The Crisis Trip AKA AMURICA

Lordy lordy lordy
well my friends,
Anita and I have returned from the land of the free or whatever they like to call themselves or as we here in Canada like to call them AMURICA!
Yes we went on a brief little road trip. Just a quick 3 day little jaunt down to Portland, Oregon cause were hella cool like that!
And before my fellow Canadians yell sacriledge on me here for not going somewhere in Canada. I live in the lower mainland...my only option was really north or inwards towards Alberta and I am in no way ready to drive up the Coquhihala in winter let alone through the rockies.
So I went where we have like weather, a place I've visited many a time in my youth. Oregon.
Here are some golden moments from the trip:
1: Stopping for a McD's dinner in a little village right outside the national guard. All the stores were army uniform/supply related. There was a 1$ Chinese Food restaurant....chinese food should never be anything less than 10$ that stuff has got to be expensive to make. And it was called Wok Inn Wok Out...which you know maybe they just spelled in wrong...or maybe there are tiny compartments you can stay in over night in the back of the restaurant...the building was super tiny.
(there may have been other things between then and the hotel but I didn't have to drive anymore and got super tired)
2: Waiting 10 minutes at the hotel to check in because the front desk was left unattended by a woman named Doris...Doris who I swear never worked for more than 10 minutes at a time and was constantly outside smoking. They even had one of those bells you ring for service...it didn't work...we could have checked ourselves in because all the doors into the desk area were left open...
3: The first thing Anita and I whom are avid knitter/sewer/crafty people do is head to a place called The Fabric Depot...keep in mind we arrived on a Saturday night at 7:30pm. This place closed at 9...that would never happen in Canada. There were sales everywhere! IT WAS AMAZING! 75$ of fabric later we had our first purchase and it was only 8:30!
4: We made it all the way to Portland on one tank of gas because my mother's car is amazing...then Anita tried to put the gas station attendent out of work by pumping the gas herself at a full service gas station. And I turned the wrong way onto a one way street...luckily we figured it out before the cars came at us.
5: Woke up several times in the night thinking I had missed breakfast which ended at 9am. Finally when Anita got up I figured it must be late!
"What time is it!?" "3am." "Omg here I was worrying that I had missed breakfast!" But we were both just thirsty from ridiculously salty chinese food.

Day 2: SUNDAY FUNDAY SHOP HOPPING

1: The news claims that Lebron James is the best sports player in the world...This sets off a ridiculous amount of jokes about Lebron playing ridiculous sports: "Lebron is a master curler, he beat Team Norway all by himself. His arms are so long he throws and sweeps!"
At the boarder scenario "What's that long black thing sticking out the back of your car?" "Oh that's just Lebron James's arm he's hiding. Hide and Seek just got added to the Olympics?"
This is still going on.
2: We went looking for a store in a house dedicated specifically to socks...we got lost the first time but eventually we found it after several more bridge crosses! It was magical.
3: We ate at a typical American Diner in a mall that was massive...they had a skating rink too but we avoided that.
4: Went to Powell's Books...huge used book store! Bought several plays and ground my teeth as the obviously theater students in the next row over talked obnoxiously loud about nothing to do with books or the section we were in...they didn't buy anything I don't know why they were there. But I didn't yell at them because I thought that would be wrong to yell at others in my field.
5: We got back to our hotel that didn't seem too sketchy to our room door already open. Don't worry we weren't robbed. Guess room service just didn't close it properly when they left...they didn't have to clean but they did and put all our clothes away...don't worry we checked. all our underwear was still there.
6: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was on! I freaked out about Snape. We cried about having to go home. We had a grand time!

Day 3: BOO MONDAY
1: Because we realllllllly didn't want to go home we decided to take a nice scenic route home and by scenic I mean go completely out of the way to Tillamook! It's on the coast and we thought let's go to the cheese factory!

So we did. We tasted the cheese. We didn't buy any because we didn't know if it would make it back to Canada with us. We carried on.

2: Driving up and along the coast was great...until the gps told us to turn down a road to get to Astoria...oh we turned down that road. We were joking about hillbillies on the dirt roads...and what do we see.

