Monthly Archives: June 2009

Who I Am*

Posted on June 22, 2009 by Shop Girl| Leave a comment

Do you ever think about the things that make you distinctly you? Those little eccentricities that are so small you don’t think about them but together they make you who you are? They are easiest to notice when you compare yourself to someone else and wonder why they do those little things differently than you do. I started thinking today about some of the things that make me who I am, and here is what I could come up with:

I very rarely like an entire album by an artist. Instead, I only ever take my one or two favourite songs and discard the rest. My iTunes playlists are largely comprised of one or two songs by a wide variety of artists. 3500 songs worth.

I can only eat mushrooms raw… in fact, I love them. However, I cannot eat them cooked in any situation. I can taste them in everything and have to remove every last piece.

I love lists… I often depend on them to function from day to day. I make lists for everything–things I need to buy, tasks I want to accomplish each day, people I need to respond to, topics I’d like to blog about it, etc.

I cannot stand the feeling of dry hands… I keep lotion everywhere. haha! I am constantly using hand lotion. (Vanilla is my favourite scent)

I have to nap on Sunday afternoons. It is the only day of the week that I physically really need to nap, and it’s the day when I exert myself the least. If I don’t get my Sunday afternoon nap I am exhausted for the rest of the day.

I only like Golden Oreos, and I can only eat them cold. (I keep my oreos in the fridge. haha)

I love taking pictures, but often get too shy to take my camera out and start snapping pictures of people when I’m in social situations.

I love Christmas. I wait for it all year and it is always over too quickly. I have to force myself to wait until November to start listening to Christmas music on a near daily basis. We just had to give away our Christmas tree as we no longer have room to store it and it made me SO sad.

I absolutely love going for walks, but only if there is absolutely nothing in my hands. I hate walking / carrying things for long periods of time–even my purse. If I’m going for a walk I can’t carry anything or it drives me nuts.

I have an extremely vivid imagination.

I dream almost every night, and I can usually remember very specific details about my dreams. They are often in colour, and filled with people from my past that I haven’t talked to in a long time.

The weather completely affects (okay, controls) my moods. I often joke that I am solar powered because I am only productive on sunny days… only I don’t think it’s a joke. haha

When I like a new song I tend to listen to it over and over and over for about two weeks and then I can’t listen to it again for months. However, despite this trend there is a handful of songs that no matter how many times in a row I listen, I cannot get sick of them. There is something about them that just resonates within me. They are:

*Foolish Games – Jewel
*Torn – Natalie Imbruglia
*Gardenia – Mandy Moore
*The Winner Takes It All – ABBA
*Hometown Glory – Adele
*Marry Me – Amanda Marshall
*Call the Man – Celine Dion
*When You’re Gone – Cranberries
*Run – Snow Patrol
*Don’t Stop Believin‘ – Journey

What makes you, you?

Shop Girl*

Posted in My thoughts*

Hodge Podge*

Posted on June 20, 2009 by Shop Girl| Leave a comment

Today you get a random hodge podge of this and that. Be excited.

I thought I’d start with a little something I found over at The Wife in Stilletto‘s blog that I really liked. She made a list of six random, unimportant, simple little things that make her happy. So, here are mine:

1. Waking up to sunshine.
2. Warm towels out of the dryer.
3. Peanut butter cookies.
4. Tom Hanks + Meg Ryan movies.
5. George Winston’s music.
6. Avocado & cucumber sushi rolls.

What are yours?

Today I spent a long time reviewing my French grammar. I’m not even great with English grammar, so relearning French grammar has been about as fun as a root canal. I am determined to finally learn it completely though… I’ll keep you posted.

I’ve done fairly well with my running regimen this week–so far I’ve been out 4 / 5 days, and I only missed because the weather was spectacularly craptacular and I reserve the right to refuse to run on rainy days. haha! I am hoping to get out tomorrow as well… I know there is an in-shape person inside me somewhere.

