Then, Now, and Forever

Truly ye come of The Blood; slower to bless than to ban;
Little used to lie down at the bidding of any man.
Flesh of the flesh that I bred, bone of the bone that I bare;
Stark as your sons shall be -- stern as your fathers were.
Deeper than speech our love, stronger than life our tether,
But we do not fall on the neck nor kiss when we come together.
My arm is nothing weak, my strength is not gone by;
Sons, I have borne many sons, but my dugs are not dry.
Look, I have made ye a place and opened wide the doors,
That ye may talk together, your Barons and Councillors --
Wards of the Outer March, Lords of the Lower Seas,
Ay, talk to your gray mother that bore you on her knees! --
That ye may talk together, brother to brother's face --
Thus for the good of your peoples -- thus for the Pride of the Race.
Also, we will make promise. So long as The Blood endures,
I shall know that your good is mine: ye shall feel that my strength is yours:
In the day of Armageddon, at the last great fight of all,
That Our House stand together and the pillars do not fall.
Draw now the threefold knot firm on the ninefold bands,
And the Law that ye make shall be law after the rule of your lands.
This for the waxen Heath, and that for the Wattle-bloom,
This for the Maple-leaf, and that for the southern Broom.
The Law that ye make shall be law and I do not press my will,
Because ye are Sons of The Blood and call me Mother still.
Now must ye speak to your kinsmen and they must speak to you,
After the use of the English, in straight-flung words and few.
Go to your work and be strong, halting not in your ways,
Balking the end half-won for an instant dole of praise.
Stand to your work and be wise -- certain of sword and pen,
Who are neither children nor Gods, but men in a world of men! 

Rudyard Kipling 

Missing

Missing (adj)
1. (of a thing) Not able to be found because it is not in its expected place.
2. Not present or included when expected or supposed to be.


It may seem that since I’m home with people I love this school year, there are not a lot of things that I should be missing. However, the sad fact is that there are a lot of things I’m missing, right here from the comfort of my room.

Right now, I’m missing time with my family. A thought that was sparked by an inadequate supper prepared by my wobbly father while I was holed up in my room, trying to figure out my mind boggling chemistry homework. Sitting alone at the table with my dad made me realize how badly I miss our family dinners that my mom spent an hour preparing. The numerous delicious and nutritious dishes involved in it and the care and devotion that went into something as seemingly monotonous as dinner was something that I really looked forward to. But I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed it until I realized that I missed it.

Which made me miss my mom. With her working all day till at least 7, usually 8, sometimes even 9 or 10 o’clock at night, I rarely get to see her during the week. When she does finally come home, I’m either in my room working, or already in bed, or at Andre’s house. Even on weekends, we both usually end up having somewhere to go.

I also miss my friends. Sure, there are people here in the Patch that I get along with, both at the barn and at school, but I can honestly say that I have not gone out with any of them (with the exception of the odd movie night with barn people) to just hang out, or go over to their houses to visit. I miss my social life and having somewhere to go, other than school and work.

I miss my horse. Someone came to look at her today, and she will probably be going to a new home in the next couple of weeks if all goes as planned. I’m glad that she’s found a new home with someone who will love her and care for her and pamper her, but I will most certainly miss her. I already miss how she used to be, before she had her baby. It’s been a long summer coming to terms with the fact that she probably never will be the same, and now having to realize that I need to let her go.

So although I know where all these things are, and expect them to be in a certain place, they are not where they are supposed to be. Maybe this is a selfish thought on my part, but lately I’ve been losing a lot of things that I hold dear to me, and tonight I’ve realized exactly how much I’ve been losing.

Hopefully those things that I am missing will find their way back to me soon enough. And in the deplorable case in which they don’t, well I guess instead of just being missing, they’ll be gone.

I miss you guys :)

Michele <3 <3 <3

p.s., I'm a horrible person... pants will be mailed out wednesday :S I'm sorryyyyyyyy

The internet is really, really great...

Hey ladies!

*sniffs and swallows snot*

I have a story for you today and it concerns my internet so YAY!

