've got juno fever and i don't know how this happened. i never thought i'd be one to be star struck but i AM! it's so fun. i went out with girls from work tonight and we had a blast. we only saw two (recognizable) people - farley flex and sass jordan. i have a hilarious video to upload of when we first saw farley flex. we were acting like high school girls. hilarious. it's so darn dark in the room though, you can't even see it's him. oh well, i'll post the picture too.

we started the night off at the new restaraunt, The Ivy. very lovely place. no famous stars. good martinis.

off to Aroma, in the Radison hotel where nelly is staying. awesome view of every person walking in. tons of stars, had no idea who any of them were. rock bands. we could tell because they were all super hip and uber cool, beyond what saskatoon produces for cool. and kept shaking important people's hands. and they pulled up in limos. that's the defining factor.

then... it was Farley Flex. THEN, it was Sass Jordan. since Nelly Furtado wasn't showing up, they were the next best thing. i finally got the nerve to ask for a group photo (i was patient and kind, and waited until after they ordered their food... they were sitting right next to us). and they were super cool about it and made jokes. much fun. i'll post a couple pix.

then a guy next to our table bought all us girls a round of martinis. yummy.

that's all for now. i'll tune you in for tomorrow's sightings. i'm so proud of saskatoon (except for Earls who is open for VIPs and stars ONLY. snobs).

Friday night photos - Junos

Me (slightly afraid to get too close to Sass), Amy, Michelle, Terri, Angela
and of course our stars, Sass Jordan and Flex Farley. Sass and I are practically sisters. hahaha


Amy and I, practicing our red carpet walk. we wear our sunglasses at night... HOT!!!




A most beautiful Juno Ice Sculpture!
Note the limo. Not a huge sight for Saskatoon.



Us ladies and a random guy, in front of the most beautiful sculpture!




As close as we ever got to the promiscuos girl herself, Nelly Furrrrrrrtado.


Amy and I again, being foolish schoolgirls.



My beauty friend Angela, and I! At The Ivy.





Lovely ladies, Kristin and Michelle. Delightful!

Monday, March 26, 2007

"i'll be back"

yes i know, i haven't blogged in a week! how unlike me.

i've been really busy with school and it's been intense. but guess what friends, i only have 2 more weeks (and 3 papers and 3 exams) to go!

speaking of "i'll be back" did you know that arnold schwarzenegger is the only governor that opts out of a salary? i guess he thinks he made enough with the Terminator movies. its something like $250,000 a year. to my friend arnie, that's just petty cash.

i'd be glad to take it off his hands, but i guess The Governator doesn't know about little me, over here in saaaask-atch-a-wann.

i get to go to the Junos on Sunday night! i have some feelings of excitement about this. i don't know what to wear. oh nelly (furtado)! i am not going to that fanfare thing i won. i'm not interested in meeting absolutely NOBODY cool. and stand in line for their autographs? i'm not really that kind of girl. artists like Alexisonfire, Billy Talent, Eva Avila, Melissa O'Neil, Hedley (hello, Canadian Idol overload?), Stabilo, Three Days Grace, Tomi Swick, George (who the mother is george?)...look it up, here. No big artist will be at fanfare. just the actual show. The Junos are a huge event for this city. i think the city will be hip-hopping this weekend. hopefully i'll go to a few venues to see some live performances. maybe i'll see someone cool around our promiscuous town.

please note i've added a very cool feature, my facebook "badge." you can flip through some pictures by pressing "next". you don't need a facebook account to do this.

the other badge, "GlobalVoices" has awesome blogs from around the world, mostly the south (aka the developing world) and its super interesting with a ton of topics, many written by regular people. it's cool because good development really stresses giving a voice of the poor, rather than us western big wigs coming in and trying to fix things our way. it doesn't work.

another blog of note (link is under Amuse Me): the world bank has a blog called "Poverty and Growth" that i enjoy. poverty and development is my major at uni, and though i don't talk about it too much, i do love this subject. please note i do not agree with MANY of the actions the world bank & imf -they are the big wigs i was just talking about - have taken, yet this site has some great info and it is quite interesting.

i must go now. i have a 12 page paper that was due LAST tuesday that i must hand in tomorrow, and i am currently on page 19 with no intro and no conclusion. though this may sound like a good thing, it's deceivingly bad. very bad and very stressful.

