Colleen never suspected Indian Leg Wrestling would happen at her baby shower.......

First and foremost, I totally forgot to tell you guys all about the CATS!!!!!  If you know me, you know that I love animals, almost all of them, except for birds, not a fan of those.  So Kalyn tells me one day at school that she has to go to the middle of nowhere Maryland to go pick up these cats as a gift for her grandmother and instead of going into the middle of nowhere alone, she wanted company (smart gal that one is).  The roadtrip commences.  We get to the house and she tells me that we go in, if anything feels hinky or that our lives are in danger or the cats are not worth what they are going to be paying for them, we are out.  That is the plan.  I think she told the plan to a wrong person as, if you know me, my imagination can go a little haywire and mountains get made out of anthills.  So we progress inside.  To me, and Kalyn kind of validated this portrayal, the guy could have been hiding underage children in his basement.  He had that sort of old, grandpa creepy vibe to him, kind of like Santa Clause.  And he had a little gayness to him as well.  He was all over strange and peculiar. When he would play with the cats with their toys, all I could picture in my mind was him slapping something against the cages or bed, telling the little children to 'rise and shine'.  

For all I know, this guy was absolutely wonderful and nice and no pedophila tendencies, but this is what you get when you bring two forensic psychology students into a house in the middle of nowhere, especially when one of those students has an over active imagination.  We got out alive, obviously, and nobody or no cats got hurt in the process.  But it was still kind of funny.  And if Kalyn's parents read this blog, we apologize for not telling you our true feelings on the house of the potential pedophile who keeps cats as his cover.  The cats came at a perfect time as I was in need for some kitty therapy - their names were Ollie and Stan and apparently they are settling in just fine at Kalyn's grandma's place.  I kind of miss them though.  A lot.  Man I want a pet again.  

This past weekend, once school was completely all done and nothing was left on our plate, we celebrated Colleen's baby shower!!!!  I still cannot believe that she is going to be giving birth in less than a month (May 15, which I told her she should go into labor during class so we can see the expression on the prof's face) and she looks absolutely fabulous!!!!  She is one of those women who pulls off the pregnancy glow perfectly.  Good foods, good friends and who cannot forget the Indian Leg Wrestling.  At a baby shower.  Apparently that is what you get when you invite the Canadian and the Alaskan to a baby shower.  Before we get to that though, lets discuss how we got there in the first place.  During the shower, Britt had some games in order to give away the trophies at the end.  The first game was to guess, via length of crepe streamers, how big we thought Colleen was around the baby area.  Most people, *cough cough Meg and Steph*, totally overshot Colleen, which is probably not a good thing for a pregnant woman to experience.  

I won that one, which surprised me as I thought I totally overshot her measurement as well.  The next game was Baby Trivia and Nursery Rhymes.  Oohh one thing to know is that during the span of the night, whenever somebody said 'baby', we had to give the person who caught us saying that word an item off of a necklace.  So keep that in mind as this also leads to the Indian Leg Wrestling.  The Baby Trivia was next and surprisingly I won that one as well, which totally shocked me as a) there were a lot of states based questions and b) it is baby stuff.  I don't want babies.  The Nursery Rhymes was too funny as if we did not know the rest of the riddle, we made stuff up.  Like this "rub a dub dub, three men in a tub, and how do you think they measured up" or "Little Jack Horner sat in a corner eating his mincemeat pie".  So, who ever won the most games (the measuring one, the trivia and the nursery rhymes) and who ever won the most charms on their necklace won first place and so on and so forth.  When it came to the charms, that got a little scary.  As soon as somebody said the word 'baby', lots of noise was made and if two people called the person out, they would need to figure out who would get it.  And it got kind of easyish to trick people into saying 'baby', and I do not think that was against the rules. 

However, at the end of the night, there was a little bit of contention between Christina and Meg about who won second and third.  I kindly suggested they sort it out via Indian Leg Wrestling.  No clue why this was the first thing that came to mind and no clue what prompted them to actually listen to me.  Maybe it was because Nina, the Alaskan, endorsed this suggestion.  So, tables were moved and Indian Leg Wrestling has commenced.  But then we had to go to youtube to figure out what we were doing wrong as it was not how I remember my aunts and uncles doing it at reunions and family gathering.  Once youtube told us the answer, then we really got into the Indian Leg Wrestling.  Which was pretty awesome.  And one of the best ways to end a baby shower.  All baby showers should end with Indian Leg Wrestling.  

I look like a Skittle threw up on me!!!!! AND HAPPY EASTER EVERYBODY!!!

Well the school semester is finally over (except for one last exam that I just cannot seem to get the energy to finish and then be finally done this semester but for now, I am going to say that I am done this semester) and that means I have a couple of weeks to enjoy being school-less until the last semester is finally upon me and the last jaunt to the end will seem so very close and within my grasp.

One amazingly fantastic thing that I went and experienced was Holi, which is the festival of colors.  As a background to Holi, courtesy of the wonderful world of wikipedia, Holi originated from Holika, the evil sister of demon king Hiranyakashipu.  King H earned a boon that made him virtually indestructible but the special powers blinded him and he grew arrogant, felt that he was God and demanded everyone worship only him.  Prahlada, King H's son, disagreed and remained devoted to Vishnu.  Holika, Prahlada's evil aunt, tricked him into sitting on a pyre with her but Holika was wearing a cloak that made her immune from the fire; however, the cloak flew to Prahlada and covered him while Holika burned.  

