It's my party...

Hi everybody,

I hope everybody's having a great day, but then again how could you not? It's the day after my birthday! Yep, 22 years ago yesterday I was born and boy have those year gone by fast. I was thinking about it yesterday and realized that time really has seemed to speed up in the last few years. School's busy, work's busy, life's busy.

Anyway today I'm feeling a little nostalgic and want to talk about some people that I'm missing today.

As I've gotten older I've started to realize what the important things are in life. Gone are the days that Christmas and birthdays are about presents, that Remembrance Day is a day off school, and Thanksgiving is a day too eat too much and go to bed early. I try - and most of the time am successful - to look at holidays and occasions for what they are and yesterday was no exception.

I woke up in the middle of the night last night after having a nightmare about my grandpa. He passed away almost two years ago, but every now and then I have a dream that he's back and I feel so happy and grateful to have him back, but by the end of the dream he always goes away again. Every time I have this nightmare I wake up sad, confused, and a little bit angry. Today was no exception, except today I started to remember all the years we had together and that lead me to think about my Baba and my other grandpa who have all passed.

I realize now that I'm older that having things is nothing compared to having people to share your things with. Of course, I've always known this, but as I've gotten older I've realized more and more just how true it is. I realized yesterday that what I really wanted for my birthday was to hear my Baba sing "happy birthday" and then joke about her awful singing voice just one more time (I always liked how she sang that song). What I really wanted was for my grandpa to ask me "how old are you now? 29?" and then we would laugh and talk about just how young I really am just one more time. I wanted to see my gramp sit at his spot at our kitchen table, drinking his coffee and eating his cake, and talk with him about everything and anything, because I always could just one more time.

I'm so lucky for the time that I had with each of them and I would never give up that time for anything in the world, but this year on my birthday I would've given up everything that I got just to have them do those little things one more time.

Have a nice week everyone
  M

She Hath-a-way

Hi all,

How is everybody this lovely Wednesday? Looking forward to the weekend? I know I am! I just can't seem to wake up this week... probably the cold that just won't leave my head. Sniff, sniff!

Anyway, this weekend I watched the Academy Awards. I love watching award shows, mostly because of the dresses and shoes, but also because I love to guess who's going to win and then cry when I'm wrong.

But this year I was not wrong! I said from the beginning that Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Lawrence (even though I thought Jessica Chastain should have won, I knew Jennifer would be the one to take it home), and Daniel Day Lewis would win their nominated awards. I said that Argo would win best picture (it was shunned from every other major award, so how could it not). I didn't know who would win for best supporting actor, but I didn't care, if I'm being honest.

But what I really want to talk about here is everybody harping on Anne Hathaway. I thought her acceptance speeches at the Oscars, BAFTA awards, and Golden Globes was fine. I would be a walking mess if I won something that I aspired to win for my entire life! She's an emotional person and there's nothing wrong with that... from what I understand from people that she's worked with she's not the nicest person, so isn't it a good thing that she showed some emotion? People are so harsh.

Anyway that's just my opinion. I love Anne Hathaway. She's a great actress and is just absolutely beautiful. It was a nice touch for her to mention that she started out as the princess of Genovia and made it all the way to an Academy Award winner. Obviously she's never forgotten where she came from.

Dan Hartnett's Pinterest

Happy week after reading week!
 M

A Thousand Farewells

Hi all! 

I hope everyone enjoyed their reading week! I sure did. Coming home was so hard, but putting my winter boots on was even harder.

Anyway this week I have to write a blog for my J class about A Thousand Farewells - by Nahlah Ayed. So here I go... 

Overall I thought her book was good. Ayed has a nice style of writing though sometimes it was a little hard to follow. I liked how she could tie everything together by the end of a chapter, but throughout certain chapters I was confused about who people were and where they came into the memory and so on. I also found it really hard to keep up with all her friends and acquaintances. Of course, that's my issue because I'm more accustomed to Canadian-English names, but it still made a difference to the way I read her story. 

