Fairs, Friends, and Fixed-Up Old Houses
Eventful week... But first, a plush turtle with Mardi Gras beads!
For one, went to The Ex (Canadian National Exhibition) on Monday! With unlimited rides...YAY!!! LOL, it was sooooo much fun, it really was. I haven't been there to go on rides since I was about 9, and neither has my mom really...so we enjoyed it SO much. We went on the Tilt-A-Whirl and Scrambler about a thousand times each, LOL, as well as the ferris wheel. And a bunch of other things...LOL, my mom was calling herself a chicken after one of them though, we didn't watch what it did before we went on it and figured it'd be somewhat tame, but it kind of wasn't and it freaked her out.... :) Poor thing. I have to give her credit though, she's almost 51 and she'll still basically try anything once. There were a few after that that she was too shaken up to go on, lol, but we just figured we'd do them next year. I took a ton of pictures, so if any come out I'll use her scanner and post 'em... It was awesome, I mean I've been to amusement parks a ton since then, but fair rides are a whole different thing, and somehow just as much fun! I grew up going on rides like Tilt-A-Whirl every single summer, at various fairs and festivals and The Ex, so it was kinda...nostalgic too. Except...LOL, okay, on all the rides that whip you around--and therefore, the person on the outside gets squished--they have a big thing saying "LARGEST PERSON SITS ON THE LEFT" on the seat...which we determined was me, because I outweigh my mom by half a pound and I'm taller than her by a couple inches. Soooo I spent the day getting squished all to hell, LOL!! I actually came away basically unscathed.
AND I won that stuffed turtle you saw before the cut! LOL! I played the "Fool the Guesser" game, got him to guess my Birth Month. I did the same game back in high school and won because they guessed me as April, so after telling my mom that and bragging about my ability to "play a real good Aries", we decided to test it.. ;) She was a bit skeptical (if they guess within 2 months of your month, you lose...so that's a full 5 months out of the year, not the greatest odds), so I of course had to try. ;) Soooo I went up there, did my best loud-mouthed Aries impression (it IS my rising sign after all!), basically acted the total opposite of the "reserved" September Virgo I am.... And once again, got guessed as April! Sooo I now have an adorable turtle, and the knowledge that I still play a damn good Aries. ;) Oh, and then there's the Mardi Gras beads. LOL...they have a Mardi Gras-themed parade that runs through the grounds every evening, and the last 2 years my friend and I have intended to be out there for it to catch some beads, and we ALWAYS forget. So this time, my mom was shopping in one of the buildings, I heard the parade going by, took off, and managed to get 4 sets of beads, so we each got 2. LOL...all in all, a very satisfying day. ;)
On Tuesday, I needed to go to Walmart after work so I walked there...a nice long walk, and I went through my old neighborhood just to see how it was doing, and to see how my old house was faring these days. I adored my house downtown and I miss it greatly, I just don't miss the crackheads my landlord occasionally allowed to live in it with us. I hadn't been there since I left, because honestly, for one there's not much reason to be in that area unless you live there, but as well, I knew I'd miss it and I didn't want to see that the house had gotten even more dilapidated than it was when we left. It was never in good condition, and only got worse because my landlords didn't have the money nor really the care to keep it up, and my roomie and I had the desire, but not the money. Plus, with the people my landlord kept putting in there, what good we ever did only would've got ruined anyway. When I left, they had just sold the house for a little over a half mil. Yes...a run-down house in a questionable (but still nice) area...more than half a million dollars!!! We didn't know to whom they sold it, and we were just hoping whoever bought it would gut it and restore it. It's a 120-year-old Victorian, and it had SO much potential. I was sooooo happy to see that whoever bought it actually DID restore it completely...it looks like they did all the things we used to say someone SHOULD do. They ripped out the haunted back room (which was only an addition to begin with, and severely haunted, no-one who EVER entered that room could stay in it long without going mad) and made it basically a porch/sun room, with retractable mesh windows...fixed the upstairs deck and made it really pretty...ripped up all the ugly concrete slabs that were in our yard and made it a garden with HUGE sunflowers and tiger lilies...changed the front door to one with a mail slot, so their mail wouldn't get stolen like ours always did, lol, but the door fits the 'period' of the house still, which is cool... And it looks like they TOTALLY redid the inside, as well. The curtains in the front window--my old room--were open so I could have a quick look inside. Looks like they knocked out some walls (which were clearly only put up to split the house into rentable rooms), repainted everything, and just generally made it the lovely house it should have been. So yah...it may seem silly but I was soooo happy to see it that way. So I miss it, but I'm SO glad that whoever bought it, were the ones to buy it. It would've really bothered me to see it as rundown or more so than when I left.
Day after that, I ran into a friend of mine who I hadn't seen in FOREVER, from Old Navy, and we're going to hang out next Wednesday night now...which is awesome, I never meant to lose contact with her but we just kind of went our separate ways for a little bit. So I'm excited about that, definitely!
Thursday, Friday, and today were largely uneventful. Bullshit at work, more bullshit at work, and still MORE bullshit at work...you know what? I really just don't even care any longer. I don't know if I'm like...desensitized to it, or what, but it just...goes in one ear and out the other. It's a damn soap opera, and I don't need to be part of it any longer. Soooo...meh. :) So yah, there's been some negativity this week for sure...but you know, I just don't feel like talking about any of it. The good stuff is way more fun. ;)
And I get to go again to The Ex tomorrow with my friend...YAY! No rides this time, she can't go on them due to heart problems...but we're going to do some shopping and eating, lots of eating, LOL, so it'll be fun!
