Here I am

Don't worry I am still alive. I know it has been weeks and weeks since I blogged last, and for that I am truly sorry. But I have been busy. And now here I am. So get over it.
Today is my day off! I have a full day off after 32 days straight of working at one job or the other. Some of you may say I am crazy and some of you may say that I must be making a lot of money. There is truth to both of those, but really I am not all that crazy and I'm not rolling in the dough either so there you go.
So what have I been doing with my day off you may wonder? Well I slept in late (which, as many of you know, is my absolute favorite-est thing to do ever), I read a bit, and for pretty much the entire afternoon I've been cleaning. I don't quite know how I let my room get so messy, but it really did and I just kept living in it without cleaning it up. I'm sure my roommates started getting annoyed when the mess started spilling out into the living room. I also knew it was time to clean when I was embarassed that my best friend, who knows all the worst things about me, was using my gross, dirty bathroom. So I promised myself I would clean today and clean I have. Basically all of my clothes were on the floor and now they all need to be washed so that is also an ongoing chore today. But I am almost finished and it feels good.
So for the rest of the day I plan to read some more, maybe nap, write a buttload of emails which I have been procrastinating on and I'm thinking I might go rent a dvd of House episodes and watch them until my face falls off. Sound good?
In other news, I am really hungry and am going to go find some food I think.
I will leave you with a picture of my nephew who just keeps getting cuter.

How safe do you feel?

Ok, so last night I was reading a friend's blog (click on the link to Michelle's blog on the right hand side of my page and check out her post called "what will they think of next"...I can't figure out how to get the link in here) and she was lamenting about how people are polluting the environment and other people's lungs by smoking. She laughed at the ludicrous (sp?) plan of some people to "save the earth" by riding their bikes everywhere but still proceeding to pollute the air with their cigarette smoke. I think this is a valid frustration. However, there are things in this world that concern me more. Such as the man who walked into an Amish schoolhouse and killed 6 little girls and himself and shattered the peaceful existence of an entire community. Or the 7 children (under the age of 12) in my city who locked a 14 year old disabled boy into a wooden shed and lit it on fire. Or the old man who comes into my work all the time who got his face smashed in by a gun-brandishing criminal who wanted to rob the place. Or the senseless idiot who jumped on my roommate's car window last week just to cause damage.
Am I concerned that some kid is riding his bike down the street smoking a cigarette? Yeah, but somehow I'm more relieved that he's not riding his bike down the street with a bomb strapped to his chest...

Lap of Luxury

I got a new job, I got a new job, I got a new job hey hey hey hey! (That was supposed to be a song in case you didn't catch on). Anyways, yes, after my brief stint at Staples which ended in me unceremoniously telling them to shove it, I have again been unemployed. Well, as unemployed as one can be while still having a full-time job. But anyways, after the wedding madness and moving fiasco was over, I again headed out with a handful of resumes and spent an entire day re-writing my resume onto various business application forms. Seriously, what is the freaking point of having a resume if you just have to put the same information down all over again onto a stupid application form. Anyways, I came home at the end of the day after handing out 15 resumes and getting one interview. This all was very interesting because I did this just after I had moved and MTS screwed up my phone service and no one could actually call me for an interview. I'm mildly curious about how many places tried to call me. Anyways, my interview was at Red Lobster and I am now employed by them as a server. I am very excited about this. It seems like a great place to work, with mostly friendly people who actually value customer service. I am excited. I had my first shift yesterday and I was training in the bar. I was a bartender for 2 years, so this wasn't overly difficult, but it's always a challenge to get to know another bar setup (especially since my bar was set up exactly how I wanted it and I didn't even have to look down to know which alcohol I was picking up). But over all it wasn't too bad. I do however realize how much I have to learn. Watching the servers run around was intimidating because that will be me next week and I am scared. Very very scared. But excited too. Wish me luck.

Question!

Is this not the cutest kid you have ever seen in your entire life???

