Musings: 10+ years

I don't normally get excited about album releases. There are only a few bands that have stood the test of time with me. This way I can get excited when they release new material. No Doubt hasn't released anything new in 10+ years. The last album they released I got as a present from my first high school boyfriend. Yep. Ancient history. So let's just say yesterday was awesome and I cranked this the whole way home (which made rushhour more bare able)!

Book Review: To Kill A Mockingbird

I have a confession to make: I was about as deep as a puddle in high school. I know most of us shake our heads at our teenage selves. Just wanted to get that out in the open first. Now I harken back to 16 year old me because I was forced to read this book. Just as I felt when I reread Lord of the Flies, I so was not emotionally prepared for this book in highschool.to me it was so annoying kids with a lawyer father. But no. It was a perfect way of contrasting and emerging justice with an outdated way of looking at things. Scout was the cry-out to hold on to new morals. To love and understand just for the sake of it. To realize that you need to put yourself on someone else's porch for a different point of view. No, the second time around I loved this book!

Musings: International Talk Like A Pirate Day

Vacation: Studious Dates

So I decided that Tom needed to see my old stompin' ground: UofC. We did a saunter around campus. I spent 5 years there: the span of my two degrees. The campus has been going through some renos lately and looks so different from when I went there (it's only been a year). It's still got its '88 Olympic charm but with shiny new buildings popping up everywhere. It was so lovely out we splayed out on the grass under the prairie chicken (which is a statue that's supposed to look like book pages turning). After that we headed over to Kilkennys for a drink and some wing night fun with some of my oldest friends!

Vacation: Lake Louise & Moraine Lake

If you're from Alberta, Lake Louise is... well... meh. It's a tourist spot. I took Tom there (as well as Banff) to say he's been. He was impressed. I won't lie. He snapped pictures like mad. I really has to switch my mindset from grumpy Albertan to tourist.

What really knocked his socks off (or I like to think it did) was Moraine Lake. He was a bit biased as I said it was my favourite place EVER. What I like about it is a you don't have to fight through a wall of people for a picture. There is the perfect un-paved walk around the lake with plenty of places to pause and go ooooooooo. So I think to myself: this is perfect. This is what peace is. And I can breathe.

Book Review: The Memory Keeper's Daughter

I always get into a funk when I read sad novels. This one was exceptionally poignant because the author really explains these characters. You get a backing story. Not long, drawn out backing stories - it's almost as if you are reliving the memory of these people. As if you've always known. You feel their anxiety. You understand and empathise with their mistakes. Through all these mistakes is Phoebe: the little girl with Downs Syndrome that is a beacon of hope and purity. I felt like I lived a lifetime in a book. But redemption is possible for the characters and the funk lifts when you finish.

Vacation: Horseshoe Canyon

MAN I LOVE MY PROVINCE! Just thought I'd send out a holla' to how lovely Alberta is. Most people cry about the snow and whatever, but areas like this make up for it! If you're a dork and want to know more here is a Wiki link: Horseshoe Canyon Alberta. Well Tom and I have two wonderful friends, Kara and Peter, who took us on an adventure a few weeks ago out to this lovely place.The Badlands are a neat hidden treat in an area that's so famous for the Rocky Mountains.

August Instagrams

I'm so behind this month! So much is going on, and I've got a lot of things worked out for this little space. All I need is TIME!

Family: Happy First Adoptaversary Sofia Gray

So last year I took a trip to Canmore with the family. We had been in contact with the SPCA there and we're interested in a kitten named Pie. Little Pie didn't work out but we decided to drop into the SPCA anyways. There was a large corral next to front desk with a few kittens in it. I picked up a little gray one named Gray since she was the one climbing around and looking so cute (the others didn't respond to our hellos). She was cuddling in and mewing and melted my heart. I handed her to my Dad and he lifted her up. She started licking his nose and wouldn't stop. My Dad was in full on man-giggles. I didn't decide right then and there, and we went for a walk. Well I couldn't get the ball of fur out of my mind. We went back and just about gobbled her up. She mewed in her carrier all the way home. She grew up into the spazzling that we know and love today! Happy Adoptaversary little fur baby!