So Long, Farewell R&R

Today is a sad day for me. I made a promise to keep a secret for a couple weeks, but today I can announce that the restaurant I work at, Rufus and Rory's Finer Diner, has closed its doors forever. I wish that things could have turned out differently and even though we fought like hell to stay open, there just wasn't enough business from the locals to keep the place going. This is a cruel town to open a restaurant in because people don't want to break away from their "tried and true" places they've been going to for years. The restaurant only opened just over a year so and the summer was really quiet for all businesses so it was a hard first summer to be open for when a lot of restaurants rely on huge tourist summer sales to get them through the hard winters. Also, Cora's closed nearly a week ago which is a popular breakfast restaurant in town, and we've been getting a lot of their business the past few days...if only we could stay open a little bit longer to see if we'd be able to pick up enough of their business to stay open. Either way, I am truly sad to be not only out of my job but also that the city lost a fun little place to go to eat and also work. We made some really great regular customers who relied on us to provide a delicious meal day after day, so I know that a lot of people are going to be upset when they go there to have a meal only to find the doors locked. Personally, I will miss Dave's amazing daily homemade soups and baked beans.

But on a more positive note, we are about 60% moved into the new apartment and I am so excited to finish up the moving tomorrow and settle in. The landlord has put a lot of work into fixing up the place and it looks so nice - I can't wait!

On a less positive note, I stare my detox tomorrow. I am slightly frightened since the only fruits I am allowed to eat for 2 weeks are granny smith apples, lemons, limes and 100% pure cranberry juice. I am a fruitaholic so this part alone will be very hard for me. It will be good though because it will get me into eating more veggies which I need. When I want a quick snack I always reach for the fruit because it's a tiny bit easier, so having to stop to cut up some veggies will be an improvement on my slackness with snacking. Plus I get to go to hot yoga tomorrow! It's been a while since I've been up so early but I am looking forward to getting up really early to start my busy day of packing and moving. Suppose I should try to find a job as well.

Vanity Insanity

I had a highly enjoyable day today! It started early and was busy from beginning until end, but it was busy in the good kind of way that makes you think that you accomplished things that really need to get done. I had a list in my head of things that I wanted to get done today so I crawled out of bed early to make sure that I could use the car before Chris headed to work at 11:00am. I bought a concert poster off eBay a couple years ago from a Tool concert (my favourite band) and I have been meaning to get it framed since the day it was delivered to my door. But as most stories go, I never seemed to get around to doing it. Now that I have moved and plan on moving again in a few days, I have begun to stress out about it getting damaged from the moving and hanging process.

So I was at Michaels craft store by 8:09am to buy a poster frame for my beloved poster. All I can say is that people are nuts! That store was packed full of crazy Christmas shoppers! I did not understand what was going on when I got there but soon figured it out. There is this huge 3-day sale going on in which people can save something like, 80% of their purchases. It was quite terrifying actually. They were practically foaming at the mouth with the thought of getting that Build-A-Bear Princess Bear Kit for such an amazing price. Anyway, I got my frame and got the hell out of there as fast as I could. I am very happy to finally see my poster safely bound within the frame for my viewing pleasure.

After that I did some grocery shopping to get ready for my 2-week detox that I am going to begin on Monday. I have been volunteering with a local nutritionist, Rachelle Wood, and she is working with Dynamic Fitness to offer a 2 week long cleanse which includes hot yoga 3 days a week (at 6:30am...yikes!) and a diet to help detox the body of all the foods which are known as major allergens (wheat, dairy, soy..etc). Anyway, as support for both Rachelle and Dynamic Fitness, I agreed to come aboard and give it a shot. I'll freely admit that I am not one who really believes in detox unless you're ridding the body of known allergens that are negatively affecting your health, but I figured it couldn't hurt to give it a try. I'm #1 when it comes to stomach problems so who knows, maybe I'll actually feel a bit better from it all. Plus I love love love hot yoga and haven't been attending any classes lately so it will feel great to get in there again.

After an afternoon of hitting the gym and working a few hours, I went out for a lovely meal with my good friend Jess, then we hit up Nakai spa to attend this highly enjoyable evening they were putting on for friends and clients. Basically it consisted of getting an in depth tour of the spa, learning about the services they provide and even getting mini spa sessions in the rooms. They were giving everyone services like neck/back massages, foot scrubs, arm wraps (like a body wrap but only on the arm to demonstrate), hand massages and hair styling. It was a great way of promoting the business and the products they sell there. Plus there was snacks and drinks to boot!

