Thrifting Uglies

After the successes of last weekend't thrifting, I wanted to balance it with some awesome ugliness that was encountered.

 This scary, scary doll was actually a lamp.  For reals.  I almost yelled in fear when I caught a glimpse of it. 
My favourite thing is the green price tag slapped on her cheek.

 Bag o' Barbies!

And just for some on-theme fun,  we made sure to check out the wedding dress section.  I came up with a new game by asking Megan: "ok, if you made this into a strapless dress and put it on the hottest person you know, would it be okay?".  The answer for this one was no.

The answer for this nice buttercup yellow one was also no. Turns out the wedding dresses at Goodwill aren't that cute.  Go figure.

Pushing Those Almost-Sisterly Buttons

My friend Kerry loves hockey.  We are good enough friends that I feel like it's ok for me to be open with her about the fact that I really don't care about hockey, and that I'm not super interested in her telling me all about hockey.  This might sound a bit mean, but she is one of my most vocal and prone-to-obsession friends, so I feel it is somewhat justified for me to stay strong in the face of her vocal obsessions. You can get a bit of background on our hockey dynamic by reading the second half of this blog post by her.

As much as I don't like or care about hockey, I do always think of Kerry when I see an Oilers game on tv because she has been so enthusiastic about her love for them. This happened last night when I was out at the bar with Joel and some of his grad school peeps, so because I have known her for a long time and know how to bait her and push at least a few of her buttons (in an almost sisterly sort of way), I thought it would be suuuper funny to mess with her by sending her strings of text messages as if I cared about the Oilers.  Mimicing actual texts that I have received over and over again from her in the past.

Here is a transcription of her totally falling for my tricks...

BB 8:22 OMG Edmonton is beating Phoenix!

KP8:22 As if you know that! What are you doing?

BB 8:24 Omg! Dustin Penner is so dreamy! #46 just pushed someone! Ahhhh 3 to zero!

KP 8:25 3 nothing? THe stupid internet cut out! Who scored the third goal? 46 is Zach Sortini! Is this Joel?

BB 8:25 Aw shit! Dubnyk just let one in.

BB 8:26 Nope! it's bb all the way.  I have no idea who scored.

KP 8:28 Darn it! But seriously 3-1? Because my internet died!

BB 8:28 Yep. 3-1. Now there is a fight!

KP Why are you watching? Where are you?

KP Penner scored #3. Why are you watching?????????

BB 8:30 I looooove hockey!!!!

KP 8:30 Plllllleease tell me.  You win. You have driven me crazy.

KP 8:31 stooooooopppp. My stupid internet! Why are you watching? Please just tell me!

BB 8:38 3-2! shit!

KP 8:39 I hate you. And Ray Whitney.

KP 8:39 Why haven't you cracked? This is mean. Although my internet is up again.  Were you a little interested in what was going on?

BB 8:39 Mua ha ha ha

BB 8:40 I was a lot interested in your reaction to what was going on.  I feel awesome and powerful right now! New favourite game!

Beezus & Ramona

Yesterday, on Kerry's repeated and high-pressure recommendation, I watched the new(ish) Ramona movie, “Ramona and Beezus”. As a kid, I read the Ramona Quimby books. They were, and still are, classic stories about little-girl-hood and sisterhood.

The movie was totally adorable and basically took all the highlights from the books and wove them into a movie plot. It was a really great remake of the books and it was actually kind of amazing to watch the scenes and be taken back to being 10 years old and reading the stories for the first time. They created them just as I had imagined. It was almost eerie.

For those of you who have read the books, the part where Ramona goes to try out for the part of the princess in the Royal Peanut Butter TV commercial and ends up making herself a tiara out of burrs from the park outside was perfect. As was the early scene where Howie and Ramona are jumping out of the hole in the back of the house as it is being renovated. Or the one where she tries to crack her hard-boiled egg on her head, only to discover that her dad forgot to boil it.  She ends up with egg running down her face right before class pictures.
Another big draw is that Aidan from SATC is totally the dad.  And Ginnifer Goodwin is the adorable Aunt Bea.  Their little family is so sweet. 
The most interesting part of watching the movie, though, was realizing that as a kid, and again now, I strongly associate Beezus and Ramona with my childhood/lifelong friends Kerry and Kim. Kerry being Beezus, and Kim being Ramona. Seriously. I don’t know why I didn’t realize this sooner. I'll be interested to know if those of you who know them agree...

Winter came late, but Christmas decorations are coming early

Joel and I just had a 'lively debate' (his words) about Christmas decorations.  He has a strict no music no decorations until Dec. 1 policy.  Whereas I like to decorate and bust out the Roger Whittaker and Amy Grant's cleverly titled "A Christmas Album" whenever the mood hits.  Which usually happens sometime in late November and often coincides with a mega snowstorm.  If you wait until December, then it's pretty much over before you even get started.

Confession: I pulled out some of my Christmas decorations today.  I couldn't help it.  I was home and it was snowy and it just felt right.  

I guess it could be argued that this is too early, I am celebrating the change of seasons more than the actual holiday in all of its meangingfullness.  But I can't help myself.  Being able to enjoy winter as a legitimately wonderful season is what keeps me happy living in a place like Edmonton.

As for commercialized signals that Christmas is coming, there are a lot of them that I like: the red Starbucks cups and the egg nog lattes that go with them, the twinkly lights on Jasper Ave, the anticipation of a break from work and time with family, yummy treats, shopping and gift giving.  I like that stuff. It adds a little romance to what can sometimes be a bleak season.  So I say bring it on.

