Mom Turns 50 On Saturday!

Support

You should go here, and then you should pray.

My parents were here this weekend

Proclamation

Food involving cinnamon and icing should not be eaten cold.

NZR

This will only make sense if you have seen or been in the show.




image courtesy of nataliedee.com

Sleep?

For some reason the boys next door have felt that it is appropriate to blast Journey out of one of their trucks for the past 2.5 hours. From my bedroom I can almost make out every word of every song. Its 11:36pm, we have lots of elderly neighbours and neighbours with small children. What are they thinking?

Secret boyfriend, if you're reading this; sleep is important to me, causing me trouble in achieving sleep means certain death.

Pardon me while I root around for the laser sight for my large gun....

Uhhh

http://www.thebricktestament.com/

Don't fool with credit cards...

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/03/22/century-worker060322.html

L.A. bus worker calls it quits at 100 Last Updated Wed, 22 Mar 2006 11:52:37 EST

CBC News

A bus maintenance worker in Los Angeles will mark his 100th birthday Wednesday by retiring after more than 70 years on the job.

"I'm kind of nervous about leaving the job, I've been doing it for so long," Arthur Winston told the Associated Press at a ceremony held in his honour on Tuesday.

Arthur Winston in 2003. (Courtesy: Metropolitan Transportation Authority / Photo: Rick Jager)

"I'm going to miss my crew, but I'll find plenty of things to do with my free time."

According to transit officials, Winston had a near-perfect attendance record. The only work day he ever missed was when his wife of 65 years died in 1988, AP reported.

Winston arrived in California after drought and storms drove his family out of Oklahoma in the 1920s.

"In 1924, at age 17, Mr. Winston started cleaning trolley cars for the Los Angeles Railway Co., which morphed and merged nearly half a dozen times and is now the Metropolitan Transportation Authority," the Los Angeles Times said in a 1997 profile.

"He quit that job for a spell, then went back Jan. 24, 1934. He has never left."

"The barber refuses to take his money."

He was something of a celebrity in South Los Angeles, the Times continued, "the result of being around so long that he seems to know just about everybody (or everybody's great-grandparents). People fuss over him. The barber refuses to take his money.

"Men in their 60s and 70s stop to tell Mr. Winston they have been emulating him since they were boys."

In recent years, Winston led an 11-member crew that cleaned and refueled buses at the Arthur Winston Division, a South L.A. bus yard named in his honour in 1997, China's official Xinhua news agency noted.

"Employee of the Century"

In 1996, he received a congressional citation as "Employee of the Century" from U.S. President Bill Clinton.

The secret of his long working life?

"I don't smoke, and I don't drink and I don't fool with these credit cards," he told CBS News in 2004.

Things I'm Excited About

1. My parents are coming on Friday to hang out and see the play
2. Marie and Justin are coming on Friday to do the same thing
3. Jaime and Adam may come to see the play
4. So many of my friends are actually going to come and see NZR
5. Opening night is tonight!
   

Excuses, Excuses

Hey, I have my last mainstage rehearsal on Saturday, then Monday our dress rehearsal and Tuesday night NZR opens with the preview. Including Monday and Tuesday, we'll be doing 6 shows in a row. As a result there could be a lot of blogging and there could be very little. I'm just lettin' y'all know.

I'm in love with Mrs P.

On Sunday I got to meet Dan's Mom, Gayla. In the kind of language that my Mom would use, Mrs P is a whoot! She took half of First CRC out for lunch after church and got to know lots about Dan's friends. Yolisa was there, she works for CLAC. Turns out Mrs P worked for CLAC. She remembers her time there fondly because as she excitedly put it, "Dan was conceived at CLAC." By which she actually meant that she was working there at the time. Ha, Ha Dan.

Later in the day I went for a walk with Sarah Vedder. Sarah Vedder is from the valley, just like the Postmas. I ended up at Sarah's making pizza for supper. Now, Sarah's cousin Katrina is also in that dorm and another valley dweller, Matt Young was there visiting a female friend.

We all happened to be in the kitchen when Sarah asked, "How was the rest of your day after church?"

"It was great. Dan's Mom took a bunch of us out for lunch."

"Postma? As in Gayla Postma"

"Yup"

Kristina chimed in at this point, "You mean the Gayla Postma that we know?"

