Just Photos

Is this not a wicked action shot?

Zac and I at rehearsal. Aww.

Eunju hiding.

Eunju's day planner. She's a busy woman I guess.

Delicious cookies.

A thing I drew for Eunju in her day planner.

You move your thumb and he waves!

I call you Wise People for a reason

OK, as promised, the next three followers of my blog get the One Lovely Blog award. The lucky recipients are:

Kate at I am The Worst Blogger You are not the worst blogger. In fact, you're quite lovely. Thanks for following!

Brittany at Unexpected Surprises (but really, aren't all surprises unexpected?) A lovely blog indeed! I love your tone and welcoming atmosphere. A solid member of my lizard blog team.

And my extremely lovely friend CJ (Clinton) Klotz! He doesn't have a blog, but he followed mine without me even directly telling him I had a blog, and that makes him awesome. Thanks darling. You get the One Lovely pre-Blog Award.

So enjoy, kiddies!

:D

Wild, Isn't It?

Phew! What an incredibly busy weekend I have. I've been in need of blogging for days!

On Friday I had to work 4-11 and I slacked off which is no good, but I felt lazy, then afterwards I went out for pizza with my work buddy and that was a lot of fun. Then I went home and talked to Mugs for about an hour-ish and went to bed at about 1:30 or so. I fell asleep with my light on and the phone in my hand.

Today I woke up automatically at 6:45, which is fifteen minutes later than when I normally get up but I was still impressed with myself, and I proceeded to turn my light off, put the phone on the charger and went back to sleep until around 8. I woke up, debating whether I should sleep in or go to the acting workshop at the library like I had planned, and I was having weird half-sleep dreams. After half an hour of kind of sleeping, kind of struggling internally I decided to get up and go to the workshop.

The workshop was throughly amazing. It was with the artistic director of Theatre Collingwood and I really enjoyed it, as well as learned a lot. It was hugely beneficial. I feel artistically enriched and refreshed.

Afterwards, I went to work for a really short shift. I visited Mugs at work briefly on my way home, and now here I am to blog quickly in between events.

You see, in forty minutes I am going to go to Boston Pizza to watch UFC with Mugs until one in the morning-ish. It should be a blast! Afterwards I'll go to bed, of course, but will it end there? Of course not! For once, I have even more to do!

Tomorrow I am completely booked. I have rehearsal for the musical from 9:30-4, followed by work from 4-11 (I'll be justifiably late). Long day, that one will be.

Despite how hectic this all feels, it feels awesome to have a destination instead of moseying around the house feeling blah. I love being busy! Don't worry, ghosts, my usual lack of a life will return on Monday once again.

It's Happened

In lieu of my recent 140$ shopping spree I took the other day, I have decided to take a rather drastic vow in order to help myself identify what it is I need to buy and what it is I'm buying because I "have" to buy it, as in I want it really badly right then.

That's not to say I'm a totally uncontrollable shopaholic, because, in fact, I am amazing at saving money when I need to (as in lately, since I haven't spent more than 200$ in the past few months, contrary to the mother's belief). I am also good at not bringing money with me to places I know I'll want to impulse buy. If I want to something right then I may not want it later, so I don't let myself buy it unless I still want it the next day, or the next week, or the week after that.

Nonetheless, there are times when I buy clothes I know I don't need, like I almost did today. I was in the change room of yet another clothing store holding yet another winter clothing sale, and as I looked at myself wearing yet another sweater, as much as I liked it, I couldn't help but ask myself what was wrong with me. Why was I buying mroe clothes? I just bought clothes! I just bought a new sweater that was also on sale, plus shirts, pants, a dress and another sweater. It was excessive. I took off the sweater and left with nothing.

This is when I made in my head the drastic vow: I will not buy clothes for three months.

I know.

I told Katelyn about my vow and she was unbelieving to say the least. I will do it though. I know I can. It seems crazy, given that I have enough clothes to power a house, but despite all the forces working against me (such as my love for both fashion and shopping, some really awesome clothing stores within walking distance of my house and a sort of addictive personality [to the euphoria, that is]) I will make it for three months. I've already had a great start. I stopped myself today and I can do it again!

Please don't be too skeptical, ghosts. Help me be awesome and not buy things I don't need.

