The Bad and The Good

I used to be an avid blood donater, an everyday hero, it's in you to give right?! WRONG apparently. I decided after not donating in a little over a year due to medical issues that I would try donating again. Everything went fine until about an hour afterwards when suddenly I got really dizzy and proceeded to upchuck about 5 times. Once again thought everything was fine and about two hours later had a do over. Yikes! I was at work during all this and I honestly can't think of anything much worse than being violently ill in a public washroom. So after 2 days home from work and over a week of not feeling "normal" I finally came back to life, so to speak, and got back to being crazy busy me. On Sunday I went to Cosi fan tutti an Italian opera, translated into English and modernized by a group of BU students and their professor. It was fabulous! The vocalists and the orchestra deserve a standing ovation, continuous applause, and one huge BRAVO! The rest of my week in a nutshell...Monday: work, class, home, back to BU to work on our Shakespeare play, home, sleep. Tuesday: work, home, back to BU for class, home, sleep. Wednesday: work, class, and Daffodil Days...which consisted of delivering pre-ordered flowers to different departments and people around BU, setting up and organizing the flower sale table, being interviewed by the local tv station for the evening news, cleaning up, and finally making sure the money matched the flowers sold. In total we raised almost $1000!...then home, relax (wait what's that again?!), sleep. Thursday and Friday were just typical days...work, school, home, sleep! Now I have 9 books on Shakespeare, King Lear, and Religion to skim through and gather information from for my final research paper. Finally, there is a faint glimmer of light at the end of this 8 month tunnel...just our play performance, research paper, the final exam, and then the Shakespeare chapter of my life is OVER!

Fantastical Weekend

As 'crazy time' in my life creeps closer and closer I was really looking forward to the last two weekends. Needless to say, if you read the title of this entry, they did not disappoint. Last weekend (Feb 22-24) was the best weekend I've had in a while. Friday night was host to the 9x10 Multiple Book Launch at BU. My bookworks project that I did in my first term Artworks class was showcased, with a few other projects from the class, along side the novels, plays, poetry, and comined works of some of the professors. It was a semi-swanky event with wine and cheese and sushi and I had a really great time getting my academics on! On Saturday, mom and I went for mini facials (part of a promotional spa package I got Mom for Christmas) in the afternoon and to see BU's production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The performance was fabulous, just as I expected it would be and fits quite nicely into my life right now since I am currently studying Shakespeare. Sunday, February 24th, 2008 can now also be known as the day I made my modelling debut...not in the full sense of the word of course, but model none-the-less. I wore five wedding and two bridesmaid dresses in a wedding show being held in Brandon. It was soooo much fun! I plan to be one of their regular volunteers and so should make my second appearance in October. Runway here I come...again!

This weekend...which is now coming to an end was not quite so eventful, but still more fun than my usual 'sit at home and read all day weekends'. Mom and I went to Belmont Friday night for my cousin Leslie's 40th (and 10th..he he) birthday party. She is a leap year baby making her even more special than she already is and I am really glad that we were a part of her celebration. Following the party, Mom and I resisted the urge to order pizza at 12:30 a.m. and went to bed with visions of our manicures in mind. So, obviously, we got manicures (mini ones-again part of the promo spa pack) Saturday afternoon. For supper we gave in to the previous day's urge to order pizza, did a little shopping, and then went to the theater to see Step Up 2! We actually planned to see No Country for Old Men, but ended up arriving at the theater a little behind schedule. Step Up 2 was definitely worth it though and I guess No Country for Old Men will have to be the movie of choice another time. We finished the night by watching Hairspray and American Gangster on video and finally getting to sleep in the wee hours of this morning. In conclusion, as I sit and write this blog, Mom is on her way home and I am procrastinating (one of my best talents) writing my Detailed Analysis of a Short Text for my Women Writers I class. So, after two really great weekends...the work must begin. Here goes!

