Archive | April, 2014

Food Baby

27 Apr

Oooomph, foooood baby! Right here! Right now! OMG so much food in tummy, ugh.

Why the hell do I over eat like this? There is absolutely no need for the amount of food I ate for dinner tonight, and yet, I ate it! Sometimes I irritate myself, sigh.

A friend and I went out for dinner, we met in my neighbourhood which was awesome cause that meant I walked to meet her and then we walked to the restaurant. I am trying to walk more just in general and it also meant I didn’t use my suv which meant I didn’t use the oh-so-expensive gas that is in the tank (currently $1.53/litre, lovely huh?). My hope is by walking whenever possible I will sneak some extra exercise in there all under the guise of saving money on fuel and parking lol. 😉

We ended up going to Burgers Etc which is a burger/bbq place. Neither of us had been there before and I’d been dying to try it since I moved to this area, that’d be, hmm, a year and a half ago?

burgers etc

We decided to split an appetizer, we almost always do, we wanted the onion rings with bbq sauce but they ran out of onion rings, meanies! lol So we ended up with the pulled pork cheese fries. As soon as they arrived I knew we were in trouble because the plate was huuuuge! Enough for 4 people to share easy! They were quite good though, loved the bbq sauce. There was grated cheese, pulled pork, bbq sauce and I swear some chili on there. Quite the combo. I forgot to take pics so the image below is one I found online, ours was served on a very nice white, fancy serving platter (not the dorky plastic basket shown in the pic) but the food looked the same. 🙂

burgers etc pulled pork cheese fries

Then we each got a burger. You choose beef, chicken or veggie burger, all options automatically come topped with mayo, ketchup, lettuce, tomato, onion and dill pickle. Then you choose any other topping you want, an extra dollar per topping, I chose mushrooms, cheddar cheese and jalapenos. The burgers are more tall than wide so you really have to squish it down to be able to fit it in your mouth lol You can choose from a list of sides: coleslaw, potato salad, macaroni salad, garden salad, fries, corn, soup or baked beans. I chose the macaroni salad, my friend got the coleslaw and we shared. Both were good but I preferred the macaroni salad. According to the server the macaroni salad, potato salad and coleslaw are made fresh in-house, yay!

burgers ect burger

Again with an image from the internet since I forgot to take pics. The above burger isn’t mine but I wanted to give you an idea of what mine looked like. Mine had mushrooms and jalapenos not only on the burger but spilling out all over the plate. Oh! I forgot, I added bbq sauce, so don’t forget that, it made my burger messier to eat but I love bbq sauce, Mmm!

The whole experience was great, the staff were nice, patient, answered all our food questions. The food tasted good and was suitably messy – c’mon, we all know certain foods taste better when they are messy lol 😛

I really enjoyed the macaroni salad, seems weird that the side dish was my favourite part of the meal lol wonder if I can just order that one day as take out…something to think about…

As soon as you walk in you start to drool, the place smells amazing! Well, as long as you like bbq it smells amazing lol I’d really like to try the ribs I think, just to get some more of that sauce lol The sauce is what made the burger stand out, otherwise it was pretty much like any other burger, but taller.

I couldn’t eat the entire burger but didn’t leave thaaaaat much of it behind. I’m really regretting not cutting that sucker in half and bringing half home. The macaroni salad side was small-ish so no way any of that would have made it in to a doggie bag, shrug. Normally I’m semi-decent at bringing food home from restaurants, partly so I don’t overeat at the restaurant and also because eating out generally isn’t cheap and I’d rather the money I spend cover the cost of two meals if possible. Not this time however. Next time though, I swear! Next time I’ll bring half that burger home and heat it up the next day! 🙂

Oh, and if you were wondering, the walking I did to meet my friend, get to the restaurant and get home was not an impressive amount at all and in no way helped to offset the meal lol 😛

Advertisement

Tags: , , , , ,

Twice Yesterday, None Today

23 Apr

Yesterday I had a lunch date downtown and decided I didn’t want to drive to it cause (1) parking downtown sucks, especially during the middle of the day (2) gas prices are ridonkulous ($1.53 right now, arg!) so I’m trying to drive less and (3) I’m trying to not spend as much money which meant not forking over for high parkade fees or using the precious gas that is in my gas tank. So I bussed it and was horrified to learn bus fare is now $4! What the hell?? That’s crazy!…in my humble, non-informed opinion.

