Words of Wisdom

I just finished reading the autobiography of Kris Jenner, the mom of televisions most famous (or infamous) family…the Kardashians. I have to admit it was a really good read, very light and there wasn’t any ‘fluff’. It made me realize a couple of things about this woman; 1) She’s a fighter that’s for sure and 2) She was born with a brain for business.

As I continued to read through all the different stages of her life I soon realized that she really has come a long way. I could read the changes in the person she had changed to once she had a taste of the money…that seems to happen to a lot of people. Fortunately for her, she was forced to rebuild herself and her family again. In doing that she had some very poignant quotes that I was hoping to share with you all as they really do hit home for me. So here they are and again these are all quotes taken directly from Kris Jenner’s autobiography; Kris Jenner and all things Kardashian.

• The power of friendship, the power of love, and the power of feeling complete.

This one really hits home for me as I continue to struggle with feeling like I am missing a few key friends in my life.

• I never knew my environment could have such a powerful impact on my happiness.

I’ve been saying this for years and I’m glad that there is someone else out there who feels the same way.

• Don’t ever discount your environment. Where you live, work and play have a powerful effect on your happiness & productivity.

Again another mantra that I live by and will continue to live by knowing that it’s perfectly normal.

• I have to have everything in my life completely organized and perfect – otherwise, I am a complete mess. I can’t think straight if my home isn’t just right. My environment is my energy. I thrive in order of what I create.

This one really stuck with me as I need to feel that same way in order to move on with projects etc.

Overall the book was an easy read and I would recommend it to people who just want something to “fill the void” of their normal genre of reading. The main reason for writing this blog was to share these very important quotes that I was able to pull out from the book and hopefully others can relate to them as well.

Who Keeps a New Year's Resolution?

We all know I seem to get the writing bug around the beginning of the year; if you look back at all of my ‘Resolutions’ blogs…I don’t know what it is, maybe I get cabin fever and just need to feel like I am accomplishing something. I don’t know, either way I’m wondering who keeps these silly resolutions anyway.

 I know last year or the year before I stated that I would make more realistic resolutions and I did. I was able to fulfill 85% of them; which is pretty amazing considering that 90% of the population breaks their resolutions within 2-3 days. Anyhow this year, I decided to write out another list of (realistic) resolutions to see if 1) They could make me a better person and 2) I could actually complete all of them at least partially. So here is my list of resolutions:

• Read a book once a month (notice I don't specify how big or what kind)
• Blog Regularly (again I don't say how often, I just say regularly
• Get onto Blogger and post old blogs - CHECK
• Get into a routine to touch up or paint my nails every week or two (again no set date)
• Get into a routine of washing my face, working up to every night
• Cook recipes from unused cookbooks that I have (again not how many times)
• Take daily vitamins - CHECK
• Learn more about digital photography

These all seem do able, I don’t think that they’ll be too hard to keep; I like how I’ve set out what I want to do but there isn’t a set time frame. I think I am finally getting the hang of this resolutions thing. So for now, I am successful in keeping these resolutions in check…I just hope I can continue to for the entire year.

Only the Lonely

How is it on the most romantic day of the year (according to Hallmark), I am feeling most lonely. Don’t get me wrong I am still with the Mr., but I seem to be missing one key ingredient in my life…friends.

I’m not sure when it all happened as I’ve always been social and had a lot of friends. I know moving so much in my life has played a major role in me not having ‘lifelong’ friends but I thought I had some friends. I know when my ex and I broke up he took a lot of the friends I had with him and I don’t think I ever really replaced them. Not that you can so easily but I don’t think I ever filled that void that I’ve been missing for quite a while now.

I read a book recently and a quote in that book was “…the power of friendship, the power of love, and the power of feeling complete.” I think I am missing that; I don’t have a whole lot of friends and I really wish that I did.

As we get older it seems that it’s getting harder to make any new friends as we seem to have all made the friends that we wanted to. With the time constraints that we have placed on us it’s hard to make the time with our girlfriends. In my case I lost some in a separation and the others had kids and left me in the dust. I tried, believe me I tried but if you don’t have anything in common anymore it’s like “…thanks for being my friend and have a good life.”

I don’t think that I’ve been the only person this has happened to; I have to believe that I’m not alone in my crusade. Maybe I’m too picky, maybe I’m a bad friend…I don’t know? I always thought I was a good friend…but now I am definitely having my doubts.

Christmas Song

Here I am driving to work, wondering where all the snow is. This has been a very unusual year as normally by this time we are knee deep in snow; trying to find a place to shovel it all. However this year we have little to no snow. I think our first snow fall was in late November and it was all of 2cms. As the unusually warm temperature continued, what little snow we had melted leaving a thin layer of dust and dirt everywhere.

I stare at the barren landscape to each side of me and think to myself “How am I going to get myself into the Christmas Spirit?” Then like a sign from Santa Claus himself, my favourite Christmas song starts to play…Mary’s Boy Child, by Boney M. I start to sing along as it plays…

I remember the first time I ever heard this song; I was in grade 6. My teacher was Ms. Price; she never married and was obsessed with Don Johnson. We were in a split 5/6 class in a portable right beside the playground. On the back of our portable door, Ms. Price had a life sized poster of Don Johnson. She was the coolest teacher!

We had a Christmas concert coming up and because we were the oldest in the school she wanted us to be the coolest group to perform. The next day she brought in a ghetto blaster from home with the Boney M cassette tape and played it for us. She had all kinds of instruments on the table at the back of the room. We were all pretty excited to get started!

