They lost their WHAT?

As you all know, I work as a lifeguard at a beautiful water park with well behaved, rule following guests... I usually have some pretty great stories of my own to share. While this story is not my own... well, it was just exceptional.

At Calypso Themed Waterpark, we have a lazy river type of amusement called the Jungle Run. Throughout the Jungle Run, there are 7 lifeguards stationed with walkie-talkies, rescue floats and first aid kits. Prepared for the worst and hoping for the best. Now occasionally there will be some moron who loses their brand new pair of Oakley's in the Jungle Run and they will ask the lifeguard if they have seen them. Usually this follows with an announcement over the radio that if any lifeguard has found a black pair of Oakley's to please return them to Jungle Run 1 to 7.

This being said, my dear friend Kira was working at Jungle Run one fine afternoon when a woman swam up to her. This woman then asked Kira to come closer, as if to tell Kira a secret. So Kira bent down to this woman's level. The woman whispered in her ear. "I seem to have lost my prosthetic breast in the Jungle Run... It doesn't really matter. I just don't want a kid to find it and start playing with it or something..."

When Kira told me this story, I nearly peed my pants. HOW DO YOU LOSE THAT?! What a strange thing to lose... Kira, however, remained composed. She asked the woman to go around the Jungle Run one more time, and if she didn't find it, then Kira would announce it over the radio for the other guards to look for it.

As that woman swam around, Kira stood at her station wondering how odd this announcement would be over the radio... "Attention all jungle runners, a guest has lost her prosthetic breast in the jungle run... If you find it, if you could pick it up and let me know. Thank you." Needless to say, this was the last thing Kira wanted to do.

Thankfully the woman found her breast in the Jungle Run on her second lap. Kira was a bit relieved and it made for a great story!

I'm going to try to post more often... I am just so busy these days! Also, I registered for my college courses this week. VERY EXCITING!

Funny Fridays: The Student Life

I know a lot of people are in exams right now for university/college. To honour those mourning the loss of their social lives, I present this week's funny friday. A collection of funnies of the stresses and frustrations of being a student... I haven't been in school for almost 2 years now. (Ahhhh.) But I remember it well. Exams are not fun.

I've never experienced this first hand, but I imagine that this is what it's like to pull an all nighter.

Now a lot of you may be wondering, why is this all so funny and exciting for someone who is not in school? Well, it is so exciting and awesome because I've accepted an offer for college! I'm going to college for a Social Service Worker program in the fall and I could not be more enthused about my choice! I'm going to be staying at home and going to school. I can't wait to start learning again!

With that announcement, I hope you all have a lovely weekend.

A Maid of Honor's Story: Do I stay or do I go?

Brittany and Brandon had been dating since February and I knew that they would be getting engaged any day. I had also been toying with the idea of going on an exchange to Russia for months and months and just couldn't decide if I wanted to commit to it or not. It would be a 6 month exchange where I would go and live in Russia for 6 months, and teach children how to speak English. All for about $2000. Which was really cheap and exactly the kind of thing I wanted to do. 

When I finally decided that I was going to do this, I told Brittany. To which her response was probably something like "I'm getting married, dude." 

I was then faced with an extremely difficult decision... 

Should I stay or should I go?

Could I bear missing my best friend's wedding? Could I deal with seeing photos of her, all in white, with the man of her dreams, without me by her side? If I did leave, I could only do so half heartedly; knowing that I would miss her wedding and any planning involved. I even thought of going on the exchange and coming home for her wedding. That plan was short lived... It would have cost me about $2000 in airfare to get home, not to mention the hours it would take to arrive in Canada. 

I told Brittany that I hadn't decided but that I was still heavily considering going to Russia. That I would love to be there but that if she chose a date from September to December, I probably wouldn't be able to be there. With that said, there was a long awkward pause. Brittany then piped up and said that she would just... not have a maid of honor. She made it clear that she wanted me to be there but she knew that I could not place my life on hold for her one day. But the fact stood: that if it wasn't me, then there wasn't going to be a maid of honor. 

