some things I've been taught.

It's kind of funny taking an Introduction to Psychology class because I feel like I've had thorough practice in everything we talk about, for like my entire life! Today we started our unit on Motivation and Emotions. I'm a pretty motivated person on my own. I've always been driven by competition (with MYSELF) and it's kind of what gets me through each challenging task I face. But as we learned today in PSYC 1101, we need all kinds of emotion as well to be at our optimum functioning levels. Well, I've never really been an expert on emotion, but my family (and mainly my mother), have been my driving support for the little bit of emotion, I need to at least just get me through each day! We drew a wheel in class today that demonstrated the importance of these four main emotions.

Basically under-expressing one, will cause an over-expression of the opposite on the wheel, and a bunch of other boring stuff as well... BUT as we talked about our families' dynamics and the importance of all four of these emotions, I was very glad that in my house we always had someone there who understood us when we were scared. I found myself very grateful that I was always able to express when I was mad, and that we always had someone to comfort us when we were sad. Emotions can be a tricky thing sometimes, I think. There are so many taboos these days around when, why, where and how to express ourselves, that it's no wonder my psych class is full of so many different people, from so many different backgrounds. One thing we all share is that we have brains and a beating heart, the rest up for interpretation and discussion.

So this is my daily expression of emotion. Right now I am:

• glad that I know what I know, and have learned what I've learned
• scared I may not ever get this paper done, let alone for next Wednesday.
• mad that it's taken me so long to just get this far.
• sad that...well I'm not really sad about anything, but that's okay with me for tonight because I've got enough of the other 3 to hold me over!....NEVER MIND. I just couldn't get through the day without this one. I just broke my hair clip and have nothing else with me to hold my hair up while I study :( sad.

Just a little something to leave you to think about for tonight. What made you glad, scared, mad or sad today?

heritage station.

Today has been an extremely unproductive day. I didn't have class today, and I didn't work until 4:30 so I must have pressed my snooze button about 9 times this morning. When I finally dragged myself out of bed around 9:30 (yes that's sleeping in these days), do you think I worked on my paper due next week? No. Do you think I went into school to see a presentation that would earn me extra points for a class? No! Do you think I did any cleaning or laundry that needed to be done? NO! Heck, if it wasn't for work tonight I'd probably, no deffinately, still be sitting watching The Big Bang Theory.
But, after leaving the house, I realized today wasn't all bad. I got to the train station right around when the high schools get out, so the station was just packed full of noisy and annoying pubescent boys and girls, and it made me think for a second or two about how glad I am to be over that stage of life. True that I'm only 3 years out of high school, but those 3 years have been valuable times of growth and change! At Heritage Station today I saw some of the most ridiculous outfits, heard some of the most outrageous conversations, and smelt some of the most...creative blends of colonge scents! While I sat on a bench and watched 3 packed full trains go by (in an effort to avoid the massive crowds of all these promising individulas) I was suddenly very grateful for the time I am at in my life right now. I have worn my share of ridiculous things, said my share of outrageous things, and I'm sure I've used some pretty creative scents in my days too, but I am glad to be pretty much done with those stages of my life. It's almost like this big I need to fit in with everyone around me by matching them perfectly weight has been lifted since I broke free of high school in 2008.
I am grateful for the stages of life that we each get to hate, then get through and THEN appreciate. I'm grateful for all the things life has taught me so far, but am glad that I get to move forward, and not need to go back to any of them. There have been good times and frustrating ones, but I've learned, and continue to learn, lots and lots. I'm grateful for where I've been, I'm enjoying where I am, and I'm excited about where I'm headed. Life's a funny thing, and I'm just glad to be a part of it!

Dear Laura,

I am the proud new owner of a Macbook, as of about 5:00 this evening. I just love how new and shiny and white it is. I love having new things, and especially new, fun and expensive things!

I promise now to keep up with my blog entries, and to keep you in the loop with my life, and with every bit of adventure that is going on right now. Life is going well and I am very much enjoying it. Michelle and I are getting settled

and loving our little apartment (even though we still hardly have anything in it).

We own a coffee table (as previously mentioned), and now a dining table and four chairs.I've come to realize my need for projects. I love to be working on things and making things. Right now I am painting our table and chairs so that they match. When we got them the table was a reddish colour, and the chairs were black. Now I'm painting them all a new shade of black, and I don't really know why. It's just one of those things I got myself into, and cannot stop now.

Tonight we are over visiting The Boys. James and Dallas of unit 118 (or more commonly known as The Boys), are our main source of entertainment. This fine Tuesday night includes:

James - "I need to shave my head RIGHT NOW, it's getting too long." (and so he did)

Dallas - "what does humility mean to you? I have a stupid paper to write on it."

Michelle - "James owes me for making make his noodles for him."

Katherine - "I just love my friends (and my new computer!)"

We miss you Laura and hope you're well too. This one's for you, and many more to come!

Calgary.

I should apologize for my absence and lameness lately. I am sorry.

Putting all this on hold, and the rest of the computer world as well, demonstrates a little bit of what my life has been like. This last month has almost been frozen for me. I got back from my trip to Ontario and had nothing to look forward to until leaving for Calgary. I couldn't start to pack, because there's only so much you can pack up of your life a month before you go. I couldn't do anymore about my student loan stuff, because I had to bring it to the school for them to sign. I couldn't get or do anything for my apartment because I didn't even know what it was going to be like. So the first 3 weeks of the month were spent waiting and waiting, getting nothing done. Then the last week hit. All of a sudden I had to pack up everything, say my goodbyes, and get ready to go. The month of August almost stood completely still. It was like everything was on hold until last week when it all hit me at once.

So I spent all day Monday and Tuesday packing, saying goodbyes (except to people who didn't even realize I was leaving ugh.), and getting ready to go. I flew into Calgary Wednesday morning, and Michelle arrived that night. We got the keys to our apartment and thus began our adventure. We spent that night with our good friend James (since we have nothing yet).

But we're on our way, we're making it work! As of right now:

• both our clothes are shoved into our closets without any shelves or hangers
• Michelle sleeps on an air mattress, with no pillow
• I sleep on a borrowed foutton, in the living room
• we spend our spare time watching only VHS movies on a 13" TV sitting on the floor in the living room
• and we eat our limited selection of food out of Tupperware containers, and the 2 forks and knives we borrowed from the boys

It's not as bad as it sounds though. We make it work, and we make it fun. Someday we'll own beds, and dressers, and dishes of our very own and it will be grand.

There is one thing I should leave you with though, something that will make you very proud of me, and to keep you from worrying about us. Saturday I bought, AND PUT TOGETHER, my very own coffee table. It is from Ikea, and although I do not personally own tools, I got ahold of some and made this beautiful masterpiece.

(and I tried to upload a picture of it, and it just isn't working out!)

Then I felt a little to tough for my own good so I finished off the day with a smoothie, doing my nails and watching How To Marry A Millionaire!

I am feeling so much better being here. This summer was hard, but now that's it's over (as always happens) I realize all that I learned from it, and I am just grateful to take it all to a new place, for another adventure!