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Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
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10:30 pm - ZOMG A POST
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GASP A POST ZOMG LOL
Just some very quick updates.
G-man lost his job at the end of January, which sucked. But! At the end of April he gots a new job. At a place in Kelowna called Club Penguin. They're a competitor of Build-A-Bearville, which is what I worked on last summer at BearQuarters. Who knew they were Canadian? Anyways, he started up there about a month ago. So I've mostly been going up there on the weekends to visit him. It's not terribly bad, but it still kind of sucks. But it's a job, it pays the bills...so in the end, it's good.
In April, I was doing some job searching, and applied at Coast Capital Savings. I went to an info session and left really wanting to work there. About a month later, I was called in to an interview. A lot of references later, I had the job. Score! Days after I graduated and I was employed. Sweet!
So I've been there for about 2 weeks now, in training. I just had my first day at my training branch, West Broadway. It was a good day. Lots of money passed through my hands. Amazing.
The wedding is coming along! I've almost got it all sorted. Yay!
Sorry for the lack of posting...life has been busy.
current mood:  happy
current music: ways & means - snow patrol
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(raise a union jack)
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| Thursday, March 19th, 2009
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12:28 am - Ouch
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So in Tuesday I went to Tantra for my rebound class. It was all good - we rebounded, and made the studio smell like sweaty girl. While I like rebounding inside, I think I prefer running outside. It's more engaging, and that area of False Creek is very pretty.
Anyway.
After class, I took off my boots and my leg felt kinda funny. I didn't think anything of it until I got home and got out of the car where it hurt like hell.
If I straighten my leg, it feels like an uncomfortable stretch running across the back of my knee, which in my opinion is complete random. Tonight at pilates it didn't really hurt after it got warmed up, and was fine for a couple hours afterwards, which leads me to believe I've pulled a muscle.
Which sucks.
Especially because I just bought a pair of Kangoo Jumps so I don't have to use the school ones anymore, and I want to go running on them!!
current mood:  owwie
current music: everything - michael buble
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(raise a union jack)
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| Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
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3:59 pm
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So Gareth's on his way back to England, as his Nana passed away last week. I already miss him. I'm surprised at how social I actually am - often I think I must be a hermit - but I've realized that I like having people around me. I think that's why I love texting so much - instant communication with someone. Makes me feel like someone's with me.
I'm weird.
Anyway, I miss him. I went with my parents to Costco to pick up some stuff, and grabbed the Twilight CD (for shame, yes), and have been playing it at a loud volume since I got home.
Hooray for emo music woo!
Also, I think I like Paramore. And I'm remembering why I like Muse.
2009 officially sucks so far for me. I'm hoping it will pick up due to graduation, and wedding.
current mood:  gloomy
current music: blue foundation - eyes on fire
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(raise a union jack)
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| Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
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11:50 am - This week sucks
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1. We got a phone call from England on Sunday. Nana passed away. Frantically searching for affordable plane tickets. I probably will not be able to go.
2. A couple hours later, I had an issue with a friend wherein she accidentally got physically hurt.
3. Monday I had stomach cramps for most of the day.
4. This morning my hair straightener died. I cannot function without out it. I'll have a new one by the end of the week but I'm not looking forward to 4+ days of uncontrollable hair.
5. I also have a presentation today and my hair is completely out of control due to #4.
6. I have a paper due on Thursday that I'm starting tonight. This means I cannot read 'Breaking Dawn' until the weekend.
Combined with everything else that has happened, this just sucks. So bad.
current music: people discussing stuff
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(2 union jacks |raise a union jack)
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| Wednesday, January 28th, 2009
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10:59 pm - So quick
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Wedding stuffs: Have photographer and marriage commissioner. I love them both. We also agreed on our first dance song - Look After You by The Fray. Yay!
Last semester at UBC woo!
Have a paper due tomorrow (eew, yuck, barf) but it's pretty much in the bag, woowoo.
Overall am well. Still need to get back to exercising. Will do some tomorrow - should check Tantra and renew with them, hurrah.
Need to report on Christmas in England but might not get around to it. We'll see.
Just ate yummy cake.
Woo!
current mood:  full
current music: such great heights - iron and wine
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(2 union jacks |raise a union jack)
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| Friday, December 12th, 2008
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5:23 pm
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Because I participated in ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) js_'s sketch thing, I now have to post this too...and because I thought it would be a fun thing to do over the winter holidays in England...
The first five people to comment in this post get to request a sketch of a subject/character of their choosing from me. In return, they have to post this in their journal.
Muaha!
I do not promise anything of quality, but dangnabit, I'll try.
current mood: happy
current music: for reasons unknown - the killers
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(2 union jacks |raise a union jack)
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| Tuesday, November 25th, 2008
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1:22 pm
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So, I've been writing a paper about the uses of power and space in the 2007 documentary Ghosts of Aby Ghraib.
As stated in my facebook, this documentary has made me lose most of my faith in humanity. As simply as I can put it: it hurts my head. The entire things just...hurts....to think about.
A snippet from the end of my paper. This will go in after the conclusions, because it's personal but I strongly feel that I need to write about it. Onwards.
Personal Reflections
I have decided to leave this to the very end, simply because personal thoughts and opinions are shaped by paradigm, and are inherently biased. Being a formal essay, I have made a point in trying to stay as objective as possible. However, I must make you aware of how this film impacted me; rarely does writing a paper for a class truly affect a person and this change in paradigm must be taken note of.