Angels Brought Me Here

Alas, I have made my grand return to the blogging world! I know how much you all missed me and here I am. You can now be happy again.
My sabbatical was not planned, nor self-imposed but rather forced. I don't know how many of you have moved recently, but I have discovered that it is a lot of work. A LOT OF FREAKIN' WORK! I'm not talking about moving into a dorm room or moving out of your parent's basement and into your first apartment. I'm talking you and your roommates finding a totally different apartment to live in, one getting married and moving out of province, all three trying to remember exactly which kitchen utensils they contributed to the whole mess and trying to clean everything on a huge list the landlords handed you two days before you moved. I'm talking a "serious, pack up an entire house, moving like a real adult" kind of move. Simply put, it's a stressful endeavour. Never to be done again. At least not till I get married and can just pack up my stuff and leave without cleaning anything! (sound like anyone we know??)
Anyways, the move is over, but the settling is not quite done. After a week without a phone and numerous frustrating conversations with a very stupid phone company who wish to remain anonymous, we are now re-connected to the outside world...through a different phone company, who, by the way, are giving us our first 2 months FREE! FREE is a great word for all students. FREE is an especially great word for Mennonite students.
Our internet is also reconnected, but my wireless card and/or our router are not thinking on the same page currently, so my computer does not work. Frustrating, but liveable for the time being. But I am taking advantage of my roommate being away and updating you all on my exciting exciting life (thanks, Alicia).
We also have cable again. Lots of cable. Lots more cable than before. Even though we didn't change our service. We are not complaining. We like TLC. And TBS. And TVTropolis. It plays Beverly Hills 90210 ALL THE TIME AND WE ARE HAPPY.
Just this evening I was taking advantage of our plethora of cable and watching a documentary on conjoined twins, (nerd alert I know, but remember, I would still like to be a doctor one day) and I found it really moving. There was a story of a woman who was born a conjoined twin and lost her sister during the surgery that seperated them. The intense emotional bond that she still shared with her sister, although she did not physically remember her was deeply touching. I couldn't help but be jealous that I can't experience such a bond. Not that I would want to have been a conjoined twin, don't get me wrong. There was another story about 4 year old conjoined twins who were seperated last month and are now adjusting to life as total individuals. It showed how during their recovery they were very quiet and not totally lilke themselves until their request to share a bed was granted and they could be close again. It also highlighted the fact that these two tiny girls had captured the hearts of the country and people who were complete strangers were sending them gifts and well wishes. One lady, a complete stranger, sent the girls two beautiful princess costumes. It brought me to tears (I am becoming more and more like my mother, I know, and I'm also, surprisingly, becoming more and more okay with that fact). Anyways, the realization that there are still people with goodness in their hearts lifted me. For the past few weeks my heart has been very very heavy with the depravity of our world today and the evilness that is poured out every single day. I just finished reading "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini, which is a very honest look (a fictional story though) into life in Afghanistan and the horror that has happened there in the past decades.
I think my real concern for the world situation began with the threat of North Korea's missile program. It struck me then how much of a competition there is to be the most powerful in this world and it makes me so so sad. And terrified. The fact that there are men and women out there so fixated on being on top that they are willing to sacrifice millions of lives to reach a worthless goal is a sickening thought. The problem is that I don't know what I can do. How can I help? Does anyone have any solutions? My heart is so heavy.

This is Your Life

At my roommate's wedding two weeks ago, there was a slideshow. It was put together by her brother and, like all wedding slide shows, contained pictures of her and her new husband. The song her brother chose to play as these pictures scrolled through struck me in the weirdest way and I haven't been able to get it out of my head. The song was "This is Your Life" by Switchfoot. Now, I don't normally like posting song lyrics because it's so overdone, but one line of the chorus has been running through my head the past two weeks and it's really a very simple statement:
"This is your life, are you who you want to be?"
That's it. That's what it is. The rest of the lyrics to the song are mediocre, in fact, some of them don't really make much sense at all, but that line, that one line which is sung over and over, really hit me. This is my life. This is what I've got. Am I the person I want to be? The question isn't, "am I the person I want people to perceive me as being?", it's "is this who I want to be?" I have to differentiate that in my mind because that is a large struggle that God has brought me through in recent years, the whole life struggle of worrying about what other people think of me, and while I'm not totally there 100% of the time, I am happy to report that most of the time I don't really give a rip what people think of me.
But I care what God thinks of me. And I care if I am living up to my committment to being a woman of God and to be honest, I don't think that I have lived up to that in the past 2 years or so. I've made stupid decisions about how to spend my time and money, invested emotions into relationships I knew were bad, and have not lived as though I represent Christ. This realization makes me sad.
A friend asked me tonight what my dreams and goals were for this coming year. Having no idea what I want to do for a career or even where I will be working one month from now, I found that I had a hard time answering this question. But as I listened to the girls talk honestly about wanting to spend more time with God in the coming year, I realized that my goal and biggest dream this year is to start making life choices that reflect who I want to be. And who I want to be is a woman of God.
So this is my life. Am I who I want to be? Well, not exactly. But at least I'm going to do something about it.

