Hand Sanitizer Hostility

Today I have decided to take a stand and express my perspective against hand sanitizer. That's right. HAND SANITIZER! Most of the time when I mention to people that I am against all forms of hand sanitizer, they give me this look like I am slightly crazy and might be waiting for a story about the time I got abducted by aliens. Is it really that bizarre to detest the stuff? I think it's bizarre that people swear by it and carry multiple tubes around with them at all times. I don't care if it's scented with lavender, coconut-pie, new leather smell or key-lime, it's not going in my shopping cart.

The reason I am dead against the stuff is that the only times I ever get sick is within 24-48 hours of using it. Now this is the part in the conversation in which I get the strange looks, but it's totally and completely true! How could someone make something like this up? I get a cold maybe once a year. If that. Colds are not my style and I do a fairly good job at avoiding them. But then a day will come where my hands will get something especially nasty on them when I'm out and about, and my only resort to any kind of cleanliness is a couple of squirts from one of those public hand sanitizer dispensers. And them BAM! By the next day or day after that, it all starts with a sore throat and I know I've lost my battle with cold-aversion. It's hard to avoid these dispensers though. They're in banks, grocery stores, restaurants, gyms, classrooms, clothing stores, washroom, public parks, offices, drug stores, coffee shops...and every five steps in between. Taunting you. Reminding you of everything that you touched, making you second guess your personal hand cleanliness. 

Why do we feel the need to destroy all of the bacterial on our hands continuously throughout the day? Do you know why it is recommend for babies to crawl around on the floor and put things in their mouths? To eat bacteria and build their immune systems! If we go around killing every teeny tiny bacteria that might come in contact with a mucousal membrane (nose, mouth) then we'd might as well not breathe the air. We'd might as well live in a bubble and avoid every surface and every person who might come in contact with us. Our skin is covered all of the time with millions of friendly bacteria that are there to keep us healthy, and we're going out spending money on products to kill them off. 

When did the obsession of insane hand cleanliness start? Oh wait...I remember. It was when H1N1 was exploding on the scene and everyone was freaking out of coming down with it. When was that...2008? 2009? Sometime in there. I remember being in university and suddenly there were machines everywhere squirting chemicals in your direction if your hand brushed near. At first I thought that it was neat that people were being proactive in the fight against evil viruses and I'll admit that I used the antibacterial gel on more than one occasion, but overall not that often. But then I started to get more colds. Hmmm. It took me a while to find the correlation between using hand sanitizer and developing a head-cold, but as time went on, I figured it out and have been avoiding all kinds of hand sanitizer ever since. But as I mentioned, every so often my hands get uncontrollably gross and a handy-dandy dispenser is always near to entice me to place my palm underneath. Yesterday I fell for it once again and SHAZAM! Today I have a sore throat. It's been about a year since I last used the stuff. When will I learn?

I stopped at the dispenser and stared at it for a while before making the terrible decision of giving into it. Why did I do it? What is it that compelled me to give in when I knew the outcome would be a sore and snotty mess which would last for up to a week. Now I am double-dosing myself with Oil of Oregano in hopes of kicking this thing down before anything substantial develops in my head.

Wait...what? I haven't told you about my obsession with Oil of Oregano? Oil of Oregano is the most amazing substance that humans have discovered in the fight against...well...everything! I use it exclusively when I feel a cold coming on, but it is a powerful anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-viral and anti-parasitic and can help with problems such as digestive issues and skin infections. It can help boost your immune system, improve your joints and flexibility and even help with your respiratory system. People use it to treat warts, shingles, lice, headaches, bladder infections, acne, burns, bruises, candida overgrowth and dozens of more problems. It's amazing. Truly. I recommend everyone go out, buy a bottle and try it on your own personal symptoms. You can pick it up at any health store or even in the grocery store with all of the vitamins. 

While you're there, don't buy any hand sanitizer! 