To understand completely, I must tell you of my paradigm. Like the rest of the world, I was shocked and deeply troubled by the events on September Eleventh. Like Israel Rivera, I know exactly where I was when I was first told – in the car, going to school with my mother, and rather than teaching Physics that day, our teacher tuned in to CNN and we were glued to the television. I read newspapers, watched news reports of Bush declaring his War on Terror, and then invading Iraq. I became more and more fearful that this was the next World War. My level of fear overwhelmed me when I boarded an airplane to England in the winter of 2002 and I saw an Arab-looking man board, and I was stricken with terror – I prayed that we would make it safely to London with images of the plane crashing into Buckingham Palace dancing in my head. After we were on the ground, I reflected on how utterly ridiculous this was – I was letting my life be dictated by fear of the ‘other’, my fear of everything from that part of the world. I was tired of the constant barrage of fear from news sources, and no longer wished for it to influence my personality so heavily.
So I shut off. I stopped reading the newspaper articles about the war, and I switched channels if news reports about Iraq came on TV. When reports of Abu Ghraib broke, I simply just didn’t want to know anything about what I believe is an illegal, awful war being used by a very silly man from Texas to hide his shortcomings. I saw the famous few photos – like the one where Lynndie England is holding the leash of a nude prisoner, but I brushed them from my mind. I couldn’t let them effect me – I hated the Iraq War, and therefore anything about it had to be ignored or purged from my memory banks.
I am by nature an emotional person, and I did not imagine the effect that this documentary had on me. While I know that it biased in its own way, some things are simply true – Donald Rumsfeld’s wink-and-nudge comment about stress positions and for that matter, the entire memo endorsing emotional and psychological torture on these ‘unlawful combatants’, and the blinding hypocrisy over the US deciding to forgo the Geneva Conventions. I hadn’t wanted to see or process, and with my eyes opening to a world crueller than I imagined due not only to this course but to David Ryniker’s Development and Underdevelopment course, I realized that it was time. I had to see. I had to process it. I could no longer in good conscious choose ignorance.
The images and the anecdotes of the Iraqi prisoners is what perhaps, as Javal Davis put it, made me ‘snap’. I wept for the pain and anguish that Mohammad Talal must have felt as he told his story of his father passing away from the aftermaths of beatings, and for the multiple pictures and video where these men had their basic rights of a human stripped away. I spent an evening preparing my Appendix for this report, and that night my dreams were filled with terrible images from the film. Needless to say, I did not sleep well at all.
Something that ran through my head, over and over as I was watching the film and writing this report was the phrase “Never Again”, referring to the horrible things that happened in during the Holocaust. The Geneva Conventions were signed to help stop these actions from happening again. Something I might never realize fully is why, after all the awful things that happened in the Second World War, while more awful than Abu Ghraib ever was, but recalls a familiar memory of torture and terror; Why did we let ‘Never’ happen ‘Again’?
It hurts my head, guys. It really, really does.
Also, I've gone back to my paper and edited some grammer issues. Mostly my tendency to write run-on sentences and using my semi-colon at every opportunity. I'm too lazy to fix it here.
current mood:  drained
current music: people rustling about
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(2 union jacks |raise a union jack)
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| Thursday, November 20th, 2008
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1:10 pm - Random Whine
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It's pouring outside.
I stupidly wore my jean trousers and vans sneakers.
When I do this, my feet get SOAKED because UBC practically floods if it rains.
The canvas on the shoes get wet, the rubber around the edges of the shoes lets water leak in, and my jeans get heavy and whip water on the backs of my ankles, which is not only slimy and damp, but zomg cold.
I'm washing my thinner-legged jeans tonight so over the course of the next couple days, I can moosh them into my very classic leopard-print wellies.
TAKE THAT, RAIN.
Also - had my grad photos done. Got a great white room and black and white shot out of it. My grad comp is naff - sadface. Oh well - nobody ever looks at those huge picture postings anyway.
current mood:  soggy
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(1 union jack |raise a union jack)
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| Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
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3:39 pm - The reason why I am so terrified of other Christians
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Sometimes I wonder if I should even be calling myself a Christian anymore.
So, my friend doortoriver made this post about being a Christian and voting for Obama: http://doortoriver.livejournal.com/464247.html. A good, well thought-out argument on why she was voting Obama.
She posted this in her facebook yesterday after we found out Obama won:
"Sixty years ago, people of color could not eat at the same tables as white people.
Sixty years ago, people of color could not drink at the same water fountain.
Sixty years ago, people of color could not ride the bus along with their fellow Americans.
Today, we have a black man as president - because of his *qualities* and not his skin color.
Today, I hope you are proud to be an American."
And all hell broke loose.
I've been following the replies to this post on her facebook, and there is one person who literally scares the crap out of me - a Christian who thinks that EVERYONE ELSE must follow the Christian way because it's just the RIGHT way, without any consideration for the views of other people. Example:
"You know, I don't get this. If we're supposed to be so color blind, why is it that all we can talk about is a black man as president???? I don't give a flying fig what color his skin is. It's his far left policies. Conservative Christians no longer have a voice in Washington, at least not one who has any power. He has a congress to back him up, so what's to stop him??? Partial birth abortion we be law again, gay marriage will spread through the states. He has the chance to possibly appoint 2 liberal supreme court justices. We Christians have no power or voice in our government. I have no problem with a black man as president, but why couldn't he have been an honerable, moral, truly Christian black man? Would they have voted for him then???? If he was conservative??? He calls Jesus his Lord? Does he really think Jesus supports his views on abortion? or gay rights? How dare he call our Lord, his Lord? This is a sad day for our country. Since when did having a black president become the only issue??? So what? Think God cares what color his skin is? I know God is still on the throne. I Just hoped for better for our country. "Even so Come Lord Jesus!""