It's Been Awhile

Ok, I know it's been a long time. Facebook has pretty much been occupying my time. I'll try to update more often. Since August...let's see...busiest time of the year at work is the end of August. Residence Check-In went off without too many glitches. Ironically, I worked on Labour Day which was fine by me and spent the rest of September catching up on all the back log from the two weeks we dub "Hell Weeks" (really they're not that bad)! I actually look forward to that time of the year. The university is such a hustle and bustle of excited people and we get to help them all! I started two new classes in September, ArtWorks (yep an art class) and Shakespeare (oh yes, the classics). October and November were spent working my butt off to get all of my papers and projects done, the biggest one being the BookWorks project for my art class. All in all everything worked out. I finished ArtWorks with an A- and my BookWorks is going to be displayed in a show at the university's art gallery this Friday! There is going to be wine and cheese and music...oh my! Shakespeare goes all year so currently I am sitting at an A. Right now I am working on a group project which consists of editing one of Shakespeare's plays and performing it. We're doing "As You Like It"...funny stuff. Gonna be fun! Hmmm...December and Christmas and lots and lots of fun! The BU WUSC Club that I am involved in held an AIDS Vigil and HIV/AIDS Information table. It was a really beautiful ceremony and I am proud to be a part of such a great group supporting an even greater cause. January...new year, new class - Women Writers I (literature by women from the 13th to 19th century). Just recieved my midterm mark (B-)...not bad for an essay written in fifty minutes! Hope to do better on my future assignments though. Also turned 24 in January! Happy Birthday to me! Now we're on to February. The beginning of the month was relatively low key. On to the middle for a big birthday celebration for Baba's 80th birthday! It was a wonderful day full of family, friends, and fun. From now until the end of April my life is going to get increasingly hectic. Basically I am bracing myself for "crazy going slowly am I". This week alone is mind boggling enough...Tuesday: WUSC Meeting and Shakespeare; Wednesday/Thursday: read read read; Friday: Fair Trade Information Display and the beginning of the Fair Trade Challenge, try on dresses for wedding show Sunday, Nine by Ten Book Launch at the Glen P. Sutherland Gallery; Saturday: Mom and I are going to see "Twelfth Night" which is a Shakespearean play being modernly performed by the BU Drama Club. It's gonna be good!; Sunday: I get to be a model!! I'm going to be wearing wedding and bridesmaid dresses in a wedding show! So that is a brief update of the craziness I call my life! Stay tuned!

The Month of August

Alrighty...so long weekend in August was spent moving into the apartment. We have our own place again and this will be "home" until we build our house. We have some noisy neighbours every now and again, but it's ours. My Aunt and Uncle had their 40th anniversary on August 11th in Winnipeg so that weekend found me in the big city once again. It was a great weekend of fun and family. I even impressed my almost impossible to please Great Aunt by making her the perfect coffee. Kudos to me for that! On the 18th I was on my way to Carberry to act on behalf of the Canadian Cancer Society at two young ladies' Buzz Cuts for Cancer. They put a terrible picture of me in the Carberry paper, but the point is that I'm in there and they mentioned that I was representing the Cancer Society. The two girls raised $10,000! WOW...and I thought cutting my hair and raising a few hundred dollars was impressive.
On that same weekend Neen (my sis) came back to MB from Alberta. She started moving stuff into our place and the following weekend we spent looking for a bed, sheets, and other room stuff. August 27 marked the first day of what I used to refer to negatively as "Hell Weeks". Since we've gotten more efficient and acquired some really great summer help I no longer refer to it so negatively. We have an "Easy" Button in our office and I think it has had some positive influence, just like the commercials. Although we check in about 400 students in about 5 days, meaning we do cable and internet connections, distribute parking passes, fridges, and televisions, activate student ID cards, and more and more and more, it's just really not all that bad. My motto for these weeks (Aug 27-Sept 7) is "slowly going crazy am I". That little quotations pretty much sums it up. This weekend is supposed to be gorgeous. Likely our last really nice weather before our long long winter so I plan to enjoy it!

