ok go

this brings me such joy.

J

*SIGH*

Snow makes me so very happy. I don't really know what purpose it serves in the city (other than for aesthetic value and smashing up your car) but as long as the Elk Valley is getting dumped on (which it is) my heart is full of joy. It's going to be a very merry christmas this year.

I just watched the latest Warren Miller film. I am now fully inspired to go out and attempt to duplicate that which I have seen...

J.

back to the land of sorels and giant snowplows

You know you're getting old when you find Christmas a source of stress. For the first time...ever, I am anticipating christmas shopping to be holiday hell. The moment I step foot in a shopping center I feel clausterphobic and tense. I fear that if I stop for one second I will become roadkill for the masses of cell-phone toting maniacs and offspring. Mass consumerism has once again sucked all the joy and goodwill out of the season, leaving a pile of spoiled, materialistic gnomes in it's wake. I don't think it was ever meant to be like this.

the city is exhausting.

On a happier note, I am very excited to be retreating to small town BC where I can escape the general public and hide away in my parents cozy home on our quiet street. The place where I see the stars at night from my driveway and fear being attacked by the aggressive deer living in our backyard. I miss simple things like that. Sometimes I even miss the people - the ones who wear their snowmobiling suits and sorels to the grocery store to get milk (why drive a boring old car when you can rip through the streets of town on something called "The Snowmeister 3000"?). I miss the delinquent youth smoking pot behind the dumpsters while trying to light the mall on fire. I even miss the hicks. There is something very endearing about it all.

I think the first thing I'm going to do when I get home is build a snow fort. Kevan? Matthew? Daniel? Leah? You guys in?

J.

beautiful Italian Man

So I worked a job for my Temp agency today asking travellers going between Edmonton and Calgary some questions. This survey will be used as research for the upcoming high-speed train that the Government is hoping to build. (next summer they are hoping to put together a proposal.) (sure they will). The man that was my boss for the day was a good-looking Italian man from Toronto. He had an Italian accent. We spent part of the day in a coffee shop listening to live music and drinking coffee in between buses leaving for Calgary. When the day was over he asked me out for supper. Beautiful man with italian accent invited me to join him for a late supper. I declined, but i really wanted to say yes. Sometimes being a christian sucks. just in case this was not such an innocent invitation from a lonely man that spends most of his time travelling between major cities in Canada, I said no.

It could have been romantic. He could have told me more stories about growing up in Italy, I would not have minded.

Alas, this is was my day. I blogged about it because it may never happen again that a rich, beautiful mathematic Italian man will want to go out for supper with me. Maybe I better find him before he leaves and marry him. He is probably very rich, I can quit school, move to Toronto. visit Troy.


A. Wilgus

drug cartel operation on Whyte

So I was walking home from school and a funy thing happened...

The entire builing with the Roots Organic Market was Police taped off and there were at least 20 police cars with more on the way. We had to take a detour and walk aound it on 83rd. My couriousity has been sparked. I imagine that is was something far more exciting than it was. But I momentarily pondered finding a seat to watch the large group of cops assembled in the parking lot beside the building. They were all talking into their shoulder walkie talkies and looking really puzzled.
I wanted to get out a notebook and pretend I was the first journalist on the scene to record the breaking news.

I walked around the block with two others and we put together a little story of our own. We figured out that there was a manhunt for some wanted criminals that were holding out in the building. There is actually a drug cartel operating in the basement. The Police must have found out and were doing a raid. It went wrong and lots of back-up was called in.
-You guys heard it here first.

It Happened

It happened.

This morning welcomed the first snow fall.
Mmmmmm.....
I think that I am watching Gilmore Girls too much. Lorelai gets excited in every season that the first snow fall occurs. I think that I had to agree with her this morning. It kind of feels magical. If it werent wet, it would have been perfect. It is not freezing cold, making it completly lovely.
It is a little romantic. Anyone want to go for a romantic snow walk? Maybe with a Pumpkin spice latte at the end? (Liane?) (Jenna?) (Jim?)

A. wilgus

bad timing

I feel like a big jerk.

