Weekend = Work

It was nice that I enjoyed last weekend, cause this weekend is packed with work things. Friday night is lifeguarding at the pool. Saturday is an all-day inservice (and lifeguard competition) at the pool. Sunday morning is my beaches screening. Hum. I think I will just wear my bathing suit the entire weekend and not take it off until Sunday afternoon-just to save time. While the topic is the weekend: Vote for Megha! She will always be the Vice President of INDISA in my heart.

For this summer, I applied only to 2 beaches for my 5th year working with HRM Beaches : Kinsmen and Silversides. I picked these two, not because they are slow beaches ;), but because I can bike to them. I'm finally going for Beach Captain. Here are the stats of each:

Kinsmen Beach
First Lake, Lower Sackville

• farther away
• will close halfway through the summer (with at least 2 weeks of the summer sitting on the beach-telling people not to go in the water)
• swimmers itch
• a real beach with sand
• people visit more in Sackville
• there is a rec. center right there (aka. a shield from the rain and a washroom to use)
• it just seems like more fun to me

Silversides Beach
Lake William, Waverley

• closer
• will stay open all summer (and lessons have really good registration)
• really cold
• a dock on a hill
• the people who come are really nice, I hear (they bring gifts)
• it is a semi-private beach so you have to deal with people paying
• there is zero shelter in case of rain
• two hyphenated words: porto-pottie
• the days seem to be really long

After careful consideration, I put the 1 by Silversides and the 2 beside Kinsmen on my application. We'll see what happens. In closing, has anyone seen my second wind...because it's been MIA for awhile...

Things I've Thought Today

Thoughts:
1. It's cold outside. How can it be so cold when it's so sunny and the sun warms up the entire house? Maybe I'll put on a sweater. Nah.
2. I wish that there was a tree in my backyard where motivation to exercise grew. Oh and where chocolate grew. Maybe a pink tree.
3. I really like just not thinking about my hair and putting it all up in a toque. Maybe that's why I'm so warm.
4. I should really do something productive with my free time, like read a good book.
5. Maybe I'll learn to knit something other than scarves and hand towels.
6. I know, spring cleaning! I'll start in the sunroom.
7. I really hope a spider doesn't drop on my head.
8. I'm going to paint that outside table tomorrow. What else could I paint. Hmm the deck. No, the deck wouldn't look good sea green.
9. I think it would be nice to live alone, wait-no it wouldn't.
10. I wonder if the woman from church who used to be a body builder took steroids. She must have.

Stairs Conquered-Check!

I devoted some of my Sunday afternoon to the repair of Shiloh's psychology. My little dog has a fear of two out of the three sets of stairs in our house so she won't go up them. Only up. She can go down. For example, she will go down to see some noise at the front door and then realize that nothing is there. Next, she'll whine until we pick her up and take her up the stairs to be with the rest of the people in the house. I think she slipped on the stairs once and the experience instantly became detrimental to her stair climbing future. I wanted to change all that and turn her into an independant and confidant animal who can go up stairs without any stress or inner turmoil. We spent lots of time today going up and down both sets of stairs in the entry way. I helped her go up, then we went up and down with cheese as a reward, and finally she only got cheese when she went up the stairs. She did them all by herself at the end, and it was a good thing too-cause I think I gave Shiloh her calcium intake for the entire year today.

TGIF

My Friday night was chaotic at the pool. When I have kids, they are going to be wonderful and always well-behaved in public. Next it was off to Sarah's 20th birthday. I saw Carol, who I hadn't seen in 2 years, and sorta freaked out when I saw her. I think that I hugged her a little too tight that first time. A bunch of us chilled at Sarah's place-atmosphere: disco ball (well-lit :) ) and oldies tunes. We also had the chance to take a ton of newbies to Polly's Cove. Yeah, so I brought the people in the car I was in to the wrong spot. My rationale on the whole getting my car there was this: we just drive along the long and winding road till we come to the spot. So look for it on the left, right off the road. The real problem happened when there was more than one little gravel inlet that had a path off of it on said road. Anyways, after Sarah and her car full zoomed by us all standing around outside our car it really sunk in that we were in the wrong place. We arrived to our final destination with pizzazz because when we got back in the car, someone (this might have been me as well, but I really don't know who it was) stepped on Shaun's Axe body spray and the car began to smell really good until the scent got so strong that we could taste it. I think it actually shot up really close to Katie's face-not good, no one wants that in the eye. We had to pull over to air the car out. It was something like 3:86 (around 2am), according to the car clock, when we finally met up with everyone else. So we trekked through the bushes and over the little cliff and across the rocks and finally got to "the spot". The stars were beautiful and it really wasn't as cold as I was expecting. I had dressed for the weather with 3 layers of pants and a big winter coat. There were some really good shooting stars. There was one especially long one, like very long. I love being by the ocean-even more than the stars. The moon was orange. Overall, I think that everyone enjoyed it-even the complainers ;). May I just say, if you are reading this, and you haven't been there-you've gotta come next time! As we were driving home, it was just getting light out. It's nice driving in a car as the sun is just coming up, same with driving as the sun is setting. I was dead when I finally crashed at Sarah's place...but it was worth the tiredness. Happy Birthday Sarah Chan!

