The Crazy Randomness That Is My Life

Things have been pretty nuts around here as of late. I went to Taylor's funeral a few weeks ago-about two weeks ago-and it was good. It was a nice ceremony and it gave me a chance to grieve. I really didn't cry until one of his very good friends talked and then when the priest said, "I always believed that all Scots and Irish should go out to the pipes," and they played a rendition of "Amazing Grace." I also learned a lot about him before I met him-his friends got up and told stories about when they were younger.
Since then, we've had Christena's birthday party, which was a Disney Princess theme and included a Fantasia party. We ate so much food and ice cream cake I could barely walk! Carmen and I decorated with balloons, pictures printed from the internet, Disney Princess plates/napkins/table cloth. I made punch and decorated one of our gold armchairs so that it looked like a throne. We even had birthday hats. Totally six year old, but with a
Fantasia twist. :) It was fun. We went out for supper on the Sunday, which was her actual birthday and she made us wear the hats until food came. They messed up our orders a few times, so we ended up with free cake for pretty much everyone and of course Tenie got hers for free because it was her birthday.
This past weekend, I spontaneously hopped a bus and went into Toronto and met Nathan-one of the councillors that I hung out with when I was working at camp this summer. I tried to get other people to go with us, but no one wanted to. We wandered around and went to Castaloma-which is a house built in the early 1900's and was owned by a man who owned 25 percent of the Canadian economy at the time. The depression came along and he lost his entire fortune. Anyway, they have opened it up as a museum and so we checked it out. Jetta was very well behaved I might add.
Speaking of Jetta. She is enjoying her university experience. For example, last week, she went to Christena's night class. I had been writing an essay all day and she'd had a small walk in the morning, but I think she had house fever. So, off she went with Tenie. Tenie's prof was showing them pottery and Jetta danced over to her and the professor was like, "Oh, would you like to see too?" And proceeded to put the pot down at Jetta's nose level. This pot is thousands of years old!!! And, Jetta just got to stick her nose in it!!! :)
Oh, and the Monday of that week, Jetta and I were in class and she got a little mouthy. We arrived late-woops-and so I slipped into the back of the room and sat down. Jetta was grumbling at something, so I corrected her and she stopped her huffing. About fifteen minutes later, when my prof was in the middle of discussing structuralism and its function in folklore, Jetta let out the loudest "woof," I've ever heard. Everyone jumped, the professor included and then turned to her and said, "Do you have a question?" I nearly pissed myself laughing.
Of course the fun of our house doesnt end there. This Sunday, at midnight, Tenie's mom showed up and surprised us. I was fast asleep as I had practice at six A.M., but Tenie had not been feeling well that day, so when I heard walking back and forth I got out of bed to see if she was all right. Turns out, Mommy Lois-the nickname I have given Tenie's mom-was at our front door. She had brought a million tons of food and Carmen and Tenie were frantically trying to get it into our house. So, I helped unpack and then we decided we were hungry and Tenie's mom wanted grease. So, Tenie and I hopped in the car-in our pajamas no less-and drove over to Mcdonald's. She got a few weird looks from the person serving, but the looks we got when we walked into the convenient store to buy diet Coke were even stranger. :) By this point it was super late and my body had decided that it had a nap and it was wide awake-so I got two hours of sleep and went to swim practice where I was given a test set...ouch! The pain in my legs was amazing, but it was exciting because I was kicking faster than I thought I could. So, that was a positive.
Wow, this is long and very jumbled up, but I thought I'd just bring everyone up to speed on the craziness that is my life.
Oh and did I mention the million assignments due in the next few weeks? Once those are finished it's time for finals. I can't believe how fast this semester has gone. I really must make a greater effort to blog next semester. :)

New Stuff!

Hey Y'all!
This is Jess's friend Lindsay typing from the Capital of Canada. If you haven't noticed it yet, there's a guestbook added to this blog. Go ahead and sign it! You know you want to!
With the holidays coming up, who knows, maybe I'll get really bored and REALLY re-vamp this place haha.
Ok have fun people!
~Lins

"Where The Blacktop Ends"

These lyrics reflect how I feel about home and how I feel about going to university in a more urvanised city. I thought I'd post a few of them.

