So I pre-wrote a blog for this morning, but my internet connection is extreme dodge-time, so I can’t load my email where it’s saved.  Though, I’m not going to complain cause internet is internet, and I very much appreciate my Grandma’s 69 year old neighbour having an un-encrypted network!

Today I’m off to shoot a wedding with Jenn Galloway, I’ll write more about her awesomeness tomorrow when this connection firms up, or when I have a chance to hit a Starbucks, hope everyone is having a fantastic long weekend, I know I am, Medicine Hats forecast for today is +35 dear God let my anti-perspirant work over time!

Everyone has a code, some are easier to read than others.  I’d like to think I’m a pretty open-ended gal, easy to read, nearly all of the time.  Knowing me, means knowing that after time, my tenuous moods, aren’t so tenuous, but rather boringly predictable. 

• When I’m sad I watch White Christmas (Bing Crosby cures all)
• When I’m anxious I scrapbook (Two-way tape cures all)
• When I’m stressed I take a bubble bath (Radox Muscle Soak cures all)
• When I’m mad, I write letters (Merriam Webster Thesauraus cures all)
• When I’m happy, I say so (Honesty cures all)

And then, there’s one thing I do throughout it all, when I’m happy it makes me giddier, when I’m sad it cheers me up, when I’m anxious it calms me down, when I’m mad, well usually I just measure things wrong and something turns out wonky, but Damn if I don’t feel less like Cruella Devill and more like Martha Stewart (Pre-jail era) once I’m done. 

Baking. 

I know, I know, it’s a bit dorky, but I just love getting my bake on.  Wow, I could’ve made a comeback before that last sentence, but now I think I’m a real goner.  A goner with sugar cookies mind you.  I’m feeling extraordinarily rambly today in case you can’t tell… I love to bake, any excuse and I’m all over it.  Usually every couple weeks or so I’ll bring in cookies, tarts or  brownies for all the men at my work but every so often we have a birthday and I like to go all out.  

Betty Crocker mixes begone, I stood Monday night in +24 kitchen (Unusually hot for Calgary this time of year) switching my oven on to 350.  Good god in heave, that Amanda didn’t kill me and actually helped me with her artistry skills in cutting parchment paper was a miracle on 34st.  So pulling out all stops for one of my favorites at the shop I brought out the 12 layer cake recipe.  Yes, I just said 12 layers.  12.  Layers.  Actually here’s the part where I fess up and admit that I left two layers off accidentally and they actually are still sitting outside ‘cooling’ on top of the BBQ.  (Camille code: I AM THE MOST FORGETFUL PERSON EVER!)

This time I actually remembered to get my camera for pictures of my kitchen debacle:

I’m a bit of a, shall we say, all-over-the-place baker…

I had an intense measuring system for making sure each baked cake would be the same amount of batter….I later showered to find beige batter in places beige batter ought not to go.

Almost done, this looks like an ad for Denny’s Pancakes, with a potentially diabetic coma inducing amount of syrup draped over them.

Excuse our mess of a fridge, and by our mess, I mean mostly my mess, because, well, look at that first picture.  I’m kind of an all-over-the-place kind of person.

Look! Dishes!  I can be helpful some of the time!

I’ve always been a crier.  It’s who I am.  Like the dimple in my chin when I smile, or the way my laugh skates above all crowds or how my eyes are green.  Every couple weeks I visit a blog that has yet to fail to make me cry deep from the pit of my stomach.   Matt Logelin now I know we all spend hours on our computers, drifting from site to site, some meaningful, some…not, but if you are reading this, go take ten minutes and read his story. 

Read a paragraph, a sentence, fourteen posts, as long as it’s something, the way the verses of his life blare out always hits me somewhere that I never knew was there.  Loss is unique, who the person was to you, who they were to the world, who you were to them, who you are now, losing someone is like a snowflake, no one situation the same.  But in the broadest sense, it’s all snow, it’s all similar, that tug from your heart, your gut, your feet.  I lost my Mum, but in reading his words I always feel like someones laid down the truest voice of it all.  And that even after so much time, it still sucks, and when you think it’s better, maybe it’s not, and when you feel your worst, maybe you’ve got fight left, and sometime you can’t do anything other then say fuck, a lot. 

The Liz Logelin Foundation asks for everyone to donate $7.00 on the Seventh of every month.  That’s nothing, a new mascara, a happy meal, 5km in gas, donating to this charity will feel so much better than anything else you were thinking of buying today. 

You know, I’m not always sure how those in long-distance relationships make it work.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m an all-out romantic and in my heart of hearts I believe love can conquer any molehill or mountain (From the fiery pits of Mordor vs. Name brand ketchup issues) but, there is this sense of disconnection that seems to linger if you let it.  I know the friendship part of this problem, as one of my bestest friends Marwa (See: Here) has lived in Edmonton for the better part of our friendship since High School.

In an attempt to tighten the threads between us we found a magican new website (Shout out to Morgan!) www.playlist.com It is magical, have I used that word yet?  Cause I should use it three or four more times, magical, magical, magical!  You combine with your friends and make playlists of all the songs you love.  Yesterday listening to the tracks falling into sleep I felt like the foundation of our frendship was more rock solid than ever, and if we could all for that one moment be on the same page then we’d be alright, no matter what came at us.  