First off: Stop saying 'we Christians' because I sure as HELL do not agree with you! Stop speaking for me and others as well!
Also, there are many, many forms of Christianity...how can you define a 'true' Christian? And heck, aren't we all sinners anyhow? How can you be 'true' if you're pre-disposed to sin, to miss - aren't we all just trying our best?
I love this one "gay marriage will spread through the states." You know, this reeks of discrimination and intolerance. How dare someone say that someone cannot get married on the basis of sexuality - that is DISCRIMINATION, plain and simple. No ands, ifs, ors, or buts about it. For a religion preaching love and acceptance, this has always baffled me. Gay Rights - you're damn right they should have the exact same rights as everyone else. To deny them this makes them second-class citizens...are not all men equal? Quite frankly, the arguments against gay rights and marriage are simply preposterous, and are based on the Bible, something that not every citizen believes in. You cannot punish a citizen for that - again, that would be religious discrimination - so the point becomes moot.
Honestly, what is so dangerous about gays? I don't get it. How does boys liking boys, or girls liking girls hurt ANYONE? Oh yeah! It means they can't produce more Christian babies to support the Church! It's the Church's survival through heterosex that's using a moral judgment to mask itself!
And abortion...yeah, abortion sucks. I'll admit that I don't like it, but I firmly believe that we CANNOT put moral judgment on women's sexuality and bodies. This is what anti-abortion laws do: they place moral judgments on a woman's sexuality and her body. How dare anyone put their own moral code on my body, or any other woman's! Would you rather it be illegal and have women shoving coathangers up their crotches?
Lastly, WHO KNOWS WHAT JESUS THINKS BECAUSE HE'S NOT HERE, and quite frankly, it's not your place to judge! If someone aborts their child, it becomes their burden to bear, and she may ask forgiveness and it will be granted! If murderers can be saved to go to heaven, then so can the woman who aborted her child. We and people cannot judge them - judgment is the job of God and God alone.
Next:
"People! We are saying skin color doesn't matter???? Ask the black people who voted for him if race played a part in it. I saw it on the news. They said, yes, it wasn't the only issue but it was a big issue. And Colon Powel said it was part of the reason he voted for him too. Sooooooooooo, whites are the only people not allowed to let race matter? Now, I don't care about race, so don't think for one minute I'm racist. I do care about the issues and his don't match mine.
You wonder how I can say, Obama is not a moral man, and that I can be appalled that he calls Jesus his Lord? Do you not know his stand on abortion? on partial birth abortion??? on saving babies who survive abortions? Come on people!!!! Are we Christians or not? Do we claim the name of Christ? How can a person claim His name, and support sucking the brains out of a baby's head if the mom doesn't want him/her? I say the same for the KKK in the past or present. It's appalling that KKK members could call themselves "good upstanding Christian white men". God is not in favor of hatred, murder of blacks, or murder of babies.
Danielle -- You go girl!"
and
"I know the verses. And of course I'm not going to break any laws. I certainly don't wish him to be hurt or killed as I've heard some say. However, in this country, we have the right and responsibility to not only speak our minds, but also stand up for what Jesus would stand up for. One of those things would be the rights of the unborn. And I have no problem with wire-tapping to try to catch terrorists. And I don't have that much problem with Guantanamo either. None of us knows all the details, but terrorists are no strangers to real torture, and they're getting treated better there than they would in their own prisons in their countries.
I'm not bitter, I'm disappointed. I'm not panicked, I'm waiting for it to get worse. My faith is in the Lord, of course. But I will not support a man or woman who sees no problem with sucking out a baby's brain, but does have a problem with "torturing" a terrorist. If one person's life is worth protecting, then so are babies lives!!!!!"
My first comment is: it wasn't long ago that Blacks were not considered people by white Americans, so having a Black president IS a big deal. Not to mention all the racial slander he had to put up with during his campaign. So is it a big deal? YES! It is ground-breaking, and so positive for the still marginalized people of colour in the United States.
God isn't favour of hatred: isn't that what discrimination is, really? Hatred and fear of something different?
Obama may not like abortion either; heck, he might not even believe in it. But he is not 'fighting' against it because I think he sees what I see: that you can't force a moral belief on all Americans. If you're pro-life, great, don't abort your babies, but DO NOT take that right away from a different woman in a different situation.
We just looked at Abu Ghraib in my sociology class - where American soldiers tortured their prisoners. I don't know what happened at Guantanamo Bay, but I'm making an assumption it was somewhat similar. I almost had to leave the class - such awful, horrible things happened there. Things that were done to those 'terrorists' should have never happened - period! By approving torture means you validate all of it past and present - that means you're alright with Nazi Germany's concentration camps and gas chambers during the Holocaust? "Never Again" they said...until it happened at least twice in the last 10 years! Would Jesus agree with torturing someone, even if s/he is a so-called terrorist? A terrorist is STILL A PERSON, and NOBODY deserves being deprived of basic human rights, which Bush made possible by re-writing the classification for prisoners of war...which means the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib are no longer protected by the Geneva Convention.
This is long, so I'll wrap it up. The intolerance I see in the Christian community is what has kept me away from it since my first or second year of university. Sociology has change my views in many different ways as well - I know the Bible was written by MEN, in a time where men and women were not equal, and where gay was considered an action someone did, not a sexuality. Can we take what the Bible says literally? Nope. We really can't, otherwise we'd all be killing each other for silly sins, like touching a woman when she's menstruating, or eating shellfish...gotta love the Old Testament crazy. The New Testament basically exudes love and understanding of your fellow man...and yet, we just don't see it...I see a lot of intolerance and discrimination all coming from one book. And it just makes my heart weep.