One of the major highlights of my day was taking a minute to enjoy a little bit of personal vanity from a complete stranger and realizing that I made a good choice. A couple weeks ago I was torturing myself with the decision of whether or not I wanted to grow my hair out. The wig I wore for Halloween made me want long hair so badly that I was willing to go through the horrible stages of growing my hair out for the long-term benefits of having long hair. I have had short hair now for 16 years and envy every girl (or guy) who has long beautiful hair. We want what we don't have but having short or long hair is something that I have complete control over..but I ended up cutting it off again and keeping the same old look. Today I had a complete stranger look at me with a heart-filled expression and said, "Your hair is so amazing," and that completely made my day in every way. Even though it drives me bat-shit crazy nearly every day due to its rebellious nature, I do get a lot of compliments about my hair and my vanity gets a little stroke of acceptance when I hear something nice about it. Somewhere in the past year or so, my hair has become a sort of trademark or something of a distinguishing factor. "Yeah, the girl with the short blond hair." That's me! I would be hard to give up a part of me that makes me stand out from the crowd.

....as I stare longingly at the wig which hangs just a few feet from where I am sitting.

Pizza = Vegetable = Huh??

I will begin this post by officially declaring my landlords to be the most petty and greedy people ever to rent apartment space to other human beings. We now have to go to court on Friday morning because these people are appealing the decision that keeps us tenants from having to pay for the bed-bug extermination. Aaarrgggg! I am so frustrated and annoyed with this whole situation and I cannot wait to be out of this apartment and into the new place as soon as possible. We get the keys to the new apartment on the 26th which means that I will be lugging in boxes that afternoon :)  Never have I been so stoked to move.

On a different note, I feel that I have to comment on the huge issue that has ever nutritionist, dietitian or health conscious person fuming with frustration. The US congress passed a bill this past week stating that the mere amount of tomato paste on pizza will count as a serving of vegetables, therefore pizza is officially classified as a vegetable for school lunches. The new USDA guidelines to increase fruit, vegetable and whole grains and reduce the amount of potatoes and sodium in the schools was beaten out by instead deciding to make pizza a vegetable. A VEGETABLE!

The more I think about this the more enraged I become. What also gets me going a bit is that Mrs. Obama has become famous for her Let's Move campaign which focuses on fighting childhood obesity. I'm thinking Barak isn't getting much lovin these days considering he's the one running that country.... I guess this just shows who is really running the country these days. Big Food companies. Money money money. So if the new guidelines had been passed then it would have changed the laws to make it so that a 1/2 cup of tomato paste would have been the amount needed to be considered a serving of vegetables. This means that all of those pizza producers would have had to go back to their kitchens and substantially increase the quantity of pizza sauce on their pizzas, which would not only taste less than desirable, but also cost a lot of money to create and produce. Poor poor rich companies. I was just reading in the New York Times that these big deal food companies have spent over $5.6 million to rally against these proposed laws.

Bad tasting pizza + expensive pizza = no one will want to eat it = it won't be sold in schools cause the kids wouldn't eat it = kids might have to eat the other foods, such as fruits, vegetables and other more healthy options provided by the school = possibly healthier kids!

It is just really unfortunate that everyone is thinking about money and not the big picture in all of this; creating healthier children.

Maybe we need to start some intense reverse psychology on these kids.
Parent- "Honey, eat your vegetables?"
Kid - "What vegetables? All we're having is pizza?"
Parent - "That's right. Pizza is now a vegetable."
Kid - "But I hate vegetables!"
Parent - "Well, that's what we're having for dinner."
Kid - "Can I have something else instead? I don't like pizza anymore."  End Scene.

OR!

Parent- "Honey, eat your vegetables?"
Kid - "What vegetables? All we're having is pizza?"
Parent - "That's right. Pizza is now a vegetable."
Kid - "But I hate vegetables and this is delicious! Are other vegetables as good as this? Can I eat more vegetables please?"
Parent - "Of course you may."    End Scene.


Don't even get me started on the fact that tomatoes are technically a fruit.

Justice Prevails!

I cannot believe that it is nearly the middle of November already! Plus, this is only my 3rd post this month which reminds me of what a slacker I have been the past couple of weeks. In my defense, I have been working a lot the past week so when I get home I really want nothing more to do then sit on my butt and watch episode after episode of True Blood. Well...that only worked for so long since I have now watched all 4 seasons and feel extreme guilt for spending so much time doing nothing but watch brainless TV and swooning over Eric Northman.

But can you blame me?

So good news! After waiting for 2 months, the rental board has officially sided with us for the whole bed-bug situation. As of right now, we do not need to pay for the extermination fees that the evil landlords wanted us to pay. I say "as of right now" because in less than 48 hours after getting the letter telling us that we're off the hook, we got another letter from the rental board saying that the landlords wrote out an appeal saying, and I quote, "we disagree with the ruling." Hmmm.

