Sparks

Have you ever heard Coldplay's "Sparks," off of their album "Parachutes?" It is a sweet little waltzy song, and it has been stuck in my head, slowly driving me more and more insane, for the past two days.
This past week has been overwhelmingly busy, thus the lack of entries in my blog. Both of my bosses are away, and my friend whom I clean with is also gone. I have been cleaning a restaurant by myself and putting in more hours at the coffee shop than ever. The way things are now, I put as many if not more hours in two weeks than I used to in a whole month. I've been destroying my body by getting up at 5:30am and going to be around 1:00am for the past four days. I have learned the sleep deprevation is almost as much fun as being too intoxicated; the two are similar for me, or mostly anyway.
On top of that, I have spent at least 10 hours a day working one place or another. Og the joys. I don't know how so many people can live on no sleep and simply "adjust." I have been nursing my OJ and caffine just to function somewhat normally.
But either way, that is all done for a couple days now and I can take a wee bit of a breather. Today, three friends and I are hopping n Curty's car and taking off to Kamloops for the night. Yeah, a 9 hour drive for a single night. It will be an unbelievably fun venture though. We're not taking a map. I don't think. And Curt is going to encounter some interesting times, methinks. He is going with three girls anyway.
Last night was so much fun. We had our first "dinner party" if you will, in our house. Wehosted a couple I love very much, and my older brother. It was a blast. There was so much laughing, and great conversation. Julie brought a bottle of this great citrus wine that she made. Yummy. Our house really felt like a home to me. I kind of like that thought.
Anyway, I should get going. I have three hours of work left until our next, and likely greatest to date, road trip begins, and by writing this I have been putting off the buttload of work I should be doing. Here's hoping that Curt's wee car will make it up the mountains with four people in it!

Road Trip Numero Tres

Shari is awesome, just so you know. We totally, and most decidedly randomly went on a very long road trip today. It was so much fun.
We started out with absolutely no bearings; we merely got in the car and headed west. Once in Carstairs we were wise and bought ourselves a "good" road map and then continued on our way.
I have learned that Alberta is indescribably beautiful, especially in the fall. Without reall using the map, we ended up at a place called Moutain Aire Lodge, stopped, and got a quick bite to eat. The lodge there is now owned and opperated by a homeless shelter the two of us used to volunteer at often. I saw a man I knew from those wonderful days, whose name, I believe, is Rob. He even served us. That made me happy. He has one of the most beautiful smiles I have ever known.
Anyway, from there were started south on a road that lead us to a sign which warned us that the next "52" kms were curves. Boy howdy were they curved, and narrow, and edged by cliffs, and I swear there was far more than 52kms of them. We even saw a couple of signs that warned that adjacent roads were to be used that the drivers own risk. I loved that.
I love birch trees. They are so beautiful when they are yellow.
Anyway, so after about 1.5-2 hours of driving on narrow, very snakey roads, we ended up in Cochrane. Again we ate and then headed home. Through our journey, we actually came rather close to BC. I wish we had time to cross over.
Our trek home was where we found many difficulties. We came home through a hamlet called Madden, but according to our map, we shouldn't have. There were roads cited on the map that were not actually existant, and there were many orads that weren't even on our map. Stupid map. And it is not like I can't read a map; I really can--I am never lost, I swear. I hate this attribute about myself.
Eventually, after many turns, we ended up back in Carstairs and had only a couple more issues with roads. We wanted to take some roads we had never been on, just for something new. It was a buttload of fun.
Through and through, I think we covered somewhere between 450-500kms of road in about 7 or 8 hours. That is one giant circle.

"BECCA! Why is it raining in the kitchen??!!"

