Friday, March 30, 2007

Pay it Forward

I love a good theory. I especially love the stupid, farfetched ones with absolutely no basis in reality (just ask Christine about the time I was absolutely convinced that someone was pregnant who totally wasn't).

This one falls somewhere in between.

Now, we have all had to suffer through my whining and bitching about not winning anything at Tim Horton's. Well, I have an update: I've won twice now (a donut and a coffee). But here's the thing. Both times, I won off coffees that I did not purchase myself. Once was from the coffee Rocky got me with his own free coffee win (that came from a coffee someone had given him). And once was from the coffee Chuck and Orville brought back to the office for me.

So my new theory is that the Tim Horton's cups are all-knowing and all-powerful, and they want to spur on social change and teach us all to share and be generous.

I think we should experiment. Half of you be very nice and giving to the people around you. Half of you be evil and mean and selfish. We'll see who wins the hybrid cars and flatscreens.

And while you're doing that, I shall sit back and observe the beautiful chaos I have created :)

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Cool by Association

The company I work for (Cocoon) became officially cool today. Like, sunglasses at night cool. We appeared on a list of hot global design firms to watch - alongside some ubercool firms that we admire a lot.

You can check it out here.

We are totally eating lunch at the same table as the popular kids. And you all know me. Which makes you cool too :)

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Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Good News

How often is it that the newspaper makes you smile? I was full-on grinning over my morning coffee today, because of an announcement tucked into Page D2: Justin Timberlake is coming to Winnipeg in August.

I'm not all swoony over him, but I must admit that I *love* my Justin Timberlake CDs. Don't believe me? I challenge you to listen to one of them while you're getting ready in the morning and NOT dance.

In any case... I know one Winnipeg girl who'll be lining up for tickets, and I refuse to feel shame.

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Tuesday, March 27, 2007

The Delicate Art of Boat Construction

I don't like dependence when I choose it. When I'm given no choice, it's just plain irritating. Especially when the thing I'm forced to depend on isn't reliable.

Today, it's my laptop at work. I've been dealing with frequent crashes, with devastating results - something that is NOT supposed to happen on a Mac. I'm left a little impotent without it... It's incredibly how much we rely on technology to live our everyday lives.

In my personal life, I'm working on becoming more dependent. I'm not the kind of person who sees a bridge over a river and just bounds right across it - even if I spy a shoe sale on the other side. I'd rather know who built that bridge, research its structural integrity, watch a few fat people tromp over it - and look around for a safer-looking way to get across. In the end, I'll build my own boat (so I KNOW it's a good boat) and row myself across the river.

Hm. Maybe that metaphor went too far. I have absolutely no idea how to build a boat.

In the past, I know that I've hurt people by not being 100% honest about what I'm feeling and what's going on in my life. I thought I was protecting them, when in reality I was doing exactly the opposite. It's really stretching me to learn to open up and be vulnerable in that way to the people in my life who love me and have proven themselves to be trustworthy. And I'm sure it will be a lifelong journey to try and figure this one out. Along the way, with my first experimental little baby steps, I'm learning that it's pretty incredible what happens when you let yourself count on others.

In the meantime... The other form of dependency - the non-human version - has totally burned me. Argh. At least I have my Inspector Gadget-esque cell phone, my Google calendar, and all our office computers share a central server :)

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Antiques


"When I was fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years."
- Mark Twain

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Monday, March 26, 2007

Ready to Fly

Friday: Spent the evening with Anja, shopping and having dinner and just enjoying some long-overdue girl time. Lovely, as always.

Saturday: Picked up The Boy. Lunch and groceries. Dropped off The Boy. Went into the office for a while. Moose game with Rocky - and it was a great game! We were down 3 - 0 going into the third, and ended up winning in a shootout.

Sunday: Breakfast with Emily, Rocky, Kathy, Greg, and Marie-Eve. Church. Em and I made a quick appearance at the 4-on-4 hockey tournament in Niverville, then spent the rest of the afternoon at her place. Hung out with Aaron and Cait in the evening, watching Family Guy in the hot tub. Drove home with Cait in the awful fog.

And suddenly, it's Monday again. And it's been a rough one so far. I woke up this morning in an incredible amount of pain, the kind that a hot shower and some yoga and painkillers did absolutely nothing to relieve. Scary. Here's hoping it will just be a single-day setback. It's so hard not to worry because I remember what it was like to live months on end full of days just like this one.

