Boo!

Happy Halloween, Everyone!

Weekend Excellence!

Dragging my ass out of bed this morning was impossible. I slept like a rock, which is unusual for me. Must have been the packed weekend I had. Friday Denise and I had a Starbucks date and sent snail mail! Too fun. We were both excited (overly so!) who doesn't like getting physical mail these days, sans bills I guess! Saturday I was up at the crack of dawn and started it all off with sewing a bra and clasps into my costume. I was a bit of an idiot are wore the damn thing as I was stitching it all in but only stabbed myself in the chest twice and my fingers four times. That can be called success for a girl who doesn't sew right? I was feeling really good about my costume by the time I was done. My little additions to its fitting really made a difference. I was still a little leery about how revealing it was but whatever. it's just a leg right? The next couple hours were dedicated to running errands, walking dogs (Nicole and I took a pack out to walk around town) and then heading to Delta for my dog trainers class. We got to work with a bunch of dogs that we met at the animal shelter on Tuesday and one of them was Buddy! I was so excited to see him (though that unfortunately means that he wasn't adopted since I last saw him)
Buddy is this HUGE beast of a dog. He's a rottie/st Bernard mix with a huge heart. He was a surrender to the Delta Animal Shelter last Saturday as his owners where moving and couldn't take him with them. He's only three. Why would you move somewhere where you couldn't take a member of your family? I know that some things come up in life that prevent people from bringing their pets along butt I see this way too often. A dog is a lifelong commitment. For me, dogs are family members. You wouldn't move into a kid free condo if you had toddlers that couldn't come right? When I first saw him I fell in love and told Corey that if we had our own house, I probably would have brought him home with me. Unfortunately, 140 pounds of dog will not fit in our basement suit. Buddy is such a gentle soul and takes treats from your hands as if they were made of glass. He loves to cuddle and leans into you whenever you offer pets. Bud has such a kind demeanor that I could hug and wrestle his neck and all he did was roll over for belly rubs. Such a big, sweet guy. I really hope he finds an amazing home.
Afterword I raced home and met the girls to dress up and get ready before heading off to our local drinking establishment. I love Halloween and we really need another holiday so I can have the excuse to dress up and have some fun. I'm not a drinker but I did have a few and enjoyed my first shot (Yeah, I'm 23 I know, slow off the mark.) It wasn't half bad and the rest of the night we danced our asses off with some Aussies dressed as Mexicans that were drinking Irish beer and who knows what else. We also had a dance off of sorts with with one very exuberant guy. Hilarious. Afterwards, when it was time to leave, a few of the girls and I where standing beside the building waiting for our ride when batman passed us.
He ended up scaring the piss out of Nicole, Brittany and I when we walked around the corner to the parking lot to grab some jackets. I think he felt pretty bad because Nicole went running and Brittney screamed. Haha. I yelled and made fists but closed my eyes. Yeah, I'm he big defender here obviously lol!
Sunday was Corey's mom's birthday and we had crepes on top of dessert. So much sweetness that I feared I would wake up today with diabetes. So far so good.

Experience Challenge #16- Granadilla Goodness

Hello bloggers! See that sunshine? Right now the weather is reflecting just how awesome I've been feeling lately.  I've been a busy bee the past little while. Nicole and I have been collaborating in getting some ideas done for advertising our business. So far its been a success and I'm really looking forward to seeing more results. Today I picked up a sample uniform that I got done at a screen printing company. The vest lettering is printed in bright, neon orange. Hopefully that will help draw attention when we go out dog walking or take the pups to the dog park. 

I've also been preparing our website for an overhaul in addition to getting new front signage and vehicle vinyls done. Woo! Getting shit done like a Bauss! 

