#.34 Declare your birthday a national holiday

I haven’t broken out in the sweats or had an anxiety attack, or thrown myself off a bridge like I had expected at the beginning of all of this. I think lately I’ve just chosen not to think about it. I haven’t planned anything major, I’m just going to do what I want to do.

Tonight I’m shopping and having dinner with my mother (tomorrow is her birthday too), tomorrow morning I’m sleeping in, then golfing and catching an afternoon matinee of ‘The Hangover 2’, followed by dinner with friends. T has gotten me an ipad 2! So I’ll probably play a few rounds of angry birds. Saturday the fun will continue with shopping in the states with my sister and probably another dinner with friends, followed by Sunday where I’m finally going to meet a friend’s new baby. I’m thinking that’s a pretty perfect birthday weekend.

I’ve done all 101 things. It’s been a learning experience, some items were easy, others more difficult, but I enjoyed the challenge. However I’ve also found that some days I’ll have something I’ll feel overly passionate about sharing but it in no way relates to any of the 101 things. So in a way I’m feeling released to tell you about anything my heart desires – so be prepared. There's your forewarning.

I am going to miss my twenties. They started with a broken heart, followed by years of getting to know myself (without the boy craziness), followed by finding T and setting up our future. I miss not getting hangovers or not having dark circles under my eyes, or being able to tolerate loud dance music with strobe lights for long periods of time. There was a period where I had no one to answer to but myself and it was glorious. I never thought I’d become domesticated, but somehow owning a house and having a husband has transformed me into keeping a clean house and making sure there is food in it, and often cooking that food!

I’ll never look back at my twenties and regret any of my choices. They were all learning experiences and I’m grateful to have had the experiences in the first place. To never experience life’s challenges is to not have lived. Years from now I’ll tell my children how I lived within walking distance of the party row of bars in the city, kissed a lot of frogs before I found my prince, took crazy road trips, wore unbelievably low cut clothing, and cut my own path the way I wanted to.

My thirties will be my ‘grow up’ years. I’ll become more responsible (maybe...), create more stability, and hopefully see a bit more of the world. I’ll definitely have another freak out at age 35, and then again at 39. I only hope these years don’t fly by as quickly as my twenties did.

As much as I’d like to agree with the saying and tell you ‘age is just a number’. It’s a number, followed by another number, and another number. Don’t take anything for granted, live everyday to the fullest, and for f#%k’s sake – wear sunscreen.

#10. Travel Solo

Driving solo is something I absolutely love to do. It is also probably the best for me and the safety of others that I drive alone. I am one of those people who should hand out personal protective equipment of ear muffs so you don’t have to listen to my singing or swearing at other motorists.

Staying in a hotel solo I don’t do so well. T is in hotels across North America so often whenever we do stay in a hotel it’s free due to his points. He makes every hotel room into his own comfort zone and seems to stay in hotels for weeks with no problems as long as I’m home when he calls to ward off being lonely.

Back in elementary school when the bullying became too much I was pulled from school and sent to live with my relatives across the country. I had driven out with my Aunt & Uncle and had to make the return flight home by myself. I was of course nervous, but I knew there was going to be family at the other end. I’ve also taken long train rides, but there is always someone there at the other end.

I had the option given to me at work to travel to TO and stay in a hotel for two nights while attending software training during the day or I could participate in weekly webinars and not go anywhere. I chose the webinars (which are a joke). I didn’t fear the drive, or the training, or really being on my own in TO as I once lived there, I just didn’t want to be there alone. I didn’t want to have to eat alone or find stuff to do on my own so that I wasn’t sitting in my hotel room.

Now that being said, I often do some of my best shopping alone. Sometimes prefer it. Grocery shopping I’ll stick in some headphones and make an hour or so out of it. Clothes shopping if looking for something specific is easily done alone.

Would I go to a movie alone? Maybe…. I haven’t really had that opportunity arise. Would you? Say you had a few free hours and a movie only you wanted to see was playing nearby, would you go?

Over the year I’ve wondered if I could just jump on a cheap flight and go explore Boston or San Francisco alone, as I’ve always wanted to see those places, and the answer was always ‘No’. I want someone there with me to share the experience.

#7. Draw & Frame a self-portrait.

