Reality Check

At work I deal with a lot of emotions through family member and/or through the residents, patients, or clients directly. Today reality hit me. As I was talking to one of my patients, she had a card from her neighbour and long time friend. Well before I start I should explain the type of people I encounter on a daily basis without giving out too much detail. I work with people, seniors mostly, who can not live independently due to various factors (i.e. dementia, danger to themselves, danger to others, aggressive behaviours, etc). So my job as a Recreation Therapist is to work with them to improve their quality of life and to help them gain their independence through their recreation and leisure interests.

So that being sad, back to my point. One of my residents had received a card from her neighbour and good friend and she started to read it to me. It was a very touching letter which in the end brought tears to this resident's eyes and felt ashamed cause she was getting emotional over a stupid card. But one part of the card read something like this:

 I hope you are doing well and we miss you very much. This past week I went to one of our dear friend, ______'s, funeral. It was a nice funeral but I miss her. Next week will be my 86th birthday and in the coming months yours. You're catching up to me in age. ha ha Next time I'm in the city, I will make sure to come visit you.

Now those are not the exact words and I do admit my memory was a little fuzzy recalling this portion of the letter but it reaches the same emotion, I think. So it got me thinking... 50 years from now, would I still be in contact with my close buddies? Would I be writing letters to them if I knew they were in a facility getting treatment cause of their memory loss or their uncontrollable behaviours due to dementia? Or would they write or visit me if I was in that situation. I would hope so and I would definitely visit or at least write. After all they are my friends and if our friendship lasts until we are 80, I think I would be entitled to check up on them and see how they were doing in their time of loneliness and need. I would want the same.

My job isn't always fun and games as most people would like to believe. I admit, I do have fun for the most part but there's the other part where reality hits and hits hard. Working with seniors, especially those with dementia, has given me a new appreciation on life and on this specific population. I wish more people would embrace them instead of neglecting them. There are many of us who embrace them but just as many people who do not. Our population in general is getting older, so lets slow down, get down on our knees and listen to their life stories.

Guess who?!

So after months and months of being away from blogging I thought I would start up again. I have had few friends ask me why I stopped and the truth is... I just stopped. A lot has happened while I have been gone. It's been 1 year since I moved to Grande Prairie, Alberta for work, I got a car, and well that's just about it.

How do I sum up months and months of blog material in one post? I'm not sure. Maybe I'll make a list or do point form or make a power point presentation and upload it (if that's even possible). Or I'll just make those who actually read my blog to just ask me instead of wasting time typing everything and having no one read it. So for those who know me, just ask me how I've been doing! I'll be waiting.

I was briefing looking over my previous posts and I noticed that I have more pictures of the meals I've cooked since my last post. I don't have the memory card with me now so I'll just have to upload and post them later. Ok I lied, my camera bag is just few feet away from me, I'm just feeling lazy and not very motivated right now. But let me tell you folks, I've cooked some pretty amazing meals. From Christmas turkey dinner to a beef roast. My mouth is watering as I talk about it now (and as I edit/proof read). You just wait people, pictures are worth a thousand words or a thousand drooling mouths and growling stomachs.

So I'm having an ADHD moment. I shouldn't blog while watching television. Or doing anything else. Maybe that's why I haven't blogged for so long, blogging hasn't been a top priority or I'm always doing something else and blogging just slips my mind. Hopefully this isn't the only time I blog in months again and I can keep it going like I did when first started this thing.

So wish me luck folks and maybe, just maybe, I'll be logging on tomorrow. We shall see!

Long Overdue!

So it seems like I haven't blogged in two months or so... damn! I guess I've been lazy and it's hard to find time to sit down and blog. I know I don't do much after work but work is pretty tiring and when I get home all I want to do is... well nothing.

Life here is going well. Summer is finally here but had a dump of the white stuff during the May 24 weekend. It felt like winter ALL over again. It was pretty depressing. But all that stuff is gone and the sun is shining bright. The days are getting longer and longer too. The sun sets at around 10:30 these days but even after 10:30 it's still pretty bright outside until 11PM. I'm trying to do more outdoors cause it's just too nice to be indoors but like I said when I get home I don't want to do anything.

I've started to play ultimate frisbee which is pretty good. I didn't find a softball team/league so pick up ultimate will just do. I'm meeting people slowly through ultimate but I'm not complaining. It does get lonely but I just cook when I get lonely and/or bored. I've been cooking this weekend and here they are!

