"It Gets Better" by Chris Salvatore

Here's Chris Salvatore's latest song that was released just the other day called "It Gets Better".  It's a little long, but I think it's an intensely great song.

"It Gets Better!"

This is a video that I think everyone must see!

Whoopi and Joy walk off The View

New Robyn Single - Indestructible

Here's the same song but the acoustic version....

FckH8

A friend of mine posted this on my Facebook wall...



www.fckh8.com

Raise Your Glass - Pink

LOVE Pink!  Wish I could see her in concert SOOO badly!  She's on my "must see" list.  I've had so many dreams in the last few weeks where we're like super close friends! hahaha  (Lame I know lol).

Thanksgiving Ridiculousness

Last week I started orientation for my new full-time nursing position at the Hospital here and on top or that had things most evenings and that is why I've been MIA again and not blogging...cause my life has been CRAZY!  BUT....last weekend was Thanksgiving here in Canada and again, that weekend was ridiculous!  I didn't go home to Timmins since Lacey was coming in town to have Thanksgiving with her family here and I haven't seen her in awhile so figured I'd stay to see her and then since I wasn't supposed to work this week, I'd just go home for a week to visit friends and family back home.
Lacey's bus was 3 hours late so she only got in to Ottawa after 3am, so naturally I went out and got really drunk and rather than going to bed when she was here (cause I had orientation again the next day), I stayed up till after 5am talking to her....which led to me being about an hour late for orientation.  I had a Thanksgiving supper at my bro's place with my sis and my bro's gf and his roommates.  The supper was actually REALLY good!  Then I went to Lacey's aunt's place and after our hot-tub I ended up crashing there for the night.  The next day I went to yoga (more for the instructor than the actual class, but the class is good too lol).  Bekka had her first party at her place in Hull so I went to that and it was decked out! Projector screens with lasers and candles everywhere and a plounge (pillow lounge).  It was so sweet!  And the people there were so chill and cool.  I left before they went to the bar cause Cassie was going to my place to predrink before we were to head to Edge to go dancing and celebrate with Laurice since it was her last time going dancing before she moves to Elliott Lake on saturday.  After a very dangerous ride on the back of a scooter by someone who just got the scooter that day and still didn't know how to drive it and me without a helmet and almost dying....I got off and got Cassie to pick me up lol.  We went to my place and downed our booze and headed to the bar.  We danced up a storm and saw the person I had gone on a date with earlier that week chatting it up with my ex - that was interesting lol. I met a guy from a an MTV show and he surprised me a LOT and is actually SUPER sweet and nice!  He's also hilarious and was making Cassie and I die laughing at his jokes.  After kicking Cassie home (sorry again Cass), the weekend just continued at this ridiculous pace!  Another Thanksgiving supper at Lacey's Aunt's, and another afternoon with "Mr. Nice Guy", then back to the real world and had to have my last orientation day monday.  And that my friends was my Thanksgiving.....minus a few details ;)

Bullying Leads to Suicide

The news all over has been splashed with titles of suicide after suicide of youth taking their lives due to their inability to cope with the never ending bullying that they endure.  It's not the beginning of this, and suicides like these have gone on before - for too long.  It seems like lately it's been happening in overdrive; the reason - bullying gay teens.  Teens who are gay or who others assume are gay have been and continue to be targets of ceaseless bullying in elementary and high schools all over North America and the eduation system still does little to ACTUALLY prevent these things from happening.  All these schools talk about a "no bullying" or "no tolerance" policy regarding acts like the ones we've heard so much about lately; however, very few schools actually do anything to put an end to it.  I think the recent news shows that if there's a time for schools to finally step up and step in, it's now.  Go ahead and have your "no bullying" policies, but actually act on them when theirs complaints.  First time it happens, send the bully home.  Second time it happens, suspend the kid.  If you act instead of talk, bullying will slow down and not be as rampant as it is, where bullies know they can get away with it.  But the problem is...so do the people that are getting bullied.  They have no one to protect them and help them.  They turn to what, at that time in their lives, seems like the only way to get away from all the pain they endure.  It needs to stop.  All these stories about bullied kids committing suicide break my heart cause I was there when I was younger and bullied.  I know what it's like to want it to stop and think that the only way to end the hurt is through suicide.  Thankfully, I was able to make it through thanks to one person that I met in Grade 10 and if it wasn't for her I don't think I'd be here.  But now that I'm where I am today, I'm happy I've made it.  I can say without a doubt that it DOES get better even though it doesn't feel possible.  Here's the clip from Ellen about one of the latest stories.