So I work up in the morning feeling not like P Diddy. In fact, I felt rather horrible and still feel rather horrible because the tiny chickens have invaded my skull and have been raging around in there since Saturday AM. I might add that I worked a nine hour shift on Saturday and an openning nine hour shift on Sunday.

So yeah, I'm tired and I feel like crap. The stage is set.

I'm a huge believer in going to class. Unless I'm so sick I literally cannot get out of bed, or move farther than a few steps without my head exploding or vomiting everywhere, then I'm at school for class. So this morning I dragged my carcass out of bed and went to my 8:30 class. I even packed my textbook for my online course thinking that, after class, I would head to the library and read read read. This did not happen.

I made it through my first hour of class with little trouble but during the second I was sinking fast. I was two steps away from sleeping on my desk (those two steps being 1) placing my head on my desk and 2) disappearing into a world where I give Olivia Wilde "private tutoring sessions" in biology) and good lord was it tempting to take those last two steps! I managed to resist long enough for the class to be through with but all my delusions of getting studying done in the library were smashed. I drove myself home, put on some yoga pants (yes, yes, I did), flopped onto my bed and pulled up my internet for some brief pre-nap reading.

This is where the internet comes in.

So I had visited all of two pages when this lovely notification came up telling me that I had used up 75% of my monthly allowance of internet. 

What!?! What!?!

I had never seen one of these things before and was rather terrified of the thought that my roommates had only been here for two weeks and I was getting this message. Not good! I had a little panic imagining my money flying out of my bank account before I realized that all I really had to do was figure out how to up my monthly allowance and all would be okay.

Cue call number one to Rogers.

To get a hold of anyone in the Rogers network you have to enter at least ten numbers into their automated system. To be fair, they have a lot of people and departments so it makes sense that you have to pick the one suited to your issues but this adds at least five minutes onto any call. (Also, I'm saying the name of the company because in all of my calls today they've been really helpful with everything and the people I talked to were genuinely nice. That can be a bit rare in some phone calls so I just thought I'd put that out there.)

So I'm talking to my first person and she, like everyone else I talked to today, had me repeat my telephone number, address, full name, area code, etc. If I hadn't had any of this memorized before today I certainly would now! A quick calculation told me what internet package I would need to avoid the scary 75% used message again and she quickly typed that in and switched up things on my account.

When we've done this she tells me that I will need a new modem because the one I had wasn't fast enough to handle the bigger package. Okay then.

Remember the bit about how I had left school to go to sleep? Yeah, not happening.

So where do you get a modem? Apparently all I needed to do was go into the store and pick it up. She gave me the address and phone number of the store closest to me (I should add here that there is a Rogers store on the next block from my house but it's not a "Rogers Plus" store which is the one which does everything so no such luck there).

I call that store and the guy tell me "Sorry, we're actually backordered on those." Cue me freaking out because my updated plan with more usage won't start until I get the new modem and if I can't get the new modem then my roomies are going to empty my bank account by watching YouTube videos. The guy at the store told me that I should try the store at the mall and I'm all "Sure, can you give me their number?" and he's all "Well, we don't have it right here but I can look it up on the internet" and I say sure and he gives me a number.

Something strikes me as odd about this because the area code is one I don't recognize but, since he sounded pretty confident when he gave me the number, I give it a try. 

Store #2, Call #3

Guy: "Hey, my name is _____ and thank you for calling. How can I help you?"

Me: "Well, I just upped my internet plan and I need a new modem. Have you go the _____?"

Guy: "Actually, we're backordered on that one because everyone is getting them right now-"

Me: *freaks out inside head*

Guy: "-but we get more in every week."

Me: "Oh good so when's your next shipment?"

Guy: "Actually, we got one in today but we didn't get any modems."

Me: *goes batty in a way that makes Batman look like a kid on Halloween (in my head, of course)*

Me: "Oh really, that majorly sucks."

Guy: "Well, I can always send you to the next nearest place and see if they have some."

Me: "Sure thing."

Guy: "Do you know the place on ____ Street and ____ Street?