Housesitting Hysteria (aka Sophie)

I've been house sitting for my sister for the past couple of days and have been thrown back into the wild and crazy world of having a puppy around. Pam and her husband have a 10(ish) month old pup Sophie who, even though she is highly entertaining, is such a pain 95% of the time. My last blog was about the death of our family dog Rizzo, and even though it was 15 years ago that she was a puppy, I don't remember her being as crazy as Sophie is. Riz didn't jump up on counters or have the level of separation anxiety as Sophie does. I feel like I can never fully relax because I am on constant Sophie-patrol, meaning that she could be up to anything and anytime and in any part of the house, so I have to be on high alert to make sure she's not pulling gloves, knives, bottles, beer cans, lids, food...off of the counter, or pulling the garbage out of the bathroom and dragging it around the house. We've learned to keep all bedroom and bathroom doors closed at all time because there is no telling what she will find exciting enough to steal away and bring to her bed to gnaw on. Unfortunately she somehow grabbed a roll of toilet paper from my bathroom and destroyed it all over the living room rug. Being here for the weekend is a great reminder that I don't ever want to own a puppy again and that a full grown dog from the SPCA will be a great addition to my life sometime in the future.

Plus she has the worst dog farts right now and is grossing me out.

But like I said, puppies are very entertaining creatures to have around. They are very simple minded and find happiness in the smallest things, such as apples, sticks, bugs, grass, old rotten zucchinis and basically anything that gets in their line of vision. I've been taking them on the same walk for the past 3 days and every time at the exact same spot on the trail, Sophie gets this burst of energy and runs back and forth up the trail while lunging at Splash trying to get her to play with her. And every time she does this, Splash turns to me with this defeated look that clearly displays that she thinks this pup is a lunatic who she wish would just leave her be to enjoy the walk.

This morning's walk was full of adventure and fun though! After finding someone's discarded bag of garbage (that Sophie ate a lot of) and a big pile of some kind of animal excrement (which Sophie ate a lot of) AND some more garbage left behind farther down the trail (which Sophie ate some of and ran around excitedly with in her mouth until I chased her down and made her drop it), we came across an old deer carcass. The trail is at the bottom of the bank which follows alongside the highway, so I am guessing that the deer was hit by a car, landed in the bushes on the side of the highway and somehow made its way to the bottom of the bank (probably an animal dragged it down) and landed on the trail for us to find. I let the dogs investigate it and give it a good sniff, then proceeded to carry on down the trail while calling them to come along. Splash gave up quite quickly and followed along but Sophie panicked at the idea of leaving this amazing carcass behind and decided to try to pull it home. She grabbed a hold of a rib bone and pulled with all her puppy might, only to drag it about an inch. I could see the excitement in her eyes as she tried her best to get this thing to come along with us, but she soon realized that this was a lost cause. No doubt she'll try again next time she's that way again.

Tip of the Day: Puppies are relentless and will push your every button until your head hypothetically explodes. Always have lots of tasty treats around to bribe them with.

Rizzo

We found Rizzo nestled in the
laundry basket on a regular basis

Nearly 15 years ago on a cool December evening, my mom and I took a trip up to Fruitvale to take a look at a litter of puppies. I was 14 back then and super excited at the possibility of getting a puppy...although mom told me repeatedly that we were "only there to look". We got to the house which was way out in the middle of nowhere, and were directed to a shelter where the puppies were being kept. They were just 6 weeks old, mutts made up of Labrador Retriever and German Shepherd, and there were 13 in the litter! I remember walking up to the litter and being overwhelmed by 13 puppies all jumping up at the fence, excited to meet the visitors.

As soon as I saw her, I knew she had to be mine. She was mostly black but had some markings which showed that she clearly had German Shepherd in her. But what got me was the tiny white line right down the middle of her forehead. She was so small and sweet looking (little did I know at the time what puppyhood would bring my way) and I picked her up and held her to my chest while mom looked at the remaining 12 pups. After a few minutes mom told me to put her down and play with the rest of the litter, so I put her back and pet a few other pups, but after about 2 minutes I picked up my little one again and didn't put her back down. On the drive home we stopped at the only open grocery store and bought some puppy food, a food dish, a couple toys and a collar and leash.

