i follow rivers.

okay sooooo... life has become one very busy blur. and also incredibly expensive with things we HAVE to pay for.

i met a woman at the farmer's market who is a german pastry chef... i am in the process of getting in touch with her for our cake and hopefully some tastings. i am sort of anti fondant icing, but it looks so nice and clean and all that... but... it just doesn't taste all that great. in fact, the fondant icing i have had has tasted AWFUL. but the farmer's market woman said that i have probably only had fondant icing from a bucket... and she makes it from scratch and it tastes good. so i am willing to give it another shot and see how it goes.

i have one month left, as of today. tyler and i are meeting after he is done work to go and pick up our marriage license. we have to get white tarps and a kind of fabric to drape inside the tarps to make it look fancy for the back yard. our rental stuff is all set up. tyler and i both have shoes. the rings are paid for. i have a hair style picked, and someone to do it. dessy's plane ticket has been purchased. annnddd... time off has been booked.

there are so many things that need to be arranged and organized and sorted out. i don't even know what they are. or how to organize them. or arrange them. or sort them. i THINK we almost have the dinner stuff organized. we are going to talk about the mc stuff next week with the one mc that lives in vernon. i am soooo glad i don't actually have to worry about the food. i DO need to get some stuff for gabriel (he is our ring bearer) and i need to figure out what is going on with the flowers... we haven't heard back from tyler's grandma... and so we might be doing them ourselves. but... i don't think it would be that hard to go to the farmer's market and just get a bunch of flowers in the colours i want and just put them together for the bouquets.

annnnyway... that's about all that is going on in my brain. and right now i should be SEWING... so... i am going to go do that.

and the countdown is ON!

my mom has been counting for like the last month. but i feel like i am actually approaching crunch time. and my life has becoming one solid block of booked times. so much work. more work. more work. yard work. sewing work. commitments. its ridiculous.

like today... i am working 9 hours straight at the station in kelowna, followed by jelena's birthday party (for which bozenka is making one of the menu choices for our wedding as the dinner... so we can try everything!), which we have to leave early because i am going to the ballet with my dance students.

tomorrow, i work my regular shift in vernon from 5:30 am to noon. go straight from there to my mom's to work on our patio (which was started on friday... bricks have officially been laid as of today...). i'll probably stay there for the majority of the day working on different yard things (once we run out of brick). i imagine i will be exhausted after all that... but if i can make myself do it, i will work on some sewing before going to bed.

monday will look like this: vote (AND I HOPE ALL OF YOU ARE DOING THAT TOO... VOTE GREEN!!!!), voice track in kelowna, work all day in vernon starting at about 2 going straight through till about 9:30 pm (hockey game and election coverage).

tuesday will be trip to kelowna to voice track some more (i'm voice tracked here in kelowna all week...), meeting in vernon at kiss, and i have designated tuesdays as my sewing days. so i need to make myself work very hard for the remainder of the day on my sewing.

you get the picture... i also need to add in a couple more hockey games through the week, some window washing, more sewing, more voice tracking... and who knows how many other things. friday is a particularly good day... i am operating IN KELOWNA starting at 5:30 am - that means i have to get up by at least 4 am to get here on time... and then i leave kelowna at 9 to make it back to vernon to be a celebrity caddy for a golf fundraising tournament.

... i can't wait for july.

true colours.

