29 + 4 update

ever since i decided to stop moping, things have really taken a turn for the better.

and in some random hope that the power of positive thinking actually might work, i just wanted to let the interwebs know that i have asked for something that i want as per goal #9.

i found a job i want.  i found a job that could potentially meld my education and international experience in development with my nearly two years' worth of private sector corporate social responsibility knowledge!  i found a job i want in new york city.

so i applied.

and if you are so compelled, join me in sending some positive energy in the direction of the un headquarters in nyc in hopes that they overlook my lack of the requisite 8 years of progressively responsible experience and interview me based on my ballsy cover letter and unique skill set!

juggling the balls

not those kind of balls, you pervert!

the kind that represent all the people that i have in my life, including a lot of friends, old and new.

i am never sure what the best way is to manage a busy social schedule and although i am not complaining, i wish knew what to say yes to, what to say no to, and how to best prioritise my time. do i set aside time for running and being active and then set aside specific time for socialising, meeting in coffee shops, going to dinner, and just catching up with friends? i fear if i were to do that, i would not be able to fit them all in. but on the other hand, if i don't start doing that, i am not sure how i will fit in all the things that i need to do for myself. and moving into the new nest might even complicate matters when grocery shopping, ironing, and more cleaning need to be done!

twenty eight and one month

1 - get enough sleep. this has been all systems go and it was sheer luxury to be able to sleep when and for how long i pleased in the dominican republic. sleep in until 10am? absolutely! have a nap on the beach? why ever not. go to bed at 6 and sleep for 15 hours? done.

2 - buy a home. no progress whatsoever and with impending lay offs left, right, and centre, i am a bit nervous about this. but, i still have 11 months left of 28 to figure this one out.

3 - reduce my level of anxiety. i am kicking anxiety's arse and taking names. all things considered, i am owning the anxiety and making it my own. and by that i mean, things are going really well in this department.

4 - take better photos. i lugged my fancy camera all the way to the caribbean and even bought a new camera lens to replace the one mysteriously lost at a wedding shower, but i took all of one photo with it and instead carried my little digital around with me, which turned out to be much better at snapping the snaps of dance parties, sunglasses named blanche, and me sitting in an enormous piece of pottery.

5 - become financially confident. this is going to be a work in progress...

6 - be happy where i am. this may be a challenge in the coming months. partly because i just read a book set in sudan and my old stomping grounds of kenya (including mentioning my former office) and it got thoughts in my head. nothing too crazy, no plans at the mo, but being settled and happily settled may be difficult.

7 - visit friends who live in other places. still no plans that fit this goal precisely, but the trip to the dominican republic was wonderful and fabulous and all that i could have hoped for, but nothing that i could have expected.

8 - sort out my relationship. done, sorted, over. and if a certain someone shows their face in these parts, he can expect to be strung up with a piano wire by his balls.

clickity click click

• i am writing this on my brand spanking new laptop that is silver and very fast (fast, i am sure, because of its shiny silver exterior) and is the product of a lot of generosity and kindness and the help of the geeks at best buy who are indeed geeky as well as helpful (except for the doorknob who tried to sell me a laptop bag by suggesting the selling feature of being able to hold my make-up for when i travel... clearly he doesn't know a thing about the variety of different kinds of women out there and hence, works as a geek at best buy)
• since when does shipping with amazon.ca cost $6?
• i am ultra super glad that the stampede is over. i am also very smart even though you can't tell from the sentence i just constructed
• i get to be a bridesmaid for the first time this weekend and i luckily found a pair of shoes that match perfectly, thank you winners
• my only complaint about my very fabulous ultra super fast laptop is the clicky-ness of the keys and the fact that i keep missing them and misspelling things
• i bought the book What Colour is My Parachute and i really hope it helps me figure out not only what colour my parachute is, but what to do with this career i am attempting to build
• i have a dentist appointment today, which is about as appealing as a swift kick in the junk would be if i had any junk

a busy 3 weeks

i am not feeling so creative and haven't been writing much lately. maybe because i am overcoming my addiction to facebook. i am on the 5th step of a 12 step programme. or something like that.

here is what i have been up to the last 3 weeks:

