To Blog, or Not To Blog...

The question of my continued blogging has arisen.
Will I?
Won't I?
There are formidable hindrances. I will only have dial-up internet access, and time to access it will be very, very, limited.
However, as far as it is in my control, I will try to keep up PJ. I've grown rather attached. I will probably only be able to blog once a week; less during the summer months. Pictures will be a no-go with dial-up. It would take FOREVER. But I'll do my best to relay how everything on Quadra is running, and maybe throw in a few funny camp stories. You can never hear too many of those!
So there you have it...I will persevere! Don't abandon me. If no one comments, I'll assume no one is reading, and give it up until the Fall (when I can beat you up for not commenting!). You've been warned!

Last Weekend at Home

The last few days have been a lot of fun, which of course includes a lot of pain.
On Saturday I went up to Sun Peaks with some friends to learn how to Snowboard!
A few years ago there was a sort of "free day" where I tried snowboarding for the first time, officially. I only remember going down one run which seemed to go on FOREVER and by the time I made it down, I was too exhausted to do any more, so I was done for the day. The next morning I could hardly move! Lots of pain.
Needless to say, I was a little nervous about trying it out again, especially since I had to dish out the cash this time. For that kind of money you need to go down more than one run!
It turned out really good, and I actually made it down Three Whole Runs in a half-day...that's right folks, Three Whole Runs. One of them was even a BLUE. I know...I'm very daring. Heh heh...
It came a lot easier this time around, but it was still very, very tiring. The best part of course was the embarassing face-plants that conveniently take place under the chair-lifts or at the bottom of the hill where everyone has a good view of your wipe-out. It would be a shame to let those less graceful moments be wasted at any other time, when there is no one around.
ANYWAY...it was a very fun day, and the pain was well worth it. Yes, hobbling up and down the stairs is worth it. Not being able to lift my arms above my head is worth it. I'll try it again next season.
Sunday was a very exciting day! My friend Liz invited me to go out for lunch after church, but ended up luring me right into a suprise farewell party! No one has ever thrown me a surprise party before. Tear, tear. There was lots of food, and competitive games, and best of all, a Ju Jube war! Of course an innocent pack of ju jubes cannot simply be eaten at our party. They must become weapons of mass destruction. I learned just how dangerous a simple blob of ju jube can be when thrown at terrifying speeds. In fact I found a pretty nice bruise on my arm this morning from one shot. One candy was even embedded in the wall of the youth room. Wow.
You can find pictures of the party here.
To top it all off, I went to my last Sunday Night College & Careers meeting, and it was completely A.D.D. and marvelous! I will miss you guys tons!
Overall it was a very satisfactory last weekend at home!

Shut Up Michael Buble!

Here I am sitting silently in my room staring at empty shelves and clothes hangers listening to the lonely, mournful wailing of "Home" by Michael Buble. Its fairly depressing.
I decided to "start" packing up my things today. Somehow, in a productive frenzy, it escalated so that my belongings are divided into "staying" and "going", and both are neatly packed away. I even put away my picture frames (I might have to bring them out again so that my room doesn't feel so barren). One large suitcase is stuffed with summer clothes and bulky sweaters, another with books and DVDs that I can't part with. One tote has scrapbooking things, and another crafts and fragile room decor.
I know I should have resisted packing for a little later. I don't leave until Saturday and staring at my empty room all week is going to kill me...but its too late now. I refuse to unpack unnecessaries (barring the pictures).
I'm more attached to my bedroom than I thought. But I guess I have lived in it ever since we moved to Kamloops 14 years ago. Its undergone serious redecorating over the years, and lately its been morphing into a very Jill-ish space. I love it. And it looks so wrong all empty like this!!! Now it shall no longer have a loving, appreciative resident, but instead be relegated to the cold and impersonal service as a "Spare Room". How sad. How sad.
Bedroom, you shall be missed, and remembered fondly.

Girlie is Gone!!!

