Just because I want to

10 YEARS AGO I...
1. Was flunking out of jr. high school
2. Acting out against my parents
3. Getting ready for high school
4. Living at home with my family
5. Worrying about if the time would ever come that I'd get my licence
6. Wondering what job I'd have in a year's time when I hit 16
7. Planning a trip to Woodstock, Ontario to spend the summer with my brother and his girlfriend
8. Loving my puppies, Zach and Fifi
9. Dating boys
10. Loving the Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, 98*, etc.


5 THINGS ON TODAY'S TO DO LIST...
1. Finish up the archive section of PEI ACOA's website
2. Find the time to wrap my fiance's birthday present
3. Tell said Fiance Happy Birthday again, and again, and again
4. Find out who will be in Stephen Harper's new Cabinet
5. Call my mother back home.


5 THINGS I WOULD DO IF I WERE A MILLIONAIRE...
1. Pay off my loans, my fiance's loans, my sisters loans, and my parents loans
2. Buy houses in the three provinces I live in: NL, NS, and PEI
3. Pay for the dream wedding I want
4. Take my friends and family on a trip around the world.
5. Donate money to my favourite charities.

5 PLACES I HAVE LIVED...
1. Portugal Cove, Newfoundland
2. Old Harlow, England
3. Halifax, Nova Scotia
4. Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
5. Tracadie, Prince Edward Island


5 JOBS I HAVE HAD...
1. Cashier, Zellers
2. Border Officer, CBSA (Boo)
3. Communications Assistant, Veterans Affairs
4. Junior Communications Assistant, Fisheries and Oceans
5. Junior Communications Officer, Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency

On a side note, Harper has announced his cabinet and ACOA's been demoted from a full Ministry to a Minister of State. Check out the new cabinet here

Harper set to announce new Cabinet

Stephen Harper is set to announce his new cabinet today. Which is good. For me. I work for the GoC, and have on and off since 2006 through my co-ops with MSVU and the FSWEP program (Boo CBSA). So announcing a new cabinet means we can get going on some long awaited announcements to roll out. Anyway, read the story here.

Pictures of his Accident - Drivers Beware!

Here are the pictures from his accident. It happened on Highway 401 near Maitland, Ontario. A truck had gotten into a fender-bender (big truck) about 15-20 minutes beforehand, and instead of pulling over to the shoulder which is what he legally was supposed to do, he put his 4 way flashers on and stayed in the middle lane of highway 401.

For anyone who has driven or seen Highway 401, it is not a 2 lane highway. It is a superhighway, with anywhere between 4-20 lanes depending on how close to the GTA you are. Stopping in the middle of the lane was idiotic, and the driver should have been aressted. But I digress.

Mike was travelling through blistery conditions - not a blizzard, but snow was starting to fall and he wanted to get out of the storm before it got worse. As he was driving along the highway, it started to come down thicker and faster, and he realized he would have to pull over at the nearest truck stop and wait for it to pass. He didn't make it that far. Coming up onto the highway he suddenly saw the stopped transport truck and had no time to put on his brakes. He made the split second decision to turn the truck to the left and he knew he was going to hit.

The pictures below are somewhat difficult to look at. The red stuff is salsa sauce, the cargo he was carring, not blood as reported by earlier media. I tried to find archives of any stories, but I guess a 10 car pile up on the 401 isn't that important.

**VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED!**

This is Mike's truck, the roof came completely off and the only part not destroyed was the drivers side

Other vehicles involved in the pile up

February 2006

A close up of Mike's truck after the accident

I'm very surprised someone wasn't seriously hurt

Today feels like Thursday

That's what a co-worker said to me today. She explained that Tuesday felt like Monday, and today (Wednesday) felt like Thursday. It shouldn't make any sense to me, but I completely understand. I wish today was Thursday, because it would be one less day until I see my fiance.

He got sleepy last night 30 minutes before he got to Detroit and went to bed early. Thank god for that - apparently the worst of the storm, that he was headed into (from my earlier post) was worst during the time he should have been driving, but because he knew better than to drive sleepy, he missed the bulk of it and now there is only a light layer of slush on the highways. Dangerous, yes, but far from the whiteout and hazardous conditions he was planning on driving through.

I'm asking him if he minds if I post the pictures of his wreck on this blog. I feel that it should be shown how dangerous winter driving can be, and how important it is that people take their time when driving during snowy wintery conditions.

Friday is Halloween! I'm so excited that I'm planning on doing a Halloween picture post sometime today. I take my pictures from deviantart.com - more than likely I'm breaking some copyright laws, but I try and credit where credit is due, and not post anything that explicitly says I'm not allowed. :)

I just got a message from Mike that says he made it through the trickiest part of the remnants of the storm, and it should be clear sailing all the way home. Yay!

I hate winter!!

I used to love winter for a plethora of reasons.

1. You can always add layers when you're cold. There's only so much you can take off when you're hot during the summer.
2. I love the smell of a fireplace - it's romantic.
3. Christmas - 'nuff said.
4. My birthday is January 25th, and that was the primary reason why I liked winter.
5. Hot chocolate with marshmallows
6. Skating on frozen ponds, lakes and sometimes arenas ( I love the days when the arena is warmer than outside, it's such an oxymoron!)
7. Really big fat snowflakes falling outside your window

That's why I used to love winter. Now I hate winter. For one reason, and one reason only.


My fiance is long-haul truck driver who drives in Spring, Summer, Fall and WINTER! Picture this: driving an 18-wheeler truck with 45,000 pounds of cargo in the back through a snow storm. Do you know how long it takes one of those trucks to come to a complete stop... in the summer? Imagine what it would be like in 3-5 inches of snow!


