I actually don't have a lot to say right now.
It's migraine season and I'm suffering. The one that's bothering me now has been around since yesterday. Last night it was so bad (even after all the golden pills) that I thought I was going to lose my dinner. It's been a very long time since I've had a headache bad enough to cause my stomach to turn.
Anyway, despite the migraine...I'm a happy camper today because I finally have a date for surgery.
May 9th in the afternoon. I'll be rid of my gallbladder and hopefully I'll be able to eat again. Although...maybe I'll just be a bit more sensible than McDonalds and Pizza Hut. :)
I went to the hospital this morning to see the surgeon.
After making it through the SARS checkpoint, I made my way up to the clinic where I was to see the doctor. My appointment was for 9am. Naturally the doctor didn't even show up till 9:30, and then we could hear him discussing his weekend, etc.. with his nurse for 15 minutes before he came in to see me.
When he did everything was fairly cut and dry. He didn't even examine me, which means changing into the stupid gown the nurse told me to wasn't necessary.
Anyway, I have to have my gallbladder removed. They'll do it laproscopically, unless once they start they run into complications. If that happens, they'll switch to the conventional method. He says that 95% of the time the laproscopic surgery works, so he doesn't anticipate any problems.
So, now I wait. The receptionist is supposed to phone with an appointment for the surgery, which will undoubtedly be completely inconvienant for everyone, but too damn bad. This appointment is one I won't change.
I've managed to stretch my birthday out over three days. Yay me! Presents, presents, presents! :)
I'm really, really not that greedy, but still, birthdays are fun. I don't feel any older, though everyone seems to think that I should feel like I'm about to expire of old age or something. Whatever, I'm not quite there yet.
Last night I went out with my mom to see Stars on Ice. Everyone knows I love figure skating, so as you can imagine it was a fun evening. Because they were taping the show for TV everyone that made a mistake had to come out and skate and skate and skate till they got it perfect, and for some reason they skated the entire finale twice so they could get different camera angles.
Today after work I arrived home to a family dinner for my birthday. It was incredibly good, the first meal on the bbq for the year, however, as with most food these days it sent me into spasms of pain. I think it was probably the birthday cake that did it, but I'm not positive. Tomorrow I have my appointment with the surgeon, so hopefully I'll know something after that. That is, something more than what I already know.
But, more presents! :) My brother and fiancee gave me both the Toy Story movies because they're about to be locked up in the Disney vault. My father gave me a really pretty anniversary clock which has a Disney theme also. And my grandfather gave me what I need the most right now...money :) Also, this year I got a gift certificate from Flora too. Usually the money is a joint gift, but this year there was an additional gift. Which will be very useful, I can always use new clothes (if you could see my closet you'd know that's not true at all).
So hooray! I'm really pleased with the clock, I was expecting to get the part to make my laptop work for my birthday but as it turns out it ended up being my Easter present. So, the gift was a surprise. (I like presents that are a surprise)
That's all I've got to ramble about today I think. I'm really looking forward to the appointment with the surgeon in the morning. I'm more than ready for this to be over and done with, I don't care how much weight I've lost because of it.
Um, I had Girlfriends on the TV a few minutes ago though I wasn't watching it. The last show I paid attention to was a re-run of Frasier earlier this evening.
2. What was the last thing you complained about?
Honestly, I can't remember. Which is strange, because I'm definitely a complainer. I guess I was complaining to my brother that I was tired.
3. Who was the last person you complimented and what did you say?
The last person I complimented was a girl that works at Blockbuster. I went to get my free movie today and I told the manager how fantastic the girl was the last time I was in there and how much I appreciated it.
4. What was the last thing you threw away?
I just threw out a pop can. Of course, before it goes to the garbage it'll be put into the recycling bin, does that still count?
5. What was the last website (besides this one) that you visited?
Before I came here, I was reading Fresh's blog.
Today is my birthday, which in my opinion is the day that everyone in the world should pay attention to me.
I know, that's selfish, but too damn bad, it's all about me today!
