Huh

I am Creative. I do creative things. I just don't say so. I don't think I have either

a) anything good to say or
b) anybody who cares

to bother to write very often.

I express most of my creative energy taking pictures, mostly of nature, in and around Hinton.

I also cook. I have begun to play around with some other things, and my most recent accomplishment was a scrapbook I made for my sister and brother in law for their wedding. At first I didn't think that my sister liked it, but I now realize that that is so not true.

I recently moved to a town about 6 hours away from my family, and my best friend lives in a city 3 hours away but is always busy working or sleeping.

Not only am I in a new place, which I do love, but I also feel super lonely.

Thankfully, my 'sister-in-common-law' is great, and since she is a SAHM with a 6 1/2 month old, she is just as grateful as I am to get out of the house, or just have the company of a friend.

I don't know what else to say. I probably won't update this again for a while, since Ivew recently become kind of turned off of the idea.

Me.

I don't normally do this

This post is going to be a little different.

I was reading my Hometown's newspaper online, and clicked on the Opinion section. If you want to know what I read, here it is.

Here's part of what I would like to respond. (Highly recommend reading the article before reading this... might not make sense if you read this first.)

I was contemplating sending this to them, but I know it would be edited and lose some of it's meaning.

Re: ‘War on Tobacco’ Editorial by Chris Miller, Oct. 24, 2006

By any chance, are you a smoker, Chris Miller?

In our society, people should be allowed to go out to a restaurant without having to suffer through breathing in a cloud of poison. While I believe that everybody has a right to smoke, if they so choose, why does it then mean that smokers have the right to decide that everybody else around them has to breathe in deadly toxins?

Yes, I’ve heard the ‘if you don’t like it, leave’, but where is the fairness in that? Are you saying that people who don’t want to be exposed to unnecessary toxins should stay at home? Well, how am I supposed to do anything?

If things hadn’t progressed the way it has, there would probably be smoking in grocery stores, drug stores, hospitals… Then what? Am I supposed to just deal with it or leave?

The issue of smoking has been around for years, and isn’t likely to disappear anytime soon. There is no clear answer, because smokers and non-smokers have very differing points of views. Everybody’s rights are being infringed upon because of this issue, and the lines become grayed as a result.

Not all oil patch workers smoke. Not every non-smoker has an issue with smokers. And no, smoking bans don’t affect the tobacco companies. It just makes life a little better for those of us who don’t choose to poison ourselves daily, the slowest suicide besides living. If you really want to smoke, then do it by yourself. Poison yourself. Kill yourself. Leave my lungs and health out of it.

Other I’d like to add…

Whatever people choose to do in the privacy of their own homes, is up to them.

What people choose to do when they are affecting other people, is not always up to them.

Deal with it.

(Maybe the Gov't of Canada needs to sit up and realize that the cost of health care is as a result of people not taking care of themselves. Maybe they should refuse to pay for services that are needed as a result of people smoking, overeating, doing illegal drugs. If people can take the responsibility of choosing to do things that harm them, maybe they should deal with the consequences, too. If you smoke, and get lung cancer as a direct result, maybe you should pay for the surgeries, and chemo...)

I think people these days just don't take responsibility for their choices anymore. People drink and drive, and expect to get a light sentence. They abuse other people, and expect to be out of jail in a few years.

I think there is something seriously wrong with people, and health care systems, and everything else.

I am getting exhausted just thinking about all this crap I want to say.

So, this is my response to the issue that the Cold Lake Sun's Editor has chosen to bring up. I don't mind if people want to leave comments, but keep it tactful please.

To anyone out there in my famly and friends who smoke, or whatever else, I am not attacking you. This is my general opinion.

Anyway, I never thought I'd be posting anything like this, or posting a disclaimer to hopefully prevent anyone from being offended by a post like this.

Sigh. This is the kind of crap that makes me depressed about the world we live in.

And then I read my Auntie's blogs, or look at pictures of my sweet little cousin painting, or Chris's niece, and I feel better.

:) Just had to get that out, I think.

TAK

"Laughing at the kid, I thought you were"

that's one of Chris' more recent 'Yoda-isms'.

