Jesus Week

It seems that Sundays are a good day to write a blog post. To be honest though, nothing exciting has really happened to me lately. Except maybe for the fact I think Jesus is following me.

The whole ordeal started when I attended a lecture at Concordia. It was a presentation to be given by Kim Phuc known as The Girl in the Picture. Anyways it was being hosted by Campus for Christ a ministry that acts as a spiritual resources on university campuses across Canada... whatever that means. Kim was an amazing speaker and shared her incredible story but clearly I should have expected that for an hour and a half I would listen to how becoming a Christian changed Kim's life and how accepting Jesus into her heart allowed her to blah blah blah. The best part though, had to be when she started crying and saying God is the essence (or something like that). Pretty much confessions of a love for Jesus was a little to much for Moses loving me. Though, maybe I am just acting like a naive Jew.

My Jesus week is still not over. For anyone who watches and obsesses with TLC reality specials, you would be familiar with the show about the Duggar family "17 Kids and counting". This uber religious family has seventeen children and one on the way. All whose first name starts with the letter J. How cute, kinda like Sesame Street. All the children have been brought up with strict beliefs about religion and popular culture. The fifteen year old J-whatever was sharing his belief that internet in the home is a terrible influence because of the access to pornographic content. (Ironically, the family has its own website) How could I forget the only music they listen to is gospels. According to the eight year old girl J-whocares rock music is a terrible influence, Jesus music is better. I was thankful when Jon and Kate Plus Eight came on.

LadyAwkz (Alex) and I went digging at the salvation army on Friday. We were looking for inspirations for a bag line we hope to launch on etsy. I got sidetracked in the picture frame/other random junk department. I was scavenging around looking for interesting frames when I found one that was almost perfect...minus the words inscribed at the bottom "Confirmed in Christianity" with a nice little cross in the little side corner. Um never mind then.

Lastly, my grandmother's care-taker, Lynette, was eating dinner with us on Friday. My grandmother was excited to tell us that Lynette sings in the choir and has a mini concert for us. Not exactly mosh pit... So she gets up to sing the famous Christmas carol "Silent Night". The lyrics go something like this:

Silent night, holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!
Christ, the Saviour is born
Christ, the Saviour is born.

Every year I hear it and never notice the lyrics. I guess my sensitivity to Jesus these days made me aware. After the solo performance my mother thought it would be a great idea for the WHOLE family to go see her sing at the church.

Maybe I am over thinking the whole thing, but I don't know it seems that a higher power is trying to tell me something...

Hey!

Friday night I decided to be a hermit and stay in and do work. By 10:30 I was productive and working away on my TV package. There was a section I was unsure about so I decided to email my teacher.

So I don't know about the rest of the world, but I find it very hard deciding how to address teachers in emails. Well it always stresses me out (but what doesn't) and I usually go with a simple 'Hi' or I head right into the question.
Friday though, I sent out the email quickly. This is what I wrote:

Hey,
I had a question about broadcast format for websites

(long boring question)
Thanks,
Emily

I didn't reread it I just sent it out and moved on with the assignment. WELL, wasn't I in for a surprise Sunday afternoon when I received the following reply:

"Hey" -- that's a rude way to address one your instructors.
(long boring answer to question)
B. ________

Mortification is the understatement of how I felt. I was totally embarrassed and was freaking out. I figured I would write him an apology explaining that it was a subconscious action... which isn't a lie. I didn't notice the informal heading for my email. So I explained:

Sorry, I wasn't conscious to it. Bad habit from years of informal emails
my apologies
thanks,

Emily

Then I basically spent the next hour clicking refresh in my email inbox. As you can imagine I desperately wanted a reply. Well one should learn to specify when they wish because my reply was less than calming. The reply:

apology accepted...
b.

It made me feel so much better and excited for Monday's class. NOT! Anyways luckily class was okay and instead he picked on other people but I am pretty sure he isn't a fan of me. Unless ... stands for 'you are amazing', which for some reason I highly doubt it does.
FML
oh ps: there are only 18 people in Monday's class, aka - very intimate.