I used to have this quote on a bulletin board in my bedroom at home (one of those funny teenage bulletin boards full of pictures of friends and magazine cut-outs). It's been running through my head all morning, and it's bringing me hope to face this scary, scary day instead of crawling back into bed and hiding.

"When you come to the edge of all the light you know, and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen: there will be something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly."
- Barbara J. Winter

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Friday, March 23, 2007

10 Smiles

Ten reasons to smile on a Friday afternoon:

1. It's warm and melty and wonderful outside.

2. Best lunch ever: mixed greens with apple, feta, red onions, walnuts, and raspberry vinaigrette.

3. A breakfast date.

4. Finding an online Threatdown Generator. Hours of entertainment are sure to follow (!).

5. Going to the Moose game with Rocky tomorrow night.

6. The new Joss Stone CD. (Hello... Lauryn Hill as a guest background vocalist?! You don't really get any cooler than that.)

7. Google Calendar. If you're a convert, then you know what I mean.

8. Girls Night tonight! Shopping with Anja.

9. Client signoff on a *big* shiny project this week.

10. Leftover snow sculptures from Festival, now melted and deformed to resemble... well... not what they were supposed to look like.

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All Grown Up and S-M-R-T


Congratulations on your last day of Red River, Aaron!
We're all very, very proud of you :)

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Be Careful Out There

Today is 'Near Miss Day' (seriously).

Now here's the question:
How exactly would one go about celebrating this auspicious occasion?

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Thursday, March 22, 2007

Chance Encounters (and other natural disasters)

Truth? I hate running into people I know.

In my world, there are very few *nice* surprises. A surprise is, by nature, something that's unplanned and unanticipated. How can that possibly be a good thing?!

I think that's why my (brief) move back to Niverville freaked me out so much. I really didn't like going for a run and seeing people I knew who wanted to stop and chat. I didn't enjoy those uncomfortable little weather-related chats at the post office. I especially didn't like cruising into the grocery store on a Saturday morning (no make-up and a baseball cap) and knowing everyone in the store - employees included. Ooh, and when you're talking to someone and they do that eye-dart to see what's in your basket? Argh. I HATE THAT.

It's not that I don't like people. It's just that I'd rather plan my time with them deliberately. No one has a meaningful conversation in the dairy section. And sometimes, it's just AWKWARD. If you've ever run into your ex while on a date with someone else, you know what I mean. (For some reason, this has happened to me with alarming frequency.)

But alas, there is an exception to every rule. On rare occasion, it's a good surprise (an oxymoron if I've ever heard one... and I'll maintain that planning the encounter in question would have been preferable). And for every good chance meeting, there are about seventeen thousand bad chance meetings.

Last week was an official exception. Emily and I ran into an old friend from high school, and it was super fun to see her. It had been years, and she hadn't changed at all since I saw her last (Intro Psych at U of W). It was so great to catch up, and it put a great big giant smile on my face for the rest of the evening.

I'm not changing my vote about the whole good-surprise, happy-chance-encounter thing. But I *am* saying that - every once in a while - something unexpected can make you smile.

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World Water Day

World Water Day March 22, 2007

From WorldWaterDay.net:
The world water crisis is one of the largest public health issues of our time. Nearly 1.1 billion people (roughly 20% of the world’s population) lack access to safe drinking water. The lack of clean, safe drinking water is estimated to kill almost 4,500 children per day. In fact, out of the 2.2 million unsafe drinking water deaths in 2004, 90% were children under the age of five. Water is essential to the treatment of diseases, something especially critical for children.

The lack of clean water, coupled with the lack of basic sanitation and a dearth of hygiene education, is one of the largest obstacles to progress and development in these regions and across the world. The UN has prioritized water access among its Millennium Development Goals because it contributes to such widespread suffering, including increased poverty, high child mortality rates, depressed education levels, and political instability.

-

What now?
Get smarter at www.worldwaterday.net. Show up at the U of W tonight for a documentary and panel discussion. Or just stop and think about how lucky we are when you find yourself taking easy access to clean water totally for granted today.

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Wednesday, March 21, 2007

The End of the Day

What a loooooong day. A long week, actually.