It took a couple days to agree on a name for her but we eventually agreed on Rizzo. The first few nights were tough because she didn't want to be left alone at night, but she eventually learned the routine. I remember her being so small and the snow was so deep in the streets that she had to walk in the tire tracks to keep up with me on our walks. As she grew bigger and bigger, she proved to be a major handful and most of the first year owning her was full of threats from my mom that we had to get rid of her, and me crying my eyes out saying that she would get better. She was an escape artist and we could barely keep her in the yard. My poor dad had to keep renovating the side yard, building the fence higher and closing up any openings she might be able to squeeze through. Luckily she almost always went to the same neighbours yard to play with their dog, so most of the time I knew where to find her when I looked outside and saw the yard empty of Rizzo.

It's been almost 15 years since we got that dog and the stories of Rizzo are endless. As the years have gone by, she's had a fun and busy life with lots of love and lots of great walks. When she was younger she was amazing at playing hide-and-go-seek with me. I would throw the ball down the riverbank then run and hide somewhere on the property. She figured out my hiding places pretty quickly and the only time I ever stumped her was when I jumped into the cab of the truck. She never forgot that hiding spot and went to check every time past that. Dad was unimpressed when he saw her jump up against his truck to try to look inside to see me. The past year has been hard on her and she lost a lot of her strength in her back end, so she has trouble walking a lot of the time. Plus her heart has been failing for a while now so she can't get too stressed out or too much exercise before she collapses, out of breath.

I am sad to announce that today was her last day with us. She was struggling too much and as much as it killed us to do it, called the vet to make an appointment to get her in for her last visit. Even though I didn't want to go through with it, I knew that I should be there with her for her last minutes with us since it was me who brought her into this family. Watching her drift away was one of the hardest things I have ever done but I am so glad that I was there for her last few minutes. I know I'll be a crying fool for a while, but having Riz for all those years was worth a couple days of constant tears. I'll miss you Rizzo. We all love you.

Green Coffee Bean Extract Rant

While on a hike up the mountain with my sister, I somehow ended up on a giant rant about Green Coffee Bean Extract. I figured that if the topic was worthy enough of a random rant on a random hike then it might be worthy of a blog post.

Alright. Green coffee bean extract is a supplement created from unroasted coffee beans and it has become the newest weight loss craze supplement. The supplement works in a couple of ways. 1) It contains caffeine which is a stimulant and linked to weight loss (but there is a small amount in the supplement so I can't imagine how this could factor in), 2) It contains a polyphenol antioxidant that is supposed to reduce fat and glucose absorption in the gut. Apparently Dr. Oz started talking about it on his show back in the spring and he got a lot of grief about it cause everyone figured that he was getting paid by the green coffee bean extract people to rave about its weight loss qualities. So then Dr. Oz came back with a rebuttal saying that he was not paid by anyone and that this was his own actual opinion on the product. To prove that he was not a sellout, over the course of the summer he conducted his own experiment with green coffee bean extract to see if it did actually truly work.

I shall refer to green coffee bean extract as GCBE because I am too lazy to keep typing it out.

He conducted an experiment with 100 women in which 1/2 took the GCBE while the other 1/2 took a placebo. None of the participants knew if she was taking the real pill or just a sugar pill. All women were told to not change their diet and to record everything that they ate during the 2 weeks. The results were that the women who took the GCBE lost twice as much weight as the ones taking the placebo! Interesting. Sure the results didn't include an outstandingly enormous weight loss stories, but the women who lost weight lost about 1-2 pounds each week.

Some may think that this is a petty amount of weight and that taking the GCBE is not worth the expense and discipline of remembering to take them before every meal. But really, the best and healthiest way to lose weight is to lose it slowly, at about a rate of 1-2 pounds per week. Those who lose weight much more quickly then that tend to gain it back because it shocks the body. When the body sheds the weight more slowly then it can adjust to the changes accordingly which will help to keep the weight off long-term. What is also impressive about this GCBE is that the women in the study made no changes to their every day eating and were still able to lose weight. 

So I know what you're all thinking. Finally, a pill that will end obesity! "Sweet! A miracle weight loss pill that will make me burn fat and lose weight without having to change my diet!" I should be happy right? Taking this pill will help people to lose weight and improve their health and reduce the risk of developing horrible diseases...right?

