sacrifice

So clearly you all (or those that actually know me) are aware that I moved out to go to school in ontario when I was 18. It's now three years later and I am starting to be able to sort of evaluate whether or not it was in fact a good decision. I was thinking a little bit about this last night and I was thinking of all the things I good have had, had I stayed. I have really given up a lot to move away.

1. Money
This is clearly a huge thing. There may be other topics that are included under this heading. So I'll explain further. Especially this year, it was very difficult to find a job, meaning I didn't start earning money until june. That's an entire month of lost revenue. The same thing happened last summer. I have to make sure I'm living well within my means at Brock. If I don't I am forced to get a student loan and will have to pay more later. No thanks

2. Free Rent
Again related to money. If I lived at home I would not be paying for rent, or food. I would actually be able to spend my money on something other than rent. Also, when I'm home in summer I still have to pay for a room in ontario so that I have something when I get there. Not cheap, but cheaper than rez (and less rules ha ha)]

3. a car.
I would have the ability to drive myself wherever I wanted, not giving a care about whether or not my parents needed a car. I would also not have to take the bus to school which would be a huge benefit!

4. a great education here.
Asper School of business is not a crappy school. If I eventually move back to Manitoba it is likely that Brock does not have the same prestige that u of m does, simply because it has not been around as long and less people here have even heard of it. I would not like it if that affects my future career search.

5. Friends.
It's true that when you grow older you lose friends. It sucks because you don't want to be the jerk that let's a friendship die but sometimes it's just inevitable. I feel like not living here has made it a lot more difficult to maintain friendships. I used to play the Sims game and in it you eventually had to have friends so that you could get a higher paying job. And you really had to work at keeping friendships alive with people. I totally believe this! I'm also very fourtunate that I do still have friends when I come back to winnipeg and am very thankful and happy that with many of them I can just hop right back into the swing of things, but at the same time I feel weird because there are so many inside jokes that I've missed. What's the cool way to react to an inside joke? do you laugh along, even though you have no idea what's going on...ignore, make other's feel akward. Who knows!!! And because you've been gone so long, you aren't the first call...as in when someone is looking for an evening event you aren't the first person that is called and often are looked over, which is completely understandable.

6. Family
I love my family and it really sucks that I don't get to see them. I'm very close with my parents, it's weird that I would move out of a house when I have a great relationship, but sometimes you have to push the baby out of the nest! I also miss seeing my extended family and hanging out with my cousin who is like a little sister, and mostly I enjoy hearing her stories of the same highschool I went to, which I was quite fond of


Despite all these things that I've given up the evaluation is this. I am so thankful that I have had the opportunity to leave. Not that it doesn't hurt nor has it been easy. I'm so happy about all the experiences that I have been able to enjoy. And the friends that make you realize what having true friends really is all about. I have also been able to experience something completely different from all my friends and represent my province well!! I in now way regret my decision.

Wow a blog that wasn't just about what I did this week.

things O

happy fathers day

So today is fathers day..I did not spend the morning with my father, instead I spent it watching the marathon runners with my mother; my father probably prefers watching soccer anyways.

Anyways, the real draw to the marathon is the fact that my friend ryan was running. Interesting event. He decided only two months ago that running a marathon was in fact something to do. So we went to watch just on lyndale after mile 18. When we saw him he was not looking to hot. Pretty tired. that's understandable after running 18 miles. Only 8 to go! So I just got a text from Vanessa saying that he has now finished just ten minutes shy of 5 hours. I could not ever run that long. Not even if I tried. I am very proud of him, being able to cross something off of his bucket list. It was also neat to be able to see the very first leaders of the pack. It's very nice also to see neighbourhoods come together to cheer for the runners. The marathon is a very "city" event for all people to come together. It's very nice to see that. We were also in the area of my friend Karina so her father and sister came out and sat with us and she came later.

It's a sunny day and I'm going to go keep enjoying it at lunch at my oma and opas!

"the netherlands is like europes gay uncle" - Ed Schmidt

So I watched the soccer game this morning. Luckily my father knew to wake me up for the second half because I would have simply slept through it otherwise, considering the start time of the game, compared to last nights sleeping time. So the game was really apparently not the exciting, but fate struck in the 53' minute with Wesley Sneijder hitting a laser that the goalie simply could not handle...