love from, tired, frustrated, but can see the end of a long four years,
me.

p.s. please, in your comments, don't ask me what i'm going to do after i graduate. the thought stresses me out beyond belief. thanks. i'll blog about it when i know :)

Monday, March 19, 2007

Mac or Dell?

i'm buying myself a laptop as a grad gift to myself. i have only needed one for 4 years. i've got my lovely IBM but i find PCs to be rather anti-mobile. i just can't picture myself lugging my computer to night class each week. not that i will have night class anymore starting in THREE WEEKS! woot woot! anyway, still want a laptop and looking for some advice/opinions:

mac or dell? dell or mac?



hi kristin, i am cute little Apple iBook! look how sweet i would look at your desk. i'm so pretty and girly and have many creative options. i love to do fun things with your photos, videos, and webpages. i am a perfect companion to a young hot chick like yourself on the go as you enter a new career. i'm as clean as they come - never a virus for me! buy me because you and i are meant to be together! never mind that i cost so much! its okay. i'm cute. cute cute cute.

hi apple ibook, you look like so much fun i could eat you right up. HOT. HOT. HOT. (also nevermind that i don't exactly have a new career. yet.) i must decide if i only like you for your looks. are you as beautiful on the inside as you are on the outside?
are you truly worth the extra effort i must put into paying for you? ibook. i think you are to me like izzie is to george. beautiful on the outside. stacked. a supermodel. my best friend. but probably not right for me???



hi kristin i am Inspiration 6400 dual core from Dell. you will love how much hardrive and memory i have for half the price of snobby ibook up there. i am fast, efficient and come with many free features. i am definitely the one for you. just think how professional you will look toting hot little silver me around. and guess what, i am just as skinny as snobbook above - i only weigh 6 lbs. furthermore, "inspiration" is even a better name than "ibook" - it speaks of your future, bright and successful, with me by your side.

hi inspiration 6400, i like you too. you're cheaper and somewhat cute. you have more memory and hardrive and its not that you're ugly. you simply don't have the same "presence" that ibook gives off. i am probably going to buy you, just don't be too jealous of my love affair with apple ibook. i love you for your beautiful inside, as the princess loved the frog. perhaps we just need a chance to get to know each other better.



any opinions (and not about me going to the crazy people place)???

this is the kind of thing i do when i have 2 essays due tomorrow and thus far i have 4 pages. but i always pull through! and with honors at that!

BU-BYE FRIENDS!

p.s. get this, i just booked my wisdom teeth pulling day for May 15, 2008! what is THAT? i think i should set an alarm on my cell phone in case i forget!

p.p.s. IBM COMPUTER FOR SALE..... i'll maybe post an "ad" later on sometime.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

reservations under "hotties"

so i was trying to make this look fun, you know, some pics to the left, some center, some to the right.... it totally didn't work. the funness shines through anyway.
girls night = total success.
there was myself, Lynnel, Jenna + baby Haylie, Kerri, Sarah, Kerilyn + baby Akele, Lilian, Cory + baby Tayah, Laura, Michelle, Danielle, Adrienne, Katie, Coralie, Colette, and Sarah Jane. We went to Alexanders, a perfect place for the start of girls night.
jeff and i actually went there for supper at 6 and i had the most delicious food EVER (my new fav restaraunt, how did i not know how good the food was there???). we were joined by a very creepy man who wouldn't leave us alone but we had a good laugh over it anyway. jeff was outta there as soon as the first girl arrived :)
the kitchen guys called us "the hot table". that was pretty obvious. just check out our hottness:


































































(Lynnel did so good. she only texted her new boyfriend ONCE! i was so proud.)

Thursday, March 15, 2007

musings of a girl without a car

ah, yes so about 15 minutes ago it happened. i have been waiting all winter long for this event. i simply knew it would come at any moment and the suspense was killing me as i waited patiently for the time to come. my friends.

i fell on the ice. flat on my ass.

this event happens once per winter and this year it waited until the middle of MARCH! ohhhhh the irony. a week before the official first day of spring. and what a tease as the last few days have been almost spring-like, until the most brutal day of yesterday where all the lovely mushy, muddy, slushy streets and sidewalks turned into the ice that nearly killed me.

anyway i'm fine. except i kind hurt all over, especially on the right side where i kinda landed funny on my arm and almost froze my hand off in the snow.