Sometimes, I wonder, I seriously consider the thought that perhaps, I am just bad luck. Perhaps I am just a small gravitational field that pulls all unfortunate tidings toward it.
But then I just usually laugh things off too. I can get rather confused.
Last night was, rather literally, the night of unfortunate events. Besides spending a great deal of time locked out in the pouring ice rain, and breaking a vacuum, a hot water pipe in the restaurant I clean decided to up and break.
Well, actually, Zaira and I had very much fun with that.
I was mopping in the front of the building, Zaira was playing Tetris on her phone, and the girls in the kitchen had finally just left. I blankly noticed that my shirt was suddenly sticking to me and the windows were fogging; I turned around and saw this huge wall of steam coming out of the kithen when Zaira shouted: "Becca! Come quick! Why is it raining in the kitchen?!"
It was so cute. Zaira is fresh from Mexico and her English isn't the greatest, especially when she is freaking out about something.
We ran into the kitchen to find one little tiny pipe on the wall by the dishwasher gushing hot water. We immediately called the people that we had to, but, even within 8-10mins. the kitchen floor was flooded to the point where the water was deeper than the soles of my shoes are high. I ran to the hot water tank to try and shut the water off, but there were so many valves and I didn't want to be responsible for breaking something so I didn't do anything. But the time anybody got theer to aid us, we were completely soaked and the water was more than 3 inches deep in places.
I doubt that floor had a speck of dirt on it by the time we were done cleaning. We had the wet vac going and everything; it was the ultimate double mop.
It was really nice though. The water was nice and hot--we got a good steam bath and shower while working. We're all about the hygene.
The other day, Laura and I were driving through my old town on our way to the police station for my background check: I am officially not a criminal by the way. Anyway, I suddenly realized that my old home town means absolutely nothing to most of the people I know. They have no memories of that place. The know nothing of the swamps, and the forts, and tobogganing down the big hill, or the afternoons fights the the water station. This realization made me really sad. I suddenly, very much so, felt like I didn't belong. I've never really felt like an outsider before then. It's weird because there is a whole part of my life that the people I know now know absolutely nothing about. They've never wanted to know. I'm not sure that is a good thing.

Hubbla Blubbla

Some guy told me that I look like a sexy secretary yesterday. It was kind of akward; they guy is probably twice my age. I am slowly getting used to being oggled by men; I don't actually like it very much--usually I wear 5 layers of clothes, don't really do my hair and I've pretty much given up on make-up because I don't think I should be oggled over--but I am sort of getting used to it. I don't even understand it. A sexy secretary?? I was wearing a grey sweater, dirty Vans, and jeans. How does that look sexy in the first place?
Anyway, yesterday was pretty fun. My friend and I went into th city to do some shopping, and it was that first time we have done so alone in a long time; things are getting better between the two of us.
We ran a couple of errands for some friends of our as well. This included going to a computer store; my girlfriend and I were unbelievably out of place. It was funny.
We went to the mall and ended up seperating because we both needed to find specific items that really didn't coincide with eath other. That was okay though, and I think it was probably better. Less frustration anyway. When we were leaving we ran into Raye-bear and Jared. We were holding up traffic in the parking lot. It was fun.
Then we totally went Barbie shopping! Not for us, but for some sweet little girls we know. We had so much fun! Barbie isn't as cool as she used to be though. Toys R Us had a somewhat disappointing selection.
It was cool being hyper and happier again. My girlfriend and I got some Hubba Bubba to celebrate the occassion. This resulted in fun as well. Oh! And we bought Curty a smilie face balloon and on the way home, I made one side into a happy-angry face that had a funny gotee, Hitler moustache, and angry eyebrows reminiscent of Trogdor himself. Curty found much joy with his balloon.
Oh! Yeah! The best part of yesterday, for me, was dropping off my snowboard at the paint shop for its first coat of paint! Earlier this year, someone gave me a board and bindings, but there were some girlie stickers on it and it was boring old grey. So, I decided last week that I was going to paint it. I then proceeded to joyously rip of the stickers and sand it down. The new base color is blackest black, and the shop said they could spray it on. Then, I want to do some a-symmetrical arcs in red and yellow. To finish it off, four circles on one end and the phrase: "Lo que no me mata, me hace mas fuerte" which is Spanish for "What does kill me only makes me stronger" on the front end. Totally cool. I'm excited. Oh, yeah, then of course when it is all done, a shot of clear apoxy will seal it all in a keep it from being scratched because I tend to fall a lot on the hill. Man, it will look totally awesome! I can't wait!

