Muskoka 2008

Dresden, originally uploaded by J is for Jasmine..

For my 25th birthday, Nick drove me up to his family's cottage in Muskoka, 6 hours north of where we live. I'll be honest - I was nervous. I try to be as outdoorsy as possible, but when you date someone like Nick, he's hard to impress.

We spent the days canoing (a newfound hobby!), catching turtles and toads, hiking through mosquito infested woods and climbing up the sides of waterfalls. Not bad!

Somewhere over the...

The Sushi California

Mom and I are buddies. I love coming home from work, picking her up and either going grocery shopping, or out to a nice restaurant for some good food and talk. But for the past month her jaw has been extremely sore and she hasn't been able to open her mouth very wide to eat much of anything. That being said, she's lost a good 15lbs because of her diet restriction and the fact that she exercises an hour each day.

So I came home today craving sushi. She was a sport and came out with me anyway and thankfully did not have much trouble with the sashimi. I brought her to a new sushi restaurant in town - The Sushi California on University Avenue. We bought the medium sized boat to share between us and had seaweed salad and miso soup to start. We ended with delicious red bean mochi ice cream...

I love food.

Need sleep.

If there's one thing I wish I could figure out it's sleep and how much I should be getting of it to function.

I sleep 10 hours and I am napping by mid-day.

I sleep 8 hours and am napping on my lunch.

I sleep 14 hours and I cannot keep my eyes open all day.

However, when I sleep 4 hours, I am perky, focused and on top of everything.

WTH.

I am currently dragging myself through today, annoyed with my co-workers and anticipating the return to my bed...

"Nick, can we get one?"

Nick brought Stanley over for my mom to meet and for a bath, hee! We lathered him up in green apple scented doggie shampoo and he behaved better than we thought (only shaking and spraying me with water 3 times!) He was a bit wiped out after the ordeal, and chose to lay down under our chairs, making for some great photos!

Productive morning.

When my alarm woke me up this morning at 6:30am the same thought that popped into my head yesterday morning made its return...

"But you're off today! No reason to get out of bed. Besides, it's much too early and it looks like this run might get rained out!"

I heard my mother rustling around in the bathroom and knew she was waiting, so I got up and put my runners on.

It was a good run.

We got home at 7:45, had some oatmeal mixed in with some chocolate soy protein powder (the "healthier" version of champorado) and head out to work in the garden. Well, I took a detour and gave myself a much needed pedicure (my feet are a mangled mess from running - very hurty!) and then proceeded to harvest our kangkong plants for lunch today. Kangkong in sinigang - SO very good and healthy. Our hot pepper plants are producing well this year and there is nothing better than picking sweet sugar snap peas from the plant and eating them on the spot.

Stanley Levac

(Not Stanley, but equally as cute)

On Friday Nick's best friend put him in charge of a truly awesome task - to dog-sit his year-old pug, Stanley, for an entire week.

Being that I am completely enthralled with this dog, I was stoked. Pugs are by far my most favorite breed of dog. Their dark flat snouts and large wide-set eyes are nothing short of charming, and the fact that Stanley has breathing difficulties and asthma (like me!) cause me to love him even more.

The past two days have been awesome. We took Stanley for a walk around Nick's house the first day, and despite Nick and I wanting to have some "alone time" in his room, Stanley only jumped up on the bed once, which was nice! Yesterday Nick brought him over to my house to run around in my parent's large backyard, and he truly exhibited jungle-esque behaviours by crawling in and out of every plant/bush in my mother's garden. We took him for another walk and stopped for ice cream where he was the hit of the show.

Today we have the more difficult task of giving him a bath. He's been in and out of everything these past two days and he's starting to stink. I am heading to PetsMart after I type this to buy some shampoo...anyone ever bathe a dog? I have no clue where to begin!

It's going to be heartbreaking for me to think that Nick will have to give him back at the end of the week. I am truly hoping that Nick gets attached to him. From what I understand, Stanley's owner is planning to use him as a stud dog and has offered to give Nick his choice of the litter free of charge. Exciting!!!

Fridays are killer.

I run out of steam Thursday nights. After four 8-hour days of constant talking, all I want is to shut up and work in silence at the 'banishment station' on the back computer. No words. Just tasks that will help make the day go by finally.

But that never happens. It is business as usual - exercise assessments to do, new people at orientation to interview. I must've wanted this silence especially bad today, because I seemed to get stuck with the two most annoying, talkative people. I learned all about this gentleman's training as a medic in Yugoslavia, about how his vision was saved because of a European doctor's pioneering new surgical technique, how his cardiologist told him "half his heart was dead" and how sitting and concentrating too much gives him migraines, therefore he cannot take our education classes. Immediately after I rid myself of him I got a woman tethered to a wheeled-walker and portable oxygen and she proceeded to blather on about how her dietary choices at her nursing home was insufficient (she has gout which means no liver, and is on Coumadin, which means no leafy greens, and is lactose intolerant, which means no dairy, and has an allergy to seafood, which means no fish, after all!)

Seriously.

All I could dream about was my 3-day weekend, the delicious pad thai I was going to order, and the night of multiple-orgasms I had coming up.

