Work and the Christmas Season..

Work...

All in all, I love the people I work with. The only problem being that many times they smile at each other and then complain as soon as the other person leaves. It's SO frustrating! Then again, it hasn't changed much from one job to another... Although, when I worked at the pool, we had separate change rooms from the guys and a 3:1 ratio (times 4 or so...) instead of a 7:1 ratio.

Christmas season...

So, I love Christmas and all but what it comes down to is that by December 28, I am really sick of the overcommercialization of this holiday, as well as the "tin can Christmas Carols" that are STILL being played in the mall. The other thing is that when you work in retail and you put up a sign saying "No refunds or Exchanges on December 26 or 27th. Thanks, Management." you would expect the crap to hit the fan. Surprisingly, we didn't have too many complaints... We did have a couple of customers who came in, screamed at us, threatened to call head office and stormed out... But really, no major complaints. *rolling eyes* We had staff snapping at each other, complaining about switching (or not switching) shifts, stupid customers, large sales, etc... Gosh, it was retarded!

So, the nice thing about this time of year is that hopefully people are almost done with their petty, stupid attitudes and soon people will go back to their normal selves because lately they have been acting ridiculous!

Post Open House...

The open house went pretty well! We had a good time overall and at the end of the night we had some... interesting adventures. We ended up going to Wal-Mart and then driving all over the city and taking photo's with the stuffed cow we bought and random people. I think the best picture is with the bouncers from Coyote's! :) Although, my brother and the cow on the back of the police car being "arrested" is pretty good too. (The pics are on Adam's Facebook and possibly his Nexopia as well.) We ended up back at my place after hitting Timmy's for doughnuts and made tea, hot chocolate and coffee. We didn't go to bed until 7am but it was a ton of fun! :) All in all, I think everyone had fun!

Before the Open House

So, last year I had an Open House. One of the reasons for it was my grandpa telling me a story of his parents inviting all of his friends over to their house at random times for parties and such. Most of my friends had been to or through the house and had met him but not all at once.

So, we planned it, bought the food, tidied the house, decorated and it was all in order.

My friends came, we played games, watched movies, drank a bit, ate, went for a walk at around 2am and went to the park. Many people crashed in my living room on the floor, chairs, love seats, etc. and it was like a large sleepover. :)

It was a fun evening for everyone... My grandpa said he liked having my friends around and my mom said she liked seeing everyone.

Tomorrow we are doing somewhat of a repeat... The thing is, there is no grandpa this year. I have to admit, that makes me very sad but there is nothing I can do to change it. I'm looking forward to my friends being here but I'm kind of apprehensive about it at the same time. Oh well, I will have to see how it goes...

Christmas is coming

So, with Christmas less than a week away, many people around me are asking, "what did you get me?" or "I wonder what I'm getting for Christmas?" It doesn't surprise me as much as it used to that many people look at Christmas as a time to get "stuff" from their friends and families. Anyone who knows me knows that I love giving people presents. There doesn't have to be a reason but I was told by someone once that I was trying to "buy people's affection" and ever since I have been very careful about what I buy and when I give it to a person. With Christmas literally just around the corner, I have bought small items or made small items for most of my friends. As per usual, my theory being that it's the thought that goes into the gift that counts, not its overall monetary value. So, for anyone who was hoping for diamonds or pearls from me, probably not this year.

One of the aspects of Christmas that I love is spending time with loved ones. I had an open house last year so my grandfather could meet my friends, we could see each other before Christmas and just to fill the house with "holiday cheer." One of the main differences between last year and this year is that neither of my grandparents will be here and that is upsetting but something we are all trying to deal with. We each have our own ways of dealing... My mom has said that any of my friends who don't have somewhere to be on Christmas Day can come to our house for dinner, my brother is throwing himself into his D.J. stuff and contemplating playing Christmas and New Year's parties and I'm planning another open house. It will be odd without my grandpa there but it will be good to see my friends. I just know that thinking about last year is hard...

Christmas Day last year was kind of a gong show. My grandmother sisn't remember where she was and why she was there, nor that it was Christmas. My grandfather spent a lot of time that day convincing her to come home and then trying to get her to feel comfortable while at home (which was tougher than any of us thought). My dad didn't get up all day, he wasn't feeling well and he slept all day. My brother and I helped my mom and grandfather make dinner after opening presents and then helped clean up at the end of the night. My mom spent most 0f the day making sure everyone else was okay, especially my grandmother. Dinner didn't get any better and by the end of the meal, most of us just wanted to curl up and ignore what was happening. By the time my grandpa got back from dropping my grandma off, we had most of the place clean and he was exhausted. It was a good day to spend with family but it was tough on all of us.

This year, my mom has told me that all she wants for Christmas is my brother and I to be home. My dad "doesn't want anything" which is the same thing many of my friends told me. My brother and I have done a lot of our shopping together so that everyone is covered and they should like what they got. I am a little sad though... I walk through shops and see stuff that reminds me of my grandparents and I think, "they would love that!" and then remember that they won't be around to enjoy it. *sigh* I am in a melancholy mood today and I think it's ok. Sometimes people need to be a little sad to appreciate all of the good things that are going on. :)

So, on that note, I need to go sleep... I have an exam tomorrow and I need to rest and take a break from studying (which is what this is!) before I write it.

Random things.

At some point I turned on "comment moderation" which is good. However, if you commented on my blog and it wasn't posted, check again, it will be now. Also, if your comment was inappropriate, it will not be posted.

If I feel the need to express something by use of punctuation instead of profanity as an example, I will do so and if people don't like it, they don't have to read or comment upon my blog. If I make a comment about something, it is probably because I want to remember it for later. If I refer it to something else that other people in my social stratosphere can understand, so be it. Therefore, whoever was leaving me sanctimonius comments with atrocious spelling mistakes, don't bother. If you want to refer to someone as "uneducated" I suggest you take a look in the mirror.

As an aside: whoever posted the song lyrics (I know who you are)... I love the song "Needs" and I love that there is hidden meaning in that and that you chose that song for specific reasons that pertain to you in the first place. I'm sure you did the same with the other that you posted. However, I don't need people taking shots at me on MY blog so I posted them but I read very different things into both songs than you do. Also, I tried "searching" my Russian name and this blog doesn't come up so thanks for lying about that as well. The only way to find it would be on the SproutWorks search, which I found by searching the entire name of my blog. I'm not sure why I was surprised you lied. You tell me people change but I guess you haven't as much as you'd like to think.

Sick... and Exhausted....

Ok, so I'm just writing because I'm sick and exhausted but I slept for part of the day and I have some energy to burn.

The highlight of my day was getting a phone call from Shannon and it was SOOOOOOO great to hear from her!!!

The TEC pizza making day was this past weekend and the day as a whole went pretty well. Other than a minor snafu with the orders (freaking computers! I'm glad my laptop is in being fixed!) the day ran pretty smoothly. There were a lot of people that didn't show up for random reasons but it worked out okay in the end.

THING on Saturday was good. Anne is back from Germany and it was the first time I had seen her since she got back. My small group is an odd combination but fun now! The people that were there on Saturday were Andrew, Jordan, Matt, Anne, Amy, Amanda and I. We had an interesting discussion... Bethany was the speaker and I liked what she had to say. After THING, a bunch of us went to Moxie's and it was interesting. We ended up with two large tables and at one was Andrew, Amanda, Alessa, Cory, Meghan, Kateryna and Adam and at the other was Jordan, Emily, Minetta, Sarah, Matt, Amber and I. Fun times were had by all and there was a ton of food sharing going on... I'm not sure which was funnier though, Amber stealing Jordan's salad before he got any or Cory and Adam licking the dessert plates clean... *lol* It was amusing either way. :)

Sunday was pretty uneventful... I got to work and my knee was killing me so the DM ended up sending me home early. My mom and I hit Costco to pick up a few things and I got these great pink fluffy pillows and then she and I went out for vietnamese food for dinner. Afterwards, I went to Chapters in search of something very specific, had to go to two different Chapters stores to find it and then went home to hang out with Tammy and update my Nex and MySpace.

Monday I worked and then I wasn't feeling very well so I went home and had a nap and then hit Ikea on my way out of town and picked up two dining room chairs (we bought this gargantuan dining room table at the thrift store and only have two chairs so I've been sitting on my yoga ball at the table when Holly is over for dinner) and a dresser. I needed 2 but the tall one I need was out of stock so I need to go back. I got back here quite late and was exhausted but ended up being up most fo the night sick. :(

So, now I'm up, I have helped John and Holly fill a 10 gallon fish tank. Yes, we are apparently getting fish... And now, I'm blogging before I try to get some sleep. Tomorrow I need to finish off the stuff for my new parking pass (for anyone who hasn't heard, I screwed up my knee to the point that I'm not supposed to walk long distances or carry anything over 20pds) and go downtown to "run" (lol, riiiight... *rolling eyes*) some errands.

For those of you who are also sick, I hope you feel better soon! And for those of you I haven't talked to in a while, know I'm thinking about you and we should hang out soon!

For now, goodnight to all...

Uplifting.

Yay for friends!

This weekend, I was dreading going home... I knew that I had a ton of stuff to do for work, TEC, school and life in general and I didn't want to go home. Then again, when I leave to come back, I don't want to come back either so it seems like a tough choice either way.

