Pics from my trip to surrey

Ya. I know it has been a few weeks since I got back, but I finally have found some spare time to put up a few pictures from my trip to BC.



I made the drive to Kamloops on my own. This picture is taken with my camera timer, as it rests on the roof of my car, propped up by random items from my bag. It was a sweet drive and I loved being able to stop and go as I wanted to.























The first wedding we attended was in Surrey. The groom was room-mates with one of my brothers, and most of my family was involved in the two of them meeting. It was also really neat because we knew 5/6 groomsmen. Sure is fun to see them all groomed and done up! And of course, the Bride was absolutely beautiful.

Hanging out at the beach. We took a gazillion pictures and it was alot of fun. It was so awesome to spend some time with Ashley outside of the walls of the tower. This is me touching the ocean. It was the first time in over a decade that I had touched the ocean in the Northern Hemisphere. (Yes I played in the Ocean in Chile, but that was the Southern Hemisphere. Hard to believe that it is technically the same body of water!)

This is later that night. We went to a beach with Ashley's brother and Mikey. In this picture we are waiting for a train to come and squash some pennies. Have you ever actually tried that? It is very exciting and I highly recommend it. We spend the night collecting shells, taking pictures, and just hanging out. It was a really good time!

There are the other two. We took pictures with everything from this sundial to totem poles to sitting on steps to some random car. It was super fun cause sometimes the boys got into it to, as you can see. Thanks for taking the pictures for us Justin and Mikey!

This is the last one I'll post from my time in Surrey. We had a super duper good time and I would do the trip again in a second. I spent two nights in Surrey and honestly, if that had been my whole holiday, it would have been worth the long drive there on its own! Can't wait to go back again!

the drudgery we call work

Sometimes it amazes me how we can drag ourselves through the day. Not that I am complaining per say, but wow can work be an interesting experience.
For those of you who don't know, I am waiting tables at a truck stop less than 15 minutes from my house. Sounds exciting, I know, but I love it. Once you get used to creepy, large, and old men hitting on you (and most are all three of those) and actually being surprised that their marriage proposals and requests for affairs wont work on you (or invites to their showers *shudder*), once that is old news, it is a pretty neat job. Some of the truckers have seen alot in their travels and they sure do have alot of opinions on everything. The locals that come in are quite laid back most times, and there are alot of construction workers and tourists making an interesting mix. After a bit of time passes you start getting regulars, those people who are in a couple times a month, a few times a week, heck, we have some people who are in multiple times a day! This is fun because they get to know about your life, they ask how your holidays were, or how that car you had trouble with last summer is running, or what your plans are after graduating with that English degree. It is like an extended family... a old, large, creepy extended family.
However, once you look past the customers (and I'll be honest, as the busiest store in a chain of over 175 restaurants, we have more than just truckers), it is the staff that causes alot of the struggles. My restaurant is going through a management change over. From our General Manager right through all of our lower management positions, right now we are trianing managers for our store and others and have something like 9 managers. Considering the last few months we had 3 at the most, this is a big change. Then add in that we don't like alot of them for various reasons, well it makes work an interesting place to be.
Since it is a truck stop, and I am on days, I work with alot of older ladies and wow do they like to b*tch. Thing is, they only b*tch to the other servers, and we all know that does nothing. It gets old fast hearing a 50 year old complain about something and not do anything about it but threaten, to other servers, that they are going to walk out. Useless is what it is...
So I suppose my complaint with work is in regards to managers who really have no idea what is going on and shouldn't be allowed to run a macdonalds, let alone a busy, full menu and more restaurant, and servers and staff who b*tch about everything, but make no move to change anything "it's not my problem" =news flash, if you are b*tching about it, its your problem!... Thats all I have for the topic.
For the servers out there, imagine my headache when at the end of my shift I discovered there was an error somewhere and a $422 bill had not been cleared. While I don't have to pay it, it still meant alot of questions and harrassment from these hated managers... What a way to end a shift, I was definitely relieved to leave that building!


What do you call a man with no arms and no legs in the water?

Bob

What do you call a man with no arms and no legs on the floor?

Matt

What do you call a man with no arms and no legs on the wall?