i'm just glad it finally happened so i don't have to keep wondering when it would.

this event may have bypassed me if i hadn't been taking the 3 minute walk from the bus stop to my house. yes, i'm still taking the bus. i have many musings about my bus ride today. my mind was working overload as i took #50 today, i feel i could almost write a book, just my little sister, Jenna did. in fact she sent her manuscript off to the a publisher today! i am so proud. everyone buy her book when it gets published!!! i thought i'd throw that in there. anyways, so i have a few thoughts for bus riders.

the first thing you must decide after boarding the bus is where to sit. i recommend you move to the back to the bus (remember that awesome old outkast song?). why the back? no not because that is where people play truth or dare. although that reminds me of my first kiss.... its true. but no, go to the back because then when the old people board, you don't have to give up your seat to them. brilliant! i commend the lovely young people who so willingly offer their seat to the weak and feeble, i just don't want it to be me giving up my comfy seat.

even after taking the bus a total of 12 times since January (approx one trip per week) i worry that the driver will suddenly change the route and i will have to walk from one side of the city to the next. yet, this does not seem to happen. i need to settle my little brain down.

do not settle the brain too much down however. you see, i tried to have a little nap on the bus but my head kept brushing past the little wire you pull to get the next stop. once i actually did pull it with my head brushing against the window, and i was like oh my, how embarrassing, he is going to stop and nobody is going to get out. it turned out fine as someone else luckily had the same stop as "i" did. phew, everyone is fine.

it can be very difficult being a bus rider. for instance, i witnessed a young man running to catch the bus and the driver did not see him and mindlessly drove along. i didn't want to be the one to stop the driver for that would entail being quite disruptive, a big social no-no. i always try to be socially conscious. other distresses include sitting with someone. how is one to know when the person on the inside wants out? oh the terrible things a bus rider must face! or the distress of the young lady when the driver did not see she was standing at the door to get out and almost drove away without letting her off! oh, how happy i was not to be in her most difficult situation!

finally, my last dilemma. most of the bus stops are rather far and few between. but for some reason on my street there are two stops right after each other, about a block between them. i always feel rather ridiculous when someone gets off at the first stop and then as soon as the bus starts up again, i press the wire to be dropped off 10 seconds later. however i do it anyway. you know why? because its not MY fault someone put two stops so close to each other! it saves me at least 3 minutes in my walk. ha. so there. i always feel rather defiant when i do this (evil laugh, muwahahaahaha).

oh there are so many things i could say of the bus. there were three specific stereotypes that i had about people who rode the bus. but i no longer believe that:

1. only old people ride the bus. there are people of all ages there. such community. and i like how ALL the old people wear funny hats. see, you can get fashion advice from riding the bus!

2. only poor people ride the bus as i found by the numerous amounts of lululemon, ipods (they are everywhere! how do i not have one?), fancy sunglasses and expensive shoes. i was rather jealous. but i was wearing my cool H&M jacket which more than made up for my lack of ipod. too bad H&M isn't plastered all over my coat.... what am i, in high school here??? please excuse me.

3. people on the bus have guns and other various weapons. yet so far no one on the bus has pulled out their gun. i think have this impression from watching Speed one too many times in grade 8 (i'm slighly wary of elevators too).

it has been three long months since the engine in my car went, and i have to say it has not been the worst situation that i have ever found myself in. i've saved hundreds on gas, parking tickets and plates. i love getting a ride to school and to work. i get to chit chat with my dad or jeff or the lady from work and i don't even think about traffic, something that used to get my shorts in a knot.

AND i get to share exciting things with someone! today dad drove me to school, and there was a contest on C95, and i called in and WE WON! yes, we won "fanfair" tickets to the Junos...not actual tickets to the concert but where we get to meet all the artists or something. apparently you can't buy them, they have to be won. they are EXCLUSIVE. i loovvvve being exclusive. it's so posh. this is the third time in a year that i have won stuff on the radio. but never have i shared the experience with anyone! HA! what luck. and what a team we were! i love radio contests. the question in case you were wondering, was "which canadian artist made her way up through the 90s busking and playing in bars?" well i immediately thought alanis morisette & i called in and it kept ringing and ringing, and i waited and waited...but then when nobody was getting the answer, they added another clue - this artist was voted one of the most likely people to have their own talk show - and then dad said jann arden and i exclaimed OF COURSE. then suddenly i am ON THE RADIO with my absolutely, 100% correct answer and we were all very excited, me, dad, shauna foster and rambling dave, all so excited together. all this excitement. moral of the story: HAD I NOT had a ride today, i would've said alanis morrisette and can you imagine the disappointment?

