Personal

Thoughts

OH MY GOSH IT’S SO COLD!! I don’t usually bitch about the weather ‘cause, well, I have better things to do, but when you walk to work… minus 43 is NOT fun… and I have been proudly sporting a full length snowsuit each morning this week and yes, I look like a total safety kid but goodness… England cannot come soon enough. lol

Two things have been on my mind a lot this week. Well, three. One: Alesha. My dear friend who I’m terribly worried about may have a new baby 10 days early and I’ve been thinking about her every day. I’ve never had a good friend have a baby before. It’s really exciting and I feel for her so much and I just can’t wait to see how she is and her new baby. Alesha if you get to read this know that I am thinking of you as you do!

Two: My own surgery. It’s on Monday and I’m gonna be on a solid diet of soup and silence for the next two weeks. Christmas isn’t going to be the most fun ever but it could be worse, and this way I don’t get to put on 20lbs from all the food. Which is a good thing 🙂

Three: There’s this little old man I’ve befriended at work in the last few months. He wrote an autobiography of his journey from India to the US and Canada and how he worked for the United Nations. I’ve been helping format his wife’s book (a cookery book) and he is just so sweet and I absolutely love him to bits. He’s 93, and he told me on Monday he only has 6 months left – he has cancer. I just started crying then and there because he still had a smile on his face because he’s “lived a good life” and wanted this book of his wife’s to be finished before he goes. He said I was like “his own granddaughter” and he said he didn’t know if he’d be here to make it to my wedding in July but wanted to give me a wedding gift now in case he doesn’t. He gave me $100 – and again I almost started crying! He said “don’t think after this project I’ll be finished with you, I will still see you” and today when he came to pick up his stuff, he asked my boss to call him the day after I get out of the hospital because “until then I will be very worried about you” and wants to know it went okay. I told him I’d get Tyler to call him as he’ll be with me that day. But honestly, I’ve been absolutely touched by meeting this wonderful person and it makes me so sad it had to be so late in his life. I hope so badly that he will make it past 6 months and way on, he’s such a kind, sweet, sprightly man and I’ll miss him terribly.

I guess there wasn’t a huge point to this post, just musing on recent events and life in general…

Good news, oh wait, bad!

So this week has been pretty eventful. I was supposed to have my surgery on Monday, which I spent all weekend fretting about, and got a phone call Monday morning from the doctor who said the anaesthetist was sick that day so all the non-emergency surgeries had to be postponed. Until January! Hurrah, I thought – no missing out on any holiday festivities, just 2-3 weeks off in the coldest month of the year drinking soup and lots of water. But then my boss told me that wasn’t acceptable and that January was one of her busiest months, and to phone back and try and get in this month. Which I did… and I did. December bloody 17th, which means “no you’ll definitely not be able to have Christmas dinner, you’ll probably be feeling okay in the New Year”. My ENTIRE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY is ruined!! I was so sad, and it did cause a bit of trouble with family stuff etc. but I guess we’ll just see how it goes on actual Christmas day… *sigh* And I thought LAST Christmas was bad!!

What else happened this week… oh my microwave broke, haha, but some dear friends who I love to bits are giving us another one. Because they’re that awesome. Last night I went out with my dad and Nicole to this REALLY FANCY event at the convention centre. He’d won tickets at work and they were $125 tickets – each! – we had a massive “feast” with all this fancy food, wine, and the servers and other staff were all dressed in medieval costumes, and they had “Wassailers” singing between courses and Buffy Sainte Marie did a small concert. And Al Simmons was there too. There was a massive silent auction with something like 200 prizes, ranging from concert tickets to a weekend in Scotland (minimum bid $2000!) – this was seriously a “rich people’s” event!!

Tonight I’m finally finishing my Christmas shopping and then this weekend’s hopefully going to be pretty relaxing, see some friends, bake some cookies, all that holiday season stuff. Hope everyone has a great weekend 🙂

Pre-Surgery and Pre-Christmas

So I figured after over a month it was time to update this thing. The last week has been great – all the stress and worry and issues are all dealt with (huge thanks to my wonderful friends) and everything’s been great since. And I only have next week to work until 2 weeks off after my surgery.

I must admit I’m really nervous about it. I’ve heard from everyone that when you have your tonsils out as an adult it hurts way more and takes longer to heal – the only part I’m worried about is the waking up, ‘cause I remember after I had my appendix out and I first woke up, I freaked because of the pain and the confusion as to where I was. That’s the part I’m dreading. And being stuck at home for 2 weeks straight not even able to talk to anyone. 😦

Still I’m hoping it’ll give me lots of time for reading, and cleaning up the apartment too, which I never have time for!

Saw a few movies recently – Beowulf (twice!) was AMAZING, and I didn’t realise until the second time that it was all CG! So impressive!!

