Twenty-Twelve

Here we are, at the tail end of the year already. I cannot believe how fast this one went by - I am absolutely astounded at how short it has felt. It seems just like it was yesterday when I was cuddled up in Cheryl's basement on New Year's Eve 2010, watching Tim Rice play the butler in "Clue". We were eating hot dog flavored potato chips and drinking lots of soda pop. Talk about a good innocent way to ring in the new year. This year will be quite different. I'll be celebrating two hours later than most people I know, which I find kind of odd. I think the year before last, I had fallen asleep to early on New Year's... and the year before that, I spent it building a diorama. I don't get out much....

My brother is planning on inviting over a few guests for this evening's festivities and we're going to have my little buddy Landan here as well. Thank goodness, because I tend to get kinda shy around crowds of people so I'm quite thankful that he'll be here to keep me company. At least until 8 o'clock. (Being only three years old, I think he's going to fall asleep before midnight hits.) This morning we started the day off just right by cuddling in my bed together and watching Treehouse TV for a good hour or so while I caught up on some extra sleep. (That little devil loves waking up much earlier than I can handle.) We woke up and ate some fruit loops together and now he's off downstairs, driving his brand-new Polar Express Lionel train set around the living room.

What can I say about 2011? Well, it's a little hard to recap since many of my 365 days of the year, I spent doing the exact same thing: selling greeting cards. When you spend every single day basically the same, it becomes a little bit difficult to separate events from one another. But what I CAN tell you about 2011, is that even though I may have been working lots, I still had a fantastic year for the most part. Let's go back all the way to March 2011, when my family and I traveled with boatloads of shoes stuffed in our suitcases over to Peru. That was all in good thanks to Shea's (my step-sister) wild idea of "Fuze Thru Shoes". (Product placement.) Now that was well worth the year, all in itself. That was a life changing excursion for me - I met a lot of local schoolkids that truly changed my heart. I think that trip down to Peru was when my brain started thinking a little bit more positively (I say that carefully) and switched gears, reminding me that my life was good. Although my year felt like it went by fast, my trip to Peru feels like a lifetime ago. I guess for those of you who don't know what "Fuze Thru Shoes" is, it's a non-profit organization that my step-sister came up with one day while sitting in high school, and realized that she wanted to donate gently used shoes to kids who didn't have anything to wear on their shredded feet. The first destination for "Fuze" was Peru (no way!) and it was then that we had to smuggle in 100 pairs of sneakers into the country. Why did we have to pull such a stunt, you ask? Well the paperwork didn't go through, so we took matters into our own hands. Dodging airport security was a bonding experience.

This was also the year that I got my first car. (I miss you, Mortimer.) Now the fact that it's been a whole year since I first got my little Mazda... THAT is mind-blowing. I remember the freedom that Mortimer provided for me along with a strong sense of responsibility and accomplishment. That was the first major thing I think I had accomplished since I left high school. I remember the day that I drove him home and pulled him up onto my tiny gravel patch beside my driveway. Mortimer may not have looked like much... just a brokedown, love-worn Protege... but he had it where it counts. He could outrun Imperial starships in less than twelve parsecs. One of my most favorite parts about Mortimer was the red, fuzzy handcuffs that my friends at Hallmark Polo Park got for me as a "car-warming" present. I don't really remember them giving the handcuffs to me, mostly because at the time I was very intoxicated at the annual Stonewall Pharmacy Bonspiel that our owner, Vern hosts every year. Let's not mention that day every again after this. Another sweet memory of my year was the day that our Brazilian exchange student, Rita, came to live with us. It didn't take long before we felt like we were sisters, and I can honestly say that Rita is now one of my close friends.The following summer was when I met my nephew Landan for the first time. He's such a big part of my life now, it's hard to imagine how things were without him. I've always had incredible nieces and nephews - I love them all. With Landan being here so frequently, I feel more like a parent to him, helping to raise him. I like having a little sidekick; someone to depend on me. He keeps me company and when he's gone I definitely feel lonelier without him! Since he's so young and I'm a lot older now to begin to understand the concept behind parenting a little bit better... I truly feel like it's a new experience altogether. Kids remind me of everything good, innocent and fun - all things that I miss a lot from my childhood. I really do enjoy spending time with all of those nieces and nephews of mine. It was such a special moment to me to be on Skype with all of them back in Winnipeg on December 15th. Emily, Lily and Logan: I miss you guys so much! Happy birthday Logan!!!! I'm sorry I couldn't be there to give you a hug and tell you that in person.

I had a great year I'd say all in all, and to cap it all off I moved to Kelowna. 2011 has had it's ups and downs, no doubt about that. I will not deny that I've had some tough struggles either, however comparing to 2010, I'd say this year kicked ass. This was the year that I grew up.

Ingredients for Life

What makes up life? Those funny little stories that happen to you slowly over time... all the embarrassing ones, the funny ones, your "WTF" moments so-to-speak, those are all the stories that we reflect on and laugh at. Well, I've had quite a few "WTF" moments throughout my last few weeks during the Holidays. Here's a couple for you to sigh and groan at:

I was on my way to work early one morning on the Black Mountain community bus. It's much shorter than a regular bus as I have explained in previous blogs, so passengers are not allowed standing anywhere in the aisle. For the first time ever, the bus was really full that morning. We went to the top of the mountain and throughout the neighborhood, picking up person after person. Soon enough, each of us were buckled in side-by-side on the tiny, plastic leather seats. They were those gross seats too, the brown leather that gets all worn and cracked over time... permanent marker scribbled all over the back and covered with billions of germs probably. Anyways, it was quite the experience that particular ride. My driver was kind of a young punk who had tons of tattoos, big square sunglasses and blaring loud music on the radio. As one of the last passengers boarded, he took a seat next to a teenage girl who looked like she just came from a Volleyball Tourney. She was wearing sweatpants, a t-shirt and had her hair pulled back... nothing seemed to be out of place about her. When the man sat down next to her, she asked him if she could switch him seats so she could have the aisle. I thought that was weird since she was sitting next to the window original anyways, so it caught my attention. As we kept driving along the highway, our bus was now completely full. There were tons of people in silence, ignoring each other, staying in their own personal zones and pretending their neighbor doesn't exist sitting there next to them, with their legs pushed up next to each other. It was a really awkward experience. Everybody looked like a robot, looking ahead and out the front windshield while Marilyn Manson drove our bus down the slippery mountain slope. All of a sudden, the athletic girl sitting towards the middle of the bus in front of me, got up and crouched down on the ledge next to the driver. I had my earphones in and blasting Jack Johnson tunes, so I couldn't hear what was going on. Naturally I assumed she was asking for directions as most people do when they take a bus they're unfamiliar with. I started to look out the window when all of a sudden our bus came to a sudden stop on the side of the highway. The girl got out of the bus holding the white bucket that sits next to the fare-collector where you put your bus-transfer tickets when you're done using them. She placed it on the complete opposite side of the sidewalk away from us on the bus, turned around and got back on board. I looked curiously in that direction to understand what she was doing, when I noticed that she had vomited excessively in there. Surprised, I looked around at everyone on the bus to see if they were just as shocked as I was that this girl had flat out barfed in the bus transfer bucket. No one seemed fazed by this occurrence at all - I was really dumbfounded. She sat back down next to the man she switched seats with, and calmly began to text message again. I felt like I dreamed that whole thing, but everyone seemed simply unaffected by this. I guess in the end we all get sick once in a while, but the fact that no one even once looked in her direction really confused me. Then again, I guess no one really wants to watch some kid toss their cookies on the bus....

Another weird thing that happened to me the other day, was that I was sitting casually in a lazy boy armchair in the mall, drinking coffee and reading my book before my shift began at 10 am. I was keeping to myself when all of a sudden, two large shadows swept past my view. When I looked up, surprised to see anyone else wandering the mall so early in the morning before anything was opened, I saw it was two huge gangster looking guys with tattoos completely covering their entire bodies. They were wearing pants below their knees, big white sneakers and of course - they even had the bling to match. They were walking by talking to each other, walking with swagga, when all of a sudden one guy dropped to the ground and muttered "$#!%" under his breath. Since I was sitting nearby, I looked to see what had happened to him. Several bags of cocaine fell out from underneath his shorts. He looked around conspicuously, stuffed them back in, and kept walking. I never saw those guys again. What another awkward, somewhat creepy thing to see. Don't worry, I was smart enough to look away as soon as I realized that it was a different type of snow inside his little plastic baggy...

Back when we first moved in, I had realized that my belt for my pants was broken and I had thrown it out back in Winnipeg. I always feel weird when my pants freely fall down, so I always cringe at the idea of leaving the house without wearing one. Just because I like to complain openly, I walked into my brother's room and grumbled that I didn't have a belt to wear, kind of half-kidding and asking them for one. 2.5 seconds later, Mike pulled out a brand new belt and said, "Oh yeah, this belongs to my step-mom. I accidentally took it once. Guess you can have it." and BOOM. All of a sudden I had a belt. What are the chances? How often does that even happen? Belts don't just grow on trees people. It's not a normal, everyday occurrence to have a couple spare belts around to give away. At least not in my circumstances. For such an odd complaint and request to whine about, my brother somehow managed to get me a belt. It was pretty amazing, I gotta say.

It's always fun to mess around with siblings. In fact, my mishaps with them are usually the ones that make the best stories. We're always beating each other up in the hallways, giving each other wet-willies when we're sleeping on the couch and sometimes even grosser stuff like burping in each others face. Anyways, my brother and Jessica really like to watch House at the end of the night; one time they left a disc in the Xbox, but they had turned it off and went upstairs. I was cleaning up the living room and found the empty case and realized the DVD was still inside the machine. Instead of just putting the empty case away on the shelf, I took out the disc from the player and put it back inside the proper sleeve to go back into its box. I slid House: Season Five back into it's correct spot on the shelf in between seasons four and six. I knew the moment that I had put it so perfectly away, that the next time Mike and Jess went to watch it, they would have NO idea where to find it. "That's ruthless," I evilly cackled to myself. I can be one scary child sometimes. I thought it was a great way to retaliate.

My most recent odd tale, was when I was driving my car to the doctor's office the other day. As I was cruising down the highway, an SUV pulled up next to me with a giant dog sticking it's head out the rear window. I was really taken off-guard when I saw this huge dog in my face all of a sudden, so I wanted to take a picture. As I was pulling up closer to get a better view, I saw what I thought was a woman sitting in the front seat - which turned out to be a very well-trained poodle that sat properly in it's front passenger's seat with it's little seatbelt on. The blonde curly hair really threw me off. I truly believed it was a lady sitting in that seat. You can kind of see the outline of the poodle in one of the pictures below, but I didn't have time to snap more than one since I was supposed to have two hands on the wheel! It's a matter of public safety. "My, what big teeth you have!!!" (Get it? Modern day Red Riding Hood...)

Anyhow, those are just a few humorous stories to share with you for today. I hope you all had a really good Christmas holiday and now New Years is coming up which is very exciting. We're going to throw a bit of a party here (not a rager or anything, we do have kids & neighbors, Moms and Dads) so it should be kind of fun. We've finally got a picture-taker in the family (Jessica got a new camera from Mike for Christmas) so I'm uploading some random snaps of our week of Holidays so far. Cheers to all of you, and have a good New Years if I don't write again before then!