Christmas is coming!

Well, it is Dec. 8, and I have yet to start even thinking about Christmas. I just finished all of my assignments for school. These past few months have left very little time for anything other than schoolwork. Now that I am done for awhile all I want to do is sleep, but unfortunately I have lots to do.  Family members have been waiting patiently for my Christmas wish list. I have a mountain of laundry that is up to my knees. I need to start packing up my apartment in preparation for the move back home, I never thought that at almost 30 I would be moving back in with the parents. Somewhere in the middle of all of that I have to start my Christmas shopping. Some break this is going to be.

The thought of all the stuff I have to do may make me a little crazy but the thought of getting to spend the holidays with my family makes it all worth it. I have not seen much of them since school started at the end of August. I felt terrible every time I had to decline a dinner invitation, I could not make it to search for a wedding gown with my sister, and I haven't visited my grandmother in over a month. Those things help keep me sane, without spending quality time with my family I start to get a little gloomy.

So while I may not get as much rest as I want and need this holiday I will give my soul one heck of a recharge. I look forward to trimming the tree, joking with my sisters, and enjoying my parents delicious cooking. I can sleep when I am dead.

How CreComm turned me into a crazy person

I am a first-year Creative Communications student at Red River College. To say that this course is "fast-paced" and "a lot of work" is a gross understatement. I was shocked at the amount of work we were given in the first couple of months. I thought it was insane. Now, in the last two weeks of the semester, I would kill for the relative ease of those first months. Back in the good ol' days when sleep was an actual prospect. When food was put together nicely in meals instead of something you threw down your throat whenever you had a spare moment.

For the last two weeks of school, before the much anticipated Christmas break, we have been on schoolwork lockdown. We don't have time to see our families. Friends are starting to get annoyed and wonder if we don't care about them anymore. Pets sit at home, alone, and hungry. Boyfriends/girlfriends start to wonder what 'really' goes on when we are at school until 10 p.m.

And we are:

• In desperate need of a solid week of sleep.
• Starting to smell from lack of time for showers and excessive stress sweat
• Wearing the same outfits to school for days in a row, because we have no time to do our laundry
• Losing weight from all of the running around for last minute prints, and lack of time for eating.
• Starting to question the sanity of anyone that would put themselves through this much stress
• So terrified of 'Auto-fails' that we lose our minds going over every single word of an assignment.
• Wondering if we should just start paying Red River rent since we are pretty much living here now

Just to give you an idea of how crazy things have been. For the last two weeks of school we have:

• About nine hand-in assignments.
• Ten 'extra practice' assignments, and by extra practice they mean, you don't HAVE to do them, but if you don't you forfeit ten marks.
• An on-air radio performance.
• Several short stories to read.
• A live-hit derby (30 second on-air news story.)
• A live production of a basketball game.
• And last but not least, the last two blog posts of the semester.

While it is crazy right now. I may feel like I can feel my sanity slowly slipping away. It is also pretty amazing. The bond the classmates are developing under all the preasure will likely last a lifetime. The feeling you get when you complete an assignment you thought you hadn't a chance in hell of getting done. The praise and encouraging words you get from your teachers (well, most of them). And the sense of accomplishment you feel once you get it all done. Make it all worth it.

Give a glosa a try!

My last blog post mentioned a form of poetry known the glosa. Below is my first attempt at one. Trying to write a poem around four lines of someone else's work is pretty difficult, but fun at the same time. I chose four lines from a poem by Warren Cariou: Satan Rouses his Legions on the Shores of Syncrude Tailings Pond #4. If you are interested in poetry, I suggest giving a glosa a try!

Inhale, my friends: breathe deep

The bitumen air. I give you

A waveless lake,

Stacks blowing brimstone,

1) Malefecient, the Queen, furrowed and bleak
2)  Her gaze smolders, eyes fixed
3) Heart pounding inside your tight chest
4) She calls towards the heavens
5) A deafening shriek
6) Quiet now, don’t make a peep
7) Has she caught your scent?
8) She skulks along, no prey for her tonight
9) Exhale, let the moment steep
10)  Inhale, my friends: breath deep

11)  Safe from her, for now

12)  Vines winding, scratching, pulling

13)  They tear at you, hungry as her for your flesh

14)  An owl shrieks in the distance

15)  The moon is full

16)  Its light pours over the land, is it on her side too?

