It's the end.

Well, what can I say.
I was looking the record of all the posts I've done over the years , and I've beaten last years number of posts just by doing this challenge.

It was funny to see that some days I had something to say, some days I didn't think I had anything to say, but it ended up I do, and then other days, the sheet was blank. Like some of my other hobbies, I'm realizing that you can't have the same likes and dislikes as you grow and change. Sometimes you have to admit something isn't you anymore.

This isn't my good bye post, though. Although that last sentence felt very much like it could be leading somewhere. I'm not one to officially end things. I would like to keep this up for as long as possible, just to have somewhere to occasionally write about life and all there is to it.

This month of writing and taking pictures every day was helpful in training myself to accomplish things. And it wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be.
Unfortunately, I didn't manage to finish Les Mis. But I do have another 2 months to complete it to accomplish my new years resolution, so there's that.

Now I'm off to dinner to celebrate my birthday.
Happy Halloween, Everybody!

Throwing it back to...

The construction life days.

Don't get me wrong, I love my job. It's up my alley, it's professional, it feels more like a career rather than a "let's do this for 6 months until the next thing starts",

But sometimes, I remember the days of wearing steel toed boots and never feeling quite clean, and I miss it a lot.
I had a bruise on my leg today that I was trying to figure out how I could possibly gotten it. And I laughed, because back in the 'old days', I would have bruises running up and down my body, and I would have no idea where it came from for a whole different reason. That being, I was hurting myself constantly back then, do there would be no way to differentiate what bruise was from what incident.


Sometimes, just sometimes, as I sit in my office, and talk on the phone all day, I remember the days of hammering things, and acting/looking tough, and...

I miss it a lot.

Another one of those whirlwind days.

But the most important thing of the whole day, are these animal erasers that we got for the toy box today. I will keep these cuties by my desk to give me reasons to smile through the stressful days.

Sleeping beauty.

Let me tell you what I don't do.
I don't take naps after work, and I don't sleep in on work mornings.
I am a super big fan of schedules and lists and planning and regularity.
If I don't do everything exactly how I always do it, I can't do it at all.

The last 24 hours.
I had a nap after work. Definitely not a purposeful nap. I would never think after coming home at 6:00 that that would be a good time to nap. Everybody knows if you sleep at a time like that, you will wake up in the middle of the night. (not me, turns out)
It was a "oh, the room is finally warm and cozy, I feel so good, I'm just going to close my eyes for a moment" kind of thing.
A moment that turned into an hour.
Waking up at 8:05pm, realized there wasn't anything else that seemed more important at that moment than going to bed, so I basically got up to turn the lights out, and went to bed, *there was a small interlude of doing a blog post, and watching a show to calm my brain down again.

And then this morning! You would think that I would be so refreshed and alive, I would wake up to my alarm and bound out of bed with all the energy I had recovered.
Alas, I lay there, and promptly feel back asleep. Only to awake with a start and look at the clock, "7:28! I have to leave at 7:40!"
It was a rushed ten minutes. But I managed.
And I managed to get through the day, despite not having my coffee for the second day in a row.


It's amazing what you can do when you are forced to in a panic.

Not like riding a bike.

So we went out yesterday with the sole intention of taking pictures. It had  been way to long since I had done something like that.
And it wasn't naturally coming back to me. I used to be able to think up poses on the spot and just generally know how I want the picture to look, but I was stumped. Kept muttering the phrase  "I should have pinterested this first" :)

Taking pictures of people is one of my most favouritest things to do. So I guess I will have to challenge myself to do it more often now, so I can keep my head in the game.

On the 7th day, He rested.

Today at Church we listened to a sermon on the fourth of the ten commandments,
That commandment, of course being, to remember the Sabbath day and keep it Holy.

After the week I had with work, and conference and being out with people, it was nice to not do anything today. My house is a mess, I could have done laundry, grocery shopping, the 9 yards.
But instead I had a nap, Matt and I went out to take pictures, and dinner at his parents house.

The chores can wait until tomorrow.

Another Conference Day.

I'm blaming it on the conference, even thought that was over hours ago. But because of how busy I WAS yesterday, made it neccessary today to do things I didn't have time for yesterday. Like hanging out with my sweet, sweet boyfriend, and vegging out.