Corey and I picked up a strange looking fruit when we went grocery shopping early this week. It's called a Granadilla and we've been seeing them in local markets for a while now. They are rather runny looking and feel super light when you pick them up. They have a hard, thin skin that's kind of plastic feeling with a thick, airy pulp underneath. We finally cracked it open last night to have a taste after watching some youtube videos of the fruit (Why? I dunno!) I'm glad we watched those videos though because the inside looks rather unappetizing. If I hadn't seen a picture prior, I would have probably thought the fruit had gone off. The inside is slimy and looks kinda like frog eggs but it smelled like something citrus-y crossed with a floral scent. The taste was unique too. Sweet and a bit tangy. It was a fun taste testing session. We gotta try more of these crazy fruits.

Weekend Wrap Up

Good morning world. It’s currently 6:35am this very foggy morning as I begin to write this blog. Getting out of bed this morning should have been an Olympic event. Last night, Corey and I hosted a bunch of our favorite people for dinner and Walking Dead. There’s nothing better than stuffing a small basement suite full of people you love. This season is already kicking at episode two. I really don’t know how I would handle a zombie apocalypse. Zombies are enough to deal with. Now toss airborne illness into the mix? No thanks. Nobody can fight that crap.  

On Saturday I had a packed day but it was a great one. My co-worker and I had a meeting with our boss. We were unsure how he was going to react about the things we brought to the table so we were pleasantly surprised when he agreed to all our advertising requests. I’ll have a lot on my plate this week drafting these things up. I’m not the best at formatting text and layouts but I’m been sneaking peeks at other online templates for inspiration. I even started a flyer page but my program froze and I lost an hour worth of work. Boo!

In addition to our requests for professional advertising our worries about the future were quelled a bit. Sometimes the future can look a little dark and uncertain. Sometimes all that’s needed is a genuine word of assurance.

After our successful meeting I sat in two puppy classes and watched my teacher instruct a beginner and intermediate puppy obedience class. At times it looked easy and other times I had a nervous twist in my stomach as I thought, “can we really do this?”. We can. I know it. Teamwork, practice and confidence and we can rock the shit out of these classes. Canine education for everyone!

After class a few of us met at the pool hall and Corey taught me how to ‘pool’. Can you use the word ‘pool’ as a verb? I just did.

As usual, the person manning the place looked worn out, bored and not very enthusiastic about life but we had a great time. I would have even won a game but I forgot to call my last shot, which apparently you are supposed to do. Wtf. People, you can see what I’m obviously going for. =P Pool was then followed by a quick stop at Boston Pizza for even more food and drinks before we all rolled home.

Fog

 

So, taking out my volunteer garbage bin at 5:30 in the morning is creepy as hell. The past few days the fog has stuck around like glue and just makes everything generally creepy. It rolled in last night at 6:30. So weird. I think I'll be taking out the garbage the day before now.

As Long as the Stars Are Above You

I'm in love with this song. 

Yep!

Can I get a hell yeah!?

This was nothing short but a great night. We sang our hearts out and danced back to our hotel in the rain with huge smiles on our faces. I can't wait to do it all over again next year. =) 

Also, this is the reason I want to learn how to sew:

 Isn't it.....beautiful! Damn I want to be curled up under this bad boy. 

Pumpkin Pickers

I swear, I have tried to write this damn blog post since Monday night. I've been trying to use my blogger app but if someone texts me and I look at it while I am typing my post my app deletes everything that I've written. Arg. How frustrating eh? Anyway. Monday Corey, Denise and I went to a local pumpkin patch. We must have been the only adults there without toddlers but who the heck cares, we had a great time. They had a petting zoo with funny little pygmy goats, piglets, llamas and a goose that was set on eating Corey's shoelaces.  No shame when we waded through a sea of little kids just so we could pet the goats and llamas ourselves. Den must have been a border collie in a past life because no matter how hard she tried, the sheep avoided her like the plague. Monday was the first time I petted a llama since one chased me out of a petting zoo when I was in girl guides.

Instead of getting a hayride out to the field like normal people, we stomped our way over through the mud and junk to the nearest pumpkin patch. In addition to your traditional orange seasonal fruit, they had tons of these crazy, mutant looking gourds all over. We spent a while hunting for the perfect pumpkins and each decided on a small one (Prices are outrageous at the patch) and I even picked a mutated looking gourd for shits and giggles. Joy! Yay for seasonal festivities.

