...and she lived to tell about it ....

I came, I saw, I conquered Hydra River Guides rafting on the Kicking Horse. Its all about the Class IV's baby! I will update tomorrow with pictures and a running commentary on one of the most amazing weekends of my life. I'm loving all the incredible people that are entering my life.

I'm one tired puppy.

xo
L.

Mini-Vacay

To whom it may concern:

I'm leaving at noon tomorrow to go white water rafting in Golden, BC. It'll take about three hours to get there, we're renting a chalet and rafting on Saturday. They are all Bree's friends, so its going to be fun to meet new people. Story of my life.
Have I told you before that I'm terrified of water? Hate the ocean. Hate waves. I only like swimming pools and being safely on a boat, with an experienced operator where I can still see land.
I guess I am facing my fears. Or something like that. Anyway, just letting you know and I'll be sure to post some photos (if I'm still alive .... ) and give you the details.
I've done it in Maine with a bunch of Halifax and Moncton friends when I was 17. That's 17 years ago. Scared silly and here I am doing it again. I'm a slow learner I guess!

Ciao for now

L.

Just to Make You Feel Smart

Heres a few little stories for you. Just in case you think you said something really dumb today and you can't get it out of your mind, read on:

One of our stores was broken into and something like 16 iPhones were stolen, amongst other things. Alarm went off, police were called. Its in the middle of shopping complex in the middle of the night. (fyi) Upon further investigation, its proven that the safe (big, industrial, keypad entry) hadn't been closed/locked.

Upon even further questioning, the girl who closed that night was very confused.

Manager (not me): " (insert common girls name here), why didn't you lock the safe last night"?
Girl: "I didn't know I had to"
Manager: "Its the safe, (common girls name), it always has to be locked. Always. At all times."
Girl: "Well, I was never told that. Besides, where would I have put the key?"

TRUE story. Heres another one.

Scenerio: In store, two employees (me being one of them, common girl name being the other), one customer, believed to be a doctor, or at least a well educated professional. Me and customer chatting over iPhone purchase. Just about general things. Life, Alberta, the NW, his new condo etc. Girl interjecting when a key word, that piqued her interest, was spoken. Revealing very personal information about various family members. Inappropriate at best. Me trying to stop her without her knowing I was trying to stop her. (Do you have the scene firmly in place in your mind?) Okay. Read on. Its a good one.

Me and customer: "blah blah post office box blah blah etc ..."
Girl: "What IS a post office box? There was a customer in here the other day and that was his ADDRESS!!"
Me: (very puzzled, looking at customer pleadingly) "(common girl name, its a .... box.... ummm... at the post office ..... ummmm.... hmmm... how else do I explain this .... ?"
Customer: "looking at me with the most comical expression) "ummmm ...."
Girl: "Like, does he LIVE there? I don't understand."
Me and Customer alternatively: "Nooooo noooo!
Customer: "He gets his mail SENT there, and he just goes and picks it up."
Me: "He has a key to a box where he can get his mail. "
Girl: (blank stare) "Oh."

Slightly ackward silence.

Me: So, (customer name), your iPhone is debricked, blah blah blah .... thank you, it was a pleasure doing business with you, if you have annnny questions, don't hesitate to call me at this number and we'll get you squared away". (oh. and forgot you heard or participated in the post office box conversation, k? Pretty please?)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Disclaimer: She is one of the sweetest girls I've ever met. Very hard working and generous. **

We all have our moments. I'll share some of mine sometime. Just not today. Ramona. Be quiet. Now is not the time to share .... k? :-)

Sun n' Salsa and the Seed. The End of a Busy Weekend

I went to Sun and Salsa today. Which is an annual festival in the swanky Kensington area of Calgary. The streets are closed for the day and there are all kinds of vendors set up - jewels, clothes, credit cards, you name it -but most importantly, salsa. You buy a bag of chips for $3 and test out salsa's. And anyone who knows me, knows that my favorite food in all the land is salsa. So a co-worker (wait til I tell you about her), her husband, little girl and I went to it. I met them at Eau Claire market. (another chic chic place that I'd not been to yet!), we had coffee and proceeded on our way. First to the train station (or Thomas as the 2 year old called it). We get on, start riding our way to Kensington and the driver gets on the intercom advising us that the train was now stopping, we had to get off because they were doing work on the line. ! There was a bus waiting for us - wellllll....we didn't want to take the bus. (crowded, smelly etc) so we got back on the train to go back and get their car and drive there! We were sitting there chatting, and we hear the driver say "to the gentleman in the white shirt who just got on the last train, I don't appreciate you giving me the finger. That behaviour is not tolerated and its not my fault that you need to board so we can be on time." We had a little giggle over that. How mortifying.