Since the 5th

Well I have been quite busy by some standards and not that busy by others. Since the 5th I have attended an outdoor Candlelight Party in Shilo MB with Angie on the 7th. Ordered some yummy smelling aroma melts that make the whole room smell when you melt them. During the following week on Tuesday the 10th Bryan's Mom and I went to see the newest member of the Lussier family, Seth Ryder Lussier. This little gent is less than a day old and looked like he was at least a week old. He had absolutely no blemishes on his skin and no wrinkles. So healthy. What a little sweet heart!The weekend after that Bryan's cousin got married outside at a camping resort in Rock Lake MB. Tina Lussier became Tina Dubyts in a short, but sweet ceremony in a very peaceful and serene location. It was a really nice day, no rain and not too terribly hot. The main dish of the buffest style supper was carved pork that had been roasted rotisary style. The night finished around 12:00 midnight with a fireworks display, small but decent enough for what they had to work with. We had one little scare when one of the fireworks fell over and started shooting towards the crown of onlooking guests. Luckily no harm was done. I love the color of the bridesmaids' dresses and the little flower girls and ring bearer were just so precious.

I started much needed holidays on July 18th. The evening of the 17th was complete with a visit to Bryan's Memeire and Pepeire's where we were supposed to pick and shell peas for them, but by the time we got there, they had finished. We did have a nice visit though and on the way home we took the ferry across the Assiniboine River near Stockton MB. It was a neat experience to say the least. Bryan's Dad took us on a little scenic tour of his childhood stompin' ground which also led us past the training fields for the Shilo army base. Wednesday and Thursday were spent relaxing, reading, and watching movies. Thursday was also my "book adventure" day when I decided to take a stroll through some of the used book stores in Brandon. I stopped by one and thought it was decent, but the second one was the paradise of all used book stores. I thought the upstairs was incredible and then I noticed the downstairs! Crazy! I bought a bunch of books and have been showing off the little place ever since. I took a stroll along the River Bank Discovery Centre and snapped a few pics. I was lucky enough to get this great shot of a Redwinged Blackbird with its lunch in its mouth!

Mom came on Friday and we hung out, went for coffee at Forbidden Flavours, rented a movie, and tried to stay cool. Saturday we did a little shopping, went for lunch at Lady of the Lake and then had Elaine come and do a Mary Kay Facial for us. I got to see her professional wedding photos and catch up a little with the happenings of her newly married life. Sunday brought SPA DAY! Mom and I went to the Solstice Spa in Elkhorn MB. We spent two hours just relaxing in the mineral pool and hot tub, reading, and snacking on fruit and muffins. Then off to my Canadian Prairie Mud Wrap and her Hot Rock Massage. They actually plaster real mud from somewhere near Watrous SK all over your body, face, and hair. Oh yes, they poured mud in my hair! It was awesome. We had a BBQ buffet supper at the Mountain Grill at the Elkhorn Resort. Soooo good! And then were off to Onanole to the Smokey Hollow Resort for the night. Early Monday morning we were up, showered, and off to Clear Lake to spend the day reading by the lake, shopping in the little shops, eating icecream, and finally taking a tour of the lake on The Martese. The boat tour was really great! We had a bbqed hamburger for lunch and just enjoyed the scenery of the lake and staying cool via the nice breeze. There is a sunset version of the same tour as well that I would like to experience. I am sure it would be breathtakingly beautiful. After a relaxing day in Clear Lake we headed to GP, visited Baba, rented a movie, and yes...relaxed some more! Tuesday morning I was up bright and early to beat the day's heat and pick a pail of yummy raspberries for Baba. Another day of just relaxing and trying desperately to stay cool with no air conditioner. SO HOT! Stopped by the cemetary to replace some faded flowers, rented another movie, and went to sleep. Wednesday had Mom and I on our way to Aunty Eileen and Uncle Ed's in Winnipeg. Hello, central air! We spent the evening visiting and woke up Thursday to a day of shopping. I bought some clothes for work and a whole bunch more books at my favorite store...McNally Robinson! I am such a nerd...but I love it that way. Friday before we left shortly after lunch we were able to see Reagan and Alex, two of my youngest cousins. They are so adorable and I can't wait to go back to Winnipeg in a couple weeks to see them again.

