More about me…

I love that this blog is the one area of my life that gives me no stress or pressure. I love that I can go days or weeks without visiting it and it doesn’t get mad. It doesn’t judge me if I haven’t called it or checked in. It’s just a pause, a blip and I can happily continue where I last left off. I know some people are adamant about writing everyday- and in a discipline sort of way, I see how this is a positive thing. If I had time, or wanted to make the time, I probably would write every day. But when life is busy and I’m relatively happy- I don’t want to write.

Writing has always been a coping mechanism to me. From a very young age, when things were painful or difficult to deal with, I would pour my naiive words into a journal. Some have said that my writing (especially my poetry) is dark and sometimes depressing. But sometimes I can be both dark and depressed. I think that’s precisely why this place is called Dark Yet Lovely. I see the beauty in my dark side. I see that through pain and struggles I become stronger. I can see that I have survived every day of my life- some more beautiful than others. I write through the darkness. My pen acts as lightening- splitting the clouds of misery and depression. It brings light and clarity, if only for a moment. Sometimes, writing the awful things means I don’t have to hold onto them anymore. It means they can no longer torment or weigh down my soul. When they are splayed across a page, they are free and so am I. I actually enjoy going back and reading my darker poems. Reading about odds that felt insurmountable, and seeing how far I have come is a fulfilling feeling. Beauty can truly be found in anything.

Anywhooo I love doing these dorky get-to-know-you-isms so that is what I plan to do today. I warn you- it’s crafty, but then so am I.

1. Name your two favorite scrapbook topics? Well since I am just getting into scrapbooking (digiscrapping) I can’t really pic a favorite. The only album I have made so far is of my 2007 trip to England. I plan on doing my wedding though.

2. What are the two best places you’ve been to? Puerto Vallarta on my honeymoon- it was hot and sunny and *sigh* I want to go back. I also LOVED visiting Manchester, UK this past spring.

3. Name two things you do every day? Kiss my husband and have a coffee.

4. Tell us two things that everyone pretty much knows about you? I am an administrator in way too many areas of my life (ie. organization junkie!) and I love to laugh.

5. Two places you wish to visit? I really want to go to the Carribean or Aruba and I’d love to see Ireland.

6. Two things you may not know about me are: I am 5′10″ which is apparently giga-tall for a woman. I also met my husband when I was 16.

7. Two nicknames you’ve had at some time in your life: Jaybee (short for Jellybean) and Boo Melon Head (ask my DH???)

8. Name two of your favorite drinks? Mmmm I am a sucker for San Pelligrino Limonade and Cosmopolitans!

9. What are two interesting (in a good or bad way) jobs you’ve had in your life? I was a dough ho (A.K.A. worked in a bakery) during highschool. I also worked way too much retail during university- acessories store, shoes store, men’s formal wear, athletic wear and a hair salon!!

10. What are two things you would like to learn?
How to play guitar and write my own music.

11. What two things would make your scrapping/stamping work space work even better for you?

More lighting and more stamping supplies!!

12. What are two of your best organizational tips for stampers that do not have a lot of space? Go unmounted, it’s a lot less space and buy basics. You can do a lot without all the major tools and toys!

13. What are your two favorite stamping toys? My Cuttlebug and my paper piercing template.

14. If you could have TWO super-powers, what would they be? I would like to magically lose weight- without all the hard work of course. I would also like to read minds so I could better guage people (I’m a HUGE overthinker!)

15. Name two words that describe your stamping/scrapbooking style?
Simplistic and “newbie” lol!

16. Name two stamp companies that seem to collect all your money.
SU and Two Peas In a Bucket

What kind of tomorrow is THIS?

Lol… my hiatus apparently has some lingering power because this is much later than I planned on writing part 2 of “The Car that Hated Me”. I actually got a comment (for once!) that said something along the lines of, “Hurry up woman!”. Hee hee! Thanks for kicking my butt in gear.

So we were at the bit when we finally got our car home. We parked and then immediately ran inside to grab a bucket to collect the spew of oil from underneath our car… err well my husband did. I did the typical woman thing and lost my mind.

When the reality set in of the expense of fixing this NEW car and the utter stupidity of how it happened and the exhaustion of our big trip home… the tears started falling. And what do you know? I called my mother. Yes my poor mother had to listen to our crappy story through the middle of my heartwrenched sobs. No matter how awful situations seem to me at the time, my mother is able to cut through the drama with a knife. She always is able to bring logic and reason to almost anything.

Her advice?  

A) Your husband needs a hug. This car is his baby and he was the guy who put her on the curb. He feels much worse than you could EVER make him feel. Go hug him.

B) Call the dealership and at least get an estimate. Don’t cry over split milk until you know how much you split. (ie. Don’t freak out about the cost until you KNOW the cost!)

C) Call around for a ride to work. You guys are always helping people out when they need it, shouldn’t they do the same.

D) Once you get an estimate from the shop call your insurance. Find out what your deductible and rate changes would be if you chose to claim. Then you can decide which route is better.

See? Just pure logic. A smart individual would come up with this all by themselves. I am the weirdo who needs to hear this stuff from my mother. It’s all things I know, but in the panic of the moment all I could think of is:

A) I cannot under any circumstances afford this. We just paid for Christmas and a big road trip. We are FLAT broke. This could not come at a worse time. *cue pity party music and visions of DH and I eating ichiban noodles for the rest of our days*

B) How could DH have been SOOOOOO stupid? I mean, I even told him the curb was there! What an idiot!  Grr… he should have to pay for this by himself! Why should I suffer for his mistakes? *this should include steam billowing out of ears, lying prostrate on the floor kicking and screaming. ya know, really compassionate, loving, mature behaviour!*

C) We’re completely stranded! How the heck will we survive? Buses don’t link to DH’s work and are seriously inconvenient to get to mine. I can’t possibly afford a cab every morning and evening to get to work and I really can’t take more holidays!!