so dad and i are going to meet all the artists. he is most excited to meet nelly furtado, isn't that funny? he talks about her all the time, i think because he can't remember them all so he picked her to be his favorite! the funniest thing is before i called in, he was saying (as he has said many times) he wants nelly furtado to come sing at elim, and now he can ask her personally! hahahaha. that is so funny, i just called him to tell him that and we had a big laugh.

ANYWAYS, despite the many "goodnesses" of carpooling, becoming more environmental and also more cultural by taking the bus, and saving mega bucks, i do hope to buy a car in May. like my very own, real cool car with air conditioning and a CD player! i have never had a cd player in my car ever before so i tell you, this is exciting to me. it's about time, as i am turning 25 this year. i am getting too old to have never had a cd player in my car. i'm so old fashioned!

i must leave you all. this really was too long of a post but i must say i had a lovely time writing it. i smiled and laughed at myself the entire way through this and after all, isn't that what blogging is all about?

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Rant.

i know its g-o-r-g-e-o-u-s (btw, i LOVE Fergie and her "Glamorous" song, it gets me grooving and i pretend i'm a star when i sing along) outside today but i am ANGRY! the receptionist at H&R Block was so rude to me! i must vent.

so my dad brought all my income tax stuff into H&R Block last week and I had to go in today to sign the papers or whatever. please note, i do not understand income taxes very well. i am a little slow in this department. my dad and i have the same discussion every year as to why i don't get more money back and he tells me the same thing, you can't get back more than what you paid. well okay but what about this textbook thing that the Conservies put into place, i thought i was supposed to be getting back $80 for my textbooks? well mr. mikey (the guy my dad did our taxes with at H&R) tries to explain it all to me, but all i hear is lkjadf adfalkdj adlkjfadf alkj k adkjrieewao welkrja awoei awklu, owwwaahyay. understand? yah me neither. whatev.

so i go in this afternoon to sign the papers. first of all the receptionist is rude to the lady in front of me. like totally unjustifiably so (the customer was a walk in and the receptionist let the second walk in go in first, and when the customer called her on it, she throws up her hands in the air and says "i said i'm sorry what else am i supposed to do about it, okay?"). yah, reeeeeeealllllll friendly. lovely customer service.

then i go up and tell her my dad has paid the fees already (which he told me he had, but he realized AFTERWARDS that he hadn't and forgot to tell me). so i'm asking her what my dad paid for then and she gets all rude at ME and says well lets just call mike why don't we. so she calls mike (the guy my dad sat with) and find out daddy didn't pay for me, she says "what did i tell you", and she has the nerve to say, "you have to pay for our services you know". hello i am income tax "slow", not completely business retarded.

then she told me i had to sign everywhere it was highlighted and i wanted so badly to ask her to point out each place for me. that would've been awesome of me. so anyway, at one point i say, "listen, i'm not trying to make you angry here, i'm just having a hard time understanding why my dad insisted that he had paid and you're telling me he didn't, so what did he pay for?" i purposely said that in front of about 3 of her coworkers and several customers hoping to humiliate her. it just made her more mad and increased the mad silence. ha!

anyway it was just a big kerfufle and she had me fuming by her sharp, sarcastic answers and her madly demeaning manner!!! at one point when i said i didn't understand something she says "oh and i would just lovvvvve to explain it to you" and oh if only i had a tape recorder for her tone of voice. agugugughghhghghghghghghghhggh.

i was fuming by the time i left. she made me feel completely stupid. you know when you can totally tell when someone is really angry at you and they're trying to be all nice to cover it up? yah. there was major mother tension in the air.

so like, i work in customer service and i have bad days sometimes but seriously i would never be as rude as she was to anyone. i never make people feel stupid no matter how stupid they may be. and a lot of people are very very stupid.

anyway i got my money back.

and my grad photos. i think my hair looks crappy in it. but at least i'm graduating.

i have night class tonight. I HATE THIS NIGHT CLASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

okay rant, done. i'll cheer up for tomorrow.


p.s. mike at H&R was great. i don't hate H&R Block. its just the receptionist.