Because I have now turned in to a scrooge when it comes to spending money I decided to walk home instead of pay another $4 to take the bus. I couldn’t walk there because I wasn’t sure how long it would take but I figured I’d have plenty of time to walk home afterwards so why not? I am physically able to walk long distances and feel that if I can do it then I should because one day I will be old and won’t be able to walk a block without tiring myself out and I’ll wish I had walked more when I could. Right? Right!

I popped my earbuds on and started the long walk. It started off ok, interesting shops to look at, pretty cherry blossom trees in full bloom, random people to watch. I actually don’t mind walking places if the weather is semi-decent because you get to see so much more than when you are driving.

After a while, even with music playing in my ears that I love I started to get bored. sigh. The view was less interesting, just traffic on one side of me and non-interesting shops on my other side. The people on the sidewalk became fewer and far between as I left the bustle of the downtown core and was walking over the bridge, past the highway and onward.

I hit a stage where I wanted to stop. I didn’t. But I wanted to. My legs kinda hurt, I was bored, I just wanted it over. I gotta say, that part sucked. When I do long walks I do them as hikes on trails going up mountains, where I am surrounded by trees and nature and there is always that potential threat of running in to an animal that could kill me (bears I’m looking at you! 😉 ). Also, in the wilderness you have to pay more attention to where you are walking because of the uneven ground, twists and turns in the trails, sharp inclines and declines. Walking a mountain trail is way more interesting then walking along a city sidewalk.

Obviously I didn’t stop, who does that? Stops out of boredom? Not moi! lol I turned it in to a challenge in my head, sort of a can-I-maintain-my-speed-and-make-it-home challenge.

Whadda ya know, I succeeded! 🙂

The only times I stopped were at red lights, nothing I can do about that. Luckily I hit almost all green so there was very little stopping. I maintained my speed even when on the hills and I have proof of that thanks to my Runtastic App lol I want to upload a pic of the route I took with all the info but my phone has 9% battery right now so my Dropbox App won’t transfer the pic due to low battery life, lame! I’ll come back and edit this post tomorrow to add the pic so you can see. 🙂

In the end I walked 8.75km in an hour and a half. Not too shabby…I think? lol I never know what a good time is when it comes to how long it takes to run or walk a distance so I’m gonna go with a rating of “not too shabby” and hope I am right lol 😛

I thought I’d be home in time to chill before going to dragon boat practice and I sorta was, depending on how long of a rest I wanted lol I had enough time to have a cup of tea, sit, wish I could sit for way longer, then change, stuff my hair up under my hat, grab my gear and book it to practice. I was actually a little bit late and missed part of the warm up but didn’t feel too badly about it considering the walk I did.

So there we have it, yesterday I exercised twice, the loooong walk lol and dragon boat practice. I was really happy with myself for doing that. 🙂

Today however, hmm, lazy much? lol I was supposed to go for a walk with a friend who only goes cause I drag her, she haaaates doing any of the physical stuff I like to do, sigh. We ended up going to Costco instead and after we were done hanging out I ended up at home, sitting, doing nothing of importance. Normally I’d of at least done the laundry or something so I could justify not going for a run or to the gym buuuuut nope, nuthin. So lazy! Boo! 😦

lazy

I’m trying to pretend that because I exercised twice yesterday it is ok that I didn’t exercise today, like it will somehow all balance out at the end of the week lol I don’t think it really works like that but for today I am sticking with that illusion. 😛

Tags: , , , , , ,

Chocolate Madness!

21 Apr

For the love of gawd, stop with all the chocolate! Just…Stop!

I don’t do the whole Easter thing but the amount of chocolate I have somehow ended up with is ridiculous! It is all gifted-to-me chocolate and I have done my best to re-gift some of it but I still have a whole bunch of it. And before you say something silly like “why don’t you throw it out? or give it all away” please remember that I am a girl and therefore love chocolate and some things you just don’t throw out, I mean c’mon, what a waste! It’s bad karma to waste food I’m sure of it! lol 😉

Just today I got given an adorable little basket with lots of chocolate eggs in it. It was given as a thank you gift and while she was giving it to me she was apologizing for it being a day late, I loved her reasoning, she said the Easter Bunny got lost and couldn’t find me but he kept trying and voila! he found me today, well, found me via her lol

cute little basket

cute little basket

with chocolate inside, Mmm!

with chocolate inside, Mmm!