Something interesting about the world cup. A lot of people are talking about how the world cup is really strange that is because the play is just not as exciting as it has been in the past. My father suggests that it's becasue everyone is scared to make mistakes, I think I agree. I did have more to talk about but I just can't remember. I was impressed by Japans play though. It's interesting that the asian countries have all oriental looking players but many europeans teams have much more diversity within the team. Also it's interesting that every team seems to have a style that reflects characteristics of the country. For example, protestant work ethic...or italian soccer is full of drama...Maybe it's just me

thirsty thursday

Actually the title is completely not fitting whatsoever, although I did have a frozen hot chocolate.

Last night I could have had a drink but I stayed the good kid and only drank virgin ceasars, and I am hooked. I may need to start making them for myself a little bit more often. This evening I finally did something and got out of the house...actually I did something yesterday too...It was interesting to go to the golf course yesterday to meet with my parents because they golf seperatly, my mothers with the ladies league and my father with some work guys. We had to sit outside while all the ladies sat inside :( to many mosquitos.

So with regards to tonight, Vanessa and I went to home depot for a quest for a specific fertilizer because of all people she would know. Sadly they did not carry the correct brand and so we tested out outdoor furniture sets and there were some great options to choose from. We then had to go to Canadian Tire and we found what we were looking for. We also found what we were not looking for...aka a bocce ball set. I have decided this summer that I need to do more with my life, and so I will be investing time in non-traditional sports. I also plan to get a game of frolf in at some point if it ever stops raining!!

Has anyone watched the world cup? I am feeling so frsutrated becasue I watch the stats during the day at work and then I'm not even allowed to talk about it with my father so I have to call my mom who is going the same thing that I do!

local music saturday

So yesterday I watched my first full world cup soccer game of the tournament. It was relaly disappointing to see my beloved england not play their strongest against the US who I just really feel should not have soccer. They have enough already!! Then I got back from watching the game to see both parents asleep in my two nap spots. I was not pleased with that.

So friday (I'm gonna need to go back in time a little) I was driving to my fathers old soccer teams world cup get together. Traffic was really bad along bishop grandin due to construction and I was listening to umfm, all of the sudden I heard first caller gets free tickets, and I knew I had no previous engagements for the proceeding night so I called and I was the first caller. Sadly I had no idea who I had just won tickets to go see. All I knew is that it was at the park theatre. So when I got home saturday I had to do some investigating. Thanks to the magic of facebook and google and discovered that it was james struthers. I had only ever seen his name in random facebook events that people were attending so I figured it couldn't be all bad. So I headed over to the park theatre solo and watched him and julien des-something or other who was also awesome. I liked that the show was just completely accoustic, because the accoustics in the park theatre are sooo good. He also played I want you back (originally done by michael jackson), and I do feel like that could possibly be one of my favorite songs of all time. Covers and everything. Then James came on and did another accoustic set. His songs were just so honest and beautiful and I would describe them as songs that every girl wants someone to sing to them. I really enjoyed it. After the concerts I headed down to shannons irish pub to see mannys cousins band perform. Although some members of the band were to young to drink they rocked it out. It was very enjoyable. What also made my night awesome. Having the best possible parking spot right outside the door! I was so pleased I let out my own personal fist pump and I had an amazing dance party on the ride home.

Today there have been two movies with natalie portman on two different channels. I will say she is my favorite actress. I'm going on the record here.



For those of you keeping score out there
1. England (GERRARD!!!)
2. Netherlands...They have always been a close second (my number 1 in euro when england didn't make it!)
3. Spain (Torres)
And yes, I do judge teams on attractiveness.

And the hear who I went to go see..
http://www.myspace.com/juliendes
http://www.myspace.com/jamesstruthers
http://www.myspace.com/effectandcausemusic

Another blog about more than clothes

So I just did another blog but I felt this new one needed to be seperate.

