Meet J.D. (James Dean)

My Rebel XS with a cause, to capture the world and its beauty.

I scoured the Craig's list for a camera for around $500. I found some Rebel XTs and XTis for about $450, but I thought I'd give Best Buy a go.

The Rebel XS was on sale for $569 from $599. Not bad, but even better was the fact that there was an "open" box for sale at $539. Someone had bought it as a gift, but the receiver returned it. I snatched it up, but to my chagrin I found the same camera a day later for $549 BRAND NEW. So back to Best Buy I went to take advantage of their price matching deal and was all like look you either give me a brand new camera for the same price or give me credit on the opened one. They chose the latter and I got J.D. for $499 before tax. Huzzah!

The Camera Saga

July 3- Precious Canon SD1000 mugged

August- Replaced by the new and improved Canon SD1100

October 12th- Canon SD1100 dies a very early and very premature death because of accidental droppage on zoom lens. My heart breaks.

October 12th- Diana + is purchased to redeem day of shooting. Parts are discovered to be missing.

October 15th- Diana + is exchanged for a more complete camera.

October 19th- Diana loses her shutter release, and is taken back to store yet again. Cannot replace without receipt.

October 20th- Canon Rebel XS a.k.a. James Dean a.k.a. JD is found, but questions still linger as to whether there is a lower price elsewhere

October 23rd- Diana is returned.

October 24th- J.D. stays after price drops even more.

Lust never ends

First I got sick of my little silver Nikon, and was pining for the day when I would own a Canon SD1000.

The minute the Canon SD1000 was in my hand, I started dreaming of the day when I would have a DSLR.

Last week I took the plunge and got a $599 DSLR for $499 at Best Buy. It has been a week. I've used it twice, and I'm already dreaming of more lenses and dare I even say it.....The Canon 50D?

Lust never ends.

Expectations

Expectations can be stated, implied, unsaid.

Expectations can be imposed, perceived, received, and rejected.

By you and others.

Expectations can be black and white or...you know.

Expectations can be good, bad, and in between.

Expectations can be light as a feather or bone crushing.

Expectations can be warmly welcomed or deeply despised.

Expectations can be big, small, or somewhere in the middle or at least...feel like that anyways.

Expectations can be simple, but maybe it's because you just don't get it.

October 7th 2008 Highlights

Exuberant would be the word of choice to describe how I feel right now. And I have not been exuberant for a while. Every little birthday thing that people did for me whether it was a card, washing dishes, buying napkins, planning a swing dance, presents meant SO much to me.

Highlights From the Day
1. Birthday Swing Dance
This was the cherry that topped the sundae. Birthday girl (me) was in the middle of the dance floor and EVERYONE danced with me.

2. Providential Napkins and Flowers
I saw both napkins (Sleeping Beauty) and flowers (sunflowers) at Sobey's when I went to get plates. Was tempted to buy BOTH, but decided against it, but I REALLY WANTED THEM. Hours later Becky shows up with the Sleeping Beauty napkins because she couldn't find blue and green ones, and the boys show up with the sunflowers.

3. Urban Decay Graffiti Eyeshadow
I've wanted Urban Decay shadow for SO long and SO much, and my roommates got me it. WA-HOOOOO. Along with some funkdadelic electric blue eyeliner. HELLO!

4. Lydia sent me a TON of hilarious e-cards that gave me deep belly laughs.

5. Things in a Box:
Things You Would Not Write in Shelly's Birthday Card
- "The only Asian woman I like is my mother.~ 'Joe Choi" (Submitted by C. Kenyon)
Things Shelly Does Not Want People to Say to Her at Swing Dancing.
- "I know I'm unattractive, but I'm the only guy talking to you." (Submitted by K. Macher)

6. G-chat Convo pasted in a Card

7. People coming from Hamilton and Guelph!!!

So Many Issues, So Little Time

"I use to think that if I cared about something I have to care about everything."
~ Henry from Ever After

A cheesy line from a flighty prince in a girlie movie, but it fits me right now. Which battle do I pick?

