On the road again!

I can't stay in this country for a whole year! I arrived home last year on June 1st. I am leaving on May 31st.... I guess I must have ichy feet or something.

So here we go. I leave for the airport in one hour and twenty minutes. It still hasn't really set in that I'm leaving for three weeks. I will try to post if we get access to internet, but otherwise I'll be radio silent for the duration. I'll have lots of stories and pictures when I get back, so stay tuned!

RWANDA IN FOUR DAYS!!!

... well actually Germay is in four days. We don't actually get to Rwanda until saturday. But it is very exciting! I am mostly sort of packed - all my things are spread out on the bed in the spare room. We have plane tickets and it is all really happening! I am still not compelety at the place where I am ready to be going- my head is in a different place, but I'm sure it will be in the right place by the time I get to the airport on thursday. So, it has been a little while since my past post because my internet has been wonky. Heh, good preperation for Africa! :) Anyway, since my last post I cut my hair. People keep assuring me that it is still long but really, how can it be long after I got 7 inches cut off?! In my head I know that it is still long - just below my shoulders, but it is a big difference to me.
Also, I have applied for a real job. It makes me nervous to talk about but I sent in my application for an internship with World Vision. Keep that in your prayers when you think of it please! There is alot going on around here, so even if I don't get the job I think I will be content, but it would be a great thing to have a job that PAID, that is in my field.

I will try to post more before I leave. Four days! Crazy!!!!

Domestic Goddess Part II

I am so proud of my domestic prowess today. I worked at Zehrs this morning with Steph which was happy because we rarely work together, and we hardly ever see each other which is sad since we live only a few kms apart. Then I came home and put in a load of laundry. I started a batch of bread while the nice new washing machine cleaned my clothes. Then I went out to dig up my garden while the bread was rising and clothes were drying. The place where my new garden is was under patio stones and before that was lawn so the dirt is very packed in. I turned it, added peat moss and turned it all again. Inbetween the turnings I came inside, put in a second load of laundry, punched and divided my bread and did some dishes. I am the queen of multi-tasking! Now the bread is in the oven, the clothes are on the line outside and tomorrow my garden will get covered in top soil and I will find a fence to keep the mutato bunnies out.

Reunions and Rainfall.

Monday was lovely. I walked to work and it was nice and cool and sunny. I finished at 1pm and then walked home. Then I had lunch and got into the car with good happy cds and drove to Toronto. The traffic was great and I got to Mississauga very quickly (doing the speed limit of course....)and then traffic got heavy but not too bad. I parked at Yorkdale, which for you non-ontarians is a huge mall. I took the subway into the city and attacked Diedre on the corner of King and Younge. We met Aaron at Richtree restaurant, a fun market style restaurant, and ate lots of really good food. It was great to see them both and in typical Aaron fasion he patted me on the head before he even said hello. Granted, I did try to go in the revolving doors the wrong way, but Diedre went in before me and it worked for her... So things don't change that much :) We went to see Spiderman 3. It was entertaining but I don't need to see it again. Then we got on the subway and after dropping Diedre and Aaron at their stop I continued to my car. Driving home I remembered how much I hate driving in the dark and how much I hate Transport trucks. The combination is vile. But I got home safe and sound so all is well.

Today was not so lovely. I like thunderstorms but tonight was a little crazy. I took the bus home from work and as I got off at the stop across the street from my house it was cloudy and starting to rain - it had been raining off and on all afternoon. Ten minutes later the sky was green, it was raining horizontally and the wind was blowing at nearly hurricane force. We actually went into the basement it was so crazy outside. It only lasted about five or ten minutes at that intensity and we found out from the weather channel that the storm was moving at more than 65kms an hour. Our neighbour lost some tree limbs and around the city power lines and trees went down. No damage to our yard and the power stayed on so I could watch the series finale of Gilmore Girls.

Laura the Domestic Goddess

I had a full out domestic goddess day yesterday. It started with cleaning a house formerly occupied by unversity guys. One of the things we auctioned off last weekend at the fundraiser was 5 hours of house cleaning. It was gross but we got it done pretty quickly. Then I went home and cleaned my own house. You can now see my bedroom floor- quite a feat since I am getting organized for my trip, doing scrapbooking and going about everyday life in a small space. Then, I went outside and started to dig up my vegetable garden. I dug out, cleaned and stacked 36 very heavy patio stones and soon I will be turning the soil and planting things. It was hard work but I got to play in the mud and fool around with worms. It was like being a kid again. Good times. I want to plant tomatoes, beans, peas, lettuce, carrots, cucumber, zuccini and squash. Yumm. First I need to fence it off since we have a mutado bunny hanging out in our yard. I like little bunny rabbits as much as the next person, but this creature is seriously bigger than most small dogs. I have already planted my tomato plants inside and they are growing very well. Anyway, after my day of domestic works I went to Zehrs for five hours and it sucked. I was on express and had a huge line until after 9. We close at 9 people!! GO HOME!!! Now I will have lunch and then go play ultimate frisbee. I like spring!

struggling with disappointment

So last night was the second of our two movie night fundraisers. We rented out a local movie theatre, the Princess, and showed the movie Shooting Dogs. This is a terrific movie about the first few days of the Rwandan Genocide - well done and very challenging. See it if you have the chance! Anyway, we were expecting quite a few people. We had been advertising and telling lots of people about it and a lot of people had said they would come. We worked hard to put it together and then the turnout was incredibly disappointing. We covered the cost of renting out the theatre, but didn't make very much more than that. I am struggling not to get discouraged. People who came enjoyed the movie, learned stuff and showed us a lot of support. The people at the theatre were great and helped us out a lot. We had fun as a team hanging out and working together. So there is a lot of good that came from it. I guess with the success of the dinner and auction over the weekend we were looking forward to another successful fundraiser and that didn't happen. On the happy side, we did find out that the overall cost of the trip is lower than we first thought so the pressure of this less than stellar fundraiser isn't so bad.

Random Ramblings of the Insane

Ok, my life has been so hectic of late that I have had no time to even check my email let alone blog on a regular basis. I know that I am not the only busy one so I will not complain too much, but suffice to say I am only home to sleep these days, and even then not for very long. So, to catch you up on some of the happenings, here are some random snipits of my life, in no particular order...

* While walking to work one morning the strap of my purse broke. I walked the rest of the way swinging the purse by one end. I got a lot of weird looks and it was an interesting way to start the day.

* We had a dinner and silent auction to fundraise for what I now refer to as The Trip. It was stressful and crazy but it was a great success so all is well.

* One morning at my office job it was just me and the HR manager person and we had 10 interviews and the server for the testing we use was down and it was insane. I was like the chicken with no head.

* Sunday I was up very late getting organized for the movie fundraiser that we had monday night. I did this after a very busy, not sleep filled weekend. My shift on monday at Zehrs started at noon and I woke up at 11:56. Not Good.

* I spent friday night at Pam's. She and her roommate are cat sitting two cats in addition to their own two cats. I did not sleep much because three cats took turns attacking my feet, jumping on my head and knocking things off desks and dressers.

* On a less crazy note I went to Pam's cottage for her birthday the weekend of the 28th. There were 15 of us and it was good fun! Some of us girls went for a walk along the lake and it was nice to be outside! Fun Times.

Now you are all caught up! :)