Yoga Week

This past week, Santosha Yoga on Elgin was celebrating their 1 year anniversary and as a present, they were giving free classes all week!  I haven't gone to yoga in a little while so I thought it was about time to get back into it again.  Monday I went with my friend Bekka to a Yin yoga class that was not too bad and we made plans to go to a special Acro-Yoga on Friday.  We arrived for that and were super excited! Acro-yoga is a partnered (and sometimes a group) yoga that's kind of a mix between yoga and dance and you work with your partner's body to do positions.  It was hands down the most fun yoga class I have ever done!  The stuff we were doing was ridiculous!  Straight out of cirque de soleil!  Flying poses (like the picture) and headstands on each other's body and not the floor, a giant group roll into downward dog.  It was just SO much fun I want to do it again badly!  Bekka and I, and Bekka's friend Diena said we're going to practice to get our core stronger since it's a huge core exercise and then hopefully we'll be able to go to the workshops in November that are put on by our teachers' yoga teachers from Montreal who choreographed Cirque de Coleil in LA!  Ridiculous fun!  Then to finish off the week of free yoga i went to a "hangover yoga" class yesterday afternoon.  It was a really good class and I'll definitely go again next week, but let's just say that it was too intense that I could NEVER do that class if I actually was hungover! hahaha.  I'm pretty pumped that I'm back into yoga again after taking a hiatus with my crazy busy month, now it's all back on track.  And if anyone ever gets the chance to do acro-yoga, DEFINITELY do it!! So much fun, but you usually need a partner.

(This is a picture of the flying Superman pose that Bekka and I were doing, but this is not the two of us, it's just a pic I got from Google.  And Bekka could hold me up and make me fly too!)

To Pose Nude or To Not Post Nude...That is the question

So I was talking with some friends the other day and we were discussing art classes and posing nude for art classes.  The idea was brought up to pose nude for people to sketch.  The class pays the model $75.  The model doesn't get to see the drawings when completed, which I'd really like to see.  So, when it was suggested that I pose for a class, it got me wondering....am I comfortable enough with my body and in my own skin to put it all out there for any rando from a public art class to oogle my goodies to put down on paper?  Do I feel comfortable being a "David" model, or despite my appreciation for my body, do my insecurities hold me back from allowing myself to be expressed in the nude while artists in training hone their human body sketching skills?  I wonder, how many people are comfortable enough with their bodies that they would pose nude for a public art class?  So I thought I'd put up a survey to see what the consensus would be.  Feel free to comment as well.

Lady Gaga's "Prime Rib America" Speech

Lady Gaga held a rally in Portland, Maine to bring more media attention and awareness, and to put pressure on Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, to vote tomorrow to put an end to Don't Ask, Don't Tell.  More than 2000 attended and protested alongside Miss. Gaga, to rally against a law that hopefully in the near future, rather than later, people will look back and think how barbaric a law it was!  How could such a powerful, educated nation have been SO STUPID!?  How was this still a debate in 2010?  I'd like to think that Don't Ask, Don't Tell is fundamentally opposite to what the true "American Way" is - but I guess we, the rest of the world, are seeing and laying witness to what the true "American Way" really is.  Hopefully they prove us wrong soon.  While the rest of the world shakes their head at The United States and says "that's just America", and begin losing faith (if they have not already), there's still many who hope and have faith that America will FINALLY do the right thing and be a true leading nation in the world and not only talk the talk regarding equality for all (as their constitution says), but they will soon walk the walk as well.  I have faith, but I have great disappointment that it's taken them this long to realize that this thinking, is really no different that than thinking and beliefs of many of the nations they war with.  Grow up, and own up America!

Now here's Lady Gaga's speech that she gave....

International Talk Like a Pirate Day!!

Ahoy!  Arrrrr Matey!!  Today be the day to celebrate and speak like a dirty swashbuckler!  September 19th is the official Talk Like a Pirate Day!  The day was started in 1995 by two guys - John Baur and Mark Summers - during a game of racquetball when one of the guys fell and cried "arrg!".  And this holiest of holy days was created!  It's kinda a lame thing, but hey...at the very least it's another excuse to drink!  Guzzle yar grog like a wooden-pegged buccaneer!

Fair winds me hearties!

