Dusting off the Blog

It's a new year which means it only comes with new resolutions that I will try really hard to keep, but probably won't.  I'm actually not a big fan of NYE.  I think it's silly to put expectations on yourself that you'll probably never meet then feel guilty about it.  I mean, why now?  Why start now?  Why didn't I do these wonderful things that will only increase the value of my self worth and maybe lose a few inches, before December 31st?

To me, September has always been the time to start living a tad bit better.  I think it has to do with going to school in September.  New grade, new clothes, new school supplies, possibly new friends but above all, a new fresh new start at doing better!  So to me, September is where it's at.

Well it's time to go make some cheesy potatoes and steak.  Happy Sunday!

It's Been Awhile....

Wow, what happened to my blog?  I'm going to have to get used to the new "blog" format.  Yes, it's been that long since I've blogged.

Well I'm currently in Victoria at my parents new house.  It's so beautiful here.  I love this house, it has such a great feel.  Bradley and I painted it and I'm here on my own to do a couple of finishing touches.  Baseboards really. I hate doing baseboards.  It hurts my back but as Bradley says, I'm the "Mexican" worker getting paid the "Mexican" wage so I get the crap jobs.  Oh well, I just listen to my Nano and paint away.

We painted one of the rooms purple like the purple room at Doran.  I'm going to sleep in that room tonight and I'm looking forward to it.  It's been quite a long time since I've slept in a purple room!!!

Well, I'd like to type more but I'm pooped.  Long day today and I have a bunch of work to do tomorrow.  Later.

A Little Thing Called Me

Holy cow, I can't believe it's been so long since I last wrote in this blog.  That being said, I think the first part of this blog should be about something that made me laugh.  Laugh at myself that is.

Holiday weight.  We all get it.  It's the unavoidable Christmas present we seem to give to ourselves year after year after year.  I think most of us would be better off if we just resigned to the fact that we will get this gift, the gift of extra warmth around the tummy and butt, the gift of a bit more of ourselves for others to love.  Sure, we make false promises to ourselves before the season begins.  "I won't eat things made from flour" "I'll be sure to drink lots of water before the xmas party, that way I'll be full and not be tempted to eat a 1/2 pound of cheese...within the first five minutes" "I will NOT make eye contact with the cookie tray".  Well, lets face it, we lie to ourselves all of the time and we're really damn good at it.  Because as soon as you enter temptation land, you seem to forget the promises made previously.

I am absolutely NO exception to the rule.  Of course I made promises.  Of course I broke them almost immediately.  So that being said, I wasn't too surprised when my pants felt just a tad bit more snug than usual after all the festivities.  

I'm currently packing up my loft (something I'll get into later) and I found my scale shoved under my dresser (the most logical place to keep a scale).  I decided to weigh myself.  I knew I had gained a few, but good golly!  I didn't realize it was that much!  I've pretty much have stayed the same weight since grade 10, I may go up slightly, I may go down slightly.  So I was completely surprised when the number staring back at me said 134 lbs.  I sighed, I gave myself the lecture then spent the next month eating well, running and drinking less alcohol (ok, maybe not less alcohol but it sounds better adding that).  

I didn't weigh myself everyday, but every other day.  After about a month I was starting to get annoyed that the scale wasn't really doing anything. Wasn't going up, wasn't really going down.  Maybe a pound or two here or there.  That was until this last time I weighed myself.  I dragged it out from under the dresser (yes, I shoved it back under there for, safe keeping?) and weighed myself.  And there, 132 lbs was staring back up at me.  I stepped off the scale in annoyance and watched the dial giggle back in forth until it finally stopped.....not on zero.... but on ten.  Yes, I had the scale set to 10 lbs, not zero like most people.  I dialed it to zero and stepped back on and BOOM!  I was 122 lbs.  I laughed at myself for a good ten minutes then was super proud of me for "cleaning up my act" because just like that, I lost 10 lbs.  :)

Now on to something else, something important.  Dog dreams.  My dog dreams like no other dog on the planet.  She runs, snarls, whines, barks, wags here tail...just about anything she does while awake.  Normally I don't mind this except it's kind of annoying at 3am and she's sleep barking.  At first I think someone has broken in and this is it, my time, my time to fight like a ninja and if I fail, to embrace what the universe has in store for me. Then I realize that she's just sleep barking.  Barking, wagging her tail, and she's sound asleep.  Now I will spend the next hour or so, wide awake replaying in my head my awesome ninja moves against the would-be-killer.  Oh, I always win :)

Hopefully the next entry won't take me six months.  Later.

