Some People's Children !!

A couple weeks ago, I had one of the worst weeks I'd had in a long, long time. I won't go in to the sordid details of it all, but suffice to say, I was pretty down in the dumps and definitely feeling that "woe is me", mean reds kinda feeling.
Amongst the issues I had that week, someone parked in my parking spot at home. Let me give you some context here. I live in a small-ish building with four floors of apartments and 7 apartments on each floor. We have a small, underground parking facility attached to our building. There is currently a waiting list to get in to that holy grail of parking.
Behind my building is a parking lot. It's surface parking, exposed to the elements, narrow and limited to about 10 spots. Most of those spots are occupied by various tenants and it's obvious which cars are assigned to which stalls. It's not secure or underground, but still, it's a guaranteed spot every time I come home.
Most of the time, that is.
I've had the misfortune, on occasion, to arrive home to find that my spot has been occupied by an unwelcome guest. I usually leave a note, park on the street where the parking is FREE and generally available, and move my car once the offending party has left.
It's happened more than once and my patience has worn thin on this issue. This is an assigned parking lot. You can't just park here.
That week that was so terrible was capped off by one such event. I came home to discover a black Ford F150 with a severely cracked windshield had parked in my space. Fuming, I considered boxing him in, but settled for writing this note:
This parking lot is assigned parking. You cannot park wherever you like. You are parked in my spot and I don't appreciate it. 
Not really rude, not really nice but very informative. I mean, maybe this guy didn't know? (I'm all about giving people the benefit of the doubt ...)
I was parked in the lot in a spot I knew was unoccupied and I kept a watch on the offending vehicle. When I saw someone get in to the driver's seat, I grabbed my keys and headed out to move my own car, assuming this guy was leaving.
Assumption Incorrect.
He moved his truck from my spot to someone else's.
(WTF!?)
The next day while driving home from work, I noticed something under my passenger windshield that I hadn't noticed earlier. I asked my man to pull over and lo and behold there was a note on my car. Under the far side of the windshield wiper as though the note's author didn't really want it to be seen. (When I leave notes on people's cars, I put it right under the driver's windshield so they can't miss it)
I pulled the note off and read it:
IGNORANT
Really? You parked in MY spot and I let you know that you can't do that and I am the one who is ignorant? Really?
Needless to say, I was livid. I knew where the owner of the black pick-up had visited. Knew which apartment he had been in. Conveniently, it was a main floor apartment that backed on to the huge concrete slab behind the building. I considered taking sidewalk chalk and writing the dictionary definition of "ignorant" facing the sliding doors to ensure it was seen.
I considered writing up a definition and posting it next to the mailboxes.
I considered writing a note that explained that it is ignorant to assume you can park in a parking lot where you don't live and posting that note at the mailboxes.
In the end, I decided to
just
let it
go.

Until last night.

I had been out with my man and a few of our friends to see the Muppet Movie (go see it it's awesome!) and arrived home around 9:30pm to see that there was a black Ford F150 parked in my spot.
Are
You
Kidding?

I was livid. Absolutely livid.
This time, I DID box him in. And left him the following note:
This parking lot is assigned parking. I am not ignorant for pointing that out. If you would like to be let out, you can call me. 
I signed the note with my phone number, snapped a few shots of the way I was parked and his license plate in case he decided to ram his way out and went inside.

2.5 hours later .... 
I was snoozing on the couch along to the movie Elf, when I heard my phone ring. I roused Timo with now success.
"Hey, it's probably that guy that wants his truck out," I said, "Will you come with me to move it?"
It was nearly midnight and I needed reinforcements - just in case.
I went out to the car to see that there was a passenger in the truck and it was running. I got in to my car and my phone rang,
"Hi, I think I must have parked in your spot"
YOU THINK!?
I told him I'd move the car and started it up, Timo in the passenger seat. As the driver ascended the stairs, I rolled down my wind.
"This is TWICE!" I said, holding up two fingers. He came right up to my driver's window and shoved a box of cookies in to my face.
"Merry Christmas," he said.
"What?" I asked
"Merry Christmas," he repeated, forcing the cookies all the way in to the car. I took them from him, muttering my thanks.
"I'd rather you just didn't park in my spot!" I called after him.

So now I'm left to wonder, did he park in my spot out of spite? Did he really just forget? (unlikely, IMO, since he parked on the opposite side of the lot when he moved it the first time) Did he really feel badly about his poor decision? So many questions that can only be answered with chocolate covered lady fingers.