Sarah replied, "Yup."

To which Matt interjected, "You mean Gary's wife?"

"Yup."

"What was she doing her and what were you doing going out for lunch with her?"

Everything got explained and the Dutch community-bingo-fun-time was over. I just thought it was neat that Mrs P. was so famous in one kitchen.

Oh, and Gayla said I was a good hugger. 6 pts.

Tagged'ed! (I'm not trying to be esoteric or showy - this is what I like)

4 jobs i have had:

• farm hand
  
• grant proposal researcher and writer
  
• integrated pest management technician
• pita pit manager

4 movies i could watch over and over

• Drop Dead Gorgeous
• Best In Show
• Oceans 11
• Any James Bond with Sean or Pierce

4 books i could read over and over

• Catcher In the Rye
• The Giver
• The Adventures of Captain Underpants
• Ferdinand the Bull

places i have lived

• Tupperville
• Brighton
• Ancaster (soon to be 3 different places)
• Hamilton (3 different places)

4 places i've been on vacation

• Renton Grandparents' cottage
• Cooperstown, NY
• Niagara Fall, ON
• i'm a dairy farmer's daughter, we don't go on vacations - and now that i'm a student i can't afford vacations

4 websites i visit daily

• nataliedee.com
• toothpastefordinner.com
• marriedtothesea.com
• theweathernetwork.com
  

4 favourite foods

• lasagne
• french vanilla ice cream
• pineapple
• pizza

4 favourite drinks

• purple knee high
• pina colada (made from scratch)
• peach belini
• what i like to call a 'sparkling peach' - peach schnapps and ginger ale

4 favourite non-alcoholic drinks

• Coca-Cola
• Peach Ice Tea
• Chai Tea
• Vanilla Coke

4 favourite musicians

• Billie Holiday
• Sarah Vaughn
• The Gershwin Brothers
• Sarah McLachlan

4 places i'd rather be right now

• a flat over looking the water in Lisbon
• Mom and Dad's house
• Kokribite (sorry stanska if i didn't spell that right)
• here, but with no school work and lots of time to hang out with friends

4 books i have read (does that mean recently, cause i've read a lot of books in my life...)

• Surfacing by Margaret Atwood
• The Lost Salt Gift of Blood by Alistair McLeod
• The Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munroe
• the Book of Psalms

4 movies i have seen

• The Longest Yard
• The Wedding Date
• Narnia
• Monsters Inc

what is on my desk right now

• remnants of my old computer
• a dirty bowl and spoon
• misc papers
• blue body glitter
• green tea body spray
• a mug full of pens, pencils, screwdrivers, puppets, bracelets...
• a candle
  
• the remote for a stereo that doesn't work
• an empty apple juice container
• and the list goes on...

i tag: lockie, lauren, marleah and jaime

Pincushion

From Thursday afternoon to this afternoon I have had:

• 20 acupuncture needles in my lower back/bum
• 2 acupuncture needles in my hands
• 2 acupuncture needles in my head
• 13 needles in my left arm
• 6 scratch/jab/pokes in my left arm
• 1 needle in my right arm
• 23 scratch/jab/pokes in my right arm

That is 67 metal objects that have been shoved into me all in the name of not being in constant pain and not dying.

Minnesota

Last week my brother played in the Metrodome (thats where the Minnesota Twins play). My Dad flew in to watch and here are some of the pics he took.

Not What I Had Planned.

Ok, remember that whole sting thing from the summer? Ok, so I finally got an appointment with my immunologist to try and find out what happened in August.

My appointment was for 8:15am this morning. When I got there we did the standard breathing test kind of thing. We then moved on to the traditional scratch test and I am indeed allergic to the same things I was last year. Then after asking me a bunch of questions about what happened in the summer the doctor decided that testing for allergies to the bee family would be a good idea.

So we moved into that. There were three levels to this. The first was a scratch test with the bee serums and I didn't really react to that. The second was a low dose subdermal (under the skin) and I had a bit of a reaction to a couple of the serums in that. Then we did a higher dose subdermal test. I had a strong dermatogical reaction to that. My chest also started to get tight and I started to get dizzy and well, I was having a full body reaction. Naturally the doctor was not ok with this.

