I turned 23 on Saturday, and I think this past year has been one of my best.

I met incredible people, fell crazy in love, travelled, and learned a lot.

Here's some of the stuff that happened.

I got a really skinny kitty.

And fed her lots.

Met this guy on Twitter. He took me to Ethel's for tacos, we fell in love. 

We went to Vegas.

A few times.

I became Miss Oktoberfest. Ziggy Zaggy.

I rode a bull in a dirndl.

I was in a parade, that was awesome.

We went back to Vegas.

I shot a few weddings with @TaylorJackson

We went to Mexico!

And popped some bottles.

And had some pool bevs.

Kristen and I got $2 unicorn friendship necklaces (of course this was a highlight of my year).

We went back to Vegas, this time with my Mom and Sally.

They make beautiful showgirls.

We wore tiger shirts to Phil's and met Billy.

Went back to Las Vegas, Taylor made a beautiful face.

We got a penthouse suite. 

And popped more bottles.

In the middle of the strip.

We went to Punta Cana.

And went for a journey down the beach. We smoked cigars with a shop owner in his humidor.

Celebrated Easter and my Birthday with a beautiful baby girl..

And a handsome boy.

And a very cute (and silly) little girl.

Here's to another incredible year!

Unconventional Tips for being the Least Hated Co-op Student or Intern

Co-op placements and internships can be challenging, exciting, and eye-opening experiences. It can be hard to get a good one, but if you’ve worked hard and landed yourself the placement of a lifetime, you want to do everything you can to make a good impression and get the most of the short time you have. Obviously you should pay attention to the conventional tips; show up to work early, stay late, be pro-active, look for ways that you can be an asset to your employer, and be humble; you’re not going to be a Senior Sales Manager on your first day. However, I think the unconventional tips are what are going to potentially save you from being the idiot 20 year-old at the company. It won’t matter if you work 60 hours a week and single-handedly earn the company $100 grand if you hook up with your boss’ daughter, so read these Unconventional Tips for being the Least-Hated Co-op Student at your company.

1. Let’s start off with a simple one: Don’t get in road rage. Why, you ask? Well, unless you work for a company of three, and those three people have no clients, relatives, friends or network of any sort, the chances of you flipping off your company’s CEO, your manager’s next potential client, or the husband of your co-worker (whom you will meet at your company Christmas party), are quite high. It’s Murphy’s Law. So what if there are 500,000 people in your city, I guarantee the person you call an #$*%’ing idiot and tell them to go back to driving school WILL be someone you know. So the next time you get pissed in traffic, take a breath, put on some classical music and move on.

2. Change your phone ringer to sound like a phone, or better yet put it on silent. Having “Slave 4U” going off in a business meeting will not gain you respect, if you get lucky it will make your boss think that’s your offer to work Saturday and Sunday. Either way, just change your ringtone.

3. Always double check your “TO:” line in your e-mails, even the CC: and BCC:’s. “OMG my boss sux sooo much and his secretary is a total biatch” will likely get you the boot, but if it doesn’t get you fired it will definitely make for an unpleasant few months. I hope to God you would never be dumb enough to send an e-mail like that in the first place, but if you are that dumb, at least make sure that it’s going to your BFF and not your CEO.

4. If you have a car, make sure that it’s clean and change your radio station to classic rock or something boring before you get out of the car. You might think I’m going to far with this, but you’ll wish you listened to me when a colleague needs a ride home and “Let’s get N-A-S-T-Y get ready for a nasty time” is bumping and you have last week’s McDick’s wrappers on the floor. You might not lose your job for it, but you’ll definitely solidify your status as the “20 year-old tool” of the office.

5. Depending on how much of a party guy/girl you are, this one may not sit well with you – but don’t bring home any hotties from the bar for the duration of your placement. Like I said about Murphy’s Law, that hot babe you’re picking up WILL be your boss’ daughter, and honestly that’s only hot until you have your desk packed up for you on Monday morning. I’m certain there’s no one-night stand worth losing your hard-earned job for. If this just seems like a FAR too challenging task for you (Ew, go on a date, don’t pick people up in bars) at least make sure you do some research before doing the dirty. Tell the person where you work, if they say “Oh! You must know my Mom Jane in accounting!!” - Run.