L

Sharing Funny Stories

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away ... a galaxy called London, in a place called Blockbuster in the year 2001, a funny thing happened*....
I was young and still in high school, working part time at a video store to earn some cash to put gas in the family guzzler so I could have some independence get to work (it's a vicious cycle). I had a number of regular customers at the now-defunct-once-rental-giant; I could recognize most by face and some of those faces even sparked a synapse that caused me to remember their names. The particular fella I'm about to tell you about, though, was one of the few that I knew by face but not by name.
He was a blonde, stocky character that would come in to the store on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons. On those visits, he was always either fighting with his girlfriend on his cell phone or fighting with his girlfriend in person as they walked through the doors. She had a ring on an important finger and had told me previously that they were engaged on one of her solo visits to our location. Though they usually started out rocky, by the time they'd toured the New Release Wall and sauntered up to my counter, snacks in hand, they had reconciled.
One sunny, Spring morning I was on my way to school - High School - wearing a favorite outfit that showed off my erm ... shapeliness. It was second period (I had first period spare ... amazing) and there were few people on the road and no one on the sidewalk. I saw a car coming towards me and heard some brutish comments as the driver passed me. Then the car turned around and pulled up alongside me.
"Hey!" the guy inside shouted
"Hi," I turned and smiled, but kept walking. He slowly drove -- the wrong way on the shoulder -- beside me.
"You're pretty fine,"
"And you're pretty white, to be using that expression," I thought to myself.
"Gimme your number," he demanded.
I smirked and shook my head.
"Okay, then take mine, hold on, I'll write it down,"**
I waited patiently and politely. The man was a young twenty something that I thought looked awfully familiar. He had peach-fuzzy, blonde hair and a round face. He was smoking, holding the cigarette between his lips while he wrote his number down on a matchbook. He looked up at me and handed me the matchbook and I realized -- this was the guy from Blockbuster. I waited for him to recognize me, though he did not. I smiled, took the matchbook and continued on my way. I folded the matchbook up and realized that this classy guy - a guy whom I had seen on several occasions with his girlfriend/fiancee - had written his number on a matchbook that he'd picked up the last time he'd been at The Forum -- the most notorious strip club on the West Side.

Elsie P

PS - He came in to the store several times after that day and never once recognized me from that day he stopped me on my way to school.


* Well, actually, lots of funny things happened. This is just one that sprang to mind today when I was walking to work and saw a matchbook on the ground.
** This was, after all, 2001. Not all of us had cell phones and smart phones and bump capabilities.

We all have "Boston" days ...

Came across this song today when I was feeling particularly
sentimental and sorry for myself.

Replace Boston for .. say .. Nelson
swap out California for Calgary and we have a winner ...!
Today I have a case of what I'm now going to call the "Boston's"
previously known as a case of the "mean reds".

Thankful Thursday

Well folks, here we are again.

Another Thursday.

Another moment to reflect on things we are thankful for.

It's been a tough last two weeks for me, ups and downs and haves and have nots and what not.

So this week I am thankful for the the haves.

I have a great family.

A really, awesome, fantastic family.

(youngest member pictured here as representative)

I have a wonderful best friend.

(Yes, you)

I have lots of people who care about me. 

People who want me to succeed

People who want me to be happy

And really, isn't that what life is all about??

Elsie P

PS - What are you thankful for today?

Growing up

Over time, people change.

We all change.

It's a brilliant and exciting time we live in where all of us are in a constant state of evolution.

We are growing in ways we may not realize right now or ever. 

We are growing in ways that are ... obvious.

Painfully so. 

Having survived my early 20's (a period I define as ages 20-23) and subsequently conquered (with mad skill) my mid twenties (that would be 24-26) I am, in a few short weeks, preparing to embark on my late twenties. (27-29 for those of you playing along at home). As we all know, the late twenties is a march whose end lays in first real milestone of adulthood: Thirty.

Now, when I say that there are ways that we see -- painfully -- that we've changed, I do, in fact, have an example for you. 

It involves a shot glass.

A piece of glassware that has been instrumental in my life over the last 9  years. (Yes, I realize the math on that has me drinking shots before the legal age. Get over it! But don't tell my mum, k??)

So, you ask, what integral part has this 1oz wonder played in my life? 

I shall tell you. 

In my (almost) early twenties, I learned how to do shots. 

And I did lots of 'em. Y'know, For practice...

I would have to say that the shot of choice for me then was Tequila. The reason was that I had been brought in to the world of shots by hard liquor. And for those of you out there who have ever shot hard liquor, you know it doesn't come much harder than Tequila.

