Posts (page 2)
I thought I would document some of the major things in my life, especially after the "Favorite Mistake" question mentioned earlier.
One cold January morning, I was on my way to school. I parked in a different spot from my usual choice, to be closer to campus. I was right across from the Arby's on 16th. I got out of my car, gathered my schoolbooks and debated whether or not to walk across 16th (a busy highway) at the middle, when there were no cars, or wander up to the crosswalk and lose a few minutes walking back.
4 steps later, I found myself on the ground in a reasonably intense level of discomfort. I was hyperventilating heavily and snow was strewn across my body. I remember my leg being sore, and my stomach doing the typical butterfly dance that it does in response to pain and shock. I shifted and turned around and got onto my knees with the intention of standing up, noticing absently how my ankle and foot dangled loosely from my leg. I think I was contemplating the next step as well - namely, extracting my cellphone from one of my dozen pockets to call 911.
I was just determining that getting up was not going to happen when a nice young woman came by and asked if I was okay. I told her I wasn't sure, and she attempted to help me stand up, but our mutual efforts were in vain. Another couple of would-be helpers pulled over - fortunately they had the advantages of upper-body strength and a car, so they managed to lift me up, support me and move me into the car and take me across the road to the very clinic on campus that I visited normally as a (relatively) healthy, bipedal humanoid.
Janice the nurse greeted me in the wheelchair one of my guardian angels had managed to bring over from the clinic and the next short while was a blur of gritted teeth, answering questions through the pain, talking to my mom (yeah, I know. She's my emergency contact - who'd've thought I'd actually need to USE that emergency contact info?), Janice calling 911, paramedics arriving with sweet merciful morphine (just enough to take the edge off; not enough to detach me from reality) and the bumpy trip to the Peter Lougheed.
Taking my boot off my swollen leg was excruciating - and this with nice, roomy Blundstone boots. I haven't worn them in the 7 months following my injury - primarily because for most of that time, my foot was too swollen to wear them. But now they're tucked away in my basement, on the side where drywall just went up (so they'll take some clearing of other boxes and things to reach), along with some unfortunate memories related to the incident.
I don't know if it's overly materalistic of me, but one of the biggest disappointments surrounding that whole incident was the loss of my pretty, almost brand-new, trouser-style jeans. They were a $60 investment at Ricki's that I saw slowly trickle down the drain as the shears of the paramedic severed the side seams of my pretty, flattering acquisition. I guess it's a good thing I followed the adage of wearing clean undies that day. Yes, of course it's all in perspective, but it sucked all the same. That, and receiving barely half of my tuition back from school after a long entanglement in beaurocratic red tape, but that's a story for another day.
I felt the bumps in the road and sidewalk and floor, but not as painfully as before the morphine settled in to distract me. I remember wincing every time the car went over a bump, but feeling it a little less in the ambulance - despite construction necessitating the ambulance parking in the back and my stretcher rumbling over the pavement to go in the rear door of the hospital.
... and I'm spent for now :P subject to edit/expansion/etc. but I thought I would get a good chunk written and go from there :)
Do you have a habit you wish you could break?
~eyes her Coke bottle~
nuff said? ;)
Because I can't see much interesting coming out of "What do you do when you're stressed?" uh... tense up. Look angry. heh. But even this is bound to be quick, because I've already stayed at work 20 minutes past home time, and I still have to stop by Mom and Dad's and then apply for a job before I go to bed. Well, another position HERE. I'm not dumb :)
Are you a cat person or a dog person, and why?
I'm a cat person. Hands. Freaking. DOWN. I like an animal that needs minimal snuggle time, talks a little but not a ton, and whose tongue isn't a) slimy and b) everpresent. Those are all qualities I have spent this summer discovering that I cannot STAND in dogs. I like a cat in my lap, occasionally, when they feel so inclined. I wish there was a little less fur to be shed, but what the hey - that's why I'm a shorthair kitty person. Dogs talk too much and lick too much, plain and simple.
I realize not all such creatures are created equal, and that some of those traits cross species. My parents'/brother&sister-in-law's dog is an exception. He's happy to chill out BESIDE you rather than being on your lap, and he'll stop with the tongue baths when you tell him to. But he's also 3lb soaking wet (chihuahua-mini-pinscher cross) so being in your lap is not a biggie. And he has his moments after social contact when he just wants to mellow by himself in his kennel.
On the flipside, there's my friehd's parents' cat, who meows INCESSANTLY and who constantly wants to be in your space. Needless to say I find this less than agreeable.
However, if you want me to be in the doggie camp for even a second, don't mention doggie poops. If I don't see a doggie poop for the rest of my life, it'll be too soon. yuck!!!!
Okay. Home time.
What has been your favorite mistake?
Submitted by Runnergirl
That's the perfect description of D, though not in the sense that Sheryl Crow's lyrics portray it. He's been in my life for 4 years.
Met him through Lavalife. Intimate Encounters probably... that's the only place anyone ever responded, whether they were looking for that or not. Oddly enough one of my longest relationships also came from that side of the site. But would I call them successes? hahahaha ... no.
D's gorgeous. But he doesn't think so - or he claims not to think so, in order to get more and better attention. My opinion in that respect changes daily. But as a Cancer-nurturer, I admit to eating that stuff up, as well as to loving having attention lavished on me by someone solidly built with spiky hair and kind eyes. Awhile before meeting me, he had his life headed in the ideal direction - pursuing a career as a hockey goalie, pretty wife, onward and upward. A few car accidents and girl-committed life negated his hockey career, so he's been in IT for awhile now. And beneath his typical jock exterior lie quirks and traits that are definitely atypical.