This morning I was woken up with a start to loud, floor shaking music. I was a little confused because both Kaarina and Liane were gone so groggly I went downstairs to see where the noise was coming from. It was our basement tenant, at 8:30am, blaring his music so loud it was causing the vents to vibrate. This was not really a normal thing for him. He is the guy who brings us wine and all sorts of vegetables from his father's farm on a regular basis. He usually super quiet and is a really, really nice guy. I felt sort of bad going downstairs to ask him to turn down his music but it was so loud I couldn't escape it anywhere in the house. I went downstairs and knocked on the door (it took awhile because he couldn't really hear me knocking over the noise). He answered and looked super surprised to see me. He told me he thought I wasn't home and then proceeded to apologize over and over again. I told him it wasn't a really big deal, just maybe that he could turn it down a teeny bit. He apologized three more times.

An hour later I hear a knock at my kitchen door and I answer it to find basement guy. He put a bottle of wine in my hands and told me again that he was super sorry about all the noise. I told him it wasn't a big deal and that he didn't need to give me anything. He told me that it was just that he had gotten laid off from work and he was feeling down about it so he cranked his music to forget about everything. I think my mouth dropped. I suddenly felt really selfish. He told me that he was going to go get a job on the oil rigs (one week on and one week off sort of dealie) so we wouldn't have to hear much of him anymore. I wanted to cry I felt so bad. I told him I felt badly about him losing his job and again that he didn't have to give me stuff but he wouldn't take it back.

yeah...oops.

Aloha

We're going to Hawaii!!! (we bought our tickets today!)

ANNA Is BACK. Hello again.

Jenna never thought that I would ever write on this Co-Blog again. Not true Jenna, here I am writing. I have re-added the co in our co-blog. Actually, you just left an hour ago. I miss you. Wanna come over and play crib? Its not too late.

Okay, this is my peeve at school. I bet 80% of the girls at University have a sweater from LuluLemon. Kinda makes me sick. I think that being at camp for three months has destroyed my ability to put up with trendy "got have the latest" people. All identical clones of the same ginger bread recipie. Uck. Sometimes it gets to my head and I feel this indirect pressure that I should look completly done up. Sometimes I want to be pretty and attractive too. Truth is that I do think I am beautiful when I am not around large crowds of these trendy people. Maybe not Jenna beautiful or Niki Taylor beautiful, but enough. So How does one not hate themselves and other people in this kinda world. I am not really looking for answers, just to sit here and reflect on the evils of my inner conflicts is kinda interesting. Here is the main point, I hate wanting. I hate wanting different clothes, different pillow cases, different hair, different furniture, Jenna' s swearter. I hate it. I am a minimalist. I worked at a mall for a total of 2 months and it got to me soo much that I had to quit. Stuff is useless. Hair styles are a waste of time. Pony tails are fast and practical.

I knew that my PITs would have a transition period after camp to re-adjust to 'normal' life. But I never considered that I would have a hard time re-adjusting. I kinda hate it. I want to go back to living out of society. Dwell in the forest in some kind of Ewok-village- style abode. Jenna are you coming?

I am ready to leave North America. Travel. Live on a beach working in a hut selling necklaces or something. Actually, the more that we joke about it, the more I really want to do it. Abandon this and go.

Jenna and I are going to practise living on a beach in March. We are going to Hawaii for a week. Yay Yay Yay vacations on a beach. I have never been to one. We intend to be enteretained by the Draxlir brothers and learn how to surf. We may nto return.



I promise that I will write again. Many times.

a bad dream?

Ugh. I can't sleep. I predicted that maybe I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight so prior to going to bed I made myself some sleepytime tea. It didn't work. The silly thing is that I am always tired when a bunch of us are hanging out and watching a movie or something. It'll be like 8pm and I will get this overwhelming urge to bail on the hangout and just go to bed. But then there are nights like these and I wonder, why aren't I doing something useful instead of trying to trick myself into sleep? Also, I could probably afford to turn on some lights, typing in the dark is sort of tricky-like.

