Munch Munch, Ouch Ouch

So every Tuesday and Wednesday there's a table set up at the Student Center on campus that sells Indian food, and the vegetable samosas are incredibly delicious (but not nearly as spicy as they used to be which is disappointing). I usually go once a week to get a samosa right after Advanced Foods and savour every bite. So yesterday when I went, they were all out of cooked ones, so we had to wait around for them to get fried. As she hands it to me she said "now wait a while before you eat this because it's really hot", and I thought "Duh, of course it's hot. I saw you just take it out of the deep fryer!" However, only after waiting about a minute, maybe two minutes, of course I go for it and take a bite, which proves to be a terrible mistake and I burn the hell out of the roof of my mouth. After some choice words and glaring at the samosa as though this is it's fault, I wait about...um....a good 30 seconds before I go for bite number 2 and of course end up shrilling in pain. What the hell is wrong with me?? Do I have no will power to wait until the thing is at a temperature lower than complete scalding? Of course not. This was not my finest hour. They're just so good! It is sad knowing that it was my last samosa of the school year, and I say goodbye to the lovely people who brought UPEI deep-fried goodness every week. I salute you.

Yesterday was my last 8:30am-7pm at school day of the semester! I did skip out the last hour of my 3 hour class because the last group who was presenting had a girl in it that I kind of can't stand, and I was already nodding off in class so the thought of sitting there trying to stay awake while listening to her speak for 45 minutes seemed like complete torture to me. Plus I wanted to get home to start decorating all of those sugar cookies. I baked them on Monday and waiting until Tuesday to decorate so that they would be a little bit fresher for class today. I didn't decorate them as nicely as I wanted to because the "piping bags" that I used (aka, ziploc bags with holes cut in them), we kind of crappy and not working the way I would have liked. But they're done and they're somewhat cute. I guess as long as they taste good, that's all that matters.

I get my hair-cut in 2 hours! YAY! I am going to a new person today which scares me a bit, but I'm sure she'll be great. It's just hard when you're used to one person and get to know and trust that person with your prized hair (insert laugh here), and then have to switch to a new person who doesn't know your head from the person next to you. As long as I don't end up like this guy, then I'll be alright.



Stay tuned...only time will tell how it all pans out.

Sugar Cookie Reminiscence

Last week we had an assignment due in my Dietary Behaviour class which revolved around the connection between the food that we like/dislike and how often we eat those foods. We had to fill out two questionnaires, one with a list of foods and how much we like them, and the second had the same list of foods and we had to write down how frequently we ate them (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly...). Then we had to analyze why we eat the way we do and what the reasons were for the foods that we choose to eat regularly. For example, a person may not generally like low-fat milk and give it a low preference score, and yet they consume it everyday because they know that it is good for them. One the other hand, a person may LOVE a food but only consume it a few times a year because it may be expensive, take a long time to prepare or is really bad for you.

On Wednesday is our last Dietary Behaviour class, and our professor asked us to bring a food/beverage which is related to one of the many topics that we discussed throughout the semester. Right now I am making my food item, and it relates to two topics which we talked about in class. I'm making sugar cookies which are cut out into Easter shaped creatures (bunnies, chicks and eggs). How does this relate to food behaviour you ask? Well let me tell you!


Cookies in the shape of little Easter creatures is so incredibly culture centered that it's ridiculous (Topic #1- foods that are related to our culture). Somewhere along the line people forgot that Easter is actually about religion (we love you Jesus!) and not about chocolate eggs, cookies and a giant bunny that brings us presents. So, I think that is it appropriate to bring animal shaped cookies to class to explain that we have all grown up in this western culture in which we celebrate the Easter holiday by consuming copious amounts of calories. Not that I am opposed to that because who doesn't love eating?? (I apologize to anyone reading this with an ED. My bad.)

The second way that these cookies tie into my class is that I am really not a fan of sugar cookies at all, and yet I bake them at least a few times a year to share with the people that I love, and I always eat a few myself (or at least the dough). I have a low preference for this food and yet I go out of my way to make it every so often and really enjoy the entire process. If I were to explain this to my professor, I would tell her that the process of making the dough, rolling it out, cutting it into shapes, the smell of them baking filling the house, and decorating them when they have cooled, all brings me back to my childhood and to my mom. When I was growing up, we were always baking cookies and we would always make extra special ones for special occasions. If it was a time of the year like Easter or Valentine's Day, we would make a huge amount of sugar cookies and all of us girls would bring them to school to share with the class. My mom was always amazing at taking the time to do these fun things with us. I'm so thankful that I had a stay-at-home mom who was always allowing us to create fun projects and letting us terrorize the basement with arts and crafts.

But still, my all-time favourite memory of growing up was standing on a chair and watching my mom bake and her letting me help whenever I could. It made me feel special and capable and is definitely the reason that I love to bake as much as I do (which is totally topic #3 now that I think of it). Now my little niece, who my mom babysits many days of the week, is almost 2 and gets to be the one who stands on the chair and watches my mom (her Nana) bake. The vision of that scene makes me smile and I hope that Cadance learns and appreciates the experience as much as we all did/do. Thanks mom. I love you!

