i like pink. too bad for you.

i changed my blog and made it pink pink pink. i love love love it.

graduation, pardon me, convocation day came and went, and i have a beautiful degree hanging up on my mom's kitchen wall right now, where i want it to stay forever. well until i move out (ha ha ha................ha). it looks so lovely there where everyone can see! i'm so proud of me, but really guys, anyone can go to university and get a degree. half the time i felt like i was in high school again. sitting in class isn't hard, and doing the work isn't really that hard either. exams are tricky but seriously, anyone can do it if they wanted to. that i am convinced of. four years seems like a big commitment but it goes SO FAST!

so i went to TCU place on wednesday and you have to line up in your respective degree, so they have 3 year B.A., 4 year B.A., Honours B.A.'s, etc, etc. well the one girl who all through uni thought i was like, the biggest slacker and always made comments like "kristin, do you STILL not have your essay in yet? oh my kristin!" and then she would laugh sympathetically for me. and roll her eyes. for the last four freaking years. anyway i'm talking to my friends in the honours line up and she actually says to me, "kristin, are you in the right line up?" um, yes.... "you got an honours degree?" UH YES!!!! SHE of course, got a High Honours degree, but screw that, i was in the right line.

when i actually walked across the stage, the lady called me "Kirsten" which angers me and i grimaced in fury in front of 5000 people. then another lady put my sash thingy over my head while some important guy who was too important to get up from his fancy chair told me congratulations and shook my hand. then i walked over to prez peter who also shook my hand and gave me my actual degree. THEN he asked me what i was planning to do with it. WELL. nobody warned me to have something prepared when i spoke to mr. important! i was like, uhhh, ummm, ah, uhmmmm and like, you only have 5 seconds before the next person was coming so how could i possibly sum up my potential-but so far nonexistent-plans to the most important man in saskatoon besides the mayor? oh Pete. i'm sorry for embarrassing myself in front of you. i shoulda told him i want to come and work for him. i also forgot to ask him for a tour of his gorgeous house. i kind of forget everything including my name. i mumbled something about staying in the province and he looked at me with pity on my sad life. hehehe.

after we took pictures. then we went to earls for some lunch (yum chicken santa fe salad) and afterwards went to costco. i bought books. i'm in textbook buying denial, so lately i have bought four books - Nutrition for Life, Cocktails 101 (heh), Blink, and one novel, The Last Summer (of you and me). I read my novel in 2 days. i hate that i read and can't stop and finish books in a day or two. grrr me! blink is supposed to be excellent, it has come highly recommended by many people. book review soon to come.

so anyways i am finally done university and likely the content of this blog will change as i no longer have classes or profs or papers to complain about... maybe i need a whole new blog start... hence the change of the look... but possible brand new blog to come...

love to all.

Kristin A. Eagle, B.A.

freaking out

ahhhhhhh i'm such a wreck during exam week!!!!! someone please tell me i will do fine. thanks.

"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 :)

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.

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!

ride em cowboy

greys anatomy was fantastic as always. i knew she would be okay. i loved the last moment with izzie and denny. and the last moments the chief had with merideth's mom. the "heaven/in merideths mind" thing was a little strange at first but i really got what they were doing. my mom predicted very early in the show that her mom would die and meet her there and she was soooo right. when merideths mom told her she was anything but ordinary... well done, well done. so emotional.

i also watched the series finale of the o.c. and it was really good. ctv didn't think it was good enough to show so i had to watch it at 11 pm on Fox. stupid ctv. i was so happy they went into the future and showed seth and summer get married. such closure :) but i'm okay with the o.c. ending. i hardly watched it at all the last two seasons. some day maybe i'll rent the dvds and watch them in the summer or something.

i wrote a paper ALL day yesterday and I had a midterm too. i dropped my paper off at the university at 10:30 pm b/c i knew i wouldn't have a chance to today. i made my dad come with me. i didn't want to go missing or anything. its scary there late at night! i managed to write a midterm, write my paper all day, take a break for greys, write for another hour, go to the uni and be home in time for the o.c. it was a very busy day! i missed my little bro's concert at walkers nite club (hello how is it that he is playing at night clubs??? he's 17!). anyway i heard it was a good time. sometimes i can't wait to not be a student anymore. my evenings will be free! and i'll have a SALARY! wow. what a thought.

jenna and i are going to Rascal Flatts tonight, sitting in the 15th row on the floor! its gonna be so awesome. i better get my camera all charged up. Yeeeee haww. i love country music! afterwards i am meeting up with Tanis and Regan for some white chocolate brownie at Moxies. delicious. what an almost perfect day (besides having to work!).

to make it even more perfect, jeff suprised me and took me out for lunch today. it was so nice! i was going to eat some yogurt and 2 oranges for lunch and instead i got a clubhouse wrap and salad. and it was especially nice to have a cup of coffee to help me make through the afternoon. today seems like my lucky day - free tix to an awesome concert, it was casual day at work today (yay jeans!), a suprise lunch, jenna making me lasanga for supper (yummmmm), and favorite girls to hang out with. maybe i should buy a lotto ticket too!