I worked way too late on Monday. And then had a class last night (a class that shall go down in time as perhaps the most ridiculous waste of time in the history of education). Today began early and ended up being extremely busy. It was a day spent in an attempt to be very productive, while distracted by the reality that many people I love were gathered together this afternoon, sharing tears and celebrating a life. It definitely helped put my stress and deadlines in perspective.

At the end of the day, I needed a hug. And Geoff gives great hugs. It worked out rather nicely. It's amazing how much it can fix.

(Oh, and happy belated Stephen Colbert Day, all!)

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Conspiracy Theory

The universe is conspiring against me.

Was that overly dramatic? My apologies. Maybe not the entire universe. It might be more accurate to state that Canadian coffee chains are conspiring against me.

You see, it's *that* time of year again - that season which falls between winter and potholes: it's Roll up the Rim time (I totally just mistyped and wrote 'rum' instead of 'rim'... which sparks a different and much better promotional idea!). It's Roll up the Rim time and I never win. Ever. Nothing. And I drink a heck of a lot of coffee.

Geoff thought he'd cheer me up by bringing me his own winning rim, but I'm on a mission. I shall be victorious. And I'm no longer just going for a stupid cup of coffee. I'm after a brand new hybrid car, with the attitude that all my luck must simply be adding up somewhere, accumulating.

Right?

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Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Team Lindsay

Today's smile, courtesy of ChronicBabe.com:

"Like J. Lo, I couldn't function without a fleet of people keeping me fabulous, aka Team Jenni. These are the folks in my life who help me be my best. When I'm feeling great, when I'm feeling crap, and everything in between, I've got Team Jenni.

"In the eight years since fibromyalgia became my roommate, the most essential thing I've learned is that I can often rely on people to keep me functioning at full power. I used to suck at asking for help, but now I know I can count on people to help out in a pinch. I've learned to value the power of delegation. And whenever I can, just like Haley Joel Osmont, I pay it forward by helping out someone myself."

-

Just wanted to take a minute to say a quick thank you to Team Lindsay - you know who you are, and you know that I love and appreciate you.

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Monday, March 19, 2007

Weekend Update

I know you're all waiting with bated breath. My life is SO glamorous!

Argh. Fergie in my head now. Anyway.

Friday Night: Haircut with Kevyn (who regaled me with Nancy Drew-esque tales of his roommate woes and how he spies on them). Met Joel, Jolene, Geoff, Aaron, and Caitlin for coffee. And chocolate peanut butter cake. Cleaned my house. NO SLEEP.

Saturday: Continued to clean my house. Met with Allyson to talk about the possibility of her moving in later this spring. Coffee date with Erin all afternoon. Well, fine, also half of the evening - LOL (sorry, Jer). Sushi with Geoff & Co. SOME SLEEP.

Sunday: Soundcheck. Church. Lunch. Grocery shopping amidst what seemed like thousands and thousands of toddlers who were out 'helping' their moms at Sobeys. Cooked dinner for my parents and Geoff (awww). Hung out with aforementioned boyfriend. MODERATE AMOUNT OF SLEEP.

So guess what's on the agenda for tonight? LOTS OF SLEEP. I suppose that would involve leaving the office, though...

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Changing

I met a friend for coffee this weekend. I actually smile as I write that, because I feel so fortunate to call her a friend. I hadn't seen her in a long time - a lifetime that, in lots of ways, felt like a moment. It's amazing to me how very much people can change, without losing the very core of the beautiful person they've always been.

Change can happen over the course of decades and centuries - so slowly that you don't even notice it happening. It can also happen in a moment, like the moment you discover that someone in your life has moved on to the next. Too many people I love experienced that change this past week, and my heart breaks for them. Please send your thoughts and prayers (whatever's more your style) in the direction of Niverville this week. There are so many tears in my hometown tonight, and I pray for comfort and healing and hope.

Change can be incredibly painful. In fact, it usually is. But it's one of those oddities of life that - through this pain - something beautiful is born. Something that could not have existed without it.

The sun very surely begins to melt away the ice and snow. As one family is broken, I watch friends enjoying the exhaustion of new motherhood. Old relationships pass away as new ones blossom and grow.

And sometimes, if you're very lucky, a relationship that had long been buried under the snow begins to peek its fresh green leaves up towards the sun.