Mission Possible?

Somehow Sunday morning always creeps up unexpectedly, and like every Sunday morning, I wake up with the realization that I accomplished nothing the past 2 days and have to get my butt in gear to get some work done. I'll admit though, it's been an enjoyable weekend. Friday night I went to a house party at one of Chris's friends. It started off kind of lame because it was all really young people who no one seemed to know, and the music was just stupidly loud. But, eventually the people thinned out and the music turned off and it was just a small group of friends left. The guitars, beer and foosball all came into play, and the rest of the evening was quite enjoyable.


The next morning, me and Sam headed to the farmer's market in hopes of bread and gluten-free chocolate chip cookies. I got the bread, but once again, no cookies to be had :( I don't know if they only make them sporadically, or if they just sell out incredibly fast. Either way, I was disappointed again. I want to go to the actual bakery in Mermaid that sells these cookies, but I honestly can't find this bakery in any phone book, or online. I'm thinking that maybe this woman just makes them out of her house, made up a name of a bakery and sells them at the market pretending that the goods come from a bakery. I don't know. I am on a mission though to get another cookie before I head back to BC. I choose to accept this mission.

Saturday night consisted of another house party, but this one was Lexy's birthday bash (Happy Birthday Lexy!!). There was an "anything but cups" theme for the party, in which we had to bring something other than a cup to drink out of. There were some pretty creative people at that party :) People were drinking out of red peppers, street lights, watermelons, pylons....I brought a watering can to drink from, Sam had a cat planter and Chris had a water gun. Chris actually won the prize for most creative non-cup. Unfortunately his prize (a bottle on wine), got smashed as we were leaving. Uncool. But it was nice to see people who I don't get the chance to see enough of. Most of the party headed down to the Globe; some went to the Wave, and others just went their own way. We actually headed back (slightly stumbled back)to the house where we were the previous night and chilled with some friends there. I kicked Mark's butt at foosball and I think his masculinity was a bit threatened. Sorry Mark. Booze makes me a better foosball player.

And now...Sunday morning. My books are staring at me from across the room, so I think I should do something about it. The possibility of throwing them out it my #1 option at the moment.

Conversations from a PEI Pub

Only one more week of classes, and then semester 2 of year 3 will be nearly complete. Just five meager final exams, and I'll be home free! All I want to do right now is completely slack off and just reap in the glory of the fact that it's so close to being over. So close!!! It's just so tempting to pack up my books and head for the hills when the eagerness of being done is bubbling up all over the place. Here's a picture of me taken last night when I was overcome with the excitement of being done the semester.

Today is Friday, which means only one class. We got a much overdue mid-term returned to us today, and even though I did fine, I still expected a better mark. It was one of those tests where you walk out and think "I nailed that test!", but then you get it back and think, "hmmm...mustn't have used a big enough hammer". I remember writing that exam and thinking that I was running out of time because both of the essay questions (in which we had to pick one), kind of flustered me because I wasn't 100% sure of my answer for either of them. Near the end of it I had that small panic in the back of my brain telling me that I wasn't going to complete it in time, and then I had that visual of my professor announcing that time was up and her ripping the paper from under my frantically moving pencil, beads of sweat dripping down the side of my face as I look up at her with startle and reluctance. Having only 50 minutes to write an exam can put a lot of pressure on some students.

After class I got picked up by Jo and we met up with Andrea and went out to lunch to The Merchantman Pub. I've never been and I've always wanted to go, so I was happy when Jo announced where we were going. The food was really tasty and I recommend it to anyone who is looking for a simple, yet sophisticated meal. Plus the company was amazing as always. The thing I love about those ladies is that we can literally talk about ANYTHING, and in ANY setting...which is good for us, and possibly not good for those sitting within hearing distance. Well, I guess it depends on the kind of person who is within that eavesdropping range and what they find appropriate for mid-day conversation.

I dropped into the store yesterday to talk to Chris quickly, and somehow got pushed into working an evening shift for him. Of course I agreed because his reasoning for wanting to duck out early was understandable, and because he's so cute. It was weird to be back there since I hadn't worked in well over a month, but also comfortable as well. I do really miss the job because it is fun, and you never know where the shift will lead you or what kind of obscure question will pop out of a customer's mouth. I also got to see a lot of friendly and familiar faces of the regulars who come in to buy their cigarettes, and hear their comments of how they never see me anymore and miss me. It's good to know I was appreciated :)

"It Can't Rain All The Time"

Gold star two whoever knows what movie that line is from! And you can't search Google for the answer!

So the sun has been hiding for a few days now and the rain has been drizzling relentlessly since yesterday morning. Honestly, I like the rain. I find it comforting and it gives me a good excuse to sit in my house, avoid homework and watch movies. Last night we watched "Taxi Driver" which was quite disturbing. The other night Chris and I rented 3 movies for 7 days for $7, and I had never seen it before and it's one of those movies that I always mean to watch but just never seem to get around to renting. Like I said, disturbing. But, I love watching movies with super famous actors when they were young and seeing how they got their start. Well, I mean, Robert De Niro already had 12 movies under his belt when he made Taxi Driver (one being The Godfather II), but still. You know what I mean.

