Having the Time of My Life with the Roomate of Justice!

Quick Update: got to Kelowna after 12 hours of travelling (7 on the bus and 1 in flight...but 3.5 in the airport...if the math doesn't add up, don't tell me). BAWLED when I saw Mare. Went for lunch. Got stuck in traffic on highway 97 after a logging truck spilled on the highway. THREE hours later got to Penticton and went to the beach. Today we went for breakfast, hung out with Anna, lunch with Mare's Mum and Hannah and Anna and Hassin, went to the beach, came home, changed and went for drinks at the Barking Parrot with Jer. Having the TIME OF MY LIFE!!!

Driving to Penticton (Pre-Traffic Jam)
~At the Beach! LOVE Okanagan Lake
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Drinks at the Barking Parrot
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Obviously there will be more pics to come...but right now it's back to drinks and having fun with Mare and Jeremy! WOOT!

Symbolic? I think so!

The merging of two personalities to make a great morning show is depicted here. In this photo: Swab the Pirate Bender, and Clarence the Duck. Swab, a gift from my brother, proudly stands in my office (holding both a sword and a pin generously given to me by Bill), and Clarence was a toy inside a Kinder Surprise that Chris got once. The two sit on the Magic control room board, overseeing the morning show. Each a memento imploring creative genius. And, might I add, mission accomplished! hahaha! (Love the pirate, and totally love the way Clarence looks like he's just given 'er!)

"The Time Has Come...

...the walrus said"? no, wait, that's not it. But the time HAS come...it's Monday, which means we're down to two more sleeps until I get to Penticton and to Mare! I'm so excited I have that Christmas Morning feeling in my stomach. In fact, I may have had a crummy sleep last night as a result. It's fairly ridiculous...especially since I've been counting down since Easter when I booked my holiday time. That's a whopping 136 sleeps! hahaha...right...ok, so kind of lame, but very thrilled.
Also thrilled for camping with the family afterwards. My parents, myself, Brad, my brother Frank, his girlfriend Christi, and my auntie Cheryl and uncle Rick. It's going to be fairly ridiculous, especially if you know my family at all. To get a full perspective on the family, take me and multiply that level of eccentricity (euphamism?) by roughly 50. That should bring it on par with the behavior that can be expected. Plus mum is bringing the G&T's and I'll be coming from the Okanagan with several bottles of wine. Should be fantastic!
But, anyway, I digress (which probably has something to do with being tired from excitement). I'm leaving tomorrow night. By Bus. I have a layover in Medicine Hat ("we dance, we dance, we dance! Ar-rou-ound the Medicine Hat!") in the middle of the friggin night and I'm more or less worried about being mugged and thrown into a broom closet, or worse while I'm there. I plan to look angry and talk to myself a lot in a frustrated and anxious voice to ward off the lunatics (Can't beat em, join em!). But it's only a couple hours or so, followed by a plane from Calgary to Kelowna where Mare will pick me up and we will hug for at least 5 minutes and get some severe cry-face. Then a Chai Latte! and many many adventures! Oh the good times we'll have! Ok, I'm done gushing! Can't wait though...seriously not going to sleep! YAY!

My Office

Well, here we go...madness I know, but this is me in my office. I don't really know what else to say at this point. Clearly I need to decorate a little...a lot. I did put the three carved cards from Frank along the hutch of my desk, and the bender Pirate is next to the stereo.

Drive In Fun!

Last night was my first trip to a Drive In Movie! The Eagle sponsored a night at the drive in and they played Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End. Clearly I had to attend. So Jon, Hayley, Ryan and I piled into the cruiser and zipped out the Clearwater Drive In for the show which was scheduled to start at dusk (9:20). Now, if you're familiar with the pirates movies, they're fairly lengthy and the last in the trilogy was no exception. It started on time and finished just after midnight. Almost a three hour movie, but what a great time! It felt just like being at the movie, but talking was fine because the only people who will shush you are in the car with you, and then it's easy to just tell them off. It was so much fun, even though, by the time 11 oclock rolled around, I was so tired that it was a struggle to stay awake. Furthermore, the back seat of the cruiser is not a terribly convenient place to watch a movie from. I had to contort my body to see and, frankly, I'm suprised my spine hasn't suffered permanent damage. But all in all I wouldn't change a thing.