• i rubbed shoulders with the vice president of kenya in mombasa
• i contracted malaria because i slept without a mosquito net during the rainy season in mombasa (i direct you to http://www.spreadthenet.org/ again because now that i know what malaria feels like and that it can be prevented so easily and treated for very little money yet most who get it cannot afford the drugs, i really think that we should keep spreading the net)
• i went to egypt and although it was hot as balls, it rocked the casbah and maybe i will get around to articulating how much it rocked in the near future, for now my smattering of photos will have to do (there are more on my facebook, if you are so inclined)
• i found some generic egyptian drugs to treat the malaria
• i went hot air ballooning over the valley of the kings in luxor
• i dodged taxis and other vehicles on the streets of cairo, which put the streets of nairobi to shame even though i wasn't sure that was possible
• i saw a half naked fat man in his flimsy white boxer shorts and am still laughing about it
• i was defeated at trivial pursuit (but it was the british version so i had a slight disadvantage)
• i kicked butt at ping pong on the beach of the red sea
• i hung out in king tut's final resting place
• i ate hummous, tabouleh, baba ganouj, tahini, and grape leaves
• i read some books, including A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (7/10), Blessings (7.5/10), and A Thousand Splendid Suns (8.5/10 and this would be higher but it just doesn't compare to the author's other book, The Kite Runner)
• i went snorkelling in the red sea and got windswept
• i floated on the red sea (but not over to saudi arabia)
• i had my bum fondled on the metro and my photo taken on a ferry
• i broke into kenya and snuck my way around buying a visa thinking that i could just leave on my other passport to avoid paying for yet another visa, that was NOT a good idea and they almost made me miss my flight to london by insisting i go home and locate my 'misplaced' passport, but they let me on the flight after making their point, pulling my luggage off the plane, and delaying the flight
• i gave up my seat that had extra leg room (mine aren't so long) and they gave me a first class bag of goodies with khiel's products
• i visited my sister in london and bought my first pair of skinny jeans
• i ate the best sushi with some pretty good company
• i am also a full fledged hippy as i do not have a tv, like to knit, and now own a pair of birkenstocks
• air canada is perhaps the most miserable airline to fly with - i don't want to hear what my flight attendants are doing on the weekend, what their hobbies are, nor do i want to be barked at or be forced to overhear their rude conversations with other passengers
• i flew next to refugees being resettled to the us, it was nice to look over and smile at the well-behaved kids laughing out loud at the cartoons
• a man tried to lasso me as i came through the arrivals gates at the airport in calgary and i have been slightly afraid of the stampede ever since
• i arrived home after 3 long weeks of travelling through kenya, egypt, and london
• i am attempting to readjust to life in the developed world and the pace of calgary while avoiding the stampede

egypt is hot as balls

yep, that's right. hot as balls.

but it has been nothing less than amazing so far. i will collect my thoughts into some semblance of order and hopefully post some photos of this beautiful place soon.

until then, i must retire to my air conditioned room after visiting the valley of the kings in luxor this morning and eating a home-cooked egyptian meal.

things are good. if not a little hot.

oh, we're gonna laugh!

"am I excited you ask? well, does a butterfly taste with its feet? do you have maternity binskies? does a kick in the balls hurt? the answer is yes, if you were wondering."

"i just saw an account at work with the name Mr. and Mrs. Balls. hahahahaha. i would NOT change my name if that was my husband's name. how do you even say your name seriously. 'table for Mr.Balls. that's b-a-l-l-s. BALLS.'"

sorta freaking hilarious

funny story - i was walking by a bush yesterday (well, more like THROUGH a bush on the side of the path) and it turns out it was a thorn bush and i got pricked by rather large, spikey thorns. one went through my jeans and got stuck right in my kneecap and after dislodging it, i had to check for blood, which was indeed oozing out of one of the holes left in my knee. the electricity was only partially working last night so i did not get to investigate the damage done until this morning when my knee was really achey and the little red holes still had bits of thorn in them! so i covered them in polysporin and got to work where my officemate tells me that those things are poisonous and can make your joints ache. sorta hilarious.

apart from the chance meeting with the thorn bush, i had the most perfect thursday evening alone last night. wonderful lighting due to low electricty, a glass of red wine, a freshly baked baguette with good cheese for dinner, new wool to start a knitting project, a noam chomsky documentary, and a text message invitation for dinner for friday from a cute boy. that is me, represented in a thursday evening.

so this wool... hand spun! i am so excited about this. and for all my moaning about the prices of things in nairobi (eating out, taxis, towels...), this wool was far less expensive than it would be in canada. did i mention it is hand-spun!