Yesterday I made my first pie… sort of. I decided that I wanted to tackle a lemon meringue pie despite the Hubster’s assurances that we could just buy one as I feel it’s a right of passage. I want to learn how to make pies. So, I got all the ingredients, prepared the crust, filling and topping and put’er in the oven.

Well, it looks sort of like a lemon meringue pie… and the filling tastes fabulous, but the pastry and the meringue were flops. My mom told me later that the recipe on the box for the filling doesn’t call for enough eggs to make the right amount of meringue–she triples it to get the right amount. *sigh* And let’s just not even talk about the pastry… I plead the fifth. (I think the Hubster is afraid of my pie… but he still loves me. haha)

Lastly, I have officially decided that Dill Pickle chips are the best flavor ever. The end.

Shop Girl*

P.s. I didn’t win the blog makeover giveaway. *tear*

Posted in Daily Junk*, Random Junk*

Spontaneous Dancing Part II*

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Shop Girl| Leave a comment

Okay. I KNOW I have already posted today but I just discovered a new blog (Suburban Euphoria) that I am reeeeally enjoying and Erin (the author) posted the most AMAZING thing.

As you know, I love dance.

Not like, love.

And you know what I love even more? Spontaneous dancing, even then not-so-spontaneous kind.

You know what else I love? Musicals. I own the entire Rogers & Hammerstein collection as well as a variety of other classics. (I’ll make a connection soon, I promise)

When I saw the first T-Mobile dancing commercial my heart flip flopped and I wanted to be in one SO BADLY but I settled for watching the subsequent commercials over and over and dancing with my laptop. (don’t judge me)

So when I found Erin’s blog with a video of a burst of spontaneous dancing to a song from The Sound of Music (one of my favourite musicals) my heart almost stopped beating. (yes, I am feeling dramatic this evening. It’s raining out… rain does weird things to me.) It’s amazing. Just watch. And love.

And then tell me how much you love it so I don’t feel like such a loser. haha

I also just watched the Evolution of Dance again for the ~~83rd~~ 2nd time. If you have not seen it yet… just go. Watch it now. Please?

Shop Girl*

P.s. You can view the T-Mobile commercials here and here. (the second one is singing, not dancing… just so you know)

Posted in Cool Stuff*

Shop Girl’s iShame*

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Shop Girl| Leave a comment

I need a new blogging schedule.

The Hubster is on a new work schedule which involves very early mornings, so we’ve been trying to get to bed a lot earlier than we normally do. I could technically go back to bed after he leaves, but I figure if he’s out working hard, I can be here working hard to try and find a job. I’ve been applying to every teaching position I can, even the ones that I am not technically qualified for but think I could do. It’s a bit discouraging to sit here day after day and hope that the phone will ring, but I’m trying to keep things in perspective… I’ve really only been looking a couple of weeks and there are hundreds of teachers looking for work right now. So, hopefully something will come up soon.

Anyway, enough with the pity party. I’m thinkin’ I might try writing first thing in the morning (verrrry early) and see how that goes. Do you have a “time” that you blog? Or just whenevs?

On to the matter at hand. I saw this on the lovely Tia’s blog and loved the idea… so I stole it. Obviously. The idea is to go through your iTunes and ‘fess up about your Top 10 iTunes embarrassments. You know, those songs that you secretly love to belt out at the top of your lungs when you are by yourself… maybe do some interpretive / terrible 80′s dancing alone in your bedroom whilst you listen… the ones you LOVE, but are embarrassed to tell anyone about because no one else has listened to them since 1993. (Don’t judge me)

And so, without any further ado, I present to you: Shop Girl’s iShame*

10. The Sign – Ace of Base. Is it wrong that I still love Ace of Base? The video is hilarious but I LOVE this song. It’s on my running play list because really, it’s awesome. If you try and tell me you didn’t love this song I won’t believe you.