Missing!!!For the last four days, Girlie has not appeared for her morning feedings. I have not seen anything of her for the same amount of time...I think she might be gone for good. I just wish I knew what happened to her :(

Perhaps Beebs had something to do with it...that is not exactly the face of innocence....

I Homeschooled For a Day...

and it was crazy.
Somehow word leaked out that I am unemployed for the next while, SO...a friend of the family asked if I would watch their four homeschooled children while they raced to Kelowna for a day for an appointment.
I knew there was no REAL reason to say 'no', and that it would be a "good" thing to do. I actually do have a fairly healthy conscience. So I said I'd do it. After all its ONLY eight hours, right?
Well let me tell you I have a new-found respect for my mom, and all other mom's that make the crazy decision to homeschool their kids. I don't know HOW they manage it day after day after day! I am thoroughly exhausted from simply being with those kids (I don't know their exact ages, but I'm guessing they were between 7 and 12) and always hounding them to get back to work, or helping them figure out (aka TELLING THEM) which of the four words in the list are misspelled, or trying to remember how to create common denominators...my poor little brain is only used to taking Tim Hortons orders, not teaching kids school stuff. It was unbelievably hard to keep up with four different "lessons" at the same time, and then move on again and make sure everyone was getting stuff done and not just taking advantage of Mom being out for the day and duping the stupid babysitter.
I think I was just as eager for school to get "out" as they were!!
Tomorrow's sleep-in is well deserved.

Checking In

So I endured a weekend of being called an un-employed slacker, which is completely unfair because even if I WERE employed, I am entitled to my weekends.
So today was my first day of legitimate slacking.
Sleeping in was definitely nice. I got up about nine, had a nice hot shower, a lesiurely breakfast, not too shabby.
Then I helped my mom grocery shop (my good deed for the day), and then shopped at good ol' Value Village with friend Liz. We figured we couldn't miss 50% OFF day...but we could have. We each found three items, waited a half an hour in line for the change rooms, and were unsuccessful. Sigh.
Then after a little coffee time at Zacks, we froze our butts off downtown, and bussed home.
I don't really remember much after that, except I vaguely recall a episode of 'Remington Steele' season one...
Its really scary how little you can get done in a day.
Tomorrow shall be a little less relaxing...I'll let you know how it goes. I may even have pictures.

New CD

I recently bought this CD, and I'm really enjoying the music. Leeland is a relatively new band, but very good. They write the kind of songs that get stuck in your head and you can't get them out alllll day! And that's a good thing. Check it out, you might like it.

Blast Off!!!

Check out my new best-seller! Its a big hit.

So...
Its over.
Weird.

Today went pretty much like every Friday at Tim Hortons goes. The only thing different was everyone saying goodbye to me. It made me sad, because I don't know when/if I'll ever see them again. But it was nice to know I'll be missed. I plan on sending them a postcard from Quadra!!!

Thanks for rooting me on to the end of this week guys! I'm not gonna lie, I could have done it without you, but it sure is nice to get such supportive comments :P

EDIT: If you're looking at that picture and thinking "what the hecK???", you obviously were not ferociously force-fed the teachings of this book.

One...

MORE DAY!!!
I just need to make it through one more gruelling 8-hour shift, and then I'm home-free. I'm even beginning to feel better, so maybe I won't be spending my free weeks before I leave in a coma. Its a cheering thought.
Oh and I have GOOD NEWS!

The Prodigal Chapstick Has Returned!
It was lost, but now it is found.

See, I have very specific chapsticks. I have a purse chapstick, a coat chapstick, a home chapstick, and an at-work chapstick. The above is my at-work chapstick, and the other week at the bus-stop when I needed it most, I couldn't find it. I seriously turned my bag inside-out looking for that chapstick!!! It was nowhere to be found. I figured I must have left it in the locker at work, but it wasn't there the next day. I was very sad.
So, imagine my delight when it turned up yesterday. I don't know where it was hiding, but it saw fit to return to me, and that's all I need to know. I'm just happy its back. Its Vanilla-Minty freshness was missed.

Two...