I did a bit of Christmas shopping last night, but the rest I’m going to order online. Felt kind of bad for the amount I put on my Visa (knowing how much I owe!!), but finding the perfect present and knowing how happy it’ll make each person just seems to override that at this time of year. 🙂

Caught up with quite a few people recently – Mike who I used to work with at Best Buy, we went out for coffee and I’m hopefully going to start taking gymnastics with him (he does it to support his martial arts – some Brazilian dance-fighting thing), as soon as my back gets fixed. I went for a massage the other night and the woman confirmed what my chiropractor said – my hips are askew so one leg is “longer” than the other, and therefore all the muscles on one side of my back are twisted. It hurts like hell. All the time. And I can’t afford to go to a physiotherapist even though I’m supposed to to get one of those orthotic things for the shoes… *sigh* Maybe I’ll just suck it up and go to gymnastics. ‘Cause I’m excited to!! I also caught up with Kyla this week too, went out for a lovely sushi supper and she made me a lovely little bag of cookies. It was wonderful and refreshing to be around an old friend I haven’t seen in forever, and hopefully she’s on board to start Warhammering it up with us sometime soon.

What else… oh yeah. I want a website. I’ve been doing so much graphic design recently and I don’t see why I shouldn’t have a website to show some of it off and hopefully get more (personal) business from it. I want to focus on wedding invitations, thank you cards, birthday invites, holiday cards, that sort of thing, but also business cards, brochures, ads… general businessy stuff too. My problem is I know nothing about web design and I don’t have $1000 to pay a company to make one for me. So… any techy friends of mine… if you think you could help me… I’d love you forever…

Anyway that’s about it, I’m off in 2 hours for a nice supper at my dad’s, who I’m really looking forward to seeing. I love my dad. And this weekend… will be full of “practice baking” of Christmas cookies. Anyone want to join me? 🙂

Things that make me happy today

– a member of parliament saying i had a “very pleasant way” about me
– a random person on the bus saying my dress was beautiful
– a letter from a customer saying i was a lovely person
– richard and shelby being in town for the next 2 weeks
– getting amazing hair and makeup for a hair magazine photo shoot on friday
– canad inns seeing us on the news and offering stuff for our wedding
– meeting a guy i’ve worked with over the phone for over a year in person for the first time today
– over a month left of summer 🙂

i hope everyone else is having a wonderful day too 🙂

EN-GER-LAND!

Soooooo yesterday I got back from my holiday to Blightey. I had access to one computer while I was out there, which happened to be 15 years old and was now “too old” to update to IE7 and wouldn’t load anything but MySpace, so I just gave up and figured I’d do all the updating when I got home.

The first few days me and my dad spent adjusting to the jet lag and catching up with family and friends, stocking up on British goodies (we bought the ENTIRE store’s stock of Angel Delight, plus lots of Galaxy chocolate, trifle mix and steak and kidney puddings!) and visiting old schools and nearby towns, which was lovely. Stevenage Day was on Sunday which I went to with Jayde, and we got 99s and watched gorillas on bikes, lol. Caught up with Sophie and Sam at a lovely (but insanely expensive!) dinner and then a trip to the pub… oh how I miss pub lunches and having endless choices of them!

Spent a day in London with my dad soon after, visiting everything from Trafalgar Square to the London Eye and Tower Bridge and everything in between. I had new shoes on because mine had broken but they were hurting pretty bad (my toenails are still blue :S) by the end of the afternoon so we came home but still we took loads of pictures and it was a lovely day.

Thursday was my “birthday surprise” – we got up at about 6:30am and my dad took me to the airport – we were going to Paris!! We flew there in about an hour, and we spent the ENTIRE day on the Metro, walking around seeing ALL the sights, the Louvre, Notre Dame cathedral, the Champs-Elysees and of course the Eiffel Tower – the queue for the lift was well massive so I decided to go up the stairs and get fill my exercise quota for the next year. It was pretty amazing to see the view from up there. We got home at almost midnight and just pretty much crashed.

Spent Friday with my old childhood friend Victoria, we’d grown up on the same street together and it was amazing to see her again, we caught up over an amazing pub lunch and then had a shopping trip in the town before watching old videos of our ‘Talent Shows’ we used to put on for the neighbours as kids. How embarrassing!! Here’s hoping she doesn’t keep her promise of uploading them to youtube 🙂

Sunday me and Sophie headed in to London to see the MUSE GIG AT WEMBLEY – oh my god, most amazing thing ever!! The new stadium was incredible, holds 90,000 people and it was probably about 75% full if not more. Biffy Clyro played and were great, then My Chemical Romance, who weren’t as bad as everyone was making out, and then Muse… I can’t even describe how incredible it was to see my favourite band in such an insanely cool show. It was a 2 hour set and there was fireworks, smoke, the stage going up in flames, searchlights off of massive satellite dishes, even air trapeze acrobats flying through the stadium off masssive globe balloons. Now every time I hear a song of theirs I get goosebumps because it was just absolutely incredible.

