Memories

I scrapbooked up a little storm this afternoon. Now both of my books are full! That's 40 pages! I'm starting on the back side of my blue album, which will equal another 20 pages. I took some photos (bad, 1,600 ISO ones because the plastic sleeves didn't warrant a flash....) of my favourite ones. here they are!

My prom page. Our stupid theme was winter wonderland, although nothing was wintery or wonderlandy.

Grad '06! Fuck yea!

One of many dedicated pages to my doggies.

This may be my greatest sequence of photos ever taken.

Visiting with Grandma on a rare happy occasion.

I like the stitching in this one. It's not perfect, but definitely something I want to use again later.

this one is very cluttered, but I love it because I love my baby horse.

I think this is definitely one of my favourites. Not just because it was my first Josh page, but I love the green, how it fits in with the background.

Again, cluttered page, but it's my baby Kya-beans, and I miss her a huge amount.

I think this is one of my favourites. The photos are from a few of my adventures since I moved here. It's really simple, but I love it!

I love any page with my babies on it! Miss you Amos, and keep on kickin' Zig!

I had to have a tribute to the Yukon Quest, because it's where I met Josh. He took the photo of me at the bottom right. So ridiculous!

So those are my favourites. If you're ever around, ask to see the rest and I will happily show them off. I think I'm the only one that's seen them all so far. The last six were done today/yesterday. And yes, I do realize I'm lame! But hey, my memories look a lot cooler than yours do I bet!

Now for some Planet Earth before bed.

Love,
Annalee.

15

So the new cool thing is to name the 15 albums that you've always stuck with. I thought I should pitch mine, but I'm sure I won't be able to get that many. Here goes.

1. Taking Back Sunday - Where you want to be
2. Taking Back Sunday - Louder Now
3. Rancid - Life Won't Wait
4. Millencolin - Pennybridge Pioneers
5. Tegan and Sara - The Con
6. Tenacious D - Self titled
7. Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Streetcore
8. Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever
9. Bad Religion - The Process of Belief
10. Against Me! - White Crosses
11. Mindless Self Indulgence - Frankenstien Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy
12. The Clash - London Calling
13. Dropkick Murphys - The Meanest of Times
14. Lady Gaga - Fame Monster
15. The Distillers - Sing Sing Death House

Okay, that wasn't as hard as I thought. I could have done more!

Love,
Annalee.

copy copy copy

Crazy busy at work this week, cleaning up a lot of messes. No further talk of that, besides I'm very very happy to say I am in an all-girl newsroom now!! I can complain about my frizzy hair and everyone gets it.

Josh and I FINALY booked a plane ticket. I'm heading to Phoenix on the 23rd at 7 a.m. I get there via Texas (weird, right??) and then get into Phoenix at noon! Hooray! I technically go back in time. Who said time travel wasn't possible??

Josh has intorduced me to a demon. It's called Scople. It's ridiculous and very obvious quizzes that hurt my brain. I have yet to complete one and it's driving me insane. Especially the U.S. states one. I always forget like Vermont, Delware and a few others. Josh says it's alright though, they are the sucky states.

Anyway, I'm off for more Scople before I head out to a photo op. I'm determined tog et there early so I can get a free water bottle. Hooray!

Love,
Annalee.

I've been neglecting my blog. But give me some credit, I did like 17 posts in August. For now, I will leave you with my new favourite song because you all need to hear it/purchase it/love it as much as I do. I'll be back in September with all the Annalee Grant news you ever wanted to hear...which I'm sure is zero.

Bamboo Bones by Against Me. White Crosses album

Don't let them break you.
Don't let them tell you who you are.
Doesn't matter where you come from,
you'll always have a floor to sleep on.
And you have your bamboo bones,
nervous energy,
blind ambition,
skin of your teeth.
Push back, push back, push back,
with every word and every breath.

What god doesn't give to you,
you've got to go and get for yourself.

I'm embarrassed to admit it,
I've got no grip.
I'm leading with my jaw.
Can you see it from a distance?
Does it look ridiculous?
I guess that's just what I have to live with.
Still I have a mind to think,
knees to break,
you standing beside me.
I'm going to push back, push back, push back,
with every word and every breath.

