You're Terminated.

Two down and three to go. I wish I was talking about margaritas at this point, but unfortunately I am referring to exams. Today I write Advanced Foods (done) and Dietary Behaviour (ETA=2hrs and 15 minutes). Luckily Advanced Foods was open book so there wasn't the whole panic portion of the exam that tends to hit me somewhere about 24 hrs prior to writing a test, so that was a nice change. I've only ever written two open book exams in my life and I must admit, I wish I had more of them. The one negative aspect of them however, is when you don't know the answer and can't find the answer and you start to get that vision in your head of them throwing you out of university for flunking an open book exam. Should there be a mandatory rule of immediate expulsion following the failing of an open book test?? Perhaps. That would be sad. Anyway, test #2 of today starts in a couple hours and I really should be studying. Just 10 more minutes??

My dad called last night to tell me that I received a letter from Cominco telling me that my start date for the job is May 5th and I will be working in the Melting Plant. I mean, to say that I will be working in a place called a "melting plant" sounds pretty sweet indeed. I have this vision of the scene in Terminator 2 where the T-1000 follows them all into that big steel mill where the huge battle occurs and there's giant vats of molten steel bubbling and steam and loud noises coming from every direction. Yeah, I know it won't be like that, but that would be pretty intense! Turns out I'll be driving trucks and fork-lifts around, doing deliveries and stuff like that. My dad says it's a fairly decent job and I should have no problems there. I trust him. And if I suck at the job, the worst that can happen is I'll be terminated....

Tip of the Day: Corny jokes will always have a place in the world.

The End is Near

This morning as I was laying in bed, deciding whether or not I wanted to face the world today, I came to the realization that on Tuesday the 13th, two major feats in my life will be complete. Number one: I will be done my third year at UPEI. Number two: I will be complete my P90X program. I'll admit that I'm happy about the first finished feat, but the second one is a bit saddening for me.

I've been really enjoying doing the program and look forward to getting out of bed to do whichever video is waiting for me (except YogaX which is still my nemesis, although it's gotten a lot easier to get through the past few weeks). I think what freaks me out about the whole thing is that after writing my exam on Tuesday morning, I'm going to have to come home and do all of my measurements to see if anything even changed in regards to my body. I haven't weighed myself once since December which is a bit frightening...and by "a bit", I mean "holy crap a lot!" I used to weigh myself every Monday morning at the gym, and now I could be anywhere on the map. My guesstimate as to what my measurements are going to reveal is that there won't be a lot of changes. I know my biceps will be larger for sure...but mostly everything else will be really close to the same. I have definitely noticed some physical changes in the way my body looks and I am tighter and more defined in some areas, but I think that my weight will be about the same as when I started.

I'd like to do the program again, but this time do the Leaner program, and also invest in some weights and eat better this time around! I know that my diet made a huge difference as to my overall results of the completion of the program. Maybe in the fall I'll start it back up. I think my summer is going to consist of more outside exercise and some visits to the gym. Sure I'll do a P90X video here and there on days I have some extra time and energy...meh. We'll see how it goes. I'm just pretty sure that my work schedule won't allow such strict workouts as the program would like. Speaking of which! Apparently Cominco is making phone calls now telling people their start dates in May! I'm so excited to finally learn when I start and what section I'll be working in. It had better be awesome, that's all I have to say.

Tip of the Day: Being more versatile makes you less vulnerable.

Ocean Adventure

Ok, so minus the white fuzzy hair and the large black noses...basically, this was myself and Kaylynne yesterday afternoon. As we were laying out in the sun trying to study (but failing miserably due to the loveliness of the weather), Kaylynne came up with the brilliant idea to go to the beach and jump into the water. I hesitated for a minute, weighing the options of staying and studying or dying of hypothermia from swimming in the ocean...and hypothermia ended up winning hands down!

So we took a trip to Brackley Beach, super excited and pumped to do something so stupid (and to have a study break), and as we got closer and closer to the beach, I think both of us started to slightly regret being such brave hot-shots and really started to think about how cold this was going to be. But we'd gone that far already. No turning back now! The beach was beautiful and made me start to get excited about the approaching summer months. Kaylynne was the first to jump in; which she did with some slight yelping, but that's understandable. After she ran back to the shore, it was my turn, so away I went into the icy waters. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but still, my goosebumps had goosebumps which were also promoting goosebumps. I think swimming at Kootenay Lake every summer has built up my goosebump building ability. Anyway, it was my first time every swimming in the ocean, so it was pretty cool to finally be able to do that.

Yeah I know what you're thinking. I've been living on PEI for 2+ years and have yet to swim in the ocean?? It's very sad, but true. The first summer of school I went back home to BC so didn't get a chance to go to the beach. Last summer when I was here, I had very few days off from work, and the ones that I did have off were full of rain and wind, so it wasn't the best of beach-going conditions. It was a very unfortunate and unproductive summer.