Me: "No, but I, like, majorly suck at geography so I may need a little help."

Guy: "Oh sure, just tell me where you are?"

Me: "I'm at ____ and ____"

Guy: "Where and where? I've never heard of those."

Me: "At ___ and ___ in [city]? Really?"

Guy: "You're from [city]? Why are you calling me? I'm in [other way far away city]!"

Me: "Well, shit, why am I talking to you?"

Guy: "I don't know but you definitely don't need to be. This is kind of ridiculous."

Me: "Kay, sweet... Have a nice day!"

Guy: "Bye!"

Me: *hangs up*

(The exact contents of the above dialogue may have been altered but the jist is the same!)

After that lovely excursion I looked up the next closest store to me on the internet myself and found the actual number, complete with recognizable area code, and called them. They had the modem is stock! Joy! They put one on hold for me! More joy! I got in my car and drove there.

Remember the bit about me coming home to sleep? Yeah, not happening.

At the store, both the people are busy so I stand around for a while sniffling to myself and not being impressed by all the shiny new phones. The woman ahead of me is doing the same thing I am there to do and having major problems. Uh oh! I get to go to the other person and they go "Yup" and "Yup" and "Uh huh, we've got that right here" and "Just let me call to confirm" and I wait while she waits and everyone in the store is waiting. An eternity consisting of 10 minutes passes before "Yup, we're done here. You can take this shiny new box home and plug it in."

So I got in my car and went home with my shiny new box and plugged it in and followed all the instructions to set up the name and password of my interwebs and it (the program on the CD that came with the shiny box) says "Great! Everything is good! Go forth onto the webs at you leisure!"

I went forth to Firefox and got this message:

[Rogers Logo]

"We're having some technical difficulties connecting this modem to your account. Please call ______"

Cue Call  #4 to the same number where you have to press 10 more numbers to talk to someone. I eventually get a tech guy because I thought it was a tech problem. It turns out that, after extracting my name, address, postal code, and phone number that the people at the store didn't "close the work order" like they were supposed to so their system doesn't recognize that I should have the new modem. Tech guy is a tech guy and doesn't get involved with work orders and so transfer me to customer service lady. Customer service lady says "Oh, I see. I'm going to call someone and see if they can fix that for you". Well great, that's what I want.

I wait for customer service lady to do her thing while crouched against the wall of my bedroom (because my Blackberry's already low battery has had enough of these long calls and has demanded to be plugged in and the chord for my charger is not long enough for me to sit on the bed) and watch the pretty lights on the shiny new box. The pretty lights on the shiny new box are pretty.

Eventually I see things start to happen on my computer and my newly set up network disappears and comes back and then customer service lady comes back and  says "It's all good. We close the order. You are a-okay!" and I thank her and hang up.

I go onto my Firefox and click the thing to go to a webpage and for an instant I see the Rogers thinking symbol and I'm all "Please don't do this to me again. Please don't have a problem again. Please..." but then it goes straight onto Tumblr and I'm doing a giant squid of happiness instead of the giant squid of anger and all is well.

There were actually a few jokes and feel good moments in those phone calls, including one where I changed the name on my account from Oina to Dina that happened between calls 3 and 4. (Honestly, how do these people mess that up? The guy I talked to thought it was pretty funny, too.)

Remember that bit about how I came home from school early so that I could sleep?

I'm going to sleep.

Zzzzzz,

Dina

Yoga Pants - Dos and Don'ts

I can't believe none of you wear yoga pants. Hopefully this will help you get out of that rut. 


DO 
Wear yoga pants. Seriously. They're comfy and you'd be crazy not to.


DON'T 
Wear yoga pants to the club, or the theatre, or on a date. They are acceptable to wear around the house, on errands or to class. 


DO 
Make sure they fit. They should lovingly hug your curves.


DON'T - 
Pull your yoga pants up too high, or have them too tight. We do NOT want to see your camel toe.


also
DON'T 
have them too loose! you risk rocking the PJ look that way.


DO
choose pants that are looser from the knee down, this more closely mimics the fit of jeans.


