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Irrational Fears

September 11, 2009 By 15 Comments

We all have them. You know, the those out-there worries that something terrible is going to happen to your hampster, or you will be struck by lightning of that your jaw will dislocate when you are brushing your teeth, or anything else, really. My best friend fears that she left her hair iron on and that her house is going to burn down. Actually, this may be more of a case of OCD than irrational fear, so get help, lady (just kidding). And then sometimes you find someone that has the same irrational fear as you and you realize that you aren’t alone (though you may both be crazy). Here are a few of my irrational fears:

1.) That I have chronic fatigue syndrome. I have been very tired lately, but I think this is due to either an overactive thyroid or just gettnig older and needing more sleep. Blood test reults are coming back next week so we will see what the heck is wrong with me, if anything.

2.) That I left the oven on when I am at the movie theatre. After a stressful evening a few months ago, I blame Mr. Leah for this irrational fear (that is not actually that irrational after all, I guess.)

3.) That I am going to get fired. Maybe this is because I am young and new in the field, but I always think I am essing up big time at work. The opposite is true here, because I love my job and my team and in my supervision meeting this week my boss complimented me big time.

4.) That I will never amount to anything in my life and will spend my life living paycheque to paycheque. I don’t think I am alone in this one! I am going to work hard and do my best and I am sure that I will get somehwhere in this world.

Do you have any ridiculous (or realistic) irrational fears?

Filed Under: leah, life, random Tagged With: , ,

Blog Carnival

June 30, 2009 By 7 Comments

This post is a part of 20SB’s Looking Back Blog Carnival, and Ben & Jerry’s is awarding free ice cream to lucky bloggers and readers!

Click here for more information, if you are confused.

This post is from November 18, 2003, when I was in grade 11, aged 15 turning 16 later in the month. The contest asks me to give readers an idea of what I was like when I started blogging, and my friends, this was me. Every single blog post I wrote contained approximately one hundred exclamation points, was 1/3 caps lock, and I was excited! about! EVERYTHING!@@#(!

Well I was having some trouble signing in to blog but I figured it out just as I was about to give up.

As you may have noticed from my sisters blogs, this weekend was CRAZY!! Absolutely insane!!
Friday – I went to A’s work and then we drove around to wait for the guy shes likes to finish work (she works with him) and then we “conveniently” passed by him while he was waiting for a bus to catch and we gave him a ride even though it was 100% the opposite direction from her house! oh boy. He thinks I am mental, I was so mad hyper@
After we went to S’s house cuz he was having a party and we stayed there for a bit then went to McDonalds with T and … someone else i really cannot remember who at the moment. Anyways. It was a very fun night. Then me and A we re talking on her webcam to her fridn T who thinks i am absolutly mental but it was SOOOO funny! It was right wicked. Then we went to the football game which ( :( SADLY) our school lost
:( It was all so upsetting, and a very close game. Good try boys.
Saturday night we were supposed to have a family night for erica but SINCE SHE NEVER CAME HOOOOOME we had one without her (we had one cuz it was going to be our last night together as a family). BUt she came home in time for dessert. (typical).
I have to go unload the dishwasher and pick somehting up at Stefs house but I will finish this extra long blog later.

To be continued …
much love, UGZ

Laugh away, my friends. But don’t make fun, because you know you all would have written a post exactly like this if you were a boy crazy 15 year old whose best friend had a car! Names altered to protect the innocent. Except Erica. Where were you Erica? Why didn’t you come home for your family dinner?

Filed Under: blogging, humour, random

Tuesdays with Micaela: Easter weekend in Ottawa

April 14, 2009 By 9 Comments

Over Easter weekend I travelled to Canada’s capital city, Ottawa to visit my babiest sister Lauren with Kent, Erica, Denis, and our parents.

Here’s a little photo recap.

We took our friends dog, Eve out for a walk:

Coolest house on the block:

On Easter Sunday we toured the parliament. Lauren and I love the parliamentary library so much that we almost bought library shaped earrings at the gift shop.

Kent in front of the parliament:

Erica in the parliament’s Peace Tower (highest building in Ottawa):

We slept over at Lauren’s place. I’m sure you’ll recognize it even in this small picture as a typical student house. This is where we had sleepovers and watched way too much of My Super Sweet Sixteen.
Funny story: Lauren and I had the tv on Mean Girls when we left with mom to go shopping. Our dad was staying behind and when I asked if he wanted me to remote to switch the channel he said, “No, actually can you turn the volume up?” Despite spending a large portion of his life living with six girly-girls, my dad has managed to remain surprisingly manly, but even the manliest dad has his weak moments, apparently.