After the jump in the ocean, we drove back to the house where I shivered and shook for most of the rest of the day. A lovely Easter dinner was had at Chris's later that evening, which was truly great. His family is very welcoming and enjoyable people and the meal was delicious. It was nice to be able to have a real sit-down meal with actual people who have actual conversations around the dinner table. Much different than my dinner-for-one meals of me sitting in front of the TV watching The Golden Girls.

Tip of the Day: The Golden Girls is a show of epic proportions and if I ever hear anyone talking smack about it, then get ready to feel my wrath!



Holy crap my first final exam starts in 16.5 hours. I suppose it's time to stop staring at my books and get to reading them.

Always Listen to Mom

So yesterday evening I felt as though I deserved a study break, so I went for a nice walk down around the boardwalk to enjoy the amazing weather and the view of the water. A woman was approaching me with this dog that reminded me of Splash,(which of course made me smile) and she got as far away from me as she could, (even walked right off of the sidewalk) and snidely said "nice hair" and just kept on walking right by me. I was slightly blown away by this comment. Yeah, PEI is about 20 years behind in basically every way possible, and yeah, people here are a bit sheltered from the rest of the world. But there are far wackier hair-dos then mine on this island, and 99.9% of them are on decent and wonderful human beings. So...why would she go out of her way to make a cynical comment to some bleached blond chick with some blue in her hair, whom she has never met before??? Why do people have to do that? Also, it's not as though this was some 14 year old brat who was trying to make a statement by being overly mean. No. This was a full-grown woman who was easily in her late 30's-early 40's and has had plenty of time to grow a personality and a good set of basic morals.

I hate that there are people in the world who get off making other people feel like shit about themselves (if you're reading this, pardon my French grandma). I mean, this woman didn't make me feel like shit because I truly don't care about what she thinks about my hair, but if she's able to make a comment like that to me then she's more than likely able to say it to someone who actually may care about what other people think of them...which can be really damaging for some people. It's just so uncool. Why do people have to be like that? Open your mind, open your heart and accept people for who they are. I'm sorry I can't a perfectly straight brunette ponytail like you lady...I like my hair. Deal with it.

Like my mom always said, "If you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all."

Blue and Batty

At one point yesterday, it was 19 degrees in Charlottetown. That is just mean! The one time of year that we students are stuffed inside the library, dorm-rooms or bedrooms, up to our noses in studying for exams, is of course the one time the temperature reaches the high teens. That's just uncool.

Yesterday was a fairly decent day overall. I went out to breakfast with Sarah, Jo and Andrea, which was enjoyable. How I am going to survive the summer without those ladies? After breakfast we went to Lou Lou's where I walked around toting a cow-print bag for about a 1/2 hour. The fact that I was able to walk out of that place without buying it is nothing short of a miracle. A cow print bag people!! It was amazing, and only $20. There's a good chance I'll be heading back there in a few days because I lack will-power and I will be wanting to break free from studying at one point and a trip to a clothing store will be a great distraction.

Anyway, after breakfast and purse drooling, Jo came over to my place and ended up dying my hair. She put a largish streak of blue in my hair. I'll admit that the second I did it, I thought "what have I done?" but now that the shock has subsided, I enjoy it. I've been wanting to do something silly with my hair for a long time but just never really had the guts to do it...for some reason I was feeling gutsy yesterday. After the blue hair bonanza, I went to the library for a few hours to get a little work done. Usually I go to the library only when I have work to do that I really don't want to do but needs to be completed.

After the library I headed home to procrastinate a bit...then went out for the night. It was Chris's sister's birthday yesterday so we went over there for her party. It was my first time meeting people in his family (besides his mom and dad whom I met many months ago). I wasn't nervous or anything, and everyone was very welcoming and the food they had out was delicious. Chris's sister married into a Lebanese family, so most of their special occasions revolve around amazing Lebanese food. I look forward to spending more holidays with them :) Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to meet Chris's other sister which is unfortunate. I just really want to meet all of his family and get to know them because I'm leaving for the summer, and he's coming to BC for most of it as well, and I guess I just want them to know the person who is dragging their son/brother away for so many months. Also, the first time Chris is going to meet my family is when he moves to BC. Now that's pretty scary. If they hate him then they're stuck with him for 3 months. Not that they'll hate him...but still. That has to be a bit intimidating for him. He's a tough guy though. He can survive the crazy Kotyk clan. Let's hope so anyway.

I just realized that when mid-terms were going on, the ever-distracting Olympics were is full swing. And now that finals are happening, an ever-distracting heat wave is in full swing. I think the universe is trying to tell us something. School is silly and we should all quit.

Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain

Well, it finally happened. Semester #2 of year #3 has come to an end and classes are officially done. I knew the day would come eventually, but now that it has come and gone, it still hasn't sunk in yet at all. I just completed my take-home exam question for my Human Sexuality class, which should have been a reminder that I just wrote 30% of my mark for that final exam...and yet...I feel nothing. Weird. I think knowing that I have to write 5 exams in the next week and a half is a constant cloud hanging over my head that I don't have the time to be excited that I'm almost done and that I have tons of work still to do. Yuck. Writing that paper for that exam was hard! The material wasn't difficult at all because it was merely my ethical opinions about various topics and religious views about sexuality, but it was excruciatingly hard to keep it within the amount of pages that she wants us to hand in. Her format says "3-4 pages"....yeah. That didn't happen. Mine is 8 pages long. How does she expect us to talk about so many things in only 3-4 pages? C'mon! Yes, I tend to rant when I am talking about something I feel strongly about, but still. Give me some space to write in. Hopefully she's a bit lenient about this. Plus it was really hard to write this paper and not appear that I'm standing on a soap-box saying that everyone else is wrong and stupid and I'm the all-knowing voice behind the curtain. This is not what I was aiming for at all. A few days ago, this particular professor went out of her way to tell me how much she has enjoyed my writing throughout the semester (we had to send her weekly journal entries), so I am hoping that she enjoys this paper just as much.

So yesterday was April Fools Day (Happy Birthday Splash!) and our group in our Advanced Foods class had to do our presentation about our mac and cheese project. We were originally going do a great big prank for the teacher, but ended up doing a minor one instead. The presentation was a power point, and we had certain topics to discuss about the mac and cheese experiments (Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion), and I was in charge of talking all about the discussion. So, when it was my turn, the first slide of course said "discussion", and when we turned to the next slide it was this picture of this sexy vinyl-clad woman all tied up on top of this table with a blindfold and her mouth all covered up, and the heading said "Bondage and Discipline 101" with various facts about S&M and a few other things. At first I pretended that I had no idea what was going on, and then I pointed to one of my friends in the class/crowd and said "Oh Jess! This is from that class we took last Saturday night!" The funny thing about this was that about 70% of the class was completely confused and had no idea how to react (picture uncomfortable teeth-gritting grins and eyes darting back and forth waiting for some kind of social cue). Meanwhile the rest of the class was laughing hysterically because they know the kind of ridiculous people that we are. Oh, we also all had matching shirts on as well depicting a macaroni noodle and a block of cheese reaching towards one another, with the words BFF and a heart underneath them. We're a bunch of dorks and I'm the first to admit it. I'm just really hoping that the instructor for the class doesn't dock us marks for not taking the project seriously enough or anything like that. It was a fairly easy-going class, so we felt it would be alright to have a little fun on the last day of classes.

Yesterday afternoon I walked around Charlottetown with Sarah while she handed out resumes, looking for a part-time job for the summer. I love love love hanging out with Sarah because she is so easy-going and fun to talk to about anything and everything. She's just a bubble of laughter and can make any situation enjoyable. Also, walking around with her handing out resumes made me look forward to looking for a new job in the fall when I return to PEI. I know that sounds really weird, but I am excited to find out where I'm going to end up in the fall in regards to work. I am really hoping to find a job as a waitress because tips would be great! But really, just the new experience and new people I am going to meet will be enough to satisfy me at the moment.

Tip of the Day: Optimism may be the only way to curb the definite anxiousness of having to study for exams. That, and denial.

Cougars vs. Pumas

This topic has been coming up in every conversation these days, and I think it's a great topic to talk about; older women dating younger men. It's classic! But now there is a new line of "cougars in training" called Pumas who are rocking the scene. These are the 30 something women who are educated, have life experience and are looking for a good time. And men seem to love these women as well, so it's a win-win situation! I think the real dilemma here is, why aren't more women doing this? Let's discuss some of the pros to dating younger men shall we??

Alright, there's the obvious one. Men die first. Sure it sucks, but it's just biology and there's nothing we can do to stop it. If you date/marry a younger guy, then you're less likely to be left alone and go senile since it's more feasible that your man will be alive longer to enjoy the golden years with you. This could be a bad thing though if after 50 years of being with him you're sick of looking at his wrinkly butt. But I'm trying to be optimistic here...so let's move on.

The next good thing about dating a younger man...ok...I have to say it because everyone is thinking it. Women have their sexual peak later on in life whereas men have it when they're younger. So the only way to get around this is for two people to meet when they're both at their sexual summit and just enjoy life and the moment.

Another good thing about dating a younger guy is that it's a huge ego boost to have a younger guy be attracted to you. You may be getting older and noticed a new crease there, some extra saggage there, and suddenly you're overwhelmed with the idea that you're getting older and still single! Who will want me now?!??! When an attractive guy approaches you and has no idea who Pauly Shore is because that was "way before his time", at first it may make you feel a tiny bit awkward, but after that feeling alleviates and you catch your balance, there is definitely a slight swagger in your walk for the rest of the night. All gals need an ego boost every now and then.

There's lots more about how younger guys seem to appreciate older women more than girls their own age and the relationships are more exciting...but I think I've said enough. I might be biased on the topic because I am dating a younger guy (though only by 2.5 years, so it's no big deal), but I also want to point out that my sister is dating a guy 5 years younger than her and it seems to be going pretty great (your secret is officially out Tweed. Sorry!) I think that there's a stigma about this whole younger man-older woman thing and it just seems to silly.

What does age have to do with love anyway?

I think the real question here is, who would win the younger man in the big scheme of things? The cougar or the puma?? Now that would be a fight I would pay to see.