Landslide

Uh huh. Those are the Dixie Chicks. For real. I saw them. They waved at me. They think I am cool.
I went to their show last night with my friends. Now, let's just set the record straight: I do not like country music. In fact, I detest it. I do whatever I can to avoid it. So, obviously, when my roommate asked me to go to the Dixie Chicks concert I said yes. No, actually I semi-laughed and said, "well, I sure wouldn't pay money to see them". Another thing you should know, I have always thought that the Dixie Chicks were especially obnoxious-sounding country musicians. So, "no", I said, "I don't want to waste my money on their concert". "oh," Alicia said, "well, my dad offered me four tickets for the Cargill box for the concert." Sweet."Heck yes," I said. I don't have to pay money to see them. Neither do I have to deal with people on the floor. Because we had BOX seats. It really pays to be connected to a high-ranking executive of a major corporation. It also helps if that person connected to the high-ranking executive is you roommate who loves you. It ALSO helps if said people are extremely generous. Which they are. w00t.
Anyways, we went and I was supremely impressed. This doesn't mean that I have converted to a country music fan, I still detest it as much as yesterday, but I have a huge respect for those three women we know as the Dixie Chicks. The musicality they possess is inspiring. They each play a myriad of instruments and play them very very well. They rip out vocals like it's nobody's business, and they genuinely seem to have fun. What's more, they look smokin hot doing it. Seriously. I applaud their hotness. They strutted the stage, playing their fiddles and banjos, for over 2 hours, in stillettos. Not a word of a lie. Huge, hot stillettos. H-O-T. I strive for hotness like that.
So, my point is, the Dixie Chicks have an unbelievable amount of musical talent. I can't deny that. Do I still think that Natalie Maines has an obnoxious voice? Yes. But their songs wouldn't sound the same without it. And she sings so effortlessly, it's impossible not to admire her. Last night made me remember why I am so in love with music. As if I could forget. Although the guy that is trying to sing on Canadian Idol right now is making me wish I didn't have ears. Pain. Lots and lots of pain.

