Ben's Week of Hell

So, I talked to Ben today. He's going into the worst week of the course - it's a week in the field practicing and conducting section attacks. He had twisted his ankle sometime earlier in the course, and a couple of days ago he severly twisted his other ankle. Hopefully he'll be able to run around the field ok. Another shitty thing about this next field week is that post-tropical storm Noel is supposed to hit eastern Canada sometime tonight/early tomorrow. I'm not sure how long this will supposed to last, but regardless, they'll be in the field. I can't wait till this week is over for Ben. The only really positive thing is that it's Daylight Savings Time - at least they'll get an extra hour of sleep tonight!

Life Update

So, a couple of weeks ago a piece of jade fell out of my ring onto my kitchen floor. That sucks alot, and I took it to a jeweler in Sherwood Park to get it fixed. That stressed me out because I'm really protective over it - its one of a kind and its irreplacable. They phoned me this morning letting me know that my ring seemed to be finished, but when I went to pick it up it wasn't quite finished. The jeweler wasn't in today, so the lady phoned him and he's not quite done with it yet. Boo urns. I'm impatient and want it back. Hopefully this week I'll have it back.

Ben also phoned me today. They're at the range this week. Yesterday they got to shoot their machine gun and today Ben got to throw 7 hand grenades; he was pretty happy about that! This rest of the week is super shitty and hopefully he'll survive the week.

Other than that, life is good!
TTFN.

Happy Anniversary to...

Us! Today is our 5th anniversary! That's awesome. 5 years is a weird time...it's not really long enough to be long, but its not short enough to be short. So far it's been a boring day for me...class...paper writting...home...see Ben...blogging... Nothing to exciting, but Ben and I are going to go out for dinner tonight to somewhere yummy, tho we haven't decided where yet!

I also forgot that the 7th was my blog's 1st Birthday. Happy Birthday Blog!

Today is also the last day of school, which is crazy. This semester (and year) went way to fast. I can't believe it when I think back to the end of last summer (sending Ben to boot camp; visiting Dad and Pat in Saskatoon), the first week of school (my absolute terror at the start of Latin 301 and my excitement at Greek 101)...and now its over. Crazy.

Wednesday was a shitty day. I was running around all day like crazy gathering research for my paper, etc... and I left my clipboard in the girl's washroom in HUB in the late afternoon. I didn't realize that it was gone until the next morning while packing for school. When I discovered my missing clipboard I freaked out, phoned the Rutherford, the blood services...etc...but no luck. I went to school and scoured the places where I had been but no luck. I ended up talking to 2 friends who had seen it in the washroom in HUB, but they didn't know it was mine, so they didn't pick it up. I ended up talking to the admin ladies in HUB (who are super nice) and they told me to talk to the 2 cleaners who are on in the evening. I waited around for them and when I did, I discovered that they had seen it, and thrown it out in the garbage compacter. I was PISSED OFF...this same guy had thrown away stuff of mine while I was studying in SUB last school year. I was really pissed off. I hadn't even lost it for 24 hours and they threw away what was obviously school work (on the 3rd last day of school, no less), because it wasn't 'valuable'. GRRR... I lost my entire translation of the Aeneid...and our Latin final is on the Aeneid, among other things. It wasn't as tragic as it could have been - I do have study notes of most of the Aeneid, and the Greek and classics that I lost is of no consequence, but I'm going to talk to those admin ladies in HUB on Monday about placing a complaint. If the cleaners don't want people's lost shit hanging around, give it to Campus 50, or to the Student info centres, or keep it for a week and then throw it out. GRRRRR.... stupid...

On the bright side, at least today was warm and I could wear a cute springy outfit!
TTFN!

Awesome News Part 1 - Ben and I are engaged!

This is me snowshoeing down the mountain near Peter and Suzanne's house - I have no idea what is coming!

















Tallulah and I playing in the snow.













This is the spot Ben picked - very beautiful - and this is me right before he proposed!

Awesome News Part 2 - Ben and I are engaged!

Here is a picture of my taken right after he proposed!












Here's the picture of us taken right after he proposed. The spot he picked was awesome!













Here's the first pic of us back at home after the hike. Peter and Susanne knew what was up, Alissa didn't. It was awesome - emotional and lots of crying.

Awesome News Part 3 - Ben and I are engaged!

Here's the second pic of us back at home after the hike.


















