I have reached the end my friends

I am clear sailing from here.

Not that I haven't enjoyed my time here.

I like to think that I have grown up a bit.

Become a little more independent.

"Found myself." Whatever the crap that means.

All that shenanigans. (Who knew my computer would have the correct spelling of that word saved in it?)

And now I have only good times to look forward to.

A trip to Hamilton with the band (Oh, I feel so cool saying that!)

A trip to Beamsville with Kim to visit the olds.

A few trips into the big city with my sisters.

And one freaking awesome trip to New York, New York!

I cannot wait. All decorated up for Christmas. It is going to be great. And it will have to substitute for the lost Europe trip. One last trip with just the four of us for a long, long time. And I am still coming for you Europe, so look out! One day, I will walk your dreamed of streets. But first I will explore and discover my own country and continent first. Okay? Thanks for being so patient.

Good Weekend

I got to see my boy.

I got to re-meet, and meet many lovely people.

I got to dress up in my new cheepo dress and boots.

I got to hang out with people who made me fee like home.

I had to say goodbye.

I had to drive home alone.

I had to carry all of my luggage back inside.

I had to unpack and do laundry.

I will soon see my sister and brother from another mother.

I will soon get to listen to their beautiful music.

I will soon get to see some new cool places and play tourist.

I will soon get to cuddle my sister as I drift to sleep.

If you are queasy, don't scroll down to far!

Well, here they are! I got my pictures today.

This is my new friend, the avid biker Mark. He is Kathryn's

cousin, and as you can tell, very into biking! ha ha

This is a pause in the trail when Jackie fell a little behind.

She made it though, and I was very impressed.

And here is my wound pre-stitches. See that little bit of white in the middle? Yeah, I asked the doctor what that was and he replied, "Oh, thats your fat!" At which I said; "Oh great! Do

you think you could take a little of that out for me? ha ha..." Not cool. Sorry if I made

you throw up, but I'm proud of it, and I did warn you!

I wish I had taken some pictures of the cooler trails we rode on, but we were to busy

riding! These pictures are just of the average foresty trails, there were some much

much cooler ones, well there's always next time.

Well...

AEDM isn't going so well for me now. Since I crashed it's seemed a little too much work to get on the floor and paint, or cut up magazines and glue them to scrap book pages. Plus my stupid cut got infected, causing another outing to the doctor. Stupid body, can't you even keep yourself clean now? I was using polysporin! Jeez. Hopefully after the weekend I will be back to normal. Plus I get to see my Thomas! For which I have been waiting approximately 49 days, 11 hours, 34 minutes and 11 seconds. But, no big deal. Here's hoping his plane doesn't crash!

I have fallen in love

with mountain biking.

I don't have pictures of how beautiful it was out on the trails. But I will soon, and I will post them, so that you will know how much it was worth it. I have always loved biking, but have mostly stuck to roads, and nice trails. These trails were very different and AWESOME! About 25 small boulders imbedded into the ground on this narrow trail with trees surrounding you. Lets try and ride through it really fast on two wheels with out falling!! Yes! Sounds like a good idea to me. Too bad I fell. But it was worth it; the adrenalin, the beautiful forest floor covered in leaves, the challenge, and the pleasure knowing there are not many people who are stupid and brave enough to try this!

Surprisingly my first stitches. I got five of them, and even watched in fascination as the doctor sewed me up!

This is about 3 hours after the fall, all stitched up (with my renewed tetanus shot on the shoulder).

This is today, I'd say it healing up quite nicely! My injured arm is only about twice as fat as my healthy useable arm, all red and hot to the touch. No big deal. We are good to go!

Oh boy

You know it's bad when...

That cell phone says 3:02 a.m. if you can't see it. And I was just getting started!

I'm an artist!

I sold a painting today! Yes I have sold a couple in the past, but this one was not sold to a friend, or a teacher, or even a friend of a friend. It was sold to a complete and utter stranger! They didn't even have the chance to meet me. They don't know what I look like, or what lifestyle I live. They don't know if I am a 65 year old lady with grandkids running around her feet, or a 35 year old art teacher. But, they saw a piece of my art and thought it was good enough to buy! And that thrills me in ways I cannot explain! Let this day be remembered, and let this person rejoice. For when I am famous, They will look at that painting hanging on their wall and notice the little signature at the bottom and think, "Wow, we got this painting for 50 bucks? Now it would cost us 500! And one of her first too, I wonder how much it is worth now?..." And it will be grand. Mark this date on your calendars as the day Rebecca Van Aertselaer's art "career" started. One day, it will be a day to remember...

Oh yes, and also let this day be remembered as my favourite sisters birthday! Happy Birthday Pamela!

What have I been up to?

I visited Casa Loma, and thought it was pretty cool!

This Castle has some pretty interesting history!

Here is the parlour.

I visited a chicken farm. Oh man, those chicks were so cute!

I look forward to eating you...

Went bee hunting, and successfully found them!

Went exploring/shopping on Bloor St.

(where the awesome record store was).

And I have gone for some lovely fall walks, exploring my area.

Who knew it was so beautiful?!

Day what?

See the difference? That was done while watching LOTR. I started timing my painting out in movies. And this one is taking a long time! Though I am enjoying it quite a bit. Wow, the colours look really off in these pictures, it doesn't look like that in real life.

I also like the similarities in these pictures; the computer, the food rations (apple crisp in picture one and rockets in picture two!), the water, paint pallet (aka old pita bag) and cell phone. It's pretty pathetic how predictable I am.

Day Two and Three

Yesterday I did a bit more scrap booking (late at night) with my friend/roommate/landlord until she and her broken self were tired and had to go to bed.

Around 12:30 a.m. I started a painting. This painting has caused me A LOT of frustration in the past. This time I had to make a little trip into Toronto to Sonic Boom in able to start it, and oh my, I have fallen in love with a store. I drove into Toronto and paid for 3 hours of parking, thinking that I would go into the store, get what I needed (wanted), then walk around the area for a few hours leaving before rush hour. Then I walked into the store. I was in there for 2 1/2 hours! They had new and used CD's, DVD's, BlueRays, Video Games, and LP's. So not only did this store have every piece of music or movie (not that fond of games) that I could possibly want, but I may be able to get it second hand (which I already love) and CHEAP! It was awesome. Unfortunately I didn't really have time to walk around afterwards. I stopped in a little cafe and had a nice lunch, and then dodged the rain and hail back to my car.

Over all a successful day, and now I have started this painting. For the second time. With a much more optimistic mind than I thought I could ever have towards it! So far I only have half of the background done, I spent 2 hours on it, but I'm not posting a picture of it because it currently looks like nothing. Happy Day 3 everyone!

Day One

Heres me being "creative".

Day one: Scrap Book My Life.

Ha ha, if you look closely you can see my favourite picture of Pam.

AEDM

Thanks to Heather I have been introduced to Art Every Day Month. Yes, I know I'm a little late, but I am hoping this will help me kick my butt into gear and get a few projects done before I get home. Such as my first Becky's life scrap book (so that when the technical world crashes my memories will survive!) and a few Christmas presents (hopefully, I've had a few bitter experiences in the past with this...ha ha), and maybe even work on my drawing skills that have awfully and sadly deteriorated over the last few years.

I will post as much as possible, but don't expect much, as I am almost expecting myself to fail at this task!...Well I better get a good nights sleep so I can start this off bright and early! I have a few days to catch up on!

*Note: I will not be finishing a project every day, I may start something one day and continue to build onto it for the next four. I will keep you (because there are so many of "you" out there that care!) posted.