My original plan had to buy a pack of crayons and a cheap frame from Ikea and have arts and crafts day to do this but I kept putting it off. I hate pictures of myself for a million reasons. I timed my smile wrong, or my smile is too fake, or it’s taken from the wrong angle or in the wrong light etc. etc.

So drawing a picture of me has not exactly been at the top of my list. Let alone any list but this one. Let alone framing it and putting it somewhere.

So in paint on my computer this is what I have come up with:

I am NOT that tanned – just not good with creating custom colors. I did get some sun over the weekend, but not that much. I’m usually a very pasty white. That is more me when I returned from Mexcio. Also my hair is brown, blonde, and redish – also hard to draw. But it is that frizzy today, I've been driving around with the sun roof open willing the sun to come out.

So shrinks who can look at this picture and determine what it tells you about me, let me have it!

#25. Track down your best friend from kindergarten

This is a really easy task considering Facebook tells you where everyone is, what they are doing, and you can have instant contact with them at any time. The book was written before Facebook so it makes this task seem much more difficult.

As much as kindergarten was a magical place filled with new friends and new toys and storytelling and show and tell, my best friend at the time was still my sister. I was horribly sad to leave her every morning to go and happy to return for play time every afternoon.

I did however find a friend that had the same name as my sister and lived in our neighbourhood. She was close enough to visit and be home before the street lights came on and we both liked Barbie’s a lot. It worked out that we would often be babysat by each other’s parents and would end up driveway chalking or having shoe kicking contests.

We went through public school, high school, and part of university together. She now lives in another city and is getting married.

I rarely go ‘home’ to my home town, but it is strange to drive by the homes of childhood friends that no longer live there. Their families have moved and new people occupy the houses and they change things, and we all know how much I don’t overly enjoy change – especially with childhood memories. However, when I moved to the small town I am in now I not only moved to a town where a childhood friends parents had moved to, but I moved onto their street! It’s surreal and comforting to see them out for walks or in the grocery store as it feels like a little part of ‘home’ is where I am now.

As much as I often hate Facebook for the bombardment of stupid updates and how it wastes so much of my time. I love being able to see what people I have met over the years are up to and congratulating them on their life events.

However, the one person I don’t need Facebook to get updates from as I get emails and phone calls and texts daily is my sister. My best friend in kindergarten and my best friend now.

#1. Swim Naked

There is nothing more thrilling than stripping down to nothing and jumping in water.


My first memories of swimming naked were when my parents had put a pool in our back yard and we discovered that if you weren’t wearing any bathing suit bottoms then you would slide down the slide much faster. Being seen by the neighbours made it even more thrilling so we’d run to the top of the slide and throw ourselves down at warp speeds.

Next memory of swimming naked came during a camping trip with high school friends. We had all run down to the lake one night and thought skinny dipping might be a good idea. Of course the girls kept their distance from the boys and we all kept our clothes on a floating device so the boys couldn’t steal them, but there was still a level of excitement. If I remember correctly the boys had their clothes taken by another friend and they had to run back to the campsite completely nude. Ahhhh, good times!

Over the years we’ve skinny dipped at the cottage. Often there would be a drunken late night chat around the campfire where someone who had gotten sun burned during the day would bring up how nice a cool dip would be and we’d all drop the clothes and run. A male friend of my sisters after skinny dipping got his campfires confused and ran back to the neighbour’s campfire instead of our own!

Over the long weekend Lake Huron was too chilly for swimming naked. Call it old age, but the most I got into the lake was my big toe. Maybe I’ll make an attempt again in a few weeks, but for the time being I have swam naked, but really don’t feel like checking into a hotel for a night to attempt to swim naked in public before I turn 30. Again, blaming this one on old age.

Swimming naked has always occurred at night and I always think of this song whether clothed or not.


If you have never swam naked, add it to your bucket list, it’s a good time!

#17. Know the other mouth-to-mouth

When I was a kid my mother made my sister and I take swimming lessons. I remember the first lessons vividly as I feared my life ending from the amount of water that was going up my nose and down my throat. I was petrified of swimming – especially in the deep end. I desperately wanted my water wings back and the safety of my parent’s arms.