Line, what line??

Laura and I were forced to go on a wee bit of an adventure last night.
At around 11:30 I had to blow my nose. We were all in bed already, but my stupid nose was keepingme awake. So I finally gave in. Unfortunatly, as I blew my nose, my nose ring decided it was going to come out and fall onto my blanket. I found it, but started getting into a panic: the piercing wasn't supposed to be changed for at least three months, and I'd only had it two weeks. Crap-a-ma-jig. I shot out of bed and into the bathroom, but for the life of me could not figure out how to screw the nose screw back in. Laura was still awake, so I went and got her. She tried to help, and did a good job, but it hurt! I needed to find someone who knew how to put one of these hings back in. So, we called our boss. Now, Wendy has proven to me that she is the best boss ever, time and time again, but this time, it was such an akward situation in which to enlist your bosses help. After waking her up, and a couple other people unfortunatly, Laura and I sped on over to Wendy's house; the car windows were very much so frost laden so this was a super fun-scary trip. Upon our arrival, I was greeted by Wendy who took me into her bathroom and said: Now, close your eyes. This will probably feel a little weird. She then proceeded to solve my problem by sticking her finger up my nose.
My boss had her finger up my nose. The line no longer exists to be crossed.
Laura and I left quickly, thankful that the dilema, which we had worried so many people with in our panic-ed stated, had come to an end.
That was probably the most exciting adventure of my weekend. Davecame back for a quick visit and to go to a RHCP concert, but I basically only saw him for lunch on Saturday; I clean buildings part time and this weekend, 2 of the four cleaners got rather ill and therefore I became exceedingly busy.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Apparently, I went on a double date on Saturday. Or at least that is what everyone is telling me. My friend and co-worker, Zaira, is staying at her aunt's house and her aunt rents out the many rooms of her house to people in need on lodging. Two younger guys moved in: one Chris, is a Courtney Berg-er and the other, Michael, is the new Loan officer at the ATB. Anyway, The two guys asked Zaira if she wanted to go to the city with them and catch a movie, and Zaira proceede to invite me. Flustered, I ended up going. Apparently, Michael and I "hit it off." I do not recall this "hitting it off." Yes, we talked the whole night but pretty much entirely about life in this small town and living with the Holdemen Mennonites. Nothing can possibly be more romantic than chatting about the Holdemens. Wu-diddly-hoo. As far as I know, I simply went to a movie with a friend and two guys I didn't really know before that night. It was a good learning experience for me. The two guys are not bad guys--they were really nice, somewhat decently moral--but they did help me to really realize how awesome my guy friends are and how much I under appriciate them. I came home and told Curt that he was awesome about five hundred times.
So I come into work this afternoon and am greeted by a table of friends whom Zaira told about this "double date." And thus, the bugging began.
Other than that, my weekend, as I said before, was filled with a buttload of cleaning (4 commercial buildings). There were some furisou fireworks at church yesterday over one of my guy friends having an earring,but I unfortunatly missed it. The story there was that there was some new prick at my church who torn up one side and down the other calling one of my guys friends a fag and "if he ever wanted to be a man he had to take the earring out right now because it made him look like a fag." Direct quote. This strange guy them ran out of the church and no one knows who it was. What ever his problem was, it was seriously dumb.
J-man, you know I love you just the way you are; don't ever change!

