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Doug's stag and Doe 093
Originally uploaded by dan1980_.

Grad school

Yeahh... i finally feel excited about some sort of direction next year. I have been in limbo for the last .... 6 months? I know that I want to go to Tyn. but I how, when, will I be accepted, how do schedules work, and (most frustrating) where are we going to live? My answers are still not all together but today Dan and I went up to TO to check it out. I really like it. The program seems to fit more and more. I like the intimacy of the program and there are more and more bonuses that keep popping up. I didn't think I would be able to have any of my courses transfer but. I now not only have the possibility of transferring some courses but also could have some of the manditory courses (that I've taken here already) changed to electives (which would be awesome for more spiritual development courses and psych courses). We still don't know where we are going to live or how I would commute but the admissions counsellor (who gave us a school tour and explained a lot of things without any sort of appointment) said that I would probably have only 2 days of the week that I would be at school, 3 at the max. Dan loved that info because we both want to stay in this area. The bad news is that we timed our trip back home (which happened to go right through rush hour) and it took us about an hour and 20 min. Yuck. Dan just about rammed the cars in front of us out of frustration and road rage. I guess it's best that I be the one who does the commuting. :)
I also had my second tooth filling done today. It was a breeze. I was so worried about it because the last appointment was a killer but this one went so fast and easy. My head does hurt now though.
I keep planning all sorts of things that I want to write and ponder on this thing but I need to find a good quiet time to really get my thoughts out. It'll come soon. Keep checking.

Massages

So today, Hannelle, Coryn and I went and got our massages as recommended by islander82 at the Canadian Therapeutic College. What a day. It was super fun and so much more expensive than any of us wanted it to be but, like Coryn's dad pointed out, since we only go out like this once a year, it comes to about $2 a month which is soo good for a social life. I like that man. :) I figure, since $2 a month is nothing we should be able to do this again soon to make it $4 a month (which still isn't bad). The College is on a really cute street that none of us had really shopped before so we walked up and down the street enjoying the great weather (it was like it's spring already). We saw a great bead store and figured it would be so much fun to sit there at the table provided and put together some necklaces for ourselves. So much fun. And now we have something to show for the day.

Next we went to drop Coryn off at home but stopped by at a Greek restaurant to have a falafal for lunch finished off with milkshakes from the Williams across the road (anybody else agree that they have the best milkshakes?). So now that you've heard about the details of the day (what a boring blog!!), here's a quote that I found last night from my most wonderfully favorite author, David James Duncan.

True evangelism, based on the example of Jesus,does not suggest the "missionary zeal" of self-righteous proselytizers.It implies, on the contrary, the kind of all-embracinguniversality evident in Mother Teresa's prayer:"May God break my heart so completely that the whole world falls in." Not just [her] fellow nuns, Catholics, Calcuttans, Indians.The whole world.It gives me pause to realize that, were such a prayersaid by me and answered by God, I would afterward possess a heart so open that even hate-driven zealots would fall inside.

Duncan is a very strong protector of the environment through his writing and is speaks as a prophet against the the dangers of todays society and our governments. I love this man. He is also (obviously) so stronly opposed to the type of "hate-driven zealots" out there. Read The Brothers K or The River Why. Both of them talk about a search for God and a true picture of who God can be for people, whether they go to church or not. Baaah... i can't speak, write or think what I mean. He's just really good. Inspiring. and scary too. hmm.

Well, Enjoy. ta ta

Oh, and I had time to take some cute pictures of Chloe and I while we were waiting to pick dan up from his car pool.

... and more

This is Cass at the Wedding. Isn't she GORGEOUS?!! I thought so too. The guy in the background was her lucky date. It was nice to have her there but I don't think the date went anywhere

I love this guy!! I think he and Cass should hook up. I'm sure he wants to. I just have to convince Cass now.

Dan has a crush on this girl. I think he likes the baby-face look. :)

He also says that he used to like the girl in purple. Man, i had some major competition at this party.

I'm pretty sure he likes me better though. :)

This is mom and I at Cass's birthday dinner. We're just playing with the camera. I thought it would be a nice pic to put up though.

For those of you who know him, Hauser's got a new beautiful sweet girlfriend!!! I forget her name right now but I couldn't have found a better one for him. They are beautiful together. She is such a sweet girl... and she really likes him!!! Yeah for Hauser

More Pictures

I'm posting some pictures that I like from the stag and doe and the wedding. I hope you like them!!

