10@9:10

 Hey friends! Time for my top ten events of the week!

1. I have the worst cough I have ever had in my entire life. Even worse than four years ago when I had walking pneumonia! Remember when I could hardly talk 2 weeks ago and I was okay to sing with Lita on the Sunday? Well that developed into a cough and I still haven't gotten over it. I feel so bad for my roommates to have to put up with me. On Monday I had 5 coughing fits. What do I mean by coughing fit, you ask? I cough until the point where I gag multiple times and can't stop coughing. So I had five of those...one of which happened while I was on the bus. People were looking at me like "are you okay?" "are you going to live?". A lady even gave me a Halls. I've tried Dimetapp but that didn't help at all, Halls don't really help, Vick's cough suppressant doesn't help either. I went to the doctor on Saturday and he said it was probably an infection so he gave me some drugs. I think it's getting slightly better though because yesterday I only had one coughing fit during the day and a really bad one last night. I usually get it the worst when I'm trying to sleep. Last night was just bad though. Anyways...enough of this pity party!

2. I am done my second last semester! My last exam was on Monday!! Thank goodness all of my exams seemed to go very well! I ended up with an overall A in my Sex and Gender class and I think I will be getting an overall A in Sensation and Perception. I haven't received any other final exams so I can't really speculate what my overall grades are in my other classes.

3. I have 5 days to study for my GRE. Great.

4. Burns is leaving me.....for his family. He and his parents are going to Utah so they can spend Christmas with their whole family! That hasn't happened for forever. Burns was going to take Kobe but his mom wouldn't let him. That's okay. I'm sure Nitty will be thrilled.

5. I'm driving one of my roomies to the airport today. She's going out East for Christmas because her parents live there now.

6. I get Burns' car while he's gone! Yippeeeee!!!!!

7. Last night Rick and Denise stopped by to give me a Christmas prezzie. This is what Denise got me:

Alex you will have to teach me how to use this properly haha. Please?

8. Just a random thought, but I should really get my GDL off of my license. 

9. I went to ARBI yesterday for my training video. I'm excited but scared to start volunteering there. I'm scared I'll do something wrong...  :S

10. Burns and I had Christmas last night because he's leaving today. I got him a nice button-up shirt and three books: Flatland, Sphereland, and Flatterland. They're kind of cool cause in Flatland, a 3D object or person or something goes to 2D land and tries to explain what his 3D world is like. I also have a copy so I'm going to read it. 

Burns got me:

A hiking pack!!! I'm so excited about this! He said he was going to get me hiking boots too but he decided not to because I'm super picky about shoes. Especially hiking shoes. So he said I need to go with him and he'll get me some!!! ^_^

no rest for the wicked

Hi. My name is Paige and I can't sleep.

I got home at around 11:30 and got into bed at around midnight. It is now 2:13. Why does this have to happen when I don't have any exams tomorrow? I wish I could have been this awake for the past few nights because I was in need of studying! Now that I don't have any worries...sleep just isn't coming to me. So I guess I'll do a 10@2

1. I want to go here.

2. A week ago today (Thursday) I got a headache and my skin felt a little sensitive. When my skin gets sensitive that usually means that a sickness is coming on. My skin was right. The next morning I could hardly talk but it got better as the day progressed. Saturday it was a little worse but again, as the day progressed I could use my vocal folds more efficiently. I was a little worried because I had to sing in church the next day but Sunday came and I was well enough to sing. During these few days my throat was not sore and I wasn't congested in any way. All I had was a croaky voice. On Monday the coughing started. Just a cough here and there...no big deal. Tuesday I was coughing more and Wednesday even more. Today was just bad. Perhaps I have walking pneumonia again (I had it in high school but don't worry, it's DEFINITELY not as bad as full blown pneumonia).

