Last July 2008 entry

I am so excited for the weekend!!!

Matt called me last night and invited me to go white water rafting with him and his parents this weekend! I am soooo excited, I have never been before! Should be good times for sure!

Truly enjoying being free from school. I just realized that this is my first substantial break since Christmas! Wow! Definitely time to recharge my batteries before my final year!! I am soaking it up by sitting on the couch and watching some Big Brother. Yay!

Also, it's Thursday! L is in school tonight, but I am picking her up from the train later so we can go for dinner, get slurpees and watch some Last Comic Standing. There is nothing better!

Tomorrow at work will be pretty good, I think. All the guys will be gone on their fishing trip (girls get a spa weekend later in August) so my boss is having lunch catered. Yay! This catering company has the most delicious desserts.

Big Brother just experienced an earthquake! How exciting!

We finally...

have a date for the annual trip to Edmonton! Hooray! I had to take a day off work, but I'm sure it will be totally worth it! We are going on a Sunday/Monday this year, instead of a Saturday/Sunday combo... here's hoping the pool will be a lot less crowded on a Sunday!

Honestly, not too much else is going on! Still tired after work, but don't have to worry about keeping up with reading for school, so that's fantastic. I think my class went ok... final grades aren't in yet, but I did ok on the final, so it should be all good. I think he might curve the grades as well... he said he might if the average was too low, and he dropped 12 questions from the final, so I'm thinkin' marks were a little low. Anyway...

Last weekend Matt went to Lethbridge so I just kinda hung out at home. Saturday I had an awful migraine and slept most of the day (uh huh and we saw the weather change yesterday) and Sunday I ended up meeting up with the Australians! It was a good time. We played some mini-golf... the course wasn't fantastic, but there was this one hole that Patricia reached into to grab her ball and a huge siren went off. It nearly gave her a heart attack... but was so funny for us. Another good one was the one that sprayed you in the face with water when you went to get your ball. Great!

After leaving the golf course we went for lunch (delicious) and were on our way home to go to the lake when we got into a car accident! Nice. It was pretty brutal, actually... we were rear ended really hard by a huge Dodge truck. I got a huge bruise on my hip (and my aunt, sitting on the opposite side of the back bench got one on the opposite side of me) and the Jeep (less than a year old) is undrivable, but everyone is ok, save some bumps, sore backs, and bruises, so that's what counts!

Nothing else too much... looking forward to the LONG WEEKEND!! I'll try to get some pictures... I feel like I haven't posted any on here in FOREVER (even though I did around Stampede time).

The good, the bad, and the MONDAY!!

The good: I'm not in class tonight! And not watching the Zimbardo video again! Plus, did you check out the WEATHER today? Wow.

The bad: I'm not in class tonight because there was an accident with the LRT in which a cyclist was hit and the trains WERE NOT MOVING. I figured that by the time I got to school via Glenmore, I would have missed the lecture anyway and been just in time for the video. No thanks!

The Monday: I think the air conditioning in my car is dead. Eeep! Hopefully Matt can have a look at it and fix it up! Of course I discover this lovely turn of events on our first 30 degree day of 2008.

I'm! done class! in 2! days! !!!

:D

Plans for the weekend (free weekend)? First on my list is to be a total square and clean my car out. Man it needs it though. I think my last time would have been in the fall, and I eat breakfast (toast) on my way to work everyday. Yeah. It doesn't take a mathematician to figure THAT equation out.

I'd like to see the Dark Knight, but thinking about it right now, I don't especially feel like lining up for a million hours. Maybe though. Matt and I drove past the line on Saturday and it was crazy! Right around the theatre!

We had a pretty good weekend. Matt and I seemed to have some sort of Blizzard addiction. We hit DQ on Friday and again on Saturday. Good times. Did you know that they do not, in fact, make the Mint Oreo Blizzard with Mint Oreos, but regular Oreos and mint syrup? AND they charge you with an 'extra stuff' fee for getting the syrup! Pshhhh. Good thing they are just so damn delicious.

Also, keeping on the track of complaining about extras, Matt and I went to Swiss on Friday. These days they are charging a whopping $1.20* for white meat. Psshhh. Again, it's really not that bad, but it is up from $0.99** the last time we went there (which was like, two weeks ago). Inflation. It'll get ya!!

Also, to not complain for 2 seconds, Big Brother 10 was watched by Matt and me yesterday, and it is quite good. Hoo-rah!



* Please don't think I'm "extremely careful with money" (thank you Seinfeld). Sometimes I just like to complain. :)

**I have a feeling Lo will give me a hard time for writing 99 cents that way, but I don't know why.

<3

Certain Inevitabilities

Hello. Please indicate how this makes sense:

Migraine trigger for Natalie = weather changes, bright lights (mostly the sun), and strong smells (sometimes).

