Just Because Day

Today is Just Because Day. If there's something you want to do for no reason then do it.

Examples:

-take an unplanned vacation day
-knock on someone's door and compliment them on their lawn
-jump in a puddle
-walk backwards

This is from the list of examples the article gave. Like I'm going to skip work. I actually like my job. I get paid more money than I've ever been paid in my life to sit at the front desk typing stuff and answer the un-busy phone. I can listen to my mp3 player all day.

I only read about this around 8pm and I decided to do nothing, like usual...just because.

Tomorrow is Race Your Mouse Day. The authors said they don't know if it's supposed to be a computer mouse or a real mouse. Either way, it's kinda nuts.

I looked and my birthday is Video Games Day.

Anyways, below is the link to visit the site.

http://holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/index.htm

Fun Saturday Night ♥

Well,

Tonight was the best night I've had in a long time! I've been getting quite angsty for the past few weeks because I've just been sitting around the apartment surfing online all night long. This morning I messaged my friend Heather saying we need to get together sometime and she said hey, why not tonight?

So we hung out at BP on the patio all night long. Her and 3 of her friends. It was awesome. This is what life is supposed to be like. Connecting with other people, sharing fun times, getting out there and enjoying life.

Don't get me wrong, I love my life with Kevin, but sometimes he just wants to relax at home because he has a hard labour job and he's exhausted when he gets home. I sit at a desk all day long and have endless energy at the end of the day and want to do something. It causes conflict sometimes. Unfortunately, I feel guilty about going out by myself and leaving him alone, but the thing is, he doesn't mind. He's fine with staying home alone playing World of Warcrack. Don't get me wrong, I love WOW. I'm a level 39 Tauren Druid whose trades are herbalism and alchemy. But sometimes I get anxious and want to get out and interact with people in the real world.

We've agreed to go out to the Spike in a few weeks and I already can't wait. I haven't been out to the bar since....last October. Wow, that is sad. I'm only 26 years old and you only live once.

I'm over the top right now. It's amazing how much you can appreciate the little things like hanging out with your friends when you've been deprived for so long. =)

Thursday, August 23rd.

Pretty simple title today. I couldn't think of anything witty or specific.

The Bus Stop

So, today I was standing at my bus stop downtown when a man approached me. I had looked at him then looked away when he looked back. Next thing I know he approaches me and starts talking. Let me say, I had no idea who he was. But it quickly became apparent that he knew me. He asked if I still lived with my parents in EK. Now I'm just thinking frantically, who is this?

Then it clicked. Back when I worked at Archway I used to catch my bus every morning on Louelda and he used to wait at the same bus stop. I even remembered his name all of a sudden. Kevin. I recall telling him I would never forget his name because I'm engaged to a man named Kevin. I recall mentioning my engagement right away to get that out of the way.

Anyways, bus stop Kevin has very intense eyes. You know what I mean, those people, when they look at you, you get the sense they're trying to see into your head with their psychic abilities. Whenever I encounter people like this I try really hard not to look away from their stare. It's like a game of chicken. At least that's what I get out of it.

Still, this is really difficult. He kept mentioning things that I don't even remember telling him and I wondered what else he knew about me. I wonder, how does he even remember all this stuff? I was just some girl he talked to at the morning bus stop. I forgot he even existed over the past three years.

Hair Conversation

Last night Kevin shaved his head. He does this a couple times a year and I'm not a fan of the shaved head look. I don't mind shaving around the sides, but leave the top of the head longer. It just looks better in my opinion. Anyways, I've never said anything about it in 5 years and yesterday I just happened to ask him, "So, what made you do that?"

I thought I was being casual but he asked me, "what, don't you like it?"

I couldn't lie so I said "it's ok." Pretty big cop out on my part.

At this he scoffed and said "well, that's a resounding no!"

He then expressed great surprise that he never knew this.

Long story short, we got into a long conversation about total honesty, and I shouldn't have to hide things like this. It doesn't mean he's going to change his habit of cutting all his hair off, but if I don't like it I should at least say so. This is going to take a lot of work on my part. Total honesty. Unsurprisingly, a Fight Club quote comes to mind.