Art

ok. so its a terrible joke. I laughed... have a good one!

lets go dancing

Ok. So I know I just wrote something, but thats besides the point. Either I have alot to say to an empty technological void or I really need to start working on my social life. Please, for the sake of my confidence lets say it is the first reason.

Met up with an old pal yesterday, had a blast. We are definitely going to start hanging out some more, she is onto the 'lets go dancing' list. Then today I went to a pig roast(I got there after the pig was gone, so I don't know how it tasted) hosted by the parents of a guy I graduated with. It was the 'third annual pig roast' and it is attended by a bunch of the high school football boys that I cheered so loudly for back in the day. So essentially it was like a mini reunion to go and see people that I graduated with but havn't seen in two years. It was interesting. A little weird at first, but hey, no problem, I am tough! Gonna add one or two of them to my 'lets go dancing' list (that I guess I am starting as of this weekend). So then it was off to Kareoke to meet my fellow MC for my sisters wedding next month. Kareoke was fun, talked with a girlfriend that I see around alot, but we never really sit and talk alot, and guess who is know on that list we keep hearing about? Thats right. I really need to go dancing.

So here is the fun thing about my life. My sister is getting married next month. And it could be that I am more stressed about it than she is. I am now a bridesmaid(maybe a maid of honor, not sure); I am singing with 2 others, in spanish, while they sign the wedding thingy; then family pics; then wedding pics; then I am the MC; and tonight I learnt that I get to do the toast to the bride! Frick. Gonna be a long day! Can't wait!

So here I am with just over a month left till U starts up again, and I am finally growing a social life. Can't wait to actually go dancing, and it sounds like Aug long weekend is a for sure weekend for it, if not sooner. My cousin is coming to visit, so that weekend will rock! Get to use my new list... But otherwise it is time to start figure out moving stuff, and wedding stuff, and learn a spanish song, and write a toast, and plan a stagette and so much more. Yay for summer!



Said with a Russian style accent "I am Sam Sanchez. Don't Bother Me." (It's a joke to me. Even if you don't get it. Plorky might!)
Hey, anyone want to go dancing?!

death

A man from my church died unexpectedly yesterday. He was in his early 50s. His daughter used to date the son of a good family friend. The man and his wife have been at my house for new years eve, and were members of my parents small group. It is a shock to our church family who, on the day of his death, buried another early 50s member who had been ill for some time. I guess he woke up in the middle of the night with pain in his left shoulder. He wrote his wife a note, and left for the drive to the hospital. He never made it. As he left 75st to turn onto the Whitemud, he was in a single car accident, believed by most to have been caused by a heart attack.
I wont claim that I knew him very well. Although almost exactly one year ago I was at his home as my then boyfriends sister had her wedding photos taken. But it is a shock on other levels. It scares the bejeebers out of me because his age is similar to that of my dads. Because it is a surprise and shows that death can present itself at any time. Because there is no a young family, mourning the sudden loss of their father, and because of its unexpected appearence, this death is hard to grasp.
I don't fear death. Not to be all religious and stuff, but I know there are better things waiting for me after I die, but by no means do I embrace it. Or wait for it. Or welcome it. At least, not in this case. (I say in this case because patients of long time illnesses sometimes do welcome the finality fo death and the end of pain that a family suffers as they watch a loved one hurt).
So. I suppose I write this in mourning of the death of a man. In mourning of; A close to home hit. A man not expecting death. A family suffering an unexpected and great loss. And the brush with reality that it brings. No one in ever safe from the clutches of what is and what was. No one can live with certainty that death is a distant future.
It is here. It is now. It is the future. It is present in all things.
Death. A cold, but unexscapeable outcome.