DO 
pair them with an appropriate top. Comfy goes with comfy. Tank tops and t-shirts are great.


DON'T  
wear anything sequined or plaid with them. Especially if it buttons up.


DO
be tasteful. Stick with a simple black, maybe with a coloured stripe around the hips.


DON'T 
wear ANY pants, ESPECIALLY yoga pants that have writing across the butt.Seriously. Don't. Ever.




Hopefully these guidelines will help you to be more accepting of yoga pants an an acceptable fashion choice. Too many girls wear their yoga pants wrong and I can see how this may have skewed your personal beliefs. Please take the time to consider my input. The final decision however, rests in your hands.


Namaste. 

*YAWN*

Hey there ladies!

The title of this post describes what I was doing during the two lectures I had this morning... Yeah, I was super tired.

When all of y'all did your updates last week you talked about school and, because I hadn't even started school yet, I didn't have much to say. Now I have. Now I will.

First things first, I never like to think of any course as a bird course because it's usually the ones you think are easy that will leap up and bite you in the rear unexpectedly. (My thoughts on looking at that last sentence: Hmmm... Kinky...) However much I dislike the label of "bird course", my statistics class right now is looking alarmingly close. I keep trying to say to myself "This is a math class! It's a math class! There's no way it can be this easy! You have to look for the catch... That's it, there must be a catch..." but when you've been in class for four lectures and you're currently learning mean, median and mode... *sighs* Being as tired as I was today, I started finding the patterns in the carpet (which, in actual fact, has no discernable pattern) rather captivating.

My second lecture is with the woman who runs most of the first and second year biology labs and is known to be a little frightening. She is rather. Frightening that is. Especially when you're almost asleep in your chair and she yells something about DNA really loudly into a microphone which is already making her really loud and her Russian/Polish/I-don't-really-know-but-ARGHJGHGHG accent starts echoing in your skull which is empty except for thoughts like "Damn that girl in the third row is cute... and I really like that sweater..."

Worse is the fact that you learned what she was yelling about inside out last year when you took biochemistry (which apparently the rest of your class didn't take because they were too busy in organic chem, ick) and even in grade 11 biology class. By the time you've finished processing these thoughts she's yelling again and this time it's "I KNOW THIS IS BORING. I KNOW THIS IS BORING BUT I WILL BE TESTING YOU ON IT. IT WILL BE ON THE TEST SO YOU HAVE TO KNOW IT. IT IS BORING BUT YOU HAVE TO KNOW IT SO YOU CAN ALL STOP TALKING TO YOUR FRIENDS AND PAY ATTENTION...EVEN THOUGH THIS IS REALLY BORING."

Words cannot describe.

After that class I went and had lunch which involved chicken and ham and feta cheese and was probably my best decision all day. The woman I ordered it from gave a supremely please "Good." when I told her I wanted feta on my pita and d'you know what? She was right.

It is raining here. I like rain.

I suppose I should mention that the reason I'm so tired today is that I openned at work yesterday which means that I got up so early that my bangs around my room as I bumped into things sleepily while trying to get ready did not even wake my roommates and was standing for almost 11 hours before I finally collapsed on my couch. I was so exhausted yesterday that my mom, who was extremely eager to Skype me, called our conversation off early after ordering me to get some sleep. This was at 8:45. I never thought I'd see the day...

Well then ladies, I am still le tired so I is off to bed.

I love you all to bits,

Dina 

Being a grown up

Alright ladies I'm the last to do a September update. My apologies.


On Tuesday I moved into my house with the girls I lived with last year. It's really fun to see them all again and I'm amazed at how we have fallen so perfectly back into the same routines and ways of interacting that we lived with all of last year.In some ways it feels like coming home.


