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.