Highlights for the night included:
*random checks on the couple in the car in front of us. (hee hee!)
*laughing at Orlando towards the end when he looks like he's lept off the pages of a romance novel complete with extra eyeliner, flowing dark hair, and a flowy black shirt open to the navel. Ryan and I were a cackling mess when we started talking about how he was modelled after Fabio, but minus a seagul in the face
*laughing to the point of hysterics at the heart-in-the-box.
*learning Ryan's dance moves and dancing along in the backseat to Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend.

Now, despite only getting three hours of sleep last night, I'm doing pretty good!

Deja Vu

A friend of mine once told me that when you start having a lot of moments of Deja Vu, it means you're on the right track. I made some sort of silly comment about always getting deja vus when...well...nevermind. She didn't appreciate it. But the honest truth of it is I tend to have a lot of them. They come in spells where all I do is have one after another. Sometimes they're consecutive, other times they're spread out over the course of days or weeks. Lately they've been coming strongly. The other night when Brad and I were standing outside admiring the lawn in the evening (dorky, I know), and another just a moment ago when I was taking a picture of the birthday present my brother sent me to post a blog entry about. Sometimes it's just actions, or conversations, but most often it's thoughts that go along with those actions and conversations. And more and more frequently, rather than have a deja vu, I have a moment where I realize I dreamt this moment several years ago. The first time that particular feeling hit me was when Brad and I were on spring break and we'd driven to Swift Current. We had just gone to bed and were laying on an air mattress on his dad's spare room floor. A room I had never been in before with a guy I'd only known for a few months. It suddenly hit me when I turned my head to look at Brad that I had seen everything before. I had dreamt it probably about three years prior. I had dreamt of Brad, exactly as he was, dreamt of the room I had never been in, in a town I hadn't ever heard of. Since then, the dream memories and deja vus have been crashing over each other. Sometimes to the point of being totally irritating.

Now I just wonder what they mean? Am I on the right path? Well, I like to think so, and I suppose after months of changes and decisions, it's good to get the cosmic nod, but at the same time, I feel like so much is up in the air at times. Maybe it's just the universe telling me I'm doing ok.

Definately a Good Time

Brad and I went to see the Simpsons Movie on Monday night. I had been told it wasn't that great, it was sort of funny, or it was alright. I wasn't expecting much, and was plesantly surprised! I think maybe part of the problem was that everyone was expecting something it could never be. It was more or less just an extended episode. One 1.5 hour show instead of a 30 minute show. I laughed out loud on several occassions laughing very loudly actually. I was really by far the loudest person in the theatre and, really, I didn't care. It was funny and I enjoyed myself. That's that. I recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed the show, but, seriously, don't expect it to be anything more than a long episode. Which suited me just fine.

Media and Women's Body Image

Every woman has something about herself she'd like to change. That's a given. The question is, why? Obviously to feel sexier, prettier, more confident, better about herself. But why?

The world is not kind to women who don't fit that certain image. In western culture that image is thin, little to no curves, almost androgenous, full shiny hair, beautiful white smile, big doe eyes, and perky breasts. Why must we all fit that image? It's one of those questions that everyone tries to answer and no one has been able to, and furthermore, regardless of knowing it's wrong to believe it and to buy into it, women do; learning to starve themselves, deny themselves, exercise obsessively, buy liposuction, botox, facelifts, tummy tucks, and breast implants.

Constantly I have heard the blame fall on the media. I agree, but only in part. Let's look at this for a moment. The women in magazines are skeletal clones of each other. On TV the women look pretty, happy, healthy even, but if you were to actually see one of these ladies who wear a size 0 (or even 00) they would appear sickly! They would be scorned for being "too thin"

The public blames the media for only showing the obscenely skinny, yet, what happens when a "full figured" woman (who is likely no bigger than an 8 in reality)? The audience turns their lips up and sneers at the "chubby" girl, and demands to see the ideal: the skinny.

How can we keep blaming the media when they are only serving up what is demanded?

(for the record: kate moss is a 0 and the model on the right is an 8)

Crazy for Swayze!

Would You Like Some Fear With Your Weather?

I was flipping through the channels yesterday after watching Tyra and caught a weather teaser for the news for some station in the states. I'm well aware that American media tends to lean towards Fear Mongoring, but I wasn't aware of the extent. The weartherman was forecasting the temperatures for the next few days. Being American, the temps were in Fahrenheit, but the showed 100, 97, and 97 for the next three days. The forecaster then went on to say "don't be fooled by these numbers, as with the heat index it COULD feel much more like 105 every day this week." Then followed up with a solemn "Protect yourself." I'll admit, those are really stinkin hot temperatures, but he was talking like the heat would fling a big flaming glob of napalm at you if you even THOUGHT about leaving your house. Definately caution people to stay hydrated and stay cool when the temperatures get into the high 30s, but, had the forecast applied to me, his editorial would have probably prompted to me to look out my window searching for bombs from the middle east. Not that either situation has anything to do with the other, but his tone made it seem like a reasonable conclusion to draw.
Like I said, I always knew the States was about fear mongoring media, but the weather? Seriously! Next thing you know there will be headlines like "Could cute cuddly kittens kill you? Find out next?!"