No joke today. Hard to write one after that subject. Sorry if it was random.

what a holiday!

warning- long post- pictures to come
After a 10 day vacation to BC, I have returned home safe and sound. I am already bored out of my mind, but that is neither here nor there. It was a wonderful vacation with lots of people, lots of sun, and lots of fun... Can you ask for anything better?
I left home on Friday June 30, on my own in my Saturn, for the drive to Kamloops for the first night. The drive was uneventful mostly, and I really enjoyed doing it alone, stopping whenever I wanted, singing, talking to myself, and taking pictures at completely random moments- it was great!
Early Saturday, with my car locked up and our new RV unhitched, I jumped into dads brand new GMC to join him and mom on the trip to the lower mainland, Surrey to be precise, where we had a wedding to attend and would spend two nights before moving on. The wedding was lovely, the dance at the reception was awesome, and it was really fun to see some people that I havn't seen alot(or any) of in the last little while. It was also neat because my whole immediate family was there. I spent the two nights in Surrey at Ashely's place(a friend from Kings) and hanging out with her is never dull!
Sunday morning, we were heathens and skipped church in favor of heading to the ocean(Whyte Cliff) with her sister's family and some friends of theirs. It was interesting because not only have I not been on the beach in the Northern Hemisphere in ages, we ended up at the beach with a total of 17 other people(19 with Ashley and me included) and I didn't know one of them!(3 young couples with a total of 11 kids amongst them!). Although it wasn't a sandy beach, there was a ton of grass to relax and tan on, and some rock outcroppings to climb so the day was a fun one! We returned to her house to a delicious dinner of Mac and Cheese and then made arrangements to go to another beach that night(White Rock) with none other than Mikey(another friend from Kings) and her Ashley's brother Justin. It was a great night with tons of pictures and lots of walking, a really a good time overall!
Monday dawned another sunny day, and while waiting for my older brother and his girlfriend to pick me up for the drive north, tanning by the pool was a must . After they finally showed up, it was off to Scotch Creek, north of Salmon Arm, where we were going to attend a five day family reunion to celebrate my mom's parents 55th year of marriage! On the way up, we saw what looked like the beginning stages of a forest fire just south of Kamloops. At first it was white smoke, but by the time it was behind us, it was grey and hazy and covered much of the sky. What a sight!
With our arrival at the campground and the hugs and hellos finished, family reunion began. This is with, among others, the cousins that came to visit on Easter Weekend, which was an awesome weekend, and I was not let down in my expectations of this being an amazing week! Visiting with family, some of whom I havn't seen in five years(since the last reunion) and others that I have lived down the hall from(Erica), promised to be an interesting week. It rained 3 nights in a row, just for an hour the first night, a little longer but earlier the second night, and poured for a legnthy period of time on the third, but that just made it even more of an adventure! There were fires every night, and lots of laughter, drinking, and stories told as we clumped together around that flicker of extra warmth. Days were long, but in a good way, and it was relaxing to never have anything pressing to do.
Friday, after packing up, I stopped in Salmon Arm for a nap, a cow chase, and a shower, before it was off to Vernon to spend a couple nights, attend a wedding and visit some more! 10 of us cousins met up for dinner, and it was nice to see people in normal, non-camping mode, and then I was off to Jennie's(friend from Kings) to spend a my two nights. Jennie, Jack(another friend from Kings. She was Jennie's roommate and is from Edmonton, I got the pleasure of driving home with her. Shove Shoe Jack!), and I talked late Friday night and hit the beach Saturday morning before it was wedding time. This wedding was for a cousin of mine, and in a park and it was hot, but despite the heat it was beautiful. The reception was literally in a barn, and once the dance started it rocked! Jack came out for a bit, and it was a good time by all!!!
Sunday meant home time. After getting picked up early to get my car from the reception, and saying the last of the goodbye's, Jack and I headed to the liquor store... No joke. It was like 10 in the morning, we needed a drink! Kidding, Jack wanted to buy some wine for Jennie's parents. Trip home was again uneventful, cept for the ghost truck, when we thought we were getting a ticket, and the four bears. It was definitely a relief to get home and fall into bed. So. With those 10 days behind me, it is time to head back into reality. Back to work, pretending I have a social life, and planning for my sisters looming wedding. Gonna be interesting, thats for sure!
And a joke, with no purpose or point...
One evening, two Alabama State Trooper patrol cars were in hot pursuit of a Chevy Camaro going east on I-20 toward Georgia. When the suspect crossed the Georgia line, the first Trooper pulled over quickly.
The rookie Trooper pulled over right behind him and asked, "Hey Sarge, why did you stop?"
The Sarge replied, "You stupid rookie! That guy's in Georgia now. They're an hour ahead of us, so we'll never catch him."