22 Going on 13

I tried REALLY hard. Really I did; to NOT jump on the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus bandwagon. But I did. Yeah I did. "See You Again" has been played 13 times in the last hour. Once a teeny bopper. ALWAYS a teeny bopper.

The Traditional Birthday Wish List

Just because it's fun to list all the stuff one wants. Almost as good as getting them.

Pies in the Sky
1. Canon DSLR
2. Adobe Design Suite Premium
3. ipod Touch

Can't Get Enough of These
1. H&M Scarves
2. Starbucks
3. Sephora

Definitely Wants
1. Holga Camera
2. Lomo Camera
3. Lomo Fisheye
* And some film to go along with.

Hard to Shop For
1. Purses
2. Tights
3. Swing Dancing Shoes

Some Tunes
1. Mika
2. Jack Johnson
3. Justin Timberlake

15 Minutes of Fame

The proverbial cherry that topped off my weekend was participating in Improv Everywhere's MP3 Experiment Toronto edition.

Here's me getting my 15 minutes worth of fame by making my war face right before the epic battle. And here's me off on the side with the brown bag in the red shirt.

Me VS. Heels

Me [0]
Heels [3]

My short one week stint in Paris learned me good. I must wear heels. Just a personal conviction.

They just make everything look better. But in the three times that I have worn them, they have pwned me good, leaving me bloodied and battered and all too willing a masochist for the pains of fashion.

One day I will prevail.

One perk of being a working girl that I thoroughly enjoy is being able to read for fun. No more scanning the words repeatedly hoping to God that somehow the information will stick, and not blow away at the next line like leaves on a fall day.

This weekend I finished two books and dug in on my third. I am ravenous for fiction.

A Slow Death

By the end of July I was convinced that this blog had lived long enough, and that my blogging career was over. But here I am, punching away at my keyboard saying that I was going to quit.

The Bronchial Ab Workout

The first step is the tricky part.

FIRST, contract bronchitis. Whether it be viral or bacterial is of no significance. You can loiter in hospital corridors hopefully or sleep with the windows open with an industrial size fan blasting your face or anything else that you can concoct. Whatever. You just need to get bronchitis.

SECOND, wait for the innocent tickle in your sternum that is a precursor to the loud hacking, dry gagging, body rocking, convulsive bouts of coughing coming your way.

THIRD, do not take any cough syrup or antibiotics to maximize workout duration.

When you dread the next bout of coughing because of the accompanying pain that ripples through your abdomen you have successfully completed the bronchial ab workout.

*Side effects may include limited speech abilities, weird looks from strangers in public, ostracism in Toronto because people think you have SARS.

Resolution

They got them.

I'm going down on Monday to the Police Department.

And THEN the Car Stopped Working...

and stopped dead on, in the middle of the exit ramp of the underground parking garage. Go figure. The rear wheel had been squealing the whole time in the garage, but hey it worked...until we hit the incline.

LUCKILY! I, in my profound wisdom and foresight bought a premium CAA membership back in December in preparation for such damsel in distress moments as these, so patting myself on the back I quickly called CAA- only to find out that they could not and would not tow a car whose license plates have expired, which presented quite the conundrum because guess where I was going?

To Canadian Tire.
To have my car checked and re-certified so that my plates would be a-ok again.

At this point, panic was starting to rise a little bit, but BEHOLD! there is another company who would be very willing to tow me for a small fee, which just happened to be slightly over my debit card's limit. DOH! And seeing how I was just mugged oh...16 hours ago, that was not enough time for my brand new spanking credit card to arrive in the mail.

Cue emotional and nervous breakdown. Joking. Sort of.

Me + Car Trouble = Agony

I needed help. Badly.

I mentally scrolled through my list of trusty Torontonian friends only to realize that those who can actually help in a practical manner are all out of town...except for a saint named J who called around to look for other towing companies with no success who then called upon another saint, Ethan.

While all this was happening an angel in the form of a helpful man drove through the garage and actually stopped to help. GASP. Whereas four or five cars before just drove on past. A modern day Samaritan that man was.