I have been developing some alarming night-time habits lately. The other morning I woke up to find an empty bottle of gatorade beside my bed and a bright blue tongue. Let me clarify, the tongue wasn't beside my bed but actually in my mouth. It was my tongue. Anyway here's the problem. First of all I don't remember any gatorade bottles lounging beside my bed the night before. Also, I don't remember drinking any gatorade in the middle of the night. So either one of my cunning roomates placed the empty bottle next to my bed in the middle of the night and sneakily dropped blue food coloring into my mouth whilst I was sleeping, I ate a smurf in the middle of the night, or I downed the entire 710ml bottle of gatorade in my sleep. Once on Oprah I saw obese people who blamed their obesity on sleep-eating. They claimed they would wake up in the middle of the night only to find themselves snuggled up to an empty bag of chips or with ketchup smeared all over their face. They never remembered actually consuming the food but the evidence spoke for itself...massive weight gain, empty cupboards, nawed off corners of the bed frame...
Surely you can see how I find all of this a little concerning. It starts with gatorade, something seemingly harmless, a little bit of electrolyte replenishing, but it ends with me being 600 lbs and polishing off entire chocolate cakes and tubs of ice cream all while enjoying a full eight hours of undisturbed sleep. I guess I will have to start sleeping in the stocks before this gets out of hand.

J.Wilgus

bring on pumpkin season

So I'm a student again. Weirdness. I might get beat up for saying this, but it is so nice to have a little bit of slackness in my life again. Sure there are deadlines and such, but compared to working full time...school seems like a vacation. On the other hand, I haven't really started most of my classes yet. Perhaps there is a difficulty to being a student that I cannot remember. Or maybe I just never took being a student all that seriously. Either way I will find out. At this moment though, I am enjoying studentness. I love new books. I love office supplies. I love handing in assignments. I...don't love tuition or electives. But I do love feeling like I'm accomplishing something.

I'm enjoying alot of things about Edmonton this year actually. Lately Anna and I have been discovering alot of little coffee shops and such. Coffee shops are one of my favorite places. It is so enjoyable to go to a coffee shop to read or play cards with a good friend. I know that it is not very original but it is something I find comfort in it. We spend so much time stressing ourselves out these days that it is good to indulge in a little comfort from time to time. Hey while I'm on the topic of coffee shops I may as well put in a plug for my friend Andrew Legg who just opened up his own coffee shop here in Edmonton. It's called Transcend. If anyone is interested there is a website: www.transcendcoffee.com. I am planning to go there frequently this year, it looks very cool.

Life. Like Hengen I am rejoicing because it is nice and simple right now. I have very little to complain about. Summer was awesome and now it is getting close to snowboarding season. And as most of you know, that makes me very happy. It's almost time to bust out a little bit of Warren Miller action. I can't watch them too soon though. Watching ski movies when I can't actually snowboard makes me ridiculously ansy. I start fantasizing about snow...waxing my board over and over...putting my snowsuit on multiple times throughout the day and parading around my house in it...it sort of freaks my roomates out I think. So maybe I'll wait another week to start.

Yeah, life is good.

J

cantankerous killer kittens riding kicycles in caves

I figured if I didn't post something soon people would eventually stop reading our blog. Am I correct? I find myself even checking my blog to see if anything new has been added...since Anna apparently isn't going to pick up the slack (might have something to do with her lack of internet) I guess that means it's all on me. So you'd think one of the reasons I hadn't written was due to the fact that I didn't have any excitement going on in my life. Actually (and don't act too surprised) it is quite the contrary. There is so much going on right now that I can't even pull myself away to write a little blurb. Um, that is, except for now. Now being the time when I should be sleeping.

So my roommate Kaarina has developed a new way to combat roommate conflict. Stocks! Not like stocks and bonds, but actual wooden stocks. We decided that whenever we think one of us is being silly we should just drag them out to the backyard and lock them in the stocks for a couple of hours. I'm willing to wager that once the icy cold winds of winter hit sillyness will get old real quick. Also, chances are the person in the stocks would be forced to socialize with our cantankerous, senile polish neighbors. The ones who like to periodically spy on us from their backyard. They are so weird - I can't even imagine a more intolerable punishment. Oh wait, yes I can...being locked in stocks in the backyard in the dead of winter and being forced to read a statistics textbook. That is the story of my life lately, minus the stocks and winterness. Anyway, the moral of the story is: when conventional methods of solving conflict cease to be effective...just use brute force! Whenever my brothers and I ran into conflict we prettymuch just ended up smacking eachother around. It's quick, it's easy, it's satisfying...