I know this post is an emotional reaction to another person's emotional reaction. I am not well thought out - I blame my 10 page sexuality paper that I'm working on, but...I still find myself here.
current mood:  cold
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(14 union jacks |raise a union jack)
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| Sunday, November 2nd, 2008
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8:33 pm - School Frustration
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So there are 3 people doing a presentation on two articles. They meet, with one person absent because they had a slight emergency.
So the two at the meeting decide to divvy up the articles, and ask the third to read both and give any support. One person says they will do the Powerpoint and handouts as well as do the summary for their article.
So everyone supposedly does their thing. Except, the Powerpoint person starts asking the Support person to do half their work on the presentation. The Support person is confused, as they sent what they thought they were supposed to contribute. The Support person sends more and more detailed information, getting frustrated that the Powerpoint person is saying that they're frustrated because they feel like they're doing all the work.
Well, you DID volunteer to do two big things along with summarizing the article. Why are you whining? Why didn't we divvy it up so that the Support person was making the Powerpoint and handouts instead? That's much more intelligent. Actually wait, the Support person volunteered to do the handouts...and the Powerpoint said they'd be fine, but thanks for the offer.
Also - all three have a 10 page paper due on Thursday in the same class.
Guess who I am in all this ruckus?
current mood:  frustrated
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(raise a union jack)
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| Thursday, September 25th, 2008
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2:17 pm - Quick Update
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I live!...barely.
Have a wicked bacterial infection - I always seem to get one. Have about...6 days left on antibiotics.
Bogged with school. It's insane. I have 3 reading a week from 4 classes...12 readings, which take an hour or more each because they're long...ugggh. But it's almost over, it's so close to being done...this semester might very well kill me.
Happy to be back from St. Louis. Loved my job. Don't care for most of the interns I was with. Definitely do not care about the place I lived in - I think if I lived in a habitable place I would have been happier. At least I had TV. Shopping was good too.
Lovin' pole and pilates. I'm getting stronger, so I'm hoping to start inverting soon, and learning how to climb and do holds. My new favourite hold is called 'Skydiver' and it's rad...but I won't be able to do for at least a year, I think. Need more core strength.
Going to Sechelt this weekend - yay!
We had some wedding drama. The just of the story is that I lost my day at the Rockwater...so we screwed that plan. We've now signed a contract at the Hart House - I'm super pleased.
Turned 24, had a great birthday. Dinner at the Keg, and got a Wii Fit, an iPod touch and Guitar Hero for my DS...and 3 pounds of dice, ha.
Working at Elections Canada again at Revisions. Is fun.
Class is now. Gotta jet
Zoom.
current mood: cold
current music: clark gable - the postal service
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(2 union jacks |raise a union jack)
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| Sunday, August 3rd, 2008
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10:30 pm - Second Month in America - Part Two
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Taken directly from email.
Hello again everyone!
Well, it’s been an exciting last couple of weeks! Let me fill you in.
Last week I moved house temporarily – one of the ladies who works at RideMakerz named Robyn was going away on a 10 day business trip and needed a cat sitter. The RideMakerz intern hooked me up with it – so I spent 10 days with this lovely house all to myself starting last Thursday. I had two kitties under my care – a marmalade tabby named Loti and a black and white kitty named Boo. Loti, while more friendly, was severely obese, and Boo was nervous around strangers. Basically, Boo hissed and ran away from me. Even the last day I was there, I was only able to pet Boo when she was eating tuna, otherwise she’d run off. However, an ornery cat was a small price to pay to stay Robyn’s house! It was lovely. While I was catsitting, two major events happened.
The first thing that happened to me that week is that my other apartment flooded. I went back over last weekend to get my summery dress for my presentation on Monday, only to find 2 centimeters of water! I spent that Saturday mopping everything up, sterilizing and putting some fans on to dry the place out. By Sunday things were fine.
Second, we had the presentation to the Chief Bears. This was a presentation that basically summed up all the work I had done over the summer – all the reports I wrote, all the meetings I went to, the events that I worked on which will go live in the Virtual World in a couple months, and my recommendations which are Bear Care and Cooking systems. I was the first presenter as well. I was nervous until about 5 minutes before I started, because I remembered that I’m a good speaker, and that I’m good at these sorts of presentations! So I got up, and went over everything that I needed to, and the best part was when Maxine started to talk to me. She asked me questions, and I had accounted for it already when I planned out my systems. So it was really nice when she asked me something, I answered, and she smiled and nodded at me and asked another one! It was just amazing. I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but I was the only intern who conversed like that with Maxine.
The rest of the week was quiet. This past Friday was the last day for most of the interns. We had a party, and we got some really rockin’ gifts. Each intern got a personalized Bear. Mine was a Curly in a generic hockey outfit named Puck. He came complete with skates and a stick! We also got lovely Tiffany necklaces.
This weekend has been nice. I spent yesterday at a new shopping mall, and got a couple pretty new things and some shirts for Gareth. My manager gave me a 25% off coupon for Old Navy, Gap and Banana Republic…so I got a lovely black dress and top from Banana Republic, a polka dot nightie from Old Navy, and button up shirts for Gareth at the Gap. Today I went to the Hard Rock Café to get some pins for my Mum…one with guitars forming the Arch, one with a sax and music forming the Arch, and the rainbow Gay Pride Guitar. I got myself a nailhead tee as well. Then I went to The Arch, which is a 630 ft stainless steel arch on the banks of the Mississippi river. It’s supposed to symbolize St. Louis as the Gateway to the West. You can ride a tram to the top – which I did – but quickly came back down as it was very, very crowded and I was having some people claustrophobia.