For me her writing on a whole 'worked.' There wasn't much throughout the piece that I found to be bad in anyway (writing, story-telling, etc.). As I mentioned before the only thing that threw me off was the use of all the different names.

I found myself wondering about her personal life all through the book. Does she have a husband? A boyfriend? A girlfriend? A family of her own? Where did she draw the line between work and life? Is her work her life? To the latter I decided for my own reading pleasure that it was. How could anyone be away that long and see all that she saw without having those experiences fully consume her? It would have been nice for her to include more personal details about her life just so that I, the reader, could get a sense of why she went back for so long and so many times and where she was mentally and emotionally when she decided to return to Jordan.

It would also have been nice to know what her family was feeling about her return to Jordan. She mentioned in one of her chapters that had she died in the explosion in Beirut her father would have been beside himself, but what about everyone else? What was their reaction when she told them she was going back to a war-torn country? It would have been nice to have details like that in her piece.

I think journalists can learn a lot from this book. Ayed touched on some very difficult topics and I can only imagine how hard it was for her to write everything she did to get the story out. I've found it hard to write stories that are important to me while keeping an unbiased and fair perspective, and I think Ayed accomplished this. She spoke about how after 9/11 her family and race were being scrutinized, but she never made it sound as though this was a problem for her. She continued on with her life – as she should.

I also think journalists could learn from her perseverance. There’s nothing better than hearing someone’s story told with passion. Whenever I hear a story I can always tell when the writer was affected by a situation personally. This makes stories more interesting. Of course not everything has an affect on everyone, but I think journalists should look at Ayed’s writing and learn from her techniques.

This story doesn’t really compare to any of the non-fiction books and stories I’ve read. I love autobiographies – I find other people’s lives so interesting and love to know where they come from, what they’ve done, who they’ve met – but this was different. This, I felt, was a story about a girl who came to terms with thousands of years of repression and injustice and still managed to come out with a positive outlook on life. Honestly, I felt relieved after reading her story because it’s not often that you hear about stories like hers with a happy ending.

This book gave me a larger sense of appreciation for my life. I’ve always been grateful for everything that I have – my family, my health, my family’s health, friends, education, good times, bad times, an overall fantastic life – but it really opened my eyes to just how differently some people live. It’s easy to forget that your life and living situations are fragile; I won’t be forgetting that anytime soon. 

Well back to school tomorrow, so I'll get on my laundry and putting the finishing touches on some other homework. 

Happy reading! 

  M

Animal love

Hey folks!

Hope everyone's keeping warm this week... what weird weather. One day it's slushy, the next it's freeze your fingers off cold. Ugh!

Anyway, the past little while has been really intense with school, uni, and the jobs... I'm starting to forget what a really sleep feels like. But oh well, I've got to keep trudging on (and try to keep that smile on my face)!

I can't stop thinking about last Sunday's SuperBowl. Well, not the game itself, but the Budweiser commercial. We watched it our advertising class and I had to use some serious self control to keep from crying all over the place. I don't know what it is about commercials with animals in it, I just can't keep myself together!

For those of you who haven't seen it, here it is.

Via YouTube

I know, it's so beautiful.

it makes me think of that video where the lion trainers meet up with the lion after he had been released into the wild. No? Don't know that one? I'll show you...

Via YouTube

The first couple minutes are just amazing.

I don't know. Ever since I got Rusty I'm jsut a total suck for animal anything. I would gladly spend a day cuddling with Rusty over pretty much anything else. It's not sad, it's love. And who wouldn't love a little face like this?:

Cutest pup ever.

Oh he's just so cute. I'm surprised I haven't written a blog solely devoted to talking about Rusty... Hmm...

Next week... my blog purely about Rusty. Stay tuned! J/K.

Cheers,
M

Full House

Hi everyone,

Today I felt like doing a little blast from past... so of course I decided to look at some old Full House pics and stuff.