I miss England terribly… but it’s my birthday tomorrow, so I’ll be seeing you all hopefully on thursday at indie night 🙂 I’m going to upload all the pictures tomorrow because my dad has half of them!

Doctor Who can help save science, says minister

… rather than technical and “boring” textbooks, according to the new science minister.

Malcolm Wicks, who was appointed in November following the resignation of Lord Sainsbury, believes that too many pupils are put off science during school.

He claims that popular television shows such as the hit BBC science fiction series provide children with an insight into real science that teachers can use to kick-start lessons. Science education campaign groups have warned, however, that shows such as Doctor Who often involve ideas that have little basis in science.

Mr Wicks said: “If you start a lesson with the chemical formulae you will lose 90 per cent of the class. If you start with something interesting or important, like something they read in the paper or saw on television, they will remain interested.

“It can be part of an entrée to some of the more technical, important but slightly more boring parts of the subject. If I was a teacher I would start with a chunk from Doctor Who and Billie Piper and say, ‘Actually, what was that all about and how is our textbook relevant to that?’

“Take R2D2 from the Star Wars films, for example. We are already doing that kind of stuff in robotics. I would show that, talk about how you would build a thing like that and its uses in the future in the home, in caring for people and for space exploration.”

Mr Wicks believes that it is essential to produce a generation of children who are science-literate so that they can go on to help in making the decisions Britain is likely to face on issues such as climate change and medical research.

However, Derek Bell, the chief executive of the Association of Science Education, said: “We all enjoy programmes such as Doctor Who, but teachers would need to be careful to make it clear which bits are science and which fantasy.”

Goodbye 2006

That was probably one of the most… memorable Christmases I’ve ever had. The year is almost done and I can’t believe how much has happened. These Faithless lyrics kind of sum up the past year, in a way:

So much more than I thought this world could ever hold
So much more than I thought this world could ever hold

We think we’re heroes, we think we’re kings
We plan all kinds of fabulous things
Oh look how great we have become

Key in the door, the moment I’ve been longing for
Before my bag hits the floor
My adorable children rush up screaming for a kiss,
and a story, they’re a gift to this world
My only claim to glory
I surely never knew sweeter days
Blows my mind like munitions
I’m amazed

So much heaven, so much hell
So much love, so much pain
So much more than I thought this world could ever contain
So much war, so much soul
One man’s loss, another man’s goal
So much more than I thought this world can ever hold
We’re just children, we’re just dust
We are small and we are lost
And we’re nothing, nothing at all

One bomb, the whole block gone
Can’t find me children and dust covers the sun
Everywhere is noise, panic and confusion
But to some, another fun day in Babylon
I’m gonna bury my wife and dig up my gun
My life is done, so now I’ve got to kill someone

So much heaven, so much hell
So much love, so much pain
So much more than I thought this world could ever contain
So much war, so much soul
One man’s loss, another man’s goal
So much more than I thought this world could ever hold

So much more than I thought this world could ever hold
So much more than I thought this world could ever hold

So much heaven, so much hell
So much love, so much pain
So much more than I thought this world could ever contain
So much war, so much soul
One man’s loss, another man’s goal
So much more than I thought this world could ever hold

It’s a strange year to look back on. The beginning held a lot of promise, and a lot of wonderful things happened this year. I met some amazing people, I got a really good job, had some fun parties, started a course, became a lot closer with my dad, got my kittens who I absolutely love… got a David Tennant postcard!! A lot of really good things happened this year, and a lot of crap too. I learned a lot about myself, about relationships, about trust… I’ve always believed that love will overcome anything, call me naive if you will but I’m a hopeless romantic at heart.

Love is such a strange thing – scary, at the thought of the pain it can cause, and wonderful, at the pure joy as well. I did come close to losing faith in it throughout this year, but despite all the crap it can bring; when I do continue to love, I’ll keep doing so like I can’t get hurt. If you don’t open yourself up and take the risk for fear of being hurt, and it can be an incredible pain… you just miss out on some of the most amazingly wonderful feelings and experiences. I think what I’m saying is that I have no regrets. Joel and I are no longer together, but I’ve had some very good and some very bad experiences with him, and he’s taught me a lot about myself. I think this year I’ve become a more forgiving and tolerant person than I ever have in my life… I’ve grown a lot. And for all that was, I am thankful, and I’m glad it didn’t end ugly and that we’ll still be in touch, and still stay friends.

