Walking in Edmonton

What to write on this lovely of Fridays. Not too much to say! I am getting more and more comfortable with Edmonton every day. Living in Fredericton, I never really thought of walking as a real mode of transportation to get…anywhere really. In Fredericton I lived too far away from anything to walk and driving around was just so easy and fast. And there is always parking, so why not just take your car and get there faster.

Edmonton is very, very different. Driving is almost like a last alternative. Or you drive because your destination is just too far away cuz Edmonton is hella big. 99% of the time driving is not the fastest or most convenient method of transit. Which is so sad because I actually love driving, I really enjoy it.

I am living downtown, about 1.5km away from where I work. It takes me about 20 minutes to walk there. Driving, it takes around 10-15 min and then you have to find a parking spot. I am a cheapo and refuse to spend $6 on the building adjacent parking so I must park blocks away in order to find a spot on the road that is available. I usually end up about 5 blocks away which means I am spending another 10 minutes walking regardless.

Another thing: there are a lot of one way streets in Edmonton. In fact, two of the bridges are one way. That means that even if you are super close to the other side of the river you have to drive to the bridge where traffic is running in the correct direction. You know, or things could get messy. The area connecting these bridges on both sides are busy busy busy. It could take you up to 40 minutes to drive 6 blocks – no joke.

This is by far the longest Tyler Fraser story I have ever told.

The moral of this story is that my ass is getting rigorously kicked by all the walking my body is now doing in comparison to the 22 years of non-destination-walking that was my life in Fredericton. Walk walk walk.

Walking is boring.

Fountains are cool.

This is where I finished my book today.

The end.

B's BIRTHDAY!

Ya, that's me.

Na na na na na na na na, Shot-Man!

Patios are fun in the sun.

We ate them alllll up.

Especially Ryan.

PARTY GIRL LOOKING SUAVE

Happy B-day my lovely sister!!

Edmonton Update - June

So I've been in my new home of Edmonton, AB for exactly a month now. My sister is...awesome. I don't know how she did it by herself when she moved out here 4 years ago. I was depressed and I haven't even had a chance to get bored yet! If I didn't have my sister here with me I think I would have gone running home to my momma by now.

Every weekend here is like another adventure. (I am puking from the corniness of what I just said there) I guess that's what you have to do when you work full-time. The weekends are like, your free bit of life.

We've gone out to a bunch of pubs - too many to name. That's one beautiful thing about Edmonton, there is always some place new to try. We celebrated my sister's birthday on the 21st and mine on the 28th. Another year older. We went to Calgary two weekends ago for 'Sled Island' - this awesome kick ass amazing music festival. This past weekend me and my sister went to this beautiful place about an hour and a half south of Edmonton called Sylvan Lake and sun-bathed/toured the entire day away. On Canada Day we played some beach volleyball which is my favorite as you know and even made some new friends!

Lots of stuff is going on. We've also managed to watch all 4 seasons of Trueblood and are now watching season 5. We are cool. AND IT IS INTENSE. We've also now started rewatching Lost. Well, I have.

Living here is getting a little better everyday. I still miss my friends and family so so utterly much, but I know we'll be together again soon.

daily woes

So..so there's this new thing happening in my life, and it's been about two months now..which is no time at all really and somehow it's longer. And it's been so long since I've felt this way that I'm not really sure about anything. Isn't this about the time when the guys gets scarce, when he starts to let you down, when you constantly feel insecure and on edge. Isn't that what should be happening?


Never failing...I..I don't get let down. I am not being let down. I receive nothing but...kindness and sympathy, patience and caring. Enough to bring me to tears if I think on it too much. 


And then there is this barrier. This great mother fucking barrier reef. A 5000km barrier. And I still cannot get him off my mind.

I swear to god I am jinxing this as I write but he is so kind and thoughtful and selfless. Who is he. I miss him so much my eyes burn, my breath catches and no other exists.

It is so terrifying. So terrifying. I am sick falling for this guy. And I don't know if we can survive this distance and time. And I don't know how either of us will feel in 6 months or if we'll even fit into each others lives. I don't know anything.

Except that I am falling. And I think..it is...in...

Some things #Edmonton style

Okay okay okay - so I have been working for full time 2 weeks now. Wowzers, already? Geez. Anyways this is some of the stuff that has been going on.

The guys on the 7th floor are like the bomb diggity. They have nerf guns. They have a target set up. They have mini basketball nets. They have hockey player bobble heads. They have a giant box full of different granola bars. They have their own soda on a shelf. I have been getting some 'real' work from one of them and they are all super awesome and nice. I sit on the 2nd floor..wohn wooohn.

There is also some guy up on the 7th floor that sounds exactly like Kermit the Frog. Painfully so. I was dying holding my laughter in.

One of my favorite work pass times is text messaging my friends. Thank you for the conversations guys it keeps me from stabbing my eyes out with a sharpened pencil.

So like I said I started doing some 'real' work. We'll see how it goes.