I love Full House. I grew up on it and I now have 5 out of the 8 seasons (I need seasons 3, 4, and 7 if anyone's wondering). I love DJ; I'm a total DJ - big sister, mature (sometimes), responsible (all the time), sensitive (yeah...), and I love my little sister so much (she's a combo of Michelle and Stephanie).

Anyway, I'm just feeling a little nostalgic and thought this would be a nice break for me to go creeping through some Full House pics.

Enjoy!

Mikayla Smith's Pinterest

Abby Mead's Pinterest

Britani Kirkham's Pinterest

Chandra Pelikan's Pinterest

Jennifer Keifer Curry's Pinterest

First episode!

I just love Full House. It's my happy go-to whenever I just need to chill out. And I mean come on, who doesn't want to look at Uncle Jesse? Have mercy!

Just last year Full House celebrated their 25th anniversary! How crazy is that?! I love this show; the Disney World episode makes me so happy. Disney+Full House=amazing combination.

Well stay warm, friends.

Cheers,
 M

The Waiting Room

Hi everybody.

Happy Tuesday!

In our Journalism class we were given an assignment to watch the documentary The Waiting Room (about the American health system, focusing on one specific waiting room at an Oakland, California hospital) and to write a little blog about it. So here it is, my doc-blog.

Firstly, I’d like to point out the irony in my day. I went to the doc with a friend and on the way home a not-so-good driver cut over three lanes and cut me off. BANG – accident! No one was badly hurt and MPI told me I was 100% NOT at fault, which is good, but my back and shoulders are killing me and mostly I’m just not impressed. She didn’t even ask if we were okay or apologize for just cutting over. The moral of the story is: don’t do school work on the weekend, especially if you have travel for it.

Moving on, this would not have been a documentary that I would have chosen to see on my own. I won’t get too much into it, but the thought of sitting in a waiting room be it at the doctor’s, dentist’s, or hospital, literally makes me feel like I’m crawling with germs. I just hate (yes, hate) the thought. But I feel like I’ve broken down walls after watching this doc (even though I didn’t watch any parts that had anything to do with needles, blood, or anything like that).

Comparing the American and Canadian health systems is not difficult. There are a lot of differences that lead me to believe I’m a very lucky girl to live in Canada and have the safety and protection of my health care. The most evident difference is America having both private and public hospitals. Private hospitals down there will refuse people because they’re not “members” – as we saw happen to the guy with a testicular tumor. This would never happen in Canada; everyone gets treated here (publications).

Secondly, another obvious is the insurance part. In America people have to have decent enough jobs to be approved for insurance and have health care and benefits. Here in Canada, we all have health care paid for through our taxes and varying amounts of benefits that can be purchased or provided through our jobs.

Third, Canada does unfortunately have a longer wait time to see a specialist or have a non-emergency procedure done when compared to states (NBER). This was a surprising finding for me, but I guess I’m just used to it. This leaves me wondering what happened to the man with a testicular tumor. Obviously, he left the hospital without having the surgery he needed, so when did he get in to have that done? It would have been interesting to see what happened to him a little while after even if only for this reason.

Both American and Canadian health care work on a priority system, not a first come, first serve basis like one patient in the doc thought – or hoped for. Public American health care and Canadian health care both have a lot patients every day. This is evident by the amount of patients always waiting to get in to see a doctor. As The Waiting Room doc sites states, “24 hours. 241 patients. One stretched ER.” Indeed it was!

Overall, it was an alright doc. I enjoyed the internal stories that were happening and finding out about the ‘characters’ lives and stories. I feel like the overall story was told pretty well by the people they followed. It was sad to watch and learn about, but that’s the point. It’s a sad reality. Everyone was showing real emotions – worry, happiness, and relief – and it was refreshing to see those emotions when I’m used to seeing scripted ones.

I felt the doc was fair without really having to try to be fair. It was just showing the way some people live in the states. As a Canadian, I really don’t understand how people can live like that, but it’s just the way it is, I suppose. Even though I also have traveller’s insurance, I still worry about getting hurt every time I travel to the state; I just couldn’t imagine living like that every day.

