A Story for Shelley

Once upon a time there were two girls who just happened to be attending the same university at the same time. One was beautiful, ambitious and loved molecular biology and cell regulation. The other was cute, putting in time and loved biomedical ethics and developmental biology. While on occasion their paths did cross, in fact they even studied together from time to time, the one girl was such a stuck up snob, busy with work and life, she never stopped to get to know the other girl better. Eventually the two girls graduated.

The snob got a job working as a research technician for a beef scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development. Imagine her surprise when one day she ran into the beautiful, ambitious girl at the research center! "What are you doing here?" asked the snob. "I'm doing my masters in something that's WAY over your head," said the beautiful, ambitious one. "Wow, that's ambitious...good luck!" said the snob.

Much time passed, from time to time the two girls ran into each other...but AGAIN the snob was too busy with life and such to spend any time getting to know the beautiful, ambitious one. However, as it turned out, one day the snob's boss and the beautiful, ambitious girl's supervisor got together and decided that they should add some E.coli work to the beautiful, ambitious girl's already incredibly difficult master's project.

The girl's did a little work together in Alberta, and then the project took them to Pascal, Washington. They drove down together in a wee little rental car and checked themselves into a long term hotel rental that had a patio window that didn't lock and in-suite Internet that NEVER worked. In the long term hotel rental's favor, there was a pool and a restaurant that made the best clubhouse sandwiches ever (secret ingredient...avocado!).

With some apprehension they embarked on the work portion of their endeavor, sampling on the kill floor at a slaughter plant definitely took some acclimatization. At one point the snob had to take the beautiful, ambitious girl by the shoulders and tell her to snap out of it...she had a job to do. Which may seem a little melodramatic, however it was a bonding moment for the two girls. Many, many bum swabs, intra-vaginal devices, ears and beers later...the E.coli portion of the project was completed and the snob returned to Alberta.

Not before, however, the two girls managed to cause a wee bit of trouble. They journeyed to Oregon and found a wonderful little shop that hand-crafted hand-warmer mugs and beautiful teapots. They also were delighted to discover a western store that had fabulous going-out-of-business deals, the snob became the proud owner of some beautiful earrings while the beautiful, ambitious girl became the proud owner of...well...about half the store. When they weren't spending their time around dead heifers or shopping, the girls would read Temple Grandin and People magazines around the pool. It is entirely possible that they also attracted at least a little attention of the masculine variety.

In what seemed to be a very long time, the beautiful, ambitious girl also returned to Alberta and the girls reunited to complete the final portion of the study. However in what seemed to be just a few short weeks later the beautiful, ambitious girl embarked to Saskatchewan to complete graduate classes for her masters degree. As the snob well knew, university is difficult, and when she Facebooked the beautiful, ambitious girl over and over and over again...she never took it personally when she didn't get a reply.

That spring the beautiful, ambitious girl returned to Alberta to finish the final data analysis of her project. The snob was in awe, the beautiful, ambitious girl's masters thesis had enough data for several doctorate degree's. In addition, the statistical analysis of said data was incredibly complicated and WAY over the snob's head...but what do you expect from a beautiful, ambitious girl? The girls started getting together for coffee's and lunches, after all, they did work in the same building.

They decided they should start doing things together outside of work and early that summer the beautiful, ambitious girl invited the snob along with her on a white water rafting adventure. And they did! In fact, the snob convinced the beautiful, ambitious girl that they should live a little and body surf over a rapid...who knew snob's could be so fun! In the snob's opinion, that is the weekend they stopped being friends and started being family.

Through-out that summer they were thick as thieves, and giggly as school girls. The took the snob's dog for long walks, harassed cattle liner drivers and b*tched at the Tim Horton's drive-through when there was no steeped tea. And when the snob had a difficult life decision to make, the beautiful, ambitious girl stood by her every difficult step of the way. One particularly difficult day, the beautiful, ambitious girl accompanied the snob as she escaped to her mom's. It was on that particularly difficult day that a particularly important conversation occurred between the snob, her mom, and the beautiful, ambitious girl...but that is a story for another day.

Sometime that fall the beautiful, ambitious girl decided it was time for the snob have a little fun, and with some kicking and screaming she persuaded the snob to accompany her on a night on the town. They tore up that dance floor, made 'friends' with all, 'enemies' with a few...and although it would be inappropriate to elaborate, they may have a funny underpants tale to tell.