Misunderstanding

Pretend for a moment that you are a lifeguard (if you aren't one). If you are scanning a pool, and I think this makes the most sense, you look from right to left (or left to right) and slowly scan the pool-then repeat. I scan from right to left. People come in on the right side of the pool. If someone walks by me I look at them (on my right) and then continue to scan the pool towards the left. However, there can be a misunderstanding when a bystander at a certain angle watches you scan, because if another person comes into the pool and is walking towards your left, and you are continuing scanning the pool to the left, it looks like you are staring at that person walk by. I never thought about this, until the the coach of the adult swim team came up next to me with a big smile and said quite loudly "Jessie! Stop checking him out, he's married!". I, surprised by this, said, "I was not checking him out!!" Then I turned red. It took me a little while to think of why the coach thought that's what I was doing. I'll admit that I did think that the guy was cute when he walked by-his face was cute, however no one knew that but me. Then I scanned again and another swimmer strolled by at the same time and it all made sense. For the rest of the shift, I intentionally tried to time my scans so it didn't look like I was gawking at the swim team's Speedo butts every time one of them walked by me.

Faith

...to believe throughout life's ups and downs, no matter what they are, the truth of the gospel-that Christ loved us enough to die for us; that abundant life in Christ is really not about doing it all, having it all, being it all, or knowing it all but about knowing him through it all-is to practice authentic faith.
-Brenda Waggoner

This part of a book I'm reading called Fairy Tale Faith (life isn't a picture perfect fairy tale, in case you haven't noticed ;) ) reminded me to treasure and hold tight to the faith I have in God's goodness, love, and justice especially when it's easy to let situations in life cloud that.

Comment

I've changed the blog settings so that anyone can add their two cents in on an entry. I'm thinking about fabricating some memories about different people that didn't really happen in real life...;).

A First

I got my first grey hair this weekend. It was on the top of my head, near the middle, but slightly to the left. I was sure to check twice to make sure it wasn't blond. It really wasn't. It was more funny than disheartening, because hey, I'm 19 and a close aquaintance with the idea of hair dye.

Spill

On Friday night, I was at the Dal SUB to meet my friend, Marianna. I had just gotten my dinner which consisted of a chocolate chip muffin and a hot chocolate from Tims. I had to wait a really long time in line for my food and all I wanted was to sit and relax on the second floor by the window. I was wearing my festively green t-shirt-I enjoy Saint Patrick's day even though I am not a bit Irish-and my nice clean tan pants. As I went from standing to sitting, I spilled my hot chocolate all over my pants! I checked over my shoulders to see if anyone saw me, no one did. I had just sat down and I did not want to move, so I just spread out the Dal newspaper over my lap and pretended that the spill didn't happen while I ate my food and finished my drink. I finally went to the bathroom to try to get the stain out, and I was left with a couple huge water marks on my pants. This woman came into the deserted bathroom and looked at me and I thought of making a lame remark like, "Yeah, I can't remember the last time I spilled something on myself...when was the last time you did?" and she said "Would you like a hair blow dryer?" I just smiled and said "Yes!". So she took me to her office and pulled a hairdryer out from under her desk and I used it to dry my pants. I was all dry in a minute or so and I was very thankful-despite the fact that she was just leaving her office so I had to dry my pants in a corner on the second floor and I needed to leave the hairdryer for her at the front desk when I was done (both aspects of that were a little weird).