Well, that sucks but really, what more proof do you need that this is not our fault? If they try to take us to court again and try to fight this even more, I might just have to hire some thugs to shake some sense into these people! I mean c'mon! This amount of money is so insignificant to you people who seem to own nearly every apartment building in this city, whereas it's a decent chunk of cash to me and Chris who don't even get full-time hours these days. Move on and deal with the ruling please. I beg of you. Just move on. I was worried that we would have to pay for this even though our chances were good considering that they needed absolute proof that we brought the pests into the place - which is basically impossible. It felt good for justice to prevail in our favour.

Speaking of moving on, we are moving to a new apartment at the end of the month. It's a larger and much prettier apartment to say the least. The landlord is completely renovating it which is wonderful for us! Some of the perks to the new place is that we actually get to control the heat, have a designated a parking spot, closets in the rooms and doors with doorknobs! One would think that most apartments would come with these things, but not us! Oh no...not us. I am really excited to be at this new place. I hate moving but it will be worth getting out of this apartment. Also I don't want to give our current landlords any more money. Let someone else pay for this sauna.

For Instant Success, Delete From Playlist

This is a rather unusual post for me to write but I read this article on MSN and it just made me laugh so I thought I would share it with all of those who missed it. I dislike about 99% of "Top 40" music and my stomach turns instantly sour every time Hinder comes on the radio. Music has lost something over the years. Talent is actually the first thing that comes to mind. Well, the people who are responsible for manipulating these "artists" voices to make them sound "good" hold a lot of talent.

So this article was The List of the top 10 music acts that you should never admit to liking on the first date or on any date for that matter if you want to get laid ever again.

10) Britney Spears - Can never come back from the damage she inflicted upon her reputation
9) Lil' Wayne - No comment.
8) Katy Perry - At least she's hot
7) Creed - Bahahahaaa! I think we all know why.
6) U2 - Yawn
5) Coldplay - Ultra yawn
4) Ke$ha - I don't even know what her voice actually sounds like. It's people like her that send the kids of the people who invented the Auto-Tune right through grad school
3) Lady Gaga - I think she got on this list because she's just so over-the-top. But the girl at least puts on a great show.
2) The Beebs - Poor little JB. So young...so innocent...or is he? Do we believe the tabloids or not?
1) Nickleback - This made my day! Haha! My own personal despise for this band hangs above me constantly like a halo, so seeing them at the top of the list was great.

Writing this post makes me petty, no doubt about that. But every so often it just feels a little good to be petty and to remind the world to please actually stop and listen to the garbage they are playing on the radio these days. Actually listen to the words and really think about the message you're getting from these people. Also, if you find yourself yawning uncontrollably while listening to any music (unless it's a hypnotic CD to cure your insomnia), you probably shouldn't include the artist on your playlist.

Halloween!

Two days into November already and I haven't even posted my Halloween pictures! Where is my head these days I wonder? Halloween was a fun time this year - I highly enjoyed it. Since Halloween day was a Monday, that meant that all hard partying had to occur on Saturday the 29th.

Chris has been planning out and building his costume for months now and I don't think I have ever seen him more excited about anything as much as he is about this costume. He's a major history buff, especially Ancient Greek history, so it was more than fitting for him to create a Greek Hoplite costume. My attempt to chose a costume that "matched" his was a Greek Goddess costume. My favourite part of my costume was by far the wig. My least favourite part was by far the huge amount of glitter. I am still picking it off of me.

That night a group of 6 of us headed to Hunters Ale House where we partook in Halloween Trivia! An evening of guessing questions all having to do with the spooky holiday proved to be a very fun time. I loved that I got to spend the time with some friends that I very rarely get to see any more. It was great to be able to talk to them in a smaller group before heading out to the loud house parties that we were inevitably going to visit that night. Also, we won second place! Chris was in the running for Best Costume but some chick dressed up like Mystique ended up taking the prize. I mean, yeah she looked awesome but it was pretty much just a girl wearing a blue (store bought) leotard, red wig and yellow contacts. Chris should have won for the huge amount of energy and ingenuity that went into his costume. I might be biased...but he should have won! 

After Hunters we went to a house party which had pretty much all of my closest and most wonderful friends. I don't get to see these people enough anymore! After that party we went to another house party down the street (the one good thing about this town is that it is so small, therefore parties are close by when driving is not an option for a single person attending!). As you can see by the picture below, my friend Jo had a few too many at this point. But she sure looked hot!

Two nights later on the actual day of Halloween, myself and a small group of friends dressed up again and went out for a couple drinks to celebrate the night. To our surprise, no one else in this bloody town was dressed up! Where is the spirit? But that's ok. We had fun anyway. Plus I got to wear my friend Jess's Knife Thrower's Assistant costume which was awesome since I got to wear creepy makeup (the knife thrower missed, stabbing me four times in the torso). Heheee! Oh, and no I'm not naked in this picture.