Fast track a few years and I had graduated through all the colored levels and had started into the Canadian Red Cross’ Life saving levels. In these levels you build up endurance for long periods in the water and practice saving others in the class from fake drowning. I hated this. Not that in a life or death moment I wouldn’t run into the water to save someone, I would. But the un-necessary touching and fake CPR techniques and being that close to someone you barely know just wasn’t my thing. Nor did I like being the one to be ‘saved’ who knows what that person would grab to try to get you to safety?!

The only thing worse than practicing on other people (where often groups were doing this at the same time) was practicing CPR on a dummy with EVERYONE watching you, and the teacher teaching while you are trying not to vomit from the taste of rubbing alcohol in your mouth. A rubbing alcohol and chlorine cocktail was not one of my favourite concoctions.

However I passed all courses up until Life Saving 3. Then I believe I quit due to wanting to spend my evenings taking art courses instead of swimming lessons. I have never refreshed those CPR skills however they have been ingrained into my brain and if in an emergency situation I am confident I could pull them off.

T & I were sitting in the cottage over the weekend and were both startled by a loud bang. T jumped to his feet and told me not to look that a bird had hit the window. I of course wanting to save the poor creature wanted to check for vitals, and try and save him. It was only when T explained to me that it hadn’t moved since it hit and there is no way it’s neck could have survived impact that I knew bird mouth-to-mouth (I was thinking with a straw!!) was out of the question.

So there folks. I know CPR and am willing to even try it on birds!

#58. Have a Mantra & #18 Be your own muse.

Mantra (defined by wiki): A mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that is considered capable of "creating transformation" (cf. spiritual transformation).Their use and type varies according to the school and philosophy associated with the mantra.

For me this one word would be ‘breathe’ as I often forget to. Minutes and hours and days go by and I don’t often sit still long enough to just breathe. If I am sitting still my mind won’t shut off so I’m constantly thinking, planning, organizing, slowly driving myself insane I’m sure. However if I remember or if T notices I’m not 100% relaxed the word ‘breathe’ usually a command from T “J9 breathe!” will do the trick.

When I’m lost in a million thoughts and have made a million mental lists for the next day and it’s WAY past my bedtime if I can trigger myself to focus on my breathing I can often fall asleep. And yes, when I was younger I was hooked on Faith Hill’s song ‘Breathe’ and her flowy bed sheets she was trying to pass as a dress, whatever, she looked good.

Obviously years ago I couldn’t look to myself as any kind of muse for anyone, let alone myself. There was nothing in myself I found inspiring. Reading back through my diaries the only other common theme other than boys was determination. I don’t like being told I can’t do something. That then becomes a challenge and I’ll work my ass off trying to accomplish it. This I absolutely love about myself.

When too many things pile up on my plate, or things don’t go my way, or I wake up in a horrible mood and there doesn’t seem to be an end to it. I know that tomorrow I will wake up and it’ll be a different day and I have the strength and ability to put anything behind me and move on, as hard as that is sometimes.

I also very much find inspiration in my ways to create creativity in all situations. I enjoy a blank canvas, and if I had the funds oh what I could do! Now I’m no Martha Stewart, but I enjoy arts and crafts and one project inspires another which inspires another.

When all else fails and I remember to breathe, my strength and creativity can pull me out of any slump!

#73. Own a toolbox with all of the basics

What do you consider the ‘basic’s’ of a toolbox? A hammer, screwdriver, tape measure, and some nails? If that’s it then I have more than conquered this task.

You see T is the furthest thing from handy. If you need your computer fixed, or some high tech gadget hooked up then T is your man, if you want something hung, wired, fixed, assembled etc. then that is me.

Furnishing my apartment in my early twenties consisted of numerous trips to Ikea allowing me to become the master of the allen key. This little silver weapon of construction allowed me to build stools that ended up being ‘display only', or tables that had a slight slant. I built numerous bookshelves that if not attached to the wall had a slight tilt – but oh did I love that feeling of accomplishment.

Now since I’ve moved roughly 3,865,258.2 times in the last 10 years (according to my father), these wonderfully built Ikea pieces have had to be moved. Often the pieces that were less than sturdy before the move become more so afterwards prompting me to invest in a drill. The drill allows me to put screws places that aren’t in the design and allows me to hang pictures much quicker than a hammer would.

