My Templar Knights that I adored so very much a few posts back are unfortunately out of my price range.
I maybe would have spent up to 125 Euros plus shipping, but they're going for 190, and I can't justify spending that on a stuffed toy. Especially when I need to buy a new printer.
Ah well. Maybe some day.
For now I shall have to pine away in longing...
I maybe would have spent up to 125 Euros plus shipping, but they're going for 190, and I can't justify spending that on a stuffed toy. Especially when I need to buy a new printer.
Ah well. Maybe some day.
For now I shall have to pine away in longing...
Ever wanted to update your facebook status to say what you were really feeling, but then decided it probably wasn't a good idea to broadcast those thoughts to the world?
Yeah, so have I.
And yet I'm going to do it anyway, 'cuz it needs to happen somewhere.
The Tudor Rose:
Having said all that, I'm doing pretty good these days. My work life is more or less balancing my social life. I've met the guy who will be my boss in a month and a half, and he seems pretty cool. I'm going to get to set my own hours in the fall, so as long as I average out 37.5 hours/week over every 2-3 weeks, I can keep working a compressed schedule. I know how it works so I get a day off every two weeks, so w'ell see if that works. :) I only have 15 more business days left at my current place of employment! Woohoo!
And it's the type of place where they won't care if I'm 15 minutes late coming back from lunch so long as I make it up somewhere else. Magnolia, that means we can start doing lunch again in September!
I went to Taste of Edmonton twice (ok, granted, the second time was just after work today to get some Green Tea Ice cream, 'cuz I don't get to Kyoto much...).
I'm looking forward to some amazing Indian cuisine at a coworker's place tomorrow evening, hosting an event on the History of Beer down at FEP next week, and having Friday off next week to go get a massage and my hair done.
I have the last two weeks of August off. I figured I'd be doing nothing of particular importance, so I volunteered to help out with a friend's Fringe show - that'll be superfun!
It's a little under a month before I head to San Francisco for a 4-day vacation, and I get to see Radiohead while I'm there! My favouritest band ever! And then I get to do some more vacation-y sorts of things, and then I start the new job.
Things aren't perfect, but they're pretty damn good.
Yeah, so have I.
And yet I'm going to do it anyway, 'cuz it needs to happen somewhere.
The Tudor Rose:
- Is sick of sleeping alone
- Does not necessarily think that your kids are cute
- Is ridiculously happy that you're happy, but is still so jealous she could cry.
- 's feet stink
- Has the worst cramps she's had in a long time (apologies to any male readers)
- 's office is a revolving door - so many people are leaving (and no wonder!)
- is #*&^%& #)*@#$&
- Could not care less
- Wishes that certain of her coworkers would just stay on vacation
- needs you to get off you bloody high horse.
Having said all that, I'm doing pretty good these days. My work life is more or less balancing my social life. I've met the guy who will be my boss in a month and a half, and he seems pretty cool. I'm going to get to set my own hours in the fall, so as long as I average out 37.5 hours/week over every 2-3 weeks, I can keep working a compressed schedule. I know how it works so I get a day off every two weeks, so w'ell see if that works. :) I only have 15 more business days left at my current place of employment! Woohoo!
And it's the type of place where they won't care if I'm 15 minutes late coming back from lunch so long as I make it up somewhere else. Magnolia, that means we can start doing lunch again in September!
I went to Taste of Edmonton twice (ok, granted, the second time was just after work today to get some Green Tea Ice cream, 'cuz I don't get to Kyoto much...).
I'm looking forward to some amazing Indian cuisine at a coworker's place tomorrow evening, hosting an event on the History of Beer down at FEP next week, and having Friday off next week to go get a massage and my hair done.
I have the last two weeks of August off. I figured I'd be doing nothing of particular importance, so I volunteered to help out with a friend's Fringe show - that'll be superfun!
It's a little under a month before I head to San Francisco for a 4-day vacation, and I get to see Radiohead while I'm there! My favouritest band ever! And then I get to do some more vacation-y sorts of things, and then I start the new job.
Things aren't perfect, but they're pretty damn good.
So I went to the cemetery. I was there for more than two hours. I went into the mausoleum. And it didn't really freak me out too much.