Having a house is a really liberating feeling. It's amazing to wake up without construction outside my rez room. I can come and go as I please, without my parents asking questions. I can make my own food whenever I feel like it. And I can have sleepovers in my GIANT room. I know of course that there are many responsibilities that come with growing up. I have to go grocery shopping, and wash my dishes, and clean the house and take out the garbage and pay rent. As inconvenient as it can be at times, it's essential. Responsibilities teach us lessons, and there is still lots of room for fun :)


I've been to two birthday parties already and they were a blast. I've gone out for ice cream with friends, chilled and watched tv, and reconnected with people that I've missed. I've blown bubbles and chased a cat and made silly faces and danced in my bedroom and played with my sing-a-ma-jig. In many ways I still have the heart of a child. Those who know me will see this as a blatantly obvious fact. It's important to have freedom to play, a sense of self, and the comfortable environment in which to explore that. I may have found that environment.


As I ride the bus to school at early hours, and listen to lectures and read textbooks and do all the things a responsible student does, I know that all that is just one part of a lifestyle that I am slowly fitting into. And I can't wait to see where life takes me. :)


PS - I just realized this sounds a little bit like a "thoughts from places" video. 

I'm Baaaack....

Hola!

It has been ages since I've been on here, so for that I apologize. BUT I'm back now, which is all that matters. Since I'm obviously a top contributor to this little Blog we've got going here..... ;)

Hahaha, anyways that being said, I don't actually have a lot to report. Minus the fact that my school schedule is FREAKING INSANE!!!!!!! i.e., Tuesdays I have class from 9am-5pm with ZERO breaks. FML... but then again, that's only every other week when I have my Enviro lab from 9-12. But still. I am going to die, of that I am 100% certain.

ALSO I just completed a 5km (or approximately 3.1 mile for all those non-metric people out there) walk to raise money for Parkinsons disease! My dad was diagnosed a looooong time ago, so this was a great opportunity for us give back and raise awareness. Plus, my dad raised $770 this year! Awesomeness!!! :D

Speaking of raising money for a cure for Parkinsons.... Have you heard about the Back To The Future shoes ?? This is freakin awesome!!!! If I had a spare $2500 laying around I would totally get a pair... Haha

FINALLY I have a sad number of Twitter followers at the moment, soooo.....

Follow @Michele_292

<3 I love you all :) Hope your classes are going OK-ish so far... :)

Michele

Back to September

Hello ladies! 

So today I was struck by a few startling realizations.

The first was that there are a TON of people running around campus who are clinging to maps, schedules, lists and each other.  Many of them are obviously trying to be the cock of the block, others are trying to just blend in, and others look downright terrified.  It may sound horrible, but it is actually kind of nice to know that other people look as scared as I felt last year.  I didn't notice till now I guess since I was still busy being terrified and keeping my nose down.  Not saying I am strutting about the place now, but at least I know where I am going!

The second thing I realized was that I am in the wrong line of student services...  While I was busy sending off near on 200 emails to profs about the probable need of note takers, the girls at the International Student Services were busy greeting all manner of interesting sounding people and showing them to their advisers.  Sooo many good accents!  British, Australian, Indian and so many more!  It was just a pleasure to listen to them all, and I wish I was working with them instead of a computer...

Thirdly, I guess it was more of a remembrance than a realization, I hate OSAP.  When I went to go through the final pick up process, I discovered they were working with the wrong half of the alphabet...  Grrr...

And lastly, as I got into the book store, I realized that there WAS NO LINE!!!  Talk about having magical timing!  During the first week book lines are always crrraaaazzzyyyy!!  The price tag hurt, but I have all my books for 3/5 classes now.  Sadly I have to go find another class' books at the other book store, which is the pricier of the two.

And now that I stop and think, I realize that I really haven't said anything about my new abode yet!

So, as of yet, the other room in the house is still empty.  An international student was apparently looking at the other room, and wanted to move in today.  But as of now (6:19) no sign of her, and no heads up from the land lady.  So, yeah...  I got the place to myself right now and might for the immediate future.

My room has been decked out in my posters, flags, art and more, and I like the look of it thus far, something needs to go up behind my bed still (big gaping hole of wall) but other than that I am nicely organized.  This room is set up the exact same way my home room is in terms of furniture placement, with the addition of the awesome desk I got from Florida Dad!  Oh, and the bed which I thought was a double is actually a queen.  Even more room for me to not use. :P

As for the rest of the place, there is a living room with a table, comfy chair and an old TV (that I brought) which is currently using a red plastic cooler covered in a towel as it's stand...  Classy, I know!  I have moved the chair in front of my TV, and am enjoying having it, and cable!  I can watch the news, my History TV, and can still watch Doctor Who on the actual television!  Huzzah!

