Untitled

On the weekend I bought an antique dresser (or chest of drawers, or whatever you would call it in your dialect of English), for a really good price at a neat shop downtown. It’s super cool, but it was a silly thing to buy since I’m still sleeping on the floor. Really I should be saving money and sometime next year I can buy a bed. But, hey, at least my clothes now have a place to rest their heads at night, and I really have unpacked my suitcase from the summer. I’m doing a snowflake theme in my room, someday I’ll be done getting it all organized and I’ll take a picture and post it. What’s more Mikao than snowflakes? ;)

Friday night I went with my roommate Natasha to the local Santa Claus Parade. I’ve never heard of a Santa Claus Parade before that I can recall, other than maybe on tv, but around here every town has got one. I enjoyed the part where the people running alongside with the floats hand out candy to the children and the adults who are smart enough to stick out their hands. And this parade was hi-tech enough to hand out bags and then you could just hold out your bag and the candy-hander-outers would just drop candy in and more often than not would not look up to check the age of the bag holder. Ah, chuckle chuckle.

Sunday I spent the day crafting it up working on this year’s special edition Christmas card. They are turning out quite nicely if I do say so myself. Last year I made three different kinds, but this year I’m just making one kind and everyone is getting that kind. If I do not have your mailing address and you would like one, please email me at dialog (at) briercrest.com.

Yesterday I finished knitting my first-ever mitten. How great is that? I’ve always wanted to know how to knit mittens and now I finally can! Horrah. It’s much faster to knit up a pair of mitts than it is to knit a scarf, so this will come in very handy for gifts, I would think that I could probably finish a pair in two evenings of watching a couple of hours of television and knitting at the same time.

Tomorrow I’ll be leaving for a five-day national conference with the parent organization of the camp I work for, should be interesting. It will be nice to meet new people, but I wish it didn’t cut into the weekend. Later in the year I’ll get those days back, but by Monday or Tuesday next week I’ll be exhausted.

Horizontal World

Today I just confirmed my Christmas vacation days... how great is that? I am just at this moment planning to visit some relatives at Christmas who live a couple of hours from here as it's too expensive for me to travel the 3577 km (or 2222 miles for those who like to think in miles!) home to my parents. But it should be nice to see my relatives, I haven't been able to visit them for two and a half years.

Next week we at work are all heading out for a national five-day conference on Wednesday, one that is put on every three years by the parent organization of our camp and everyone from across Canada comes. Well, everyone who works full-time for the organization. It's all expenses paid too... which of course would be REALLY GREAT if we were going SOMEWHERE COOL like Vancouver or Banff or, gosh, even Winnipeg... but nope. We only have to travel an hour to get there.

Many have expressed the fact that they do not especially want to go. I, on the other hand, happen to like conferences, they're usually pretty fun I find. And, something I am particularly excited about is the fact that I get to sleep on a real bed. I've been sleeping on a hard-as-a-rock vinyl-covered cot-sized mattress borrowed from camp as I cannot afford a bed. Sleeping on a real bed will be living in the lap of luxury. I can't wait!

:)

Winter Has Arrived

Overnight we recieved a whole lot of snow, and now winter has arrived. The roads are icy, and the trees are covered with lovely dollops of snow.

It is neat to see this new land I now live in afresh with winter for the first time.

Oy

Last night it rained, and overnight, the rain froze. Thus, when I went to get in my car this morning, the doors were stuck shut. Luckily, and very funny for passers by, I could crawl through the hatchback, and so I got my car started and got my ice scraper out. I had to leave the back open while I scraped off the windows, and eventually got the passenger side door open by kicking the inside of the door.

By the time I got to work, I was able to get the driver's side door open as well.

Hopefully, this doesn't happen too often. It was a lot of work crawling through the back!

Bonorific

I just got one of those forwardy-question type things from my friend Natasha Lawyer and in it she states:

"Worst song: Discoteque by U2, actually pretty much anything by U2."

It is such a relief to know that I am now no longer the only non-U2 fan in the world.

I just thought I would let you know.

Things Past, Things Present

Winter is slowly trying to arrive, and in the mornings when I walk out to my car I often find that I have to scrape off the windows first before I can drive anywhere. The leaves are all gone, and it has snowed a few times as well, but it never lasts for very often.

A sign I passed by yesterday let me know that there were only 35 days until Christmas. 2004 is almost over. It’s neat to look back on the year and think of all that has been accomplished… I finished my thesis, I passed my Seminary Oral Comprehensive Exit Exam, I graduated from seminary, I got my driver’s liscence, I spent another summer working at a camp near Toronto, I bought a car, I got a full-time job working at another camp in administration and outdoor education, and I finally finally moved into my apartment.

I'm sorry for my extreme lack of posting lately. I only have the internet at work, and obviously work has to take priority over non-work. And sometimes I don't have anything to say.

Carly called me a week ago, which was a nice surprise, not only because I had never spoken to her on the telephone before, but also because she reminded me of the wonderful good-ness of God. She's someone I've known through blogging for... oh, almost two years now I suppose, and have shared many IM conversations with, and I would also say, have learned much from. Thank you for your friendship Carly! You're still someone I think is a great person and someday I hope I actually get to meet you. It's neat to keep reading your blog and sharing this feeling of moving across the country to the unknown with someone else.

Thank you to the rest of you sharing this journey via the blogosphere. You are a blessing to me.

Quoteable Quote

"There's only room in this office for one of us Michelle!"

