Mourning Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett

Thursday June 25, 2009 will mark a very sad day in Entertainment History. A long battle with cancer came to a close; and a life of music, dance, and never-ending controversy suddenly ceased to exist. Of course I am referring to the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.

The passing of Farrah Fawcett, while still heartbreaking, was inevitable. Her fight with anal cancer was brave and courageous. I did not know too much about her or her story before, and I cannot say I am all knowing and an expert now, but since having watched "Farrah's Story" on TV last night I have a better understanding and respect for what Farrah and her family endured throughout her fight. I only hope that she is now shining down on us in happiness and at rest.

Unfortunately, on the same day that Farrah succombed to cancer we also lost Michael Jackson, a notorious and larger than life entertainer whose life always seemed raught with controversy. This loss was one that the world was not expecting. This loss was one that the world was not ready for. In fact, as the internet has almost become "the world" to many of us, we could say that this loss practically made the world stop!

Michael's death, due to his age and how sudden it happened (not to mention the simple fact that he was one of the biggest, best and well known entertainers since Elvis and Frank Sinatra), is one of those celebrity deaths where people will ask "where were you" or "what were you doing when you found out that Michael Jackson died?" My answer to those questions still haunts me to this day...

It was 2 o'clock in the afternoon when I got off work. I told my co-worker who was coming on shift after me that I was probably going to nap the rest of the afternoon away. When I got home though, I decided that I needed more Michael Jackson music in my repetoir. As a dancer, I had always been a bit of a Michael Jackson fan but since I got my new computer (and since my cd's got stolen from my car last summer) I hadn't put any Michael Jackson music on my new computer.

So here I was sitting with my computer downloading a couple of Michael Jackson albums. The 25th anniversay edition of Thriller had just finished downloading when I got a text message from my friend Brian "CNN confirmed that Michael Jackson has passed away from cardiac arrest today..." This text message came at 2:59pm of Thursday June 25, 2009. Weird! Creepy!

Of course in all my wittiness I questioned...

Did my music downloading kill Michael Jackson?

While re-reading this post before publishing it, I found it interesting that I wrote that Farrah Fawcett's death was "inevitable". Why did I use the term inevitable? I mean all of our death's are inevitable. We are not immortal, and neither are celebrities.

Being Bored at Work is Dangerous

Alright, so just a warning to start this whole thingy off with: I'm so ridiculously bored that this may either not make sense or be a complete waste of time.

Wasting Time: It's what I do best, since 1987!

Anywho... so here I sit, absolutely bored out of my skull, while at work. Really wishing that I had turned back and brought my camera with me as was my plan originally! I was late-ish for work though and so I decided not to go back into the house and grab my camera.

Big Mistake!

Not that there is really anything much to take pictures of here at the ol TL. I would have found something at least though. It would have occupied me for at least an hour, maybe two. But alas, I did not bring it, thus I must create something else to occupy my last two hours and 14 minutes here at work.

Hmmm... speaking of my camera... I was looking at a bunch of my pictures from thousands of years ago (ok so maybe only 5 years ago) and I have decided that I do not take enough pictures anymore. Everything that I used to do was always documented. If I went to IKEA it was documented. If I went for a walk it was documented. Hell, even dinner's at Lori-Ann's house were documented!

Maybe that's the problem... Maybe I just don't do enough anymore. I'm always too busy! You can only take pictures of the same hotel front lobby so many times before it becomes redundant. Additionally I don't think my proffs would appreciate me blinding them with my flash every five minutes while they're trying to explain to me what a Factorial Anova is.

Here's the solution: do stuff... take pictures of it.

Simple, right?

Anyways, today is father's day and we will be having our normal Sunday Family Dinner... perhaps we'll play dice or Apples... perhaps I'll document it.

Happy Father's Day everybody!

So This is What It's Like...

This last week or so has been rather tough on me... I was super stressed with school, then my dad was in the hospital for four-ish days, I had had a couple of random breakdowns while thinking about next semester, and my "main squeeze" was gone for a week and a half on a work trip and was unable to be there to console me.

Last Thursday though, Richard and I took a bit of a stroll to the Lower Falls at Golden Ears Park. We went around the fence when we got to the falls and sat on the smooth rocks for awhile just listening to the sound of the rushing water. As we sat there in silence I could feel the slight mist from the waterfall on my skin and was reminded of the feeling of the ocean spray when I went to Hawaii a few years back.