I am currently reading the book the elegance of the hedgehog and it talks about how these two very different characters have these characters that are so hidden and no one really knows about them. Anyways, one of the characters is a 12 and a 1/2 year old girl who has a mind beyond her years and wants to commit suicide on her 13th birthday. I do find that the section that she "writes" is very similar to thoughts that I have and I feel myself really relating (except the suicide part). The other character is a concierge, and she is really what I want to write about today. She talks about this other character is I assume is probably my age and is a theology student. She talks about how this girl tries to dress like a bohemian. So then she goes on further, why do rich people want to dress like poor people. You all know what this means. Things like ripped jeans or imagine things that you wouldn't wear to meet the president. What does this mean about our psycology. Do we want to look poor? What is the draw of that? Maybe we want people to not see us as perfect. Being perfect seems to be so uncool. People that are perfect are boring. People don't want to hear stories about someone who has gone and done everything perfectly. There always needs to be some sort of conflict making a story not perfect. So maybe by dressing like we're poor people will assume we are interesting, and there is something behind the outfit. Also when people are wearing suits and dressing with nice neat pressed clothes there is something that you may not trust about them, because someone in that kind of outfit would be seen as powerful, and as a society we often assume those in business or politics are sheisters. Maybe dressing as though we are poor makes us seem more honest in who we are, because we don't see ourselves as perfect. Speaking of not being perfect being cool, a lot of music these days sounds like the singers are so disinterested in what they are singing about. Even on the radio, example, the song run this town - the rihanna part of so uninspiring. This could also be because it's more about the music. In general though, people really don't need to be talented to make it in the music industry. Thoughts?

I'm also watching a show about food right now. It's interesting how a lot of authentic food has to be "scaled back" so that it can be more appealing for consumers. I feel like that means we miss out on sooo much good food.

epic dream

I had the craziest dream last night. Like I'm 80% it was a metaphor and one of those dreams that means something. It started with manny and I discovering this lost land like charn from the first chronicles of narnia book. It was all dark and we did have flash lights so we could figure out that we were inside a castle. So we found sustinance like salt and hamburgers (don't ask?) and we got back to our land. So we were going to university of manitoba and a whole bunch of busses had pulled over and broken down on the side of bishop grandin, and so we were transported back to this land with a bunch of my friends. There was more light when we got back and so we could see the ruins better, there were also more challanges. There was an area similar to the nave of an old church where there was someone threatening our lives with a flame thrower. So we all survived that and more and more people started to enter the world. There were also a whole bunch of different rooms that were we could find products for helping us with other challenges. Then I noticed that there were tvs that were measuring our resources and it also had a list of challenges that we had surpassed. So by this time everyone is having a great time, and people are making a huge bowl of taco dip and I notice how low the food supply is getting. Since I kind of discovered this land I feel somewhat responsible for guiding people. So I was walking around looking for manny to come up with a plan and I come upon this room that has these outfits that we designed for when we came back, some sort of robes that were a little lol looking. So we had an argument because I realized that I needed to guide these people because the time that it showed on the TV was running out, and I was pretty sure there was going to be a dragon. The lesson that I think was to be taught in almost this video game situation was about not wasting time. You gotta prepare. You need to get your eggs in order. A little bit scary

SO yeah, for those of you that forgot, that was a dream

three months till I'm back at school

The first week of work has been complete (although I was sick for two of them).

So this week has been really strange. Firstly, because I have seen so many people from so many different places. I really do know a lot of people. Thursday Manny and I went to watch jordan play soccer and I knew soo many people on his team, just from back when I was in the provincial program and his coach is another phoenix coach along with my father. Then last night I was at a CMU-ers party and I knew so many different people from so many different places. Volleyball, elementary school, neighborhood, high school, mini soccer...etc. I could not believe it. There were still even people that I didn't know but it was a great time.

I also have gone to church twice this weekend. Last night I was at springs and this evening at st. bens. You could not have churches anymore different. What I don't like about springs is the loudness and showy-ness. I really feel I can have a complete church experience without the use of a fog machine. I do think it's great though what they do but I find that they really do help people connect with God and It's not my place to knock that. I feel though that my biggest problem with the church was that it seems so superficial, and when you see that facade you assume that it is there to hide something. Whatever though... I know it's not for me, so I don't have to dwell on it. They are there for good intentions!

Anyways...more training tomorrow!

see ya