I must've been obviously dozing, because my Russian talk-maniac paused and asked, "Is there somewhere you need to be? Am I taking up too much time?" to which I hesitantly said, "Why, no. Please, keep going..."

Happy woman.

Ixtapa, Mexico
Aruba
Las Vegas
Regina, Saskatchewan (HAAAA!)
Catalina Island, California
Phuket, Thailand

Trying to decide where we want to say our vows has never been more of a welcomed choice...

Saturday Mornings...

...have been spent with my Mom the past few weeks. She will knock on my door and wake me up at 6:30am and we will go for a 1-hr walk...well, she'll walk - I usually jog.

I love her to death. If I am anywhere near her fitness levels at the age of 59 I will be very happy.

Nothing is better than starting the day with some exercise followed by a heart-healthy omelette at Lad's Dairy Bar!

My cheesy running shirt

I think this shirt might be from 1992. It has very large armholes and is decorated with very bright royal blue lettering.

When I run in it I like to hum the theme song to "Saved By The Bell" because it seems like something Zack Morris would wear.

Harrison's Tractioning

After seeing the chiropractor three times a week for the last 4 months, I was given this ramp-shaped thingy to do neck stretches with.

Basically I am to hang my head over the high edge for 20 minutes a day. This in turn will help stretch the ligament in the front of my neck and give me a nice 60-degree curve that is oh-so-desirable. (According to my chiropractor my neck is too straight and flat, which explains my migraines and asthma.)

To be honest, I was skeptical about chiropractic care, but it has surprisingly eliminated my migraines the past few months. I feel well a lot of the time and I sleep better too. I have not gotten sick even when a nasty bug was infecting everyone at work. Coincidence? Perhaps, but things are functioning well.

I am not a big fan of this traction. It hurts and we are expected to put our shoulders on the edge and get crazy far back. Not sure I'm ready for that yet...

Work Rant.

+ Two pregnancies right now - Shelley and Stephanie. Wow. Considering that Sasha is going to be trying again in the next few months means that I could potentially be stuck with two new kins for an entire year. WTF.

+ Constantly am reminding myself about watching what I say. Working with females means that a lot of gossip and backstabbing goes on. There is a love-hate relationship amongst Steph, Sash and I. I need to be less open about my personal life and feelings.

The Financial Breakdown

Annual income: $50,000 - $60,000 to start

What I Get:
+ 2 weeks paid vacation
+ 24 paid sick days
+ Dental and health benefits (at a cost of $10/month
+ Great pension plan (which I must contribute $140/paycheque to)
+ Union membership and job security
+ No shiftwork - straight daytime hours

I met with the Pension and Benefits Representative today to get my new full-time position sorted out. I am a little overwhelmed - I kind of feel like I've crossed into the realm of adulthood and am completely and totally naïve to what I need to do. To help make sense of it all, I am meeting with a financial advisor sometime within the coming weeks. Need to start with some wise money choices.

Farewell good paycheques! Hello budgeting!

Apple shaped

Defined as “abdominal adiposity, dangerous for its correlation to the development of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, cancer etc.”

I have recently discovered that I have morphed from a less- dangerous pear shape to a freaking apple.

I need to work out! Will go for a walk tonight after this class…

They seem happy.

I should probably take it as a good sign that the participants at CWC are excited that I got my permanent position.

I have mixed emotions.

I am not entirely certain that this will be a life-long career choice. Doing a million blood pressures a week and repeating the same old thing is something I find hard to swallow. But it is stable income for now. Perhaps it will bring more choices my way.

I'm nosy.

Today I grabbed some sushi and headed over to Nick’s house to check everything out. He had left the key in his football cleats which were located in his unlocked garage.

I guess it started off innocently enough. But then I got nosy and found his journal from Australia which was completely irresistable. I couldn’t put it down. I thought I had know him well enough but after reading that I found out he struggles with himself quite a bit. There is a huge sense of inadequacy. I wonder if that still plays a role in his dealings with me. Perhaps this is why we have not made any strides towards marriage. Maybe he still doesn’t feel good enough.

Oddly enough, the journal’s last entry was made November 4th - about a week before my miscarriage. I wish he had continued. I would’ve loved to know what was going thru his head.

As long as we’ve been together and as much as I love him, there are parts about him that I wish I could figure out, come to terms with and accept. He is still very much a stranger to me.

Weekend-Not-So-Great #2

I tried to visit Raechel again this weekend and it did not turn out as great as I’d hoped. I shouldn’t even really use the word “great” to describe it - the weekend wasn’t even good.

+ Got hassled at the border.
+ The on-ramp to I-75 South was closed and so I had to take the northbound ramp. Traffic was jam-packed on the I-94 ramp and I was stuck for an hour in traffic.
+ My phone popped up with an “App Error 523″ and was useless the entire time I was in the States.
+ We got sushi at a restaurant called Izakaya. Thought that our luck was beginning to turn around until Raechel started complaining of nausea. She puked in the parking lot of this Chinese market.
+ We bought Mochi ice cream which was melted in the box.
+ The next day we head over to the Henry Ford Museum to see the chocolate exhibit thinking we’d get samples. Hardly anything to taste. Raech was disappointed.

Oh well. I guess this means an absolutely fantastic visit must be coming soon because this can’t keep happening for much longer!

The baby is kicking and I felt it! I am excited!