Hopefully these tips will help you out in the future. If you think of any unconventional tips I’ve forgotten, write a comment, maybe we can save some poor co-op students from failure.

Peace and Love,
Linds

Love your neighbour as yourself.

So it's 4:30 in the morning and I just got off the phone with my brother. He is a fantastically talented and overall wonderful person in Waterloo. Tonight my brother called me upset because some asshole called him a faggot. So first of all, my reaction is "who is this loser and why didn't you punch him square in the face?", Ryan is slightly more reasonable than I am I suppose. So Ryan continues to tell me that not only was this guy calling him a fag but that his friends were saying "he doesn't hate gay people he's just using a word". Okay, I call bullshit...sort of. He might not hate gay people, but he certainly knows how to wield his words to hurt gay people.

So why does he want to hurt a great gay guy whom he doesn't even know? I have a few thoughts on the matter, but the main one is that he hates himself, or at the very least a part of himself. This guy, like many many others have in the past, got too drunk tonight and his true feelings about himself came out and he decided to take it out on the most obvious target. I mean, you're not going to take it out on a black man, a Jewish woman, a physically disabled person... No one will stand back and watch that happen (that's probably not true, but I'm trying to be slightly optimistic about society). So why do we stand back and watch someone call another human a fag? Why do we let people at work make rude gay jokes about other straight guys? Why do we let people make remarks about their bros calling them fairies? The last time I checked having someone say "you're so straight, you probably love guys" wasn't a very funny insult, but sexual orientation is somehow funny regarding gay people.

So now what? The word is out there, my brother is upset, I wish I could say this was the first time this had ever happened, but the world is full of douches so of course it isn't. This guy, just like some of the guys on the UW football team (making us proud one season at a time), some random bros, some insecure closeted gay men etc. have all used this word in an act of supposed hate against my brother. My thought is that these guys (no I'm not being sexist, it's just always turned out to be other males) have the IQ's of trolls. That doesn't excuse them by any means, but trying to explain self-esteem and love and compassion to a guy who can't understand how to tie his shoes is going to be difficult.

My question is, who are the people standing around listening to these morons and not saying a single word? They are (potentially) smart, well spoken, loving, wonderful people, and yet they still let their friends insult total strangers. That's not okay with me, and it shouldn't be okay with you. Sure, someone called my brother a fag, but if that guys best friend turned to him and said "hey man, not cool" I would bet the conversation would've ended there. But instead everyone kept partying and pretending nothing was wrong, which empowered an empty-headed loser to keep going.

This whole "it gets better campaign" is great, but my brother is 23 and is getting hated on like I did when I was 7. Sure, it does get better eventually, but what are you doing personally to make sure it gets better? I'm a straight white female, I have absolutely no reason to stand up for gay rights. Yes, I have a gay brother, but we all share the earth, we're all here together, so you have a gay brother too. In actuality, you probably have a gay uncle, a gay friend, a gay teammate, a guy professor - so if you need to have a tie to someone in order to have a backbone and stand up for gay rights, do it for them.

The word fag is not okay. It will never be okay, and I can't stop someone from using it, but I can stop them from feeling empowered to use it. You're right, it would be much easier to let it go and pretend you heard nothing because it's just none of your business, you didn't say it. But how many more years do people like my brother have to wait before it gets better? Hopefully not too long.

No Girls Allowed

I promise this will be my last gripe-y blog for awhile. But I have a bone to pick..and what better way to voice my opinion than on here?

First of all, I'll start out with the good stuff.
I'm on a co-op term from January to April, and so far I'm really loving it. I consider myself very lucky to have the position that I do because it isn't related to my major, and it is for an intermediate or senior student. I feel really blessed to have gotten such a great position, and definitely have my Dad to thank for it :) The old phrase "it's not what you know, it's who you know" certainly comes in to play.

