I really should have taken a picture...

So, there are both things I like and things I don't like about living in a village. .

I like that it's quiet. It lets me focus on my work, and then forces me to relax when I'm not working (because there's nothing else to do!).

On the other hand, because it's so quiet, it leaves very few (or none at all) options for activities when I want to do something. Overall, though, I enjoy the slower paced life, especially since I lived SUCH a busy life in Saskatoon for 7 years! *

I don't like that there are so few options and little selection at the grocery store and that the hours are limited. It makes it a bit difficult, because I work longer hours and don't always make it to the store by 6.

On the other hand, I encountered something on Friday that you definitely wouldn't see in the city. I was pretty sick on Friday and was having trouble swallowing, so I couldn't really handle anything I had in my fridge or pantry. I set out toward the store, and then remembered it was Good Friday, so everything was likely to be closed. The Co-op was closed, but we also have another small, family run store. When I got to the front, the "closed" sign was in the window, but above it, written in handwriting on a brown paper bag were the words, "Come around back if you need anything."

So I went around back, knocked on the door, and the owner was back there cutting meat and he let me come in and grab a few things.

Adorable. So village.

*Don't get me wrong, I'm still VERY busy with work, but I don't have a million other side activities on top of it like I did in the city.

SO done

with retail.

Seriously.

I know you're never supposed to say never, but I hope to never have to work in retail again. It's not even the customers that I'm done with...I actually enjoy that part of retail. It's the immaturity and unprofessionality (sp?) of some of the people who work in retail.

Seriously.

Yikes!

Well, I had a scary situation at work the other day. I was in the back doing some restocking and when I came back out to the front, I felt kind of...weird. It kinda felt like being dizzy, but not like the room was spinning--just sort of swimming. It was sort of like the feeling you get when you stand up too fast. My vision was funny, like my eyes couldn't focus. A customer was asking me a question and I could only see part of her face. I was trying to explain to a co-worker what they were supposed to be doing, and I was felt confused and like I couldn't get my point across. I rang someone in, which was difficult because I couldn't see all the numbers.

It was kinda scary.

It would have been even more so, but I remembered my mom telling me about having a migraine start kinda like that. I guess it's called a Migraine Aura.

"About 15% of migraine sufferers have a warning that the headache is coming on. They experience a change in brain function called an aura. It is usually a visual symptom, such as an arc of sparkling (scintillating) zig-zag lines or a blotting out of vision or both. But any other brain-related symptom may occur, such as numbness of one side of the face and hand, weakness, unsteadiness, or altered consciousness."

I also found some good info in this article.

Anyway, my friend Regan came to my rescue and drove me home (I certainly couldn't drive myself, when my vision was being so weird!). It went from vision stuff to EXTREME nausea (and throwing up, which I hate hate hate) to lots of pain. I missed another day of work the next day recovering. The whole thing was quite the ordeal. And definitely a first for me. I mean, I've had a few migraines before, but NOTHING like that!

Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm yours!

It's official.

The miracle of life...

Okay, so a few weeks ago, a bird built a nest in one of our hanging baskets. INSIDE THE GREENHOUSE!!! It's been quite an exciting time for us, checking on the nest every day, seeing one egg, then two, finally four. The mom AND the dad were in and out of the greenhouse multiple times a day, and grew to be quite tame. (it's not like they came and sat on my shoulder or anything, but we could lift the basket down and mommy would be sitting on the nest and stay in there while we were looking!)

And then...they hatched. For the first few days they were these tiny little pink things with buggy eyes...quite ugly, to be honest. And then they filled up the nest and grew their feathers and here they are...soooo cute!







Because the nest was inside the basket, we continued watering the basket but couldn't trim it back, as we do with our other baskets.

This picture shows how much more ginormous this basket is than our regular, trimmed, lovely sized baskets.




And a gratuitous picture of Angel's Trumpet...just because it is so beautiful.



p.s. The babies have since left the nest, learned how to fly, and made new lives for themselves.

The wonder of nature...

Why don't I have anything to blog about? I think I've got blogger's block. Okay, surely I have something to blog about...let me think...

Nope, I've got nothing.

So I'll post some pictures instead! These are from Midnight Madness...if you don't know what that is, read back a couple of posts.




We don't usually get to see the greenhouse in the dark, since it's still light out when we close. The extra lamps we put up created some pretty great lighting.




An Angel's Trumpet tree...aka Brugmansia. So beautiful and it smells AMAZING!