Workin' in the grind is an uphill road
Punchin' that clock and carryin' that load
I bust it all week and then I'm free
The weekend belongs to me

Gonna kick off my shoes
And run in bare feet
Where the grass and the dirt and the gravel all meet
Goin' back to the well gonna visit old friends
And feed my soul where the blacktop ends

"Let's do the Time Warp Again"

So, happy Halloween everyone. To take a break from life's weirdness, my roommies and Alicia, in celebration of Haloween, we all flopped out on the couch and watched "Rocky Horror Picture Show." We even carved a pumpkin and put it on the front porch to try and lure little children into our layer, but we only got five. That's too bad because those other children are seriously missing out-no chocolate bars for them. :) Oh well, more for us.
Christena, Alicia and I even dressed up to hand out the candy. I slapped on a skirt and faerry wings, while Christena wore her Juliet costume from last year. Alicia wore her pirate costume from Saturday night.
We ended up having to order in food because not only did our freezer crap out, but the fridge too. We discovered this this morning when we tried to eat breakfast. The repair guy came, but we had already thrown out tons of food and he doesn't know if the problem can be fixed. I'm not sure our landlords are going to want to buy a new fridge...well, I mean, they're going to have to, bbut who knows how long that will take.
Anyway, I need sleep. I hope everyone had a great Halloween!
PS: Sorry for the typos, my screen reader is not letting me edit. Stupid computer. :)

It always comes in three's

This past weekend was a mixture of sweetness and bitterness. It's amazing how one's heart tries to protect itself, but one little thing can undo all of that work.
We had a Halloween/birthday party for our latest inductee of the Confederation of the Bitches, Alicia. The party was a hit. We had about 21 people or so and the decorations and food turned out great. There were a lot of people dressed up and Christena's cousin and I had blown up these really cool long balloons with a bicycle pump. Tenie strung up cob webbing and we had grave stone candles that bled red wax lit around the house. Not to mention our strategically placed spider, skeleton and witch hats. So, that was the fun part. Part of the bad part had occurred earlier that day while we were blowing up balloons.
One of the people I was a camp councillor for this summer-and had become very close to-died. He passed away from complications of Diabetes. I was pretty upset, but I tried to push it aside so that the party wouldn't be a flop. I had gone to his and his common-law wife's house for Thanksgiving and they had basically become my adopted parents down here. From there the weekend kept getting worse.
Sunday my parents phoned and said that there may be an impending separation-it is dependent upon whether or not my Dad can stop his drinking or not. This has been an ongoing issue in my nuclear family and lately, it's just gotten worse.
The third issue, which doesn't seem as huge as the first two, is that our freezer crapped out. I smelled plastic burning on Saturday night and although we all searched, no one could find the smelly source. It turned out that the breaker on our freezer blew and this morning when we went to take stuff out for supper, the bananas I had been freezing for muffins had thawed and oozed all over Christena and the freezer. I spent part of the morning cleaning it out. It was pretty disgusting. All of our meat had thawed, so tonight we spent the majority of the night cooking the chicken.
It's not that the freezer was a big deal. We just lost some meat and managed to save a lot of it. I guess it's just everything is piling up. I had the week from Hell last week with school stuff and I just feel like I am being smothered. Friday is Taylor's funeral and I promised Lise I would go. She started crying when I said I was coming and then we talked about all of the great stories Taylor would tell. She said "I love you," when she hung up and I lost it right there. I said, "I love you," back and then hung up sobbing. I don't understand. Here is this couple-completely in love with each other. She's already lost one husband to Diabetic complications and here she loses her "life partner," as she calls him. Then, there's my parents, who love each other, but they just can't seem to get past my Dad's drinking. His drinking has had a huge impact on me. It's made me have trust issues and I always want to fix everything that I think may be broken. I guess, subconsciously, I figure if I can't help him, I can console everyone else and make it all better. Well, I know logically that can't happen, but, I guess I can hold out hope. I think I am teetering on the edge of a depression. I feel like one little slip and I could tumble down to the bottom. It's a vicious circle. I am too busy helping everyone else, that I don't have time for myself. I dont' know where else to go with this blog. It's just a random jumble of my thoughts spewed out in a disorganised fashion. I just needed to ramble I guess. Problem is, I'm not sure I have said everything I need to say-I just can't find words. Carmen and Tenie have been good. Tenie brought me to bed last night and tucked me in. She stayed with me until I finished crying and Carmen curled up with me and made me laugh. They made the fuzzies sleep with me for comfort. They said it was the animals' jobs because they were earning their keep. :)
Anyway, I should try to sleep. I have swim practice in the morning.