Wow, I am completely off topic now. That's not what I intended to write about at all. What was it again? Oh yeah, what I've been up to for the last month. Since I have already wasted so much sleeping time already I'm going to have to sum it up. Okay here I go: birthday party in the graveyard, camp, rope swing of death, herds of wild turkeys, murderous wasps, 'kicycle man', caving, and "HIV" the killer kittens.

I love my vacations.

J

of senior citizens and pigeons

The other morning I was coming home from work via Edmonton Transit when I looked out the window and saw a little old man with a helmet on walking down the sidewalk. It was one of the most adorable/sad things I have ever seen. Now if you don't already know this about me I have a special place in my heart for little cute old people. Especially the senile ones. I know how that must sound, but when I used to work in the alzheimer's unit with the crazy old people I couldn't help but develop affection for some of them. Like Doug, the little scottish man who always used to stand on his walker in attempts to scale the chainlink fence and escape. He looked quite frail when you would see him pushing his walker down the halls (it was all an act), but in fact he was quite agile. Anyway, maybe it's the nurse in me but when I see these old poor cute helpless people I just want to take care of them. Like the cute chinese patient I had whose english vocabulary consisted of only the word "thankyou." He would say it over and over (with his hands together and his head bowed) and sometimes at inappropriate moments, but it was adorable. It's strange how much senile old people remind me of small children.

Maybe I am sounding crazy. Anyway the old man in the helmet made my day. Of course I felt like I should get off the bus and help him find his way home...
Okay one other thing. I also think pigeons are kind of cute. So overwhelmed, so confused, so...stupid. Hey I guess old men and pigeons sort of go hand in hand. Alright, confession time is now over.

confession time

Today I spent most of the afternoon trying to think of ways I can avoid procrastinating when I start school in the fall. Unfortunately this afternoon I was supposed to be doing my statistics homework meaning...I was procrastinating while thinking up ways not to procrastinate. What's worse is that I didn't actually reach any sort of solution to my problem. I realized that, while I have any length of time in which to procrastinate, 9 times out of 10 (which is, 90%...ha, take that stats!) I will use that time to procrastinate. In other words, if it is Friday night and I have until Sunday evening at 9pm to finish my work, chances are very good that I will begin the work Sunday at 8pm.
The reason I am bringing this up is because earlier this week Hengen pegged me as slacker. That is, he pegged me as a slacker without any prior knowledge of my studying habits. Come to think of it, so did Josh. Anyway, I wanted to prove everyone wrong come fall but I see now that that is impossible. So guys, I hate to say it, but you are right, I am a slacker. Best to stop the charades before they start. Apparently I was transparent anyway.

Now, back to the homework...

Jenna

The West Coast Trail

I don't really know how to start this post but I do know that I have to write it before I forget everything. As it turned out I managed to survive the world-famous west coast trail. I am struggling to find one word to adequately describe it so I will just say that it was...interesting. It took the 9 of us (my parents, Kevan, Matt, Dan, Leah, Duane, Karyn, and I) 7 days to complete the trail. Two of those days were in torrential rain but luckily the rest of our trip was in gorgeous sunshine/fog. The entire trail was approximately 76 km. That is, 76 km of sand, water, mud, roots, cable cars, tidal waves, trees, bog, boardwalk, bridges, boulders, and of course...ladders o' death. It was pretty dang cool.

(day -1: on the ferry to the island. we look decently clean.)


Day 0 (Km 0): Pachena Bay campground to...the washrooms at the ridiculously far end of the campground

In order to get to the campground we first had to take a 4-hour harrowing bus ride from the south end of the trail through narrow backcountry logging roads. Part of this trip included going over really sketchy bridges (they were less bridges and more strategically placed boards over 100-foot gorges). After crossing one particular bridge at 140 km/hr matt asked the driver, "so, how many times can you miss the bridges before they fire you?" The driver looked intensely at matt and replied, "I dunno, I haven't really missed yet. ha ha."