I went to work this morning, and after a couple of hours being open I had a phone call. I was marking down some Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, when Tara told me the phone was for me. I answered it to hear... "Happy Birthday! It's Gail!"
So, I was in work mode thinking...who the hell is Gail, and how does she know it's my birthday??
Thankfully Gail kept talking and her accent became obvious and I figured out who it was. :) It was incredibly sweet of her to call, especially since it seems like she had to call every store in the Golden Horseshoe to find me. Hee!
My second favourite part of having a birthday is the presents. I freely admit that I'm greedy. At Christmas it's my favourite thing. Last week I even got a fantastic present for Easter from my dad. At any rate... presents! Yay!
I've not seen most of my family today, only my mom in fact. I'll see the rest of them on Sunday when they come up for cake. Mom got me tickets to see Stars on Ice which is absolutely fantastic. Everyone knows I love figure skating, so yay! I also got a nightgown, which has a really cute saying on it (I forget what it is), a really pretty beaded change purse (which I might scan and post), and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on DVD.
In completely unrelated news, there's a TV show on which has Tiffany Amber Theissen in it. It's extremely strange, and I have no idea what it's called. But I'm going to watch to figure it out.
For some reason I have in irrational obsession with this man. Aside from the obvious reasons, I have no idea why. He represents everything I hate about people. He drinks like a fish, smokes like a chimney, does way too many drugs and way too many women. Despite that, I drool (figuratively) whenever I see him on screen.
Today at work I found out that he's filiming in Toronto right now. I was completely overcome. The girls I was working with continued to have a conversation while I actually hyperventilated (they didn't notice). It was the most unusual thing I've ever experienced. There I was, unable to breathe with tears streaming down my face.
Apparently, I'm obsessed.
During my 'episode', I turned looked at Tara and said "Tomorrow is my birthday, take me to stalk Colin Farrell."
Sad, sad, sad. Though, even I could see how hilarious the situation was.
But, if I'm not around for a few days, you'll know that the impulse got the better of me.
While at work today, my friend Tara said something that was interesting. We'd just got a new book, inside it thanked the government of Canada for it's support. She said that always made her laugh because the amount of money the goverment actually gives to help people is laughable. She then said that the government was negligent because they didn't provide money for athletics in Canada.
She feels that in not providing funds for there to be athletic scholarships for people who are proficient in sports they are commiting a great faux pas.
So, everyone I've asked tonight agrees with her, I don't.
There's the argument that people who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford to go to university can go because they happen to have this extraneous skill. Sure, that's a good point, but only from a sentimental point of view.
There's the argument that in sending our athletes to the US (where they obviously do give out athletic scholarships) that we're losing money. I don't really see how. If it's an Olympic sport, the athlete has to represent Canada unless they've changed their citizenship, which isn't as easy as one would think. If it's baseball, there's nowhere to play in Canada anyway, so of course they'll go to the US. Ditto for basketball. If it's hockey, it doesn't matter where you play, but there's certainly not a shortage of hockey teams in Canada. Where are we losing out exactly?
Also, out of all the people I know that actually ended up in school on some form of sports scholarship, I'll bet I know 2 that actually managed to stay there. Most were sent home after 1 year because they weren't getting the marks required to stay there. What a waste of money, considering they didn't end up with an education.
So, I'm not really a hockey fan. One of these days I'd really like to go to a game and watch live because I think it'd be really fun.
As I said, I'm not really a hockey fan. If there's ice I'm looking for figure skaters, not the Maple Leafs. However, I really enjoy the playoffs. I know that makes me a bandwagon fan, and perhaps not worthy of actually watching the game, but too bad. It's exciting dammit!
At this very moment game 7 of the Leafs/Flyers game is underway. The game is in Philly, which means the crowd is hostile. They booed Oh Canada! but I guess that's something that's been happening since the Star Spangled Banner was booed in Montreal shortly after the war started. Anyway, it's not friendly ice.
It's really too soon to know what's going to happen, but I'm hoping that the Leafs make it through. They've played hard to get this far, most of the games going into at least one overtime period, usually more than that.