The shooting was good, I thought. The cameras were right in the thick of everything and go some really good shots of people just living out their waiting room experience. I was especially moved by the shots of the young boy who died. I’m happy that nothing was shown that would identify him because we literally saw someone die on screen (not that it makes it less real). So sad and moving – the camera people did a really good job capturing that moment.

The editing I thought was only okay. There was a lot going on and they definitely followed people well making sure we saw the beginning, middle, and end of most characters, but there were a few people that at the end of the doc I was wondering what happened to them. I wondered what happened to the guy who was shot and his legs were going numb, and what happened to the man who was angry at the world because of his dialysis, and why was there a woman who came in for a sandwich after her dialysis. Some of the editing didn’t make sense to me. Why include those people when there’s no time to finish their story?

All in all, I felt the filmmaker spoke to the most compelling people he could have. As I mentioned previously I didn’t really understand why some people were kept in the doc, but the people who’s story were seen through to the end were quite captivating. I felt awful for the parents of the young girl with strep throat. Of course I wondered how it got to the point that they had to go to the hospital for it, but either way I could feel the fear they felt when they didn’t know what was going on. I was almost in tears when the young boy died from a gunshot wound. I couldn’t imagine how sad and lost his family and friends would feel after that happened. I also liked the people who were chosen for this doc because nothing was really outright said. All of them showed us that they were scared about the cost of their visits and treatments, but no one came out and said much about it.

Music was really only played in the beginning and end of the doc, but it was effective. I loved the introduction. I loved how they showed us the hustle and bustle of the waiting room before jumping into anyone’s specific story. I loved the nurse who was taking all of the patients’ blood pressure and temperature while they waited. She was hilarious especially at the end when she was telling off this one guy for swearing.

I liked The Waiting Room. I've been thinking about it a lot in the last couple days and have been thinking about a lot of my time that was spent in a waiting room... there's been a lot of nights and days where all I saw were the insides of ugly white walls and smelled cleaning product and blood. It's not fun, but seeing what the experience is like for other people really makes me appreciate all the hospital staff.

When my grandpa was sick I went to the Health Science Centre every day after work. Every day I walked the same hallway and walked passed the Emergency waiting room. I never gave it a second thought, but maybe today I would knowing just how many people, stories, and lives are changed in that one white walled room.

Stay warm, friends.

 M

The hair-necessities

This week was a long week, but a great week because I finally go back to Pinning! Yippee! I pinned on a spare at school and I pinned before bed and weirdly enough I felt a bunch of stress just fall right off my body. I sighed a Pinterest sigh of relief. It was great. Do something for you every once in a while, I really recommend it!

This week, busy as it was, I felt like I needed to try something new. As I only had a couple minutes to spare between CreComm, University, two jobs, I decided I would try something new on my face and in my hair.

So Monday I bought new eye shadow, pinks and taupes because I saw a nice makeup tutorial using those colours. I tested it out before bed one night and it looked good, I love new makeup. I liked it so much that it even made its way on to my face for one day this week... that's commitment; I'm normally too tired to care about anything more than mascara during the week.

Also this week I varied from my normal pony-tail (long, curly-hair problems) and wore both a sock-bun (my Saturday grocery shopping / lunch-date look for the last few months) and a reverse braid ponytail (this one's new for me, I've been looking at doing one for a few weeks).


Well here's how they turned out -

Reverse Braid

It turned out alright, for the first attempt, anyway. And it was pretty easy... all I did was lay down on my bed and flip my hair over my head. A major plus to this was that my bun looked great (and huge) yesterday!

The sock-bun I didn't get a picture of because I've done it so many times before, but I did take a picture of it before.

Sock Bun

It still looks cool and somehow so relaxed!

It's times like these I want to tell myself to never cut my hair short again, but short hair is just so much fun (and so easy). I don't know what to do... the plan was to go back to short in the spring, but who knows! Long hair is so much fun too!

Happy Pinning (and weekend), everyone :)
M