Now with that being said I'll explain the job a bit. I can't explain too much without the chance of getting in trouble haha, but basically I'm working on marketing and business development for a...company... in Waterloo. So far I've been working for this company for a few weeks, and I've met some really interesting and influential people.

So here's the bone I have to pick: I went to roughly 5 meetings this past week, and aside from my boss and myself, the only people in these meetings were men. Now I understand that there are certain jobs that attract men, and there are certain jobs that attract women... but you cannot tell me that I am one of the only women in all of Waterloo that would like to be in this kind of fast-paced corporate atmosphere. When I was sitting in one of my meetings this week, I was in a boardroom filled with a couple of CEO's and mayors (no, I'm not a big deal, I just take notes) and I notice that the only women in the building are secretaries. So not only can you not tell me that I am one of the only women in Waterloo that wants to be in this industry, you can't tell me that every woman in that building aspired to be a secretary. I highly doubt that when they were a little girl they dreamed about getting coffee for important people... Nope, I think they probably had dreams of being one of the important people too.

I don't really understand it. Maybe I will in the future, but at this point in time I really don't. Are these demographics based on a woman's ability, or are they based on something else? Do young women see themselves as secretaries from an early age? And yes, I know that there are lots of women in very influential positions that are way more successful than any of the men sitting in that boardroom, but why is it that the odds are if you're a woman you'll be a nurse, teacher, or secretary, and if you're a man... well, you can be whatever you want to be? So here's my question... do women choose this, or is it just easier than fighting to get in to the boy's clubhouse?

On a closing note, my boss told me on Thursday (after I pointed out to her that we were the only women in the office not pouring coffee): "Learn how to play golf and drink whiskey, or else you'll always be a step behind".

Peace and love,
Linds

Some more things I've learned.

I wrote a post about a year ago about the things I had learned in the past 20 years of my life. I've decided to compile a few more from the past year to add to the list.

1. I love TCBY

2. Grandparents are amazing, appreciate them while you still have them.

3. Having positive, caring, and ambitious people in my life is very important to me.

4. Jealousy gets you nowhere, but it's a hard thing to turn off.

5. Sometimes failing terribly makes for the greatest success.

6. I despise "landscaping" in the summer, but new friends are always good :)

7. Never preach before you've practiced.

8. Know when to cut people loose, and know when to let people in.

9. Procrastination sucks. I've known this one for a long time, and I'm still not very good at remembering it.

10. I LOVE dryer sheets.

11. The word "sustainable" can get old.

12. Relationships are scary, but can be great.

13. Always hold on to your morals and boundaries in relationships.

14. There IS such a thing as too much pasta.

15. You don't have to be nice to people that stalk you.

16. Jobs come and go. Your boss probably won't cry if you leave.

17. Doing silly things makes for amazing memories.

18. Fake nails are never a good idea.

19. A year without traveling makes for a grumpy Lindsay.

20. Great people aren't to be taken for granted.

Lesson Learned

In the last 19 years, well I guess 20, I've learned a lot. Some things have come from my own experiences and some have come from those of people around me.

I've decided to make a list of things I've learned..discovered or taught, some significant and some pretty minor...but all have made a difference in my life in one way or another.

Here goes nothin

1. Don't talk to strangers, unless those strangers are good looking.

2. Friends are made and lost; the ones that are lost are lost for a reason, friends that are kept are kept for a reason.

3. Ex-boyfriends should remain ex-boyfriends.

4. The kind of Love in The Notebook, Twilight, and Taylor Swift songs does exist. Sometimes we just have to sift through a lot of garbage to find it.

5. The most rewarding experiences are usually the hardest, most stressful, and cause you to cry the most.

6. "Best friend" doesn't always mean the same thing when you're 19 as it does when you're 5, but it should.

7. Travelling the world is incredible.

8. Never send a second text to a guy that didn't reply to the first.

9. Do NOT cry at the bar. Go home.

10. Community and family are a couple of the most important things in the world.

11. I love love. I love when people are happy; even if they're happier than me and even if I don't have as much love in my life as they do.

12. Cardio is just as important as conditioning.

13. You find out who people truly are when they are faced with a crappy situation.

14. "Chicks before dicks" might be juvenile, but oh well, I like it.