k bye ya'll!

ai ai ya yai, in china they never grow chilly

LAST DAY OF CLASSES TODAY!!!!

you guys i'm seriously thinking i might actually make it through! i don't know how many times i told lynnel i was going to drop out of school and she would just laugh oh haha haha ha. ha. ha. not. so. funny. when. i'm. half. serious. (do the periods emphasize that sentence or are they just distracting???) (i like them).

i have one more paper to write... by midnight tonight...that i haven't started...but you know what, THAT IS OKAY! i don't care. it might be a teensy bit late. but still okay.

so i'm soooooooooooooooooooo looking forward to just going to work and coming home AND GET A DECENT PAYCHECK, and not having stuff to worry about! school stuff stays with me day after day after day. i dream about it. it comes with me on my weekends. books lay piled up on my bed and on my desk. the computer never shuts off. papers are everywhere. i LOATHE this.

work on the other hand, ends at 5 pm SHARP.

i am so excited. i'm going to watch all my girl movies over the holidays. my chick flick movie collection includes:

The Notebook
In Her Shoes
Bridget Jones' Diary
Bridget Jones' DiarY: The Edge of Reason
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days

I'm going to watch them all over the holidays. I'm so mad at myself, i was at walmart on saturday and "Mean Girls" was $12 and i didn't buy it..... and there were only 2 copies left, so i'm sure its gone by now. biggest mistake of my weekend. that'd be a great christmas present if anyone wants to buy me it. hehe. i love that movie. i loved the old lindsay lohan. now she is one of my favorite people to see on "go fug yourself". her and mary-kate olson. J'ADORE that funny little website! go check out the one today its laugh out loud. LOL!

k so i have exams coming up but i am at peace with exams. i like them better than mad paper writing. and guess what i have the BEST day ever planned for next monday. i'm getting a massage in the morning. at 1 i'm off to the spa for THREE glorious hours, for a pedicure, spa manicure and aromatherapy massage (my birthday present from jeff). now, 2 massages in one day seems a little crazy but i wanted the real deal cuz my back feels like bricks, so a real one is in order here. i'll definitely be relaxed for studying. i was thinking about getting an eyebrow wax that day too. then i should finish off with getting my hair done. but thats a little overboard since it doesn't really need a cut yet. and i usually only get highlights when i'm absolutely dying over my roots and i'm not there yet. january i will be there. mmm can't wait for monday.

kayden got his little teeth fixed today and he was at the hospital in regina and he told kyle "i like these pajamas daddy, i didn't know i got to wear pajamas here!" regarding the hospital scrubs they put you in. he came through the surgery a little groggy but he just thought it was a fun family trip to regina, which is so cute. he couldn't wait to go watersliding. imagine if he wrecked his teeth the same night? oh dear. don't tell jenna i said that.

can't wait for the weekend to watch the christmas presentation and hang with alison and leon. and lynnel and i are dying for some quality time, although we did have some on friday night at Moxies with 2 bad-girl desserts and some fancy girly drinks. then chad and aaron came to intrude on girl time. but i can't really blame them. i suppose we did call them. can't get too mad.

my christmas wish list (besides 'mean girls') - shopping spree. and that super soft baby pink robe from la senza. pure luxery. please jeff come through for me. a calander. slippers. love. trip to jamaica. is that really too much to ask?

love to all.

i am still here!

how cute is haylie at 2 months old? she makes my heart melt.



i had to get at least one more post in before december! myspace drives me nuts cuz for some reason it always shuts my internet down on my crap computer downstairs. but i still have a place in my heart for myspace. kristyanne is on there. she downright abandoned blogging but you can find her my friends, she is still out there on the web... woot woot!

has anyone else noticed google is taking over the world? i have to use my google account to log into everything these days. scarrrrry. google is the antichrist. hehe.

i'm in a weird mood because it is 1:02 am and i usually go to sleep around 10 pm. but it's THAT time of the year.... essay writing time. it's brutal and i'm dying but don't worry i will make it.

this might not be funny, in fact its not, but it's related to my above sentence. jeff and i had a good laugh over it. we're both stressed out these days so i told him the two of us should just get hooked on crystal meth so all our problems would go away. we laughed a good one about that concept. JUST A JOKE. please don't leave rehab links for you comments. hehe.

don't worry guys, i'm not on drugs. just my woman's one a day vitamin. i asked the pharmacy lady if it really makes a difference if i take a woman's formula or not and she said it's just a marketing thing. but i fall for all the marketing schemes. don't you?

so, i'm done 3 essays, and 3 to go. ahhhh by next monday things will all be better. for a week at least until exams start!

enough school! oh guys, last year at this time i was planning my beloved nyc trip. i think that's how i made it through last year. there's 2 classes (ok one more thing about school) being offered from may 7 - june 30 this year in NYC that i totally want to take (i'd therefore graduate in june), but it's so darn expensive. it'd be about $5000. but seriously, LIVE in NYC for 6 weeks? oh my dream come true. sigh. somebody talk me out of this please!