Vishnu appeared and killed King H and the bonfire is a reminder of the symbolic victory of good over evil, of Prahlada over King H, of the fire that burned  Holika and the day after Holika bonfire is celebrated as Holi.  Holi itself has many purposes.  It is the celebration of the beginning of a new season, spring.  It is also identified as a celebration for agriculture, commemorated good spring harvests and the fertile land.  It is also a time to enjoy spring's colors and saying farewell to winter.  During Holi, people are spray colored powered solutions at each other, laugh and celebrate or they can use dry colored powder.  It is a time of laughter, love and fun times.  

It was amazing!!!!!  When we first got there, there were people everywhere, and that did not change.  They were so happy and having fun and you knew that it was going to be a fun time.  The first thing we had to do was to go into the temple and pray to Krishna - it was gorgeous and so very serene, which was contradictory to what was happening outside hahaha.  Then, once we got outside, we went and bought out colors and joined in on the fun. I will tell you this - if you do not like random strangers touching your face, throwing stuff on you and people invading your personal space, Holi is not for you.  

The first time a random stranger, not just any stranger but a random one at that, comes up to rub color on your face, yeah, it may creep you out a little bit, but after the umpteenth time that this happens, and it does not happen for quite some time, you start to miss it.  Just being in that environment is a spirit lifter as mostly everybody is in such a good mood and people were very respectful of each other.  Every hour there was the big color throw which covered the sky in powder and the music was very inspirational and soul hitting. The colors that we could buy were orange, yellow, blue, green and red; however, once we saw that people had purple color, the hunt was on to find it.  I think the people that had the purple thought we were more crazy than Holi-induced crazy when we wanted to get the purple thrown on us.  It was kind of insane how happy we were with the purple.  We did not eat any of the food but it smelled delicious  It was such a fun time and I am so glad I got to experience it.  However, what I did learn was that when doing something like this on a Saturday, I should not push my body at volleyball on Friday night as I could not move much at Holi and felt so very much like a grandmother that I get called sometimes.  By my friends.  Oh so lovingly-like.  One definitely needs to be able to move and dance and get jostled around at Holi.  Overall, wicked fun time and it was something that people should experience at least once in their life. 

I also got the ability to actually see the cherry blossoms this year.  If you recall from last year, we were early to go see the cherry blossoms and never got to see them but this year, I made sure to go check them out.  THEY ARE GORGEOUS!!!!!  I got down to the tidal basin a little early, but clearly not early enough since there were people everywhere still, and started making my way around the tidal basin.  They were in full bloom and smelled wonderful and were just gorgeous.  And it was such a nice day as well so that totally helped (which is also a good thing as, if you know me at all, I dislike heat but since this day did not make me heat grumpy like it normally would have, it may also mean I am starting to adapt to the heat, which will make this summer a lot more enjoyable).  There were people everywhere coming out to see the cherry blossoms and walking the path was kind of difficult at some points and at one spot I imagined that I was going to get jostled and drop my camera into the tidal basin and then I would have had to punch a person, and potentially get deported. Not a fun thought. So I clutched my camera very tightly when close to the water.  I get around to Jefferson and I do not know how to put it into words for you but sitting at the edge, feet dangling and just overlooking the water, the paddleboaters and the Washington Monument (finally unscaffolded and ready too be visited), it was heavenly.  Nothing else mattered that day, the sun was shining, I had my music and I was getting some color (the color being red as per normal) and I was so happy.  It is those moments of bliss and happiness that means so much to me, especially since this semester has been fraught with stress and anxiety up the wazoo.  

I was also very fortunate to have hit the cherry blossoms on the day that I did as there was a celebration at the Jefferson Memorial to celebrate his birthday.  Men in uniforms.  Oh. My. God.  Being in DC is perfect for this.  So very hot.  After the eye candy, kept on moseying along and found a perfect spot to hunker down and start some studying.  Which never happened as it was such a gorgeous day out and I had no motivation to get done any studying.  If it is getting this hot already, it is going to be a warm summer I think.  

With summer coming up and school slowly coming to an end, it means a lot of stuff is going to be happening.  I need to start figuring out for sure and definitely what I am doing with my OPT/visa stuff, get ready for another potential move, start applying for like 10 jobs a day, figure out how to transfer my masters up to Alberta and BC and everywhere else and way more touristy stuff.  If you so my list for touristy stuff, it would be super overwhelming. And I potentially have about 3 months to get everything in that I want to see before I move.  I don't want to move but it is a possibility.  Gah I hate thinking about it all.  This all being said, I hope that you guys will be reading a lot more stuff now that school is done (although I am still at the jail 3 days a week to get in all my hours before May 31).  I also wish I had time to  head home and get some Canadianness but I do not think that will be an option.  Anywho, I miss you all and can't wait to see you again (whenever that will be) and I will keep you updated as to my job huntings, potential movings and if I remain an American quasi citizen for a bit longer.