The majority of my weekend was made up of intense, but fun and super productive planning for the next year with Campus Crusade for Christ. We took some time to pray, reviewed last year and planned this year and went over goals and everything. We got through so much during Friday night and Saturday afternoon. I have never spent so much time at once planning but it was really cool. I can't wait for next school year ;). Yes, I know some people are still getting through this one, but I have a hard time putting myself if their shoes cause they just don't fit my feet. My feet are much too small. Yeah, I wish. Ok, I love my feet.

In closing, I saw Failure to Launch with my mom recently. I decided that I like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days better. If you see the movie, you'll know why the issue arose. I'm already looking forward to Sarah's 20th birthday next weekend...I am going to find some time to leave the party and take a nap in the spare room-you haven't experienced comfort until you've slept snuggled into a bed that has 3 layers of down duvets!

Forever

If every word I said, could make you laugh, I’d talk forever
I ask the sky just what we had, mmm it shone forever
If the song I sing to you, could fill your heart with joy, I’d sing forever
Forever, Forever
I’ve been so happy loving you
Let the love I have for you, live in your heart and beat forever
Forever, Forever
I’ve been so happy loving you...
Beach Boys
www.lyricsfreak.com

This is one of my favourite love songs...even though this idea of "forever" is a little mushy because who knows what relationships will be like between people after we die. It's a cute song, nonetheless. It actually became my favourite a long time ago, when Uncle Jesse on Full House sang it to Rebecca on their wedding episode :). I couldn't help liking it ever since.

Lovely Young Jessie

True hearted was he, the sad swain o’ the Yarrow,
And fair are the maids on the banks of the Ayr;
But by the sweet side o’ the Nith’s winding river,
Are lovers as faithful, and maidens as fair:
To equal young Jessie seek Scotland all over;
To equal young Jessie you seek it in vain,
Grace, beauty, and elegance, fetter her lover,
And maidenly modesty fixes the chain.
O, fresh is the rose in the gay, dewy morning,
And sweet is the lily, at evening close;
But in the fair presence o’ lovely young Jessie,
Unseen is the lily, unheeded the rose.
Love sits in her smile, a wizard ensnaring;
Enthron’d in her een he delivers his law:
And still to her charms she alone is a stranger;
Her modest demeanour’s the jewel of a’.
-Robert Burns (1793)
www.poetryconnection.net

This poem, which has been brought to my attention by my friend Rob, is now my favourite poem in the world! ;)

Ducks

It is almost officially spring, and something that can attest to that, besides the calendar are the ducks in my lake. They're back from wherever they migrated and I saw them for the first time yesterday. After I saw them, I promptly told the rest of my family that the ducks were home :). However, I started to wonder...where did they go? South. Southern North America. When I googled it, http://www.ducks.ca/ said that ducks, geese, hawks, eagles, and other song birds migrate each year to the southern US, northern Mexico, around the Gulf of Mexico, other parts of the US or even some songbirds (like sparrows, blackbirds, warblers) might go to central and South America! Maybe everyone already knew that, but I never really thought about where these ducks have been-like the duck in my back yard has been to Mexico, but I haven't. Anyways, I think that is interesting. Or maybe since I am working, the lack of learning I'm experiencing makes everything I learn interesting, regardless of if it's truly interesting to the greater population ;).

Another thing that was interesting...maybe not interesting (I'll agree to that one) but kinda cool was lifeguarding on March Break yesterday. The experience was crazy. There was like a foot of water between one kid and another. Around 220 people were there in total. The cool part was that I was lifeguarding with the lifeguard that taught me my bronze medallion class over 4 years ago (the first of 3 courses you need to be a lifeguard). She's a paramedic now, but she was back to help with March Break. It was just nice that she was there and cool that I got to work with her.

As for today, I still have a bit of time off for March Break, so I think that I am going to convince Josh to have a movie marathon with me. Starting ASAP :). Oh yes, after I exercise or something.

I've Got a Bike...