Well he probably wasn't a hillbilly but he was a very creepy man. Standing by a driveway half hidden by some rocks and just standing with his hands behind his back looking hella creepy......we were like...yeah no....Found a place to turn around...He was still there on the way back and he was holding hedge clippers behind his back! It was terrifying! Like what the hell man! Are you the distraction so that your brother uncle can jump out at us down the road and we crash and you eat us!? We'll never know. We carried onto Astoria along the coast and it was lovely.

3: We ate lunch/breakfast in Astoria because we wanted the seafood. Anita did it right with a heaping platter of deep fried things. I had clam chowder and a taco omlette. Was great. Also listening to the greek people behind us were also hilarious. Talking about how they were going to split up property and where to put the dead bodies and maybe if Danny's girlfriend hadn't lied about her age they wouldn't hate her. Clearly Danny is either too old or too young to have a 17 year old girlfriend...great morning conversation. That and the fishermen at the next table. Great stop.

4: We carried on home up Highway 30. For those of you that know this route you'll know we drove basically 2 hours way out of the way. And then basically back to Portland to get up to Seattle. It was a long trip through nothing...dead mossy looking trees. I don't know how those people battle the seasonal depression cause there is nothing out there! We came to what looked like a millvillage called Wauna. On one side of the highway was the mills and such. And the only thing other than a house every mile or so was a big red barn with pictures of pole dancers in the windows! Clearly a strip club. On the side of the barn was painted U-Wauna....excellent name for a strip barn club thing....depressing town. But man I think it's just Oregon is really into that kind of thing! So many peepshows and the likes in Portland it was crazy. I was warned but not prepared!

5: We stopped for crafty things because we're crafty people and they're cheaper in the states.

6: We stopped for liquor and sent a 75 cent text to find out how much we could bring home! Anita's parents are cool like that.

7: We waited something like 2 hours in the border line up unhappy because some people are hella rude and find ways around the line and cut in! Hella. Rude. Yeah lady in the van who budged in and then didn't let the truck in front of you! I'm talking to you! I would have flipped you off but Anita was insistent on keeping the peace.

8:A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF THE ARROGANT WORMS BECAUSE WE'RE CANADIAN AND WE'RE WORTH IT!!!

So yeah it was a great trip. If I could change anything? 

I would become the person in charge of road signs for the entirety of the united states so that we could get a little consistency!

Oregon it's like sign over load! People need to watch the road too you know! I can't read everything that comes at me and not hit the people driving around me too! I don't need a reminder every .5 miles what the speed limit is unless it changes or theres an entrance. 

I don't need 3 bump a head signs and then a bump sign with an arrow pointed right at the bump. It's a little excessive

WASHINGTON HOWEVER COULD USE SOME FREAKING SIGNS! 

No wonder your drivers suck! You watch the toddle in and out. No one signals! They hug the freaking line around corners! 

There is never a sign for corner or turn or curve in the road ahead! And honestly I feel like, and I might be crazy here! But if you used one of those every now and then! Especially on the freeway where you've got this big swooping turns cause no one ever wants to build a straight road these poor washingtonians would not feel the need to come to a complete stop at every curve in the road! Were travelling down the freeway at 70(like 130km/h) and suddenly everyone comes to a dead halt! PEOPLE HIT PEOPLE! ITS DANGEROUS!

No regulations. It's very unsettling!

Anyways. We made it back. I have wine, clothes and plays. I think I'm good.

2 Giant Gnomes And A Traffic Cone In the Middle of the Freeway

Ok so I can post about it now since we're all figured out.
Yes, once again the Cadillac has taken a beating under my supervision.
P.Bob, Ernesta, Anita and I had gone to Vandusen Gardens because they made it all pretty with lights and stuff!
We had a grand time! Everything was pretty, it was a little cold but there were gnomes! giant gnomes from Scandinavia (via vancouver obvs) and they sang and danced and played guitar and it was awesome! And I fell in love obviously because what else could I want in my life than to be a gnomes wife and live in a tree stump and we could eat worms and stuff and it'd be really messed up but whatever.
If it were real it'd be great and you'd be jealous.

