BEDA - Day Nine

Alright, I have decided to be a little girly and write about my hair today. I was born with curly hair, and I always get people complimenting me and telling me that they wish they had my hair. I am here to say it’s not as great as you’d think.

My hair is thick, and when my hair is long it makes me warmer. When long I need to tie my hair up during the hotter months so that I can stay cooler. The curls make my hair unpredictable, and I actually have to allow it to just do whatever it wants. When my hair has any length to it I don’t have any real control over it unless I tie it back. To me Curly hair looks messy and unruly all the time, but for some reason people still love curly hair.

Just this weekend, while visiting my family, I had compliments on my hair. Both of my female cousins came up behind me while I was sitting in a chair and started to play with my hair. I saw my Granny on Saturday with my hair tied back and then when I saw her again on Sunday with my hair down she said that I looked much nicer with my hair down instead of pulled back. I honestly cannot believe the intensity people have when it comes to my hair.

About two years ago I had had enough of my long hair and I cut it all off. I mean my hair was maybe an inch long; I like to refer to it as boy short. I loved it; it was easy to take care of, and never felt or looked annoying. However, everyone else seemed to have this huge problem with my having short hair. I just sighed and shook my head while remembering that time. Basically people just didn’t like the fact that I had cut my hair, and wanted me to grow my hair back out. At first I resisted, but eventually I gave in and grew my hair out. It’s true that I loved having short hair, but long hair does suit my face nicely; I wouldn’t say better, just different.

I think that the reason I never really enjoyed having long hair is because I never once had a haircut that I actually liked. I know that this seems completely ridiculous, but it is true. My haircuts have always been fine, but never great. That is until I found the greatest salon ever, Curl Ambassadors. Curl Ambassadors specialises in curly hair, and they have developed a way of cutting hair that, to me, is flawless. They cut your hair dry. I know right! It makes so much more sense to cut curly hair dry because then you are able to see where the curls will fall. They have also taught me about what hair products to use and how to style my hair. You should stay away from anything that has sulfate in it because it weights down your curls, and you shouldn’t brush your hair, even when it is wet, because it separates the curl families. Ever since going to the Curl Ambassadors I have enjoyed my hair a lot more.

I know that it sounds like I am complaining a lot about something that doesn’t really matter that much, but it is something that is a part of my daily life. I can also hear people asking why I don’t just cut my hair again if I like it short so much. Well, I probably will, but at the moment my hair isn’t long enough to cut. I see your puzzled looks about that last statement and it will make sense I promise. I want to cut my hair and donate it to Angel Hair an organization that makes wigs for kids that have cancer. I have done this before and I think that it is such a great organization. For a hair donation your hair must be 12 inches and my hair isn’t quite long enough yet. I figure that this way my hair is going to someone who will really appreciate it instead of just ending up on the floor.

I have recently decided that when it comes to my hair I don’t care what anyone else says, and plan on doing whatever I want with it. However, I have spent a long time growing it out and I don’t want to waste that effort, I want someone to really enjoy my hair when I decide that I want to have it short again. In the mean time I plan on tying my hair back whenever I can’t stand the feel of it on my neck.

BEDA - Day Eight

“For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life”. – John 3:16

I love the resurrection story; it is full of excitement, suspicion, scepticism, and joy. When we left off on Good Friday everything seem very bleak, and everyone that followed Jesus was downtrodden. Even though Jesus had took his disciples what was going to happen I can image that they still would have felt like they had just lost someone incredibly important to them. It wasn’t until the third day that things got really interesting

As per the custom of the day the women who knew Jesus when to the tomb with spices that they used to anoint the body. However, when they got there the stone that covered the entrance of the tomb was rolled away. The women went in and found that Jesus’ body was missing, later Jesus met them on the road and they knew that He had risen. The women rushed off to tell the disciples and some believed right away and some doubted. Jesus then appeared to the disciples and they touch His hands and feet where the nails had pierced Him and they knew that Christ, in fact, had risen.

I think that this story is so cool. It is interesting that when the tomb is found to be empty no one really knows what happened, but they are hoping that what Jesus had told them had came true. I love that Jesus appears to His followers and He allows the opportunity to have a little scepticism before he convinces them that it is true. That is kind of how I think about Christianity, at first you might be a wary of it, but once you hear the stories you know in your heart that it must be true.

 I love that God doesn’t expect anyone to be perfect, even after you become a Christian. Yes, there are rules for how you should be living your life as Christian, but mostly they are rules that, if you follow them, make you a better person Christian or not. God loves you no matter what, you can slip up and make a mistake, but all you have to do is ask God to forgive you for it, and God will always forgive you. In John chapter 3 after verse 16 it continues to say:

“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe in Him is condemned already because he has not believed in name of God’s one and only Son”. John 3: 17-18

The really great thing is that it is never too late to start believing in God. God doesn’t have a time limit, you don’t have to become a Christian before you are a certain age or anything, He loves everyone and wants everyone to believe in Him. Sometimes it just takes a little bit longer someone to really understand and accept God.

