One Minute Writer #58

Complete this thought: I usually forget...

a) anything I am trying to remember
Like a lot of people, I will leave a room with the clear intention of something specific. It may be going to pick something up, starting a new task, or looking into something I need an answer about. I will get to moving and halfway there I will forget what I was going to do or get. Sometimes I will have the clear intention of getting something from upstairs, decide along the way that I should go to the washroom and then forget to get or do the thing that made me go upstairs in the first place. It is very annoying.

b) my iPod before I head to bed
Almost every night, I listen to my iPod to fall asleep. This happens to be the same iPod I take to work with me on occasion and the one that goes with me to the gym to help me workout. 9 times out of 10, I will forget to take it upstairs with me and will get settled in bed only to have to get up and go back downstairs to get it from my purse or gym bag. Also very annoying.

Playing Catch-up

The time has come, again, for me to write another post about how busy I have been and how poorly I have been doing in keeping my blogs up to date. That all being said, I am working on some more posts for the rest of November and into December. Hopefully I will be able to get some more regular posts going until Christmas when I should have some downtime – maybe.

Lately Dave and I have been busy with not only work and the gym, but making the last few decisions on where our wedding will be. Once we have worked out a few more things, I will post about all the details (so far).

 

I have also been working diligently on my final photography course assignment and am pretty happy with how it is turning out so far. I have been learning all sorts of new tricks and am going to start posting some tips and tricks on my photography blog – so stay tuned for that.

 

For now though, bear with me once more as I try to sort through the craziness that is life.

I’m Back!!!

I know it has been a while, but I am back now. I am spending most of the rest of this afternoon sitting by an open window, enjoying the fresh air, my backyard garden and the sunlight while I blog away. In other words, there should be regular posts for the next month or so despite how busy I will likely be.

 

What have I been busy with you ask? Well for those of you who don’t already know, Dave and I have been advancing our lives a fair bit lately. We are obviously planning our wedding which is very time consuming despite the fact that we are planning a wedding that is well over a year away. We have also signed up at Goodlife gym and gotten ourselves personal trainers (to learn more about this, check out my health blog, The Road to a Better Me – it too is getting updated today). We also made one of the biggest purchases we will ever make…we bought a house. I will create more specific posts about each of these things later, but for now I think this is enough to understand just how busy our personal lives have been lately. Oh, and I am also planning a baby shower for my sister-in-law with my mom which has taken a little bit of work as well (invitations, ideas, gift shopping, etc), though to be honest, this one wasn’t as much work as the others. In fact it was quite fun to send out invitations and look at baby things.

Let’s Play Ball

Dave and I joined the baseball team at work called the DST Destroyers (the above photo is from our first game – it is a pretty bad one of me, but I am having to deal with it). So far we have been scheduled to play 4 games but two of them have been cancelled (due to a shortage of players). It has been a lot of fun and I have found that I am not that bad – well I can hit the ball at least when I am up to bat. I likely wouldn’t have such a good batting average if we weren’t pitching to our own team mates.

St. Joseph's Oratory

St. Joseph's Oratory was a last minute addition to our Montreal trip, but boy am I glad we went. Not only was the Oratory itself breathtaking, but the view was amazing. I got a chance to take some panoramic shots and use the Photomerge feature in Photoshop.The Oratory has become a famous location not only because of the gigantic and beautiful architecture, but also because of one brother in particular. Frere Andre (aka Blessed Brother Andre) was a Holy Cross Brother and is very famous among French-Canadian Catholics. The Oratory and the small chapel in Brother Andre's name are littered with crutches and walking sticks from people who came to visit Frere Andre during his time to be healed, honestly the below photo is a ridiculously small portion of them.It is reported that performed thousands of healing miracles during his lifetime. Since his death in 1937, he has performed one posthumuous mircale - curing one of the patrons of cancer. The miracle was credited by the Pope at the time and his followers are now awaiting his second posthumuous miracle which would label him a Saint, officially. His heart lies within the Oratory still at his request as he believed it would protect the structure. People came to the Oratory everyday to pray to be healed. The stairs of the Oratory are considered to be a sort of pilgrimage, and upon arrival, one can pray right at the tomb of Frere Andre. It was moving to see so many ill people obviously praying for their health, but more touching to see the apparently healthy people praying for loved ones to be healed.The Oratory itself, is breathtaking. For a little comparison, St. Joseph's Oratory is taller than St. Paul's Cathedral in London, England. Both Dave and I took a great deal of photos from inside the Oratory and I am very pleased with how my camera behaved. Though we had brought it with us and photography was 100% acceptable inside, I didn't feel right using my tripod.There will be lots of shots from here on my Photography blog over the next little while for sure, that is how please I am with the vast majority of them.