3. My band played a show last night at a battle of the bands. Black Earth played before us. Here's there myspace page. The lead singer was awesome. I love her voice. She is a nerd like me. She has a Zelda tattoo exactly like this only smaller:

I wore my Portal 2 shirt to the show so we made a connection. She is also considering getting a Portal tattoo.

4. Burns got me my Portal 2 shirt because I beat the game in the summer! I love it so much!

5. I'm almost done my exams. I had two today so I spent from 8:00am to 8:00pm reading and typing and studying and writing tests. Which is why I can't figure out why I can't sleep. Monday is my last exam.

6. Last Friday Burns and I babysat Nitty and her boyfriend. It was fun.

7. On Saturday I got to hang out with Breanne and Marshie. They came up to shop for Christmas prezzies so they were only here for the day and I only spent around 3 hours with them. We went to Chianti to eat. If you've never been there, I'd recommend it. It's super cheap and it's real good!

8. On Sunday Lita and I sang this song with Burns on guitar. It went really well and Lita did a great job!

9. I have been studying non-stop this week because my exams were so close together. I had one on Tuesday night, the next one was Wednesday afternoon, and I had two today. On Wednesday after my exam I went to Mount Royal with Burns to study. We were there from 2:00 to 9:30 and yes we were studying pretty much the entire time.

10. Because of my said study schedule I have really been neglecting Kobe. I'm really sad about this but don't you worry your little hearts. I got my fantastic roomies to care for the boy. So I was only neglecting him in regards to my presence and not neglecting him to fend for himself which he is not capable of doing. He had lots of human contact whilst I was away.

So there you have it folks. It is now 8 minutes away from being 3:00am and I still don't think I'll be able to sleep.

If you're having troubles sleeping as well, here is some entertainment for you. I guess if you're not having sleeping problems you can watch it as well:

You know what I mean?

university at home

I am almost done my undergraduates degree.

It's scary.

I'm stressed.

I only need to schedule two more classes (I've scheduled three already) and I don't know which ones to take.

BUT

I feel like I have learned more this semester than any other semester.

WHY?

I only have electives left. I can choose to take whatever classes I want! This being said, this last semester I chose classes that I was actually interested in. Here they are:

Sensation and Perception

• I learned a lot of cool things about vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Cool class. Loved it

Sex and Gender

• Don't worry, this refers to biological sex not ... the other... one...Anyways. We basically looked at women and men and gender roles in a lot of different societies.

The History of English

• I loved this class! It's so cool to learn why we spell light l-i-g-h-t and why we are not supposed to split our infinitives or dangle our participles.

Abnormal Psychology

• This class was awesome because we learned about a lot of things that happen to people's minds...like anorexia, schizophrenia, depression, etc. 

Language and Power

• This class was interesting because we talked about what makes languages "standard" or stigmatized. 

I have hypothetically spent a lot of money on my education. I say this because I haven't actually spent anything on it....yet. That's what student loans are for. A blessing immediately and a curse in the long run. However, with all this money going to perhaps profs or the "other" category (like to painting stairwells blue when no one really cares if the stairwells are blue or cement colored and it's just a waste of my hypothetical money), there are two life lessons that I learned at home for free that I spent $800 learning in class.

The first life lesson came from my mother:

• Men are just as smart and capable as women.

Now wait a second. MEN are just as smart and capable as WOMEN??? Shouldn't it be the other way around? You couldn't possibly mean that you are comparing MEN to WOMEN. You should be comparing WOMEN to MEN! WOMEN are just as smart and as capable as MEN! Nay my friends. I meant what I said, and I said what I learned. You see, if it wasn't for my mother I would have grown up thinking I was bad at math, or believing I was not able to hook up a DVD player to a TV, or being convinced that I shouldn't even try to lift heaving things because that's what men are for. Instead, my mother stayed up late with me working out math problems with me, telling me I am smart and a hard worker, teaching me that I can figure things out on my own, and showing me through example that I am perfectly capable of lifting heaving object and being "tough". Because of her (and the encouragement of my dad as well) I was able to graduate high school with distinction. I was able to move out and live on my own (with roommates). I was able to buy my own DVD player (from the thrift store) and hook it up to my free TV without the help of a man (because you know, men are "naturally" *rolls eyes* good at electrical things). Not only this, I was able to move my TV stand AND my TV into my room without the help of a "strong" man. 

