Harrison

I recently returned from my Wild Women's Weekend or WWW as we call it.  Is it that "wild?" Nope.  But it's a bunch of women getting together having a great time. 

Some years, it's been 40+ people.  Those were a bit insane but crazy good.  This year, due to scheduling, there were 6 on both nights.  The individuals were different as some came one night only.  But 6 girlfriends getting together to do nothing but chill is a wonderful thing.  

It really is unbelievable how much there is to catch up on and how many memories girlfriends can talk about.  The first night, we were up talking for hours on end.  I went to bed after midnight and some others stayed up until 2:30.  Yeah, those that know me...staying up past midnight is WAY late.  And this group knew it too.  I even got big claps and high fives for staying up late.  LOL!  

Second day, honestly...it was just food and chatting.  Maybe some tv in there.  But again, yap, yap, yap.   We were even going to go out to get some fresh air...but there was hail and rain and mega wind.  So, we chatted some more.  

And on the morning of the last day, guess what?  Yes, more yapping and eating before all headed home.   WWW is always a great weekend for me.  Just total chill time with some of my favourite people in life.  These women get me as I get them.   

Until next year.....

Riding Clothing

I was at some appointment and had to wait.  Surprise, surprise.  So, I picked up a magazine to kill some time.  

There was a magazine showing some english riding apparel. Everybody looks so "dapper" wearing that type of clothing. But my fat butt would never fit into that stuff. Nor am I tall enough. Seriously, I'm not tall enough to ride a "real" horse. When I was in Australia, they made me ride the mini horse.

So after making myself feel bad, I decided to pick up Chatelaine instead. At least they had some good recipes in there.

Instruments Today

Gosh I sound old saying this...but remember the days when instruments were really instruments? There were no electronic do-dads. Just plain old acoustic music. I miss that. There is something to be said about having something pure sounding, unelectronic and just sounding the way it's supposed to sound. But there are days that I just want to amp up the music and the sounds. Even when I play, there are days that I want purely acoustic and other days, I want to have full on electronic sound gadgets. If I had the cash, I'd invest in some key pieces for instruments. Maybe something like a tc helicon at Guitar Center would be neat. An amplifier for an electric guitar. You get the sense of what I'm talking about. But I'm not rich, so I'll just stick to the musical instruments I have at home.

Umbrellas

Living on the West Coast...there is always a need for an umbrella.  I have one in the car, one in my backpack, 3 at home.  If I were smart, I'd have one at work too.  But I wouldn't want to be a total keener.  

But umbrellas have also changed over time.  There are stores that have a great, if not a 
best selection of personalized umbrellas.  PERSONALIZED.  That means, I can pick it from a crowd...especially if someone has stolen my umbrella.  I can pick it out from a stack of black umbrellas.  

If anything, a personalized umbrella would make me feel like it would be fun to be in the rain.  Well.  Almost.  I'm all for rain at night time when I'm sleeping...but the West Coast really needs some more sun and blue sky!

Book Rentals

In my university days, it was buy the textbooks for hundreds of dollars...and the thousands of dollars in tuition too.  I wasn't bright enough to get a scholarship.  So hard work was needed to get in and then lots of work hours to pay for university.  

But it's such a different time now.  You can rent textbooks at places like becksbooks.com.  Wow.  That would have saved me hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

Such a different time.  I feel old.  

Work

Going back to work the next day I returned from Hawaii was a bit of a shocker to the body.  OMG.  I'm getting pretty old for a 3 hour time difference.  

That first morning was like getting hit over the head.  Thank goodness for coffee.  Lots of it.   We have a quarter a cup at work and it isn't great by any means.  But it's cheap and it'll work.  

But let's just say that I went through a lot of it.   And it wasn't until I headed off to Harrison that I got rid of the jetlag.  Gosh.  I know others are just fine with it.  Me, not so much.  So lame....

Background Checks

Call me old fashioned, but in this country, I like it when there are background checks done by official police forces.  I don't know why...but I was getting ads for  background check pre employment at easybackgrounds.  I'm sure they are a completely legit company and it's great that this company is making it easier for employers to get background checks on their potential employers....but I want official police doing it!  

LOL!  Maybe I'm worried that the company might find something on me that the cops didn't.  

Post Hawaii

I have yet to post pictures or details of my Hawaii trip.  I had fun and got some great sunshine and blue skies.  Hey, good food to boot too.  Can't go wrong with that combination.  

And of course Hula Girl was with me and I hope to post pictures from her adventure too.   Poor thing, kept losing her arm.  Well, could be worse I suppose.  

After Hawaii, the next weekend was Harrison Hot Springs for my girl's weekend.  My girlfriend's parents lent us their huge house.  It's just so awesome there and I love it.  

And today, booked my tickets to head to Gatineau for a conference.   Woo hoo! I miss it there.  It's quite pretty and I get to see Ottawa again.  Hopefully the snow will be gone.  

And after Gatineau, it's Whistler with the family.  I don't usually have that much travel back to back.  It's been a while.  But I'm really enjoying it.  

Gosh.  I just need to win the lotto now so I can do this all the time!

Instruments

In my last post, I mentioned about taking up the guitar and trumpet.  Choosing an instrument is pretty awesome...but why did I choose these?  Partly because of the coolness factor.  LOL!  

Hello...guitar...what rock band doesn't have one?  And what amazing acoustic music comes out of a guitar. From Spanish Flamenco dancing, to classical music, to good old rock and roll.  Insert Air Guitar here!

As for the trumpet, loved it because it was loud and commanding.  Though, I'm sure my parents did not appreciate it at all.  I sure played that thing loudly.

I could have chosen an instrument like a Clarinet at WWBW, but I didn't.  Seemed to quite of an instrument for me.  Too mellow almost.  And I don't like reeds in my mouth.  Always made my teeth feel like they were going to fall out.  

