post script to last night's post:
1. one of the things becky said that i really enjoyed/identified with: "but i e-mailed him back, because i enjoy adventure and excitement." this was an e-mail to a boy she maybe shouldn't have e-mailed. i know how it is, becky. we both have pretty extreme emotions and i think we both like to play with them, with the same enjoyment that most people get out of extreme physical activities.
2. michelle told me some more adorableness about reece: "we were marking kids together for Mission Impossible and he was talking about how "manly" his Sr. was "he hunts, rock climbs, fishes...he's like the manliest guy ever. And me? I read books." he's so awesome!!!

there was a time when all i wanted was my ice cream a little colder, and a little cream soda

i should be in bed but i wanted to write about the awesomeness of my day before it leaves me. my awesome day didn't really start until 3:00. also, this may have to be in point form.

1. i drove to the south side of the city, and stopped at michael's (the craft store, not a handsome boy's) to buy a spool holder and some paintbrushes
2. then i picked up kaylin from her work, and we drove to
3. pick up becky from HER work, and we ALL drove to
4. camp nakamun! it's the first time i've been there in about 5 years! we visited:
5. michelle powles, who was as delightful and irreverent as ever and is like having a built-in MST3K robot in one's life; and
6. reece c., who has been my and michelle's long-time favorite "nakakid" ever since we discovered he had the same first name as my camp name.
7. kaylin, becky and i got to camp just as the best night of the week, TALENT SHOW NIGHT, was starting.
8. we also managed to get there on DONUT NIGHT! how lucky! we had some terrible camp juice: a fun memory but a taste which still lingers in the back of my throat and the roof of my mouth.
9. reece remembered me AND gave me a hug, and i told him to find me on facebook and he said, "i don't use facebook. i don't have many... 'personal' friends." a-dorable. i would have a for-real crush on him, if only he wasn't 17.
10. on the way back from camp, we saw a moose running through the field and across the road, as well as a porcupine!
11. driving and just generally spending time with becky and kaylin was great. great great great. they are some of my favorite people AND they are two of my oldest friends. that maybe seems short, since i didn't go to school with either of them, but becky and i have been friends for 8 years, and kaylin and i have been friends for just a little bit less. that's a long time.
12. kaylin and michelle and i have plans to collage our scribblers together before school starts.
13. we dropped kaylin off at home, and then bexxx and i went to see jenni/illfit outfit play. we were pleasantly surprised to see jon and scott kobewka there. i didn't dance at all, which was a little disappointing, but being at a show again with becky was really nice, and jon is rad and i am glad we got another chance to hang out this summer. we are supposed to be friends now but he is a boy so i don't know how good he'll be at that. anyway, i am excited for potential mix tape exchanges with him.

it's not the milk you seek; it's the sun you need

remember that pair of brown chucks that was missing one shoe? the peeps at foot locker called around all over canada, and they found ONE full pair in my size and they ordered it for me. so, this post will hopefully be short, because i have to go pick them up. woo!

more good news is that my credit card insurance company sent me a cheque in the mail for the amount of my stolen red ipod. but here's the deal: i bought my ipod when i bought my new mac, and it was on this deal where you could get a new ipod (below the value of $229) for free. so, the ipod i got was about $315, so i ended up paying $70 for the ipod after they sent me the rebate. but now, i have a $315 cheque, and i don't really NEED another ipod, because i still have my big one. hmm. decisions. should i buy a new little ipod for little trips? should i buy books? should i drive as far as i can on $157 worth of gas, and then drive back? the world is my oyster!

i'm back in edmonton, but here's a little summation of the remainder of my v-town trip:
-i cut out a LOT of fabric
-i sewed some of said fabric into log cabin squares for a quilt i am making for myself. some of my favorite fabrics include 2 pinecone fabrics, a brown fabric with cattails all over it, and some pretty japanese flowers.
-i sewed some more fabric into bags and wallets. i had to do it all then because i wanted to use my mom's serger. i still have to do the fronts of the bags and wallets, though, and that will take a long time. the one i am working on right now is for a grey corduroy bag, and i am hand-sewing four bright pink moose (mooses?) onto it with a blanket stitch. it's pretty ridiculous. i think i'll put a duck and some cattails on a brown bag, and a bison on the plaid bag, and then who knows what else. world = still my oyster.

i went longboarding with dustan one night. it was really, really nice. sometimes i like having new friends, because it's nice to learn about people, but sometimes i like having friends like dustan, where new stuff isn't all that important but memories are what keeps the friendship alive. we played a game that i have been wanting to play with a different boy recently: we would just drive around and alternately point out a memory. i always feel like vermilion isn't really my home, but it turns out i have a lot of memories there. also, i wanted to hang out with brina, but i didn't get a chance to, because her sister just had a baby. i didn't even know she was pregnant.

