Reading

French Lessons - Alice Kaplan

Does this necklace match my bra size?

Classes were done by noon today so I headed home for some much-needed relaxation. I turned on the TV, and I found the most hilarious episode of "Steven and Chris", wherein some woman (whose job title I don't even want to know) is giving advice on what earrings to choose depending on your face shape. It's the most inane, silly advice someone could dish out. The really funny part is how seriously they take it. Straight-faced commentary on how women with square faces should completely avoid angular earrings, because that creates another angle...and it will emphasize your already angular face. Yeahhhhh...

After the face-shape bits, they moved on to choosing other jewelry for your body type. Busty ladies should wear long necklaces, because your boobs already draw the eye out. Whatever happened to liking a pair of earrings and buying them? Christmas is coming up....should I ask my friends and family for face and body measurements before buying gifts? I just don't get it.

My new BFF

In between working hard at school and planning our wedding, I make stuff like this for shits and giggles:

Thoughts

I remember back when I first met Luc, and I asked my roommates, "how do you know when you're in love?" (gag...so cliche, tell me about it..) and they both said, "honestly....you just know."

Will it be like that for finding a wedding dress as well? Not to equate finding the love of your life to choosing a garment....but the dress is pretty darn special!

Obsessed with

Animal Crackers
















And this one is a....squirrel cat?

A letter from "the fiance"

I just received an email from Luc. He's fairly disconcerted with my treatment of our son (pet fish) on my blog and wanted to tell me that he was posting this in my comments section....but I thought it was too funny for just the comments and decided to post it front and centre for all to see!

I would like to say a few words about our fish Hansel who has been frequently referred to as "the fish" on your blog. Umm… yeah, what’s up with that? I don’t call you “the human.” Where is the love? He is small and scared and needs attention.  His life hasn't exactly been easy since his brother committed suicide by eating himself to death... by which I do not mean overeating but actually eating 1/3 of his body in one night… which was impressive as he was so small and never had much of an appetite… but that’s not the point! He may be a fish, but he’s our fish and he’s a part of our family dammit. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get home to feed Hansel and “the human.”

Love you blog Kristen,

Luc

Small Victories

I feel like I haven't had as many crazy adventures lately. Not adventures, per se, but weird things that happen to me that make life feel like an adventure. Lately it's been all about the small things. Little sprinklings of good fortune that keep life fun and interesting. Here are some of my recent triumphs:

-A book that I needed for a paper was already out from the library and wasn't due back until January 4th, 2010. However, after putting a hold on it for when it returns, the previous borrower brought it back! I wish I could thank them!

-I left my beautiful, oversized, red and white golf umbrella at Starbucks this afternoon. About ten minutes after I realized my mistake, I ran back....and it was still there! On a rainy day in Vancouver, nonetheless....THAT, my friends, is a miracle.

-Last night I ran out the front doors of the school into the pouring rain, missing my bus by a split second. Missing my bus that closely, that late at night means waiting at least twenty more minutes. But before I even had time to feel sorry for myself, another #16 rolled right up!

-And the last little victory I will divulge before I delve back into my school work......is this:

See that little sliver of sunshine? In November, in Vancouver, that is the ultimate victory of victories. And man, am I looking forward to it....

Kitties are people too, you know!

We had an interesting discussion in editing class this morning regarding the use of "who" and "which" when referring to animals. Many people believe that language shapes culture; especially when a language labels nouns as being male or female. The same can be said for choice of pronouns.

If we say, "the four kittens, which had always lived together, went to different homes," the kittens are seen as objects. The argument is that if we treat them as objects in language, our culture will reflect that treatment. Giving animals a personal pronoun will give them more rights and respect in the real world. So, if we say, "the four kittens, who had always lived together, went to different homes," they are treated more like people, and this will be reflected in our culture with a more humane treatment of animals.

What do you think? Does language shape culture?

On my list of things I will NEVER do again

#1: Get my hair done at training salon.

How was the hair appointment at the training salon, you ask? Well....for starters, I'm blond. No, that isn't what I went for. I asked them to "add some dimension" to my mousy brown hair with light brown highlights so I don't look so bland. I specifically told them that I didn't want blond, even after the girl made me look through 2 magazines to find the "right blond". We even agreed on a picture of Penelope Cruz's dark hair with a few wispy highlights. I kept telling her, "no, I don't want blond, and I don't want my hair to look much lighter overall, just some brown that's lighter than what I already have." All I wanted was to add a second tone of brown.....BROWN. B-R-O-W-N!!!!!! And they seemed to get it, the instructor even said,  "I know right, people ask for highlights and then they don't get highlights, the base colour of their hair is completely changed to look way lighter....they go WAY too light and put in WAY too many foils." So I thought to myself, good, she understands.