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Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Spawn

I can't believe I'm dedicating blog space to this... But it was simply too appalling to keep it to myself.

Here. Read for yourself. Jessica Simpson wants to adopt a baby. And she was motivated by her love for her dogs - and how much better would a baby be!

At least she won't be reproducing.

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Monday, March 12, 2007

Today I'm Feeling

Yes. Contrary to popular opinion, I do have them. It's been a long-running joke in my Young Adults group from church that people should be careful not to hurt Lindsay's feeling (deliberately un-plural). Har har.

Lately, I've been feeling really overwhelmed. You know that feeling where you're running around like a crazy person, putting in all kinds of effort, but not quite managing to do a good job of anything?

I hate that feeling. It implies that I'm not perfect :)

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Friday, March 09, 2007

Friday Afternoon Coffee Break

Need to express yourself via blatant consumerism and a big fat corporate marketing scheme? Tell the world what kind of Starbucks drink you are!

Here's me. Turns out I'm pretty high-maintenance and complex - in cup form, anyway.

Make your own at www.mystarbuckstshirt.com.

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Express Yourself

Now I'm going to be humming 'Vogue' for the rest of the day...
Not like that's a bad thing :)

So Geoff and I went to check out the Home Expressions show last night. I was kind of excited... Displays of polished concrete countertops are like porn to me. Add in a new shade of glossy blue-grey skinny subway tile and the latest cork flooring samples, and I'm swooning.

Alas, there was very, very little of that last night. Most of the things we saw fell into the 'my house in Linden Woods is nicer than your house in Linden Woods' category (yawn). We saw a few nice TVs. We saw some decent cork flooring and skinny subway tile samples. Toured a pretty snazzy motorhome. Admired some over-the-top appliances. Mocked Helen Buttigeig's ridiculously fake tan. Tripped over a geothermal heating company about every eight steps. Avoided the Loewen display. And the millions of hot tub and sunroom sales people.

I was pretty underwhelmed (isn't that a lovely, expressive word?). I'm going to blame it on having attended some real, proper tradeshows in the US. Nothing in Winnipeg is likely to compare to the national architecture convention and tradeshow, where all the big brands launch their latest and greatest products to people who actually know what they're looking at and why it's so noteworthy. Amazing.

But finally, at the very end of our evening, we found them... Polished concrete countertops. And planters. And fireplace mantles. Mmmm.

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Thursday, March 08, 2007

The Truth

Enough surface blogging, world. The truth is that it's been a really challenging week. Fibromyalgia's a real bitch sometimes. And I prefer to pretend that I'm absolutely fine, and coping beautifully - when the truth might be a little bit ugly.

It's hard to describe. I've had days this week when the weight of my clothes on my skin is almost unbearable. I have moments every day when I know that the information I'm needing is inside my brain somewhere, but I just can't get to it - kind of a nauseating feeling for someone who's used to being smart. And here's a fun one: one of the fibromyalgia symptoms I have the privilege of living with is that I'm no longer able to reach the deepest stage of sleep on my own (aka without drugs). The result is that it doesn't seem to matter how long I sleep, I will always wake up exhausted. But if I take the drugs, I don't wake up at all - when I was on them, I was unable to work more than about half-time. And that's not an option for me, so the vicious cycle continues.

I'm learning every day how to take care of myself better. That's not something that comes very naturally - I think we women are hard-wired to feel guilty and selfish when we put ourselves first :)

I know this sounds gloomy and depressing, but you know what? Somehow, in the midst of all of this, there is so much joy in my life. And through it all - the trials and the joy - God keeps on peeking in, surprising me with more grace than I deserve and more blessings than I ever could have earned.

I'm starting to think that maybe the truth is kind of beautiful after all.

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Fighting the Urge

Do you sometimes just want to be cranky? I've been fighting the urge all day.

I originally chose a career in education, teaching junior high and high school students. I was surrounded by moody people every day - because teenagers are moody by nature. But I was the teacher, so I had to be calm and patient and rational.

Then I decided I'd rather pursue a career in the world of advertising. And I've spent the last half-dozen or so years being surrounded by moody people every day - because creative people are moody by nature. But I am a suit, so I have to be calm and patient and rational.

Don't get me wrong - I absolutely love my job. I just have days every once in a while where I'd love to get to be the moody one for just two minutes...