emily and brad came over on monday. for some reason, emily was thinking about these old computer games we used to have, and then she found them, so i spent a night playing "ecoquest." this was partially because my dad but a ban on me sewing after he's gone to bed, because my machine makes too much noise and keeps him awake. i think it speaks volumens to my nerdiness that my family's computer games are limited to "ecoquest," "spelling blizzard," and "the island of dr. brain." yeesh.

yesterday evening i met up with karen, bri, bethany, joel, lisa, and marney to watch this boy who used to play in illfit outfit play a couple sets at a church. i like hanging out with those peeps. i like that my summer's been bookended by one of his shows and two illfit outfit shows. hearts for symmetry!

i can feel so boring for someone so interesting

today i was cutting fabric and my mom told me, "i like this one. it's not pretty but it's interesting... like you." ouch.

when i got back to edmonton, the first thing i did was go to see "superbad" with emily and meghan and meg's boyfriend nick. it was supercrude, but michael cera is adorable. "samesies"? how could i not love it? the next day, emily and brad and i went to see "the simpsons movie" at city centre. not terrific, but i'm glad i watched it with those two peeps.

at karen's on sunday, i somehow rolled my ankle really bad. i think the ground was a bit uneven because there must have been a large planter or something sitting there a while ago. anyway, i kind of fell out of nowhere and looked really ridiculous doing it, but it really really hurt and still does. i have bad ankles because of dance/soccer, and they haven't been so bad lately because i haven't really played much soccer for the last two years, but now they're totally messed up again. ugh. so, i've been in vermilion for a couple of days now, but haven't gone longboarding yet because of my dumb ankle. however, i have been keeping busy. i bought some fabric to make myself a quilt, and i visited my grandma and gido at their new place at the lodge. i should be working on my bags and wallets for nokomis, but i don't really feel like it. i couldn't find any more of the lining fabric i really like, and it's hard to start on those projects without the lining fabric. boo.

i talked to trent and dustan. trent was same old new trent, so we didn't talk long, but i had a good talk with dustan. we might hang out tomorrow. he asked me to be his date for esther and joel's wedding in october, which is nice, because i didn't get invited. i told him i would go, on the conditions that: 1) he didn't have a beard, and 2) he wore matching socks with no holes in them. then he said i could have 5 conditions, but i didn't have to list them all at once. that's pretty generous of him. most of the time that boy makes me crazy, but about 10% of the time, he's one of the best friends i've got.

then mom just rolls her eyes. she says, "you'll find that special guy," but to herself she cannot lie...

i got back to edmonton on friday. i've mostly been unpacking and reclaiming the apartment. also, i bought some watercolor stuff and have been painting every night with my sisters. i am really, really terrible, but it is nice to do. today was karen's birthday party, and i bought her some watercolor paints and a few brushes and cheap paper and a little paint tray, and then i sewed a little red corduroy pouch to fit everything (except the paper) into. i was pretty happy with it, for something that was done 2 hours before the party. it has some brush pockets all the way across the front, and then the tray fits in a big pocket across the back, and the tube paints fit in their tray inside the pouch. also, i cut some of the paper into postcard-sized pieces so karen could paint and send postcards, because that's what i've been doing and i like it.

but the big news in my life is not watercolors. it is that in the span of ONE HOUR today, i found out that two girls i am pretty good friends with are getting married, and another from my king's soccer team got married already (to another girl - is that legal in alberta? i don't know...). one of the girls getting married is mischa, who i hung out with after i got back from guyana and who did not have a boyfriend at that time. i will have to find out more about this. but i bet this boy is good, because mischa is smart and good with making decisions. then again, i do recall mischa once handing in a rough draft of a sociology essay we worked on together, with one of the sentences have SIX "not"s in it. yikes. the other marriage is andrea, one of my best friends since high school and with whom i had an enormous fight in university, and did not talk to for over a year. now we are good good friends again, and tonight she asked me to be in her wedding party. in new brunswick! wow! exciting. and a really special honor. i like that some of the people i am closest with are the people who i've gone at least a year without talking to because of anger/hurt. so. weddings. exciting, because they mean dance parties. not exciting, because i am an old maid.

i thought i should probably write about a few semi-exciting things that happened this week:
1. i saw a black bear, a marten or a fisher, and a coyote.
2. i picked blueberries and raspberries with meghan, and we even got some yellow raspberries! they are just like red raspberries, only kind of peach colored, and a little bit sweeter and less tart. neat!
3. i am done work in one hour, and then i am driving back to edmonton!
4. i cried today, and i am glad. i haven't had a good cry for a long time.
5. jen showed us just how slippery a banana peel on the floor can be. i never thought it could really be that slippery. i thought that was just a made-up fact for cartoons. nope.