So, I decided that hanging out with my friends was something I needed to do this weekend. I needed a break and I keep getting told that I don't make enough time just for me in the week. It's weird because I have had people in the past tell me I'm selfish and think about myself too much and then I had a few people tell me to take more "me" time. :S Anyway, I got the chance to hang out with Emily and Jordan a lot this weekend. We had movie nights at my house both Friday and Saturday and tried to go swimming when I was off work Saturday but the pool was closed. We watched "Grease" and "Serendipity" on Friday (Em and Jordan wanted to see the first and I had just bought the second) and Matt hung out for the first and left before we started the second. On Saturday we rented movies and I let Em and Jordan pick and they chose "Rent" and "Transamerica." I'm not sure if this was a "musical" weekend or if Saturday was a "gay themed night" but they were an interesting choice. I love Rent and I was amazed they chose it. Transamerica was interesting... The actress who plays the "father" did an excellent job. Matt and Meghan joined us for those two and it was nice to have people around. I often feel like there is no one around when I'm in the Bridge and I can't do things like this weekend all the time but sometimes it makes for a nice change of pace. I love hanging out with Jordan and Emily... Every time is completely different! We always have a ton of fun, whether we are completely serious or insanely silly and I love it!

I also read a bunch of my friends blogs in the past couple of days. I ahven't been able to keep up with them very well because I have been without internet access. It's cool to read what is going on in people's lives...

Random things... I'm not sure what to make of these two guys I talk to on MySpace and Nex occasionally. They seem to be flirsting with me and I'm considering it harmless but... One's display pic is of him cuddling a teddy bear and the other keeps commenting on my eyes. :S Guys are strange creatures!

Speaking of strange creatures or circumstances I guess, my mom has decided she needs a part-time job and has decided to go apply at DHL. She figures if she can carry an 8 foot long box by herself, she could turn it into something profitable. I laughed my butt off when she called me to tell me that. I know she's kidding but it was definitely amusing!

I posted about TEC on the Nexopia Christian forums and it would be cool if people come check out THING and such. It would be cool to know that my posting an itty-bitty topic made people notice that there were things going on.

Anyway, I'm going to bed. I have pent-up energy... I spent the last hour and a bit working on a theory assignment for my conducting class. I now have the instrumentation for "O Canada" written out for something like 14 different Wind Orchestra instruments. Why? Because my prof thought it was a good idea apparently! Night!

Randomness...

Ok, so I know that a blog is supposed to be a type of online journal of sorts. I have a few people who read this and that's all good. I haven't updated it in a while because I've had a lot of stuff on my mind...

I guess part of what has been going on is that while I don't hate Lethbridge anymore (I did my first year) I am just sick of school. I want to be done and I have done my classes in the order they need to be done in and I have this year and I should be done my degree as long as the University doesn't throw some stupid rule at me that I haven't yet heard... I'm also sick of the driving and the dryness and the lack of people and things to do.

My classes this semester consist of two history classes, a conducting class and orchestra. I am trying not to kill myself with school work while at the same time keeping my GPA up and my energy and enthusiasm about school up as well. It's tough but I'm hoping to make it work.

All I know is that right now I am feeling pretty bummed and I hate that. I have become such a "glass half full" kind of person that feeling like this is awful. My mom says things will get better when I get back into the swing of school.

I am enjoying my classes thus far, we have covered a lot in just a few days and I feel like I know my stuff but it's only the second week. The hardcore stuff is still coming. On a bright note, I'm pretty sure I have narrowed down what I want to write my history essays on and if I can get a thesis and opening paragraph done, I can get the topics approved and get the paper done sooner rather than later.

On another topic, the pizza making day is in a week and a bit and the deadline for orders is in less than a week and I have no orders at all yet. This worries me a bit. Some people have said that maybe if we don't sell enough we could try something else next time and it would prove it has been overdone. However, as a fundraiser, it would be nice if it did just that. The money goes towards helping people who wouldn't be able to afford it otherwise come on the weekend and that's important! I'm just feeling impassioned towards the TEC community lately. My vision of the future (while people are talking about full TEC weekends, which would be awesome) would be for not only that but for us to be better known and for the fundraising to end up paying for almost everything so that participants and team pay very little or nothing to be there... I know, "ideal world" but it would be nice if it worked that way.

Anyway, I'm tired and I'm not sure what else to say... I've had kind of a bad day and I normally try to keep this blog all peppy and positive but I'm just not feeling it right now.

John and Holly...

So yesterday I was at work and I randomly called my mom because we were supposed to be meeting up after I was off work. She told me, "John wrecked his truck, I'll call you back!" and hung up on me. I was shocked!!! I called John and he told me he was in the process of being loaded into an ambulance but was feeling ok considering... All he knew about Holly at the time was she was in a different ambulance and he would call me back with updates. Needless to say, I was rather upset. My mom called me back to say that they were waiting to hear whether the injuries were severe enough to warrant airlifting them to Calgary as there would be no point in driving to B.C. if they weren't there. She called me at work to say that they were going to be kept in Cranbrook and I needed to meet her ASAP at my house so we could leave. John kept us updated throughout the trip about how they both were!

So, Praise God for John and Holly! And Praise God that they are relatively unscathed!

They were driving into Cranbrook, B.C. and were broadsided by someone who was trying to turn left across the highway. John tried to swerve but the momentum with which he was already going and the movement of the other vehicle caused his truck to roll. It rolled at least twice they figured and then slid on its roof for about 150-200 meters. It sheared off the metal toolbox that was bolted to the back and squashed it as flat as a pancake (a large one but a pancake none-the-less) and broke off both of the doors of the box, the back and front windsheilds both broke, the back one smashed out completely and the front one looked like it was caving in, the doors were sealed shut from the impact, John crawled out through his window and someone smasked in the window on Holly's side so she could get out... There are marks from where it slid all over the vehicle and the gas cap looks as though it is closed, only it is facing the wrong way. John found one of the stickers he had on his window with part of the window still stuck to it when he showed us the scene in the dark last night. We cleaned up the truck and took all of their stuff away from it today... Most of it is covered in glass or rocks or oil but most of it is still usable. The digital camera Holly got for grad didn't make it and John's laptop was thrown and is smashed in the case and all of the lights that John added are broken and many of the things they had in the back is mangled and most of the camping stuff is ruined. My mom and I looked at the truck today and John and Holly stood and held each other while they both cried.

My mom said that it's amazing that they both came through it with so few injuries. John's pretty shaken up, he has some bruises and scratches and is achy and other than he is refusing to drive, he seems pretty normal. Holly on the other hand has scratches all over her feet and her hands, road rash on her wrist, stitches in one hand and some bruises. They gave her morphine for pain and had her on I.V. because she fainted at the scene. They will both become more sore as time goes on... It goes with the after effects of the accident. Holly said that her dad won't believe her so we took a ton of pictures of the truck which I need to go get developed soon.

The one thing that came through the entire ordeal without anything more than a little dirt on it was a framed picture of the two of them that John always takes with him...

Hectic!

The last couple of weeks have been hectic for me! I had a crazily busy week of nonstop work and then my birthday hit. Then I went on a roadtrip to B.C. and spent some time soaking up the sun and shopping in Washington.

On my birthday, I had a pretty good day... I had breakfast at Shaun's and then went to the mall and had my hair done and picked up a few things that were last minute things to go with a couple of things I had gotten for my birthday from my family and stuff I needed to go away for the week. Then we went to the Mongolie Grill for dinner (My Mom, Emily, Matt, Laurel, Shaun, Mike, Chris, Jordan, Dana, Tammy, John S., Trevor, Britney, Meghan and I) and then to THING. THING was interesting... I was on the prayer team but also ended up helping with games... Part of what made that interesting was that it was a WILD and not a NEW THING and there wouldn't normally be games. :) We had fun though. Afterwards we went to Moxie's at Westhills (Matt, Emily, Tammy, Adam, John S., Brian G., Jordan, Shaun, Chris, Mike, Lisa, Meghan, John and I) and Shaun tried to make me drink and entire tray of drinks. I passed a couple of them off to friends and was glad I wasn't driving either way. :)

Emily and I embarked upon our roadtrip to B.C. and Washington later in the day on the Sunday and we had a ton of fun! We spent our first night in Cranbrook and then went on to Grand Forks where we spent most of our trip. While we were gone we spent a ton of time in the water! Between the hotel pool on the way out, Christina Lake and going down to Riverside or tubing down the river, I was feeling pretty water-logged by the end of the week. :) We had a ton of fun though and got great tans! We also went down to Colville one day and spent some time perusing the shopping selections at the Dollar Giant or some such store as that, Payless Shoes and Wal-Mart (which is open 24 hours there!) and another day we went to Spokane. My mom wanted to go to Chico's and I wanted to hit Lane Bryant. We also went to the Fashion Bug, TJ Max, Macy's and Nordstrom's. We had a ton of fun shopping and "playing Barbie" with each other and we all came back (Em, my mom and I that is) with some fun new clothes! We also picked up a ton of pop for a bunch of random people!

I'm glad to be home but on one hand, life is hectic, I am working at least 38 hours for the next few weeks! For anyone who needs anything for back to school, come see me!!! I'll appreciate the company and I'm pretty much always at my home store!!!

Stampede!!!

So, I hadn't been to Stampede in a few years. With being at camp and such, I didn't have a ton of time off and I decided that this year, I would take the time to go. I ended up going three times!!!

The first time, I worked until 9 and Matt came to meet me and then we went down and met up with my mom and Holly and wandered and tried some of the food and the games. We wandered through the Round-Up Center and checked out the various booths and then watched the fireworks before heading home.

