YAY!!!

As Alexis put it, I'm the happiest person in the building right now! I'm excited because Mum is coming to visit me! She's flying in to Medicine Hat (we dance! we dance! we dance! around the Medicine Hat!) on Monday May 26th for a full week! So now, the countdown is on! 27 sleeps until copious amounts of tea and chatting time with my Mummy!

Tree Falling...take two

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day in Swift and Nick came over with a big ladder, a chainsaw, and some tow ropes to take down the other tree in our front yard.


Our railing was the only casualty from bringing down the top of the tree...just glad the roof didn't suffer!
~

And now the video...

Paying Extra For Customer Service

In planning a trip to go visit Mare this summer, I've been diligently monitoring westjet.com and aircanada.com for seat sales. Recently, Air Canada had a minor sale at 179 each way, which is still way too pricey, but I decided to go through the booking process to see what the final total would be (after the exorbitant taxes and fees).
Air Canada gives you options when you're booking your flight; add $17 each way if you want to choose your seat right now, subtract $3 each way if you don't want to bring any checked luggage, add $6 for a small meal, etc. I noticed a new addition to the list of "extras" It's a little something called "On My Way" and for $25 (each way) you get the following:
"On My Way service gives you access to dedicated Air Canada customer service agents who will:
-Rebook the first available flight on Air Canada or another airline (instead of putting you on a standby flight sometime next week)
-Provide complimentary hotel accommodations, car rental, ground transportation and meals (no more sleeping on those back-breaking airport chairs ad brushing your teeth in the water fountain)
-Additionally, you'll receive automatic flight information updates by SMS and email" ("your flight has been cancelled due to a snowflake that was seen 20km from your destination airport")
The website also says this:
"On My Way service is uniquely designed to take the sting out of unforeseen travel disruptions and offer you a smooth, stress-free travel experience.
-For the traveller who wants to take the anxiety out of any unexpected situation
-For the traveller who wants extra peace of mind (peace of mind for only $50! A bargain!)
-For anyone who wants 24/7 access to dedicated, specially trained Air Canada agents (who actually speak fluent English and are paid to be friendly to you!) ready to help you on your way
-On My Way is not a replacement for travel insurance or the services your travel agent may provide "
Umm...what? Does anyone else see a problem with this?
This is a Get-out-of-Jail-Free card for Air Canada! If something goes wrong and you haven't purchased the special On My Way service, they can now say "Well you should have thought of that. NEXT!" If you drop the extra 50 (plus taxes, I'm guessing) they will not only do what they should be doing in the first place, but they might actually do it in a friendly manner!
Interesting. Seems to me that maybe, just maybe, rather than offer yet another fee for their flights, AirCanada should look into better policies to begin with. If I'm paying for a service and if I don't get the service I pay for, I would like to be compensated. Now they've just made it so that I won't be paying for the service in the first place.

A Special Day!

Yesterday wasa special day. Yes, it was Earth Day (which is getting to be more and more important), but it was my Mum's birthday! While I made sure to call her to tell her yesterday for a good chat, I just wanted to wish her a happy birthday one more time!

Happy Birthday Mum, I wish I could be thereto have a cup of tea and celebrate! But hopefully things will work out and we'll be able to hit up Starbucks and Chapters for hours and hours very soon!

I hate you Winter!

Just because I would hate to be the only person in Western Canada not blogging about the weather, here's my weather blog.
Friday morning I got into work and noticed stories Dono had written the night before about the "winter storm" that was looming. It was a little hard to believe as the sky was clear and it wasn't even that cold. But sure enough, as the day went on, people began to brace themselves for the impending doom of a blizzard, though very few people were candid in voicing their skepticism as to the likelihood of another blast of winter.
Sure enough, Saturday came with clouds and nothing more than a 10 minute bout of snow. Mostly though, there was just a chilly wind. It felt more like fall than a repeat of the throws of winter. Saturday night however, it did start to snow, and a dusting of the white-stuff lay over vehicles, but certainly not on the roads.
Sunday came and it still didn't look like there would be much of this so-called winter storm. The wind was howling though, and much colder than what we were used to. By mid afternoon yesterday though, the wind was whipping snow sideways and it finally looked like a proper winter storm.
Brad and I bunkered down in our little house and pleasantly ignored the hideous weather outside by watching tv and movies. Ignorance is bliss, they say!
This morning, however, it was difficult to ignore the snow on the Escape, and the snow falling in my shoes and soaking my socks as I traipsed across the lawn to take the garbage out. It was also hard to ignore the bone-numbing -23 windchill, and the fact that while leather seats are nice to sit on, they do NOTHING good in a cold vehicle, and it was hard to ignore the fact that my fall-jacket no longer seems warm enough and I'm wishing I hadn't put my winter boots and coat away.
That being said, I don't actually think that I would allow myself to put on winter boots again. I may be freezing my tootsies off, but I am also far too stubborn to acknowledge that this weather is going to last for the rest of the week.

