Grinding Auras

When someone mentions the word Aura to you, do you shrug it off as poppycock or do you nod your head in agreement? I believe in energy. I'm certain that subconsciously we give off energies in some undefined way, that can be picked up and understood by animals, not just people. This is not necessarily a contrary look to your face, but a reflection of your deepest thoughts and inhibitions. Perhaps the aura is simply a less visible mood ring of the soul. Testing has proven how although we are not aware of pheromones, and are unable to recognise them when present, they effect us none the less. Couldn't an aura be the same scientology? A presence that surrounds us, a reflection of who we are. As for color, when people speak of the color of your aura, to me that is just a visual representation of your demeanor. Perhaps Blue for serene and peaceful, Yellow or Gold could be for happiness, Black for hurtful. Would Red be love or anger? All I'm saying is, I don't believe the concept to be so far fetched it would fall into a magical realm.

I still grind my teeth, and I had no idea. I was certain this was a habit one kicked as a kid. I remember my mom waking me up when I was young, telling me to stop grinding my teeth cause it was interrupting her sleep. I suppose that I just assumed after all the years of endless braces, headgear and retainers that I had dropped the habit all together. I was wrong. However, this would explain why sometimes lately I wake up in the morning with a sore jaw. I had thought that perhaps it was simply the angle I was sleeping at. However, Rob has informed me that some nights I still grind my teeth. When I asked him what it sounds like, he paused and then answered "Like that". "Like what?" I said, " I never heard anything". "Oh", he replied, "Well, it sounds like teeth grinding". My eloquent lover.... haha

I am spreading around the plight of my friend Andrew, hoping that by doing so it will help him in some small way. We went to high school together, and I think he's so talented and wonderful (*jealousy is a bitch..... jk!). He has directed award winning films already, and recently graduated from the American Film Institute in California. He's looking to address the staggering, but seemingly underaddressed issue of suicide in Japan and needs funds. Andrew has even already secured the professional backup he needs, it's just a matter of money now. So please, if you have the means to help his project that would be fantastic.

You can go here to read more info : http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/675050414/suicide-and-japan-contribute-to-a-filmmaker-making

P.s. You do not use stale bread to make bread crumbs, you take fresh bread and bake it in the oven on a low temperature to dry it out. Then, you smash a rolling pin over top and voila!

Bulls on Parade

I used to be a runner. Winter 2008 I became distracted when I started working at 4am in the mornings, having trouble adjusting to the new schedule. Then I met Robert. So needless to say by Christmas 2008 I was definitely off my usual routine of running 5x/week. Then in February 2009 I injured my knee and it has been all over since then. I must admit, sometimes it is a source of sorrow for me. I loved it. What made me think of this? After I dropped Rob off at work this morning, on the way home a song came on sirius that used to be my 'push to the finish song'. It was the song I used to try to play at the end of my run when I needed that final burst of gusto. Bulls on Parade by Rage Against the Machine. Who knows, perhaps when I get my knee brace and the weather warms up?

If anyone is curious : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-58-36lSqG4

I'm not sure about other places, but here in Corner Brook I've been seeing yellow/blue banners all over town. Not on buses or billboards, but on churches! Every single church in town, I believe, is sporting the big, bright banner. There are also websites listed under the headline. Some banners have one website, some banners have two. Finding the Hope if I recall correctly. But does everyone have these banners on their curches? One thing I can definitely say is, I'm impressed. How often do we see all churches, of all denominations get together and agree on something? It's refreshing to me that they can all get along well enough to organize and pull this off.

I didn't get to finish watching the Keep your Head Up Kid movie last night. After staying up to watch the first half on sunday night, and getting up early monday morning, we were just too tired to do it again last night. I'm going to stalk the CBC website to see if they are planning on running it again anytime soon. I was really enjoying it. No, I'm not a fan of Don Cherry. In fact, I can't stand him. However, the movie was excellent! (At least the first half of it).