The second time, I worked until 5 and I was supposed to be meeting Dana, Matt, Nick, Kevin, Graham, Josh, Jon, Justin and Candace down at Nashville North. I got there around 6 and waited in line for two hours. At the point I was almost at 2.5hours and was feeling faint from lack of food (I hadn't eaten since 11am and it was 8:30pm) and I needed to use a bathroom, I gave up. I was still an hour away from the door and the people ahead of me were drinking anything alcoholic they could get their hands on and the people behind me were smoking anything they could get their hands on so I left. I had been receiving text messages about what the people inside were doing (apparently standing around doing not much at that point) so I sent a message saying I was going to go my own thing and I did. I hit the washroom, grabbed something to eat, wandered the midway and played some games, rode the skyride one way, listened to Lillix and Headley, shopped in the Round-Up Center, played some more games, checked in with my brother and ran into a bunch of people I know from camp and such! I saw Mary, Brityn, Seena, Mark, Orin, (and by camp names) Spam, Splash, Aurora, Fluffy, Waldorf and Tinkerbell. I was on the verge of leaving when Matt called me to say that everyone else was heading home and he was going to come meet me. We met around 11pm and did some more games and such and then took the train home.

Sunday was the last day of Stampede as well as the day of the Third Day concert! :) :) :) :) :) :) Emily and I went to the concert and ran into many people on our way into and our of the concert... We saw Andrew and Nancy, Scott, Chris, Trevor and Michelle, Jon, Justin and Candace, Matt, Dana, Elaine, Selena, Nick and Sarah, and Shannon. The concert was amazing!!! Emily and I were just above and to the left of the stage and we had a great view! It was awesome to be able to worship along with all three bands! I loved Starfield and Chris Tomlin was fabulous!!! We jumped up and down and danced as we sang along! Emily wasn't sure at first if she had heard of either of them but she knew more songs than she was originally aware! :) Third Day rocked!!! They did "Thief" and I cried... It reminds me of the Stations Team Fiesta skit from TEC 38... I texted Dana about it and bawled... They also did "Cry out to Jesus" and I cried during that one... Emily and I both bought Third Day t-shirts and I got a guitar keychain as well as the new Starfield CD. After the concert, we met up with Matt, Dana, Jon, Justin and Candace. We went to the midway and went on a few rides (well, they did, I went on the "Skyscraper" or whatever it's called with Emily...) and then we sat on a grassy hill and watched the fireworks. Afterwards, Emily and I went on the Ferris Wheel and then on these huge slide things and played a game each and picked up some random food and then headed for home.

I think that all in all, I pretty much enjoyed this year more than I have the past couple that I have gone. I don't think it was the best year of Stampede ever but it turned out to be a ton of fun!!! I think next year I might try to do an entire day of it or something, rather than a bunch of small outings... Or, even a couple of late afternoon into evening forays into the crowds... :D

Either way, it's going to be an interesting next couple of weeks and last night was a good kick-off to it!!!

Ok, if bad things happen in threes, what is the third?

So, I had Saturday off... This is a rare occurance and I was really looking foward to going out to Christine's cabin. Matt and I got a late start on Friday due to when I got off work (and my having had "words" with one of the older guys at work) and then when we got out there, Christine, Ian, Laurel, Trevor, Ken, Elaine, Sandra and Bethany were already there. We hung out and roasted marshmallows and made Smores and took turns chasing off bugs with the "electric" bug zapper (it looks like a tennis racquet) and chatting. Around 10 or so, because Ken had to work fairly early the next day, Laurel, Ken and Elaine left. Trevor had his tent set up and the rest of us slept inside. The rest of us hung around outside by the fire until closer to 11 or 11:30 and at one point Ian and Trevor were talking about stars supernova-ing and the denseness of iron particles and how they are bad for computers. I could follow most of the conversation but it was amusing because as they were talking about it, almost everyone else stood up and went inside. :D We all went to bed around 11:30 and I could still hear Sandra and Christine giggling and talking until waaaay later.... We got up for breakfast the next morning around 7:30. Ian had made breakfast and there was scrambled eggs, bacon (of course!), cheese and fresh fruit. It was SO early to be up (I don't DO 7:30am on a Saturday morning normally...) but it was fun to have breakfast with everyone. After breakfast both Bethany and I went back to sleep for a while and then I just kind of hung out in the room and read and such while everyone else went for a walk and visited the llama's. The bad point of the day for me was when I was coming down the stairs with my stuff and I slipped... one of my feet slipped on the carpet and I started to lose my balance and I grabbed the railings on both sides. I managed to drop the glass I was carrying and it shattered all over the place which really upset me... Christine and Ian both said that they were glad that it was the glass and not me... I did manage to stop myself and I twisted my knee, ankle and foot and got my foot caught between the bannister bars. Trevor left earlier to go biking, Bethany had a wedding to go to and the others were going swimming but I had made plans to go shopping with Emily and Tammy and Matt was pretty tired so we left. I noticed as we were driving back into the city that my toe was slightly bleeding around the toenail on the big toe and after Matt dropped me off, I went to the walk-in clinic to get it looked at. I have a requisition for x-rays if my foot is still bothering me on Tuesday (I was told to give it a couple of days) and I'm supposed to keep my toe wrapped with guaze and polysporin and watch it for infection. (I hate doctors...:P)

I went shopping with Tammy and Emily and we stopped at Axe so Tammy could pick up a guitar stand and a couple of picks and so Emily could see where I work. When we got to the mall, we spent a little while in A-E and ran into Shannon, Stephanie and "Mom" and then we stopped at Bentley and said "hi" to my co-workers and got my schedule for this week and Em got a money belt for her trip to Turkey. After that we spent close to two hours in Old Navy. As Emily "played Barbie" with Tammy and I in A-E, I did the same with both of them. At the end of the day, Tammy ended up buying a couple of tank tops, a couple of strapless tops and a pair of jeans. (She also replaced her bubble machine while we were at the mall.) Emily got two new bikini tops and a new set of bottoms, a skirt, a pair of shorts, a shirt and a set of sunglasses. I got a couple of shirts, a new bathing suit, two pairs of flip flops and a necklace. We had a ton of fun and grabbed dinner at the mall before heading for THING.

THING last night was really good. Adrian's talk was really well done and touched on a lot of amazing points and many people could relate to what he was saying. He brought up the point that many people are Humans "Being" rather than Humans "Doing" and he made reference to the song "Jesus Freak" (I <3 that song!) and talked about judgment. The small group I was part of had a really good discussion and it was really well handled by Tammy (who I was coaching). I went for prayer with Tammy and Laurel as I have been feeling frustration about some things and I am in quite a bit of pain... Emily spent most of the night hanging out with Eckley and they seem to have formed a friendship of sorts. Afterwards, we went to Moxie's at Westhills and Tammy and I sat with John and Shauna. Emily sat with Matt, Kirsten, Eljse, Eckley and Jordan. At the end of the night, I drove Emily home and then stopped and put gas in my car and picked up gauze, polysporin, tape and ibuprofin. I came in and went straight to bed, I was exhausted. When I got home, my knee and ankle were throbbing really badly...

Today I woke up fairly early and finished the book I have been reading for the past week and a bit. (It was one of those two novels in one book things and it was a good read...) I had a shower, rewrapped my toe and wrapped my ankle with a tensor and went to work. Work was okay today, I vaccumed the store and wiped counters and such and called the lessons for tomorrow and got to hang out with the guys which was cool. The day went by pretty quickly which was nice. :) The guys commented about my "cute younger friend" and it was... weird... :P (Em needs a part-time job but I think she'd end up corrupted or hit-on more than she needs to be after working there.)

Tonight, I met my mom to pick-up groceries and because I haven't seen her in a week and a half and as we were in Co-op, some guy who works there came out of the stock room and wasn't paying attention and took the corner too fast and the boxes fell off and hit me. (There were three or four large boxes with toilet paper or paper towel or kleenex or something in them...) One corner of one box caught me in the small of the back and another caught me in the back of the neck. The guy said, "oops! Sorry!" and grabbed the boxes and continued on. (If I had been standing any closer to the shelf in front of me, I would have hit my head...) At that point, my mom had seen the whole thing and asked if I was ok and when I said I wasn't she told me to go say something at Customer Service. I did and they took down my name and phone number so they can contact me once it has been looked into and I talked to the manager and was told if I end up seeking medical attention to call.

I came home and planned to chill by myself but Matt and Laurel came over and we are watching "Glory Road" and I'm going to go to bed early. I work 12-9 tomorrow and I can sleep in which is going to be excellent! :)

"And the beat goes on..."

Ok, first of all, I have had this song stuck in my head all day... (I have no idea why!!!)

The beat goes on, the beat goes on.

Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain.

La de da de de, la de da de da.

Charleston was once the rage, uh huh.

History has turned the page, uh huh.

The miniskirt's the current thing, uh huh.

Tennybopper is our newborn king, uh huh.

And the beat goes on, the beat goes on.

Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain.

La de da de de, la de da de da.

The grocery store's the supermart, uh huh.

Little girls still break their hearts, uh huh.

And men still keep on marching off to war.

Electrically they keep a baseball score.

And the beat goes on, the beat goes on.

Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain.

La de da de de, la de da de da.

Grandmas sit in chairs and reminisce.

Boys keep chasing girls to get a kiss.

The cars keep going faster all the time.

Bums still cry 'Hey buddy, have you got a dime?'

And the beat goes on, the beat goes on.

Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain.

La de da de de, la de da de da.

Today, I worked both jobs... This is the second time I have done this and it was better than I had anticipated. I worked the opening shift at Bentley and the closing one at Axe. We were extremely busy during the morning at Bentley and I felt like I didn't leave the till for almost 2 hours... *sigh* My sales were high though (which is good!) but then I had to receive 73 boxes of stock and that almost killed me. Ok, not literally... But it just kept coming and the guy from UPS was looking more and more haggard all the time... We got through about 1/4 of it before I left... Shaun came and visited me when he got his lunch break so I took my lunch and went to hang out with him. I ran into Cat and she joined us as well. It was awesome to see her!