.................................

In my opinion...not so much. Reducing obesity and increasing the health of the population would be amazingly amazing, but doing it with a supplement is not the right way to do it. No at all. What a pill like GCBE is teaching the world is that it is alright to eat all of the crap that you want cause you can still lose weight doing it. It isn't teaching people to eat more green vegetables, less saturated fats and increase your daily exercise. It's just another cop-out pill that will work as a bandaid for all of the disease and sickness in the world. Just because a person is thin on the outside does not make them healthy on the inside.

Here is what I would suggest regarding GCBE. If you're going to take it, take it as part of a complete nutrition and lifestyle makeover. Change your diet to include more fresh vegetables, fruits, lean meats and low fat dairy products. Change your lifestyle by riding your bike to work, taking the stairs more often or walk an extra 20 minutes with the dog in the morning. Make the GCBE the last priority of your weight loss goal and make changes that will improve your health for the rest of your life.

Over My Head

I'm getting to that point in my thoughts in which I am starting to come to the realization that I am not in BC on vacation and am actually here to stay. For the past 5 years, coming to BC was always a temporary trip in which I was basically on vacation and had no major responsibilities apart from doing some minor cleaning, cooking and making sure that I got to the airport on the correct day and at the correct time to get back to the East Coast.

 

Which reminds me. Being on vacation, for me, always meant lots of reading, which I have been doing since I have been home. Even though school has started and I have lots of textbook reading to do, reading novels has unfortunately been taking up much more of my spare time then reading the super expensive textbooks I bought. In less than 2 weeks I read the entire Hunger Games series. I've been wanting to read them for a long time but was never able to get my hands on the first book, so when I was finally able to have all 3 in my possession, I jumped in with both feet and plowed through. Now that I have finished them I know that I will be able to concentrate more on school, and I think that that was my train of thought when skipping school work for them. "Once I finish these then they will be done and I won't have anything to distract me!"

So now my thoughts on the Hunger Games series. Suzanne Collins wrote these books aimed for the young adult audience, but as book series seem to do these days, the rest of the population was drawn to them and they became a huge world-wide phenomenon (such as Harry Potter and Twilight). I am known to be a bit of a harsh critic when it comes to books but I was pleasantly surprised by these books. Ok, I take that back. I really enjoyed the first book but the other 2 weren't as great...but this is usually how sequels work anyway so there is no shocker there. I think that the content is a bit morbid for young kids/adults to read since the whole  story behind the books is a national televised game in which kids have to kill other kids in order to win the game and be released back to their homes. Not wanting to sound like a drag or a spokesperson for censorship, I know that kids are exposed to violence at such a young age these days, but all 3 of these books are basically non-stop violence. I guess I just recommend that all parents read the books before letting their kids read them so that they know what they are getting into. I found it kind of ironic that Collins was so vague about sex or any kind of sexual feelings between the heroine and her 2 admirers (and she was a total tease with those boys and led both of them on the entire series!) but blowing up soldiers into itty bitty pieces and slipping on their intestines was OK to write about. Violence = good. Sex = bad. Sounds a bit dodgy to me.

But like I said, I really enjoyed the first book a lot. The series was not at all what I expected which is something that I appreciated since the world seems to be stuck in vampire/zombie/schools of magic themed books, so these were a bit of a breath of fresh air compared to the rubbish I've been reading lately. I even cried a tiny bit at the end of book 3 which I was not expecting since I was trudging through that book just praying for the end to come since I found it very monotonous. Overall, I give the Hunger Games a thumbs up.

I expect to be as awesome as this
guy in no time. No problem!