It wasn't until I noticed how many foils the girl was putting in my hair that I realized it wasn't going to end well. The worst part though was when they came to check on me after the foils had sat in my hair for 10 minutes.

Instructor: "Ohhh...holy crap....uhhhhh....your hair lifts REALLY fast."
Trainee: "Ohhhh......."
Instructor: "Uhhh....."

AWKWARD SILENCE and LOOK OF TERROR ON MY FACE

Instructor: "OK...take her out from under the dryer and let her cool for 10 minutes then rinse....."

At this point I knew that it had gone terribly wrong. When I saw myself in the mirror though, it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. And then I arrived home, with dry hair and proper lighting...and there it was: Blond Kristen. They did EXACTLY what I didn't want and exactly what they said they wouldn't do: WAYYYY too many foils and WAYYYY too light. I am steaming mad. I spent so long growing out my hair with its natural colour, I go in for some "dimension", some "light brown accents", some NOT BLOND....and what the hell happens?

All I can say is....at least I did this 10 months prior to my wedding and not 10 days. Screw budgeting, I'm going back to my regular guy, even if I have to eat Mr. Noodles for a month.

Never a dull moment

A lot has happened lately - our car was broken into, I finished a huge project at school, our landlord spilled ABS cleaner all over our kitchen floor and now it has two giant fluorescent purple spots, I finally got back into a gym routine, 

AND.......

I'm going wedding dress shopping today - for the second time! The first round was quick and the store didn't have much selection, but it was still really fun. Today, all of my bridesmaids are coming along and we're going to a store that also carries bridesmaid dresses. I was going to post my favourite dress on here, but just in case it turns out to be "the one", I don't think I should....Luc reads my blog and I'm a big fan of not letting the groom see the bride in her dress. Or see what the dress looks like!

We also went to a couple of concerts in the past month - Pearl Jam at GM Place, Collective Soul at the Commodore Ballroom (my favourite venue and one of my favourite bands) and U2 at BC Place.

Despite my earlier predictions, we weren't sitting around TOO many weirdos at the Pearl Jam concert. There was one guy who danced the same way to every song; slow, fast, medium paced, or Eddie Vedder talking to the crowd....he just kept dancing away. The Collective Soul and the U2 concert were both a different story....amazing shows, lots of amazingly weird events and people....

The money saving tactic that may go horribly wrong

Because of the associated costs of being a student, I'm making compromises in other areas of my life. Rather than buy coffee at school, I make it myself each morning...pretty standard, I think most people do that regardless of their financial situation.

Instead of buying a new, expensive jacket, I found an XL that was on sale at a huge discount and had it tailored for just over $10 - turned out pretty well. I got a compliment on it the other day from a charming old lady on the bus.

Now that my natural hair colour has grown out, I need to do something to liven it up so that I don't look quite so mousy for our wedding. Here's the thing that may just blow up in my face and end up costing me more money in the end: I'm forgoing my regular stylist (who knows how to handle my ravenous mane of thick curls - I straighten it - and who knows the deal with my hair colour situation) for a student salon that I've never been to before....where a student will cut and dye my hair....on Friday the 13th....possibly causing irreversible damage....

Am I crazy?

Mind blowing

This post on Joanna Goddard's blog is remarkable - with one 20 minute helicopter ride over New York, this artist drew the entire skyline....to scale.....perfectly....

Check it out here

The Farmer's Almanac told me so

According to my obsessive bridal research, there has been ZERO RAIN on September 5th (our wedding date) for the past 10 years.

Monthly Photo - November 2009

Flowers on Lombard Street, SFO

The last hurrah!

We decided to go all out this year for Halloween. According to one of my best friends, "the next time Halloween falls on a weekend, we're going to have KIDS!!!" This alarming fact meant that Luc and I, and Kate and her fiance had to party like we were 18 and dress up like we were 8. Done and done. We won a costume contest and got a private booth and free bottle service at a club, so at least the effort that went into making the costumes was rewarded.

By the end of the night our go-karts were a little bit trashed, but that was to be expected. We crashed into each other, we crashed into other people, we crashed into cars on the street....we crashed into each other some more. Among the many unsolved mysteries from the night are the toy gun I found in the pocket of my vest, and my thumbs, which are both stained green. Nobody knows how this happened.

November Banner