the christmas musical is coming! it's gonna be amazing like always! can't wait for that!!!

ummmmm well, as you can see, my niece and nephew are so cute. i love them to tiny little bits.

the prestige is one of the best movies i have ever seen.

um yes basically i have nothing else to talk about because all i do lately is school. i could do a public apology to all my friends (i.e. lynnel) and family (i.e. jenna) who i seem to never ever see these days. i can't wait to hang out again. jenna we will go to starbucks. lynnel, we will... hang out like usual :)

happy birthday to lynnel on friday! she will be joining us at the ripe age of 24!

nutshell of my papers: that grameen bank ain't all that; women gained from WWI; human rights are way more complicated than you might expect; nation/state/citizenship are issues that are way above my little sphere of comprehension; save the environment it is rotting; and something about ancient roman women (i have some work to do on this one obviously!)

i'll be back one of these days!

so this week ....

i'm seriously freaking out. like i'm scared of this week. once this week is over i will probably be okay for the rest of my life, in fact one week from today in this very hour everything will be okay. but no, next monday from 12:30 until 3:30 will be the worst, scariest, sweatiest (haha) and awkward three hours of my life. yes you may have guessed it. i have to do a presentation. on the BORINGIST topic ever, development from the 1940s to the 19790s. ah okay so when i first signed up to do the first presentation for this class, i signed up with three preconceived notions:

1) i had a partner.
2) it was only 30 minutes long
3) it was soley a reverberation of chapter 1, 2 and 3, you know like a summary, in which me and my partner would share.

i was so wrong.
1) my partner dropped the class
2) its an hour long
3) those chapters are simply the starting point of my presentation. i have to lecture to the class about this subject.

what makes it worse. at the end of class i asked her what she was looking for in this presentation, as she has not discussed it in class. she did however on the first day of class, hand out a sheet of paper on what she will be basing the mark on. she didn't give this to us, she just let us look at it and took it back. she has no intention on actually letting us know exactly what she wants. GEEEEEEEEEEZ louise. so i told her i didn't really think that was fair that she won't tell us what exactly she wants us to present about so she let down and is sending me a copy. but seriously that is so unfair that we just have to guess what she wants.

so i'm a little stressed. why oh why did i sign up to go first? i don't know. never again. i wish i wasn't so scared to do presentations. sigh.

on a lighter note. i went to moxie's last night and saw an old friend which was lovely. while talking to him, i started talking to the bartender there who is in this class that i am talking about above, so i have a new friend. and then today a new guy shows up in class who happens to be a guy i graduated high school with and we had a big chat at the end of class. so in the last 24 hours i have met/remet 3 old/new friends. how nice.

on the best note of all, tomorrow is my birthday!!!! yay!!!! i get super excited about my birthday. i just can't help it. it makes me feel special. i will be 24 tomorrow. what a perfect age!

and today is kristy-anne's bday so i hope she is feeling super special as well!!!! i just love her.

okay that is all for today. can you believe how much i have blogged lately? i simply cannot.

love kristin.

how vicarious

i sleep with my textbooks. i read them until my eyes close at night and i awaken with about 4 books, 2 binders, 1 clipboard and a pen around me every morning. i think i need a bigger bed to accomodate my student sleeping arrangements. they are everywhere. they move from my bed to my desk to my kitchen table to my car to jeff's house and back again. it's truly scary how many pages i am supposed to read in the next 3 months! and i was so gung ho about it just 2 weeks ago when my lovely student credit line financed my $500 worth of literature. actually text books are hardly literature. literature is more like war and peace which i miss very much because i don't have time to read it anymore. i feel too guilty to open up war and peace when i have 5000 pages of other reading to be doing - for classes for which i'm paying outrageous tuition for! sigh. i need to hire someone to do my reading for me. which is crazy because i love reading! i'm just a big paradox i suppose.

i don't know why i used the word 'vicarious' in my subject line. it just came out and i decided to keep it. it sounded good with the first line of this blog as though i was going to say something much more shocking. let's call it the word of the day. it's such an exciting word to use. maybe it'll make someone want to read this blog.

i feel much better now. i gotta go read.

my friends

ok someone please tell me why i need to have a blog, a hi5, a myspace, an msn space and whatever else i have??? i don't know. oh well, it's kind of fun. passes the time when i have nothing to do. which actually never happens anymore now that school is back in session. i think this is gonna be a crazy busy semester/year. so let me tell you what i'm taking, since i know about 3 of you care.

History of Europe in the 20th Century - seriously, what better class could exist than this?? Oh how i love history, especially these years. oh the world wars, depression, soviet union/cold war and so on and so forth. Yes I am in love with this class ... besides the fact it is 8:30 in the morning ... i'm famously bad for skipping 8:30 classes. but I think I love this too much to skip. we will see!!!

