oh canada

i just got back from a college friends wedding. she's canadian, eh, and the wedding was in kananaskis village, just west of calgary. living in colorado, i sometimes get a little jaded about the beauty of mountains.. but let me tell you, the canadian rockies are breathtakingly gorgeous! they're like the colorado rockies on steroids.

anyhow, the whole weekend was going perfectly until i had to get home. i had flown up there and si drove, so we had my car. we left kananaskis a little late on monday morning and had to haul ass so i could make my 1:30 flight from calgary to edmonton, where i would continue to denver. so i get to the airport at 1:00, and since canada isn't as uptight as the states, the airline lady checked me in and told me that i better hurry. i made it to my flight with a couple minutes to spare and was extremely relieved. i called si and told him he could head home, since i made the flight.

i arrive at edmonton at 2:15, an hour before my 3:15 flight. then i'm informed that because of bad weather in chicago*, my flight has been not delayed, but CANCELLED. ok, not a problem, it's only 2:30, i think to myself, i have plenty of time to get back to denver tonight. so i stand behind about 8 people at the united counter to wait to be rebooked. an hour passes, there are still 6 people in front of me. so i suck it up and call the airline from my cell phone, using the $0.50/minute international rate, and end up talking to perhaps the most unhelpful woman ever. out of frusturation, i hang up on her. by that time, there are only 3 people ahead of me. so i wait ANOTHER 30 minutes before i finally get to rebook. i'm finally told that there are no flights to the united states for that day, and they'll have to send me back to calgary and i can take the 6:50 am flight the next day. WTF? i had a hard time believing that there wasn't a SINGLE flight to the states leaving for the rest of the day.

but i sucked it up, called si, let him know what was going on, and remained completely irritated that instead of spending my extra day in banff with si, i had to spend it flying back and forth between calgary and edmonton!

luckily, my friend and her family and some friends were still in calgary, so i was able to stay the night with them and catch a ride with them to the airport, but still. of course, i didn't have any luggage because i had sent it with si - so i had to sleep in my clothes and borrow a toothbrush. then wake up at 4:30 to go to the airport, get back into town, take a cab home, and head into work ~11am. that makes for a LONG day.

the funny thing is, had i actually missed my first flight, i would have probably gotten on the 3:00 direct flight from calgary to denver!

*bad weather my ass.. whenever there's a flight problem they tell you this so that they don't have to give you hotel/food vouchers.

i want to tivo real life

because then i could

- fast forward through my commute

- pause my lunch hour so that i can actually have some time to shop at kohls for new bras without caring if i get stuck behind two stay at home moms and their snotty/tan/skinny 16 year old daughters who aren't in school because they have the summer off; who don't care that i have to be back at the office in 2 minutes and probably can't even fathom what having to go to work every day is like because their rich husbands just hand them money and let them shop all day.

- fast forward through the unbearable propaganda videos that i'm forced to watch in my mba class (am i the *only* liberal business person??)

hell, who am i kidding - i would just fast forward through my entire work week and do the weekends in slow-mo, record my best memories and forever delete the crappy ones*.

*unless a valuable lesson was learned, in which case they should probably stick around.

happy birthday fuzz!

today is my brothers 23rd birthday.

the little bugger is in vegas right now celebrating.

however, he did just get a new grown up job, and will soon realize the horrors of working through the summer.. mwhahahaha!

maybe now si will mow the lawn

today i had my first allery testing. poked 63 times on the back and 20 on the arms to find out that grasses are my nemesis.

as well as a few trees and pet dander.

since i had to stay off anti-histimines for the last week in preparation for this test, i was MISERABLE last week. and my symptoms have been so bad that i don't think i've slept a full night in over two months.

so needless to say, i welcomed the prescription strength allegra, prednisone prescription, and nasal spray with open arms.

i just hope that the welts on my back dissappear in time for my friends wedding this weekend!

how old am i again?

this weekend the new harry potter book comes out.
also, it's the opening weekend for charlie and the chocolate factory.

and i am more exicted for both of those than any other 27 year old i know!

i am the coworker that saves your ass when you have a headache

since i am a list person* and i happened to break my very cute shoe this morning, but luckily had a sewing kit and was able to fix, i thought i would share with you the other approximately 59,000 items in my "emergency" drawer.

but first, a picture of said (fixed) shoe (colors appear much more vibrant in real life!)

and now, everything i have in my office that i could possibly ever need in any situation.

