And The Verdict Is....

Marks are in and the verdict is out. I get to graduate! I wasn't too worried about whether or not I got to dress up in the green and gold grad gown on Saturday, but it's a relief to see the marks and breathe a little easier. My Human Metabolism class had me a little worried considering I nearly broke down crying after I finished writing that exam. I guess it wasn't that bad after all! I am happy.



So, one week today I will be at the school, all dressed up and listening to some person tell us that now that we have these expensive pieces of paper and we now get to all be successful and the world is our oyster. Where did that expression even come from anyway?

Plus, mom and dad will be here in a few days! I just really really hope that the weather somehow does a 180 and the sun comes out. Even if just for a few days! But the idea of having the parents here makes me so happy. I miss my family.

Tip of the Day: After some minor research, "World is Your Oyster" comes from a Shakespeare play. Basically some guy said the world is his oyster and he planned to open with a sword, which I think means that the world is full of slimy masses of stinky shellfish that we have to swallow whole to avoid the texture. Makes sense to me.

I'm Confused

Now I am certainly the last person to ever ask for political advice. I admit that. I am embarrassingly lacking knowledge in Canadian government issues and yes, I know that is a bad thing to admit. But I do have a little something I want to talk about in regards to the upcoming election next week.

I have had so many people tell me that they are not voting for the party that they actually want to win because they, "know the party won't win anyway" so they don't want to waste their vote. They want their vote to count so they vote for the lesser of two evils between the top running parties. It's called Strategic Voting. Huh. Alright.



So my thoughts here are quite simple. I never talk politics, so the fact that this many people have all told me the same thing makes me wonder how many other people feel the same way. What if all of these voters actually voted for the person/people they want to run the country after all...and all of their votes added up to a number that put their party in a more favourable position? Does this not make sense?

What doesn't make sense to me is voting for someone you don't believe in just because that person winning will make your vote count. I think all this is doing is keep people from voting all together because they know their people won't win, so why bother. I don't want to give you any advice, especially bad advice involving politics, but if you do your homework and read up on these people who want to run our country, then getting out there and at least putting in a vote is worth it. Isn't it? I think so anyway.

24 Hours of Enjoyment

The past 24 hours have been quite enjoyable. I've been both busy and social which are two components of a healthy life that I have been lacking lately. Yesterday was Easter Sunday and I worked a few hours in the morning/afternoon. Later on, Chris and I went to his brother-in-law's parents home for supper and it was absolutely delicious. The family is Lebanese which means that the food was nothing short of spectacular. Large platters of turkey, ham, hummus, tabouleh, pita, rice...it was a great change of the Easter meals that I grew up with and even though my protein and caloric intake for that night was high enough to sustain me for at least a week, I wish I could eat like that much more often. Plus having dinner with 20+ people was something I have greatly missed since living here.

This morning I got up nice and early to go for a walk. I had an appointment at 10am for an hour long massage so I wanted to stretch out a bit before heading over there. I told myself that I would treat myself to a massage when I finished exams, so today was the day for that treat. I went to a lady named Heather Scales who I met a while back when I was volunteering at the Charlottetown Health Expo. She has a place just up the street and it was a lovely massage. I walked out of there feeling like I'd just woken up from a deep sleep that I couldn't fully wake from. That's a sign of a good rub-down. This picture here pretty much wraps up exactly how I felt afterwards. Plus she gave me two Hershey Kisses so automatically that's major bonus marks.

After that I went to help Sam move some boxes from her place to Chris's parent's house (where she's staying for a few weeks until her summer apartment clears out at the end of May). Seeing what was left of her place all packed up in boxes and duffel bags reminded me of just how much I hate moving. I have moved so many times and even though I am becoming a pro at it, it never gets anymore fun. Sam dropped me off at the apartment around 1:30m so I hopped on the 2:03 bus to go up to the gym to enjoy a good run. I have only a few days left to enjoy my student gym pass so I've been trying to get there as much as I can. I missed the 3:37 bus back home which meant I got to enjoy a warm and sunny walk home. Today was the closest to perfect in terms of weather on this island.