For friends… this has been a wonderful year. I know it sounds lame but I really do want to, broadcast, for lack of a better word, just how very grateful I am for all of you and everything you’ve done this year. I’ve seen such caring and concern, such selflessness, such honesty from my friends this year and I truly am a very lucky girl. Some of you I’ve only known a year or so, some longer, but I am so incredibly thankful you are in my life. For everything you’ve done for me, just know I would do the same for you in a second.

For family… this year has been a little tumultuous, mostly very good, sad towards the end, but again I couldn’t have got through a lot of things this year had it not been for my parents. As I get older I’m realising all the time that was wasted while I was growing up and living at home, I was such a stubborn, argumentative, defiant child, and now my relationship with my family continues to change into something so different… I’ve become so close with my dad in the last few months, and both my mum and dad have helped me through some of the hardest times this year… and for that I am so thankful.

For everything else… so much amazing music – music means SO much to me, and has helped me a lot also. This year has been a fantastic one for some really great stuff. To have had access to the technology to download all sorts of wonderful TV shows not yet in this country, albums, to listen to BBC radio whenever I want. To have somewhere warm to come home to at the end of the day. There’s a lot of other things I’m grateful for as this year rapidly draws to a close, and I wanted to mark the most important ones down as we bring in 2007. A new year, a new start… and no regrets.

And just one more…

It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,
And it’s not where you’re from, it’s where you’re at

Everybody gets knocked down,
Everybody gets knocked down,
How quick are you gonna’ get up?
How quick are you gonna’ get up?
Everybody gets knocked down,
Everybody gets knocked down,
How quick are you gonna’ get up?
Just how are you gonna’ get up?

Like Ali in the jungle,
Like Nelson in jail,
Like Simpson on the mountain,
With odds like that, they were bound to fail
Like Keller in the darkness,
Like Adam’s in the dock,
Like Ludwig Van, how I loved that man, well the guy went deaf and didn’t give a fuck, no…

No, no, no

It’s not where you are, iIt’s where you’re going,
Where are you going?
And it’s not about the things you’ve done, it’s what you’re doing now,
What are you doing, now?

Everybody gets knocked down,
Everybody gets knocked down,
How quick are you gonna’ get up?
How quick are you gonna’ get up, now?
Everybody gets knocked down,
Everybody gets knocked down,
How quick are you gonna’ get up?
Just how are you gonna’ get up?

Like Ali in the jungle,
Like Nelson in jail,
Like Simpson on the mountain,
Well with odds like that, they were bound to fail
Like Keller in the darkness,
Like Adam’s in the dock,
Like Ludwig Van, how I loved that man, well the guy went deaf and didn’t give a fuck, no…

Almost Christmas

Only 3 more weeks until an entire week off and Christmas; it’s going to go by so quickly, November seems to have just gone in an absolute flash. I need to go Christmas shopping! Yesterday I bought my first very own Christmas tree – it’s about a foot high, lol, it cost me $1.50 and I bought a little mini garland and star to put on it, and it’s sitting proudly on my side table by the TV with little candles around the base! I also strung up some Christmas lights (which I plan to keep all year) around my whole kitchen, which looks really lovely 🙂

This weekend’s going to be fun, I wish I was in LA seeing Shelby’s Cowboy Max show, I’d’ve loved to go so badly! But this Friday I have special tickets to this show and Christmas party at the Empire, so that’ll be nice to dress up (and freeze our arses off, lol) and then Sunday another “hibernating” sort of day in with movies and baking cookies, and possibly Christmas shopping. This week I got given an invitation from the dirtiest old man in the world, apparently he used to be this amazing award-winning photographer and he made me this package of a load of his pictures of models (for Playboy, haha) and an invitation on the front to his “dirty old man” hot tub party, “bathing suits optional, and if we can get a hold of the neighbour’s dog, various kinds of illegal sex!” LOL! Wanted to know if me or any of my girlfriends were interested in a part-time modelling job… no thank you sir! 🙂

On a more serious note I had this old lady come in to work this week asking me to type this letter for her, she was writing to Gary Doer and Stephen Harper and the Minister of Health and all those sorts of people, she has 4 children, 3 of which inherited this awful kidney disease from their father, and the one that didn’t inherit it can’t be a donor because she’s not compatible with her brother or something, and anyway it really got me thinking. There’s HUGE wait lists for organ transplants, and if we can live just fine with one kidney, why don’t more people donate? Just because you’re not dead doesn’t mean you can’t be an organ donor. I’ve been doing a little bit of research on it, and I think that at some point in the future I’m going to do that. I don’t know about the NEAR future – looks like I’d need 3 weeks off work to do it, and I just can’t afford that right now, but maybe in a couple of years. Why not? It’d save someone’s life, and that’s got to be an amazing thing. And the research I looked at said there’s basically no complications after successful surgery, and of like a 2000 person sample, 87% of them didn’t want to have kids after donating and the 13% that did had no complications and were successful in doing so. Of course it’ll take a lot of thinking about, and I’d need to be financially okay enough to take that sort of time off (it was different when I was living with Dan and I had my appendix out; rent was way less and I wasn’t in debt as much as I am now). But I think if I can do something to save a life, it’s something I’d really like to do one day.