The guys I used to hang out with liked to drink it and more so liked to make girls drink it when they were obnoxious at the bar -- obnoxious in the form of asking the boys to buy them drinks.  A girlfriend of mine was behaving in such a manner as to deserve the purchase of said shot and I was merely a by product of this particular night. Subsequent events turned me in to part of the boys' group. Subsequent events meaning that they set the shot in front of me, I'd never done it before, and I just ... shot it. No salt, no lemon.

Straight

Up 

Tequila.
Apparently that was impressive.
Especially considering I thought it was quite tasty and didn't make that nasty "WTF!?" face afterwards. It endeared me to them and I was immediately welcomed as part of the group.

In my early-to-mid-twenties, I took a bartending course and found that I loved to be behind the bar. The boys from my early twenties owned a house that they all lived in together that had - you guessed it - a bar in the basement. One night, after I completed my course, they stocked the bar and threw a huge party. And yours truly was the bartender. At the time, I was using shot glasses to make money, so to speak. Tips for bartenders - especially hot, blonde, twenty-something ones - are pretty good. Usually. In this period of my late-early-twenties-to-early-mid-twenties I also learned the art of the body shot.
Ahhhh the body shot.
I will leave it to you find out the intricate details of the body shot.
Or the hooter shooter.
Ooohh to be a young, twenty-something.

Yesterday, was my birthday. I have officially (in my mind) entered my late twenties.
And you know what I use my shot glass for now?

 Eggs.
A softboiled egg in the morning, and a cup of herbal tea (thanks Tink!)

Oh, how the times have changed.

Elsie P

PS - What do you use your shot glasses for?

Sad monkey?

So, as I mentioned in this post, a very wonderful friend of mine has headed off to Japan for a few months and then back "home" to work and re-group.

But not before spending a week with me. A WHOLE WEEK! In my apartment, enjoying my life with me. And you know what? I really enjoyed having someone around. It was nice to feel like a part of a whole, y’know?

We had some great chats and spent a lot more time than I would have expected, in the mall of all places.

We enjoyed massages at the spa and good meals at home and a few drinks on Friday night. A few too many, I should say...(that's another story.)

I was absolutely okay as we drove to the airport.

I was absolutely okay as we checked him in and sorted out his bags.

I was absolutely okay as we walked to security.

I was moderately okay as he kissed me goodbye and headed to his gate.

I was less-than-moderately okay throughout the day as I got text updates from him before he left North America.

I was definitely not okay when the workday closed and I realized I was going home to an empty apartment.

I was less-than-definitely-not-okay as I got in the car.

(I cried. A lot. All the way home! I can admit it!)

And I was sad when I got home.

I couldn’t eat.

I had a beer, but it didn’t help.

I talked on the phone, twice, with my best friend (who happens to be his very dearest friend as well).

I toddled off to bed around 8PM after contemplating writing sad, emo poetry.

I fell asleep instantly.
I am sure that this had to do with the fact that I hadn’t slept well the night before and was up at 5am.

I let myself be sad on Tuesday. I let myself feel the weight of his absence and grieve the loss of having someone to hang out with.  I let myself feel sorry for myself and I let myself sit on the couch in sweatpants watching trashy MTV Reality shows.

On Wednesday, I pulled it together. I got up early, I made breakfast, I styled my hair and I put on a cute outfit (I promise I’ll start doing outfit pics reallyreallyreallysoon) and I went to work. And I smiled. I checked the time in Tokyo three or four times, wondered if he’d made it all okay and whether or not he was safe. I texted with my best friend and we had some laughs. I teared up a few times during the day and my nose had that prickly-I’m-gonna-cry feeling twice. But I didn’t cry.

This is a really exciting adventure for him and a truly wonderful opportunity for me to refocus and re-centre myself for the year ahead.

But I was a bit of a sad monkey.

And that, friends, is okay.

Elsie P

PS – How do you deal with being sad?

Unnecessary Censorship

What is our world coming to? It has become more and more frustrating to express oneself due to the unnecessary censorship thrust upon the many by the few.

This morning, I heard that they are re-writing/editing a popular Dire Straits song. It's already happened in most locations online ... if you try and listen to the original song you're hooped. 

Have you heard about this?

It's the song Money for Nothing and the lyric in question is a term the British use as slang for cigarettes, that Websters Dictionary defines as a "bundle of wood or sticks" and which some people use as a reference to persons of a homosexual persuasion. 