The search for the perfect type of exercise

As a female, it seems like the obvious choice when thinking of taking some sort of exercise or wellness class is...yoga.  Always yoga.  And I can see why.  Especially for someone like me who sits at a desk all day and often is hunched over editing documents, opening up and stretching has a lot of benefits.  To that end, I've tried different yoga classes over the years but usually end up annoyed when I have to pay 16 bucks a pop to go do yoga in a room with a pretentious instructor and a bunch of clones in lululemon gear. But, if exercise isn't fun, or at least a bit lighthearted, I lose interest pretty quickly. 

Joel and I went to classes together at a couple different studios and I almost busted into a fit of laughter as the instructor made a poor attempt at describing super-scientifically what the yoga was doing for our bodies.  Being a real scientist makes it hard for Joel to let fake science talk slide. Other studios were so unwelcoming, boring and serious that it made me want to flip out.  I know that different people want different things from classes but I also know that serious and pretentious is not for me.

This led me and my friend Rebecca to try boot camp.  It was a hoot.  Yeah that's right, I said hoot.  We listened to music from The Bounce 91.7 (Katy Perry etc.) and did all sorts of hilarious stuff.  Boxing drills, cardio circuits, relay stuff.  It was a good time, and we lucked out because our instructor definitely had a sense of humour about it all.  Then Rebecca had to take a hiatus from it all, which led me to...

Moksha yoga.  I was skeptical when I decided to try Moksha yoga.  It's a type of hot yoga but it's not bikram.  And I totally like it.  Go figure.  It markets itself as being welcoming and they actually are for the most part.  And their studios are totally sweet.  They're newly built and have gorgeous change and shower rooms.  As someone who rarely sweats, even when I am exercising pretty hard, it's a new and strange experience to be somewhere so hot that my shins and inner ears are sweating.

Latest addition to the random fitness attempts is KARATE AQUASIZE.  Does it get any more hilarious than that?  I didn't think so.  It's totally great. 

Anyways, writing this post has helped me conclude that the big draw for me with exercise is to do something different and possibly ridiculous, amusing, or embarrasing.  Or, to put it scientifically for Joel

hilarity + intensity / embarrassment ^ 2 = success!

House Tour: Part I

I promised long ago on this blog that I would show you some pics of my little place when it was done.  The trouble is that with me it's never done.  I am always changing something.  So I decided to tackle this one space at a time.  That way I get like four NaBloPoMo posts out of it instead of just one, and I can focus on more details in each room.  So, to start...the makeshift enterance way!

 There are three doors into my one bedroom place, so I blocked one of them off with a chalkboard.  There's not much to say about the entrance, but I thought it would be a good place to start.

Horrifying things about wedding dresses and one or two good things

One of the interesting and challenging things about wedding planning so far has been trying to find a way to indulge my desire to have a fun and memorable wedding without buying into the ridiculous culture of bridal and wedding indulgence.  I want to vomit when I think about the huge trade shows like “Bridal Fantasy” and was floored when I saw an ELEVEN THOUSAND DOLLAR engagement and wedding photo package.  I know it's important to value the services and equipment that a photographer provides, but my head about exploded when I saw that.

There is so much pressure to plan a wedding that is totally beyond our means, and in a lot of ways I feel like the wedding dress embodies or symbolizes the crazy insanity that weddings can become.  I was apprehensive when I started looking for a dress because I feel so uncomfortable with a lot of the things that are attached to THE dress.  Because of this, there were some things that I absolutely hated about dress shopping, but thankfully there were also some positives and things worked out almost better than I could have hoped in the end.

• The first thing I took issue with, as alluded to above, was the price. Oh my word.  I had budgeted a maximum of $1,000 with a goal of spending waaaay less, and when I would go into stores and be up front about my price, a lot of the stores were unhelpful, even though they totally had dresses for under that price point...they just weren’t all that interested in showing them to me.  I think every consultant I met asked me "do you have any wiggle room in your budget?".  So I would tell them that it wasn't that I couldn't spend more, it's that I had made a decision that I WOULDN'T spend more than that.  On top of that, almost every store told me it was impossible to find the kind of dress I was describing for less than 3 or 4 thousand.
• The next lame thing is the sizes. For some cruel reason they make wedding dresses to fit small, so you can count on having to buy one that’s at least one or two sizes bigger than what you would normally wear.  Way to make someone feel good in a white dress.  Jerks.
• Just as I was getting used to shopping for dresses, I ran into people at a couple of the stores who reminded me forcefully that you have to order your dress way in advance because ALL of the dresses come from China.  They went on to emphasize how timing is an issue because of Chinese New Year when all the shops close down for an extended period of time.  The sales person who told me this was acting personally affronted that those jerks in China would dare close down their businesses to celebrate a national holiday.
• Now on the positive side I eventually learned that not all dresses are actually made in China.  There is a line called Mikaella that makes gorgeous dresses right here in Canada (outside Toronto).  I probably would have ended up with one of those except for the price, which was reasonable for a wedding dress but still out of my price range.
• Enter: Bridal Consignment.  This is basically the best thing ever.  Dresses worn once sold for half the price.  I was sceptical at first and thought that it might be a nice idea in theory but feeling doubtful that I would actually find a dress that fit me while also being better than what I had seen in stores.  But, I did.  I found one I liked, tried it on, it fit great, I loved it, it was pretty much what I had been describing to people so I bought it and walked out with it that day.  No ordering 6 months in advance.  It was so easy, and now I basically get to feel good because I am recycling.

And finally, just to make this post more interesting for you all who might not care about the ins and outs of wedding dress shopping, here is a sketch done by Joel.  This is what he thinks my dress will look like. 

 *Untitled Ink on napkin, 1/1, Artist: Joel K. Date: November 2010. Price: $200