I've never eaten meatloaf. Never had it. However, in my neato caserole booklet there is a recipe and I already have all the ingredients. So, I think I will try to make it today. How bad can it be? The ingredients list is decently appealing. The only tiny glitch I can forsee is breadcrumbs. I know you can buy these, but I thought I'd make my own. So yesterday I took some bread out to stale up, thinking it probably has to be hard before it can crumble. I know if I had a food processor this would be a cinch. But I don't. The process may require some googling, and worse case scenario I will go to the store to buy some. No biggie.

Circling Earth 60

I have a quirky pastime I've decided to share. It's not something I always do, just whenever the mood strikes me. It requires a catalogue of any sort and a pen, preferably blue. Usually, this will be a Sears catalogue, or LL Bean, or MEC. I sit down, hopefully with a cup of tea, in front of a movie or good tv show, maybe the news. Then I proceed to go through the entire catalogue, front to back, circling or starring any item that I would like to buy. I always say that this way, if I ever win the lotto, I will know what to go ahead and order. The irony is, if I win the lotto I'm sure that I will still be able to tell you what I do and don't like. Perhaps it's a way of dreaming, imagining that money is no option and I can just select items at will for myself.

There's a decent chance this might be leftover from a task my mom used to have us do as children, every Christmas. The Sears Wishbook would arrive in the mail and mom used to select a color pen/marker for each kid. We had to go through the book and circle anything that we would like to have. Now mom would make clear, that doesn't mean you're going to get the item. It was just so that she could let Santa know some ideas of things that would make us happy. Fast forward 20 years and voila! Still using color pens to circle items that would make me happy in catlaogues, knowing that I'm not really going to get them, but enjoying the process all the same.

Earth Hour was on saturday night. Did you all participate? I spammed my bbmsgr friends that live in Newfoundland when the time hit, threatening them if they didn't turn off their house lights I would write unfriendly things about them in my blog today. It musta been more effective a coersion than I would've thought, because everyone went along with it. It's not as if I had anything else to threaten the St John's townies with! Hehe. I think Earth Hour is becoming more popular every year, but they still need to work on their marketing campaign. I was impressed to see the posters in Tim Horton's and in the mall. However, everyone still didn't know what was going on so that tells me something is still missing in the equation. I saw alot of lights on when I looked down the street.

Hope everyone has a fantastic week! If we are all lucky, we will get the opportunity to eat a Cadbury Cream Egg guilt free! Mmmmm, sweet chocolately gooey heaven.

Lily Caserole

I went to the ballet last night and it was lovely. Yes, here in Corner Brook. No, they weren't from here. Happy Friday everyone! I'm a little bit behind this morning, although most of you probably aren't awake enough to even notice yet.

I bought an easter lily yesterday, I love them when they bloom. It is currently sitting on the kitchen table with 2 poinsettas. Yes, I still have poinsettas even though Christmas was months ago. I find their color refreshing, it's a nice focal point. Plus, they must be related to the cactus because they are one of the few plants I can actually manage to grow. Nothing wrong with a little red in the room! Once the lily blooms, it'll get tossed. No staying power whatsoever.

I think this summer I'm going to learn how to ride a bicycle again. It's been probably well over a decade since I've tried to ride a bike, especially one with gears. I was probably 12. Last year I learned how to ride a motorcycle, so I figure this won't be too hard. At least it isn't as fast, so there should be less stress in the learning process. hopefully, maybe. definitely.

I love caseroles. Some people are meat and potatoes folks, but I've managed to turn myself into a bit of a caserole junky. Just throw an interesting mess of gunk into a dish, bake it with some cheese on top and WIZARD! You have something that tastes awesome! You can follow a recipe, or just put together whatever you have lying around. Honestly, try it! In fact, I bought a little book of caserole recipes, with pullout recipe card thingys (that'll fit in my recipe card holder) at the grocery store yesterday and I'm pumped!

Well, I hope everyone has a superfantastic weekend. UFC saturday night... I hope GSP absolutely schools the punk! Textbook style. Expect me to feel hungover sunday morning, and not because I'm going to drink saturday night, because I'm not. It seems lately whenever I stay up late at night, and then wake up the next morning I feel like a train wreck. It hurts. Age is a beautiful thing haha.

