Ahh my few followers, its been awhile
So, the blog has not been updated in a little while. I think that for the few for read this to assume that when its not updated, I'm just too busy. Its been a crazy past couple of weeks. So, when I last left you I had just gone to Cardston and gotten the disappointing news that my stitches had to stay in. Well, on that note the stitches are now out, (have been for two weeks) and my beautiful, completely attractive scar is beginning to form. My knee is healing up pretty good, I almost walk like a sane person (at the beginning of the day before I've moved around too much on it), and I can bend a full 90 degrees (though not for long, and without any pressure on it). So yeah!!
Visitors have come and gone
My family came down the week before last and stayed at the campground for a week. It was a lot of fun, though it rained for the first two days. That's the only sucky thing about being here in Waterton, we are so high up, anytime we get rain, its big rain. Anyway the first night my family abandoned their camp and stayed at my aunts, and the second night I sat and froze my butt off while my mom cooked outside on the camp stove (with only one working burner) instead of in my nice warm apartment. It was fun though. The next couple of days I got to see my family before work and they took me in to get the last of my stitches out in Cardston. Friday and Sat were the fun days because we had our family reunion. Everyone came down to Waterton and stayed over. We hiked Blackstone Falls on Friday night. That was my first hike since my accident. Its only about 2 km, but my knee was killing me when I was done, but it made me stronger! Then we took over a camp kitchen and had an awesome meal and some family time. It was really nice and a lot of fun. Saturday I got to go with my littlest cousins "treasure hunting." There is a little beach and cove on the lake here in Waterton that brings up old pieces of bottles. They are completely smooth from the erosion and rubbing against the rocks so we went up and down the peach picking up their treasure. It was a lot of fun, the girls love it and it was fun to see little kids get so excited about old pieces of bottles! Unfortunately I had to work Sat, afternoon so I didn't get to go to Cameron Lake with everyone. Sunday my family left and I had my first day back at the chocolate shop. I was only there for about two hours but it felt really great to get back there.
Bertha Falls
Hiking in Red Rock got me excited to go hiking and stuff again so mon, my friend and I decided to hike Bertha Falls. It was really nice, Bertha Falls is only about 4 km, and you hike alongside the mountain and gradually gain altitude before you drop again as you get to the falls. The Falls are not as big as Cameron Falls, but its really cool because you stand on this little bridge and you are literally 15ft away from the falls. The water just cuts right out of the mountain. Its really cool. We had a really nice time hiking there and we even made good time considering my gimpness. My knee was pretty sore after but it was a good sore of accomplishing something!! Since then I have just been working and working on my knee. I'm trying to test out how far I can go on it, without wrecking it. I take a walk everyday and I've started swimming lanes so I can get some exercise until I can go running again, but its finally starting to heal up!
Dinner and A Movie
Well, since I'm trying to save my money my culinary experiences have really been limited to myself. So whenever I get the chance to eat out, its great. My friend and I decided that we deserved a night out so we had dinner at the company restaurant where we get a discount. It was great and the best part is I was one of the employees of the week last week so I get a free dinner there whenever I'd like! But I have to say one of my most favourite things was going to a movie on Friday. I went and saw the Proposal which was awesome. I wasn't going to go, because I couldn't get anyone to go with me because they were all working but I finally went by myself in the end, and it was great. I loved it, there was no one talking during the movie, or bugging me, I just got to enjoy it! It kind of scares me how much I liked it.
And that's a wrap
So, that's been my life the past couple of weeks. I'm officially back at the chocolate shop, I worked all weekend so I can start making some extra money.
As always,
So I did manage to catch like the last half hour of So You Think You Can Dance this week for some strange reason. I've watched in the past, but not this year. I have to say I'm not overly impressed with the dancers but I managed to find a great new tune. Its totally not what I listen to at all, but its just so groovy. Its called Move by CSS, and its so fun! I'm such a dork but if I the anti-dancer start tapping my foot to a song, you know its a good dance song!!