Psycho Killer Leaves Resume

So this has been a pretty good week, all in all. After Saturday night I spent Sunday recovering and hanging out with my dad, we went shopping for my mum’s birthday presents and we were going to see Saw III but just competely ran out of time. It was really nice to spend a whole day with my dad, I do love him to bits.

Monday, I had to take Rose to the Humane Society. And I discovered I really DO have the best friends in the entire world. Everyone knows how much fell from the sky that day, and how as a result, everyone forgot how to drive. Ryan came to pick me up from work, go get Rose, and then drive us TWO AND A HALF HOURS to the Humane Society. Seriously, never seen traffic so slow in my life. We could’ve left Manitoba in that time. We were supposed to get her thre by 6:45 but luckily the (rather bitchy) vet was still there at 7:30, made it very clear that she was just leaving, but still took her in. And the next day he went BY HIMSELF after he finished work to pick her up to avoid any delays by picking me up first. What a COMPLETE sweetheart! And Rose is all sore and sleepy and I feel so bad for her… but Chloe is happy she’s back 🙂

Tuesday was Actual Halloween, and it felt so weird because after Halloween weekend it was just strange that it hadn’t actually come yet, but I spent the evening meeting a new friend off of Myspace who I’d been corresponding with for the last few weeks. We both freak out at scary movies so we made spaghetti and watched a “diet” scary movie, Gothika, which was still good. Exchanged mix CDs (which were great!!) and chatted for a bit, it was a good night.

YESTERDAY my Psycho Stalker came back. I was in the middle of laminating something when I heard someone come in the front, and he just left this package on the counter and left. I opened it up… it was made of paper and said “To Miss Emily Wood… Resume Enclosed” on the front, and it contained a picture of him, with a message on the back, and three pieces of notepaper, each saying the same thing on the front and he’d written backwards on the back of each of them so I had to hold them up to a mirror to read them. WHACKO. Anyway, at least this time it’s legible, but sadly that doesn’t mean intelligible!!

Disappointment

This is not even directly related to me.

But how can people be so SELFISH, to throw away absolutely everything they ever had, to lie to EVERYONE they know, and ruin other people’s lives in the process. They destroy people who’ve done absolutely nothing wrong; good, honest, wonderful people, and for what? I’m disgusted and appalled by the human race sometimes. Seeing how hurtful people can be, so deceptive, manipulative and dishonest, all for the sake of their own selfish desires. What happened to integrity and honesty? When did people stop living their lives with honour and keeping their promises? Just an observation on the world, not even related to this, but it seems that nowadays, people are more concerned with getting a good fuck than anything else. Friendships, relationships, promises and plans all discarded for the sake of getting laid. When did the physical become so much more important than the emotional? It’s a sad state this world is in; the corruption, the hate, the greed, the way the common mentality is just deteriorating. I hate people sometimes. I know there are good people in the world, and I’m so lucky to have some of them in my life. It’s just hard seeing the people you thought had some sort of decency do something so awful.

Remember, remember, the fifth of November

Tonight, boys and girls, is Bonfire Night!! And I’m excited that although I don’t have a fireworks display,  I do have 12 sparklers, hot chocolate, and a makeshift “bonfire” thanks to the magic of a little paper Guy Fawkes and a box of matches. Which makes me a very happy girl, because Bonfire Night was always one of my favourite times of year!

Today I just got back from doing the Nygard fashion show, which was great fun – I got my hair and makeup done at Essentique this morning which looked very cool. I had a lunch at the show and went out in 3 different outfits amongst all these tables. Mad rushes backstage to get changed quickly, but they were all lovely people, and I did get 2 tickets to a big show at the Symphony for December!

Now off to watch the new X Factor, and hope that Rose hasn’t taken a crap in my bed again, lol. Ever since she got back from her surgery she’s been thrownig up and crapping anywhere but the litter box, I guess in revenge?! Anyone have any light to shed on this? Anyway, I’ve a fun night ahead and I wish everyone a happy Guy Fawkes Day!

Dress to remove clothing!

So there’s this total weirdo I’ve been lucky enough to have coming in to visit me at work for the last couple of weeks. First, he comes in looking like he’s been in a coma for 6 months and hasn’t got around to shaving yet, asking if we can help him get a job and type up some proposal about getting energy from the algae in ponds, and going off to Cirque du Soleil, and how the French find him too weird but the English don’t, and… yeah. I think that paints enough of a picture. I told him we don’t do that kind of writing service… but to maybe try the Yellow Pages.