Today, it became clear that it was time to break out the bicycle. When I found it, the back tire needed a little air. Josh offered to go to the local gas station and put some air in it. When Josh came home, the back tire was totally flat and he admitted that he didn't know how to use the air pump. However, he managed to ride home on a flat tire, but "it was hard". I reminded him that he could have walked the bike home. So then the women of the family jumped in the car to put some air in the tire. It appears that our entire family is air pump challenged and the man behind the counter at the gas station actually told us he didn't know how to work it either. Wonderful. So we tried to do it ourselves, following the pictures on the side of the machine. Somehow, the little thing that sticks out of the wheel which you attach the pump to got pushed into the tire and we gave up on all that independent air pumping business. We decided to take the bike to the bike shop because we thought we broke the wheel. As we pulled out of the gas station, mom concluded that "the staff at the Irving are useless" (it was really amusing to hear her actually say that) and I promptly agreed. I cut my finger trying to put the bike in the trunk-it bled for awhile and we had no bandaids-or antiseptic. Finally the man at the bike place fixed the tire and put air in for free. Then we got home and I didn't want to ride the bike anymore. Just kidding. I rode all around and explored these neighbourhoods by nearby lakes. During this trip I decided that when I have a family of my own I belong in a neighbourhood whose name is "Such and Such" Estates. Estates are where it's at :).

Bike Report
Day: 2
Distance: 4.5 km
Breaks: 1 -but only to change the radio station
Weather: sunny and breezy (I love spring-but not as much as summer, so it's more like "I luv spring")
Overall experience:
Fairly good...fun, but my legs were sore after

I think that the run is going to be more of a light jog today or even a brisk walk...

Sometimes I Run...

April 2, the day for my beach screening (500m swim, 3k run) is quickly approaching. It's March 12, aka. "day one of my self-inflicted get-in-shape regime". I'm planning on running everyday between now and then. Also, I've gotta swim as much as possible. I'm sure it'll be fine, just like every other year, but somehow I feel like this 3 week crunch to get in shape is almost like starting a paper a night or two before its due. In both cases, I sort of enjoy the pressure ;).

Run Report
Day: 1
Distance: about 6 songs on the radio
Walking breaks: 2
Weather: lovely and sunny-it felt like summer after I started to sweat
Overall experience:
Brutal...I am in bad shape (however, I did eat those truffles right before I left the house)

Still waiting for the "runner's high"...

Red Carpet

This years Academy Awards were wonderful for two reasons.
A bunch of the girls (me, Morgan, Megha, Amarea, Rebekah) and I dressed up and made it an event. "Dressed up" means getting all dolled up in our grad dresses. I think that every time a girl gets dressed up nice, she subconsciously wants pictures taken of her so everyone can remember how good she looked. So due to that fact and since it was Oscar nite, we had a big photo shoot that turned into most of us getting our groove on to Muchmusic Dancemix 2000. It was tons of fun dressing up, eating, giggling, and yelling out who we thought would win. We made our own award categories and I won a chocolate, soap and a hair clip for best make-up ;). Megha fell off the couch. Brokeback Mountain biscuits are very filling and shouldn't be eaten between dinner and dessert (it seemed like a good idea right before we went upstairs to get the cake).
Ben Stiller. He dressed up in a spandexish green suit (like they use in movies) and pretended to be a floating head. It was great. The best presenter!
I was really surprised that Brokeback Mountain didn't take best picture-because of all the publicity it got. However, I am very happy that Crash won, because it was a really awesome movie! It was one of those ones you want to talk about after. The dresses were pretty, but none really stuck out in my head. Seeing the dresses is one of my favourite parts of awards shows. Well, now I have to say that I am looking forward to the next Oscars!

My Room

I think that the idea of having a room that is all your own is a really great one. I like my room because it has all my stuff the way I want it, and it even smells like me (well more like the lotion that I use, really). However, there is one problem with my room. I need better curtains. Don't get me wrong, they do their curtainly job of shielding my window quite well. That is really important in both the summer and the winter (when people boat and walk across the lake-plus there is this train, and though I can't see the conductor, he might be able to see me...). The problem is that they are white and let too much light in. The sun always wakes me up waaay to early, especially if it is a day that I have time to sleep in. Like today, I could sleep all I wanted and I woke up with a tired headache. Isn't that weird how light affects your sleep even if you aren't awake to see it? Anyways, I have been thinking of what I can use as another curtain option. There is of course, buying dark coloured curtains. Or I could get myself one of those pull down shade things, the ones that are like the maps that pull down in high school. Or I could do something special like rig up a machine that will snap up a piece of sheet metal that is painted to look like my backyard whenever it is time to sleep-then NO light would get in, ever. Yes, lets go with that one. Where did I put that buzz saw?