Swinging.

I miss the days when life was simple. When you didn't have to worry or wonder about hidden motivations or deceptions - you were just a kid without major responsibilities or problems and you could just go about your life, which consisted of at it's most stressful, trying to decide between the swings or the slide at the park.

I remember an entire childhood summer spent hanging out with a friend at the park behind my home. We'd call each other up and say one simple word: "Park?", and that would be the entire conversation. I'd rush out to the park and we'd meet up at the swing set. He and I would sit on those swings and talk all afternoon and evening. It was a good summer.

Maybe I should go to the park this weekend - swing on the swings until they're so high that my stomach flutters as I plummet back toward the ground and am caught by the chains.

Yes, this weekend, I'm swinging :P

"No News is Bad News"

...not really bad news...

more like boring news

I promise that I have not forgotten about this - there is just nothing interesting to write about currently.

It's been raining... The End.

Razor blades in the Dark

I don't recommend it - shaving by candlelight that is...

Tuesday night found me sitting on the futon in my parents' basement, watching Glee, when without warning the power went out - and stayed out. I sat there for 10 minutes or so, willing it to return so I could continue watching the amazing episode of Glee (with NPH!) but alas, it did not come back on.

So what seemed like the most logical course of action? Well, to leave the room I was in, lit by natural light for the time being, and venture into the windowless bathroom, light candles, and have a relaxing bath.

Turns out the plug in my tub is a failure; slowly the tub drained and without electricity, I did not have the usual background noise of the radio to drown out the sound of the outflow down the drain - a sound which oddly enough I find very distressing. This most likely stems from a childhood fear that I would be sucked down the drain with the bathwater if I remained in the tub whilst it was draining.

I also figured that another logical thing to do would be to shave my legs - I was in the tub after all, I might as well be productive. A word to the wise, if you:

1. Typically require fairly strong glasses to see and thus when in situations where you can't wear them, rely on colour variation as your guide, and
2. Are in a situation with low light, which effectively renders colour variation moot,

I do not recommend attempting to shave your legs by candlelight - it just does not end well.

The power eventually came back on after an hour and a half sans electricity. I hate being without electricity; I flip light switches every time I walk into a room and feel like an idiot-moron every time I am reminded that the power is still out.

Currently, I'm listening to Mariana's Trench's album "Masterpiece Theatre". A coworker lent me it to add to my iTunes libray. It is really fantastic - in case anyone hasn't heard it and is wondering. I especially enjoy the final track, Masterpiece Theatre III, which is a culmination of the choruses and bits and pieces from all the other tracks on the album.

All In

I just got home from the Cavo/Lifehouse/Daughtry concert.

It was SO amazing...

...only had to wait 11 years to see Lifehouse live. It was TOTALLY worth every single second of that wait.

Now I am temporarily deaf and have no voice left; I am so happy :)

I'm also very glad to have a super awesome fantastic sister who shares my wonderful taste in music :).

The Roads are Gorgeous Tonight

I love when I can drive home in the rain or shortly after it has rained and the road still has water on it.

It's so beautiful how the car and streetlights reflect off the road in streaks of red, yellow, and green - reminds me of the long exposure photography of freeways - and I love it.

Every Little Thing is Gonna be Alright

On Friday night I went to see Iron Man 2 with a group of friends. It began quite funnily (for me at least - I can't say the same for my friend) with one of my friend's getting a ticket for the wrong showtime and then trying to crumple the ticket enough that the cinema number was removed and he could get into the same one as the rest of us... I fell down laughing at the ridiculous state of his ticket by the end of it.

I was definitely expecting good things from this movie and it really did not disappoint me. It was very humourous and had some pretty great fight scenes. Mickey Rourke looked like a dirty old man, as usual; Scarlett Johansson was impressively awesome - wearing a leather catsuit for her fight scenes of course, and while I don't personally think it was necessary, every time she's in butt-kicking mode, she has to let her hair down (apparently that is "power hair" and not the slicked-back bun Porshe de Rossi, on "Better Off Ted", insists is). Other than the blatant obviousness of this "sex sells" ploy, I really have nothing to complain about... well, maybe notnothing - Robert Downey Jr. did use a wrench to realign a laser beam at one point...