"I want to Be Consequence Free"

Great Big C Lyrics

Wouldn't it be great,
If noone ever got offended?
Wouldn't it be great,
To say what's really on your mind?

I've always said,
All the rules are made for bending.
And if I let my hair down,
Would that be such a crime?

I wanna be consequence free!
I wanna be where nothing needs to matter.
I wanna be consequence free!
I could really use,
To lose my Catholic conscience.
Cause I'm getting sick,
Of feeling guilty all the time.

I won't abuse it,
Yeah I've got the best intentions.
For a little bit of anarchy,
But not the hurting kind.

I wanna be consequence free!
I wanna be where nothing needs to matter.
I wanna be consequence free!

Oh! I couldn't sleep at all last night,
Cause I had so much on my mind.
I'd like to leave it all behind,
But you know it's not that easy.

Oh! But for just one night,
Wouldn't it be great,
If the band just never ended?
We could stay out late,
And we would never hear last call.

Wouldn't need to worry about approval or permission.
We could slip off the edge,
And never worry about the fall.

I wanna be consequence free!
I wanna be where nothing means to matter.
I wanna be consequence free!

Dangerous Drivers

Dear Editor,
Below you will find pasted a letter addressing the inconsiderate and dangerous driving habits of Kitchener-Waterloo drivers.
I would appreciate it if you could please consider it for publication.
Thank you for your time

People have always complained about the road etiquette, or lack there of, in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. As a pedestrian, I have often noticed that most
drivers are patient and allow pedestrians to cross the streets safely-at least that was the case for the last three years. I am not only a pedestrian,
but a totally blind pedestrian, whose main transportation is my own two feet and heart beat. I used to feel comfortable walking the streets of Waterloo.
Perhaps I gave the drivers too much credit.
Recently, I have been running into inconsiderate, speeding drivers that have no time for a university student to cross the street. In the last week and
a half, two cars have literally flown around the corners of King or Albert onto Bricker Street, nearly running me and my guide dog down. The point is not
that I cannot see, but that this is an area where students live and should be safe from vehicles. It’s just common courtesy to slow down when approaching
a residential street. There have been other problematic areas, on and off of campus, as well. Often parents picking up their children from a nearby elementary
school, speed recklessly onto Central street from either King or Albert. There have been many close calls for not only myself, but other people trying
to cross the streets. There have been many times when my dog has pushed me back up onto a curb because someone has torn around a corner without slowing.
I do not remember drivers being so inconsiderate. It seems to be that this particular September, the close calls that I have faced have increased. In fact,
in four years, I have only had one other near accident where someone almost ran my dog and I over. What is it about this year that is different? I am not
certain how to rectify such a problem. All I know that is something terrible is going to happen if people do not become more aware of the other individuals
either walking or driving on the roads with them. Unfortunately, at that point, it will be too late.

Wedding Bells Are Ringing

No, not for me-maybe some day that will happen, but for now it's one of my very good friends. He messaged me last night on MSN and told me that he had put a down payment on an engagement ring for his girlfriend. I was so happy for him! I wanted to talk more about it, but he was going to bed. I was wondering when he was going to do it. About a month ago he was asking me when I thought would be a good length of time in a relationship to propose. I explained that it was completely individual and that he would have to decide that for himself. I asked if they had had fights and if if they were able to work through them and he said yes. I told him that was probably a good indicator. So, I guess he decided he was ready to get serious about the whole proposal thing. *Sidenote: he said I was his best friend and that was why he was telling me first and I told him that I better be the best "man" then. He said we'd talk about it in the morning*.
I suppose I was a bit shocked at the news too. He's only six months older than me and I guess I'm not ready for my friends to start getting married off. :) I guess it also made me a bit nastelgic too because I've known him since I was nine and I remember him asking me out. It made me think, "Wow, that could have been me." The funny thing is, I'm glad it's not. I'm definitely not ready for marriage. I wouldn't mind getting involved in a serious relationship that could potentially lead to marriage-okay who are we kidding, a long term relationship would be more than nice-but if someone proposed to me today I would say "Hell no!" I have so much more I need to do before all of that stuff starts happening-like graduate university and then get my massage therapy diploma. So, for now, I will be content to watch from the sidelines-watching fondly and supportively- as my friends launch a new venture in their lives.