Whoops!

I know it's not going to last, and I know it's just a tease, but I'm in LOVE with the weather these past two days! The weekend was lovely! I was outside in my flipflops and a tank top! Yesterday if it weren't for the wind, I would have been wearing shorts too! Ok, enough exclamation marks. You get the picture. I'm tickled with the sun.
The downside? I got a sunburn. Yup. Like a good sun-conscious lady, I put sunscreen on my face yesterday after my shower, but I still managed to get pink cheeks. And my arms...oh my poor arms. They're red and hot. I should have known better. I forgot to put sunscreen on them. Now all summer I'll have to battle with nasty tan-lines from my tank top.
I'm always the one asking everyone if they put on sunscreen, if they need more, and if it's a high enough SPF. I'm the one preaching proper sun-protection and advocating for preventing skin damage, and yet here I am, the only person in this city with a sunburn. Irony.

Tiiiiimmmmmbbbbbeeeerrrrr!

On a lovely spring day, Brad decided it was time to take down the big dying tree in our front yard. Nick and Ben came over to help and Brenda and I stood by watching (along with a gaggle of children sitting on the lawn across the street who all yelled "woooaaaah!" when it finally came down).
We've decided to remove the other one too and plant something a little farther from the house that will thrive a little better.

Six Little Words

Quoted from Smith Magazine: "Six-Word Memoirs: The LegendLegend has it that Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Last year, SMITH Magazine re-ignited the recountre by asking our readers for their own six-word memoirs. They sent in short life stories in droves, from the bittersweet ("Cursed with cancer, blessed with friends") and poignant ("I still make coffee for two") to the inspirational ("Business school? Bah! Pop music? Hurrah") and hilarious ("I like big butts, can’t lie"). "
Here are the rules:
1) Write your own six word story.
2) Post it on your blog
3) Link to the person that tagged you in your post, and to the original post if possible so we can track it as it travels.
4) Tag at least five others with links.
5) Don't forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.

I'm stealing a note from Meghan's blog and tagging anyone who would like to play.

My story:
Don't tell me! Learning it myself.

YAY!!! My dreams are coming true!

That's right, the New Kids on the Block are reuniting! And I have already told everyone at the station that as soon as the tour dates are announced I will be taking time off to go to the show. And I WILL be going. I didn't see a concert when I wanted to at 6 years old, so twenty years later my dreams will come true! Road trip anyone? YEAH!

Hi, My Name is Cranky-Pants

Looking back at the past few postings to my blog, they've all sort of had a similar theme:
People are irritating me.
That's a bit blunt, eh? I thought I'd been coping well and pushing my seemingly constant irritation to the back of my mind where it could be pleasantly ignored. Apparently I haven't been as successful as I hoped.
I don't necessarily know that there's one specific cause to my negativity...just a general case of cynicism. I tend to shift into a glum mood annually around the end of March and early April. Sometimes I feel sad for a couple of weeks, and sometimes I become an angry bitch. It's a toss-up.
I'm sure it won't last much longer. So thanks for bearing with me while I rave.

Haters

I just finished reading a topic on the "Smithers, BC" facebook group that involved a number of people arguing over why everyone should hate/love Smithers. It started as an "I hate Smithers" post and some joined the ranks of haters, while other people stepped up to defend the town. What I don't understand is why these people with an absolute hate-on for the town joined a group dedicated to it? Why bother? Why associate yourself with something you hate?