SOOOOO!
We were headed home, driving down the freeway like the super fly ladies we are. And I was crossing over to the lanes because I like the HOV lane but it was blocked off by all these traffic barrels and traffic cones and I was like oh darn I don't want this when I saw it!
A traffic cone lying in the middle of the driving lane.
It's one of those terrifying moments you know. Where all the scenarios of what you could do flash through your mind and you can't do any of them.
I look to my right. A car, can't hit that.
To my left. Traffic barrels, will definitely hurt the car more than the one coming at me.
Can I stop? No there's a car behind me they'll definitely hit me from behind.
There was no other choice.
So I ran over it.

Now the cadillac is a very low to the ground vehicle like there's just enough room for my foot to fit under it in the front. Why you would make a vehicle so low is beyond me it's probably to be aesthetically pleasing or something ridiculous
So we hit the cone and everyone's like omg! is it gone!? did it fly out from under us? no.
We're are dragging this cone with us...so we pull over and Anita being the great one and the most level headed of all of us gets it out from under the front of the car and we're standing there like the hell do we do now...and some workers slowly go driving by. But do they stop?
No. 2 helpless girls looking at this mangled cone going ermeygerd help and they don't stop...rude.
So there's a little damage, the bottom of the car is cracked where the solid end of the cone went under obviously.
It couldn't just be like one of those train grill things that push cows off the tracks. nooooo.
And this grating part that goes across the front of the car (also probably for looks) fell off when I got home....and we lost the front license plate which I think my mother was the most upset about.
But somehow we got home and I had to tell my parents because naturally we'd have to ring it in with ICBC or something. And I'm fully expecting my father to be upset about his baby...but he kind of just laughed...
"Cars are made to be broken"
...well no they're not. They're made to be driven and now and then get a little dirty but not to be broken...
Mother on the other hand, hysteria.
I think I've figured it out though. It's because dad is retired and none of the vehicles are in his name and he doesn't really pay for anything because all he has is his pension so everything is in mom's name. though only like maybe 1 in 3 of the car accidents that have happened have been her fault.
The sister totaled her car. A girl broke the bumper when I was parked at work. Dad destroys everything. The most mom gets are speeding tickets....but there was that time she backed into a light post in an empty parking lot, dented the truck and had to get the light post put back up.
But for the most part not her fault.
Anyways, it's all going to be fine. The car's going to get fixed. No one's died or injured.
And I'm still going to Oregon next week!
So a Merry Christmas is still up for grabs!
ttyl

And So It Begins....Again...

Well more deserving things have happened in the last 24 hours to be posted about but I'm going to write about this because it's fresh in my mind and annoying as hell all over again.
We'll find out the out come of other things soon and we'll go from there...
But tonight...
The first family get together of the Christmas Season....
My aunt's birthday which is apparently a tradition to order a ridiculous amount of chinese food and talk about 100 different subjects in 3 different groups at the same time...
It's noisy, it's weird, everyone feels bloated and grandma never listens when she's told not to order dinner for 30 people as we only get 15 out on a good day!
my grandparents had 5 children, 4 have spouses, all together they have 11 grandchildren, 2 are married, 4 maybe 5 (I never know about one of my cousins I don't even know where he is most of the time) have significant others, 1 great-grand child...a baby that can't eat chinese food.
WERE we to add all these people up not including the baby (you don't count until you make it to a year old) that would be a possible 28 or 29 (depending on the variable cousin) people to feed....almost 30 but that many people NEVER comes!
my one uncle and aunt live in Kamloops they're not coming down for every birth, birthday and funeral. We don't know where their son is most of the time. Their daughter makes it to about every other event...I guess this was an other.
My one cousin just got married over the summer and apparently that gives him an excused card from everything!
My sister can't be bothered to come to anything and she claims to be a vegetarian so she can't eat chinese food...though we all know she does when we're not looking...
My father doesn't come unless it's a big event or it's someone he actually likes being celebrated
And I usually have the safe excuse of being in Victoria.....oh but not today....
Today, and I think we can guess where this is going as per usual with family gatherings and what not what my posts generally end up being about....one of those cousins with a significant other took a place in the rarely used category of ENGAGED COUSINS!