The only clothing I'm allowed to buy is a bathing suit, because I don't have one, and shorts because I don't really have those either, but even then, the shorts are a maybe.

Heck yes!

"Hey You, Stop What You're Doing and Love Me"

Well folks, I hate to bombard you with my boyfriend's extreme level of sappiness, but he sent me this on facebook and I just found it so awesome I couldn't resist sharing it with my ghosts. It's like a love note in blog form. It's the most bloggy thing he's written, so here you are. You can disregard this post if you can do without wonderful mush, as in probably Chloé. The beginning is just so ridiculous. I laughed my head off. Not that it has ever been on entirely anyway.

So, my sugar plum, we meet again on the forefront of Internet facebook email message technology. You see, there has been a shocking turn of events in my epic and noble quest to be vastly superior to everyone else. I was rising the ranks; I was so close to being the alpha male. However, just as things started to seem magnificent, I happened to fall--and I'm not talking about falling down and scraping one of my indestructible knees--I'm talking about falling in love. When this fall happened I didn't know what to do! I didn't even have time to brace myself, it all happened so fast. Only a split second went by when I suddenly lost focus on everything that meant so much to me. It's as if my priorities were rearranged. Everything sort of melted away and there was only one thing left which meant so much to me and it seemed as if my whole life before that was just preparation for a greater task at hand. It seemed as though I should have always had this spectacular person in my life. And now that I have her I'm never going to let her go! I'm going to keep her wrapped up in my strong arms because that's where I know nothing will ever be able to harm her. I'm going to keep her pressed up against my chest so she'll always be warm and cozy. Above all I will always keep her in my mind and in my heart because than I know she will always be with me no matter where I go. No matter where I go I feel as if she's right there beside me, and I could just turn around and see her beautiful face staring at me. I wish it were only that easy to see her, just think she's there, turn around and than poof! Callie appears, but then I guess she'd be stuck by my side because I'm always thinking about her. I can't do anything or go anywhere without thinking about her. It's ridiculous.

How can a person care so much about somebody else that they put themselves second, or that they would go out of their way just to make their loved one smile? I don't know, but that's just the way it is! I love you so much Callie and I will forever, so the sooner you accept that and the sooner you get to loving me the better for the both of us! XOXO ♥

Love the Müsin!

Isn't it sappy?

Ha, ha.

YELLOW!

So my gorgeous boyfriend bought me beautiful yellow roses. I know that yellow roses symbolise friendship, but yellow is my favourite colour, especially of roses, and hey, we were friends first, so maybe it symbolises the very beginning of our relationship. Anyway, I just though I'd take some pictures and show you how nice they are. I kind of only showed you one, though, I just realised...I guess I'll have to take a picture of the rest of the bouquet on the table. They look stunning. So, there they are. I hope you like them as much as I do. These roses are particularly well-formed compared to other roses I've seen! I'm impressed.

An Interesting Series

I'll let you decide what's happening here.

Getting to know YOU

HOLY. It took me forever, but I finally did this again. I'm kind of in a rush so I'll put the picture up later.

1. What's your favourite Easter candy?
I like those cream eggs, and Mini Eggs, and gigantic chocolate rabbits, and, well, I love chocolate, so I guess everything.
2. Who do you think is cleaner--men or women?
Like, hygienically? If that is the question, than it really depends on the person. Actually, even if it's asking about physical neatness of surroundings it depends on the person.
3. Which do you prefer--wordy blog posts or ones with pictures?
Both
4. Were you popular in high school?
Not especially.
5. What's you bra size?
34 to 36 B (I'm actually 35, so it depends on the bra.)
6. How many states have you lived in?
I live in Canada, and only one. Province, that is.
7. What's one blog you read every day?
Chloé's
8. Peanut butter or Nutella?
Nutella, but peanut butter is awesome.

I'd Like to Thank the Academy

Well, I have received the One Lovely Blog Award from David. Thanks! I guess this means I have one lovely blog on my hands. I am supposed to "do with it what I will", which I guess means he has chosen to disregard any rules that may have come with it and then proceeded to plant this same disregard in the hearts of this award's recipients.

Well, what I will do with it is kind of what he did with it except not.

The next three people to follow my blog will get this award because if you are showing my blog love, you must have a lovely blog!