My last few days have been interesting... Canada Day I worked for most of the day and we had an... incident... at work, so I stayed until close. I went home for a bit and then Matt came over and we went out to Chestermere to visit Brit. It was awesome to see a bunch of people that I hadn't seen in a while! Sharla, Graham James, Adam and Lauren all jumped me and gave me hugs and I was really surprised to see Brent (H-Core... I had heard he wasn't going back!) and I visited with Ashley H., Ashley K., Brad, Emma and some others. It was really awesome that Lauren, Ashley K. and Sharla came up and gave me a hug... I've missed all of my girls from my HS week cabin last year and I don't get to see them very often. Graham was in my photojournalism class last year and the last time I saw him was a Moxie's a while ago... He's such a good kid! It was awesome to see some of the former campers there as CLTD's and counsellors! Collin is there, as well as Mike is back and the dramatic duo of Sheldon and Andrew. :) I was surprised by a couple of things... One was that Frank came up and gave me a hug from behind and then when I gave him a hug, he told me that I "still give the best hugs ever!" and then invited me to stay for worship... I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first but I did stay. The other was that Matt L. came up and gave me a big hug during worship... He said, "I tried to get over to talk to you but you were surrounded earlier. It's good to see you!" It was awesome to see him and I know that he will be one of the things about camp I will miss. It should be a fun summer out there. I have to admit, being there was cool but tough. I didn't realize how much I would miss the people. Honestly, being out there isn't what is for me this summer and I know that... But it would be fun to be out there, even if it was for a week, maybe Teens or something... I don't think I'd be allowed now, it's already after staff training and everything so... Anyway, Matt and I left and picked Emily up to go watch the fireworks. We were told that they were supposed to launch at 11pm so we were on our way towards the downtown area. But when we got down there, John called to say that they had launched at 10:30 and we had all missed them. So, we met he and Holly at BP's and hung out there for a bit. Em spent the night at my house and the next morning I drove her over to her bestfriend's house. I had to work so...

Sunday at work was pretty dead... I did the stuff I'm supposed to and when it came time to close, there was a miscommunication that kind of upset me and I did the closing in less time than I ever have. The problem is, I left kind of perturbed about it. Kurtis waited for me and made sure that everything that needed to get done was and we were out of here by 5:20... I then met Matt for something to eat and then I went and hung out with Jay for a while. He and I had a long conversation about a bunch of stuff that needed to be talked out... I hadn't really said much when we had talked before... I do have an opinion about certain things... I'm still kind of wary of his reactions to me... I have changed a lot in the past year... I don't think he realizes just how much. I want things to be "the same" as they were... but only so far as we end up being able to talk openly to each other and trust each other again and I think that is going to take some major effort. I am more than willing to try and salvage our friendship but I almost feel as though he isn't. That bothers me but... meh. *shrug* I can't change his mind.

Monday, I slept in a bit (which was nice!) and worked at noon. I had a really great day overall at work... The minor problem from Saturday was resolved, I met the district manager and she told me that I'm doing a good job and I should keep it up and Kelly and I had fun just hanging out and talking while we worked when it wasn't busy. Also, Shaun, Lisa and Matt all came in to visit. :) During the afternoon, Kelly came in with his gf Laura and I have heard about her from Matt but I hadn't met her (officially) so it was cool to meet her. After work, I hit Wal-Mart with Shaun and Lisa and I bought some containers for the stuff in my grandparent's closets... I need to clean them out and I should do it soon... My only issue is that I don't really want to be alone in the house when I do it... :( Afterwards, I dropped them off at Shaun's mom's and then went to Rip's to meet up with Matt. Turns out he and Laura had been hanging out and I joined them and met a bunch of other people and saw some people I hadn't seen in a while, like Katie and Chris. It was awesome! Katie walked in and I was thinking, "that looks like Katie... OMG! It is!!!" and then she came over and gave me a hug and told me how nice it was to see me. We chatted a biut throughout the night and we talked about going for coffee sometime. It was awesome to see her! At the end of the night, I went home and chilled for a bit by myself before going to bed. It had been a long day and I needed a bit of a break.

So, back to today... When I was driving from one job to the other, I noticed my car was still making a funny noise. I hadn't been thinking much of it but Matt had noticed it the other day and you can't hear it from outside the car, only inside... Weird... So I made a few phone calls and apparently the thought is that it may be the calipers (sp?) on my brakes. I'm hoping it's just the pads... All I know is that I can't afford to fix it so I need to take it somewhere that my parents have an account so it's no longer an issue because it could be dangerous to drive on... A screeching or squealing noise is worse I'm told so I'm being careful to listen for those...

So, tonight, I plan to get some sleep and go to bed pretty early... I'm getting up early to take my car in and get the oil changed, the tires rotated and the brakes looked at. Right now, I'm trying not to stress so I think I may have a bath before bed... Either way, I'm not exactly impressed with this current situation with my car... But, as the song says, "the beat goes on..." and I will too...

"This too shall pass..."

"There are some things that cannot be controlled..."

Amen to both!

I am slowly going crazy... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6...

Open... Close... F8, Shift F5, F2, F3, F6 then F8, Esc, F2, F2, Menu, 2, 4, 5, 1, 3... 2, 4, 6, 8... argh!!!!

Ok, so some days, my brain kind of feels like it's going to implode. But I think I am finally getting the hang of things to the point of which I am not going completely insane anymore. I am really enjoying both jobs although sometimes the cattiness of my fellow employees at the full-time one bugs me. We have sales goals as a store for the day and it is split between everyone who is working that day. I should point out that I am new and I know next to nothing about luggage, other than what I know from previous experience and what I have learned. Also, if someone asks me for my "honest opinion" I will give it to them. So, in sales, I may not sell many $300 pieces of luggage but I do sell a lot of $90 pieces with smaller, matching pieces. Someone told me this week that the two things I do well are interact with customers and sell sets. I have to agree with the sets and I love talking to and interacting with customers. It's awesome hearing people's stories, where they are travelling and what they are using the luggage for. I know we sold a bunch of duffel bags on wheels to a family who is in the process of moving overseas and I sold a set of luggage to a family who is on vacation and only brought minimal luggage but chose to shop while they were here and are taking WAY more back than what they brought here. I think the one customer I enjoyed the most was the grandmother who was looking for luggage for she and her granddaughter because they were going to Russia this summer so she could show her granddaughter where she grew up. We talked a bit about her ancestry and I mentioned mine and we talked about the Doukhobours. Turns out, she's from Creston... :) It was an interesting conversation... :D I like the longer shifts and yesterday I did double my budget in sales and this week, while I have had fairly low sales in smaller items, I have had awesome sales in luggage, to the point that my manager jokes about keeping me away from that part of the store and then I sell pieces that are by the bunks anyway!

I have decided to take a week off at the end of July so I can go spend some time at my parents property in B.C. Anyone who wants to join me is more than welcome to... I am leaving the Sunday late afternoon after my birthday (I think... or early Monday morning) and I plan to be back later that week. I can't really take any time off in August because I have some family things going on, my mom has to be back at work, some of my coworkers have vacations planned and it's back to school season at one of my jobs so vacation time isn't ideal.

I have had a very anti-social week by comparison to some... Last week I was pretty social and I have hung out with some people this week but with work and everything, I have been pretty tired. I don't want to end up exhausted so I am trying to take it easy and sleep when I have time and keep my feet up when I have time. Friday night last week I was feeling pretty gross so I was up most of the night and I called in sick to work. I slept most of the morning and then ran a few TEC-related errands and then because I was part of the worship band, I went to the church around 4. The worship went pretty well, we had a few minor technical problems with CD and powerpoint related things but all in all the evening went well and Brit's talk was well done. Also, we voted on registering as a non-profit charitable organization (my mom asked me, "why didn't you do that about 10 or 15 years ago???) and afterwards went to Timmy's. Emily and Brityn came and had an awesome time and John was there and he played bass with us and it was awesome to see him enjoying himself! Sunday we went out to Didsbury and other than Tammy not feeling so hot on the way out and getting slightly lost (the last part of the directions said to turn left and we needed to turn right) it was a fun day! The picnic was cool and the people were really friendly! I hope Inez invites us out again sometime! Tammy and I agreed we would definitely go back! Five of us went and we took my car and it was a short but fun road trip. The five that went were: Matt, Tammy, Janna, Jordan and I. It was cool to hang out Janna for a while and to get a chance to spend some more time with Jordan. He seems like a nice guy. :) When we got back, I was pretty tired so I had a nap for a while and then went and watched Matt and Jordan play softball. Matt's team creamed Jordan's in the game they played against each other and then we all went to 7-11. I was home pretty early and I went to bed pretty early which was nice because I was still pretty tired. Monday and Tuesday I worked long shifts so I didn't really do anything with anyone... I slept in a bit, spent some time doing my own stuff, worked and came home pretty much just chilled by myself. Monday was an awesome day for visitors! Laura stopped by with Jack and Emma, my mom and brother both stopped in and my mom brought me dinner and John hung out and waited for me to go on break and then we sat and chatted while I had dinner. I dropped Kelly (my manager) off and then went out for pizza with Jay on Monday night and was home pretty early because we both had to work the next day... Tuesday I worked open to dinner or so and Christine stopped by to say hi! It was awesome to see her! Wednesday I was supposed to be off all day but there wasn't anyone to open so I opened and only worked 4 hours and then went and picked up Em and Brityn. We went back to Market and spent an hour or so there until the fire alarm started going off and at the point that they kept announcing they were "investigating" but the alarm was still going, we left. They made me buy colour (I apparently wear too much black) and anytime there was argument about what I was wearing or buying, I'd come back with, "get me the black one..." and the arguing would stop. :D It was fun (albeit odd...) to be the "Barbie" for once.... I got some cute new clothes and many of them are colours that I love. I did buy two new black tops but they are both on the dressier side. I also got a new denim skort and a set of denim capris. I think my favourite item is a blue lingerie-looking tank top. It's gorgeous and it brings out my eyes! ;) Hot!!! It was awesome out so we did spend some time outside but it was almost cloyingly hot so we went to the club for dinner... We went swimming at the Winter Club after picking up John S. and Sean-a-dude, Matt and Trevor joined us and it was odd being outnumbered by the guys. It was SO fun though! I missed my girls that couldn't make it but there is always next time! Afterwards we went to Denny's for food and then I drove Em, Brit and J.S. home. I stopped by Jay's for a few and then went home. I worked the next day and it was SO fun! I was working with Chris and we had a blast! Shaun stopped by to say hi as he was getting off work at Tip Top and was on his way to the liquor store and then Tammy showed up just after I had break. I took a "smoke break" and we went and grabbed a Jugo Juice and then she ran some errands and waited for me to get off work. I bought a cowboy hat for during Stampede and the rest of John's birthday gift as well as a card and wrapping. (As an aside, I can't believe my baby brother is turning 19 in less than 2 weeks!!!) I hope that what we got him will at least make him smile!!! Anyway, I had a pretty good day at work and dropped Chris off at the train station and then Tammy and I went to BP's. I went and picked up J.S. and he joined us for a while. They seem to be much better which is awesome because I have been praying for them and I love them both SO much! :) We had a ton of fun tying cherry stems into knots (which is apparently a "sexy" skill... I don't necessarily see it as such but whatever... I used to love amazing my friends by doing it!) and then as Tammy and I were heading home we got caught by a road that was closed and had to drive waaaaaay out of our way and we had a chance to talk and visit and such which was awesome!