17)  Move from this spot, run, go

18)  This land is hostile, smells thick as tar

19)  Her essence has corrupted it, heart of blackness grew

20)  The bitumen air. I give you

21)  Quiet as a mouse you creep

22)  Tip toe, tip toe

23)  SNAP!

24)  A branch breaks under your step

25)  Heart racing, eyes searching, ears listening

26)  How much more can this frail body take

27)  Moments pass, the mad queen is unseen

28)  Sigh, relief, you are almost safe

29)  Out of the woods, you take a break

30)  A waveless lake,

31)  Silence, everything is still

32)  You feel uneasy

33)  Someone is watching you

34)  A sharpness fills your chest

35)  Your head is light, you turn to see

36)  Malefecient, twisted and cruel, the origin of her hate unknown

37)  She pulls her blade slowly from your chest

38)  You fall to your knees

39)  Never again will you bemoan

40)  Stacks blowing brimstone

The Glosa

I have been on a bit of a poetry kick lately, so when I heard that our third assignment for Creative Writing was going to be to write poetry I was excited. When I read over the instructions for the assignment my excitement faded. When I write poetry I just write it. I don't follow and rules, I just write what comes to mind. Sometimes, I wake up in the middle of the night with the starting of a poem in my head and I have to put it on paper. So I will stumble around my apartment, in the dark, looking for pen and paper. It seems silly but if I didn't write it down it would disappear just as fast as it appeared.

Some of these mid-night scrawlings have been pretty good. Well at least I think so. But my point is, when writing these gems down I didn't leave something out or put something in so that it fit the rules. I just let it flow. I just felt that that is what poetry was about, letting it flow, naturally. 

Well after I made my selection from the list of choices, I started my assignment.

I chose a 'glosa'

The glosa is an early Renaissance form of poetry that was developed by poets of the Spanish court in the 14th and 15th centuries. A glosa can be a tribute to another author. The opening quatrain, called a cabeza, is by another poet, typically one that is well known. You chose any four consecutive lines from one of their poems. 

The quatrain opens the poem, followed by four stanzas, each of which is generally ten lines long, that elaborate or "glosses" on the cabeza chosen. The tenth line of each stanza is a line from the cabeza. So the tenth line of the stanza is the first line of the cabeza, line twenty is the second line of the cabeza and so on.

The usual rhyme scheme of a glosa is, the last word in lines 6, 9, and 10 must rhyme. 

I have to admit, I enjoyed writing my gloss. It was challenging. Like trying to put together a complicated jigsaw puzzle. In the end I gained a new appreciation for traditional forms of poetry. I also ended up with a poem I am truly proud of. It may not be Shakespeare  It may not be your cup of tea. Heck, my teacher might even rip it apart, tell me it's crap. But I don't care. 

I tried something new, something I really did not even want to attempt... but I did, and I love it.  

Unavailable

 Your gaze met mine and held
1,2...
I look away, I can't breath
So many tiny moments amounting to a feeling frozen in my soul
Your hand almost grazes mine, my stomach flutters
You are the king and I but merely a servant
Your Queen is a beauty unmatched
My envy twists me ,coils and pulls me deeper into madness
I am now the creature lurking in the shadows, watching and wanting what is
Unavailable

Modern Kings

The King stood with his head held high
Dressed in his finest wears, very sure to cause stares
His gaze pierced my very soul
My heart fluttered, hoping he would never let it go
I kneel in his presence, forever surrendering my will
Hail to the chief, who's high head and nostalgic sense has made him a thief
Fluttering hearts are his bounty

The family that scares together, stays together.

The other night was Halloween and as usual, my family went all out. Every year we spend the day of the October 31, decorating the yard of my parents three-storey Fort Rouge home. The house lends itself well to Halloween as it looks like it's haunted. The yard is full of large trees and the stairs leading up to the front door are old stone.
My sisters and I dragged out the boxes of decorations from the basement and got to work. We raked piles of leaves into makeshift gavel at the foot of spooky headstones. Lined the trees with hanging bats, and switched the lightbulbs to eerie red and purple lights. Decorating is a great time to hang out with your family We laughed at each others lame grade school decorations and tried on the costumes our mother since we were kids.
AS the sun started to set, we put on the CD of scary sounds and took our places. I sat in a rocking chair at the top of the stairs while my younger sister, dressed in a mechanics jumpsuit and gravedigger mask, slumped over the bottom steps. As kids made there way through the yard, she would jump out and scare them.
We had 65 kids come to our door, a new record for our house. Many of the children's parents thanked us for being in the spirit of Halloween. This is a tradition I hope that we continue for years to come.