Nooooo don't cheer shhh shh stop that clapping it's not good!

Now this cousin....he's  very strange... probably the strangest of the bunch and they're all a little bit weird
(maybe I should mention that this is all the white side of my family. I expect weird and unsettling from the blackside...they're all Caribbean and there's about 1000 of them.
No this cousin is strange...and the girl he's somehow persuaded to marry him seems to be completely normal. Insanely rich! but other than that....normal...
Why is she marrying my weird cousin you ask?
Lord I don't know. She must not be as normal as I think....or what is more likely she's surrounded by the mantra...

Yes she's falling for it! she's sad and lonely and she's settling which is crazy I mean she's rich and has a beautiful house and a hilarious 90 something year old grandmother whom for some reason everyone feels the need to yell at when they're communicating but the woman held a conversation with me across the living room and neither of us were shouting!
She's got hearing aids let her be!

Anyways so the announcement was made and of course all the old people cheered and clapped and bustled around to get champagne glasses and sparkling juice (because my family's classy like that...no one's ever been too drunk to function at a function) All the married people made jokes and started planning the dresses and flowers and ridiculous stuff.

But if you watched closely. You could see the shifty, who's next eyes.
The cousin just recently separated avoided everyone,
The two destined spinsters prepared to live vicariously through the fiances
The only not wed couple looked anywhere but at each other and settled for washing dishes and passing juice.
One aunt asked where IS your sister and her boyfriend, he's always so nice to have at these events?
"She's at work I think"
"Oh that's too bad. Well what about you? Have you found a boy in Victoria yet?"

TARGET HIT!

Yes, once again, I become the distraction from all the more likely bachelors and bachelorettes in the room. I mean they're not even that old yet! they have plenty of time to settle down! but my sister and I are the last strands of the generation, tie us up and off with someone and we can move onto worrying about the new generation and things like baby clothes and knitted booties and none sense!

I'm sitting here trying not to explode from the incredible amounts of chinese food I've just ingested. I don't need heart burn for my failures in the eyes of tradition as well!
Hell if it's such a problem just set me up in a marriage that I don't have to actually be available for. We can reconvene at family events!
How about that!!

....my life...why doesn't it make sense...
I willl now crawl into bed, fight with my sheets for a while because they're really a nuisance...and hope the snow falling outside doesn't stick...
goodnight.

Don't Grab and Pack

Oh hey,
So I'm back in the Ridge
It's thoroughly uninspiring as to be expected but I think this trip home might perhaps have given me some wisdom in the packing sector.
I packed in about all of yesterday.
The thought process being I would take all my laundry because I had about a week and a halfs worth  (my landlady's family is visiting and I didn't want to disturb them...or really have to talk to them as they're so friendly and I'm so dismal)
So I would bring all that and then just kind of pull willynilly things that I saw and thought mhm yes I'd wear that....
But I didn't really think about how long I would be in ridge.
I had the mindset of about a week when in actuality I could be here for 3 weeks....so I packed the amount that I would generally pack for a week which is a lot
And I thought I had packed all the manditory family gathering dresses....I did not. I remember I did not because I couldn't choose which ones I wanted and how fancy I would be expected to dress so I just left it.
Filled my bag with all the notes from piano and music theory I intend to burn...a lot of hair bows and earrings (most of which don't match what I brought home to wear) a scarf in all the essential colours...except for red...I have no idea where that scarf is unless it's hidden by another scarf back in Victoria...
So reasons not to pack the way I did.
1- My laundry was made up of mostly socks and underwear. There was one dress I refer to as my teacher dress because it has squiggles and stuff all over it that one would associate with a kindergarten teacher. 2 pairs of pajamas (one of which I'm probably not going to wear because they're so warm. And all the clothes I've been wearing while spray painting this past week. So like work yoga pants and shirts I don't care about, stuff I might wear to the gym....I will not be going to the gym while home much to my father's annoyance I'm sure.
2-I didn't pay attention to the colours I was packing....I have 5 burgundy/dark red shirts, tanktop and a blazer, 2 black and white shirts, 2 blue shirts and a cardigan, a green hoodie and a grey cardigan....not much selection there...not much acceptable mix and matching but let's be honest. I'm not trying to impress anyone in this town so I'll probs just dress like Christmas everyday.
3-All the underwear I own and only one bra....I don' tknow how that happened...definitely thought I had packed a black bra I mean it's essential right? Well I didn't. Just the red bra I put on this morning, the only one I brought. but I have probably 80% of my underwear drawer packed .
4-A bag full of socks...yeah I've probably got 95% of my sock drawer with me...I didn't realize it had been that long since I washed my socks and then I brought more! The only thing left behind are like sports socks, toe socks and dance tights....I don't wear those anyways.