He comes back a couple of weeks later (clean shaven), asking if we can do up his resume. I was happy to finally hear a normal request – because that’s what we do – so I said yes, we could definitely help him with that. I told him he had to make an appointment and either leave a deposit or a credit card number. He said he wouldn’t be getting any money for 2 weeks, so he took my business card, and said he’d come back.

Which he did. Today. He came in this morning, panting heavily and wet from the rain, saying “might seem a little weird to just drop by… but I wanted to say hi.” Then he left.

That was a little weird.

Then he comes back this afternoon and leaves me an automatic pencil with business cards attached to it. He says “it’s a present for you, I’ll let you read what’s inside… and leave it at that, I’m kind of on your territory here…” and left.

I opened the first of his series of notes. On the back of one business card was written “recognized me right away even though I graduated in 1988, been about that long too.”

On the back of another business card it said “Reference: Known 20 years can vouch I’m no druggie, but my sister is and I’ve been trying to help her for years. Nuff said. Manchester men suck. Opinionated, right no matter what. While I am accustomed to pussy encounters I’m really interested in your cat…”

And on the back of MY business card, which I’d given him earlier, it said: “DINNER, 9-o-clock sharp. Dress to remove clothing, or we skip dinner and move directly to removing. (Phone #) – Bill, or William if you will.”

…!

Upset with the world

So my computer genius brother came and took my hard drive out so he could go inspect it and try and de-virus it for me, and it turned out I had 14 viruses and 70 spyware… yikes; I pick it up from him later tonight (just at work right now) so hopefully all is cleaned off!

Last night we went to Folklorama, the Caribbean and the Irish pavilions, they were both REALLY good – I usually go to the Irish one every year but I missed it last year and I was pleasantly surprised to see the massive UPGRADE – they’d moved it (I guess it got too popular for the Irish Association!) and had all these big light shows and dancers and this one amazing woman who played the fiddle, pennywhistles, danced and sang – she was brilliant.

Recently I’ve been kind of upset about the state of things. I found on a Doctor Who community a member who’d found this forum full of racists who were just going on and on for pages about how they’ve been long time fans but Doctor Who has always been a white male and they couldn’t believe his assistant first had a black “nigger” boyfriend, “there’s no way I’m watching nigger kissing on British TV” and how they were all outraged they had to “tolerate multiculturalism” and refused to watch the new series because the new companion is black. I couldn’t believe that people like that still existed… I was just shocked. I feel so lucky to live in a country where people actually celebrate multiculturalism.

And then today on the radio I heard about this, I can’t BELIEVE it:

Woman jailed for giving son drugs

Emma Kelly was a promising jockey until her descent into drug abuse
A drug addict mother has been jailed for nine years for supplying heroin and crack cocaine to her son from the age of nine.
Emma Kelly, 31, formerly of Eastbourne, in East Sussex, admitted the offences, which could have killed the child, at a hearing at Hove Crown Court last month.

Kelly admitted supplying the drugs between August 2002 and May 2005.

She also admitted two counts of cruelty to a child between August 2003 and January 2005.

Judge Anthony Niblett told her she had betrayed her son.

You offered no explanation or excuse for it, and there can be none

Judge Anthony Niblett

He said: “On 5 May 2005 you went to his school and you supplied him there with a wrap of heroin. This was, in my assessment, an act of pure wickedness.

“You offered no explanation or excuse for it, and there can be none.”

Kelly was sentenced to nine years in total for supplying her son with class A drugs, including five years to be served concurrently for child cruelty.

This includes two six-year sentences to be served concurrently for supplying him with heroin and crack cocaine, and a consecutive sentence of three years for giving him heroin when he was in foster care.

Emma Kelly was addicted to class A substances

The court was told Kelly had plied her son with opiates from the age of nine, until he was 11.

She had driven him around as she toured Sussex and London in search of drugs.

Ibitayo Adebayo, prosecuting, said Kelly and her son were arrested in January 2005 on suspicion of shoplifting and taken to Eastbourne police station.

The police contacted a drug referral worker who saw the boy, and noted that the pupils of his eyes were very large, suggesting he was going through a withdrawal from drugs.

Judge Niblett said the boy was able to tell police that he rarely went to school.

He did have a bond with his mum, but that was borne out of his addiction

Det Sgt Wendy Fuller

The boy spent a week in hospital withdrawing from his opiate addiction.

Outside the court, Det Sgt Wendy Fuller of Sussex Police described how the boy was “rocking in his hospital bed, very agitated, crying for his mum” when he was experiencing withdrawal symptoms.

“He did have a bond with his mum, but that was borne out of his addiction,” she said.

The boy, now aged 12, is in foster care and is said to be thriving and back at school.

Rebecca Upton, defending, said Kelly’s descent into drug abuse was triggered by the death of her partner in 1996.

