When you’re young you tend to be excited to grow up. When you’re older you wish you were getting younger instead.

Birthdays can be fantastic or they can leave you feeling disappointed. They make you reminisce and think about past years and what your future is going to be like.

They make you well aware of the fact that one more year has passed you by.

Are you where you want to be?

Personally, I’m a little fatter, and a little colder than I would like to be.

Birthdays make me think about my family and how much I love them. And they make me think about my life and where I thought I would be right now.

Depending on what age I was when you asked me, I would have come back with a plethora of responses to the question – “What will you be when you’re 22 years old?”

My more common assumptions were:

Missionary/Pilot

Astronaut (I’d be the first one to discover proof of aliens AND set foot on another planet)

Superhero (I’d have the ability to fly)

Writer

Marine Biologist (Dolphins and the mysteries of the deep have always managed to astound me.)

Pilot (Who wouldn’t want to fly? There is something incredible about being up there and completely in control – and I’d come to grips with the fact that my latent superhero powers were unlikely to ever surface.)

Writer/Hermit

Marine Biologist (even though by this point I was afraid of deep water – I was determined until I realized I would have to take calculus)

Lois Lane (Why be an ordinary journalist when I could be one like Lois?)

Writer

Bookstore Owner (I would share my love of books and open up a world of possibilities to people who’d never discovered the magic they possess.)

Writer

During the ‘writer’ stages I would have said I’d have 13 books published under a delightfully clever pseudonym and be living somewhere in the stunning forests/mountain ranges of British Columbia by now.

No matter how old I was I always knew one thing for certain – I was going to make a difference to the world. Whether it was by helping impoverished families in Africa or writing books that could change lives, I was determined to become someone I would be proud of.

I don’t have any books published. I’m still working on the clever pseudonym. I’ve never been to Africa. 

Have I changed lives, made them better? I don’t know. Have I changed yours?

I am a writer. (I’ve got the business card to prove it.) Just not the kind that writes mind-blowing novels.

I’m not ready to give up on the rest of it. I’m past the point of predicting how it will turn out, obviously I’m not particularly skilled in that department. But whatever I do, whoever I become – I will be happy doing it.

Because if you’re not happy, genuinely happy – then what’s the point?

Alright peeps, pay attention here.

There is currently an overload of animals at our very own Medicine Hat SPCA and if they don’t get adopted soon they are going to start to euthanize them. Something I would prefer never happen to healthy young animals.

These darling critters have years ahead of them if you are willing to give them a home.

Their biggest concern at the moment is the cats. Over the weekend they had thirty cats dropped off and that isn’t looking like it’s going to be the end of it.

They have it I promise! So before you run off to a pet store, think about these lovelies. They will be spayed or neutered and given their shots before they go home with you.

However, please purchase the animal for yourself and not someone else – we don’t want it going back to the SPCA in a few weeks!

I’d be jumping at the chance to own one of these darlings if I were allowed pets in my current place of residence.

You can find their current animals that are up for adoption on their website here.

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but it snows a lot in Canada. It’s one of the many perks that come with living here in good ol’ Medicine Hat.

It is very rare that I will have anything negative to say about winter. Due to my rather outspoken adoration of snow I feel I have little right to complain about any other aspects. However today I have chosen to break from my traditional stance, and do exactly that – indirectly of course.

If you have indeed noticed the white fluffy stuff that falls from the sky at this time of year – I can hold you personally accountable for your sidewalks. Oh don’t try to avoid the issue. I know a lot of you are fantastic, but there has been an appalling lack of basic courtesy since the snow started falling.

I know I know. It’s cold out. The snow gets in uncomfortable places, you nose runs and things get a little awkward. You might have a nice car with command start which you can bolt out to, spending only mere moments on the sidewalk, however there are a number of people who aren’t so lucky. People like me. And to make the jab a little more pointed – take a moment to think about the kids who have to walk to the bus-stop or all the way to school. Hah – got you there don’t I?

Your un-shoveled sidewalk presents a hazard to every single person who walks along it. How would you feel if your neglect were the reason some innocent little kid fell and hurt themselves? Hmm?

Aside from the kids, you have the elderly who can’t afford to hurt themselves, and somewhat accident-prone individuals like myself who cannot possibly miss work due to an injury.

You knew what the responsibilities were when you moved into your house, or agreed to manage that apartment building and I would really appreciate it if you took them seriously. If you shovel regularly it only takes a few moments of your time. If for any reason you cannot shovel your sidewalk there are a plethora of small human beings who will gladly do so for a few dollars, and possibly even some generous neighbours who might be willing to assist you.