Saturday's dish 

Sunday's meal

So those were my meals this weekend. Hope you enjoyed the pictures and I'll do more of a food blog next time with more pictures and a recipe. I'm gonna finish the rest of Saving Private Ryan and probably head to bed after. Hope I don't take too long to blog again. 

Risotto!

So here is my RISOTTO!

Something's missing...

The green peas!

 

The shrimp pieces turned out pretty good on top

 

 Such a huge portion!

I have leftovers so whoever wants it better come and get it or it'll be my lunch tomorrow!

Feels Likes Summer

So I've been away from blogging for a bit. I've noticed how hard it is to blog every day. It's not like my days are uneventful... well sometimes they are but still have things to blog about. I guess I've been so tired after work I don't think about blogging, although it doesn't take that much of my time. I'll try to blog as frequent as I can.

So the weather has been just awesome last week and this weekend. Friday it was 20, Saturday it was 21 and today is 19. The sun is so bright, I love it! With all this beautiful weather I've been biking more and more after work. (I think I know why I don't blog as much, I get too tired after biking around for an hour.) Grande Prairie is a beautiful place, especially when you get the chance to go through their trails. There's one part where it goes behind or close enough to the lumber yard and the smell of lumber... it's refreshing. To smell nature instead of smog and all that other junk in the air is very worth it. I guess living near a big city like Toronto for most of my life and working in Toronto, I got so used to the polluted air and this is just so refreshing. Never knew I could enjoy clean air this much.

The only downside of it here is there aren't any fresh water lakes here. They have camping grounds but when people talk about camping here it's not the tent camping I'm used to, it's more of the hitching their trailers to their trucks camping. I've never been trailer camping and I'm sure it's fun but I love tent camping! So what if I don't have running water to shower... there's a lake to swim in and I'll be smelling like smoke anyways from being around the fire. I miss tent camping. I don't think I'll be doing much of that this year.

Anyways I'll blog later tonight after dinner. Tonight's menu is going to be chicken and shrimp risotto. So hopefully that will turn out yummy and I'll post some pictures too.

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Why Isn't Monday A Holiday?

So I'm wondering why Easter Monday isn't a holiday everywhere! I mean they named the Monday for crying out loud. I was so not looking forward to waking up this morning and it was a struggle for sure. I didn't even do much at work either. It was such a slow morning with not much to do. Almost everyone took Monday off as vacation. Damn wish I had vacation days.

But on a good note... I got a raise! Good old union... good for something. Otherwise I think unions are stupid, especially those damn union dues... why do I have to pay union dues when I know I'm not going to use their services? And if they do go on strike, I'll be too lazy and probably won't agree with the strike to march on the lines... I rather not pay and keep my money.

Butler vs. Duke game's starting soon. I'd be happy with either team winning... so let the game begin!

Long Weekend! Part One

It's the start of a long weekend! Woohoo! It felt so good to turn over and turn off my alarm and go back to sleep this morning. I love long weekends.

I didn't sleep in too much, got up around 10 and had the whole day to do whatever. I was craving shawarma and found out that there is a shawarma place in Grande Prairie! Who would have thought?! I sure didn't. So I decided to check it out for lunch and head to Safeway to do some grocery shopping afterward. So I walked over to Tito's and ordered myself a chicken shawarma sandwich with a small mango smoothie. The shawarma wasn't what I expected... definitely not what I am used to getting back home in Toronto or even in Ottawa. By the way, Ottawa has THE best shawarmas. Go go Shawarma Palace if you get a chance to go to Ottawa!

So the shawarma sandwich I ordered was kind of a hybrid between a shawarma sandwich and a burrito. They didn't shave off the meat but has in a sauce... like a burrito but had the garlic sauce like a shawarma. All in all, it was very yummy and satisfying. I definitely miss shawarma back home but this will do until I reunite with yummy shawarmas back home. The mango smoothie was pretty good, although they could have blended it a little longer cause I had tiny pieces of ice still and it got stuck in my straw at one point and I lost all suction.

Apparently there is another shawarma place but I'm not sure where it is so I'll have to get some more info on it and try that one out.

After grocery shopping and getting myself through a crowd of people doing Easter dinner shopping, I made dinner. Boy, was it ever good! What did I cook you ask? I will show you!

Beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, and mixed veggies (carrots, red onions and broccoli)

Cooking away

Mmmmm yum!

Final cooking in the oven

Clean kitchen + leftovers

What to cook next

So that was my dinner. Hope you enjoyed it cause it tasted like it looked, AWESOME! Haha What should I tackle next? I know I had one suggested to me on this blog so I will see what I can do. Let me know what other things I can cook up for you guys. I love any and all suggestions.

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