there! I said it out loud...

Lately I have been feeling rather trapped in my nine to five job as an Occupational Therapist - during our 1-2 year wait for a Green Card (from your friendly neighbours to the north), I am relegated to working strictly as a therapist.

I found out recently that this even applies to extra work on movies and television - on a whim I setup a profile at www.extrasonly.com and was shocked to receive a text and email five days later. I was offered the chance to audition for the role as a featured extra on the film "Gone" with Amanda Seyfried, which is slated to start filming in May here in Portland. I would be paid $250/day and even potentially get a credit in the titles! After hemming and hawing for a few hours I managed to get ahold of an attorney who told me without a shadow of a doubt that I would be deported if I was caught taking a job from an American worker, even if I donated my pay to charity or declined to be paid!

So that was that. Sadly this news only served to deepen the feeling of entrapment I've been having the past few months now that the wedding is over and I am still working in various nursing homes, more than a year after I quit in search for greener pastures!



My husband was very sweet however, and put it into perspective that if I was offered work so quickly I would probably be able to jump into that type of work again once I was legal here in the U.S.

So for now, I am going to try to do more yoga, take more walks, get back in shape...and cross my fingers/toes that our freedom to work as we please is on the horizon!

the wonders of HD

For those of you who haven't tried it yet...HD television is absolutely worth it!

Last night we sat down to watch the Galapagos: the Islands that changed the world (thanks to Netflix) and it was fabulous!
It was probably one of the most visually stunning documentaries I've ever seen - sea lions, turtles, albatrosses...etc. I definitely recommend it!

It only costs $2127.48 to take a return flight from Portland to Isla Baltra and the best part is it only takes 24 hours (plus a stop in Ecuador!).

What an adventure...maybe one day when I have no obligations (no doxie) and lots of money to see the world I'll make it happen!

Has anyone out there been to the Galapagos?
Cheers!

i love Bob the dog!

Sometimes the only thing to do after a frustrating day at the nursing home is to look at pictures of your doxie and marvel at how amazing, loyal, cute and feisty he is, all at the same time. Here are some pictures of him from over the years - they are guaranteed to make you smile!

Looking up at my husband with a tiny smile

Bob in his favorite blanket for the day

Bob snuggled up on the couch with me

Here he is showing off at the dog park

Burning Man on my mind...

Upon moving to Portland we didn't imagine we would ever find ourselves attending the infamous Burning Man Festival - after all, there aren't that many hippies in Northern Alberta and they sure don't travel that far to party!

After hearing about it from trusted friends and doing a little research on the interwebs, we decided to take a chance and go in 2008 - little did we know it would turn out to be one of our best adventures yet! It was so good that we went back for more, in September 2010!

The thing about Burning Man is that it is quite an effort to go - you have to get yourself and all your gear to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, andbring all your own food, water, toiletries and fun - only porta potties are supplied (and you can purchase ice).

So we like to take a year off between "burns" to recover and to go to the beach or mountain...but lately Burning Man has been on my mind.

It is a dream of mine to take a few like-minded friends from the Great White North to a Burn...this manifested itself in a dream recently - somehow we convinced my husband's brother and my sister to come, and it was amazing to see everything through their eyes.

I mentioned this to Tyler and we talked about how great it would be to see this years theme is "Rites of Passage", but that we already had plans to go to Hawaii, Shuswap Lake in B.C., California...etc.

Then I bought two tickets to see Phutureprimitive (a dear friend of ours) play at the Beloved Festival, at Refuge on April 9th. Saturday night arrived and so we found ourselves stumbling down the train tracks towards the venue. Despite the late hour (2 a.m.) we managed to get our tickets through will-call, and headed in to find our friend (who didn't go on until 3:15 a.m.). It was a mini Burning Man, with strong body odor, strange outfits, grungy hippies, and the smell of pot wafting in the air. It was the perfect ending to a great Saturday - surrounded by tripping hippies and friends, we watched Phutureprimitive perform an amazing set of music.