Now, I did not hear whether or not the group pushing for this ban/re-write was an activist group comprised of homosexual people that found the lyric hurtful or derogatory, but I would hazard to guess that this is not the case. 

It seems that more and more the folks that are leading the charge against re-writing history, books, songs, etc are those that feel that they should be uncomfortable to hear that word. They are the overly-sensitive, what-are-people-going-to-think-if-I-DON'T-see-something-wrong-with-this types that choose to fight the least crucial battles. 

The announcer on my radio station made an excellent point. When he was 7 years of age and playing air guitar to this song, he wasn't enjoying it because of the potential inflammatory language. He wasn't jumping off the couch with his dad's Fender because Dire Straits said the word "faggot". It didn't make him stand up and say, "This is a great song because the band is demeaning a group of people through a generally accepted but oft ill-used slang word!!!" It wasn't even a thought in his mind and still isn't. 

I would challenge anyone to recall the exact lines that use this word, 'cause though my parents were big Dire Straits fans and I have heard this tune countless times, I couldn't recall the use of that word. 

Elsie P

PS - What do you think? Is it necessary to change all songs, books, speeches and history items that use words that are considered socially unacceptable in this day and age but were, at the time of publication, generally accepted? 

Thankful Thursday

Well, here we are again.

Another week has just FLOWN by. Like crazy fast!

I can't believe we're staring down the middle of the first month of 2011. Seriously, where did the last 13 days go??

As I posted last week in Thankful Thursday, I had a really wonderful friend here from out of town. He was preparing to go to Japan. And we had a wonderful time together. It was so nice to have another person around to enjoy the things that I like to do (and also to be there to keep me company during the things that I don't enjoy to do!!) So I am very thankful for that time.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
On Tuesday, I am going to start school again.
Lemme tell you, that's a bit of trip.
I'm still trying to wrap my brain around it and what it is going to mean for the next several years.
I am thankful for the opportunity and the financial stability I have to enable me to do this.

* * * * * * * * * *

I heard on the news this morning that a building downtown has been condemned. NBD right? Wrong. It's a big deal because that building houses a lot of low-income folks that can't afford a nicer place to live. It's a big deal because those people aren't necessarily -- or likley -- to be in a financial position to stay at a hotel for a few days before they are able to locate new housing. And it's a BIG DEAL because the high today is -21 degrees Celsius. With the windchill, it feels like -32. That's a big deal.

Elsie P

PS - In that last rant, I was trying to get across that I am thankful for the roof over my head.

Thankful Thursday

It's baaaaa-aaack!

After a brief hiatus, Thankful Thursday has once again returned to grace the pages of Real Life.

And I will endeavor to do this EVERY Thursday going forward. 

Yaaay! 

So, what am I thankful for today? 

Well, I have a very (new) dear friend of mine here to visit.

He is making his way to the far east to embark on a journey of epic proportions. 

Well, I don't know if you would think it's epic, but I sure do!

He's headed here:

To study this:

In case your geography is a little rusty, that would be Kyoto, Japan...which isn't exactly where he's headed...Japan yes. Kyoto, not really. 

And the sport pictured is Kendo The Japanese Art of Sword fighting. 

Cool, huh?

And! He bought me a Christmas present (which was totally unnecessary, btw) and it's beautiful.

It's a Swarovski crystal that is designed to reflect negative energy away.

So, I am thankful for this guy today.

Thankful that he would stop in and visit before he disappears for an indeterminate amount of time. 

See, our friend group resides in another province roughly 2600kms away from me. 

So he's said all his goodbyes to the rest of our group but I was unable to attend his going away ceremony. Graciously, he tacked on an extra few days to his journey and stopped in here, leaving family and friends behind, to spend his final days in Canada with me!

So don't I feel special!!

Elsie P

PS - What are you thankful for today?

Really!?

I just looked at the "stats" page ...

I had been curious if there were people out there that were actually reading this blog.

There are so very many spaces on the internet for you to stop and visit

I was not so vain to think that there were many people reading, except for the two of you for sure that I know about!

But low and behold I have had readers in

Russia, South Korea, Sweden, Malaysia,

Germany, Brazil, France and the Netherlands.

I'm totally blown away!!

So, I am asking you, if you read this, to g'ahead, jump in and follow me on this journey through 2011!

Let's see if I can get more than 2 of you to admit publicly that you read this ...

Elsie P

PS - Where are YOU ??

When I grow up ...

I don't know how many times I've written about this since it happened. 

But +1 to the total, I suppose!! 

