29 May 2007

shhhhhh

home with a sick kid today. it's beautiful out...keeping a close eye for the steam-cleaners who are coming to give our building a facelift...at which point i'll have to run and close all the windows and doors. j's had a headache and fever off and on for a couple of days. no fun :(

this morning i was listening to the radio and heard about this. there's a bunch of commercial hype because it is, afterall, a product, but the core concept is one i find really interesting. going to do some more reading about that. i love wikipedia.

so it's time to answer a few questions....

stephaniehowell said...
shoot, i missed the questions??

here are a couple-
what makes you really, truly happy?
what are you the most proud of?
what makes you laugh the hardest?

Happy? There are so many things! Especially right now as spring has sprung and the weather is getting warmer and warmer. I love having fresh flowers in the house...the life and colour and brightness they bring really does make me happy. I am happyhappyhappy when I have a clean house. I'm happy when I'm making art, or when I'm in a bubble bath with a glass of champagne (<---this doesn't happen hardly ever...maybe once in my life...hmmm...i should do that more!). But honestly, my truest happiness comes when I'm spending time with people I love. It has to be complete, 100% dedicated time...that's the only time you will ever really enjoy I think...when you're utterly and totally invested in it. Laughing with my boys (happens constantly), chatting with mum, hanging with my sisters or friends.

Proud. I'm so incredibly proud of the job that Dren and I are doing together as parents. Jaxon is an incredible human being. We are raising him to be a good person. It's so important to me that he is kind to people and animals, that he is aware of how his actions/choices affect others. Sometimes it's a really REALLY tough job. People tell me that they like Jaxon...that makes me so proud.

It's always in interacting with people that I find myself in stitches. Jaxon and I goof around together (a lot). Dren will sometimes say something funny that I haven't hear 95000 times before and we will spend 10 minutes just howling. I have a great little group of friends who understand eachother completely...we are sarcastic and scandalous and we are forever making eachother crack up with random digs and insults. Sigh. I love to laugh.

Thanks Steph baby!


Angela said...

Hi there! I love reading your blog, and check in here all the time so maybe I should actually leave more comments and not be such a lurker! LOL

Here are a couple of ?'s for you:
if you could be a famous entertainer(actor or singer, from the past or present), who would you be?
what is your favorite smell?
what is the last thing you thought before falling asleep last night?

Hi Angela! (you lurker)

WOW...that's a hard question! If I could be a famous entertainer.....I'm thinking it would have to be an actress, but I've never thought about being someone else before. I can think of half a dozen actresses and singers whose work I love...but that doesn't necessarily mean I know them or know what there life is/was like and that I'd want to be them. Am I making this much more difficult than it needs to be? OKOK...then let's say Julia Roberts for the down-to-earthednessish thing she's got going on along with her talent and charm...Drew Barrymore for her fun, cute, quirkyness and talent genes, Angelina Jolie for her humanitarian side (ok fine and for her lips and cheekbones)(oh, and minus the husband-stealing bit), Audrey Hepburn for her classic beauty and my fave of that era. In other words, I suck at this question. Ha!!

Mmmm...I love scent. I loooove candles & air fresheners that are not too overpowering. I like mildly sweet. Exotic essential oil from the Body Shop is one of my all-time faves. I like melon/cucumber sort of combos...some things that say they are "rainshower" scented, and currently have the citrus cilantro reed diffuser from pier 1 still rockin. YUM. Apparently "what is your favourite..." is going to get a variety of responses from me. This is because I can never make up my mind about anything...well, most things. I can't even make up my mind about whether I can make up my mind.

Last night before I fell asleep I thought "I hope Jaxon is feeling better in the morning". Ha! again.

Kelly S. said...

yum Apricot beer....
Ok I have a question-
Why did you start scrapping?
How did you meet your sweetie?

