Back from the Dead

I ended up spending pretty much my entire long weekend in the city.

Friday and Saturday were spent trying to find a dress for Sunday’s wedding, eating sushi, and going to the beach.
Unfortunately, my skin refuses to tan this summer, so no matter how long I was outside, I would always come in whiter than when I went out.  Go figure.

The wedding on Sunday was so much fun!  I got to hang out with a few of my girl friends that I don’t get to see very often.  Three of us showed up wearing black, prompting a lot of people to ask whether it was planned (really, really, not).

I didn’t get any good pictures of the actual wedding, thanks to my bad angle and crap camera, so I can’t show you how the groomsmen carried the groom up the aisle on their shoulders while ‘The Final Countdown’ played in the background.
Or how the Maid of Honour did not stop weeping for the entire ceremony.
Or how us girls restored to using our programs to fan in between our legs because it was so freaking hot in that building!  We’re classy like that.

After the wedding, we had a couple of hours to kill before the reception, so we decided to go to the pub for a few margaritas.  Then we ended up in a dragon boat, on the river, while wearing high heels.  Good times.

Emily, Jenah, and I

Poor Sarah had really bad allergies and ended up going home

Of course, the reception was fun too!  They had little fishes as centre pieces.  I wanted to bring ours home, but I don’t think they would’ve lasted the bus ride.

Jon and Kat

I was fully planning on being home Monday and Tuesday, but that didn’t happen.

Last week my brother, Drivemuch Lance, totalled his car.  He was fine, I think his ego was bruised more than anything.
He had to tell the hot female cop that he crashed while trying to pick up his 4 litre jug of iced tea that was spilling all over the front seat.  Nice.

Dad had been looking for a new car for a while and took Lance’s crash as an excuse to buy a brand new Malibu and sell his old car to Lance.
Since Lance lives in the Okanagan, we decided that Dad and I would drive both cars, Lance would take the bus and we’d meet halfway in Merrit.  It was a long drive for a short visit, but it was nice to be able to see Lance.
On the way back, I played with dad’s car.  The guy isn’t much for new technology, so I had to show him how to work certain things.  He caught on pretty quick, and even made a few calls on his voice activated, OnStar car phone.

But there’s got to be balance between the old and the new, so we listened to the only music station on the built in XM satellite radio that dad liked - the one that played all the songs from the Gaither Gospel videos dad owns.  The same ones that I would watch with him while curled up on his lap as a little girl.

Mmm…sleep

I went through a bit of insomnia (by which I mean, sleeping 8-10 hours a week) during the last 2 months of my travels and didn’t fully recover until earlier this year.
I didn’t think much about what was causing it, because I am SO naive when it comes to my body’s health.  I know when I have the flu, or a cold.
That’s.about.it.

When I started having problems sleeping last week, I figured I’d look into it a bit more.  I know from experience that the last thing you should do is google your symptoms, but (since sleep deprivation is AWESOME) I decided to brave the ‘I’m Feelin’ Lucky’ button.

Can’t say I was really surprised at the causes: stress, anxiety, fear, emotional or mental tension, work problems, financial stress.
Umm, check, check, check,
because, HI!  I’m going to NZ in 2 months!
I’ll be leaving all my family and friends to go live in a country where I have to live with a boy.* I have debt that I’m trying to get rid of before I leave and I have to find a job pretty much as soon as I get there if I DON’T want to live in a box.
Everything has started to sink in and I may or may not have a couple *ahem* meltdowns.

I’ve had some good talks with my Mom and Dad, and Matt (they’re pretty much great) and I should be fine now.   Sure, the next couple months will be pretty stressful, but I have no doubts about going and I’m still so freakin’ excited!

Stress and excitement. Either way, I don’t think I’ll be sleeping much for a while.

*You have to say that like Monica does on Friends(7:45).  So funny! I swear there is a Friends episode for every single situation I have been in.

I Own Rights.

After MUCH pestering by Marissa to get this news onto my blog (she should really just maintain her own):

Marissa and Dustin got engaged on saturday

Marissa opened the door of her house to find a bunch of rose petals going all the way up the stairs to her bedroom.  Initially, she was upset that Dustin had been home all day and didn’t vacuum…but once she saw him on one knee with a diamond in hand, all was forgiven (as it is in most cases).