He and I didn't spend much time out in public. We did spend a lot of time talking. We talked online pretty much daily. Still do, most days. I'm BlackberryIM-ing with him right now, but only to arrange to see the laptops he's getting rid of, that I might help him accomplish that by purchasing. Well, one of them anyway. I know nobody believes that that's my sole intention, but the reality is, mistakes are mistakes for a reason.
The one and only thing I had ever asked of him was honesty. And he provided it, for awhile. When I found out that he had made me an accomplice to cheating, I stopped talking to him for awhile. And he hopefully learned his lesson. But if more mistakes were to be made at that point, they would be my mistakes, because I could no longer claim to be blind to reality.
He has a strong grip on my psyche. And hearing all that you've heard about him so far, you might think him a horrible human being. (Or me, for that matter). But he's also demonstrated that he cares. At a time when I thought I would drown in the financial mire, he threw some money my way. And not a small amount (by my standards - not enough to live off of for a month, but enough to knock down the most imminent financial hurdle facing me at the time, which involved the life of my pet too).
I'm outgrowing what we had, what we were. And I won't knowingly be an accomplice to cheating, because I've been the maligned girlfriend enough to know how much it hurts. But he'll always be my friend. I'll always be concerned for his well-being.
And I'll always wonder what if he had wanted more...
What were you afraid of when you were younger that seems silly to you now?
Submitted by wandie
I have more silly fears now than I ever did as a youngster. I think the irrational fears surface when we think too much about things. Or... maybe I'm thinking too much.
I am petrified of anything yellow & black & stingy. I'm working with it, and have been for a few years now. And I was never the type to run screaming. But if you see me freeze or back away slowly with a wild-eyed look of panic, I'm probably desperately avoiding a tiny little creature with a Stinger Of Doooooooooooooooooooom™.
I am afraid of the power going out while I shower. I am worried that I'll turn the wrong knob the wrong direction and either pass out from shock or cause myself 3rd degree burns. Or I'll slip on the way out of the tub and bang my head on the faucet. Or I'll make contact with an electrical outlet with my wet body and cause a pretty white fireworks show.
... I guess that only makes sense if the lights burn out in a bathroom with no window (like the one where I live now), as a power outage would result in no POWER from the outlet. Right? ;)
And I'm afraid of rejection. Desperately so. The monkey on my back says I'm not smart enough, not pretty enough, not spiritual enough, not worldly enough, SOMEHOW inadequate to the task. Thus far I've accumulated a lot of evidence to back that up.
But my fears are irrational and they need to be checked at the door and replaced with giant leaps. So here goes nothin'.
If you could be featured in a magazine which one would you choose?
I admit to there being nothing creative or particularly unexpected about my answer to this question.
Photo Life.
Probably interesting macros. The beauty of my S5IS is that I can get right into my macro - such that I can touch the object with my lens (not always the most desirable thing for the LENS, but it means I can get REALLY REALLY FREAKING CLOSE). I want to play with lighting my objects from behind and so forth, and then showcase some of my work.
Which means I gotta start WORKING on it. ~lol~ hmmm...
Four jobs I've had:
1. Telamarketer (for 2 whole hours)
2. Alarm Dispatcher
3. Childcare (daycare)
4. Receptionist
Four movies I can watch over and over:
1. Grosse Pointe Blank
2. A Life Less Ordinary
3. Monsters Inc.
4. My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Four places I've lived:
1. Erin Woods, Calgary
2. Mission, Calgary
3. Balzac, Alberta
4. Airdrie, Alberta
Four TV shows I love:
1. NCIS
2. What Not To Wear
3. The Office
4. Project Runway Canada
Four highly regarded TV shows that I've never watched a single minute of:
1. Lost
2. Dead Like Me
3. L-Word
4. Desperate Housewives
Four of my favorite dishes:
1. rare steak with homemade, simple potato salad and a virgin caesar. nom!
2. chicken marengo
3. Vietnamese pho
4. chicken-mushroom duet
Four sites I visit daily:
1. Facebook
2. LiveJournal
3. area709.com (mmmmmmers music fix)
4. Plurk
Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Singapore
2. Costa Rica
3. Honduras
4. Italy
What's your favorite season and why?
Submitted by [Susan]
You know, I always grew up loving summer, but lately my redheaded self is catching up to me and I'm realizing that sunburn and heatstroke are no picnic. Granted, I live in Alberta, so it's been known to snow here in any given month (if you look back at our weather history you will have seen snowfall in any of the months of the year). But lately it's been 30+ (that's celcius, dearies) and downright deadly.
So I have gotten more of a taste for early fall. Still warmish, still possessed of starkly beautiful blue sky, but the leaves begin to change and the weather gets a bit crisper, but Jack Frost is still locked away in his cage and the ground is still safe to walk on. heh.
And really, when it all boils down to it, you can't beat the photo ops that come with fall. <3
Sorry, I thought I had just the leaf picture in my Flickr somewhere. Instead you get one of my Photoshop class projects, and the photos are all mine. :) This project is under Creative Commons copyright so pls to be respectin'. :)
Schools are coming closer to starting once again, any particular memories/thoughts associated with this time of year? Submitted by Chuck
Nothing in particular. Some back to school shopping, getting used to going to bed earlier. Watching the snow fall, depending on the year. ~LOL~
If you could connect with one person from your past, who would it be and why?
Submitted by NayNay72.
Rob. Not the most recently dated one, the one from back in the BBS days. The one that I went through a few breakups and a few reunions with, and who ultimately disappeared from my life. The one who crosses my mind regularly - who wrote a poem for me, who made me melt on the spot when he came to the door just out of the shower and in warm fresh fabric-softener-scented clothes... I suppose he would've eventually broken up with me and disappeared into the ether too, just like all the others have.