P.S. The title is an homage to The Proposal, seriously good movie. My favourite lines: "I can't swim. Hence the boat." "There I was standing there, wifeless (said with such disdain, love Ryan Reynolds)" and my most favourite line "People are too lazy too read, they need someone to tell them, don't watch reality t.v. pick up a book and that person is Oprah."
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Good News Will Work It's Way Into My Hands
19 stitches is now down to 7, and suture's
So, yesterday I went in to get my stitches out at the Cardston Hospital. But the story really starts in Waterton the night before. My friend JT was going to drive me into the hospital the next morning but decided it that it was too far from Waterton, so I had to go and spend the night at his uncles place with his cousins. (that's where he lives in the summer). We grabbed some pizza at the pizza of waterton (more on that later) and hit the road. The owner of the hotels I work for is his uncle and his house is insanely big and beautiful. Anyway we got there, did some dishes because the kids had been by themselves for a couple of days and then watched the Bourne Supremacy. 1 am I finally went to sleep on the couch. The next morning we all got up around 10 and I went to have a shower. Now, as I said this place is massive and the shower is half the size of my bedroom at home, no word of a lie. It was crazy, but unfortunately I'm too much of an idiot to figure it out so I had a glacier water cold shower. It was the start of a beautiful day. Anyway we finally made it to Cardston where it took 20 mins to find the hospital, in a tiny town. Why? We got there and the admitting nurse directed me to the clinic, 2 blocks away from the hospital. At that point it was just frustrating. At the clinic a nurse started taking my stitches out when she noticed that my knee had not completely healed, so I had to see a doctor for a final decision. The end jist: the rest of my stitches were not removed and they taped up my leg so I have to go in next week. It's so stupidly frustrating, I want them out so I can start doing normal stuff again, and enjoying living in such a beautiful place. Ugh!
Pizza of Waterton
As I am trying to save money here, my culinary experiences have been limited to my own cooking. I haven't tried any of the restaurants in town and the last time I ate out was mcdonald's three weeks after I got here, when we went for groceries. So I was pretty excited when we went to the Pizza of Waterton. It was pretty good pizza, I will admit. I went with JT and his cousin, and we were just sitting there chilling, and waiting for our food when they both go "oh crap, is that?" and then take off. I'm not kidding his cousin literally ran for the bathroom and JT ran out the door. Now, the pizza of waterton is a super small restaurant, so the entire restaurant was staring at me. There I was sitting there, looking like my friends just dined and dashed on me. It turned out a relative of theirs was coming in, and they were hiding so to speak.
Family Time
My family is going to be here on Mon. I'm fairly excited, I had hoped I would be working the morning shift that week (7-2:30) so I could spend the evening with them but unfortunately I am working the evening shift (2:30-10) so that kind of sucks, but hopefully I will be able to shift some of my shifts around. (say that three times fast). Anyway this week is kind of family week here in Waterton, my friend from Ontario's family is here so that's kind of exciting. I got to meet them because they were kind enough to give me a ride to get some groceries. They were very nice people, and a lot like my friend. It made me even more excited to see my family!!
In other news...
So, my roommates moved out of the apartment, and into the one next door, on Sunday. They felt bad because they liked partying and stuff and felt like they were disturbing me when they had parties at our place. So, I am on my own now. Its not too bad though, my friend helped me out on Mon, and we cleaned my place up the way I like it. I've decided that since I'm on my own, and it looks like I probably won't be getting a roommate any time soon that I am making my place my own. So everything is the way I like it now, and its not so bad.
Yesterday was kind of a stressful and stupid day, minus when I was hanging out with my friends so I 'm hoping that today will be better. If not, my theme song is going to be Float On by Modest Mouse. It's definitely what I need today.