I’m going into my last 2 weeks at BearQuarters. Truth be told, I was ready to go home on Friday. I love BearQuarters and the work that I am doing, but I miss home quite terribly and I definitely miss my fiancé, my family and all of my friends. However, I am very close to being done – my Mum will fly down and travel back to Phoenix with me, where we will meet up with my Dad and fly home.
So hopefully I should see everyone soon – I’m so looking forwards to it!
current mood:  tired
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(1 union jack |raise a union jack)
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| Sunday, July 27th, 2008
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11:00 pm - Crazy weather
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So we're in the middle of another crazy storm
I swear to god this is the third storm this week.
WTF is with this weather, St. Louis?
UGH. UGHSAUCE.
I am SO done with this stupid city and it's scary ass storms and tornados.
In Vancouver, a thunderstorm is moderate rain, and maybe a couple thunderclaps and a couple lightening flashes.
In St. Louis, a thunderstorm means DUCK AND COVER OMG WHAT IS THIS THUNDER SHIT?!?1
It's like I'm in a movie, where lightening flashes every 2-5 seconds, and the thunder is so loud the house shakes...it almost doesn't register as real.
The last thunderstorm flooded my apartment. Yeah. That was rad. Not.
Rgh.
current mood:  ZOMG
current music: CRACK BOOM thunder
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(1 union jack |raise a union jack)
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| Saturday, July 19th, 2008
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10:43 pm - My Second Month in America
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Taken directly from my email this evening
Hi Everyone!
First off, I apologise that I haven’t written these last three or so weeks. You’ll understand why when I tell you!
On the July 4th weekend, I decided that it would be a perfect time to take a break, so to speak, and travel back to Burnaby for a visit. I left after work on July 3rd, and it was a slight gong show with the planes. I had a 45 minute stop over coming home, and my plane left late from St. Louis. By the time I got off the plane, I had 5 minutes to run 15 gates. I flat-out ran, dragging my luggage behind me…and I literally cried with joy when I found out that my plane to Vancouver was delayed. My only complaint was that I was seated beside a rather large woman, and in the last hours of the flight, began to smell of a mix of body odour and fart. Gareth and my Dad picked me up and we collapsed into bed.
On Friday July 4th, Gareth and I literally shopped until we dropped! We went to the mall mainly for Gareth – he needed some new jeans and shoes. We got him two pairs of shoes - a brown pair of Adidas with an argyle print, and a pair of black Etnies. He also got a couple nice shirts and two pairs of jeans from Old Navy. I picked up some lovely new tank tops (a must in St. Louis humidity). We stopped by the Metrotown Build-A-Bear for a quick hello.
On Saturday the 5th, Mum and I went to the new Costco near Still Creek to pick up some supplies for a Barbeque. Around 5 pm, everyone started showing up. It was absolutely awesome – and a huge thank you to everyone who came. I loved it…we filled our house with people who I love and we had an absolutely fantastic time, and Gareth really owned the grill. He’s going to have to barbeque for me more often!
Sunday was much more lax. We stopped in to the Coquitlam Build-A-Bear, as I had some pins for Troy. I had a great chat with him, and after a quick tour around the mall, Gareth and I spent the rest of the day just relaxing together. We went out for dinner with Mum and Dad that evening as well, and I introduced them to Mable Slab Ice Cream.
I traveled home on Monday. It was really hard saying goodbye, but finally I departed into the airport. I breezed through customs and security, and had a pleasant flight to Minneapolis. I got some dinner, and as I sat down at my gate, a lightening storm rolled in. Any time lightening is around, all planes pretty much get grounded. In a small clear pocket, our plane landed, got cleaned, and by the time we boarded it had cleared up. We had to wait in the take-off backlog. However, we got back to St. Louis without any other incident.
On Wednesday July 9th, I decided to try a new kind of exercise – Bikram Yoga. Basically you do yoga in a heated room. I won’t go too much into what exactly happened, but it ended up with me suffering from severe heatstroke. I should have gone to the hospital, but at the time I honestly didn’t think I had dipped into the danger zone when it comes to heatstroke. Looking back on it, I was showing classic symptoms, but the yoga people did not know what heatstroke was. I ended up taking the next day off work to recover, and on Friday I only operated at half my normal capacity. However, I did decide that I felt well enough to go shopping, and scored a lovely summer dress and another pair of shoes on super sale – the dress was $17, and the shoes were $35.
This past Thursday, all of the Interns went to a Cardinals Game. It was fantastic! The stadium was quite new and very nice, and every time the Cardinals hit a home run, a small fireworks show would go off. I also visited the Build-A-Bear in the Stadium, and got myself a Clydesdale Horse and matching blanket. The Cardinals won as well, so that was a bonus! As awful as it sounds, I was quite amused when I found out that the intern whom I don’t like very much got fairly drunk, and took Friday off to recover.
Today has been a good day for me as well. When I came back from my visit home, my landlady went on vacation to California. She told me a couple of her friends would be moving in on the 20th for a little while because they were having house renos. They arrived today, so I had a little chat with them. I decided to have a walk around the Loop, which is a shopping/restaurant area that’s just a 5 minute walk from my house. I got some bubble tea, tried on some shoes (sadly, they were too small). I went to a movie theatre in one of the Malls and saw Wall E. Like all Pixar films, it was funny, adorable and just plain good. I found out the mall was open until 9:30, which lead to more shoe shopping and an adorable pair of Nine West heels became mine (I had my eye on them for weeks). I need to stop!