Environmental Anthropology - um yes i'm not too sure exactly what this class is about. the prof looks like the little man from monopoly, but he is not nearly as cute or as happy. no he's a bit of a drowner and he rambles for ever, but the class seems to be easy. and the textbooks are interesting. one is a novel called Ishmael and it's about a gorilla. it won a whole bunch of awards and is very highly acclaimed i guess. i get to do a book report. can you believe it, a book report for a 300 level class. love that!

Classics - Women in Antiquity - oh gosh another class that i am IN LOVE with. i've never felt this way about school before!!! haha. its wonderful. it's all about greek and roman women in ancient times. so far we've been learning all about greek goddesses' and myths and stuff like that and it's so fun. it's a last minute elective that i picked and i'm so glad i'm in it.

Sociology of Development - 400 level seminar class that includes 1 hour presentation. could i be more scared? i doubt it. but i signed up for the first week to do my presentation, and i'll just get it all over with so i don't have to ruin the rest of my semester. it's still not till oct 2, but thats like, 3 weeks away. that's pretty much tomorrow!! its on the most boring topic ever - development theory from 1940s - 1970s but i don't care. that stuff is like 2nd nature to me now so maybe i won't be as nervous. otherwise could maybe be a good class. we'll see. its on monday afternoons, 12:30 - 3:30, and i get Monday mornings off, so it potentially could be the best day of the week for me. can you imagine, loving your monday? eek! now i'll love sunday nights even more than ever (sunday nights happen to be pretty much my favorite night of the week, i don't know why, i just love them.)

International Co-operation - this is THE class, you know like THE class for my major. this semester is cooperation and conflict, next semester it turns into Development but same prof, same class, just a bit of a different stream. now this i am excited for, you see there is a new Department Head for IS, and he is a very different man from the guy before him. years before, each person had to lead, i.e. be the instructer, for one class each. this is no more, and i couldn't be more relieved. instead, we all have to contribute "equally" and contribution to class is worth 50%. so yes, i still have to be prepared and whatnot but i DON'T have to do a 3 hour presentation basically. so thats awesome. the other 50% is 2 "discussion" papers i have to write that are entirely my OPINION. this is also the best news because there is no research involved, no citations, no nothing besides my fabulous opinion. this also means NO FINAL EXAM/MIDTERM! Oh sigh i couldn't be happier.

so it all sounds fine and dandy but i have more reading than i can possibly keep up with. luckily i love reading so i hope i'll be able to keep up and stay focused. it should be an okay semester!!! and the best part of it all - no spanish. not one little spanish word will i ever need to say. not one. well hallelujah!

on top of all this, i am working still at blue x, wednesday and fridays, all day. but thats okay cuz i need the money and i don't mind coming in a couple days a week at all. besides i have to help angela plan her wedding!!! who, by the way, did not like me calling her a hillbilly in my last blog entry... hehehe, i can't believe she is still letting me be a bridesmaid!!! it was just a little joke cuz angela knows i love her!

what else, what else.... my running is going good. i've been keeping up with the schedule, PLUS i bought a yoga and pilates video at extra foods for $7.00 so i'm trying to do that too. i'm so bad with trying stuff like, twice and giving up but heck i'll try again. another healthy choice i've been trying - eating yogurt. i don't know what it is about yogurt, i just never ever feel like eating it. i even somewhat like it but i never want it, so i've been forcing myself. its just so so so good for you!

this is the longest blog ever. one last thing to say - i finally went golfing for the first time. and guess what i was GREAT!!!! well not like great as in professional but definitely great for a first timer. so there jeff!! and i got to drive the cart and that was fun too. jeff has taught me so much, like seriously i have learned how to camp, fish, golf, 2 step, and most importantly, eat chicken wings, but maybe i'll save all this for another blog!!!

k so i hope the lovely paragraphs made this blog managable to read, cuz i do realize its long, but its been such a long time since i wrote!!! i want lots of comments please, cuz seriously 5 just didn't cut it last time, and i think one of those was megan, and 2 were jenna, lynnel and jenn, my faithful commentors. like hello, alison you never leave me comment anymore, and you miss jolie, and you tania, and you my little mother carmen.... girls, do you not like me enough for a litttle love comment? really now.

(haha i just checked, and there are now SEVEN comments which is funny b/c when i started this blog there were only 5, but both of the last two were leah, won't she be surpised when she sees i finally wrote again!!!).

GOODBYE NOW LOVELY BLOGGER FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i'm here!

nobody has been blogging lately, it rather stinks. i haven't been very faithful either. but school is almost over and then maybe i'll have something to say other than talk about essays and such. i haven't been leading a very interesting life lately, so that too makes it difficult for interesting blogging! lately i've enjoyed "picture blogging"... but i haven't used my camera since chad's bday, so there goes that idea too :) i should post the email chad sent me regarding my last post about his bday. maybe i'll copy and paste it here, because its quite funny:

"Fabulous...just Fabulous....fantastic blog...I thank you...what a perfect tribute...it makes me want to randomly take pictures of myself puckering up...and then sew together some kind of a made up plot that doesn't actually exist but looks really convincing to those not in attendance. I couldn't have fabricated a greater progression of photos myself...well done."