Friday was a great day overall.

At work I got to try out the fancy new earmuff hearing protectors and the new dust masks we got, so that I could grind up, shake, and sieve samples. I also got to roll PI's and do data entry (my favourite jobs!), so all in all, it was a well-rounded, fantastic day... the sun was even shining and we had our coffee break outside!

Saturday morning I woke up decently early and made a chocolate cake to have Sunday, for Mother's Day (Happy Mother's Day, Beebo!). It's going to be awesome!

I like airports. And flying - my favourite parts are the takeoffs and landings; it always makes me sad if I have the middle or aisle seat and the person with the window seat closes the window-cover.

I suppose my love of flying is something I come by naturally, having grown up around it so much. It really would have sucked for me to be afraid of it...

Last time I was at the gym, Tammy and I did a few more attempts on the wall. I managed to make it approximately 4 feet from the top at one point, but my arms could not handle anymore and I had to admit defeat for the day.

Tomorrow, I am going to top that wall.

I'm also going to run in public.

It's going to be a milestone day - prepare yourself.

Last night, my friend decided that it was necessary for him to finally see Twilight. Even as someone who is a fan of the books and movies (sort of), I think the movie is laughable and lame at best.

They turned the movie into a drinking game - drink every time Kristen Stewart sighs or huffs about something... it is shocking just how often this happens. I have to say that watching Twilight with inebriated people significantly improved the experience.

...let's see what they have to say about New Moon...

Mermaid Off the Port Bow!

As a kid, I wanted to be a Singing Mermaid Princess when I grew up - a spectacular plan in theory with only a few minor holdups:

1. Presently (as well as at age 5), I lack the appropriate anatomy to be a successful mermaid;
2. I am definitely not royalty, nor am I in any position to acquire the title of "Princess" at any point in the foreseeable future, and
3. As my mother so lovingly pointed out when I revealed my career plan to her, I cannot sing...

No longer do I aspire to be like Ariel, aside from the affinity for collecting and holding on to trash and old trinkets.

I think I would want to be a slightly more butt-kicking Disney Princess instead, not a mermaid that signed away her ability to vocalize in pursuit of a guy...

Or maybe I'd rather be the villian...

"Now I am the ruler of all the ocean! The waves obey my every whim!"

- Ursula

Brambling

I would like to visit the moon, but I don't think I'd like to live there.

Oh, Ernie from Sesame Street, you amuse me.

I wouldn't really want to visit the moon - outer space freaks me out - but I do like to look at it.

Stars fascinate me; I wish I knew more constellations or the stories behind them.

I wish I were less of a jerk sometimes too; I'm lippy to those I'm comfortable around - some might even call it "sassy" perhaps? No? Whatever.

...like offering someone a piece of peanut butter cake and after the offer, asking if they're allergic and that if they are, they better have an epi pen because they need to suck it up and try this cake...

*My friend wasn't actually allergic to peanuts, and if they had been, I wouldn't have said this - come on, I have some tact*

"Who's the uncoordinated orangutan in the blue labcoat?"

Stuff & Junk

Started the morning like a champion; had a bowl of oatmeal that I managed to royally mess up - oatmeal should be a pudding-y consistency in my opinion, not souplike... I could have drank this particular bowl of oatmeal - fail. It was still delicious despite this flaw.

Don't get me wrong on this, but, I hate the train that runs through the neighbourhood I work in. It's horrible. I like trains usually - I like to laugh at the suckers who are being inconvenienced by the 700 cars-long train - but when I'm the one sitting idle for 20 minutes while the train creeps forward, stops, reverses at a speed that would make sloths look fast, stops, and then creeps forward finally, I'm no longer a fan of trains. I'm sorry to my cousin who loves trains - I mean no offense - I like trains too *insert Engineer joke here*; I just really don't like being stuck in traffic and when a train is causing it, it is then that I hate trains.