Work has been going very well. This last week was a build, so I did a fair amount of testing, and also developing content that is going to go into the virtual world. I have submitted roughly 6 requests in the last three days, and have many more to do this week. Carrie is very pleased – I’m really helping the virtual world team have more time to focus on larger content updates by plowing through the smaller dev requests. I’m really excited about the things coming up for the virtual world…I just can’t tell anyone yet!
Well, it's getting late, and tomorrow I'm planning on taking a Segway Driver's Course, and maybe stopping by the Hard Rock Cafe to pick up some pins for my Mum. And of course, Monday I'm back at work.
Talk to you all soon!
Much Love,
Meghan
current mood:  calm
current music: st louis
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(raise a union jack)
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| Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
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9:34 pm - Great American Pastime
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So I partook in the great American sport named Baseball.
Softball, rather.
One of the guys at work organized a softball team, and they were short women today. One of the other interns Jenna was going to go, so I thought that I might as well.
The last time I played any sort of baseball-ish game is when I was about 6 or 7 in the Burnaby Tee Ball league. So it's been roughly 15 years since I've played any form of baseball. I know the basics - hit the ball and run for it, and that you can take bases, and that sort.
Anyways, I had a fantastic time. I wish I had gone last week. It was warm and sunny with a breeze - perfect for being out in the field.
My goal was to hit the ball. I was pretty certain I would wiff out big time and never be able to hit it. Now, my hand and eye coordination is much better than it was when I was 6, so with mighty CRACK!s, I hit every single ball pitched at me. I never struck out, I never got tagged out, and was able to get two whole runs in. The team sometimes struck out while I was on base, though.
The only bad thing about the game was one fellow on the other team, who was moody right off the bat (no pun intended). He was swearing a bunch and just generally acting like an Ugly American. At one point, Jenna hit a ball far and he dove for it. He missed big time, and pretty much face planted. We stopped the game for about 5 minutes while he rolled about on the grass, obviously winded. Everyone on our team thought this guy was a complete jerk.
I think I also hurt my rotator cuff from throwing the ball around. The first inning I played back catcher, while requires a lot of throwing. I was putting laundry on and my shoulder joint just started to ache something fierce, so I popped some advil and it feels better.
I'm so pleased. It was a great day, and I had a fantastic time!
I also come home in 2 days! 2 days! I can't wait.
current mood:  pleased
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(3 union jacks |raise a union jack)
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| Sunday, June 29th, 2008
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9:08 pm - First Month in America
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Taken driectly from my email this evening.
Hey everyone!
So I’ve made it an entire month here in the United States! Lots of stuff has happened in the last couple weeks, so let me fill you in!
Work has been very interesting. I’ve been hard at work with my projects on the Virtual World, the biggest one being the design of what we’re calling ‘Bear Behaviour’. I am designing a way for people in the world to interact with their bears! I am also designing a crafting system so that people can cook on the game as well! I have my first review on it coming up on Tuesday, and I hope to have it on the development schedule before my final presentation in late July.
The other three marketing interns and myself got another project as well – to plan out the marketing events for the time period that’s just after Valentine’s, but before Springtime. The interns sit in many different spots – some of us sit with our teams (or close to them) and the rest all sit together in a hallway we’ve dubbed ‘Intern Ally’. I sit with my team, and we’re in an adjacent building that belongs to one of our partners called Ridemakerz. The rest of the marketing girls sit in Intern Ally. Normally, we’ll schedule an hour to meet and hammer out our ideas. Everything was going well as we had one meeting left on a Monday and then we had a meeting to bounce our plans off of our supervisors on Wednesday. On the previous Friday, I attended a birthday party and one of the other marketing girls announced to me that they’d polished up and finished the project. Sitting so far away, they’d started chatting about the project in Intern Ally and have neglected to call me to let me in on it.
Of course there were hurt feelings, though I realized that it was not intentional I also realized that it takes pressing 4 numbers on the phone to call me and invite me over. I told my supervisor, Carrie, and we got it sorted out – or so I thought. We had another project meeting this Friday, where I found out they’d neglected to let me in again and had decided some things without me. I still gave my input, but this marketing project is more like an exercise – it’s to give our supervisors ideas, but they won’t use everything we come up with. The projects I have in the virtual world are actually going to affect the virtual world – so they’re much more important! With that in mind, I’ve decided to give my input to this marketing project but not attach myself to it at all.
So hurray for office politics.
I’ve also been exploring St. Louis a little bit more each week. Last weekend I visited the Science Center. It was very similar to Science World! I decided to visit the IMAX as well and saw a show on Dinosaurs. Of course, I forgot that tons of little boys also would be at the dino show, so I got a narration during the movie by a very charming young man, all of 3 years old, beside me. Oh well!
This weekend I decided to go to the Zoo on Saturday and do some serious shopping on Sunday. I have finally sort of gained enough confidence in the area that I was very relaxed while I found my way to the Zoo. It was a lovely experience. There was lots of cloud cover, so I didn’t need to wear my sunglasses, but it was warm enough that I could wear a skirt and tank top. I wandered all over the place, and got to see every sort of critter. My favourites were the big cats, baby giraffe and the sea lion show. I also visited the Build-A-Bear there and walked away with a camel named Giza, an ostrich named Omelette and a kangaroo named Rebound. I got outfits for all except Giza – he’s simply too hard to dress.