Experience Challenge #15 Weekend Warrior!

I got to do something really fun for this weeks challenge. My bestfriend's boyfriend had group tickets for a local paintball field (Who knew it was right up the road!).
When Corey and I pulled up my jaw dropped. In the parking lot there had to be close to 60-70 guys fully suited up in camo, flak jackets, utility belts, helmets, headsets. It was crazy. I immediately sunk into my seat as we parked thinking, 'damn, I didn't sign up for this!'. I thought there might have been like 15 people tops. I didn't want to get annihilated.I was wearing sweats and a grungy old sweater that I didn't mind getting dirty. I felt like a hobo compared to these crazy guys. Talk about hard core.
Luckily the other boys pulled up and told us that this these guys where here for the airsoft speedball games. They use a different gun and type of bb's. Thank god.

After all eight of us showed up we marched on in. We get rounded up for a safety talk and me being the old girl. I get handed this petite little gun. Man, I can hold a full sized gun just fine thanks. Maybe he just gave it to me because it seemed to be our only rental that didn't have issues. A few of the boys had their own helmet and now I realize why they spent the money on it. I put on one of the rentals and nearly gagged on the sweat of 1000 unwashed men. Gross. I traded it for a less offensive smelling one and that seemed much better.
Ambush had three different fields for us to use. Forest, Ambush City and the Mounds. We started out in the forest and played 'King of the Hill". Five guys had to defend  a fort in the middle of the forest. One hit kills. It was fun dashing through the brush and hunkering down. I managed to get a few shots into the fort and who knows, maybe one of mine got Spenny, because shortly after he walked off, hit.

Ambush City

Let's pretend it was me haha.
We went to the Ambush city field next and this one was a little more intense as it was team elimination. I hid behind a trailer and watched as the guys next to me go down like flies. I panicked and threw up my arm to walk off. Chicken shit. lol. I was much better the next round as we were on the Mounds and played another team elimination. I was much braver and even tagged a few guys. Nothing more satisfying than seeing that yellow paint burst on target and seeing their hand fly up, shouting HIT!
My success then led me to being even braver and going right up to the divide line and then getting lit up by three people from my face to my stomach. Ouch!

Ain't that bad!

It was my first time getting hit and I think getting hit in the face scared me more than getting hit in my arm hurt. I shoot it off and I tagged back in for respawn only to run out of ammo shortly after. It was nice to be part of a team and the guys were awesome.
We played the forest again and I almost took out Ryan's head in the fort after someone shot at me from that direction. Sorry bud, friendly fire from a panicked redhead.
I landed a few more hits in the City field for a reverse capture the flag scenario and really got into it before I started to really get tired.
Today my legs are killing me. I think I did more squats and crawling yesterday than I did all year.
I loved it though and want to go back, maybe a little braver and more paintballs this time!

Experience Challenge #14 Cheat Week

I didn't do much out of the ordinary this week. I went through the motions of work and home life. Corey and I went on a really nice starbucks and Walmart date (Classy huh? I love it) and cranked up my new Ellie Goulding album that I purchased. I really wish I had found my love for her tunes sooner. She has such an amazing voice. I joke with Corey that if I had her voice I would never talk. Just sing.
Today I got together with Nicole and we gave our pups a bath and a chance to play a bit before getting ready for our respective family dinners.
As per usual, I hate waaay too much at our first Thanksgiving dinner and felt like I had to be rolled out of the room. Ah well. That happens when you come face to face with mounds of delicious food.
So all this I have done before so this week is my cheat week where I snag something I did extra in the previous weeks to make up for my laziness. I had saved up a few things because this was bound to happen. This one has a some bitterness attached to it but whatever, I don't have much to draw from. People make screwed up assumptions and jump off the high-dive into crazy sometimes.
crushing anellophobia

I still have a little hesitation when putting a ring on a finger and it's not terrible loose but I don't have that chest crushing panic that came along with it anymore. I'm marking that as a success =)
Anxiety is awful and I'm trying my damnest to stop my little fears from surfacing lately. Corey has been a rock of support and is one of the few that can bring me down from the full blown 'I'm going to die' attacks I get every now and then. Those fucking suck.
Maybe this chat should be in a separate blog. Get it all out on test just for me to read over. See how far I've come and how far I can get. Thanks to my favorite blonde lady for some stellar inspiration.