When I was a freshman in High School, I had a fabulous Honors English Teacher. Mrs. N was not only my teacher but also my softball and basketball coach. (I used to be an athlete, neat, huh?)

Anyway, Mrs. N had this great IDEA...a TRADITION she planned on starting with the kids in our honors class. She was going to force give us a chance to preserve our teenage selves. 

All of our hopes, dreams, favorite bands, favorite moments; our ideas and thoughts and most importantly,

how we viewed the world and ourselves. 

It became an ongoing Independent Study Project. 

We had a list of a hundred or so topics and things to write about 

Make a list of your 10 favorite movies

Write a letter to your graduating self from your present-day self

Make a list of 10 things that make you smile

Write an Essay about what you would change about yourself and why.

.That one hit me. 

Write an Essay about what you would change about yourself and why.

That's a task, isn't it? 

I wrote the essay and turned it in and as was the fashion, Mrs. N read all our submissions, gave us a grade out of 10, wrote comments (at least on mine she did) and sealed them. 

The agreement was, you would receive your time capsule on Graduation Day to open before the ceremony. I wound up moving my Junior Year and thus was given the Time Capsule to take with me. 

On graduation day (June 2nd 2001) I opened up my capsule and dove in to its contents. 

It really wasn't all that eye-opening. 

In fact, I remembered 95% of everything - word for word - that I had written. 

(I have a wicked awesome memory, you see) 

But the best part was reading Mrs. N's comments. 

I remembered during the course of that year, Mrs. N had singled out "someone" who was going above and beyond with the project.

She described how that person not only completed the mandatory 16 items from the list, but also completed several more - with incredible enthusiasm. 

In front of our whole class, she would read a few of the things that people had written. 

Nothing so much as to give away who the author was. 

But I always knew when they were mine.

And often, they were. 

She singled me out (anonymously) by telling the class that not only had one person written a list of things that made them smile, but had gone from 10 to 100 things and given the explanation as to why they made the list. Impressive, she had said. 

I, of course, blushed fiercely from the middle of the room. 

However, I digress. 

The essay. 

Do you know what I wrote about? 

(Of course you don't)

I wrote that if I could change just one thing about myself it would be the fact that I wanted to change anything at all. You see, I wanted to strive not to change who I was in to something else, but rather to accept who I was and not only be happy with that but also appreciate how awesome a thing it was to be me. 

Mrs. N wrote some pretty nice comments in her lovely purple penmanship. 

Here it is, approaching ten years from my graduation from high school (!) and I still feel the same way. The only thing I would want to change is that I want to change things. 

I don't really want smaller thighs, I want to love the thighs I have and accept them for all their glory. 

I don't want thicker hair, I want to cherish the hair I do have (while I have it ...)

I don't want a smaller bust (oh, wait. Yeah, that one I do want....back to the drawing board...)

But you get the idea. 

We ask this of our kids, ourselves, our friends ... what would you change about yourself? 

How about this year, we try accepting ourselves for who we are? Continue to grow, continue to become the people we are meant to be and when we realize who that person is, love them for it. In spite of it. Because they.are.perfect.

Elsie P

PS - what have you learned to accept about yourself?

Happy New Year!

Hello Blogger friends...if you're out there. I am sure you are...at least I hope you are. 

I often hold on the the hope that there are a great number of you that read me but don't necessarily follow me. 

I wanted to start off this new year on a new-ish foot.

You'll notice in the coming weeks some updates t my profile and a few changes to the overall look of the blog. 

Also, I am making some new year's Blog-olutions. (yes I did just make up that word and of course, I realize it isn't as awesome written down as it sounded in my head.)

I digress. 

So I am making some changes to the blog. Here is what you can expect in the coming months.

1. Pictures... I fully intend to have much more photos in this year's blog. Particularly the addition of What I Wore on a weekly basis... I would say daily but I like to set goals that are both reasonable and attainable. This is to serve two purposes. The first is that I want to have a weekly blog entry to write about and the second is that I have noticed, over the past few months that I have very, very few photos of myself. And that's not right. At least, I don't think so ... is it??

2. Weekly Entries... as I mentioned in #1, I want to start having more weekly entries. i.e. features that show up (consistently) on a weekly basis. Kinda like what I started with the Thankful Thursday posts. 

3. More About Me... I confess, Elsie P is a pseudonym and I fully intend to change that in the coming months. The thing is, dear reader, that I have a bit of a concern with my job...I don't want to let out any info that I may not supposed to be let out. Also, I bask in my anonymity.

So readers, what do you think of that?

Elsie P (for now)

PS - what did you make for resolutions this year??