Hometowns

My friend Carly is from Smithers, and after she gets her degree in Pharmacy, she intends to go back there . . . a lot of people don't get that. I can understand why she would want to live in a small place. I might end up coming back to my valley as well . . . but I must say, it's not that shit hot if you want to go out and do stuff! It is getting a bit better, but meeting new people my age is such a drag. I almost feel like if I want to meet up with a hot guy around here, I will have to drag him here first. Gaah.

Of course, I am sort of doing it a bit half assed, because I know I am only here for 4 months . . . but still, I meet up with a group of old friends once a week, and only once has someone bothered to bring someone new. And the word 'bring' is optional . . . the two guys were probably going to be there anyways. What is with that? I like meeting new people. I invited the new guy again, and now they think I am after him. Hell, I wait until I almost know them to chase them . . . and my version of chase is pretty sad anyways.

Carly has posted some beautiful pictures of Smithers on her blog, and talks about how the place feels for her . . that's the way I feel about where I live, to a lesser degree. My parents aren't from here, and it makes a difference that I can still notice. But I still love the feel of the land, and I only really feel how much it means when I live away from it. My neighbourhood is half farms and half houses with big plots full of trees, and in each direction towards the highway or the town, there are farms and trees all along the way.

When I live in an urban area, I miss the trees. Even in Germany, I missed the trees. I missed the feeling that, if I just walk out the door and keep walking, things will get more wild and wooded. There, you go over a hill away from the town or village . . . cross an autobahn . . . and hey, there's another cute village or teeming city. And I was in Bavaria, one of the more agricultural areas! I need that feeling of SPACE.

Boxed Set Obsessed*

I just found out that my current favourite show, House, is coming out on DVD August 30th. I will soon be rabidly watching it in my apartment in the school term, trying to stave off DTs from lack of cable TV.

God I love that show. Have you seen any of it? It's one of the new doctor shows, about a brilliant diagnostician who is a total prick. It's great. Grey's Anatomy is lighter but also maybe good enough to buy . . . I don't spring for cable in the school year, but I have a DVD player!! I am obsessed with boxed sets now . . . so far I have only borrowed them from the library (Sports Night kicks ass!) but things are so much better when you watch them in sequence SANS COMMERCIALS.

The public library there has DVD sets of Sex and the City and all sorts of great foreign films as well. I have already started putting holds on stuff with long wait lists . . . media rocks . . . nothing is more fun than escaping into someone else's story when your life gets a bit bland. Personally, I find that ten minutes of chopping vegetables alone is bland, so I do it on the coffee table while watching stuff. And they wonder why there might be a growing trend of ADHD in North American society . . . who needs to concentrate on one thing at a time unless there is nothing better to do? I still have all my fingers, and haven't crumpled a car yet.

PS Does it still count as a collision if there is no apparent damage? I mean, its only a fender-bender in name . . .

I have a new blog!

Well, the whole articles thing mixed in with the personal stuff seemed a bit disjointed, so I am going to post the articles I have written only briefly on this blog, and actually post and keep them posted on a different blog. This blog is creatively named "Articles by Lu" and is found at www.LuArticles.blogspot.com .

I am going to find and toss up articles from two years ago (like the one immediately below) when I was writing health and safety and wellness articles at the mill, as the general H&S assistant (propperly thought of as the doer of bitchwork for the whole department). Fortunately it was a small department, so I only had three bosses. One of them was alright, one of them was great, and one of them was barely there at all. I mean physically. The alright one was the one that wasn't really there mentally.

Anyways, I wrote lots of articles. And now, as they will appear mainly elsewhere, you will find it easier to avoid them.

There was some good stuff, and there was definitely some dumb stuff. My favourite article was on skin cancer. They printed it in colour, and people kept telling me that all the nice pics I found for it put them off their lunch.

Tuesday is Date Night

The recurring date being me and a group of old friends. We have started going out every tuesday this summer, and have actually kept it up for over a month now. So, if you are around the Valley some Tuesday and you want to meet up with me, Lindsay, the Archers, Kendall, Al, Jenn, and some others, gimme a call or add a comment!