So once again, you are stuck with the short end of the stick. I'll try and make it up to you tomorrow, with a picture from tonight.

Update: A picture of the Rockets hockey game I was at last night. It was the kids night due to it being Halloween next week, and so all the kids went out on the ice to get the candy.

Dental convention.

Dear world web.
I didn't want to leave you hanging.
I remembered about you as I was waking to my convention and I started freakin out because I've been so good about this challenge and I didn't want to miss a day. So here I am. Sitting in the middle of a huge room full of people watching a comedy show. And I'm blogging to you. :). I go the length.
But this is about all I can manage. And this picture of a cute woodpecker I saw today. (If it works out. ) have a good night! And a great weekend, because unlike me, you don't have to be stuck at a dental convention with your coworkers like I do.

#throwbackthursday

Throwing it back to that time 2 years ago, when I set off to Greece all by my lonesome to sail around the Agean sea for 7 weeks with 12 strangers.
Oh the memories.

Teaser.

Just a little taste of what my costume will be for Halloween.

The costume that I bought in January.
I feel like one of those weird people who buy all of next years Christmas presents on Boxing day.

The day I had been waiting 3 years for.

It's picture day for adults, it's the image you have to live with whether you like it or not, it's usually on par with passports as far as being horribly unflattering.

It's your drivers license.

I don't know what I was thinking the day I went in to day my test to unlock my full license, 3 years ago this past June. The picture part was probably nowhere near as high priority in my mind so much as actually passing the test was.
For some reason, and I'll question myself forever, I had my hair pulled back.
And it ended up being a picture to shame me for years to come.
You think I would have learned my lesson from doing the same thing in a passport picture years earlier, which had an even more disastrous effect (trust me, at least in this one you can tell I have hair at all)
But no.
On time someone who was checking my id didn't even believe I was the same person, so he made me pull back my hair on the left side of my face like in the picture. I kid you not.
So I looked forward to license renewal day ...for months...
I picked a day that I didn't have to work, I woke up early to spend an hour getting myself ready, I went to the licensing office first before any other errands so's not to muss anything up.
I arrived early enough in the day so there was no wait, and I didn't have a chance to sit for a while and somehow ruin something.
And I managed to take a great picture.
She gave the option of retaking if I wanted to (an option, I might add, that they did not give me the first time round) but I figured it was probably as good as it was going to get.
And today, after weeks of waiting, I receive the card in the mail, and I am so happy.
I know it's such a trivial thing, but I'm okay with sweating the small stuff occasionally.

Before, and after!

Just a spoonful of sugar...

These days I go to work with the sunrise, and I leave work with the sunset.
If you can get over that dismal fact in it's entirety, its actually quite beautiful.

If you need a pick-me-up.

Dr. Seuss is always good for smile.

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

by Dr. Seuss

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own.  And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

You'll look up and down streets.  Look 'em over with care.
About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any
you'll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you'll head straight out of town.

It's opener there
in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen,
don't worry.  Don't stew.
Just go right along.
You'll start happening too.

OH!
THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!

You'll be on your way up!
You'll be seeing great sights!
You'll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.

You won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed.
You'll pass the whole gang and you'll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you'll be the best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don't
Because, sometimes, you won't.

I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.

You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You'll be left in a Lurch.

You'll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you'll be in a Slump.

And when you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted.  But mostly they're darked.
A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out?  Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right...
or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?
Or go around back and sneak in from behind?
Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find,
for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...

...for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or a No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.

NO!
That's not for you!

Somehow you'll escape
all that waiting and staying.
You'll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

With banner flip-flapping,
once more you'll ride high!
Ready for anything under the sky.
Ready because you're that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you'll go! There is fun to be done!
There are points to be scored.  there are games to be won.
And the magical things you can do with that ball
will make you the winning-est winner of all.
Fame!  You'll be famous as famous can be,
with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don't.
Because, sometimes, they won't.

I'm afraid that some times
you'll play lonely games too.
Games you can't win
'cause you'll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not,
Alone will be something
you'll be quite a lot.