Or so I thought.
I did wake up about 3 in the morning, thoughts racing, heart beating quickly, breathing rapidly, thinking about that damn cemetery.
But it was nowhere near as bad as last year.
I was able to fall asleep again pretty quickly, and while I didn't get ask much sleep as I would have liked last night, I think I'll be able to do this.
I've asked to be the principle tour guide's backup, so I probably won't have to do the tour much more than once or twice more this summer, but it's reassuring that I can actually hold it together long enough to do it.
Even if I do have to drug myself to sleep afterwards.
Or so I thought.
I did wake up about 3 in the morning, thoughts racing, heart beating quickly, breathing rapidly, thinking about that damn cemetery.
But it was nowhere near as bad as last year.
I was able to fall asleep again pretty quickly, and while I didn't get ask much sleep as I would have liked last night, I think I'll be able to do this.
I've asked to be the principle tour guide's backup, so I probably won't have to do the tour much more than once or twice more this summer, but it's reassuring that I can actually hold it together long enough to do it.
Even if I do have to drug myself to sleep afterwards.
So, I've gone back and looked, but I didn't blog about it.
A year ago today, I was having a bitch of a time. It was ridiculously hot outside, I wasn't sleeping properly, I was trying to balance three jobs... It was roughly a year ago (I don't have the date marked in my calendar or anything, but I know it was around the middle of July) that I got as close as I had ever been to a nervous breakdown.
I finished a cemetery tour, walked home, had a bath, went to bed... I couldn't sleep. For the umpteenth night in a row. My mind was racing, and my stress manifested itself in an intense paranoia of the mausoleum at the cemetery - it was like a malignant presence had followed me home and wouldn't let me rest. At about 2 a.m., I wrote an email to my boss and quit the cemetery tour contract. At about 4 a.m., still not able to sleep, I called in sick to work for the day. At about 8 a.m., I called my mother at work and arranged to meet her for lunch. I ended up sitting at a picnic table near Winston Churchill square munching on Taste of Edmonton Food, across from my mother, and bawling my eyes out. I made arrangements to sleep in their basement as much as possible for the next few weeks. The day after, I went and saw my doctor, who prescribed sleep aids to be taken on a short-term basis (there were 15 pills in the bottle, now, a year later, I've still got 9 left...). I slowly got better. With sleep and only trying to balance two jobs, I felt relaxed again.
My cemetery tour boss was quite understanding. I've been blessed with supervisors that are wonderful and empathetic. My supervisor at the U was the same.
Nevertheless, another summer is looming, and I have signed myself up to work cemetery tours again. I would like to say that I'm not terrified. I would like to say that I'm confident I can do this and that it won't negatively affect me. After all, I'm getting good sleep this summer (yay air conditioner!), I'm not trying to balance three jobs, I have a social life, I know that I have friends and family that are there to support me.
But that's one of the catches of having a mental illness, I suppose. Whenever I feel achy or tired, I wonder if I'm falling back into depression. Whenever I think of the cemetery and the mausoleum, my confidence takes a nosedive and I wonder if I'm really up for it. So far I'm only scheduled to be there one night, and with someone else, so we'll see how it goes. I'm trying to convince myself that I will kick this things ass and get past it. After all, the way to tackle a phobia is to face it and deal with it, right?
Either way, good vibes would be extremely welcome for me from about 7 - 8:30 on Wednesday night. And if you're interested, there's a super-awesome tour of Edmonton Cemetery (117 Street and 107 Ave) this Wednesday at 7 p.m. for only $5.
A year ago today, I was having a bitch of a time. It was ridiculously hot outside, I wasn't sleeping properly, I was trying to balance three jobs... It was roughly a year ago (I don't have the date marked in my calendar or anything, but I know it was around the middle of July) that I got as close as I had ever been to a nervous breakdown.
