Back to the grind. Or, rather, for me - the start of it. 

Audible groans were chorused last week as students of all ages returned to the classroom. I, however, could not have been more excited. I've wanted to go back for what seems like forever - and now I'm living it, and thrilled.

I had a car accident back in January of 2011 which has left me with a moderate - severe back injury (depending on the day it's definitely worse). As such, I've had a difficult time coming to terms with the fact that not only do I need to live with this problem, but I need to work and come up with a career that I want to do - with this problem. Well, for two years I grappled with the concept of actually having a worthwhile job, let alone being able to do it. Sitting, standing, walking - anything really, causes me back pain. How was I to consider a career, let alone the rest of my life, with a smile on my face and "giving it my all"?

Well, I'm still very bitter about what happened to me. I think that anyone would be - it's not as though I'm able to walk away from it, or fix it (I have gone to three different Physiotherapy clinics on three separate occasions for several weeks at a time to no avail). I will be disabled for the rest of my life. It is practically an invisible disability - as at this point I have not purchased a walker, cane or scooter to help me move around. That may change - but I hope that it doesn't. The problem with an "invisible" disability is that you are treated equally..... let me explain why this is a problem.

I've always considered others, in everything. If I am walking across the road and I know that a vehicle is waiting until I am out of the way to turn, I will not take my time, check my phone, etc. because I feel that would be rude. Instead, I usually quicken my pace and cross to the other sidewalk as quickly as I can. Some days, though, I am unable to do this as I'm in too much pain. Those are the days that I can feel the driver's stare boring into my skull - I would imagine they're thinking things like, "hurry up" or "lazy! Can't you see I'm waiting?".

It's the same thing for buses. I've noticed that Durham Region Transit in particular seems to be bad for this.... they take off before you have a chance to sit down. I know I'm not the only one affected by this - however I wonder if they would do the same thing if I had a cane, or perhaps only one leg? Maybe not... but having an invisible disability is sometimes a disadvantage.

Back to the point of this post - school. I decided earlier this year that I wanted to be an editor. I've always loved reading, and considered myself to be a fairly good speller, and grammar was ok (blog posts not always included :P). I couldn't find an editing course, but I found Journalism. Boy, am I glad that I did.

Almost every part of this course is exciting - despite the amount of work I've been given. There are so many professions I could do when I've graduated - and most can be done even with my back injury. It's truly a thing of beauty when you're able to accept something negative about yourself and turn it into a positive. Remember that when the future seems so dim that you can't see a way out - there is always a silver lining and at the end of it all, the result will make all the heartache and suffering seem worthwhile.

After all, everything that I've done up until today (including the car accident) has lead me to where I am now. How could I regret any of it?

10 Awesome life tips

Short and sweet for now. Came across this website and it had some really interesting reads - this being one of them.

10 Awesome life tips

Thought I'd share. Enjoy ;)

Dog food..... who would have thought that something as simple as dry kibble could cause so many problems?

Part of our problem in this economic stricken society is big box stores. People start shopping there as it's a one-stop-shop for everything that you need, at better prices than the other guy. This is great for the short term, I suppose, but in the long term it has some scary consequences.

I own two beautiful dogs whom I consider my children. They are given many more treats than they should probably receive, and I feel really guilty when I'm not at home with them for long periods of time. I'm sure that many dog owners are able to relate. This post is about dog food, though, so I'll get back to it. Last year, I had a bit of a scare when it came to my one dog. I was living across from a soccer field where I'd take my dogs sometimes for a few sniffs and to go to the washroom. This one day I saw a sign saying that they were going to be spraying pesticides, so I tried to stay clear of the areas that they were spraying. Then, a few days later, my dog had a seizure.

I had taken them out, came back inside and was watching tv. My dog was beside me on the couch, and he suddenly got up, jumped down, and led on the floor underneath my coffee table. I didn't think much of it until I heard him scream. There's not many noises that scare me to the absolute core - but this was one of them. He peed himself, and didn't appear to see me when I was talking to him. His body went rigid, and I felt completely helpless. Luckily, he became himself again, was cleaned up, and hasn't had another episode since. After I got over my initial shock, I started to get angry. It must be the pesticides! Something must have gone wrong - they sprayed in an area that wasn't listed, or they changed the day - someone must be accountable!!! Then, I heard about Beneful.

Beneful happened to be the brand of dog food that I was feeding my dogs for the previous few months. I admit - I bought it because it was cheap, liked the commercials, and it was dog food... so how bad could it be? Well, pretty darn bad. You have to take everything you read online with a few buckets of salt - that is, don't believe everything that you read if you see it once. So - when someone told me that Beneful was a terrible food, causing liver problems, seizures, and goodness knows what else in dogs, I got very worried and looked into it a bit. Apparently there are people being affected all over North America by this company - and they aren't helping dogs and their families at all. Taking no responsibility - although it's actually been pretty much proven that the food is the cause of all these problems.