At Last

I have been told that I don't post blogs often enough. Do I post less often than others? Perhaps. But the thing is, my life really isn't that interesting! Everybody always has interesting, funny stories to tell in their blogs. Me? Nothing funny or interesting happening really. But if an update is what you want, then an update is what you will get. (This is for you Tiff. Don't blame me if you get bored).
The last couple of weeks have bee fairly quiet. Just working and hanging out with friends. Actually, working has been nice because we have AIR CONDITIONING. I love AIR CONDITIONING. (I'm thinking that by putting AIR CONDITIONING in capital letters, you will truly understand how I feel about it). I love it. Mostly because I don't have it at home and it is hot. Very, very hot. I spend a lot of time at friends houses who have AIR CONDITIONING. (Don't worry guys, I'm not using you, I love being at your houses). So work has been great. Also, I should be getting full-time soon which means I get to spend 37.5 hours a week in AIR CONDITIONING.
Friends have been great as well. I spent the July long weekend at Alicia's cabin with some of her family (and her of course). We had a fabulous time. We hung out, read books, played games, went to church in the boat (seriously, lake-side church is an experience!) and generally relaxed. It was great. Then last weekend Alicia invited 8 of our other friends out there for the weekend and I joined them on Saturday after work. We had a good time of hanging out, playing games, lounging/napping/conversing in the conversation pit and again, just generally relaxing (with some other drama moments thrown in). So overall, a fabulous couple of weekends.
I've had the last couple days off and they have been productive. Yesterday I cleaned my entire house, which, while it was hot, sweaty work without AIR CONDITIONING, felt great to finally live in a clean place again. And then I got to hang out with friends who I don't see nearly often enough. Today I worked on my sunburn. Unfortunately I got ridiculous tan lines after my kayaking excursion with Heather in BC and I need to even them out before my roommate's wedding next month. So I was outside for a good hour and a half. Behind our house is a ditch/canal/whatever filled with water with grassy banks and that is where I parked myself. Except as soon as I laid down I immediately saw things crawling in the grass. I hate bugs. I am not much of a girly girl, but I do detest creepy crawlies. So I spent my hour and a half trying to convince myself that whatever was crawling in the grass was not ticks and that if I left them alone, they would leave me alone. And they did for the most part. I also got to watch the baby ducks! All of the sudden this whole passel of baby ducks came waddling up the bank towards me. I watched them come closer and closer and began to get concerned that the mama would get mad at me for being there, even though I clearly was there first. So I calmly stood up and slipped on my sandals so I could make a run for it if she got really mad (in my mind I just kept seeing Kev being attacked by that loon at the lake, and decided I didn't want a similar experience). But the duckies turned and waddled away, chattering amongst themselves all the while. Too cute for real life. So that was my suntanning experience. I came in slightly pink. Hopefully it won't be too bad, and it will even out those lines. Everyone, start praying now.
In other news, I got a job today. Staples called back and offered me a job, without having the third interview. Woot. So I start sometime next week. Which is good because I got my Visa bill today and nearly had a heart attack.
So all in all it's been a productive few days. I hope everyone has enjoyed this update. I am coming to realize that there are people reading my blogs who I didn't know were reading my blogs, which is great! Please leave comments so I know you are interested in what I'm writing. Sweet.

Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad

I had an interesting day at work today. It was pick-on-Dana day apparently. First, I was looking at our loans officers calendars to see what their days looked like and I noticed that Kevin had an appointment booked at 5 with Matt Dusk for a mortgage. I sat there and looked at it and just thought...no it couldn't be Matt Dusk the singer. So I decided I would just go ask, just to make sure. Well Kevin was on the phone, so I asked Grant. And Grant confirmed that, yes, it was Matt Dusk the singer and he had decided that since he had so many concerts in Winnipeg all the time that he would just buy a house here. I got really excited. Like, I mean excited. I got that nervous/excited feeling in my stomach and I was EXCITED. I also jokingly (well mostly jokingly) said that I was going to go home and get his CD so he could sign it for me. No, I wouldn't have actually gotten his autograph. At least I don't think so. Anyways, after all this excitement, Grant told me he was lying to me. Ass. No Matt Dusk for me.
So then there was the flower fiasco. My co-worker Erin got a dozen roses from her boyfriend yesterday (lucky girl, it happens about once a month). So we were all fighting about who got to enjoy them at their own desk. Isabel won for a while and had the flowers on her desk. All the members were asking about the beautiful flowers an Isabel lied to every single one. She told them it was her birthday, her anniversary, totally lied and passed them off as her own. We all had a good laugh until Erin stole her flowers back. Crap. So Isabel comes back from her lunch break with two dozen white long stem roses, which she gave to me! So I put them on my desk and enjoyed everyone's compliments on them. Except Isabel kept lying to them for me! She told them it was my birthday, that it was my grad anniversary, all kinds of things. One lady commented on them, and Isabel said they were from my boyfriend. "Oh wow" the lady said, "you must be very loved." And I just smiled. By then end of the day Isabel was telling people that these roses were from my second boyfriend. Apprently I had just gotten a second boyfriend and he was sending me flowers so I would pick him over my other boyfriend. She was lying out of her teeth! So I started the day today as a single woman and finished it as a woman with two dozen roses and two boyfriends. Sweet.

Hold On

Did I mention that I dressed my nephew in a little girl's onesie? I laughed at me, my sister-in-law laughed at me. My brother yelled at me.

