Jun 30
2010

A big day for me!

I had “The Place Where You Park Boats” over last night and we staid up until three-thirty discussing things like abortion, politics, finances, and life in general. We woke up early this morning to scope out the area that I would be taking my driving test in, and did some (really) last-minute parking practicing, and a refresher course on hill-parking. There was also the first of three Walmart trips, to pick up those little convex mirrors to help me with my blind-spot, as well as a cute little clock so I can actually know what time it is without needing to check my phone.

When we walked into the testing office, they asked for my license, registration, and insurance. I handed her the first two, but when she asked for my insurance, I had nothing to give her. I am insured, but I did it all over the phone so I had nothing as proof of insurance. I was panicking, especially when she told me that if I had got pulled over by a police officer and couldn’t provide that proof, I would be looking at a $2000 ticket. Yikes! Luckily, they just had it faxed over to the office and gave me what I needed to be able to be legal on the road. I have been driving around a week without it though, I’m really glad I never got pulled over for anything.

The test itself was nerve-wracking… just the parking lot itself was insane, there were never any available spots, you needed to go down and up these steep hills to get into the damn thing, and it was effing BUSY. Not fun just getting in and out of there, and that was just the beginning! The first parallel park was behind this big, awkwardly parked van, and because there was no discernible curb, I had to do it again. Seeing him make little marks on the paper without saying a word as to what I am getting points deducted for was stressful as hell, I hate the silence! I just want to know what I am doing so I can change it… ugh.

In the end though, I passed, and that is all that matters. The confidence I need will just come as I drive more and more. So I went through the process, got a new picture taken, so on and so forth. It was so exciting to get it out of the way, and to pass on the first attempt. I had no idea just how freeing it would feel to have my own transportation. It is absolutely wonderful.

M and I drove from one end of the city to the outer-limits of Calgary to go to Calaway Park, which is an amusement park that has been around for years. She has never been, and it has been years since I was last there, so we thought that a fantastic way to mark our new-found freedom would be to travel to a place that transit does not go. Thanks to Google Map, I ended up taking some crazy back-country road through farmland and pastures, and I was quite scared that I had ended up taking the wrong route and we would end up somewhere in Northern Alberta.

When we finally got to Calaway Park, turns out that for some unknown reason, they were closing super early and we would have only had an hour and a half at the park, which would not have been worth the $16 per person fee. It wasn’t worth the gas, or the panic that having no clue where I was induced. We decided to turn back to Calgary, so we made our way back on the Trans-Canada Highway. After hitting the Guess outlet store (obviously!) and picking up a new shirt, we were entering starvation-mode so we made our way to a nice sit-down restaurant. Holy crap, was the vegetarian burger ever amazing!! I need to find out what brand they are, and where I can purchase them.

Now… where we were was located in an area in Calgary that neither of us have been to in forever, and because all we have ever taken is transit, we literally had NO idea how to get back south to my house. We got lost, took random roads, and generally freaked out, but I eventually maneuvered my way back to the south, where we are both comfortable and both know where the hell everything is. I also made the executive decision that it was an absolute MUST to get a GPS, so we did that before going home. I’m in love!

This pretty little GPS is Bluetooth-capable, speaks its directions, is pre-loaded with maps. I can also ask it to direct me to the nearest (insert random type of restaurant here) place to eat, with a huge list of ideas. How does anyone get around without one anymore? It is amazing.

Pictures to come soon, I promise! I’m driving out to Arrowwood after my inspection tomorrow morning, and Badger and I can have a nice little photo shoot in the afternoon :) Also, I apologize to those I haven’t replied to emails yet (Frankie, to name one!), I am so bad at getting back to anyone in a timely-fashion. I’m soooorry!

XO Ash

Tags: , ,



Trackback  •  Posted in Uncategorized  


Jun 29
2010

I hope your 23rd year is better than your 22nd.



Trackback  •  Posted in Uncategorized  


Jun 29
2010

1) What is the best dish you can cook?
Um… I’m actually a pretty good cook, I make a wonderful orange-chicken vermicelli, and chili, and soup, and lots of good comfort foods like mashed potatoes and meat and stuff. I am absolutely terrible at making that 5- or 10-minute rice, though. I burn it EVERY SINGLE TIME. It’s ridiculous.

2) Can you fake any accents?
I like to pretend I can do a fairly good British-accent, but nothing else.

3) What is your favorite seat on a bus?
The long ones where I am not squashed between the window and a person. I also love the open space.

4) You wouldn’t be caught dead, where?
Anything to do with hunting, unless it’s a protest against it.

5) Do you have any hidden talents?
I can decorate cakes pretty darn well J And I can cook, and I have been told I sing well, and I am a Pokemon Master. The last one is obviously the best of the talents, and most important.