this friday marks five weeks in nairobi and i will stop saying how time is flying and instead tell you about my workout with Flex. yes, he is a personal trainer and i am pretty sure that his mom did not take one look at him and decide that, as i seemed to resemble the heroine from a movie about the russian revolution, he resembled a juice monkey who wants to force unsuspecting young women to do ab workouts. during this ab workout, he straddles me and tells me to come up and touch his hands, which are curiously positioned right in front of his balls. so i had to do sit ups into his crotch and try my hardest not to laugh at the hilarity of it all.

as today marks five weeks of me in nairobi, it also marks approximately 35 days of breathing in exhaust fumes from the highway i cross to get to and from work. this trek has been particularly treacherous this week as it has rained and rained and then rained some more and yesterday when i gave up and just called a taxi, the taxi company sent the taxi to my friend's flat instead. apparently not only do us blondies all look alike, but we sound alike as well (even though i cleared stated who i am and where i need to be picked up!).

thank the good lord that it is sunny and breezey this friday morning and i was able to sport my oversized, bug-like sunglasses for my walk across the highway. i am hoping that it holds for my weekend festivities. my rules for this weekend are a) to come home with all items i go out with (so as not to loose anything more than i lost last weekend in my ummmm.... not-so-delicate condition) and b) to come home with the same people i went out with (so as not to stay out way-too-late and have to eat greasy food and copious amount of caffeinated beverages to remedy the condition that follows the not-so-delicate condition the next morning)

i saw Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, and it was as hilarious as its name. which, if you have no sense of humour, is freaking hilarious. if you have a penchant for inappropriate humour and satire, go see it. and tell me you don't laugh out loud as soon as the opening credits run.

ps - have you bought a net yet?

inspiration and rejuvenation

i managed to make espresso with my new italian coffee maker and now i just need those tiny little espresso cups to drink it out of! i always thought they were the cutest but until this time have not had any use for them. one small trip to italy and my whole world has changed...

so what is it that you are supposed to do when you go to italy? besides spin on your heel on the balls of the bull inlaid in the floor of an arcade in milan, you might ask. (because yes i did that, apparently it is for good luck and there must be a lot of lucky people walking around because that poor bull's testicles were nearly non-existent from many years of heel spinning).

if buying italian leather boots and a hand bag is what comes to mind then i have succeeded at having a truly italian experience. these boots are simply divine. cowboyish but rather pointy and probably far too fashionable for a simple canadian girl such as myself. but they sure are fun.

the kindness and hospitality of the people i met in my short time in italy and at the olympics was fantastic. my friend with whom i travelled speaks italian and lived in the country for a few years and i felt privileged to get to know her friends and to stay with people in every city we visited. going out for dinner is a wonderful experience in italy and i was glad to be doing it with people who could translate the menus and make great conversation. we laughed a lot, especially when we met a group of italians at a pizza restaurant and one of them taught me how to do 'skeleton' on the table top while sharing a bottle of wine and playing practical jokes on an unsuspecting japanese couple.

and now i know that i love anchovies! delicious fishy goodness.

the olympics were understated and not overwhelming and although some people might complain about the lack of atmosphere, i quite enjoyed it. i felt that the olympics had not entirely taken over the city. and if it weren't for all the roots paraphernalia, team canada jerseys, and maple leaves you might just think there was an international conference in town. but by far i saw more canadians than any other nationality and even met a bunch of cowboys from calgary as well the men's curling team and catriona le may doan.

it was nice to come back to lancaster rested and rejuvenated and ready to take on the rest of the semestre. amazing what time away can show you. i am feeling quite inspired to continue with research and have let go of some of my frustrations. i also was reminded to make the most of my short time here because i will truly never have this opportunity again. getting up in the morning, going for a run, tidying my room, meeting a friend for coffee, spending the afternoon in the library, and coming home to sit and chat in the kitchen with friends really is unique to this particular situation.

tonight i have found loads of muffin, cookie, and bread recipes to make in the coming weeks and i am beginning to realise more and more why my mom bakes. such a relaxing and rewarding experience. perhaps because the best part is sharing the finished products with other people!

i had an invitation by my friend who is older than any of my parents to have picnics this summer and i got all excited thinking about what i could bring and if i could find a basket (and it is not until the summer!) and she said she was happy to find another 'foodie.' now if you knew my history in the kitchen previous to arriving in lancaster this would be a huge shock. but i think i really can hold my own and am excited to keep trying.