Dear Bird who thought it would be a good idea to start singing directly outside my open window at 4:38 this morning,

FUCK YOU.

Much love,
-Jen

Look up. Waaaaaaaaaay up. At the ABOUT button. I’ve updated it.

Just in case you cared.

It’s really about damn time I did this. And it only took me 3 days.

Last Update: May 29, 2006

(more…)

It’s official. We Rock.

The house of commons voted 158-133 to support same-sex marriage, making Canada the 3rd country in the world to make the unions legal at a federal level.

And as much of a chump as I think Paul Martin can be, his quote on the issue sums up exactly how I feel about same-sex marriage, and really Canada in general.

The “vote is about the Charter of Rights,” said Martin. “We’re a nation of minorities and in a nation of minorities you don’t cherry-pick rights.”

And now that the gay marriage issue is taken care of, can we please work on that whole lack of TiVo thing?

This one’s for mikey. Happy Marquee Monday!

My cell phone contract isn’t up until October-ish… but I’m hoping to convince the fine folks at Telus Mobility to let me renew it a little early, because methinks it’s time for a new phone.

A CAMERAPHONE. So I can take pictures like this. And this. And phallic cinnamon twists, which I’d totally have a picture of for you if I had a cameraphone!

I think I’ve narrowed it down to two choices - but I really have no experience with either brand (being a motorola/samsung girl thus far). My absolute requirements for any phone are to have a display on the front, so I don’t have to open it to see who’s calling (it’s the little things), as well as being some sort of flip phone so I don’t start phoning people from my pocket or purse. So, some advice would be appreciated. Your choices are:

The LG 6190 with fastap keyboard (handy for the texting)

The Audiovox 8920T with no fastap, but 1 more whole megapixel on the camera.

Any reccomendations?

“Vegetables is what Food eats.”

This blog is now an anemea-free zone. Up with heme iron!

Another ridiculously high standard brought on by one of my many dating disasters? I wish.

I guess if I could pick something… perhaps try not to give your date a nosebleed?

Truth is though, Ridiculously High Standards tend to fly right out the damn window when you’re smitten.

Please send help. And common sense.

ASAP.

Shopping last night was a fantastic time. Sue and I conqurerd Richmond Centre and both came away with some great finds. I managed to spend more on a cheese knife, than a pair of jeans. To be fair, the jeans were on sale at Old Navy, and the knife is FANTASTIC. I obviously have my priorities straight. Then I meandered home, had a beer, and went to bed.

Woke up, went to check my email… and…. nothing. No internet connection.

Reboot the computer… nothing.

Power-cycle the modem and router… nothing.

ipconfig /release /renew… nothing.

Call Shaw to hear “oh, this is bad. Your modem must be fried, because it.. uh… doesn’t exist.”

Forego plans for pyjammas, coffee, french toast and bacon to trek down to the Shaw store to swap out the busted modem for a new one.

And now, I have a slick new modem and ultrafastupserduperhighspeed internet. And Cheese.

Life is good.

Ok, it’s not actually that bad.

But it’s been a crazy long week, and I’m not feeling 100%. It could be the 9-13 hour days, it could be the PMS, it could be the position of the Sun in Uranus (ok, maybe not, I just wanted to say Uranus).

Regardless, I need some retail therapy. And ice cream. And liquor. Not necessarily in that order.

So, two questions for you:
1. Do you want to go shopping with me after work (around 5-ish)?
2. If you can’t come shopping with me, tell me your favourite: place to shop, ice cream flavour, and/or drink.

Usually I cruise through life doin’ what I do, and don’t think too much of it. Then every once in a while, a series of seemingly unrelated events come together and the universe gives me a big kick in the arse and says “This is how it all fits. This is what you’re meant to do.”

Unrelated events:
-Undertook the Weekend to End Breast Cancer, August 2004. Raised $2200 and walked 60kms over 2 days.
-Decided that walking was ok, but I’d rather try to run a half-marathon. Been training off and on since December 2004 and volunteered for Adidas Vancouver International Marathon in April 2005.
-Started planning for a potential trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras 2006 in May 2005.
-Dad diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes June 14, 2005.

Then, in my email inbox yesterday: An invitation to register to join Team Diabetes at the New Orleans Mardi Gras Marathon.

I’ve never before felt so strongly that there is something I’m meant to do. That all those things I did before were leading up to this. But it’s a damn scary prospect. The running will be tough; raising $5800 in 6 months is a far more daunting task.

But I think I can…

Things are still going well at the Spelunking Club. I’m having a great time, meeting great people, and even finding time to do a little spelunking myself. Not having a spelunking background at all, it’s nice to find out that I seem to have a bit of a knack for it - which really helps with the enthusiasm for the job.

The other thing that’s getting quite the workout is my brain.

I came into this job at the beginning of the height of the spelunking season, so work has been skewed heavily toward reacting to things that have already happened, rather than planning for the future. Every day I come across something that I need - such as a program, schedule, coaching or article - that I have to create myself out of a combination of things that exist, and things that I have to pull out of my head to tie it all together. And hope it makes sense in the spelunking world (which it usually does).

And every time it comes up, I get a little rush of panic, followed by inspiration. And the task gets done. And then I remember - THIS is why I went into the communication/facilitation field. Because I’m damn good at it.

And I wonder why the hell I stayed in a job where I was so miserable for so long.

I took it, you should too!

Exerpt from the dream I’m hoping to have tonight:

“Why hello there Christian Bale… is that electricity running through your cape, or are you just happy to see me?”

This Fish has a beautiful post on love today.

That’s the part about love that’s always been hard for me – stepping outside of my own security, to take a chance at humiliation to show I care. But I’m learning as I get older that it’s not about me. It’s about dropping defenses… exposing previously hidden faults and letting people hear me say, “this is how you know I love you.”

Someone recently told me I’m a bit of a mystery and hard to get to know - and that’s probably true. I rarely let people in very far. It takes me a long time to drop my defenses, and just be there to let someone accept me as I really, truly am - which is really what love is all about.

It’s easy to shut down and say no to love. I’ve done it for so very long. But what kind of life is that? I’ll tell you, it’s one that I’m sick of living. My family deserves more. My friends deserve more. I deserve more.

So to all of the people in my life that are so special to me, I promise that I will start to try harder to open up - to let you know I love you. Because I get the feeling that in return, I’ll probably find out that you love me too.

I hope you all took the time today to let the guy you call Dad know how much he’s appreciated.

But here’s a tip, special from me to you:

When you get him something called a Reciprocating Saw, it doesn’t matter that you don’t know what it does or why he wants one.

Just don’t tell your dad to “Enjoy his big tool,” otherwise your mom will shoot wine out her nose.