He not only got my car out of the precarious position it was in, but got the rear wheel to start working again. The axle apparently was stuck.

Providentially a parking spot opened up nearby and I was able to park permanently and most importantly SAFELY, laying to rest my imminent plans to stake out my car tonight.

Ethan helped me figure out a plan of action for tomorrow, and I returned to my apartment relieved.

Mugged

Speaking of firsts...

Tonight Lydia and I were walking home from the subway station from the Brooke Fraser concert, and we got mugged.

I am still in shock.

I lost my purse, my wallet, my keys, my makeup, a friend's book aptly entitled Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, my camera with 2 months worth of pictures from Tanzania, and my ipod.

The thing that I am MOST upset about losing is my two months worth of pictures and the picture of my DG that we took as a family at Sears three years ago that I had in my wallet. Those can never be recovered.

Nothing happened to us physically for which I am really thankful to God for.

Creepy Man (Canadian Edition)

This year is definitely a year of firsts.

My FIRST proposal happened this year. That would be Creepy Man (Tanzanian Edition). More to come in the next post. But for this post something a little closer to home.

On Tuesday I was sitting at Yorkdale Mall on hold with Fido renewing my service agreement. It was a long hold. There I was sitting, daydreaming, when an old, old, OLD man of about 50-60 with a FULL head of gray and white hair comes up to me.

"Excuse me," he says. "Might I just say how lucky your husband is to have such a gorgeous woman as you as his wife."

I smile awkwardly.

"I'm not married," I respond. First mistake.

"Your boyfriend then."

"I don't have a boyfriend." Second mistake.

"Then if you don't mind me asking how might a man like me get a date with a beautiful woman like you? I treat women very well."

No. way. I just got asked out for the first time in 6 years by a CREEPY OLD MAN with A PICK UP LINE. By this point I was in complete shock and disbelief that this guy had the audacity to approach someone 40 years his junior. It was hard to choke back a full fledged laugh as I told him I wasn't interested or looking.

Then I bolted for the subway. Immediately.

Home Sweet Home

East, west, home is best.

I was dreading going back to Toronto at the beginning of project because I feared the loneliness that awaited, but it has never been so good to be HOME. Coming back to MY apartment was pure relief. It really is home, and I feel very blessed to be living in such a sweet pad. Travelling around has really made me count my blessings.

I was ready to be back a few weeks ago even though Paris and London were fantastic experiences. Now I know that my travel max is two months. Glad I figured this out before I bought a Round the World ticket (they exist) for a year. I might still do that, but not for a year.

5 Good Things (Paris Edition)

1. The pastries.
Oh mhhmm...the pastries. I'm salivating as I type this. Words cannot express how delicious they were.

2. The monuments. Eiffel Tower, Versailles, Notre Dame, Louvre....
Sigh.

3. Walking along the Seine.
It's just so beautiful, romantic, and...funny.
I went to Pont St. Louis, apparently the most romantic place to watch a sunset...to watch a sunset and there was this man there with the weirdest contraption protesting something or another, but he was serenading the passerbys with "Fly Me to the Moon." The juxtaposition was too funny. I couldn't help but smirk and chuckle.

4. The streets.
I love the windy, narrow streets with quirky, unique shops in the them. The architecture is so quaint.

5. The fashion.
Everyone is dressed to the nines. Coming back from project, that made me feel uber grunge. And the guys know how to dress well too!

Paris

In Shakespeare and Co. a famous bookshop located on the Seine across from Notre Dame, there are nooks and crannies where visitors from all over the world leave their marks. A few words here and a few words there. So I thought, 'Why the heck not?'

On a ripped piece of paper I wrote, for the lack of a better imagination:
It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. Dreams come true in Paris.

Not that I've had a GREAT romance the pass few days in Paris, but I think it sums up all that Paris means to me, the embodiment of childhood dreams. As a child I dreamed of Paris. Of its famous monuments, of its paintings, of its streets, of its history and I thought to myself one day I will go to Paris.

And now I am in Paris, and I love it. Every minute of it.