Monday, March 05, 2007

weekend in edmonton

so its monday again! time flies. thought i'd try to write a quick blog today. quick because i have a very busy week at school and i have a whole lot of work to do today. i have a midterm and an assignment due tomorrow. then i have my usual 5-6 hours of prep work for my night class on tuesday... or wednesday if i want... we get to pick what night we want, and although i highly prefer tuesday's class, i rarely have it all done in time! by far, this class, which has run all year long, has taught me more about international development than the rest of my classes combined. and the prof hardly does any of the talking... it is entirely student discussion with the leadership of the prof. anyway it is a lot of work every week. i'm now counting down the days till i graduate!

so our trip to edmonton was much fun! we got there Thursday and went straight to rexall center to the hockey game. we were 1.5 hours early but there was lots to do. we were in the very front row against the glass, so we had club seats. that meant we got to go to the lobby where only club seat people got to go! we had a roast beef dinner buffet and sat at tableclothed tables and ate among "the elite" :) haha. when the oilers went onto the ice, they walk through the lobby so everyone down there got to cheer and stuff when they walked through from their dressing room to the ice. it was kind of exciting. as you can see, we got there before just about everybody else!!!


our seats were fantastic. the players look so young up close! i made two awesome signs for us, and they took this one (to the left) away from us! they weren't allowing anything that had to do with the ryan smyth trade and kevin lowe, the guy that did the trade. yah the officials didn't like it, but everyone in our section thought we were heroes. i'll have to post a picture. we got to keep the other sign (below) but it was definitely not as cool.

well the oilers lost 0-5 againsts minnisota so jeff wasn't thrilled (as you can see by the look on his face here) but we still had lots of fun! friday we got up, had breakfast, and hit the outlet stores and Ikea. had lunch at Joeys (we NEED a joeys here. so delic). sat night we drove to jeff's aunt and uncles house who live about an hour outside edmonton. they had horses.




saturday it was west ed mall time and i was having shoppers bloc as i called it. i couldn't find anything to buy and i was kind of grumpy. jeff was having a shopping spree and it was just making me sooooo mad that he found so much and i didn't like anything. anyway he bought me a shirt at banana republic to get me going and then i was fine from there on. shopped from 11 am till 7 pm.

sat night we were so exhausted we didn't even go for supper. we had a really late lunch so we weren't starving at least. but we could hardly move. so we watched "the departed" at the hotel. SUCH a good movie. and promptly fell asleep.

sunday went back to the mall because i still needed a pair of jeans and some black work shoes which i never did find. but that is okay, because i underspent on my budget and have some money left to buy stuff here. this is absolutely amazing news.

all in all, successful shopping trip and so much fun. i bought: 2 pairs of shoes from Aldo (one pair is the sexiest shoes i have ever owned...they are dressy, but i want to wear them everyday), a Mexx blazer, a sweater from Abercrombie & Fitch, 2 shirts from Banana Republic, a tshirt from the Gap, a pair of dress pants, 2 camisoles and a strapless bra (need that for summertime!). oh yes and a hat.

2 things i learned:

1) $500 does NOT buy a girl a new wardrobe. not even close.

2) Jeff is the best boy shopper EVER. he was sooooooooooo patient and he even picked stuff out for me to try on. he bought me a shirt when i was sad and he wasn't grumpy at all, even after 8 hours of west ed shopping. i was so proud of him.

still need to buy: black work shoes. dress for the numerous weddings i am attending this year. pair of jeans. sigh. i need more money!!!

anyway, like i was saying, jeff really was the perfect companion on this trip. if he didn't come into a store with me he would just wait outside with his blackberry and play poker or suduko or something. he suggested i go here and there and picked stuff out for me to try on and gave me his opinion and so on and so forth. perfect. i cried cuz i was frustrated about not finding a pair of jeans (i cry about dumb stuff sometimes) and he was okay with going back to the mall on sunday. he even wandered around ikea with me and he hates that store. so i was very impressed with my wonderful boyfriend this weekend.

thats about all for now. hope everyone had a nice weekend as well!




thought i'd add a couple more pics. sadly i only pulled out my camera at the game... i have no other pictures!!!!






and only one of jeff and i...

i love how i look terrible in both the pictures! ah!

oh well. the point is.... we had fun!