This is of Dan and I waiting in the car. I was playing with the camera and Dan was trying to mess up my nice pics. What a guy. :)








awww!! I love this picture. This is of my sister Cass and I. I have more of her coming.















This is Elisha and I at her stag and doe.












James, Larissa and I. Larissa is my sister in law and James is her boyfriend. I convinced them to come out and then gave out a few free drinks. oops.










Later that night. And I didn't even have anything to drink. This is pure me. eek














Dan did have something to drink. He stacked his cups for each drink.

Reading Week

So, it's reading week again. Will I read this time? I hope so. I have lots of research to do for my thesis and I hope I really get to it this week. Today was a right-off though. I let myself sleep in after a long weekend and then I helped my Prof. move and set up her new office. I ended up cleaing up the apartment just a little bit even though the entire thing desperately needs a big clean up. I also got to watch the Canadian Women's Hockey game (in french so i turned on the radio and got a commentary one second ahead of the game).
So what was this long weekend you ask? Well, on Thurs. I worked till 9:15 but Dan had dropped off the car earlier so I didn't have to take the bus home. Dan went to Dunnville for Doug and Elisha's wedding rehearsal. After work I changed and then headed out there to pick him up. Dan took Friday off of work so he slept in while I went out shopping (something I've wanted to do but couldn't rationalize). I ended up buying an outfit that would be easily mixed up with some other clothes for church or something. Cute but not really the sexy outstanding outfit that I was looking for. I brought Dan back to Dunnville in the afternoon and then went to work again. After work on Friday night and getting myself cleaned up I packed up the dog and we went to Dan's parents place. I didn't get there till late but mom had a wonderfully comfy bed made up for me. Sleep was wonderful. On Sat. I went shopping for some great shoes (which hurt my feet like crazy but are really cool) and then off to.... Doug and Elisha's wedding. Here's some pics. (i'm a horrible photographer so... sorry).



Ed, "Pardy", Matt, Dan & Doug


Here are the guys just before the wedding. Doug gave them all cigarette cases with their names on them. Dan looks really short in that group but Doug is actually 6' 8''.














This is a blurry pic but this is Doug and Elisha saying their vows.












This is Dan with Erica and Kimbery. Aren't they adorable? Their parents are friends with us. Erica was the flower girl and they are also cousins with the Bride.
























This is Dan and I at the end of the night. I think i stayed in better shape then he did. He probably had more fun though. :)






Well, that's all for now since it took me forever to get those pics on.

Love (not titled so because today is Valentines Day)

So I was thinking about purposeful acts of love these last couple of days (maybe because of Valentines day?) and I was wondering how many acts of love are really purposefully to show someone love. Mostly my own acts of love are being pondered here. I know that there was a Friends episode that was about this when Phoebe (?) was going crazy trying to do a selfless act; something that did not give back to her in any way, whether in feeling good about it or as a reward. What kinds of things do I do to show love? Clean the apartments. Wait. no, that is for my own sanity. Make meals. Nope. That is so that I can eat something too. Even my purposeful acts of love are out of self pity ('look at how much love i'm giving... boo hoo') or pride. Maybe I'm just in a rut right now and am having good memories blocked from my brain. Who knows. Maybe this is a personal wake up call to be more selfless and love some more. I just want to be self-pitying right now.
In other news: I'm going to work right now and am meeting my new store supervisor. He seems cool. He's a neat freak. When I called this morning he called darling ("when you get here everything will be alright, darling"). hm... interesting. We'll see how this one turns out.

Religous Leader Interview

Here's my rant:
For my world religions class we are supposed to interview a religous leader of a different religion. Understandably I was a little nervous but I was also looking forward to it. How often, in my little bubble of a life, do I meet or talk with someone of another religion, let alone about their religion. So last week I did some research and found a Hindu temple in the area. A few questions were asked in class about where students could go. The professor wasn't sure if there was a temple in the area but I told him there was and relayed the info to the class. A classmate, who has a vehicle, and I, planned from the beginning to do this together so he came over after class and I called them. Through a really broken conversation I made an appointment with a leader there for today at 10:00. I was getting ready this morning and when my friend got here we called the temple to ask for the address but then were told that actually, three other students had been by and so could we please just get the info from then. And that I could come to a Friday worship session and could ask all the questions I want then. Great. So my interview got canceled because some other students got there first, after I told them where it was! Dan says that I shouldn't have told anyone about the place. He's pretty pissed saying that I should even email these other students and say how rude it was for them to go there and get the interview before me pulling the rug from under my feet. grr. To top it off, our second option for a paper was to do a small research paper. I was thinking that I could to it on the Bhagavad Gita, a Vedic text that I happen to have. My friend that was going to do the interview with me was pretty freaked out about what he's going to do now so... stupid me, I gave him my second option, even lending him my text. Why do I do this? I think I'm going to do it on the Bhagavad Gita anyways. I've actually got one other option up my sleeve but we'll see what happens.