Today I’m proud to announce that I got two new pairs of shoes. I went for shoes, and I came home with shoes. When I first arrived, Mum and I saw some gorgeous patent flats at JC Penny’s. However, they didn’t have my size, so I left without them. The mall I went to today had a Penny’s in it, so I popped in and the flats were all sale. They found my size and they fit like a dream! So they came home with me. I also got some smelly bath stuff from Bath and Body Works, as they were also having a huge sale, and some nice hair clips from Hot Topic. As I was leaving, I popped into Macy’s. They have a scanner, and can tell if your size is in their inventory right there and then! After a couple of tries with a couple pairs of shoes, I found a pair of low wedges with metallic straps. Perfect! See? So excited about my new shoes I had to tell everyone about them.
I have more great news – I’m coming home for a visit on Thursday, July 3rd! I arrive at 11 pm, and stay all weekend, and fly home in the early afternoon on July 7th. I’m looking forwards to being back in Canada again!
Sadly, my exercise has suffered a bit. I’ve been having problems finding a good studio here in St. Louis. Back at home, I’d been exercising about 4 times a week, give or take, for 2-3 hours at a time. I’d been making a bit of progress with overall fitness and flexibility and was pleased. However, the place I wanted to try out here was…almost sub-standard compared to Tantra. Last week I tried another place that did a dance-based cardio workout, and it was actually very good. I’ll most likely go back to the place this week once or twice before I come home…but it’s been a good month since I’ve really worked out!
Anyways, I need to go out and do a small grocery shop so I can feed myself until I come home to visit!
Much love everyone,
Meghan
current mood: tired
current music: look after you - the fray
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(1 union jack |raise a union jack)
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| Sunday, June 8th, 2008
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6:59 pm - My First Two Weeks in America
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This is directly taken from my weekly email.
So hello everyone!
This is the first of my (hopefully) weekly emails about what’s going on with me in St. Louis. I know I didn’t send an email last week, but I’ll make it up this week!
We left Canada on May 24th. My parents found an airplane company that only charges $70 to fly out of Bellingham to Phoenix. I needed to get my visa validated, so we decided to drive through the Peace Arch. Since it was a Saturday, and a US holiday weekend (Memorial Day) we weren’t sure how long the waits would be, so we left quite early in the afternoon though our flight was at 6 pm. As luck would have it, we breezed through the border with a 10 minute wait, and got my visa validated within a half hour, mostly because the folks hadn’t activated a J-1 visa in a while. After that, we hit the road!
On our way to Bellingham, we remembered that my Aunt and Uncle have a trailer in Birch Bay, so we decided just to stop in and see it, mainly because I’d never been there. As we were pulling in we saw Sage, their golden, standing watch and my Aunt’s Pilot. The neighbours said they’d just popped over to the shop, so we let ourselves in and had a look around. I was impressed – the trailer is lovely. We stopped by the shop to see if we could find them. My Aunt Tracy and my cousin Abby were at the register, so I snuck forwards and grabbed Abby and said “Guess who it is!” I surprised the both of them (Abby froze up like a statue before she realized it was me) and we walked back to the trailer, had a root beer and chat, and we hit the road again.
The airplane ride was uneventful, really. It was the typical airplane ride.
We arrived in Phoenix in the evening, and our rental car got upgraded from a compact to a SUV, which was nice. We had booked the car in advance, but they got a huge line of people who wanted a car, so we got upgraded. Woohoo! After a 45 minute car-ride, we arrived in my parent’s snowbird home (I’m calling it Desert Dene) and flopped into bed. The next couple days were spent exploring the wealth of wildlife that lives in the desert and shopping. We discovered 3 new quail nests in addition to the one Mum found in April, discovered new bunnies, and found out that a packrat had taken up shop in the neighbourhood. I also got to drive the new car – a 2007 Pacifica – around a lot to get used to it. Mum and I went shopping every day, picking up things that I hadn’t been able to get in Canada, or refrained from buying because they were less expensive in the United States. My parents also have citrus trees, and I got to juice oranges I had just picked off of the trees. It was amazing. On Tuesday May 27th, I applied for my social security number as well as opened my bank account, and registered in the proper channels for my visa. The next day, we hit the road for St. Louis.
Our first goal was to drive to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We took a small detour to Sedona first, to see the Red Rocks. We got delayed from highway construction and a very slow driver in front of us, but made it to Albuquerque by the evening. We went to Old Town, the historic area, but it was shutting down for the evening. We had some fantastic Mexican food, though. We left very early the next morning, and made the most ground. We drove through the rest of New Mexico, the top of Texas, into Oklahoma, past Oklahoma City to a little town named Miami, just outside of Missouri. As a side note – the highway we were on follows the Historic Route 66, the first highway to link the East and the West way back when. The land is mostly farmland, and the dirt is a vibrant ruddy colour. Other than that, it’s mostly just land. We got up early again on Friday, and landed in St. Louis by 12:30 pm.
Mum and Dad got all my stuff inside of my new place, and then we headed out for some lunch, and then Mum and Dad were flying home. This was about the time that reality started to set in – my parents were going to be gone and I was going to be all alone in a large city that I didn’t know. The tears started when they left to check in for their flight, and didn’t stop until the next day. I was able to pop in to BearQuarters for a couple minutes to see where it was, but soon I found myself very alone and very unsure of myself once again. I met my landlady in the midst of tears, so she sort of adopted me right away, which in the end had been very helpful. She’s a very sweet lady, and I quite enjoy talking with her.
Over the weekend, I did my grocery shopping and stopped into the local Build-A-Bear to make myself a teddy, as I felt I needed something to hug at night since I left my fiancé back home. I named him Louis as I found it fitting.