I've been home for just over 2 weeks now and about 6 days in I started to panic over not having a job. Boredom wasn't my problem; my depleting bank account was. After the trip to Vancouver, buying textbooks, paying tuition, some school supplies, a few bills and some extras (like picture frames), I started to sweat a little at the idea of no income coming in. So with my shiny new printer, I printed off a resume and headed to town to the nearest bar/pub which is the Columbia River Hotel (or as all of you Trailites know it as, the Terra Nova). And surprisingly enough, they hired me on the spot! That was quite nice for the ego actually. I went in today for an official interview to meet the GM and get a tour of the place, but he said I would have my first shift this week. Not so good for my ego though, they're starting me on bar. Yikes! My entire bartending history involves pouring draft beer and making rum & cokes at Outriders. If someone were to ask me for a Slippery Nipple or Sex on the Beach, I'd probably just slap them across the face and ask them if their momma taught them to talk like that to a lady.

Seriously though, I have no idea what is in a Tom Collins or a Pina Colada. I was never much of a drinker so I had no interest in learning about mixed drinks. I'm about as useful behind the bar as a condom machine in the Vatican. So I searched the internet and a "Bartending for Dummies" kind of cheat sheet and came up with this little doozy. I am going to read it over a few times in hopes of something sticking in my maxed out brain so that I almost sort of know what I'm doing when I show up for my first day. Fingers crossed!

Tip of the Day: A Slipper Nipple is 1/2 oz Baileys Irish Cream and 1/2 oz Butterscotch Schnapps. 

Into The Wild

Living in PEI was a tad strange because there are no large animals there. The largest land dwelling mammal is a coyote. No deer. No moose. No bears. Driving there is an experience that I never got used to because living in BC you have to constantly be on the lookout for deer and other animals on the roads. You're always driving in a state of tenseness because you're just waiting for something to pop out of the trees, stop dead in the centre of the road and stare wide-eyed at you while to either slam on the brakes or swerve. I was never able to fully relax while driving in PEI because I have lived my whole life being on high alert on animal inhabited highways. Sure there was the odd raccoon or skunk to worry about, but hitting one of those would never have the impact as a mule deer slamming over the hood of your Honda.

Whenever I talked about hiking in BC with people in PEI, I was always asked about the wild animals. Most of them assumed that animal attacks happened on a regular basis and that hiking up a mountain was incredibly dangerous. It seems lately that the most dangerous thing you can do around here is leave your door open for too long because a cougar might mosey on in. True story! http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/08/28/trail-cougar-attack_n_1836364.html.

Splash in the woods!

This morning I was walking up the mountain behind Rivervale and even though there are tons of animal footprints (deer, elk, coyote and bears) plus their droppings to ensure their presence, I have never had a fear of running into a wild animal in the area. When I would tell people about this, they either didn't believe me or would think that I am crazy, but I don't think that I am either of the two. The mindset that I have always had about wild animals is that of the utmost respect. I am the one coming into their territory and I respect their space. I walk on through but never hang out too long. We grow up with these animals in our neighbourhoods and just kind of treat them as quick visitors who are nothing to get all excited about. There has never been a major animal attack in this area that I can remember. Plus I have always hiked with at least one dog with me so I feel secure knowing that she would give me some fair warning if something highly dangerous was lurking about in the bushes. Sure, once I had both Rizzo and Splash up the mountain with me and they walked right past a deer who was standing only 15 feet away from the trail, without even a twitch of their snouts...but I think they'd have my back if the time came. And I almost had heart failure this morning when a grouse came flying out from beside a tree when I was about 3 feet from it. Damn grouse. By far the most frightening things when hiking around here are the birds because they are so noisy and small! One tiny little bird in a twiggy tree can make such a ruckus that you assume that a giant bear is hiding in there.

Also, from the time we are little kids, we are also given so much information about what to do if you come across an animal that it is drilled into our brains for life. Like for example, if you come across a grizzly bear in the mountains, always curl up into a ball and cover your neck. No wait. Always try to become as large as you can and yell as loudly as possible. No that's no it either. When a grizzly bear approaches you, run as fast as you can in the opposite direction and try to make it uphill. No downhill. Hmmm. I'd better get a pamphlet on this subject.

And I take back what I said about not having fear of coming across a wild animal. If I ever came across a cougar I know that for about 4 seconds I would marvel in it's beauty, but then my heart would probably leap so high into my chest that I would lose consciousness from the lack of oxygen.