Just a few weeks later the beautiful, ambitious girl asked the snob to be her Thanksgiving date...and the snob said yes! The trip was quite the adventure, they chauffeured a silly border collie pup, laughed until they cried about a particularly 'delicate' wall post, froze their tushies off, almost pissed her sister off, patted a 2 year old to sleep, cleaned a horse's penis, tortured a 6 week old, ate until they were sick, had a massage party, practised their smizing and even managed to raise a few eyebrows. It was a fabulously great time and a much needed retreat for the snob.

Sadly, the beautiful, ambitious girl's time at the research center was drawing to an end. She applied for, was offered, and accepted a job at a feedlot in a town that sounds like a dogs name. The girls tried to make the most of their last few weeks together, it was a busy time of home-cooked suppers, Grey's Anatomy date nights, popcorn movie nights and inevitable girl talk. Finally it was the beautiful, ambitious girl's last night and they met for one last date over drinks and sweet potato fries. In unspoken agreement, they parted without a tear, but with promises to text a gazillion times a day and write cryptic notes on each others walls.

Its been a week since the last time the snob saw the beautiful, ambitious girl. Alas, the beautiful, ambitious girl is too busy to text the snob as often as she would like. But the snob understands. The next chapter is a Christmas party the beautiful, ambitious girl asked the snob to be her date for. The snob has not yet told the beautiful, ambitious girl that she will be attending. So beautiful, ambitious girl, when you FINALLY read this...you'd better get your dancing shoes on!

Her Diamonds

Oh what the hell she says
I just can't win for losing
And she lays back down
Man there's so many times
I don't know what I'm doin'
Like I don't know now

By the light of the moon
She rubs her eyes
Says its funny how the night
Can make you blind
I can just imagine
And I don't know what I'm supposed to do
But if she feels bad then I do too
So I let her be

And she says oooh
I can't take no more
Her tears like diamonds on the floor
And her diamonds bring me down
Cuz I can't help h er now
She's down in it
She tried her best and now she can't win it's
Hard to see them on the ground
Her diamonds falling down

She sits down and stares into the distance
And it takes all night
And I know I could break her concentration
But it don't feel right

By the light of the moon
She rubs her eyes
Sits down on the bed and starts to cry
Adn there's something less about her
And I don't know what I'm supposed to do
So I sit down and I cry too
And I don't let her see

And she says oooh
I can't take no more
Her tears like diamonds on the floor
And her diamonds bring me down
Cuz I can't help her now
She's down in it
She tried her best and now she can't win it's
Hard to see them on the ground
Her diamonds falling down

She shuts out the night
Tries to close her eyes
If she can find daylight
She'll be all right
She'll be all right
Just not tonight

And she says oooh
I can't take no more
Her tears like diamonds on the floor
And her diamonds bring me down
Cuz I can't help her now
She's down it it
She tried her best and now she can't win it's
Hard to see them on the ground
Her diamonds falling down

Her Diamonds - Rob Thomas

Glitter in the Air

Have you ever fed a lover with just your hands?
Close your eyes and trust it, just trust it
Have you ever thrown a fist full of glitter in the air?
Have you ever looked fear in the face
And said I just don't care?

It's only half past the point of no return
The tip of the iceberg, the sun before the burn
The thunder before lightning, the breath before the phrase
Have you ever felt this way?

Have you ever hated yourself for staring at the phone?
Your whole life waiting on the ring to prove you're not alone
Have you ever been touched so gently you had to cry?
Have you ever invited a stranger to come inside?

It's only half past the point of oblivion
The hourglass on the table, the walk before the run
The breath before the kiss and the fear before the flames
Have you ever felt this way?

La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la

There you are, sitting in the garden
Clutching my coffee, calling me sugar
You called me sugar

Have you ever wished for an endless night?
Lassoed the moon and the stars and pulled that rope tight
Have you ever held your breath and asked yourself
Will it ever get better than tonight? Tonight

Glitter in the Air - Pink

Homework

One part of the last assignment for my photography class was to illustrate the title of a song with a photograph. I love music and I find there almost always a song that speaks to me at that particular time in my life...so I had a ton of fun coming up with ideas...

Song #1 (this was harder to photograph than you'd think lol!)

I forced Michelle to model for me...I had to tell her to smarten up cause she kept 'smizing'. She kinda looks like me doesn't she? People who should KNOW BETTER have mistaken us lol!

Song #2

Any guesses?

Thanksgiving

Yikes...it seems like I only have 'good stuff' to blog about from the weekends...and its almost the weekend again!

Last weekend Michelle invited me to be her 'date' for her family thanksgiving...so once again we headed to Sundre.

Sunday morning we bundled Brooke up for a farm 'tour' via quad...
and of course we had to take care of some 'animal health' issues...