It's hilarious when we catch them, but it's usually about once a week he talks in Yoda speak by accident.

(For those who don't know: Yoda is a character from Star Wars, and he talks kinda backwards. He is known worldwide for his speech behaviour, and commonly imitated by geeks and non-geeks alike. Also: he's not a human character, kind o a little green alien with big pointy ears.)

Chris doesn't do it on purpose, but I catch them, make fun of him (a little) and we both usually laugh our butts off about it.

Come to think of it, we laugh our butts off about a lot of stuff. We are really goofy people, when you get to know us. Consider yourselves warned for when you come to visit.

You are coming to visit, aren't you?
________________________________________

JOY AND MAT BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!! THE HOUSE THEY MADE AN OFFER ON HAS ACCEPTED IT!!!! IT'S HUGE, AND SHE PLANS TO HOST CHRISTMAS, IF SHE'S ALL SET UP TO!

Here's what I know about it:
- It is on approximately 24 acres of trees and a bit of wetland...

I will update more a little later!!!

Who wouldn't want $40 worth of red tacky stuff?

Me, probably. Unless it was cool red tacky stuff...

It would depend. If someone got me a $40 gift card from a store that had red tacky gift cards, see, now that would be alright.

Did you know that farming causes cancer?

What a load. Chemicals cause cancer. Environmental behaviour causes cancer. They are generalizing things WAY too much.

Oy. I totally lost my train of thought of the awesome post I was going to write.

I think I am going to go to bed, and read.

YES, READ!!! Yay!

Joy gave me a stack of books by an amazing author, Sophie Kinsella. I had already read her newest, "Domestic Goddess" and have now finished 2 more books since returning home from Cold Lake.

By the way, Joy, thank you so much for everything you gave me!! I have read lots and relaxed more since you gave me these books.

:)

Apparently, Sophie Kinsella has also written books under another name, and I have yet to remember her pen name, and look up the books.

:) I am happy. Yay!

Going to bed now.

Ow. Also: free hugs!

My arm hurts. Well, both of them.

I worked my butt off (not literally, thank goodness) today at work and in the process, I scratched (read: scraped pretty badly) my left arm. It is bruised along the scratch. I can't remember what I was doing when I did it, because I did enough other damage to other body parts today, that I only remember the most recent.

I gouged the inside of my right pinky. I scratched my other arm. More of a scratch, less of a bruised scrape than the first one.

I almost twisted my ankle when I was up on a ladder. (Thinking about not wearing my fantabulous chunky-heeled black shoes (kinda like boots...) to work anymore...)

The most recent injury of the day: walked to Chris's brother's new place tonight to visit, see the new house, and on the walk back, my shoes (Dr. Scholls, by the way) began to rub pretty fiercely against the back of my heel... My left foot now has an open sore, which by the way, Garnier Fruictus shampoo and open sores DO NOT MIX! OW! And the walk from our place to theirs is only 0.75 Km.

So... what's new?

Oh, I am going to Cold Lake this weekend. Friday morning, I am driving to Edmonton, and then whenever my brother and his roommate, and maybe Jare, are ready, we will be off to Cold Lake...

Monday morning, we will be returning. I have 4 days off, because my boss is understanding and laid back, almost to a fault.

Chris won't be able to join me on this trip because he has to work straight through. I am pretty sure his family is coming to visit, so at least he won't be alone or anything.
____________________________________________________

On another note, and completely out of nowhere, my aunty linked me to this video, which has had me thinking.

First of all, I don't hug anywhere near enough. I hope to change that. So, if you are reading this, feel free to request as many free hugs as you want. Just tell me the sign may be invisible, but you can still see it...

I had more, but while trying to spell check, I lost over 1/2 of my post. shitty kitty.

anyway.

basically here's what I said:
- free hugs link is cool.
- free hugs from me.
- my nails are really long. (white part is almost as long as the pink* part.)
*both times I typed 'pink' today, it first came out as 'oink'. Thus the reason for spell check.
- I need to go so I can straighten my hair, and cut/file my nails.

Gonna go now. Sorta depressed about the missing chunk of my post. I hate it when that happens.
(And, yes, I used the 'recover post' feature. It didn't bring back very much.)

:) TAK