Life – Page 17

Unfair

August 11, 2011 by koalateagirl

Life is unfair sometimes. I am an adult and I get that concept. What I don’t understand is why my friend Mishi is being dealt such a crap hand by the universe right now. Her beautiful 2-year-old daughter, Stella has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. She is going to die and it will be sooner rather than later.
I met Mishi years ago (and no I don’t remember how many) in a band called Argonotes. We played at football games and had a lot of fun. Mishi met and fell in love with a wonderful woman named Aimee. They decided to have children. They were blessed with a beautiful little girl who they named Stella Joy. And yet she is dying. It’s been less than 2 months since they got the devastating news that Stella Joy is not long for this world. I don’t even want to think about whether I could show the kind of strength that they are displaying on a daily basis. From the beginning their priorities have been to ensure that Stella has a fabulous summer and cram as much life into the time she has left. I am truly in awe of these two fabulous people.

You can read their whole story here (note: you may want a box of kleenex handy)

http://www.stellabrunermethven.com/

Let Me Introduce Myself.

August 11, 2011 by koalateagirl

So I’m super-inspired by all my blogging friends – I want to have a blog that people read and that makes them think twice about their preconceived notions – both about women in sports and maybe about women in general. I am not, however, sure where to start.

I guess I should introduce myself. I’m 31, between jobs at the moment as I have just left my Ph.D program (unfinished) to actually *do* something with my life, and a sports fanatic. My first passion is the CFL. I co-host a weekly on-line radio show about the CFL. I have loved football in all of its incarnations for as long as I can remember. I also love Open-Wheel racing. I was 6 when the (then) Molson Indy roared through the streets of Toronto for the first time – I went with my parents and fell in love with the sound of the engines and even the smell of the hot rubber. Formula One came a bit later but I am no less passionate about it. I watch baseball, hockey, lacrosse, and basketball when there is no football or racing to watch.

I am also passionate about social media. I believe that connecting with other people is one of the greatest gifts of the technological age and that social media is an easy way to meet all sorts of fabulous people I wouldn’t otherwise meet. I am trying to figure out how to merge these two interests of mine – sports and social media.

I’m also intrigued by brand blogging. I have always been the type of person who, when they find something neat, is more than willing to tell everyone within earshot how fabulous it is. I also am not afraid to tell people when something fails to meet my expectations. It seems to follow that brand blogging would be a natural extension of my nature – the question is how do I start. Actually there are more questions – how do I ensure that I can remain true to my moral code while still doing the job expected of a brand blogger? I don’t think I could endorse something I didn’t truly love. How could I, in good conscience send my friends off to buy something I think is crap? I don’t lie well. Never have – even as a kid my guilty conscience would get the best of me within minutes. I want to be sure that I won’t be selling myself to the devil in order to get some free stuff.

I guess that’s enough of an introduction. I have another post I want to share today so I should get going on that one.

Jenn

Stupidity

May 19, 2011 by koalateagirl

Driving home from a meeting tonight I saw some shining examples of stupidity that prove that while Kitchener-Waterloo may be one of the most intelligent communities on the planet, that doesn’t mean that certain individuals don’t bring down the curve.

First, to the charming young gentleman clad all in black who chose to dart out less than 5 feet in front of my car at 11:15 pm in a severe rainstorm: You are very lucky that I was paying close attention to the curbs, knew that there was nobody in my blind spot and had the traction to swerve into the other lane to avoid hitting you. Yes I honked at you to make sure you were aware I was there. I think what you meant to convey was “thank you, kind driver for going out of your way not to hit me” but that’s not the message I got when you saluted me with your middle finger.

Second, to the driver who sat on my tail and flashed his (or her – I didn’t take the time to study my rear-view mirror to determine the gender) high-beams at me when I was doing the speed limit in the pouring rain… screw off. You don’t like the speed I chose, there is another lane. Yes I know that people routinely go 10-15 km/h over the speed limit on this stretch of road, but it was late, POURING rain, and the amount of standing water on the road was staggering to say the least. I’ll say this much – blinding me with your high beams is not a good way to make me speed up. I’m more likely to start tapping out four-letter words with my brake lights in Morse Code (I know that 90% or more of the other drivers on the road don’t know what I’m spelling out but it makes me feel better).

Finally, to the special individual who chose to run the red light on a bicycle, again clad all in black, with no headlights – I get that it was raining pretty hard and that biking in the rain sucks, but do you think your actions might have been just a little reckless? Apart from freaking me out completely, what did you hope to accomplish? A free ride to the trauma centre of your choice? Stopping at red lights is one of the things you have to do as a responsible bicyclist. Get over yourself and get a light and a clue.

A question

May 16, 2011 by koalateagirl

Why do smoke alarm batteries always die and start chirping in the middle of the night? Mine started at 3:04 (or at least that’s when it woke me up). the middle of the night on a weekend is really not the time when I can do much about it other than unwire it (it’s a combined wired/battery backup Carbon Monoxide / smoke alarm) and pull it down and remove the battery. My landlord replaced the batteries a little under 4 months ago in the 2 detectors that needed them (the others have a nifty 10 year sealed lithium battery) so I’m not sure why this one was chirping every 30-40 seconds and saying what I believe was “Low Battery / French equivalent” in a muffled electronic voice. Did I mention that this alarm was installed (by the landlord not by me!) in a spot where you have to put a small stepladder on a stair to get at it? yeah…great design there. So today I will go get new batteries and hopefully tonight I will actually get to sleep through the night.

exhaustion

May 16, 2011 by koalateagirl

the past week has been exhausting both mentally and physically – how does my body choose to react to the stress? By making sure I get less than 5 hours of sleep a night. Sometimes I think my body is engaged in an all out war with itself. I’m working tomorrow and have band rehearsal but am going to try to get a good night’s sleep tonight so that I can stay awake at band. Tuesday I’m sleeping in. Late.