15. If someone wants to punch you in the face at the bar leave the bar, don't go to the bouncers, they're useless.

16. I should never buy any kind of electronics without buying the most extended warranty possible, this includes: Cell phones, laptops, laptop screens, laptop chargers, cameras, cell phone chargers, televisions, DVD players.

17. I have the worst luck with electronics.

18. Time can be counted in Batmans and it makes road trips much shorter. For example, a trip to parry sound is 8 episodes of Batman, not 4 hours.

19. Drag Queens will always freak me out.

20. Always lock the door on the house, car, and bike. No matter where you are, douche bag thieves are there too.

21. School is important. Not going to class is not a smart call.

22. Funny movies with great one-liners can make the worst of days better.

23. Don't buy clothes based on the size you want to be, buy clothes based on the size that looks good.

24. Shopping in the states is smart, shopping in Canada is not.

25. Snow is more fun when you're playing in it.

26. Researching things and learning things 'just because' is so much better than because you have to.

27. Even when my friends are half way across the country or planting trees 10 hours away I know they're still some of the best I could have.

28. Going to prom with a girl is much better than with a boy, especially when the girl is Marcia Metcalfe.

29. A clean home is a happy home.

30. "Always love, hate will get you every time".

That's it. Peace and love,

Linds

Two amazing girls

This week I have met two amazing little girls. Their names are Max (formerly known as Marissa) and Sydney. Both of these girls have special needs, and both are very special. I have been so blessed to be able to get to know both of them in their own ways and I wanted to share their joy with you. I'll share little tidbits about each of them separately. I'll start with Max.

First of all Max, whose name is actually Marissa but refuses to answer to that name, is fantastic. I think she's about 7 years old and brings a smile to my face even when she is screaming like a maniac. She has downs syndrome and is probably one of the funniest and most lovely girls I've ever met. Yesterday I got the opportunity to hang out with her during our evening game at camp and it was some of the most fun I've had all summer. First of all we sat on a log and I soon came to the realization that she most definitely was not going to play the game with the group. So we sat on that log for about 20 minutes and made funny noises with our mouths every time we threw a football up and down. Every once in awhile she'd fine it REALLY funny to throw the ball way too high over my head and watch it come down and either hit me or roll away. Either way it was funny for her because it either ended with me getting hit with a football, or me having to retrieve the football. After that she realised that she was lonely and wanted to play the game. This lasted for 5 minutes, after which time she remembered she hates loud noises. So we ran out into the middle of the empty field and sat there and made grass bracelets. I taught her how to make knots out of grass and she taught me how much fun it could be getting grass shoved down my pants. After we grew tired of the grass fight I buried her in grass... quite seriously, you couldn't see any part of her if you were standing at a distance. It was great. Then we realised we were allergic to grass, which was equally great. That was most of my adventure with Max. It may not seem like much, but you probably need to meet her to understand the joy she brings. Today she was SCREAMING at her counselor Claire so I gave her some coloured paper, paper clips, and markers and she almost immediately stopped crying. She made me a sad house made of paper. She told me it was supposed to be happy but she taped the smile on upside down. What a great little lady.

Next is Sydney. She is such a smart, caring, lovable puff ball of joy. (I don't think I could have put anymore positive adjectives into one sentence). I got to spend the night with her tonight before she fell asleep. She is so funny and so smart. She is in a wheelchair, but aside from her physical disabilities she is better off than most kids her age. She's also around 7, but she talks like she's 40. She always gives me little tidbits of advice and tips of ways I can help her. Tonight she said "Lindsay, can I suggest that you sit me up BEFORE you give me my water bottle?".. Smart choice Sydney. I got to spend time in her cabin and read Alice in Wonderland and then I tucked her in to bed and rubbed her back before she kindly said "Lindsay, I wouldn't mind if you left now. Come back again though." Wouldn't you love to get to spend time with little girls like that?

So now that I have been filled with joy I am going to go spend some time with some friends and go to bed completely happy. I hope my happiness can bring a smile to your face.

Peace and Love,
Lindsay