There’s actually a lot more chocolate in there then it looks like in the picture and just by looking at it I can feel my ass getting bigger, sigh.

I also have a Lindt chocolate bunny, he’s got a cute little collar with a bell on it. I fully intended to give it away Easter weekend I just didn’t know who to give it to so it is still here, with me, staring at me, judging my willpower against chocolate. Thing is, I can’t eat that, and not because I have some semblance of willpower, it’s too large for me to eat in one sitting but if I eat it’s ears (which seem the most logical spot to start) and then set it aside I am leaving the poor bunny maimed and deaf and that just seems cruel…

awwww, such a cute little bunny rabbit

awwww, such a cute little bunny rabbit

Oh and get this, in some weird twist of logic I don’t want to give the bunny to someone I care about because it’s basically giving someone a present that is super bad for them, I wouldn’t give someone a pack of cigarettes so why would I give them a chocolate bunny that has the potential to make them fatter, increase their BMI and entice them away from a healthy food choice? sigh, pathetic huh? I’m gonna turn in to that lame person that thinks bringing raw veggies without dip is an acceptable potluck snack…oh wait…I already think that, crap… 😛

I also still have the care packages from England that I am making my way through, Mmm! I opened these tonight…

omg sogoodsogoodsogood

omg sogoodsogoodsogood

The bottom is crunchy, like a cookie, then the soft gooey traditional Cadbury Creme Egg centre all surrounded by milk chocolate. Holy hannah! Cadbury is a genius! I usually buy myself one, yes that’s right, One Cadbury Creme Egg for Easter and thoroughly enjoy it. I don’t eat the chocolate though, I open up the top, use a finger to scoop out the yummy gooey centre then throw the chocolate away…one of the super rare times I won’t eat chocolate lol. These don’t give you the option, you kinda have to eat the chocolate but they taste so good I don’t mind. These will not last long, of that I am already certain lol

I have loads more chocolate around here but don’t want to bore you with pictures of all of it lol

On top of all these ticking-chocolate-timebombs I also ate an incredibly large quantity of food yesterday at the Easter brunch my work held, my stomach may never recover, omg all so tasty, all so fattening, all of it in my tummy…or at least that is what it felt like yesterday lol When I make food I plate it not on a dinner plate but on the small plate that comes with your dish set but at the buffet they were using large dinner plates so I had one of those and I, get this, actually covered the entire bottom of the plate with food! Normally you can see a good chunk of my plate when I use the little plate but yesterday I covered the entire bottom of a large plate! How is that even possible?? I didn’t eat all of it but truth be told, the food I didn’t eat was left behind only because I didn’t much care for it, so I can’t really take credit for resisting some of the food on the plate lol Then there was dessert…let’s not go in to details about that k? It’d just be embarrassing. Let’s leave it at there was dessert, I ate it. 😛 What amazed me was how there I was, silently appalled at how much food I had put on my plate but most of the people there had pyramids of food on their plate, towers of food, basically a whole lot more food than I, and they ate it! People *shakes head* we are all gluttons at times lol

So here I am, someone who doesn’t generally do anything for Easter and I over-indulged in a huge meal and am surrounded by Easter themed chocolate. It’s like I crossed over to an alternate dimension…

Tags: , , , , , , ,

by Mary Anne Radmacher

21 Apr

live with intention.

walk to the edge.

listen hard.

practice wellness.

play with abandon.

laugh.

choose with no regret.

continue to learn.

appreciate your friends.

do what you love.

live as if this is all there is.

 

I know nothing about Mary Anne Radmacher except this poem/quote is credited to her, and I love it. 🙂

When I worked at an office downtown that I haaaaated I used a mug that had this quote on it, every time I felt squashed by the cubicle walls and corporate culture (which fyi, was every day!) I would re-read the quote and remind myself the job was temporary, there would one day be an end to the torture and if the fates were with me I would one day make enough money acting I would never be in such a situation again.