6) What do you have in your pockets?
The only pockets I have are on my lab coat for work, and I only have my lipstick in it. Usually there is a pen or two, and eye drops, but I just cleaned them out.

7) Ever been arrested?
Nope, but it is on my bucket list!

8) What’s the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?
Height, smile, eyes, in that order.

9) Most hated chore on the household chore list?
Ironing, UGH. I hate it. And folding clothes. Laundry in general sucks.

10) Which bad habits drive you crazy?
Tardiness, disrespect, chewing with your mouth open, excessive swearing, spitting (it’s gross, and completely unnecessary. I am instantly repelled when I see someone spitting,) smoking, laziness, wastefulness, when people go out of their way to NOT recycle… a lot of things drive me crazy!

11) Name one thing you consider yourself to be very good at.
Helping calm people down, and listening.

12) Name one thing you totally suck at.
Skateboarding, tried it once and still have a scar to prove how much I suck. And that stupid Guitar Hero thing. Can’t do that for the life of me.

13) Which kind of puppies do you hate the most?
What a horrible question. But, small, yappy little fluffy things. Give me a REAL dog, please!

14) Ever been in the mile high club?
Nope! I have only ever travelled with family, and don’t hook up with randoms, so I keep things totally G-rated on planes! (Or… I have thus far ;) )

15) Is there anything you absolutely refuse to do under any circumstances?
Hunt, or cause people or animals unnecessary pain. I also refuse to eat anything deep-fried, or that has chocolate as an ingredient.

16) Do you like children?
They intimidate me, but if they are well-behaved, I am way more inclined to spend time around them.

17) How much time do you spend on – Facebook, Myspace, Twitter or Youtube?
On facebook, maybe a total of forty-five minutes to an hour in total throughout the day. I don’t understand how people can spend more than that, it’s not like there is much to do at all. Or maybe I’m missing something. Oh well. I don’t have Myspace or Twitter, so zero time spent there. I watch videos of songs in the morning while I get ready for work in the morning though.

18) If you had to live under the sea what kind of an animal would you be?
An orca :) Beautiful, graceful, agile, and powerful, everything I wish I was as a human.

19) Have you ever won a trophy?

I have won like, consolation medals for soccer, and actually did pretty well when I played lacrosse and got a medal or two there, but nothing else.

20) Name one thing that not many people know about you.

I’m intimidated by people I have only creeped on Facebook, but would have no problem confronting them if they stepped out of line. However, the crazy notions I have in my head of exactly what they could do are probably just that, ridiculous things that will never happen. My mind wanders, and so does my mouth, to the point where my family thinks I may have ADD…

21) If you knew you were going to die in 24 hours, name three things you would do in the time you had left.
Tough one! A day is so short… I would 1) Spend time with my family and friends, reminiscing over good times in the past, and telling them how much I love them and that I know they will do great things with their lives, 2) Spend private-time with Badger, talking and such, and 3) Call up old friends that I haven’t talked to in a long time, and tell them something that I appreciated about our friendship, even though we drifted apart in more recent years.

22) What crazy activities do you dream of trying someday?
I want to go skydiving, whitewater rafting, drag-racing and cliff-diving, absolutely. I wouldn’t mind bungee jumping or paragliding either :)

23) First thing you wash in the shower?
My hair

24) What body part do you get caught staring at?
A woman’s breasts, and eyes. And asses. >_>

25) Which bill do you hate paying most?
My Visa, which is always high with either flight tickets or hotel reservations.

26) How do you prefer to get the news?
The internet. Every few hours I google “Calgary News” to check on local stuff, then go to Google News to check the rest of the world.

27) Are you right or left-handed?
Like most, right-handed.

28) Are you basically optimistic or pessimistic?
I prefer to call my extreme pessimism and sarcasm being “realistic.”

Tags: ,



Trackback  •  Posted in Uncategorized  


Jun 28
2010

Is anyone here besides the crickets and tumbleweeds?

Tags:



Trackback  •  Posted in Uncategorized  


Jun 28
2010

I know it’s crazy, and I shouldn’t. But I feel very threatened and intimidated, by someone who by all means I should not be.

It’s frustrating. And it will never ease.

Tags:



Trackback  •  Posted in Uncategorized  


Jun 28
2010

- Booked my hotel for Halifax. Ohhhhh man, my Visa is getting a workout lately. Dislike.

- I have learned that with booking things online, attention to detail is key. For the hotel I booked, there was the option of getting the exact same room, but paying an extra $34.17 a night for “free wireless internet.” Um… that is a pretty steep price for free! I called the hotel and asked about it, and she reassured me that it was complimentary, and wasn’t sure where Expedia was getting that extra fee from. Nice try, you sneaky bastards.