if you think cyndi lauper... you are completely correct. haha. i'm at work... once again. today we are having a bonfire/work party at my mom's to get some yardwork. i THINK we are going to have a pretty good turn out - although i have thought this before and then had 2 people come and everyone else bail at the last minute. i have had some last minute bailing happen this morning too... but... i still think we will get some good helpers out for a while. and probably more people coming in the evening just for the bonfire. whatever. it will be fun. jen and i planned to go for a run in kal park yesterday afternoon... planned is the key word. we went. but i had some killer cramps and it was killing me to try and run... so we mostly just hiked and did some lunges, and a little bit of running. i still worked up a sweat. and we went for a solid 45 minutes or so. i wouldn't say it was a completely lost cause. and above all, we enjoyed the afternoon (even with a little bit of sunshine) and had some good talks. i like hanging out with jen. we have gotten to be pretty good friends lately. its nice to have someone with similar career goals to hang out with. she gets what i am trying to do with my job. and we support each other and help each other out. its a nice relationship to have. jb, if you read this, i appreciate you and the things you contribute to my days. thanks. the days are quickly counting down. it is scaring me just a little.... or... a lot. i don't know if my mom has yet heard back from a lot of you about where you are wanting to stay when you come down here for the wedding. she had talked about booking group camping... and laura... i have yet to receive your rsvp. COME ON! haha. I NEED IT!... if you lost it, send me a piece of paper with what menu choice you would like. thanks! i haven't been working on the dresses as much as i should be. i will need to get my butt in gear over the next week or so. i feel confident that it won't take me very long once i hunker down... at least judging on how it has gone so far. my latest mission is finding andrew some nice slim legged dress pants with like... at least a 36" inseam. do these even exist? anyone have any suggestions where i might be able to find them? i will have to make another quick overnighter trip to vancouver sometime in the next week or so to measure jasmine and megan... so... going to vancouver is a possibility. things have gotten busy in basically every aspect of my life. tyler and i have been making an effort to actually do things instead of just hanging out at home doing NOTHING all the time. I have starting doing some windows for my parents. AND i have been doing some extra shifts in kelowna for operating and things. i am really liking working in kelowna. i am getting to know more people in those offices and i feel a little less awkward when i am there during regular hours. i don't mind my saturday shift there because... well... i am almost the only person there. i like that. haha. i don't have to talk to anyone or see anyone. i recently was asked if i would host a new friday night show there. it will be recorded, and i can do it from vernon so i don't have to drive down to kelowna another day every week. i'm pretty excited about it. its a great opportunity. plus, it means that i have been doing something right with the work that i have been already doing there. the music and the programming for the show isn't exactly something that i enjoy, and i think this show will be a bit of a challenge for me to do the way that they are wanting it... but... i am up for the challenge. the thought process behind it is that i am a young person, and what are young people gearing up for on a friday night... well... i am not your typical 25 year old, in my opinion. i am not into going to the bar or "partying". and listening to a remixed mix of music is not my idea of a good friday night soundtrack. that is actually the exact reason i really dislike going to the bar at all. but like i said... i will find a way to put my own spin on things and i am up for this challenge. its a part of the job. and being able to relate to an audience that i mostly consider to be very much unlike myself is what being good at this job means. and... here is a song i will leave you with.

the pack ad.

i was talking to the music guy at one of the stations in kelowna while i was operating for his show. i told him about this band when we were talking about music... and then i looked up some videos... and... well they were kinda cool so i thought i would share with any of you who might be interested in watching them....





hope you enjoy!

roller derby queen.

i'm not really a roller derby queen. you all know that. but i can dress up and be the roller derby mc queen, right? i got to do that last night. i had a whole bunch of really good one liners... with names like 'hurrican hannah' how can you not? and dixie drift... its just too easy! it has been some pretty crazy weeks. i think it will slow down a bit after this one... but not a lot. things just keep piling up and need doing. and there are more and more things that need my attention these days. i am leaving tomorrow to take jasmine a mattress as she is currently bedless. i am excited to be in vancouver, even if it will be very quick and a little rushed. i have also been requested to drop off a turkey for doug and delanie. and jasmine has requested the presence of my bicycle so we can go for a ride - which i will gladly comply with! i can't wait to go for a cycle with jasmine. seawall? yes please! also, megan gets back the day i will be leaving vancouver and i have my fingers crossed for a quick hug and a chance to take her measurements (she still hasn't had them taken for me... because well... megan can be flakey like that, but i love her for it). tap classes start this week too. i am REALLY excited for this. after all our attempts to try and make the class a minimum of 4... it is only 3 students (one of which is rhiannon...). but i don't really care. it is going to be a lot of fun. and i look forward to the 3 students i will have. teaching dance classes has been a nice experience for me. the girls are so sweet. and i like helping them succeed and its always rewarding to see how proud of themselves they are when they finally get a step after working very hard. it is interesting to me to watch the dynamics of the girls in the class too. i try to make my mark and help boost their confidence and self esteem in the hour a week i spend with them. it is great to see how they come out of their shells a little more each week. i look forward to teaching more dance classes in the fall. my earrings have been FLYING out. hah. that was a bad joke. but seriously... the last batch of photos i put up, were all sold but 2 less than 24 hours later. and there are people who would like to meet up this week and take a look at what i have. i had a bit of a panic and started frantically making more that same day, but i haven't been able to get brodie to photograph them for me yet. its pretty cool. i have been getting a lot of really nice compliments. i like making them. i like making pretty things. and it is even better when people like them, and there seems to be a demand. i have also ordered a bunch more feathers, and i am waiting (not all that patiently) for them to arrive. sarah, i hope to get yours in the mail this week. send me an email or a facebook message with your address!!! if anyone else wants some... let me know... i'll get those in the mail too! weekends are always so busy. i feel like i work straight through the entire weekend. all i do is sleep and work. yesterday in kelowna, quick stop at home before going out to mc the roller derby game, and then first thing this morning in the kiss fm studio. i love my job. and i like being busy... but sometimes its crazy. i don't like feeling like i never leave. ya know?

the adventures of an ipod called dryn.