Congratulations!

This time last year Pt.2

I was talking to Baby Ben yesterday and he reminded me that it’s been exactly a year since our DTS ended.
A YEAR.

I already did a post about our time in J-city, but I’m going to post the picture of me riding an elephant there because…hello!  I rode a FREAKING ELEPHANT!

Anyway, from there we went to the gorgeous island of Bali.
We all had a love/hate relationship with Bali.

We stayed in the main tourist spot, Kuta beach, for only a week.  It was great during the day, we would hang out with the locals on the beach and meet tons of interesting tourists.
But at night, it was completely different.  The warehouse across from our hostel was actually the main prostitute house on the island, and you would see all these old white guys with their very young Bali girls. 
It made me sick, and even thinking about it now gets me right pissed.

It was after one of our team members was attacked that we decided to move to our school’s Bali base, in Jimbaran, a fishing village just outside of Kuta.

Probably the best time we had was in the villages of Bali.  We were way up in the mountains, got to climb palm trees, play in rice fields, and scuba dive.
We helped out the villagers by clearing land for crops, building chicken coops from bamboo, and teaching their kids english.

We were in one village for 5 days, with nothing but the clothes on our backs and fell asleep under unfinished roofs, crawling with rats.  Of which FELL ON the bamboo bed I was sharing with 2 girls, causing us to scream BLOODY MURDER. 
Ahh, good times, good times.

Then it was back to Australia where we spent the last 3 weeks of outreach in Geraldton. 
It was a hard transition, since we had just spent the last 2 months having bucket showers, and wearing fat pants and no makeup.  Now, we were going into highschools talking to kids about Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n Roll Bullying and had to look cool while doing it. 
Somehow, I think we managed to leave a good impression.

Miss you Dreamteam!

Racing our translator

mmm...chocolate plant!

Swimming off Jimbaran beach

Little Bomb bomb

Walking to the waterfall

playing games with school kids

Sexy eh?

The Rat house

Shenanigans and Me at Dinner

My henna tattoo

Yes, he wore this on the plane...

Grace, the little girl that stole my heart

Landry, Keith, and I at our team's last dinner

Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil

Diva Sand Dunes Photo shoot!

Mitti, Me, and Landry - because we're cool like that

4x4ing in sand dunes

The girls!

Doing the best I can

Happy Birthday to Matt!  Even though his birthday is technically tomorrow, New Zealand lives in the future, so he’s celebrating today (if he remembers).   *sigh* I miss him.
Giving him a shout out on my blog is really the only thing I can do because,

a)  I live on the other side of the planet.
b)  I have no money to send him a gift.
c)  I’m MOVING there, so that means I don’t have to buy birthday or Christmas gifts for at least a year right? no? Damn.   I kid, of course.

The fact that I’ll be leaving in 69 days still hasn’t sunk in.  I get so caught up in the planning, waiting and packing that I forget about what I’m actually doing.  The same thing happened to me last time, and I ended up crying on my dad’s deck the night before my flight.
My dad, ever the comforter, reassured me that I was doing a good thing, he was proud of me, and “Well, it’s a little late now to back out.”
That’s all I really needed to hear, and I’m counting on him to say similar things in 2 months time.

I did get my plane ticket and work visa in the mail last week, which made it all a bit more real.  I was declined for the first work visa I applied for, on the basis that Matt and I didn’t have enough evidence to prove that we were in a ‘genuine and stable relationship’. 
Do you know how many times I’ve heard that term in the last 4 months? And how much I hate it?
I do not like leaving it up to immigration to determine whether or not our relationship is genuine.  Granted, I can see where they’re coming from since physically, we’ve spent just over a month together in the last year and a half. 

Immigration - 1  Matt and Dayna - 0

Luckily, I was accepted for the second visa I applied for.  This one isn’t ideal because I can only do temporary or contract work and it’s good for one year.  BUT at least I am allowed into the country!

Immigration - 1  Matt and Dayna - 1

This game is far from over though.