$3 bag of chips. Which led to much yumminess. And mouth fanning. And oohing. And "oh, THIS one is my favorite."

Precious little girl not happy to be forced to wear an elephant hat.

Strong Man Competition


Not an "Are You Smarter Than a 2nd Grader" competition.

I'm JOKING. Don't be hatin'! But seriously, what do you think their combined IQ is?

Kiwi Creme and Chocolate Flake Gelato. Maybe the highlight of the day. Though there were many.

Little girl getting fed by her adoring dad. He's 6'3 or 4 and he turns to mush with her. Its the cutest thing.

Now moms turn to be fed. I love this girl! She's from Truro! Unfortch is leaving the company next week. But will be close by. We have very close encounters with each other in our past life. The Frederiction part of our lives. We lived there at the same time, as did her husband. We haven't figured out who we mutally know from there, but she worked at an establishment I used to frequent. So we're pretty sure we've run into each other somehow in Fred ! She is so funny and carefree. She has the biggest and most ready laugh. She's upfront -tells it like it is. Totally cool chick. I told you. Everyone I meet here is amazing.

Tired little girl. Hot little girl. Filthy little girl. (do you think the woman in the background is trying to ruin my shot? She is sticking out her tongue. you know how some people do that? purposefully pick their nose or whatever when they know they are in the picture? I think thats pretty funny if thats the case)

Strange sight. He was really good though. But how do you know if someone is good at bagpiping?? isn't it all kind of bad?

Half naked man taking pictures from his home window. He could be more than half naked. We will never know. Thank goodness.

Salsa dancing

Bad shot of a street. But just to give you an idea ...

I went to the Seed afterwards and had a great shift there. Its so neat to go there and not see the people you've become friends with. They are moving on in life, into their own places and back on their feet. A shelter in the area closed down, so there was 115 new people there today. So many new faces and so many who don't know the rules of the road there. They can be very demanding and bossy when they want to. For example, I was in the laundry room again today and a new guy comes up to me and I'd gotten his dried laundry for him and somehow a hoodie was still soaking wet. (which i dont understand because the clothes were so hot that i could barely touch them when i got them out of the dryer for him) and he said to me "put this back in the dryer for me, its still wet". No please, no would you mind, just a command. If nothing else, working there makes you stand up for yourself. All the while realizing that their dignity is on the line and pride makes you act ways that you normally wouldn't. But it was a great few hours and I have to say that bed is looking pretty inviting right now. So its off to dreamland for me. Off to a new week - with challenges ahead that I can only pray I have the energy and gumption to tackle. It's gonna be a tough one.

Thats it, thats all.

Later folks!

L.

New Hair

Okay ! So since soooo many of you have been asking to see pics of the new 'do ....
JUST JOKING!
This is for Carol and Mo, who have in fact asked to see.
So below, is before and after. Rather, after and before.

(i do that weird thing with my lip. i make a very conscious effort not to, but sometimes i don't even notice it!)

I've been very excited to be growing my hair out since last summer. Its been growing very fast here but its very very thick and a little unmanagable. So when Danny (friend from home who I haven't seen in 7 years) told me he was coming to Cal, I asked him to bring his shears and dye. He's kind of a big deal. Not kind of. He IS a big deal. (Hollywood is calling ... ) If I was going to grow my hair out, I wanted a fun color to do it with. But because I have used cheap boxed color for so many years, its coated my hair and the caramel he put in it didn't take. Which is fine, because I like the dramatic effect of this. As for the cut - I showed him a picture but wanted to keep most of the length in the front. However, the cut I showed him and reality are two different things. So my hair is a lot shorter than I'd planned, but I've come to the conclusion that I"m not meant to have long hair, it takes so long to grow out, which doesn't suit my impatient, "want it now" personality. So here it is, short again. But I love it. At least I think I do. I have yet to style it myself. THAT should be interesting.

Excuse the bags under the eyes. It's been an early morning -late night, brand new, busy job week. If I look exhausted, its because I am.

I think self portraits are super cheesy, but thats what you're getting in this case.

