08 Aug 2010
by Lauriein Cow & Toaster
It was a rainy afternoon spent fruitlessly in search of music not available in “regular” music stores. (Yes, I’m old-school and still buy CDs, and I don’t have an iPod or iPhone, and thus I’m excluded from the wonders that is the iTunes store.)
Apparently I’m not not hip enough to fit in and buy some music; I think they could smell the suburbs on me. Outside the store that the 80′s forgot – unlike most of their staff I lived through that decade – I found myself in a sea of yummy mummies. Not adorned in Coach accessories or Lululemon attire I stood put from the pack in my MEC jacket and non-designer jeans.
Headed over to Voltage, and like every other store in Vancouver that I like, it’s closing. Sadly, I turned to Paul and said “everything I like disappears”. He relied that he wasn’t going anywhere.
I replied that one day he would die. Nice of me, eh? Unless I turned him into an android after death, but then he might turn into a cylon, and again, I’d be alone and he’d be hell-bent on wiping out the human race.
05 Jul 2010
by Lauriein Cow & Toaster, Life, Motorcycles
I’ve been unusually busy for the past six weeks; this is the first weekend in four weeks that I haven’t had something to do. I spend the work weeks in between feeling slightly dazed and a little shell-shocked, but it was good.
It started with the Advanced Rider School through Pacific Riding School; I wrote about that over at 604 Ninja, so go read it there. The next weekend we did our first Pitt Meadows track day (which I haven’t written about, but will after this). The weekend after that we did the Bikers for Burns ride from Vancouver to Harrison. On Canada Day we watched round five of WMRC at Mission Raceway (I hadn’t been there since 1998 or 1999 and my memories of it are a little sketchy, probably due to the amount of alcohol consumed afterwards.)
In a weird coincidence (or is it reverse-stalking, we never did figure that out, or who exactly is the reverse-stalker…) one of the instructors from PRS/ARS was at the track day and the burns ride, and invited us to visit his pit at Mission. It’s odd when you bump into someone who has the same sense of humour as us; to outsiders I’m sure we looked pretty ridiculous, but it was fun.
Along with all of that I’ve had plenty to deal with at work, a wedding to attend, and a niece due to be born any day.
28 Apr 2010
by Lauriein Cow & Toaster, Work
Last night I went of a brief stream-of-consciousness rant about why I should be the one who gets the super awesome helmet design (that I really, really want), not Paul. Even though Paul was only teasing me I just lost it and went crazy. I blame it on stress. It’s always the stress.
I’m really looking forward to my new job. I will be the Practice Manager of another veterinary hospital. This hospital is actively trying to grow their business and develop their employees. They have a business coach who is also going to mentor me. Part of the plan is for me to finally start working towards becoming a Certified Veterinary Practice Manager. My new boss (the veterinarian) and I seem to get along very well; we seem to be fairly alike. They’re very excited about having me too…I just hope I can live up to their expectations.
Because this job is in the opposite direction of where I work now (the clinic I work at now is in Ladner, the new one is out in the Fraser Valley) I won’t be able to carpool with Paul anymore (he works in Richmond), so for the most part I’m going to be riding my motorcycle to work every day. The route is longer by distance, but a little shorter time-wise.
I’m getting impatient to start this new chapter.
28 Feb 2010
by Lauriein Cow & Toaster, February 2010 "Ties", Life, NaBloPoMo
When Vancouver put up a bid for the 2010 Games I was against the idea. When it was announced that Vancouver won the bid to hold the games I heard a huge roar in downtown Vancouver, and a co worker and I turned to each other and moaned “nooooo!” I voted no in the Vancouver Olympic plebiscite (we lived in East Vancouver at that time).
I thought that all of the money being poured into the games should have been used for other things (like helping the Downtown East Side, paying for more doctors, etc.) but I realized that the Olympic money wouldn’t have been available for these things. I know that the games are going to end up costing the city, province, and country a lot of money, and I am worried about what’s going to happen with city employee’s contracts.
But you know what, it was a great time. Corny as it is, I feel so much pride for our country and our athletes. I feel proud of the athletes from around the world who overcame huge obstacles and put in countless hours of training to just be here.
I’ve never seen as many smiling faces as I did last Saturday when Paul, Dale and I went to wander around Vancouver. It felt great to give in and enjoy the experience.
Yes, it’s true that the hockey games were pretty much the big deal for most people, and I doubt the mood tonight would be as happy if we didn’t win. Maybe it was bread and circuses. But goddamn it, for a few days we were united for a common purpose and celebrated something greater than ourselves.
It’s not over yet. The paralympics start in just over a week and those athletes are heroes. Those men and women are brave, and have more guts than I can imagine. I wish they got more recognition, because they truly deserve it.
01 Jan 2010
by Lauriein Cow & Toaster
2 years married, 9 years together. Love you!
31 Dec 2009
by Lauriein Cow & Toaster, Me, me, me
As 2000 began I was drunk in a hotel room partying with a bunch of friends and studiously ignoring my boyfriend. I rang in the new year and millennium in the hallway outside the party room as a bunch of us ran out to get more alcohol from another room. Strangers came out to count down with us and we all cheered, yelled, and kissed right in the stairwell.
I moved to Burnaby in mid-December and met Paul. By the end of the year we were an item, as we had a very drunken 48 hours to close out the year.
In 2001 Paul and I moved out together. I was working a job that made me miserable. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. I was laid off from said horrible job and was unemployed for six months.
I began a round of differing medications to try and bring my fibromyalgia and depression under control. Nothing really worked.
I found the religious group that I am still a part of and enrolled in the Beginner’s lessons. Stood in horror with the rest of the world as the Twin Towers fell.
