Helpful Hints: Missing Manners

Germ Spreader: It seems like someone around me is always sick. Coughing, sneezing…the works. The other day I was on a bus, and this woman was sneezing like her organs wanted to jump out and coughing like she was going to give birth through her head. I tried to move away after the first time she sprayed me, but there was nowhere to go. The bus was jam packed! I daydreamed the rest of my ride that I had a can of Lysol and was dousing her with it. I guess her mother never taught her to cover her mouth.

Swishy Swishy: There's nothing like a sloppy eater that ruins the appetite. You know what I mean. Those lovely people that slop their food around in their mouth like mouth wash. Do they do this to ensure it's been chewed right and is as close to a liquid as possible? Liquid sandwich...YUCK!

Toothpick No-Nos: When normal people use toothpicks, they pick the tooth and that's it. They don't look at what they've just dislodged from between their chompers. They don't suck it back into their mouth. And they most certainly do not use it as an ear scratcher and then place it back in their mouth! I have recently seen this happen...I was disgusted and nauseated on so many levels.

Rethink That Pit Stick: Some people get comfortable with the same products. I know, I’ve done it. But when you have used the same deodorant since 1960, you need to let loose a little! When your sweat mixes with the gunk and you smell worse than you would if you wore none at all…take the hint. Yes it’s you who smells! Yes I burn scented oils when you stink up my surroundings and yes…I hold my breath to prevent from loosing my lunch in your direction.

There's just one more thing that is bugging me lately. It's not a helpful hint. It's more of a concern really. When you live in an apartment, you often notice the hallway smells to high heaven. It's a mixture of food, personal smells and who knows what else. Well, our hallway smells like adult diapers (there's something more toxic about an adult diaper smell than a baby diaper smell), kitty litter, bleach, musty wood, onion and grease. Why? Why do we have to smell this crap? There seems to be nothing you can do to stop it from eeking into your own apartment either! Do not accumulate used diapers, take out your garbage, use your windows to air out your apartment, clean your kitty litter and take a freakin shower!!!!

Ok, I'm done. If you have none of the issues stated above, have a great day. If you have one or more...please correct the problem for the benefit of others or stay at least fifty yards away from me at all times.

Live & Laugh

What would happen if we were made without the ability to laugh? I think life would be very dull, and we'd all be very very stressed out. I find that when I laugh, it makes me feel lighter. Not that it's gonna be the new diet craze. Lighter meaning, whatever may have been pulling on my heart at the time has been lifted. Laughter doesn't erase your problems, but I like to think it helps you through them. Helping you cope, seeing the lighter side of the whole picture and working from the outside in (or from the inside out, whatever you prefer). If your body feels calm, then your thoughts will follow and become more rational and organized. At least that's the way I see it. I don't really have much more to say. Just a reminder to laugh as much as you can and treasure the people that make it possible.

Funny Little Story

Jeremy bought a pair of jeans about a week ago. He keeps talking about going back to "Wally world" (for those of you who don't know...this is Winnipeg for Walmart) so I know he loves them.

He picked me up from work the other day and told me about how he took our Christmas tree down and began washing the tree stand in our tub. While he was washing it he noticed a few circular white spots on his knees that looked like bleach. He was so annoyed that he had just wrecked his new jeans and as he tried to figure out what it was, he remembered the tub number.

A couple days before, I decided to take a bath to relax before going back to work the next day. I brought a book to read, a hand held yahtzee game in case the book was boring and the phone...cuz I didn't want to miss a call.

After a couple rounds of yahtzee the phone rang. After I let the caller know that Jeremy wasn't home, there was a pause and then he began to tell me his number. I didn't have a pen, so my first thought was, "I could just tell Jeremy who called and he could look for the number", but then I got annoyed at my laziness and decided that I could remember it. So I hung up and then I began to doubt how good my memory was. I reached for the nearest writing tool I could think of. The shampoo. Yes yes, I know. Who writes with shampoo. So I wrote the number on the side of the tub so that I could write it down later. Well I forgot to make the tub to paper transfer, so when Jeremy got home I told him there was a number on the tub that he needed to call. But he didn't wash it off. Hence...the white bleachy stuff on his jeans. So the story ends on a good note.