I remember my friend got to play the triangle and of course because she was playing one I wanted to play one as well. But there was only one triangle to be played; I got stuck with what I thought was the worst instrument. To this day I have no idea what it was called, I just know that it was wooden and I held it in my hands and hit it together. I remember thinking that this is the lamest instrument ever. But looking back on it now, I realize that 1) it was the loudest instrument and 2) I played to the beat of the song…meaning that I had rhythm and could keep a beat. I should’ve actually felt honoured. I've attached a photo below, but it didn't have the ridges, it was smooth and you just hit the stick thingy (technical term) to the instrument itself.

After a month or two of practicing, we were the best performance at the Christmas concert. I remember thinking how cool I was standing there playing that instrument. I also remember getting over the fact that I was playing that instrument and played throughout the whole song and my girlfriend who I was jealous of only got one part in the song. Funny how we think…

To this day this song is my absolute favourite Christmas song and part of that reason I think is because of how cool Ms. Price was. Just thinking about that Christmas concert has definitely gotten me into the Christmas Spirit…I love this song!

Reliving the 90's

I drive an older car that is just about to turn over to 200,000. I acquired this car at a great price; it was one of those ‘right time right place’ deals. Anyhoo, like I was saying it is just about to turn over to 200,000 and for the past week I’ve been diligently watching the odometer. As each day passes I see the odometer turn over a new year…

It started with 1990 and I drove and thought back to where I was at that point in my life. I remember being in grade 10, loving everything about life. Then the next day I was reliving 1991, where I was finally able to go out on my first date. The next day was 1992, when my love for dance music (thanks to Much Music’s Dance Mix CD’s) was born. The day after was 1993, when I graduated and moved back home just because I could. 1994 was the year I decided to go back to school just so I didn’t have to decide what I wanted to study in college. 1995 was the year that I had my very first serious relationship (I think?). 1996 was the year that I got my pink car! 1997 was the year that I decided to explore new things about myself. 1998 was the year that I finally decided to make some roots for myself and moved out west for the last time. 1999 was the year that everyone thought that the world was going to end and then we went into the new Millennium.

That’s kind of how I felt about my car; I felt like it was going to move on to a new stage in its life. I loved that I could drive to and from my destination every day and re-live my life. I was enjoying the nostalgic feelings so much that I decided that I would listen to my 90’s station all week just so that I could remember all of those memories that I created for myself.

On that last day before the odometer turned over, I carefully watched the odometer and tried to imagine where I would be. Turns out I was on the highway and was able to pull over so that I could take a picture of it to always remember my week of 90’s memories and share something very special with my car…because I know it won’t be with me forever.

Hometown Obligation

Last night at a family gathering there was a hockey game on TV. Our home town team was playing and of course we were cheering for them as loudly as we could. That got me to thinking, if you have a professional sports team in the town/city that you grow up in; does that mean you have to cheer for them?

It’s as though the fate of the team you cheer for has to be pre-determined. You don’t really get a say in the matter, you cheer for them by default. Is that really fair? In my particular case, I’ve cheered for my hometown team all my life…but I’m not sure why? It’s not like that are known for their defense, offense or goaltending; I’ve just always cheered for the, and don’t know why.

I don’t plan on becoming a fair-weather fan, but I just want to have the option to choose who I cheer for. I know it’s too late for me to switch who I cheer for as it’s tradition. But maybe we’ll let the kids decide who they want to cheer for in the future.

Knowing When to Stop

It happened on Sunday during out ‘A’ final game. A hard hit line drive was coming my way and dropping fast. I thought I could catch it (silly me); as soon as that ball hit the inside of my right ankle, I toppled to the ground like a ton of bricks.

The pain was so intense; I think it had a heartbeat all on its own. I needed a minute or two to get adjusted; two outfielders helped me to the bench. I can’t believe how much pain I was in, I decided to keep score so that I could try and distract myself from the pain. Needless to say that didn’t work and I immediately started to shake uncontrollably…which I now know was shock.

So after the game and winning the ‘A’ championship; I drove home…lifting my leg with my hands of course as I knew I was injured but I wasn’t sure to what extent. The next day in the hospital I thought maybe it would be ok and it was just badly bruised…on a side note the only reason I was at the hospital was because I couldn’t put any weight on it all day. After some x-rays it was determined that there were NO breaks, thank god! But the smallest piece of bone on the front of my tibia had started to flake off…luckily it was still attached but it looked like a cat’s claw just hanging there. Despite my protests and promise to stay off of it (like that would happen); the doctor put a plaster cast on me. I had to wear it for 2 weeks and then we’d see about a walking cast.

So as I sit here staring at my casted leg, I think it was the universe’s way of telling me to slow down as I was just starting a course, working full time, still playing ball and getting ready for Halloween…that’s not even including the time I devote to my family, friends and specifically my mom. (which is a lot) I stared at the black plastered cast that I had requested and thought “…maybe I should slow down and focus on what’s going on right now in my life.”

It’s weird how things happen that you realize afterwards why it did happen. For me having the cast on my leg really helped me to get some outstanding work projects out of the way. Plus I was able to focus on the course that I was taking, I’d actually been dreading taking this class but because I was able to focus on it, it wasn’t that bad. So despite me being house bound for a month; I got a lot done and am thankful every day that it was only a tiny chip and not a break.