I finished a cemetery tour, walked home, had a bath, went to bed... I couldn't sleep. For the umpteenth night in a row. My mind was racing, and my stress manifested itself in an intense paranoia of the mausoleum at the cemetery - it was like a malignant presence had followed me home and wouldn't let me rest. At about 2 a.m., I wrote an email to my boss and quit the cemetery tour contract. At about 4 a.m., still not able to sleep, I called in sick to work for the day. At about 8 a.m., I called my mother at work and arranged to meet her for lunch. I ended up sitting at a picnic table near Winston Churchill square munching on Taste of Edmonton Food, across from my mother, and bawling my eyes out. I made arrangements to sleep in their basement as much as possible for the next few weeks. The day after, I went and saw my doctor, who prescribed sleep aids to be taken on a short-term basis (there were 15 pills in the bottle, now, a year later, I've still got 9 left...). I slowly got better. With sleep and only trying to balance two jobs, I felt relaxed again.
My cemetery tour boss was quite understanding. I've been blessed with supervisors that are wonderful and empathetic. My supervisor at the U was the same.
Nevertheless, another summer is looming, and I have signed myself up to work cemetery tours again. I would like to say that I'm not terrified. I would like to say that I'm confident I can do this and that it won't negatively affect me. After all, I'm getting good sleep this summer (yay air conditioner!), I'm not trying to balance three jobs, I have a social life, I know that I have friends and family that are there to support me.
But that's one of the catches of having a mental illness, I suppose. Whenever I feel achy or tired, I wonder if I'm falling back into depression. Whenever I think of the cemetery and the mausoleum, my confidence takes a nosedive and I wonder if I'm really up for it. So far I'm only scheduled to be there one night, and with someone else, so we'll see how it goes. I'm trying to convince myself that I will kick this things ass and get past it. After all, the way to tackle a phobia is to face it and deal with it, right?
Either way, good vibes would be extremely welcome for me from about 7 - 8:30 on Wednesday night. And if you're interested, there's a super-awesome tour of Edmonton Cemetery (117 Street and 107 Ave) this Wednesday at 7 p.m. for only $5.
I think I'm in love. No, seriously. This also proves just how nerdy I am, but I don't care.
A friend of mine posted on facebook that she had discovered these guys. And I want one. I really really really really want one. Or many. But one will do.
Behold....
The Knights Templar!
More information on these guys can be found HERE.
A friend of mine posted on facebook that she had discovered these guys. And I want one. I really really really really want one. Or many. But one will do.
Behold....
The Knights Templar!
More information on these guys can be found HERE.
So I mentioned a few entries below that I'm hoping to take piano lessons again in the fall. I've been to see and/or talked to five teachers so far, and have now narrowed it down to 3... This is where I need input.
Here are the options.
Here are the options.
- Teacher one is an older teacher, has been in the business for YEARS, but has admitted that she's cutting back and working on retiring. If I go with her, I could easily be out of a teacher in a couple of years. Having said that, she's worked with mature students for years, and has a special interest in injury prevention (which is great, considering I spend all day at a keyboard and then would be spending my evenings at another sort of keyboard). She is also a stickler for technical studies which is what killed me when I was taking piano before - that's the part that almost made me fail my grade 10 piano, and she seems like she'll push me super hard on that. Her teaching style makes up for some of what I've lacked in the past - learning about harmonic progressions in the music, and focusing on how those work. I have not yet met this teacher, but our phone conversation was super informative, and she really assessed my needs quite thoroughly. Having said that, I'm worried that I would get bored with the technical aspects and pressure in that regard.
- Teacher two is younger - she can't be much older than I am. This means I would likely have the opportunity to grow with her, work with her, and hopefully manage to strike a balance. She has worked with mature students in the past, and has helped them to do what I'm planning on doing, with great results. She doesn't seem like she'd be such a pusher on the technical aspects, but having said that, I don't think she'd let them slide either. She had me play for her today, and watched for any major issues in my technical performance. She was very intent on not letting me get bored with what I was doing, but also on making sure that I'm able to achieve my goals. With her, I'm a bit worried that the technical requirements for the exam that I want to take might not get as much work, but I believe that we'd have the sort of rapport that I might not get from an old-school teacher.
If everyone else is doing it, why shouldn't I?
What were you doing 10 years ago?
Packing and just generally getting excited about my first-ever trip to another continent. I was headed to Europe in about 8 days for a month of glorious sightseeing with a bunch of my Girl Guide friends from northern Alberta. It was good times.
Where have I lived?
What would I do if I was a billionaire?