9. Dr. Jones – Aqua. All I have to say about this is… AQUA IS MAKING A COMEBACK. My inner pre-teen never stopped loving Aqua… I will always be a barbie girl at heart. Their videos are kind of bizarre though… I love the Morse code love messages. haha

8. It’s Tricky – Run DMC. Umm… after watching the video for this song even I am now questioning my die hard devotion to this song. haha! Maybe listen with your eyes closed? This was my grade 9 song… we even made a dance to it in gym class… we were pretty gangsta.

7. Tubthumping – Chumbawamba. I should probably be shot for even listening to a song by a band whose name is “Chumbawamba”, but… um… no comment.

6. Set You Free – N-Trance. I actually have the entire Dance Mix ’95 album because I maintain that it is still the best dance music compilation ever. EVER. Total Eclipse of the Heart? Saturday Night? What is Love? DANCE MIX ’95 BABY. This video isn’t quite the same version as what’s on the tape (that’s right, I mean CASSETTE TAPE) but it’s the closest one I could find. LOVE IT.

5. What I’ve Been Looking For – High School Musical. (*ducks from rocks I imagine you are throwing at me right now*) …I loved High School Musical. I am 5 years old inside.. it’s the only explanation.

4. I’m Too Sexy – Right Said Fred. I’m too sexy for this song. (How does one become too sexy for their cat? What’chu think about that?)

3. Truly Madly Deeply – Savage Garden. If this song does not bring back happy memories of awkwardly dancing with a pimply faced boy at a school dance then I think there might be something wrong with you… like amnesia. This song was played at EVERY dance until I was like 16. haha

2. Stay – Shakespeare’s Sister. I have ALWAYS loved this song… and I think the video is bizarre but cool. Love it.

1. The YES Dance. Umm… sooo… the video could be seen as slightly offensive to some (I just have the song on my iTunes so I rarely see it) BUT it is FREAKING HILARIOUS. Okay okay, I find it even more ridiculously funny as Choppy (my brother) does the Fork in the Garbage disposal dance better than anyone I know. But you should learn it. We could dance together.

…if you watch any of the above videos, watch the last one… but just until you see the Fork in the Garbage Disposal. Watching beyond that is at your own risk. haha :)

So there it is folks, my Top Ten iShames. I taaaaag YOU.

Do it.

Shop Girl*

Posted in Random Junk*

Bugs in my Bathroom*

Posted on June 15, 2009 by Shop Girl| Leave a comment

I found bugs in my bathroom.

Two nights ago I entered my bathroom to get ready for bed. I stood in front of the mirror like I always do, then leaned in to examine my eyebrows (I’m a night plucker) when the window sill behind me moved. Okay, well, it looked like it moved. I immediately thought, “I’M BEING INVADED BY SPIDERS!” because really, I always assume it’s spiders. Ugh.

But it wasn’t… they were just bugs. Not like the really disgusting type of bugs (like spiders or centipedes) but little wee brown bugs. So small you’d almost miss them… until they move in swarms. I looked more closely (but not too close) and couldn’t figure out what they were… but as we are in an older apartment with big old wooden windows, my next thought was, “I’M BEING INVADED BY TERMITES!” and visions of my home being eaten flooded my mind. You see, my idea of what a termite is was slightly warped by an old Popeye cartoon that we watched all the time as kids… it proves termites eat things REALLY FAST. Just watch (and love):

See what I mean?! They are house eating devils!!

…but then my friend Google informed me that they were, in fact, not termites and the visions of my home being covered under those red and white tents and the exterminator guys (who are always creepy on TV) stealing all my stuff and rummaging through my undies vanished. Phewf.

So, I’m at a loss. I vacuumed the window sill reeeeeeally well yesterday, but a few were still back last night. Tonight they appear to be keeping their distance, but it’s raining a bit and I’m wondering if that is why they are not invading my bathroom.

They are not spiders or termites… what else is there? haha

Shop Girl*