Wish List

Christmas is almost here and since the majority of people purchasing gifts for me have already done so, with or without my input, I have decided to put up a list of things I am hoping to get this year. I don't really like sending out lists of things I want as I like to see what others think I may like or want. It is pretty small as I really don't need that much and want only a few more things than I need. It should be noted that the list is in no particular order.

1. macro lens (Nikon/Nikkor 60mm)
2. tripod (with fully rotatable head)
3. battery grip (for Nikon d80)
4. muffin top tin (non silicone)
5. toaster oven (convection, multiple functions, sleek looking and large enough to hold multiple little pizzas)
6. WoW expansion
7. Kitchenaid utensils and/or appliances
8. Looney Spoons cookbook
9. Crazy Plates cookbook
10. sweaters for work
11. socks
12. DVD player

Number 1, 2 and 3 could be achieved through Henry's gift cards while numbers 8 and 9 could be achieved through amazon or chapters gift cards. Gift cards to eBay or PayPal would also be good for getting some of the camera equipment as I have seen the battery grip for a decent price there as of late. Number 11 is pretty lame but I actually do need regular black and/or white socks as the ones I own have disappeared and the little ankle ones are not enough to wear with my winter boots. Number 12 is needed for the basement so I can watch my exercise DVDs down there and/or movies while I am on the elliptical as the sound from my laptop just isn't enough. And of course any of these things could be achieved through lovely, glorious cash.

That's all I can think of for now...we'll have to see what I do and do not get for Christmas.

Painting

I spent the weekend at Chris, Jerrica and Emily's new place painting up a storm. For some this would be a major task that they would only do for the best of friends, this is true for me in the respect that I would normally not partake in that much physical activity for just anyone, but I do love painting. When Chris mentioned that she wanted me to help out, I was thrilled and RSVPed instantly. I just love everything about painting, it is so much fun. You get to change a room drastically and give it a whole new feeling - new emotion, it's great.
We painted the three bedrooms and the kitchen this weekend, as well as the bathroom. They had to be primered first which was a little boring, but after that the colour came and that is always exciting. The colours they chose for their rooms are great and mesh together well actually, despite the fact that they are quite different. I think their place looks great!
Next weekend is the spare bedroom and main living room - again we have to start with primer which will once again be bland and boring, but after that two new colours :) yay!

Unemployment

So I have been unemployed for 2 weeks now and am doing fine I suppose. I am just starting to get bored during the day and have been finding that I have tons of energy left at the end of the day, though that may be partly due to the fact that I sleep in every day despite my efforts to get up at a normal time.It is just so hard to dow hen you have no real reason to get up.
The time away from work has been really helping my weight loss and exercise though. I have been able to get in about an hour of exercise every day and it feels really great.
I had an interview on Wednesday, which went really well and I am feeling pretty good about. The man who interviewed me said that he would have to wait until another person (the guy who originially contacted me) got back from vacation on Monday but that they would definitely be contacting me early in the week. I think I will probably get asked to come back in for another interview. In the meantime I am reading up on Class Environmental Assessments and Infrastructure Planning as that is what my job would primarily be based upon. I took courses on both so I am ok in that department, I just need to refresh my memory about the basics incase I get asked any technical questions about them. They mentioned that they might want a copy of my transcript so I requested ab unch from the school already and hope they come in before the second interview - or at least shortly there after as I want to show that I am prepared and can think ahead and whatnot. Even if they aren't in, I will be able to say I requested them just after the last interview based on what we discussed blah blah blah. I hope I am able to go over the transcript with them to discuss with them that my environmental and even my civil courses have high marks despite the fact that some of my first and second year courses aren't that great. Though I think most people realize the life changes that are going on during that time and how they can impact your grades.
Other than that, I really have no new information. I have my fingers crossed about this job and even if I don't get it, at least I know now that I can interview well, since I was at ease throughout the whole thing and was able to answer all the questions asked of me. I always have the federal jobs, my clearance application is almost done and I should be able to start applying for those jobs through the hiring company at the end of the month.