The weird thing is: I hate baths, cuz if you think about it, you're sitting in your own watered down filth; I usually don't care about answering the phone, in fact, I screen my calls sometimes; and as this was my first time writing with shampoo...I think it went well.

Can't Be Bored...Must Do Something...

I have always been a hands on kind of person. Even when I was little, I always had to be busy doing something. I have maintained my low attention span well into adulthood. Now, I find new ways to keep myself from being bored.

Scrapbooking wasn't something I had tried before. But I decided that I was going to make one for my sister Lori this year. It was for her birthday but it took me so long to complete it...that I gave it to her near MY birthday. Meaning...it was roughly 3 months late. It would have taken less time if I was a little less anal.

Well, one scrapbook was enough for me. I may pick that up again later on.

This year, I've really enjoyed baking. For Halloween, I made these cupcakes. The heads were little marshmallows.


But now that it's Christmas...it's cookie time. While most normal people are content with icing sugar cookies simply...I have to take the anal approach and decorate until my back is sore and I've gone cross eyed. Like this tree cookie for instance. I know, who takes a picture of a cookie? Anyways, I decorated about 30 like this one here. Sadly, this is my favorite part of Christmas. All this work for something that gets chewed up, digested and then dropped into a toilet bowl. It hardly seems worth it.

Maybe I should stick to scrapbooking.

Nasty Habits

Ah yes. I have witnessed yet another nasty habit. I must be observant. I am aware that I have a couple nasty habits too, but scratching your ear with a toothpick and then placing it back in your mouth? Can you say conversation stopper?!!! That is far beyond any habit I have!

I find it funny that people have these weird habits and don't realize how gross they are, and more importantly, that they do them in front of people. But I guess we all do things without realizing.

When someone does something gross in front of you...
What do you do?
Option A: Continue talking so they don't realize you've noticed and at the same time think about how incredibly nasty the person is and try to figure out how to get away from them ASAP?
Option B: Or do you stop the conversation and confront them? Like " What did you just do?" OR "Could you not!"

I use option A and then write about it on my blog. That way, I can tell people about it and gross them out, so that they notice if it happens around them. Yuck! I don't even think that expression "You must have grown up on a farm" will cut it this time. Ear wax, really? Who eats that? Am I missing something? Is ear wax good for your teeth? Does it make the toothpick slimy and easier to clean your teeth? Or is it just that the person likes the taste of it?

Okay, here's the bottom line:
If it's on your body - IT DOESN'T GO IN YOUR MOUTH!!

Camping at Gull Harbour

Check this photo out! To me...this is a perfect picture for relaxation. The water was so calm the day we got there. You can even see the rippled sand beneath the surface of the lake.


I was bummed about my summer and so was Sam. Between dealing with our own lives, family problems and work related frustrations, our stress levels were through the roof! We decided we'd go camping to get away from the norm for some relaxation time. Neither of us have really been anywhere in Manitoba but Gimli and Winnipeg, so we decided to go to Hecla Island. It's only 2 hours away, and is supposedly the place to go to relax. We left Friday after work and came home around 4 pm on Sunday. It was short, but I think it was just what we needed.

Sam's sister had told us that she had a tent we could borrow, so on our way, we stopped to pick it up. It was when she realized that someone had borrowed it and never given it back that anger began to set in. Sam and I were thinking "who says they'll lend you something and then doesn't have it?" We got over that when we found someone else that would lend us their tent. Two issues presented themselves once we began to set it up.