After Erica, Denis, and Kent left us on Sunday we visited the Nature Museum. Lauren and I had so much fun with all the interactive games where we got to tape ourselves making chimp calls and bird sounds.

Our not-so-blonde momma (don’t tell her that though):

Me, hanging out in a tree:

The photo ops really were endless:

After the museum we had some snacks at a market/bakery where apparently Obama had recently enjoyed some a cookie. Poor Obama probably felt like he had to order a Canada cookie to show his pride, even though the cookies looked pretty unappetizing and everything else there looked soooo good! At least he’s a good sport. Now they’re milking these cookies for every penny:

Thanks for being so much fun, Lauren! I LOVE Ottawa and will definitely be visiting you next year when I’m living only four hours away instead of nine.

That was our nontraditional Easter weekend, a far cry from our usual which always includes a 9am Catholic mass and way too many Easter dinners and easter egg hunts. I did make Kent an Easter basket though. I couldn’t help myself. I “apparently” didn’t warn him (ie. he didn’t remember me warning him!) I didn’t care though, I love giving him holiday gifts even if I don’t get any in return. My parents have always made us Easter baskets (and gave the three of us plus the two boys one to share this year) and later Kent was very apologetic and decided that he liked the basket idea so much that it will be a tradition from now on. Starting new holiday traditions is my favourite.

Check out the rest of our trip on my flickr!

Filed Under: Family, Holidays, life, micaela, ottawa, personal, random, sisterhood, travel

Five blondes, no mass suicide pact.

March 10, 2009 By 16 Comments

I have written in three other online spaces since I started blogging, around 2003. Two were public, and one was secret. I have always loved writing online, and with my sisters. A good thing, considering only a very select few people read the blogs and 4 out of the 8 or so readers actually were the girls. I have been compiling the entries to print out and make into a sort of journal or book, because I don’t want to lose that part of me and I would love to have it in a tangible form. I am excited because I loved myself back then (don’t worry, I still do but I’m just feeling nostalgic). I used way to many exclamation points, I was way too dramatic for my own good, I could write anything and no matter how bad it was I thought it was the deepest, truest thing ever to be written, I laughed, I loved, I was caring and selfish all at the same time, and (with much editing) would love to have it to give to my grandchildren some day.

Here is an excerpt from an entry in my livejournal from January 11, 2006.

i just watched the virgin suicides again, what an excellent movie.

it’s funny how it is just like our family, the story of five blonde daughters and their “mysterious existence”. the neighbour hood boys become obsessed with them and cherish even a discarded piece of paper, had it been used by one of the girls. That reminds me of the story [family friend, let's call him R.] told me, of how when he was younger and used to go dirt biking in our back forest but every summer would come to my house and ask my dad for permission. All my dad asked of him was to drive slowly down the driveway so as to not disturb/injure/scare his daughters and we would see R. making his was ever so slowly making his way down the driveway, literally going about 5 km/hour and we would laugh. he confessed to me later, when we became friends, that he always hoped we would be outside when he drove by so he could see one of us.

and even when he drives by my grandmas house, he always slows down to drive the speed limit, some sort of unspoken rule.

okay enough about that.

what i am really thinking?

i love the progression from thinking i need to write things down so we will have something to talk about, to thinking i need to write things down so i don’t run out of time to say them.
maybe that’s my favourite part … or one of them anyways.

Erica’s comment: Yes, we’re so similar to the movie aren’t we? Now about that mass suicide pact we have…

So, there is no mass suicide pact. Don’t worry. Maybe a pact to take over the world as soon as we all start exploding with babies, but that’s about it. God we are going to have awesome family get-togethers someday! We can watch our kids do all of the same crazy stuff that we used together.

And then a little about my budding relationship thrown in there, it was written about a month after Tim and I started dating. Aww! All I can remember about that time was how much fun we always had together.

Filed Under: blogging, blonde, Family, love, random, relationships, sisterhood

Bus Strike Adventures

January 8, 2009 By 10 Comments
OC Transpo Bus

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.

Filed Under: Cheerleading, friends, internet, lauren, life, ottawa, random, university, winter

The wrong book to be reading right now?