Also, the first three people to comment on this post who already follow/don't want to follow (aww) my blog will get this award, because my blog is a lizard and it likes to be fed by comments. This is a way for you to get the award with no strings attached. Woo. Oh, and if you are one of the three who starts to follow my blog and you are one of the first three to comment you, unfortunately, will not get the award twice. Shucks!

That makes a total of six people getting the award from me, but I don't like the number six too much, so I'll go for lucky number seven and give the award to my sister Chloé who I love and recently wrote a really awesome blog that I commented on. Don't worry Chloé, I was going to give you the award anyway, but I had to point out that seven is better than six.

So get crack-a-lackin'!

Flux

It rained for the first time the other day! Yay! It felt so nice. It felt like Summer was right around the corner.

Usually I'm not aching for Summer to come, as Winter is so very awesome, but this Winter was just so mild and blah I don't want to suffer through it anymore. There were no notable storms, only a single memorable bombardment with snow (which made me so happy!), it started late and it's ending early. It sucked this year. I kept waiting for Winter to happen but it never stayed long enough to count. Please Winter, come back next year. I really miss you.

Now that I have come to terms with the fact that the white season fell quite short this time around, I am positively shrivelling up inside at the thought of Spring--the very worst season of them all. I dislike Spring for a number of reasons: I don't know if I should dress for the coldness of the morning or the heat of the afternoon--which coat? Winter? Fall? Any coat at all? I have to tuck my pants into my socks because the bottoms get soaked and it's uncomfortable the rest of the day and every time I walk the dog, which is between three and five times a day, I have to dry off her underside, legs and feet which follows up with my having dirt all over me and Clara being in a bad mood (she hates being dried off). There are two pros to Spring most of the time: the thunderstorms and wearing my rubber boots. However, this year I discovered my rubber boots' redundancy: there are holes in both of them. It sucks. I need to get that fixed. So the only good thing I have left is thunder and lightning, those awe-inspiring, empowering spectacles of art God sends us.

In addition to all of this negativity in spring, there is another thing: it's so ugly! People speak about Spring as if it is this aesthetic wonder of nature, with colourful plants erupting from the tired earth in every direction, bringing joy and laughter to all the children who roll around in the meadow beneath the shade of a great Oak tree.

Not the case.

All around is brown--mud, puddles, dirt left on top of the once-peaceful snow, dirtied-up cars and dead grass underneath it all, as well as leaves not raked from two seasons ago. The trees aren't alive yet, the cats are still vomiting inside the house and most of the birds aren't home. The world is harried. Fall is a pretty transition, preparing gracefully for the coming madness, whereas Spring is an ugly one, reminding us of all the darkness anticipating discovery below.

Artistic Bodies

Don't you just love the people in the change room who, after taking a shower/hot tub/swim, dry their crotch endlessly? I don't really know what the protocol is for guys, what with the dimensions and all, but for women all you need is a quick sweep or two and it's done. If the towel is down there for longer than fifteen seconds, chances are the natural juices are getting dried up too, and that is never very comfortable, or normal. If you're unaware, change room-crotch-drying-ladies, it's supposed to be moist. Perhaps you should educate yourself.


Also, I have no problem with other people being naked. After all, that's what happens in a change room, but please, if you're naked, don't stroll around the change room, go to the washroom, blow dry your hair or come and talk to me while I'm also naked and act like we're both wearing clothes. Naked is a transition and the change room is not the sauna.

Then there's the guy in the gym who manages to do everything except work out. There is always someone for him to talk to, wander toward and then pass by or a very long break at the water fountain he can take. If all of these options seem to be used, he'll concede to using his mat for a few ab exercises and then stop again once he finds a reason to not work out again. He doesn't just talk to everybody, he forces them to have to say something back other than a simple nod and smile. You have to slowly rotate so that you're more in the open than he is so you can sidle off to the other side of the gym. It's a temporary fix, though, until he's really finished talking to you.

Oh and those awful people who don't know how to share the cardio machines. HELLO. If all the machines are full, you are on there politely for no more than twenty minutes, thirty maximum. We can't wander around the gym forever while we wait for you to run three marathons over there.

Anyway, I won't go on. It's only the gym.