I may not be making money at my acting yet but I got away from that company and am working somewhere that isn’t nearly as bad, phew! Escape is a good thing! lol

Tags: , ,

Insomnia Much?

20 Apr

I have not been sleeping well at all, ugh. Which is ridiculous cause sleeping is one of the things I do best! Well, after 3am it is lol I have always been a night owl so going to bed prior to 2am is a chancy thing, I will most likely toss and turn wondering why I am wasting time lying in bed when I could be doing countless other things. If I go to bed around 3am odds are decent I’ll fall asleep in a more acceptable length of time. However, going to bed at 3am is not a smart thing to do when you have to be up at 5:30am for work. sigh.

It’s not just last night though, it’s the past week, I just haven’t been sleeping well. Not only do I have a ridiculous time falling asleep, once I am asleep I’m not staying there, I wake up throughout the night and my dreams are weird, and not entertaining weird but disturbing weird…normally I like dreaming, I have vivid dreams that tell a story in a chronological order, it’s like watching tv that my mind makes up, it’s awesome! But not this past week, nope, just weird annoying dreams.

When the alarm goes off and I finally get up I don’t feel rested but I don’t particularly want to go back to sleep cause sleep just ain’t doin nuthin for me lol 😛

insomnia

I’m not really sure how to deal with this, so my approach to the problem has been to try to wear myself out so I will sleep better. Let me just say that so far, it isn’t working. 😦

Yesterday my dragon boat team had a fundraiser, friends and family could pay $10 and come dragon boating with members of the team, get a feel for it, have some fun on the water, see what it is all about. It went great! The team raised money, the people who came out had lots of fun, I invited a friend and her two daughters and they loved it! I am now considered even cooler than I already was in their ranking system, and hey, I didn’t even have to bribe them with chocolate! lol 😉

I thought for sure being up early for that, then putting in a full shift at work would wear me out and I’d have a great sleep last night. Ha-bloody-ha!

That so didn’t happen! *pout*

I was super tired when I got home but could I sleep? Nope. Just lay there, couldn’t get comfy, tossed and turned much to the cats annoyance until I eventually drifted off only to be woken repeatedly through the night by absolutely nothing at all *groan* then the alarm goes off at 5:30am and I didn’t even bother with hitting snooze cause what is the point? I didn’t hit snooze! You probably don’t realize how big of a deal this is but let me explain, snooze and I, we have a complex relationship where snooze promises me ten more minutes of precious sleep so I can finish a dream but not be late for work and in exchange I don’t break the alarm. It may be a mildly threatening relationship where snooze cowers in fear of failing and then being beat, but hey, it works for us. 😉

So now it is a little after 10pm, I am tired but not, I want to go to bed cause I have to be up early tomorrow for work and I want to make sure I am rested enough to go hiking after work buuuuut a big part of me is wondering why even bother going to bed when I know I’ll just lay there, jealous of the cat who instantly falls asleep as soon as his head touches a surface. The brat. 😛

 

Tags: , , , , ,

Rest Days

19 Apr

I’m not sure how I feel about rest days. I know for muscle growth you need them, but generally you can have a rest day that isn’t really a rest day. That makes no sense to you I’m betting, what with you not being in my head an all lol

If you are working on building muscle it is easy to have a rest day because you just divvy up what days you work various muscle groups. So, Monday might be arms and shoulders, Tuesday  legs, Wednesday back etc. You are still going daily but you are also giving certain muscle groups a rest.

A year or so ago when I was following an extreme workout regime given to me by a super fit friend I got one rest day a week, my week looked like this:

Day 1 – short cardio, arms and shoulders

Day 2 – cardio, core

Day 3 – short cardio, legs

Day 4 – cardio, core

Day 5 – short cardio, back

Day 6 – cardio, core

Day 7 – rest

I personally feel a rest day needs to be earned, and because I am super hard on myself I feel that until I am at the fitness level I want to be at, and am maintaining, I have not earned a rest day. Doesn’t mean I don’t have days I don’t exercise, but that is due to scheduling or sheer laziness, not because I have it marked down as a rest day lol.

