Showing posts with label Friendship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Friendship. Show all posts

Sunday, 19 February 2012

Reading Week: Days 1, 2 & 3

This reading week I plan to relax, work, and check of a chunk of things off of my “to do list”. I know, relaxing doesn’t really seem to fit in, but I’m definitely going to try. Check my blog daily if you’re interested in how I spent my “holiday”. 

Day 1- Friday February 17
Normally I have classes until 3 on Fridays but my advertising instructor Melodie was kind enough to hand us our assignment and send us off for reading week. Which would mean I would leave school at 2 right? Wrong! I signed out an ENG video camera for the week so I could hopefully work on my Alpha Phi montage. My tape was full so I needed to get everything onto my hard drive so I would have room for more filming. It seemed like a quick and easy task, which of course meant it would actually take forever. I didn’t leave school until 5:30!

After I FINALLY got home, I ran a few errands and took a 45 minute nap. Not long but it did the job. Then my friend Lauren came over and we hung out for a bit until heading out to Bryan’s party. It was a lot of fun getting to know people from other sections. Earlier that day we all declared our majors and I got to know some of the other girls in CreComm who I’ll be spending time with next year. 


Day 2- Saturday February 18
I didn’t get to bed until around 3AM, but I got to sleep until 11 so it wasn’t too much of a big deal. I was actually pretty exhausted from the night before, but had to shake it off because I had a 1-4 shift. I really didn’t want to work because I wanted to enjoy my Saturday, but I also have to pay the bills. So off to work I went. My Saturday night was pretty chill. I took yet another nap, made some dinner, watched Valentine’s Day with the roommate, had a mini dance party in my room as I do most nights, and then went to bed.

Day 3- Sunday February 19
Today was a lot of fun. I woke up at 8AM (since I’m so used to getting up early for school) but then just lied in bed for about an hour or so. After I cooked myself some breakfast, I showered and ran out the door to head to my friend Kimiya’s house. Recently I wrote an article about her and her views on sex before marriage. She’s grew up in Somalia so the sex practices there are a lot different than they are here. It’s a really interesting story so if you’re interesting in reading, you should pick up a copy of Undressed Winnipeg magazine at Red River’s magazine fair on March 30th. Or message me if you would like to order a copy. Anywho, I went over to Kimiya’s house to take some photos of her to go along with the article I wrote. She’s a model so she’s getting pretty used to being in front of the camera. 



The Beautiful Kimiya Yussuf. Follow her on Twitter: @kimiyayussuf



Right now I’m just chillen in bed watching 127 hours and eatin some pizza. 

Tomorrow’s Louis Riel day and as much as I would LOVE to go to Grand Forks with my little sis Michal, I highly doubt that’s going to happen. My life’s super predictable that way, but I’ll save my sob story another post. 

Since I’ll be in regular old Winnipeg tomorrow, I’m going over to my cousin’s house to give her another piano lesson. After that? Not quite sure what the rest of the day has in store for me. I might head down to Festival Du Voyageur with my friend Claire if she’s free, but we shall see. 

What are you all up to this week?

Sunday, 1 January 2012

Santa's Workshop 2011

Hello folks. Seeing as how the holidays are coming to a close, the Santa's Workshop page will be taken down. All of its contents are included in this post, so feel free to enjoy. Hope you all had a fantastic holiday. Stay tuned for Santa's Workshop 2012!



Santa's Workshop

December 27, 2011

Christmas Finale
As much as the Christmas season excites me, I always find myself just as excited when it comes to an end. I enjoy the hustle and bustle of everyone at the mall rushing around trying to find the perfect gift for that special someone, but the calm after the storm is also satisfying. 
This year I did the bulk of my Christmas shopping on December 23rd. This is highly unusual for me as I like to try and get things done early. The reason for the last minute shopping? I started a new job at the Body Shop during the last week of school (a silly idea by the way), when I already worked at Penningtons. Between the two jobs, I pretty much worked every.....single....day....sometimes twice a day. So much for having a 3 week holiday, maybe next year? 
Anyway, there wasn’t a heck of a lot of time to get any shopping in. I was also pretty broke from only working 4-8 hours a week during the semester, so I had to wait until I got a big enough cheque to spend on my loved ones. 