Article on International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Armani Jean Commercial with Christiano Ronaldo

Hope you enjoy the new Armani Jean commercial with Christiano Ronaldo!

University of Ottawa and their never ending obstacles

So I'm finally done all school for my Bachelor of Science in Nursing!  I'm SO happy that I don't need to worry about homework anymore!  Although, these last two courses during the sumer have been probably the two hardest and most stressful courses just because all the obstacles Ottawa U kept putting up.  I CONSTANTLY had to be on top of the secretariat office to make sure they were doing THEIR job properly in getting me registered to write the RN exam for October 6th.  And now, Ottawa U does it again!    The biggest obstacle yet!  I went to the secretariat on Friday just to see when they would be sending my marks to the College of Nurses (since my marks were all done now) and so that I could send in my form for my temporary nursing license to start my full-time job in October and somehow, this was the first time that the secretariat realized that the Senate isn't meeting to "approve" graduations till October 16th!!  The marks NEED to be to the College by the 5th!  So as of right now, NOBODY at Ottawa U who was planning to write their RN exam on October 6th can!!!  I'm so stressed and don't need this!  I'm sick with a cold, trying to study, while at the same time stressing about this and trying to figure out everything I can do to put pressure on the school to sort this out ASAP since this isn't screwing up my schooling anymore...this is my life!!  Already this is screwing up when I'm starting work since it takes 15 days to process my license from the time the school sends in the marks to the College.  All I gotta say is...they better figure this shit out fast!!!

Lots has happened over the past month....

So once again I've been MIA for a bit - this time a little longer than I have to date. I've been gone for about a month now because I've been doing a lot and super busy. Shortly after my birthday, Emilie came from Toronto to stay with me. We left the last weekend in August to go to my cousin Valerie's wedding in Elliot Lake. Since Emilie doesn't have a driver's license, I had to do the entire drive myself. We left at 6:20am on friday morning in the rental car Toyota Caroloa that we named Lola, and got to the Lodge where the wedding was happening at 4:30pm. We stopped for 2 hours to visit Emilie's grandparents in Sudbury, where they fed us and we hung out for awhile. After getting lost only once as predicted, we ended up finding our way on the VERY sketchy narrow highway with no lines, through the forrest in the middle of nowhere to find Laurentian Lodge. We got the suite cabin that my family was to stay in for the weekend. My mom, Jean-Guy, Baba, Aunt Vicky and the newest addition to the family Joey had just arrives minutes before us. We unpacked while Dave, Jess, Steph and her date Kevin showed up. Then the craziness of the weekend began.....

The booze definitely flowed throughout the weekend, with drinks and a bbq with campfire the Friday night, the wedding night Saturday (with open bar) and then Sunday night with the familiy before leaving Monday. Our family definitely were the crazies at the wedding, but I think we were the fun ones :P Emilie, Baba and I were the last three on the dancefloor at the end of the night before heading back to the cabin where I would "walk the dog", which really entailed me walking from the back deck to the front door and passing out on the bench holding Joey's lease while he chased rocks. Then when Emilie woke me, I went into the house when a bat flew in! In my drunken state I figured I could catch it so there I was walking around the house with a giant fishing net, now shirt on but my dress pants still on, trying to find the bat - which apparently ended up in my mom's room lol. Steph slept on the floor of the bathroom so we didn't have to worry about a bucket for her lol. Great times! The drive back, we stopped again in Sudbury at Emilie's grandparents' and had lunch there. Then I left on my own to finish the rest of the trip while emilie stayed to visit with her family.

Shortly after getting back to Ottawa, Emilie returned and Ottawa u's frosh week started and Emilie, me and Laurice were Safety Ambassadors for the week - basically we took care of drunk first years and made sure nobody died and that everything was safe. I think the fewest ambulances were called ever. The week was exhausting and I got a cold half way through (and am still getting over it now). Now, frosh week is over, I'm back working as usual and Emilie is leaving tomorrow to head back to Toronto after living with me for the past month. It's going to be really weird for her to leave again. It's like she's leaving Ottawa all over again. :(

I am super excited to be able to see and hang out with Cassie again since I've been INSANELY busy and not been able to see her!! And I'm looking forward to some calm relaxing time now that everything is dying down. I'm also pumped for this cold to go away!

This has been my past month, and tonight is the end of the Emilie in Ottawa month and we're going out with a bang - Laurice, Emilie and I are going drinking!!