Blue October

My first experience with Blue October is something that stuck in my kind so clearly that I can picture it almost in a cinematic way. I was in my dads green pathfinder waiting while he popped into a store. I'm a fidgety person and always seem to end up searching for candy my dads stashed away in his truck. He left the radio on and a tune comes on that I listen to and think, "hey, I like this." I wrote down a few of the lyrics to what I later find out to be Blue Octobers debut radio tune, Hate Me.

Waaaay back in high school a friend and I used to exchange songs with a friend of mine. It had been a year or so since I heard Hate Me and I hadn't thought to check out any more of their tunes so he sent me the song "Angel". After a few listens I was hooked. Their lyrics are meaningful, complex and captivating and they have a violinist (in a alt rock band!) Ryan, that just adds some sort of magic. Thus began a new love for this band. 

My life and experiences differ vastly against many of those sung by Blue October. Justin has openly expressed his bipolar disorder, past history of self abuse, drug use, and anxiety through his music. Many of these issues are key bases of songs throughout his albums though topics regarding infidelity, child custody battles, and schizophrenia also rein.
Now, while these specific topics don't apply to me, the emotion conveyed through many of his songs is simply amazing.

When Corey and I started dating, I introduced him to my favorite band, carefully choosing songs to best dive into first. That's the thing about Blue October, I found that I always had to listen to the song a few times before being able to fully appreciate it. That would be my suggestion to anyone who tries them out. It only took a few songs for Corey to get hooked too. Excitement would mount each time a new album would come out and we take great pleasure in simply going for a drive to escape the world while we listen to our CD's.

Every year for the past 5 years we have attended a Blue October concert together. Our first concert was at the Moore Theater in 2009. It was fantastic and we loved every moment (And stayed in the strangest hotel ever!) We have been to a Blue October concert every consecutive year since then and we have loved every show. Last year was the only time we've been able to see them in Vancouver seeing as the closest they usually only come is Seattle. It was exciting to see them in our own province and it was our first Meet and Greet! It was a small and intimate group as only about 25-30 people managed to get these extra tickets. They played a few songs for us during sound check before setting up at a table to sign and take pictures. We got to get our book signed and meet the band. It was amazing and they are all so awesome. Justin even chatted with us a tiny bit and told us that we were a stunning couple and would have beautiful kids. Too cute! I melted and we got a picture taken with them.

This year we bought tickets for their Seattle concert at the Showbox at the Market. It's a really cool venue blocks from Pike Place Market. We drove down and checked into our hotel before walking up the streets of Seattle with tickets in hand. I love visiting Seattle. Hate driving in the city but walking in it is great. Tons of cool shops and funky restaurants in cool looking buildings. Unfortunately we didn't have time to check out a cool hole in the wall establishment so we grabbed a sandwich and headed to line up at the venue.

We go meet and greet tickets again too and this time the M&G crowd was huge.Blue October played three songs for us, one of them being a really cool rendition of 'X Amount of Words" before getting us all in line to sign posters that they handed out. I could feel myself getting giddy as our turn approached.
Justin asked how we're doing and I got to tell him that we've been coming for 5 years now. He seemed genuinely thankful and thanked us for supporting them. We got another picture with the band and then had to go back outside and wait till 7 for the actual show. Being M&G ticket holders, we got to be the first ones back into the Showbox.
The first opening band was good enough to warrant us buying a copy of their debut album. Pretty snazzy. When Blue October came on everyone was on their feet screaming bloody murder. They have a small, but very enthusiastic fan base apparently. The show was simply amazing. Corey and I sung along together to every song. There's one new song in particular, Sway, that we decided that was a good contender for a 'first dance' kinda song. Nice.
There's always one song that Blue October plays that really shows how much they appreciate the support of their fans. Into the Ocean was their second song to hit the radio I believe and they always make a point of playing it. During the course of the song Justin throws out his arm and lets the audience sing the chorus. This time the whole band stopped playing and let us all sing the ending for him. It is some sort of magic right there, feeling everyone be part of that song.
We cheered so loud after they left that they came back to play three more songs for the encore. Awesome!