Disney Pink

I just got this in my comments. I don't know what post it is from, but I know it's in reference to my beloved Marry Poppins mug with the pink inside that I LOVE. I got it at the Mall of America at the Disney store for $8 US (a small fortune to me at the time), when we went to my aunt's in Minneapolis for Christmas in 1993 when I was in grade 9.

I used to keep it in my bathroom last year with my toothbrush in it. Now it's at my parents' house somewhere in one of my many boxes, and I miss it.

Sorry mominnc, it's not for sale.

Changing

I've started to update my sidebar... one step at a time. It's been probably since May since anything has changed on it, other than taking out the dead links not too long ago. I thought however, that my blogroll should be more reflective of the blogs I actually read.

I do most of my blogreading on Bloglines. It's very convenient and time-saving.

On Remembrance Day
November 11

On the fact that Ontario doesn't give school children November 11 off of school like the rest of Canada, my younger sister said:

"Kids need time off to think about the war to end all wars that didn't end all wars."

Updates are Sometimes Impossible

It's been a busy few days for me... I've been busy at work and work is the only place I have internet access, so thus the lack of posting.

My trip to Toronto and Ikea was good, my sister and I spent several hours there and bought a few things, and then I dropped her off at the airport and she flew home to Alberta. I got a number of wedding shower gifts for a friend (including this), a fleece blanket, some throw pillows, a bath mat, a paper towel holder, some picture frames, this lamp, and this table. The table I will actually be using as a desk, as I didn't like the couple of cheap desks they had and I couldn't afford a more expensive one. This table has a lot of room, just no drawers, but that's okay. It will be ideal for many future craft endeavors.

Toronto driving wasn't even remotely as hard as I thought it would be. I can handle 6 lanes no problem!

But for now, I've gotta get back to work.

Life and Other Occurences

Well, as you have probably figured out if you are a regular reader (and I am always continually amazed that I have you out there!), I moved on Tuesday and am now both officially working my first "real job" and living in my first non-school apartment. I think somehow suddenly I have gained much adulthood.

The move went well and my two roommates and I have all of our things now physically inside the apartment, although most of it is still in boxes! I haven't persoanlly much furniture here yet, in fact, all I have is a dresser, so that is still to be attained. I sold and gave away all of my furniture this spring as I wasn't too sure where I would be at this time, and lugging furniture from Saskatchewan to Ontario would have been a large and costly feat.

But I have a mattress for now, so that is keeping me off of the floor, which is, you know, a good thing. :)

Tomorrow I am driving my sister to the Toronto airport, and we are stopping at Ikea on the way so I am expecting to pick up a few things there. It's been a long time since I've been to an Ikea, and I've never really been able to buy anything there before that I actually needed, so this should be fun!

The trip will be interesting... I've never driven in Toronto before, so hopefully I survive. Can I survive 8 lanes of traffic? I'm from Alberta, we have 2 lanes, 3 at the most! And it'll be around 5 hours of total driving tomorrow, probably more. Ugh.

Thank you to all who have emailed me recently, it's always ever so nice to hear from you!

Hope you have a great weekend. I'll be back in internet-land on Monday. Cheers!

Accessorizing



I got these cool fimo hairclips yesterday at a dollar store. You get five pairs for a dollar, how great is that. These are the scary sleeping mermaid fish ones. I'm glad I can wear fun stuff to my job and don't have to wear "office clothes." I not sure exactly how I would make dressing fun if I had to do that.

Phewffda!

I just saw a squirrel on my walk back to the office after lunch. Thank goodness, I thought I was living in a squirrel-less land!

Forgotten

Yesterday was my four-year anniversary since my last radiation treatment... and I forgot to celebrate!

You-Haul

It’s moving day, but I’m not there. I’m at work. I only have a car load full of stuff anyway… and so I’ve been planning just to move after work is over at 5pm. Apparently it did not occur to anyone else that I would not take the day off like my roommates though, so they were both surprised yesterday when they figured out that I wasn’t moving all day today. I just assumed they would know that. And today everyone at work asked me what I was doing here. I only have a car load of stuff. What do I need to take a vacation day for? Seems like an easy and logical decision to me!

My sister got here on Friday so Saturday we did a little window shopping and roaming around my new hometown… being a big cottage area and vacation spot, there are lots of tourist-type shops, antique stores, used book stores, etc. And a Wal*Mart of course.

It has been raining A LOT lately. Like all weekend and all last night. And it’s still raining now. I shouldn’t complain though, because everyone else I know has had snow already this year. I don’t know that I can ever recall it not snowing before November. But hey, it’s November 2 already and there is no snow. How great is that.

Sunday night I went with one of my roommates to pick up our keys and check out the progress on the apartment. Our carpets had been steam cleaned and all the bedrooms had one coat of paint on them and they were looking fabulous. I am looking forward to setting my room up once I have my bed and everything else. I think I might go to Ikea on the weekend.

But for now, I should just get back to work. Later I shall move. Later I shall unpack. Horray!

Ben Franklin?

Sunday morning I went to church for 11am and there was barely anyone in the parking lot. I thought that that was odd, but maybe a lot of people were away for the weekend.

I walked inside, there were a few people around but not many. Then I walked to the sanctuary. The worship team was practicing, there was not a single person in the pews.

It was then that a little snippet of an overheard conversation from a week or two earlier came to mind and it clicked that DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME HAD STARTED. Ugh. Oh the regret of a missed extra hour of sleep.

Who's ridiculous idea was Daylight Savings Time anyway? I like Saskatchewan, they don't have Daylight Savings Time ever. I haven't had to deal with switching my clocks since 1997. Daylight Savings just makes it get dark earlier at night. Who wants to drive home in the dark?