Commit to it!

I have always had trouble with commitment… And no, I am not talking about relationships. Ever since I was a kid, I would always get into some sort of interest, do it for a few months (and some cases just a few minutes) then walk away and never go back. Piano, guitar, drawing, various medias of art, tai kwon do, etc. There are a few things, of course, that I do stick to, but even with that it is hard to motivate myself to get to it. I’m talking mainly of … the word every couch potato fears… EXERCISE!!!

It’s very ease to join a gym. It’s very easy to pack clothes for the gym. What’s not always easy, is stepping out on the gym floor and picking up dumbbells. Most people don’t have the confidence to do so. They think that they’re being watched and judged silently and are afraid to do something wrong. Sadly, even though I know it’s bogus, I am guilty of such feelings.

So, I have adopted a new motto. And here’s how I came up with the motto:

I’m walking on the sidewalk, approaching a corner. I see in the corner of my eye a car coming up with the turn signals. Non-Confrontational Heather says, “Just let the car go! We can wait.” Confident Heather says, “Shut the hell up Non-Confrontational Heather! It’s our right of way! Do it. Walk it! COMMIT TO IT!!”

You know what? It actually works!

We all have our down days. The key thing is to not give up completely. If you keep going back to it you’ll go a little further than you did the last time.

Take this article for example. I started writing it months ago. I wrote only about half because I wasn’t sure at the time how I wanted to end it. Apparently letting it sit for a few months does the trick. My point is, don’t be hard on yourself, but yeah, Commit to it!

Okay, let’s just go back to the exercise theme. Even though I’m not the best worker-outer, I am still doing it. I’m getting stronger and my cardio is getting better. I have a student trainer as well this semester to keep me on track. (Sometimes even trainers need trainers.) I’m also developing some bootcamp style circuits to keep me interested. They’re hard but it’s worth it.

Lastly, I still haven’t given up on my heavy bag! Yep, I still have it! It’s done actually, except for the foam part (it’s just to keep shape) but I have a place to put it, for the summer at least. The only issue is that it’s outside so I’m waiting until the weather is a little more consistently nice. That way I can set up my bootcamps in the backyard and include punchouts. So wicked cool!

How My Banner Came to Be – Part 2

Not a Penis!

This was back from my first year at Algonquin in the TV program. One day one of the guys in my class, who I always thought was a pretty funny and cool guy, showed up with a drawing and note for EVERYONE in our class. There were some clear messages of inside jokes, and others, like mine, were just something he was just writing for the sake of writing. This was the picture he drew. The message on it went something like this: “This is something that my friend made for me last Christmas. I drew it because it was on my desk and I needed something to draw. It’s not a penis. For Heather Love Casey.” I guess I included this in my banner because even though it wasn’t really anything personal to me, it still reminds me of some of the good times that I had in that class and I guess more specifically the crazy things this guy did, like shaved the left side of his face leaving the right side full beard and moustache, or writing an 11 minute song about the ‘girl in the green jacket.’

The New Roommate Review

Back in Toronto again.

Actually, back in the same house I was living in last semester. The difference is, the only person who is the same, is Jon. It was a little strange but it wasn’t too hard to adjust to living with new roommates. And here is why: they are awesome!

(L to R) Brittany, Max, Boogie, Mary (dog), Jon, Missy (dog), Me, King (best dog ever), Josh, and (other) John.

Brittany – 21 year old nursing student (in Katie’s room). She’s finished her program at the end of this semester so she will be replaced for the winter term. Unless unforeseen circumstances arise, she’ll be the only only leaving until summer. She’s pretty cool and we get along pretty well. She’s usually gone to Guelph on weekends to see her boyfriend, Dan, but sometimes he comes here. And when he does: total games weekend. And I LOVE board games!!

Max – 20 year old film student (in Arthur’s room). I get along with Max also pretty well. He’s a big Lost fan and loved the end of Lost, so that’s the majority of what we disagree on but otherwise he’s cool. He plays guitar so sometimes I can hear singing from his room. He tried learning Extreme’s More Than Words just because it was in my head but at some point in the song he gave up. Ah, well, at least he tried.

Boogie – 26 year old business student from India (in the basement). Also gets along with Jon very well. I was worried for a little that I was being replaced (since Boogie lived here all summer) but I think I’m okay where I stand.

Jon – It’s almost like Jon and I are married. We still get along very well.

Josh – 19 year old broadcasting student (in Lorraine’s room). There are two things Josh talks about: his phone, and girls. Such a boy!

John – 23 year old electronics student from China (in Sagen’s room). John also lived here in the summer. He’s mostly playing video games in his room but he does hang out with the bunch of us for a while.

For those wondering, yes we did purposely get a ‘family photo.’ Here are some other pictures of our family dinner before Arthur went back to Taiwan. (Miss him!)

Summer Review

Mainly, it sucked.

Okay, enough with the complaining. On to the good of this summer, which lasted collectively about one month out of four.