More wretched days at Tim's.
I had a wonderful blog all planned out for today, but when I got home I curled up on the couch with my sniffles and misery, and watched a movie instead. And now I'm going to bed. Better luck tomorrow.

Three...

more days at Tim Hortons!
Yes, I'm back from the near-dead. Though not 100% healthy, I was able to go back to work today. I feel kind of ripped off though. Sure sleeping lots and taking Monday off as well as having a free Saturay and Sunday MIGHT sound pretty nice, but trust me, it wasn't. Being sick is never fun. So my weekend was wasted. sigh.

Sick

I am sick. I can hardly talk because my throat is sore, and I have no voice. On top of that, I also have a perma-headache. It refuses to leave. Waaah. Yes, I know I'm whining. This is your cue to comfort me.

Welcome Home, Liz!!!

For the last seven months my good friend Liz has been off adventuring in the lands of Australia and New Zealand, and tomorrow she's coming home! I'm so excited to see her again!!!

FREE TO GOOD HOME

Long story short: Girlie is not going back to her previous owner, and is therefore looking for a nice family to live with.
She is a really sweet little thing, LOVES to cuddle and purr, is indoor/outdoor, litter-trained, and CUTE.
I never did follow up on the very long process of getting her and Beebs to tolerate each other, and my parents don't want another cat, especially since I am leaving...so we can't keep her.
I don't want to send her to the SPCA!!! She is too nice a cat to go there. If you want her, or know someone who will take her and love her let me know!!!
She is a very talented cat. Here you can see her working as Beebs' stunt double in our family photo.

Death Of a Hairclip

This black hairclip's life ended abruptly Saturday, January the Twenty-seventh. It was only a few weeks old.
The tragic event occurred after a long road-trip to Vancouver. Experts suspect that the clip was not packaged properly and was weakened after the bumpy ride. When forced into service the following day, it collapsed under the pressure.
In life it served the noble purpose of being exactly the right size and strength for my hair, and in death it shall be remembered as being the perfect clip.
Hairclip, you will be missed.

And replaced for $1.95 at Wal-mart.

Happy Birthday Ju!

Here's to the best cousin a girl could have!

Julie and I were born EXACTLY a week apart and spent years 0-5 inseperably, until my family moved away from Alberta into Kamloops. But that didn't stop us from growing up into awesome friends.
We've shared many MANY hilarious moments and have a limitless library of inside jokes (for example, the names "Herman", "Brandy", and "Hubert" will probably mean nothing to all of you, except her sisters might have some inkling...), both share a deep and abounding love for the Disney animated "101 Dalmations" (and you know what Ju, I LIKE Pongo, I never wanted to be Purdy anyway...), and we even began to write a joint best-seller, titled "Bearlock Holmes", featuring my favorite teddy. It was prime material, but we never did figure out who the killer was.
Its hard to believe we're 19 already, and not pretending to be buck-toothed rabbits inhabiting the Shuswap camping sites, or laughing hysterically over random little stick-people we carved. But we don't let that stop us from having a good time whenever we see each other, so here's to future visits, and to you, Ju. Thanks for all the memories!

Fun Weekend

To your left you can see a very interesting picture.
It is one of three pictures I took this last weekend (the other two were of the same subject*, but didn't turn out).
I'm developing a bad habit of not taking pictures of events in my life. I think I should hire someone to follow me around and photograph different moments of my life. I wonder if one day they'll invent a robot camera like that? That would be awesome! I would totally get one.
Anyway, the pictures that I didn't take, but should have, were of my Young Adults group as spent the weekend up at Loon Lake. It was soooo much fun!
We played "Apples to Apples" (of which I am the undefeated champion WITHOUT cheating, Ryan), ate scrumptious nachos, rode on GT's behind a truck, introduced two people to "The Princess Bride" (we were shocked and appalled they hadn't seen it yet), had pathetic snowball fights, and experienced life with minimal sleep and Mr Coffee.
Oodelally!
I'm going to miss the group so much when I head down to Homewood this March!