....So yeah.
That's my dilemma at the moment.
I'm kind of hoping my parents will decide to go away for a few days which means I won't have to get dressed and look like I'm doing things.
I could go out and buy another bra but I really don't need to...
I brought nothing scandalous with me! not that we party in Ridge...well other people party but I find those people questionable and avoid them if possible...in the event someone were to want to go dancing or something that 'cool' people do...I guess I would have to go shopping (I know so tragic)
It's Christmas I'm supposed to spend on others and all I want is to spend on me!!!

Yes I feel like Wayne Brady's interpretation of Oprah's Favorite Things (1:40)
And that's that.
I'm sure something will happen in this hellmouth to post about later on........we can only hope

The Universe Has It's Own Plans

Oh Hey,
So are you ever, you know, moseying about in your own life, worrying about your own things but not really having any huge life altering crisis to deal with and so are actually fine when you're stressing the small things.
Yeah well that's been me for like the past 5-6 years.
No one's died, I haven't been robbed or anything.
Now and then I get into a friendship fight or something like Priscilla and I usually stop being friends from December-March (not this year though this year the friendship is strong).
Sometimes I have to remove friends entirely (it's only happened twice so it's not a huge thing)
Mostly I just walk around worrying about others who's lives are way more messed up than mine and debating on whether to watch The OC or Project Runway. To do homework or clean the house.
Trivial things.
But suddenly out of no where it's like the universe remembered I was over here and they were like "hmmm she's had it pretty easy for some time now...let's shake it up"
And like even then my issue is still a trivial issue it's just something I'm totally out of my element in and haven't had to deal with since like high school.
(still debating on whether or not to say what the issue is so I'll keep rambling)
So everyone's got their theories on how life works, who controls the universe, is it God/Fate/Spagetti and I have no idea if any or all of those things are correct. Sometimes I think people just worr about their destiny so much they force themselves onto one path.
I'm starting to believe it's more like Sims, I used to think it was like board games but I feel they've upgraded.
There's like 20 people just on the other side of the sky and they've created these towns and all the people inside them and now and then they get bored and they take their favorite characters to new places and build whole new towns.
Like the theory that the world stops when you're not in it, people kind of just power down. We go on autopilot when our maker person goes off to play in another world. Which apparently my maker has been gone for about 5 years and has just remembered us over here and was like "man, Cecilly seems so peaceful....let's fuck her up for a bit!"
Well it's working
(I'm not going to tell you)
What I will tell you is I have become obsessed with something. Something that I can not have, something that I don't even particularly like but I find the concept interesting enough that I want to learn more about it. Which I then realize I am doing and I go "no no Cecilly be reasonable! Pull yourself together! You are an adult!"
And I'm fine for about an hour before my mind wanders back to it.
And the Universe is like ahahaha and they start to put up things that remind me of it all around. At school, on the bus. I can be not thinking about it and something will pop up that reminds me. Or I will be thinking of it and it will appear right in front of me.
I would like to think I've acheived a special summoning power but that's doubtful. Instead I'm just going crazy.
It's like when you have a Sims love triangle and the user keeps trying to get the two not together to interact and the singleton starts falling more and more in love and the couple one is like omg no go away.
I don't know if Sims can kill themselves (i'm not going to kill myself keep reading) but the user is definitely on it's way to telling me to go swimming and then will remove all the ladders and then I will just drown in this!
It's really not fair
And it's trivial which makes it all the worst I think....
Oh well,
It's Christmas....worse comes to worse I'll start reading Fanfiction again....

