I’m not gonna lie, my favorite feature of Facebook is the ‘unfriend’ button. While I have no intention of deleting my account and see the value of FB, to easily connect with acquaintances when wanted, the way that people use it today drives me crazy.
It all started back in 2006 when FB was still pretty new and only available to university students. I was in college at the time and unlike today when you add friends from all walks of life, everyone essentially added anyone that was in their network, which also happened to be their school. Fast forward to a few years later when FB could be used to look up elementary school classmates and fellow travelers, and I suddenly had over 1400 ‘friends.’ There were people I’d never heard of or seen before in my life and people I didn’t particularly care for, and I had no idea how to begin to get rid of them.
I tried going through each letter of the alphabet, but even tackling one letter was too much and I got overwhelmed quickly. That is when I came up with the Birthday Delete. Facebook is so kind as to broadcast at the top right of your page whose birthday it is that day. Originally I used this as a welcome reminder to wish people ‘HBDs’, but soon saw the possibilities.
That’s right, I delete people on their birthdays.
I figure that the birthday person’s wall is being flooded with well wishes anyway, what are the chances that they’ll notice one less friend?! Don’t get me wrong, I don’t delete people I’m actually friends with or people that I might want to connect with again in the future, but I have two main criteria: 1) do we have good, personal memories together? 2) would I stop and talk to you in the street?
Since starting this cleansing ritual over a year ago, I’m down to just over 800 friends. Do yourself a favor, clean up your FB and give it a try!
K
Daily High: Getting guest-list tickets to a sold out show for three local bands and being given a CBC Radio 3 scarf all in the same day.
Daily Low: Playing catch-up at work like a madman and still signing off with 95 unread emails at the end of the day.
K
Low: driving three hours with a cold only to be told the concert I wanted to see was beyond sold out and there’d be no getting in.
High: stumbling into sound check and proving persistence does pay off…watched a performance by Gary Clark Jr in a 500 max. capacity venue. If you don’t know who that is, trust me, you will.
K
I love that I now live in a city where I can wear my tallest shoes and not be the tallest person around. It is a gloriously freeing feeling.
R
Daily High: Family Girls’ Night at Beauty and the Beast on Broadway Across Canada.
Daily Low: Realizing that if I were Belle in this rendition, I probably would’ve chosen Gaston…(in my defense the Beast was 5’ tall and Gaston was a hunk o’ burning love.)
- K
Daily high: Restarting the blogging world
Daily low: Not having enough time in my day after work to fully delve into the blogging world again
- R
Everyone that knows me knows that when I laugh - truly laugh - my eyes scrunch up into a tiny squint. I’ve gotten pretty accustomed to raising my eyebrows (particularly on my right side) when I smile for photos and it’s become an automatic reaction in my day-to-day.
My tiny little eyes do run in the family, and I’ve even looked at surgery to remedy the situation and increase my visibility. My friend recently got Botox treatments, however, and suggested that I try that to raise my eyebrow a little bit. I figured it was worth a shot and since it wasn’t permanent, what could be the harm?
Botox varies in effectiveness for different people, being noticeable overnight for some and taking a week to notice results for others; the length that it lasts varies as well. I was a late Botox bloomer. It took over 10 days for anything to noticeably happen, and when it did, I have to admit, it looked decent. It didn’t do the desired eyebrow change that we’d been interested in initially, but my wrinkle-puppy forehead was suddenly silky smooth.
The only downside? Anxiety. I never thought about the fact that I would no longer be able to raise my eyebrows properly or furrow my brow in a frown. Knowing that I had lost control over basic facial functions that I’d always taken for granted panicked me and I started to feel trapped. I had to consciously distract myself for fear of overthinking my inability to make real facial expressions.
The upside? I tried Botox. I can say that I’ve done it and that I’m not interested in it. Granted, I tried it for a different reason than most, but when everyone says “oh you’ll understand why you’ll want it when you’re older” I can honestly say that no, I won’t. While my forehead was stuck in an expressionless stupor, and even since, I notice other people’s expressions so much more. I appreciate their forehead creases and the ability to frown. And, in the months since my little experiment, I appreciate mine, too.
- Krissy
We can’t go through the day and not comment on the news re: Whistler Outdoor Adventures and the horrific senseless slaughter of 100 beautiful dogs.
Last January we went on a Whistler weekend and had the best day of our lives (honestly), dogsledding through the aforementioned organization. The dogs were seemingly happy and were barking excitedly, eager to take us on the trails. Every single dog was well behaved and loving, an admirable trait considering the size of the organization. We genuinely thought that these were well cared-for dogs.
Aside from the dogs that were taking us sledding, there were puppies that we played with before and after our tour, even asking about adoption opportunities with the person who owned the sledding company. He said that all of their dogs were needed for tours and although there wasn’t an opportunity at the time to adopt, there was an extensive background check process and application when adoption would occur, indicating that we weren’t the first to ask. We even swapped information with him in the event that the opportunity came up.
The release of the slaughter is sickening on multiple levels, but it breaks my heart to think that the adorable dogs that took us on our sledding tour last year are probably included in the 100 that were inhamanely killed. Or worse, what about those puppies?
