November 14, 1996-March 31, 2009
I'll
you forever, sweetie. I miss you.2 monkeys playing a banjo posted by Jenn @ 6:59 PM
Moment 3
I have really been lagging on this life changing moments thing. Oops!
This is an easy one because it's a recent change in my life. My relocation from Winnipeg to Vancouver. I guess the whole idea of not knowing what you have until it's gone is true. Winnipeg is boring. Winnipeg can be unattractive. I will certainly not deny these things. When I lived in Winnipeg, I always longed to leave the city. Whether it was a camping trip with my family, or a road trip with friends, I loved to get the hell out of there. I did not really appreciate the things I did there.
I liked the idea of moving to Vancouver because it appeared to be the exact opposite of the 'Peg. Since moving here in 2006, I have come to realise that the two cities are actually quite similar. In fact, most cities are probably quite alike. Sure, Vancouver is much larger, but people here pretty much do the same things as people in Winnipeg. I do not go to more concerts, or go out more. In fact, I probably stay in more because life is so expensive here.
I have come to the conclusion that I enjoy Vancouver more as a city to visit, rather than a city to live in. When you're visiting, you're forced to use your time wisely and enjoy everything the city has to offer while you can. You don't really see the negative things as tourist. I miss living in Winnipeg and taking holidays to flee the city. These days all of my holidays are spent flying back to visit my family and friends. Where will I be living five years from now? Who knows what the future holds!1 monkeys playing a banjo posted by Jenn @ 7:58 PM
Ziggy really sang, screwed up eyes and screwed down hairdo
I overheard a coworker today talking about a concert he went to awhile ago. It was some rapper, that I obviously would not like, but that does not matter here. My coworker said that this rapper sucked live. It was not because he was particularly bad, but rather that the show ended at 11 so the venue stopped serving drinks at 9:30, and my coworker arrived shortly thereafter. The rapper sucked because there was no alcohol to drink. I find it so funny, and have never understood this logic. Why do people go to shows only to drink? If the whole point is to get drunk, why not save a whole bunch of money and just go to the bar? You can have all your drinks, and the music is there as background noise. Isn't the main point of a concert to enjoy the music? It's one thing to have a few drinks during the show, but it just does not make sense to go to a show to get hammered -not to mention it's not fun for those who came to the show to enjoy the music. People are strange. 2 monkeys playing a banjo posted by Jenn @ 9:49 PM
Moment 2
At the end of grade four, my best friends (they were sisters) moved away to Calgary. I had known them for as long as I could remember. They lived across the street, and my parents were good friends with their parents. They had dinner parties all the time. We took sewing lessons, pottery class, art class, Brownies- basically we did everything together. That all changed once they moved away. Sure, we went camping with their family every summer for about six years after that, but the older we got, the more different we became, and the more we strayed as friends. It was sad, but life moves on.Another girl across the street was also best friends with this family, and was likewise affected by their move. We had often played together as children, but were never each other's first choice of a playmate. The winter after our friends moved, my dad invited this girl and her father (he was friends with my parents) to go ice skating with my brother and I. They came along, and we had fun. I remember going inside afterwards and drinking hot chocolate. I remember burning my mouth. After this day, the girl across the street started calling me regularly to see if I wanted to do something. We started hanging out all the time, eventually reaching the point that we saw each other everyday. She became my new best friend. We remained best friends for about ten years until she became too wrapped up in drugs to care about anything real. She contacts me on occasion, and I still care about her. I hope that one day she finds true happiness in life.
0 monkeys playing a banjo posted by Jenn @ 10:26 PM
Moment 1
On a completely unrelated topic to this post, I just watched the movie Ben X, and wow is it depressing. The things the main character experiences are so terrible you just want to kill yourself so you don't have to feel his pain.The first life changing moment that comes to my mind is when my dog Chloe died twelve and a half years ago. She passed away the day before my thirteenth birthday. Every year before my birthday, I count the years that she has been gone.
Chloe was about six years old. A few weeks before she died she started behaving strangely when she went outside. She started pacing in circles while her nose was stuck to the ground sniffing. She did this so much that she wore visible paths in the grass. We mentioned this to the vet, but they did not seem too concerned.At the beginning of summer my parents went on a trip, leaving my brother, the dog, and myself with my grandparents at the cottage. Chloe continued the obsessive sniffing there too. She wore her nose raw. After a few days I noticed that her nose was bleeding. I showed it to my grandfather, but we did not do anything. Looking back, I think he probably was concerned, but just had no idea what to do. When my parents returned from their trip (they drove back to the cottage), the dog had gotten worse. Her nose was still bleeding, and she started losing control of her bladder. They decided to take her to the vet in the closest city. She ended up never coming home. She stayed at the vet's for about a week. The vet thought Chloe either had Blastomycosis (which is commonly found in that area) or cancer. My family went to visit her two days before she died. The veterinarian thought it might do Chloe some good to see us. My last image of her is of her lying in a kennel, yellow puke stained fur, attached to an I.V., unable to even lift her head. She knew who we were, but she was physically unable to show she was glad to see us. It was a heartbreaking sight. The next day when we phoned the vet from the gas station off the highway near our cottage, she said Chloe looked slightly perkier, but not to get our hopes up. She died the next day. I will never forget being at that gas station waiting in the van, as my dad made the daily call on the pay phone. Only this time I heard him say "Oh really..." and I knew that was it.
Chloe's death hit the entire family very hard. My grandfather decided to go to a family reunion because of her, realizing that life is short and you never know if the opportunity will come again. He ended up forming a close relationship with his cousin, his only close living relative, through that reunion. Once Chloe was gone, I did not even want another dog, although my current dog quickly became my baby. Chloe changed the way we treat our current dog. We do not take her existence for granted. We treasure every day we have with her. I treat everyday with her like it may be my last. I always tell my dog how much I love her and always give her some pets before I go to sleep. I want her to know I am there with her in the end. It may seem silly and over done to people, but I need to do it. These are the things I forgot to say to Chloe before I left her to die alone in the depressing emptiness of the veterinarian's office.