That was JUST What I Needed!

Brad took off for a bachellor party this weekend, so it was Jessica-flying-solo, and let me tell you, I wasted no time! Friday night I bought some wine, pasta, a small wheel of brie and rented two movies and proceded to do just what I used to do in Prince George on my weekends of "Jess time": get just a little drunk by myself! Ha! I watched movies that Brad would have no interest in seeing: "Because I Said So", and "Miss Potter". I'm not going to recomend either actually. Because I Said So was sort of irritating, and Miss Potter seemed like a cheap rip off of Finding Neverland crossed with Bridget Jones. Sadly Ewen McGreggor couldn't even save the movie as his character was (albeit sweet) kind of a weenie. Sigh. But nonetheless, it was a very good night.

Saturday I sanded and primed the kitchen cupboards and then went and got ready to go and tear it up at the Street Dance. It had been pumped up for me for a while as "the biggest party of the year" and "the most fun you can have with your clothes on", so there were high expectations. Let's just say that when 2/3 of a mickey of vodka are consumed, there's really very little way of being let down!

I started the evening by driving to Switzers and met his friend Shane (visiting for the weekend). The three of us watched Road House and drank. (there was a shortage of mix for my vodka so it was Schmirnoff and Dr. Skipper! HA! actually quite tasty and goes down pretty well) Let's also say that Patrick Swayze half-naked-sweaty-in-sweatpants-with-elasticized-cuffs MADE my night! Hahaha....more fun than I could deal with to be honest. I don't think we even really watched the movie, just drank and laughed. Keen showed up and after the movie we moved on to his place where I met his roomates and the new coach of the Broncos. I was most definately more than a little silly by this time and trying my damnest to have a serious conversation with him. Very difficult and pretty sure I made a terrible arse of myself. But alas.

Then it was off to the Street Dance. And let me say, I think the last time I had this much fun while out partying was when we went to see Kim Mitchell at the Generator (last September I believe)

Here are some of the pictures from Martens... Pretty much every one of them makes me say "oh dear..."

Ryan Switzer, Me, Chris Martensm (the aviators are Ryan's)
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No one has ever rocked out as much as Ryan!
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I can be thoughtful even after muchos vodka!...Chris on the other hand...
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Not really sure what it is I'm doing here...
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Also not really sure what I'm doing here...chopping myself in the face?
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Chris, Ryan, Me and Shane (scandalous)
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Dancing with Laurie-Anne (love Ryan in the background)
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Colin, Ryan, Chris, me and Laurie-Anne
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The greatest picture of the night...oh dear...what a fantastic night!
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Then yesterday I'm afraid I had to do the walk of shame back to Ryan's place to get my car, which had a sleepover. Nothing like walking across down on a Sunday morning feeling ever so slightly sheepish about my state the night before. Luckily it was all in good fun, there were no mishaps, and everyone bahaved. Well done everyone! Hahahaha...now, does anyone know where I can get a copy of Road House?

Another Finished Room...

Well, it's not quite as remarkable of a difference as the bathroom, but it's nice to have the spare room at a somewhat useable state (or Nibbler's room as we call it...lucky little chinchilla gets her own room!)

Visitors

We had our first visitors to the house yesterday afternoon. I'm not going to lie, it was a little unnerving. Seriously. There quiet literally 30 blackbirds dotting our back yard yesterday just before supper. I guess there must have been something on the lawn that they really liked. They were very pretty, but to see that many black birds at once...was a little odd. It was also a bit Hitchcockian when a truck drove by and they all flew off at once int he same direction.

After the birds left, a big black squirrel decided to come by and inspect the area; see if there was anything left for a little rodentish critter like himself. Very friendly too. I went outside to take this picture and was probably only about 2 meters away from him. He really didn't care about me being there either. I just didn't want to get closer and potentially frighten the little guy.

Renovations...finally some "After" pics!

The renovations are (mostly) done...well, it's livable anyway. The kitchen isn't done yet, and the bedroom and spare room are still in a shambles, so I'll avoid pictures for the time being.
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Living Room

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Bathroom