My mom loves Christmas just as much as I do, if not more; we always make a big deal out of it. Since moving out a couple of years ago, I always make it a point to sleep at her place on Christmas Eve, and hopefully Christmas day, depending on how early I work boxing day (stupid retail). For the last two Christmases I was house-sitting for my friend Michal and her family, which meant that I could only sleep at my mom’s on Christmas Eve; I couldn’t leave Michal’s dog Chloe alone for too long. But this year I didn’t sit for her, which meant more time with mama Jennings. 

We usually each open one gift once it turns midnight, and then open the rest early Christmas morning after we’ve had breakfast. Christmas breakfast is ALWAYS egg nog pancakes, by my request of course. Delicious! 
My mom always gets me a ton of great gifts each year, one of the perks of being an only child (I get her a ton of gifts in return). This year at the gift on the top of my list is a 43” plasma TV!

On Christmas day my grandparents always pick us up and take us to my auntie’s house to exchange gifts with them. My mom and I always go halfers on gifts for the family, but I'm usually the one to pick them all out, seeing as how I'm a professional shopper and all. Giving gifts to my family is one of my favourite parts of Christmas!
Me and my cousin Jules

Cousins L-R: Tommy, Jules, Catarina, Brian    
 




Mom and Catarina

Me and my cute lil grandma


Grandpa
Christmas this year was exceptionally good, and I'm already excited for next Christmas. Until then,enjoy the rest of your holidays folks!


December 20, 2011

Merry Christmas, From Dior



Absolutely love this video!






December 18, 2011

Holiday Bonanza Recap

After a month of anticipation, Anita and I finally had our Holiday Bonanza last night. One thing you’ll learn about me is that I tend to over prepare when I host events and such. I was technically having two parties, one for my CreComm friends and one with simpletons...I mean non-CreComm friends. Apparently that led me to believe that I had to make twice as much food, not quite the case. 

I cooked about 5 lbs of spaghetti sauce because I didn’t want to risk running out during the first party, not leaving enough for the second. I used the same thinking for cupcakes. I made both vanilla and chocolate in case people wanted a choice, and made 55, yes 55 cupcakes total! My intent was to ice them all before 4pm, but of course that was a no go; I only iced half. I made them mainly because I love how they look on my cupcake tree. By the end of the night, I was force feeding cupcakes to people before they walked out the door, convincing them to take at least 5 home, if not 10. Believe me, giving away delicious cupcakes is harder than it sounds. I woke up this morning to about 35 cupcakes in my kitchen. Geeze Louise! 
What I failed to realize while preparing mass quantities of food, was that I was the one who suggested our party be a potluck, meaning, everyone bring food, not just me. Tons of delicious treats filled our table. Crackers, cheese, spinach dip, wings, mozzarella sticks, cookies, chips, salad, and the list goes on. I think one reason I over prepared with the food is because there are usually quite a few people who don’t bring anything to potlucks. I forgot that CreComm students are usually on the ball, which I love and appreciate! Anyway, enough about food.
We also had quite a bit of booze as well, mostly wine, beer, strawberry daiquiris, and Jell-O shots! In addition to over 50 cupcakes, I also made about 50 red and green Jell-O shots, A.K.A. the perfect amount. I’m not in any way a Jell-O fan, but if there’s raspberry or watermelon vodka in them, I don’t mind taking one, or 5, for the team. 
It was nice seeing my fellow CreCommers, I’ve missed them this past week. And I’m sad to say that some of us won’t be in the same class next semester. Oh well, it’s a chance to make new friendships right? But we did have a good time last night. It was also nice seeing some of my old high school friends again. It’s weird how fast time flies...(cliché I know, but lucky for me I’m not composing a creative writing assignment). It feels like graduation was just yesterday, when in fact, it was 5 years ago. Don’t ask me how that works. 
I’m glad you guys n’ gals came to our party, and I hope you had as great a time as we did. Happy holidays everyone :D 


 December 15, 2011

Throwback Thursday- Christmas Parties

     In high school I used to have a Christmas party every year and it was always a blast. We would do an informal gift exchange and I ALWAYS got a gift from EVERYONE because I was the hostess, which may be why I kept having Christmas parties. I would cram 15 of my closest freinds into my apartment and we'd be nice and cozy. I haven't had a Christmas party since I moved out of my mom's place a couple of years ago, weird I know. But if you knew the history of my past living situations, it would make more sense. Anywho, my roommate Anita and I are having our first holiday party and we're both super excited. I'm guessing we're going to have about 20 people in our apartment, so I'm looking forward to that familiar cozy feeling :)