The trusted drill also allowed me to wire the television in my bathroom. It took me 4 hours, I split cable from the bedroom and ran it through a wall and the back corners of my bathroom vanity, and well it’s not the prettiest job – but it works.

You would think that seems as it took me 4 hours to hook up a TV that I might put the tools away and not take on any more tasks?

Well check out the backsplash that I bought all the tiles and tools for and am installing myself. The finished product will also have a beautiful wood countertop - however, my trip to Ikea with a truck to pick it up hasn't been done yet.

And, I did assemble my new table, and all the chairs!

For Christmas T’s father gave me a handheld sander, so I think next I’ll refinish a dresser or something, or maybe build a shed instead of buy one?!

So yes, I’ve got plenty of tools, and I somewhat know how to use all of them!

#91. Read your old diaries

My first diary entry was June 7th, 1990. I was 9 years old and was in grade 4. By far reading through my diaries has been the most daunting and exhausting task. There are years of entries – some I had forgotten, some I had a good laugh at, and some that I didn’t want to remember.

Of course like any other young girl the topic s of my first diary (and well basically all of them) was boys, and of course every boy has the potential to be ‘the one’. Reading these entries takes you back to soccer fields or high school hallways where a glance or a smile would create pages of entries about my newest crush. I have discovered that any male that showed first interest in me I didn’t like, there had to be a chase and excitement to make boyfriend material.

There’s an entire section where I was being bullied in public school. I had kind of forgotten how bad I actually felt at the time. The entries are short, and sad, and are hard to read. My self confidence was definitely on the floor and it seems like only high school and meeting a new set of people/friends with the chance to be an individual and not one of the ‘crowd’ finally helped me be me.

On Oct 17, 1999 I was 18, working in a sleezy bar as a second job and I ended my journal entry with this: ‘ I am going to be one of those old ladies that lives with 11 cats and is very cold never finding the love of her life. Life is cruel, long and stressful. This world is extremely sad. I look at the people who come into the bar, I look at their lives, and I feel bad for them. They really have nothing to show for their time so far – they just drink their money away. I’m going to be and do so much more’. At the time I wrote this I was in a relationship, and had been in numerous relationships and couldn’t get over an ex from high school, so all relationships afterwards were unsuccessful and I figured I would end up alone obviously! I remember getting home from the bar after 3am reeking of smoke falling asleep thinking of the people I had served that night and trying to grasp the concept of that lifestyle being appealing to anyone. I guess I’m happy I listened to my 18 year old self and got out of there. I quit working at that bar 9 days later.

The college years are filled with new friends, heart break, different jobs, and the difficulties of balancing all of them. My early twenties I was trying so hard to be independent and make it on my own and it was such a struggle. Now with my thirties on my doorstep I’m hoping they are filled with more stability and less drama.

I haven’t written in my diary since November 11th, 2008 and really I have no excuse as to why. The last entry gives details of T & I’s wedding, says Barak Obama had just become president and states the economy was bordering a recession. We were hoping housing prices would drop and were planning our overdue tropical honeymoon. I note that I’ve kept my diaries hidden from T – I’m not sure why other than him finding out just how boy crazy I was?!

So I’m thinking a massive update is called for, it will be odd hand writing something as I feel like I haven’t done that in ages. I’m not sure if my kids will one day find these diaries entertaining or think their mother was a complete nut job? But they are sure good to have as a reference to certain periods in my life as much as reading them is one hell of an emotional rollercoaster.

#59. Research your family’s medical history

I cannot stress to you how important it is to know your medical history. If something medically were to arise the first thing the doctor wants to know is if there is a history of it in your family.

My family seems to have a mixed bag of everything.

On my mother’s side we have heart problems, high blood pressure, and miscarriages. However, the women on that side of the family are strong, have amazing memories, and live far into their 90’s. My great grandmother and her sister died of starvation because their bodies had given up on them, and they had no further will to live. So in the hospital they just stopped eating. My grandfather however, had triple bypass surgery 17 years ago and was given 10 years to live at that point. Then just recently his heart acted up again, nothing he couldn’t handle! A pace maker and a stint and he’s back in action! He even somehow managed to be bedridden for the entire Masters weekend and the opening of baseball season – two of his favorites.

