April 29, 1998

11 years ago today my steadfast companion was born in Brookfield, Nova Scotia. At that time in my life I just moved back to Nova Scotia from Calgary, Alberta and having always had a family dog, I knew I wanted to get a dog of my own. Growing up in Cape Breton, we always had small family dogs but I had a desire to get a lab. I found the wee Daws in the Halifax Herald and off I went to meet her on a summer evening in July '98. She was the runt of the litter and the very last pup in the bunch. It was just her and her mom, Nike in the living room of this family's home. Daws (temporarily named Chomper by Nike's family) was so incredibly charming - so sweet, chewing on her moms ears and bouncing all over the house. She was such a little force that the family even thought about keeping her. I was smitten. Luckily, they had faith in the young 24 year old in me. I wrote a cheque for $450 and she was mine.

The last 11 years really have flown by and even though my sweet friend has eaten a hole in my mattress, eaten my glasses (yes, eyewear), dug a hole in the wall of my apartment, chewed the baseboards on Chelmsford, demolished several bags of garbage in various kitchens across Canada...she has been the single best friend, completely solid and true (and I've got many kick ass friends). She wags her tail EVERY time she sees me, she licks my face whenever I cry, she'll go for a run with me on the days she's tired and she'll also lie in bed with me for hours on a hungover Saturday (there were just a few of those days in the last 11 years). Her claim to fame: every roommate and boyfriend that have also lived with Daws ended up getting their own dog when they moved out, simply because they missed her energy.

Daws, I want to say that I wish you 11 happy more years, but we know that's not a reality. What I will say is thank you for absolutely everything over the last decade plus one and I pray that you have many more years of good health like you do today.

Happy Birthday Old Friend. Love you. xo

Bea Golden

I just heard this morning that Bea Arthur died on Saturday. Matt Lauer was talking to both “Rose” and “Blanche” about their loss on The Today Show. And as I was puttering around the house getting ready for work, I realized that I was subconsciously singing the theme song to the Golden Girls after listening to the interview.

Thank you for being a friend.
Traveled down the road and back again.
Your heart is true you’re a pal and a confidant.
And if you through a party Invited everyone you ever knew.
You would see the biggest gift would be from me.
And the card attached would say thank you for being a friend.

Now try getting that out of your head today. The lyrics completely reminded me of just how excited I am to see my girlies at our KRAC Reunion trip in LA in less than 17 days. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!! Listen, I know I’ve been counting down to this event for the last few months, and I can respect that we should live in the moment and not wish time by BUT the last time I saw these girls all together at the same time was 7 years ago. At that time Alison was the only one that was pregnant and now she has 2 girls! Rhonda wasn’t even married and now she’s married and pregnant with her third! And Kirsten has a little girl.

And me, well I’m living my life like it’s golden.

Rest in Peace, Bea.

Blanche: “Well, I certainly didn't wait for my wedding night, honey. I couldn't - I had these urges. You know, in the South, we mature faster. I think it's the heat.”

Dorothy: “I think it's the gin”

my very own periodic table

Someone has been on my mind of late, someone that intrigued me, piques my interest and gets that chemistry alive in my belly.

Cannot. stop. thinking. about. that. person.

Ooooooohh how I love that feeling. For me it's so rare that these people cross my path but when they do it's like a hurricane of intense conversations creating a butterfly conservatory in my belly. Note: these people are generally dangerous and not good for me. So although my head tells me to stay far away, the 16-year old in me still follows them to the party. On the flip side, there are other great people I meet that are sweet, nice and caring but if I don't have that certain 'belly flippin' feeling inside' then I tend to tap out. I'm not sure why I'm still this way. Perhaps I'm a masochist at heart? In some ways, I'm oddly proud to say that looks have absolutely nothing to do with it. (I think my strong animal attraction to Mickey Rourke is testament to that). I do wonder if the type of man...and I do mean man in every sense of the word...that I'm attracted to are life-long keepers? Are they the type that settle-down? Or will my destiny be to have a blast with a few more of these guys that bring incredible, indescribable fun into my life and then like a moth to a flame...

If I think about what it is that I'm attracted to it's a combination of these images (hands, forearms, lips) feelings (freedom, trust, life, no-inhibitions) actions (confident, successful, a force in the room) and it can be a mix of some or all of these things wrapped up 'within a look, smile and touch'. But for me, more than anything, it's when someone is so completely comfortable in their skin. And I never, ever underestimate the importance and power of an intelligent and dry sense of humor. Uummmm, tasty wasty.

But hey, let's just admit it now, I'm in trouble.

You've probably seen this image in a picture frame or on the front cover of a journal. I do love these words, but like most things when they become 'mass' and overexposed, they become generic. There is so much depth in these words in isolation or when people really do make the effort to live their life this way. Sadly, most of us just aspire to 'sing as though no on one can hear you'.