November 26, 2011

Holiday Shopper 

Running behind a big empty cart, all she can hear is the pounding of her heart.
“Why did I wait? How stupid? How dumb? I’m always surprised when Christmas Eve comes.”
 She slows down a tad to sip ginger ale, but she can’t pause for long or she’ll miss all the sales.
She then picks up speed while in the toy aisle; it’s packed with late-shoppers, not one with a smile.
She stops for a minute to reach her hand up, “What kid would want this? A pig in a tea cup?”
With no time to waste, toy pig goes in her cart, further down the aisle, she begins to dart.
She grabs all she can, rushing to checkout to pay, “I need to rush faster, there’s no time to delay.
Before she reaches the checkout, off go the store lights. On the intercom she hears,  “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.”






Charmaine & Anita’s Holiday Party Bonanza!- November 16, 2011
Hey you! No, not you...YOU! Over there. Behind that guy with the eyes. No. No. You, to the right. Yes you! Hello. 
What are you doing on December 17th?
You’re going to Charmaine & Anita’s Holiday Party Bonanza? Lucky you! What time does it start?
Oooh, 7:30? Sounds like a good time to start a party. Where is it?
At their apartment eh? Sounds like it’ll be nice and cozy...I like cozy. 
I know they’re going to provide some food, but are you going to bring food with you too?
Ya, I figured you would. You’re so nice! I’m sure they’re not gonna make you cook a whole turkey or anything, just finger food and stuff right?
Thought so. 
Do you know if everyone who looks at this page is invited? Cause that would be a ton of people...
Ya, I figured they’d make a Facebook event with the official invite list. It’ll probably be made by the end of this week I’m sure. 
What was that? You have to bring gifts for the bodacious Charmaine and the beautiful Anita?
Ha ha ha, I knew you were kidding about that. Man, you are high larry us! 
Well, hopefully I get invited too! I guess I’ll have to hang tight for my official Facebook invite.
Until then...







CreComm Section 2Holiday Party- November 12, 2011


Hello CreComm Section 2.
It saddens me to say that our time together as the best section in first year, is coming to an end. Let’s all take a moment of silence to reflect on the semester thus far...
Good times at Kings Head...
Mark’s marker social wife beater...
Things Big Shooter says...
Brandon’s “C’MON MANs”...
Writer’s Craft rants (My scrambled eggs is better than yours)...
And the list goes on...
What better way to bring this semester to a close than to have a HOLIDAY PARTY!!!!
All of you guys are invited to come over to my apartment on Saturday, December 17th at 4PM for a section 2 holiday fiesta. I know what you’re thinking, “How are 24 people going to cram into one apartment?” The answer? We’ll make it work; it’ll be nice and cozy J I’ll be creating a Facebook event for this as well which will give you my address and more details. 
I believe a few people mentioned the idea of doing a gift exchange, so I’d like to know how you guys would want to do it? We can set a gift price limit and simply do a secret Santa, draw names, and buy a gift for that person. Or we could all bring one gift to the party, and draw names for the picking order of gifts. Or we can do something entirely different. What do you guys ‘n gals think?
I was also thinking a potluck would be fun! Yay or Nay? I could conjure up a sort of “sign-up sheet” to pass around so we don’t send up 23 different desserts and 1 salad. I vote Yay! 
 
Leave a page comment and let me know what you guys think and we’ll go from there.
Happy Sunday everyone.
 Now get back to writing those articles!



Santa Clause Parade- November 11, 2011

Tomorrow is Winnipeg's 102nd annual Santa Clause Parade!




Fun Fact: Eaton's Department Store held its first Santa Claus Parade in 1905 in Toronto. The Parade was so successful that in 1909 Eaton's started parades in Montreal and Winnipeg. The Winnipeg Santa Clause Parade has been held sucessfully every year since and celebrates its 102nd anniversary this year.

 The parade starts at 5PM and will end with fireworks at The Forks at 7PM. Check out the Santa Clause Parade website for more details. 


Have fun ladies and gents!