When I got home and after a shower and quick snack, Chris's friend Mark called and asked if we wanted to doggie-sit for a few hours. Chris and I have been trying to walk Mark's dog Fred as much as we can because we both love dogs but can't have one, so we jump at the chance when it comes up to walk Fred. Mark lives out of town so when he comes into town for a couple hours we just ask him to drop the dog off then come grab him on the way back out of town. So, the three of us went for a nice long walk and we found a park to throw a ball around for Fred's utmost enjoyment. Man, I must have walked at least 20 miles today.

Tip of the Day: Never trust Fred if there's a cat around.

We were both super hungry by the end of the walk so we dropped in at Formosa's Tea House to pick up some quick Chinese food to take back home. Everyone, including my new masseuse friend Heather, has been telling me to try this place because it's been around forever, all vegetarian and apparently delicious. Plus the place is for sale and could close at any day. And yeah, it was quite tasty for sure. I recommend the dumplings. Mmmm.

Now it's time for a beer and a movie. $20 says I fall asleep before it's over.

Invisible Friend of Specialness

I have said time and time again that it's the little things in life that make it special and that touch us the most. For me, it was a little bird perched in a large birch tree on Great George Street. The thing that made this bird especially special to me is that I did not ever see it, I only was a witness to it's random act that it committed a few days ago.

Chris and I decided to go for a walk and do a few errands around town. We were only 2 blocks from the apartment when he stopped dead in his tracks and said, "I think a bird just shit on my head." He leaned towards to me so I could take a look and yep, there it was. Bird poop, right smack dab in the middle of the top of his head.

Oh how I laughed. On any normal day with any normal person this would have been a funny situation because really...how often does a person get pooped on their head? Maybe once in a life time, if that. But this was an extraordinary hilarious situation because Chris has a thing with his hair. Some of his famous lines are, "How does the hair look?", or, "What do you think of the hair like this?" and sometimes I even get the, "Don't touch the hair!"

But he took it so well and I am very proud of him. He was laughing just as hard as me as we walked back home so he could wash his head. I've heard that being pooped on the head by a bird is a sign of good luck! Depends on who you ask I think. I'm lucky that I didn't get pooped on.

When we walked back down Great George Street we definitely had our eyes to the sky and the tree branches. Like I said, the little things in life that make it special. Bird poop. It's little, and it's special.

Mooing Easter Bunnies?

It's been a quiet week around here. I've been feeling quite useless without school directing my time and with only working part-time, boredom is quickly catching up with me. I've been going non-stop for the past 4 years so it's hard to rationalize sitting still and doing nothing. Honestly, I start to go a bit bat-shit crazy when I have nothing to do or work on. Normally when I need something to keep me busy I end up going for a nice long walk or jump on the bike and go for a ride, but the weather has been less than permissive to allow me to even enjoy that. I look out the window right now and see nothing but snow and wind (yep, you read that right. SNOW!) I need a hobby.

So what have I been up to? Not too much. I was unable to attend that contest in Summerside on the weekend which meant that I had to forfeit my place in the draw for the $10,000 livingroom makeover giveaway. There was only one person at work who was able to switch shifts with me and she didn't want to, (yes, I was angry and bitter at her for a long while) so I had to miss out on the event. But that night I got to go to the Molson Canadian Rock Stage at the Delta where there were 7 bands playing for the ECMAs. It was great to have the chance to watch 7 local bands all strut their stuff on stage. The line-up was Mark Bragg and the Butchers, Carmen Townsend, English Words, Ross Neilson & The Sufferin Bastards, Three Sheet, The Stanfields and The Trews. I don't get out much so I am not the most knowledgeable person in terms of local talent so I got to check some names off the list of people and bands that I wanted to hear play.


Just a little silly something that I really enjoy which I want to tell the world. So, if you know me or have read any of my earlier posts, you would know that I have a strange adoration for cows and every so often I will get a gift that is cow-oriented and the buyer tells me that they couldn't help buying it for me. Well, my mom is the main person who does this for me and she has a knack for buying the best Easter cow cards and sending them to me. Every year I can count on receiving a fantastic and witty Easter card somehow related to the bovine species (like a cow dressed up like a bunny or something equally ridiculous) and she always writes in the inside, "I had to buy this card because it reminded me of you." This year topped them all because it was one of those singing/music playing cards. Epic Easter card mom. I love you and am very glad that you will always be there to buy me the most silly cards. They will never get old.