Today, I am working and while I wrote most of this last night, I had to write about how my day has been because by the time I got home last night and wrote most of this, I realized it didn't make much sense... I had a crappy start to my day... I locked my keys in my car. Not only did that lock me out of my car but out of my house. The lucky thing was that I still had my purse on me. I called AMA (they were going to be over an hour), then my mom and then a cab. I was late for work but I still made it before we opened... My mom is going to pick me up from work but because I have to close my till, I will be done a little later than anticipated which is fine. I called Matt and postponed our plans for tonight because of no vehicle but I am so exhausted at this point that I wouldn't be able to drive all the way out to Chestermere and back and hang out with people without falling asleep at some point. Tomorrow night I am going to be hanging out with Matt and possibly Emily and after working most of the day, I am looking forward to it...

On a slightly melancholy note... I miss hanging out with Ben and this weekend Tammy leaves for the summer. On a brighter note, I am planning on doing something for my birthday though so that most of my friends can at least get together at some point. I was thinking of going swimming sometime that weekend, either at the club or at one of the outdoor pools in the area, depending on the weather... And dinner at the club before THING... I had someone tell me that they were sure I could miss THING that weekend and I realized, I could miss it, but I love being there and it's one of the few constants in my life right now so why would I miss it if I don't have to?

Anyway, back to the excitement of wiping down glass, labelling magazines and doing cash... Yay for "lunch"!!! :P

Overwhelmed...

So, this week has been a long one... It's Thursday at just after noon and all I can think is, "holy crap, I have a lot left to do this week!!!"

I have worked everyday since Monday and today I work at both jobs, one during the day, one in the evening. Sunday's Steering meeting was insanely long and then with work this week, it's been a long week. It's been an interesting week but I kind of feel like my brain is almost on overload. I have done training at both jobs and because of that, I am trying to process a lot of information at once. Different procedures, starting floats, opening and closing information and a ton of other random stuff that I have to remember and while I am incredibly good at details, I am so tired by this point in the week that I am feeling like I may be forgetting something. I don't want to screw up or do something wrong... I like both of my jobs and so far, I seem to be doing at least ok at both of them. I was asked by someone at Axe if I was going to burn out as I am basically working three jobs but I realized as she asked me that one of the locations I work at for Bentley may not need me as much and as bad as it may sound, the odd day off to do things as minor as laundry or going to an outdoor pool and sitting in the sun. I knew that this summer wasn't going to be a hang around and do nothing summer but on the other hand, I also don't plan on working myself so hard that I have no energy by the end of the summer.

I have to make cookies and such for this weekend and while I could just buy stuff from Safeway or whatever, I would feel kind of bad about it. What it comes down to for me is that if I am going out in the neighbourhood to portray TEC in some way, I would rather not be walking in with a few bags of Oreo's... I don't know, I'm probably too picky. But, when it comes down to it, I am frustrated that only a couple of people are donating baking to this. Also, I need to look into other churches to approach about running the next penny pincher and I have no idea who to approach. And Inez wants us to talk about TEC this weekend but I'm not sure what she wants us to say... *sigh*

Last night we had band practice and it went pretty well. I know that we aren't as "together" as some bands are and I need to talk to Sean about apologizing to the congregation all the time but otherwise, we are more prepared than we were two weeks ago. This THING, Emily and Ian are joining us and John and Sean are switching back and forth between guitar, bass and djembe. We were aiming to have a drum kit but at this point, we may mic the djembe and go from there. We have our song list picked and our set lists done and other than maybe cutting a couple of songs if they end up not working, we are as prepared as we can be for when we all get together on Saturday. All we need to do is get there together and set up, as well as sign the convenant.

I have pretty much no days off until the middle of July... *sigh* This whole two jobs thing is a good idea in theory but at this point, I am scheduled for at least one, if not both of my jobs for almost the rest of the summer. Yay for going back to school and a tiny student loan but boo on needing rest and having no social life. Oh well, c'est la vie.

I guess I could mention that I got an e-mail from Ben... Sounds like he is good and camp is going well so I'm happy for him. I know that some of us miss him and it will be cool to see him whenever he has a chance to make it home.

I am trying to figure out what to do for my birthday... It's exactly a month away today and I am thinking dinner is a good idea. Or maybe just lunch... I don't know. I need to think so I can let people who will be out of town prior to or after that know...

Anyway, I am going to go continue to look productive doing other things...

The last couple of weeks...

So it has been a long couple of weeks... I quit my job at the carwash for good, I applied all over the city before and after that, I went for a bunch of interviews and was hired on the spot at two of them, someone found my ID and was using it to get money and said they were me so I had to fill out a police report saying I didn't say they could, I have hung out with friends, gone swimming, led worship at THING, lost my voice, gotten it mostly back, called the police twice on different weird situations (can't say anymore), fought with the insurance company, spent some time in a graveyard, baked chocolate chip cookies and now, I am looking forward to the rest of the week and Tammy's commissioning for Vanning, starting at North Hill, worship practice, THING this weekend, baking snickerdoodles, making Rice Krispie squares, going out for coffee with some friends I haven't seen in a while and going to Didsbury this weekend.

To elaborate slightly... I am now working as a part-time receptionist at Axe Music. My first day was Friday and I really enjoyed it. The atmosphere is way more laid back than the previous environment which I really appreciated. I was hired full-time at Bentley and I am based out of Market Mall but I will also be taking some shifts at North Hill whenever they need me. :) I had my first day there today and the people I work with are really fun. It was a good day all in all and the only problems I had were with language barriers. I ran into three today... One with Cantonese, one with Italian and one with Hindi... But two of the three had people with them to translate and the other said he would come back... I tried not to do to that customer what I have done to me in places I don't speak the language (wave arms and speak louder...) as it doesn't help the situation, it would have made us both more frustrated.

As to my car... It is STILL in the shop! They have had it a week and a half and I'm told I'll get it back tomorrow. I'd BETTER get it back tomorrow is all I'm going to say.

I took roses out to my grandparent's plot and then I cried as I stood there... It was hard... This weekend was also hard... With it beign Father's Day, it was more obvious than usual that there was a gaping hole in our family... @---'--- :'(

Leading worship was good, I was frustrated with some sound-related stuff but it sounds like it will be fixed by this weekend when we play again. We are practicing this week and I am looking forward to it. I found out tonight that Breighanne might come to THING this weekend whick would be awesom as it is a couple of months since I last saw her! Also, Emily and Brityn are going to come... It's funny because they want to meet Jordan and Eckley (not sure if I spelled that right...) :D

I already wrote about the swimming... What I didn't write is that I have people who have already asked when we are going to do it again and others that have asked if they can come. I put it through on the account last time so I think I will have to make people pay at least part of their own way the next time...

Last night, my mom and I went and bought the makings for chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodles and Rice Krispie squares. Tonight, Tammy came over and we made a double batch of chocolate chip cookies and over the course of the next few days I will be making the others for the trip out to Didsbury for the picnic between the parishes of Olds and Didsbury on Sunday.

Tammy's commissioning for Vanning is tomorrow night at St. B's and I am looking forward to it for various reasons that I will write about later!

I think that's all for tonight, I'm getting more and more tired as I write.... night all!

On a final note, yay for weeks that went from sucking to rocking and for an amazingly diverse group of friends that drive from all over Alberta to come and visit you and eat Chinese food and watch the hockey game! Also, yay for Apples to Apples!

"Swimming, swimming, in the swimming pool!"

So, tonight a bunch of us went swimming. It was a rather random group of people and we had fun! I kind of sent out a random text message and people showed up... :) The group consisted of: Tammy, Lysa, Vanessa, Andrew, John Trevor, Ken, Sean, Matt, Janna, Meghan, Emily and I.