November 4, 2008 By 7 Comments

Let’s face it. You can’t avoid the election talk today, not even on this Canadian blog.  I’ll keep it short and sweet: My American friends, I hope you voted.  Like I tweeted this morning, “To all my American friends so excited about voting: your passion is exciting! Inspiring! Contagious! Keep it up!”

It really is contagious.  So many of my (predominantly Canadian) friends on Facebook have devoted their statuses to their candidate of choice or simply using their status to remind Americans to vote (‘early and often’ as Canucklehead put it!). My status invites you to cast your “World Vote” – non-Americans, go! Vote!

I’ve been reading a book called The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives (giving me the perfect reason to use our “random” category).  When I bought it I didn’t realize that there would be so much mathematical theory that would sail miles over my head, but thankfully much of it is at a level I can understand.  It’s about, well, randomness in everything from sports, to medicine, to polling, and more.  I happen to have just finished the section on polling and margins of error that uses a mayoral election as an example.  Margin of error is a scary thing.  Polling results can say one thing pre-election, and you can end up with something else after the votes are counted.

NONETHELESS.

I have a lot of hope that America will make a wise choice and I’ll be clicking right here all night until I know for sure.  Don’t let us down!

PS. Just to make sure.

Filed Under: random Tagged With: , , ,

Quality over Quantity: Trick or Treating in the Country

October 31, 2008 By 8 Comments

For country kids, trick or treating isn’t a matter of getting dressed up, walking out your door, and traveling up and down sidewalks in a quest to hit up as many houses as possible for candy, chocolate, and the occasional toothbrush from the well-meaning dentist down the street.  No, for country kids like us trick or treating was a matter of piling into the minivan after your parents have drawn straws to see who would drive you north and who would drive you south and driving from house to house, where your parents would come to the door with you and then discuss their crop yields for ten minutes or so.

Yes, strange as it sounds, for kids in the country trick or treating is not an environmentally friendly activity, and definitely doesn’t offer kids the chance to run around and burn off those candy calories before/while consuming them (as if kids care about that anyway!).  Were we to walk, we could probably visit a dozen houses or so within an hour.

Our friends in the city would brag about how they ran from house to house to get as much candy as possible.

We got to brag about how many FULL SIZE CHOCOLATE BARS! we got.  And how none of the houses we visited gave us a single Werther’s candy as a treat.

In the country, it’s quality over quantity.  If the house you visit is giving away mini chocolate bars you get a handful of ‘em, because it is more than likely that the house will get only a handful of trick or treaters.  Fewer visitors = more candy.  It’s a delicious equation.

I trick or treated until I was 17. Yes, 17. And no, I’m not short, and most of the houses we visited knew my age quite well.  Heck, our grandmother lives next door.  How did I work this?  Easy.  I could drive!  Mom and Dad could stay home!  I wrapped myself in tin foil, stuck a ski helmet on my head, and called myself an astronaut.  Mmmmm…space candy…

We never bought our costumes.  Why bother when you can raid your grandparent’s closets for your mom’s old clothes, use facepaint, colour your hair, stick clotheshangers in your hair, and sew cute little skirts out of vintage bridesmaids dresses?

Here we are, getting ready to trick or treat. Pippi Longstocking (Micaela), a hippy (Kate), a vampire (Lauren), a baby (Leah), and Sailor Moon (Erica).

I am Sailor Moon, the champion of justice. In the name of the moon, I will right wrong and triumph over evil… and that means you!

OH MY LORD I WAS A DORK. But we all knew this already…

Filed Under: Holidays, life, random Tagged With: , ,

Take a Chance

October 23, 2008 By 10 Comments

Wasn’t that vlogging thing fun? First Leah, then me (Erica), then Lauren…I guess 3/5 ain’t bad now is it! Mic & Kate, I fully expect your vlogs within 7 DAYS.

I gotta say that the vlogging fun really turned my week around. I had been kinda mopey before because I was reflecting on some bad news that we all got from our family out west. Don’t worry, no one passed away and everyone is still healthy, it was just unexpected and sad. Luckily I’ve been able to keep my mind off things with vlogging and Rock Band 2.

Speaking of RB2, I’m not going to be modest here, I’m going to come right out and tell you that I rock at the guitar.  Xman plays the drums on Easy (although I think he should move  up to medium), I shred on Hard.  My entire arm cramped up last night. It was worth it.