This is what I believe, and people can try to convince me otherwise, but no matter what I will always believe it. I know that I am a better person for what I believe, and it also strengths me and gives me the will to get through the really hard stuff in life.

BEDA - Day Seven

I have always love holidays; it is always great to get the chance to spend time with family and friends. Now that I am 25 year old I find that holidays are much different from when I was kid. When I was kid I would get so excited about holidays that I would barely sleep, and then I would spend the next day running around with my cousins until I was exhausted. Now it is more likely that the most activity I get is walking from the house to the car while going to visit people.

Easter was always seemed more low key then Christmas, and I guess that it still does. We had our traditions, egg colouring at Granny’s on Good Friday, and a dinner with each side of the family either Saturday or Sunday. There was always lots of playing outside because Easter weekend was usually one of the first nice weekends of the spring. We spent a lot of time with family, and I loved getting the chance to hang out with my cousins. My parents always did an egg hunt for my brother and I on Sunday morning before church, and John and I would try to see who would find the first egg and who had the most eggs. Being a chocolate lover I ate as much chocolate as my Mom would let me, and there was always a ton of chocolate. It is nice to think back on these the things that we used to do for Easter; I can’t help thinking that sure did have fun.

While things have changed over the years, some traditions have been retired, and sometimes I don’t get to see all of my cousins or my Aunts and Uncles, I still really love Easter. Mom still gets us a bit of chocolate, and we still have Easter dinner at Granny’s house on Sunday night, but things are different. Not to say that change is bad. I actually think that it is good. I like that on Easter weekend we can spend more time relaxing, not having to rush around to make sure that we get everything done, and everyone seen. We still visit everyone, and Friday was also my Grandpa birthday so we got to see a few members of the family that we have missed out on in past years.

Something else that has changed that is also nice is being able to spend more time with my parents. When you are a kid spending time with grownups can be a little boring, expecially when they start to talk about stuff you don’t understand. Now when my brother, sister-in-law, and I come home for visits we sit have long dinners together, go for walks, sit around the living room and talk, and stay up late playing games. It makes family time a lot more fun when you are all on the level.

I love spending time with my family, and for me that is what holidays are all about. When I have my family around I don’t miss the traditions that we use to have, in fact I’m happy that they are gone and we can spend more time together without having to make sure that we do a certain something. I hope that everyone reading is enjoying/enjoyed their Easter weekend, and the time they get to spend with their family.

BEDA - Day Six

This weekend is Easter, and for most people all that this weekend means is another long weekend. However, for Christians, like me, this weekend means much more. This is the weekend that Christians remember why Jesus came to earth, and just how important that is.

Since today is Good Friday let’s start there. Sometimes I feel like people gloss over what actually happened on Good Friday wanting to get on to Easter Sunday as quickly as possible. Good Friday is the day that Jesus died, but there is so much more to the story then “He died”.

There were so many things that happened to Jesus before any physical injury took place. First one of His closest friends conspired against Him and then betrayed Him with a kiss. Another of his closest friends denied knowing Jesus while Jesus was on trail and then sentenced to death. Jesus was taken by a crowd of people who basically just didn’t like him and put on trail, and ultimately found Him guilty for saying that He was the Son of God. One man tried to free him, not seeing how this made Jesus worthy of death, but the crowd insisted on crucifying Jesus and letting a murderer go instead. Jesus was then mocked by the people guarding Him, and His clothing was taken and divided among the same men. They also made Him walk through the town to place where He was to be crucified, and the crowds of people came up and ridiculed Him the entire way. This was only the mental abuse that Jesus endured, it then continued on to the physical.

The Physical injuries that Jesus suffered were some of the worst things that you could ever think up. While Jesus was being mock by the guards they placed a crown of thorns on his head, and then beat him with a stick until he bled. The beating continued as they made Jesus walk through town, carrying the cross that He was to crucified upon, as the crowd hurled rocks at Him. Then they nailed Jesus to a cross and made him hang there until he died. I think that death by crucifixion would probably be one of the worst ways to die. It would be extremely painful and it would also be a very slow death, the Bible says that it took nine hours for Jesus to die.

Through all the suffering that Jesus undertook He never once faltered, He knew what had to be done. I think that the truly amazing thing is that Jesus always knew that this was the way that he was going to die. All through the time that he was preaching, and helping others, He knew that He was going to die. Jesus told His disciples what was going to happen, and that it was necessary for it to happen, and never once did he say “I don’t want to do it, but you know it’s God plan”. Jesus had real strength, and commitment.