In other news, I have been doing stylized pencil drawings of women a lot lately, as women are my most favourite subject for art as is so often the case. The style I've come up with has led them all to have really, really huge, nice boobs. I mean, I've always drawn chicks with huge, nice boobs--they're the kind I grew up around--but these ones are especially huge and nice. Well, they aren't that huge, like Pamela Anderson huge, but they're still huge. The niceness has increased. Maybe I'll ink one of them and show you what I mean. At any rate, hot chicks are what I like to draw, and I haven't been drawing much else for about the last month.

Know what I really struggle with drawing? The hind legs of four-legged animals. I have real troubles with them. Dogs and horses look awesome until I get to the hind legs, then I think hm...and I use a whole eraser on a picture I don't finish. I don't know what it is, but I can never get them right! It's only when they're straight, like, standing. I like drawing seated hind legs, particularly cartoon cats and big cats. My inspiration for that is in the Lion King when Mufasa is lecturing Simba on going to the Elephant Graveyard and there is a really great shot of his hind leg. I have been drawing seated big cats a lot more since, as well as toads and frogs.

But yes. Does anyone out there have ideas? Of course I need to practice more, but I don't know what else to say. Animals have never been a strong point for me.

(Bit Part)

Well I stood up
You know I had to keep moving
I couldn't just sit here alone in this one place
You called my name
But you know I never hear you
But there will always be some things that stay the same
Even in some crazy world of constant change

So I changed the locks
I'm not looking for love now
Just another pretty face that I could blame
If I get lost
You know it's all the same now
And I don't really even care to know her name
All the people in my past
Just stay the same

But you know I don't have time
To play a bit part in your life
Thinking you could change my mind
That'd be crazy
You'd be no friend of mine
Be rehearsing all the time
Thinking you could put our
Love up on some stage

So I stood up
Yeah I had to keep moving
Try to get a little blood back in my veins
We called it off
But I can't sleep now
Just dreaming every night what might have been
You know I've been here before
And I'm here again

But you know I don't have the time
To play a bit part in your life
Thinking you could change my mind
That's be crazy
You'd be no friend of mine
Be rehearsing all the time
Thinking you could put our love
Up on some stage

You could come around here
Just knocking on my door
Keeping me up all night
Just begging me for more
And I'm not really sure
What we do these things for

So I stood up
You know I had to keep moving
I couldn't just sit here all alone in this one place

~The Wooden Sky

Sorry, I don't Really Worship the Ground you Walk On.

I have decided, as I'm sure have many before me, that working in any form of customer service can be truly baffling, as well as eternally entertaining on at least one party's part.

First, there are the employees.

Of course there are the relatively normal employees--the ones who do their job moderately to well and have a generally good attitude. Most other employees have no problem with these employees.

Next in line are the noobs. They are either extremely shy--much looking at you in shock and fear when you call them by name and screwing up of orders followed by profuse apology--or trying aggressively hard to "fit in" with the other employees as if they have worked in the establishment all along. The shy ones you pity; the aggressive ones you seethe at.

Following the noobs are the airheads. These are people who, no matter how long they have worked for a guy, don't know he owns the place. They are taken out of dreamland constantly and tend to have a huge lack of initiative, eg. "Take this order." "Oh...what?" "Take this order." "Oh. Yeah." They also have a tendency to call people affectionate nicknames like "chick" or "you", apparently due to their inability to commit anything of any sort to long-term memory, ever.

Of course you have the creepy dudes. You know the ones. They like to tell you how good you look or flirt "harmlessly" with you when it is so very apparent they really just want to lock you in the freezer and rape you. They also tend to touch you in innocent places, like the shoulder, and then gradually try to get to the bum or even breasts. Any inappropriate touching is always an "accident". My words of advice: just don't let them touch you. Ever.

The slutty chick(s) are always present. They are sometimes also airheads. They like to wear non-uniform clothing so they look hotter than everyone else and the creepy guys in authority don't control it because they like it.

Then there's the employees who like to tell everyone all about their sex lives always all the time, the worst part being that one can practically always tell it is grossly exaggerated--sometimes even completed fabricated.

The doormat is next. The one who does whatever you tell them to, and sometimes, when you're feeling ruthless, you take advantage of this. Don't feel guilty. It's your nature.

Everyone else is either weird, controlling, annoying, too young or too old.

Secondly, there are customers.

Normal customers are nice. The normal, nice people who order normal, nice food without ridiculous modifications, who pay with normal, nice money (either a solid bill or plastic) and treat you nicely and normally. Customer service is seldom a problem here.