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Recommended Reading

A stolen list from a fellow blogger. Thought that this process might inspire me to start reading more again... Instead, it has my mind reeling with titles of other books I want to read. Mmm... Books!

Books with an asterisk are ones I've read. Books with two are ones I'm still intending to read. Others are either unknown or uninteresting to me :)

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)

2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)*

3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)*

4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)

5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (J.R.R. Tolkien)

6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (J.R.R. Tolkien)

7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (J.R.R. Tolkien)

8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)*

9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)*

10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)**

11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (J.K. Rowling)*

12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)

13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (J.K. Rowling)*

14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)

15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)

16. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (J.K. Rowling)*

17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)**

18. The Stand (Stephen King)

19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J.K. Rowling)*

20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)*

21. The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)*

22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)*

23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)*

24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)**

25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)*

26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)*

27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)*

28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)*

29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)

30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)*

31. Dune (Frank Herbert)

32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)*

33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)

34. 1984 (George Orwell)*

35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)

36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)

37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)

38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)

39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)**

40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)

41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)

42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)**

43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)*

44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)*

45. Bible**

46. Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy)*

47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)

48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)*

49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)*

50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)

51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)**

52. A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)

53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)**

54. Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)*

55. The Great Gatsby (F Scott Fitzgerald)*

56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Lawrence)*

57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (J.K. Rowling)*

58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)**

59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)**

60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)**

61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)

63. War and Peace (Tolsoy)

64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)**

65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davies)

66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)*

68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)**

69. Les Miserables (Victor Hugo)*

70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)**

71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Helen Fielding)*

72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)**

73. Shogun (James Clavell)

74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)**

75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)*

76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)

77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)

78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)

79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)

80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)*

81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)

82. Of Mice And Men (John Steinbeck)*

83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)

84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)

85. Emma (Jane Austen)*

86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)

87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)*

88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)*

89. Blindness (Jose Saramago)

90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)

91. In the Skin of a Lion (Michael Ondaatje)*

92. Lord of the Flies (William Golding)*

93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)

94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)**

95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)*

96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)*

97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)*

98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)**

99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)

100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

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Tuesday, March 06, 2007

An Ode to Carla

This oldie's for Erin, Carla, and whoever else happens to read this blog who knew me 'back in the day.'

See, Carla and I had a *very* special friendship in high school. We wrote each other hate letters (written in love, I swear).

Little Carla went on to become a writer and editor. Little Lindsay went on to become a writer herself. I'd like to think we helped each other hone our creative writing skills a little. I have to believe that, otherwise these notes were just CRUEL.

I was cleaning up some stuff over the weekend and stumbled into this little goodie, written back in December 1996. According to the notation, I penned this one in my accounting class - which may explain how little Lindsay also grew up to be not so hot at math :)

Without further ado...
May I present for your reading enjoyment...

An Ode to Carla

Carla Carla
Thinks she's sweet
And kind and pretty
And fair and neat
SHE'S NOT

Carla Carla's
The colour of a beet
She's mean and nasty
With smelly feet
THAT'S THE TRUTH

Carla Carla
Thinks everyone likes her
No one does
Except rabid wiener dogs who want to bite her
SO WE LET THEM

Carla Carla
Let's hide inside
She thinks we like her
Now she died
BOO HOO

Carla Carla
Will deny this poen
She'll pretend to laugh
But cry when she gets home
HEE HEE

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Annoying

Know what's annoying me today? The lid of my yogurt container. I pull the tab, and the foil stuff ALWAYS tears as I peel it back. And I never know whether to be mad at the foil for being so flimsy, or the glue around the edge of the container for being disproportionately strong.

And then you're left with a choice. Do you pick away at the remaining foil and clear the entire top of the container (risking yogurt-covered fingertips)? Or do you attempt to eat the yogurt through the small hole you've successfully torn?

In the end, I peeled it all back. And I'm now enjoying a rather delicious cup of Spiced Apple yogurt. Yummy.