WIIIIIIIIIIIIINOOOOOOOO!

Shouting from high places is my specialty and I climb  things so often it's amazing I'm not skinnier.
Welllll I guess not that amazing considering the amount I've been drinking this year.
Yes this term as definitely turned me into a Wino.
Courtesy of Sergei for helping me find a love of wine last year.
It's pretty sad though if you were to look at my kitchen table right now you'd see 3 wine bottles with levels varying from half a cup to half full.
Priscilla says don't worry, that wine is good for you.
But those doctors are talking a glass a day not a bottle a day.
Imagine all the money I'd save if I stopped drinking!
Well I'm probably not going to do that. I mean the only step I'm taking away from wine is putting me a step towards tequila tomorrow when the ladies and I sit down for a Holy Drunk Christmas and we'll be having margueritas because they fall into the green and red colour scheme.
Think I've got a problem?
I probably do but the way I see it, terms over.
And though I have another directing analysis due next term (possibly 2) they won't be nearly as hard now I've done one. And I won't have Skin rehearsals where I have to spend hours swaying back and forth, humming, hating my life, dealing with drama that has nothing to do with me.
Hell I might even start going to the gym more than one day a week!
starting....Tuesday?
I could go to the gym tuesday.
But I'm free everybody!
No final exams, no more pottery (until January) no more meetings or having to fake professionalism!
It's Christmas Break!
It's also freezing.
Like I live in Victoria for the balmy weather, never goes below 3 degrees, hardly rains.
Well the other day it was snowing. That was fucked up! luckily it didn't really stick because my winter boots are not that cute and I have no interest in wearing them.
Also I'm having to wear two pairs of gloves when I go out, especially standing on top of mount tolmie which I'm sure in another post I've mentioned is more of a slight hill than an actual mountain but is still really hard to climb when your freezing. But it's worth it!
Especially with all the Christmas lights up now!
Maybe I'll take a picture next time though it will probably come out all blurred and ugly. Doesn't hurt to try.
But anyways.
Back to my OC marathon.
You should start watching it again, it truly is fantastic and it's not just for girls I know a guy who is deeply committed to it right now and as far as I know he's not gay, a little macho and arrogant but there's ball of emotion just waiting to explode deep down there I know it!
tatafornow!

By The Skin of My Teeth

There had to be at least one blog post with that title.
I've only been living the play for 3 months.
But finally,
thank the heavens it's over!
The nightmare show from hell is over!
And not a moment too soon one more week and I'm sure we would have died.

I know ya'll think I'm being over dramatic but I'm not.
Life imitating art is what some people like to see it  as.....I see it as a curse when the actors in the cast start getting sick and not being able to go on stage.
I can't even begin to explain to you the plot of this show because it was long 2. 5 hours which is much too long for old people even with 2 intermissions.
The handy darts only run so long and around 10 is already past their bed times.
Also so much happened in the play, we referenced everything. The ice age, dinosaurs, the bible, whores and stuff just running rampant throughout this play but along with that was this subplot that actors in the company kept getting sick from some bad fish they all ate at dinner and the stage manager and asm had to stand in for them...
well shit wouldn't you know it!
I suppose it was a good thing that the show was double cast so that when one Gladys went down the other could step in! And there were so many extra people you know
the audience wouldn't even have noticed if it hadn't been for the guy playing the stage manager standing in to be the crow in act 1....the most demonic bird you'd ever heard!
But it was all good.
We made it through (by the skin of our teeth) and I'm NEVER! going to do that show again....unless someone offers me a large sum of money for it next time around.
Of course the drama didn't stop there oh no but I'll save those tasty tid bits for another night.
<3