One of our many lovely displays.






We have a pretty great greenhouse, if I do say so myself.





Emma and Gina... managerial staff extraordinaire!






Vinca vines. And Peter and Em in the background.






Mandevilla. It's kind of our specialty.

Midnight Madness

I just got home from working 15 hours.

I'm tired.

But wait...there's a story.

So every year at the greenhouse, we have a HUGE sale mid June called Midnight Madness. On a chosen Saturday night, we put on these amazing sales in every department. We're still open all day, but starting at 7pm we have all of these sales and we stay open till midnight. We make popcorn and lemonade...we have music...we have ALL our staff scheduled. Then we have a party after we close. All of our customers look forward to it; our parking lot is full and we have crazy line ups.

The date for this year's Midnight Madness was SATURDAY, June 16th. We always put an ad in the SATURDAY Star Phoenix that simply reads "Midnight Madness 7pm to Midnight TONIGHT at [the greenhouse]".

The Star Phoenix ran the ad today...FRIDAY.

So we are doing Midnight Madness twice.

Consequently, I worked 9-5 at the flower shop and then went straight out to the greenhouse till midnight. CRAZY!

So...tired...

Work, work, work...

Yesterday I worked from 9am to 9:30pm. Long day. So tired. And then I opened today at 8:30am.

When I was coming home from work last night, I realized that on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays I will be opening at the flower shop (9am) and closing at the greenhouse (9:30pm). I hadn't really planned on having three 12 hour days a week, but that's just sort of how it turned out...

In other news...what's with this freaking construction???? I literally can't get out of the city to the greenhouse without being held up by construction. Why can't they work at night like in all other normal, smart cities? I don't understand. Come on, Saskatoon...

Oh, and choir was amazing tonight. Our final concert is Sunday, June 10th at 10am if anyone is interested! It's gonna be amazing...

p.s. Wow, I was looking back at old posts and comments, and I JUST found this. Remember the article that guy wrote slamming teachers? Here's the link to that post if you want to read the article and my reply. Anyway, that was months ago, but he must have found my blog recently and added some comments of his own. He responds to all the comments you guys left. Caution: he uses some harsh language

p.p.s. Happy Birthday Daddy!

Working 9 to 5...

Actually, I've been working 10 to 5:30 but that doesn't really fit in with the song. As Tuesday is the first day of May, we will begin our regular summer hours...9-9, so I'll be working a lot more evenings. Most, actually. Plus Tuesday and Thursday mornings and Fridays all day at the flower shop. Busy.

And now, a gratuitous picture of kittens.


















In other news...my mom is adorable. She tries to use sayings and cliches but tends to get them mixed up. She once told someone that I was a "chop off the old shoulder..." Usually her mix ups are a combination of a couple of different sayings. The latest, I think, is an absolute original:

"No use reinventing the frog!"

Things just work out for her!

It's been awhile since I posted, I know...I've been busy. April this year is going to be a not so much fun month. 4 of my 6 classes don't have finals...I know, that sounds great, right? Well, actually it's not. It just means that 4 out of 6 of my classes have tons of extra work due intermittently throughout the month. No fun. I think I would rather just write the finals. (I never thought I'd say that after last semester's exam schedule from H***. 5 finals in 3 days...no jokes. And that was the same weekend as our choir concert opened, so from Wednesday to Monday I had 2 dress rehearsals, wrote a paper, wrote 5 finals, and performed in 5 choir concerts. I could not have done it on my own strength!)

Anyway, I was reading the world's most boring article about Canadian Confederacy for one of my classes just now when my boss called. She's been trying to find someone to hire whose schedule matches what we need. I have wanted to ask for some time off during finals but we're really short for people until we hire someone. Well, one of the girls that used to work for us called and she's in town for a couple of weeks and is wondering if we need some help. So I get a couple of weeks off! Hooray! (I'll still be working a bit at Day Grow, as we open on the 21st!)

Okay, so my point was that my boss has the most amazing luck. We needed to hire someone before Christmas and then...a girl that used to work for us came back! This time we really will need to hire someone, what with me cutting back my hours and the girl that came back before Christmas just left too. But anyway, things just work out for my boss! And this time, it benefitted me as well!

Yay...more time to study....yuck.

In other news, 5 DAYS TILL MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

Speaking of birthdays, here are some pictures of a few of us out for our friend Colleen's birthday a couple weeks ago.



Colleen and me


Joanna, Colleen, and me


Tracy, Jenn, and Leticia