- I really hate places like Home Depot. I just get so bored, and quickly tire of the pungent scent of B.O. that permeates everything in the damn place. I guess I would like it more in places like that if I was decorating my own house and had free reign over everything, but doing measurements and looking at blinds and rugs gets pretty damn tedious, quite quickly.

- I was perusing Facebook and looking at friends of friends, and came across a few people that I knew in grade ten. It was such a strange feeling to see people who I had huge crushes on, but since then have completely forgotten their existence. SO weird. It always surprises me when the people I put out of my mind for years suddenly come back into my head and with them, a flood of memories.

- Barbecue sauce is the best sauce for pretty much anything. I had a huge, beautiful piece of salmon that I slathered with some Sweet and Sticky Bulls Eye barbecue sauce, and it was phenomenal. I can’t wait to use it on my veggie burgers!

- Today I watched a few episodes of the Dog Whisperer, and it has been kind of difficult. It was something I always watched with A on lazy Sunday afternoons, and it just makes me miss Sadie and things so much…

- You know what’s great? I work tomorrow (Monday), but I’m off Tuesday through Friday. Woohoo!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend :)

Tags: , , ,



Trackback  •  Posted in Uncategorized  


Jun 28
2010

So the G8/20 summits are currently going on in Toronto, and I read today that about 530 demonstrators have been arrested in the short while it has been happening. That is ridiculous! The summit brings together financial leaders from around the world, and they discuss money issues that affect us across the world. High on the agenda this year is the shaky economy, and how to prevent such a wide-scale issue from happening again. Apparently a lot of headway was made, which is good to hear.

However, it’s not all daisies and butterflies, on the G20-side, or the protesters-side. Stephen Harper spent millions and millions on security because he chose to have it right in the financial district of downtown TO, which he was advised not to do. Originally it was supposed to be in Muskoka, where security would have been much easier to implement and would require less, but pretty last minute, Harper changed it. The entire price-tag was about 1 BILLION dollars. Holy shit. There are so many other things that money could have gone to… Not to mention that in a province absolutely filled with lakes, Harper decided to have one built. Fail. A meeting where frivolous spending was probably spoken about in depth, and he goes and puts in a man-made lake? What the hell was he thinking?

The protesters are a whole other story. You know, I’m flabbergasted and a little upset at the ridiculous amounts of money that went into this stupid summit. I think we should have just let it be hosted elsewhere to save us the cost, but whatever. Not my call to make, and I’m sure that it is good for Canada from a political standpoint. And I am all for a person’s right to stand up for what they believe in, and everyone has a right to speak out if they feel something is wrong, but there are right ways to do this, and ways that not only make your cause look like a group of crazy people, but it can put a stain on your permanent record for life if you do something stupid like get charged with a crime.

Protesters in TO set fire to police cars and busted windows and generally caused disarray in the city with their rioting. Over a meeting of financial leaders? Really? Riots cause nothing but destruction and rarely get the point across, especially in this case. I can understand people rioting over genocide or something dramatic like that, but there is a difference between peaceful protests that do not cause damage to property. It just isn’t necessary. I think that the cops are taking it a bit far with how many people they are arresting, and the tactics they are using, but at the same time, destroying other people’s property is wrong.

I can’t wait for it to be over. (And don’t even get me started on the stupid FIFA thing.)

Tags: , ,



Trackback  •  Posted in Uncategorized  


Jun 25
2010

- Headboard, dresser, mirror, nightstand
- GPS (Bluetooth and spoken street names required)
- Windshield
- Corsets
- Lady Gaga tickets for August
- E-Reader
- Fancy cd player with removable thing for my car
- Oil for car
- Remote car starter/lock opener thing

Obviously, some things have more priority than others…

Tags:



Trackback  •  Posted in Uncategorized  


Jun 25
2010

Alright guys, please excuse the upcoming rambling, I have had about five hours of sleep over the past four nights. I am starting to feel a little crazy with the lack of rest.

As you know, things have been going well for me lately, doing well at my job, lots of interest from photographers and many shoots set up, new car, business cards, moving into a new house and whatnot, and I have been really happy about everything. I was riding high on the waves of success, but yesterday, I fell from the happy place I was at. It may just be my mind playing tricks on me due to lack of sleep, or another manic-low… but I realized that the little success that it appears I have is all a fallacy. I am giving off the illusion of doing well, but in reality, it just isn’t there.

Since I found out that my car has a billion problems, it has just got me on the mind-set that I am pretty much useless in most aspects of life. I was nearly completely dependant on A for so many things. He just knew so much about life, and had connections everywhere, and he was so dependable about everything. I knew that if I had a problem with my computer, or with getting somewhere, or if I had a random question about hedge funds or the situation in Gaza, he knew the answer. He was definitely the practical one in the relationship who just knew so much, and I was the fanciful one who knew a lot of random facts about words and animals and things like that, which wasn’t ever much help in real-life situations. I have come to the realization that I am helpless when it comes to things like cars, how to know when I am getting ripped off, haggling… I’m the type of person who would pay sticker-price for a car. Haggling just isn’t in my nature.