Signs of the Times

You know that moment when you stop and realize that you just did or said something that so much like your mother that is frightened you? Do you know why this is such a startling discovery? It’s because not only are you turning into the person that you swore you would never be like, but it also is a sign that you are getting old. In my opinion, getting “old” is hugely mental. You hear people say all of the time that they never feel their age, or they’re young at heart. Sometimes when I stop and think about what my actual chronological age is, it makes me step back because, 1) I don’t know where the time has gone, and, 2) I have yet to do anything truly substantial with my life. According to Stats Canada, 25 years ago, someone my age would be at least 3 years into marriage with a kid or two running around the house. Then again, life expectancy was only at about 58 years.



The reasoning as to why this topic came to be occurred a couple days ago when my friend said that she knew that she was getting old because she found herself really enjoying watching political debates (must be election time again here in Canada). Yes, there are many younger people who enjoy watching these long and drawn-out televised events but mostly they are reserved for the older populations. WAIT! Am I in that population now? Crap, I am.

My response to her was that I knew that I was getting old because I have gotten to the point where I don’t care if someone sees me get changed in the change room at the gym. I remember being a young girl at the Aquatic Center and seeing all of these old women walking around carelessly with their droopy boobs and hanging bellies, and thinking, “Don’t they realize that everyone can see them?” Now I don’t care who sees me. Nonchalantly naked is the term I have become.

A few more things that have occurred that make me realize my age are:
- Adults/relatives suddenly don’t care that you’re in the room when they start telling sexual jokes.
-You leave notes to explain how to take care of your houseplants when you’re away because you worry for their well-being in your absence.
- You do your own taxes or are suddenly very interested in learning how to do them.
- You look at gorgeous shoes that a young woman is wearing and think that yes, they look sexy as hell, but really…how uncomfortable could they be?
- You have to stop yourself from pinching the cheeks of not only children, but cute adults as well (that one comes from Sam).
- Bran cereal doesn't make you bat an eyelash
- Dyeing your hair becomes about "cover up" instead of just being bored and wanting a new look.

Those are just the few that I have noticed lately. I know that there are tons more that I just can’t think of right now.

Forgetting things. There’s another one.

...And Then I Blinked

April 12th, 2011 is the day I blinked and my 4 years of University came to a crashing halt.

Haha! Good job everyone! Time to come out of hiding! Now seriously, where did the past 4 years go?

I don't feel much different...I mean, I guess I've learned a thing or two about Nutrition and my bank account has a large chunk taken out of it. But has it really been 4 years since I've been doing this?

I've been officially done school for 4 hours and 50 minutes (I remember because my professor wrote 11:30 on the board to announce the time during the exam) and within a few seconds of her writing that I decided that I couldn't put myself through the torture of trying to write more filthy lies on that exam to prove how much I did not know, any longer. I am upset that my last exam of my last year was one of the worst that I have ever written and I am feeling very unconfident about the score I received. I'm sure I passed and that I'll get my degree in a couple weeks on graduation day, but I know the mark for that class will not be what I had anticipated. Anyway, there's no point in agonizing about that exam any longer and I should really just appreciate the fact that I did it. I finished the degree. And it feels weird.

Now I wait. Wait for what? That is a good question. I mentioned in my last post about how there are some residual internship placements floating around the country and I learned yesterday that 5 are in Toronto and 1 is in the Yukon. The one place in Toronto looks excellent, as does the one in the Yukon (but they prefer aboriginal students there). The third hospital has a very small Clinical aspect which does not appeal to me since Clinical is awesome! Do I dare be picky at this point though? The thought of filling out more applications and writing more introductory letters is just sickening to think about. PLUS, they only give the students 2 1/2 weeks so get the packages in. Last time we had 3 1/2 months to complete these things. Ugh. Why can't anything ever be easy?



On an interesting note, a while back I entered this contest in which you submit a picture of your ugly living room and if your room is ugly enough, you qualify to enter the draw for a $10,000 living room makeover. Well, I made it into the final contestants. Can you imagine? The thing I am not happy about is that they are doing a reverse draw all the way out in Summerside on Saturday to pick the winner. How that works is that the names are all put into a "hat" and names are drawn. The last person to be drawn wins. The last time I was in a reverse draw I ended up being picked 3rd out of 250 people. Now that is just crappy luck! Do I dare try to switch shifts at work in hopes of winning this thing?