I just really want the leafs to win. I think it'd be good if they could actually do something with their playoff berth for a change. Of course, the next opponents have probably been resting for a week, which means that when the Leafs win tonight they'll have their work cut out for them. ;)
I'm off to watch. Go, Leafs Go.
Thus ends the Leafs season, early AGAIN.
Perhaps I've spoken too soon, but I'm so pleased about how things went this week at work that I feel the need to gloat.
Last week I was worried that sales were never going to pick up and that I'd be fired because there were going to be catastrophes, sales were going to be crap, and someone was going to stop in from the head office and give me hell for something. I wasn't sure what, but I just knew that if they stopped by I'd be in the middle of my after lunch gallstone pain and the head office person would be giving me hell.
Yeah, so obviously none of that was going to happen, but that didn't stop me from thinking it.
This week hasn't been so bad actually. The paperwork on Monday morning went very smoothly, I had it finished before I even opened the store. Of course, I had half of it done on Friday, but that's neither here nor there. Sales were really shitty, but we got a lot done.
Tuesday wasn't so bad. Of course, I arrived Wednesday morning to find that both computers had frozen sometime the night before. A couple of things that I specifically asked to be done were not done, and the shipment still hadn't arrived.
It did show up eventually, and was small-ish, but filled with bargain books. Which means, that I had to rebuild the bargain tables. Which doesn't sound like a lot of work. But, it is. I hate those damn tables. They hold a hell of a lot of books, but still, whomever got the idea that it was smart to stack books into pyramids should have their head read. Oh, Wednesday was also the day of the conference call. Which went fine, till I discovered I was supposed to have numbers to report. Remaining calm, I frantically dug through the pile of papers on the desk in the office and found the numbers that were being requested. Most of them anyway, I had to report one of the numbers later in the day.
Thursday was the day from hell. Half of the credit and debit card transactions didn't make it to the bank on Wednesday night. None of the debit card transactions would go through Wednesday morning. Right, turns out that an electrical outlet in the office has stopped working, therefore my DVACS box (it's a black thing that hangs on the wall, which obviously has something to do with the debit transactions) wouldn't work. So, I had to unplug the music to get the DVACS box to work.
And then I had to make about a zillion phone calls. I always thought that our support office was there to provide support. Apparently providing support means bumping you around the support office till you finally find the right person to talk to. And then once you've found that person, they'll give you yet another phone number to call someone else.
Eventually an electrician came and fixed the outlet, I was able to turn the music back on (it's very quiet without music) and all was well.
When I arrived on Thursday, aside from the computer problems there was a note from Barb, who was supposed to close Thursday night that she couldn't come in because her daughter was really sick and she couldn't leave her with a babysitter. Since there wasn't anyone else to work, that meant that I got to stay till close. Yay me!
I can't even remember what else went wrong that day, but something did.
The true panic was not all those things I've mentioned, it was really that we'd make sales this week. Because it's Easter tomorrow, if we couldn't do it this week, then we were never going to do it. In the long run though, when all was said and done this week...I passed the test. We made our sales. :)
Now, lets see what happens next week.
1. Who is your favorite celebrity?
I don't know that I have a favourite celebrity. I don't lust after them, I've never stalked one, I don't have obsessions over them. I try to see just about every movie Bruce Willis is in. So maybe he's the one? Otherwise my favourite celebrities are all figure skaters. They're celebs in my eyes anyway.
2. Who is your least favorite?
Um. I'm sure I have an answer for this. Jim Carrey, Kate Hudson, Julianne Moore... I don't hate them, but I don't enjoy them either.
Oh, hate. Michael Moore. I just think he's an ass.
3. Have you ever met or seen any celebrities in real life?
I've met a lot of figure skaters. Most famous? Um...I guess Jamie & David of the "we were robbed of Olympic Gold" fame? Or perhaps Gwendal of the French ice dance team who were supposedly responsible for Jamie & David not getting the gold medal?
Otherwise, Sophie Kinsella. Author of the Shopaholic series.
4. Would you want to be famous? Why or why not?
Oddly enough, yes I think I'd like to be famous. I say that it's odd because I'm not very good at dealing with strangers, I also am not very good at public speaking, and yet I feel the desire to be known. It's strange. Famous often means rich as well. I'd really, really like to be rich.