Natalie's super fantastic migraine treatment = strong smell of rosemary.

Migraine trigger for Natalie + Natalie's super fantastic migraine treatment = migraine for Natalie. And a bad one at that.

Oh dear.

I'm holding out hope that it was mostly the weather change that did it. Matt suggested that I only take the cover off halfway so the smell isn't that strong, which I may just do.

Anyway, certain inevitabilities I have encountered in summer semester:

1. Even if you are allowed to leave work 10 minutes early, traffic will be terrible and instead of having time to grab coffee or food like you intended to (and were excited about!!), you will just make it to class on time, like every other day.
2. While you are waiting for the Northbound train, no less than 3 Southbound trains will come and go. Vice versa for when you are waiting for the Southbound train.
3. There will ALWAYS be a pompous student in your class who has to point out the conclusion everyone else already came to in their heads. This happens in every class, but after 8 hours of work and 4 evenings of 3 hours of school, this happening will be particularly difficult to sit through.
4. I will see the Stanford Prison Experiment video, in my university career, more times than double the years I have been in university. (Next week I'm seeing it again). I feel like I was actually in the damn thing.

Yesterday I was on the train when these guys got on, swearing and cursing about who knows what. The guy next to them was reading his newspaper and he said "Watch your language. There are ladies on this train (one of them was me) and that one has a baby (that one was not me)." I was so impressed! The guys tried to save face by saying stuff like "well, I'd lip off to you if... blah blah" and the best part was that the man was just nodding and reading his newspaper. Another variety of a random act of kindness! The more I look for it, the more I see it! It's nice to know that in such a greedy, rude, and sometimes very unpleasant society that there is decency everywhere. :)

Also, the Australians are in town!! I talked to the little girl (age 6) on the phone tonight and she is just the sweetest thing. I can't wait til my course is over and I can go visit and hang out! I asked her what she wanted to do, and apparently we'll be blowing bubbles. lol.

G'night!

10 things I would rather be doing...

... than attempting to study for my midterm:

10. Sleeping. I have been so wrecked lately and just can't catch up.
9. Baking cookies! It's been far too long!
8. Reading a book that I want to read.
7. Walking the dog in this lovely July evening weather (even though the bugs would probably be brutal)
6. Playing ND with L.
5. Sitting with my favourite blanket on the couch and watching a movie with Matt. I haven't seen much of him lately.
4. Going out for dinner (I'm so hungry!)
3. Sitting on the deck with the warm sun on my face!
2. Having a bubble bath!
1. Picking up my groceries for the week. Hello, frozen dinner for lunch tomorrow!

Matt was working at the Stampede all day yesterday. Seriously, all day. He worked 730 - 1230 and then 4 - 10. I was so happy when he got home though! When we were at the Stampede last Sunday, we saw this aromatherapy stuff in a jar that you open at night in many different scents for many different things! He picked me up the migraine stuff (which is a rosemary scent I believe) and I am so excited to try it out! Anything that may help!

Again, it's been a while!

I just don't ever blog anymore, do I? Two more Monday and Tuesday classes, and 1 more Wednesday and Thursday class- and then I'm done summer semester! It won't be at all too soon, either! I am so TIRED! It is so strange though; I hop on the train after work, go up, have class for almost three hours, and then hop on the train and drive home from the station. Often when I am getting off the train and heading to my car I feel like I didn't go to school at all... like I went to some sort of time sucking space that took my whole evening, but I don't really remember sitting through. It is so bizarre. Anyway, I don't need to say it again, but I'm gonna!! I can't WAIT to be done!

Summer plans for after school? RELAXING! And reading leisurely [nerd alert]. I also hope that L, J, M, and I can head up to Edmonton for our annual trip! It is kinda dependent on L's work schedule at the moment; M and I have weekends off, but L is scheduled til the end of August already! I think J is ok for getting time off too. At any rate, hopefully we can figure out a time to take our summer trip (I believe this will be the third consecutive year) and have lots of fun! :)

M, Andy, Cade, and I went to the Stampede on Sunday! I haven't posted about A and C before, but they are friends M knows from the army. [Side note: I don't know if other people use initials to be annonymous or not, but I use them out of totally laziness. If you read this blog often, you certainly know who M and L and J are. And why type Matt, Lauren and Jordan when I can write M, L, and J?] We had tons of fun at the Stampede. We got to hold chickies (sponsored by Lilydale, sadly enough) and went on some rides and just generally had a good time! The mini donuts are just so delicious. It started absolutely pouring while we were outside though, and A and I were just FREEZING! While I was on a ride with the boys, some random lady donated a shirt to A! She said she just 'looked freezing'. I guess those nice random strangers I mentioned a few posts earlier are everywhere! Anyway, it was a very fun and good time.


After the log ride


He is so handsome sometimes


Bumper cars! I was the photographer for this ride! I hate bumper cars.