Here's a pic of the ring Ben gave me - he designed it while in Basic Officer Training Camp and he emailed pictures of it to the jeweler in Nelson - Chris Kolmel. It's paladium, black jade and a diamond! It's amazing and definately one-of-a-kind!








Ring picture 2!

Christmas Plans!

I've booked my Christmas flights! I'm very excited - both to see my relatives in Victoria and especially to see Ben! Hopefully I'll see him on the 21st, although there is an absolutely minute chance that I'll see him before...hopefully we'll know later in the week!

Also in good news - Albertans weren't completely off their rocker and voted in Ed Stelmach as leader of the Conservative Party - both Jim Dinning and Ted Morton were crazy and scary, in my opinion! Yeah - I don't have to move out of the province for moral reasons!

TTFN!

Crappy and Good News

Well, crappy news first: I found out yesterday that Ben won't be coming home until Dec. 21. Grrrr. That cuts his holiday (and my Ben-time) in half because he still has to go back on Jan. 7. That really sucks - I was so happy that I only had to wait a week to see him and now it's more like 3. Bah... The only 'good' part of this whole fiasco is that I won't be exposed to any of his crazy army germs during exams...

For some good news - I found out that Cradle of Filth is coming to Edmonton a few days ago! I just bought a ticket for the show on Feb. 8! I'm excited - it should be awesome!

TTFN!

Whew..

So, I got my *shitty* paper back in Class 480 - the one on Romanization. Fortunately I analyzed Hingley's book so well that Dr. Rossiter didn't mind that I didn't tie it into North Africa very well...whew...so I got 17/20 (85%). I finally broke the 80% cap that I had in this class, and it seems that I won't get a shitty mark in this class! Yeah!

Yeah - Ben should be here in a little over a week! :)

-ttfn!

The End of November?? What the hell...

Where did November go?? It's already the end-ish of it?!?! :@ WTF?!?!

November has been extremely fast and chaotic: school, graduate scholarship crap, friends, etc. First, on school - I'm still doing well in Greek, although lately I need to study more! I've been too busy doing other stuff! In Latin I'm doing well. I just had a quiz last week and I got 96% on it! That should raise my mark a bit! I'm feeling way more confident (at least right at this moment!) and everything seems to be going ok! In Classics 480 - I seem to have an 80% cap in this class. No matter what I do, I seem to get 80% exactly. It's not exactly a bad mark, but it's not super great...I just handed in my 'research' paper in the class last Wednesday. I don't feel good about the paper, but I was freaking out about a scholarship application. His topic was super broad (I had to discuss the evolution of 'Romanization' in the last hundred years and relate it to North Africa) and it was only 8 pages, maximum. I felt ok about it until I was looking over the text book I had to use and I got 16 pages of point form notes on the evolution of Romanization within the first 2 chapters of the book! I spent most of my page limit beating that to death and I barely talked on North Africa. We'll see how I did on it in a few weeks. I'm fairly sure that the marking system in this class is fairly fluid - there is no set grading system for it - so I'm betting on the prof seeing how much effort I put into it (I've bugged him for every assignment except for the midterm). We'll see and, other than continuing to work really hard, there isn't much I can do!

Last wednesday Tessa and I went to see 10 Days On Earth by Ronnie Burkett. It's a very good (but emotionally heavy) puppet play about a simple man who lives with his mother. It is setu during 10 days of his life beginning when his mother dies in her sleep and he doesn't know it. It was really good - I recommend it highly - but it's not a super happy, light show. Awesome (but what's with me seeing puppet shows about death??).

Ben's doing good! He's in the field for this week and next week, and then (hopefully) he'll be home! He had an interview last Sunday dealing with his performance to date and he's in the top 10 in the class! Awesome - that's just where he wanted to be - it's not super good to stick out in the army! Right now, I'm just focused on seeing him (soonish!).

A couple of weeks ago, I found out about this Graduate Scholarship - Ontario Graduate Scholarship - from McMaster a week and a half before it was due. I needed to get Referenes from Profs, write letters, gather transcripts, and all that kind of stuff. It was super stressful and I felt really bad asking profs for references that had to be done asap! One of my profs backed out because she felt that the time limit was a bit too much for her. My other prof came through on the same day because she's AWESOME!!! I had to ask another reference who is in Ontario so I sent in an 'uncomplete' application package that I hope to god they accept. Susanne (Ben's Mum) helped me with my letter of intent, along with my Law-school applying friend Anita, and between their advise, I sounded like a super-genius! If the OGS people don't accept the application, at least I have a letter that I can send to the Grad Schools.

TTFN!