Mmmm...gooy noodles and "shark fins"

I am so excited. In a week I get to teach some little kiddies how to make totes like Yo Beck! (a company I started with a couple mis amigas). I hope it goes well. Unfortunatly, the fabric store that I'm teaching at likes to have patterns and examples and some sort of organization; when I make something it is with a pair of scissors and a prayer that all turns out well. Oh well.
The other day I skipped out on work with my boss and we went into Calgary for Dim Sum and bubble tea. Holy monkeys: I am now addicted to Dim Sum. We at these shrimp pancake things that were basically shrimps wrapped in a big, gooy rice noodle and soya sauce. So good! Oh, and the hot mustard and super hot red sauce. I would eat it all day! And beans! I so ate a buttload of real sticky rice; it totally came all wrapped up in a lotus leaf. So cool. I love getting to use chopsticks too, and there were little bowls and the cups were just tiny bowls. Awesome! The green tea was awesome too. Someone read my leaves: apparently in 8 years time I'll be heading toAustrailia, yet having some sort of problem with that, and then I'll be in Mexico and Latin America where I will fall in love with a child. It would be totally awesome if that actually worked out, though I've never really felt drawn to Aussieland. I want to see the Great Barrier Reaf and all, but I've always been more drawn to the Orient and Central/Latin America.
My mouth is watering thinking about Dim Sum. Now I'm all hungry. Darn it.
We also went to the place where magic is born: the Fratello headquaters. My boss owns the little coffeee shop where I work and our supplier is Fratello; we had a tour and everything. It smelled so yummy! They roast their own beans there and have only a two day turn-over of all of their coffee stock, so the whole place smelled delightful!
I'm still looking friveroulsy at colleges, and I'm kind of freaking out. I've selected about 5 or six between Washington, BC, and Alberta, but I'm going to have to working my tushie off this year if I want to be able to afford even half of the first year of university. I'm pretty much just needing a buttload of prayer; I know I am supposed to go, but my "logical" brain says I can't, and then I worry that this whole thing will completely overwhelm me and I'll just end up giving up on the whole thing. Yikes. In the next two-three weeks, all of my applications will hopefully be going out, my transcripts sent, and the waiting beginning. I don't know if I'll actually get into any of these places; they're all universities and colleges, and none of them Bible college. Thus, my uncertainty.

Our Sunday Excursion

My good friend and I decided that this year, we are going to try and take short road trips to all of the communities around home that we never really go to because we're always heading into the city. Our first trip was to Didsbury, which was alright, but on Friday night we booted on over to Rosebud. Hands down, the quaintest little town ever! It was already dark by the timewe got there so we thought everything was closed, and it was. We parked by the Opera house, which was right next to a cafe, and got out, hoping to simply walk around. Awesomely enough, the cafe decided to open its doors rather spotaneously at 8:30pm. We totally went in and had some seriously yummy hot chocolate. The one guy working there was hot.
So my weekend was actually very good. I love doing things I haven't really done before, going places I've never really been, seeing new things, getting somewhat lost. It's awesome.
As another rather spontaneous decision, my roomates decided that we should spend our Sunday in the mountains on a waterfall hike. Sweet beans! I loved it. The three of us, Bailey and Megs all drove down towards CAnmore and found ourselves hiking through this gorgeous terrain until we found the first waterfall I have ever actually seen. It was cool. The main waterfall was hidden, so Curt, Laura, and Megs climbed over some fairly huge rocks juttining our from the face of the mountain to see if they could find it. Not trusting my climbing abilities, I hung bvack with Bailey. We took off our shoes and socks and went into the little stream there; the water numbed my feet in about 30 seconds. It was so "incolora" (clear). The two of us then decided to climb back up this other rock to see if we could take some pics of the other three kiddies. It was fun. Instead of taking the trils back, we all jumped from rock-to-rock down the stream. Poor Megs slipped a wee bit on the bank and soaked her mother's shoe.
We drove through Canmore before coming home.
I think we're wanting to try and do random new things like that more often now too. Normally when we "hang out," we watch movies or TV. This was far better. I love fresh air and feeling all creamped up from a day of physical activity!