Ohhh my friend Chad, you do make me laugh! I hope Chad doesn't mind that I just put that on my blog, seeing as it was part of an email he sent. I'm sure he'll tough it up.

So it really is essay writing time at the U. I am always amazed at the extremely important things I find that I must do before I sit down and write the paper. Last week, in the midst of my 20 page anthropology paper (which only ended up being 16 pages cuz I totally ran out of steam), I felt the undying urge to clean the keyboard with q-tips. Honestly people, I could run a keyboard-cleaning business with the pro-job I did! I spent a very long time doing it, and I have to say, the keyboard is in the best shape of its life. Last week I also managed to clean two bathrooms, scanned random pictures, made a MSN My Space because I don't have enough of those types of things, looked up becoming a flight attendant for West Jet, watched plenty of home decorating shows, and wasted wasted wasted my time. I was telling Lynnel last week how I have changed the words to Gretchen Wilsons "Home-wrecker" song to "Time Waster". I sing "oh you're such a... tiiiiiiiiiiime waster!" many times throughout the day. yep.

So that's that. 2 more essays to go, 33 more pages to write. I can't wait!

(I have to admit, i wrote this while on page 3 of "how are women, water and poverty intertwined?") 'oh you're such a.....'

yesterday i had my night class and my biggest presentation of the year. when i got to the university, i stopped at tim horton's for a tea and i didn't have enough for a large, but the girl didn't care, and she gave it to me anyway. that was so nice! funny thing is, i did have a $10 bill in my wallet, but she didn't see that. i didn't want to break it, just for 25 cents!

anyway then i went to my class, and i think our presentation went really well. i was nervous up until the time that i actually had to talk, and once i started i felt just fine. i pretended like i was talking to lynnel, or my mom. :) really, i did that!!! it was a conscious decision, and it helped me. (lynnel will be so happy to hear that!). plus i think my tea drinking made me feel nice and calm inside. so i should get my mark back some time this week.

right after my presentation, the fire alarm started going off. at first, we were all just sort of trying to ignore it, but then when we saw all the other classes leaving the building, we all packed up, and stood outside for 10 minutes, before we decided to just go to the health sciences building and finish up class there. we went to the cafeteria there and thought how nice it would be to have class there every week. it's all set up with round booths around a round table, and its so casual. another girl did her presentation in there, and i was thinking she was so lucky because we were all in there with our feet up and lounging so comfy. but she was so super nervous, she had the whole shaky hand thing going on, which is the ultimate indicator of nervousness. i'd WAY rather have shaky voice than shaky hands.

anyway, i can't tell you how much better i feel having that over with. my presentation was all about HIV/AIDS and how it specifically affects women and girls. this topic is my absolute favoritist topic in all development. not that it makes me happy, b/c it's so sad, but that i find it so interesting, and it's incredibly vital. so anyway, it's all over now!

next week is reading week. i am working full time Monday to Wednesday, and then i have two glorious days off. not that they will be glorious, because i truly have great plans to write TWO full essays. i need a topic for one of them yet. anything to do with western world religions - Judaism, Christianity or Islam. does anyone have any questions about one of these religions that i could perhaps to do a little research for?

so this weekend isn't too exciting. jeff and i were going to go with jenna and kyle to the mansion-cabin this weekend but it didn't work out, sadly. kayden called me this morning, asking for me specifically, to ask me if he could go see baby Ashton (his cousin - on the other side of the family, obviously). i was like, ummmm sure? jenna didn't know why he felt like he specifically needed to ask his auntie kristin if it was okay but i gave him my blessing to go see baby Ashton.

well, i realize i haven't been the greatest blogger of all time lately, but i will try to pick it up again! as for now, i'm getting back to work.

have a great weekend!

agriculture students have it good

i just took a big walk from the arts building to kirk hall, only to find the girl i was meeting there not in her office, but off to an early lunch. wow. i had to look up a map on the university website just to find kirk hall, and secondly to map out my route there. i had to go from arts, to thorvaldson to geology to biology to agriculture to kirk hall, and not once did i have to venture outside. there are some things i love at this university! it was an interesting walk because rarely to i go into any other building besides arts and sometimes thorvaldson. geology is the building with all the dinosaurs in their lobby (and also a relatively new tim horton's which i was even more excited to see than the dinosaurs). but the ag building is really something. it is by far the nicest building on campus. i guess i do live in saskatchewan. its got this huge open lobby with beautiful greenery and trees and you can look up and see all the classrooms around, four or five stories high. and the whole thing is tinted green glass windows. and a glass elevator right in the center. the hallways are lined with paintings and pictures of farming landscapes and plants and animals and stuff. it's really a beautiful building. all the classrooms have brand new tables and matching black plastic chairs. i was hoping to see a couple of straight-from-the-farm boys with their oversized fertilizer company caps and flannel shirts and tapered, too tight wranglers, but alas i didn't see any of them. yah actually i didn't really see anybody, probably b/c it was right in between classes. anyway today i marvelled at all the learning there is to be had and how there are thousands and thousands of students here all engaged in some sort of specified learning subject and i'm just little me. i'm not learning about chemistry (i'm not asian afterall), or dinosaur bones or about plant cells or about genetically modified seed varieties or any of that important stuff. all these people have a career to look forward to after four years of university. well i hope they realize how lucky they are, that they did well in high school science. if i had really enjoyed grade 12 biology or had tried a little harder in chemistry, would i be one of these smart people? i realize i am now rambling, which doesn't actually make for good blogs, so sorry. i just continually find myself analyzing my choice of international development and hope that i will find something interesting and sucessful as well. i'm pretty sure i didn't come here to become a full time volunteer for the rest of my life.
anyway, the point of this blog is that the agriculture students have a damn nice building.