We walked back to our hotel with some other Canadian Blue October fans in the pouring rain and ordered a pizza at 1am. it's fun having pizza delivered right to your hotel room door.
On our way back home we stopped at some shops and checked out a store I've never been in before. Hot Topic. It gets a lot of flak for some reason but I thought it was awesome for someone who wants TV/Movie/Game related stuff. We ended up spending close to 45 minutes looking at everything. There were wicked costumes and just an endless array of stuff to look it that I won't bother listing it all.
Corey ended up buying close to 8 pairs of sunglasses because they were so damn cheap and funny looking and we ended up chatting with the cashier about the differences in Canadian vs American Thanksgiving.
I nearly gasped out loud when I saw a stand of Dr Who stuff. So many things! What do I choose?! I ended up picking up some Tardis socks and earrings. I don't even have my ears pierced. Guess what I'll be doing for an Experience Challenge one of these days....haaaa.

Gorillas?

So, I just had the realization that the new Bruno Mars song lyrics are NOT "making love like a river" which was confusing enough but "making love like gorillas"

Huh

Strange

http://youtu.be/9XXnutQmWPE

Keeping It Clean

I’ve been sick the past couple day. No, wait. Scratch that. I’ve been sick since September 22^nd. First the stomach flu, then some general unpleasantness until I transitioned into the wonderful cold I have now. I do feel better today than I did yesterday though. I thought I wasn’t going to survive the last four hours of work last night but I pulled through! I’m lucky enough to have a job where I can wrap myself in some blankets and cuddle with some pups while I recover.

Today I feel much better. The 12 hours of sleep I got last night probably helped. I don’t remember the last time I slept that long! I felt like a grandma going to bed at 7:30 but apparently I really needed it. Other than a killer headache, I don’t feel too bad. Today I woke up with a mission. I had received a bunch of cleaning gear from Partners in Parks the other day so now that I was feeling less like a pile of crap and more like a human being, I decided that I was going to clean up my dog walking route. Even with me picking up a few pieces of garbage while I walk some days, it feels like ten more pieces replace it. I've noticed this to be especially true down where they are building new million dollar houses. Earlier in the spring I had to call city services because I couldn't keep up with how much trash they were letting blow down into the river. Luckily they are almost done the last two houses and soon maybe they will be gone and it will be easier to keep clean.

It took me about 25 minutes to get through the first hundred meters of our walk because there was so much trash! I had seen this all before but on Wednesday the parks crew came through and cut down all the tall grass so even more garbage was exposed to the world. Gross. Amongst the candy wrappers, travel cups and general trash, I found computer cables, an old basketball and a flat iron! What? How does one lose a straightening iron in the middle of a field by a farm? Wtf.

Zoey happily zipped up and down the gravel as I cleaned the trail. Toby, who has to be on leash, was less than impressed with my ecological efforts. A few people I met on my walk, however, gave me genuine thanks and appreciation for what I was doing. That felt nice. What also was nice was seeing how clean the trail was on my walk back. Success! In the end I think I picked up close to ten pounds of garbage if not more (I’m not good with estimates).

Here’s to hoping that the trail stays clean for a while.

Small Steps

Let's hope that happiness can heal.

Experience Challenge #13 Hair Fail

Curl your hair with velcro rollers they said

It would be easy, they said.

Fuck, put me in a green dress and I'll look like Merida

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