My search for pain relief brings me to, Cupping Therapy

Since conventional medicine has failed to provide me with substantial relief I have begun to explore alternatives. For the past six weeks I have been spending my Thursdays feeling like a human pin cushion at my Acupuncturists office. Along with inserting four-inch needles into my back he preforms a technique called, Fire Cupping. 
Fire cupping involves soaking a cotton ball in 95% alcohol. The cotton is then clamped by a pair of forceps and lit via a match or lighter. The flaming cotton ball is then, in one fluid motion, placed into the cup, quickly removed, and placed on the skin. By adding fire to the inside of the cup, oxygen is removed and a small amount of suction is created. Dark circles may appear where the cups were placed due to rupture of the capillaries just under the skin, but are not the same as a bruise caused by blunt-force trauma. According to my Acupuncturist, the darker the bruise, the worse that area is. It is fascinating how the same amount of pressure is used in all the cups but the ones that are placed over my herniated disc always leave a more prominent bruise, sometimes a small amount of blood is present, which he sweeps up with a Q-tip and then shows me the colour. 
I wish I could say that the results have been amazing but that would be a gross overstatement. I return every week because i do believe that it is doing some good and I have been told that over time it can help improve both my circulation and my pain, plus it is really cool!

The following is the definition of cupping therapy from Wikipedia:
Cupping therapy is an ancient Chinese form of alternative medicine in which a local suction is created on the skin; practitioners believe this mobilizes blood flow in order to promote healing.^[1] Suction is created using heat (fire) or mechanical devices (hand or electrical pumps).

Her Heart Was In Her Head

Her heart was in her head.She could feel just raw emotion "This is love, but more," she said... It would ache when he was with her. And break when he would go. But the ache was a good kind, more than he will know. Her heart becomes a garden, when the little pieces break. They die and they are fertile, so flowers fill their space. She never wants to be apart. He filled her head up with her heart. She is alright though, she has learned, the fresh heart flowers smell like him.

Pity Time

Last week I was over an hour late for school. It was not because I slept in, in fact I was up before my 6am alarm. I woke up to my sciatic nerve screaming at me and was unable to move my right leg without an immense amount of pain.
The pain started just over 3 years ago, minimal at first but it got progressively worse. After a few very uncomfortable months I went to see my doctor who sent me for my first of many MRIs. Turns out I have osteoarthritis in my spine, which basically means that the space between my discs is deteriorating. The cushioning between my L3 and L4 discs has completely deteriorated, causing them to constantly rub against each other. The constant bone on bone rubbing caused my disc to herniate, meaning it is bulging out to the right and interacting with the nerves in my back. One nerve in particular, my sciatic nerve, causes me the most grief. If I sit down for a period of time, sometimes an hour sometimes only 10 minutes: my leg will go numb, it feels like a million needles are being poked into my skin. To say that is hurts would be a gross understatement, the pain can be unbearable. The morning last week was one of those times and I will admit that my first thought was to cry and spend the day in bed. After a few minutes of self pity I slowly limped to the living room, grabbed my transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) machine and my pain killers and started to work on making the pain bearable enough to go to school.
I could have given up and stayed in bed all day cursing my feeble spine but I made the decision to get my ass out of bed and quit feeling sorry for myself. I know that my back will not get better, instead it will further degenerate and I may end up in a wheelchair. I could focus on that but instead I choose to believe that advances in medicine will one day be able to rebuild my spine. I believe the moral of this story is, life will always throw you curveballs, it is not "fair" and shit really does happen but it is how you deal with the shit that really matters. It is not easy and I do struggle, almost everyday, but I give myself a little time to throw a pity party then I brush it off, throw on my big girl pants and move forward. Your life will be much more rewarding if you except that it will be hard at times, but it does not last forever and better times will come.