What god doesn't give to you,
you've got to go and get for yourself.

All the survivors

I'm having a lazy day. Last night I got sick after a few glasses of wine last night and I still feel crappy today. Not fun. Therefore I spent the morning in bed, Skyping with Josh. It's funny how with Skype we've managed to do everyday things. Like on Thursday night I ended up drinking wine and having an awesome time with him and his friend Ian. The next morning wasn't so much fun though. I forgot how much I hate being hungover.

The furnace in the house I live in is INSANE. I'm always cold, but holy, I'm boiling! It's going to be a good winter then!

Now I'm getting some new music, and I am largely disappointed. I got some Dragonette, AFI and Metric. So far the Metric is good, the AFI makes me want to puke more. To the point that I gave up picking which songs I want on my iPod, because the answer is NONE. Dragonette is alright. But seriously, what is happening with new music today? When I was younger I'd spend the day searching for new music and actually yield some results, but I'm coming up with nothing here. Feel free to offer any suggestions, dear readers.

Love,
Annalee.

Stop it

I've noticed that a lot of my Canadian friends spend a lot of time bitching about Americans. I think I need to speak up here, as the girlfriend of a very lovely American, who is just so far from the stereotype everyone goes off on.

I have to say I bought into these things too, but Josh said one thing that changed my entire perspective. He said that 51 per cent of Americans are the die-hard Republicans, the tea partiers, and the stereotypes. But the other 49 per cent are just like all of us up here in Canada.

I met such an amazing bunch of people in Josh's friends. I feel like I fit in right away. I really hate seeing the American trashing on Facebook, because it is so not true to what I have seen. Travelling through the U.S., people were friendly and helpful. Yea we saw the simple redneck types, I remember one town in Wyoming in particular that Josh and I giggled our way through. But no one cared that I was from Canada. People were interested. They asked questions when they found out I was from the north. I even had one woman (who's husband is a Canadian) ask me to pronounce certain words for her. She'd laugh, I sipped my wine, and we all walked away respecting each other and enjoying the conversation.

Also, the myth that Americans are not educated is ridiculous. A lot of that one comes from people who have not stepped outside of a high school education themselves. Sorry guys.

I just think it's stupid to sit around casting an entire country full of people into one category. Those of you doing the trashing obviously haven't figured out that hey, media is biased! This comes from a reporter, too. What sells in newspapers is the insane tea party philosophy and anti-health care fanatics. What doesn't sell is amazing, happy and friendly Americans, like Josh, his friends and family. I think Josh's 51/49 ratio might even be off, but he is the expert I suppose!

So please stop it. You're all making yourselves sound stupid. Besides a few expectations of cliched Canadiana and the odd giggle when I say eh, I have never been welcomed so warmly by a group of people in my entire life.

Love,
Annalee, a Canadian very much in love with an American.

Kick Ass

Ah the food rationing has begun. I am allocating myself one half of a bagel in the morning, a sandwich at lunch, and if I absolutely must, I have three fruit cups and a granola bar to be dispersed in between. Today I went without, I'm pretty proud. Then I am allowed dinner, with a hunk of chicken, and I have about two portions of instant mashed potatos left, and a little bit of broccoli to last till the 3rd. Stay living with your parents people, they may piss you off but at least they will always have tasty vittles in the fridge for you.

My head is in a cloud this week for some reason. I had to ask Cameron how to spell "steep", and had several retarded moments where my foot was stuck in my mouth today. But the paper got sent out, and hopefully my ridiculousness will not show through.The paper is great this week though. It's almost all pictures, that I took! I have a two page spread from the rodeo, plus a 1,000 word story with another half page of photos, plus a two page spread of photos from the Robson Valley Music Festival. Then I filled a half page wth photos from a gymnastics practice today. I felt like I didn't write a lot, but looking at what I put out I did pretty good. What I did write was really long. I did more than one 1,000 worder. I guess I kicked ass a bit this week.

A bunch of photos didn't make it in this week, believe it or not with my fourty billion spreads, so here's a few. The photos are unedited, forgive the darkness of the rodeo ones:

Inside the salmon.

Love,
Annalee.