So I spent $400 learning that I could do all these things in my Sex and Gender class. Unfortunately women have been condemned and stereotyped in most societies as unclean, incapable, or deserving of misfortune or deserving of being beaten. In our society, we have been led to believe that women should be compared to men, not the other way around. We see it in our language, in our work place, and even in children's movies. This has been an epidemic throughout the world since the dawn of man. Thankfully people are working to change these stereotypes. People like my mom, who is strong, smart, capable, and a good teacher. You may think I sound like some sort of Feminist, like this is a bad thing. This term has gone through the process of pejoration (the change in meaning of a word to a more negative meaning). I looked up what a "feminist" is on dictionary.com and it says that a feminist is a person who advocates equal rights for women. If we go by this definition, then I guess I am a feminist. No, I don't think women are any better than men. I believe we are equal. I wrote my life lesson in that order because it's only fair. Women have been compared to men too many times to even try to count. Really, we shouldn't be comparing anyone because we are equal, but I just wanted to start a good rant. Men are equal to women. 

Thanks for teaching this to me mom. I love you. 

The second life lesson came from my father. 

• Whether you can or you can't, you're right.

This was a famous quote in my house growing up, well, at least it was to me because it made such a huge impact on my life. If I think I can do something, I'm right. If I don't think I can do something, I'm right. This probably has to be followed within the laws of physics though. Even if I thought I could breathe underwater without any help from technology or random air bubbles, I would probably be wrong. If I thought I could jump off a skyscraper and survive the fall, I would most likely be wrong. Follow the laws of physics and you should be fine. Anywho, I grew up thinking I could do well in my classes. I was right. I grew up thinking I could go to university right after high school. I was right. I grew up thinking I would recover from my sicknesses. And was I right? Yes. 

This leads me to what I learned in my Abnormal Psychology class. Did you know that if you think you can fight depression without medication, you're most likely right? Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has been supported in multiple studies to be sometimes even more effective than medication when it comes to anxiety disorders and depression. CBT basically teaches you how to think more positively and more critically. My prof even said something very similar to my dad in regards to fighting depression. He said, "whatever you say, you're probably right." He had been talking about how some people said that they COULD NOT handle their depression without medication. Others said they CAN handle their depression without medication and seek help from CBT. I spent $400 learning this in class when I learned this at home from my dad. 

Thanks for teaching this to me dad. I love you. 

Maybe my parents should offer university courses in these two areas. If you made it this far, thanks for reading. I'm not much of an essay writer. In fact, I should be studying right now. I just wanted to get that out there that I'm very thankful for what my parents have taught me. Sorry for the lack of pictures.

10@10

 I am being inspired by Alex's 10 on Tuesday posts. Well...it's not Tuesday, but it is 10:00pm right now, so 10@10 seems to fit the theme.

1. I chipped my right front tooth today in class. I was chewing on my pen lid. It's hardly noticeable at all but I notice it and that's all that matters.

2. I am so excited for this semester to be over. It's been great and all and I've really learned so much but I would love to have a nice long break now thank you very much.

3. I am going to start volunteering at ARBI in January. I'm actually really excited about this because I'll be working with someone who is in need of a large portion of speech therapy. I'm also going to gain experience with occupational therapy and physiotherapy.

4. December is here! Next month is 2012! Where did the year go? I guess I can just look back at all my posts to see where it went, but seriously!?! It went by so fast. Before I know it I'll be 22 and in grad school!