After the west coast trail express (it was VERY express) arrived at the campground (the driver didn't miss any bridges) the boys decided to practice with the bearline. Kevan sustained a minor head injury in the process.

Leah and I burned off energy on the beach...

(Leah often found herself being chased and eventually drenched by the ocean waves - "guys...the ocean keeps sneaking up on me!")

Day 1 (Km 0 - 12): pachena bay to michigan creek

Nothing much happened on this day other than me getting my hand stuck in my sandel (it was on my pack) as I tried to get my pack on and getting separated from the group and finding myself crossing a creek and climbing up part of a tree to get onto a broken overhanging ladder only to find out that I was going to the wrong way. The rain started as we were settling ourselves in our sleeping bags.

Day 2 (Km 12 - 25): Michigan Creek to Tsusiat Falls

Matt and Dan woke up to their tent floating in the middle of a small lake (I think dan's sleeping bag was actually submerged in the pool at the entrance of their tent). It rained like madness so this picture of us soggy hikers is one of few pictures I took for the next two days. When we arrived at Tsusiat falls it was raining so hard we almost didn't get a fire started. Everything and everyone was drenched and Kevan and I were borderline hypothermic. Tsusiat was supposed to be the most beautiful campsite on the trail. I was having a hard time seeing the beauty at that point.

Day 3 (Km 25 - 42): Tsusiat Falls to Cribs Creek

After only traveling 5 kms we stopped at a cave along the beach, built a fire, and attempted to dry our clothes out. I can atest to being a little bit cranky. dan accidentally dumped my pack in the wet sand after I had so carefully placed it on a sandless log and I'm pretty sure I nearly lunged at him with my trekking pole. Sorry dan.

We continued after the cave and made it to the first ferry crossing/place where we ate fresh crab (the crab all had to die a horrific death on the dock in order to make it to our plates...it was very graphic. I had to close my eyes. The second picture is Leah watching the ferry operator man rip the crab's shell off while it is trying to scamper away. Of course Daniel would be sadistically entertained by the ordeal.) It was 4pm by the time we left the dock and we still had 9 kms to cover. We ended up covering almost a km/20 minutes. Leah fell off one of the boardwalks into a waist-deep bog and after the boys pulled her out she took out her frustration on the poor boardwalk with her trekking pole. The boys weren't sure whether to be scared or laugh. We didn't get to camp until it was dark and it was still raining. Not to mention Daniel ended up barfing from the massive amounts of crab he ate and had to leave his pack 2kms from cribs creek campsite. Kevan and Matt ran back for it in the dark after everyone had arrived at camp (bless their hearts).




Day 4 (Km 42 - 48): Cribs Creek to Bonilla Point

The Carmanah Point Lighthouse. Matt stuffing his face while we break at the lighthouse. We got to see killer whales from the lighthouse viewpoint.

We were definently all ready for the burgers at Chez Monique by this point (Monique lives in a weathered shack on the beach and serves wonderful food to tired hikers. Also, she has the coolest dog ever). It was there we met a hiker wearing a kilt, he had just scattered his father's ashes into the ocean.

We walked down the beach after Monique's at high tide. Little did we know that after we crossed Carmanah Creek (the mouth of the creek opens up into the ocean...we were crossing at the mouth) a huge freak tidal wave would come crashing at us and suck a bunch of our packs, cameras, trekking poles, and unattended hiking boots into the ocean. Matthew and Duane heroically jumped into the surging creek in an attempt to save the gear. It was a chaotic and adrenaline-filled moment but in the end only Matt's and Leah's (brand new) cameras and mom's trekking pole lost their lives. Weighed down with 30 extra pounds of ocean in our packs we decided to make camp at bonilla point...five km's short of our original goal.


Day 5 (Km 48 - 63) Bonilla Point to Campers Bay
The day started out beautifully with the fog with the sunshine shining gloriously through the trees, the walk on the beach, the dead octopus matt found...we found out after that the trek to Campers Bay was one of the hardest days on the entire trail. One word: ladders, ladders, and ladders (oops that's three)

The Octopus had no head mind you, something had killified it ('killified' means really, really dead)

Ladder hell followed by a little bit of swaying-suspension-bridge-across-a-deep-gorge action followed by some more ladder hell...then came the roots and knee deep mud.