Whiteboard visit from Baltimore

So a few weeks back I was curious to know how many people were reading my blog. I signed up for a site counter that also tracks who the visitors are. I know that sounds creepy but really it just tells me how people were referred to my blog and like where in the world they are reading it from. (I hope this doesn't sketch you out to the point you will never read my blog again)

Anyways, I was checking out this info when I saw I had a visitor from Baltimore, Maryland. I don't know anyone who lives out there so I decided to see how they got to my blog. And what do you know? The referring link was a google search for self-bullying. In case that doesn't ring a bell check out the 7th result or click here!

Obviously...

So as part of the journalism curriculum, first year students must attend a play. Our whole year went to see Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Segal Centre. This theatre is notoriously attended solely by jewish elders, aka old jewish women with short white hair. Based on this reputation, a few of my friends were teasing me about the fact that they assumed by grandmother would be there. I assured them she wouldn't and told them to stop stereotyping the token jew in the crew.

Well sure enough, the joke was on me. My grandmother called to tell me she too was going to see the play. So when I picked up my friends, I had to admit to them that despite anything and everything I had said earlier that week, my grandmother was front and center in the audience. Not that you could find her among all the other little cute old ladies with white and gray hair sitting next to her.

I was a good granddaughter and went to say hi just before the show started. I ended up meeting half the theatre but its okay cause I love my grandma so I kept a smile on my face as strangers pinched my cheecks.

My Cheesy Love for Jack's

Because I haven't written in so long I am having trouble deciding where to start...

I love Jack's Mannequin and this is no secret. Friday was his concert and it was amazing.
Here are the reasons why:

- I bumped into a classmate who let me push into the FRONT of the line with her.
- Therefore, I was touching the stage.
- His music was incredible live
- I bought a limited edition signed poster
- Got free stickers
- Was with my best friends
- Oh and how could I forget? I MET HIM.
- Got more paraphernalia signed
- Took a picture that is now my facebook display, desktop background, and cell phone background!
(ignore his 'tour stache', even my undying love for him doesn't make it okay to grow a porno mustache)

Okay I was going to summarize my whole week in this post but the cheesiness is too much...

(from left to right: lisa, me, GOD, karen, & caro)

The Second Line

I don't know if anyone else feels the pressure I do with birthday wishes on Facebook.
When I go to post a birthday message on someone's wall, I always stress over the second line.

Stress Factors:
I want to make it personal not generic.
I don't my second line to be a repetition of the posts before mine, so 'have a good day' is usually taken by the million before mine.
I am not an 'xoxo' type of girl so using that is out of the question.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
................................... <-- Insert personal AND original message there.

Pretty much, I am being ridiculous, BUT I figured I can't be alone in this dilemma of the second line so I decided to share.

P.S Happy Birthday Alexandra!

Breaking it Down.

So a shopping trip to Boston translated into panic trying to find 'cool' outfits to wear attack. My attempt at being stylish was pretty much useless because I wear the same thing everyday. Despite my inability, the people on the streets of Boston showed us their fair share of cool. I wish I had taken notes.

People watching was a very important part of our trip. Throughout the weekend we tried to classify the 'cool' people according to two terms 'hipster' and 'scenester'.
Now I am going to do the uncool thing and try to break down the difference between hipsters and scenesters so that you too can stereotype the fashionable people you see on the street.