rest day 3

This past Wednesday though I consciously took a rest day. The previous Sunday I went running, did a bunch of squats and some upper body weight work, Monday I went for a hike, Tuesday I had dragon boat practice. The run alone caused me some muscle pain, mostly in my legs, well, most likely the run combined with the squats lol, but whatever the cause, there was muscle pain. The hike on the Monday was not planned, I was supposed to be doing something else but it ended up as a hike (on a new trail, yay!) but that did nothing for my muscle pain, especially when I wasn’t content to just hike so I did interval work while hiking. By that I mean whenever there was a flat section I would either stop and do squats, change from walking to doing walking lunges, plank, do some push-ups or do calf presses (standing ones, I would find a curb or log to balance on). During the course of the hike I did each of those exercises three times, each time a set of 12, it made me feel the hike was a better workout for the inclusion of the extra work.

But yeah, so by Tuesday my legs were kinda pissed at me lol and the run I was going to take before practice did not happen. By the time Wednesday came around all I could think was my legs would never forgive me if I went running or hiking that day so I did nothing exercise-y. I did some house work but not enough I feel it can be counted as exercise lol

Thing is, while I am not adverse to building muscle, when I think about building muscle I think of my back, shoulders and arms, mostly because that is where I need it for dragon boating. I don’t really think of my legs, which means I don’t generally give them a day off. The days I decide to not go running or hiking are usually days my knee is acting up, so I give the knee a break but that break is in no way meant as a rest day for my leg muscles, shrug.

I count my runs and my hikes as cardio, and I’m sorry but who gets a rest day from cardio? Nobody!…Least, I don’t think we are supposed to, are we?  But this past week made me realize that I am dummy and sure I am getting cardio when I go hiking or running but I am also building strength in my legs which means I am working the muscles, doh! Sooooo now I am wondering if I should be spacing my runs and hikes so I don’t do them every day, or at least consecutive days because I need to give the leg muscles a rest between workouts…

Why oh why do there have to be so many questions when it comes to working out?? sigh.

I think for now I’ll just follow what my body says, if the legs are hurting to the point the hike won’t feel good but will just be painful I won’t hike, but if I think the hike will stretch the muscles out and make them feel good well, bring it on! lol 😉

Tags: , , , , , ,

Stir Fry Sunday: Mediocre Is The Best Praise I Can Give

13 Apr

Hey look at me, making stir fry on a Sunday again! Sadly, it wasn’t that great of a stir fry, but they can’t all be, right?

it doesn't even look good, sigh.

it doesn’t even look good, sigh.

I used vermicelli noodles, topped with a sweet and sour sauce. The veggies are Europe’s Best brand, the Zen Garden mixture (that is code for veggies commonly found in stir fry lol), they were heated in a pan with a stir fry sauce. Then on top of that was half a honey garlic glazed chicken breast and half an avocado (cubed).

The best I can say about it is it was mediocre. Definitely not my best! I wasn’t all that hungry though so there is the possibility that I was all “meh” about it cause I would have been perfectly content not eating anything. I made enough for two meals, the other portion is patiently sitting in my fridge, waiting for tomorrow to come when I will once again eat it for dinner…let’s hope it tastes better warmed up! *crosses fingers*

The reason I made stir fry was because after work I actually had enough energy to workout (shocking I know!) and I figured my body would want dinner since it had been forced to be active, apparently I was wrong. But hey, whatcha gonna do? I already had it made so not like I was just gonna ignore it.

Sundays and Mondays are my chill work out days. If I manage even a walk around the neighbourhood I am happy. I start work at 7am which means I am up at 5:30am and since I’m a night owl and don’t sleep well prior to 3am I usually accomplish those two days on roughly 3 hours of sleep each. Sucky.

