Meow

Now that I'm living in GP I've been sharing my house with two cats. I am not a cat person in any way so getting used to living with cats has probably been the biggest adjustment through this whole experience.

Here are a few of my thoughts regarding cats:

1. They leave hair everywhere. And they have this nasty habit of rubbing up against your leg which makes your pants hairy.

2. Why do they feel the need to scratch things? There's a couch in this house that the cats have made their scratching post and it's like they can't walk by the couch without having to stop and scratch it.

3. They are sooooo lazy. Joe and I are the only ones in the house for the week and yesterday when I went to work the two cats were chillin on the couch. When I got home they were still there! No wonder they're fat.

4. Sometimes they will just randomly run across the room for no reason. And at night I'll hear the strangest noises coming from wherever they are. They're up to something, I know it...

5. Seriously, what is with the scratching? How am I supposed to like cats if I know they will claw the crap out of any furniture I might own? Are you allowed to beat them for something like that like you would a dog?

6. Since the cats spend of their day sleeping, does that mean they don't sleep at night? For a couple days in a row I've noticed my hair ties sitting on the stairs near my bedroom when I know they were in the bathroom the night before. I swear, they're up to something...

Even though I'm not a huge fan of living with cats, at least I have gained appreciation for this video.

For the love of dough!

Anyone that knows me knows I love desserts. Okay, I love food in general, but there is a special place in my heart for desserts -- especially the kind I can make. Cookies are a wonderful dessert, but there's one thing about the cookie world I hate.

I've been surfing around the interwebs lately looking for a new cookie recipe to try. And a lot of them look really good, but I've been noticing a trend. Any cookie recipe that claims to be the best will always tell you to  refrigerate the dough for several hours or overnight for extra 'puffiness'.

Does anyone I know actually refrigerate their cookie dough?? When I make cookies, it's because I want to eat cookies right now. Half the dough doesn't even make it to the oven because it's so delicious that I just have to eat it now. In fact, a friend and I once made a batch of cookie dough just to eat the dough! We didn't even preheat the oven because we had no intentions of cooking our cookies. (Yes, that was during a girl's night and we watched a sappy movie after ward while we om nommed our delightful dough).

What I'm trying to get at is that I don't think these people who refrigerate their dough take cookies seriously. I mean, if you can make a batch of cookie dough, and then not eat it and save it for the next day, you clearly don't love cookies enough. I love cookies so much that I will eat one fresh out of the oven and scald my tongue on the lava hot chocolate chips and still go back for more. That, my friends, is what a cookie monster is all about.

All is Well

I don't have to go into the clinic until the afternoon today, so I've spent the morning chilling in bed with Joe. He's been put on nights for this shift so he went to work last night and got in around 8 this morning. He's sleeping right next to me as I type in bed.

If I hadn't decided to move up here for the summer this would not be happening right now. Joe would be up here by himself while I would be back home doing who knows what. This was such a good idea.

Things have been good here in GP. For Joe's first shift with me here he ended up getting sent down to the states for nearly the whole thing. I was feeling pretty bummed out about it by the middle of his shift, but then I  stopped moping and got busy.

I love working in the physio clinic I'm at. I get to see clients with my mentor, T, everyday and every case is so different that I couldn't possibly be bored doing this job. T is really great. She's good at getting me involved and testing my knowledge. My anatomy is a little rusty, but she's patient with me. It was nerve racking the first time she left me alone with a patient to do a couple simple exercises. But I'm slowly getting more comfortable and gaining a little confidence. Yesterday I helped a guy find his hips. It sounds silly, but he really had no idea how to move them.

I'm also having fun at the rugby club here in GP. There aren't nearly as many girls here as there are back home, so we do a lot of work with the guys. The men's coach makes a huge emphasis on fitness which is good because by the time I played my first game I wasn't dying like I thought I would be. There's a good group of people here at the club. I'm having fun playing with them. Joe's even made it out to a couple practices, which is awesome!

Basically, things are good for me right now. I know I made a good decision to come here because I am happy. I miss my family and my friends, but not as much as I thought I would. (no offence! I still love you all!) My first month has flown by and I am really enjoying myself.

You say Hello and I say Goodbye

I am more likely to greet someone in the morning than I am in the afternoon just because I like saying good morning more than any other greeting.

I love the exchange between Gandalf and Bilbo in The Hobbit when Bilbo greets Gandalf with "Good morning!" And Gandalf responds, "What do you mean? Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"

I hate it when I'm walking along and I see someone I know and they say "hey how's it going" without showing signs that they're actually going to stop to listen to my answer. Do they actually want to know the answer to that question? How am I supposed to respond? Am I supposed to tell them I'm good and then ask how they're doing? That's the polite thing isn't it? If that's true and we haven't actually stopped in our paths to talk, then we'd be shouting by the end of the exchange because we've already gone too far apart.

