Mid-March Movie

The City Cinema is quietly tucked away behind Queen Street here in Charlottetown and plays mostly film festival flicks and less mainstream titles. It's pretty old school; slanted floor, not very many seats, and a smaller screen then you typically see but it's also a few bucks cheaper. After grabbing a coffee with Cindy downtown, we headed to the cinema to see Mid-August Lunch. I really liked it, it was the first movie I've seen in a while that seemed to fly by so fast I was surprised when it was over. It's about this guy who is taking care of his mother and ends up also having to take care of 3 other elderly women for a weekend. It was funny and cute and I definitely recommend it if you want a light, feel good movie that will have you leaving the theater with a smile.

For the first time ever, I waited on a table last night that contained quite possibly the rudest people on the planet. There were two families with a total of 8 people. They spent their entire meal screaming at their kids and disrupting the entire dining room...which was packed and I was the only waitress on staff. I had just dropped off drinks to their table and was taking drink orders from a second table when one of the mothers from the table of 8 stands up and yells at me for taking this second tables order before theirs. Of course the ENTIRE dining room turns to witness me getting yelled at. I'm not sure where my patience came from-but I calmly took the tables order and somehow managed to remain quite chipper. The table continued to scream at each other and disrupt every one else eating in the restaurant but eventually they finished their meal and left. Needless to say they were not big tippers. But on the bright side, the rest of the tables felt so bad for me having to deal with these awful people, and were impressed that I didn't shove a pizza in this woman's face that they tipped extra.

So the lesson of the day is to always be nice to your waitress or waiter, because I'm sure we all have to deal with tables like that one, and I think I've just gotten lucky enough to have not had one until now.

For all of you reality TV fans out there, aka fans of The Hills, The City etc, there is a new show that's based on a clothing shop called Jacflash on Queen W in Toronto. It's called JacLife and follows a group of 20 somethings who own and run the clothing store, have their own clothing line etc. Right now I'm pretty sure it consists only of webisodes but worth checking out. It's basically the exact same as every other MTV show, but its based on Toronto and produced by Slice. If you need a break from life and want to rot your brain a bit check out Jaclife.com

I Just Wanna Play

Turns out that I am the worst lazy person ever. I had planned to spend all day in bed doing nothing yesterday but quickly realized that that plan is actually quite boring. As soon as I felt recovered from the night before I was itching to get outside and do something exciting. I called up Cindy and we ended up going for a nice long walk at Canoe Cove followed by an even longer coffee date. Canoe Cove is actually the location of the Diabetes Summer Camp I am going to be interning at for a week in July, and since the road to get to the beach is closed in the winter, we had to walk almost through the camp to get there. I'm pretty pumped, it's gorgeous up there. Minus the running around after a bunch of little kids part, it'll be like going to a cottage for the week!

When I went to pick up Cindy on campus there were a bunch of guys outside in the field beside residence playing football. It made me realize how awesome it that guys of all ages play. Football, soccer, hockey...guys will decide at random times to just simply get together and play. Girls on the other hand, will go for coffee or shopping or for a walk, but rarely do you see a group of women older than 20 playing outside. I think everyone could use a little more play in their lives.

Speaking of play versus work, I have officially decided to come home for the month of July. I was torn between going home or staying on the island and trying to make the decision was really stressing me out. There is a lengthy list of pros and cons for both options and as soon as I thought I had figured out what I wanted, I would change my mind again a few hours later. This process is quite exhausting and so I finally chose to go home and I refuse to think about it any more. Post contemplative, I can now start to plan for my return to Ontario. Although it may not be the most responsible choice, I think it will make me the happiest, so I decided that it was the winner. And now that I've made up my mind, I can start saving up for the road trip and the month without work. I think I made the right choice because I am beginning to get really excited to go home, even though it's still like 3 and a half months away.

Poppa P's Bees

Here is a video of my Dad's beehive to enjoy on this glorious lazy Sunday. Sundays are not normally lazy for me, in fact, I'm a little unsure as to what this lazy term even refers to. But a late night last night with some friends has convinced me that bed is the best place to spend the entire day. I encourage everyone to do the same.

Here Comes the Sun (do do do do)

I love sun. After an entire winter of typical PEI doom, it finally seems as though spring is at least trying to come. Somehow everything is just better when it's sunny out. At home I don't have a window in my bedroom, which means that when the door is shut, there is absolutely no way to tell what time of day it is. Great for those mornings you want to be able to sleep forever. My room here at school has a big window that when left open, has been waking me up at about 7 am every morning this week with a face full of sunshine. Probably my favorite way to wake up, definitely beats the alarm clock and I can't tell the sun to snooze so it gets me happily out of bed.
Last night Lydia hosted a sushi party at Mia's. I had to work late until about 11:15 so I met everyone there for a bit after work. Mia lives out in the country so I was a little bit nervous about finding the place. It wasn't to hard until I got to Mia's road and somehow managed to not write down her actual address. And of course, there was no cell service at her place so everyone who was there that I tried calling was " the customer you are calling is currently unavailable, please try again." Eventually I got a hold of someone who wasn't there but had the facebook invite and she checked the address for me. Turns out I was basically pulled over at the end of her driveway. The road trip outta town last night made me really excited for the summer. I had not seen that many stars since I was camping in Algonquin Park last, and I couldn't help but think of how awesome of a bike ride it would be out there on all the winedy back roads through the country. The sushi was unreal, Lydia is officially my new favorite sushi place-way better than Zen was earlier this week.