Hipsters
According to Urban Dictionary Hipsters:
- Listen to bands that you have never heard of and claim to be in a band
- Have hairstyles that can only be described as "complicated" but is most likely achieved by a minimum of one week not washing it.
- Are probably tattooed.
- Maybe gay.
- Have a closet full of clothing but wear same three things which are most likely very tight black pants, scarf, and ironic tee-shirt over and over again
- Chips off nail polish artfully after $50 manicure.
- Addicted to coffee, cigarettes and possibly cocaine.
Most IMPORTANTLY:
- Hipsters are definitely cooler than you
- They always deny being a hipster

According the Hipster Handbook Hipsters:
Note: it is no longer recommended that one use the term "cool"; a Hipster would instead say "deck."
- Possess tastes, social attitudes, and opinions deemed cool by the cool.
- Walk among the masses in daily life but is not a part of them and shuns or reduces to kitsch anything held dear by the mainstream.
- Ideally possesses no more than 2% body fat

- Consciously try to fit into a
cultural scene based around a genre of music,
art, film or other media.
- Will adopt the fashion and habits of people in the scene in an attempt to claim oneself as part of it.
- The difference between a scenester and a person who is simply in a culture is originality and sincerity.
- Seen as trendy wannabes.
-Bring underground scenes into mainstream, which then "packages" the scene and turns it into a trend, ruining it.
- Love and idolize their Myspace page
- May claim to be hipsters, but they are not.

Twitter

Jamie got me thinking it was time to actually start using my Twitter.
So for all three of you Whiteboard fans, you can now stalk my life via My Twitter Page
Oh and you all should get one... its the new cooler version of a facebook status!
(Twitter Updates to appear on my left sidebar)

Hired & Home

All in all, it has been a very awesome weekend.
Camp FINALLY hired me for the position I wanted which is very exciting because karen and I now run all of junior side girls. Oh boy so much responsibility.

Moving on, BOSTON was this weekend and it was amazing. The weather was pretty decent and so was the shopping. While there, I thought of so many things to write about in my blog but now that I am home I obviously cannot. So frustrating. Hopefully though some stuff will come back to me.

This was just a quick update before bed because it has been almost a week since I have written anything and even longer since I have written anything good. Also, not sure who the anonymous commenter is but I am really glad you liked the blog title but please for the sake of my sanity who are you? (note: you can notify me via facebook or text if it is more convenient)

The Irony...

Applying into journalism, I thought that a minor in political science would be a nice compliment. So now, in first semester I am taking an intro to political science.
The material is less than exciting but what can one really expect from an intro course.
I have been able to deal with the boredom but I cannot deal with the midterms!
WHY? well...
Our first midterm was held the day after the Canadian Election. Seeings as that our federal election was less than exciting, I had no problem spending the night studying.

Now the night before our second midterm, I am less than pleased to be missing out on the historical American election coverage.

Its quite ironic that a political science class designed to teach me about politics is in truth preventing me from doing just that.
So if I fail tomorrow's exam, at least I saw history in the making.

Hello

Thanks for all the comments!
Loving the feedback.
Keep it coming...

Connect Four - Creating a Legacy

I live 10 months of my life for 2. Camp.
For eleven summers I have gone to the same sleep away camp and plan on making it a twelfth if they ever call to hire me. (I have only spent all day nervously staring at my phone). My anxiousness reached such extremes that I left my cell with my mother because it was preventing me from functioning. Now shes upstairs with it and every time I hear the floorboards creek, my heart is in my throat. Totally not what this post was supposed to be about.

Moving on...
For those of you who aren't aware, I am an only child. Therefore, at camp or at school I create my own legacy which ends once I leave. Yet recently my younger cousins have 'come of age' for sleep-away camp. So when they told me that they would never attend sleep away camp, you could imagine I took it personally. Here was my one shot of maybe having someone continue my legacy but no.
I was pissed.

Anyways, my cousin told me he was the best Connect Four player ever. I told him that there was no way he could beat me, I am a professional. But he insisted and after a close game I won. (No great feat considering hes 7.) Then the rest of my anti-camp cousins challenged me and I proceeded to beat each of them. Then beat them again when they took me on as a team.
They were not happy.
And refused to play against me ever again.

I guess I should have let them win at least once, but my immaturity to their anti-camp spirit got in the way.
Then they asked me how I got so good at the game.
My answer?
Camp.

Maybe now they will reconsider.
Maybe I should gain some maturity.

No More Top - 3... I am over it