Some general things that were good was that I was able to hang out with friends that I don’t see while I’m in school. For the first month I was also able to spend time with my mom and sister before they left for BC to stay for the  whole summer. I also got to see my best friend Victoria, who just got engaged (I’m her maid of honour), and I spent a lot of time with Paula and a fair amount with Adam. And since I only worked two weeks out of four months, it was especially nice to not have to pay rent. It was also great to get back into boxing this summer. I lucked out on finding a new place that I was able to get more classes and pay less than the previous gym where I boxed. The classes were a bit different but just as good. Besides, no matter where you are, you really do get back what you put into it. If I return to Ottawa on a more permanent basis (which I am considering) I will return to Habada Fight Club. The coach likes the way I worked this summer and is encouraging me to work towards coaching. It’s an option.

I do have two highlighted events to touch on from this summer.

1. Europe … obviously!

It was amazing and quite challenging. I’m so happy I could finally go see a lot of the things I’ve always wanted to see. The challenge was, along with getting really lost at times, there were times that I couldn’t fully enjoy my time there due to various reasons: paranoid of pick-pocketers, knowing how much I’m actually spending on everything, felt lonely sometimes, forgot my awesome favourite hat in Brussels.

My favourite city was Amsterdam. I don’t smoke and I certainly don’t partake the joys of legal prostitution, but the city was beautiful and everyone was so nice. In my last two days I had actually found someone to hang out with and that was really nice too. Even though I got SUPER lost there looking for the hostel, I have mostly nice memories there.

 

1. Fab Cafe, Manchester, UK – Exterminate! Exterminate!

2. Chester Town Centre, UK – Where Paula and I stayed with her mother.

3. The Cavern Club, Liverpool, UK – Wearing my favourite hat.

4. Buckingham Palace, London, UK

5. Manneken Pis, Brussles, Belgium – With my hat before I forgot it there.

6. Eiffel Tower, Paris, France

7. A canal, Amsterdam, Holland

8. Me and Pierre, who I hung out with for two days in Amsterdam. He’s from Quebec coincidentally enough. Small world.

2. One Year Reunion:

I’ve seen Kat a few times since she moved back to Brantford, and I’ve seen Adam a few more times since I moved away from Ottawa. Kat and Adam have seen each other at least once since she moved from Ottawa. For a few days in August, this was the first time in a year that, not only all three of us were together, but with her baby and my dog, ALL FIVE OF US REUNITED!! We had a really great time and created so many more inside jokes to add to our vault.

 

1. Adam living the dream with King and Isabelle. King doesn’t like Adam, but Isabelle really had taken to him. Good for her. Fearless!

2. Kat and I taking our babies down the slide.

3. The roller derby event that made Kat and I want to move back to Ottawa so that we can play on opposite teams and create drama. (The team I cheered for won, by the way.)

4. Frozen time! Frozen time! (Misheard lyrics from Leonard Cohen’s Closing Time.)

5. Probably the best thing I've ever done for Kat, was not support during her pregnancy, was not the baby shower, was not being a better roommate that previous roommates... No, it was introducing her to Yo Gabba Gabba featuring a Dancey Dance with Elijah Wood.
Lift the knee, lift the other knee. Lift the foot, lift the other foot. Walk in a circle. Do the Puppet... Master!

6. Somewhat sums up our visit. Party in My Tummy, Manboy and WWWWD (What Would Wil Wheaton Do?).

The only other thing I wish I could have done was spend more time with Victoria. I only really saw her about four times this summer, which isn’t enough. I hope to see here more this year however, when she and her fiancé comes to Toronto to see his family. I look forward to helping her with wedding plans as much as I can from a distance.

I didn’t get to finish the shelf I was painting but I did a fair amount. I will try to finish when I visit at Christmas.

Good New Folks!

There have been a few developments since I last wrote about joblessness and Europe and such.

First, I have landed myself a two week warehouse contract. Two weeks is short, yes, but it’s full time and it will be something I can at least be active in (rather than a boring data entry position or something soul sucking like market research or whatever). I am actually glad it is two weeks (well if it started earlier I would want it to be a bit longer I suppose – it starts this Monday). I am glad for this because I have figured out a way – and it is now official – I am going to Europe!

Paula seems to be fine with paying for my trip for the most part. This means that when I get my tax return (I filed it very late this year) and money from my grandmother (post-dated cheque for $1000 on August 14th) then I can pay her back fully. This two week contract will help me with making sure I will have $550 for rent in September and have some spending money while were there.

