A post containing way too may fragments in brackets

Okay so here's my excuse for not blogging,  I'm back at school.  No not university, no not Gillespie, but culinary school.  It's been crazy.
So here's how it happened.  Last Christmas I forced my family to watch episodes Jamie Oliver's Christmas special for like 5 hours (and the Juniors)  and with that I kept saying, I really should just quit school and cook.  Last April after midterms and my psych class driving me psychotic I decided to apply for Culinary Arts at NSCC.  I was told I would be on a 4 year wait list.  I then had to decide what to do until I was accepted, and I couldn't figure it out. The Monday of camp I was making my bed and recived a call from my dad, he told me NSCC had called and I was accepted into the program starting the next Wednesday.  I liked Acadia, I love history and politics and all of that but, overall my university experience kind of sucked.  I hated getting up early to hike to my English class and taking German and Psych.  Now I have class everyday at 8:30 and I don't dread getting out of bed. ( I still love to sleep and goodness at 6:51 in the morning flannel is the best feeling in the world but...)  I have 2 teachers's who know exactly who I am.  (okay, so occasionally one of them can't remember my name and calls me Mademoiselle) I don't have to write my student ID number on anything, ever.
I am now 3 months into the program and I adore it.  Of course it stresses me out to no end, but it's a different kind of stress, almost a nice kind of stress.  And I'm saying this after a week of scrubbing dishes every day.
 It's crazy that this time last year I was trying to drill the parts of the brain and their function and millions of German words into my head and this year I have to know different types of soup and the 5 mother sauces.
Does this justify a 2 month hiatus?
No?

I have been spending a lot of time listening to Jay and Dan while I study.

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Christmas music started a month ago with me, but this week marked the official start of it.

I would set up my Christmas tree but we're moving in 18 or so days.  I think I'll be able to survive.

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p.s  I need to write a camp post

I'm not dead yet.

Remember those absolutely wonderful times when I still blogged.
I will in the very near future write a post pleading for forgiveness.  I will also write a hilarious recap of camp, including video and pictures.

I know for a fact the internet misses my hockey ramblings.  But there is no hockey right now, I know.  I could write a rant but it's mostly just anger and disappointment.   Above is Brendan Shanahan, head of NHL Player safety wearing a Mickey Ear's hat in a Disney store.  The amount of crazy pictures of this guy you can find out there on the world wide web, he should have no credibility. 

p.s please say the title in your best Monty Python voice.

All brain no brawn.

Back from camp.  I will write my yearly Camp extravaganza in the very near future, I think I'm going o clean out my drafts a little bit before I do.

I brought home a lot of things from camp, one being a head cold from George.

I should probably give you something to tide you over,

They really thought he was going to die.

"I don't even know why moo is an option"

    I don't get to drive to camp with my usual band of hoodlums, this makes me incredibly sad.  I found my camp notebook and I was reading the crazy things we did and said on the way to camp last year, then it hit me, I don't get to do that this year.  I won't get to sing-scream the words to all the songs on the camp CD.   I won't get to plan how to rob a skinny asian man of his airstream trailer or a small man of his Lays truck. I won't hear the GPS moo every time we pass a church or go over the speed limit.   I won't get to experience how disgusting green army men gummies are at 8 in the morning( Actually at any time, those things are nasty)  I do however get to cross one thing off my bucket list the night before, one of the things I never thought I would be able to cross off.  I also get o make the journey to camp, though 3 hours shorter with my cousins.  My cousin Ryan will be a ball of crazy energy, so that aspect won't be completely gone.
I'm excited for camp,  last week it finally hit me, I'm going to camp in 2 weeks.  I'm making the big jump from Junior Counsellor to  full fledged counsellor this year.  I'm also in charge of tie-dying which is super fun, but more intense than I thought it would be.   I also am organizing registration the first day, and cabin assignment.  It's been crazy but I love camp so I would do almost anything they'd ask me to do.
In a week I'll be scrubbing a table furiously after crafts before lunch.

9 days.

So I found this fabulous website, or rather my mom sent me a post from it and I became obsessed and have read every single post on it since then...  So what is it?  Camp Confessions.  With less than 2 weeks until camp I am really starting to get pumped up, and this website is helping immensely (also drinking milk regularly and listening to hymns over and over)

Here is a collection of my favourites

This happens practically every single day for me.  I hardly think a day goes by with out a mention of camp.  I know for a fact no Sunday goes by without it.

Industrial dishwashers just make everything better.  And you may be rewarded with the chocolate milk bag.  It's impossible for counsellors because we can't make doing the dishes punishment, unless it's sausage breakfast day.

It was a particularly intense game of Capture the Flag.

Samarah saw this one and she just said, "This is Kaitlyn"

I wrote a whole skit based on this fact.  It's now 9 days until camp.

Bonus post from Camp Counselor moments.  Because really, this happens every single meal.

 p.s I have a camp craft bracelet on right now, one of the ones made from seam binding, it's not coming off for at least 16 more days.

p.p.s I sat here trying to think of a wonderful title for this post and I am completely stumped.  Leave a better title in the comments.