I picked Emily up and then went to get John and as we were driving to the Winter Club, my phone rang and it was a Constable from the Calgary Police Service calling to let me know that they had found my driver's license and HBC Credit Card. Apparently, some woman was going door to door asking for donations for the Cancer Society and was using my ID as "hers"... *grrrrrrr* So, I need to go downtown and fill out a report stating that I didn't authorize anyone to have my ID in their posession, let alone use it. I'm not exactly impressed to say the least. The person who had it is being charged with fraud but apparently didn't have any of my other stuff on her as she "found" those two cards. I'm not sure what to think/believe anymore but I have to say that my trust in basic human goodness is severly diminished right now...

Anyway, after I got off the phone and called and explained the situation to my mom, the three of us grabbed dinner and then met everyone else. We swam and then went to Denny's and hung out there for a bit. I haven't ever been to that Denny's I don't think... (McKnight and 4th N.E.) It was kind of odd being at a Denny's without Ben there... Normally, we hang out after LiFE NiTE or smll groups at Denny's so... Anyway, I drove Emily and Tammy home and hung out and talked to Janna for a bit and now, I'm going to bed. With so little sleep last night, I am going to try and get some sleep tonight.

Tomorrow, I am going to write that statement and then go hang out with Kristyn and Kylee for a while! :)

Bouncing off the walls...

Ok, so today I had two interviews! One was at Kinko's and the other was at Axe Music. Both went extremely well and Kinko's said they would call me in the next day or so and I start training at Axe on Friday. I am SOOOO pumped! The people seem nice and it is a good environment (especially by comparison to my old job)!!!

Yesterday was a pretty eventful day...

I had some stuff I needed to take care of, including officially resigning from my old job so I went down and did that in person. As it turns out, when I got there, the officer who has been handling my case was there as my former boss hadn't put the outside and inside surveillance footage on the CD, just the outside so he had come back for the inside stuff. It's hard to make a poster of a person't face without a face shot. *rolling eyes* When I got there, the carwash was closed... apparently the chain on the track had broken in 4 spots... Sorry, I laughed! *rotflmao*

I ran some other errands, including finding out about exchanging my djembe, dropping John off lunch, meeting Brian (Bryan?) and Porkchop and then stopping by my mom's school. I had a package for Holly that is a grad gift that had been sitting here for a long time but I finally took it over to DHL to send it to her. I also went and put gas in the van and got groceries.

I ended up having a drink (I had Sprite... I'm crazy...! :D) with an old friend and we spent a few hours talking... I got the chance to see where he is living and hear about what has been going on with him. It was nice to see him, I have missed spending time with him.

I got home really late and went straight to bed and then got up this morning for my first interview. After the interview, I picked Adrienne up from school and we drove around and talked for a while about life. It has been a while since we have had that chance and it was good to see her and spend time with her with no major distractions. We came back home for a bit and I showed her some of the random photo's from TEC, Ben's birthday party and her grad (which I attended because she asked me to be there... I was SO flattered...) and then I dropped her off on my way to my second interview. After the interview, I exchanged the djembe and then came home... Now, I am watching Glory Road and I am trying not to bounce off the walls! I am going swimming tonight and I think I might try to have a nap for an hour before I go out... :)

"A Black Cloud"???

So last weekend, I called my boss on Sunday night and she asked me if I have a "black cloud" over my head. See, the past couple of weeks have been... Interesting.

So, I got to work and one of the days it poured midday, she decided to send some of us home. I had gotten stuck in traffic that morning and with my dark interior, I leave the windows on my car open a tiny bit so a little bit of air can circulate. That day, I parked, realized the wondows were shut, opened them a bit and ran to be on time. After it bucketed, I ran to my car and the doors were slightly wet. I figured the sluggishness of the windows could be attributed to that. Then I looked in the ignition. In the process of rolling up my windows, I had left my keys in the ignition and the key turned to the "on" position. Not started but "on" so that I could roll my windows down. Boy, did I feel dumb. Even more so when I had to call AMA to come and boost my car. (I'd like to point out that I own booster cables but John borrowed them and they are currently in our gp's car which is in having the transmission replaced...)

So, later that same week, my alarm didn't go off and I was late for work (not sure why it didn't go off, my clock was flashing 12:00 but the rest of the house seemed to be fine :S ???)

On the Sunday, I showed up at work to be greeted with, "it's SO good to see you!" (I'm almost positive this person hates me...) "You aren't scheduled to be here but I'm glad you are because now we can open!" (For anyone who doesn't know, I HATE this job...) I worked the entire shift while waiting to hear from a good friend who I had told to call me if she needed me because she was dealing with some stuff and at the end of my shift, as I went to finish my cash out in the store, I dropped my stuff off at my car and then ran inside the store. I was gone less than five minutes and when I came back out, my bag of stuff and coat were there but my purse was gone. Now, I am going to point out that my windows were down on my car (as per usual at this point) and the doors were most likely unlocked... But the purse was the only thing to go missing. However, my entire life was in that thing. And the things that upset me the most were the purse and wallets were pretty much brand new (I'd had them less than a week so they were brand new...) and my digital camera was in there as well (I had been taking it everywhere with me) as well as a pin that Tammy had gotten me at YC that said, "Someday my Prince will come Acts 1:11." I called the police and it took them 3.5 hours to get there but my mom didn't want me driving without a license or something saying that my I.D. had been stolen. The officer I spoke to seemed surprised that I knew my driver's license number but... whatever. I have always been good with numbers that are important to me. Anyway, I was off work at 5:15 that night and finally left at just after 9. After, I met up with Ben (he'd been away at a retreat and had just gotten back) and we kidnapped Tammy and went to BP's and hung out for a bit. Ben was really patient with both of us as neither Tammy or I had had a very good day. It was cool to hear about what he had been up to while he was gone. :)

Over the course of the past week, I have had to cancel all of my credit cards (I did most of that while I was waiting for the police to arrive) and go get a new debit card, replace my I.D. (driver's and birth certificate) and deal with the insurance company on many different days and for hours on end. The short version of the rest of it is that I am having my locks redone on my car, I have replaced as many things as I can and I am still waiting for some other things to come in the mail. For now, I am pretty upset about the lack of support from my boss and she is the one who commented about the "black cloud" over my head which honestly, upset me. So, I am thinking that if I can find other job soon, I will quit my current one...

Fun times!

Ok, so I have had an interesting week...

I officially hate my job. Every day this week (except today, oddly enough) I have been told that I am doing something wrong or have been yelled at for something either by the manager or the owner. See, the thing is, most of the stuff is the plural "you" but they have been addressing us about the things that are going on each individually, whether they apply to us or not. Some of it is random... The owner told me that we need to make sure we don't put the e-brake on when we move cars... I don't drive a stick but I'm pretty sure that if the car is left in gear or is left in neutral on a slant, no e-brake could be an issue... I dunno... He said we had left the e-brake on when we moved an automatic but... I don't leave my e-brake on unless I'm parked on a major hill so I have no idea... Other stuff like checking for auto locks because otherwise we have to get AMA or a locksmith out to open the car... and generally the car is running.

So, yesterday, after being told that we had closed too early on Wednesday (after we had been TOLD to close *rolling eyes*) I walked into the office and told both my boss and her boss that I am frustrated. I said that I have been feeling lately as though I do not know what I am doing and that what I have been doing is wrong. I said if that is the case, should I still be working there or should I quit now because after 7 or so weeks already, I would have thought I wouldn't be making as many mistakes over and over as I seem to be. I don't know if they were more shocked by the fact that I asked if I should quit or that I asked if I do anything right. Seriously, I hadn't heard about anything I had done RIGHT up until then... My boss told me I was fine and the owner just kind of looked at me... I went back outside and later she came out to tell me that I had met my "quota" for Petro Points sign-ups for last month and I got 5000 points. (I think this was her way of saying that I don't completely suck...) Apparently there are points that we can accumulate and put towards buying stuff or something... Anyway, she said that my "quota" for this month is 10. So, here is what I find kind of funny... I had something like 25 sign-ups last month. The most I had ever had in one day was 6. Today, I had 7 so I beat my best! Plus, it is only the second of June and I already have somewhere between 10 and 12 already... :) Looks like giving me a "quota" doesn't really mean much. The other thing is that there is a girl who has been there for almost three years and her quota is the same as mine... *rolling eyes and sighing*

Anyway, the fun parts of this week...

Monday, I went and visited Tammy at work and got a new wallet and purse. :) My cute one with the flowers on it has been shedding sequins and I don't want it to completely fall apart (and I am completely inept with a needle and thread on small picky details!) so I bought something a little sturdier. So, I got it home and it turns out, it has like a million pockets! So, I can carry stuff and not end up losing everything into the abyss that is my purse! That means I'm actually going to be (partially) organized! My mom likes my purse too and I am thinking of getting her a similar one... The problem is that if I get her the identical one, we may get them mixed up and that could be disasterous!

