I heart birds

You ever have those moments where you're just overwhelmed with awesome? I'm pretty sure I have them all the time. Not just because I'm so awesome, but because in 114 days, I will be marrying the man of my dreams. He's the one person on the planet that somehow manages to put up with me all of the time and still make sure that I know he loves me. I'm special.

See that? That's my sweetheart, my Cody Bird. I loves him so.

That guy, right up there, is the greatest man in the world and there is no one else in the world I would rather be with. Every morning, he wakes up first and rolls over to give me a kiss before he gets out of bed to have a shower. He faithfully wakes my lazy ass up every day at the same time so that I'm not late for work, but he always comes and snuggles with me for a few minutes before it's time to get up. Morning snuggles have this uncanny knack for making my morning an absolute DELIGHT. It's my first shot of caffeine in the morning.

He always tells me I'm beautiful, even when I feel like I just crawled out of a rubbish bin. He always makes me feel special, even on my worst days where I feel like I'm useless. It's scary how truly wonderful he is. And I don't think he quite realizes it. I can only hope that I show him how much I care and that he is everything to me.

In 114 days, I will marry my soulmate.

In 114 days, I marry my best friend.

In 114 days, I get to be a Bird, too. 

Dear Vancouver Rioters...

I will always love Vancouver. It will always be home to me.

I will always love the people of Vancouver. Contrary to potentially popular belief, Vancouver is full of good people...with the exception of those who were foolish enough to start or participate in the riots following the Canucks Stanley Cup loss of last week.

That was dumb. What were you thinking? How angry and angst-ridden do you have to be to feel that it's a GOOD idea to push over a car and light it on fire? And not necessarily in that order? How does this make you feel better? Does the destruction and the embarrassment that the city will feel now pacify you? Come on. This is madness.

You know what the best part is? The fact that some of you will fess up to your mistakes. I respect you for that. I do NOT respect that you destroyed parts of a beautiful city, however I believe that you may have made the city stronger. I do NOT respect the choices that you made, however I believe that you may now know better. Some of you don't have the guts to turn yourselves in and apologize. That's because you're weak. Because you're children. Because you believe that you are invincible. You're not. Because you're scared. You should be. Remember that time you posed for a photo in front of the storefront window you broke? Someone has that photo. Remember that time you told your friend that you stuffed a lit rag into the gas tank of a car? Someone spilled the beans because it was the right thing to do. You will be caught and you deserve the punishment you will receive.

Dear citizens of Vancouver,
Thank you for cleaning up the destruction that the mob left behind. Thank you for coming together as a community to show that you care. Thank you for trying to stop what was happening. Thank you for standing up for what is right. And THANK YOU for showing what true Canadian spirit and pride means to you.

We are all Canucks, like it or not.

You know what really grinds my gears?

I have a rant.

It drives me bonkers when you offer to help someone and they decline; not for the reason that they don't need help, but declining so that they can play the martyr. THAT, my friends, makes me crazy. I'll hear this person complain about having no help for the next forever-and-a-day, and I'll just swallow my RAGE and smile and nod and pretend to be sympathetic when really all I want to do is smack them upside the head and tell them that I TRIED to help but noooo...you have to do everything by yourself so that you look like a hero. BAH, I say.

There. I feel better. It's amazing how the written (slash, typed) word can make you feel so much better about something. Paper/computer screens are good listeners, I suppose. I've also been told that answering machines and voicemail work well, too...

That ended up being significantly shorter than I thought. That's disappointing...I suppose I just need to find something else worth talking about, yes?

You know what I love? The internet. I just googled "Random Topics" and the top result was for a Random Blog Topic Generator. What a bit of serendipity, eh? Boo yeah. New topic: writing your own music. You know, I dabble in composition from time to time, but it's not really a big strength of mine. I took Music Composition for two years in high school, released my own CD (on a VERY small scale. Because I'm poor.) and did some work with a composer friend in college, but it's not something that I would ever really be able to do exclusively. That being said, however, I'm pretty good when it comes to arranging music. There are a great number of university and college groups, as well as independent groups that will perform popular radio hits that have been arranged a capella (voices only), and I've started down the path of creating these arrangements myself. It's simply another form of expressing and performing and it's also a blast to do. Time consuming as all hell if you're still in the dinosaur age and hand-writing the arrangements, but it's still a righteous way to occupy my mind.

Speaking of a cappella groups, here's a men's group called These Guys from LA, California performing a totally groovy medley that you may find worthy of a listen and perhaps a...SOTD?? See how I threw that in there? Oh, me.

I'd love to hear if anyone else arranges or has any interest in it! GIVE ME FUEL FOR DISCUSSION!! Comment below!

HAPPY BARFDAY CARLY!

Today, I shall compose a tribute. A tribute to my good friend Carly, who on this day twenty-four years ago, graced the world with her glorious presence.

Actually, she probably graced the world with her screaming presence. I feel like this is a much more accurate interpretation, considering the circumstances of birth. Gross.

ANYWAYS, Carly has entertained the hell out of me since we started working together. Mostly because we can't seem to get work done when we're together...we're usually laughing too hard. It's a jolly time. I'm clearly not very good at writing tributes. I get distracted easily, it would seem. This is not the greatest blog in the world; this is just a tribute. There you go, Carly. I infringed upon a copyright just for YOU. That's love, man.

I used to blog on my website, but then I got irritated with how difficult it is to really maintain a website and make it look awesome without wanting to punch a baby...so I stopped. The point is, I used to have a Song of the Day or Song of the Week, depending on how lazy I was. Today, I shall re-implement this practice. And in the honor of Carly's barfday (har, I'm clever); I shall choose something of the delightful persuasion. This one's for you, Carly. Check out Darkest of Discos by Slowcoaster here.

Rock on, Carlyface. I heart you!

A funny thing happened on the way to work today...

Actually no. It didn't. But I just thought I would say that to get your attention. Clever, no?

Hells yes I am.

Anywhoooo, welcome to my blog. I assure you, it will be full of delights and wonders the likes of which you have NEVER seen. And you may never truly see it, for the awesomeness that is my bloggery may gouge out your eyes when casting your vision upon it for the first time. I have just popped your uber blog cherry. Mandee: 1 Hapless Readers: 0.

This is why I should never be allowed to do this.

I promise I'll do this all the time. Truly, I do. I had another website that I was pretty faithful to for a while...but then I got bored. And nobody seems to be able to access it. Therefore, seeing as I'm a press whore (as Kevin Smith so eloquently calls himself) I require the masses to see it. Not just at home. At work. When you are supposed to be productive. Nobody likes productivity. *eye roll* I'm pretty sure that statement could get me fired. But then again, I'm too cool for school so really...yeah. I'm pretty much screwed.

This is a mere precursor to the awesomeness that will come on a regular basis. For reals. HOWEVER, I must cut said precursor short as I have a Stanley Cup final game to watch. FYI, Canucks got this. Game on.

Until next time, I bid you adieu. Godspeed.