So, the flights are booked, the insurance bought, and all we have to do now is plan the in between. This is what we have so far:

Week One: Manchester to stay with Paula’s Mom. While there we will take a trip to Ireland (perhaps Dublin) and some other small trips, like maybe Liverpool. Week Two: London. We’re not quite sure where we’re staying yet. If we can’t find some friends of Paula’s to stay with we’ll have to book a hostel, and have to book it soon. We’ll also take a small trip to Paris while were in London. At the end of this week we’ll take a day in Amsterdam since all Paula wants to do is visit the sex museum. Her flight then takes off from Brussels so I will accompany her and see what’s happening there. Then for the last four days I’ll be on my own. I had figured I would stay with my family in Holland and see more of the country but I just found out that they’ll all be away on holiday. One is going to Germany and another is going to Italy. It’s kind of disappointing that I won’t see them but it also means one other thing, I’m free to do what I want, in another country, another part of the world.

I feel giddy.

How My Banner Came to Be – Part 1

Recently I have decide to customize my page a little to make it reflect a little more of me. Mainly that just meant changing my banner since my web page knowledge is very limited. With that, I have decided to give a little meaning to it since everything on it has a little story. Some longer than others.

Most of the images are from my bulletin board. I have a giant board usually hanging in front of my desk filled with pictures, drawings and other such memorable treasures that I have collected over the past few years. However, since I have been roaming from house to house, I don’t have it up right now in any of my homes (my Ottawa summer home – aka Mom’s, my Toronto home – aka Jon’s, or my Aurora home – aka my cousin’s – aka where all of my stuff that I don’t urgently need currently and maybe forever lives). But just to get an idea of what the bulletin board actually looks like, here are a few pictures:

So now that I have that covered, just keep in mind that all my stories are from memory.

Bananas!

This half cut picture of bananas is a cut out from a box of bananas that one would get from the grocery store. (The reason why it’s half cut is because it was covered with other things when I took the photos of my bulletin board. Normally it’s actually a full cut out of a bunch of bananas. Anyway…) This was a gift to me from one of my best friends, Adam, who also gave one to my other one of my best friends, Victoria. (I’m sure I’ll be writing about both of them quite a bit in these entries.) This was a response to Victoria and I pushing Adam - who we then used to call Ryan Reynolds, it’s not because he looked like him but I now can’t remember why - to give us a Valentine’s Day gift to us for a little while. Sure enough on Valentine’s Day the three of us met up at a double feature at the Bytowne Cinema of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the Notebook (they both loved the first movie, which is the main reason why we went, and none of us had seen the Notebook, which all of us had a laugh making fun of). Adam showed up at the theatre with this cut out banana bunches. On the back he signed, “From Ryan,” because he didn’t know how to spell ‘Reynolds.’ With that he also gave us each a Lindt chocolate and for us both a jar of plum sauce. That’s just his style! Well my banana went on my bulletin board (which was a the time much smaller), the chocolate was eaten, and the plum sauce was named Adam’s Love Sauce and stayed unopened in the fridge for many years.

Passing the Time

In my month (plus) of not working I’ve been trying to think of things to pass the time other than boxing and watching TV. I love the idea of creating a project – something I can work on all summer towards some sort of end product. Now, I don’t see myself as the most creative person so I’ve actually done internet searches to try come up with something I can work on. Naturally my searches have given me nothing. I do have some project ideas I would like to work on that I have in my 43 Things, but they mostly require things I don’t have and can’t afford, or things I do have but are still in my apartment in Aurora.

My conclusion was that I should start painting again. I’m not much of an artist. The things I draw are pretty much copying (not tracing) things that have already been drawn. And I’m not much of a painter. My paintings come from an assignment I had to do in grade 8, which was basically paint an image from a children’s story book over a washed out background. I still have that painting. I don’t remember the name of the book but I do remember that it had something to do with the horses on the merry-go-round at a carnival coming off and flying in the sky.

Here’s a close up on my favourite horse.

  Other paintings I’ve done are in the same style.

“Solo” – May 2004”Standing Tall” - May 2004

I tend to like this style. It’s simple and if done right, can be elegant, and let’s face it, it’s pretty easy to do.

This one is my most recent. I’ve yet to decide if it’s done or not. I also have yet to title it.

I like this plan also because it’s a fairly cheap hobby. I buy all my materials from the dollar store. May not be the best quality paint or canvas but I’m not the best quality painter so no complaints here. I’ve been using acrylic paint because it’s cheap but I also found small tubes of oil paint that I plan to experiment with.

I do have some project ideas though that I feel can work out. One is to “save a perfectly good piece of furniture from someone's garbage, clean and sand it down if necessary and paint it in fun colours” from my 43 Things list. I grabbed this shelf, not technically from the garbage… but it would have been to the garbage if no one took it. I even started painting it a base white.

Again, it’s a cheap project because all I have to do is buy the paint and brushes. I will have to buy some paint tape as well to make sure I get crisp corners but that won’t be too expensive.

My second project is to do 10 assignments from Learning To Love You More, which is also on my 43 Things list. I haven’t started any of those yet but I’ve been thinking of the ones that I want to do.

From the way things have been going the past month, I hadn’t been to optimistic about how the rest of the summer will go, but hopefully this will help me through.