Besides the absurdity of arguing whether it's good to love/hate the town (someone once told me there's no point in arguing because if you're right you have no reason to argue, and if you're wrong, you have no place arguing), it brought me to another thought that applies no matter where you are. Why live somewhere that you hate?

I know there are situations where moving to a new community is not immediately financially viable and there are a number of other reasons why people can't move immediately, but if you hate a place so much and it's making your life miserable, then start to do something about it! And if it's such an awful place to live, why did you move there to start with? I think the anger comes from feeling trapped somewhere that isn't satisfying a person's needs, so if that's the case, start taking steps to go somewhere. At least when those steps are being taken you'll feel more in control of the situation and like there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

Everywhere I've ever lived I've heard people badmouthing the town/city. I've been that person, but I've always also had it in mind to make a change eventually. Ultimately, everything in life is a choice and can be changed. Sometimes the outcome isn't worth the necessary changes, and that's a decision in itself. If that's the case, then you've made your choice and there were obviously more reasons to stay than to go, so can it really be as awful as you think?

I guess the bottom line is that there are some people out there who are just haters and who want to be angry and feel sorry for themselves and make everyone else miserable too. To them I say "stop that!"

A Pet Peeve

A clear sign that I'm growing up is that I am more easily offended. Ok, let me explain this. Years ago I was almost impossible to offend. There wasn't a horrible joke out there that would make me squirm or think less of the teller. Now, while I will sometimes pretend they don't bother me, offensive jokes make me cringe.

But I think the thing that bothers me most is the truly politically incorrect statement. I can't think of a better way to describe it. I'm talking about when something is less than satisfactory and someone refers to it as "gay" or some other equally banal. "That's gay", or "that's retarded", or any of the number of other words that can be inserted.

It truly irritates me to hear someone say that. Regardless of your personal beliefs on homosexuality, the connotation is that whatever you're talking about is bad, and therefore gay is bad. And what about "retarded"? The connotation of the word in general is very negative, and it's disparaging towards people who are mentally disabled.

Any why, WHY, is it necessary to say that when there are so many other words in the english language. There are 324 synonyms for "bad" on thesaurus.com, and 67 synonyms for "stupid". I checked. There's just no reason to use a disparaging word when there are so many far more descriptive and colourful words to use.

Alright, rant over.

It's fun to be a fan!

Went to a Broncos game tonight with Alexis, and it was sweet! I always forget how much fun I have at WHL games, but tonight was awsome. Game 6 of the playoffs and we were 3 and 2 in the series. When we got there and took our seats, right behind Dono, he was wearing his JDWatt Diving Fan Club diving cap (Watt plays for the Regina Pats and everytime he falls he exagerates it and just dives, much to Dono's amusement). He handed extra diving caps to me and Alexis and we wore them all the way through the game right up to their 5-2 victory! The crowd had so much energy, it was contageous! My only complaint is that I can't hear out my right ear because Kurtis from the station had brought his snare drum and banged his little heart out through the whole game. Trent, who was doing the stand announcing, named Dono and his crew the best dressed fans for the night! Nice to help out the cause a little!

Thanks guy!

Last night, winding down after a long day, Brad and I were parked on the couch watching tv. Suddenly I heard a thumping. A rhythmic thumping. A suspiciously bass sounding, rythmic thumping. I got up and went to our living room window and stared into the street at a silver car parked next to our house with the bass booming. I stared for a few minutes at the car, certain that the living room was illuminating me quite clearly. I was hoping to make the person feel slightly uncomfortable. After a minute or so I made an exaggerated gesture, pointing down several times. Apparently buddy got the message because the sound faded drastically. So I gave him the thumbs up and went back to the couch.

Nice of the guy to listen to my complaint! So I just wanted to thank the annonymous person for respecting me and turning down the tunes.

Excuse me sir, your head seems to have disappeared up your ***

I'm just going to flat out complain here. Yesterday I was covering a court case that's become fairly high profile in Saskatchewan. Provincial television media had come to town to cover the case as well. We were in a scrum with the victim's mother and one of the reporters from Regina was unnecessarily rude to the rest of the media. Each time Vassy from the local tv station would begin to ask a quesiton, he would interupt her and talk louder and more forcefully so the interviewee would turn her attention to him.

That has got to be one of my biggest pet peeves. WHAT is the point? Everyone gets to ask their questions in the end, what does it matter if you don't get to ask them all at once in a 9 minute long run? What is the big deal? Why do some members of provincial media always feel like they have the right to come in and treat local media like garbage?

And this isn't the first time it's happened either. Dono told me he had a similar run in with the same reporter before. Everyone I've talked to has said the same thing. I remember a scrum in PG where provincial media had come to cover a story and a camera man literally shoved my mic out of the way of his. Honestly, is that necessary? My mic was not obstructing the sound to his mic. Let's not be dicks here.

I can only imagine it has something to do with the "big city" mentality. Yes, Swift Current is smaller than Regina. Undeniably. But does that mean that this reporter is better than me? No. More experienced for sure, but that doesn't give him the right to treat the other reporters like crap! We're all going to get the same audio, we're all going to get the same stories, and we're all going to leave at the same time. There is no excuse for being an ass.

There are, I'm sure, times when a reporter would need to muscle their way into a scrum and get their questions in before the interviewee makes a run for it, but that is CASE SPECIFIC, and a reporter should understand the difference between a high intensity interview and one where the person isn't going anywhere.

There is no excuse for being a jackass. We're all peers here, let's be respectful of each other.

The Great, The Good, and the WTF?!

It was another weekend of movies and relaxing, and no complaints from this girl!
Friday we had hopes of renting I Am Legend, No Country for Old Men, and Enchanted (guess who picked that one!). When we got to the video store the only one they had in was Enchanted (I win!), so we picked it up and put my name on a wait list for I Am Legend.
I'm not going to lie, I absolutely loved Enchanted. I may have teared up a little (feeling a little emmotional lately apparently), but mostly I just sat there smiling stupidly at the utter cuteness and high-powered sweetness. Loved it.
It was about 10:45 by the time we finished watching it and I stood up and said "Well, I'd say we aren't going to get a call about a copy of I Am Legend." I got a glass of water and then the phone rang. The video store calling to say they just got a copy of the dvd and did I want it tonight or tomorrow? We hurried down to the store and picked up the movie and came home to watch it.
I'm getting damn sick of zombie movies, but I have to say I really enjoyed this one. Wil Smith was incredible, and, as far as zombie-type scenarios, the plot seemed almost plausible. It was very well done, not terribly gory, but with a definite sad note to it.

I wish I could say that I enjoyed the movie we watched on Saturday night. We got home from coffee with Nick at 11 on Saturday night and I turned on the tv to see if there was anything on and Bram Stoker's Dracula was starting. I'm just going to come right out and say it; it was a terrible movie. First of all, Keanu Reeves had a speaking role with an "english" accent. I won't go into more detail about that attrocity. Otherwise the cast (including Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins) was promising. I'm sure they did the best they could with the script, which was weak at best. The whole film made me feel like it might make more sense if I were on some sort of mind-altering substance. It was confusing, contrived, and disconnected. Not to mention the random unexplained kissing scene between Winona Rider and Sadie Frost. So why did we watch the whole thing? It was so awful I couldn't turn it off...and I couldn't help but wonder if it would get better. I feel like they just hacked out whole scenes, but that those scenes were actually really important for the movie to make sense.

We Spoke Too Soon

This morning I reluctantly got out of and stumbled into the living room to turn down the termostat and was startled by how bright the livingroom was. The room was lit from outside...that glow that only comes on a morning of fresh snowfall. I stopped in my tracks and stared outside to see the steady fall of heavy wet snow. Snow. Can I say it just once more? Snow.

Sigh.

I know it won't last, it's already 1 degree outside and it's just going to get warmer, but still...

And here I was so hopeful that we had gotten through the worst of the muck from the spring melt. Apparently there will be much more mud to deal with yet.

Rise of the Power-Barbie!