Oh, you betcha I will!

Battle of the Exams, Bands and Applications

It's 1 am and I just completed my second final exam. My brain is feeling mushy and my eyelids are getting droopy. Why am I blogging and not crawling into my warm and comfy bed? I'm not sure.

Final exam #2 was a pain in the arse. It was a take-home exam which would seem like every student's dream because you have access to all of your books, notes and the internet, but yet it was not easy and not fun and I am happy to be done with it. When I started the thing I began to have a little panic attack because I was feeling very inadequate and my brain was racing trying to decide how to approach it. It took a long time to get going but once I did I was able to plug on through and finish it in a sweet 4 hours. From the sounds of it, the rest of my classmates took a lot longer to finish it so I am thankful that I tend to not over think these things and just go where my brain and fingers take me.

I broke up the test writing to go to this Battle of the Bands thing that was happening tonight. Chris's band was entered in a contest to win this big prize of getting cool things like a professional music video made and a 6 song album and to play at the EMA's this week...stuff like that. Unfortunately they did not win :( which was a huge bummer. They were awesome though. I don't want to bad-mouth the band that won because a friend of mine was also in that one, but I think it was rigged! The guys who got runner-up were not worthy of second place. I will not name names, but c'mon! We were all shocked by the outcome of this event. It was a good time though and I got to listen to some local bands who got a cool chance to play their music and entertain some people.

So I learned about 20 minutes ago that there are 6 internship positions still available for students to apply to get. Ugh. This is just a slow and painful process that is wearing me down to the point where apathy is overwhelming me. Basically now what they want are all of the students who were initially rejected to apply AGAIN to these 6 spots left open. The competition will be cut-throat and I know I have to apply because I can't not apply, but I really really don't want to apply. Applications are the worst. I think I'd rather take a barium enema at this point instead.

It's All Over Now

Another week has gone by without me writing a post. I completely blame it on procrastination (as I look over at my books waiting patiently for me to return to them since they were avoided many hours ago). According to every university student's best friend, Mr. Wikipedia, procrastination is the "act of replacing high-priority actions with tasks of low-priority, and thus putting off important tasks to a later time." It then states that such behavior is a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision.

No, I will not reference this quotation so don't ask!



So why would I put off important tasks at this time in my life? Well, to start off I guess I should announce that I am officially done with my classes at UPEI (YAY!) and final exams are in full swing (Boooo!) which means that every student is either, a) being a good student and spending hour after hour at the library trying to soak in every last drop of information, or, b) going on long walks, watching marathons of random television shows, dusting random areas of the home and baking dozens of muffins to pass the time. Unfortunately I fall into category (b). I think what's going on is that my exams don't start until a few days into the exam schedule so I feel as though I have all of this extra time when really I don't. Plus, I'm soooo done with school at this point that I want to just forget that it even exists. Also, there's so many other fun things to be doing with my time!

Thursday night Chris played at The Alibi so it was a late night for me. Class was cancelled in the morning so I used the opportunity to have an excuse to stay out til the roosters began to shout their morning greeting. He's actually playing again this Thursday night again and I don't know if I will attend. I have an exam the next day, but it isn't until 7pm so I might be able to swing it (I know, Friday at 7pm to write an exam. WHY?). He's playing lots the next few weeks so it's not as though I won't be able to see them play again soon.

Friday night was the last party at the Gerald Street house. Lots of people I know from school, plus many that I have no idea who they were but proved to be entertaining, all gathered for one last shin-dig at the house my former roommates still live to celebrate the end of classes. It gave me the chance to talk to people and tell them things I've been meaning to say for a long while but just never got around to saying (good things and most of them compliments).





Saturday was potluck night at Jess's mom's house over in Montegue where we all chowed down to various yummy goods. Jess's mom is a total riot and she's just such a bubbly source of pure fun and entertainment. After dinner she even taught us how to make homemade gift boxes with matching ribbons! I felt quite proud of myself for actually making a ribbon. Who knew this is where my education would lead me.




The final reason for my extreme procrastination is plain and simple day-dreaming. Mom and dad are coming in less than a month and I'm so excited! I wish the whole family could come but that is obviously asking a lot. Two is better than none I suppose.

Tip of the Day: adding lots of pictures to a blog post is another effective method for procrastination.