So, Tuesday I had physio and Jeff zapped my knee for 30 minutes straight... I couldn't feel my foot afterwards... It was SO weird! Afterwards, I went to the Ladies Compassion Small Group and then after Tammy got off work, I kidnapped her and we went to the Cheesecake Cafe. She had never been there! :O The funny thing was... Neither of us ordered cheesecake! *lol* :D She had a Fruit Flan (she didn't realize it wasn't cheesecake) and I had the Peach Cobbler. We decided that next time, we will get cheesecake... :) Afterwards, she came over and we hung out for a while and talked. My bro joined us for a bit too and it was cool to just chill. I drove her home and then finished uploading the photo's onto my new photobucket site. :)

Wednesday, I had a weird day at work... There is this guy who is a regular and reminds me of kinf of a Mafia Don type... He's Italian and always wears a suit and pays with $100 bills and such. He told me that his "girl" was going to come in and I was to "make sure she was taken care of." He and I ended up chatting for a few minutes (there were no other customers around) and we talked about what I'm studying at school and it turns out his mother was a concert pianist and he plays piano. We ended up talking about classical, opera, jazz, movie scores and some other random things. So, when she came in, we made sure everything went smoothly and she was "taken care of." He asked me if I like movies and I said yes... I was thinking, "dude, you're old enough to be my grandfather... what???" He asked if I would be interested in going to a movie premiere and gave me a pass to go see the premiere of "The Break Up" at Sunridge Spectrum that night. Turns out, he says he works for Universal and told me to take a friend... I'm not about to pass up a free movie! Especially one I was planning to see anyway! :D I called Matt to see what he was up to and we ended up going to the movie which was freaking hilarious! Seriously, Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston were great together... I knew it would be funny but the actor who was actually the funniest was Jon Favereau... It was really bugging me as to where I knew him from! I looked him up on www.imdb.com and he was Pete Becker, one of Monica's love interests on "Friend's." No wonder he looked familiar!!! Normally Vince tends to be the wisecracker of the group but in this case, it was more Jon than anyone. :D I laughed, I almost cried... Definitely one I will see again, either in theatres if someone wants to see it or on DVD. I'm going to buy it when it eventually comes out! :D Afterwards we went to Chapters and bought some books and I hit Starbucks (I've been drinking the new Blackberry Green Tea Frappuccino) and then sat and talked for a while before heading home.

Thursday at work it was interesting... I had this random guy who was hitting on me... *shaking head* He was Jamaican and he kept talking to me about how he could drink all of the water in the case he got from us so he could keep up with the ladies... *rolling eyes* It was a looooooong day... That night I had physio again and after being a human pin cushion for a while, I went to the graveyard to leave flowers and then went to meet my mom and my brother. After, I met Tammy, Matt and Shauna at BP's and we sat, got food and talked and overall, just had a good time hanging out. It was cool to get to spend some time with them and I don't get to see Shauna very often so it was cool that she came out with us!

Today at work... It was a loooong day again... The computer was being stupid and at one point the entire wash shut down due to a problem Enmax was having and we had to close for a little over an hour. After all that went on, I didn't get my break until 2 (it was supposed to be at 1). I got home pretty early though and I was so tired that I just had a shower and ate dinner and chilled at home. Tonight, Tammy and I went to Safeway to pick up some groceries (I'm surprised she's not sick of me yet!) and I dropped her off pretty early. Now, I'm going to go do some more laundry and get some sleep...

Tomorrow I work all day and then it is the TEC 43 reunion in the evening. I am SO looking forward to it! :D More about that after!

Pictures...

I have had people asking when my photo's from various things are going to be up...

After approximately 16 hours of uploading, editing, more uploading, naming and renaming....

Some are officially ready to be viewed!!!

For the Photo's from TEC 43 and Montana's on the Monday night go to:

http://s60.photobucket.com/albums/h39/erintec43/

(There is a password, e-mail, IM or call me for it...)

COMING SOON:

Photo's from THING on Saturday May 27, 2006 and Moxie's afterwards...

Photo's from Ben's Birthday Party...

Other random Photo's...

Perspective.

I have a couple of good friends (and my mom) who have told me a lot that if you don't let people treat you poorly, they won't get used to it and therefore, won't get away with it. For the past few days, I have been letting someone I considered a friend walk all over me. She has been treating me like crap and upsetting me all because she was in a bad mood on Saturday night and was taking it out on the people around her. Now, I thought this was just my impression so rather than say something to her (I asked if she was ok and almost got my head ripped off), I left her alone. I let the things that she said or did slide, came home and prayed about them and the next day, I blogged about how I had been feeling. Apparently, this was seen as a personal attack. So, in as public a place as I can, I apologize for whatever it was exactly that I said and did. However, the slander that has been going on behind my back should stop. Because as it currently stands, I am fed up with being treated like some stupid POS that isn't worth anything because I know that I am worth something and that's not fair to me.

Feeling Fragile...

Today had it's ups and downs...

My boss called this morning and told me we wouldn't be opening (and we are closed tomorrow because of the Lilac festival) so have a good weekend and she would see me on Monday. (Yay! UP!)

So, no work means I got to sleep in! (Yay! UP!)

My mom called and said she was going to come over for breakfast and then when she showed up she had brought Timbits and I had already had some raspberries and juice so we got organized to go out and ran some errands. We went to Ben's house and picked up a cake, the mall to go to Sport Chek and got matching Croc's, to Booster Juice for a smoothie and banana bread, to Co-op for milk and then to the Winter Club to drop off an envelope. (Yay for time spent with Mommy! UP!)

I got home with enough time to start a blog and then Matt showed up to pick me up so I had to "save draft" and leave and we went to pick up Dana and I got to see her apartment. We stopped at Wendy's on the way to the church and then got to St. Phil's around 6:20pm. Dana and I quizzed Jordan on how he enjoyed TEC and how his week had been in the car on the way. :) (UP!)

When we got to THING, people seemed stressed, the hall was set up for something that is going on at the church tomorrow so we couldn't use it, everyone was talking about their summer plans - some people are leaving and they were talking about it, random things kept happening (water on the floor from the radiator leaking...) and it was generally kind of chaotic... (Sliding Down...)

People I hadn't seen in a while were at THING tonight (Nick Van Hooft, Dawn, Cassidy, etc.) and Ekklesia was playing. :) Something like 7 or so of the participants from this past weekend were there tonight! Out of 16, that's awesome! (UP!)

It hit me hard tonight that I have less than two weeks until Ben leaves for the summer. I have known it for a while but it didn't really hit me until tonight... I'm not sure exactly how I feel... Or, I know how I feel but I'm not sure how to express it. And I spent a lot of time in prayer about it... (Up and Down...)

Jackie was the speaker and her topic was Spiritual Mountains and Valleys and I thought her talk was very well done. She read the book "You are Special" by Max Lucado and I love that book! I wish I was more like Lucia who only really cared what Eli thought of her and didn't let the dots or stars stick to her... (Up!)

We brought out the cake when Dana was announcing the small group leaders and has Amber (Birthday = May 23), Ben (June 11), Jordan (June 12) and John McMechan (Today!!!) come up and we sang them all "Happy Birthday!" It was a ton of fun and that way everyone felt loved and the birthday cake was enjoyed by all! :) (Up!)

We had a minor snafu at the beginning of small groups that I don't want to go into... (Down...)

As the night wore on, I was getting frustrated with the lack of help and support from certain people. I am at the point where I am only one person and I can only do so much. My mom uses a phrase... It's "this too shall pass" and I use "breathe" instead... My theory is, if it's not something you can directly fix, why bother stressing? But tonight, I was in trouble numerous times for just being there... I'm not honestly sure why I bother. I said to someone that if I wasn't there, I don't think anyone would honestly notice. Someone else would do what I was supposed to and that would be all that matters. (Down!)

One of the bright spots of the night for me was when Candace, Justin and Jon got there. I came into the foyer of the church just after they had gotten there and I got hugs from all of them and I love hugs! When they left a little later, I also gut hugs which was nice. :) When Randi and Adrian showed up all dressed up for grad, it was sooo cute! They were colour-coordinated! I think their outfits were almost as nice as David's kilt! :D (Up!)

At the end of the night, everyone was getting shooed out of the church and I found it frustrating because I cleaned up the entire kitchen by myself... I finally had people come offer to help me carry stuff out when I was finished everything else and it was tough for me not to be like, "thanks for your help when all of the other stuff is done." :P (Down...)

All in all, it was just a loooonnng day. I'm going to go spend some time with God in prayer and then listen to my new Third Day CD's as I go to sleep... I think they may help me sleep tonight...

I had an awesome weekend...

This weekend was TEC and it was amazing!!!

I worked on the Conference team which means that the people who are coming for the first time (the Participants) are split into table groups and they spend the weekend in a small group format with us. I was pretty nervous having never worked this team before! We were told that we all bring different strengths into the team so I wasn't completely freaked but it was close! :)

Friday night arrived and I headed out to Entheos. We did some set-up, ate dinner and hung out as a team and had a reconciliation service. I went up for prayer to calm my nerves and because I had been dealing with some stupidity at work all week that I felt was pulling me down (I don't like that feeling).

Here's what has been going on...
There is this woman that I work with... She is in her mid-forties and is doing the same job I am and she asked me the first time we worked together how long I have worked there and I said about three weeks. I went on to explain that I am a University student and this is a summer job for me. She said she has a $60,000 degree and look where she is working... So, all week, all I have heard is that she has a degree and is working with me. Apparently she also used to clean houses... I'm not saying either of these is a bad job but if she has a degree, why isn't she using it would be my question... whatever. Anyway, she is on the bigger side and all week has complained about her knees, back, ankles, feet, etc. hurting from being on her feet all day. Now, I will point out that I know based on what she has said that I outweigh her but I am also quite a bit taller than her (at least 6") and one of the guys we work with pointed out that the shoes she is wearing are so worn out that it's no wonder that she's in pain. We are on our feet for 9 hours a day... Your feet are bound to hurt after that (I need to buy a foot spa thingy as an aside... maybe I'll ask for one for my birthday... hmmm...) but our boss who outweighs me by what I outweigh this woman by is shorter than her... It's a complicated situation... Anyway, after the first two days of complaining, she started making comments about MY size. Now, I don't know this woman from a hole in the ground and honestly, I was offended. My build is larger based on genetics (having a 6'6" grandfather will do that to you!) and it has taken me a long time to become comfortable with who I am! I wear black a lot as it's supposed to be slimming and also because if I wear black, no one can make any comments about whatever I am wearing. So, I finally buy clothes in (I know, this is going to shock some people) colours and then this woman starts in on me about my size. Because it's sooooooooo helpful. *rolling eyes* So, any self-esteem I had, is *poof* gone. Well, maybe not gone but is lessened.