I think I would go nuts if I was a billionaire. I'd probably find a job that I loved, regardless of how crap the salary was, so that I wouldn't go nuts. I would buy my parents the retirement of their dreams in Ontario. I'd travel as much as the job would allow. My closest friends would get their dream vacations and houses and cars. I'd donate to charities I strongly believe in. I'd go back to school and earn my PhD and maybe that conservation degree. The possibilities are endless.
Who would I like to know more about?
My ancestors as well... I've hit some brick walls in that department and would like to learn more about the people whose photographs hang on my walls...
What were you doing 10 years ago?
Packing and just generally getting excited about my first-ever trip to another continent. I was headed to Europe in about 8 days for a month of glorious sightseeing with a bunch of my Girl Guide friends from northern Alberta. It was good times.
What are 5 things on my to-do list?
1. Clean the apartment
1. Clean the apartment
2. Go grocery shopping
3. Sleep (I'm off work sick today because I got a grand total of about 1 hours' sleep last night - and I don't function well on that little sleep. It wasn't my intention - I was in bed shortly after midnight, which would have given me a good 5 hours, but the damn partiers outside kept screaming and shouting... I prefer to have Canada Day on a weekend so I don't have to get up for work the next day. Works out much more nicely for all involved).
4. Find a piano teacher for the fall.
5. Eat breakfast.
Where have I lived?
Oakville, Ontario. Kingston, Ontario. Vegreville, Alberta. Sherwood Park, Alberta. Edmonton, Alberta. York, UK.
I think I would go nuts if I was a billionaire. I'd probably find a job that I loved, regardless of how crap the salary was, so that I wouldn't go nuts. I would buy my parents the retirement of their dreams in Ontario. I'd travel as much as the job would allow. My closest friends would get their dream vacations and houses and cars. I'd donate to charities I strongly believe in. I'd go back to school and earn my PhD and maybe that conservation degree. The possibilities are endless.
Who would I like to know more about?
My ancestors as well... I've hit some brick walls in that department and would like to learn more about the people whose photographs hang on my walls...
So I've decided that in the fall I'd like to start taking piano and voice lessons again. I'll have a salary raise, which should just about cover the cost, but I'm still a bit tentative about the whole thing. 10 years ago when I was still taking lessons, teachers at the college I'd like to go through were charging $40/hour, and I don't doubt that that's gone up since. I'll be making about $400 (net) per month more, and if I take BOTH piano and voice, given that people are likely charging at least $50 or $60/hour these days, I'll be spending all of that money, plus a bit, right there. And I was sort of looking forward to the salary increase in order to save more money to buy a car or go on a nice trip or something (I'm thinking South Africa 2010? World Cup? Oh yeah!). I'm torn!
If I manage to get ahold of the voice teacher I'm interested in, then maybe I can arrange to just have 1/2 hour or 45 min lessons or something... that would cut costs a bit. If not, though, I will still sing with the choir, so my voice won't totally go all to hell. And that would save me some money. :)
I've spoken with a few piano teachers, and with the exception of one, they've seemed fairly nice. I have a meeting with one tomorrow after work, and am hoping to arrange a meeting with another sometime this week, and still haven't heard back from a fifth that I'd called, but I'm thinking that I may go with a woman I spoke to on the phone - she has quite a bit of experience in teaching mature students and in things like preventing tendonitis and carpal tunnel... which is important now that I'm "old".
I do really want to do this. I'm just not sure how. *sigh*
If I manage to get ahold of the voice teacher I'm interested in, then maybe I can arrange to just have 1/2 hour or 45 min lessons or something... that would cut costs a bit. If not, though, I will still sing with the choir, so my voice won't totally go all to hell. And that would save me some money. :)
I've spoken with a few piano teachers, and with the exception of one, they've seemed fairly nice. I have a meeting with one tomorrow after work, and am hoping to arrange a meeting with another sometime this week, and still haven't heard back from a fifth that I'd called, but I'm thinking that I may go with a woman I spoke to on the phone - she has quite a bit of experience in teaching mature students and in things like preventing tendonitis and carpal tunnel... which is important now that I'm "old".
I do really want to do this. I'm just not sure how. *sigh*