If you’re one of the wonderful people who shovel more or less regularly – I love you.

If you’re not, please accept my gentle prodding with good humour and go enjoy the nice crisp air we are so lucky to have this fine, sparkly winter.

Thank you all and good night!

Due to my last post I have discovered something that I cannot believe I didn’t know before. So cool.

We hear the words cliche and stereotype all the time. I’m pretty sure you know what they are – but just in case we’ll go over them again.

A cliche is a saying that has been so over-used as to lose its meaning and the impact it once had. While a stereotype is a commonly accepted ‘fact’ about a set of individuals or group of people.

I have an insatiable curiosity when it comes to language – so this is where it gets interesting for me.

A cliche was once a printing plate.

You see, letters were set one at a time and then cast in molten metal to create a ‘slug’. Phrases that were extremely common were cast as one slug which meant they didn’t have to be pieced together from individual words. So anytime that a phrase or a certain idea was commonly repeated verbatim – they would cast it as a one solid piece. This was a much quicker process. These complete phrases were called cliches – they also happened to be known as stereotypes.

After a time these technical terms made their way into everyday speech and we use them to this day!

Knowledge is a wonderful thing. Thank YOU Wikipedia.

P.S. Verbatim happens to be one of my favourite words (for some unfathomable reason) and I’m thrilled beyond belief that I managed to sneak it into this post.

The individual I have chosen to feature today is Bernice Fentiman. She is an incredible artist as well as the owner/operator of Medicine Hat business Cake Break. I could simply call her a ‘cake decorator’ but that would in no way do her justice.

Her cakes put ordinary confections to shame and are nearly too nice to eat! You will never find food that falls more solidly into the ‘work of art’ category.

Her talents are extremely varied and she does not limit herself to your ordinary rectangular cakes. Purse shaped cakes? Check. Pillow shaped cakes? Check. Zombie cakes for Halloween? Check!

 

If you are looking for a fancy birthday cake or that all-important cake for your wedding, you will want to give her a call. It doesn’t matter if you want a cake design she has never done before, this crazily talented woman will whip you up the dessert of your dreams!

These adorable cakes are actually cupcakes – they pull apart!

 

She will amaze and astound you – she is worth every penny. Just consider for a moment how much time and effort goes into one of her cakes and you will realize that you’re getting an incredible deal!

Taken by: AlphaTangoBravo / Adam Baker

If you are under the impression that one day all the confusion in this life will simply make sense. I hate to burst your bubble, but you are sadly mistaken. It won’t. You can’t look forward to perfection, and chances are you’re going to be facing challenges every day for the remainder of your life.

I’d also like to point out that your life isn’t so bad. You probably tend to focus on all those bad little details that gnaw at your soul and forget that there are actually some pretty decent things going on. When your heart is broken and it seems that nothing can possibly comfort you, do you acknowledge the friends who stand by you and hold you up?

Do you have food on the table, a roof over your head? Sure it’s cliche, but that doesn’t make it any less true. One thing people tend to forget is that a cliche is only a cliche because it was used SO much that it lost its meaning and impact.

So what’s my point? Life will rarely be easy, it’s not meant to be a breeze. If you’re living in a rut because you’re expecting things to change and suddenly make everything ok – it doesn’t work that way.

You have the power to live an incredible life – you might not even have to make any changes in your current existence.

Take myself for example. I’m a writer – this immediately puts me in the ‘most unlikely to succeed’ category. I’m not even going to get started on the mess I made of my love life. I live alone in a tiny little house. I have no pets. By the time I get home from work I have no motivation to write fiction – conveniently side-stepping achieving my goals each and every day.

But. I have people in my life who make me happy. Who are good to me. I have a family who loves me and will always stand by me. I have an imagination that, while it might plague my dreams, also allows me to see a world that most people cannot even fathom.

My house, while old and not even mine, is so full of character that it somehow manages to suit me perfectly. And the heat works like an absolute charm.

I could focus on the fact that I am not even remotely in the place I thought I would be right now. I could berate myself for not going to University and getting that all-important degree. I could consider myself a failure because I still haven’t finished even one single manuscript. And sometimes I do.
I don’t want to sound like I have all the answers and I handle life so incredibly well. I’ve just realized that on those rather common days where life seems to drag me down and then proceeds to beat the crap out of me – it’s all those good little things that pick me up, dust me off and give me the kick in the pants I need to deal with life.

It’s how I look at my life that determines whether it’s a good one or not. I would encourage anyone who is feeling down to be willing see their life from a different angle – you might be surprised what you see.