i'm only waiting for the proper time to tell you that it's impossible to get along with you

so. i have decided that my annual september kickball party at hawrelak park will ALSO be a mix tape exchange party. just so you know. you are invited. it will be on the afternoon of september 15. you should start working on a mix tape or cd (whichever one you make should depend on what you want to receive: i think mix tapes are more magical, so i am going to make a mix tape and get someone else's, but if you can't make tapes or have nowhere to play them, make a mix cd, and then exchange it with another cd-er). make some nice cover art. invite your friends. write it on your calendar. don't forget.

sucking freezies in the rain

i am extra, extra, extra grumpy lately. that is all. no, wait, it's not. i got some really nice mail from dustan and joel recently. thanks, boys! also, i got two surprisingly nice e-mails from trent. we'll see how long that lasts.

my tambourine is still shakin'

yesterday my mom called me while i was making something, and she suggested that i drop out of the university program i'm registered for and take an art or design or sewing program at red deer or something. man, i wish. but... i am not confident enough in myself. so i decided to stay in my program, but i DID register for a mixed media course at grant macewan starting in late september. exciting!

i made millions of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies this weekend. i made a bunch of garment tags, and they look soooo good. i sewed some wallets. i made some mittens. i did some laundry. i fell in love with the cuttlefish, who i learned a whole lot about on "the nature of things" last night. i am a busy busy bee.

4 more sleeps until i move back to edmonton!

i wanna hear the same song twice

after lunch, the jen that i work with brought in a sublime album, and asked us if we knew how to skank. heh. maybe she's "wannabesk8erjen"! only kelsey will get that. anyway, it was enjoyable. i like having ska revisit me every once in a while.

also, sam told us that last night she "was playing too many cards and so [she] missed [her] bingo." ha. i love it up here.

pop! goes my heart

on tuesday i went to high prairie so i could: 1) buy blank cds and iron-on transfer paper; 2) go to robin's and burn cds/hang out one last time/pick up my sewing machine; meet meghan for our regular tuesday night brownie at egan's (usually we have one at trivia, but it's done now); and 4) play soccer. hanging out at robin's was even more fun that usual, and we didn't even really do anything except burn cds. goodbye, friendship! he is moving to red deer to be an instructor at the college, i think, and so i won't see him very much any more. but we will try to hang out sometimes, because we like doing arts and crafts and music sharing together. megs and i shared our brownie and then i went to soccer, and it was more fun than i thought it would be. a bunch of new boys showed up, and we just messed around and then played world cup. robin and i won world cup, but i think that's because we got lucky/the other boys playing weren't really soccer players. but they WERE boys, and robin and i WERE on "the girl's team," so i think that counts for something.

on wednesday i got a ride back to joussard with meghan and some other ladies i work with. megs invited me over to her house, and we had chicken fajitas and then we went quading and blueberry picking in the forest. then we watched a movie called music and lyrics. it was not really great, but drew barrymore is always adorable and we liked the music video that hugh grant was in. plus, girl sleepovers are fun and i don't really do them anymore, so it was nice.

on thursday i made garment tags for my wallets/bags, using the iron-on transfer paper and white satin ribbon. they turned out so, so well. i am excited to start putting them in my stuff. also, my "service engine soon" light came on in my car, which would be bad except for that i had an appointment that day for the mechanic anyway. perfect! i took my car in to the guy in joussard, and then i stayed at meghan's again. we went quading again, and picked tons and tons of blueberries. then we made some blueberry muffins, and started watching a pretty lame movie called premonition. our movie selections are quite limited, because the joussard store only has about 100 movies, and meghan has seen most of them. and the ones that she hasn't seen, she has to filter through and figure out if they are ones that her boyfriend will want to see with her. she and i can't watch those ones. boo!

the reason i had my third panic attack last week is because i got a message on my edmonton apartment phone, saying, "hi, i'm looking for caylie ... nair-uh. i'm an investigator with the human rights commissioner. if you know where caylie is, can you please have her give me a call." yikes! so i panicked all weekend, thinking someone was suing me or something. but it turns out they were just questioning me about a complaint that was made against a former employer. whew.

a lot of times, i feel like my life is the song "empty cans" by the streets. everything and everything and everything goes wrong, and then one thing goes right and then everything starts going right again. anyway, this time, the one thing that went right is that my typewriter's broken keys just magically started working again. i spent a whole day typing letters, so maybe YOU can expect one in the mail! maybe not. don't get your hopes up. i got a bunch of letters done, and i got to mail a whole stack of them yesterday! i love love love walking to the mailbox with a handful of letters. it might actually be more satisfying than receiving mail. that doesn't mean that you should stop writing me letters.

i got a lot of crafting done this weekend also. i worked on a wallet for sam and one for joel's friend natasha, and i crocheted a few pairs of mittens (i am trying to get rid of all my yarn - if you want a pair of rose pink or royal blue or soft green or brown or maroon or olive green mittens, just let me know.). i cut out some fabric for some more plaid bags, and i also finished a beige kite wallet. also, i went to robin's for a bit yesterday and he taught me how to paint with watercolors. one of my goals this year is to learn how to paint. i got off to a... pretty poor start, actually. i think my problem is that i just want everything to be brown.