The other thing that truly amazes me is that Jesus went through all this suffering for us. To think that we are so important to God that he sent His son to earth to teach us, and then to, ultimately, die for us. That in itself makes me feel really special.

BEDA - Day Five

When I was in grade 12, as per the usual graduation tradition, we voted to decide what people would most likely become. Even at the time I didn’t really understand what the point of the activity was, but just went with it anyway. When the results came out I was very surprised to find that my classmates had voted me most likely to become a comedian. I still don’t really understand it. I never tried to be the centre of attention, didn’t constantly crack jokes, I’m not really that quick witted, and was never the life of the party. I did try to make people smile by being silly, but that doesn’t spell comedian to me at all. Yes, I will never get why people decided that I would make a good comedian.

I actually don’t really enjoy stand-up comedians all that much; the only comedy set that I have really loved was by Jim Gaffigan. To me watching someone stand up and talk at you with the expectation that you will laugh at what they are saying doesn’t seem like something that I really want to take part in. I find that some, not all, comedians spend their lives trying to make people laugh, but are actually really unpleasant people. I also really hate how a lot of current comedians use inappropriate language, and talk about really inappropriate things. If you can’t make people laugh about everyday things and you have to resort to swearing and be vulgar, then maybe you shouldn’t be a comedian.

This leads me to a story about attending a small comedy show one night during the winter. A friend of mine invited me to see a comedy show at a small pub one night, and I thought that, if nothing else, it would fun to hang out with my friend. Because the space was so small we ended up sitting in the front row, and trust me this is not where you want to be during a night of comedy. The first few people on deck were pretty entertaining, and a laughed a bit enjoying myself. Then Jerk Number One got up. He started out alright, and then he made a rape joke. Well, I don’t how you feel about rape jokes, but I don’t think that they are OK ever. For some reason this guy took great offense to the fact that I didn’t laugh at his rape joke and started to pick on me. Whatever, I thought, he will be done soon, and he was. Then up got Jerk Number Two, and when I didn’t laugh at one of his jokes he started to pick on me as well. He wasn’t the worst and did get back to his set. Then the last comedian of the night got up, I like to call him King of the Jerks. At this point I just wanted this whole show to be over and wasn’t really paying attention to what this guy was saying until he started to talk to me. Honestly, I can’t really remember what the first thing that he said to was, but I remember him say “What’s wrong with your face” which is not something that I don’t  enjoy hearing due to the fact that I have scars covering my entire face. (That is a whole other story for another time). This guy just kept at it, it was borderline harassment. I know that he was just trying to get me to say something that he could use as a joke, but what he didn’t know is that I have an older brother who likes to try to get a rise out me whenever possible and I have a lot of patience. After ignoring him for a while, I looked at him and said “Move on”.  My friend even asked me if I wanted to “go to the bathroom” at one point, but I wasn’t going to let this guy get the better of me. I stayed, told him to “move on”, and gave him annoyed looks until he was done. He wasn’t worth making me look weak over.

I think that the thing that gets me the most about this story is that these people just expected me to laugh at them. I can find things funny and not laugh out loud hysterically. I’m someone who wears my emotions on my sleeve; I don’t always laugh when I find something funny, and I don’t cry when I find something sad. I also don’t think that I need to. So what; deal with it.

So there is my reason for why I don’t really like comedians, and why I will never attempt to become one. I will, however, continue to act silly, try to make people laugh, and have as much fun with life as I can.

BEDA - Day Four

Last night I finished reading The Maze Runner by James Dashner and I have never been more confused about whether or not I like a book before in my life! I will start by telling you a little about the story, which I have to admit is pretty intriguing. The Maze Runner is about a boy named Thomas who wakes up in a lift without any of his memories; the only thing that he can remember is his name. He is sent to live in a place called the Glade with a whole bunch of other boys; where they have created a whole society whose purpose is to get the boys out of the Glade by solving the maze that surrounds it. The whole world of the Glade starts to change as soon as Thomas arrives.

The information that I have given you so far is basically what is on the back cover of the book, and it really did draw me in. However, I started the book knowing nothing, and I still feel like I don’t know that much more about the world in this book. When Thomas first arrives in the Glade it is morning and he starts to ask questions right away about where he is and why, but the boys refuse to answer any questions that he has until the next day. For some reason that really bothered me; I just wanted to start to find out about this world. As the story progresses you get some questions answered, but it just seems like the characters don’t really have any answers at all for Thomas when he ask questions, or they don’t want to tell him. I feel like things needed to be explained better.