And when you're alone, there's a very good chance
you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.
There are some, down the road between hither and yon,
that can scare you so much you won't want to go on.

But on you will go
though the weather be foul
On you will go
though your enemies prowl
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.

On and on you will hike
and I know you'll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.

You'll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You'll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life's
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)

KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

So...
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
you're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So...get on your way!

Lazy Saturday.

I'm beginning to think I have more lazy Saturdays than I give credit for. I'm incredibly grateful for being able to do nothing important for a whole day, and not have things to worry or stress about.
I walked to Starbucks mid morning, and then on a whim went on a detour down another road after, just for fun. Laughing to myself the whole time, of course, because normally I would never do something like that. I always have a plan and things to do. But today was not the case. Today I walked, and breathed, and it was calming.

I guess I am turning over new leaves

My Patronus

Penguins are probably my all time favourite animal.
Now, most people would think my pick would be the zebra. And it is true that it holds one of the highly sought after spots in my heart. But mostly because it is so aesthetically amusing and pleasing.

But a penguin. It's just so..adorable, and cute, and pretty and funny.

Melbourne aquarium. March 2013.

As shown above, I was able to see a penguin exhibit in Australia when I was there last year.
Actually I got to see 3 kinds of penguins on my trip.
At this particular exhibit, there were both Gentoo and King penguins, which are from Antarctica, but then also later in my trip at the Melbourne Zoo, I got to see the penguins that are native to Australia.
They are smaller, with more of a dark blue back, rather than black.

Melbourne Zoo.

I could watch these things for hours.

TILT:The Selfie.

Right under your nose.

My funny story of the day.
Today as I was lying in my bed, staring around the room for inspiration for my picture of the day, I noticed a fan. Certainly not big news I guess.
But the part that stuck out to me, is there is a light that is part of it, and I have never even known it existed. There are pot lights in my room that I use,, but I never realized that I had an extra one.
Trouble is, I can't figure out how to turn it on...

And that, folk, is how weird things get here in my little house all by myself.

Act 1, Scene 1.

"The time was evening,
She had finished the day's work, ate a meal and was ready for a early night.
Cuddled up in her bed, lights off, starting to drift off to the soundtrack of 2 broke girls.
But wait.
What was that?
Some disturbing thought was trying to wiggle it's way into her conscience.

Oh right, she hadn't blogged that."

This is getting to me, guys,

I can hardly remember to brush my teeth everyday, much less write a blog post with a new creative photo every day. This is harder that school ever was.

So, obviously this picture is a pull from the history books.
I had enough energy to leave my bed to type some words, but definitely not enough to get out all of my camera gear.
It's funny how its usually the days that I have way too much spare time end up being the days nothing gets done.

Now back to where I belong....ZZZzzzzzz

Some nice flowers to cushion the end of a lovely 4 day weekend.
The impact doesn't AS much now.

#thanks

thankful for the lovely friends I get to hang out when I come back to Kamloops.
Always a great time with this girl.

The Cliche Day Trip

Today I went to the Adam's River Salmon Run with friends.
Not my idea, I'll say that from the beginning.

It reminded me of the time I went to the Louvre in Paris (just casually name dropping as I go..)

Only reason people go to the Louvre is to see the Mona Lisa. Sure you can trick yourself into thinking you care about some of the other art there, but unless you are an art student, you are just there for the Mona Lisa. And the Louvre workers know it. Every other painting gets crammed onto a wall beside a hundred other like creations, but the Mona Lisa gets an entire large room to herself, and that room is PACKED!

So everybody pays their fees, walks around for hours for that 5-10 minute opportunity to see that famous, trendy lady.

The Salmon run seems to be the free Canadian version. There were SO many people there. It took forever to get there, to find a space, to walk from our space to the park, to walk up the trail to find the viewing platform, to find a spot at the railing of the viewing platform.
So so so so so many people.
All for that 2-3 minutes of viewing the fish and hearing some science lesson.
Not my particular cup of tea, but it's something you need to experience at least a couple times in your lifetiime to be able to say you did it.

Flashback Friday.