In that moment my brain and heart just turned into absolute mush. All I could see was:

That's what really did me in. I couldn't leave when she so desperately needed me to pull off a fabulous wedding. Haha. But I told her I would have to think and pray about it. Regardless of what mother and sister told me, the answer was stay. The thought of not being there was unimaginable for both myself and the bride to be. Also, I knew that I would be terribly lonely on wedding day being away from her and all the excitement. 

Stay tuned for more wedding details from the maid of honor's perspective!

47. Spend a day in Ottawa’s Parliament

Completed: September 1, 2011

When I was making my list, I always imagined what it would be like to complete each of the items on my list and it seems that they never go the way I anticipated. This particular goal was so different because I had been living in the Ottawa area for 3 months, and I had not gone into the Parliament or even to the grounds until late July. I must say, once I had been, I fell in love with the beauty of Parliament Hill. Seeing it and walking the grounds made me feel so patriotic.

I had gone to Mosaika with Jenna for her birthday and my mind was absolutely blown. I felt SO proud to be Canadian, they displayed our history in such an amazing way that could be appreciated by all ages. I'm going to post a video so you can understand how amazing this was...

After I had gone to Mosaika, I knew it was time to go inside the parliament buildings and do a walk through. But when? I worked every day. So, I decided to meet up with, Jenna, who is going to school at OttawaU and go there with her and my brother on my moving day. This was a very bad idea.

I spent the entire morning packing all of my stuff into the car at my grandparents' house. Then I drove the 45 minutes to downtown Ottawa, met up with Jenna, walked to Parliament. It had already been a long day. I was sleepy just driving to Ottawa. But as we toured the building, I got really excited!  We went around the back of the building first to look at the bridge and the look off I went to with Jenna the last time I was there.

You can barely see it, but to the right of the bridge above the cliff looking thing, there's a statue. You can walk there and look at the parliament buildings from behind. Absolutely magical at night.  

I went to put my arm around Jenna for a photo and ripped skin right off my arm! OUCH!

We're cute. :)

We only went to the Peace Tower and the Memorial Chamber. Going to the top of the Peace Tower was so nice, just because when you get to the top you can see the entire surrounding area. I learned a lot going into the Memorial Chamber. I love history, so this was exactly the sort of thing I love. The Memorial Chamber is for any soldier who has ever died in the service of our country. They have all of their names beautifully inscribed in books and each page is displayed at least once a year. They had a book for each war that Canada has been involved in. It's basically the paper equivalent of Arlington Cemetery. They had beautiful quotes and inscriptions on the walls, with stained windows. There is definitely a special spirit in the Memorial Chamber.

It was originally made for the soldiers lost in World War I, but as time passed, there were more wars and more men and women lost. They've assembled books for each of these.

The names are all hand written... I need to work on my handwriting.  

The WWI Memorial, which was placed in the centre of the room.

At the entry of the Memorial Chamber, there are sculptures on the arch of the animals who helped in the wars who would often help our soldiers by carrying the soldiers, their belongings, going to see if the area was safe, etc. Most of the animals would die in service. It made me smile that our government took the time to remember the service rendered to us by animals.

Reindeers, donkeys, pigeons, horses and dogs.

All in all, it was a great day. As we were leaving the Parliament buildings, we stopped by the boutique. We really weren't planning on buying anything but Colin and I decided to splurge on matching rugby sweaters. Which have proven to be great purchases.

We're huge losers... But it was so much fun being a tourist in downtown Ottawa. I want to go again and go to all the museums there!

You know I don't like goodbyes. See you later!

This goodbye is proving to be much more difficult then any other before.

High school was easy.
Cineplex Odeon was (beyond) easy.
Even moving away from home was easier than this.

I never imagined I would be so sad leaving this job after only 3 months... Actually, I hate the job. It's the people that are making this so stinking difficult. I left last year, no problem. I haven't even seen anyone from Canada's Wonderland since my last day there. There have been a few facebook messages and some tweets exchanged, but nothing that gave me a desire to hang out again.