So yes, it's been a pretty good week...the highlight was TOTALLY the turtle, though. ;) LOL! Oh, his name is Ferris by the way. Like, as in, Wheel. Or Bueller, either way. ;)
For one, went to The Ex (Canadian National Exhibition) on Monday! With unlimited rides...YAY!!! LOL, it was sooooo much fun, it really was. I haven't been there to go on rides since I was about 9, and neither has my mom really...so we enjoyed it SO much. We went on the Tilt-A-Whirl and Scrambler about a thousand times each, LOL, as well as the ferris wheel. And a bunch of other things...LOL, my mom was calling herself a chicken after one of them though, we didn't watch what it did before we went on it and figured it'd be somewhat tame, but it kind of wasn't and it freaked her out.... :) Poor thing. I have to give her credit though, she's almost 51 and she'll still basically try anything once. There were a few after that that she was too shaken up to go on, lol, but we just figured we'd do them next year. I took a ton of pictures, so if any come out I'll use her scanner and post 'em... It was awesome, I mean I've been to amusement parks a ton since then, but fair rides are a whole different thing, and somehow just as much fun! I grew up going on rides like Tilt-A-Whirl every single summer, at various fairs and festivals and The Ex, so it was kinda...nostalgic too. Except...LOL, okay, on all the rides that whip you around--and therefore, the person on the outside gets squished--they have a big thing saying "LARGEST PERSON SITS ON THE LEFT" on the seat...which we determined was me, because I outweigh my mom by half a pound and I'm taller than her by a couple inches. Soooo I spent the day getting squished all to hell, LOL!! I actually came away basically unscathed.
AND I won that stuffed turtle you saw before the cut! LOL! I played the "Fool the Guesser" game, got him to guess my Birth Month. I did the same game back in high school and won because they guessed me as April, so after telling my mom that and bragging about my ability to "play a real good Aries", we decided to test it.. ;) She was a bit skeptical (if they guess within 2 months of your month, you lose...so that's a full 5 months out of the year, not the greatest odds), so I of course had to try. ;) Soooo I went up there, did my best loud-mouthed Aries impression (it IS my rising sign after all!), basically acted the total opposite of the "reserved" September Virgo I am.... And once again, got guessed as April! Sooo I now have an adorable turtle, and the knowledge that I still play a damn good Aries. ;) Oh, and then there's the Mardi Gras beads. LOL...they have a Mardi Gras-themed parade that runs through the grounds every evening, and the last 2 years my friend and I have intended to be out there for it to catch some beads, and we ALWAYS forget. So this time, my mom was shopping in one of the buildings, I heard the parade going by, took off, and managed to get 4 sets of beads, so we each got 2. LOL...all in all, a very satisfying day. ;)
On Tuesday, I needed to go to Walmart after work so I walked there...a nice long walk, and I went through my old neighborhood just to see how it was doing, and to see how my old house was faring these days. I adored my house downtown and I miss it greatly, I just don't miss the crackheads my landlord occasionally allowed to live in it with us. I hadn't been there since I left, because honestly, for one there's not much reason to be in that area unless you live there, but as well, I knew I'd miss it and I didn't want to see that the house had gotten even more dilapidated than it was when we left. It was never in good condition, and only got worse because my landlords didn't have the money nor really the care to keep it up, and my roomie and I had the desire, but not the money. Plus, with the people my landlord kept putting in there, what good we ever did only would've got ruined anyway. When I left, they had just sold the house for a little over a half mil. Yes...a run-down house in a questionable (but still nice) area...more than half a million dollars!!! We didn't know to whom they sold it, and we were just hoping whoever bought it would gut it and restore it. It's a 120-year-old Victorian, and it had SO much potential. I was sooooo happy to see that whoever bought it actually DID restore it completely...it looks like they did all the things we used to say someone SHOULD do. They ripped out the haunted back room (which was only an addition to begin with, and severely haunted, no-one who EVER entered that room could stay in it long without going mad) and made it basically a porch/sun room, with retractable mesh windows...fixed the upstairs deck and made it really pretty...ripped up all the ugly concrete slabs that were in our yard and made it a garden with HUGE sunflowers and tiger lilies...changed the front door to one with a mail slot, so their mail wouldn't get stolen like ours always did, lol, but the door fits the 'period' of the house still, which is cool... And it looks like they TOTALLY redid the inside, as well. The curtains in the front window--my old room--were open so I could have a quick look inside. Looks like they knocked out some walls (which were clearly only put up to split the house into rentable rooms), repainted everything, and just generally made it the lovely house it should have been. So yah...it may seem silly but I was soooo happy to see it that way. So I miss it, but I'm SO glad that whoever bought it, were the ones to buy it. It would've really bothered me to see it as rundown or more so than when I left.
Day after that, I ran into a friend of mine who I hadn't seen in FOREVER, from Old Navy, and we're going to hang out next Wednesday night now...which is awesome, I never meant to lose contact with her but we just kind of went our separate ways for a little bit. So I'm excited about that, definitely!
Thursday, Friday, and today were largely uneventful. Bullshit at work, more bullshit at work, and still MORE bullshit at work...you know what? I really just don't even care any longer. I don't know if I'm like...desensitized to it, or what, but it just...goes in one ear and out the other. It's a damn soap opera, and I don't need to be part of it any longer. Soooo...meh. :) So yah, there's been some negativity this week for sure...but you know, I just don't feel like talking about any of it. The good stuff is way more fun. ;)
And I get to go again to The Ex tomorrow with my friend...YAY! No rides this time, she can't go on them due to heart problems...but we're going to do some shopping and eating, lots of eating, LOL, so it'll be fun!
So yes, it's been a pretty good week...the highlight was TOTALLY the turtle, though. ;) LOL! Oh, his name is Ferris by the way. Like, as in, Wheel. Or Bueller, either way. ;)