Home, Vancouver, Home Again

It's been one heck of a busy week. Between traveling, unpacking, organizing, re-packing, re-organizing, traveling some more...it's been a bit hectic. I am trying so hard to get organized for school starting on the 4th and I am feeling pretty good about that. Kind of. I'm a bit nervous cause I've never done an online course before, nevermind 3, so I don't really know what to expect. More on that later,

Where to even begin? So a while back I decided to postpone the moving to Vancouver until the end of December because I am able to do the first semester all online so I am going to crash in Trail with my family until then. I can save some money on rent and be able to focus on school that way. I arrived in Trail on Saturday night and feel like I've done nothing but organize since I got here. I have boxes of stuff stashed at my sister's house, plus lots at my parent's house, plus all of the stuff from PEI, so I've been going through it all throwing out the non-essentials and consolidating all of the things that I want to keep. My room has been in a constant state of whirlwind for a week now and I can't wait until it's all tidy. Yeah you'd think that I'd be done organizing by now, but since I sent most of my stuff on the bus from PEI, it only just arrived yesterday so I just go the chance to unpack that. 

Osoyoos, BC

Thursday morning I hit the road again and drove to Vancouver. Many months ago when the plan was to move to Vancouver mid-August, I bought tickets to see Goyte, so it gave me an excuse to go visit the city and play a bit of tourist. The 7 1/2 hour drive is a huge pain in the butt (literally), and right when you start to lose your mental momentum and you want to take a break, there is a moment when you're driving along and you come over a dip in the road and as you're approaching Osoyoos, the mountains seem to grow ahead of you. It's hard to explain but the Okanagan is the desert area of BC and there is a moment in which the mountains just seem to appear suddenly in the horizon and climb higher and higher. It's amazing! Whenever I talked to people on PEI about me being from BC, I'd say that 90% of them tell me that they have always wanted to see BC, and I always tell them to do it because it is an amazing province. There are huge high rocky mountains and dry deserts and lush greenery and freezing cold lakes and warm lakes and the ocean and tiny towns and huge cities and just everything! There's something for everyone. 

Vancouver was a fun time. Between the sight-seeing, shopping and people watching, I always enjoy myself. Plus I spent some time at the Langara College campus since I had to go pick up some textbooks, so that was kind of neat. Very different then what I'm used to, but I like the area of the city a lot. Visiting Granville Island is always on the top of my To-Do List when I visit Vancouver. The Public Market is just to die for. The produce and all of the food available is utterly gorgeous and I always have to walk around several times before I decide what to buy. It's also a very artsy place to visit since the Emily Carr University of Art and Design is located on Granville Island, so there are great little shops to visit there. Case and Point - my new little friend Harold. I saw this guy in one of the shops there and I picked him up and couldn't put him down. He is called an Anibit and was made by a woman named Claudia Segovia who uses old stuffed animals, takes them apart and makes these adorable new critters. Like I said, it was love at first site with this guy. I can't help but smile when I look at him. Plus part of the sales from these critters goes to the SPCA which I fully support. 

Harold!

My good friend Doug and I went to Gotye Friday night and I was highly impressed by the show. I enjoy his music quite a bit but I didn't really know what to expect from the show. It was instantly apparent that the man is an incredibly talented musician and I could not count on all of my fingers the number of instruments he played (including a melodica!).The percussion throughout the concert blew me away. There were 3 guys playing at the same time at certain points during the show which was a treat. Plus the guy can sing so powerfully and hit every note out there with seemingly little effort. The thing with Gotye is that he's been making music for a long time but only was just recognized by his huge hit Somebody That I Used To Know so he's likely going to be pegged as a One Hit Wonder, which is unfortunate because he's so talented and should be recognized for it. At least that's what I think anyway.  

So after a bit too much drinking and not enough sleeping, I'm back in Trail and trying to organize my life again. There's a good chance I'll procrastinate again tomorrow and do a big hike in the morning/afternoon. Sitting in a car for so many hours is too hard on the butt and legs so getting up a mountain will do me good. Plus I need to space myself from civilization for a while. As beautiful as Vancouver is, it can have that effect on me.