Unfortunatly, driving through the mountains made me itch for snow. I can not wait until I can go snowboarding!

SATs Anyone??

Does anyone know if it is required that you take an SAT to attend college or university n the States? I'm really looking into this one place in Washington, and it has some very attractive courses, but I really don't know anything about entrance exams. I did check the website, but by golly, sometimes those things are just unnessesarily confusing.

Jeepers Creepers!

Why is it that small towns are chalk full of freaking creepers? For once, I'm not the one being creepeed on, but seriously: the good-guy to creeper ratio is shockingly depressing. See, I work in a coffee shop, so i meet a lot of people. There is this one guy who drives a delivery truck around the area who, as far I as I can tell, had been creeping on this sweet woman that i know. Actually, he has more or less been secretly stalking her. Yikes!
So, I got my nose pierced the other day. That was awesome! I had some strange, yet very cool lady, stick her finger into my nostril, followed by a Q-tip covered in antiseptic, and the a 10 inch long, 1/2 inch wide hollow metal tube. This was a wee bit strange for me. I had Bailey taking pictures of the process with my cell the whole time. Apparently I made some very interesting faces. I was suprised at how little the piercing process actually hurt. That, and the whole thing maybe took all of 30-45 secondss.
After that, we totally went to the Cactus Club (best restaurant ever!!!!) for Shari's birthday. I actually ordered my first alcoholic order ever: a double Bellini. It was beautiful. Bright orange and red; it was placed under a spotlight. I made an angelic noise; it glowed like neon and was unbelievably beautiful. Seriously, if y'all end up going to the Cactus Club, might I recommend either the Spicy Chicken or Thai wings. Best food ever!
I was totally drawing my happy place today. This is good. I love my happy place. It makes me a happier person. Go figure.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but our house actually has food in it. Somehow, we have managed to be blessed with food, furniture, electronics, cutlery, and numerous other things. pretty much everything we have has been given to us, and I'm not going to lie: i don't remember ever praying about it. Pretty sweet. Well, I shouldn't say everything. We did find our one and only frying pan on the side of the road on our way into the city to pay a visit to good ol' Ikea. It's awesome: completely misshappen and the Teflon is scratching off. It even came with an inch of burned, unidentified crud stuck to it!
I can't believe that the Crocodile Hunter is gone! What an unfortunate turn of events. I, suprisingly, never saw that one coming. What will the new generations do without seeing Steve Irwin defying death and danger?
I suppose I should go and prepare to clean. Yeah! Mud pie! I love my mud pie. Delightful!

Orange Tango

You know what is pretty darn-diddly sweet? Spending a hot day at the lake. Yep.
So I was walking up my stairs this morning, and I saw something I thought was cool. It comes to me as a bit strange though because it seems so purely meaningless, but it kind of stuck with me. Her's the story: I bought some cute Gerba daisies the other day and put a bright orange one in an empty wine bottle in the window or our landing. I love these flowers so I already see them as beautiful, but this morning, when i was walking up my stairs, they seemed unbelievably beautiful. The sun wasn't nearly up yet, and the moon was long since set, but the way the street light just barely shone through the green bottle, highlighting a tiny spot like a star, and dimmly silhouetted the bright orange daisy and green ferns--by golly, it was stunning. I don't know why, but my brain seems to be attracted to such things. Fascinating.
I'm heading into the city to get my nose pierced in an hour! How exciting! Being that I have an attraction to shiny, sparkling things, i have a feeling that i'm going to go cross-eyed from constantly looking down my nose at the jewel.
I'm so happy. We finally have internet at our house! It only took two months and threatening to with-hold rent to get it, but I guess it finally worked. Sorry Curty.

All I want for Christmas...