5. The Institute Christmas Concert is coming up on December 18th which you all are invited to.

6. WithoutTheFall has a show coming up on the 17th in Airdrie. It's called the Rockin' Christmas Show but I don't think anyone will be playing Christmas songs...

7. Mommy dyed my hair. We were aiming for dark brown with a hint of red...but it's more like dark purplish red. I love it though. I have received many complements on it :)

8. I downloaded a Sign Language app and I am learning the signs from 1-30. I have learned up to 13.

9. Burns has two tests tomorrio and therefore I am writing this blog and not going to band practice because he is studying.

10. Speaking of Raymond, I chose the WORST time for Burns and me to go down. I bribed Burns by saying we could go shooting while down but it was just so darn WINDY! We could hardly do anything outside. Oh and not to mention the wild fires that broke out on Sunday.

Exhibit A:

This is seen through Burns' astronomy binoculars.

View from inside the house.

This fire was huge! You can't see how big it is in this picture but it was very long. And scary. And sad for who'sever land that was. This was to the south of Raymond but there was another one super close to Lethbridge. Trampolines were wrapped around telephone poles, trucks tipped over on the highway, and I even saw one of the huge highway ads bent in half! Burns and I almost couldn't make it home on Sunday night because the road leading out of Lethbridge to Calgary was closed for a couple hours. We visited Breanne and Peiko and by the time we got to the road they opened it. Literally, we were the first car to drive on the opened road.

Scary but I had a nice relaxing weekend.

And there you have it folks! My 10@10.

preference soup

On Friday night I had a date with destiny. Okay, so it was actually a date with Burns. We went to Gaucho Brazilian BBQ. 

We ate and ate and ate and ate all the meat we could EVER want in a whole month within one sitting. We had steak, ribs, chicken breast, sausage, chicken wings, lamb, and we even tried the chicken heart! Okay so lamb is disgusting because all I can smell is goats (or sheep) when I eat it. I tried plugging my nose and it was okay after that and I could actually swallow it. The chicken heart was ... okay. The thing that bothered me the most about it was the thought of it. I couldn't even finish it and it was about the size of a quarter.

There was also a buffet there and we tried some Brazilian delights such as palm heart (the taste is really similar to artichoke but these are harvested from the inner growing bud of palm trees). I got some other salads and mashed potatoes and it was really good.

I think I'd be okay if I didn't go back for a while. It was great, but expensive, and I was just sick of meat by the end of it. We did, however, get a fantastic dessert: chocolate mousse cake. There was a tiny layer of chocolate cake and the rest was mousse. Mmmmmm. I also tried the Brazilian pop. It was really good, too.

Burns and I then headed over to the dance and had bundles of fun. We also got to dance with Arianne and Daryn!

 Dancing the night away!!!











Yaaaay!!!!

So on Saturday it was reallllllyyyyy cold out. I had just finished reading about this week's Friday Fiasco and I wanted soup real bad. I looked up recipes on the Fine Cooking website and decided to make Tex-Mex Chile-Lime Chicken Soup. Not only that, but I needed a bunch of shredded chicken so I decided to make my own chicken broth! Mostly because Arianne did it and said it was easy. I didn't follow her recipe though, I followed the one on Fine Cooking because it yielded the exact amount I needed for the soup.

Making the broth.

This is the broth.

This is the cooked chicken from making the broth.

The recipe also recommended I make tortilla chips by cutting tortillas into strips and frying them. So I did.

This is Burns' hand, not mine.

And here is the delectable finished product!!!

It was sooooooooooo good! A little spicy because of the jalapeno peppers I put in, but not unbearably spicy. We put in the chips and shredded cheese and it was soooo delicious.

It took a while to make because the chicken broth took a while to make. But it was so worth it. I should have bought some sour cream to put in it. That would have been yummy.

So if any of you want to make this soup within the next few days, come get the rest of my jalapeno peppers! I only needed two for the recipe but they came in packages of six. I don't really know what to do with them.

monday morning mishaps?