So, I went for prayer, I explained how I have been feeling to the prayer team and part of the situation and we prayed. I had people come and lay hands on me and the support from my friends was amazing... When I got up, I had cried (shocking, I know) and I got hugs from a bunch of people (which I totally needed) and then I went and spent some time alone thinking and doing my own thing. My only concern with going back to work on Tuesday is that I will have to deal with it again and I'm at the point that if she keeps making me feel this uncomfortable, I may have to go talk to my boss who I know understands about people making her feel uncomfortable in her own skin...

Back to hapier things... Saturday morning dawned early and we got up for morning prayer and had breakfast and began to prepare for the participants to arrive. I knew who was going to be at my table and I had sponsored one of the girls to come to the weekend (this means I had told her about TEC, told her what she could and couldn't bring with her to the weekend, had been praying for her before the weekend and had talked to her parents about the weekend in general), another I had met when we did a PR church visit and the boy at our table is the younger brother of a friend. I was still nervous tho. I prayed that God would calm my heart.

All of the participants arrived early and we started the day about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Now, we don't wear watches while we are at TEC so from then on, we were pretty much completely in the dark time-wise.

The rest of the weekend overall was amazing... The participants at my table are awesome and we bonded really well as a table group. My co-table leader is my bestfriends fiance and it was awesome getting to know him better. :) As the weekend progressed, our discussions got deeper and deeper and I know that I learned more and more about the participants, my co and myself.

The participants at the other tables were also really amazing. At meal and break times we got the chance to hang out and talk with them as well and the bonding we did as a conference team with all of the participants was amazing. The maximum capacity of a TEC weekend is 36 and while it would be cool to have a full TEC, the participants wouldn't be able to have the amount of individual attention they got this weekend (there were only 16).

So, from there, they go back out into the world. I found it kind of daunting after my TEC weekend. The love, caring and compassion that surrounds them in the TEC community is amazing and many times, people at work or school don't understand. Especially if they aren't Christian. One of my friends put it best... He said, "I have to go to work tomorrow and I'm not sure what my boss would do if I walked up and hugged him. In fact, I'm not sure if I would be going to work Wednesday if I did that!" I just hope and pray that their families are supportive and caring and that whatever they go back into today, they are able to hold into the way they were feeling as they left yesterday and can return to THING this weekend or Reunion next weekend and still have the joy they were filled with...

My Heart Hurts.

That's all I have to say for tonight.

No one seems to read this anyway...

Sick... Tired... And sick and tired of being sick and tired...

So for the past two weeks I have been sick. I have done the ear infections in both ears, strep throat, possible bronchitis and sinus infection thing all at once... I have been on what seemed like handfuls of meds... It has sucked...

Now, almost two weeks later, I still have a sinus infection and minor ear infections and possible bronchitis. I saw the third doctor in two weeks today (my family one finally...) and he changed my meds. So, he said I should be feeling MUCH better by Saturday. I have to say, my fingers are MAJORLY crossed and I am praying hard that it happens because I feel awful right now!

Yesterday I felt like someone had socked me in the eye... I felt like I had a black eye and it was swollen. It didn't look swollen but I could feel it... My head hurt, I couldn't sleep, my sinuses were still plugged, and so on.... My mom came over and I called the Health Link line and the nurse told me to do hot compresses on the side of my face/head that hurt and try to get some sleep. If I couldn't sleep and my head still hurt, she told me to go to the hospital and otherwise, go to my family doctor within 24 hours.

This morning, I woke up and my eye on the side that had hurt yesterday was still killing me. I had tossed and turned for most of the night so I called in sick to work and told my boss that my eye was swollen and it was pretty much glued shut (which it was) and that I was going to go see a Dr. (which I did). I called my mom but she was in meetings all morning and my brother said if I needed to get somewhere I could call a cab or an ambulance and then he hung up on me. Laurel was busy with work and I thought about calling Sandra or Matt or Ben but I didn't know about gas, vehicle and work schedules respectively so I gave up. I drove myself and the 20 minute trip took me 40. I pulled over anytime I felt light-headed or dizzy. I probably wasn't the safest person on the roads but I found myself behind a dumptruck that was doing between 30 and 40 for most of the trip across town so I followed it as it was a good speed for me today...

My doctor basically said that as I have been on the other meds for 10 days and I am still sick, I should be on something else, not the same stuff. Also, the stuff I was on is fine for strep but not so much for sinus related stuff. So, he changed my meds and put me on an aqueous nasal spray as well. (Gotta say, it tastes horrid!!!) I hope that his prediction of feeling better by Saturday holds true because my weekend is looking pretty busy right now....

After I was done at the clinic, my mom called to say she would meet me so I could get my prescriptions filled. She met me at London Drugs and brought me a Booster Juice which was a nice surprise/treat. She had them make it without the yogurt so I could drink it. :)

I came home and had a nap for a while and then just after I got up, Ben called... It was nice to hear from him... I haven't talked to him since he picked up his pizzas on Saturday (I wasn't at small group on Sunday) and it was cool to talk to him.

I watched T.V. for a bit and my mom and bro stopped by and dropped off some more Kleenex (a case) and two DVD's ("The Family Stone" and "Last Holiday") and now I'm blogging before I head to watch a DVD and bedtime.

It's been a busy-ish day... Tomorrow and Friday I'm not working... I was told to rest... So I will be at home, resting, possibly working on Wheat, otherwise doing nothing... If anyone wants to hang out or talk or whatever, y'all know how to reach me...

Night.

What to say today...

It's been a while since I wrote anything on here... I have thought a lot about writing on here but I haven't been online all that much and I have been busy. Well, I had been keeping myself busy and then I have been busy ever since.

So, after my final concert at school and moving back here and my grandmothers funeral, I spent pretty much everyday hanging out with Matt and Ben. I love those two guys a ton... They are two of my best friends and I appreciate the fact that they have been there for me through thick and thin in the past few months. Honestly, if it weren't for the two of them, I don't know how I would have handled it all.

So, they were both working and during my third week home, I was finally like "I'm bored out of my mind... I need to DO something!!! Other than sitting around doing nothing and then hanging out with friends at night!" I applied for some jobs and got a few interviews and was hired on the spot for one of them. So, the past week and a bit, I have been working at a Petro Canada car wash. It's not a bad job, the people are pretty nice and I get to be outside. It's definitely not what I want to do for the rest of my life but for now, it's not a bad summer job. The hours are consistent and the money's not bad.

So, otherwise, I am working the upcoming TEC (I am on Conference!) and have been doing a ton of stuff for fundraising... We sold over 300 pizzas!!! :O :) :O :) :O :) I am SO happy!!! We beat the total number of pizzas sold at the last two sales that I was coordinator for!!! Also, a few of my friends from camp are going to this TEC as participants and a few others from choir are thinking about going... I am looking forward to it!!!

This past weekend, I was REALLY sick but I was at a 25th year reunion for the Mount Royal Youth Choir. It was cool to be there and having Mr. Ferguson as a guest conductor for the weekend. We sang a bunch of pieces from various years throughout the past 25. I was kind of frustrated that two of the songs we skipped were pieces we did when we toured to Scotland and the ones we did weren't anything we had technically sung when I was in the choir (January 2001 - August 2003). We did "Witness" though which I sang when I joined them for Spring Song in 2004 and I LOVE that piece!!! We also did Mozart's "Ave Verum" which I did in High School. The Arioso did "Ching-a-ring-chaw" and the Youth Choir did "Psalmo 150" and "Voice Dance" which I have also sung. All in all, the weekend of singing and meeting choristers was really fun and the concert at the end of the weekend was cool to watch. It was great to see people I used to sing with and meet people who sang in the choir long before I did. On Saturday after singing all day (I had no voice left...) we went to BP's and I got the chance to hang out with Liam, Elisa, Justin, Breighanne, Skye, Roy and others and meet people like Pat... It was an interesting group. :P :D

Afterwards, I went to the doctor's and it turns out I have a sinus infection, throat infection (possibly strep), ear infections in both ears and possibly bronchitis... No wonder I feel like crap... So, that explained why I felt like I had I head cold. But now, I am not feeling any better and I am trying to get as much rest as possible...

I have been working M-F, 8-5 and I haven't had as much time to spend with my friends... I am finding that hard because it was cool to have a social life for once... Ben leaves for camp in a little over a month, Matt is working full-time and is in a new relationship, Britney has already left to live at camp and work at Greenview, I never see Meghan because I am at work all day and I'm tired at night, I see Sandra now because she and I started working together (she started on Friday!), I don't see Laurel all that often because we are both so busy and Kristyn is busy with Kylee and Ryan and we never see each other... I guess when I take a step back and look at my life right now, I'm glad I'm busy and everything but I'm sad that it has come down to seeing my friends when I have a few minutes to spare...

I have been taught to be happy for what I have. Lately it has hit me that I am living pretty much alone in a house that I have lived in off and on for the past few years but there was always someone else around. I have my own car but it needs a few improvements as it isn't in top running condition... and I have spiritual gifts that I don't have the chance to use... I need to find somewhere I can serve that I can use them...

I'm tired and I have a headache so I'm going to go rest...