So, yesterday I went in to get my stitches out at the Cardston Hospital. But the story really starts in Waterton the night before. My friend JT was going to drive me into the hospital the next morning but decided it that it was too far from Waterton, so I had to go and spend the night at his uncles place with his cousins. (that's where he lives in the summer). We grabbed some pizza at the pizza of waterton (more on that later) and hit the road. The owner of the hotels I work for is his uncle and his house is insanely big and beautiful. Anyway we got there, did some dishes because the kids had been by themselves for a couple of days and then watched the Bourne Supremacy. 1 am I finally went to sleep on the couch. The next morning we all got up around 10 and I went to have a shower. Now, as I said this place is massive and the shower is half the size of my bedroom at home, no word of a lie. It was crazy, but unfortunately I'm too much of an idiot to figure it out so I had a glacier water cold shower. It was the start of a beautiful day. Anyway we finally made it to Cardston where it took 20 mins to find the hospital, in a tiny town. Why? We got there and the admitting nurse directed me to the clinic, 2 blocks away from the hospital. At that point it was just frustrating. At the clinic a nurse started taking my stitches out when she noticed that my knee had not completely healed, so I had to see a doctor for a final decision. The end jist: the rest of my stitches were not removed and they taped up my leg so I have to go in next week. It's so stupidly frustrating, I want them out so I can start doing normal stuff again, and enjoying living in such a beautiful place. Ugh!
Pizza of Waterton
As I am trying to save money here, my culinary experiences have been limited to my own cooking. I haven't tried any of the restaurants in town and the last time I ate out was mcdonald's three weeks after I got here, when we went for groceries. So I was pretty excited when we went to the Pizza of Waterton. It was pretty good pizza, I will admit. I went with JT and his cousin, and we were just sitting there chilling, and waiting for our food when they both go "oh crap, is that?" and then take off. I'm not kidding his cousin literally ran for the bathroom and JT ran out the door. Now, the pizza of waterton is a super small restaurant, so the entire restaurant was staring at me. There I was sitting there, looking like my friends just dined and dashed on me. It turned out a relative of theirs was coming in, and they were hiding so to speak.
Family Time
My family is going to be here on Mon. I'm fairly excited, I had hoped I would be working the morning shift that week (7-2:30) so I could spend the evening with them but unfortunately I am working the evening shift (2:30-10) so that kind of sucks, but hopefully I will be able to shift some of my shifts around. (say that three times fast). Anyway this week is kind of family week here in Waterton, my friend from Ontario's family is here so that's kind of exciting. I got to meet them because they were kind enough to give me a ride to get some groceries. They were very nice people, and a lot like my friend. It made me even more excited to see my family!!
In other news...
So, my roommates moved out of the apartment, and into the one next door, on Sunday. They felt bad because they liked partying and stuff and felt like they were disturbing me when they had parties at our place. So, I am on my own now. Its not too bad though, my friend helped me out on Mon, and we cleaned my place up the way I like it. I've decided that since I'm on my own, and it looks like I probably won't be getting a roommate any time soon that I am making my place my own. So everything is the way I like it now, and its not so bad.
Yesterday was kind of a stressful and stupid day, minus when I was hanging out with my friends so I 'm hoping that today will be better. If not, my theme song is going to be Float On by Modest Mouse. It's definitely what I need today.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Healing From Chaos
If You Don't Heal Fast, Go Home
After my little incident last week things have been changing pretty fast for me and my life here in Waterton. I think now that's its been awhile I can actually process what happened and how lucky I am. I'm incredibly lucky. This is exactly why my blog is called narrowly averting chaos, and my email as well because seriously, in my life that's all I seem to do. Which is just fine with me. Obviously work was going to be difficult for me, and my doctor told me that it would probably be about a month before I was completely healed, so I was anticipating that some changes would have to occur in my duties as a housekeeper because I won't be able to do that kind of work. The day after my accident I was resting when the Front Desk Manager knocked at my door, she told me that she and the HR manager (who was down from Calgary for the day) had come up with plan for me, and asked me to come and meet with them. I thought I was being sent home, so I nervously got ready. When I arrived at the meeting they had decided to transfer me to Front Desk, so now I work Front Desk. I take bookings, and deal with guest now. Its great, I really like working Front Desk and I was able to get back to work the day after my accident. Obviously somebody is looking out for me, and I'm grateful.