0 monkeys playing a banjo posted by Jenn @ 12:14 AM
I have an idea for a series of posts that I hope to do over the next while. I am going to write about 10 life changing experiences. By posting this idea, I wish to actually stick to it. Wish me luck!
1 monkeys playing a banjo posted by Jenn @ 9:45 PM
American Idiot
Does anyone else get really irritated by the whole "baby bump" watch that goes on with celebrities? Everyday someone is supposidly pregnant. It's not because they have said anything to hint that they are, but rather people looking at their stomachs and determining that any sort of bump must be a baby. There seems to be this idea that a woman's stomach is always completely flat. The reality is it never is. Even if you're in really good shape, or are really skinny, the stomach is never completely flat. There is a natural shape to a woman's stomach. It may not be very noticible on some ladies, but it's there. Men don't have this shape.
These are all pictures that sparked pregnancy rumours. If those are baby bumps, then I must be pregnant all the time because after I eat a meal, my stomach is not flat. If I were to put on a dress after eating any amount of food, I imagine my stomach would look something like Eva Longoria's. I have been a naturally thin person throughout my life so far, but that does not mean my tummy is flat at all times. What makes this stupidity all the more stupid is that there are probably a lot of women involved in creating these rumours and publishing these stories. You would think they would know better and realize it's ridiculous. Perhaps they do. If that is the case then the question that remains is why do they put that idiocy out there for other people to believe as the truth?2 monkeys playing a banjo posted by Jenn @ 12:53 PM
Two words for you
For the past few years my dad has raved about the show Boston Legal. He just loves it. He suggests to everyone that they should watch it. I have always kind of rolled my eyes, unwilling to give it a chance. While Trekkies may love William Shatner, my recent associations for him are movies like Miss Congeniality. I was not inclined to watch a show with him in it. My brother and I bought my dad seasons 1-4 of the show for Christmas this year. So while I was at home, I started watching them with my dad. What can I say? I am now hooked on Boston Legal. It's hilarious! William Shatner's Denny Crane and James Spader's character Alan Shore are great. I even find myself warming up to Candice Bergen, who seems to have done nothing but bad chick flicks over the past few years. As always seems to be the case, I have become interested in the show after it has ended. The final episode aired in December. At least that means I can watch all of the episodes one after the other.
To close this post, I have two words for you:
DENNY CRANE!
2 monkeys playing a banjo posted by Jenn @ 7:14 PM
I wish it were only 1999
It's a new year, I suppose I should update ye olde blog. I've had ideas for posts prior to this, but never felt like actually blogging them. 2008 was a terrible year, but a lucky one at the same time. I must say I don't have my hopes up for 2009.I came home from Winnipeg on Sunday. It was one of the worst days of my life. I was up at 4:30 am after 3.5 hours of sleep in order to get to the airport for my early flight. It ended up taking off an hour late, but that wasn't a surprise. What was a surprise was when I arrived in Calgary for my connecting flight to Vancouver, I found out my flight was cancelled due to "mechanical" issues. It was all I could do not to fall to the floor in a big ball of tears. Going back to Vancouver is always one of the hardest things I do. I was already severely depressed having just left Winnipeg, especially since it was the last time I would ever see my dog. Once I leave, all I want to do is get back to my apartment so I can cry in the privacy of my home. Being stuck in Calgary made that impossible. After 2 hours of waiting in line, I finally got my flight rescheduled....for 8 pm that night. A good 12 hours from when I arrived. I was given a lunch and dinner voucher which I was only able to spend at Tim Horton's because I didn't want to go back through security in an airport I was unfamiliar with, and Chili's was really expensive. I tried sleeping, but wasn't able to get more than 30 minutes in because it was so noisy and uncomfortable. I bought a puzzle book which I worked on until about 4 pm, when I planned to go check which gate my flight would be taking off from. When I checked the flight, it was already delayed 2 hours. At that point I was so angry that I didn't just ask for a return flight to Winnipeg when I arrived in Calgary. At least then I would be in the comfort of my own home and I could rebook a direct flight to Vancouver. So my 4 remaining hours of wait time turned into 6. Then it was delayed again. And again. And again. It ended up taking off around 11:30 pm. I had been waiting 15 hours to get from Calgary to Vancouver. A flight that only takes about an hour. During those last couple hours my period came to top everything off. The tampon machine in the bathroom ate my loonie (those things never work), and most of the stores in the airport had closed by that time. I had to wander the length of the airport with a toilet paper diaper until I found the one place that sold tampons. I spent a fortune on them. When I finally arrived back home it was close to 1 am- 3 am Winnipeg time. I had been up almost 24 hours trying to get from Calgary to Vancouver. I will never take an indirect flight again. I was supposed to work the next day too, but needless to say, I didn't make it.
To get away from the negativity, my tickets arrived for the Tegan and Sara/Broken Social Scene double bill concert in February. I'm definitely looking forward to that. I'll have to remember to book the day off.I was hoping to go to a movie last night or today, but Graham is working. I didn't do anything for New Year's Eve. The night is kind of a downer for me, that's why going to a movie would have been good. I would like to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionaire, Doubt, The Reader, Milk (basically everything currently playing at Fifth Ave), and I wouldn't mind seeing The Spirit. It's been a very long time since there have been multiple movies that I have wanted to see.
I should probably stop blogging altogether. I probably make everyone want to slit their wrists after reading because it's always so negative. Haha
0 monkeys playing a banjo posted by Jenn @ 11:55 AM
