Pleased to meet you.

Add me if you'd like, but make sure you leave a love note...

It's been a while since I've posted here!

People have been wondering why the vagueness on my blog. Things have been flipped on me these past few days, and I have been having a hard time figuring out how I am going to plan this wedding...

Right now I'm working as a kinesiologist at a cardiac rehab facility at the hospital. I work with two other full-time kins, and we've got two casual kins who are firefighters and pick up shifts when we need them.

The job has always been crazy. We are a small facility and rely a great deal on fundraising to help keep our doors open. In addition to advising and rehabilitating post-bypass and MI participants, we also do a lot of banquet and event planning...weird, I know. It's hard to explain.

I'm the newest staff member to the group and it was hard trying to figure things out and fill the shoes of the girl who left (huge ones, at that). I struggled my first year and still find myself questioning things.

Fast forward to now.

This week our most senior kin was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. She is going for a double mastectomy November 18th and will be off indefinitely, pending on if she requires chemotherapy or radiation treatments. If all goes well then she will be going for reconstructive surgery and require an additional year off after that. She is 30 years old, a vegan, extremely active. This is her second bout of cancer in the past 3 years (ovarian first), and this diagnosis is coming off the heels of a miscarriage that only happened 4 months ago. ROUGH...

The other kin is 5 months pregnant and will be going off on her maternity leave come March 2009, and will be gone for 13 months.

To compensate we are working 12-hr shifts, putting in 60hrs/week to cover. Our two casual kins can't pick up as many shifts as we need and we can't hire anyone.

Between work, sleep, exercise and eating I need to find time to somehow plan this wedding...

The show must go on come July 3rd!!!

http://jammasterjaz.blogspot.com

Updated daily from my Blackberry.

Will be:

- A whole wheat pita, which I will then spread homemade hummus over and stuff with spinach and red peppers. I will sprinkle fresh ground pepper and Bran Buds and dress with ginger and soy dressing.

- A small container of 0 fat, low sugar yogurt, topped with Bran Buds.

- Sliced red peppers, with my homemade hummus as a dip.

- Fresh strawberries and blueberries




I have taken to making a big tub of hummus weekly. It is such a handy little snack, low fat, high protein, high fibre - and it goes great with a lot of things. Here's my recipe:

- 1 can of  chick peas, drained, rinsed and shelled (you don't need to shell the chick peas if you don't want to - I find the hummus is smoother with them off, though!)
- 1/4 cup of lemon juice
- 1 clove of garlic (or more if you want it stronger)
- 3 tablespoons of tahini
- 1/4 cup of olive oil
- 2 tablespoons of paprika
- 2 tablespoons of chili powder

Whip it all up in a food processor until smooth. Spice to taste.

My favorite uses?
- as a veggie dip
- on top off crackers
- as a spread in pitas (as opposed to using ranch or heavy dressing)

G.E.: "I don't think exercise helps you lose weight. I exercise all the time and haven't lost a single pound."
J.V. & S.D.: "Maybe if you actually moved your legs as much as you moved your mouth you'd have some success."

We are bitches, but that is the wrong thing to say to kins.

+1: I love working with people who actually know how to cook. I can live a much easier life when I can get recipes that are tried, tested and deemed worthwhile to try. Steph gave me an awesome (and easy) hummus recipe because I was getting sick of having to pay $5.99 for a tiny tub of the stuff. One $0.69 can of chick peas makes me a huge container that lasts at least a week. Great low-fat, high-fiber source of protein. I use it as a spread on my whole wheat pita (which I stuff with mache, mushrooms, red peppers, Bran buds and Soy & Ginger dressing), or as a veggie dip.

+2: All this snow is making me depressed. We have already surpassed the records by 3cm this year, and we're bracing for 2 more storms this weekend. By the sounds of it, another foot is coming.

+3: Generally, life is good?! I haven't been working out as much as I should, but doing the warm-ups with my participants has been toning up my arms quite a bit (unexpectedly!) - I am looking forward to getting back into the running. My NY's resolution with Deepa was to "be in the best shape of our lives for our 25th birthday" - she's definitely got a head start on me. But I still have 5 months. Besides, I have an Ashley's Furniture commercial to shoot!!!

I know these are late - the 'Evening of Heart and Enchantment' happened February 8th.

The act of getting on the runway and walking wasn't bad at all - working the door was HELL. I had to meet and greet big-wig CEO's from Chrysler, Sanofi-Aventis, Pfizer...some which weren't so nice, but I just kept smilin'...

I have paid off all my credit cards.

The amount I owe on my credit line is down to $968 (from $5200).

I am very happy about this.

It's been a while since my last post and things have been quite eventful. Here's a little run-down...

+ Spent December 26th - January 2nd in Los Angeles visiting my best friend Sundeep and her husband Brandon. Quite a fun time. I will have to admit - I was not sober a good majority of the while I was there, but I learned my lessons. Specifics don't need to be outlined! Memorable events include my first trip to a Korean spa, FINALLY getting tattooed with Sundeep, our visit to the Griffith Observatory and planetarium show, seeing Salvador Dali's work at LACMA, jumping in an inflatable boxing ring, meeting CHARMAINE and Brian (the beet juice made me look like I was bleeding internally), and getting to see the not-so-touristy hotspots in L.A. The not-so-cool parts were getting stranded in Atlanta for a few hours. It was scary.

+ Whoever thinks that relationships get easier as time goes by obviously has never been in a relationship long-term.

+ The countdown to my first Cardiac Wellness fashion show begins. My place of employment depends on this annual fundraiser for the majority of its non-governmental income and I am silently freaking out about it. If you're in the Windsor area and would like to come out to see me on the catwalk and support a great cause, let me know. Tickets are $60 with all proceeds benefiting the Cardiac Wellness Centre.

First snowfall = havoc.

I love anti-lock brakes and traction control.