On top of everything, it was so amazing to see Danny again. He is a good soul. We had so many laughs and discussions and (maybe, juuuust maybe we gossiped a little). I haven't seen him in so long and really didn't know him that well when we were growing up. But I think us "ex gh-er"s have a weird bond that very few people can understand. And for some reason, Danny and I have really bonded - over a tattoo at a Sussex conference of all places. The whole time he was here, he'd periodically look at me and say "this is so weird. so random. why am i in leanne macdonald's kitchen in calgary"? I am so glad we got to connect face to face again. He only lives 5 hours away. Thats an easy peasy weekender. So I see a roadtrip in my future.

I was at the Mustard Seed tonight and one of the staff told me she didn't like my hair! ha! I was like, "well, that's a little too late to tell me now Ruby"! She thought the cut was great, but that it made my face look small!! She liked my hair fuller. I can't please everyone. When my hair was fuller, I got called 'bushy' by a 6 year old!

I give up! :-)

Peace

L.

Friday Night Football and Foolishness

Got invited to a Stampeders Game on Friday night.

The stands filled up quite nicely.

Tight security there. There are so many stories to tell about this guy on the right. He was so intense and didn't smile, wore the dark glasses (on the shaded side of the stadium)
Then theres this guy who just doesn't give a crap. He's there for the paycheque, not the notoriety of his position. The other guy was walking super slow, staring into the crowd, unsmiling, frowning even, looking for bad guys. The guy beside me, who independently noticed the unlikely duo securing the crowd's well being, said to me "its like the Unibomber and the Terminator". We made friends with the group behind and beside us and they were so funny. They said "He's not looking for people with beer, he's looking for weed." Then they started on what they imagined his response would be if he caught someone with the herbal magic. "Hey, you with the weed, meet me out back NOW, don't worry guys, I got this one - its already taken care of." We had so much fun. I hardly watched the game - not that I know a thing about football - but the crowd was fun, and we had a lot of laughs.

Theres Natalie, posing like security. Hoping Intense Guy doesn't turn around.

Then our seatmate went down and pretended he was security too. They tried to get me too, but with the drama that follows me so closely in life, it would be me that got escorted out on my butt, so I flat out refused.

Someone did find beer,,,,, check out the police presence. It was a young family. Escorted out by the police. But what was his first clue he was going to get searched? The Kokanee cooler backpack? If you're going to sneak booze in, be smart about it! We all felt sorry for the poor little boy. How humiliating. Talk about "Parent Fail".

The intense security guard was the focus of our 3 hours there. We literally laughed everytime we saw him. There was a beach ball going around the crowd, pretty common right? Pretty harmelss, no? Well, he confiscated it and DEFLATED IT!!! He was quite close to us, and what quickly became "our group" starting yelling "give me the ball", and booing and telling him he was a 'fun sucker'. I was laughing so hard. And quickly realized that aside from the two gentlemen beside me, the rest of our new friends were all under 24. I realized this as I WASN'T yelling! I WAS snapping pictures and video though.

And another time the odd couple were walking up the steps beside us, one of the guys starting yelling "ACT CALM, EVERYBODY. ACT.CALM"!!!! such fools.

That was my Friday night. Not bad, hey?

Theres Always A Reason

Just in case you had the question, I have the answer.

The reason I'm a little confused.

The reason I'm a little perplexed. Please note: The Chocolate Bar, Smokers Corner, and Health for Life. All in one building.

I don't fit into my clothes anymore ....

The reason Sandra and I howled laughing, followed by utter disbelief ... this guy had a dog on the back of his bike, going .... I'd say 120 km's on the highway in the rain !!!!!

The reason we didn't go to the Stampede Saturday night. We didn't feel like standing in line for hours, in the rain, with a bunch of hooligans who'd been drinking since 9am. We are old. We are mature. We stayed home and watched Office Space instead. And laughed for the 15th time as hard as we did the first time we saw it.

Reason I grabbed the 6YO and almost ran home from the park. Amidst his cries of "i haaaate when you walk this fast. slloooowwww dowwwwwwn". So I scooped him up and kept up my pace. And got home dry.

Further reason my clothes are tight. Plus, I drive everywhere here. I used to walk anywhere I needed to go in Hal!

Reason I'm never wearing that combination of clothes again. I have gained a little bit of lb-age, but not to the extent this picture would seem to prove. Honest. Oh. And also, the reason I'm never posing with a beaver again. WTF?

Later,

L.