Healing is Really More About Endurance
So now I'm hobbling all across the property and sitting behind a computer all day. I would much rather be outside hiking and stuff but for now thats not possible. It does suck because my buddy just got here and we had big plans for hiking and stuff this summer but those are temporally on hold. He calls my knee the "buzzkill" and I tell him he needs to stop looking at it with such disdain. I'm just glad that I will eventually heal, and I didn't have to go home. Waterton is home for now, and I don't want to leave. It's funny how that works. Anyway my best buddy (JT) (who signed a publicity clause mother) invited me to his parents cabin for Canada Day. So Tuesday night he picked me up and we went out to the cabin which is just past mountain view and Cardston, right on the U.S. border. To say that the cabin, is a cabin is ridiculous. Its really a house. It was originally a rangers cabin that his parents bought and moved to the land they bought. They have spent the last five years fixing up the cabin. Its a house that runs on a combination of solar power and a generator. It sits on a beautiful bluff of land and the side of the house is all window and faces Big Chief mountain. It's gorgeous. Since I've been out there last they've built a beautiful clear pond, begun building a huge shop, and this summer they are working on building a massive zip line. Its crazy. Anyway when we got there JT took me in the jeep up this road he build for their neighbour. It is literally carved out of the side of a mountain and its straight up. It was crazy driving up it, but so worth it when you get to the top because its the best view of Big Chief and there is some awesome crooked trees up there. Whenever my Internet access allows me, I'll upload pictures.
Canada Day
The next day was Canada Day so JT loaded me up for my first ever Raymond parade. If your Mormon then you know that Raymond is a small southern Alberta town settled by the first Mormon settlers. Ever year they do a huge parade (well for a small town). People come from all over to see, the town just explodes. His mom's family the Scovilles have lived in Raymond for 100 years so they have an unofficial designated spot. We watched the parade with his whole family and his little cousins. The Raymond parade is famous for throwing candy so it was really fun to see all these little kids racing after the candy. All of the floats were hand made. It was alot of fun not because it was a huge extravaganza but because it had small town appeal. There was a ton of beautifully restored cars, carriages, horses, and machinery. There was two high schools bands, the Raymond High School, and the Magrath school band. One of the floats was a concrete company that a concrete machine with a slider which they used to shoot salt water taffy at the kids. It was great. It was so fun to see all the floats and the work that went into making them. There was even a Raymond Third Ward float, and a Young Men's float. You defiantly won't see that in the Edmonton parade.
After the parade we went back to Jt's grandmother's house where we had a delicious lunch, but the best part was his grandmothers homemade root beet. He had been telling me about this root beer for awhile so I was pretty excited. I consider myself a root beer consignor so I was all excited to try it. It was amazing. I absolutely loved that stuff! After lunch we took the truck out with all the kids in the back and a garbage can full of water, to go find some kids to soak. It was hilarious driving down main street. Jt's sister was supposed to be watching them, but the kids were a little overenthusiastic so we were constantly yelling out the back, "no babies or old people!" It was a great time, those little kids were so fun. When we returned we went with his family to watch the dirt bike racing in the track just outside of town. It was pretty cool, they had full adults racing and then little kids (6-8) racing just like the adults. It was really impressive and so fun. When we got back to his grandmothers house they arranged some games with the little kids which were a blast to watch, as I couldn't participate due to my gimped stage. Jt was hilarious, especially when they blindfolded him. His mother personally tied his blindfold so he couldn't see, and his partner who was six, ditched him halfway through the obstacle course. After he ran into a pole, it was all downhill from there, he ended up crashing through the chairs were all the adults were sitting.
I'm Not A Thief, I Swear
So, JT's older cousin suggested halfway through the day that we go over to her house and bring the trampoline to the yard for the little kids. Apparently this cousin had lived just across the street so JT and I went to go drag the trampoline over. As we were in the process of dragging the trampoline over, his cousin yells "what the heck are you doing? I don't live there anymore! I meant my mom's house!" We had been dragging a complete strangers trampoline across the street. Luckily they weren't home so we pushed it back and then Jt ran back and I hobbled as fast as I could. It was hilarious.