Keep smiling!

Bookie

If any of you are readers, or ever were readers, I'm positive you'll see exactly where I'm coming from. You start a book series, and read all the entries in print. Maybe it's 2 books, maybe it's 10 books, but you zoom through them completely enthralled. Then the frustrating thing happens, you've been spoiled. So far, with every cliffhanger ending, you've been able to move on to the next book in the series right away to find out what happens. They have already been written. Then you read the last book that's available and it leaves you hanging on an edge. You probably curse, stub your toe, and then move onto something totally different. Leaving yourself a mental bookmark to remember about a year from now to read the next chapter in that story when it is published.

Fast forward to the distant future. You are at the library dropping off a few books you pushed your way through, because face it... they weren't that great. "Hey! Just dropping off today..Thanks! Have a great day!" and as you head back to the stairwell door you see it. A big, shiny, new hardcover book on the strategically positioned New Acquisition shelf. You keep heading for the door, but pause as your brain processes the name you just fleetingly read on the cover. Turn. Re-examine. Walk 10ft across the floor to the book.

Now, you know you've read all this series at some point in the seemingly distant, but probably not so long ago past. Flipping the book over you first quickly scan the plot summary, start drawing a blank and then begin again... more slowly this time. Your brain is stretching, trying to remember these names, these characters, and where the heck this story is starting off from. You know you know this. Come on brain! Nope, you begin to show a small frown as you realize there's not really much recall coming back. But, you do know how much you enjoyed reading the other books. Heck, it's the library. It's free. I may as well grab it... oh and speaking of which, I know the author of the book next to it too! May as well pick that one up as well....

- "Haha, Leslie! I thought you were just dropping books off today?"

- "Ya... I almost made it out the door.... almost!"

Smooth Green Tea Criminal

My original plan this morning was to randomly blog-on about my love for green tea, until I saw this headline: Michael Jackson's Doctor Faces License Suspension bringing on my immediate reaction of WTF?!

I admit, I may not know alot of things and in fact the things I think I know, I may barely understand the facts. However, I'm quite certain if my doctor were facing manslaughter charges I would sure as sugar not want him treating me. I know, I'm a heck of a lot cuter than Michael Jackson but I just don't have MJ's money and fame backing me up. Actually, not only manslaughter charges but I think any sort of charge that involves harming another human being would be a moral issue. Don't these doctors take the hippocratic oath anymore? Why is he still practicing medicine?

I know... innocent until proven guilty, hence the suspension, but I'm pretty sure the powers that be in the medical world down there should've been a little bit more on the ball with this.

As for green tea well, it's my cureall. Sore throat? Green tea. Coughing? Green tea. Upset stomach? Green tea. Headache? Green tea. Tired and lacking energy? Green tea. Now, I should clarify that I'm referring to steaming hot green tea, not iced. One less-known fact is that, unlike regular orange pekoe tea (aka Tetley, Red Rose, PG Tips etc) which requires boiling water, Green Tea only requires the water to be 80degrees. This is great for weak-mouths like me. Although, if you're "fund-efficient" (which sounds an awful lot like 'fund-deficient' if you say it out loud) like me, and just have a regular kettle without fancy temperature settings, boiling water is just fine. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a yuppy.

So, my suggestion is, the next time you are at the grocery store and walking down the coffee aisle for your regular fillup of java beans, grab a thinger of Tetley Green Tea. I find it's the more mellow of the available options. If you want to be a real keener, have some honey in your cupboard. This way, should the tea become too strong (or be, in fact, a bitter green tea, which I have stumbled across before) feel free to stir in a dab of honey for some hot liquid bliss. If you're feeling really adventurous you could go with a flavoured green tea. I highly recommend either Pomegranate or Blueberry.