We all have such differing tastes so along with adding our songs we’ve been posting up what we think of each others and why we’ve chose ours.  Needless to say it’s been enlightening and hilarious all at the same time.  I’ve copied a couple excerpts here cause they were too good to pass up.  Anyone who is anyone should bookmark it stat, best of all its free (And I now I have indeed mentioned here before how much I adore, worship and love all free things)

 Marissa’s Choice: 1. Crazy for this girl: This song takes me back to junior high every time I hear it. Back to Mr. Brown in the band room, Mrs. Lim and her orange concealer, Mike Steele’s locker, tube socks, watermelon bubalicious and Ms. Porter. Best line: “…and what was I thinking when the world didn’t end; why didn’t I know what I know now.”

Camille on Marissa’s Choice: 1. Evan and Jaron: Crazy for this Girl. I listen to this song and I’m honestly back in 1998, Junior High, at the school dance, DYING for some boy to ask me to dance. Picture me with braces, frizzed electric socket hair and sweaty, sweaty palms. Clearly, I was the biggest babe to ever hit Vincent Massey, that band department didn’t know what was going to hit them! Favorite Excerpt: “She was the one to hold me the night the sky fell down, and what was I thinking when the world didn’t end, why didn’t I know what I know now.”

PS.  Here’s a picture I dug up from the abyss of my childhood, this is actually our Grade Nine Halloween dance.  Can’t imagine why I had trouble making friends?

Camille’s Choice: “1. Ciara ft. Justin Timberlake: Love Sex Magic: Okay so clearly I’m a pop lover. But this, I know, even for me is a bit much. But it’s like From Justin to Kelly, so bad it’s good. I never even really liked Ciara, but BAM throw J. Timb in anything and it’s magically delicious. Seriously, he’s got a midas touch more intense than the Lucky Charms Leprechaun. I made the fateful mistake of watching the video last week, and now whenever I listen to the song, the coherent thought switch in my brain conveniently flickers rapidly. The lyrics are pretty amateur, but to the point, and really, Favorite Excerpt: “What’s your favorite trick that you wanna use on me And I’ll volunteer… “ That pretty much sums up all of my violently inappropriate string of thoughts on Taylor Lautner. Anybody see my Twilight Obsessed theme yet? I’ll openly admit really anyone who sees that trailer and feels nothing is dead inside.

Camille’s Choice: 2. Taking Back Sunday: Ghost Man on Third: As Butter Chicken is to beginner Indian food lovers, Taking Back Sunday is to beginner Screamo listeners. They’re pretty gentle especially in comparison to Underoath or one of those bands that spends about 90% of their songs in a consistent high-pitched scream with pretty unvarying pitches. Their lines cut cleverly and when they do scream, it seems like it’s filled with the perfect emotion and totally fits into the song. I love it, I usually listen to them when I’m bike riding, normally at 6:00 on my ten speed is the only place I can let out a guttural scream of lyrics and no one bothers me. To those living on my commute path, I apologize. In this song my favorite line is like chocolate raspberry gelato, smooth and rich (Am I hungry or why the sam hell can I only make food similes) “Then I’m as smooth as the skin rolls across the small of your back” I would like someone this smooth, more than I’d like butter chicken and gelato combined while walking down Main Street in Disney World. Desperate? Or just descriptive, you can make the call.

Marissa’s Choice: “Remember Me This Way” Jordan Hill: This is the song from Casper when Christina Ricci, her forehead, and Devon Sawa (who got to be human for an hour) dance together at her halloween party. I couldn’t resist the early 90′s nostalgia. Best line: If you loose your way, think back on yesterday, remember me this way ”

Camille’s Choice: I Want You Back: “Back before showbiz and plastic surgery ruined Michael. Need I say more? Who am I trying to kid, when in my life have I ever been able to keep my opinion to one sentence? It’ll be a cold day in hell my friends. I LOVE MOTOWN. I make no secret of it, it was THE best era for music. I don’t care what anyone says, I’ll fight them for it. I listen to Mr. Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Jackson 5, The Supremes, The Four Tops, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas, you name it, I dance to it. It’s my cleaning music, walk to work music, shake my groove thang music. Guaranteed, your having a shitty day, plug just ONE tune in, and you can’t help but smirk a little. This is one of my most frequently played, that and it gets double whammy awesome points cause it was in Now and Then, which lets face it, IS THE BEST MOVIE EVER (If there were an award for best exaggeration it would be me, but this time I mean it!) Devon Sawa, and Christina Ricci’s forehead, the key to a good movie!

Camille on Marissa’s Choice: To Be With You, Mr. Big: Okay, I CANNOT say enough about you adding this song. I LOVE THIS SONG. LOVE LOVE it. Not just let’s hold hands and giggle when we kiss teenage love, I’m talking fullblown here’s the engagement ring lets spend the rest of our lives together love. In my Mum’s rust colour Volvo we had a tape deck, and I remember rewinding and rewinding this song until one day it broke. I could never get enough, Favorite Excerpt: “Build up your confidence, so you can be on top for once, Wake Up who cares about little boys that talk too much” Marissa this song solidifies our BFF status in cement, as if it weren’t already. ”

Note 2.0: Marwa’s comments aren’t featured on here because she has yet to wax poetic on her choices, but she’s added such classics as All The Small Things (Blink 182), I Ran (So Far Away) by A Flock of Seagulls and Today by Smashing Pumpkins