Today was my last day at Calypso and I just don't want to leave them yet. Sure, I was done with the patrons, the labor law confusions and the pure stupidness that happened on a day to day basis. But the friendships I've made with these people are shockingly strong. (It has only been 3 months!) They're honestly some of the nicest people I know. It was actually just a breath of fresh air to have met them.

They've been so fun and made being at work bearable. They also laugh at all my jokes, which makes me ridiculously happy. I love when people find me funny. I remember one day I was stuck at the bottom of Accelerators with Amy, and it was just pouring rain, like borderline torrential downpour. For some reason, I thought it would be brilliant to just start throwing tubes all over the place. Now, these aren't just some single or two man tubes. Oh no. These are four man tubes. They are some next level sized tubes. And I was just pitching them and screaming like a mad woman. Amy was bent over laughing so hard and I had tears in my eyes. These moments are what made my summer absolutely magical. Then throw in some cliff jumping, wings, Backstreet Boys, winks & blinks and movie nights.

It has been so great and I'm really sad to be packing up and leaving.

I'm not worried though. We all know that age old saying... Friends who save together, stay together.

First Day Home!

This weekend I got to go home for the first time since I moved to Ottawa in May. It was actually amazing to be home. I'm so pleased with how my weekend went... That I'm going to blog about it one day at a time. :)

Wednesday, after work, I drove home. To break down my day: 

7:30am - Wake up

8:30am - Go to work

9:30am - Arrive at work

10:00am - Start working

BLABLABLABLA SWIMSWIMSWIM HATELIFEFORTHEENTIRETIME

7:30pm - Finish work

8:30pm - Arrive to Grandparent's house (Ottawa residence)

9:30pm - Leave for Toronto

1:00am - Arrive in Toronto (EXHAUSTED)

1:10am - Get on phone with friend from BC (Worst idea ever.)

2:00am - Go to sleep

Basically, by the time I went to sleep, I wanted to die. Needless to say, I definitely slept in on Thursday. I spent the morning sleeping and I was about to hop in the shower at noon when one of my friends from Cineplex informed me that a bunch of them were getting together for sushi at noon... It was noon and I was getting in the shower. This was not an optional shower. It was actually completely necessary. So, I took the fastest shower of my life and got to the sushi place for 12:30pm. Then I ate obscene amounts of delicious sushi. It was amazing. 

I want to mention this too... Did you know that if you're over 6 people some restaurants will charge you a service charge? So like a mandatory tip? Of course, I find this out after I pay the bill... Unimpressed. If any waiters/waitresses want to explain why this is done, feel free to post a comment below...

Britney was in an accident a little while ago and after her near death experience she decided she was ready to try sushi... Bahahahaha. These are the kind of people I worked with at Cineplex. I miss them.

I feel awkward just looking at this... 

After my lunch with my cinegals, I went home and picked out some clothes to wear to the photo shoot my mom arranged. Yeah... I was extremely anxious because I'm not one to sit in front of a camera and strike a pose. I'm not one of those people who will refuse to have their picture taken either... Anyways, extremely anxious! But once I got there, Anita, my photographer, was so cool and fun! I was extremely comfortable and I'm so excited to see the photos. We took them by a little stream and there was a boat and paddle that she used as props. I'm so excited to see how they turned out! The only thing that makes me sad is that she works on film, so it'll be really hard for me to post photos. But I'll probably just take a picture of my picture in it's frame. 

After that, my mom and I went to get pizza at our favourite pizzeria and just chatted for a while. It was nice, I definitely miss my mom living in Ottawa. Also, when you don't live at home, your parents never argue with you when you're home. It is so nice! They're just like do you want to go out tonight? Let's do something fun! It's GREAT! I'm never moving back to Toronto... Okay, I might. I have no idea. BAH!

That's the end of my first day! Stay tuned for a mani/pedi with my sister and Edgefest!