Later on we played 'photographers' and tortured Michelle's 6-week old nephew, Cole...he was a pretty good sport. This picture makes me giggle because he sorta looks like he's sleeping...in reality he's screaming his head off...we did get a few cute full body shots, however we weren't careful enough to make sure all his little boy parts were covered up. He's gonna love that when he's older!

His Daddy is a Stamps fan...

And I'm a John Deere fan...I LOVE his little spock toes...

I got to do a lot of this over the weekend...

I didn't mind...nothing like a sleeping baby in your arms...

It was a great weekend, Michelle's family are the type of people you feel at home with. It did however make me miss my own family, and now I'm dying to photograph my nephew Colton. Poor kid...I have a feeling Auntie Jen isn't gonna be his 'favorite person' for a few days lol!

Motion

My homework for this week's class was to photograph motion. In the past I'd always thought you should 'freeze' motion, but I had a ton of fun blurring motion. I definitely need some more practise, and I was quickly losing the light when I was taking these, but its opened up my imagination. Thanks for being such great models Roxy & Massey!

Stand

You feel like a candle in a hurricane
Just like a picture with a broken frame
Alone and helpless
Like you've lost your fight
But you'll be alright, you'll be alright

Cause when push comes to shove
You taste what you're made of
You might bend, till you break
Cause its all you can take
On your knees you look up
Decide you've had enough
You get mad you get strong
Wipe your hands shake it off
Then you Stand, Then you stand

Life's like a novel
With the end ripped out
The edge of a canyon
With only one way down
Take what you're given before its gone
Start holding on, keep holding on

Ooohhh
Then you stand yeahhh

Everytime you get up
And get back in the race
One more small piece of you
Starts to fall into place

Stand - Rascal Flatts

A blue boa, devil horns and a 'Q'

Saturday night Michelle and I headed up to Calgary for a 'girls night' out...would you believe it was my maiden voyage to "Ranchman's"? At the end of the night we were the proud new owners of a blue boa (which we 'stole' from a bald guy wearing beads and a grass skirt), two sets of devil horns (donated to our 'cause' by a stagette), a devil tail (which mysteriously disappeared...Shelley isn't impressed) and at one point I even had a couple helium balloons tied to my belt loop. Unfortunately on inspection yesterday we realized we were 'light' Shelley's ID and debit card...eek!

Since Neena and I were playing agility the next day I behaved myself and we called it a night fairly early. The trial was hosted in an arena by the Calgary Agility Association. At first Neena was freaked right out, she really hates walking past kennels that having barking dogs in them. NOW I remember that we had some similar issues last winter, we will have to work on that when we move our training back to the arena. With some help I was finally able to get Neena distracted enough to relax, it also helped that the judge let the rookie dogs explore the farm equipment in the arena, and finally I figured out a way to get her to her kennel w/o walking past a bunch of dogs...but it was still a challenge I hadn't anticipated!

I stuck with Plan A, and had Neena out for short 'fun' sessions through the day...I tried to stay relaxed and upbeat. We ran our gamble first, the course was set up so you could plan a few circuits and I was pretty sure I'd end up close to the end gamble. I knew I wanted to 'try' the mini-gamble, but also knew if we didn't get it we'd still have enough points. And I knew Neena could do the end gamble if we were having fun!

Its become a little bit of a routine for Sarah to come over and punch me before we run...its part of the getting Neena revved up routine...but it cracks me up and helps me relax too. I stuck with Plan A and we ROCKED our gamble. Neena was listening so good, her A-frame contact was beautiful...I probably babied her teeter a little more than I needed, but I'm still trying to positively reinforce it as much as possible. We got the mini-gamble...TWICE! And we were in a good postion for the end gamble...I didn't send her into the tunnel as nicely as I would have liked, but I gave her the right pressure and trusted her to take the jump...I was so proud of both of us! What an adrenaline rush...I was still shaking a half hour later lol! Dave & Jan happened to record our run so I will post it for your viewing (and potentially mocking of me) pleasure in the future lol!

We ended up with 35 points in our opening, so with the end gamble we had 70 points total...and our very first QUALIFYING SCORE!

Later that afternoon we ran a jumpers course...Nancy, Andy and the kids came to watch, Neena loves the girls so it was a challenge to get her to focus on me. However, because she is normally pretty uncomfortable around kids I'm not overly upset that she was distracted by Madison & Kyra...plus its good training lol! We had one off-course when she 'free-styled' a jump but otherwise it was a good, fun run.

All in all...a great weekend...now can I please get some sleep...please?