 In short, I make my own life hard. Who do you think my DH would prefer to be around- Reaction #1 or Reaction #2?? Poor guy. I suppose he was warned I was a lunatic before he married me, so it’s fair.

 Anyway, to sum up the car that hates me situation. We managed to get her towed to our dealership on Tuesday but they couldn’t fit her in for an estimate until FRIDAY. *sigh* Apparently the holidays really bring out the stellar drivers in each of us. So we finally get the estimate and we got good news and bad news.

Good news: Only the oil pan was damaged. The rest of the undercarriage went unscathed.

Bad news: The cost of replacing said oil pan? $1165.00!!! We called around to see if we could find a cheaper part used or whatever and no such luck. Our vehicle is brand new and there ARE no used parts for it. Greeeattt!

I don’t know about you, but I do not have $1165.00 just sitting around waiting to be spent. Especially not right after the gloriously expensive Christmas season. So we call our insurer, cause that’s what insurance is FOR right?

You’d think so. Our insurer tells us that we have a giant deductible and our rates will skyrocket should we choose to claim this. We would also need to file a police report (because the damage is over $1000) and have an adjuster come and inspect it. Ummm does any of this sound good to you?

So we have to pay it out of pocket. I don’t believe it using credit cards and oh, looky here January is the month our rent went up by $150.00 and we are broke. *sigh* What to do?

Eventually I scrimped and saved and did enough financial gymnastics to come up with the funds. We were eventually able to borrow a vehicle from my DH’s work to get us through the week.

So after much hulabaloo Layla (our car) is fixed. My DH is leaving work this morning to go pick her up. I hope they at least WASHED the poor girl.

And ENNNNND Hiatus!

I’m back!!

 After a much-needed and MUCH appreciated hiatus from blogging I am back. My soul needs to write again and thus my fingers are flying furiously across this keyboard in my excitement!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas holiday. I know I did. The hubby and I made the long trek home to see both sets of families. I am terrified of winter driving so it’s always a bit of a prickly situation for me! But the Big Guy provided and we made it home safe and sound.

I love going home for Christmas. I love seeing all my old highschool friends, now toting their latest boyfriend or toddler home. I love my family’s traditions and how they just feel “right”. *sigh* I love listening to the same old Christmas cd I have listened to since 1989 till I am blue in the face! I love the food, the treats, the naughty drinks! I love the stockings, the gifts, the Christmas hats, dorky jokes and Christmas crackers! There is something so fabulous about being home for the holidays. But like always, despite the fact that I love my family to bits, after about three days I start getting irritated by stupid little things. This time we stayed for five days, and by the time we left I was ready to say goodbyes. Lol! Funny how that works. I miss them so much living away from them and then I get there and get irked by silly little non-issues! Oh well it never ended in conflict so we had a lovely time.

Then it was off to the in-laws for a few days. My hubby’s parents are building their dream home on this amazing 100 acre lot they purchased. They have put so much hard labour into this log home and when it’s finished it will be beautiful! We drove up to this new property for a “snow day” and throughly enjoyed ourselves. We snowboarded and snowmobiled and ate hot pizza and sat around a fire with hot chocolate. It snowed the whole time and the snow on the ground was above my knees! It was bliss! Even my teeny weeny dog loved the snow- though he wasn’t tooooo fond of the barn cat. It was an adventure and it was good for the soul.

The snow made for some baaaad roads driving back home though. We passed more accidents than we could count. One guy was actually getting the load from his semi truck pulled out of the river with a crane!! That wouldn’t be my idea of a good time. But again, the good Lord provided and we made it safely- the whole 10 hour drive home.

So all was good, even coming back to a rather chaotic mess at home didn’t bother me. We were lovely and relaxed until the next morning (New Year’s Eve). Hubster and I had made a quick dash to the grocery store to restock our fridge and were just pulling out of the parking lot when I camly remarked to my dear husband, “Watch out for that curb eh?” Now he either didn’t hear me (he said he thought I was joking???!!) or it just didn’t click because he promptly smacked our 5 month old, first new car EVER in and on top of the curb.  Now don’t get me wrong, my hubby is a FANTASTIC driver. But we were tired and distracted and it didn’t really make for an ideal driving situation. So anyway, we’re stuck on this icy curb and the car won’t go backwards OR forwards. So we get out of the car to assess the situation and it’s a doozy! We are officially high-centered on this damn curb. So I am BITING my tongue to keep from saying helpful things like, “I TOLD you there was a curb!” and “What the heck did you do?” and instead steam is blowing out my ears in my frustration. A lovely gentlemen pulls up next to us and offers to help, which was really good of him and pretty rare here in the city. Between him and my hubby they pulled/drove her off the curb. YAY right?

Uhhh no. As the car pulled off the curb I was able to see a massive puddle of brown liquid on the pavement. THIS was the conversation that followed.

Good Samaritan: “Uhhh buddy, I’m pretty sure that that liquid is from your car.”

Hubby: “Oh s*%$! I think I put a hole in my oil pan or something”

Good Samaritan: “If this thing is a four-litre you have about five minutes TOPS to get home”

Hubby and I: “GOOOO!!!!!”

So we hop into the car, yelling our thanks to the stranger. My hubby sticks the hazard lights on and flies across the nearest interesection to a gas station. He sprints out to the store, puts in 2 bottle of oil and zooms out onto the road. We’re flying through traffic, willing people to get out of our way, wincing at every red light and stop sign just PRAYING that our car makes it home.

And it did. And then we were stranded without a vehicle… and all the shops are closed cuz it’s the holidays… CRAP!

*Part 2 tomorrow!*