For the past 5 years, I've paid gym fees in my tuition and have hardly used the gym on campus. Sure, I've gone wallclimbing a few times, and yes, I play campus rec sports during the school year, but I've never used the gym itself until yesterday. I was always really intimidated by it and now I feel like a fool for feeling that way. So, now, in the next year, I need to squeeze 6 years worth of gym time out of that place. This'll be interesting.

Nah. But the treadmill will be nice. Now to conquer my fear of running in public (coming soon, a post most likely titled: Yes, I do run like a girl).

...that said, so long as I don't involuntarily run like Phoebe off of Friends, I'm not the worst I could be.

My Arms are Made of Jell-o

"What constitutes pink lemonade?"

This is what I found myself asking my coworkers recently, as I wondered what one would do to make pink lemonade from scratch.

The conclusion we came to was "grapefruit" - it must have grapefruit in it, and that's where the pink colour comes from. But, wait a minute, it doesn't taste like grapefruit. Hmmm... conundrum.

So, after an "in-depth" research session involving Google, two keywords, and the first result listed, I have found the solution I sought:

Cranberry Juice.

Sneaky, eh?

Went to the gym today after work. Tammy and I wallclimbed until we physically could no longer climb. It was fantastic! We now have a standing date each week and a summer's-end goal of "reach the top of the wall"; I got about half-way on one of my attempts.

Some quotes, because I can:

“The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.”

- Flora Whittlemore

“Living is strife and torment, disappointment and love and sacrifice, golden sunsets and black storms."

- Sir Laurence Olivier

Everything's Coming Up [Kim]house!

Today was freakin' AWESOME!

1. Despite sleeping through all of my alarms, as usual, I woke up in time to shower, pack my gym bag, AND get to work EARLY;
2. Started work - I love working at the lab - it's going to be another amazing summer and I'm really excited for that;
3. When I got to work, I was informed that today was Orientation, which I was signed up for, and had to be there at 9 - so I had ample time to get across the city and be there :) ;
4. A friend of mine from school was at this Orientation too. He's working at the office near where Orientation was held, so we walked there at lunch and played a game of Cribbage;
5. Orientation wrapped up at 3:30, so I was able to go back to the Lab and sit in on a meeting until hometime;
6. I PASSED MY STRUCTURES CLASS! This was really the only course I was super worried about passing. The fact that I passed means I am FINALLY done 3rd year Civil Engineering (I'm a mere 3 courses away from being 4th year too... let's just say, 3rd year has been the longest (and worst) 3 years of my life;
7. After work I stuck around and chatted with my supervisors, who are fantastic. I really cannot wait for the rest of this summer - working in the Lab is truly great and I seriously enjoy the people I work with there, and
8. Tomorrow is going to be even better because I'm going for coffee at the Mendel, with Kristi, after work!

I'm quite easily the happiest person in all of Happy Land right now.

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It's Off to Work I Go

I'm having Honey Shreddies for breakfast. They are lovely.

Managed to be awake in time this morning to not only get ready for my first day of work this summer, but to also pack a bag for the gym. Hopefully Tammy is able to, and then we're going to wall climb after work this evening.

I start work with Highways in an hour (so I really should be leaving very soon, so that I can be there on time *mutters obscenities about traffic*), and even though this will be my third summer at the lab, I'm nervous/excited. It's going to be an excellent summer - as usual - I'm just anxious about the unknown goings-on that surround the first day at any job.

Ok. Game time.

I'll sleep when I'm dead / I'm dead when I sleep

I don't sleep enough and I really never have. It's been years since I've had 8 hours of sleep consistently every night for any more than a 2 or 3 day stretch; even as a kid, going to sleep earlier just meant I could wake up earlier and start the day sooner.

In the past year though, I have reverted to that toddler-like quality of not being tired until BAM! and suddenly I am out like a light... *not tired. not tired. not tired... SMASH* and I'm gone. This brick wall and I collide around 2 am typically, and then I'm down for the count for who-knows-how-long.

Even now, it's crawling on 1 am, and while I work at 9 am tomorrow and even came home "early", I am starting up a blog instead of sleeping...

Ah well, give it an hour and I'll crash into the proverbial bricks and mortar.