Chapter 2. Big Bob. "Strangers with this kind of honesty make me go a big rubbery one, if you know what I mean."

Well, I got laundry to fold. I look forward to half day Friday tomorrow.

They Got a Pepper Bar!!

Well, I had planned to post the pics of my completed kusudama but the camera batteries are still dead. Kevin fixed the problem with charging them up and they should be working tomorrow.

Anyways, I had absolutely nothing happen in my life today, but I did stumble across this on YouTube and had to post it.

I remember first seeing these Quizno "furballs" and laughing my head off. I mean, what are they? This is their actual ad campaign?

I watched this commercial tonight and laughed for about 5 minutes straight. If I smoked dope I might be dead right now.

Various Online Adventures

This is interesting. It's amazing how random my wanderings on the web can be. I never know where I'll end up.

I started on canoe.ca reading a review for The invasion.
http://jam.canoe.ca/Movies/Reviews/I/Invasion/2007/08/17/4425019-sun.html

I saw a mention of the director, so I went to the page for Oliver Hirschbiegel on imdb.com, the review mentioned his movie Das Experiment and so I ended up on the forum for Das Experiment. That led me to the real Stanford Experiment.

http://www.prisonexp.org/

This was a fascinating read. Very disturbing. I highly recommend everyone read it. I also really want to watch Das Experiment now.

Metacafe
http://www.metacafe.com

I love this site. I stumbled across it looking for origami instructions on yesterday. Anyways, I subscribed to KipKay, this guy is amazing. No wonder he's their top earner. I love his 12 volt battery hack he just put up today. I use these batteries all the time. The use? The laserpointer for playing with my cats. Well, they're actually not my cats. But I like to think of them as my cats. =)

The Beer Lesson

Copied from my CGA group on Facebook:
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The following is a way of explaining tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until on day, the owner threw them a curve. "Because you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20."Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.
But what about the other six men - the paying customers?
How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33.
But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before.
And the first four continued to drink for free.
But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
"I only got a dollar out of the $20,"declared the sixth man.
He pointed to the tenth man," but he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!"
"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him.
But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important.
They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works.
The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction.
Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore.
In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
---------------------------------------------------------
I never thought of it quite that way before. I need to show this to my parents.

Kusudama

I learned how to make and completed my first Japanese Kusudama(trans. medicine ball) this weekend. This thing consists of 60 separate origami papers folded and glued together. I plan on publishing a picture of it but my camera batteries are dead. They'll be charged up by tomorrow though.

My Life Without Glasses

I had a follow up appointment at the laser eye surgery place on Friday. They said I am seeing 20/20 and almost to 20/15. I got 3 out of 5 for the 20/15 line chart. I regularly reach to take my glasses off at night, and think I have to put them on after my shower in the morning. The red spot on my eye is now reduced to a small crescent moon cradling my iris. I might take a picture of it tomorrow as well.

My Laser Eye Surgery Experience

Well, I finally did it. I got laser eye surgery. I finally made the leap... and it was great. This morning, I woke up and I could actually read the time on my alarm clock. Sometimes, it's the little things that mean the most.

Over the past week I've had dozens of requests to let people know how the experience goes.

I completely understand this.

When I decided I was going to do this back in April I kept asking questions of the two people I know who've already done it; my cousin, Shawn, and Kevin's Mom in Calgary. I wanted "the scoop", and to "know what I was getting into." Neither of them gave me specifics. All they said were things like, it was easy, and, there's no pain. These were not the answers I was looking for, but regardless they did put me at ease a little bit.

I decided to walk to the clinic to walk off some energy in the morning. I got there at 7:55 for my 8am appointment and found the clinic was locked up and the lights out. I hung around in the hallway and a few minutes later I heard someone get off the elevator. She was on a crutch that clicked with every step. Click-click, pause, click-click, pause. She came around the corner and slowly made her way down the hallway. She introduced herself to me and I to her. She was Dolores, she worked here. She would be doing my pre-op counselling today. She knodded to the crutch and explained she just got back from a two month break due to her leg injury. She had been given the door lock code by another employee but couldn't remember it. She tried about five different combinations but none of them worked. She tried ringing a doorbell I had not seen, but there was no answer. So we waited. Promptly at 8:01 we were let inside by a young woman holding a tray of cookies.