At The End of The Day
We opted not to stay in Raymond till 11 for the fireworks so we drove back to the cabin and decided to hang out there. I paddled across the pond with his sisters for awhile while JT throw huge rocks in the water to splash us. It was alot of fun. Then we played a little pool and fossball which I totally lost. We concluded our night with a wii tournament which after a large lead I also lost. I just can't win. The next day, I got to witness the Pilling clan in action. I "supervised" JT changing the oil in his suburban and then watched as his family stretched out the cord for the zip line. They attached it to the high hoe, and the back hoe and stretched it out. It's crazy, when that zip line gets done it's almost 800 metres long, if not longer. Its crazy. Then it was time to head home as I had to work at 2:30. By far, these past few days have been my favourite this summer and I'm so glad I have a buddy now to hang out with even if I am gimped!
Genius is For Me
Itunes has genius playlists now, which let you select a song and then picks a bunch of songs that go with it. It's amazing I absolutely love it. Seriously, if you have itunes, enable your genius playlists, its totally worth it. My favourite playlist so far has been based off of a song called Still Alright by Adam Merrin. The playlist features some of my favourites like Somewhere A Clock is Ticking by Snow Patrol, Wedding Dress by Matt Nathanson, Sunday Best by Augustana, and Ripe by Ben Lee, not too mention all the other best songs. I love Genius!!
I'm Narrowly Avoiding Chaos Because Too Many People Love Me, and Pray for Me!!
After my little incident last week things have been changing pretty fast for me and my life here in Waterton. I think now that's its been awhile I can actually process what happened and how lucky I am. I'm incredibly lucky. This is exactly why my blog is called narrowly averting chaos, and my email as well because seriously, in my life that's all I seem to do. Which is just fine with me. Obviously work was going to be difficult for me, and my doctor told me that it would probably be about a month before I was completely healed, so I was anticipating that some changes would have to occur in my duties as a housekeeper because I won't be able to do that kind of work. The day after my accident I was resting when the Front Desk Manager knocked at my door, she told me that she and the HR manager (who was down from Calgary for the day) had come up with plan for me, and asked me to come and meet with them. I thought I was being sent home, so I nervously got ready. When I arrived at the meeting they had decided to transfer me to Front Desk, so now I work Front Desk. I take bookings, and deal with guest now. Its great, I really like working Front Desk and I was able to get back to work the day after my accident. Obviously somebody is looking out for me, and I'm grateful.
Healing is Really More About Endurance
So now I'm hobbling all across the property and sitting behind a computer all day. I would much rather be outside hiking and stuff but for now thats not possible. It does suck because my buddy just got here and we had big plans for hiking and stuff this summer but those are temporally on hold. He calls my knee the "buzzkill" and I tell him he needs to stop looking at it with such disdain. I'm just glad that I will eventually heal, and I didn't have to go home. Waterton is home for now, and I don't want to leave. It's funny how that works. Anyway my best buddy (JT) (who signed a publicity clause mother) invited me to his parents cabin for Canada Day. So Tuesday night he picked me up and we went out to the cabin which is just past mountain view and Cardston, right on the U.S. border. To say that the cabin, is a cabin is ridiculous. Its really a house. It was originally a rangers cabin that his parents bought and moved to the land they bought. They have spent the last five years fixing up the cabin. Its a house that runs on a combination of solar power and a generator. It sits on a beautiful bluff of land and the side of the house is all window and faces Big Chief mountain. It's gorgeous. Since I've been out there last they've built a beautiful clear pond, begun building a huge shop, and this summer they are working on building a massive zip line. Its crazy. Anyway when we got there JT took me in the jeep up this road he build for their neighbour. It is literally carved out of the side of a mountain and its straight up. It was crazy driving up it, but so worth it when you get to the top because its the best view of Big Chief and there is some awesome crooked trees up there. Whenever my Internet access allows me, I'll upload pictures.