Flackback Friday to the weekend I got to hang out with my friends from Bible school.
(I missed yesterdays 'Throwback Thursday', which is the only reason I'm reducing myself to FF)

For some reason, I thought being at my parents house for the weekend would give me so much extra time, and that I would be ahead in my Les Mis reading, and have so much free time to write pages of blog posts, but no such deal, folks. I am behind in reading and still scraping by on the blogging, but I'm still doing it, and that's what counts!

Home is where the heart is.

Kamloops.

The best/worst day.

Something I never missed from when I worked at Tim Hortons, was the roller coaster ride of emotions that you would go through on a daily basis. It's the truth.
Somehow, during every single day there was a moment of pure happiness but making it's way all the way back to anger/tear/general frustration.

When I started the job at the hotel, that's the thing  I didn't miss missing the most.

But today changed that.
I don't know, there is something about being at the point of complete stress and then flipping back up to happy with dancing to Taylor Swift and eating chocolate covered fruit, that makes it that much more enjoyable. If I hadn't been to the bottom, of course I wouldn't be able to appreciate the top as much!

Today was the worst day. But it was also the best. And I wouldn't change it.

                      I went on two separate walks today, folks. It's a Christmas miracle!

My warning to you.

This is my warning to all the young people out there, who think that moving out is a great idea, and that it will be fun times and parties every day all day.

Maybe it's like that for some people, and I do have to admit that it can be pretty sweet being all off by ones lonesome. But the compromise ain't great.

I ate popcorn for dinner.
Does that sound like a balanced nutritional meal to you?

Making a meal these days is a luxury, most of the time it just comes frozen, or from a can in the pantry. I don't like to buy a lot of vegetables, because it makes me sad knowing most of them will go bad in my fridge before I get a chance to eat them.

Sure, sure, I could get organized and plan things, and spend an hour a day preparing food, with another hour of cleaning it up (fact: I don't own a dishwasher.)
But my 22 year old mentality does not see it as worth it yet. Give me a couple years.

Anyway. Just my little piece of advice for today.
Stop dreaming of moving out of your parent's basement, and go eat a nice big plate of your mother's spaghetti. And think of me and my bowl of popcorn while you do.

content.

First of all, I wanted to mention that this book, which has been the bane of my existence just thinking about it the last 10 months, has become a real problem now that I am actually pushing myself to finish it.
I can't say I'm right on track with where I should be. But the fact that I'm still keeping up with it at all slightly amazes me. I keep telling myself that I want to read all the classics and greats, but if they are all like this, then I'll be happy sticking to my chick lit, thank you very much.

Now on to contentment.
I have been enlightened today.
I have discovered that I am happy.

Now this might seem like a silly thing, or an obvious thing, but really, how much of the time do we as humans live in ideal circumstances, and yet find reasons and ways to have problems because it keeps us entertained. Maybe that doesn't sound right, but maybe there is some truth to it as well.

But today, in this moment, I am aware that I have a good job, a lovely place to live in, no financial troubles, no health afflictions. Life is good. And I think it is important to know and appreciate that when you can.

Pictured above is my new little plant, Steve. He was 1.50 at Rona, and he is filling me with delight.
I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe because he is tiny, maybe because I always love cheap things, maybe because the nice lady gave me a free pot to go along with him. All I know is that a tiny plant named Steve is making me smile every time I look at it.
And if I can smile at that, my life must be pretty perfect.

Fallin'

Today was a blur.
I am sitting on my couch at the end of the day, trying to blink away the sleep long enough to post this, and then read 40 pages of Les Mis. I can't possibly make it!

So much went on today that I'm glad that I managed to snap two pictures when I had the chance this afternoon, or else I would have been looking for inspiration somewhere around my bedroom tonight. It wouldn't have been great. 

I am not in the head space for writing tonight, so I will just leave you with the colourful beauty of Fall until tomorrow.

Just breathe.

Day 3.
It's amazing how time can fly when you are running errands.
One moment, I was leaving the house, and it was 8:30 am. Next thing you know, it's 1:30pm and I wasn't even back yet.
But the feeling of getting some procrastinated things done made it all worth it.
At one point today, in the middle of my car-store-car-drive-store-car-drive etc workout, I was suddenly struck by how cool and fresh the air was. And how walking outside can be an instant pick up sometimes. I always appreciate being outside in the spring and fall more than the other seasons.