There's something about being in the middle of nature and away from people in general (except that Richard was there) that really has a calming effect on me. (Note: I failed to mention that during work that day I had had 6 cups of coffee... I rarely ever drink coffee... so I was wired!)
While we were sitting on those rocks I couldn't help but reminisce about the last year or so and everything I had gone through. I thought about the people I connected with, the people I lost; my accomplishments and breakdowns in school; the stresses of getting a new property management system for work and the hostile work environment certain employees created; the day said employee left us and the new employees who made our team work more like a family; and ultimately I thought about the people who really helped me get through and overcome all the changes that have occured within the past year or so.

Then I took a deep breath and I closed my eyes. Feeling the sun on my eyelids, I started to smile. I'm good. Everything has fallen into place.... I opened my eyes again, glanced down at Richard, who was basking in the sun completely unaware of the epic life changing moment I was having. Then I looked back at the waterfall and noticed the very faint rainbow in the mist from the waterfall...

So this is what it's like... to be truly happy again.

UP! and Other Musings

Another sleepless night gives birth to another random blog post about nothing in particular.

Well alright, that's not too entirely true...

Saturday night my sqeeze and I went to see Pixar's new movie UP! It has now become my favorite Pixar movie! Of course if you go to see it in theaters you must see it in Disney 3D! With the 3D it makes everything so vibrant and real. I must echo John Lasseter in saying that UP! is quite possibly the funniest movie that Pixar has made to date. In fact I think I may have enjoyed it a little more than I should have (people started to stare... haha). For those of you who truely know me, when you watch UP! you will most likely instantly relate the character Dug, to me! I know I did! Anyways, I cannot continue writing about this awesome movie without giving any of it away so I think I will stop... Go see it NOW!!!

Other musings...

I have a Joel Plaskett song stuck in my head. Actually I have two Joel Plaskett songs stuck in my head, but I only know bits of each song so I am constantly mixing the two up. Thus the song in my head goes a little bit like this...

"It’s taking too long to get there
It’s taking too long to get there
It’s taking too long to come
He can’t remember where he started from"
"Oh, love, you’ve got sailors eyes
Sailors eyes, sailors eyes
Gone before the next sunrise
Goddamn your sailors eyes"

The funny thing is, these two songs are completely different in speed and tone, thus making it very awkward to transition from one song to another!

Other musings...

I got nothing... Sorry for wasting your time! haha.

Gong Show Friday!!!

As I sit and think of all the things I should be doing or could be doing but am not doing, I noticed that I have not blogged in awhile. I've been busy. I've been lazy. I've been all of the above.
Today, I am feeling very lazy and very procrastinating-y. I have a bunch load of Statistics homework that I could do but have absolutely no will or want to do. Thus I blog, which to tell you the truth I'm a little apprehensive about as well... only because then I feel I should come up with something worth reading. haha. Oh well!

Let's take a quick gander at the options for what I can blog about shall we: My Edmonton Trip which was now almost a month ago. My loathing for Statistics and school. Friday, in general.

Let's go with Friday in general!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This past Friday was a complete gong show! Earlier in the week, I had had a plan for friday. That plan included Alana, Chevy, and Myself (possibly another person or two but not definite), either Alana's pool or some other body of water, and the possibility of going to see UP! with Jacob later in the evening.

Here's what really happened:
After my doctor's appointment in the morning I called Alana to see what time she wanted to get together. At this point our plan was to have the three of us girls hang out at her place and go swimming in her pool. But now she was telling me that Chevy would probably not be joining us. Thus I decide, ok that's fine. We'll do a random Kari outing that may or may not include going to Harrison Hot Springs.

Note: a random Kari outing usually consists of driving to god knows where, doing god knows what, for only god knows how long. My outings are usually never planned at all. As Richard once said to me "When you hang out with Kari, it's like who knows? We may end up joining the French Army Reserve for all I know!" (Alright, so those aren't exactly his words... I just don't remember what group/cult/organization he mentioned that we could potentially end up joining.)

Anyways... so I hopped in my car and started driving to her place (which I feel the need to tell everyone that it is way out in sticksville). While on my way she texts me saying that maybe Chevy would come and would we be able to pick her up (she lives in a different kind of sticksville) on our random journey. Sure why not.

So our plan at this point now has changed from Alana's pool to random drive, picking up chevy along the way, and ending up at Harrison Hot Springs!

I get to Alana's house. Chevy's not coming. Ok, fine. Let's go to Abbotsford to grab gas and then we'll be on our way to Harrison Hot Springs! (The whole "random drive" thing flew out the window, as whether or not we would be joined by our third party became random enough for us).