Canada Day
The next day was Canada Day so JT loaded me up for my first ever Raymond parade. If your Mormon then you know that Raymond is a small southern Alberta town settled by the first Mormon settlers. Ever year they do a huge parade (well for a small town). People come from all over to see, the town just explodes. His mom's family the Scovilles have lived in Raymond for 100 years so they have an unofficial designated spot. We watched the parade with his whole family and his little cousins. The Raymond parade is famous for throwing candy so it was really fun to see all these little kids racing after the candy. All of the floats were hand made. It was alot of fun not because it was a huge extravaganza but because it had small town appeal. There was a ton of beautifully restored cars, carriages, horses, and machinery. There was two high schools bands, the Raymond High School, and the Magrath school band. One of the floats was a concrete company that a concrete machine with a slider which they used to shoot salt water taffy at the kids. It was great. It was so fun to see all the floats and the work that went into making them. There was even a Raymond Third Ward float, and a Young Men's float. You defiantly won't see that in the Edmonton parade.
After the parade we went back to Jt's grandmother's house where we had a delicious lunch, but the best part was his grandmothers homemade root beet. He had been telling me about this root beer for awhile so I was pretty excited. I consider myself a root beer consignor so I was all excited to try it. It was amazing. I absolutely loved that stuff! After lunch we took the truck out with all the kids in the back and a garbage can full of water, to go find some kids to soak. It was hilarious driving down main street. Jt's sister was supposed to be watching them, but the kids were a little overenthusiastic so we were constantly yelling out the back, "no babies or old people!" It was a great time, those little kids were so fun. When we returned we went with his family to watch the dirt bike racing in the track just outside of town. It was pretty cool, they had full adults racing and then little kids (6-8) racing just like the adults. It was really impressive and so fun. When we got back to his grandmothers house they arranged some games with the little kids which were a blast to watch, as I couldn't participate due to my gimped stage. Jt was hilarious, especially when they blindfolded him. His mother personally tied his blindfold so he couldn't see, and his partner who was six, ditched him halfway through the obstacle course. After he ran into a pole, it was all downhill from there, he ended up crashing through the chairs were all the adults were sitting.
I'm Not A Thief, I Swear
So, JT's older cousin suggested halfway through the day that we go over to her house and bring the trampoline to the yard for the little kids. Apparently this cousin had lived just across the street so JT and I went to go drag the trampoline over. As we were in the process of dragging the trampoline over, his cousin yells "what the heck are you doing? I don't live there anymore! I meant my mom's house!" We had been dragging a complete strangers trampoline across the street. Luckily they weren't home so we pushed it back and then Jt ran back and I hobbled as fast as I could. It was hilarious.
At The End of The Day
We opted not to stay in Raymond till 11 for the fireworks so we drove back to the cabin and decided to hang out there. I paddled across the pond with his sisters for awhile while JT throw huge rocks in the water to splash us. It was alot of fun. Then we played a little pool and fossball which I totally lost. We concluded our night with a wii tournament which after a large lead I also lost. I just can't win. The next day, I got to witness the Pilling clan in action. I "supervised" JT changing the oil in his suburban and then watched as his family stretched out the cord for the zip line. They attached it to the high hoe, and the back hoe and stretched it out. It's crazy, when that zip line gets done it's almost 800 metres long, if not longer. Its crazy. Then it was time to head home as I had to work at 2:30. By far, these past few days have been my favourite this summer and I'm so glad I have a buddy now to hang out with even if I am gimped!
Genius is For Me
Itunes has genius playlists now, which let you select a song and then picks a bunch of songs that go with it. It's amazing I absolutely love it. Seriously, if you have itunes, enable your genius playlists, its totally worth it. My favourite playlist so far has been based off of a song called Still Alright by Adam Merrin. The playlist features some of my favourites like Somewhere A Clock is Ticking by Snow Patrol, Wedding Dress by Matt Nathanson, Sunday Best by Augustana, and Ripe by Ben Lee, not too mention all the other best songs. I love Genius!!
I'm Narrowly Avoiding Chaos Because Too Many People Love Me, and Pray for Me!!
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