Another Saturday morning is upon us, and for the first time in a very long time I have no obligations for the day other than working tonight at 5:30 which I am kind of excited for already. I like working, as much as it's a pain sometimes to try to fit into my schedule, I do legit like going to work. So I am going to enjoy the weather and head to the Farmer's Market, and since I'm a huge wimp and -8 seems chilly, I am going to wait until it's above zero and go for a lovely run along the board walk in Victoria Park this afternoon. I went for a walk there yesterday with Lexy and it was gorgeous! Everyone came out of hibernation yesterday and were walking their dogs and walking with friends and generally just loving life and the glimmer of hope the sun provides at the end of a long winter.

Coffee Tour of New York?

Yummm..coffee.
I might have to make my next trip the new York City all about coffee instead of cupcakes. Unless of course, there are cupcakes to be had at these shops WITH my coffee...

New York City Coffee Tour 2011?

Potluck Lovin'

One of the nice things about being a nutrition student is the faculty potlucks. There are normally one or two a semester, and although they don't elicit a huge crowd, there are usually enough students and staff to fill the dining room and way more food then we can eat. Pot lucks are awesome because you get to try things you would never normally make and you get to make something to share that you might not necessarily make just for yourself. The only problem with potlucks is restraining yourself from eating everything in sight. It's hard to not take a little of everything, and my eyes are always bigger than my belly (well bigger than my belly going IN to the potluck, probably not bigger than my belly coming OUT). It's been proven in research studies that the more food made available to us, the more we eat. So basically, the bigger the movie theater popcorn bucket we buy, the more we eat despite satiety cues. The craziest part is that even with a group who acknowledges this fact and is aware of it, the same phenomenon still occurs. Which is bad news bears because our portion sizes and even the size of the dishes in our kitchens just keep getting bigger.

Speaking of overindulging in food (story of the week it seems!), a handful of the swim team members went out to the new sushi place downtown called Zen last night. It's the city's first sushi place and it seems to be doing well because after waiting 40 minutes for our food, a table still wasn't available and we ended up having to take it back to a fellow swimmer's apartment to eat. Less than ideal but sometimes you just gotta roll with it. Despite the super long wait for food and not being able to get a table, I would definitely go back because it was delish. Partly because it had been so long since I had had sushi (probably not since the summer) and partly because by the time we actually got our food I was starving! If slash when I do go back, I will make sure it is at a less busy time...although who would have thunk a Tuesday night would be so packed? Most of the teams on campus basically only hang out with each other, the swim team is the exception. Very few of us actually hang out outside of the pool, so it's always nice to get together while we're dry and not in swim suits. Surprisingly, Tuesday night was the very first time I had seen one of the swim team members in something other than a swim suit or the UPEI sweat suit.

School has wound down for a bit...at least it has given the illusion of calming down. I'm sure it's really just a big old trick and then BAM a million assignments will pop up again. But for now I am enjoying the down time and am hoping to get some little things finished up way before they are due to get em over with. It's the first time all semester I've had time to think ahead instead of just frantically getting things done the day before they are due. Being ok with this has been really hard for me to learn, I hate doing things last minute and until this semester, haven't had to do that in my University career. It's hard to accept that sometimes, just finishing something has to be good enough.

This time next month I will have just finished writing my last exam and will be dancing around my kitchen in celebration of summer, probably with a drink in my hand and something really lame blasting from my itunes (at the moment my embarrassing play list includes way more Miley than is healthy to be exposed to) . That thought is what's getting me through this last month. If the first two years of University had been like this year, there is no way I'd still be here. I would a) be weaving baskets in kenya, b) teaching english in Asia somewhere or c) be a the leader of the first ever New York City Cupcake Tour.

My summer plans are still all up in the air. I want to go home for a week in April after exams but I have no idea if that'll happen yet, and I don't know for sure where my internship placements are, and I'm not sure if I'll be coming home in July for 3 weeks before coming back to the island for a week of diabetes summer camp or just staying on the island until the end of camp. It's the first time in a very long time that I haven't already had my entire summer planned out in September. Until this year I always knew that summers would be spent on the river or creek, probably coaching and attempting to get speedy fast. It's weird having no clue where I'll be when or what I'll be doing while I'm there. It am going to miss training for sure, specially while working full time for free for two months.

WHEW!

The last two weeks have been the biggest whirlwind of life. I can't believe that a) I made it out alive, b) it's humanly possible to get that much done in only 2 weeks and c) it's been two weeks since I had a chance to blog.

The last few days in New York City were busy, awesome and delicious. The trip concluded with more cupcakes, a trip to Max Brenner Chocolate for a Chocolate pizza with Rach and her roommate Nicole, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty and a lot of walking and seeing fabulous things. And ALOT of snow and slush and wet feet. Although Rach taught me a few coping mechanisms: feet in plastic bags in hiking boots. I learned that it is never safe to leave home with out a pair of wellies.

There was a HUGE snow storm while I was in New York and I could not believe how many people use their umbrellas for snow. By the end of the week, after rain and snow and slush and basically every possible form of precipitation, there were broken umbrellas everywhere. Umbrella's are basically the roadkill of NYC. You see a clump of something on the side of the road ahead of you and you can't really tell what it is but for some reason you are sure it will be slightly unpleasant. As you get closer, you see broken metal spokes, smushed, ripped fabric (always black, the only color umbrella that exists in NY) and multiple sets of tire tread covering it. Here, you see broken feathers and smushed guts...much more unpleasant but elicits a shockingly similar response.

The highlight of the last couple days was definately the Museum of Natural History. I LOVE dinosaurs. I'm not sure why, I think it might be because it's the first topic I actually remember learning about in school. Mme Larochelle taught me all about them in grade one. Good times.
Here are some pictures from the last few days! There is so much to write about that it would actually be impossible.