Tuesday, March 16, 2010

baaaah

I hurt my back on Sunday night and as a result, am taking a sick day today (Thursday).

It's been a busy week, despite the general feeling of "ugh-ness" (that is, being unable to move for good portions of the last few days).

A week ago today I went to Buffalo with Lauren, Danielle and their mom, Arlene to look at (and hopefully choose) our bridesmaid dresses. We found these beautiful dresses. We'll be wearing them in black and they will look so classy and the great thing is, they're flattering for each of us! Rachel, one of Lauren's sisters (Danielle is her oldest sister), wasn't able to come because she doesn't have a passport... we learned that if you're lucky, you don't need a passport:

(background: I don't have a Canadian passport, 'just' a Swiss one. But, I called ahead to both border guard offices to make sure that if I brought my birth certificate, I'd be okay to get across...they said yes)

(At the border crossing, we all hand in our passports)
Border Guard #1: Citizenship please?
Lauren, Arlene & Danielle: Canadian (although I'm pretty sure Arlene is dual-being that she was born in Holland)
Me: Canadian-Swiss (I couldn't exactly say just 'Canadian', since we handed him 3 navy blue and 1 deep red coloured passports)
...a bunch of questioning ensued, including "why are you going?" (to look at dresses for a wedding); "who's getting married?" (me-said by Lauren); "I'm sorry to hear that" (GASP!-from all four ladies in the car, resulting in an embarrassed border guard)...
BG #1: Document control, (described the car), 4 occupants
...
we had to go inside and as we're sitting inside I hear:
Border Guard #2: Nicole? Nicole??
me: oh!, yes, that's me, hi.
BG #2: Is English okay?
me: (trying to stifle my laugh), uh yes, that's fine, I'm Canadian.
BG #2: Well then why the Swiss passport?
me: (trying to answer)
BOOM! rapid fire questioning... I don't really remember what I said or what he said, except that he said I wouldn't have to pay the $6 to have my passport stamped (dang, I was looking forward to having a stamp!) and that when I came back to Canada (this was an American BG) he said "now, just present yourself as a Canadian, put away that Swiss one, and if they ask 'just play dumb'."

Oh man...such an adventure!
And we were barely even across the border.

We met many interesting people on that trip... BG's #1 and #2, the total booth lady "Heeeey baby, how y'all doin' t'nite?" and our personal "non-superstitious, after all I AM a Christian" wedding dress consultant, Phyllis.

We got our dresses and got back across the border without a problem. The Canadian guard was much less friendly than the Americans, but no complaints since she didn't make us step inside when all I did was hand her my driver's license and birth certificate. *phew!*

(I NEED to fill out a passport application...)

---

Then on Saturday night we had our "Evening for Awareness - Games Night Edition" event at the church building and made $383.85 as our final profit to support International Justice Mission. We're so thankful for this privilege we have of bringing awareness about the issue of human trafficking to people and raising funds for IJM.

Unfortunately my card reader is not working (Papi, I need your help!) and as such, I can't post any of the pictures *sad face*. It was a really good event and people had a LOT of fun.

---

The church services on Sunday were awesome. Some students from Mohawk's TV & Broadcasting program were there and will be making a promotional video that we can use (and gives them credit in school). I'm looking forward to seeing that when it's done. Very cool!

Also, laurell, a singer from BC (woot, woot!!) sang at all 3 services and her and I had a good chance to talk and she's such a beautiful woman and so full of God's love. And her talent, WOW.

---

Sunday night I couldn't really move and so I tried resting (which in hindsight was about the worst thing to do-apparently I was supposed to get myself moving...who knew??). I woke up Monday morning and couldn't move without pain. My hips are out of alignment and something's wrong with my sacroiliac joint. This is the first day I haven't gone to the chiropractor, but I'll be going in again tomorrow for another adjustment.

---

Today I wasn't feeling well at all, so I've stayed home and tried to have equal parts of rest and activity, so as not to let my joints seize up again, but to also allow myself rest because I've been running so hard for so long that my body just needed a break.

---

Wedding season is upon us. Looking forward to the next 4 months especially!

1 comment:

  1. I managed to read the coloured part, but it's not easy with the blue background. I always go to the States with my Swiss passport and Canadian citizenship card,never had any problems yet. Maybe it's a bit different being a dual citizens because I was born there.
    Sounds like a fun trip!

    ReplyDelete