Okay, okay Arianne and Alex....I really did have time to do a Friday Fiasco on Friday. I forgot! And I just decided that I want to participate after reading yours. So here we go. Monday Morning Mishap #1 (and probably the last one):

5 quirky things about me

1. If you haven't noticed, I bite my lips....a lot. Burns says I look just like Brad or Mom when this happens. I just can't stand there being any bumps or dead skin on my lips so I bite it off. I really need to stop this because my lips keep cracking and bleeding and I'm only making them worse than they already are!

2. I was just discussing this with Lita yesterday but I have this uncontrollable NEED to pop my zits. No matter if they are ready or not...they NEED to be popped. Burns always tells me to just leave them because I'll only make them worse, but every time I resist, the NEED overtakes my senses and before I can stop myself it is too late. And it always looks worse than it would if I had just left it.

3. Okay this is really crazy that I am confessing this but sometimes I lick Burns' arm hair in just one spot to make it stand straight up. Kind of like how a cat would lick their kitten haha.......wow I'm so weird.

4. I sniff Kobe really fast like he sniffs me. For some reason I feel like I'm bonding with him when I do this, but then right after I always think that he thinks I'm really weird for sniffing him and he can't figure out why I do it.

5. I save almost ALL of my change. Even pennies. I know it takes 100 pennies to make $1.00 but that's a dollar more than you would have had if you didn't save all your pennies! It also takes 10 pennies to make a dime. Money is money no matter how small the amount. And you know what they say: by small and simple means are great things brought to pass!

I hope you don't shun me now for how .. interesting .. I am. Hope you enjoyed!

recent endeavors

Since my birthday I have:

• got a new roommate named Bryanne
• 
  
• gone to Kutarna's for a caramel apple and costume party for Halloween. FUN!!!
• 
  
• got back my mark for my Language and Power midterm. I'm really excited about it because this is the first time in the history of my University career that I have gotten 100% on a midterm! Oh and not only that, I actually got 102%!!!! I got 61 out of 60!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!! When I first saw the grade I thought it might be a mistake haha. But it wasn't and I'm sooo happy about it! With grades like these I will for SURE get into grad school. Now if only I could build up the courage to register for the GRE. Oh boy....
• 
  
• been cruisin' around in my parents' car because they're having a blast in Mexico! How do I survive without a car? 
• 
  
• been invited to go see "Joseph and the Technicolored Dream Coat" at Stage West for the Hi-Tech Christmas party. It's on November 10th. And I'm really lucky they are going that day because it's a Thursday and on Thursdays I usually have class till 8:45pm. But the 10th is a Reading Day!!!! Woot!! So excited to see this play. I have never seen it, but I listened to the soundtrack all the time when I was a kid.
• 
  
• taken Boonie some soup, ginger ale, crackers, and smoothie. Can you guess what he is? He's sick! Poor little munchkin. He wasn't able to go to school yesterday and he's still sick today. At least he has his new book "Death: A Life" to keep him company. 
• 
  
• speaking of "Death: A Life," this book is hilarious. It's the biography of Death. I read the introduction and a bit of the first chapter yesterday and I love it. It's so morbidly humorous. And a lot of it is sooo true and that's why it's funny. 
• 
  
• learned how to do a proper push up. I can't even do one! But I read this blog and I am now building up to do a floor push up. I started with wall push ups and found that I could do the recommended amount to be able to graduate to inclined push ups. I started the inclined yesterday and I am SORE! I couldn't do all 4 sets so I am going to work up to that, then move to an even greater incline, and eventually the floor! 

Last night Kobe and I heard a CRASH in my room while we were sleeping! Kobe jumped up and barked and growled a bunch. I was still half asleep and didn't really know what was going on. I think I thought someone was breaking through the wall or something so I let out a yelp myself. After coming to full consciousness I realized that my whiteboard had fallen off the wall and onto my dresser. Megan was on the other side of the wall so she heard the commotion and came to see if everything was okay. Kobe was still growling cause I hadn't turned the light on and he couldn't see what happened. I said my whiteboard fell so she went back to bed. 