5. If you had to trade places with a celebrity for a day, who would you choose and why?
I'm not sure I'd want to change for just a day. What a big tease. Maybe J.K. Rowling. Perhaps I could learn by osmosis how to actually write? And while I'm there I could spend some of her gobs of money, I understand at this point she's richer than the Queen.
You know, you'd think it would be easy to do this. Moveable type was supposed to make this incredibly easy.
It really hasn't. Of course, if you have something to say, then I'm sure it's wonderful. Why isn't it planting ideas in my brain as well as making updating super easy?
Oh, I know...
Saturday I went to Blockbuster on my way home from work. I hadn't spent much time sleeping Friday night because of my gallstones, and I wanted to be prepared in case it happened again Saturday night. As it happens, it didn't happen and I didn't need the three movies I rented.
At any rate, that's not my point.
While I was at Blockbuster I was wandering around aimlessly looking for things when someone who worked there actually came over and asked me if I needed some help with something. I have never had anyone at Blockbuster approach me and offer to help me find something. Perhaps they've got shitty management there and it's something they're supposed to be doing all the time, but I've just never had that experience before. They always say hi when I come in the door, but as for escorting me to where the movie I'm looking for is located? Never.
I was looking for Harry Potter, which, if I'd been thinking I would have realized would be a difficult thing to get. Since they changed over to two night rentals, it only makes sense that the day after the movie is released there won't be many copies on the shelf. However, I assumed (incorrectly) that Harry Potter would be one of those Guaranteed Rental things.
Anyway, the girl that offered to help me out is someone I recognize. She shops in my store all the time, so the next time I see her I'll have to thank her. She said she'd just put a copy on the shelf, walked me over there only to find some guy picking it up. So, I thanked her for her effort and went to stand in line. While I was there, she went to the return box, sifted through the returns, found a copy, checked it in and then gave it to me to check out.
I don't know why I'm so surprised whenever I find myself on the receiving end of great service in a store, but I always am. I keep meaning to phone and talk to the manager to tell him/her how pleased I was, but I keep forgetting. My main reason for wanting to do this is because I often wish that people who tell me how helpful I've been to them would let my boss know how brilliant I am. Not so much because I think she needs to know, but it'd just be nice to be recognized. Know what I mean?
I've been told that is a fantastic title for an entry. Also that it doesn't matter at all if I've got anything else to say.
So, hooray!
Actually, today was a good day. Work was surprisingly fun, I doubt we made the money we needed to, but it was a fun day. Karen was back for her first shift. She's been away at college, and is now back. I love it when we get people back to work that don't need to be trained, it's even better when they're actually good at their job, and even better again when they're fun to work with. So, hooray for Karen.
For some reason our shipment didn't arrive today. It comes regularly on Tuesdays but today it just didn't show up. Well, at least not while I was there. Which means that I didn't have to receive it. Hooray for delayed shipments.
This morning there was a phone call postponing a conference call for today. I wasn't really looking forward to the conference call, because a) I've never taken part in one before b) I have no idea what it's about and c) If they decide to ask me something, I just know I won't know the answer to the question and I'll sound like an idiot. Of course, it's only a short lived save...the call will take place tomorrow afternoon. (I will say nothing, even if someone decides to ask me something...maybe I'll forget to call in.) Hooray for delayed conference calls.
I went out for dinner tonight, and had fun while I was there. I haven't seen my family in ages, so it was good to spend time with my dad. His hand seems to be healing quite well, which makes me very happy, I've been worried about it. It was also good to see my brother and Sharon too. I haven't seen them in a while, so it was a good thing. They're expecting me some night this weekend for Easter dinner, but I'm not sure which night yet, they're waiting on me to tell them. Hooray for dinner I didn't have to cook.
The only slight is that I've felt like shit all day. I really need to get these gallstones sorted out.
Anyway, now I'm home, it doesn't matter how I feel because I don't have to pretend to be feeling better than I am. And, the cat is chasing her shadow.