second semester

i have some time here so i thought i'd write a bit about my classes. i was inspired by carmen's comments about wanting to know what else i am taking, and also by megan's blog, who wrote about a very weird experience she had involving spicy chick peas and a professor who decided not to wear the costume he brought because it showed to much skin. ahem. very interesting?! those trinity westerners...... they pay 3 times the tuition but they sure get interesting learning experiences!

my classes are not nearly as eventful. as we all know i am taking my third course in spanish which perhaps i should take a new and more positive view on. the prof spends most of the class moving from person to person asking them questions that everyone else seems to know the answer to, except for me and the girl beside me. i should sit with someone more spanish smart. i am gonna try a little bit harder from now on, and make sure i do my homework and study.

secondly i have world religions which i don't really have anything to say about.

thirdly i have cultural anthropology which is going to be okay i think. we don't have an actual textbook, but instead, three novels written by anthropologists that are about three different cultures - natives, inuits and drug dealers in east harlem. our midterm is a take home book report on these three books. how easy is that? i've started the drug dealer one and its quite good. definitely a different world view, that's for sure.

i am still in history of the third world. first semester was all about events that have happened which didn't seem to have anything to do with development, but this semester we're getting into the goods, like economic theory and people/institutions who have shaped third world policies, and the underdevelped world, and why we think half the world is in poverty and if we think development is working. very interesting stuff, i'm loving this class this semester.

finally i am in a sociology class, women and development. there are only 16 people in the class, which is great and bad at the same time. i like to hide out in class and take it all in, but as years go on, i am put in these types of situations where i have to have an opinion and i have to be part of the discussion or else i am viewed as the girl who doesn't have any opinion... which is not really a good rep to have among your fellow students in university, and also not true of me at all. i do have quite an opinion on the things we talk about, but in my first two years of university i didn't have much opportunity to express it, and suddenly this year, so many of my classes are discussion classes, and here i am, not so good at presenting and not so hot at discussion. well i gotta get used to that, and i gotta get used to it fast, b/c i have plenty of presentations coming up. i'm getting better. anyway its a night class, and not only is it a night class, it's a THURSDAY night class which means no more O.C. and no more ER. unless i find someone to tape it for me... luckily, Survivor and the Apprentice are over for this season so i won't be missing out on them.

so that is my semester. i have been using time wisely, and i have 2 hours on mon, wed and fri to go to the PAC gym which makes me feel good about me. they gym will do that to you, you know.

i wish i had something terribly interesting to say about my classes, like megan did, but unfortunately my saskatchewan educational institute just doesn't do it like trinity!!!

espanol RANT and RAVE!

oh MY school has started again with a big bang boom. i started it all off with fricken SPANISH of alllllllllllll classes. i am DREADING IT!!!! i've already failed it once!!! first of all, it's at EIGHT FREAKING THIRTY in the morning. second of all, the one friend that i have in this class was not there this morning. this fact terrifies me . thirdly, he went through the class asking random questions and i have no idea what he is saying and all i can do is look down and pray to God he will not ask me how big my family is or what my major in school is or how i'm freaking doing today!!!!! AAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH! i can figure out the question and i can answer it, but it takes me 18 minutes to do it before i'm ready to answer!!!!!!! fourthly of all (hehe maybe i should take an english class) i thought i was so awesome because i was gonna borrow lynnel's text book from her 114 class which SHOULD be the same for 117 except this year he decided to CHANGE it and i just went and spent $145 on a new TEXT BOOK for a class i DESPISE!!!!!! i'm just dying people, i don't think i'm gonna make it. again.

that is all i have to say for now.

After thoughts

My sister wrote a fabulous overview of our specatacular trip to New York, so please go to her blog to read all about it!

www.insidejennashead.blogspot.com

I do have to say that it was seriously AWESOME! What a place!!!! Could be my most favorite place I've ever been to. Someday maybe I will live there. Hey, if there's a place for midget's on Broadway, I'm sure there will be a place for little miss me (nothing against midgets of course. i pretty much am one!). Yes, New York is the place to be. I think they must spend millions and millions of dollars on decorations there because there was extravagence EVERYWHERE. Beautiful decorations, lights, wreaths, everything. What a place.