I sat in the entry waiting room for about half an hour, filled out some paperwork, disclaimer forms, etc. Full of terrifying stuff about side effects and permanent vision loss. There was also a binder full of surveys from past patients that I flipped through. They all rated their experience as 9/10 or 10/10 and had very promising feedback. It occurred to me that they just wouldn't put the bad responses in the binder. I then was taken into a room for another eye exam to ensure my rx has remained the same since April.

I was next brought to the second waiting room. The view from the 20th floor is breathtaking in this room. I waited some more, then I went in with my counsellor, Dolores. She gave me a fanny-pack full of eye drops and a sheet explaining how to take them. She got me to sign the release forms in front of her and then she acted as witness.

She then explained some things to expect in the procedure.

I should not be alarmed at the burning hair smell, that's just the laser cutting off excess tissue.

Don't be alarmed when your vision goes dark, that happens when they apply suction to your eye.

Do not be alarmed at the red dot that may appear on each eye, it's like a hickey on your eyeball from the suction.


This stuff, this is real helpful. No, seriously.


See the below picture? This only happened on one eye.



I paid her at this point. I gotta admit, it's quite exhilarating to be able to say, "I'll put it on debit," at this point. It promptly declined, and I then called the bank to raise my daily limit to allow the charge to go through.

Dolores asked me if I was nervous and I said yes, I was. She then asked if I had eaten breakfast and I told her no, I hadn't. She said sorry, but if I had eaten she could have given me Ativan to calm me down. I would be a raving drunk in the procedure if she gave me the pill. She said don't worry. There's nothing to be worried about.

She gave me a prescription for eyedrops, and I went down to Shopper's in the Square and gave it to the pharmacist. At this point I realized I was starving, so I walked to the A&W in the food court. The cashier only had one arm. I only mention this because I tried to be normal about it but I tried to stare at the "stump" a couple of times anyways. It wasn't that I had any mean feelings, I just wondered how it happened. Was she born that way? Did she get in a horrible car accident? Was it diabetes? Anyways, I ate my breakfast, picked up my eyedrops, took out money for a cab ride home, and went back to the clinic.

Now, I waited what felt like forever. The manager gave me a cup of green tea to help me relax. Everyone who worked there was super friendly. I think I'll send get them a card.

I talked with the other people in the waiting room at this point. There was Ellie, middle-aged with her own grown up daughter there to drive her home. There was Will, skinny, balding, hair cut real short. Also, Tom, somewhere in his 50's with grey hair. There was a woman with short curly hair reading a book, I forget her name. There was another blonde woman with hilites. There was the younger Tom, in his 40's, with brown hair and a moustache.

We joked about our fear of going blind, and other people's reactions when we told them what we were doing today.

Sometime around 10:00 one of the technicians asked me to sit by the operating room door, she put a cap over my hair and put the freezing drops in my eyes. Those burn a lot. I sat for maybe another 20 minutes. I could hear them testing, or calibrating, or (god forbid) fixing the machine on the other side of the door. I swear I heard a man curse.

Finally, the door opened and I went inside. I shook hands with Dr. Van der Zweep and felt re-assured. He told me the steps to the procedure and that he would explain what was going on as he did it. I also should mention he's kinda cute. Here's his page:

http://www.lasikmd.com/cedmonton/meet-your-doctor/our-surgeons/dr-john-van-der-zweep.en.html

I laid on the table. A female technician handed me two gel balls to hold in my hands and squeeze if I felt a need. He said to stare up at the blinking red light overhead and ignore the tiny green light blinking almost right behind it. He taped my eyelids back. He put in more freezing drops. He then taped my left eye shut. Then he inserted a speculum into my eye to keep my eyelids open. I never actually saw it. It did not hurt. But I did feel it touch my eyelids a tiny bit.