- sewing kit
- halls fruit breezers (tropical chill and cool cherry flavors)
- lint roller
- tylenol sinus day
- tums smooth dissolve
- asthma inhaler
- downy wrinkly release
- deodorant
- purell hand sanitizer
- eclipse flash strips
- 6 fluorescent bendy straws
- 2 tubes of lip gloss
- eyedrops
- bandaids
- magnesium supplements
- clear nail polish
- baby powder
- dental floss
- orange peeler
- tampons
- generic ibuprofen
- nail file
- zinc lozenges
- headphones
- gap "dream" perfume
- mints
- advil
- saline solution
- vitamin K
- advil cold & sinus
- "pearberry" hand lotion
- viactiv chews
- compact mirror
- body shop lip butter
- gum
- bobby pin

and here's proof - just in case you don't believe me.

*although si doesn't react favorably to the lists i make for him, even though he would be a LOT more productive if he actually FOLLOWED THEM.

t minus 20 days and counting

until i leave for the fabulous cayman islands!!

and i SO need this vacation. i have been horrendously busy this summer because never in my life have i been able to NOT have 10 things going on at once. currently i:
- am working 40+ hours per week
- am in graduate school and have class every tuesday/thursday from 6-8:30
- play softball every monday night
- am helping remodel/decorate/clean our new house
- am the president of my professional organization's local chapter
- get up at 5am to hit the gym before work (most days, sometimes i am a slacker)
and because i didn't think i had ENOUGH going in, I also planted a vegetable garden consiting of: beans, tomatos, 7 types of herbs, corn, strawberries, brussel sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, onions (red/white/green), 4 types of lettuce, carrots, pumpkin, zuchini, spaghetti squash, and raspberries. which of course requires daily watering and weekly weeding.

additionally i:
- sell on ebay
- run two websites
- am a freak about keeping the house clean (although i've kind of given up on that right now until we get the remodeling done)

this leaves me with about 2 minutes of "me time" per day.

no wonder my doctor told me i need to relax and find some stress relief.

think 2 weeks on a beach will do the trick?

new house!

simon was a saint and moved us into our new house last week while i was in kansas.

now our lives are completely upside down because:

a) we haven't finished remodeling the kitchen yet, so we have no fridge, oven, microwave, or dishwasher. luckily, we do have a grill.
b) we haven't finished painting yet, so everything is covered in plastic and is essentially a construction zone.
c) simon, bless his heart, didn't label the boxes he packed and so we're relying on his memory to find things.

it will be so nice to be settled!

here's a picture of our house! it was taken in the early spring when we bought it - there are a ton of flowers and things in the front now. =)

there's no place like home

i've been kind of out of touch with reality for awhile now. being in kansas for work will do that to you.

i travel every now and then with my job - usually to various unglamourous po-dunk towns. the past week i was in winfield, ks - which is the town that time forgot. i couldn't even find a non-fast food restaurant in the town*, much less a wireless internet connection!

when i asked the lady at the front desk if there was anywhere i could get wifi access, she stared at me and blinked. i said, "you know, a wireless internet signal so i can check my email?". she blinked again before drawling "weell, if y'all wunt the internets, y'all can plug y'alls 'puter to the phone line in y'alls room". i didn't try to explain to her that i don't have dial-up service, much less a modem on my laptop.

sigh.

tomorrow i'm going on a short trip to casper, wy, which is a little more evolved. my hotel has free wifi and there are several non-fast food restaurants to choose from, so i'm good to go!

*and i'm allergic to gluten (protein found in wheat, rye, barley, & oats), so eating out all the time when i'm on travel is never fun or easy. i usually end up eating some form of wheat out of desparation and then feeling crappy the whole day.