After this little incident, I started reading ingredients in dog food. Go figure - I found that the reason a lot of this food was cheaper is because the ingredients sucked. I therefore changed to a "middle" brand - not the best, but better ingredients than the rest on the shelves. About $37 for a big bag. I thought that it was great, and even when they increased their prices about $5 I didn't complain - it was still the better bet.

Then, about a month ago, my little guy got a bad ear infection. After looking for other reasons, I decided to look at his dog food ingredients. Low and behold, they've been changed. This, I found, to be ridiculous - no warning to the consumer, just changing their ingredients and raising the prices. Here's the letter I wrote to them today:

Hello,

I am the proud owner of two wonderful dogs whom I consider my children. Therefore it hurts me when they hurt - which is the reason I'm writing to you today.

One of my dogs seems to be prone to ear infections. When I talked to my vet about this, he explained that it was probably due to a food allergy - so I should change his food and the ear infections should stop. That's when I found your dog food. I don't like paying an exorbitant amount of money for dry kibble, but I don't mind paying a little more as long as it's good for them. When I found your dry food it was great, as it was reasonably priced and seemed to have good ingredients. Then, about a month ago, my dog got another ear infection. Something made me take a look at your dog food ingredients. Correct me if I'm wrong, but when I first started buying your food, I could have sworn that the ingredients were real chicken, salmon, etc. Now, it's chicken meal, or salmon meal. When did this change?

I couldn't tell you how mad I was. The prices have been raised on this food, and the ingredients have gotten worse. I now need to change foods again, and you can bet that I won't be buying any more of your brands.

I feel cheated and mad - my poor dog is suffering because of your inferior ingredients and the need to make a higher profit. There was no notice of change to the ingredients, it just happened - therefore upsetting my dog's stomachs without me knowing why and now my poor dog has an uncontrollable ear infection which is giving him daily pain and discomfort. If I could afford to go to the vet again to have proper treatment for it I would - but I'm stuck with over the counter topical medication for the time being as I simply don't have $300 sitting around to spend at a vet's clinic because of your product. I am saddened by this - and I do believe I will be changing grocery stores as prices on other items I purchase from you regularly have gone up quite a lot as well. 

Well, we shall see if I get a response or not - but I'm assuming that if I do, it'll be pretty generic. There wasn't even a confirmation of them having received the complaint - so who knows. My whole point is - why is dog food so expensive when there's nothing but garbage in it? I would imagine it has something to do with all the advertising that these companies are paying for - they'd rather spend their money on that rather than good ingredients. It's sad.... but, like I said initially - this is what happens when the world seems to care more about paying less. Unfortunately for me, this means that instead of paying $42 for a large bag of food, I'll be paying closer to $70. I'm kinda miffed about it - but, you wouldn't feed your children garbage, so I'm not going to feed my dogs garbage, either.

Take a stand - and tell these big box stores that we won't pay $12 for a bag of dog food that is going to kill your dog. The whole reason we have these animals is because we love them....

I love to read! I also love free stuff - and really super cool experiences. Who doesn't, right?

Well..... in reading, and researching cool experiences, I'm able to find out awesome deals and events that maybe not everyone is aware of. Why am I blogging about this right now?

I think that it's very important to be well aware of things happening in and around your neighborhood - especially when complaining that there's never anything to do. I find contests, coupons, events - stuff that I get really excited about and try to involve my family and friends in.

One such experience happened a few months ago... and I thought that I would write about it tonight for your reading pleasure :)

Who hasn't heard of Cesar Milan? Mmmmm.... not many people in North America - especially dog lovers. I happen to be a very big fan of Mr. Milan, and what he does for our four legged friends.

What does this have to do with my love of reading and finding one-of-a-kind experiences? Well... I found out that Canadian Tire was having a kind of expo in Toronto and that.... guess who.... Cesar was going to be a guest! Not only was he going to talk and have a mini seminar there, but you could actually meet him. Wow.... basically a dream come true. Not just for me - my mother adores him and is a dog groomer. It became absolutely essential that we were present at this event.

On the day of, we woke up at 4:30 AM. Yes, this was on a Saturday - and yes, we did this voluntarily. We packed ourselves into my mom's jeep and headed for the GO station to get on the first available train that wouldn't make us look like Cesar Milan stalkers (6:20 AM). Barely able to keep our eyes open and sick from being excited for meeting one of our idols, we probably looked like quite the Motley crew.

Anyways, we made it to the event in one piece, and were third in line to enter the show. I also became a crazed fan when I saw Buddy, the cake boss, walking down the hall with his armed body guards... I actually jumped up and down when I saw him and yelled, "Hey!!!! BUDDY!!! HEY! BUDDY!" As if he doesn't know his own name.

Needless to say, I don't have much care for how I look when I get excited.

Either way, I avoided being taken into custody by Buddy's body guards and finally stood in line to meet Cesar. We were there.

Cesar then showed up and I became speechless. Apparently I have two ways to behave when I see a celebrity - completely insane or mute.