At this point, I'm not sure what he did since my eye was completely numb. But, it looked like he put a clear lense over my eye, then he said that I would feel some pressure as they applied the suction and my vision might go dark. I felt the pressure, and I do not know how to describe it. It was uncomfortable, but again, not painful. My vision went very dark, not black, but more like static on a television, only instead of all the white's and grey's, it was more dark grey's and black's flickering around. Then my vision slowly came back. It was still blurry and the red light instead of being all focused in one spot was now a huge unfocused red blur. Then there was the blurry green light way below it. I never asked why that was.

Next, he said the laser would start and make some loud noises and don't be alarmed. This is when I smelled the burning hair smell. It wasn't that bad, I was told the smell gets stronger as the day goes on. I was the first patient today. They do three runs with the laser and then they're done.

Now, he put the flap back down. and it looked like he was taking a tiny brush and running it down my eye. This is when I got the weirdest sensation. I realized I was watching this. I couldn't feel a thing. It was like TV, distant, removed, only this was my life, my eyesight. The sensation passed very quickly.

I might have missed a step or two somewhere in there.

Next step, everything in reverse. Take off the suction, take out the speculum, remove the tape from my eyelashes. Rewind.

Now the second eye. Damn. I forgot all about the second eye.

Everything went exactly the same for the second eye, except, right before the did the laser he said stop. I was alarmed at this point. He spoke to a girl beside him. He said he noticed the rx and wanted to change the numbers slightly. I asked what's wrong. He said to put the flap down at this point. I saw what can only be described as a clear lense being put over my field of sight.

He explained the rx written on the sheet is a touch too high in his opinion. If he takes off that much I might end up a touch far sighted in this eye. So, he was just taking it down a small notch.

We had to wait for the laser to warm up again. Someone put a tissue over my eye so all I can see is this tissue.

Anyways, the burning smell again, success, and again all the steps in reverse. He asked me to sit up. I was a bit shaky at this point. Everything was murky. Like I was underwater.

I went out into the waiting room. A technician came with me, told me to take my cap off, put my sunglasses on. She ran me through the eye drops and actually put them in my eyes for the first time.

I now had to sit in the waiting room for one hour before I could leave. The time was 10:45. Everybody asked me how it was, how was my eyesight. I told them. The manager came by and Ellie yelled that everybody wants drugs now. I told them it was pain, pain! I held my hands up and say no. I didn't say that. Everyone laughed. Tom is next, then Ellie, then Will.

After 30 minutes I put in my eyedrops right on schedule. After 1 hour I put in my eyedrops again. I was then taken into a room where they examined my eyes again and I was told everything was healing nicely. They called me a cab, I went home.

At this point the freezing drops had worn off and I was experiencing discomfort. It got worse over the next 2-3 hours. You know those headaches where your eyes just hurt? It was that kind of pain. Also throw in a bit of sand or an eyelash stuck in each eye, and extreme light sensitivity even with the dark sunglasses that block out all light.

I cannot rub my eyes. This was repeating in my head. It will mess up the flap if I rub my eyes. All I could do is put in my drops every 30 minutes. Fortunately I was allowed to take Advil so I took one after about 20 minutes of lying on my bed going crazy. I sat in the bathroom since that's the only room where there isn't a window and I could sit in complete darkness. Well, either that or the storage closet. I wasn't going to sit in the closet.

I never realized how hard it is to go 24 hours without watching television, going on a computer or reading. This are my three main activities in life. The solution I found was...hearing. The telephone. My MP3 player.

I laid in bed and listened to music. Kevin came home. I stayed in bed. I got up and talked to him. I called my Mom, I called my Aunt, I called Amber. I laid in bed and listened to music. Again.

I went back this morning and Dr. Van der Zweep said my eyes are doing good. My right eye has a bit of inflammation and I should take my Prednisolone drops every 2 hours instead of every 4 over the weekend.

Overall, a great experience. If anyone wants to get rid of glasses, I highly recommend this. I feel like there's something missing on my face but I'll get used to it.