We are Canadian, and we are proud to win

The Olympics have come and gone. (this is my excuse for not blogging in an eternity)  The Olympics exist for people like me.  The Olympics exist for nationalists.
The opening ceremonies drove me a little insane because they kept showing the royal family, and I have issues with the royal family.  Besides that, they were amazing.  30 Mary Poppins flying from the sky to banish Voldemort was kind of amazing.
Canada did not perform up to everyone's expectations, walking away with one gold medal.  The thing is, the Canadian media builds up our athletes so much.  We are convinced that every single Canadian athlete is going to medal, and we're not, we can't.  I still cheer like crazy for the Canadians in every competition of course.
We had a ton of heartbreak these games. So let's focus on the positive.
The Women's soccer team.  Bronze.  First time for that team, Canada's first medal since '36 in a team sport.  I know, we should have been in the gold medal game, thanks Norway I though we were friends. But Bronze,Canada is a country where we celebrate Bronze like it's gold, ex. 2012 Juniors, Joannie Rochette.
Canada earned a lot of Bronze these games.
In Diving, Emilie Heymans winning medals in 4 straight olympics.
Darren Drouin in the high jump, a complete surprise of a medal and our first medal in high jump since '76.
Brent Hayden finally getting his olympic medal, after so many years of disappointment.
Mark Oldershaw, a 3rd generation Olympian, finally brining a medal to his family.

Our Women's gymnastics team placed 5th when we weren't even supposed to make it to the final.
In the end Canada walked away from these games feeling happy.
The love spread by our athletes on twitter was absolutely amazing (and reading Hayley Wickenheiser's tweets for 2 weeks made me so happy)

As a proud Canadian I always feel like a traitor when I cheer for Michael Phelps.  But he is now the most decorated Olympian of all time, which is amazing.
And who can cheer against Usain Bolt?  Triple gold, 2 Olympics in a row.

Someday maybe Canada will be super awesome at the Summer Olympics, until this happens we will always have the Winter.  I love that only Gold will do in the winter and then at the summer Olympics we celebrate top tens and bronze.

"Just" a Mom

I know exactly what I want to do with my life.  I want to get married, and live here in the Valley on a hobby farm and bake and cook and raise oodles of amazing kids.  And read to them and love them to bits.  That is what I want, that is all I have ever wanted.   But society has put so much pressure on me.  Society says I have to go make something of myself.  Society says I can't "just" be a mom, that I have to go to school and work and be this great woman.  But I can do all these things raising my kids.  Being "just" a mom is like a  curse in society today.  I feel like I am letting down the entire planet because I'm not going to be the next Hilary Clinton or Condoleezza Rice.  Because that is what society has told me I have to be, because I like history and politics I need to do that.  They say that anything and everything I do will be a waste of my brain.  But society doesn't take into account that maybe all I want to do is have 3-8 children, bake and maybe write a cook book.  But me making this choice at the meagre age of 19 doesn't make me worthless, that my decision to stay home and raise kids doesn't undo everything feminists have fought for, for so long. The fact that I dropped out of school because I know I can't get a job when I'm done doesn't make me stupid.  Sure if I had the money I would go and finish my degree in history and poli sci, but I simply don't have the money.  Feminism should be accepting of this, the fact that they look down on women who make this choice is un-feminist.  Believing in equality is the only qualification of being a feminist.  But it's not even feminism, it's equality, it's human rights.
Some of the most amazing and strong women I know are, "just" moms.  "Just" moms change the world every single day.  I don't know why are society doesn't put as much faith in "just" moms.

Puffed Sleeves

When I was about 7 or 8 I called garbage, rubbish.

My entire vocabulary when I was a kid was shaped by Road to Avonlea, The Little House books, Anne of Green Gables and when I was slightly older the Narnia series (which sadly I have never finished this series, I have read The Horse and His Boy far too many times however)

My aunt often comments that I have been an adult since I was a baby.  This is true, my mom started reading the Little House series to me when I was three.  Anne of Green Gables is one of my earliest movie memories.  My TV diet when I was a kid was a steady supply of taped from TV, Road to Avonlea and the Waltons.

When I played with Barbies as a kid I always had this revolving story of them being pioneers.  Come on, I pretended my Barbies were pioneers!

I was one of those kids that could sit still and be read to for hours on end.  My mom and I spent a day when I was 5 or 6 reading A Christmas Carol, no kid that age knows any original interpretation of that tale, but I did.  We also read an entire Little House book in a day, it was one of the fake ones about Laura's great-grandmother (also I can remember what book it was) 

I took up Nancy Drew, being a stickler for the old hardcovers, I don't think I have ever read a soft cover Nancy Drew.  The smell just wouldn't be the same.  And I read the Bobbsey Twins, the Bobbsey twins.  I can almost guarantee that no one under the age of 45, and that is pushing it, has read the Bobbsey Twins, but I have.  Funny story I think I still owe late fees on a Bobbsey twins book because I was using it to construct some piece of furniture for my pioneer barbies.

My mom also read me The BFG more times that I can count.

When I was 9 I took up Harry Potter and it was like finding a new nook of home.  It was a world where garbage was called rubbish and sweaters were jumpers. ( Harry Potter is set in the 90's, wrapping up in '98 I believe)

I knew the synopsis of Romeo and Juliet when I was 4. ( I use the word Synopsis for goodness sake!)

In this long convoluted post I am not trying to show off my vast knowledge but trying to justify the reason that sometimes I call garbage, rubbish, or why I still mix cornbread by hand or why I am drawn to calico and know that the Kings only had sheep for one episode (it's the one when Aunt Eliza comes to live with them)  Why I shipped Felix and Izzy and Gilbert and Anne before I knew what a date was.   I should be embarrassed of this post because it shows how truly dorky I am.  Can I blame my dorkiness on my parents?  Aren't I as a child of this generation allowed to blame whatever I want on my parents?  

(also major dork confession, there was this cooking show hosted by an old man with a beard that would come on before Road to Avonlea and I watched it like crazy when I was 5… it's the reason I know that most commercial breaks are 2 minutes. I can't make it any worse but, we had a collection of gardening VHSs when I was a kid and I think I watched them every 2 weeks, 3 years old watching gardening tapes..)