I bought a hot dog from a REAL LIFE HOT DOG VENDOR he was set up across the street from our building. It was $3.75 which I thought was a bit steep until I tried it and it was o-my-fuckin-god delicious thank you mr hot dog man, thank you.

The parking in Edmonton is really weird and expensive..I can park less than two blocks away from the office for free on the street but I have to move my car every two hours. They mark a little X on your tire and if it's in the same place when they come back two hours later...BOOM $50 ticket. It's odd. You just run back to your car every now and then and move it a little so the X is in a different spot. And your done.

Then there is the work parking lot which by the way has no good instructions, but plenty about how the company is not liable for any damage theft etc to your car if you leave it there. So I put 6 bucks into the machine and its one of those change takers like on a laundry machine at the laundry mat. There are two sections one with a loonie and toonie spot and one with 3 loonie spots it is $6 to park there for the day. Logically I assumed I would have to put the $6 in all at once so I pushed in the two sides at the same time and out popped only 1 ticket when there is supposed to be 2. Fack. Shaft. Balls. I went and asked someone and they were like you need two tickets for the whole day, 1 tickets lasts only 1 hour. YOU'LL GET A TICKET! So out I went and got my ticket. Waste of GD money...raawr. Why do I always learn my lessons the hard way?

I would just like to say I am pleasantly surprised about the amount of good looking men that work for Stantec. It might just be the mandatory business work attire but daaaamn there is eye candy in my office. Mamma like.

Oh yeah, they are actually nice too and fairly normal. This is both surprising and pleasant.

FINALLY someone commented on my purple hair - It was just a lady saying that she liked it. It's so funny I have been waiting and waiting for someone to say something to me BUT GUESS WHAT NO ONE CARES THAT MY HAIR IS PURPLE. I love my job.

Last but not least I got a flat tire on my way to play baseball. And I mean a flat tire like pancake flat. My sister was with me and for the LIFE OF ME we could NOT get the bolts off the tire. We stood there for about 20 minutes trying and finally this nice guy comes over and asks us if we need any help. He jumps right out and poof the bolts come right off. Why oh why are women not naturally endowed with the same strength as men. HOW ARE WE EVER SUPPOSED TO CHANGE A TIRE BY OURSELVES SEXISM! Just kidding who cares.

Ok - one more thing. This is the best thing I have ever found on Pinterest and fills me with sadness and pride. It is exactly what I think when I think about Fredericton and all of the wonderful people I left there.

LOVE YOU

Edmonton Apt (..til Sept anyways)

So after two weeks of shufflin' I have finally made a lil home in my sister's apartment. Well, our apartment now. I am an apartment renter....whaaaat. No more living with the parents I'm allll growd up.

It's a one bedroom apt ground floor in a nice bldg, old but with character. At the end of August when her lease is up we'll most likely be moving into a bigger two bedroom. We live downtown close to everything it's great. I can walk to work in about 25 minutes and other than being really sweaty when I get there it's great. *Note to self: get in better shape. For now here is a little insight into where I hang my hat - Edmonton style.

Where I park - Lil'Blue!!

Our entrance

My new IKEA duvet cover and pillow set - loove

Our lil kitchen - tons of storage in there though

Britt did not have a microwave because she is crazy so I got us one

View from kitchen into the living room aka my bedroom

The couch actually folds down into my bed - that mat on the floor is where Britt is currently sleeping cuz our momma is in her bedroom, so that won't be there forever

My space - GD dresser from IKEA which took me four days and a trip to the Home Depot to put together

Awesome wall art in our bathroom - my favorite piece in the house

Our bathroom is also itty bitty - like this is taken from the hallway and there is not enough room for me to stand in it and be able to take a decent picture of my surroundings bitty, but it's okay :)

My two (hallway) closets - booyah muh stuf

And finally MEEE sitting and relaxing alone in the apt for the first time - Ahh :)

Chernobyl Diaries awesomeness

Really entertaining! Don't know why it has such a low % on Rotten Tomatoes - only 21. Sure glad I didn't listen and went to see it.

First of all the entire concept of the movie interests me - being an electrical engineer and having actually worked in a Nuclear Power Plant for 16 months.

Such an interesting concept - and totally believable storyline. Usually in scary movies I find myself thinking: 'That would never happen' or 'No one would ever react that!'. The character behaviour in this movie and their lines were so realistic and natural. I would have behaved the exact same.

Great character cast. Fun fact - Jonathan Sadowski's character is named Paul. He also played a 'Paul' in one of my favorite movies ever She's the Man. Sliiiightly different characters.

Got into the scary part of the story nice and quickly, no dickin around. Perfect ending. No spoilers! JUST GREAT EVERYTHING! This movie was so good as far as scary movies go, and I have seen a fair few.

Who really cares that the deaths were predictable and most of them were shown in the preview? It's not like it's supposed to be this big mystery. It's supposed to scare the shit out of you. And guess what. It does.

Totally creepy and awesome and I want to see it again. Would definitely recommend. And now I want to go to Chernobyl.