This tangent I have taken is really making me want to say thank you to all the people who contribute to the ‘good stuff’ in my life.

I absolutely love you all. 

Taken by: Noël Zia Lee

When it comes to the world we live in, preserving our home is an important responsibility that has been placed on our shoulders. Contributing to the survival of our planet has other advantages besides providing us with, you know, a place to live… Actions that directly improve or protect our planet also improve our own individual quality of life as a healthier lifestyle is usually a bi-product.

Of course, vice versa is also possible as you can support the planet by choosing to lead a healthy lifestyle. Your motivation is unimportant, the mere participation is more than enough for me.

I’m sure you’re all aware of this, and why you should do things like recycle, eat organic foods and so on. Many of you will roll your eyes cause you can’t be bothered and refuse to give up things like your gourmet fast food burgers – but for those of you who might care, just a little, I have something for you.

The brand is Only Green, and they are sold by Green Goodness. This is a company who sells organic and natural products which are not only good for you, but good for our planet as well. They sell things like scrumptious smelling bath products, high quality make-ups, non-lethal cleaning supplies and even pet products.

Their prices are competitive and they are always working to improve the products that they sell – two things that endear them to me greatly. Another little bonus is the fact that their products are impressive and do exactly what they are supposed to.

Their make-up line, for example, is incredible. Their nearly invisible foundations leave my skin soft and supple. I’ve been using them for weeks with absolutely no hint of any negative skin reaction. Baby’s butt soft, it’s fantastic. The stunning array of eye shadow also doubles as eye liner, all of which you can apply with their silky soft bamboo make-up brushes.

Unlike many similar companies there are no minimum monthly orders, and they ship anywhere in North America.

So check them out, they even have some rather sa-weet sales going on at the moment! The worst that could happen is that you might buy something that will keep you and the planet healthy – it’s not the most terrible deal in the world. 

It’s that time of year again where writers spring out of the woodwork to rise to the NaNoWriMo challenge. Some of you will know what that is, some of you won’t care, and that is alright.

The reason I’m blogging about it is because;

a) This blog belongs to a writer, so at some point I was going to have to talk about writing related things.

b) I will be participating in NaNo once again this year.

For those of you who don’t know, and might care – NaNoWriMo is the ‘awkward to say’ abbreviation for National Novel Writing Month. A challenge put to writers all over to globe where they are dared to write a ‘novel’ of 50,000 words in just 30 days.

Many published authors mock the idea saying that anyone who is actually determined to become a writer will write during the other 11 months of the year, and that nothing good and publishing worthy can actually come out of it. This is, and isn’t true.

Take myself for example – I write for a living, and by the time I get home I’ve pretty much lost any desire to pull out a pen and write about the things I love. Hence why these blog posts are so few and far between. It doesn’t mean I don’t have huge writer-ly dreams and it certainly doesn’t mean I’m not a writer, I just have this little thing called life that tends to get in the way.

NaNo last year was an excuse to force myself to write something that I loved. I did it simply to prove that I could. That if I can find the drive, I can write every day. I also ignored everything in the world for an entire month because once work and NaNo were completed I didn’t have a speck of time left over.

When NaNo was over I had a piece of fiction in need of serious editing that may or may not ever see the light of day. As such, the nay-sayers are correct – it certainly isn’t publishable quality. However that doesn’t mean that nothing good can come out of it. Last year I conquered my laziness and my tendency to edit a story to death and it was a wonderful experience.

This year, I’m taking the challenge a little differently and I’m going to twist it to suit my personal needs.

For those of you who know me, I apologize if I’m a little scarce during November. I’ll freely admit, I’ve scheduled the bulk of my available holidays for November to give me a few extra days where I can focus on writing.

Now that you know what I’m up to; is NaNo something you would consider? If you are participating I’d love to know what your motivation is!

Do you hear anything but the words?

Is that all they are to you? Just words, sounds from lips or scribbles on a page?

Are they just letters to you? Is that all?

Can you not hear the truth behind them, the deeper meaning. It’s so much more than just the words can convey.

Can you not comprehend the emotion?

I would share it all with you if I could. This feeling.

But how can I when all I have at my disposal are mere words.

If only you could see beyond them.

If only you could feel their weight, their passion and their sorrow.

If only you could hear my heart, in all the words I write. 

2. The hashtag #medhat makes it very easy for other hatters to find posts that are relevant to the community. Tack it on to the end of your post and let us all know that you are talking about something we might be interested in!