Nose Hairs and Other Odd Things

Have you ever really looked up your nose?  I mean REALLY looked up your nose?  Taken a mirror and "studied" the nose canal?  If you haven't I highly recommend that you do.  Why you might ask?  Well, why not?  I thought I knew every inch of my body really well but apparently not.  I was sitting in my chair tweezing my eyebrows when I noticed my nose.  Then I took a look and my oh my, I had NO idea I had such a hairy nose.  Hmmm.... I think it's hairy as I haven't really looked up people's noses before to compare.

Today I decided to work from home and clean my Loft and let me tell you, it needed it.  Being in a relationship is super awesome, however being in a relationship where the guy is allergic to cats and just lives next doors makes it really easy to spend zero time at home. Don't get me wrong, I do come by once in awhile to change, do some laundry and make sure the cats haven't killed each other yet.  However it's been awhile since I've really REALLY scrubbed the Loft down.  So today I did and I have to say, it feels pretty damn good.  Really good actually.  Silly little projects that I've put off are now complete. YAY!

I'd like to type more but my belly is grumbling and my spicy quinoa salad is calling my name. Later.

HOLY CRAP

I can't believe my last post was in April.  So much has happened I'm not even sure where to begin!  I've switched companies, made new friends, I have the most amazing boyfriend ever, I ran a half marathon, a 10K, Tough Mudder, booked a trip in September.... the list could really go on and on.

So Just know that I'm back, I'll blog more (I swear) but right now my doggie needs a walk.  :)

Love and Vending Machines

Love is something people don't usually talk about unless they've just fallen in or out of it.  We are all capable of feeling love and giving love, but what is our own definition of love, or being in love?  What makes love?  For the purpose of this conversation, I'm only referring to love in the romantic sense, not the family or friends or "boy I love my dog" sense.  

I was asked if I had ever been in love before.  My immediate response was "yes, of course".  But then I started to think about it.  Have I ever been in love?  I had said yes because I have been in relationships before, but is that love?  There's always the honeymoon stage of any relationship, that's scientifically proven.  But what about the remaining time in a relationship?  Seems like people fall in and out of love so easily, so what is love and what makes it last for those who are clearly in love after many many many years of companionship?  

I've asked a lot of people this question and it's really interesting that every body's response has been so different.  No wonder relationships don't last, everyone seems to have their own opinions of love and they aren't the same!  So that brings me to my theory that those people that are in long lasting loving relationships, it isn't because of their own definition of love, it's understanding their partners definition and showing them or making them feel loved by their own definition and vice versa.  What a novel concept!  

So give it some thought people, what's your definition of love?  Are you understanding your partners and making sure that you are both being shown love in the way you want?  Remember, that's a two way street, if they will love you in your way, you must love them in theirs.

Now on to a lighter note.  I had recently made a trip to Victoria with a bunch of friends as we were all participating in the Times Colonist 10K.  What a weekend!  Such an amazing time, I'm really lucky to have the people in my life that I do.  There's too much to tell so I will share one of the crazy events.

On the ferry ride home, Christine and I decided to get a special snack from the vending machine.  Christine made her move first, putting in her $2, punching in 112 for a bag of White Cheddar Popcorn.  As the vending machine was doing its thing, I had decided on Hickory Sticks.  All was good until it became quite clear that Christine was not going to get her popcorn as it was balanced just so on the ledge, never dropping from it's spot.  I guess I too was going to have popcorn as my bag would technically in theory push her bag off the ledge and land at the bottom with mind.  Did I mention that this would happen in theory?

Of course that's not what happened, not even slightly.  Now my bag was on top of Christine's bag, both hanging off of the ledge.  So it made sense for us to put another $2 in to see if we could get the machine to drop our two bags, the only two bags of popcorn left.  This did not happen.  So being lucky that I am, I thought that my $2 would do the trick.  It of course did not.

Brad and Jessica came around the corner and asked what we were up too. We explained our situation and that we just wasted $8.  A nice guy offered to shake the machine for us.  Nothing.  A girl had mentioned that if you go find someone of the ferry, they will refund your money.  A fine plan.  So we left Brad and Jessica guarding our machine as we made our way to the gift shop.  The nice lady there told us to go to the cafeteria.  There, after filling out some paperwork, the nice young man gave us $4 back (I didn't tell him that we actually had spent $8, that would make us look foolish).  We made our way back to the machine where Brad and Jessica had so kindly protected it from people tempted to put $2 in for our popcorn.  They did however let people use the machine if they were selecting other items.  They even helped out a kid who didn't know how to use it.