Day 6 (Km 63 - 71): Campers Bay to Thrashers Cove
We had two route options this day: the forest (more roots and mud although a very safe option) or the beach/boulders (tides had to be at a certain level to take this route and the boulders were not advisable although everyone said it would be worth it). After we spoke to several other hikers (one of which included the british man in the spandex suit) we opted for the boulder route. We were told some of the boulders were the size of houses and this is where people usually broke bones. In the end we were very happy to have gone this way and the boulders ended up being alot of fun. It was like running through frank slide...with water in between the rocks and, evidentally, little raccoons.

Matt decided to take the unstable log route, the rest of us just walked through the dry surge channel. Next, we came across sweet tunnels carved by the ocean. I wanted to see what it was like when the ocean surged though these caves but I figured I might have to be uncomfortably close to the water to get a decent view.

We took a breather before embarking on the boulders. Mom was still shaking from the surge channel crossings (the really undry ones).



Matt bounded across the boulders like a little monkey (his pasty-white complexion nearly accidentally sent signals to the nearby ships so we made him put his shift back on). During one of our breaks he felt like a little boulder hac would be in order (we had already played ferry hac, beach hac, boardwalk hac, and big-rock-with-waves-crashing-against-it hac).




Thrashers cove was an appropriate name as the tide came close to thrashing our tents. As we were preparing dinner Matt and Karyn fell asleep on a big rock. They woke up at high tide and found the rock surrounded by water.


Last night of sleeping with sand in my tent, sleeping bag, pants...last night of people collapsing my tent as they walk by, last night of matt letting the air out of my thermarest, last night of dad throwing dead crabs at me, last night of sore feet...we could see civilization from our campsite.


Day 7 (Km 71 - 76ish): Thrashers Cove to Gordon River
The day started out with a vertical kilometer to the main trail. It sucked. Before we even started Leah offered to carry some lady's pack up the first set of 300-story high ladders. The lady was overjoyed by the offer and so up Leah went. When she came down to get her own pack she told us, "that was just my warmup." Sick.
Usually right before you get to a ladder you will see a sign that says 'tsunami' with a picture of a big wave and a arrow that points in the general direction of straight up. If we were to ever encounter a tsunami we were to drop our packs, pee our pants, and head straight up the ladders before being devoured by the sea. At the top of the ladders was a little sign with a picture of a house reassuring us of our safety. Fortunately the ocean never did chase us up any ladders.




After a brutal 5 km stroll (4 kms uphill and a sharp 1km drop) we arrived at the end of the trail where we were to signal for the ferry to take us across the gordon river to our vehicles. I think my mom wanted to fall down and kiss the blessed ground but I am not certain. Prior to kilometer 76 we had a thought to move the 74 km marker (a little yellow sign) and place it between km's 72 and 73. After much thought we concluded that such a thing would be a childish and mean. Also, in order to carry it out we would have to hike back a kilometer and a half to place the sign.


Now I realize this has been a decently long post and I should end it here but ah, what the heck, here are some more pictures.












Congratulations to all those who took the time to read through this post.

neither here nor there

I'm tired but I will share with you folks the few thoughts flowing within my inner cranium right now (in point form):

- only 7 more shifts until vacation
- crap! only 12 more days until vacation (I'm not ready!)
- it's freaking hot right now
- at least I don't have to find someone to watch my frogs while I'm on vacation
- I want to be hiking
- I want to be at camp
- Liane is cool
- my favorite animal at the zoo is the bat-monkey (I don't know what it's really called)
- omni's are space efficient
- I need a hair cut
- I wish I had a kayak
- if I were a marsupial, what kind of marsupial would I be?
- basement guy gives me the willies
- mmm ice cream
- money sucks (and talks!)
- battlestarship galactica is the devil
- if only Kaarina knew I had a box of 72 fruit-to-go's...
- the city is devouring my soul
- I am a euchre/crib queen (ha!)
- mmm sleep

THE END.