My father’s side seems to be healthy. There is possibly a case of dementia with my grandfather, but his heart and lungs have somehow survived years of pipe smoking. My grandmother has trouble with arthritis, but otherwise they are both healthy. My father has an issue with his kidneys, but it was caught early and has been treated and he’s in the clear. My sister, brother, and I have all been tested and we are in the clear.

Did you ever see the episode of Oprah where they introduced this company called 23andMe who were doing genetic testing to determine what you could be prone to? I have always wanted to do this, however it used to be $1,000 now it has become much more affordable. The only thing holding me back is T. He seems to think I'll worry too much with the information I'd find out and I kind of agree. Is it better to know or not know?!

The last time I was at the doctor my blood pressure was text book and everything checked out. So I think I’ll keep doing what I’m doing and hope for a long healthy life!

#86. Stop slamming other women

I am 100% guilty of this when someone has ticked me off. T is usually the one who gets the earful and it usually starts with “Can you believe”…

Now, the petty comments over what so and so wore, or how their hair was etc all ended in pretty much high school. As well as the being concerned about who was dating who as the dating pool expanded greatly once I left the small town. However the gossip around what famous person wore on the red carpet has never ended, and sadly, I don’t think it ever will.

Do we all remember this epic fail? Now, I give points for creativity – but it was too much.

(Bjork - 2001 Academy Awards)

If I ever talk to someone about someone else it is always the case that the person who is the subject does not know or have any connection to the person I am speaking with. I generally ask for advice as to how to react to a certain situation, or respond to something that has thrown me off. As much as T thinks he gives good advice he does not know women, and that’s where I’ll often turn to my sister.

However, to stop any kind of ‘slamming’ I’ve decided that if I am ever to talk about another woman in any light – positive or negative to speak as if she is in the room. It keeps you honest and since I’ve decided this roughly a month ago, T has only thought he caught me once, when in reality the facts were required for the point of the story.

So, so far it’s going well.

You know the old saying ‘if you can’t say something nice, don’t say it at all” – it works. Also if you erase negative thoughts from every day, life is generally a lot happier.

However, I make one exception – Reality Television. Those people set themselves up to be slammed. There will never be a day where I can say anything positive about the show or cast of Jersey Shore.

#56. Disagree out loud & #100. Be Notorious for something

Man, am I good at this. It is an understatement to say I’m opinionated and it’s definitely something I’m notorious at. When did I discover that I can’t blatantly lie to someone’s face and have them not notice? In 10th grade when I started working in the women’s clothing department at Zellers. Day in and day out women would come out of the dressing room and ask me “Do I look good in this color”, “is this dress too tight”, etc. And I didn’t have the heart to say ‘yes’ to make a sale. I guess it helps that I wasn’t on commission. Now I would say “let me grab you a size bigger for comparison” or “let me pull another color” and hope they would figure it out on their own, but I just couldn’t say ‘yes’.


So if you are ever in need of an honest answer – just ask away!

As for a few current things I disagree with:

1. The thought (even though by the time I’ve posted this it is no longer) of Donald Trump for President of the USA. All kinds of things are wrong with that. He thinks because he owns a bunch of fancy buildings and a line of mattresses and has a TV show he can be president? Now I can’t say that I’ve researched this but sometime around the Rosie/Donald war wasn’t there reports of him going bankrupt? If so, he’s definitely not qualified for presidency.

2. A bereavement policy at my work that doesn’t give you any time off of work for the death of a great grandmother/great grandfather. Hello, if it wasn’t for your great grandmother or great grandfather you wouldn’t be here!! We are a company that revolves around farming, and farming revolves around family, and this policy needs to be changed.

3. Wind turbines in lakes. I agree that they are an eco-friendly way of generating power, and for those farmers that wish them on their properties they are fine. I do not agree with anyone being forced to have one put on their property or the idea of putting them out in the lakes. Our Great Lakes are challenged enough environmentally than to purposely cause more damage. Also, have fun enjoying a beautiful sunset over the water with that nonsense going on. No.Thank.You.

4. Boys/Men wearing skinny jeans. I don’t get this fashion trend at all and I wish it would go away. They look all disproportional and sick looking. With the skinny jeans and Justin Bieber hair and often a toque when it’s not required temperature wise they only remind me of the character in the books ‘Where’s Waldo’. Aren’t men supposed to want to look strong and protective, not like they’d blow away if a strong wind came up? I don’t get it.