I know. If this is my biggest problem... Trust me, it's not. It's just the one that's in front of me at the moment :)

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Monday, March 05, 2007

By Lindsay Hildebrandt

Okay, so I am totally on a roll here. I decided that if I was brave enough to go back to the gym, then I must be brave enough to face another fear of mine: rejection. And so last week, with just a few quick clicks of my mouse, I sent off my very first attempt at having a freelance article published in a magazine: a pithy little commentary on the green movement. At least, I think so :)

The article's been sitting on my computer for months. I just couldn't quite work up the courage to send it off. It feels good to kick it off my computer's desktop and have it living in my 'sent' folder instead.

I know that one of two things are likely to happen:
1. I'll get no response at all
OR
2. I'll get a 'thank you for your submission, but it's not a good fit' standard email reply

But you know what? I don't think it matters. (Maybe ask me again in a few weeks.)

Last week, I have also managed to clean up some nagging financial worries, took an official leave of absence from a volunteer commitment that was getting to be way too much to handle, and (finally) purged my old cell phone address book of every boy I've formerly dated.

Not sure what will happen next, on this modest little quest to fill my world with things that make me happy... But stay tuned.

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Busy, Happy

It was a busy, happy weekend. The best kind, in my opinion :)

I had a date with my dad on Friday night. We grabbed a quick bite and then enjoyed the Moose game - and I do mean ENJOYED. Beating Toronto in anything tends to make me happy, and our boys took them 3-0.

Geoff and I visited The Forks on Saturday morning and went skating on the river. I totally forgot how much fun it is to go skating... Way more work than I remembered, but it's amazing how quickly you get your skills back. After that, we had brunch (and did some serious people-watching), then went to go visit Cait, who was very diligently attempting to sell Crocs to tourists. And dinner at The Keg for a coworker's birthday.

And yesterday was a quiet, lazy day spent at my parents' house. My mom hauled out some of my old pictures and report cards and stuff to show Geoff. Pretty funny stuff. I was a freaky child - lots of A's and *glowing* reviews. Probably better for him to know that now. To even out the score a little bit, he produced a picture of himself with hair, much to my family's amusement.

Last night, on a whim, we checked out the newish gelato place at Confusion Corner. Interesting. First of all, you walk in, and they've spent some coin in an attempt to simulate an Italian streetside cafe - which amused me (especially the fountain). The food was actually really yummy. And the piece de resistance was their seemingly never-ending cooler of gelato flavours - 72 in total. I tried the green apple, and then proceeded to gush about how happy it made me until I think I started to annoy everyone within earshot.

And there you have it. Except for a small note that I can't seem to stop listening to my Natasha Bedingfield CD. And it's suddenly winter again, which is draining just a little bit of my contentedness today. But that's all. At least until my next post :)

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Friday, March 02, 2007

Save the Date

Just a heads-up that the Garage Sale fundraiser for Joints in Motion that was originally scheduled for Saturday, March 31 will now be held on Saturday, April 27.

Gives y'all an extra month to do your spring cleaning :)

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Thursday, March 01, 2007

Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Month

March 1 means it's officially the first day of Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Month in Canada.

Did you know...
- A family's average annual direct medical costs for a child with arthritis is $1,686 (more than childhood asthma).
- Juvenile arthritis affects 1 in 1,000 Canadian children under the age of 16 - making it one of the most common chronic childhood diseases.
- It is currently believed that the body's immune system may be responsible for the inflammation common in juvenile arthritis. In children with arthritis, the immune system seems to be overactive and may be responding inappropriately to infection - or mistakenly identifying something in the body as an infection, causing continuous inflammation.
- Juvenile arthritis does not usually run in families, and is almost never passed from a parent to a child.

Does this break your heart a little bit? Me too. But it's good motivation to make this Garage Sale happen at the end of March, to raise money and awareness for this very important cause.

I celebrated this auspicious occasion by helping to connect HOT103 morning show co-host Chrissy Troy with a young girl I know who has arthritis. Chrissy will run the Jamaica marathon in her honour... And this ten-year-old media darling in the making is THRILLED.

The best part? It's only the 1st, and I've already done my good deed for March. Sweet!

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Let Them Stay

WAR RESISTOR FILM SCREENING & DISCUSSION:
'LET THEM STAY'

Did you know there are U.S. soldiers in Canada who are refugees from the war on Iraq? Hear their voices in this documentary, followed by a discussion to 'bring the war home.'

Friday March 9
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

University of Winnipeg
Theatre 1L13 (off Ellice St. entrance)

Everybody Welcome. Free Admission.

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