Leaving the Motherland

I said goodbye to Natasha tonight. She is moving to Seattle while I am on vacation, so I will come back to an empty city. To celebrate our many years of Edmonton-based friendship, we enjoyed a good meal at Bualong followed by dessert and a trip to Lucky 97 market to buy tamarind candies. Which inevitably resulted in the purchase of a coconut bun. Then we made a trip to Michaels, and (dare I admit it) Walmart. And then it was back to Tash's house where we sang "Onward Christian Soldiers" over and over again while I lay on her bed in a heap of curry and coconut bun.

She is one of my most favourite friends and I will miss her a lot.

And now, I will sign off because tomorrow I am heading to France to meet up with Joel and spend two weeks having fun in France, Germany and London. Love it.

hijacked

bethany's blog has been hijacked.

best friend ever

you know you were destined to be friends when you find a pic like this in the family archives. i have no idea who took this photo, but it surfaced in a slideshow at my grandma's funeral last week. my jaw dropped when i saw it. it is my new favourite and i never knew it existed. that's me on the left and my cousin-friend melissa on the right. we are totally bffs. even though her socks don't match in this photo. and she is bald. LOVE YOU MEL! oh, and that's my dad holding us.

See ya later, Toots

I went to see a terrible movie last night with Kerry, Natasha, and Nathan. Despite the awful movie, something happened at the theatre that made me laugh harder than I have in at least a year.

As we grabbed our seats Tash took off to the bathroom and about a minute later I decided I had to go too and headed in the same direction. I got to the bathroom just as Tash walked out of the stall, so she saw me go into the stall as she went to wash her hands. As I walked into the stall Tash was walking out and saw me but didn't say anything.

I realized right away that I had chosen a stall right next to the only other person in the whole washroom, which is a slight breach of bathroom etiquette, but what can you do...so, to make it worse, the person in the adjacent stall let one rip as they did their business. Right away, Tash was all "Whoa!" from where she was washing her hands.

I remained silent, not wanting to further embarrass the person next to me by yelling to Tash that it wasn't actually me who had farted, but rather the person next to me. As I realized that she probably had no idea there was anyone else in the bathroom, I started to laugh but tried to hold it in. I just sat there in the stall shaking with laughter. Then the person let another one rip, and Tash yelled out "See ya later, Toots!" and left the bathroom.

I about died with silent laughter, and when I got back to my seat, I was pretty much beside myself as I tried to fill Tash et al. in on what had just happened. Maybe it's immature, but it was also amazing.

But I don't want to buy an RV to go with my new mop...

It's no secret that I miss my old, dear work friends. I complain (more than I probably need to) about not having real friends at my new job - a fact that is made worse by awkward conversations with new co-workers and multiple invitations to tupperware parties. Forceful invitations. And requests that I host a tupperware party at my house. And that I ask my friends if they will host them too. It makes me angry. Not a good way to forge a new frienship in my opinion.

And now, the promised transcription of a conversation. This is with someone who I have declined to host a tupperware party for...

Her (almost inaudibly): Hi, how are you?

I keep working, not noticing that I was being spoken to

Her: so, I think we are going to ‘go green’ with our cleaning supplies.

Me: Oh, Hi. That's cool

Her: we went to a Norwex party on the weekend and they had lots of cleaning supplies. Environmentally friendly ones. I think I want to buy the mop.

Me: oh, cool

Her: It's like $130 mop and I already have the other mop that was $70 from princess house. It's a steam cleaning mop. You plug it in and it heats up and cleans. The new one though - the $130 one - is really good for cleaning flies off of the outside of your RV.

Me: cool. I heard you can use vinegar as a cleaning supply if you want to avoid the harsh cleaners. And lemons too. They are better for the environment too.

Her: Yeah. Well, like I said to Keith, you could just go to parties all the time instead of going out. There's the princess house party, the tupperware party, the norwex cleaning supplies party, and even parties where you can buy clothes. You don't have to go out at all. You can just go to parties that people host in their homes, right?

Me: *dies a little*

cell phone

Joel and I road tripped to Calgary and Canmore this past weekend. The photos below are a record of our antics as we approached Mel's house and needed directions. If you've ridden in my car in the past several months, I probably showed you my genius little plastic directions holder.
The actual case was a gift many years ago. I think it is supposed to be for holding your credit cards or something. I never had a good use for it because it wasn't really big enough to be a functional wallet, so instead it sat in a box of crap in my old room at my parents' house. Sandwiched between a toy boat and a pewter picture frame with an ivy design.

Anyways, when I was in my car one day looking for some directions I had written on the back of a receipt and then proceeded to step on all winter with my muddy shoes as I ground the directions firmly into my floor mats, I realized there had to be a better, more organized way to get from A to B. Then it came to me. I could re-use my old business cards by writing directions on to the back of each one and keeping them all together. WPK ordered me about 500 business cards and I think I gave out ONE legitimate card in the entire time I worked there. Oh wait, I can think of two.

So, after I decided to use the cards, I had this weird flashback to the plastic case and thought that I had to find it. So I drove over to my parents' house, walked up to my old room, lifted up a box and looked inside and VOILA. There it was, exactly where I thought it would be. And then I put a stack of business cards in it and they fit perfectly. SO satisfying. You have no idea.

I think I get such a kick out of this silly little organizational tool because it combines many things I like:

1) Reusing things destined for the garbage
2) Repurposing things that were never used and just sat in a pile
3) Organizing
4) Knowing where I am going and how I will get there

I use it all the time. And so as we pulled into Calgary I pulled it out and got us to Mel's house without any trouble. I called it my cell phone and pretended I was calling her for directions. Hence the photos. That's Joel texting in the last photo:

talking in four locations

After I was done with my work duties in Calgary last week I met Kerry, Mel, and Kaeli and spent my Friday night with them. It was so excellent to be hanging out together. I can’t say that we have spent a lot of time together as the four of us before, but we have spent a lot of time in various combinations, each with the other. Mel lived with our fam in university for a while, and eventually had Kerry as a roommate. Despite their amusing differences (want to know more? ask me about the Spiderman-Kleenex-in-lieu-of-toilet-paper story) they got along. Basically we moved from talking at Starbucks in Marda Loop to talking at Opa to talking at Mel’s house and then out for a drink to talk some more. It’s what we do. And it was a good time. I love my friends, and I am MAD AT YOU ALL FOR MOVING AWAY. Natasha, this includes you even though you haven't left yet. Didn't you guys learn anything from Anne of Green Gables? You aren't supposed to go looking for your ideals outside of Avonlea. Gosh.