The Sound of Fear

We live in a messed up world. Terrorist plots in Toronto, bird flu pandemics, murderers and rapists being set free every day despite their likelihood to re-offend...Shalom is a non-existent fantasy these days it seems.

One of our branches was robbed last week. I didn't hear about it until yesterday when it was reported that the same guy appeared in another of our branches yesterday. He left without incident, but shortly thereafter another bank in the near vicinity was hit. There were two other bank robberies in Winnipeg within two hours of that first one. The last one was violent. The guy was on the counter, waving a knife and demanding money. Those are not the kind of robberies you want(not that you ever want any kind of robbery), they are very traumatic. Anyways, makes me fearful. I've fortunately never experienced a robbery, but in my line of work, it's not a matter of "if", it's "when". So, prayers for safety are always appreciated.

Picture Perfect

Everyone, I would like you to meet my brand new nephew, Caleb Scott Petker. He was born on June 5, 2006 at 9:34 BC time, weighing in at 7 lb, 6 oz and just about 21 inches long. Everyone is happy and healthy from what I have heard and the entire family is ecstatic. I talked to my mom last night and she was nearly turned inside out with delight. I think even my dad teared up at the news. I know I sure did.

I can't believe that my brother is a daddy. The thought brings tears to my eyes. Good tears. Happy tears. Very proud tears. You have no idea how hard it is to not be there. When Darren called to tell me, I mean, I could tell him that I loved him and Judi, but it's just not the same as being there with them and sharing in their joy. My parents are already on their way out there...in fact they should be nearly there. What I wouldn't give to be able to see my mom and dad's faces the first time they hold their first grandchild. Oh gosh...the tears.

Anyways, I just wanted to share my joy with everyone. I get to go and snuggle him in 2 weeks and I just can't wait. Now I need to go find him lots of cute baby clothes, hopefully of the John Deere and Calgary Flames variety...

WOOHOO I'M AN AUNTIE!!!!!

The Unforgettable Fire

We had an intersting adventure today. I was in the kitchen, cooking, because that is generally what you do in a kitchen, when my roommate Alicia joined me. She also began cooking and set a pot of water on the stove to boil. This is usually an uneventful procedure, however, in our house, things that get spilled on the stove don't necessarily get cleaned up. When we turn on the elements it usually smells a little bit, sometimes there is a bit of smoke, but there is not often much action in our kitchen. However, today, there were flames. That's right, FLAMES. Not the Calgary Flames, but holy crap, that would be a happy day if Jarome Iginla, Mikka Kipprusoff, and Dion Phaneuf showed up in my house. Anyways, fire. We had a fire. Alicia and I remained very calm. In fact, neither of us moved for a good 30 seconds or so. Then she commented very calmly, "hmm, that element is on fire." And then she picked up her pot and just watched the flames a bit. So I, also mesmerized by the growing fire, suggested, "the pot lid?" and she said, "yeah, maybe try that." So i picked up the pot lid and put it over the fire. But when I lifted the lid there were still flames. So I put the pot lid back down. And picked it up. The flames were still there, a little bigger this time perhaps. Tried the pot lid again. And again. And once more. It was a bit loud, me banging the pot lid on the stove and it wasn't even putting out the fire, so I decided I would maybe abandon the pot lid idea. So there I stood, with a blackened pot lid in my hand, there my roommate stood, with a pot of water in her hand, and both of us still very calmly watching the growing flames. So I suggested, "baking powder?"
And Alicia said, "baking powder? really?"
And I said, "yeah, in case it's a grease fire!"
And she said, "well sure, try that,"
But we couldn't find the baking powder. She still had a pot of water and I still had a pot lid and it didn't occur to us to put either of them down. But eventually, we found it and I dumped some on the fire. Nope, not a grease fire. So the baking powder actually increased the size of the flames.
So at this point I began to get slightly concerned about our abilities to put this fire out. So I yelled, kind of loudly, "FIRE!". And our other roommate came downstairs to see what the commotion was about and what was causing our house to fill with smoke.
Anyways, after all this excitement, the fire came to a quiet and very uneventful end. This is to say, it burned itself out. So no hot firefighters had to come, but at least it all ended without any damage.