Kobe was still staring at the wall and wouldn't lay down, so I turned the light on for him to see what happened. I didn't have my glasses on so it was all just a blur for me. We went back to sleep. This morning I turned my light on, with my glasses on this time, and saw that my wall was a lot emptier than I had anticipated. A picture with a big frame that was on my wall had totally disappeared! My whiteboard hadn't caused all the ruckus because it was still on the wall hanging by one nail. It was that big picture that had crashed onto my dresser. But it was GONE! 

At this point I started thinking I had gone crazy. Was the picture there in the first place? Did I even HAVE that picture??? It was seriously messing with my mind. Then I looked behind my dresser and that was where I found the picture to be. Good, I wasn't crazy. But it sure caused a mess. 

I figure the whiteboard came off the one nail, swung and hit the picture, the picture fell on the dresser and then fell behind it. 

Not really fun when you're asleep when that happens. It's a lot scarier in dream land. 

21

I had a perfect birthday weekend.

On Saturday morning after I re-dying my hair and after reading Alex's blog on the Calgary Corn Maze, I decided that that's exactly what I wanted to do for my birthday. I phoned up Burns and told him, so he couldn't refuse because it was my BDAY!!!. He got ready, came over, and we headed down to the aMAZEing maze!

It was a bit chilly when we got there.

The first thing we headed to was:

And the second:

The giant jumping pillows of glory!

Then we headed into the corn maze.

An alien from "Signs"!

I was running after Burns when he disappeared around a corner. I saw something in the middle of the trail. Upon closer inspection I realized it was a movie. "Someone must have dropped this," I thought.

Upon even closer inspection I was able to see what the movie was:

Right then I knew it was for me from Burns for my birthday. It's probably my favorite movie and every time Burns asked me what I wanted for my special day, I said "How to Train Your Dragon"!

We wanted to make it in time for the pig races, so we headed back to the activity space and we eventually got around to the pig arena.

This is how I live up to my nick-name.

 Burns noticed that this horse already had a nose and mouth, so he just showed his eyes.

Then we fed the animals for 25 cents. I asked Burns what his favorite part of the Corn Maze was and he said feeding the goats. Haha! What a cutie.

This one reminded me of Julio.

We finally arrived at the pig races. We were supporting either the blue pig or the black pig. The lady wasn't very clear on where the division was in the crowd. So the yellow pig was juuuuuusssssst about to win when it passed a corn stalk leaf or something, turned back, and started sniffing at it. Yellow ended up being last or second to last. Little Blue won! Then there was a second round and Yellow won.

After the pigs, Burns and I wanted to pet the kittens, but there were too many little kids hogging all the little darlings so we didn't get a chance to even touch one. We tried lassoing some cattle though! Burns taught me how to do it right and I got one!

Burns got it two or three times...show off.

We went to the duck races and discovered how pumps work (nerds, I know). We were even in the background of someone filming their child while we were discussing how pumps worked. Haha! We also tried the Washer Tosser and I tried milking the cow (not a real cow). Then, to finish off our stay, we meandered over to the pumpkin patch,

picked out a couple pumpkins,

and made stuff with them!

I made Pumpkin Dump Cake with mine.

Burns and I made roasted pumpkin seeds with both of the pumpkins' entrails.

And Boonie made a Jack-O-Lantern.

On Sunday after church we went over to the Heninger's to pick up my birthday surprise:

Burns made a wonderfully delectable stew for the two of us! OOOHHH and it was soooo good! I want it NOW!!! Denise made Raspberry Delight for dessert. MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmm.

After dinner we went to my house and watched my new movie (well...mostly Burns just watched it cause I fell asleep).

Thanks to all who wished me a happy birthday!