In closing, John Montgomery (Canadian Gold Medal Winner for all you non-olympic fever sufferers) was on The Hour last night and he said the following quote which I thought was fabulous:

In Canada, we don't compete to conquer, like other countries, we compete to achieve something. - John Montgomery

Flowers On My Pillow

I can't be the only one, but why does it seem that my best thinking is done when I'm most incapacitated? No, I don't mean drunk or otherwise intoxicated. When I lay in bed at night, all cuddled in and cozier than a pig in mud, my body falls asleep before my brain does. Incapacitated. Without fail, I then proceed to come up with the most brilliant ideas! They could be anything, the answer to a dilemma I've been chewing on, or the perfect start to a story I could write. Regardless of what it is, I can guarantee you one thing..... Come morning it'll be gone. Not erased as if it never happened. Worse. I can remember that I had something, fleeting images of genius, shadows. Like a tease, but I just am unable to get it back. Sometimes when I lay in bed, neurons firing, I know that this is going to happen to me come morning. I begin to repeat over and over in my head what I've created so that this time will be different. This time, when I wake up I will remember it all. NOT. Although I'm starting to wonder if maybe, maybe it isn't the deep, unconscious sleep that erases these thoughts at all but the evil alarm clock that pulls me from my dreams in the morning.



It's now finally 5am, and I have a little baby furball trying desperately to cuddle into my side and snooze. I'm thinking perhaps a blanket and pillow on this nice carpet would be a pleasant invitation for her slumber.



Live Curiously!



I hope everyone has a fantastic day today, and I have a feeling it might be the perfect day to buy some fresh flowers.

Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows

I have a confession....... I love sunshine. Now, I know you'll scoff and think to yourself "everyone loves sunshine", but I can tell you....... not the way I do. Next time you plug something into charge, such as a laptop or cell phone, look at the battery indicator. First it's on low, then as it charges the bar moves until finally it's filled up. Well, putting me in sunshine has the same effect. I'm not sure exactly what it recharges.... positivity perhaps. Yet, once I'm in the sun (or even looking out the window at it) I can feel myself filling up inside and I'm happy.



I'm going to tell you a bit about my friend Jess Buckle, because I've had her on my mind lately. I don't get to see her often (entirely my own fault), and maybe I take her friendship for granted that way, but I love her like a sister. She's the most talented girl I know. I can say I'm lucky enough that before she moved to St. John's, when she was just realizing how much she truly loves photography, I had the fun privledge of going on photo excursions with her. I love taking pictures, don't get me wrong but this girl rocks the socks off of a hippo. Seriously. And she's beautiful. Everything about her is so pretty, and she's so much cooler than I am. Haha!



Well, Bear is snoring because he is unwilling to face the fact that the day has started. Soon enough I will put on my white winter hat full of holes (that I refuse to give up), scarf, warm jacket and mitts, and take these wild animals out to the truck. From there, we'll go for a walk in the woods and I'll watch Remy learn to explore the world with her nose.

P.S. Yay for U.S. Health Care Reform!

creative thinking juice smoothie

Lately I seem to do my best creative thinking on the floor, sitting on the carpet of the living room, being cuddled by sleeping animals. It's awfully nice if you want to try it some time! My good buddy Dave came through and revealed the true motivation for starting his blog. This got me thinking. If it were only to comment on another blogger, I'm sure I wouldn't feel compelled to add content to my own blog. And there it is folks...

I know when you were little you were told you could be anything you wanted. You just had to put your mind to it or want it bad enough. I think for alot of people it's more the case of, you had to win the lotto first so you could afford to devote all your time to chasing a dream, that realistically you're not sure is going to make you happy or not but heck, go for it. I'm pretty confident most of us didn't grow up imagining ourselves where we are now... probably in positions we hold simply because we can handle living our days doing them and they pay the bills. HA

Alas, I digress. I love to read. I've always loved to read. Sometimes, I read alot. I've always thought it would be great to be a writer. The problem is, I've never had an idea of what exactly I'd like to write or any great stories for a book. The extent of my writing experience has been university papers, and they were hardly inspirational. Although, I did love doing research papers. Take that over an exam any day!