This was helpful because a girl had purchased the bag of chips that was next to our popcorn, which made our popcorn move.  So Brad suggested that we buy the bag of chips on the other side and that should do the trick.  OMG, it worked!!!  Sort of.  As we all stood around watching in excitement, only one bag dropped, the other got stuck half way down.  YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.  I had to put a further $2 to buy the bag of Sun Chips which pushed the last bag of popcorn down.  Dear Lord.  20 minutes and $12 later we got two bags of popcorn, Sun Chips and All Dressed chips.  Needless to say we weren't in the mood for any of them at that point but more importantly, the vending machine didn't win.   :)

Birth Control

This blog is about birth control and what we as women do, or shall I say, put ourselves through in order to have sex without worrying about the end result being a lifetime of responsibilities that maybe we're not ready to have yet.

There's that magical moment when dating someone that you discover that perhaps things are progressing to the next level and that maybe now is the time to have the "talk". You know the one.... "do you have cooties?" "do we now only sleep with each other?" "what do we do about not getting preggers" etc. This particular time in a budding relationship is nerve racking, exciting, makes you kind of want to barf a little, makes you feel a bit vulnerable, yet it needs to be talked about.

After you have the "talk" and you're both on the same page (and possibly with paperwork showing a clean bill of health), you then move on to the "what can we do about not getting pregnant" which really translates to the guy meaning "hey baby, I don't want to wear a condom anymore and the pullout isn't always effective, so what are you going to do to ensure we don't get prego". Ok, it's not just the guy thinking that, but for the purpose of this blog, the guy is responsible. :)

There are many different types of birth control out there, but one thing I do know is I'm not ever going on the pill again. I was on the pill for close to 18 years and I have to say I've never felt better then the day I went off of it. It's been a couple of years and I can say with all honesty: NEVER AGAIN. So for me, any kind of birth control that involves hormones is out for me. The other options are all invasive so in my mind the next best option would be a diaphragm. Up until recently they've only been available in the latex form but now they have silicon (yay!) which makes me happy because latex and I don't get along.

I made an appointment with my doctor to discuss the various options of birth control and her thoughts about getting a silicon diaphragm. I arrived feeling confident with my wealth of knowledge on the various types of birth control after spending some good quality time with Wikipedia. We discussed the various options and decided that indeed the diaphragm would best suit me. I was feeling good until she said "Ok, here's a gown, I'll give you a couple of minutes to get undressed". My heart started to race and I quietly asked "why?". "You have to be properly fitted for a diaphragm." She handed me the gown and left.

I panicked. I wasn't prepared to hop up on the bed, feet in the stirrups and have my doctor "measure" me. I contemplated running but thought better of it. So she measured. It wasn't as bad as I had thought it was going to be so that was good. She gave me a prescription and off I went. It took a couple of days to get it because it was silicon and had to be specially ordered. It was also expensive, $80! But that's ok. The hardest part was trying to find the spermicide to go with it. I pounded the pavement going from drug store to drug store but alas, I could only find the foam. That would have to do.

I got home and ripped open the box to see what my new purchase looked like. HOLY CRAP THAT'S SUPPOSE TO GO IN ME???!!!! I wasn't expecting it to be so freakin' big looking. Very daunting. So I read the instructions and it said to practice taking it in and out. It sat in it's box for about two weeks, I was too chicken.

After finding new confidence and thinking that I'm a pro, it was time. However, me being me, I insisted that we don't "use" it quite yet because me feeling confident and it actually being done properly are two different things. I thought everything went well until it was time to take it out......I couldn't get it out. My worst fear emerged. It wouldn't freakin' come out! Again, I panicked. I was alone and freaking out and wishing that Christine lived a few blocks away. I went home and contemplated what to do. I finally gave in and had to make a doctors appointment to get it out. My doctor laughed and said no problem, she does this everyday (us newbies I guess). Needless to say it's back in it's box and will stay there for another few weeks or until I find new confidence again.

Of course me being me I've told just about everyone I know because I do think it's kind of funny and every guys response is the same: "Jesus, glad I'm a guy". Yup, guys really don't have any idea.