So adorable. Mom dropped me off in Brandon on Friday and I spent the evening washing clothes and watching parts one and two of the first Planet Earth disc. If you haven't seen this series, you MUST watch it. It is amazing. There are 5 disks shot on all of the continents and in over 200 countries world wide. Let's see I've watched Pole to Pole, Mountains, Fresh Water, Caves, Desserts, Ice Worlds, and Great Plains so far and they are AMAZING. Saturday I went to Eleanor Kidd park to read and walk around. It's a beautiful park and I've only discovered its magic now after having lived in Brandon for 5 years (give or take). Went to Forbidden Flavors for a Carimella Coffee and some more reading and home again to watch more Planet Earth. Today is Sunday and it is so HOT that I am not doing anything other than sitting on the couch in front of the fan trying not to lose all of my bodily fluids via sweat. It is 35 out there today. SO HOT! I go back to work on the 2nd of August and until then I plan on relaxing some more, reading some more, watching more Planet Earth, and hopefully Wednesday moving into our apartment. It's supposed to stay this hot all week so moving will be a real sweat fest, but, and this is such a great but...we will have AIR CONDITIONIING there! Yay!

Fun at Work!

Since June 29th, Brandon University has been host to the International United Church Association. What that means for me is getting the floor plans, keys, maps, and parking passes arranged for about 85 people from all over the world. Not to mention printing and photocopying itineraries, scripts, and information sheets; running around getting personal computers connected to the residence Internet; and scrambling around unlocking doors and delivering extension cords. It sounds hectic, and believe me it is, but it is so great at the same time. There are people here from Australia, New Zealand, Czech Republic, England, Switzerland, South Korea, Germany, Iceland, India, Indonesia, United States, Tonga, and Canada. You should see some of their names! The Tongans were in their amazing traditional dress today to do a performance for the whole group (which sadly, I did not get to see). One of the main contact people that I deal with is from New Zealand. She is baffled at the fact that in Canada we eat supper (which is what they call the snack before bed) so early in the evening (between 5 and 6) when it is still so hot outside. I guess they eat the meal that we call supper between 8 and 10 p.m. Crazy! She also thinks that it is so great that we say "No Problem" in Canada. So now everytime I say "No Problem" I think of her. I got a hug yesterday from Harold who looks like Santa Claus and has a southern accent. I found out today that he lives in Ohio, but comes from Memphis...hence the southern drawl y'all! Anyway, the whole point of this blog was just to say how great it is that we have these people here, albeit I am not religious, but the culture is amazing!

Good Intentions

So, I had really great intentions of updating this on a regular basis, but those intentions never really led where I intended. Anyway to update everyone on my life since April 10th...here goes:



April was a CRAZY month. Insanely busy at work and then we had a catastrophic mishap that we had to deal with on top of the insaneness that already existed. I wrote three final exams in the span of a week and right in the midst of that Bryan's grandpa had a heart attack. On the up side, we worked through the problem at work, I aced all of my exams, and Bryan's grandpa is ok. With all that stress it is no wonder that I have spent the majority of May and June working through the troubles with my stomach resulting from anxiety. With some behavior modification and some meds from the doc I feel pretty confident that I am on my way up! Besides working through the illness I've had a little time to help plan and attend a bachelorette party, see my best friend get married to the perfect guy for her, read a bunch of books, and watch a tonne of movies. I've managed to spend some time with Mom and some time visiting Baba and other than that life is just, well, life.

There is a great picture of all of us gals at Houston's after playing some really great games at the hotel. I created a pictionary game perfect for a bachelorette, complete with penis shaped paper and both naughty and nice things to draw. We all had a blast and I know Leilanie (the bride) did too! Girls just wanna have fun right! Unfortunately I couldn't attend her wedding because it was the same day (June 23) as my best friend's. Sadly I couldn't be two places at once and I just couldn't miss seeing the person who's been my best friend since elementary school marry the man of her dreams.



And there she is, Elaine Mann...used to be Suidy. The wedding was outdoors at their home near Roblin. I used to get phone calls from this girl at 4:00 in the morning after a night at the bar while she was in Calgary going to university telling me about the lastest adventures she had gotten herself into. Those were the days. How things change. Now she's married to Peter and couldn't be happier, moving on to new adventures and a wonderful life. I am so happy for her!




So there you have it...a brief update, a few pictures, and the hopes that I will keep this updated!

Cheers!