The Bizarre Things I Love To Eat: Exhibit A

According to my family and friends, my eating habits are a little on the strange side.
My younger sister likes to recall with disgust the night I went trekking through the woods with a spoon and a tube of Pillsbury cookie dough in my jacket pocket, just in case I needed a snack. My mother often laughs at the fact that I will eat a can of peas for dinner, yes, just a can of peas. Today though I will be talking about one of my favourite little concoctions, one I like to call 'peanut butter yummy crunchy.' It consists of a bowl of cereal mixed with a few tablespoons of sugar and a tablespoon of peanut butter. Now the technique is important here. You take your spoon with the peanut butter on it and dip it into the cereal so that you get a nice coating, then you dip it into the sugar so that you have a nice sprinkling of sugar on top of the peanut butter and cereal. Voila! Peanut butter yummy crunchy, so easy and so delicious.
As you can probably tell from that particular recipes, I have a bit of a sweet tooth... well probably more along the lines of a sugar addiction. I don't recommend eating this every day but it does have some nutrition in it, you get some protein from the peanut butter and depending on your cereal (I am using Rice Crispies here) you get some fibre too. Give it a try, you might surprise yourself and actually like it.

Just another lovely Friday night at Winners...

This is a post for all of the parents out there, yes I am attacking parents! Just because you have learned to tune out your young child's obnoxious screaming and crying, it does not mean that the rest of us have learned that valuable skill.
Here is a quick tip... if you are out shopping and your child starts to scream at the top of their lungs, that is your cue to exit the store until your child calms down.
Last night after school I went to my shift at Winners and I nearly had an aneurysm. Kids, everywhere; all screaming and crying. One delightful little chap decided he was going to cry/yell constantly, he did not break at all! Do you think his loving mother, for the sake of everyone else's sanity removed him from the store? No, no she did not, she proceeded to shop for the next hour and forty minutes with her toddler screaming the entire time.
I am sympathetic, but it seems to me that if your child feels the need to yell for almost two hours, he is really not happy about something and instead of checking out the latest style of jeggings you should find out what that issue is.
Another quick tip, the display fixtures are not jungle gyms. They are not safe to be climbed on and in fact sometimes fall apart. Please pay more attention to where your children are playing in the store because if you are careless enough to let them play on the suitcase display you should accept responsibility when a giant piece of luggage falls on your child instead of blaming the store.  I can not count the amount of times I have had to ask kids not to play on the shelving units, purse displays and metal underwear rack while their parents are obliviously shopping near by. Next time I am letting them play and if a metal bar that is loose falls on their heads, don't say I didn't warn you.

P.S. I am not an Ogre and I do not hate children.

CreCom life

So, it is the third week of college and so far I have very mixed feelings about being back in school. Don't get me wrong, the Creative Communications program is great, it is challenging and thought provoking and the Red River College campus is beautiful. It is college life I am having a hard time with.
I honestly feel like I am back in grade seven; the painfully awkward kid who has no idea how to talk to people let alone make any friends. I don't know what happened, I grew out of that faze and high school life was great. Maybe I have just been away from school for too long, maybe I have reverted back to my twelve year old mentality...whatever the case It's not fun.
I walk into each classroom and look around at all the other students, chatting away with each other, laughing and having fun. I don't know how to interact anymore so I just sit by myself or sometimes with the one person I have felt comfortable talking too. It's not like I haven't tried to fit in but every time I try to talk to people I feel that they are disinterested in what i have to say and I fumble around nervously. As of right now I have kind of given up on the whole making friends thing and am focusing on the work. I may try again later... I may not.

How to get sexy bedhead waves

First day curls

During the ten years I spent with Panache Modeling agency I picked up a few really great beauty tricks, some of which I will periodically share with you, yay! Today's trick is for "morning after waves", very unfussy curls that will look great for days, great for the students who are strapped for time.
First you start by adding a little bit of mousse to clean, dry hair and then wrap big sections around a curling iron and hold for only a few seconds. Run your fingers lightly through your hair to break up the curls a bit and 'Voila", you are set for day one.
The next morning mix a little bit of your favourite (preferably good smelling) conditioner with some water in a spray bottle and spritz it lightly over your hair. Using your hands again, scrunch up your waves to create a tousled effect and then you are good to go! The conditioner not only adds a bit of texture to your waves but it nourishes and adds a light scent to perk you up throughout the long school day!

Hello All and welcome to my blog! You can expect to find posts on all types of stuff ranging from the serious to the down right silly. I am very family oriented and a little bit obsessed with my two cats, probably because i have no friends. If you have not realized yet I have a bit of a quirky sense of humour and I like to make light of tense situations. I hope you enjoy my blog and please bear with me because I am new to this.