The statement from Outdoor Adventures says that they tried to find homes for these dogs before the mass murder, but why, then, did they never go through their client database and ask if anyone was interested in adoption? They certainly are willing to contact us with sales pitches or promotions to encourage future bookings, you’d think they’d be willing to send a note asking if we wanted to adopt Guacomole or one of the other furry friends we became so attached to on our tour.
Unfortunately, we did book some tours with Outdoor Adventures the last time we were in Whister, but we can assure you that we will never be giving them another cent.
- Krissy and Rach
PS - It’s being stated that Whistler Outdoor Adventures wasn’t associated with the organization that killed the dogs at the time it occurred (in April), and that they were still called Howling Dog Tours Whistler Inc. However, as you can clearly see from the owner’s t-shirt below when we toured in January of last year, that’s not exactly the case…
We went up for a girls’ getaway in Whistler last weekend and had a ton of random adventures planned. Last year we went dogsledding, snowshoeing, did a tasting tour, and took a sleigh ride to fondue at Fairmont’s Golf Course. Well…we missed the sleigh ride and actually took the hotel’s car…but that doesn’t really matter.
This year we thought we’d do something a little different.
We enjoyed Bearfoot Bistro’s Cellar portion of our Tasting Tour so much that we decided to have dinner there on the Friday night. Big mistake. Their cellar is amazing and learning how to saber a bottle of champagne last year was a wonderful experience, especially in that surrounding. However, no way would we recommend booking dinner at BB. The service was fine, but the food was average. On second thought - it was mediocre. We did the chef’s tasting menu, thinking that it would blow us away, but really it was just a few bites of some confused dishes that didn’t go very well together. On top of that, we opted for the wine pairing add-on for about $120 per person. This is usually a great option to bring out all of the desired flavors and really enjoy your food…but throughout the course of the whole evening, none of us had even had the equivalent volume of one glass of wine. On top of that, all of the wines that were selected were from BC. We’re all for supporting your neighbor…but a little global variety is always appreciated…especially when it comes to wine. Overall, while a great Cellar experience and a staple in Whistler’s dining options, the experience was disappointing and the meal certainly wasn’t worth $1500 for four of us.
The next morning we had booked snowmobiling through Whistler Adventures. We didn’t end up actually going on snowmobiles, but it was a good plan in theory. The weather turned on us so we were anticipating rain…but when we woke up to clear skies and powder on the slopes, snowboarding won out for on the hill activities. We made a good choice. Rach, an avid snowboarder, started her day off on a double black-diamond (sick, I know) and kept up with boys that board those slopes daily. Krissy on the other hand, quit her one and only snowboarding lesson in the 9th grade to go and hang out in the lodge. Needless to say, her skills needed a bit of work. After a couple of hours of repeated falls, she finally figured out the whole balance thing and managed to do a couple of runs on ‘Magic,’ the rookie hill.
We then headed into the Vida Spa in our hotel the Fairmont Chateau. Everything about this hotel is bliss - and we’re not saying that just because of the glorious hot stone massage. The lounge is always bustling with people, laughter, and a piano man (our personal favorite), and the food in the Wildflower restaurant is pretty good, too. At this point we were exhausted - Rach with her wicked boarding and Krissy with her bruises, snowshoeing was out of the question. Instead we opted for a cab ride down to the Village, a quick beer at Elephant and Castle, and onto fondue dinner at Bavaria Restaurant. We’ve had a lot of fondue in our days (like a lot, a lot…) and this was right up there in deliciousness. Heads up that it is very European though, and the servers are constantly running around to get everyone’s orders.
At this point we figured we’d try out the “nightlife” in Whistler. Nothing crazy, but a drink or two after dinner. We were a little confused as to why there were so many people running around in heels and minidresses (it’s Whistler for goodness sake…not Granville Street) until we overheard that it was ‘College Weekend.’ Oh dear lord. We opted to head into Citta’s, a consistent Whistler favorite that had no cover or line (unlike everywhere else in the Village) and promised to have people over 18 inside. We spent the rest of the night with friends old and new, numbing the pain of our day’s injuries with Trad Ale.
The next morning we planned to do some shopping in the village before grabbing brunch at Wildflower and packing up to head out. Our first stop was TNA, a local favorite that we all frequent. Unfortunately we had the worst customer service experience of our lives (seriously) and left dumbstruck for our brunch. We couldn’t even talk about anything aside from our shocking experience so unfortunately our weekend ended with a bit of a sour taste in our mouths. We can happily comment, however, that we filed an official complaint with Aritzia and they were very quick to respond and react, with multiple managers apologizing profusely and even offering us gift cards in remuneration. Although we will not visit the TNA or Aritizia store in Whistler on future visits, their prompt attention to our (very serious) complaint will see us back in Vancouver stores.
We had some highs and we had some lows. The highlight of Whistler will always be the destination itself. How you spend your time there is what determines whether or not you have a wonderful trip. Hopefully these tips will tell you a couple of the things you should try to do - and some of the things you should try to stay away from.
- Rach and Krissy
