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

Häagen-Dazs - The Perfect Cup

Check out this contest..... this is not spam - I promise. There's a lot of free icecream to be won, among other things. And what's great is if you win, I win too!!! Same goes for anyone that signs up through you! So join in -doesn't take long and the more people who sign up through you, the better the both of our chances!!! Here's the link:

Häagen-Dazs - The Perfect Cup

That is all :)

Ode to a bus driver

Most of us have taken public transit at one time or another. I'm sure we've all had our days where we bad mouth the system because either a bus was late, too full, rode right past us, or the bus driver couldn't drive. I've had many of these days.

I can't tell you how many times I've been waiting for the lights to change so that I can cross the street to the bus stop, and the bus that I was going to board goes flying past. And yet, when I'm early, they're generally late. Geeze.

The other day, I walked to the bus stop and such a thing happened. I was waiting at the bus stop then for a half an hour, until the next one arrived. Today, I was early at the same stop - and the bus was several minutes late.

We all hear or see transit ads saying "Take Public Transit". It's supposedly much better for the environment, convenient, and cheaper than owning a vehicle. The problem is that this just isn't true - not any more, anyways.

Bus fares for my local area have increased from $3.00 per trip to $3.10. The monthly pass has increased from $100 to $103. A similar increase was made last year. When you're paying this much to be waiting for buses that only come every half an hour and you still need to walk 10 minutes to your destination, it can make a person a tad cranky.

Today, though, I decided to have some reflection. Amongst a meaty sandwich smell, a mixture of B.O and perfume, and too-hot and crowded conditions, I had an epiphany. If I'm irritated by these small occurrences, how must the bus driver feel?

I doubt that they're making a great wage - although of this I can't be certain. Day in and day out these community workers need to be driving for up to eight hours in daily traffic, remembering to stop each time the "dinger" sounds, answer questions from people who are too lazy to look at bus schedules (and I include myself in that category), have a smile on their face and greet each person that comes aboard. They need to have their "game face" on all the time.... being courteous to everyone, although they don't always receive courtesy. 

It would be a much nicer place, I think, if we stopped and realized that bus drivers have bad days at work too - and maybe that's why they missed my stop and have been driving like a maniac. 

: D 

Go figure. As soon as I find an excellent article written by a real veterinarian, I decide to read the comments. This was a mistake, as it started my blood to boil.

I understand ignorance - there are an exceptional amount of things that I'm ignorant about... after all, not many people actually know everything. I don't claim to be an expert on things that I know nothing about, however there are many people who do this on a regular basis, and I'm so sick of it.

If you pick up a newspaper, and you see "PITBULL ATTACK", what's the first thought that comes to mind? For me, it's, I wonder if it really was a pitbull.... or if that word is just being used to sell newspapers?

Now, I understand that this is not the normal way of thinking. Most people would probably read the article and assume what it's says are true. I understand this, and I don't think badly of anyone who would do so.

What I have a problem with is people who are uneducated on the subject of Pitbulls forcing these media articles down other people's throats and claiming them as truth. I, myself, have done a LOT of research on the topic of Pitbulls and I also own one. I'd like to think that I have a right to say what I believe is truth, and try to educate others in the same. 

Anyways, back on topic. The article in question can be found here. The article itself I found to be quite uplifting - a man whose profession involves seeing (probably) hundreds of dogs each week is speaking out on behalf of the breed that I've come to love. My problem is with the comments after the article, all of which (until mine) were extremely negative towards pitbulls.

I am curious to see what (if any) response I receive from my comment. I'm happy to have a conversation about Pitbulls and give my side of the story - and I won't take an opposing side personally should they have TRUTH to back it up. I'd like to think I'm an open person.

I will, however, get defensive when someone says that Pitbulls are the cause of ALL attacks on other dogs. ALL other dogs are innocent - and ALL Pitbulls should be put down because they're ALL bad.... this is just ignorance - and I will NOT be quiet about it.

If you'd like to have a conversation with me, please let me know - I'm always happy to talk to another level-headed individual.