9. A minimum of a 75% average

Completed: April 29, 2010
I have a confession to make: I am a procrastinator.

I will procrastinate everything until the last possible moment. That is probably why I had such bad marks all through high school, everything was handed in late because I would underestimate the amount of time that it would take me to do an assignment. This is one of the reasons I am so glad I'm not in university right now. Here are some of the things I am good at as a student...

- Keeping track of all the assignments I have due: My parents would always ask me when I was in high school, "Julie, what projects do you need to do and when are they due?" I would be able to just list my to do list forever. Which leads to my downfall: nightly homework or readings. I can never keep track of those. Also, when I start thinking about all of the assignments I have due I will freak out and just do none of them. Why? I don't know. My brain will just freeze and I'll go into hibernation, this includes staring into the fridge for long periods of time, eating too much yogurt and sleeping ridiculous hours.

- Studying for exams: I make MEAN exam reviews. When the teacher says "I'm going to go through the exam with you guys today." That is probably the moment that the teacher has my most undivided attention. Why wouldn't I? It's an easy A+! Tests are always tricky, and most teachers will just say "Look over your notes for Unit 3." HA! I wasn't listening. Guaranteed 50% on that test. Once a teacher gave us an extensive exam review that my study notes were 17 pages. Typed. Did I mention that I found no answers for that review in my notes? It was all in my text book.

- Presentations: I am extremely comfortable standing in front of a group of people and offering them my opinions. Usually, with this comfort comes procrastination. I can whip together an A or B+ presentation in an hour. It's honestly one of my favourite talents as a student. I feel bad when people go up to do a presentation and you can tell they are nervous because they're shaking like a drug fiend who just quit, cold turkey. They are continuously look at their queue cards/power point and NEVER look at the audience.

I was this guy...

When I made this goal, my intention was for it to realize when I was in university (note: procrastinated). I knew that with the marks I had, and my general lack of student skills, that I would never be able to achieve this. Boy, was I wrong. In the second semester of grade 12, I knew that with the awful average of 65%, I would never get into the university of my dreams (The University of Western Ontario). So I needed to get good marks, the best I had ever had. I remember one night, I got home from school, did some reading for a class, went to work, got home at about midnight, did an assignment until 3am, went to sleep, woke up at 5am finished the assignment, went to seminary, got home from seminary, proofread the assignment, got ready for school, printed it off and went to class. I felt like my life was a constant never ending to do list.

My so-called life.

This is beyond accurate. Every time I look at it I think of how difficult it was, actually doing my school work in high school. I also had a lot of things on my plate outside of school, I was a leader in my youth group which required me to attend all the activities and occasionally help out with planning. I had a part time job at the movie theatre, I usually worked about 15 hours a week. I went to seminary (mostly) every morning from 6:30am - 7:30am... And somehow, for my midterm, I had an 80% average. Not only did I complete this goal, I surpassed the expectation I set for myself. And after that triumphant 80%, I slacked off and my average plummeted.

Regardless, I had never had an 80% average in high school before that moment and let me tell you, it was exhilarating... For the few months that I had it. I must admit, I much preferred slacking off and being well rested. I love sleep!

Funny Fridays: Facebook Statuses & College Papers

I spent my afternoon being yelled at by RUDE customers at my movie theatre. Side note: 500 customers in an hour and a half. You can do the math. Anyways! Today, we're doubling the dosage for funny friday!

I love history. I love being able to relate current events to past event. I love having intelligent conversation with people. I read Thoreau for fun, discuss Marxism with friends and chat with my sister until the wee-hours of the morning about World War II. So naturally, I find historically based humour hilarious. This is one of my favourites...

If Historical Events Had Facebook Statuses

If Historical Events Had Facebook Statuses - Part 2

My final funny for the day is about essay writing. It's long, it's boring, it's excruciating. They're procrastinated beyond any reasonable extent. And most importantly, no one likes them. Not even the people who assign them, they have to read those bad boys, y'know? I think it would be beneficial for all of us to have a step by step of how to write a college paper.

How To Write A College Paper

Happy weekend everyone!