Since going out with Mike, my daily habit involves checking the weather forecast. This was not done before I met him - I check it every single day. And during the winter, I develop a case of OCD and check it up to 2 dozen times. Once an hour. Every hour.


You see, Mike got into an accident in February 2006. No one was hurt, but media reported that everyone in the accident had died because it looked so bad. He was carrying over 40,000 pounds of salsa in his trailer and when it crashed, all the bottles exploded, and it looked like like blood all over the snow. The only part of his truck that wasn't damaged was the driver's side. If he had a passenger, they wouldn't have made it. Someone took pictures of the accident and I look at them every now and then and wonder how it's possible he lived through that. Even listening to metal crunching makes him cringe and he gets a little shaky when he hears about truckers who get into accidents. But yet, he got back out there. He got into the seat of another truck and continued doing what he was doing within two weeks of his accident. I admire him for that, but I also have small heart attacks when I think about him out there in the snow.


There is a snowsquall warning for Southern Ontario and Quebec tonight, heading straight into and through Wednesday. Mike is currently driving through Illinois, crossing into Canada sometime early tomorrow morning to deliver in Quebec. To do this, he has to drive straight through the snowsquall.

I have faith in his driving capabilities, but I don't trust the other arseholes out there who drive recklessly in conditions like this. I've been in the truck with him during bad winter weather, and he can handle the situation, but I've seen on more than one occasion where a driver has intentionally made bad driving decisions because they don't want to be behind or around "a big truck".


PEOPLE! Think about it! If a deer crosses
your path, your little car is completely F*CKED! It will damage a big truck, it may even put it off the road, but it won't hurt anyone. If you were smart enough to get your licence, then you should know that if a truck is that big, you don't want to do stupid things around it. It's PHYSICS! Doing something stupid equals your car/truck/SUV becoming a STAPLE when you get into an accident with a big truck.


Yes, I'm ranting now, but it seriously bothers me when I see stupid people of all ages, races, and sex drive erratically around big trucks. There should be a common sense test to go along with the drivers test to make sure the dumb f*cktards out there should actually be allowed to drive.


Okay, rant completed.


I'm crossing my fingers that Mike will be okay driving through Ontario and Quebec tomorrow, and I'm hoping that my mother will be able to fly out of Toronto tomorrow and have no problems getting home.

Optimism

So, like I said in my last post, I woke up this morning feeling pretty good. And then I started talking about loneliness which is really not what I wanted to do, but then again, when you start typing things don't always go as planned. So, as my title explains, I'm optimistic. And here's why:

• I'll be seeing my finance, Mike, in 3 days which is exciting.
• I may be able to go home for a few days to see two of my closest friends during Christmas.
• I have the photographer booked for my wedding! (http://www.livethemomentphotography.com/)
• In 10 days, I will be spending 3.5 days with my mother, my brother, my sister-in-law and my absolutely gorgeous nice, Rebecca. (Isn't she the most beautiful little girl EVER?!)

So that's what I have to look forward to in the upcoming weeks. Also, it's Halloween soon and I am anticipating sitting down with my baby and watching back to back scary movies. Nightmare on Elm Street, anyone?

*Edit: Gauging from Sarah's response to my list, I will add one more.

• SPEND TIME WITH SARAH.

There you go.

The Definition of Lonely

So I woke up this morning not feeling like a complete and utter piece of crap. Which is a vast improvement from the previous 8 weeks when I wake up and I just don't want to get out of bed.

Living here is.. hard. I knew it would be, but the hardest part is that now I'm constantly surrounded by all of these people... and I've never felt more alone. How is that possible? Because I am a dork, I looked up the definition of lonely, and this is what I found:


lacking companions or companionship;


But see, that doesn't apply to me. I have companions and companionship, so why do I feel so lonely over here? I get to Halifax at least once every three weeks, and my finance, Mike (whom you shall be hearing more about over the coming weeks I'm sure). It's just one of those things that doesn't make sense.

Oh well... all that is important, is that I feel good today - better than yesterday and much better than the day before. I suppose when you're that low, there's no where else to go but up?

I would be happier if...

I had something to take care of. Like a dog. A puppy, even. I have wanted a dog for the past 12 months, and the desire is becoming more and more fierce every time I look out the window and I see happy pet-owners with their puppies enjoying the little things in life.

Granted, I wouldn't enjoy house-training or obedience, but it comes with the package right? What also comes in the package is this thing that will love you, no matter how screwed up you are. It will adore you, love you, and do anything for you. All you have to do is show that you love it back.

I would have no issues with that - if someone asked a friend, they'd tell them I'm a big softy underneath this hard exterior.

It's just that my life is so lonely right now. Either my fiance comes off the road, or I get a wriggling fuzzy ball of fur to greet me every time I open the door with licks and a wagging tail, or I'm going to lose my mind!

Welcome to my Blog!

I'm following the bandwagon. I've had a blog since 2006, but like many things in life, I stopped being diligent with it and let it accumulate many inches of dust. However, I've revamped the design, and the idea of it and am hopefully now going to be a little more persistent with it.

My blog will be about me, my thoughts, feelings, ideas, stories, poems, etc. Basically a way to show the world: here I am, I exist.

Sometimes it will be happy - other times it won't be. I won't apologize for anything I write but I will always have an open mind and will not be reduced to saying anything that will hurt someone's feelings. There will be no personal attacks here, just general ones ;)

Take a look at my friends blogs while you're at it:

Storm Before The Calm (If Sarah keeps changing her blog title, I'm going to kill her)

…through the looking glass…

I'm hoping to use this blog to keep my mind active during a time when all I have to do is think about things that frankly make me want to crawl into a cave and not leave it until the year 2050.

Cheers!