I heard once someone, somewhere say 'If you want to be a writer, you have to write things. You have to get into the habit of putting your thoughts down on paper, letting your ideas form through your fingertips". Did I hear that somewhere or make it up? At this point I can't remember, but I do know it sounds like decent advice. So here I am. Just trying to get into the habit of actually describing life with the written word. Luckily, I love life!

Para Rip-off Scandal

Something interesting came to my attention yesterday. I'm sure you may have heard, but in our country, for the 2010 games, the olympic medal winners are given monetary awards for reaching the podium. Yes, not a whole lot but that seems beside the point. It's financial recognition of their accomplishment. "A monetary award is given to all Canadian Olympians for each individual medal that they win at the Games: $20,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze" (http://www.olympicfoundation.ca/).

None of this is shocking so far. Until you find out what I did yesterday...

Did you know, we are rocking the Paralympics? 3 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze. None of these athletes will get any olympic money award. What?? Yup. That's right. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Now, I am not the first to address this injustice. CTV.ca even wrote a small article on it that no one seems to have taken much notice of. The question is WHY? Possible answers:

- Paralympians are not Olympians, because they are missing the letter "O" from their title

- Paralympians do not qualify because they participate in the Paralympics not the "O"lympics

Because otherwise, they fit into that quotation statement above "All Canadian Olympians".

I just feel like this is unfair. There is no other description that suits as well as just freaking unfair. I'm sure they train just as hard, in fact they overcome their physical barriers to prove to everyone they are international competition level athletes!

I would just like to end this with a suggestion. I understand that this payment does not come from the IOC. In fact many countries do not offer their athletes any sort of monetary gift for their podium accomplishments. BUT Canada is offering it - just not to everyone. I think that this is the perfect opportunity for a Canadian to step up to the plate. Canada AM was mentioning Jim Balsille of RIM and his never ending quest for NHL.... how about he put some of those funds he's so desperately trying to toss in the toilet towards recognising our amazing paralympic athletes? I'm sure he's not the only proud Canadian with funds that could help support our athletes, at least to some degree.

But dont worry, our government is focusing on more important issues.... like rewording the national anthem that everyone loves exactly the way it is. GOOFBALLS.. lol

puppy love

Everyone who has owned a puppy, knows how much work they are. Anyone who has made the effort to raise a puppy responsibly (you know... read the books, watch the Dog Whisperer..), knows how stressful an undertaking it can be. Don't let puppies fool you with their soft little cuddly bodies and "puppy eyes"! And trust me, they are called "puppy eyes" for a reason, because all puppies have them and all puppies know what a weapon they are. Did I mention cuddly bodies? Ya, good luck cuddling with one, if you value not having your nose bit at. I'm telling you, the word 'puppies' is really just short for 'little demons in angel clothing'.

How do I know this? I'm on puppy #2 of my life. I don't mean the dogs I had when I was a kid living at home. Those don't count. Those weren't MY responsibility. Nope, I could always blame someone else... "It's my brother's fault" or "My parent's fault" or even better "I didn't chose this dog, it's not my fault he's cracked!". I'm talking puppy #2 that's I've taken under my wing, of my own free will. I must be crazy!

But at the end of the day, after the extreme number of poops and bathroom trips (finally all outdoors!), when they have stopped trying to chew things or stir up trouble for no good reason (You know they are just little instigators!). When you can finally sit down on the floor with a cup of tea, and not worry about the mug making it to your mouth peacefully. When the puppy comes over and settles down next to you and when she finally relaxes.... letting the slow, peaceful breathing of sleep win the battle. Then, and only then, a puppy owner can admit that "heck... the little furball is kinda cute". And maybe...... it's worth all the hassle afterall. Yup, it definitely is... BUDDIES !

small beginnings....

I actually only started this blog because I wanted to be able to post something on my friend Dave's blog. Apparently one has to be a blogger, to comment on another blogger. Go figure. Will have to consider this while I go walk the animals...