‘Truly disgusted’

Before then she had a promising career as a jockey and also worked regularly before developing a dependence on drugs.

Ms Upton said Kelly felt “truly disgusted” at her actions and expressed her “utmost and sincerest remorse”.

The role of East Sussex Social Services was questioned by Judge Niblett, who said that if it had not been for the arrest, social services might not have intervened.

This was despite a social services case conference about the boy being held in 2004, he said.

The social worker connected to the case was changed “and the situation was allowed to continue”.

He said that a social services representative had not attended the court to answer concerns, but added he was pleased that he would receive a report within 14 days.

After the case Sussex Police Child Protection Team (CPT) at Eastbourne said the boy could have died every time he was supplied with the drugs.

‘Lessons learnt’

In a statement, Matt Dunkley, director of children’s services for East Sussex County Council, said: “Our service has the highest possible rating for child protection and naturally our primary concern is for the safety and welfare of the child.

“The child concerned is still in our care and we are delighted that he is thriving and doing well.”

The statement added that all major decisions to protect the child prior to him being taken into care were taken jointly with all the agencies involved, including the police.

“Together with partners in other agencies, we will learn from any of the lessons that arise from this case.”

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE WORLD??

New kitty time!!

I was supposed to go to the Humane Society today with Trista to get our kittens fixed, but because the bank’s put a hold on my account until Tuesday I couldn’t go. But then I found out that this weekend was the last day of their “blowout” – they’ve got way too many animals and they need to give them homes or they’re going to euthanise them. Which just makes me so upset – I posted about this a little while ago, but I love them so much I can’t bear to think of them being killed. I hate how people can be so cruel – not to not take them home, but to do the things that get them there in the first place. I remember parents had 2 cats when I was younger, and one of them (Otis) was one of like 4 or 5 cats tied up in a bag and left on a bridge to be thrown into the water. All the rest found homes and nobody wanted poor Smudge but my mum took him in and he was such a wonderful cat – it’s so awful the way people treat animals. How can they be so heartless??

Anyway so I found out this weekend was the last weekend to help rescue these cats cheaply and so I called my mum up, asked her if I could borrow some money and a lift down there to rescue a cat and said yes! We got down there too late to actually be able to take one home today, but I found the most amazing girl cat. Her name now is “Sally” but I think I’ll change it as it was only given to her by the HS and she’s only been there a month so she won’t’ve grown used to it yet. She’s beeeautiful – pure white from head to toe, and the most amazing emerald green eyes. She curled right up in my lap, gave me kisses and purrs and didn’t want to get off!! So I put the deposit on her and if we go back tomorrow at noon, I should be able to bring her home!

I’m so happy, one more cat saved, and a sister for Rose!

Now onto naming again…  this is the hardest part!

Praise. (Blush)

I just received the most amazing email from a dear friend. I’m doing some design work for him and last night I sent him a rough idea of what I wanted to do, and today I got this back:

I’m going to start off this letter by assuring you that I will not coddle you artistically or exaggerate my praise to you.

You are incredible. I am really, really impressed. I can’t believe you created that in one day. I LOVE IT! I’m just blown away. I want to show it to everyone. I love the fonts the colors, the style, the layout… You are an artist and a very talented one. I would have no idea of where to start to do what you did so naturally.

I’ll get you some higher res pictures and make a couple small changes and we already have a winner. You should be doing this for big companies and lots of money. Just by showing this off I bet I’m going to get you work.

It seems like this would be a good intro sheet. I could use it as a poster, a postcard, or the first sheet in a packet (that includes a DVD promo, letters of recommendation, etc. )

In short, I feel so lucky that you are helping me on this. Thank you for sharing your talent with me.

This is going to be the best project ever!! 😀

Reflections

Finally, a real update.

The fringe is officially over, and along with it my favourite part of the year. I think this time of year even surpasses Halloween in terms of being so enjoyable. Not just because of the amazing amount of talent and creativity that springs up in the span of 2 weeks, the support, the ideas, and so many wonderful performances, but because I get to see some of the most incredible people from all over the world. It is far too short a period of time and was over far too quickly. But I had such a lovely time. I saw loads of plays, explored the Exchange, and spent some wonderful times with wonderful people. We had great meals, crazy bowling, and one night, Jenn, Shelby, Raven and myself had a Ghost Story night where Shelby read to us from this book that must have been over a hundred years old. We all had a “tell one thing you’ve never told anyone else” thing going on in a circle for a while too, where I learned lots of interesting things about my friends!

I got presents too! CD exchanges are always so much fun to do; I love sharing music with people who are just as passionate about it as I am, and I got two amazing new CDs from Shelby. He also got the HUGE artist’s rendition of Mr. Slurch (my all time favourite character from any play, ever) who made a surprise appearance at a late night caberet-type show, got permission to take it down and give it to me as a gift. I took it to work to laminate today (to protect it) and it’s going right up on my wall.