5. Justin Bieber. Being Canadian I should be proud of his accomplishments. In reality I wish he would just go away. He is annoying on every level. My only hope is that is voice changes and he fades from stardom and isn’t replaced by something more annoying before my future children reach the stage in their lives where they look for idols.

So there are a few, and I mean the smallest amount as this list could actually become the start to my daily blog posts. I tell it as it is (for me anyway) to anyone who wants to hear it. I’m notorious for it, but it’s better than keeping this s$%t bottled up!

#97. Give props to a teacher

There have been many ‘teacher’s' that I give credit to leading me on the straight and narrow. Some have led by example, others have shown me how to overcome bumps in the road and some have straight out shown me what NOT to do!

I’ll give ‘props’ to my Aunt Kim. She is only 10 years older than me, the youngest aunt I have, and therefore the coolest. She was always two steps ahead but not too far that I didn’t take note as to what she was doing. She got an education, followed her heart, got a good job, got married, bought a house, and travelled. When her life wasn’t going as planned she divorced, sold the house, moved across the country, got a new job, a new house, and a new boyfriend. She’s done everything in her life on her terms and I respect that.

When my twenties began I was working a few jobs one of them being grounds crew at a golf course. In a male dominated line of work my bosses were two women – twin sisters Jodi & Julie. They worked outside day in and day out with their hands cutting grass, fixing lawn mowers and tractors, putting in extremely long hours. They wanted an all-female grounds crew as “women pay particular attention to detail”. The two of them worked hard and the course was exceptionally beautiful, yet they still had time to sit and relax and laugh about things that had happened. The women taught me how to independently be successful and good at something without the help of men others.

An actual teacher that I would give ‘props’ to would be my third grade teacher – Mrs. Lidstone. She was more like a grandmother than a teacher. She encouraged creativity and reading and writing. She was soft spoken, rarely cross with the exception of one incident involving a pair of spandex shorts (not mine!). I don’t remember a lot from her class other than spending a large majority of time writing and illustrating books that I still have and look back at and laugh. I’ll give credit to Mrs. Lidstone for my passion of bringing creativity into everything that I can and my passion of reading.

Have you noticed the theme of all female teachers? Me too. I’m not sure why that is, and I’m sure if I let the list go on and on, a male would pop onto the list somewhere. But those women are my top three. I credit them for who I am today. Sadly, I’ve never told any of them this, maybe I’ll get on that?!

#55. Watch the sunrise & set on the same day by yourself & #15 Build a raging campfire

I’m not sure how the weather has been where you all are at recently but let me tell you it’s been a big bag of crap here. A winter that seemed to drag on forever has only led to a horrible rainy spring. An entire day without rain is near impossible. For that reason finding a day in which to watch the sunrise and set on the same day and get a decent picture has been impossible. I’ve decided that if there is a place somewhere where you can watch the sun rise and set over water on an island of some sort I want to vacation there.


Anyway, due to some pretty crazy sleep patterns I was awake to see what should have been sunrise if it wasn’t for all the fog over the weekend. Here is an eerily foggy beach, and I was alone until the early morning dog walkers took over.

Sunset was more exciting. The lake was calm, the breeze was warm, and the only sounds were of children playing down the beach.

Just after the sun went down I prepared my raging campfire which I absolutely loved doing. Of course my friends in attendance thought I was crazy, however the excitement of finding an entire tree to torch was like an early birthday present. Here is my set up:

And the lighting…

And full on raging campfire!!!

The night was topped off with an amazing show of confiscated fireworks put off on the beach by some off duty OPP. Another May long weekend come and gone, but definitely a great one for the ‘memory’ books!

#30. Exorcise the words ‘like’ and ‘you know’ from your vocabulary

Over the past few months I have really tried to pay attention to my vocabulary to see how often I use “like” or “you know”, and it’s not often. I believe if I ever used the word ‘like’ excessively it was probably dropped by about age 25. I absolutely can’t stand over use of the word.

And now that I’ve been paying attention to how much it is said it is commonly over used on the local college radio station, on my guilty pleasure 90210 TV show, and by two very young friends of a friend that I spent last Friday night barely tolerating.

