Walking on Sunshine

After a gloomy week filled with showers that were supposed to be here in April so we could have our May flowers, the sun decided to come out and play. And luckily for Calgary and Lilac Festival attendees (which seemed like pretty much every one in this city), we had beautiful warm weather for the annual street festival.



Patios filled up as people escaped the packed streets for a refreshing cold drink and an opportunity to catch up with friends that they may have bumped into. Vendors peddled their goods, from cat toys to bubble blowing guns, kettle corn to hot dogs, fashion, jewelery and art. There were stages for musicians to perform on and various companies showcased the talents they could teach you (my favorite was witnessing a lady a few years younger than my grandmother use her self defense skills to take down a pretend perp and beat him with her purse).





Two guys even built a bicycle that when pedalled would use the energy to generate the electricity needed to blast their stereo. What a fun idea!



And I always feel that Lilac fest is the opening ceremony for summer. Super stoked for a summer filled with lots of sun and adventures :)

Extreme Couponing

TLC had a marathon yesterday afternoon/ evening of this show which follows people who devote their lives to clipping coupons and stocking up every empty space in their house with thousands of dollars in product that they paid little to nothing for. It was fascinating to watch an $800 grocery bill come down to pennies owed. So fascinating that I devoted a few hours to watching this marathon.

It does leave some questions in my mind though. Is one really saving money if they are purchasing product that they don't really need just because they have a coupon for it? And being as this extreme-ness looks to become an addiction for these people, should we be celebrating with them? Wouldn't that be like celebrating with a crack head for scoring more rock? Is there such thing as a good addiction?

I did feel inspired to clip coupons and already try my best to save money on things I use or events I love to attend. I just couldn't imagine giving 40 hours of my life, involving my family in the ritual clipping of the coupons and shopping with three or four grocery carts. The one episode focused on a man who donated his thousands of dollars worth of product that he had mostly got free though couponing to various charities. That made my heart sing big time!

Have you watched this show? What were your thoughts on it? Do you think there may be an episode of Intervention soon where a lady thinks she is being filmed as part of series on people who extreme coupon and little does she know that she is about to be part of an (cue music) Intervention? ;-)

People are Awesome

So, this broken wrist thing in a cast has been really ...um...inconvenient. And I ended up taking Friday off of work because there was so much pain. It has its good moments and then it has its shooting pain, swelling, get-this-cast-off-of-me moments.

I'm trying to be optimistic and keep the complaining to a minimum. And I have looked at this cast as an opportunity.

My favorite chef's mother is part of a team doing the Ride to Conquer Cancer. Remember that I did this last year? Every person is responsible for raising a minimum amount and the amount can seem daunting at times. It all goes to helping Cancer research with the goal of a Cancer-free future. So, although it can be hard to ask people to sponsor you, or come up with events and ideas that people want to be a part of, it really is for a great cause to combat a disease that has affected every one in some way, shape or form. And battling cancer is a way tougher battle than either the 220 km you ride your bike alongside the Rocky Mountains or the money you need to raise to be a part of such an epic journey.

I have been "charging" people a minimum donation to sign my cast with all proceeds going to LN's fundraising efforts. I am almost at $100 and it's amazing to see (once again) how supportive my friends and family are and even more astounding to see strangers dig in their pockets for a twoonie after asking me what happened to my arm, hearing my tale and how I am now taking advantage of my disadvantage to raise money for a cause I truly believe in. Seriously, as much as you read and see and hear stories about the evil in this world, it turns out that the majority of humankind live up to the kind part. We need to stop giving so many bad apples 90% of the spotlight and start focusing on the awesome people out there that make this world better every day through small acts.

If you are interested in helping out LN's fund raising efforts, please check out her page. Every dollar counts, no matter how small and meager it may seem.

I'll post pictures of my cast later...it's really starting to fill up :)

Things I can now say happened before I was 30

I got my first cast.

We were just fooling around, play fighting, flirting. And I tried to brush the pain off as though it was nothing and would go away.

Except, the pain just got worse. And even though I tried my hardest to tell him it was nothing, he could read it in my face. And off to urgent care we went.

I was expecting a pinched nerve. Soft tissue damage. Maybe just a bad bruise. I was not expecting a clean fracture across my wrist that even the doctor stated was "the weirdest fracture [he] had ever seen" and after 4 hours of waiting, they wrapped my left arm up in a cast and told me to come back in a couple of weeks.

I have broken my toe a few times. In all of those instances, I just taped it to the toes next to it and went on with life. This cast thing? It kind of gets in the way of life. Washing my hair was an adventure. It took me a bit of work to figure out how to open up the pickle jar last night. And typing all day has made my arm incredibly tired and sore.

But at least I can say that I have had a cast now, I guess. Nothing like adding to life's escapades. ;-)

Tweet, tweet!

Hi friends,

I have been living a fun life, but haven't been good on filling in this little space of mine about it. My apologies. I'm on twitter a lot more these days, so if you're on it, let's follow each other! Find me @lowqis and let me know that you found me through my blog :)

Here's a bit of a run down of my worldly events:

I have added a few more hours to my volunteering goal with helping out the City's River clean up. It was a super gorgeous day and I shared a lot of laughs as I picked up litter that had been carelessly tossed in one of our city's bike path parks. Strangest find was a box spring mattress. Grossest find was a home made crack pipe. And dog owners? Seriously, be responsible and pick up after your dog. No one wants to see that shit (literally).

I attended a glamourous 60s themed cocktail birthday party. I loved having my mom do my make-up and hair, gossiping with her all afternoon. I loved seeing my friends all dressed up. I loved seeing my date in a suit. The venue we were in was pretty loud for casual conversation which was too bad, but everything else was pretty sparkly.

My favorite chef has been cooking up a storm for me lately. I'm pretty spoiled. I like helping him out and learning about the ways of the spices. He's super creative and his passion for cooking is my favorite part of dinner.

My best friend and I went and had our nails did. That was a fabulous way to gossip and I think we discovered our new shared hobby :)

This week holds lots of fun too: a literature event tomorrow evening (Miriam Toews is reading from her new book!), seeing Alberta Ballet's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy on Thursday (it's inspired by Sarah McLachlan's music!), helping to host a fundraiser on Friday for The Ride to Conquer Cancer and then seeing the final installment of the Fast and the Furious Franchise on Saturday.

My life has been super fun lately :)

Also, today was election day. Were you happy with the results? I was (what can I say, I am a good Albertan girl who loves her rye and votes conservative)!