Finally, did you know that it’s two and a half months until New Years? Xman and I have started making our plans already.  I found an interesting tumblr that is posting 2 1/2-Months-To-New-Year’s-Resolutions Resolutions.  You heard me right.  Here’s a couple of examples:

…on meeeee….take a chance take a chance take a chance chance chance

//Abba

I know this is ridiculous for me to ask since I’m the kind of person who makes her resolution on January 3, 2007 and fufils it in June of 2008, buuuuuuut…

Any thought on those resolutions?

I’m just trying to help you get a head start! You’ll thank me later.

Filed Under: random

Feelin' the Love

September 3, 2008 By 12 Comments

Kick Ass Blogger AwardCanucklehead

The Blonde life has been a busy one! There was so much excitement going on last week I could barely catch my breath! Luckily life has slowed down to it’s normal pace and I’m moving forward with my own wedding plans. Xman can always be counted on to encourage me along!

Speaking of the Xman, yesterday he threatened never to read this blog again unless we updated soon. Are you happy now, sweetie? Or should I leave this one as a draft so that I can start plastering your face all over? No, I’m too nice for that. Anyway, your cute face will be on our photographers blog next month whether you like it or not. I booked out engagement picture appointment today!

You may be wondering, what’s with the pics at the top? Did you actually get…awards??? Yes, yes we did! According to Reggy, I (we) am a kick-ass blogger, Delusions of Grandeur loves our blog, and we are also honorary Canuckleheads. To be honest, we’ve been honorary Canuckleheads for a few months but I never got my lazy bum around to saying THANK YOU!

I won something else this week as well – a $50 gift card for Wedding Paper Divas! Funny story (in more ways than one) – I won the card after posting a funny wedding story on a terrific wedding blog that I read called Glamour This. Earlier today I was reading some posts from my favorite WeddingBee blogger, Mrs Flamingo. What I have just now realized is: They are the same. Kelly of Glamour This is also Mrs. Flamingo! I just think that this is fantastic and hilarious at the same time. Now the french elements on Glamour This make sense! I loved all the glam decor she used in her wedding as it is the same type of decor I’m using for mine.

Finally, I feel like I won a prize here at work today when my boss told me that myself and my office-mate will be moving into a new office soon – an office with a window!!! We’re a very small company (only 4 of us work from the office day to day while my boss and his wife, my long-time friend S, work from home) and we currently have only 2 offices but someone in our building is moving out. And he had a window office. It’s ridiculous how happy this makes me!

Filed Under: random

I got kicked out of my own bed last night.

August 22, 2008 By 16 Comments

I got kicked out of my own bed last night.

There I was sleeping away, when all of a sudden I heard a very familiar voice:

“You’re snoring too much! Go sleep on the couch.”

Obediently, and also because I’m a sucker and refused to be relegated to the couch the evening before, I moved my sleepy bum to the couch and there I finished the night.  Now, I’m not normally a snorer.  It’s just that after an overly exhausting birthday celebration trip to Cedar Point (apparently aging does this to you), I managed to pick up a nasty cold that’s been going around.  A friend we saw last Friday now has it, as does a co-worker I share my office with.  Perhaps the most frustrating part is that my nose isn’t stuffed up at all – it’s all in my throat.  It hurts to swallow.

It’s 11:30 and I just chugged a Neo-Citran, so I’m going to make the rest of this short and in point-form, because that’s what lazy bloggers do (I am totally kidding, lazy bloggers just post a picture, but said laziness can be forgiven when said picture is accompanied with a witty caption, and oh good god I am alienating readers now, YOU ARE NOT LAZY! Did you see I updated the blogroll?) because it’s 11:30 and I just chugged a Neo-Citran:

1.  Twilight. Started reading it.  Enjoying it, but I’m now really pissed that I already know various plot points.  I “spoil” movies and TV shows for myself all the time because I love to be ‘in the know’, but I don’t think I’ve ever spoiled a book before (with the exception of Harry Potter 7, but that doesn’t count because it was the seventh in a series. And because I say it doesn’t count).  I don’t know how to explain my reading habits.

2. 

Isn’t Mr X a cutie?  I couldn’t find quite the right balance between the black and brown for his hair/facial hair colour, so I alternated.  Also, although he owns several similar blue and white button-up shirts (I have the iron burns to prove it), he doesn’t own a jacket like the picture, but isn’t it nice?

3. Besides the fact that I am now officially in my late twenties, gawd I feel old.  Physically old (thanks to the cold) and mentally old as my friends marry and procreate.  There is so much more here that I’m leaving it for another day.

Wish me luck as I try to make it through the night without being kicked out of bed.

Filed Under: birthday, love, random
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