5 On Friday: September 12, 2008

1. This was my first week attempting to bring my lunch to work & cut down on lattes. The hope is that if I keep it up, my wallet & waistline will benefit.

This week I brought a lunch 3 out of the 5 days (but one of the days I went out, my friend payed, so I'm not counting that one), and only bought one latte. I think on average, I would spend $12 a day ($8 for lunch & $4 for latte). This of course, is a rough average - some days being much less, others being more.

So, I am shocked to learn that ON AVERAGE, I spend $60 a week on lunch & lattes. That's gross.

Savings this week: $32 saved on lunches, and $16 saves on lattes. $48 total. If I keep this up, I will save well over $2,200/year.

I feel like a 'Scotiabank: You're Richer Than You Think' commercial.

2. We are meeting with a dog trainer on Saturday, to help us with Porter's aggression towards other dogs (he escaped Warren's parent's yard last week and attacked a black lab - everyone involved is okay). The trainer says he uses the Cesar Millan (Dog Whisperer) approach, not the Brad Pattison (End Of My Leash) approach. Porter is such a sweet boy with so much potential. I look forward to him (and us) living a much less stressful existence. He's only 5 years old, so we potentially have a solid 5 to 7 years together yet, and we need to make it work. I told Porter this morning that he'd better behave, because his Probation Officer is coming tomorrow.

3. Holy Crap our house looks good! Good-bye pink shag & spice rack wall paper! The painters are almost done - just in clean up stage now. The carpet layers are installing our new berber on Sunday. We'll post some before & afters next week.

4. I'm sooooo done with pennies. And nickels too. Next time someone charges me $1.46 for a coffee, I think I might scream.

5. Warren ran out of underarm deodorant a week or so ago, and hasn't bought more. So, it's been an unspoken secret between us that he is using mine. Until this morning, when I was sitting in front of the mirror doing my make-up and Warren picked up my deodorant and began to apply. "Ahh, Dove Roll On Deodorant..." he said, "strong enough for a man, made for Warren".

BONUS
6. 7 years ago (yesterday), I was living with my mom, and we were driving into work together. In the car on the way in we heard a radio report saying 'A small plane has hit the World Trade Center in New York City'. Those two buildings are now infamous, but at the time we were both ignorant to their significance - the World Trade Center was just some NY Skyscraper to us at the time (we didn't even know it was a series of buildings).

I arrived at work, Black Media Works, and my boss Darold was sitting at his desk listening to the radio. 'Amanda, have you heard what's happened? They've hit the Pentagon! The Pentagon! We're at war!'. He filled me in and we sat for a while, listening to the news reports, then he said 'Today is no day is to do business'. And he sent me home.

I then met up with my friend Becca at the Earl's in Dalhousie, where I saw the images for the first time. The collapse played over and over and over again. I knew nothing of these buildings before that day, but I was still in shock that they were gone. It was an eerie feeling to not believe what I was seeing on the TV screens. It just wasn't possible.

Becca was thankful she lived in the country, because she was certain war was coming to all big cities, and the country would be the only safe place. It seems absurd now, but I was scared.

I remember the predictions of 50,000's dead. I remember the anger and the heroism and the love that rose from that city in the days that followed. My mom & I would be walking down center street bridge into downtown everyday to go to work, and all we could talk about was what had happened. We'd try to imagine the magnitude of those fallen buildings as if they had fallen in downtown Calgary. How many blocks would it take up? What would our skyline look like if buildings that tall were built here?

The world changed forever that day, like we've all heard a thousand times, but I am thankful it hasn't changed as much as Becca feared it would in those immediate months afterward.

I didn't intend to end this post on a downer. But living through a world changing historical tragedy is worth remembering. The topic has since inspired conspiracy theories and political hot buttons, but I prefer remembering the day as it was. A frightening, eye-opening, punch in the gut. People who want to hurt us, will. Because they have nothing to lose.