we've been sitting in your backyard for hours, but she won't even come out and say hi

on thursday i drove into town for soccer, but robin was the only other person who showed up. we had an "end of our friendship talk": "thanks for coming over and crafting...," "i wish we had gotten around to...," etc. he was a little mad that i didn't say goodbye to him last tuesday at trivia, but here's a newsflash: i never say goodbye. i make it a point to slip out of places before i have to say goodbye. in guyana, everyone was waiting around at rockview lodge for my plane to come in, but they had to go back to bina hill for lunch. i hoped super hard that my plane would come before they got back. isn't that terrible? thankfully, that's what happened, and i managed to avoid the hassle of goodbyes. i hate introductions; why would i like goodbyes any more? anyways, we say we are going to be friends when he is in red deer and i am in edmonton, but are we really? answer: probably. probably more than i am friends with people in my own city. mostly because we are both pretty good about e-mailing/calling/snail mailing.

i have had, like, 3 panic attacks this week. i will write more about the most recent one later (the first two were about having my room broken into).

a broken home and some broken bones is all he'll have to show

i made myself some multigrain oatmeal chocolate chip cookies last night. jealous?

on wednesday meghan and i went to the high prairie rodeo. i'm glad she likes rodeo as much as i do. for those who don't understand the attraction, here are a few pictures of the most enjoyable events:
mutton bustin' (kids under 10 try to ride a sheep. most are outfitted in a hockey mask. i told meghan that if i have kids, i am going to put them in mutton bustin'. she said she could see me having kids specifically for that purpose.)
calf scramble (kids under 10 are put in the arena, and a calf with a ribbon on its tail is let loose. kids chase it down, get knocked over, and the kid who finally grabs the ribbon gets a prize. in high prairie's case, it's a bike.)
wild pony races (i don't quite understand what the rules were for this one. i think it went something like this: teams of 3 young boys had to all try to get on and ride a wild pony. the rules were confusing because no one was really successful.)

also: sometime next week i am going to buy tickets for the canadian finals rodeo (it's at rexall place, and performances are at 7 p.m. on november 7-10, as well as at 1 p.m. on november 10 and 11). if you want to come, let me know. it is hilarious and adorable.

you got a reaction, didn't you?

so, i found out what happened to my mysteriously absent ipod. someone freaking broke into my house and stole it. i am still not sure if the bathing suit was stolen (my hypothesis is that some pervy teenage drug addict stole the ipod for drug money, and also took the bathing suit on the way out for pervy boy reasons. but maybe i flatter myself too much). last week, i was confused because i came home from work one day and one of the inside doors leading to the tea room was open. i had left it closed (because earlier in the summer, lee gave me a talking-to about making sure it is shut), and lee had been gone to lac st. anne all week, so i kind of just assumed that one of her kids or grandkids had come in to drop something off (they sometimes do things around the house for her, like take out her garbage and stuff). also, this solar-powered light was sitting next to my sewing machine, and it hadn't been there before, so i just assumed that someone had brought it in. but then when lee got back from lac st. anne, i told her that someone had been in the house and that some of my things were missing, and so she asked around in her family if anyone had been inside the house. no one had, so she looked around a bit more, and saw that the screen of the window to my room had been cut at the latch so it could be unlocked (my window leads to the tea room, not to outside). frick. scary. but i might be able to have the ipod replaced through my credit card's insurance. we'll see how it goes.

yesterday my work put a float in the high prairie parade. i think we might have won something. we had some spruce trees and our little tipi and a firepit. meghan and i walked alongside and handed out candy. this year the parade was way faster than last year's, so we mostly ran the whole way. holé. we were pretty exhausted and i was dying of cramps, so we went home after work and had naps. then we went to the final week of trivia at egan's (i'm not sure how we did - we left early) and then we went to the dance at the stampede. i decided vermilion's fair is way better than high prairie's stampede. at vermilion, you pay $5 a day, and you get into the midway, the beer gardens, the grandstand show, the tractor pull, the chuckwagon races and all that other horse stuff, the midway, the petting zoo, the exhibit hall, and the trade fair. at high prairie, you get into the midway for free, but it's $10 for the beer gardens/dance, $20 for the rodeo, and that's all they have. boo! anyway, it was nice to dance, but it wasn't as fun as the vermilion beer gardens.

some other sad news from the weekend is that i found some beautiful beautiful shoes at southgate mall. they are all-brown roll-down chucks. i tried on the one on the shelf, and it fit perfectly, so i asked to buy the pair, and the boy could not find the box with the other shoe! eff! beauty evades me...