Too Picky?

You always hear stories of single women whose friends claim they're just too picky, and that is the lone reason they're not hitched up. I, for one, think it's perfectly fine to wait till someone passes your sniff test rather than hook up with someone and settle,  hoping to find abundant things you like about them that out weigh the things you'd rather overlook.

I won't try to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. I'm as finicky about men as I am about food. As many women do, I too, have " a top 10 list " or requirements and no-no's.

#10) Must not live at home with his parents still. Seriously, I get the whole saving money while you're in school thing, but by the time you're a min 27-28, you should be gonzo from the nesto pablo.

#9) Must be employed. There is no forgiveness on this one. I'm a Leo, and I'm selfish with my money. That's why I don't have kids.

#8) So yeah, about that kids thing, not sure I want them. And marriage, well, not high on my to do list either. I know, I'm a catch. Speaking of catch, I don't eat fish either. EVER. In anything. Or Eggs.

#7) Must be sincerely nice. I always choose to surround myself with people by this guideline: You can tell how people are by how they treat the wait staff. If they for one minute treat them as if they're below them, then heed that red flag.

#6) Quirkiness is a must. And sprinkle in some geek too, with a big dash of hippy. We'll get along just fine.

#5) Big trucks hoisted up 5 ft in the air with their big mufflers or a motorcycle as a second vehicle don't impress me much. Truthfully, a man in Jetta will have me at "das auto".

#4) Thinning hair, no hair, bad hair. Uncle Jessie set the hair standard for this gal. If you can't raise the hair bar, don't come combing around my house.

#3) There's nothing more un-sexy about a man, than one who's crude and rude. Cat-calls and F-bombs are an instant no thank you. I want a man who has never sworn around his mother or grandmother. Or if he did, he said "excuse my language".

#2) I have a huge thing for sweetness and people who do nice things without being asked to. It says a lot about how considerate and thoughtful someone is. I believe in good deeds, generousity, and not keeping count.

#1) James Dean may have looked cool with a cig in his mouth, but if he would have asked me out, I would have said no. Sorry. Non-smokers only. I value my lungs, and I suspect I'll need them when I'm 40, much like my knees.

Ironically, after typing this, the movie "10" came to mind. So here's to one day meeting my "10" too :)
(although judging by this list, it may take awhile - but I have the patience of Job).

Tia

Shitty Summer Jobs

I was driving through Evraz Place today, quiet as a ghost-town with the Queen City Ex done for another summer. It reminded me of that point towards the end of summer when you were younger and grateful summer was almost finished because you were working the worst summer job ever.

I think back to some of mine. When I was 15, myself and another girl were hired to paint oil wells. We were transported from well to well, painted, then moved on. The upside was that at that age, I was making $10 an hour, which back then was some serious grown up money. The downside, it wasn't rocket science, it was rather boring, and you're around slimy rig pigs all day.

At 16, I took odd jobs, including packing sileage. For those who don't know what this is, you basically drive back and forth, up and down in a tractor, packing the sileage that's been dumped into the pit. The better it's packed, the better it keeps I believe is the reasoning. So here I am, in a small Massey tractor with no cab, in the summer sun, back and forth. Not the most aspiring job ever. The upside was, I had a lot of time to think...a lot!

When I was about 18, I made the move out to BC for the summer. At first I attempted to work as a cashier at a Shell station. It was on the main highway, busy as hell, and I had an incredibly impatient boss who insisted we count change back on every transaction. I think I worked two shifts and quit. I did gain a whole new respect for people at gas stations. Especially ones in high traffic locations. Can you say pressure cooker??

After the gas station thing didn't work out, I set out to pick cherries for the summer in the Okanogan. We lived in a tent, and shared a common pickers shack for showering, bathroom and kitchen areas. We met a lot of different people, as a lot of Europeans and Quebecers hit up BC to work the orchards in the summer and it was a pretty carefree gypsy lifestyle. The downside though was that the pay was the shits, you had to be up picking by 6am to beat the heat (once cherries are too warm they come off the stem), and physically it was hard work. Not as hard as picking apples or peaches from what I've heard. One should mention as well that you're often tempted to eat what you pick, and in the case of cherries, well they have certain laxative qualities if you know what I mean. Rarely do I ever eat a cherry now.

Tia

In Sugarland's Shoes

Many are still in disbelief over the tragedy this past weekend with the collapsing of the stage at the Indiana State Fair minutes before Sugarland was to perform. 5 people are dead and many are going to be scarred either physically, emotionally or mentally. 

Kristian Bush released this statement: "Our fans just came to see a show, and it ended in something terrible. My heart is totally broken for the families and friends of those who lost their lives. It's broken for all the people who got hurt, for the people who were scared. I thank God for every person who lifted a truss, who pushed against that metal to get it off someone; for every person who used a chair as a stretcher. I thank God for every fan and emergency responder, for everyone who ran to the trouble instead of away from it. The courage of those men and women will forever be with me." - 

I recently met Kristian and Jennifer at Craven. They were both sweet and genuine and incredibly grateful for their fans and their support. I watched how sincere they were about the Little Miss project and how their fans interpreted that song in home-made videos in tribute to the message. I watched a video recently of a teen-age girl who started a campaign to just get something as simple as a hug from Sugarland when they played in her city. It paid off as this young girl was taken backstage with a friend and surprised when Jennifer and Kristian walked into the room and each gave her a huge hug, sending her over the moon. 

Today 4 members of their "Fan Family" are no longer alive and one 14 year old boy is paralyzed because they only wanted to see their favourite band perform. When I try to put myself in their shoes, I feel heartbreak for Jennifer and Kristian knowing they must feel immense sadness and possibly guilt over this whole tragedy. It may take awhile for them to ever step up on stage again without feeling heavy hearted. Not to mention their fear of being on stage, considering they were only minutes away from stepping up to sing on the same stage that buckled like a toothpick in the wind. From this point on, Sugarland, like many who experienced that fateful night at the Indy State Fair, will be trying to heal. 

One of those Moments

At the beginning of July, my cat Mozers got hit by a car and I had to put her to sleep. I had her since the very minute she came into this world back in 2005. She was the only grey cat in a litter of siamese kitties. She was the first to walk, eat, purr and poop. She was my little baby so it was heartbreaking to put her down.

The first few days after are the hardest, and by day 3 you reach a point of being at peace with everything and the world goes on again. But every now and then you have "a moment".

Tonight I took off my black socks, rolled them up into a ball, and then threw them across the room for Bazil to play with. And the memory of Mozers slapped me in the face. She was very "siamese" in behavior and had some unique qualities. One of them was black socks. For whatever reason she was drawn to them. Sometimes she would just go into my closet and pull out a pair of black socks and walk around the house with them. Sometimes she would take a pair of black socks from the laundry, walk into the bathroom, and put them in the toilet. True story! I have no idea why, but it was her thing.

So when that pair of black socks landed on the floor tonight, I had " a moment ", teared up, thought about her for a few minutes, wiped my eyes, got up and put them in the laundry basket and smiled.

Tia