I've mentioned these before, I know I have. After the ultrasound I went back to my doctor and she confirmed that yes, I do have gallstones, and that the next step was to see a surgeon about having something (she was sort of sketchy on those details) done.
Through a frustrating set of circumstances, my appointment with the surgeon is on April 28th. As it sits right now, I have no idea if I'll get to see the surgeon that day or not, mostly because the hospitals in Ontario have been closed to non-critical patients for over a week now. SARS is really screwing everything up.
The symptoms of these gallstones have been both painful and annoying. The painful bit being that whenever I eat something I feel incredible amounts of pain in my stomach (or somewhere in that general area). The annoying part is that all I seem to be able to eat is salad and turkey sandwiches. I guess that's not such a terrible thing, but let me tell you, I'm fastly approaching bored with salad and turkey sandwiches.
But up till now it really hasn't been a big deal to just sort of sit down (or pace) and wait for the pain to pass. It hurts, yes, but it doesn't linger on all day thankfully, it's something that passes within half an hour (usually) and then I can go on about my business.
Last night I had some sort of attack. I suspect it probably had something to do with what I had for dinner...evidentally pizza is not good for me. But, I was up almost the entire night because everytime I layed down and closed my eyes, two things would happen. a) My stomach hurt like hell and b) I was dizzy and thought I was going to be sick.
Of course, this had to come when I was completely alone with nobody to look after me, or to make sure that I got up on time (super early) to get into work this morning. I managed the last bit on my own, but the looking after myself part was a bit dicey. At any rate, I made it through the night. At about 3:30am the nausea completely disappeared and I was able to sleep. There was and still is pain, but I've gotten used to that.
I really hope this SARS thing is contained soon, because I really can't miss that appointment with the surgeon. I just have a feeling that it'd be a very bad thing to happen. At this point, I'd almost take the risk to go into the hospital just so this thing can move along more quickly. Though, I suppose it's not me that anyone is concerned with, they're more worried about getting their doctors sick I should think.
Because I bugged everyone else to do it....
1. What was the first band you saw in concert?
I'll just hide while I admit that it was New Kids on the Block.
2. Who is your favorite artist/band now?
I'm really into Norah Jones right now, it's so easy to listen to, and it's so light that it immediately makes me smile. I'm also guilty of singing along.
I also love Great Big Sea, I also end up singing along with them, even if I don't know the songs, they're just so catchy you can't help yourself.
3. What's your favorite song?
I don't have one. I just love music in general.
4. If you could play any instrument, what would it be?
I'm not really interested in playing instruments. I love to sing though, and miss not singing all the time. I could join a choir I guess, but I'd rather be good enough to make money from it :)
5. If you could meet any musical icon (past or present), who would it be and why?
I don't really know. I don't idolize musicians much, I enjoy their music, but I don't really have someone that I'm so interested in that I'd want to meet them and have a conversation.
In February I had a promotion. Shortly afterwards, my boss told me that she'd booked a two and a half week vacation. Which means, of course, that I'm in charge.
Not such a big deal really, I work two days a week when she's not in and I'm in charge, not a big problem. I'm not so worried about keep the staff in line and busy, there's lots of things we can do, if worse comes to worse we'll do spring cleaning.
Mostly, I'm concerned about sales. The last several months of last year were absolutely dreadful, and Week 1 of this year was also dreadful thanks to the ice, snow and other shitty weather we had last week. There have been emails and phone calls wanting to know what's going on. And of course, next weekend is Easter. Which means that we're supposed to sell a ridiculously large amount of books.
That really shouldn't be a huge problem. Surprisingly people actually do buy and give books at Easter. There are even parents who buy their kids books instead of chocolate. If my parents had done that when I was a kid, I'm not quite sure what I'd have thought. And obviously, I am rather fond of reading. But, Easter without chocolate bunnies? Bizarre.
So, we'll see what happens. I take command tomorrow, here's hoping with the weekend coming, nice weather in the forecast (there is nice weather in the forecast, right??) and the appearance of an impending resolution in Iraq it will make people want to open their wallets and spend some money.