Issue#1 - No instructions. Neither one of us had put a tent up in so long and not having instructions tried our patience! We got annoyed at each other as we tried to understand the inner workings of it. We ended up tieing the back poles to a tree and the front up so that together, they would keep it from suffocating us at night. There was a third length of poles that didn't even make it to setup. We figured the tent was secure enough, and it was.
Issue#2 - It reeked! Not just any smell either. Pot and Cattle. Yes! It sounds strange. But I assure you, that IS what it smelt like. But it seemed to air out enough to be bearable to sleep in for two nights.

Hiking: The trails were great. Easy to walk through and were surrounded by beautiful scenery. We snapped tons of pictures! There are a few at the top of this page.
Marsh Boardwalk: The only "wildlife" we saw there was a couple of snails. My favorite part of it: The wind was very strong and all we could hear was the calming rush of the bulrushes in the wind. It was much different than the waves hitting the shore or the rustling of the trees.
Wildlife: We stood on a tower at sunset to see some moose but were unlucky. There are a lot of bald eagles on the island but we didn't get to catch a glimpse of them either. The only animal we saw was a fox as it trotted across the road.

We didn't do a whole lot while we were there. But I think that was the point. No tv, computer or cell phone made it easy to settle into relaxation. It's amazing what a couple days away from technology and the frustrations of every day life can do.

My recent trip to Atlanta

It had been decided months ago that we would drive 8 hours to Minneapolis, stay the night in a hotel and then fly to Atlanta the next morning. The drive was interesting...meaning there was a little bickering and one incident of gas tank drainage resulting in a 45 minute wait for CAA. We were about 1 hour away from our hotel when the van began to loose speed. It was ok, most of us just kept our cool and decided to eat dinner while we waited.

On the drive, I found one thing quite weird and a little alarming. Any bodies of water we drove by in Minnesota were surrounded by dead trees. The water was so full of algae that it killed all trees in and around the water. Made me think twice before I drank their water.

Everyone else (Jer's parents, brother and Mike) had left on an earlier flight so Jer and I shopped a little at Mall of America. After an hour I was done though. I've never been too fond of shopping.

As we received our boarding passes...we realized that we were sitting on opposite ends of the plane. I was totally annoyed at first, but it was kinda nice to have some down time. When we arrived in Atlanta, we hopped onto a clean Marta train so I was happy. I thought that they had finally replaced the old smelly ones that I remember from the last time we were out there. But, I later found out that the smelly ones were still in use. They smelled so bad that I felt disgusted any time my skin happened to touch anything on the ride. It smelt like someone had urinated all over the carpet, daily, for years. Ew! Not my fondest memory.

The day after we arrived...it all started. The 3 hour sessions 3 times a day. The first day I was a complete grump because I was more worried about our money situation than pretending to be happy and excited about being there. The sessions were too long for me. I was very fidgety and my attention span just barely made it. Thanks to hand held Yahtzee and my ability to daydream. I did get some good things out of the sessions...but I was not "gung ho" like everyone else there was. So I felt very much like an outsider for the most part.

I do believe that Primerica sells good products and genuinely cares for the consumer; Something most companies don't consider. Some would argue against that, but this is what I have come to believe, through research, information from "Primericans" and also through observing how each agent talks about what they have done for their clients.

The highlight of my trip: Visiting with my "brother from another mother". This was the second time I met up with him. Him and his wife are great people. Nick was adopted by a family in Ontario when he was almost a year old. His official adoption date happened to be the day I was born. I wish they lived closer. I could see us getting along very well.

The day we began our treck home...I was so glad! This was where the "I want to sleep in my own bed" feeling set in. I get a little annoyed when I'm around tons of people for long periods of time too. I guess I like my own space.

All together, the trip was alright. I can't say that I'll do it again for sure. Atlanta is a great city when you put aside the bums and the stinky Marta train. The architecture is interesting and the people are very friendly, even the bums. If they ask you for money or food and you don't have any, instead of swearing at you (Manitoba bums are all about the swearing) they'd say "God bless". It was sad to see how many homeless people there are in the city. So many would crowd around the church to sleep at night.

If I visit again, I'd like to see the Coke Museum and the Aquarium. I did get to go to IKEA though. So that made up for everything.