A special jillstory event

I broke down and did a little shopping this weekend. I got two pairs of shoes, a dress, and oh yeah, a cute house.

Last week I found a little two bedroom bungalow that looked interesting. Even my dad seemed genuinely excited about it. We viewed it once on Thursday and then went back to the open house on Sunday. Offers were that evening at 8:00. I had a hard time deciding what to offer. At 4:00 they already had four so we knew it was going to be tough. I wrote the offer for $15,000 over asking. This time it felt a bit scary because I knew it might actually get accepted. I got the call from my agent at 8:30 and she told me the good news. Even though two other offers came in quite a bit higher than mine, they had conditions of financing written on them. My offer was clean so they picked me!

My family and I toasted the news with red wine and then I got on the phone to call friends and relatives. I guess I sounded funny with my news because I wasn't excited at that point, still mostly in shock. Nevertheless, everyone was happy for me and now I can't wait to have them over.

I will be waiting for a while though. Possession isn't until July 3rd as the couple moving out has not found a place to move into yet. This gives me time to amass more stuff and sock away a few more pay cheques so I don't mind.

My dad was kind of quiet last night. I know he gave me some grief during the search but his opinion meant a lot to me. I know he felt really bad when that first house didn't work out and I think he thought I blamed him (that house never did sell, by the way, so it was probably a good thing I didn't keep it. ). This house has two issues: the electrical panel is old screw in fuses and needs to be updated, and there is no dining room or kitchen space for my table. Dad reminded me of this before I wrote. I know he just wanted to make sure I wasn't settling but I also think he's realizing he's going to miss me. I see him every morning before he goes to work. Sometimes I'm up and eating breakfast, sometimes he's checking on me to make sure I'm awake. It's about 10 minutes of my life but I'll miss that, a lot. July 3rd is going to come pretty fast.

Water water everywhere so let's all have a drink

I rarely check my hotmail account anymore. It's pretty much a junk mail collector now because anything or anyone important goes to my Gmail account. Every time I sign into MSN I am reminded that I have 20-some-odd unread messages and I continue to ignore the warning until I start to fear large barbaric men with clubs will come and beat me if I don't go take a look.

Yesterday was one of those days when I gave in and as per usual it was mostly e-flyers and other crap I send right to the trash. There was one exception though in a message from Starbucks asking me to join in on supporting World Water Day 2007. Starbucks and Ethos Water are teaming up to organize a Virtual Walk for Water in honour of World Water Day on March 22.

More than one billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water. You can help raise awareness of this crisis by joining Starbucks and Ethos in a virtual Walk for Water.

Go to worldwaterday.net to register or to sign up for a virtual Walk for Water.

I had no idea there was a World Water day, but I know I'm not the only one. Worldwaterday.net says,

In many ways though, World Water Day is still a relatively unknown event. Even with the support of the UN and efforts by leading non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and committed individuals, World Water Day is today at a similar stage as Earth Day was in the early 1970’s – important but relatively unknown.

To get involved you can sign up for a walk in select North American cities (Canadian cities include Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto) or you can join the virtual walk which means your name will be included in a symbolic water jug to be carried by a participant in one of the local Walk for Water events.

I've never identified passionately with a cause or thought of myself as any kind of activist. I've been reading and learning some things lately that make me want to get involved in something but I haven't decided what. Surely there's a Save the Penguins group that I can join somewhere ;)

Where the words come from

I find inspiration for writing everywhere. Life is so full of interesting coincidences and quirky people. Here are two characters I saw this week.

I read a new post on the blog you never can tell with bees today. You may recall this is the blog of a teacher in Mississippi who struggles to capture the imagination of his students. Yesterday he started a list of reasons why his kids struggle to focus on school. The kinds of things his kids have to deal with were never a part of my reality as a high school kid. He ended his post with the conclusion, "the list goes on, and I continue to be amazed that they show up at all. It's hard to look too far ahead."

He has another blog where he talks about his garden. Together, his two blogs create the most striking and interesting piece of contrast. At the end of a recent post on his garden he wrote:

I've got to get some more seeds - hopefully I can plant some lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash, broccoli, carrots, maybe peppers... The possibilities are, of course, endless.

Someone could write a book, or at least a great short story on this guy.

I also recently discovered an incredibly endearing character at work. His name is Pablo. I'd leave him nameless except his name is so much a part of what makes him a character. Pablo has a cloud of curly brown hair--perhaps the first thing I noticed because I seem to always pick up on hair first and I love curls. He's maybe a bit short and roundish. He wears round wire-frame glasses and is soft spoken with an accent I haven't placed yet. The other day he wore a bright yellow button down shirt, red tie, and black pants. His pants are always a little bit too short so when he walks his white socks peak out. I'm not sure what his story would be. I'm not certain of his personality yet.

A while ago I had a bus driver who looked like the crazy Mexican drug lord on Nip/Tuck. I imagined that he was fed up with the -30 degree temps and cursing whatever situation it was that sent him to this frozen place. Everyday I wondered if it was the morning he'd veer off route and make a run for the border. Scratch that. Everyday I hoped it was the morning he'd veer off route and make a run for the border.

And then there's me. What will my story be? I hope I get to be the hero.

Pandora's box

On Friday I set things up so I can do encrypted posts (thanks for the coaching, Vince). I can now hide part or all of a post from public viewing and make it accessible only by a key. This is supposed to mean that I can blog without reserve because I can encrypt anything I want to keep private or only allow certain eyes to see. I'm not sure how I will use this feature. To begin with, I don't have a lot of secrets; I'm pretty open and honest on my blog. My other concern is that I don't want any of my readers to get miffed because I'm hiding something from them (it always goes back to the audience). Anyway, I have the tool now, I'm interested to see how I end up using it. I've decided to give it a whirl today. You can ask me for the key if you were at Rob's on Saturday night.

Show encrypted text

My horoscope today

Wish I had read this earlier, it's almost noon already and getting late to pick up on celestial advice.

Sagittarius
Today will be a busy and successful day, indeed. Try to find what you are looking for through internet searches and phone conversations. Use your writing abilities to get yourself ahead in your personal and professional life.

Wait a minute, this is what I do everyday.