And in doing so make me look like an absolutely brilliant manager. (Yeah, so I can pretend...can't I?)
For a long time now a friend of mine has been trying to talk me into using this thing called Moveable Type. So, I looked at it and tried to see what I thought of it. I liked the idea of it a whole lot, it makes updates incredibly easy, almost too easy in fact, but for some unknown reason I couldn't figure it out. The other night I was bored, and was bullied into looking at it. And amazingly enough, I seem to have sorted it out just fine. Well, fine enough anyway. I still have a few questions.
The main one being, how the hell does one install this beautiful thing? I've downloaded it and I've got the install instructions open in a web browser but I haven't got to the actual installing process quite yet. Not because I can't figure it out, but because I can't be bothered to do it yet. I'm lazy. In fact, I was actually told earlier today that I was too lazy to even cook myself dinner. Apparently I'm completely transparent. ;) (Though for the record I did cook dinner, and it was incredibly good.) The other questions I have can be answered easily enough because my friend gave me somewhere to play till I sorted everything out. I just need to actually take the time to do it. Sometime this weekend I guess.
For the first time in a while I've got a weekend off. In fact, I've got three days off in a row. I have no idea what I'm going to do to keep myself busy, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. Last night the mall was even closed early due to bad weather, so my long weekend was made even longer by a few hours. Hooray! However, when I arrived home I found that not only had the road into our street not been plowed but neither had our driveway. So, my decision was that I'd go down and park in the visitors parking area, because that spot seemed to be clear. In fact, it wasn't clear at all, The road part of it was, but the spots were never plowed, not even when they eventually came to plow the driveways. So, as I tried to park in one of the spots I got stuck. Which was annoying. I didn't have any problem getting out once I'd gone home for a shovel, but still it was annoying. I managed to get myself out of the parking spot and I parked my car illegally (well, even more illegally) on the road. I understand that the road into our street has still not been plowed, and likely won't be. Though, it's deep enough to rub the bottom of my car when I drive over it I'd hope to hell that eventually they'll come and clear it. Plus, it's snowing outside again.
Because it's so cold outside and because the snow seems like it'll never stop, I've decided to spend my three days off inside. It's warm inside, I don't need to wear a coat and the only reason I'd need to shovel anything is if I wanted to see the floor in my closet. (ha! Actually, I've cleaned everything up today, so the floor is actually quite visible, tomorrow when there's natural light again I'll even run the vacuum around...the house that is, not my closet exclusively. Oh, what an exciting weekend I've got planned.
For two weeks now I've been meaning to watch a movie. Not too long ago I bought a couple of DVD's that I still haven't watched yet. They're just old favourites that I'd like to see again. But, everytime I turn on the TV I find that it's tuned to CNN and I never seem to make it past there. I'm not entirely sure why, but this coverage of the war has me absolutely riveted.
The reason it seems strange to me is mostly because I'm one of those people that lives in their own little world without looking too much at what's going on around them. Does that make me selfish? Likely it does, but that's the way I've always been. The problem (in my eyes) with what's going on around me is that it's depressing, it's scary and it's stuff I'd rather not know about. I almost never watch the news because all they seem to report are the following: a) murders b) theft c) drug busts d) rapists on the loose and other equally depressing things. I've always found watching the news is a sure fire way to make myself depressed. Feeling too happy? That's ok, the news is on several times a day, that'll fix me! So, I avoid it.
I don't know why the war has me so interested. In general I don't think much of the way the United States bullies the world. This war was not supported by the UN, but they went off to war anyway, which proves my point entirely. The Americans have it in their heads that they need to do something about the so-called problem in Iraq so they're over there doing something about it. Whatever, I'm not going to go back to debating whether or not the war is right. It's too late for that now, there's a war going on, so second guessing it isn't going to solve anything, it only serves to upset people.