So I am sitting here looking at websites for universities I'd like to go to, and it is kind of burning me out. I have no money, or so it would seem. I don't really know what I'm going to do. I suppose that working at a coffee shop can only get you so much.
Ergo, I believe that I have decided that all I want for Christmas is money that I can put aside for post-secondary. Yeah, that sounds good.
I keep hitting the "caps lock" key every time I go to hit the "a."
What do you do when you get restless? Seriously, in this small town, I have no idea of what I should go and do--especially when I'm not entirly sure I want to be around people. Any bright ideas folks?

Mr. Bluesky

It is sunny outside and that makes me happy.
Dave and Brady left this morning. I'm actually kind of suprised I wasn't crying the whole time. I went for breakfast with Curt, Dave, Randy, and Dave's family this morning. It is kind of cool how simply being around those people makes me happier and more at ease. I had to say "see you later" to Brady last night--again, suprised at the lack of tears and the presence of a sense of growing peace. I'm not entirly sure, at this point, if "peace" was the proper word to use there, so please don't read too much into that. Perhaps bitterness.
No matter how I look around it though, things are going to be intolerably different, hopefully only for a little while. I was cleaning last night with Zaira and the restaurant was silent. Well, except for the sounds cleaning makes. I mean, don't get me wrong; we talked to each other and to Shelly, but it was just not as fun as the guys made it. Oh darn. Somehow that is going to change.
I'm so excited about going out to the lake this weekend! I don't know why. I'm wanting to get out behind the boat on a tube or something. Maybe one day, if I get enough courage in me, I'll try wakeboarding.
Oh! And I'm hopefully going to get my nose pierced on Tuesday. We'll see how this map out.
Once again, I'm finding myself at work and lacking the motivation to work: today I get to fold several hundred "Coffee Talk's." My fingers actually have accquired small calluses on them.
I am totally watching "Fight Club" tonight. Brady left his stereo at our house; the remote is like a little keyboard and there are couple cabinets to the multi-pieced system. Totally old school. It's awesome.

New! CoverGirl's All Day Outlast Toothpaste

Somehow, despite the fact I have always been a wee bit wary of having an online journal-like thingy, I have decided to create one. How strange is that? It's funny because I can't honestly believe people will read this!

So today is September 1st; oddly enough, it feels as though today is the start of something new in my life. Fascinating! I hope it is something good and something uber fun.

Everything has been changing up in the past month, and sadly, it has been a wee bit of a rough ride for me. Thankfully I have awesome friends in BC that were willing to take me in for a couple of days and give me some much needed vacation. But while I was gone, one of mybest buds left for Bible collage in BC; I had to say good-bye to her before I left, and I realized just how much saying "good-bye" for long periods of time sucks. Now, again today, I have to say "see ya later" to two guys whom I care about deeply: I'm really going to miss them.

Does this seems weird at all?: I wish that I were heading off to collage/university this weekend too. At least that way I would be experiencing something new as well. Hopefully that will be happening to me a year from now; I'm currently applying to a university up the road and, by golly, do I hope I get in! At this point, I really don't know what "Plan B" would be. Maybe I will end up going to BC or San Diego or something. Who knows?

*Yawn* Becca needs some sort of mental stimulation. I got home at midnight last night and I'm pretty sure I was awake at least once ever hour until 6am. Then I had to get up and come to work. I work in a coffee shop, so you'd think I could just have some coffee to wake me up;sadly, this no longer works. I think my body has become pretty much immune to caffine as a result of the ever-present caffine in the air in the coffee shope. What a shame.

I got home after midnight last night only to find myself locked out. I felt horrible, but I had to wake my roomate, the only one home, to let me in. Though I went straight to bed, there was a supreme lack of sleep again; I think I was up at least once every hour and there was certainly no REM cycle. At 6am my alarm went off and I had to start booking to be ready and at work by 6:30, so I got up and lumbered over the bathroom to brush my teeth. Unfortunatly, early morning groggy eyes and a lack of glasses failed me: I mistook my Laura's coverup for my toothpaste. It did not taste very good. Not good at all.