No less than stellar

On Friday, I made a spontaneous decision to go into vancouver with Marissa and Ryan for a night of dancing. 
It ended up being very successful.
We asked nicely and were let into the VIP lounge without having to spend $150 on a bottle.  It pays to know the bartenders…who apparently remembered us from the last time we were there, umm, 3 months ago. Awesome.

Catching the ferry into town with Mar and her BF, Dustin.

Chillin’ at Ryan’s new place in Lonsdale.

I came home early saturday morning and spent most of the day relaxing.  I’m reading this series called ‘Tomorrow when the war began’ thanks to Matt.  He told me about the books while he was up and Danielle happened to have them all.  They’re really really good.  I’ve spent many a night going to bed at 9:30 and reading until 1 in the morning. 

Saturday night, I went to a birthday dinner for my friend Sarah.  I spent most of dinner looking around the table at my friends, wondering when we all grew up.  I actually did that a lot this weekend.
Sarah and her boyfriend are looking at engagement rings, Marissa’s shows up on Friday, and Jon’s wedding is in 2 weeks.  Emily is becoming the business woman we always said she’d be, Danielle is living in the city and I’m moving away. 
*sigh*
I have so many things I want to do and life seems to be going way too fast.

I am my father’s daughter

His voice gives me comfort and his laugh fills me with hope.

He is constant and will be there whenever I need him.

He is the reason I am who I am.

He has seen me at my best, and he’s seen me at my worst but no matter what happens, he loves me.

Just sitting here thinking about how much he means to me, makes me cry.

He is my daddy, he is my best friend…and I love him.

4 minutes

It’s Thursday ALREADY? Ok, not too sure where my week went…I guess time flies when you’re off saving the world (i.e. being completely submerged in my new book or cross-stitching while watching TV).

Last weekend, my not-so-little brother came to visit.  He’s 2 years younger than me, but most people think he’s a couple years older.

We went Go-Karting in the city with dad. And yes, I was appropriately dressed.

We were a little late in getting back to the ferry.  We could’ve made it, but didn’t because they stop selling tickets 5 minutes before the ferry is scheduled to leave.  I complained a bit since the ferry was still loading, but the *ahem* lady, was pretty adament in not letting us on.  I managed a, “So you’re telling me, that instead of running to catch this ferry, you’re going to make us wait 2 HOURS for the next boat? Fine, I’ll have 3 tickets for the next sailing.”
“I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to come back in 5 minutes when we start selling them again.”

I. was. pissed.

But being the good little Canadian girl I am, I didn’t push it any further.  I was really happy when, 3 minutes later, another girl was denied a ticket and FLIPPED OUT.  She brought the fake tears and everything. It was quite entertaining to watch.
Anyway, we resorted to doing this for the next 2 hours:

(I’m the one lying down. The other chick is my mini-me…and HEY! She’s wearing my sweater!)

Last night was Courtney’s year-end concert for band.  She was dropped off early to practice and Dad and I wandered the local London Drugs.  Where I found this:

It’s the World’s Biggest Hangover…in a box! Although I’d replace the beer with something that DOESN’T taste like cat pee, kthx.

Moving on…

Mom, Courtney and I took a couple photos.  Can you tell we’re related?

I didn’t get any postable (word? is now!) photos of Courtney playing, but there’s a video over here.  She’s the one who, umm, looks EXACTLY LIKE ME! Seriously, it’s a little scary. 
The concert was AWESOME!  I never hear her practice, so I had no idea what it would be like.  I was a pretty proud older sister.  

Courtney plays the clarinet usually, but last night she also helped out on percussion. She played the suspended symbol and the (wait for it) VIBRASLAP *HELLO creeper-search hits!*

I tried to find a picture of it, which quickly turned into the most scarring google search OF MY LIFE. If you decide to do the same, make sure you add ‘musical instrument’ to the term, otherwise, feel free to join me while I rock back and forth in the corner.

Summary - Mom Style

So, you’ve heard my version, and I promise this won’t be the only topic on my blog for the next 2 months.  But it would be a crime to humour to not put this up.  We had ask our parents to write support letters for my application for a work visa.  Obviously, I didn’t send this one in.