I expressed these concerns to Joe one day and he told me you don't have to ask them how they're doing, you can just say "hey, I'm good." But isn't that rude??? You're supposed to ask how they're doing back because it shows that you are interested in how they're doing as well. I hate telling people I'm good when really, I may be having a rotten day. But no one wants to hear about your rotten day so that's why everyone says they're good. So really, you may as well just say hi to each other and the same amount of information gets exchanged because saying you're good doesn't mean anything.

That's why when I see someone I know on the street and I don't have time to talk to them, I will still greet them with a wave or maybe even a "hey!"

But if I have time or like the person enough, I will be more than happy to stop and talk.

A New Adventure...

We finally did it. Joe and I are finally living together -- for reals! Mind you, this is only temporary, but it will be permanent once I graduate.

GP's not too bad. This has been my third day here and I feel like I'm adjusting quickly. Yesterday was pretty windy and it reminded me of home. I feel like it was GP's way of welcoming me to town. This place isn't all that different from home anyway. Except instead of coulees there's muskeg and instead of it smelling like a brewery near my house it smells like freshly cut lumber.

We're living with some friends of Joe's. They are renting a house for themselves and their daughter so we're splitting the rent with them. We pretty much get the downstairs area to ourselves. I videochatted with my family last night and showed them the new digs.

Today was a good day for me. It started by going out to the physio clinic I'll be doing my applied study at for the summer to meet my mentor. Then Joe and I went to the field behind our house to get a workout in. While we were there I ended up meeting some girls who play for the GP rugby club and were coaching the high school girls' team. So I got to help them coach and now I know where to go for rugby practice. Then Joe and I ended our day by seeing the new Iron Man movie which I enjoyed much more than I thought I would.

It's certainly shaping up to be a grand adventure here in GP so I'll be sure to keep you all posted. Peace!

A Little Taste of my Sunday

Happy Sunday, everyone! This is the first post I've made completely on my new phone, the Samsung Galaxy Ace. I am sloooowly catching up with the times, haha.

So what have you lovelies got planned for your Sunday? I will be going to church this afternoon and I am excited to teach the 6&7 year old primary class. I'm only a sub, so I usually get to teach a different class every week. This will be my first time teaching these kids, so I'm excited. We're learning about the Word of Wisdom and I've got everything prepared.



I got in touch with my crafty side and drew and cutout little pictures of good and bad things for our bodies for the children to sort out. Can you sort them out? And then the little happy faces are pins to remind the children that their bodies will be happy when they put good things into them.

At first I really didn't want to be asked to be a primary teacher, but now I am glad I was. I love teaching the kids. They are so funny, and sweet and smart and loving. Sure, they can also be hyper and crazy and loud, but that keeps things interesting and gives me something to laugh about.

This post started out as nothing special but then turned into an awesome tribute to my best friend.

I want to blog, I really do. But lately I haven't felt like I have much to share.

So I've decided that today I will make myself sit down and write something and I won't stop until I have something.

Ready? Go.

• When I was a kid I loved the Ninja Turtles. My favourite was Raphael. Me and my best friend, Cassandra used to yell down the sewers to talk to them. Her favourite was Michaelangelo. That's why we were best friends, because we rarely ever fought over boys. Or turtles.
• The only thing me and Cassandra ever fought about was who was going to be the pink power ranger. Or poison ivy. Or baby spice. When we fought there were usually some tears shed and then one of us would go home. We always got back together though. Either an hour later or the next day and it would always be like nothing ever happened.
• I think Cassandra wore the pants in our relationship because I believed everything she told me. We used to have bike races that went from speedbump to speed bump and I'd usually cross the finish line first, but then Cassandra would say, "Nu-uh! The finish line was back here! You lost!" And so I would think I lost because I went past the wrong finish line.
• When I moved to a different school after grade 4 I was devastated because I didn't want to lose all my friends. But I made new friends. The relationships I had with these new friends were different because we didn't play pretend like me and Cassandra used to, but I'm still friends with several of the ones I made at the new school so I think it worked out.
• Seriously, Cass and I played pretend until we were 12, maybe 13. The last thing I remember us playing pretend about was the car my family had in our backyard. We'd go in there and pretend it was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and we pretended it took us to all these crazy places. Or we were secret agents like in Charlie's Angels and the car talked to us like it was Charlie.
• Technically speaking, you could probably say we played pretend straight into high school because we used to make up scenarios in our heads that usually involved a boy we liked and so we'd make up different conversations we could have with him or whatever. Seriously, we were retarded.

When I look back on my childhood, I think it was the best childhood anyone could possibly have. Cassandra and I had some crazy imaginations and when we got together it made them even crazier. We don't see each other as often as we used to, but that's okay. Kids grow up and make new friends and follow different paths in life. Even though we spend less time together these days, she still is one of the few people I can really be myself and be totally comfortable with. In fact, I knew that Joe was a good fit for me because the relationship I had with him mirrored the one I had with Cassandra, but it was even better.

So thanks, Cass, for teaching me how to have fun with nothing but your imagination and for showing me what a good friendship should look like. The statement.