He gave me a big shot of Benadryl and left me alone for a bit. When he came back I did not feel better. He was still quite concerned. So he gave me a shot of epinepherine. That made me breath better. It also made me shake head to toe. I mean even my lips where shaking. Seriously, my lips were shaking. My lips.

It was around 11:30am at this point and the doctor had to move to doing rounds at the hospital. He was not about to send me home. So he took me to the hospital with him and took me right to the head nurse (which he had called ahead of time) and she set me up sitting outside the Fast Track nurse's station to make sure I didn't continue to have a react. I had to stay there until 2pm.

Then I had to get my drugged self home. The long and short of that is that the hopistal requisitioned me a cab ride home. I came home and slept. Now I feel like I was pumped full of a lot of drugs in a short time - bleeah.

The moral of the story is that I am allergic to wasps and somewhat less allergic to honey bees, that I need to carry an epi-pen and start allergy shots so that I can spend the summer outside.

And know you know the rest the story.

My Bum

I just wanted to let you know that for half an hour today I had 10 needles in my bum.

Jo

Laura: I'm not a victim of marketing!
Jo: No, you're a ho.

Nothing Is Better Than...

Two horses fighting/dancing in blanket form.

Commit much?

(preface - i am not talking about choir)

Lately I have been noticing a steep decline in the ability of young adults to fully commit to something. Now I don't know if maybe I'm old, or if it's because I have played lots of team sports, or I'm in my fourth of five years in the choir or what: but people and their lack of understanding of how committing works and their lack of commitment is driving me bonko.

So let me break down how committing works. If you commit to something, which is essentially saying , "Oh yes please, I will do that activity," it means that you have to do it until it is done. And that means that you can't just leave half way through, or only do part of it, or only do it when you feel like it. It means you do it and you do it well - you can quit if: one of your parents die, your house explodes, you get a tropical disease, or your arms fall off. If you are stressed out because of your own poor time management, well join the club and keep slugging it out.

Now I need to move into the Having Your Cake and Eating It Too, section of this rant. Once you are committed to something, it may mean that you are not free to do other things. Gasp, fall on floor. Let's do this in a formulaic way - If Guido is committed to doing activity A it may mean that he will not be free on Saturday night to do fun thing B with his friends. Gasp, fall on floor. Wait Laura, you mean, no, wait, no, that I may have to sacrifice my precious social life for commitments that I have made. Wow, I'm never going to commit to anything ever again... Oh wait, that's dumb.

Maybe I'm being too vague - let us try another more specific 'hypothetical' situation: If Natalia is in the mainstage she may not be free to go to the school banquet which is on the night of the last day long rehearsal before the show opens. If Natalia and her little friends thought about it for two seconds they might see that is a problem and that they committed themselves in December to the show and that doing the show may entail some sacrifice for the greater good of art. 'Hypothetical'. Cough.

OUCF Review

I was looking for a picture online and stumbled upon this.

NZR

If you come to NZR, you will see

me

and

my

guitar.

Awesomeness

OK! So I was reading this and it lead me to this.


Ah ha ha ha ha, so awesome, so much my fantasy...sigh. I wonder if I can order one in soprano (oooh, low blow - i'm gonna get beat up, or have my boyfriend stolen...wait, what boyfriend..shoot, um get dirty looks..yeah ok. i love you sopranos. where would i be without you?).

parsley, i know you'll love this like i do.

Dad and His New Toy

Remember how I mentioned that my Dad had a new digital camera? Well he's enjoying it and has been sending pics to my brother and I. I would like to share those with you. Here. (Eventually there will be a permalink to your right)

Lil Brudder

Check out my frere.

Eschatalogical

This is S-Cat.



He's saying "New earth?"

Slighty Paraphrased Phone Conversation

phone rings

me: good afternoon, laura speaking.
r: hey laura, its rusty calling from dr. yanover's office.
me: oh hey.
r: the dr would needs to see you.
me: ok.
r: and it's supposed to be this month.
me: ok.
r: but my problem with that is that david (the dr.) got hit by a car at the beginning of february.
me: he got hit by a car?
r: yes.


In the past twelve months my dr has severely broken (and i mean smashed to bits) his leg in a skiing accident, had his father (and partner in practice) go through major surgery, had his father die just before Christmas and then got hit by a car.

Wow.

Home

My Dad got a digital camera for his birthday. As a result I have this nice picture of our family home.