I just feel like I am this lost, naïve little girl who is wearing a mask of confidence but underneath, is terrified of not knowing anything, and petrified of going nowhere in life because I never learned to be self-sufficient in ways like that. Sure, I can wander a foreign city alone without being afraid of the dire consequences that come with over-confidence, I am not scared to open my mouth and say something if there is something wrong, I have beliefs that I would die for, but at the end of the day, it’s what you know and who you know, and I don’t know much, and don’t know many people.

Financially, I know that I will be able to support myself, because I have a drive to do whatever it takes to ensure I can. But the other night, I was discussing money and family situations with a good friend of mine. She and her husband are also keeping some in-laws afloat, which is putting a strain on things, understandably. The thought of that happening to me is scary, because I see so many people (some related to me…) that coast through life through the hard work of others, and have no desire to better themselves or get a job and contribute to the house or society in general. Being with A and seeing his enormous drive to succeed and do well for himself inspired similar feelings within myself, but I am starting to see that he was really rare in that aspect. Having a mortgage at 22, a house of his own, is something that apparently, most people his age don’t have. When he and I first broke up, I told my mom how stressed I was that I had nothing like that going for myself, and although she slightly calmed me down by pointing out that 99% of people that age are not living in that situation, I am still to this day stressed about it. I have had a job since I turned sixteen and have never been without one, and being out of work would terrify me. I don’t understand how people can do it. Sure, a break is nice, but after a while, I would feel useless and bored and like a waste of time.

I guess I can somewhat understand the (lack of) motivation some people have to not have a job. My sister didn’t graduate high school (though this was supposed to be the year that she did,) she hasn’t had a job all year, and yet she always has new clothes, a fresh pack of smokes, and is taking trip after trip (Hawaii tomorrow.) If it was ONLY that, it wouldn’t be so bad, but she lays on the couch watching TV for hours on end, and doesn’t help out around the house at all. She leaves dirty dishes everywhere, doesn’t empty the dishwasher, cannot deign to bend over and pick up her wrappers off the floor, doesn’t ever sweep or take out the garbage… she has all the time in the world to do absolutely nothing. It drives me insane. What really bothers me is the fact that there are never consequences for her inaction around the house, at school, or in the work-force. She is rewarded for laziness by foreign trips from her father (and his sugar-mama girlfriend), while I am left to pick up the slack around the house. I literally clean around her supine body, because I don’t want my mom to come home from work to a disaster of a house. My mom isn’t guiltless in this debacle either, because she lets my sister sponge off of her and steal both of our clothes, jewelry, and my mom’s alcohol, and there is never a solid consequence. She is still moving into the new house, still is allowed to come and go as she pleases… it is bullshit.

Perhaps, it is how one is raised, that results in a higher drive to work and be successful and support oneself. I wanted to work when I was younger than sixteen, but in Alberta, it can’t be done without parental consent, and my mom wanted me to be a kid for as long as possible, because I will already be working for decades when I got older. I would say I worry about the future my sister faces with her utter laziness, but I kind of don’t, at all. She is lying in the bed she has made, and isn’t doing a thing to change it. But I worry about what she puts my mom through, and I wish I could get it through my mom’s head that my sister NEEDS consequences if we want things to change.

I’m sure I am jumping the gun about worrying so much about my future, but things just roll by so quickly after high school… I just don’t want to be left behind and regret making bad decisions. Working gives me a sense of identity, some days I become my job. I get worried when things aren’t like that for people I care about…

To sum this up, I am (still) nervous that I am not going anywhere in life, I will never amount to anything significant in the slightest, and I am destined to fail because I don’t know anything about life.

Tags: , , ,



Trackback  •  Posted in Uncategorized  


Jun 24
2010

June 24 – Networking with a CC bigwig with work
June 25 – Going out to a pub to celebrate the birthday of a photographer I am working with a lot next month
June 26 – Birthday party of an old friend
July 10 – Viking photo-shoot. An epic battle in a huge park in Calgary, and I will be wearing a chainmail bikini!
July 12 – Marianas Trench at the Stampede
July 16 – One Republic at the Stampede
July 23 – Vegas-style shoot
July 25 – Salsa (food) festival
July 31 – Inglewood Sunfest

Sooo much to do, I am so excited!



Trackback  •  Posted in Uncategorized  


« Older Entries

 
 
Copy Protected by Chetan's WP-CopyProtect.