So I will keep to my instruments.  Loud and I can air guitar.  Wheeeee!

Musical Instruments

My one kid is learning the ukulele at school.  Pretty cool actually.  Sure sounds better than the recorder.  Since goodness knows when, seems like every kid at a certain age learns the recorder, then ukulele and then an instrument of their choice.  I choice guitar and trumpet.  Odd combos...but it was fun.

So I wondered if there were "new" types of instruments.  Of course there is! I saw a novation launchpad here on this one website.  Kind of looks like a rubik's cube, but flat and makes music. 

Honestly, I'm not sure who comes up with the stuff.  But pretty neat in getting someone geared up to be interested in music.  

Eagles

I was crossing the Golden Ears Bridge the other day.  Finally took a look at the metal eagles that are attached to the bridge.   For some reason, I thought there was a silver eagle and a gold one.  Looks like they're both actually gold coloured.  Duh.  Golden Ears Bridge, not one silver and one gold eagle bridge.

Hopefully the cost of that bridge will come down.  I like the ease of it...but sometimes, paying $6 for a return trip seems a little much.  But I guess the bridge has to be paid off somehow. 

Money, money, money.....

Gifts

As I shop throughout the year for people's gifts, I'm always on the lookout for new gift stores or neat items.  If anything, some inspiration for new gifts of what I can get people.  

Found truefitt and hill and they seem to have some nice stuff for men.  And this will probably be a neat one to take a closer look at considering there are some guys in my life that seem very difficult to buy for. 

Better yet, choose something I like the smell of and give that product away.  Ahhhh...a good smelling man...love it.  

Changing Oil

I might be slighty unconventional in terms of what I want to learn how to do.  I'm glad my hubby is ok with it.  

I want to learn how to change the oil in my car.  Of course, that would mean browsing car lifts to see what would be suitable for me.   Why do I want to do this?  It's just nice to do things on my own.  I hate paying the gazillion bucks over time for things that I can do myself.  

However, I guess time is a true commodity.  And maybe my time is worth more than what I'm paying for an oil change.  But it's just nice to be able to do things on my own.  

Heading Out

Well, I'm packing and getting ready to head out of town for a couple of days.  Really looking forward to getting some blue skies and beautiful water.  Yes, grabbing some great food that I miss dearly.  And how about just chilling out?!

It was nice to leave on Friday knowing that I could do what I could do.  For the "big" parts of my job, finished that all up.  Could leave with a clean conscience.  Literally, just going to go enjoy the company that I am with, eat what I want, hang out by the blue water as much as possible and even read a book by my favourite author.  

I miss my family already as part of me wants to be there with them.  But I have to keep remembering that I need time for myself too in order to be fully there for the family.  Taking time for myself is not a bad thing.  

This time away will also give an opportunity for the kids to have some time with their dad.  With his late hours, he doesn't get to see them as often.  So this will be good for him and the kids.  

Blink and I'll be back.  It's a short trip but it'll be a good one.  

Happiness

My friend recently said to me that she couldn't even get mad at me recently as I'm genuinely happy.  Or something along those lines.  She's one of the folks coming on the trip to Hawaii with me and she's done a lot of the leg work.  But she's a planner for trips, more than me, so who am I to get in her way?

And I thought that was interesting comment.  I wasn't mad...just sort of more curious about what others thought about me.  So, I went home and asked my husband.  "Am I too happy that it's sickeningly gross?"  

He said no.  And I believed him because he's not one to sugar coat things.  But he did make an interesting comment that I am much perkier when I'm around people.  And I just think that it's because I pick up on other people's vibes.  He even mentioned that when I meet new people, I'm positive, eager to learn about others, etc.  Yeah, probably.  As much as I'm weary about some, I love the possibility of what type of relationship I will have with this person in the future.  Might not always work out and might even suck, but that's ok, I shed those friendships and continue on with the ones that do work.  

Then I thought about it some more as I found my copy of The Happiness Project.  I put it down and couldn't remember where I put it.  But the chapters I read today seemed to echo my friend's thoughts.  I seem genuinely happy.  And what this author does for her happiness project and what she discovers are thoughts that I've had for a long time.  So I'm not surprised it made her happy as I knew it already made my life happy.  

My life is by no means perfect and I've hit some nasty rough patches before.  Haven't we all?    I won't apologize for being happy the way my life is.  Well, it's not like she's looking for an apology so it doesn't matter.  LOL!

But maybe I'll just dial it down a notch for some folks as I'm sure it can be overwhelming at times.  I'll just do my little happy skip somewhere else.....

Online Buying

I'm always surprised at what you can buy online these days.  Some things I wouldn't want to buy online, i.e. such as clothes.  I like to know how things fit.   Or shoes...again, how do they look on my wide feet?  Online, the shoes look fab, but on my feet, yeesh...like stuffing pig's feet into a pair of shoes that are small.  It just isn't pretty.  

But some things like medicine (which I don't trust buying online) or even being able to buy discount cigars online.  I'm always afraid they have "fake" stuff in it and if you're ingesting it, yeesh...scarier thought. 

Nope, I'll stick to my online book buying, my e-bay stuff, and antenna balls.  I feel I can't go wrong with those items!

Air Filters

I feel very fortunate to be healthy.  I've watched enough episodes of Extreme Home Makeover to know that I don't need a hospital setting in my house to stay healthy.  Though, out of curiousity, I did go to home hepa filter at hepalta.com to check out how much better these filters were for me. 

But I don't need one.  Considering the state of my house, if I haven't harmed myself yet, I think I'll be ok.  

Something about a bit of dirt and germs to keep your immune system in check.  Yeah, that's what I keep telling myself.