In Abbotsford! Woohoo! Gas has been grabbed! Woohoo! Chevy has finalized her position that she is not coming but that maybe we could stop by for a bbq later :P

I'm hungry, so I decide to take a side trip to Birchwood Dairies, the best place in the world to get ice cream! Once ice cream is finished, we hop onto the Trans Canada Highway #1 and WE'RE OFF!

We've got good, loud music, two hot chickas racing down Hwy 1, each armed with photographic devices. The sun is shining. There are no clouds in the sky. The cars are moving out of my way! AND THEN...

Complete Stop!

I think "ah yes, highway 1. Road trip season = Road work season. Sit tight, we'll be back to 100kms soon enough..."

Half an hour later, 0.3 kms later. WTF??? Get out of the car... talk to good looking man with better looking truck in front of us... Apparently there's been some sort of accident. I turn on our wonderfully boring yet very useful "All Traffic, All the Time" AM station... "There is a Semi-Truck that has rolled over on Highway 1 just past Chilliwack. Traffic is being filtered off the freeway using the Annis Road exit. They have shut down Highway 1 from the Annis Road exit to the ____ exit. If you are currently on the #1 heading towards Chilliwack take the Prest Exit."

Here's where the fun actually starts! We had just gone past the Prest Exit at this point. The only other exit that we can get off at IS the Annis Road Exit! Thus we decide, no worries. We still have good music, good company, and the car is not going to be moving very far anytime soon! So we did what any young 20-somethings would do. Crank up the music, have a dance party outside of the car, and joke with fellow highway sitters about throwing a tailgate party in the middle of the freeway!

Little did we know that this was what had happened not too long before our sudden stop!
After the first hour and a half or so, the sun got hotter, the playlist got smaller, our water bottles were emptier and our bladders were fuller. At the same time though, little by little we eventually made it to the Annis Road Exit (only after about 2 and a half hours).

"Yes!" we thought to ourselves. Just one or two turns down this side road that crews were making us go down and we'll be on the beach in no time!!!

45 minutes later a big-rig trucker was heading down the same side road we had been sitting on this entire time (but going the opposit direction) and advised us that we would probably be there for another 2 hrs or so and that we should probably just make a U-y and head back west. So we said "forget this! lets turn around and take the #7 to harrison".

Let me illuminate the timeline here... I got to Alana's house at 11:45-ish that morning, we finally decided to turn around and go to Harrison via the #7 at 4:45-ish.

While heading west we both realized how tiring sitting in traffic was and how burnt our driver's side and passenger's side arms were getting so we decided to forgo going to Harrison and opted to go to Alana's house and hop in the pool instead. Then we decide, actually let's go to Hayward Lake which is just 15 minutes from Alana's house. The closer we get to Maple Ridge the more we both start to think that maybe we should just call it a day and go home. Then we get to Maple Ridge and decide no, let's go to Hayward Lake and at least put our feet in, that way we can say we went to a lake. After about 20 minutes standing in the water we decide to head off and call it a day.
(Note the awesome watch tan...)
I was just about to pull out of Alana's yard when she introduced me to her dog. I get out of the car, pat the dog, talk for a bit and 20 minutes later we find ourselves in Alana's pool doing exactly what our original plan for the day had been. We are such indecisive women!

BUT WAIT... THERE'S MORE!
I left her house at around 6:30pm. I decided that I would make my way over to Jacob's place for dinner and to hang out before he went on a trip. Of course if you know the Pitt River Bridge at 6:30pm going west on a friday evening, you will know that I sat in MORE traffic for about another 20 minutes.

However, all is well! I can see the bridge! I will be in New West in No time!!!

My phone rings...
"Hey, where are you?"
"Just before the Pitt River Bridge. Whats Up?"
"My tire on my bike blew up..."
SILENCE
"Do you think you can come pick me up?"
SILENCE
"Sure, where abouts are you?"
"On river Road in Richmond"
My head was about to explode! You see, geographically wise going east to west starting in Maple Ridge goes- Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Coquitlam/Port Coquitlam, New West, ...Richmond. So over the bridge I go on my way to good ol Richmond. I turn once again to our "All Traffic, All the Time" station to see what the Queensborough bridge would be like ... "There is a stall in the right hand lane on the Queensborough bridge. It is blocking the right hand lane and it is backed up to 8th (which is in New West...).

Luckily by the time I got to the bridge whatever happened had been cleared. I picked up Jacob and his bike at a random gas station and drove us home. It was 8:30 pm when we finally got to his apartment. I Looked in the fridge and asked "Do you want a Rickards Red or Honey Brown? I'm having the White!!!"

I needed that beer!