Floss!!!

I finally had my much needed dentist appointment. I'm not afraid of dentists and usually enjoy the appointments (mostly because of the clean feeling afterwards). I hadn't had a dentist appointment in about 3-4 years so my teeth badly needed the cleaning. I didn't really enjoy this appointment though. Supposedly they have a new thing to bite on when you get your teeth x-rayed. You know the cardboard that you bite on on either side of your mouth? Well this piece is a third piece that is the most painful torture device i've ever seen. And I bit it!! It's just a longer piece of cardboard that fits in the front of your mouth so that they can see the ends of the roots. Well, I have this thing in my mouth called a TONGUE that got in the way. The cardboard cuts into the flap of skin under your tongue that holds your tongue in your mouth. I almost cried and I was the one that was hurting myself! Well, with that part over with the dentist came in and cleaned my teeth. I know I should floss more often but I don't. I heard over and over from the dentist that I NEED to floss more. Supposedly the chunk that fell out of my tooth was due to a cavity that is now bigger and I have a cavity on the opposite side of my mouth in the same spot. This has been such a disturbing dentist appointment. I think that part of the reason why I've always like dentists is that they have always raved about my teeth. I always have great teeth and this dentist didn't seem too like how i'd been taking care of them. sigh. I can't be proud of my mouth anymore. how embarrassing.
In other news, Beer Store politics are stupid. I love my store and the people that I work with but the higher ups take their jobs WAY too seriously. Every year or so they juggle all the stores around and change the locations of the managers and full-timers. The full-timer, Andrea, who works at our store lives just down the road and often walks to work. Her husband and kids come in all the time and its just such a nice location. Our store happens to be the worst store to work at in our entire district because it is so old and even has dirt floors still, hence its a dirty store too. Nobody wants to manage the store but Andrea doesn't mind because it's so close to home. So what do the higher ups do? They move her to the store the furthest away!! I don't get it. Don't companies want their employees to be happy. She has to get daycare for her kids now when she's at work and they are home from school. Crazy. We'll miss her at our store. She's never power-trippy and always tries to give us exactly the hours we want. And she's never bugged me to work on a Sunday since she's also a Christian.
Anyways, i've got to get ready for work since it takes me close to an hour to get their by bus!! grr.

Blogs

I wish I could be a good blogger . I've been reading people's blogs lately and some of them are soo interesting. I think the reason that I don't blog regularly is because I put too much pressure on myself to have an interesting deep blog. But really, the blogs that I find the most interesting are the ones that just say regular things about peoples days. I was browsing the internet through friends blogs to see what is out there and found a super interesting blog. The blog is by this girl about my age who started this site so that she could bitch about her life without worrying about who she would offend. So interesting!! She's super open and honest. Each blog is almost like a therapy session. (You can see why I'm interested in it). I found out what her real blog is and she updates it at least once a day. It's so neat to read about someones life who I don't know... almost like peeking through a window and watching someones life. She wrote this really humourous post about popularity in the blogging world.
My life has been super boring for the last month. I definately have/had a case of the January blues. I didn't even have the motivation to do laundry or make the bed or even cook. I'm starting to get back into things though. I have all my laundry caught up, started making some casseroles and my schedule is booked for the rest of the week. My bed still isn't made though. I'm getting more than twice the amount of hours at the beer store for the next two weeks. This is good news. I finally, after at least 4-5 years of pondering, set up an appointment with a lady in my church to start a mentoring relationship. She's our elder but is finished her term this month so we are going to start meeting every week for a while. I'm really happy about this. I also got my first dentist appointment in about 2-3 years. eeww. Yeah!! Dan's benefits cards finally came so I made an appointment thinking that it would take about 3 months. nope. Friday I finally get my teeth cleaned. I've also got a play date with Coryn for Wednesday, a waxing appointment booked for Sat. and an hour massage with Coryn and Hannelle booked for reading week!! Now if that isn't on the go again, I don't know what is. Now about school work...