Vote for Andrea: "the one in the stripes"

Click the above picture to be taken to article in the Edmontonian.

Click here to vote.

Juicy, juicy, juicy, juicy fruit

A lot of our time during summers when we were younger was spent among the rows and rows of strawberries and peas in the giant garden on the farm. This lovely gift from the lovely Andrea took me back to those days... sitting in the dirt on the quest for the most perfectly ripe strawberry. I shall cuddle this little glass jar and whisper soothing words to this little green plant, in the hopes that someday it will provide me with even one deliciously juicy morsel.

An unexpected love letter

Dear Roomie's Boyfriend,

I don't know if you know this, but you are pretty great. My girl has been through a lot of crappy men in her lifetime, and it pleases me to no end that you are not another one of Them. You listen to what she has to say, you get her, and most importantly, you give her a break from feeling like she needs to fix people all of the time. You make sure she makes time for herself.

I know many of Roomie's friends haven't been super supportive, or confident, in this relationship. Age difference has that effect on people. The thing with our girl though is, while she can be immature at times, she is grown up beyond her years. Antoine de Saint-Exupery said that love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction. I feel like, for the first time in as long as I've known her, she finally has that. Actually, I don't just feel it, I know it.

Roomie is pretty outgoing, she's known for being sexually adventurous and open, she's honest about everything and keeps nothing hidden. I've heard more than I ever wanted to know about her boyfriends' man parts. But you know what? I haven't heard about yours. Don't think that I want to hear about yours (gross!), but I think that this is pretty significant. Instead of bragging about the size of your meat, or complaining because the lack thereof, she talks about how amazing it is to kiss you. Previously, she had mentioned that she didn't understand the big deal about kissing, that its place is as the precursor to the main event. But with you, it's all she talks about. How sweet you are, how she gets butterflies when your lips touch and how being with you is unlike anything she's ever felt.

Our girl tends to lose herself in relationships. She feels the need to censor herself, or devote all of her time and attention to the new guy, or hide some awesome part of her that he's not keen on. The best thing I could ever say about your relationship is that this doesn't happen. She's still the old roomie, her completely lovely self. I love that you want to meet her friends, and that you invited the Boy and I along to the comedy club last week. I love that you're coming to our not-really-fancy-but-kinda-pretend-fancy wine and cheese party this weekend, meeting lots of people who you've never met before. You realize that Roomie's friends are important to her, and you encourage her to keep those relationships alive. Even better, you want to get to know the people she talks about.

I just wanted to let you know that I really hope you are The One for her. She's found a good thing in you, and you've definitely found something wonderful in her.

...And if you ever break her heart, I will cut you.

xoxo, Elle

Brought to you by caffeine and the letter "V"

The lovely Brookem over at Shrinkering Hearts had this little ABC thing going on over at her blog, and she's assigned me the letter "V". Yikes.

If you want to participate, leave a comment on this post letting me know and I will assign you a letter. You then write about 10 things you love that begin with your assigned letter and post them on your blog. When people comment on your posted list that they want a letter, you give them one and the chain continues on and on.

So, here we go: 10 things I love, starting with the letter "V".

1. Volunteering. I like to get involved in causes I believe in, like interVivos and Relay for Life. I feel good about contributing to society, and think that everyone is better off focusing on others for a while and forgetting the stresses in our own daily lives.

2. Voting. Oh man, do I ever love voting. As a former political science nerd and a member of interVivos' The Vote Project, which springs up around election time, voting is one of my passions. It's the big chance where citizens have an opportunity to tell the leaders of a country how we really feel about them. It's a democratic right which we take for granted. The shamefully low voter turnouts we have every election makes me hurt inside.

3. Vineyards. I described my dream job earlier this month. Wine is becoming one of my favourite things. It relaxes me after a long, hard day and and is in my glass when raised in celebration. I went to a wine tasting with a friend and now have fantasies of enrolling in a legitimate wine course. The beautiful scenery, delectable food, and delicious wines cause visions of vineyards haunt my dreams. My goal for the summer is to get to the Okanagan with the Boy and visit some vineyards there.

4. Veggies. Vegetables are delicious, I've never needed enforcement to eat them. Even brussel sprouts, which I didn't try until university, create a party in my mouth. Yum, yum.

5. Vests (the sweater kind, not the suit kind). I can't pull off the clean suited vests that all the cool kids are wearing these days, but I love a mean sweater vest. I went through a phase where I couldn't resist them, which was only fueled by the fact that so many of them featured argyle, my pattern of choice.

6. Vegas. The Boy and I went in November, and it was a great time. Censory overload and exhaustion-inducing, but it was interesting to not only see the sights but also people watch. Chain smoking, drinking, and intensely staring into the face of a slot machine are not things that I could do before 8 a.m. but it was normal for so many others. We saw the Beatles' LOVE Cirque de Soleil when we were there and it was absolutely amazing. I'd go again just to see it (well and maybe check out Freemont Street).

7. Violet (the colour, not the flowers). I love deep, rich purples. Always have. And violet is a colour that looks amazing on just about anyone. Which is fortunate since my skin is quite often some shade of purple (I'm a little accident prone).

8. Video games. Growing up, we never had video games. We had a couple of educational computer games, but no video game console. It wasn't until I started dating the Boy that I started really playing video games, and I don't care much to brag, but I'm pretty kick-ass at RockBand. He gave me a Wii for my birthday, so now video games are a pretty solid part of our relationship. Currently, I'm addicted to Fable II for the XBox. I dream about it.

9. Vases. I don't know what it is, but plants and vases send me into a frenzy. I can't go into Ikea without purchasing one of these two items, and if for some reason I do not return with one or the other (or both), it's cause for celebration. The ones to the right are from Ikea (I stole the picture from their website). I don't own them, but I kind of wish I did!

10. Vacation. Ahhh, sweet, sweet vacation. One week from now I'll be on an airplane, looking forward to a week off of work. Spending Family Day with my family. I can't even describe now much I'm looking forward to it. I've never been one for sunshine-soaked destinations, but lazy vacation is defintely where it's at.

There we go! I never thought I'd be able to think up 10. Thanks Brookem, for making me think on a Friday, and giving me reason to actually take a break during lunch on a busy day.

The moment that could have changed his life

I had initially planned out another post for today, ranting about society scum, but it can wait until tomorrow. I read this news story in the Edmonton Journal today and it broke my heart (what can I say, I'm a girl, I'm pretty much always on the verge of tears).

The gist of the story is that a homeless man with a brain injury found over $2,000 in unscratched lottery tickets and turned them in to the Western Canada Lottery Commission.

No reward was offered to Gillespie and he didn't ask for one.

"I just wanted to do the right thing," he said.

"This could have caused the government and others a lot of headaches, and I didn't want that."

For his trouble, he was given bus fare and a cup of coffee.

Awwww.

The comments are pretty awesome on this one, with people commenting about how sucky it is the WCLC didn't do something more than give him a bus ticket. Certainly it's not their place, but really, he could have scratched the tickets and won a lot of money on them. It's rare that you find such gems in society who try to do the right thing, it would be nice for them to reward such behaviour.

Karma definitely owes Mr. Gillespie big time.


Semi-related addition: Man looks back in shame at his panhandling past.