Why I started scrapping. Huh. Well, I was big into making cards and "found" a little scrapbooking store I could start buying a huge, beautiful array of cardstock. Then a friend and I checked out another store and they had Cathy Zielske's first book and I was so drawn into the way she put these stories together about her kids and family. Not the actual stories, but the design of the pages. The graphic designer in me was totally inspired and after thinking about it for a few days, I went back and bought the book. I figured I would use it for inspiration for card-making. I love her use of typography and colour and her photography alone is totally inspirational. So I started actually reading some of what she had to say...the text of the book and the journalling. I read the stuff in the back and checked out a couple of her fave links. One happened to be 2 Peas in a Bucket. Well, as a lot of you will know...that was the beginning of the end for me! It still took me a few weeks of cruising around, but it was also post-Jaxon, so it didn't take too long before I was a scrapbooking fool.

Dren and I met at school. Douglas College, to be precise. Quite a funny, only-slightly-less-embarrassing-as-I-get-older story. I had spotted him several times around campus. Hi. I mean...he's totally hot. One morning in the cafeteria we exchanged a look and a smile (he doesn't remember...I do...oh do I ever). I had been broken up with my ex at the time for approximately 2 weeks and was officially, definitely, committedly, single. I wanted no part of a relationship. But apparently that didn't deter me from noticing that he was sitting by himself in a computer lab in the room next to my classroom on my way in one morning.

As I sat with my friends waiting for class to start, I could NOT stop thinking about him...about how school was almost over and I might never see this guy ever again. I left our classroom and went next door. I sat myself down a couple of rows behind him. I was trying to figure out how to send a message to his computer (we had figured this out and had lots of fun with it during class)...but I couldn't do it that time for some reason. So I typed up a note and printed it out. Walked up to the printer, grabbed the paper, folded it like 8 times and walked up to him. I stood in front of the table where he was and said "Hi. Can I give you something to read?", and he said "Uhmm...ookaay..." (like who is this weirdo!?). I handed him the note and practically ran away. I did not introduce myself or engage in any sort of conversation whatsoever. Clearly, I was not practiced at picking guys up. At all. I had never in my entire life approached a guy.

I booked it back to my room where the instructor was getting set up, and whispered what I had done to a friend next to me. I let her read my note and she thought I was absolutely insane. That helped my insecure, embarrassed, what-the-hell-did-I-just-do feeling immensely. That afternoon he paged me (...all the cool kids had pagers in those days) and I had no idea what his name was from his message. I let my two best friends at the time hear the message and we sat brainstorming as to what his name might be.

Brent? It has to be Brent. But it really sounds like Gren. What the hell kind of name is GREN?? So there was more embarrassment when I phoned him back and hesitantly asked for Gren. Yeah. He then explained his nickname Dren and we chatted for like 45 minutes while he walked his dog. For the most part, the rest is history....we talked every day, had a first date and saw eachother almost everyday afterwards.

I was 21. He was 28. It was March, 1999.

Thanks for asking Kelly S...that was a fun trip down memory lane...I should break out somma those old 1999 pix methinks!

OK off to try to get this kid to eat or at the very least drink a little something. He's fully immersed in Arthur and the Invisibles. Great show.

9 comments:

Nicole said...

Oh Gen, sorry to hear your little guy is sick again....hope he's feeling better soon! Loved reading the answers to the questions.

caroline said...

awww
i love that story.

Kim Langston said...

I am a lurker as well but had to post that I love love la-hove your story about how you met your husband. Good for you girl having the courage to give him a note!

stephanie howell said...

aw, man- i feel all warm and fuzzy inside from reading this post.
thanks for sharing.

Nikki Culcasi said...

Hi there,

I was home with my sick boy today too. Fever and headache. His name is Jaxon, spelled just like yours. He's 7. Just thought that was interesting!

Kelly S. said...

Sweet story, I love hearing how people met!

Hope your little guy feels better soon.

I saw you made the DT at scrapologie! I may have to order their kits now. Can't wait to see what you do with them.

Unknown said...

Princess smooth, I love your pick-up methods!
Great story, you need to word for word print your blog and get that one down, and the old pics we must see!
B-

gabbyfek said...

lub the gen
and the dren
oh so very very much.
xoxoxoxoxo.

Ania said...

Aww what a totally cute story the one about you and your sweetie! :D Thanks for sharing! Love hearing peoples stories :) :)