Today I was determined to exercise after work so I took my workout gear with me, the plan was to change at work and go for a run in the neighbourhood I work in. I find the drive home lulls me in to a state of “I need a nap” so well that no matter how determined I am to workout once home, it just never happens. The solution seemed to be to avoid that situation completely. Well, let’s just say I’m not always a genius lol I forgot to take my pants…yup, that’s right, I had changed my upper half and went digging through the bag for my yoga pants and hmm, nothing there…oops! I thought I would get home and say screw it, it’s a sign I shouldn’t workout but instead I lectured myself, saying I was half dressed to workout so I might as well finish changing and go, and I did! Yay! 🙂

It was a fairly pathetic workout, I ran (well, jogged/walked) for a little over 5km, then did a bunch of squats, then did some upper body weight work with a set of dumbbells I have, then stretched, then declared it time to hop in the shower. 🙂

I know it’s not a great workout but like I said, on Sundays I am happy if I manage to go for a walk and this was better than a walk! You know that quote about how it doesn’t matter how slow you run you are still going faster than the person on the couch? I hate that quote, making yourself feel better by thinking poorly about some faceless person, not cool. So I changed it, I kept reminding myself while I was running that I may be slow but I’m faster than the lazy me who goes home after work and naps, and that should count for something, right?

On a junk food sidenote, I have received two care packaged lately, one from my mom and one from my uncle, both filled with junk food from England. Man-oh-man! My tastebuds are sooooo happy! My waistline? Not so much…This evening I snacked on something called Fruit Salad & Black Jack. Don’t let the name fool you, there is no fruit lol They have the texture of a Starburst, which I love! but the flavour is, hmm, not my favourite. There are black licorice pieces which I thought would be great, I love licorice, but it tastes like licorice combined with fruit and one piece leaves my tongue numb, ick. The other pieces taste fruity, I couldn’t narrow that down to a specific fruit flavour if there was a gun to my head, just a generic fruit flavour, those pieces I kinda like. I’ll be done the bag freakishly fast since I’m only eating the fruit pieces and the bag is mostly licorice pieces, I’m trying to look at that as a good thing, saved calories ya know? 😛 lol

2014-04-13 21.23.02

I will be bombarding you with English candy updates as I graze my way through the two care packages. I would love to be able to say it will take me ages to eat it all but English junk food is way better than Canadian (I’m sorry! I know that is non-patriotic but I love the food from across the pond! Please don’t kick me out of Canada! lol) and it won’t take me all that long to decimate  what has been sent to me. Guess I’ll have to push the workouts up to the next level or I’ll be doomed! DoooOOOOoooomed! Too dramatic? Nah, I didn’t think so either! 😛 lol

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No More Back Up Plan

11 Apr

You may recall a short while ago I blogged about thinking about going back to University, specifically, going to Law School. I was torn between being a grown up, sucking it up, and just going already and following my dreams and staying with the acting. I had almost convinced myself that I would start studying for the LSATs and take the necessary steps to apply.  I would be a good lawyer, shrug, and I’m sure I would find it entertaining and challenging but it’s not acting. Nothing will ever be as good an option as acting. However, acting doesn’t pay very well unless you make it to the top and I’m sick and tired of being poor.

Turns out I don’t get to make the decision about going back to school, the government has chosen for me.

For those not in Canada let me explain how student loans work here. You apply, hopefully you get money, you go to school. Once you have been done school for a certain amount of time (6 months or a year, I can’t remember which) you are supposed to start paying back your student loans. However, if you are poor, which most recent graduates are, and not making a lot of money you can apply for Repayment Assistance. You send in a form, the people that manage the paying back of government student loans look at the form and decide if you are so poor you don’t have to make monthly payments.

I have always been that poor. 😦

When you qualify for Repayment Assistance the government pays the interest on your loan and you don’t have to make any payments, or you might have to make payments but small ones that are calculated based on what you earn.

Like I said, since graduation I have always been poor enough that I haven’t had to make monthly payments.

Well, the student loan people in all their “wisdom” have decided that I can now somehow magically afford to make monthly payments on my student loan. Uh, what?? I go a good 3 out of 4 weeks every month unable to buy groceries and only survive food wise because I work somewhere that has a kitchen and the chefs will feed me. I literally live paycheque to paycheque and now I have to find an extra $90 a month to give the student loan people??

student loans

Who does the math over there?? Do they not realize I live in a ridiculously expensive city? That I live on my own and therefore have to rely on my paycheque to pay for everything, no spouse/partner to help me out? That I have car payments? That I have other bills that I struggle to pay? Do they not realize that a person, no matter how little money they make, still needs to have enough left over every month so they can buy something fun otherwise they will go a little nuts?

The thing is, they know everything about me due to the nature of the organization. They have all kinds of info about me because of lending me money for school. They know what I earn, what my expenses are, where I live, the cost of living here, that I am human and sometimes need to buy something fun, they just don’t care.

