then by music

on april 11, 2004, after a couple of lunch dates, a little bit of flirtation, and a lot of email josh and i went to inglewood in calgary. we ate at the harley diner and bought some records at recordland and wandered around finding photos for one of my photography assignments. we held hands for the first time and snuggled on his couch later that night watching the flames play game 3 of the play-offs against vancouver (weird), the first play-offs they’d been in for 8 years. we kissed our first kiss when i was leaving his house that night and unofficially and unspokenly became a couple. a week later we were hanging out with kim and ed when ed asked us “so, what exactly are you guys?” to which i responded (due to the unspoken-ness of the previous week’s decision), “we’re… undefined.” this prompted josh to bring up the unspoken-ness later that night and we officially defined our relationship. boyfriend and girlfriend.

5 years later and we’ve been living together for over 4 years. we moved out of my apartment into a little house. a year after that we moved out of the little house and left calgary for vancouver. we love it here. we love each other. we’ve had amazing ups and major downs. but 5 years and a lot of happenings later, we’re still together and intend to keep it that way.

to celebrate, we spent about 4 hours with miranda and reilly yesterday getting our photo taken. i stole the idea from our friends chris and monica who did the same thing for their 5 years of un-wedded togtherness ealier this year and i thought it was genius. we have a fairly decent amount of “coupley” photos that have been taken of us over the years, but these will be different. reilly and miranda take absolutely amazing photos of their couples and i’m so excited that we got to join their ranks and have our own batch of photos that demonstrate how we feel about each other. and they absolutely suit us. we first went up to whytecliff park and  played around on the rocks and in the trees there, being in nature in one of our absolute favourite spots in vancouver. we then headed back to the city to get some urban shots in this absolute genius area with amazing grafitti and empty train cars and amazing light. it was an awesome experience and i’m so happy that josh was receptive to the idea when i first brought it up. i can’t wait to see the photos and i’m so glad m&r were willing to give up one of their rare free afternoons for us.

we don’t have anything special planned for today, but that’s okay. in addition to the photoing of yesterday, we’ll also be heading out to the island next weekend to go snowboarding at mt. washington and just spend a couple days together away from everything at home, which will be awesome.

i’m extremely proud of us and our 5 years. i love josh and he loves me and we’re happy. go us!

so. how well do i know the guy? Read the rest of this entry »

i’m forcing myself to sit down and just write this afternoon. the fact that i have to force it tells me maybe i shouldn’t maybe even bother, but that’s okay, i’m going to do it anyways.

i haven’t written since before christmas. i went to calgary as planned and it was a combination of really awesome and really awful. the awful was mostly because i got SUPER sick (food poisoning or something) the night of christmas eve and it didn’t let up for a couple days so christmas day itself was kind of a write off. i also ended up being one of the many hundreds (thousands?) of people whose travel plans got all screwed up by air canada but not too terribly bad. and the awesome was ridiculously awesome. starting with meeting up with a few old girlfriends for laughter filled lunch, ending with a day snowboarding at lake louise with a bunch of friends and filling the time in between with hanging out with josh’s family and kris and will and reading and relaxing.

since then things have been busy but really good. lots of time with friends. work picking up (though it will slow down again next week). having fun dancing. lots of concerts and shows in my past and future. hanging out with josh’s mom while she’s been working out here as a travel nurse. writing and recording music with reilly and darren (aka my friend lisa! we have a name! ha!).

and hey, while i’m here, i’ve been tagged about 18 times for that 25 things meme, so why not?

1.  i’ve never had a cavity and my wisdom teeth have never come in. good teeth genes.

2.  i sucked my thumb as a child and even though my parents always threatened to dip my thumbs in vinegar to get me to stop, they never did.

3.  i’ve discovered exactly one grey hair on my head but i can’t really tell if it’s grey for sure cause i tend to also have quite a few bright blonde strands too.

4.  i haven’t finished one school pursuit since graduating high school. i’ve started many and learned lots from all of them but haven’t yet figured out what i really want to be when i grow up.

5.  i enjoy watching tv.

6.  i’ve only slept with two people in my life.

7.  the first is a deadbeat i dated when i was 19 and the second is josh who i’ve been with for almost five years.

8.  when i first saw josh (a few years before we got to know each other) i thought he was way too good looking and cool to even look at me… figured he was probably some kind of “player” (hey, i was like 21 or something, give me a break) and i was just not his type. nor was he mine, really. a couple years later i found out he had been having somewhat similar thoughts about me.

9.  when i was a kid my hair would go SUPER curly in humidity. now it just goes a bit kinky and annoying.

10. i was only able to do one extra-curricular activity at a time when i was a kid. first it was swimming, then brownies, then jazz dance, then singing.

11. although i ended up realizing that studio dancing really didn’t work for me (too tall, too awkward, started too late) it sowed the seeds for really loving dance now, especially since now that i do it as an adult i do it on my own terms.

12. i always wanted to be in a band when i was younger, especially when i was taking voice lessons but was never confident enough to go out and try. i think it’s amazing that i’m getting the chance now.

13. i really enjoyed high school, it was a good time for me.

14. i’m a bit flabbergasted that my 10 year high school reunion is being planned for this summer. when did that happen?

15. i always have and maybe always will really enjoy cheesy high school romance movies. i really don’t know why and i realize that it’s weird now. must be all that sweet valley high i read when i was a kid. i dunno.

16. i’m an only child and wouldn’t have it any other way.

17. i get obsessive about books really easily. i drop everything (whether i really want to or not, it’s more like a compulsion) when i get sucked into a book.

18. i’m a huge fucking slob and i hate it.

19. i wasn’t always really into photography, one day i just decided that i wanted to try it and threw myself into it.

20. at the same time, it’s a natural interest for me since my dad was always shooting photos and has a fairly large antique camera collection.

21. i love showering. love love love. but i also love being COMPLETELY lazy and just not bothering. like today.

22. i’m firmly on the team maybe baby fence. it stresses me out that i don’t really have all that much time left to go to one side or the other. cause if i decide yes baby, i don’t want to be older than 35 when i do it.

23. i’m incredibly lazy by nature and have to push myself really hard to be active. it helps that i’ve found a few activities that i really really love (dance and snowboarding specifically), but it’s still hard. on the other hand, even though it’s hard, once i’m firmly in a routine it’s pretty easy to keep it going provided nothing happens to interrupt the routine.

24. i used to be incredibly shy and insecure and still have my moments. in general, though, i like who i’ve become.

25. i have a deep and abiding love for lisa loeb’s music and have since junior high. people don’t really get it, but i don’t really care.

and yeah. time to go try to force myself to be productive with what’s left of the day.