While watching CNN one day I saw an interview with a woman who is the mother of one of the American POWs. She went off topic slightly to try and impress upon protestors that they need to stop protesting, and instead support the kids that are over there fighting. This army is a volunteer army, they were not drafted. Therefore each and every one of them wants to be there to serve their country. They feel as though they're doing the right thing, and that they're helping. While they're probably not hearing much about anti-war protests, if they were, that would have to hurt, wouldn't it? I know when someone makes light of something I believe strongly about it stings a bit. And I'm sure that the strength of my beliefs generally is not anywhere close to the patriotism of these soldiers. Then there's the families that are sitting at home waiting to hear if their loved ones are safe. And also waiting to see if giving up their loved ones (for a brief time and in some cases forever) has had an effect. Those people must absolutely burn with anger when they hear people saying what's going on is wrong. If it was me, I'm positive I would be. I'd been thinking that very same thing for days as I was watching CNN cover protests that were happening all over the States. But hearing someone that was involved say it out loud with tears in her eyes, made me wonder about people.
People like Michael Moore, who stand up at the Oscars and make ridiculous statements, people like those who have been lying in the streets to stop traffic, the people in California who actually got violent at a protest the day the war started. What the hell are those people thinking?
Changing topics slightly, this war has been the most interesting thing I've ever seen happen. When I was in school I took my one required history credit and that was it, I spent most of my time in French classes and in the Science labs, and didn't take any history at all. The one history class I had was mostly Canadian history and it was one of my many required French classes. I don't remember much about it at all actually, except that our teacher Monsieur Legault used to make us change our seats periodically, and that we once played this really interesting game. At the time I had no idea what we were doing, but it turns out that after it was all done, we'd just re-created WW2. It was very interesting. And this new war has been equally interesting to me, due mostly to the embedded reporters I think. Say what you want about making the war look like a movie or a television show, but how on earth did we manage to keep up to date with anything before we had reporters out there with each unit?
My favourite part of the coverage so far was when Walt Rogers was travelling with his unit across the desert towards Baghdad, and they showed it. The camera was on, and we watched them travel across the desert. It was absolutely compelling. I think I sat and watched them go across the desert for hours on end, when I eventually had to go to bed that night I was upset that I might miss something. When I woke up the next day I rushed to get the television back on so that I could see if they were still travelling. Then I found that they were doing something even more fantastic. They had that unit (I forget which one it was now sadly), still travelling across the desert, and then in a split screen they had a shot of Northern Iraq, right at the border of the Kurdish occupation. On one side you could see the Kurds holding their territory, then across a river on some hills you could see Iraqi army guys looking at something with great interest. That was my favourite image. And honestly, I'm not sure it had anything to do with the war. But it was absolutely brilliant to see two completely separate areas of the country and the differences between them. I know I'll never go to Iraq, so it's interesting to see.
I know this is fairly rambling and probably doesn't make a lot of sense, but I've been feeling like writing about the war for quite a while now, and I just haven't done it. Why? Mostly because it's everywhere, not only on my TV but pretty much on everyone elses too. Everyone knows what's going on, and if they don't, then they're doing their damndest to avoid it. Also, I haven't been feeling very clear headed about anything lately, and if you think this is rambling and incoherent, my thoughts have been even more so in past days.
My final thought is that I am incredibly relieved that the Americans have managed to recover Jessica Lynch. I don't know her, I never will, but she's a very young girl who went over to defend her country and fought hard not to be captured. She was injured and, the Iraqis didn't treat her, in fact if reports that were released yesterday are to be believed they were actually considering cutting her leg off rather than try to treat the bullet wound that was in her leg. Her entire town rejoiced when they heard she was safe, and the governor of her state has since assured her parents that she'll have a full scholarship to college whenever she wants it. When I heard that people had been captured I was scared for them, moreso when I found out there were also women who'd been captured. I know that perhaps I shouldn't feel that way, but I can't help it. To me it's still a bit foreign to have girls as soldiers, and to think that they could be treated terribly because they're the enemy. Anyway, I'm so glad she's safe, I hope she recovers from the gunshot wounds, and is home with her family safe and sound very soon. Also, I hope that each and every other soldier that's been captured is brought home safely as well.
Completely off topic. I hate ice pellets, I hate snow and I hate winter. It's supposed to be spring dammit!