Well I wrote my last final exam this morning. It took me a total of 21 minutes, and nobody was allowed to leave until 9:30, so I wrote out a list of things to do before I had to be at work at 12:00. Yes, it may have been the easiest/simplist exams I have ever written. Sample questions are as follows: What continent has the most developing countries? ummm.... Africa?........... What is one consequence of deforestation? uh, endangers biodiversity...... like geez, no wonder I only went to 7 classes in 2nd semester. I was the first one out of the entire PAC gym. 600 people are stuffed in there, as there are about 5 different exams being written at the same time. So I don't know why nobody else was done as fast as I, but it didn't matter because I had stuff to do!!! I also got back an assignment today, which I got 96% in, my highest mark in an assignment ever I think. That was a nice early Christmas present.

I think I am all ready for Christmas, as of 12:00 today! I did all my shopping yesterday and today, in between final exams in the morning and working at 12. Crrazzzzzy I tell you. I'm really happy with everything I'm giving to people, which makes me feel so happy and excited to give. I even accidently bought somebody two presents... I don't know what I was thinking, but now I have an extra pair of men's pajama pants to give to somebody!!! My mom said she got my dad some for Christmas, so maybe I'll give them to Jeff or one of my brothers. Maybe I'll take them back and exchange them for some girly ones for me? No, I already did something selfish today... I couldn't pass it up.... Bridget Jones' Diary 1 and 2 for $19.99!!!! WHAT A DEAL!!! I can't wait to watch them over and over and over. Hmm and I haven't even seen the first one, just the 2nd one but I loved it so I'm sure I'll love the first too. So seriously girly. All I need now is the Titanic and the Notebook and I am all ready for major girls night out, I mean in. Actually the only time I will ever watch the Titanic ever again is if it's on TV some night and I will have to be THAT bored. It's a good TV movie on a cold winter evening.

Tonight is our department staff Christmas dinner so we are all going to the Granery for a delicious dinner, can't wait. Afterwards, going to Jeff's so I can wrap all mine and his presents for people, and tomorrow evening is Christmas at the Eagle's house, so we're opening some presents. Christmas Eve morning (which is also Jeff's 28th birthday), we're driving to Calgary for a few days, and we are also going to go to Banff on Boxing Day, and home on Tuesday.

For New Year's, I do have to work Friday the 30th, but then I don't have classes or work until January 4th, so I have a few days off there too.

There you have it, my schedule for all the world to see!!!

Merry Christas everyone!

yah so...

ah yes a new blog today. it's about time, right megan? it's been too long but not too long compared to kristy-anne. ahem. anyway, life has gotton a little bit easier lately. i am finished all my esssays, projects and assignments, except for one little group presentation on wednesday afternoon. i'm not worried about this because it's not academic at all, it's simply talking about my volunteering experience this semester. i'd like to say in my presentation "i am so happy i did this because it will look so good on my resume" but i think i'll refrain and just state that here on my blog, for the record. yes that is a smart idea.

well let's see what is new. hmm i need to buy a new dress in the next few days. unless someone out there has one i could borrow for a night, that'd be great too. i need it for jeff's christmas banquet in winnipeg next next weekend. i want it to be just right... oh sigh, so much pressure. a girl at work here says she has one for me, problem being she is a little bit teeny tiny, so unless the dress has an umpire waist, i can probably kiss that goodbye. oh the issues of being a GIRL! i also need new fancy shoes/sandles, as the ones i had that i loved got washed away, along with most of my shoes and other things.

i guess thats what the insurance cheque is for (i thought it was for shopping at H&M in Manhattan).

hmm well sorry to disappoint but i just don't have anything else to say. lame post, i know. i'll try better next time!

poor molly, she is upset because matthew is practicing the trumpet right now. just what i love to be listening to at 10:16 pm when i'm trying to wind down. urrgggggg, the joys of living at home. she is snuggled right down beside me laying at my feet, keeping them warm. and as most of you know, molly and i aren't even the best of friends. oh good mom is making matt going to bed.

well i had an extremely busy day yesterday, and today i made up for it by sleeping through my first and second classes. sunday night i was so worried about this week that i tossed and turned in bed until about 2 am before finally deciding that i would make myself wake up at 6 am monday morning and get some work done really early. so i did. i was up at 6, showered and ready for the day by 6:45, and on the computer working on a powerpoint presentation before 7 am. i'm telling you, getting up early is a really great way to start your day. for me at least. i am so much more efficient, and i can get all the things i am worried or stressed about out of the way so that my day goes by so much better.

so anyway when i got home from work on monday afternoon, i started a completely different assignment, and it was the dumbest assignment i have ever done. it was about saskatoon's wastewater treatment system. i.e. sewage. oh yes it was lovely. we had to write as though we were writing to a politician about what needs to be changed about our treatment system, and believe me i had a few things to say about the june 29th sewage back up!