2002 found me starting a new job. I finally met Paul’s (in)famous friend from Arizona, Rich. I took Shemsu vows. Paul had emergency orthopedic surgery to repair his torn meniscus and hopped around our apartment instead of using crutches.
In 2003 I had a scare with my heart. I thought I was having panic attacks but it turns out some of the medication I was taking was affecting my heart causing it to race. I went in for an echo cardiogram and an ultrasound of my heart and was found to be okay. Waved hello to my liver while I was at it.
I was hating my job and considering going back to school to work with animals in a veterinary clinic.
We moved from Vancouver to Ladner (from a one-bedroom apartment to a two-bedroom rancher with a yard).
2004 saw me actually applying for a student loan and quitting my job to take the 6 month veterinary assistant diploma.
Paul and I went camping, staying at Christina Lake, Kootenay National Park, and Banff. We came back just in time for me to start my classes in July.
In 2005 I was promoted to Manager at the veterinary clinic. Rich came to visit & joined us at my Christmas party & apparently will never hang out with my boss again (can’t say I blame him).
I traveled alone for the first time to Chicago to my temple. Took Shemsu-Ankh vows.
Paul and I started to think about buying a house.
Hurricane Katrina happened, my boss went down to help and ended up coming back with over 30 dogs that needed homes, including one very pregnant hound dog who stole our hearts. Noel-the-Christmas-Miracle-Dog becomes Maggie and we start looking for a place to buy.
2006 saw us learning how to cope with a dog with severe anxiety problems, moving into our own house, and getting a puppy. Rich & Rob came to visit from Arizona.
In 2007 Paul and I got married. Went to San Diego for the first time for the CVC West conference and visited behind the scenes at the San Diego Zoo.
In 2008 I finally got a diagnosis for what’s wrong with my left knee (chondromalacia patella/patellofemoral pain syndrome). Not surprisingly there isn’t a lot that can be done to fix it.
Became a little obsessed with eeePCs.
Started thinking about starting a family.
Our nephew Traviss was born.
2009: I entered my 30s. Was given the best birthday present ever by Paul.
Went to Maui and had an amazing time.
Our nephew Atticus was born.
Horrified my doctor and physiotherapist with the state of my neck.
Decided I am not ready to have children and put that plan on indefinite hold.
Um, motorcycles? Motorcycles!
02 Aug 2009
by Lauriein Cow & Toaster, Motorcycles
Tomorrow our Pacific Riding School course starts. We’re doing Night School B which is going to make for some long days.
On August 14th we’re heading up to my Mom’s cabin in Tulameen for the weekend.
Paul and I went out to look at bikes last weekend, and I’m a little torn between the Ninja 250R and the KLX250SF. Quite different bikes. The KLX’s seat height may be too tall for me (33.9 inches). It was a problem with most dual-sport bikes I sat on at the motorcycle show in January. I don’t recall seeing this model there, but at the Kawasaki area we spent the most time looking at the Ninja 250R and 500R. Luckily I’m tall enough that there are only a few sportbikes that are tall enough that I can’t put my feet flat on the ground. I guess being tall comes in handy for something other than being able to reach things on high shelves.
I’ll try to update how the class goes if I have any time next week. I’m very excited!
15 May 2009
by Lauriein Cow & Toaster
Note to self: never book a flight during the time you should be sleeping, because you will not get any sleep on the flight. Especially if the person sitting next to you is snoring and stretched out into your seat.
The trip to Maui was awesome. We didn’t do a lot, other than spending almost every day at the beach and going to the summit of Haleakala for the sunrise. That was surreal: the 10,000 foot ascent took 38 miles of winding road. (I say this like it means anything to me: I can never remember how many miles are in a kilometer, although Google assures me that there are 1.6 kilometers in a mile). Once we got up above the clouds the full moon shone down on them, making it feel like we were on another planet. I wish we had the right camera equipment to photograph what it was like. It was also below freezing with the windchill at the summit.
We spent most of our time in west Maui, mostly at DT Fleming Beach. We also went to Ka’anapali Beach, Napili Bay, Ironwood Beach (we saw Honu there!), Baby Beach, and Honolua Bay on the west side.
We did a day trip to Kikei and saw Big Beach/Makena Bay and La Perouse Bay/Ahihi-Kina’u Natural Area Preserve.
On our last day we went to the ‘ Iao Needle in Wailuku, the north shore to see Pa’ia and Hookipa Beach, and watched windsurfers, kiteboarders, and dragonboaters at Airport Beach in Kahului.
As we expected, it was a very different experience than Moloka’i. On Moloka’i you could forget that you are in the US. There aren’t any franchised stores or restaurants. Maui seems a lot more…American, although Hawai’i seems different than other places in America that I’ve visited.It’s hard to explain.
The beaches on Maui were a lot nicer for swimming than the beaches on Moloka’i, although never deserted. We avoided any “tourist trap” type places and still there was a lot to do and see.
Pictures are coming.
28 Apr 2009
by Lauriein Cow & Toaster, Life
By now (assuming things went the way they were planned) we are our way to Maui. See you in two weeks!
26 Apr 2009
by Lauriein Cow & Toaster
This weekend was a “nothing but the 90s” weekend on the Fox. My ears were telling me that I had to go back to school tomorrow. I’m getting old I think; I have too much nostalgia for the music from when I was growing up.
We leave for Maui on Tuesday! Finally! We’re staying at a cottage near Napili Bay (a little north of Lahaina). It will be a lot different than our trip to Moloka’i. Moloka’i doesn’t have any building taller than a lamppost, and no traffic lights. But we are staying in a quieter area, so hopefully we will enjoy some peaceful Hawaiian moments like we did on Moloka’i.
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