Auld Lang Syne

This Christmas B & I were supposed to go to Norway to spend time with his family. However, due to the really nasty storm in Philly on the 19th, we ended up postponing the trip until the summer (dates TBD, haven’t even asked for the time off yet).  I’ve had a largely techno-free holiday, although not highly productive. Will have to remedy that when I get back.

2009 was an exciting, challenging and at times overwhelming year, but I have grown tremendously because of it. Not that its been an easy go of things. That being said, I’m happy to put it behind me and move on. I’m not in the habit of setting New Years Resolutions (I tend to think that setting them ensures their failure) but I do have some goals and changes I want to make in this year. You see, I was stuck in my parents’ basement for a number of hours sorting through memorabilia of my past and I was put back in touch with parts of myself that I really missed. I’m also amazed at how organized I was back in high school! I still spend time organizing and setting up personal filing systems and schedule planners, but I’m not as good at sustaining them as I used to be. Work-wise, I’m fine and still maintain them, but personal life (and school life!), need to spend some more time on that. Goal #1

Oh my!

I shouldn’t find this as funny as I do!

http://www.sketchysantas.org/

I have a great sketchy Santa story of my own, as told to me by my Mom. You see, I’m adopted and when I was very small the agency I was adopted through would host events for the kids they had placed (were we alumni? success stories? I’m not sure what to call us). One Christmas they had a party, and Santa came! Only Santa came in smelling like he had bathed in some sort of hard alcohol (come to think of it, I hope he hadn’t driven to the party). Well, this didn’t deter the tiny terror that was I. I thought Santa was awesome! Alcohol bath or not. So in one of our family photo albums there is a lovely picture of me giving Drunk Santa a kiss on the cheek. Next time I am home I shall have to find it and scan it…

Oh boy

This has been quite a semester. I’ve been really, really busy with work, school and trying to have a social life. I’m looking forward to starting my vacation next Saturday. Perhaps I will finally have enough time to work on the lit review and thesis proposal.

I swear!

I swear I haven’t forgotten about this blog. My daily life is impeding my ability to blog I’ve probably said before, but I’m quite busy. I did want to briefly share something vaguely intellectual.

B and I made it up to Ottawa for the first time a week and  a half ago (sightseeing, not so good, it was rainy and Parliament was closed to the public, but we did see this: 350 protest in Ottawa). I was going up for this: 1st Annual Global Health Research Learning Forum. I’ve been to conferences before (and I’ll be in Toronto for CBIE next week for work) but this was actually the first conference that I’ve been to specifically for my educational pursuits. Aside from learning about new assessment tools and ongoing research projects, it was so refreshing and so inspiring to be around people who were passionate about similar issues! Once I get through the backlog of work/class assignments, I can’t wait to get started on my protocol, research and thesis! God, I’m such a keener…

Accomplishment

Meaning: 1 a successful result brought about by hard work

Ta da!

(Mom! Do not look!)

Continue reading »

Use the force, Chippy!

Taking a little break out of reading like a mad woman for my MA. I had a very interesting seminar about epistemology on Monday. I won’t get too philosophical about it, but I’ve been thinking a lot about the difference between ‘truths’ and ‘facts’. Its fascinating how we can use words so interchangeably but there are subtle and important differences in meaning. Sometimes I love semantics.

But, thats not what I wanted to share today. I have a huge addiction to cute animal pictures (I check CuteOverload.com religiously) and this gallery was just too cute not to pass along! May the force be with you, Chippy! It begs the question… how on earth did they get the chipmunk to sit still and wear an action figure?

No excuses

I will post more often… I will post more often… I will post more often… Let me keep repeating that mantra and see how well this goes

I do have a bit of exciting news though! I’ve said before that I work at the University I graduated from, well… I will be doing my Master’s degree part time while working. It will be a Master of Arts in Applied Health Sciences. I have my first class tomorrow! Its a thesis based program and I have some vague ideas for a thesis but who really knows how many incarnations I will have before I defend!

On another note, looks like we will be having an election up here this fall. Joy.

Not so good at this, eh?

I wrote this on Aug. 19, and I’ve been debating if I should post this or not… I would rather discuss health than politics but I think this is probably important. I will be turning off comments on this post, I dealt with political backlash enough during my Undergrad years (aka the Bush years) in Canada. Without further ado… Continue reading »

Vacay in Montreal!

So… almost 6 years ago I moved from the US to Canada to go to school. Because I have lived here for so long I hold great affection for Canada, ironically I don’t often spend Canada Day in the country. Canada Day falls on the 1st and Independence day is the 4th, so I often have a long weekend to go home and visit my friends and parents. This year my best friend and I went to Montreal We had quite the sightseeing and gastronomic experience

For a quick summary… we flew in on June 30 and got in just in time to drop off our bags (we stayed on Amherst Street, fairly close to UQAM) and to see Stevie Wonder perform at Jazz Fest. The rest of the week we saw all of the sights; Mont Royal and the neighborhood around it, Little Italy and Jean Talon Market, Old Montreal, Jean Drapeau Park, the Olympic Village, fireworks at Le Ronde and shopping on St. Catherine street. And the food… oh… the food… bagels, poutine, beavertails (its a dessert not part of an animal), creton, pizza, montreal smoked meat sandwiches… Yum! It was probably good that we were walking around so much!

I’m still working on editing/sorting my pictures, so they will come in a future post.

Adventures in Driving

Well, I’m back in St. C after going back to my hometown. My Mom’s birthday is coming up so I went home to visit. I had a lovely time there and also saw some very good friends (and a friend’s absolutely adorable 9 month old baby girl).

On the way back, to keep myself entertained, I started cataloging the things I had seen while driving.

A few of the more memorable things are:

• approximately 60 miles of construction
• 1 angry turkey in a field
• white tailed deer in a pen
• roadkill
• license plates from: Michigan, Ontario, Quebec, Illinois, Ohio, Texas, Georgia, New York and a terrible BMW driver from New Jersey
• an empty GM plant
• speeders pulled over by police (in one case, 3 within approximately 100m)
• fields, trees, lakes and rivers
• rain
• 2 sunsets
• a couple vineyards

And as an aside, on this trip I also experienced the irony of John Mellencamp’s “Authority Song” playing while going through customs.