I'm proud to say, on Friday night I did more than just aspire. Picture it, just like a scene out of Lost in Translation, after two long days of shooting - a small group of us decided it was a good idea to book our own private Karaoke room on Bloor Street. Many of us (ahem..some more than others) had a few turns on the mic belting out U2, Phil Collins, Madonna, Rick Astley to name a few. It's not like I get to Karoke as often as I'd like, but with the right crowd you get to live in the moment and laugh so hard at yourself and others. The best part about when you have the 'stage' is that you know your voice blows, but you're so in the moment that you don't care - you sing with everything you gots and are free of your own personal insecurity or judgement. The freedom and fun is contagious because everyone is sitting around not really paying attention because they are too busy flipping through the book to find the next song they are going to sing.

This weekend, I am happy to say that I did sing as though no one heard me and danced as though no one was watching.

Thanks guys for such a fun night. xo

face it with a grin

Had to capture this moment.   If you know me well (or even not-so-well actually), you know I'm not a morning person.  But recently I have been getting up (ok, trying to) in the six o'clock hour to work out.  I hit snooze a million times this morning, but still got up in time to work out and to catch this glimpse of the sun beaming through the entire apartment from the back of the house.  In the almost 2 years that I have lived here, I have never ever witnessed the sun exploding through the back door like this before.  This is a pretty damn good reason to get up early from now on.

sssshhhhhh

I just finished reading "Smart Women Finish Rich" for the second time. Honestly, this book is amazing, it doesn't alienate you for being a poor bitch in your 30s. (main reason why I like it). It is so important for you to read it even if you're a man. And more importantly, if you're a married woman. Anyway, at the end of the book David Bach writes about the fact that after we're 'gone' no one will remember us for how much/little money we had or how good we are with managing our money. So don't become consumed with it. The cool thing about his writing style is that he makes managing money approachable. More importantly, he talks about your values in life and why what YOU value is so important to the way you invest.

Which got me thinking (I know, big fucking surprise there)...

We always listen to what people tell us and we constantly have people chirping in our ear about what is the right thing to do. I'm not talking just about our awesome friends, I'm talking about family, co-workers, acquaintances, etc.

Buy a house! buy two houses! You should rent! Invest in stocks! save for your retirement! open an RESP! I did this and it worked! don't do this!

But it doesn't stop there with finances alone, listen to the noise all around you in what everyone has to say about YOUR entire life. How do these people know about what is truly right for me? I thought the only person that knew these things about me, was me? And if that's the case why does this advice yammer on in every aspect of our life. And the even bigger frustration - why do we listen to this noise?

I was talking to one of my close girlfriends the other night (I want her to remain nameless so that no judging happens in the blogosphere) - she's married and has a child. We were talking about the pressures we put on ourselves at different stages in our life. This is the reason I love my girlies, we are all at very different stages in our life but we can talk for hours about life connections between us. I was talking about the pressures of being single, she was talking about the pressures of being a wife and mother of one child. These pressures that we were referring to are the noise. So I asked her, "what choices do you think most people would make in life if society didn't exist?"...there was a silence....she*** responded, "I'm not sure as many people would get married or have kids". Gasp! Oh, the controversy that I've uncovered right here on my wee blog. I agreed with her and aside just that one topic I think we'd all live with more freedom and happiness.

So after that rant my point is this, shut the noise out today and do what you want

(without hurting others, but this goes without saying).



***she is very happily married and the best mom in the world, not to mention a cool woman and amazing friend.

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto

Back when I was in grade primary (otherwise know as JK here in Ontario), the Vic 20 was launched. For all you crazy kids out there glued to my blog, the VIC-20 was the first inexpensive color computer available, costing less than $300. It could only display 22 characters of text per line, so its use for business applications was minimal, but people loved it for games - the thing I remember the most was the awesome fire-fighter-like joystick. Oh, and the fact that my brother dominated it and never let me play. Oh the drama. So at the time it launched, I was 5 years old and my brother would have been 10. What I would have deemed as his nerdy obessession and hobby back then became his passion throughout life and now he's very successful working for IBM. So parents, perhaps encourage your kids to play endless hours of mindless video games and one day they too can be a star!

So, I hate to bring back the point of this story to celebrity pop culture but I am, temporarily. I'm sitting here on a Saturday morning drinking my coffee, reading the news (online, of course) via my Twitter feed. And I am astounded by how far we've come in 29 years. Yes, 29 years is a long time, but think about it...to go from our first home personal computers to creating our own news, brand and media online for the world to listen to what we have to say as individuals. To give you further, personal context, I received my first email in university in 1994 (who cares that it was my ex-boyfriend telling me he wished I was dead) and the first time I took a computer course was first year of university in 1992 (and when the prof asked us in the first class to turn on our computer, I didn't know how).

So what I'm about to show you is what I'm reading and watching and something you've already heard of by now as it just happened yesterday. Now please, if you will, ignore the celeb power and just listen to what they're saying.

This I am certain, the one thing that hasn't changed over the last 29 years is that William Shatner is still whoring himself out for just about any marketer.