Merry Christmas!!!

:)

I am done work! I am also sick-ish, although I am not really feeling it other than tiredness right now. I was really feeling ill at work, but I have chilled on the couch taking it easy today and now my nose and stomach are not complaining so much.

I have to start packing. Problem is, I am so intent on having organized boxes I have 4 or five started and not one completed! This is my goal for Sunday: two whole boxes full and labeled.

Christmas went by fast! My family and I played Pictionary and watched movies on the eve...

More family and Josef arrived on Christmas Day and we proceeded to drink...

Some highlights:

• A snow angel was made in two feet of snow in our backyard. He was in his underwear.
• I blacked out for a bit and found amusing photos of me the next day carrying large empty bottles of whiskey, putting hair accessories on my mom's face, my sister making faces, and other drunken events.
• Throwing up all over my suite before midnight (damn whiskey is the DEVIL)
• Missing famous Fairweather karaoke because of said throwing up
  
• Being relieved at hearing my family mention not remembering a bunch of my pictures as well. I don't like being the only one who doesn't know what happened!

I was hung over all boxing day. Watched Deadwood, played Age of Empires, and laid down...

Last night I could feel the actual sick start. I think the massive amounts of whiskey killed my immune system enough that Josef's cold finally got through to me. :( oh well.
Here are some shots from Christmas Eve, the party ones are not edited yet...

Time is Flying by

I made it back to Langley today. The main roads had been cleared in the morning, and it had finally stopped snowing! There was also no one parked behind my car today :D

My travel business cards are ready! I just have to go get them now in east van... the company said they would be done by tomorrow at one, but then called HALF AN HOUR after I left for home saying they had nothing else to do today so they are already done. FRUSTRATING! >:( If I had stayed in town for even a half hour later, I could have them in my hands right now. I will have to wait.

three more shifts until I am unemployed.

three more days until Christmas!

Spent time with my family today, our kitties are so cute!

My sister is in this picture, back from Victoria. The kitty is the older one of two, a twenty-five pound fluff ball :D

Snowed in!

well here I am supposed to be at work, and my car won't leave it's spot on the side of the road.

It had started snowing last night, so I knew I was going to have to call work...

So I did. Slept. Called again. Slept. Got ready and called again. Nope, still had to risk my life and come in. So I tried and the car would not get out of it's seven inches of surrounding snow (plus all the snow that had been scraped off the car). Surprise Surprise. The side road was also not plowed and looked like a deathtrap. I took some pictures of how crazy it is here:



I obviously can't drive to Langley in this, and not ten minutes after I had called work to let them know I was stuck, my dad called to make sure I had not tried to drive to work ha ha ha!

The night before, I went to Josef's birthday gathering, which was fun for the small part I was awake for :)
Unfortunately I was exhausted after work, plus I had to work the next day too so I ended up having an extended nap for the majority of the party... woke up in time for cake and everyone laying next to the fire... here is a synopsis, you can click on them to go to flickr :)



It looks like it will be a video game day for me, since I didn't bring any crafts here and I can't really go anywhere...

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr

four and a half to go!

It's FREEZING in the basement suite here! I am supposed to be going to bed early to get up at 7:45am, but I have been going to bed at about 4am the past few nights so we will see how this works out...

On a more positive note, it feels like Christmas now out here :) Trees (my little one is in the picture) are up, gingerbread is being eaten, my crocheting is being given away to people, and I am hibernating like mad. By hibernating I mean getting up at 12:30 or 1:00pm though, NOT GETTING UP EARLY.

I googled my name last night for fun and found out that a photo of me with my led hula hoop is on hooping.org! (click here to see it) It says "Leanne Fairweather Lights the Night". I was so excited! I didn't submit it, so they must have found it on the web somehow... either way it had me going to bed on a positive note.

:)

Preparation! Introduction!

Six and a half more shifts before I am finished working! Nine or so more actual days before I am work free for potentially quite some time :D

No, I am not retiring at 22... In about a month, I begin the most epic journey of my entire life... Traveling around the world for an undefined amount of time! The GENERAL itinerary is:

• Train it down the west coast to California, Phoenix, and Nevada. Visit Friends.
  
• Attend Mardi Gras over in New Oleans. Help their tourism industry by drinking a lot.
• Venture North to New York, try to take cheesy pictures and eat crazy huge pizza.
• Northbound more to Montreal. Visit other friends. Try to speak French and get laughed at.
  
• Fly over to the UK. Here it gets even more vague...
  
• Scamper around Europe. Learn a language or two... or at least "where is the washroom" in a bunch of languages.
  
• Abduct innocent people with sexy accents and convince them to accompany me to exotic India! Shop, surf, and do yoga and such, maybe get some henna and harsh diarrhea.
  
• Find my way over to Southeast Asia. Possibly going through China, or maybe by Travel Unicorn. Hopefully I will hear some recommendations for places in between India and Vietnam by then.
  
• Swim about, hula hoop, light bonfires, and dance on the beaches of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and the many many small islands over in that general area. I might end up there for a while.
• Once I start yearning for English speaking countries, I can/will hop down to Australia!! I am told it's very easy for young Canadians to get working holiday Visa's there, so if I run outta money or decide I really want to buy something fancy, I can work for it. I have also been warned that I may end up liking it too much there and not come back, so I am saving it for near the end.
• I have always wanted to see the Great Barrier Reef, ever since I started putting aquatic lining in my room when I was a teenager. I have decided that even though it's part of Australia, the reef deserves it's own little bullet.
• The Pyramids have also been a must see, this may become a side trip from Europe, but I am not inclined to go there alone. So it depends on how many abductions I succeed at.
• Anything past Australia is dependent on how poor and emancipated I am, so its one giant question mark

And there you have it. This is what I have to prepare for.
Everything is going into a 50-55L Osprey backpack. It's comfy.

On another note, my car was covered in snow today... It's crazy outside!