take a wild guess, who do you think has the best sewage treatment system...
victoria, calgary, saskatoon or regina?

in case you were thinking about writing your politician about the quality of your clean up, i'll have you know that Saskatoon has a grade of C+, compared to Regina at a C. now people, i don't know about you, but i always thought regina was a "dirty" city... yet it seems they are doing a better job of keeping their water nice and clean than pretty little saskatoon is. as for who has the best treatment system in Canada, it's calgary. they rate an A+. yee haw.

alison you would be so proud to know that victoria has the worst sewage system in all of canada. in fact it went from a F- in 1999 to completely "suspended" in 2004. i don't exactly know what suspended means but i know its not cool! more than 34 billion litres of raw sewage are discharged back into the ocean every year, and they only do preliminary treatment, which isn't even technically treatment at all, which is just nasty. NASTY!!!!!!!!! don't go swimming in the ocean. and maybe invest in culligan.

that whole class has absolutely nothing to do with my major, it just is my natural science class requirement that i absolutely must pull through.

tomorrow is my presentation on development and global health. its a good topic. once i get over my nervousness, i'm sure it'll be a really great presentation. i'm quite proud of it actually because its the first time i put together a powerpoint point presentation, and after hours of work i think it looks fabulous. pictures, clip art and everything. but unfortunately i don't get graded on a red-hot powerpoint. i get graded on if i do a good job speaking. i'd rather sing a song in front of 2000 people!

my jeff is working in toronto and in surrounding area this week. him and his coworker are travelling down to detroit on thursday night to watch a hockey game which he is seriously stoked for. haha, instead of stoked i wrote "stocked" and then i started laughing at what that could mean... he is all stocked up for the game.... beer came to mind, and then i laughed.

well i went to young adults this evening and i have to say i really enjoy some of these girls that i have gotten to know this year through sunday night cell at charmaine's house. i love going there sunday nights because her house is so calm and warm and always smells like baking, and she always has smelly candles lit, and its just a really nice way to spend a sunday evening with some really fun and sweet girls that i just love. so yay for charmaine for putting up with us for the last year or so! and for baking cookies or bread with homemade jam or cake or whatever it is you have every week!

this blog is long enough. i'm going to practice my presentation to myself in front of the big huge mirror in my bedroom.

i can't wait for the week that i get to just reeeellllaaaaaaxxxx. its out there somewhere, i know it is......!

Yikes. I'm Scared.

SCHOOL
there are only about 3 really horrible weeks that i have this semester and the end of this week/beginning of next week happens to be one of them (i'm smudging them together). i'm scared. i sit and think about how scared i am that i am not working on assignments, reading my books or studying for that last midterm (i've already written two which were actually fine). oh why why why do we procrastinate? why do i not have just a teensy bit more urgency for schoolwork? no, instead i come to that place where it's 3 am and i think, would i really regret it if i just quit now?!!! and i dont just mean quit that particular assignment, i mean quit the whole thing. ha i'm laughing at the thought of it all. can you imagine me quitting university in year 3? oh i'd simply die of madness. tonight i volunteered to put together the entire powerpoint presentation of this group project that is due next week. why did i volunteer? because i want it done right and i can't stand to let someone else do it. that was just ridiculous of me. but so far it looks awesome, and i know that when i do something like this, it gets done right. just the way i like it. but oh the work involved! our group project is a presentation on international development and global health. right up my alley, i just love this stuff. i find that at almost every opportunity i get to chose my own paper topic/presentation/project i do it on some aspect of women & children and social aspects, particularly health and education. so interesting, so sad.

JEFF AND KRISTIN
we're going to jann arden on wednesday night. i'm so excited.

it's also our two year anniversary this weekend. i had to make up a date for this because we actually met on my 21st birthday and we sort of just became "us" over the course of a month. so in order not to celebrate 2 exciting days at once, i decided that our anniversary will always be the third weekend of october. i'm so smart.

BITS AND PIECES
thursday i get my hair done which i'm also excited about. i'm missing my blonde so i think it will reimerge, ever so slightly, at about 3pm thursday afternoon. stay tuned.

my fish is well, thank you for asking.

i saw wedding crashers on saturday night... so funny for those who haven't seen it yet. really it's such a good movie, besides those moments that nobody warned me of, when a certain body part was on the big screen flashing in my face about 8 times, yikes where did that come from???

alison, when does leon come to town to sing for us?

the song i was trying to think of in my last post... i'm pretty sure it was an alannnah myles song...still trying to figure that out. wait, wait i don't think it was her actually. yah i'm not sure.

BLOG AWARDS
blog that i related to the most this week: my long lost kelowna friend, megan horban. oh her post is so me, from school to overload to the blue and brown colours of our room. read it to further my comments in this blog, particularly the school part. check her out on my links.

blog with the most heart and soul this week: kristy-anne glubish. brought me to tears.


goodnight friends, over and out.