The thing that bothered me the most was the ending. I will warn you right now that there will be spoilers so if you plan on reading The Maze Runner you might stop reading this post right now. I really got into this book when the action started to happen, maybe just over half way through the book. This is when crazy things started to happen and the Gladers, as the boys called themselves, had to start to defend themselves and really had to figure out how to get out of the maze. At one point the boys, just after the escape from the maze, where standing in front of the Creators of the maze and suddenly a rescue group breaks in a takes the boys away. The thing that really bothered me was that this was right at the end of the book and nothing gets explained. They sort of say why the boys were sent to the maze, but not really, and they never tell them who they are and why they are rescuing the boys. The next thing knew the book was over.

The Maze Runner was a really interesting read, I love the concept, but I really wanted more information explained to me before the book ended.  I know that there is a second book, The Scorch Trails, but what I don’t understand is why they didn’t just put the two books together. OK, I do actually know why they aren’t together, it would be too long for a young adult novel, and of course to make more money. I’m a little cheesed off that I have to go buy another book to find out all the questions that I have about The Maze Runner, but I did enjoy reading this book enough to actually buy the next one.

What a confusing review I have written. To sum up, I would recommend The Maze Runner if you like the dystopian genre that is very popular right now. However, if you want answers and don’t want to be left wondering about what it all means, then you should probably pass on this one.

BEDA - Day Three

My brother likes to bug me about how much I like female singers. He likes to say that if there is a girl singing on a song I’m going to like it. Well, for the most part he is right. There are a lot of female artists that I like, but I’m not a feminist and I don’t like these artists on the simple fact that they are women.

When I was first getting into what I will refer to as good music, I was mostly listening to bands that had male singers. I love the male voice, and most male vocals are actually more in my singing range, but it really had to do with lyrics. It is sometimes hard to relate to male singers when you are a girl, especially when they are singing about being in love with some woman, and this became my reason to begin to search out female musicians.

Three female band/musicians that are among the first that I got into, and still listen to, are Sleater-Kinney, Kathleen Edwards, and Brandi Carlile. The thing that is really cool about these three is that they are different in so many ways, but at the same time have some similarities.

Sleater-Kinney was a hard hitting rock band that never had a short supply of roaring electric guitars, and heart stopping vocals. I first heard Sleater-Kinney when they opened for Pearl Jam back in 2005. I had picked up their latest album before the show and had loved it immediately. This was what I had been looking for, girls rocking out hard. The performance that they gave, the first and only time that I got to see them live, amazed me. I wanted to be Sleater-Kinney. I still remember the lights flashing to the beat of the drums during the song Entertain, it was exhilarating. After that I was sold, I had to find more women who could rock.

Kathleen Edwards isn’t quite as hard hitting as Sleater-Kinney, but she certainly can rock out. I had first heard of Kathleen Edwards from a combination of Much More Music and my brother. The first time I saw one on her videos on MMM, Hockey Skates I believe, I wasn’t impressed. She was different and it wasn’t love at first sight. I saw her play that year at a festival in Toronto and while I didn’t hate her, I also didn’t love her. It was my brother who convinced me to go see her the following winter, and I hate to admit that the only reason I agreed was because Joel Plaskett was opening for her. In the end it was her soft side that won me over, yes, it was the song Good Things. Good Things is one of those songs that I just got, it struck a chord for me and I’ve never been able to get over it. It is still one of favourite song of all times, and one that still brings me strength when I listen to it. Kathleen Edwards is now my favourite artist, and there are times that I feel like she wrote those songs just for me…not just the lyrics but the music as well. I don’t think that the songs would resonate so deeply with me if they were sung but a male voice.

Brandi Carlile was another opening act, this time for Train. This was one of the only times that I bought the CD of an opening act. Brandi was interesting to watch, she came out on stage and immediately I was drawn to her. She has great stage presence, and an amazing voice. Her songs are beautifully and thoughtfully written, and she doesn’t shy away from writing about tough subjects. When I am feeling bad I will put on Brandi Carlile and as soon as she starts to sing I know that I am not alone.

So, what do these women have in common you might ask? Well, they all can rock out, command a stage, write meaningful lyrics, write amazing music, and play their own instruments. These are the things that make me love the music that these women produce, but I also love that I can relate to them.

In the end the reason that I love female musicians/singers more is that it is nice to hear the thoughts and feelings that I have experienced, or will experience, being conveyed by a female. It is heartening to know what another woman went through, that she survived, and she is still kicking ass.

Some other female musicians that I love include: Tegan and Sara, Wild Flag, Joan Jett, The Runaways, The Ya Ya Yas, Feist, Rachel Yamagata, and Sam Phillips. Check some, or all, of them out, you will not regret it!