They were more than willing to loan me money when I was younger, and stupider, and didn’t really grasp how hard life would be when I was done school, living on my own and trying to make ends meet and now that I am older, hopefully a bit wiser, and in the stage of life where I should be paying them back but can’t afford to, they don’t care.

They want their cut, just like everyone else and screw my need for groceries, rent, or anything else my money strains to pay for now.

As if that wasn’t mean enough the letter I got from them today telling me how much my monthly payments are also says:

“you are now restricted from future student financial assistance benefits, in the form of new student loans and grants should you decide to return to school in the future”

Huh.

So, even if I was the most gung-ho person ever with regards to going back to school it wouldn’t matter, cause I can’t afford it, they won’t give me money for it, and even if I somehow found a way to earn extra money I wouldn’t be allowed to save it up because they would increase how much I have to pay them every month.

While I can see the logic of not continuously loaning money out to people who can’t pay it back I can’t help but feel the system is flawed. I went to University, did well, decided to pursue an acting career, haven’t made money at it (yet!) and am now thinking about going to Law School. I’m pretty sure the argument can be made that lawyers will always be needed and it is a slightly more secure career path than acting, so you’d think they’d be ok with helping someone go to school so they can then earn a higher income which would enable them to not only be a more financially contributing member of society but also pay back their student loans.

But since the world isn’t run using my logic I must follow the rules they have set out, flawed as they are, which means no possibility of law school for me.

Good bye back up plan *waves somberly at UBC Law Department* guess I won’t be seeing you soon.

student loan meme

Sidenote: I am well aware not being able to pay back a student loan is a “first world problem” and I don’t mean to come off as a whiny, spoiled brat, I’m just frustrated with the student loan system. you can’t get a well paying job without a University education, you can’t get a University education without student loans, tuition keeps getting hiked up which means loan amounts keep getting hiked up but once you graduate the promised well paying jobs are not there and so you are shackled with a huge amount of debt, with a high interest rate, and a low paying job. All because you followed the rules that said going to University was the way to succeed. *rolls eyes*

Tags: , , , , , , ,

New PFD

3 Apr

You know that excited feeling you have when you get something new that you’ve wanted for a long time? That happy-dance-big-smile-want-to-tell-everyone feeling?

That was me today! 😀

I finally got my very own PFD!

Thanks to my awesome awesome brother who gave me a SportChek/Atmoshphere gift card for Christmas I am now the proud owner of a PFD.

I waited this long to buy it because I had to wait for the store to stock them again, stupid winter sports taking over the store lol I was that annoying person who called every week, sometimes more than once a week, asking if they got the new stock of PFDs in yet. I almost got to stalker level…if a person could stalk a PFD that is… 😛

Want to see it? Well of course you do! lol

It's miiiiiiine!

It’s miiiiiiine!

It is Salus brand, made in Canada and all black – as you can see. 🙂 I specifically wanted an all black PFD because (1) I hate all the colours most PFDs are and (2) this way it doesn’t matter what colour my team jersey is I won’t clash. Hey now, don’t judge cause I think of these things lol Oh, and (3) I always prefer black. 🙂

I wore it for practice tonight and it got fully drenched by the pouring rain, I’d say that means it is officially broken in lol It was comfy, it didn’t get in the way of my stroke technique and I’m sure if I’d fallen out of the boat it would have kept me afloat so yay for it passing it’s first test! 🙂

Oh, and a little happy sidenote, I exercised twice today, twice! I went for an hour and a half walk with a friend early afternoon. I forgot to turn on my Runtastic App so I’m not sure how far we walked but we kept a steady decently fast pace, no meandering! I’d guess around 5km, maybe more, which is ok. Then of course the dragon boat practice which was two hours of technique work and cardio.

All in all, it was a good day. 🙂

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

So Far So Good

2 Apr

Last month I tried this thing, I wrote on a calendar I have hanging on my bedroom wall every time I exercised and I highlighted it in pink. This way, I could see at a quick glance how much or how little I was exercising. I wasn’t going to push to exercise more than normal, I just wanted to see where, in my normal routine I drop the ball.