Hilarity ensues when witnessing my mother’s rarely seen wit:

“To Whom It May Concern:
 
My daughter, Dayna, visited and traveled throughout New Zealand during November and December of 2006.
Dayna and her friend spent their time in your country doing some sightseeing, but their nightlife frequenting bars and hostels proved the highlight of the trip.

It was during this time that she met Matt – I think his last name is Baker. 

I of course only found out about him through a high alert of my daughter being missing whilst traveling in a faraway land, with the New Zealand police needing to be involved.
 
Thankfully in January of 2007, Dayna managed to exit your country without harm and made it safely to Perth, Australia for a six month mission trip.
I believe there was still contact with Baker through emails.

Eventually, Baker attended school in San Diego, California needing some psychology studies and the obsession with each other grew to the point where Dayna threw all caution to the wind and purchased a plane ticket, on her already endebted VISA, to meet him there.
At this point I knew she was losing her mind.
They spent a week together hidden in his dorm and she returned home to her beloved Canada, an emotional wreck.
 
Baker and Dayna concocted a plan for him to enter Canada and spend December 2007 as an illegal resident in her basement suite. 
 
It was during this month, actually on Christmas Day, that I finally (got my hands on) met Baker.  He appeared quite calm and relaxed.  Obviously, the visit was kept very short lest his plans became known to lure Dayna out of her country.
 
But, alas, that time has come, and thus this letter to inform you of the scheduled abduction that will have my oldest child leave her native land, with the intent of not only entering New Zealand for a year, but possibly for a lifetime.  SHE IS GIVING AWAY HER COOKWARE PEOPLE.
 
I know she is not in her right mind to leave Canada and I have the video of her patriotism singing our nation’s anthem robustly as a very young child.
 
I hope this letter will assist you in your decision.
 
 
Thank You,
 
Shona Stirling
AKA Mother of Dayna”

Full Circle Part 3

I was really nervous about Matt coming up for a whole month.

Sure, we had ended every email with ‘Miss you’ since pretty much day one, and knew we had crazy feelings for each other.
But there’s a time for logic.
Logically, it did not make sense for us to jump into a long distance relationship based off of a few days together. As well as, umm hello? Living AN OCEAN APART!
So, up until this point, our relationship didn’t have much of a definition. It was basically 2 friends, who emailed often, liked each other A LOT, but still lived separate lives.

I even emailed my concern to Matt long before the San Diego trip,

“what if you get here and have all these expectations and I disappoint you and you end up having a crappy time, it’s awkward and we never talk again…
Then there’s the flip side.
We get to see each other, for a whole month! yay! And we get really close, have such a good time and continue this surreal relationship we’ve got going on.
but you have to leave, and we’re still living in different countries..
I don’t know about you, but I’m still missing those 3 days we had together freaking 7 months ago”

Matt, ever the cool and collected one,

“I know what you mean though. It’s kinda crazy the way I feel about you considering the amount of time we actually spent together and I am so counting down the days already till I can see you. I wouldn’t worry about that month together being crappy because I will honestly be happy if all we did is play board games for a month or whatever.
I will be happy just to spend time with you and get to know you in person rather than through a computer. As a bonus I get to do it in a wicked country that I’ve always wanted to see so I’m sure I’m gonna have an amazing time. It’ll just be leaving that will be hard probably. As for beyond that month, we’ll just have to wait and see won’t we, it’s too hard to know what will happen so may as well just not worry about it yet eh.”

(Seriously, aren’t we losers? heh.)

Anyway, it ended up being an incredible month…more than I think either one of us expected.

Playing poker with my siblings

Poor Guy...

Kevin at 2am

Matt's first hockey game

View from Stanley Park

Sledding

Skating

1st time in snow

But of course, with that came ‘What do we do next’?

Since Matt went home, we email multiple times daily, and talk on the phone for hours every weekend…it is no longer logical to have things go back to the way they were.

Luckily for us, Matt lives in a country I fell in love with, one I was planning on going back to as soon as I could. So after the work-visa saga that has been the last 4 months, I am finally allowed into the country and have the passport/visa/plane ticket to prove it.

I will be leaving in 2 months 21 days*, 11½ weeks*, 82 days*,

AUGUST 27th, 2008*

*but I’m not excited or anything WHEE!!!