*Ryan created a tower of dominos that stayed upright for about 12 hours even though it was highly unstable!

iZombie

I do solemnly swear never to become an iZombie.
(By the way i never knew that was an actual coined word until I googled it. But what else is new?)

Nothing irks me more than otherwise normal, interesting people who choose to zone out and ignore the world around them by wearing head/earphones, and thus declare that their music is more important/interesting than anyone they might meet or talk to.

Ok, a loner of the bus can get away with it because let's face it, half the people on the bus your mother doesn't want you associating with anyway. But when you start to miss out on normal social interactions because you are tuned in to you ipod/mp3 player I think its time to put it away for a while and remember what life was like without an accompanying soundtrack.

So here's the news: I got an iPod nano for my birthday! Yay me! I love it. I really do. What an awesome gift! But I'm super paranoid I'm going to become an iZombie. I don't want to walk through my life ignoring everyone around me, interested in hearing only the things I choose to hear. I don't want people to feel that I'm only listening to them with one ear when they talk to me.

I will strive to only listen to my iPod when no one else requires my attention. If you see me turning into an iZombie, please, please, feel free to unplug me from my new toy and tell me. I'll be listening with both ears.

Thank God for Rational Parents

Honestly.
I was almost out of my mind last night. I'm such a freak-out prone person. As soon as this opportunity came up it send my head spinning in a million different directions.
For so long I've wanted to do something different, and go somewhere different, and try out my little almost-nineteen-year-old wings! This camp thing just seemed so convenient and it's come at such a good time, it sort of scared me. I've been talking about "flying away" for so long, now that the opportunity has come, I'm noticing lot of baby "feathers".
ANYWAY last night the only thing that kept me sane was my amazing parents. They gave me some really good advice, and sort of leveled my thoughts a bit.
So, with their input my tentative plan is to apply for the job in March, as opposed to February. I will spend most of February working at Tim Hortons some more, then take a week or so off to prepare myself for the move and such.
I talked to my manager today and told her February 16th will be my last day serving coffee.
So no matter if I DO got to the Island or not, I will not be at Timmy's past February 16th, which is a relief, and a step in the right direction I beleive.

Turmoil of the Worst Kind

Minus the gray hair (and the whole general apperance of this very frustrated woman, besides the fact that she is clutching her head), and you have a basic picture of myself.
As my career at Tim Hortons nears its close (I am giving notice...tomorrow? the day after? argh!) I am forced to look at other occuptational options.
In the distant future I was thinking of volunteering at Camp Homewood as an assistant cook for the Summer months. A couple nights ago I asked brother Mike (who works there full-time) to sort of test the waters for me in that department, and see if it looked promising.
Being the laid-back Islander he is, I wasn't expecting a response any time soon. I was mightily surprised to find that he had called this afternoon and left a message for me to call him back.
Well of course when I picked up the phone to do so, I got the "busy" signal. The same sound I heard every five minutes for the next hour and fifteen minutes! By then I was getting antsy. What did he have to say that made him call back so soon? It was totally unlike him!
Well when I DID finally get through, he said he had talked to the Director...and he was eager for me to come as early as February!!!
WHAT?!?!?!?!
That means I could be gone....soon! IF I go. But... but... but...
I'm totally ill-prepared mentally to leave so soon.
What about friends? Family? BEEBS! (i'd really, really, really, miss my little Beebs)
It wouldn't be a good move for making the moola, but I wouldn't be spending a lot either, so I could go either way financially.
And what if I hate it? I mean, I've cooked there before and its hard work, and I liked it...but what if I get sick of it? Would I be stuck there and hating it?
On the other hand:
What if I love it? What if moving away is just the sort of adventure I need right now? I'll get to explore the whole of Quadra Island with some of the funniest people on earth, I'll be closer to my good friend Karissa and possibly see her on weekends, and who knows I might meet someone during the summer that will want to go to Ireland with me!
I'm so confused. I need to think about this. Slowly. Thoroughly. Rationally.

AUUUUGHGHGHGHGHGH!!!!