2014-03-31 19.02.14

Uh, wow, I dropped the ball a lot! If you count the pink on that calendar page I only exercised 10 times. 10 times out of 31 days, uhhh…what?? Talk about being a lazy butt and having proof of it! 😦

I am guaranteed two times a week because of dragon boat practice but I’ve got to stop slacking the other days! The easiest day to exercise, besides my dragon boat days, is Wednesday because it is a day off. Fridays through Mondays are where I suck. Those are my work days. If I don’t get my exercise in before I go to work Fridays and Saturdays I won’t get it done because of how late I get home. Sundays and Mondays I am usually so tired after working the morning shift I do nothing but crash.

But, like I said, things have to change.

So, I changed them. 🙂

This past Monday we had beautiful weather, sunny, warm but not hot, the cherry blossom trees are in bloom, a perfect spring day. I left work late but was determined when I got home I’d go out and at least walk, enjoy some of that sunshine. I ran in to my landlords when I was leaving the house and asked if their dog might want to come with me, they said yes so I had a super friendly golden lab with me. I didn’t care where we went so we followed her nose. Lemme tell ya, her nose took us on a weird, convoluted route.

the route the dog chose

the route the dog chose

I had planned on only walking, normally I get down on myself if I walk more than run but I was tired and my goal was to get some sort of exercise even if it wasn’t as intense as I would like. The dog however had other plans, lol. She wanted to run and who am I to say no to big cute doggy eyes? I am not that strong! 😉 So, it was a jog/walk. The green parts on the map are where we walked, the yellow was a jog, the tiny little orange section was more of a run, you can see that didn’t last long lol In total we went 5.45 km in 1:02:33.

Then Tuesday I had dragon boat practice so two hours of exercise there, yay! I usually (read that as Always!) sit left side of the boat but we were short people who sit on the right at practice so I ended up sitting on the right side. It was…odd…My body is used to sitting left so it was a tad more painful than normal but not bad painful, just, the other side of my body was getting worked more than it is used to, so muscle pain. Actually, I’m still feeling it today. *groan* poor muscles! lol

Today I went for my first hike of the season. I am soooo glad it is hiking season again, I didn’t realize just how much I missed it till I was out there, on a trail, in the wilderness, away from everything. Well, almost everything, I was with a friend lol We went slower than I would have if I went alone but the point is that we went…right? I used my Runtastic App to track the hike, like I did above with the dog walk, but my phone battery was low and it died while we were still on the trail so I don’t have full data on the hike. I plan on redoing that hike so I can get accurate distance and time it took. The app recorded a distance of 8.12 km in 1:36:06 which sounds horrible buuuuut please take in to account we were on the side of a mountain, on trails, going slower than my normal pace. Take a look at the picture below, you’ll see where it stopped tracking (where the red dot is)

the hike up the mountain and back

the hike up the mountain and back

The numbers on the trail are the app marking the km’s so we went up 5km then turned around and started back down, using my oh-so-non-impressive math skills I’m thinking that means we did 10km. Pretty snazzy math that! 😉 The red dot just past the number 8 is where the phone died but obviously I am not still on the mountain and I made it down and if I went up 5km then I had to come down 5km so yay for 10km! Unfortunately I didn’t notice what time the phone died at, and I didn’t take note of what time we started the hike or what time it was when we got in to the suv at the end of the hike so there goes any hope of my figuring out the math for how long we were hiking. Hence my needing to do the hike again, to get accurate numbers.  I don’t mind doing it again though, it is a really nice easy hike, a good one to start the season with. 🙂 I try to ease in to hiking season cause it can be brutal on my knee, sigh, this will definitely be a go-to-trail when I want easy, meant to relax me hiking, not intense-push-to-the-limit hiking.

So let’s tally things shall we? We are three days in to the week and I have exercised three times, booyah! I know I’ll be exercising tomorrow so that’s in the bag. My big challenge will be Fridays and Saturdays, for some reason doing some form of exercise before work on those days always seems so impossible. I don’t know why I can’t make it happen! I irritate myself with this failing weekly. Maybe this week I’ll manage it, after four days of being active maybe I’ll be so used to getting some sort of exercise it’ll be easier to get out of bed and head to the gym…maybe?

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

← Older Entries

%d bloggers like this: