May
12
Saying Forever-Goodbyes
Filed Under friends, life, relationships | 4 Comments
Yesterday Tim was talking about work, more specifically, his friend Jay. Jay had recently been transferred to a different city for two months, and was at work packing up and saying goodbye. He looked at me really weirded out and told me that another employee was having her final shift the same day. “Jay said goodbye to her forever. They said goodbye to each other knowing that they would never see each other ever again.” This really boggled Tim’s mind. He was amazed, and confused, and kind of sad for Jay and this coworker. I looked at Tim like “so what?” To me, saying goodbye to someone forever doesn’t really mean much, I should say, doesn’t faze me. I thought of the countless times I have met people, gotten close with them and subsequently said goodbye to them, forever. This would have happened when I was living in Quebec for a summer, then when I was working at a fishing lodge in Northern Ontario for a summer, and when I spent a month working and traveling in Costa Rica. This happened when I spent a week volunteering in Calgary a few years ago, and when we had a girl living with us from Russia for four summers. All of the people I met during these experiences impacted my life greatly, and because of these people, I am who I am today. I thank them for it, and owe so much to them for teaching me, for encouraging me, for pushing me to grow and for being in the awesome place I am in today. It occurred to me, that Tim hasn’t done a lot of stuff like this. He likes to stay in his comfort zone and keep his bubble of life as small and tight as possible. That, 99% of the time when he says goodbye to people it is a goodbye for a week, goodbye for a day, goodbye until the next time we run into each other.
I think I’ve gotten really good at goodbye forever, in a positive way. I can say goodbye to somebody, forever, without crying and being sad and still hold them in my heart and think about them often. What about you? Have your life experiences taught you say forever-goodbyes to people you know really well? Are you any good at them? Do you stink at them? Do you do them often? Am I a freak of nature with no heart or maybe just a thick-skinned social worker?
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Apr
23
My Life in Photos
Filed Under Family, friends, humour, life, micaela | 15 Comments
It takes awhile, but it’s worth it. Try your very best to find all of the pictures asked for… use facebook or the pictures stored on your computer. If you can’t find one, that’s okay, but leave all questions in the survey for others to find. Tag the people in your photos, and anyone you think may be interested in completing this. 
1. A picture of you in your room.
Katelyn took this when her and I used to share a bed for a few months.
2. A picture of you posing with someone you don’t actually like.
3. A picture with a former crush
He was friends with my friend Amanda and I met him on campus with her and thought he was awesome, and basically arranged it so that we became best friends, by telling him that I wanted to be his best friend. We went from not knowing each other to being best friends, and it worked out very well as you can see here! He had a long term girlfriend so our friendship never progressed past the proposal on the dance floor.
4. A picture of you very drunk.
We weren’t actually kissing, just opening our mouths really close to one another.
5. . A picture of you with a parent or two.
My and my momma dancing, years and years ago.
6. A picture of you on your birthday.
You can always tell the birthday girl because she’s the one with the horribly riding up shirt, and wearing a hat. You can always tell the boyfriend of the bday girl because he’s the one who was forced to drink right along with her and is probably off biting someone’s ear.
7. The youngest picture you can find of yourself in digital form.
8. A picture of you in one of your favorite outfits.
Lately I’m very into colourful dresses that have regular, thick straps.
9. A picture of you making a goofy face at the camera
10. A picture you miiiiiight have edited to make yourself more attractive.
Morning after Kate’s stag and doe… nuff said!
11. A picture of you and a team or club you’re in.
Katelyn and I making funny faces with our Brownies last year.
12. A picture of you showing off a new haircut (even if it’s an old haircut now)
I don’t know really if it was new! But I imagine we got our hair cut for family pictures.
13. A picture of you truly being yourself.
I’m a true Dutch girl.
14. The most recent picture of you.
This was taken last weekend at Erica’s bachelorette.
15. . A picture of you being absolutely ridiculous.
Shaving my legs for a talent show.
16. A photo that you are tagged in that you aren’t actually in.
Our friend Laura’s wedding.
17. A picture of a time in your life that’s over, but you wish it wasn’t.
Snowboarding with Leah in the mountains in February!
18. A picture of a time in your life that’s over, and you couldn’t be more thankful that it is
I do NOT miss climbing up a skinny hydro pole like structure (but much higher!) standing on a tiny plank, then jumping off into thin air at a camp last summer.
19. A picture with your oldest friend.
Michelle and I – best friends since grade one.
21. A picture of you when you were anything but happy, even if you were smiling and did your best to hide it.
Tequila shot on my last birthday. Tequila is NOT my friend.
22. A picture of you that you had no idea was being taken.
In class with all my teachers college friends last month. I’m in the green.
23. A picture of you when you were a different person than you are now.
.
This was Erica’s halloween costume when she was a kid, and I loved wearing it for Halloween a few years back.
24. A picture of you in a fashion “DON’T”.
(No offense mom! I’m sure it was cool at the time!)
25. A picture of you in a swimsuit – whether you love it or loathe it.
(love it)
26. A picture of you taking a shot / chugging a beer / downing some sort of mixed drink.
27. A picture of yourself that you hate.
28. A picture of you with someone you love.
29. A picture of how you’d like the world to see you.
30. A picture that describes how you’d like to spend every day.
This was a perfect snowboarding day.
31. A picture of a time when everything was changing.
The day we got engaged! (The pics are stuck together.) Can you tell the ring was a few sizes too big?
32. A picture that makes your heart hurt.
Our Opa passed away about ten years ago and we still miss him. And how cute are Erica and I, thinking that we’re being helpful, and the fact that I’m doing barn work in my little dress!
33. A picture that makes your heart smile.
Basically any pictures from when we were little make my heart smile.
34. . A picture of one of the best nights or days of your life.
Take a guess!
Feb
10
Micaela, Kent, Matt, and Laura take on Calgary.
Filed Under Calgary, friends, micaela, travel | 7 Comments
As you will know if you’ve been paying attention, Kent and I just got back from a ten day vacation to visit Leah and Tim in Calgary. We were joined by our friends Matt and Laura, and had a fabulous time. Here’s some photographic evidence of that:
We spent the first half of the trip searching out a Tim Hortons – any good Canadian will recognize it in this picture! We are addicts.
Matt, Laura, Leah, me, and Kent out for some spicy Thai food in Banff.
Our hotel had a couple of sweet hot tubs that dyed that bathing suit a strange tan colour. I don’t even want to think about what the chemicals did to my skin.
The group at the top of Lake Louise.
It was so nice out that we ate lunch outside and did a little suntanning.
Anyone who’s been to Lake Louise will recognize this infamous photo op.
Our last day on the slopes was spent at Sunshine.
Our boys spent a lot of time cooking for us.
And we all spent a lot of time drinking wine.
The last couple days were spent meeting up with a LOT of family – here is the group with our cousin Chris and our friend Natalie!
Our Aunt gave me and Leah the coolest spices ever that she got from India.
Our lovely hosts.
Leah was so sad to see us go that she started to act a little strangely…
All in all it was a great trip and I would travel with these travel buddies anytime.
All of my credit and appreciation goes to Laura for the photos and for being the official photographer of the trip.
Jan
8
Bus Strike Adventures
Filed Under Cheerleading, friends, internet, lauren, life, ottawa, random, university, winter | 10 Comments
OC Transpo Bus
For the past week (and before the Christmas break), I’ve had to find different ways of getting to school almost every day because there are no buses running. Wednesdays I have no class, but I had to be at school to help recruit for cheerleading, so I was going to walk the hour to school, then someone recommended to me that I should take the shuttles (Carleton has school buses running from different parts of the city every half hour to help students get to their classes). The closest shuttle stop from me is a half hour walk at our nearest shopping center/O-train stop, so I got bundled up, and left at about 3:45, since I had to be at school for 5, and figured that would give me enough time. I got to the stop at about 4:20, and noticed a sign on the times board saying “Due to the weather, the shuttles will not be running today”. There I was, boots on, with slippers underneath, down filled mitts, tights, yoga pants, a short sleeved shirt, a long sleeved shirt, a sweater, a down coat, and BOTH hoods on (I later got made fun of when I mentioned that I took off my hoodS.). In other words, I was totally bundled up, and totally pissed that I walked half an hour to a bus stop where no buses would be coming.
After I got over my initial shock, and about 5 minutes of trying to call a cab (obviously busy every time I called, because how else would people get around these days?), I walked to the nearest Second Cup and called a teammate to come pick me up and bring me to school. On our way to school I find out that they had changed the recruiting times from 5-7 to 4-6. It was now 5:20. So I get to school, take off my layers (and my hoods), and starting trying to recruit people. Now has anyone ever had to attempt to recruit university aged guys to try out for a cheerleading team? NOT fun, let me tell you that. Pretty much our approach is “if you think the guy is hot and jacked, go hand him a flier and chat him up”. I’m clearly not very good at this. I attempted to recruit for about 20 minutes, then a group of us decided it would be better if we’d just go to the residence and try to force people to try out hand them out there. Well. In order to get to the tunnels (do you really think we would walk outside?), we had to walk past one of the campus bars. Now you should know that one of our favorite sayings is “Our drinking team has a cheerleading problem”, and we do live up to that saying. We decided it would be easier for us to talk to people if we had a beer in us. Well one beer turned into two, and two into three, and next thing you know we’ve forgotten all about handing out fliers, and were now talking about siblings having the same tongues, and things only the fiveblondes would understand like “touch tongues!”, and living on farms/ranches, since the group I was there with consisted of two sisters from Texas-Kelly and Kristina, and one guy who works on a farm-Matt (did I mention that he also is from a family of five siblings? Only one sister though). Kristina, by the way is my twin. If you are looking at pictures from my cheerleading you’d better look twice to make sure that it’s actually me, because we have to do the same thing. We were then talking about staying for trivia night, when I got a call that Krys was waiting for me outside res commons-almost all the way across campus. So I grab my coat, say my goodbyes and run across campus…only to be met by a chihuahua in Krys’ truck! Now I assure you, I wasn’t drunk enough to be seeing things…okay well maybe I was, but there was honestly a chihuahua in the truck. I’ve never seen one up close, and Radar is enough to turn me off of them. No offense to anyone who has one, but chihuahuas are creepy looking dogs in my opinion. It turns out that this lovely dog is staying at my house for a couple of days while Krys’ sister visits us from Montreal. I’ll let you all know how this goes.
I had totally forgotten that we (me, Emily and Krys) had planned a Monopoly date with Krys’ friend Dan and his girlfriend Felicia. Monopoly is a touchy subject in our house. We usually end the game in a big fight, and a win for Krys. This time was different though. This time I won! It was a crazy game, and I didn’t quite understand how I won, but I’m not going to fight it, I’m going to take that win and be happy that I’m the one who broke Krys’ winning streak. Oh yea, he also wins EVERY single game we play, including Risk, Clue, and Whoonu.
Anyways, that was my wonderful adventure with the OC Transpo strike. I was only planning on making it about my adventure getting to school for the recruitments, but I tend to ramble when I’m bored, and have 5 hour breaks in my schedule, which I do every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