And the kitchen, which is off to the side, and feels kinda empty with just my stuff (neatly occupying halves of shelves).  I feel awkward sticking up pictures since I should still be having to share the fridge...  So my poor refrigerator is verging on naked.  Just a few magnets stuck up to give it a tad of modesty.

In other news, the bus in sucks, I hate having to depend on transit, but I can't do anything about it right now.  The bus I take has one bus going one way, and one going the other.  It is much faster for me to go clockwise to the school, and counter-clockwise back.  And I accidentally got on the wrong one tonight...  So I got an unintentional tour about town...  Luckily I wasn't in a mad rush.

Well, I think that is all I have right now.  Classes start tomorrow, kind of excited, though not looking forward to fighting with OSAP.

Love you ladies, Michele, I am counting your time with the pants as starting tomorrow since 3/4 of us start classes then.  We need to come to an agreement as to who is getting them next!!

Valerie

Work, school and posting

Hey there ladies!

Long time no see! I can't say that I regret the new job that has kept me away from you but I can definitely say that I really missed not getting to say goodbye to you all before you went off to school in the manner of getting drunk until we all grope each other and then fall asleep in a pile. From what I heard (thanks for your lovely email, Valerie) you girls did a grand job of it without me and I definitely had some giggles at your expense.

Basically, the reason I'm writing this entire thing is to tell you that I really want to hear from all of you right here. We haven't been putting up anywhere near as many posts during the summer as we did during the school year but now that the time for studying comes around again I want to be able to look here and find something from you ladies to brighten any bad days I have. I loved sharing this with you last year and I hope we can keep it up this year.

So speaking of that job I have now... Yesterday I was in for a short three hour shift and I was the only girl working and the only one actually working (when you get right down to it). When I say I was the only one working I mean that I was the only one actually putting in effort. We had two people doing orders (one drivethru and one front), one person doing fries (which takes all of two seconds) and one person who makes the hamburgers (which is, later at night anyway, rather slow work) and me having to make sandwiches with everything on them in the seven seconds after the order guy has finally rang them in so they pop up on my screen, at which point every other one of the guys is staring at me because they've already done what they were supposed to do. It was a little unnerving at times.

The other thing that was really weird was that I was reminded of my name more times yesterday than I have been in the last month! Valerie named me in two text messages she sent, which I thought was rather odd and then every single one of the guys I was working with said my name at least three times during the three hours I was there.

One point to make here is that, apparently, something rather salacious was said over our headsets about two female customers that each of them felt in necessary to apologize profusely for. I, actually having a job to do at the time, completely missed what was said aside from my name repeated about 15 times into my ear via the headset along with such comments as "You must think we're all pigs" and "That's because all guys are pigs" and "You've got to wonder what we said about you when you walked in". I really wish I knew what they were talking about so I could decide whether or not to be offended or whether or not I agree. What I do know is that the girls took a freaking long time to order and spent the time they were "deciding" giggling and whispering to each other while three of my co-workers stood behind the till waiting to provide their services. (Yes, my phrasing is deliberate. Kindly unstick your palm from your forehead, Valerie.)

Well, now that I've enlightened you with a bit of my day I'm going to shamelessly mention my participation in other sites...

Twitter: @Dina_49 (and now Dawn and Michele have Twitter, too! @Dawn_35 and @Michele_292)
- I mostly post things from Harry Potter, most especially Drarry fanfiction links ;)

Tumblr: This one is new to me but we'll see how it goes. So far I've been reblogging a bunch of things from my favourite fandoms but I've also posted a link to my own fanfiction and there may be more original posts later. http://textualselection.tumblr.com/

Well ladies, this is the end for now but you know where to find me! (Please do find me! It's like hide and seek on the internet :P)

Much love,

Dina