When it was my turn to meet the man, I lost all train of thought and started blubbering.... he had to grab me to get a picture where I was actually looking at the camera instead of the floor. So sad.

Either way - the mission was complete - I met Cesar, and even got a picture to show for it. Moral of the story? Well, take what you want from it - but my initial point was that if I hadn't researched stuff to do, I never would have been on Buddy's watch list. ;)

Häagen-Dazs - The Perfect Cup

Häagen-Dazs - The Perfect Cup

Please click on the link above for your chance at free ice cream! If you win, I win too - and I looooove winning!!! BONUS - checked these little delectables out on the weekend and they're around $7.00. If you win, that's $7.00 in your pocket, and some amazing ice cream. It takes about three minutes to sign up.... so.... do it....  :)

Racial profiling.

Doesn't exist anymore, right? It's 2013, we've gone through so much to get this far - movements by every race, ethnicity, gender - whatever you want to call it..... people have been fighting for their rights as long as there has bee prejudices against them.

I, myself, was lucky enough to have been born in an era where I have a right to vote, a right to say no. Millions of others have fought for me, and I never really have stopped to thank them. They've fought for you, too.

If you live in a society such as mine, you're blind to the problems which affect a lot of people - if you allow yourself to be. I'm in a relatively middle class community, with mostly middle class problems. Where's the next pay cheque coming from? The car needs to be fixed. We've got just enough money for rent and groceries - maybe we wait until next week to go out to the movies.

In Canada, we've been very lucky, for the most part. Of course, we still have the big problems - as you can see from my previous posts, I'm an advocate against BSL. A lot of people have called me out, though, to say that you can't use discrimination as a term when describing an issue with the canine population. Well, maybe this post will make those people happy.

I've never been a racist person. I don't believe that it's right to judge someone based on their looks, or things that other people have done within their race in the past. If all African American people hated Caucasians for our stupidity in past years, we'd be in trouble. Generally speaking though, blacks are able to get along with whites on a daily basis, living in harmony.

I recently came across a video, though, which illustrates that this is not everyone's view. It disgusts me, makes me very angry, and solidifies how I feel about a lot of police officers. And I hate that.

I've always been what's called a "devil's advocate". Without even realizing it sometimes, I will fight for the person who everyone else is against - and try to voice their possible side of the story. I've done this a lot for cops - I don't think it's fair to paint them all with the same brush.

This video is from the United States, specifically New York. Hopefully this won't get taken down before you get a chance to watch it, because I think it's important to see. Racial profiling still exists, and in a big way. You can find the link to the video here.

Try to watch the whole thing - there's some important stuff close to the end. It's imperative that we don't stay ignorant to these things, so that we're able to force change - just as so many have done before us, for our generations and generations to come.

I absolutely adore contests and free stuff.... who doesn't? I have enjoyed several free birthday coffees this month, as well as a free icecream from Tim Horton's this past Sunday. I participated in a Tic Tac competition for their new flavor and was rewarded with a free package of Tic Tacs. I have coupons waiting which can only be used on specific days for free bread, cereal, and snack bars.

One thing that I've been unable to commit to is extensive couponing. I'm not talking about the occasional coupon, I'm sure everyone's done that at some point. I mean what the shows and newspapers call "Extreme Couponing". I tried - I really did. It's soooo hard!!! Not only do you need to ask your paper boy/girl for a dozen extra newspapers (or more), but you need to belong to as many online couponing sites as possible. Sometimes they send you coupons, but more often than not you need to print them yourself.

Hours and hours are spent cutting out these money-saving pieces of paper. I couldn't believe how long it takes. Then, you have tons of paper left over for your recycling - which I found to be rather wasteful.... although I guess it's going to end up there anyways.

Then, you need something to organize all of these coupons - a purse simply won't suffice. So you need to be a master organizer, as well.

Then, there's expiry dates. All coupons have one - and since all this work has been put into it up until this point, it would be a shame to waste them due to an expiry. So - they need to be organized in a way that ensures you will use the appropriate ones by the appropriate date.

And then there's storage! The only way that extreme couponing works is if you buy things in bulk. This means that all the items won't fit in your freezer - and if they do then you've got zero change in what you're eating for the next month or so.

And, if that wasn't enough, you need to find a retailer that accepts multiple coupons on the same items. For example, you find a coupon for buy one, get one free shampoo. Then, you have a coupon for $2 off the same shampoo. You have fifteen of these coupons, or so, which means you're picking up 30 bottles of shampoo. But that's not the end - if you can, you wait until it goes on sale at the store - sometimes they will even owe you money*!

This is just too much work for me.... and it seems impractical. Of course everyone loves saving money, but it's so much work.... and if everyone did it then the economy would be in some serious trouble.

The point to this rant? I'm perfectly happy with my free coffee and icecream in my birthday month, and the occasional pack of free Tic Tacs..... but that's me ;)

* some stores will not provide you with cash, but instead take that amount as a credit towards additional merchandise