31. Give blood

Completed: April 15, 2010
To this day, I still have no idea why I wanted to do this. Now, I can deal with blood. I have worked as a lifeguard, I am clumsy and I have three younger brothers. Blood is something that I see on a day to day basis, and I'm totally cool with it. But needles are absolutely terrifying to me. I hate needles. In grade seven when we had to get the hepatitis B shot in school, I think I paced for an hour outside of the library where the nurses had been set up. I don't know why, but I think it has something to do with the way that the doctor's make sure that there is no air in the syringe and the liquid squirts out a bit. Just the thought of it makes me cringe.

I also hate how the doctors will always try to distract you while they give you needles. They'll talk to you about anything. I remember once my doctor was playing 'Distract The Patient' with me while she was taking stitches out of my foot, I told you I'm clumsy. She kept asking me about what I got for Christmas while it felt like she was slowly removing large chunks of tissue from the arch of my foot. I was crying and she thought it was funny because when she took stitches out of my sister's foot, she was laughing. My sister's feet are extremely ticklish. That, unlike mine, was an effective game of 'Distract The Patient.'

I wanted to do it though. Those sappy commercials that you always hear on the radio always tapped on my heart strings! I knew it, they knew it. It was in me to give, and I was ready... Ha. Ha. Ha. I wanted to make sure that that person who was in a car accident would have enough blood in their system to recover.

So I was at all you can eat sushi with my sister one day, and my friend Daniel who has a list as well texted me and told me that was he was giving blood at the community centre that day. I told my sister that that was on my list and she suggested that we both go together. We called the 1-800 number Daniel sent to me and off we went, tummies full of sushi and blood full of sugar. We were both really excited. I was excited because it was another thing to check off my list. Elise, because she had wanted to give blood when she was living in Calgary but her blood sugar was too low.

We arrived, were given our juice boxes and filled out some forms with some of the weirdest questions...
1. a) Are you feeling well today? 
Nope. I thought I'd give you my blood while I feel as though I'm infected with the black plague.
4. e) In the last 6 months have you had an injury from a needle or come in contact with someone else’s blood?
YES! Blood sisters for life!... No.
5. a) In the last 12 months have you had a rabies shot or a graft?
Shoot... Actually, someone trapped a bat over my head with a garbage bag once... I had the rabies shot after that.
13. Have you, in your past or present job, taken care of or handled monkeys or their body fluids?
Yes. I love monkeys and their fluids.

16. Have you used cocaine within the last 12 months?
Me: *SNIFF* Sorry, what was the question?

Volunteer: Have you used cocaine within the last 12 months?

Me: Didn't I tell you Charlie Sheen is my best friend? DYING IS FOR FOOLS!
19. Male donors: Have you had sex with a man, even one time since 1977?
December 31st, 1976.
21. Have you had sex with anyone who has AIDS or has tested positive for HIV or AIDS?
Absolutely, yes.
22. Female donors: In the last 12 months, have you had sex with a man who had sex, even one time since 1977 with another man?
Well, this is awkward... 

For some of the questions I was just thinking to myself, "IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING?!" But of course, most of the questions were totally reasonable. Don't want no prostitute blood flowing through my veins. But the monkey fluids question really threw me off. What does that have to do with ANYTHING? 

The last thing I had to do before they drew blood was go into this cubicle and have a woman ask me if I would feel comfortable giving a close friend or relative my blood, if yes, then I would take the yes sticker and put it on my blood bag. If no, than I would put it on my blood bag and they would turf it. It had barcodes so the nurses wouldn't know the difference, it was totally anonymous. But really, at this point, you should know what kinds of bloods they're looking for. If you're a prostitute or a crack head, they don't want any of your blood. Sorry. 

So I quickly put the yes stickers all over my bag, after the nurse left the cubicle. All I could think to myself was "Wow, this is so awkward and sketchy."

After that, everything went really smoothly for me. I got my blood taken, didn't faint, even got a cookie and a juice box! Elise on the other hand didn't get to give blood again, because she had just had her arms waxed like 2 days before and her skin was all bumpy and red. So the nurses decided that her skin was unfit for probing. I went home feeling 100% and when I got home, I hit a brick wall. I just felt so tired, so I took a nap and then took some pictures of my neat bandage. I also had a bruise on my arm for 3 weeks. It was probably the most disgusting bruise I've ever seen and people always asked me about it. They probably thought I had been mugged. But I explained every time that I had given blood. It was, after all, in me to give.

To donate blood in Canada and information on donating blood go to The Canadian Blood Services Website.