My main reason for bringing up the rain is that it's wonderful when you have no where to go and laying around the house is your number 1 priority. It can however, majorly suck royal heiny when you don't own a car and are somehow always able to miss the bus by three minutes every single time you get to the bus-stop. Walking down University Avenue in the rain in one of the worst issues of living on PEI. In the 15 minutes it takes me to get from school to the house, it is nearly impossible for me to not get completely drenched by splashing cars. But, a couple days ago, my friend Charlotte recently pointed out to me (and everyone on her Facebook), that people on PEI can get a fine for splashing pedestrians with their cars! I thought "no way!" so I researched ticket regulations on PEI and she is totally right. According to the Highway Traffic Act, #296. No person shall while operating a vehicle upon a highway splash pedestrians or other persons with water, slush or mud, and the fine to splash a pedestrian is $50.

Ok, so I think it's pretty cool that there's a fine for splashing pedestrians with water, slush or mud, but c'mon. How are we supposed to catch these people? A cop would have to be driving by at the exact second that the texting-distracted driver in the roaring Honda Civic drove through the massive puddle which drenched the poor passerby on the sidewalk. The chances of this happening.....um....let's see. I've now been splashed about 300 times, and it has yet to happen. I think I'll start carrying around a pad and paper and start jotting down licence plates numbers. :) Yes, I am THAT lame.

Not much else to report around here. Projects and presentations are starting to pile up a bit as the semester winds down. I'm very excited to announce that on this day next month, I will be on a plane somewhere over Canada :) BC for the summer sounds like a dream right now. Can't wait!

Another Disappearing Act

So while I was wasting an hour of my life by surfing the internet (class was canceled therefore I have an extra hour between classes), I came across an article discussing how writing in a journal, or in some form of public display (like a blog), can make you healthier and have positive effects on your overall well-being. Apparently, "emotional or expressive writing can reduce high blood pressure, enhance immune function, decrease the severity of asthma and arthritis symptoms, promote wound healing, increase AIDS patients’ white blood cell counts and even help young people quit smoking." Even if one were to write something, and then destroy it immediately after completion, apparently there is an undeniable therapeutic response to writing about your thoughts, ideas, concerns....life! This article makes me feel much more optimistic about keeping this blog alive. Not only am I sharing my every-days with people who was to know what I'm up to on this tiny island, I am also improving my health. I mean, that's pretty cool! If you want to take a look at this article, here's the link:

http://www.besthealthmag.ca/embrace-life/wellness/how-journal-writing-can-make-you-healthier

So this morning when I went to look to see if there was any success in the relentless mouse hunt, I was shocked to open the pantry to find that the mouse trap was no where to be seen. I immediately turned to Sam and asked if she had already cleaned it out of there...although I know that she would have waited for me to be there dead-mouse-cleaner-upper since she's quite squeamish with this whole ordeal. She of course said no, so I asked Kaylynne the same thing...of course she had not moved the mouse trap either. This lead me to panic a little. The thought of the poor little mouse partially trapped in the trap, crawling on his hands and knees to impending doom of a slow and torturous death, just made me sick to think about. After I pulled the shelf out of the pantry I found the empty mouse trap jammed into the side of the shelving.

Ok. What the hell? How did this happen? It's as though he was stuck, but pulled the trap all the way to the other side of the cupboard, then maneuvered the trap into the shelving where he used it as leverage to pull himself free from it's grip. Now, it may seem like I am giving this little guy a lot of credit(who, by the way, has been named Houdini at this point), but c'mon! We've gone through 4 traps now with this one little rodent! We talked to the landlord this morning about getting the humane trap back to give it another go. He also mentioned getting some of those sticky traps which capture the mice when they walk on them (picture a large fly-trap with a mouse attached instead of flies). That grosses me out though and I think is the least humane way to go with this situation. I'd rather a quick death then a sticky death.

Sticky may be fun in some situations, but not this one.

Hello? Can Anyone Hear Me?

I have some terrible news! For the first time since I started this blog, the number of visitors to this blog has decreased. This makes me very sad. I am guessing that my blogs are becoming either, a) more and more boring therefore people do not feel the need to read them, or b) they were always boring and people are now realizing that it's not going to get any better, so it's time to give up the waiting game for an exciting blog to appear.

Ok, so my life isn't all that interesting, and the things I have to say are not expressed all that much differently than another person may say them...but a decrease in page visits is a bit of a downer people. Even though I mostly write this blog for me because it gives me the chance to just blabber on about nothing (which is perhaps why no one is reading it!), it is still nice to see high numbers in terms of page visits. Hmmmm. I will persevere with the blogging though. I won't give up! I have faith that if I write, people will come. All I need is a cornfield and some daddy issues, and I'll be set.



So mousey is still on the run. He's now taken the peanut butter from the trap three times, which makes me believe that he is either a mouse-genius, or I am a complete moron when it comes to setting traps. Unfortunately, I am leaning towards the latter of the two options. On the good side of things, Sam came back last night from South Carolina and she's the one who generally sets the traps, so hopefully after she gets home and puts one in place we'll have some success in lowering the rodent population on Gerald Street.