Monday was the last night before they left for LA, which was sad… but it was spent in such a lovely way. Me, Joel, Jenn and Shelby went to Ivory on Portage, ate too much good food and spent hours just sitting there talking (and taking some really good pictures, which I’ll post when I get home). I am so lucky to have been blessed with the friendship of such truly amazing people. I’m happy that everything has been patched up too, and it doesn’t seem like there’s any more hard feelings between anyone.

Recently I’ve learned that life is too short to spend harbouring negative feelings and prolonging arguments and grudges. Whenever anything bad happens, and I’m angry or annoyed with someone, now I try to think “what would I do if this was the last time I got to see this person?” Usually it makes me far sadder to think of that and forces the realization that life really is too short to spend being mad at people. And I have my love and my wonderful friends to thank for making me realise that.

I cried when I said goodbye. Why is it that such amazing friends have to live so far away?

Sorry for the long post. Just feeling a little reflective, insightful and thankful for everything.

Looking for kindness

I am such a girl at times but this is making me really sad.

This week the Humane Society is advertising cats and kittens, with all their ops and shots and everything for $25 because they have something like 500 cats and 100 dogs, and if they don’t find homes for all these cats they put them to sleep.

And I can’t bear to think of poor kittens being killed just because they don’t have homes. I really want to get a second cat to play with Rose – Rose is left by herself all day for like 9 or 10 hours every day, and I bet she’d love someone to play with. And it would save a kitten. Rose is quiet; and cats are allowed – well, “tolerated” – I’ve seen maybe 3 in the building, and I’m only here for another 3 months. I just think it’d be hard to find another apartment with TWO cats… I just feel so awful about the poor cats that don’t get homes… so if anyone wants to help, the Humane Society is only doing this for this week so please go, I’ll feel better if even one kitten gets the home that I can’t give.

New beginnings

So on Tuesday I quit Best Buy and got my soul back. Huzzah! The bitchy manager who was giving me shit in the first place just took my resignation letter and smiled and said “okay! thanks!” Unfortunately the general manager was in Calgary so I didn’t get to give it to him in person. I gave no two weeks (so no vacation pay :() but this place wanted me to start right away, and I wanted to leave Best Buy right away, so that worked out nicely. I did myself a favour and took 2 days off in between and I had my first day today at the new place.

Okay. This is brilliant.

1. NO STUPID UNIFORM. On my way home dressed in my heels and black trousers and glasses I felt so much more respectable than before, trying to hide my stupid ugly flat black shoes, beige ankle-swingers and bright blue best buy shirt. So that’s good.

2. I work across from a Tim Horton’s. AND I’M ALLOWED TO TAKE WALKS.

3. I get my own desk, my own business card, and I’m taking over for the OFFICE MANAGER. Holy crap.

4. My boss said I won’t need to spend $10,000 at Red River because I’m going to BECOME a graphic designer there and get all the experience I need.

5. I didn’t wake up at five this morning!

Off to Edmonton!

I made it! I over supplied myself for the 22 HOUR BUS RIDE – which actually wasn’t even half as bad as I thought it was going to be. My entire carry-on bag was packed with every cd I own, Harry Potter, a pillow, and my journal. And some granola bars. All I needed was the music, really… I had an amazing pair of headphones that were kindly lent to me, and they played movies too, so it was over pretty quickly. I must say I think that’s the most independent thing I’ve ever done. It was really neat, stopping in all these little cities I’ve never been to, and exploring around on my own all the way here. I got some writing done, and I’ve also decided that Kate Bush is one of the most incredible artists in music history.

I got here Saturday morning at about 5am, and spent the next day at the Fringe site meeting people and seeing shows, and enjoying the last of the creative spirit, and indeed the sun. Saw some great outdoor shows; Andy Zap was hilarious! Met up with all the cool sound techs from last year (Mike the Nightwish Tech was back!), saw “Timmy’s Sexual Adventures” with Jimbo, and then headed off to Calgary, where I write from now. I LIKE Calgary. I hear so many people putting it down, but I prefer it to Edmonton completely. We got in close to midnight and drove around downtown for a bit, and it was BEAUTIFUL! I find cityscapes amazing, having never really lived in a big city, and it’s so full of great architecture and a cool atmosphere as you go through the city streets. Today we spent meandering around downtown, having amazing gelati, and taking pictures of cool buildings. Tonight I’m going to relax a bit as the boys spend one last night together playing poker, and then tomorrow we’re headed off to Banff or Canmore. It’s supposed to be beautiful… I’m quite excited about that.

The drive home should be about fifteen hours or so, but I’ve got lots of great music thanks to all my friends and family who burnt cds for my trip. I’ll be back either wednesday night or thursday morning, and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again. 🙂