Time to rant again!
I've noticed another disturbing trend lately. Somewhere along the way, it became cool to be dumb. A poor vocabulary and general ignorance has somehow become a point of pride and praise. I am completely boggled by this. I guess it ties into my other blog entry about how no one reads anymore.
The age of video games has taken over and being able to beat Guitar Hero III on the hardest setting gains more praise and admiration in pop culture than having a grasp on basic communication skills.
I find this most disturbing in girls, to be honest. Maybe because I'm afraid for the future of women. We seem to be transitioning into an era where women are admired for being hot and dumb. There's no need to be able to construct a proper sentence or complete basic math skills. Nope, not as long as your highlights are in season and your nails are done!
I'm by no means a feminist, I don't believe that women and men are equal in all ways* but I'm afraid that these Barbie-doll girls gracing the tv screen in reality tv are setting the bar both way too high and way too low for girls. Too high because the average girl can never achieve the too-skinny body type and level of extreme-primping these girls are admired for, and too low because they tell young women they don't need to use their brains. If you can get some collagen injected into your lips, why bother trying to improve intellectually? It sends young women a strong message: "Why try to better yourself on the inside if these power-Barbies can gain fame simply by being pretty and dumb?"

It's an interesting contradiction, since my favorite guilty pleasure tv shows are Beauty and the Geek and America's Next Top Model. To someone who hasn't watched Top Model, it might seem like it's just propogating the beauty over brains trend, and while there are definitely a few really really dumb girls, for the most part they tend to be fairly well rounded, and those who have nothing goin on upstairs are generally dismissed fairly quickly (thank god). And as far as Beauty and the Geek...well...there's a reason it's a "guilty" pleasure. I think it's somewhat of a morbid facination. Are there really truly girls out there who are that dumb? Apparently.

*While I am not a feminist, I do advocate respect for both genders and equal rights.

Thoughts on Being Alone

There is definitely something to be said for a Sunday consisting of nothing but lounging. Brad and I slept until almost 11 (the latest I've slept in ages) and then stayed in our pjs all day watching movies.
Which brings me to my ponderism of the day. We watched "Into the Wild" a true story about a guy who leaves everything behind, cuts up his ID, burns his money and disappears into the world on his way up to Alaska where he plans to live in the wild. His adventures and the people he meets on his way north are incredible and a really interesting story and the movie was really well done.
The thing that intrigues me is that this seems to be a relatively common dream for guys. For some reason, males in general seem to have some sort of instinctual urge to wander off into the wilderness and disappear for a while.
It's something I can't personally grasp. While I often feel the desire to purge my belongings, I never fantasize about vanishing entirely. I would hate to lose contact with my closest friends and family. I think the loneliness would depress me. Yet there seem to be a lot of men who find something intriguing about the disappearing act.
It makes very little sense to me. I found it interesting how at one point in the movie he has an epiphany that life and the experiences in life mean nothing without sharing them. Sort of interesting because that has long been my opinion about life. It was something I could relate to in an otherwise foreign personality type.

Another Guilty Pleasure....

In stark contrast to my previous blog entry about the reading deficit, I present to you my other guilty pleasures.

I love Beauty and the Geek. Yup. Reality TV at it's best (worst?). Dumber-than-dumb girls and tragically socially-inept guys all thrown together in a mansion. It's awful, it's mind-numbing, but I can't help but laugh hysterically at the things that come out of the mouths of those girls.

Example:

"I can't tell time. Seriously, the steps have been explained to me, but I just can't get it. I just stare at the clock."

Example:

"It's not that I'm dumb, I just don't know stuff."

Example:

"I'm not just beautiful, there's more to me than just a pretty face"

Not to mention the occupation titles some of the girls have. "Playboy model" "Daddy's girl"

And the guys...oh the guys.

One guy, when coming into a cat fight between two of the beauties said "I should have stepped in and stopped them from fighting...but I'm a coward, so I ran".

Then there's the guy who was described as a "Sweater-Vest Enthusiast". So endearing!

I could try to lessen my embarassment at enjoying this show by saying something that would help me save face, but what's the point? It's one of my shallow hours of tv a week. There aren't many, so why tip-toe around the semi-respectable shows when I can just cut right to the chase and delve into the worst there is?