Today I was looking around for pictures to take, and I kept thinking of close up "macro" shots that might look good. Macro is my thing.
The thing that's great about it is, it focuses on the details, rather than the whole picture.

I have been ready for change for a little while now.
It occurred to me a couple months ago that I had been living in Kelowna for almost a year already, and I still didn't have many connections except for those through my job, and my boyfriend.
Going from living in a town that you have known all your life, to completely immersing yourself in a new place can be very difficult. I am to the point where I want to be able to know people and have plans and be a part of something. So I took a step out of my comfortable little shell, and I contacted someone from my Church about volunteering.

Now, we have been going to this church for 1 whole year. Do we know anybody? Well, we know the associate pastor that was very friendly and tried to set us up in a small group, but we turned that down, so our connections kind of fizzled out there.
And this is not something I'm used to.
I'm used to being the girl that knows everybody, even the people that don't know me. It is WEIRD being on the other side.

Anyway, getting back to the macro of it all.
The man I talked to about volunteering(coincedentally, it turned out to be the pastor we had shut down before), asked me what were my strong suits, and where my skills would be most applicable.
I said details.
I sure do not want to be the one speaking in front of a crowd, but I'll be the one behind the stage organizing the event. So we'll see what happens. I'll be glad to just have something to do.


P.s. Did you notice my watermark?
For those of you who are new to the photo community, the watermark is the little name I have in the bottom right hand of my pictures. It's something that photographers put on their pictures to keep peoplle from stealing the pictures without giving credit where it is due.
Just another thing that I had been procrastinating doing for a while. I couldn't figure out how to make one by myself, but this handy little tutorial on Pic Monkey really helped out.

Keep calm and have a cupcake.

Things I love Thursday: The weekend.*

This week was a little hectic at work. We were one person short in the back, which meant the girl at the front went to the back, which meant I was all by my lonesome to try and keep the home fire burning.

On top of that, I picked some sort of bug along the last couple weeks, or perhaps all of the not sleeping caught up to me, because I came down with something.

Put that all together with the regular every day stress of my job, it was nice when 5:00pm came around today. Just coming home and flopping down on the couch made me feel ten times better.

Oh, and the mint chocolate cupcake. That helped in the healing process.


*the rest of my TILT list.
2. getting mail two days in a row!
3. These colder days that make it all the more cozier to
snuggle in the blankets in the early hours of the morning.
4. Living so central in town that it never takes me long to get anywhere.
5. My little pal Jeffery. It's been a year now, and he's still alive and kicking...or whatever those beta fish do in their little bowls of homes
6. The new sensation that I am learning to enjoy. The art of relaxing. 

Sitting, and being. It feel so good.
7. Getting to take a new picture for my id tomorrow after living with a horror of a photo for the last 3 years.

31 days.

So many different topics, so many ideas.

Three different titles I came up with.

1. 31 days to bettering myself

2. 31 Days of pictures.

3. 2 days of pretending that I could blog 31 days in a row before I realize the inevitable truth.


Which one appeals the most to you?

A couple weeks ago I was thinking of my new year resolutions.
I know right?
Probably one of the few that think about those past January 15th.

And something that is bugging is that book that keeps taunting me. Les Mis.
I will to whatever I can to finish that book this year. But it's so hard with all it's references en francais and the general old language of the 1800's.

But I needed a plan. And the plan involved pacing myself. Because there is no way that is a book that you pick up and read in a day. There is strategy to it.

So originally I was planning on dividing into the days of November, and make it into a spoof of NaNoWriMo or NoBloPoMo. (it would be almost as difficult).
But that didn't really give me much time on the other side just in case I slacked off and needed to cram on the other sided. Yes, I don't consider a whole month of December to be enough cramming time.

Which is why it turned into the month of October. Then my creativity ran wild and decided I should add more complex rules to this month of accomplishment.
Taking pictures, reading more books, discovering new music, going outside of comfort zones, learning, all of the good stuff. Following through.

all of this shaping me into a beautiful person for my 22nd year.

I don't want to become stagnant and routine.

This will be a trial and error kind of thing.

31 days? No problem.