as most of you probably know, my ipod might just be my most prized posession. i love it. it was the first expensive thing i ever splurged and bought for myself. i bought myself an ipod originally when justin and i split up, and i thought i deserved to have something to keep all my music on and enjoy it with. the original on was a 30 gig. i managed to almost fill it. i took it EVERYWHERE with me. it made countless greyhound trips to and from vancouver bareable. it made riding the bus around the city enjoyable. and i started to make playlists to act as soundtracks to my life. music has always been a big part of my life, and i felt like having an ipod allowed me to indulge in that love of mine. we were inseparable, me and my ipod dryn (which is a nickname trystan and rob gave me because that is what comes up when trying to type eryn on a cell phone with t9).

when i moved to calgary, said ipod, dryn the 1st died. i was so sad. i wasn't sure about the warranty and didn't have a receipt still for it. i panicked a little not having any music and no computer and i didn't even know how i would start a music collection on a new ipod even if i bought one. LUCKILY rob came into town the same week. i promptly purchased a new ipod. a better one. a 120 gig. this was a bigger better dryn. dryn 2.0. rob filled it with the music he had on his computer (which some of it is still on my ipod and is hilarious, i.e. aqua? ace of base?). i continued to collect music from various people and built up a beautiful library on my lovely spacious ipod. i continued to take it everywhere with me. long car rides. bus rides. it has supplied the music for derby games. countless parties. it has something for EVERYONE. i love that it has a huge amount of memory and i can have everything on it. my taste in music is vast and limitless, really.

so... all ths takes us to an event that took place on monday. i went to my mom's to do some yardwork. i brought zoe with me. i made sure to bring dryn along because i had forgotten on sunday when we did yardwork and had to make do with my mom's ipod (much smaller, but i have supplied much of the content... so its alright). we went to get some cardboard from one of the bins behind the polson mall first to line the pathways for the garden, so we could finish with the piles of leaves in the yard and dump them on top of the cardboard in the garden. i ended up reaching way in to get the big boxes my mom couldn't reach. we got a great load of cardboard and as we were just finishing the truck came to empty the bin. 'good timing!' was the sentiment from our party. in a moment of panic... i remembered that dryn had been in my pocket, and wasn't there any longer. i got a sick feeling in my stomach as i imagined dryn being squished in the cardboard truck.

when i said out loud that i thought my ipod had falled out in the bin, my mom promptly flagged down the driver of the truck before he took off. he told me to climb up the ladder on the side of the huge truck and we could take a look. he jumped right in with the cardboard and started looking around. i had a big pit forming in my stomach and it didn't look good. he said that the other thing we could do was he could take my name and number and he would look after the truck was emptied at the end of the day and see if he could find it for me. i was feeling a little hopeless, when all of a sudden... HE FOUND IT.

dryn was saved by a very nice man driving the giant cardboard truck. i was shaking i was so happy. i went from feeling sick with worry and regret ("oh why did i leave dryn in my pocket!") to he greatest feeling of relief.

and now dryn is home safe and sound and still in perfect working order.

THANK YOU CARDBOARD TRUCK DRIVING MAN!

chances.

i heard jill barber a while ago... but just one song. trystan put her on a mix cd. and i think it was a free single somewhere? but recently i downloaded her two albums for whatever reason... and this morning a song came up in shuffle... and i started listening to them. i love the old time sound. if you haven't heard her... check it out.




i lurked her videos for a cool one to share, and i liked that one... but then i found this one...




enough with the music videos...

i finished (well almost finished) my first bridesmaid dress. it still needs buttons and a hem. no biggie.




i don't know if anyone heard about the drama surrounding this dress. probably not. my mom came over to help me, and she was finishing the seams with the serger. and... well... part of the bodice got caught in the serger, resulting in a big hole. i had to take it all apart and redo that part (its the part between the halter and the skirt). but... all fixed now. and i think that it actually looks better the second time around. i also gathered the skirt better, because i figured out how to do it with my machine instead of by hand (quicker and neater).

today i will start on the second dress. it is all cut out and ready to go! that is my task for this afternoon. i'm excited. after these two dresses... i have to wait for the measurements of my other two bridesmaids. i'm hoping i can take megan's myself. and i am waiting for jasmine to stay the same weight for a while. i told her she is fired as maid of honour if she changes weight and the dress doesn't fit. haha.

i'm almost done the 'greatest loser' 8 week challenge. but i am going to continue going after it's over. i LOVE bootcamp. i wish you all lived here and you could try it. its amazing. i didn't think i was capable of doing a lot of the things i have accomplished. and it feels so good when you can tell that you have gotten stronger and you can do things that were so hard before. i love it.

anyway... i'll post some pictures of my progress on dress number two later tonight perhaps.

and oh yah... if you haven't already 'like' Lovely Bettie on facebook - i put up all the latest photos of earrings i have made! i'm really excited about it.