On Monday I started at BearQuarters. It was pretty surreal to me – as we were having our tour I literally just trailed behind and stared at everything. Troy was right – it’s like a normal office, but with TONS of bear stuff. After our orientation, I met with my supervisor Carrie and my team (Joy, Edin, Brad and Greg), then Carrie whisked me off to my first meeting. I got to shake Maxine Clark’s hand – Carrie brought me over. It felt like I was meeting a celebrity! I kept seeing people and whispering to Carrie (“Ohmigosh, that’s Scott Seay!” or “Is that Tina Klocke?”). She thought I was hilarious.
I’ve been working on things throughout the week, and sadly I can’t tell you all of it because I’d be giving away secrets, but it’s been very cool. I’ve met a lot of awesome people, and I’m fitting in pretty well. I love the fact that my team has already listened to me, taken my suggestions and have actually used some of them! I go to at least 2 or 3 meetings day, with the max at about 5 one day. We’re doing lots, and I hope that my ideas for my final presentation will go over well – which is the introduction to a crafting system for the game, mainly involving cooking so they can take care of their bears. The rest of the interns are also pretty cool – one of them named Ting is a couple minutes away from me so we’re going to carpool to work together.
I’ve discovered some fun things about my apartment. It’s a little basement suite a little away from one of the local universities. I’m subletting it from a fellow named Nic who I believe is taking architecture. Judy, my landlady and I discovered a thick layer of grime on the stove, which took about 5 hours of labour to finally scrub off. We also thought it was broken, but it turned out that Nic had turned the gas off. I also couldn’t find any cutlery, cooking pans or measuring utensils. Judy was unaware of this, so loaded me up with a bunch of cookware, and I bought myself some measuring spoons and cups today at Target. I’m finally unpacking my suitcases as well, and really trying to ‘settle in’ to this new space. It’s not home, but I’ll make it as close to it as I can until it’s time to go back.
The weather has been kind of crazy – lots of rain and thunder. It’s not terribly bad so far, but I’ve already been through a semi-serious tornado warning. Luckily, my apartment and BearQuarters both are quite safe in a tornado. Mostly tornado warnings are just warnings, but when the sky goes green – find a place to hide because you’re in serious danger of tornado!
I’ll wrap up this email now, as it’s very long! Hopefully they won’t be so long after this. Please let me know if you don’t want any more emails – I’ll understand. I’d love to hear back as well. I hope life is finding everyone well, and I’ll see you all in a couple months!
Love,
Meghan
current mood:  chipper
current music: television
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(raise a union jack)
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| Sunday, June 1st, 2008
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9:16 pm
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Tomorrow I promise to update about my first week in America.
Wish me luck - tomorrow is my first day at BearQuarters!
current mood:  sleepy
current music: air conditioner
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(raise a union jack)
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| Thursday, May 29th, 2008
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7:59 pm - Heart Of America
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So I'm roadtrippin' it to St. Louis.
We left Phoenix around 8:30 am yesterday and ended in Albuquerque, then hit the road at 7:30 am today, went through the panhandle of Texas into Oklahoma, and are in a small town named Miami right near the Oklahoma - Missouri border.
I saw alot of horses and cows. The dirt is red. The native people are still called Indians (which really gets my goat - they're Native Americans!).
And there is lots, and lots, and even more roadkill.
These were the recognizable carcasses. Some I counted, some I did not:
21 armadillos (+4 suspected)
2 hawks
many skunks
5 coyotes
1 deer
1 badger
many rabbits/gophers/small mammals
We leave early tomorrow to arrive in St. Louis by 12 noon or 2.
For now, I need to hop into the shower - I've been cooped in a car for the past 2 days and while I'm not ripe, I feel all gross.
My ass also hurts.
current mood: tired
current music: air conditioner
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(raise a union jack)
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| Friday, May 23rd, 2008
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12:25 pm - More Pole Dance News
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I think I'm obsessed. That's okay with me.
Anyway, one of the things we've been working on in class is engaging our shoulders, and stop-holds. On a stop hold, you reach your dominant hand high and grip, and your non-dominant hand rests low on the pole. You tuck your pelvis, crunch your abs, and lift your legs up.
Definitely not as easy as it sounds.
I couldn't do it. I was almost reduced to tears in the first stop-hold class because my abs just...didn't have the power to hold my pelvis in the right position after I lifted my legs off the floor. We started on a ball, and my ball would roll out from under me. Everyone else was doing it on the pole and I was still on the ball. Tammy had to gently remind me that I'd only taken this class once, while all of the other girls have taken it at least once before.
So I decided to screw the ball and try it standing. I could only hold it for a second or two - raise my legs and clunk them back down again. And that was my progress - trying, trying, trying but only ever getting my legs up and right back down again.
Then we did the Lazy Boy. It's a stop-hold based move. I kinda got it. Not quite.
That was a week and a half ago. I went in for open pole practice yesterday, and my Mum came along with the camera. I tried a stop-hold. I reached high, gripped, braced low, tucked my pelvis and CRUNCHED. Up came my legs...and they stayed.
I held it for about 8 seconds.
I almost screamed with joy! I held my stop-holds quite well after that. I even tried it on my non-dom side (left arm up, right arm bracing) and I held it for maybe 4 seconds.
And I totally got the Lazy Boy. I actually have a video of me screwing it up, wiping my hands, and doing it perfectly when I concentrated on my abs.
I am so, so, so PROUD of myself today.
current mood: pleased
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(1 union jack |raise a union jack)
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