“You know” I am far guiltier of using. However, I seem to have replaced it with “just saying” which is basically the exact same thing.

And to get off topic because that’s what I feel like doing there are a few words in the English language that drive me up a wall for no apparent reason, I just cringe when I hear them.

1. Bonspiel – I hate this word, hate how it sounds, hate everything about it. For those of you who don’t know it’s a curling tournament. I want to know why it can’t just be called a curling tournament? There are hockey tournaments and baseball tournaments, why does curling have to make up such an annoying word for the EXACT same thing.

2. Buzzy – I don’t technically know if this is a word, but Microsoft word didn’t try to correct it. My sister and some friends used to use this word to describe things when they were young and thought they were cool – which obviously they weren’t.

So far I can only think of the two, but I’m sure there are more.

Oh wait – Ridonculous (Ri-donc-u-lous). NOT actually a word and people think they are cool for saying it and the only thing they are is ridonculous themselves.

And if people are pregnant they are PREGNANT, not preggo. Preggo is pasta sauce!

So in conclusion - because obviously everything above requires something to conclude this entry. Don’t over use “like” and want to be taken seriously unless A – you live in West Beverly Hills California, or B – you haven’t graduated from a post-secondary institution yet. “You know” is more forgivable, but only if your are not lazy and it is preceded by the word "well" - in my books anyway.

#32. Write thank-you notes for everything

I was beginning to think thank-you notes had gone the way of the dodo bird. Kind of the same way hand-written letters are never received from anyone from anyone other than my grandmother. Like clockwork after every wedding shower, wedding, or baby shower a cute thank-you card would be received in the mail within a few weeks.

I for my wedding being the overly organized person that I am had a spreadsheet with names, address', what the gift was etc that could all be exported into the label wizard and printed to easily address the cards. For EVERY gift a card was sent with a personalized note thanking the guests for their generosity.

There has been one wedding that I attended that a thank-you card was never received and it was the talk of the attendees for months after the wedding and years later is still brought up often in conversation. I ALWAYS make sure people are thanked.

At work I’m not so much a thank-you card, however I am one of those annoying people who end 99% of their emails with a “Thanks!.” Or often I’ll add one of these:

I’d also like to thank you as I’ve been MIA lately. There are a zillion things on the go and well only 10 days until the big 3-0. I have drafts of posts and ideas and jotted notes all over the place, it’s just finding the time.

So thanks for your patience, be prepared to be bombarded the next 10 days, I have 17 more things to do.

#47. Be a gracious guest

Sad to say but T & I don’t really spend the night other’s houses very often. One of us will stay sober and drive home because we love our bed so much and love sleeping in and not feeling weird about it. Is it just me or when you sleep at other’s houses do you hear everything so therefore not really get a good night’s sleep at all? Not to mention if you wake up earlier than everyone you question if you should stay in bed or wander out and watch some TV? I have found having a book in your bag works wonders for avoiding this awkward situation.


However, over Easter weekend marked the first time I had ever gotten to go to my sister’s place (yes she used to live with us) and spend the night. I thought about not visiting at all, let alone spending the night as less than seven days prior to my visit they found a snake in the house! I don’t know about you, but when I see a snake I lose my s$%t. They also live in a town with no Tim Horton’s – did anyone think a town like this even existed anymore?! I thought all Tim Hortonsless towns had become extinct?

However we were arriving late, and leaving early as we were cross border shopping early the next day to return back to my parents with enough time to enjoy an early Easter dinner. So it would just be an evening with a few drinks, a hockey game, and great conversation.

I made sure we arrived right on time and brought our beverage choice with us as to not have to venture out to find alcohol. They had mentioned their computer had become so slow they wanted to toss it out the window so T spent some time fixing the problem.

When it was time to go to sleep my sister had shown us an upstairs bedroom we could have that she had just cleaned and made the bed. There were also two couches in the living room and had provided blankets in case one of us wanted to sleep on a couch (the bed was small compared to our bed and we don’t like to touch). So instead of disturbing her perfectly set up guest room we each took a couch.

In the morning we were up and dressed and out of the way before the rush to get out of the house took place.

While we were considered guests in my sister and her boyfriend’s house, I don’t think you can ever be a guest in a family members home – it’s more like an extension of yours.