"She's a Rebel"

Greenday Lyrics

She's a rebel
She's a saint
She's salt of the earth
And she's dangerous

She's a rebel
Vigilante
Missing link on the brink
Of destruction

From Chicago to Toronto
She's the one that they
Call old whatsername

She's the symbol
of resistance
and she's holding on my
heart like a hand grenade

is she dreaming
what I'm thinking
is she the mother of all bombs
gonna detonate

is she trouble
like I'm trouble
make it a double
twist of fate
or a melody that

sings the revolution
the dawning of our lives
she brings the liberation
that I just cant define
nothing comes to mind

She's a rebel
She's a saint
She's salt of the earth
And she's dangerous

She's a rebel
Vigilante
Missing link on the brink
Of destruction

She's a rebel, She's a rebel, She's a rebel, And she's
dangerous
She's a rebel, She's a rebel, She's a rebel, And she's
dangerous

I'm Back!!!!

Aren't you excited? Well, now calm down. It's not that big of an event. :)
Okay, so I've been gone for a long time. In fact, it's been over a month since I've blogged. I do have an excuse though. I was only supposed to be at camp for two weeks and it turned into five days short of a month. They kept asking me to stay. I was actually supposed to stay until September second, but I had to come back because my family was arriving from all over Canada and I had to write an exam on the 31 of August. Can you believe it? I started the school year with an exam! Oh well, I did it to myself. Anyway, I am getting sidetracked. Camp was an amazing experience and I am not sure I can fill in an entire month of activity on this blog, but just know that I loved it and would go back in an instant. There were "blind" politics of course (yes, it is a "blind camp"), but I just stayed outof it as best I could. I just kept reminding myself that I was there for the campers, not to save the world and teach people about blindness.
After many campfires, swims in the lake, paddleboat and canoe trips, tubing rides and dances, I have returned to civilisation.
I am now back in my university city. I went home for six days and then made the long drive out here with my parents, cats and Jetta. I've been here since Wednesday and we've busied ourselves with cleaning up the place and purchasing things that are needed. Today, we're going to the pet store to buy dog and cat supplies and Ashley is purchasing some cat supplies because *deep breath* she is getting a new kitten! Well, her and Chris are getting the new kitten. He's orange with a white belly. I am very excited, but probably not as excited as they are. :)
Speaking of cats, I must tell you of the drama that happened last night. My cats eat twice a day. Once in the morning and a little bit around 10 at night. Mom, Dad, Jetta and I had returned from going out for dessert with Ashley and Medley and I decided to feed the cats. Earlier in the week, I had thought that the food had smelled funny, but thought nothing of it. I just figured it was just smelly cat food. Last night I scooped the food out and thought it felt too heavy. *sidenote: this food had been sealed up and left here when I had gone home at the beginning of the summer*. I stuck my fingers in the scoop to see how much food I had taken out and my fingers struck something hard and furry. I dropped the scoop back into the bag and called for my mom-I am very proud of myself, I wasn't even hysterical. I said, "Mom, I think there's a dead mouse in the cats' food." She didnt' believe me at first, but upon closer inspection of the bag under the light, we discovered that the food was discoloured and that there was indeed a petrified mouse corpse in the bag. Well, I ran as fast as I could to the bathroom and doused my hands in anti-bacterial soap over and over again. We disposed of the bag of food and fed them other stuff, but I worry that I poisoned them by feeding them that food for a couple of days. My only solace is that Loki has killed and eaten mice in this house before and he wasn't sick then. I've counted, and that was the fourth mouse we've discovered had taken up residence in this house. Now, the house is 157 years old, but come on now! The mice can go. I will be contacting our land lords and demanding this problem is rectified. I do not want anymore surprises!
So, that is my story, and I'm sticking to it. I must go eat lunch now.

PS: Thanks to everyone who had left "happy birthday" wishes. That was really cool to see when I got back.