I Hate Winter- November 9, 2011

Okay, I don’t HATE winter, but at times it drives me absolutely bonkers and makes me question why all Winnipeggers don’t follow the birds, fly south, and stay there until Spring.  I’m not a fan of -50 weather, I dislike how busses are always late (or don’t show up at all), snow seeping through my boots and getting my socks wet is annoying, trudging through un-shovelled snow banks makes me sad, and the list goes on!
View From Balcony
However, I do like one thing that accompanies winter...THE HOLIDAYS :D I love the Christmas commercials, the holiday parties, the scenery, egg nog, ice skating at the forks (though I don’t know how), Christmas movies, PRESENTS, house-sitting  for my little sister Michal while she’s in Hawaii with her family (she’s cute and Jewish... a fun tidbit and a clue that her name is not pronounced “MichaEl”), and so much more. 
Because I love the holidays so much, I’ve decided that this year I’m not going to focus on the frostbite on my ears, and just enjoy the holiday season with my family and friends. I invite you all to share in the holiday spirit with me, by commenting on this page. I want to hear how you celebrate the holidays, your favourite holiday memories, or what you plan on buying me for Christmas. 
Portage Place

Portage Place
In return, I’ll keep you posted on what holiday events are going on in the city, and do my best to entertain you with my own little Christmas activities.
Let the holidays begin! 


My roommate Anita and I plan on turning our apartment into Santa's workshop; jam packed with decorations! Our friend Josh put up our tree last weekend.
Josh and Anita





Now it just needs decorations!

Wednesday, 21 December 2011

Friendships: To Keep or Not to Keep?

Unfortunately, this is a question I seem to ask myself a lot. It’s kind of like the moment you decide to go crazy with the delete button on Facebook, something else I need to do. Last year I did away with the bad “friends” I had floating around. You know the type...people who talk about you behind your back, keep things from you that would be useful for you to know, enjoy stabbing the knife so deep into your back that their hand gets stuck...that type! 

That left me with a few really good friends, some mediocre friends, and acquaintances. Not too shabby right? That’s what I thought. Somewhere down the line, 1 or 2 of those really good friendships seemed to have come to a halt. Why you ask? Your guess is as good as mine. The last things I remember of those friendships are making dinner for said friends, and catching a movie with other said friends. Perhaps the meal I prepared was too bland? Should I have provided wine? Maybe I should have offered to pay for their movie ticket? Sprung for popcorn? Not quite sure what I did or didn’t do so if anyone has an idea, feel free to share.

Now for those mediocre friendships. Some of those mediocre friendships were originally placed in the really good friendships category, but got demoted to mediocre because somewhere down the line, they turned into one-way friendships. Try to stay with me folks. One-way friendships are those in which YOU are ALWAYS the one initiating conversation via text, Facebook etc..., YOU are ALWAYS the one making plans to hang out, YOU are ALWAYS the one to do cool and interesting things for the other person or people, YOU are ALWAYS the one to view plans falling through as disappointing and do what you can to reschedule, and YOU are the ONLY one who sees all of the above as problematic. 

Often I get sick of being the person carrying the friendship. Every now and then I conduct these little experiments to confirm that these little factors aren’t just all in my head. I’ll pick one of my mediocre friendships and stop being the person who initiates conversation and plans. You know what happens when I do that? Nothing, nothing at all. I don’t hear from them, I don’t see them, nothing! Depending on who this person is, I’ll usually end this experiment and text them a friendly “How’s it going? You wanna do something this weekend?”

However, 2012 may go a little differently. I’ll probably conduct this same experiment as usual, but once the silence settles in, that’ll be that. No more texting to see how they are, no more calling to make plans, no more commenting on their Facebook statuses (because they’ll have been deleted of course), no more! I’m 23, going on 24 in a few short months, in school working towards a degree in public relations, trying new things every week.....I don’t have time to fight for these types of friendships. One-way battles are too much work and often a waste of time. It sucks because I know that in doing this, I will lose friends that I really do care about. But is it worth it to keep people in your life that you love, but whose lives would be uninterrupted by the loss of you as a friend? 

Not 100% sure I’ll go through with this master plan, but it is definitely something that needs to be done. 

New Year, new things, new friendships...new Charmaine. 

 No More Drama- Mary J. Blige