The people who make ridiculous modifications can be one of three types: decisive and apologetic (DA), indecisive and confused (IC) or decisive and impatient (DI).

The DAs have their huge long list of modifications in their heads and they blab it off without any problems, but they apologise every time I have to type in that it's modified. "...that will have extra pickles, switch to red onions, extra onions, switch to shredded lettuce, add bacon, no ketchup, extra mustard, add Southwest sauce and switch to ciabatta bun." Pause. "Sorry." On and on it goes.

The ICs of the world don't really know what they're ordering, what they want to change or why I'm getting frustrated with their idiotic order-placing capabilities. "Hmm...I think I'll have a...double hamburger...that's no cheese, right? Okay, um...make that no pickles, please, and add mayo...oh wait, I think I want that in the meal. That comes with fries, right? Can I get large fries? Okay, um...wait, no, I just want the medium fries but a large drink, and uh...can I get a Sprite to drink? Wait, wait, Fruitopia?...Actually, no, wait, make it a Sprite. In fact, just forget the meal, I don't want fries."
UGH.
That's all I have to say about that.

Finally, the worst of the modifiers, the DIs just hate that it takes longer to type it in. They ask for eight thousand changes and expect it to just magically happen. I AM NOT A SUPERHUMAN. Get it through your thick impatient skulls! They glare at me like it's my fault they want a burger that doesn't even exist. They also like to get mad when it costs money to add things like more meat. Sorry guys, food isn't free.

About equally awful as the DIs are people who just hate everyone. They come in angry, get mad when you ask what they want and they don't know yet, then get mad when you're not standing there waiting on the edge of your seat for them to finally order. They get mad when you tell them a price, they get mad when you take their money, they get mad when you ask them to repeat themselves or clarify their order and they get mad when you hand them their food no matter how quickly they got it. They are just angry people who always hate happy people. Actually, they just hate people in general. If they hate people so much they can make their own food.

Mumblers. Hoo, nelly. I mumble, but when I'm eating out I try to speak clearer without a doubt. "Blmmb..umbm...urger...cheez...flmmum crum coke." Uh, what? Open your mouth! For heaven's sake! It's the absolute worst through drive through. Drive through is a whole different blog entirely though, so I won't get into that.

Those really, really, really, inexplicably happy people? Yeah. Why don't they come around more often? They make you want to serve them. I don't have to say any more on that. They just smile and are super polite.

Oh, then there's the over polite people. "Can I please have bacon cheeseburger please with extra ketchup please and a large fries and a root beer please? Thank you." The order barely squeaks through your outrageous Canadian manners.

Those people who just keep talking? And talking? And talking? Hate to break it to you, customers, but we only pretend to care about your child who must be a prodigy because she got perfect on her grade one spelling test. Once your served, we want you to go away.

Overall, I'd say the most baffling customers of all are the ones who get angry at nothing. "HEY." "Uh, yes?" "I asked for a GIRL toy, and look. I got a BOY toy. Something WRONG here, or is it just me?" Geez lady, cool your jets. It takes all of two seconds to grab a different toy. Or, "Uh, excuse me?" "Uh, yes?" "Forgetting something?" Thinking, looking at receipt, racking brains...nada. "Uh, what am I forgetting?" Scowl. Red face. Pursed lips. "Ketchup." "There's ketchup at the condiment stand over there." Glares at condiment stand. "Oh." Storms off in a huff.

Macaroni.

Look at That!

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And He Scores!!!

Okay, this is a little belated, but WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
As in,
CANADA TOTALLY WINS GOLD.
I think it will be one of those things where I remember where I was when it happened, which was work, to specify. It was awesome. I won't bore you with details of the game you can read elsewhere and with more accuracy. Everyone stopped working to watch and when we FREAKING WON we all clapped and cheered and jumped up and down and hugged and such. It was awesome. Some guy later reported that it really created a sense of bonding in the country and I agree. I felt so...good. It was incredible. The chance of losing was so close, it made it that much more thrilling! And that Team USA is so talented and skilled just makes our victory even stronger. We screamed into the headset when a customer came through the drive-through. It was also awesome.
I want to say more on this, but I'm in a rush! Congratulations, nation! I am proud to be Canadian!