Three Strikes You're Out

You know those people who always make plans with you and then flake at the last minute... I'm getting really annoyed with those people.

I understand that legit stuff comes up sometimes, stuff you have to cancel for. I'm not talking about those busy people. I'm talking about the ones that say "oh, we'll see if I'll be able to come" or "Sorry, I just felt like lying on my couch, ya know?" or "I have to wait around in case someone decides to skype me even though I have no plans to skype anyone". Those people.

In order to avoid the disappointment of another cancellation (even though, they're really sorry they can't make it!) I've come up with the 3 strike rule that I apply to my friendships. Seriously. It came about because at work, we give clients 3 tries to show up to appointments or reply and if they don't they're discharged. 3 strikes.

It's pretty simple really. 3 strikes and you're out. But only three strikes in a row.

1 cancellation happens sometimes.

2 cancellations are rare, and usually require the other friend to make a real effort to make up the time.

3 cancellations though, that's a flaky friend.

Just like one of my clients, if they call, they can get re-assessed, but I just won't be putting the effort in to contact them first.

So far I've applied this rule to two people in Grande Prairie. One of whom I was glad to discharge, the other of whom was a friend, but will save me the frustration of numerous plans and cancellations. Too harsh? Thoughts?

ps - I'm enjoying the puns and baseball analogies that go along with explaining to friends that I discharged another friend, or that they struck out

5 great things

Here's a list of 5 things I love today:

1. raison toast

2. hugs

3. unexpected happy texts

4. purple

5. Joop learning to rollover

That is all.

The Running Game

Wow. It's been a longer than I thought. Sorry to my faithful follower. (That means you Nate)

Running sucks. Let's just say it how it is. I have friends that say they love to run, but in my head every time they say that I say "yeah, I'm sure you do. You probably love picking up dog poop too."

More than hating running, I hate training to run. Every other day on the treadmill. Working ever so hard to make it 1 minute past what I did the last time, or trying my hardest to run at 5.7 instead of 5.6, or trying desperately to make it to 2.6 km instead of 2.5.

ARGGGGG. Why am I doing this?!?

This truth is, deep down, l just wanna be hot. I wanna look and feel great about myself, so I'm torturing myself in hopes that I only have to do it temporarily.

The second truth is that I already feel better about myself. Every small accomplishment brings satisfaction and confidence with it. I'm proud of where I've come from and I'm proud of the 0.5 extra that I can run since a week ago. I'm hoping to join a free learn-to-run group that starts in a month. The idea is that at the end of it, everyone in the group will be able to run 10K. I don't know if that's true, but I do know that it can't hurt me to try. Who knows.. maybe I'll even like running at the end of all this!

Probably not.

To Tweet OR Not To Tweet

That is the question.

I keep hearing all of these words: tweets, retweets, hashtags, etc. More than anything else, I wanted to experience twitter so I could figure out what the big deal was.

Taking the experiment seriously means going all out...

a) account

b) photos

c) following people I might actually find interesting

d) "tweeting" (as the cool kids say)

e) trying to gain followers.

This is day one of the experiment. Observations so far:

#1 very addictive, very quickly

#2 I get news very quickly (before I would if I was watching the news, or checking websites)

#3 @KanyeWest is a douche

I'll let you know how the rest of the experiment goes. I could lose my twitter high, who knows!

Also, some random people I don't know are already following me (3 tweets in). This seems bizarre to me.

Follow me on twitter @ twitter.com/lindivs !!!

Fetch.

Is it really that hard. (1) I throw ball. (2) You get ball. (3) You bring ball back. Joop consistently forgets step 3. The game is not called throw-ball-so-dog-can-run-away-from-me-for-a-whole-hour! Geez louise.

Yet, I still love him.

The other week I left the pup with a friend so that I could travel home and it turns out he's a total TWAT WAFFLE when I'm not around! He tried to eat her food, puked on the carpet, ran around so he didn't have to go in the bedroom in the morning, wimpered all day and night, and just generally didn't listen. Thanks for your patience Winnepeg! Stupid little pup. Then he thought he ruled the house and proceeded to not listen to me when I got home. I had to whip that little pup back into shape. Twat Waffle. It only took him a few days, but what a stubborn little guy.

Yet, I still love him.

Fetch, Joopje! FETCH!

Small Town Theatre

You may or may not be aware that I went to see a little show called CHICAGO last week!!

It was preformed by some of Grande Prairie's finest actors and actresses!

The thing is... I'm use to big-time Toronto showcases, and this lovely production really just didn't compare. Don't get me wrong, I fully enjoyed myself at the show, it just wasn't quite the same thing I'm use to for several reasons...

Caveat: It was preview night, so they were still figuring out some details

1) There were only 6 men in the whole show, and all but one of them was over 50! This provided plenty of entertainment: overexcited (in more than one way) men on stage with 20-something girls, laughable off-tune singing voices, hilarious costume changes, etc. Seriously, if you're under 30, you'd have a lead role, no problem!

2) I knew people involved. Everywhere you turn there's someone who was involved in the background crew, or volunteering, or acting. It definitely makes a show like this one more enjoyable when you can talk to people you know about their roles after. GP feels so small sometimes.

3) The audience was the size of a toothpick. Ok, slightly bigger. But honestly someone on the other side was laughing like a hyena and I could hear her like she was directly behind me. The plus side of this is that we were two rows from the back and could see everything perfectly!

4) Musical errors were rampant. Lines were forgotten. It was all crazy cakes! (although it was preview night... ). You'd think this would annoy me, but actually I think it made the show more enjoyable. I laughed everytime (not out loud though, cause I didn't wanna be like the hyena lady).

All-in-all it was a fun night. There are definitely occasions for big-city productions, but this was definitely worth the fun evening out.

Ps - sorry for the poor photo quality... my iphone can only do so much.